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Orbital
Chapter 9

-VB-

T’ya stared out at the world that her new master promised to release them to.

To her surprise, it was not somewhere horrible or even bad. Right outside the cargo hold, there was a human woman waiting to help them. She cautiously walked outside along with the others and looked around.

She shivered as her bare feet touched the cool strands of green plants that covered the entire ground. She looked up at the purple sky and its white clouds. When she looked back down to the ground, she saw a small town surrounded by huge farmlands.

The snappily uniformed woman who had been waiting for them all smiled as she raised her hands. “May I have your attention?”

Everyone gave it. The voice had carried with it authority different from the slave masters that they were all used to.

“She sounds like a senator…” one of the “slaves” mumbled.

… Right, T’ya remembered him. He said he was from Coruscant but got caught up in a pirate raid during his business trip elsewhere.

“Yes, gather around, gather around!” the woman continued to say with a smile.

“Senator?” she asked quietly.

“Imagine a person with the might of a planet.”

She could scarcely imagine such a person.

“And they bicker and get nothing done.”

Oh, she suddenly didn’t what she was imagining in her mind.

“Thank you for your attention!” the woman began. “Hi, my name is Elizabeth, and I am an Artificial Intelligence made by the man who owns fleet and space stations above!”

T’ya reflexively looked up and saw them again just as she had when the ship behind her had on its way down flew by the formation. A space station whose size beggared her mind, the number of space ships that left her in disbelief, and the fact that this was not one but one of many installations.

“... That can’t be a droid,” someone muttered. “Droids don’t look that … human. Or wear a military uniform.” That was a military uniform? T’ya admired the white-trimmed and dark brown form-fitting clothes that spoke of quality like very few things did back on her homeworld of Orvax. It was shiny without trying to be, clean without needlessly vacuum-wiped, and fitting of the person who wore it.

It was beautiful. It made her jealous.

She’s never had anything beautiful in her life. She’s worked every day back home for a pittance that she shared with her family, got sold by her family to feed the others, and now, she was here.

“I am the administrator of this colony. If you want, then you can think of my position as governor if you must, but I serve a role closer to a mediator. Now, why is that?” the woman smiled and pointed to them. “Because you are free to do as you please. This world belongs to my creator, but he has generously granted you all the right to do as you please. You can even leave this world if you really want! However, considering that the wider galaxy made a slave out of each of you, are you sure about that?”

T’ya grimaced. The woman made a really good point.

“If you decide to live here in this town with others like you, then you can do a lot of things. You can farm, you can study, you can even get married and have a family. There is nothing that is stopping you except for common decency and some additional rules that you can probably understand. Like no stealing, killing other sentients, or sabotaging anyone.”

Those were fair rules.

“What are we supposed to do here?” someone muttered.

“My creator mentioned that at the very least you can farm, and you will be given guidance for it,” she said as a more familiar droid that had been rolling up to the crowd from the town came to a stop next to her. “Say hi, FARM-2!”

The droid raised a hand and waved.

“If you don’t like farming, then you can try your hand at arts and craft. If not that, then there are other things we can teach you. All you have to do… is take it into your hands and make it your own.” Then the “administrator” grinned viciously. “And I’m sure that some of you will be happy to know that, yes, we do offer training for spaceship pilots and that we do provide small crafts for small-scale pirate and slaver hunting.”

That got some attention.

The human she met in the cargo hold looked interested. No, she looked intense. T’ya already could see that she’s chosen what she wanted.

None of it mattered for T’ya. She would have to go back to being … no one.

Shaking her head from the back of the crowd, she slowly but hesitantly and uncertainly walked back into the cargo hold. She watched as most of the slaves went off to their … freedom.

Freedom scared her. There was nothing great for her there.

She didn’t like how the administrator didn’t mention if they would receive help beyond this “education.”

So she waited.

Better a king’s bedwarmer than a nobody.