Elizabeth Moon - Rules of Engagement

She pulled her mind away from that to the littles, locked away in other compartments. Sedated, her dad had said. How long would the sedation last? Brandalyn was always first up in the morning, bouncing around . . . would she come out of sedation first? Had they put her in the same compartment as her sister? Surely they’d thought of that. Stassi was quieter, and very attached to her big sister. The other two littles, Paolo and Dris, were cousins.

She looked at the chrono. Only fifteen minutes had passed. That couldn’t be long enough. The raiders might not have boarded yet. She might have to wait hours.

Her suit transmitted nonspecific vibrations that she could not identify—except that they were different from those she knew so well after all these months aboard. One hour, two, three. How long did raiders stay aboard a ship to plunder it? Docked at a regular cargo station, the automated handlers could unload a hold in seven hours and twelve minutes—if nothing went wrong. Would the raiders try to unload an entire hold? All the holds? Would they have the right equipment? How long would it take them?

It would be easier to steal the whole ship; she felt cold as she thought of it. If they did, if they took the entire ship . . . then what would happen to her? To Stinky? To the littles?

She heard noises—nearby noises. It must be the raiders, because no one had unlocked her compartment yet. Shuffling, thumping—then a shriek that stiffened her. Brandy, that would be; they had all joked that she had a scream that would slice steel plates. The child screamed again. Hazel clambered up, clumsy in the suit, and tried to unlock the hatch. She had to stop them—she had to protect the child. She had the lock undone when the hatch was yanked out of her grip, and two big men grabbed her, one for each arm, and pulled her out of the compartment. She could see Brandy kicking and screaming in the grip of another, who was trying to gag her with a length of cloth. Stassi was crying, more quietly, in the grip of another; the two little boys clung to Stinky, who looked as scared as she felt.

“A girl,” one of the men said. “The perverts.” Brandy’s scream choked off; the man holding her had managed to tie the gag. “You take her,” he said, shoving Brandy into Hazel’s arms. “And bring her along.”

She held Brandy to her, trying to comfort the child, who was sobbing into the gag. Stassi clung to one leg and Paolo to the other. Stinky carried Dris. The raiders pushed her along, back up toward the bridge.

The first thing she saw, coming into the bridge, was her dad’s body in a pool of blood. She almost dropped Brandy, but the child clung to her, legs and arms fastened tight. There were other bodies, all people she knew—Baris the navigator, and Sig the cargo chief, and—and Stinky’s mother, gagged and bound, but glaring furiously. All the women of the crew, she noted, were lying there in a row, bound and gagged. Captain Lund faced the bridge access, bound to his command seat. And all the armed men wearing the same uniform as the ones who had captured her.

The leader turned to Captain Lund. “You lied to us, captain. That wasn’t very smart.” He drawled the words out, an accent that Hazel had never heard before.

“I . . . wanted to save the children.”

“God saves the children, by giving them to those who will bring them up in righteousness.” The leader smiled, a smile that made Hazel feel cold inside.

Captain Lund looked at Hazel, then at Stinky. “I’m sorry,” he said. The leader slammed his weapon into Captain Lund’s head.

“You don’t talk, old man. Nobody talks to our children but our family. And you’re going to be really sorry that you lied . . .” He turned to his men. “Get goin’ now . . . let’s check these heathen sluts out, see if any of ’em’s worth botherin’ with.”

Hazel lay in the compartment that had been the spare passenger cabin, trying to hug all the littles at once. Dris was still dozing, and she didn’t know if that was the sedative or the lump on his head. Paolo whimpered softly; Stassi had her whole hand in her mouth, sucking furiously. Brandy was out cold, snoring through the gag. Hazel wanted to take it out, but she was afraid of the man with the weapon who stood by the hatch. She was afraid of everything. She had to pretend not to be, because the littles needed her; she was the one person they knew, the one person who could make them feel safe, if anything could after what they’d been through. How could you make someone feel safe if you didn’t feel safe yourself?

She still could not believe it was all real. The soreness in her own body was real, and the hunger, and the fear, but—had she really seen all she remembered? The women who had been her aunts, her mentors, since her own mother died, all . . . she didn’t even know the words for what had been done to them, except the killing at the end. And poor Captain Lund . . . she had known him since she could remember, a gentle man, a kind man . . . and they had stuffed his mouth with the tongues of the women, and then . . . and then shot him, at the last.

Paolo whimpered a bit louder; the man by the hatch growled. Hazel stroked the child’s back. “Easy,” she murmured. “Sshh.” She wouldn’t think about it any more; she would think only of the littles, who needed her.

“These are the rules,” the raider said. Hazel sat on the deck, with Brandy in her lap and the others nestled against her. “Look at me,” the raider said. Hazel had been looking at the littles, because she’d been slapped already for looking—staring, the man had said—at one of the raiders. Now she looked up, her shoulders hunching. “That’s right,” the man said. “You look when I tell you to, where I tell you to. Now listen. These are the rules. You don’t look at our faces unless you’re told to. You don’t talk. You—girlie—you can whisper to the babies if you have to, but only if none of us’s talkin’. You keep the babies clean and fed; you keep the compartment and all the rest clean; you do whatever you’re told. No talkin’, no arguin’, nothin’. If you want to keep your tongue in your head.”

The grown women hadn’t believed that, at least not at first. And they had died. She had to keep her tongue, to comfort the littles.

“Now what do you say?” the man said, leaning close. She was too scared to answer; he’d just told her not to talk. He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. Her eyes watered. “I’ll tell you what you say, girlie. Nothing. You bow your head, when you’re told what to do, and you say nothing. Women are not to speak before men. Women are to be obedient in silence. You understand?”

Trapped, terrified, she tried to nod against the pull of his hand on her hair. He let go suddenly, and her head bobbed forward.

“That’s right,” he said. “Bow your head in respect, in obedience.” He straightened up and took a step backward; Hazel watched his boots. “Now you get busy, girlie, and get these brats cleaned up.”

She needed clothes for them; she needed cleaning supplies. She wanted to ask . . . and she wasn’t supposed to talk.

“One of us’ll bring you what you need,” he said. “Food and water, as long as you’re obedient. Decent clothes for the babies. There’s nothin’ on this heathen ship fit for you to wear; you’ll have to make somethin’. We’ll show you pictures. You’ve got the sink and toilet in there; you’ll wash their clothes in that.”

She wondered why, when the crew laundry would return the dirtiest clothes clean, dry, and unwrinkled, in only a few minutes. She didn’t ask.

The supplies came a short time afterwards. Packets of food, powdered milk to mix with the water in the bathroom, sheets and towels and a sack of children’s clothes, soap and shampoo, combs and brushes. Even a few toys: two dolls, blocks, a toy groundcar. Hazel was grateful. She handed each of the littles a sweetbar, and rummaged through the sack of clothes . . . there was Paolo’s tan jumpsuit, Brandy’s striped shirt, Stassi’s flowered one, Dris’s gray jumpsuit. But none of the girls’ jumpsuits, nor the shorts they wore with shirts.