Christopher Nuttall - Democracy's Light

“Tying up loose ends,” Colin said, flatly. “There’s a general amnesty for those who served under your husband, or Daria, provided that they surrender and make a full accounting of their actions while they worked for the enemies. Some of them, the people who betrayed their oaths, have been sentenced to penal colonies, but others are harder to deal with. Your husband might have mutinied, but so did we.”

“You couldn’t prosecute him without calling into question your own actions,” Carola said. She laughed, rather dryly. “You betrayed your oaths as well, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Colin said. He leaned forward. “You seem to fall into a grey area. You swore no oaths, but you definitely waged war on the Empire. We’re offering you a choice. The remaining members of the Thousand Families, those who don’t want to serve with the new order, have been moved to Paradise Rest, a former pleasure world…”

“I’ve heard of that place,” Carola said, flatly. “They’re going to be bored out of their tiny minds. There’s nothing there, but pleasure systems that won’t work without the staff, right?”

“Something like that,” Colin agreed. There were enough Family Members to create a whole new colony, if they worked together. If not… well, they weren’t his problem. If they all starved to death, or down to a level where they could live off the land, it would be their own fault. “Your choice is simple. You can join them, or you can join the population on one of the penal worlds instead.”

“Some choice,” Carola said, angrily. “A lifetime with the most boring people in existence, including some who would cry for hours if they broke a nail, or life on a hellish world of suffering and death.”

Colin didn’t deny it. Penal worlds were worlds that were on the margin of being habitable, often populated by unpleasant animals or even diseases that could leap the gap into humanity. The Empire dumped its criminals and outcasts on them in the hope that they could tame the world and make it a profitable colony. Most of them died in the first year, but there were always replacements. The Empire was never short of criminals, rebels, or people who merely offended someone in power.

“It’s your choice,” he said. “Whichever one you choose, Carola, there will be no turning back.”

“Paradise Rest,” Carola said. She looked up at him defiantly. “If I go there, I’ll be running the place within the year.”

Colin shrugged. “Good luck, then,” he said. He keyed his communicator as he walked out the door. “Have my shuttle pick me up from here.”

The Marines insisted on sweeping the shuttle before allowing Colin to board, but they finally cleared it and allowed him to take the pilot chair, bringing up the shuttle’s drives and taking it into orbit. Earth glowed below the shuttle as he turned the ship towards the waiting battlecruiser, his first command that he hadn’t actually hijacked from its former commanding officer. The shuttle docked in the shuttlebay and he realised, with some surprise, that he had a reception committee.

“Welcome onboard, sir,” his new first officer said, once they were alone. “How does it feel to be back on a starship?”

“Wonderful,” Colin said, looking over at Penny. As one of the handful of others who fell into the same grey area, no one was entirely sure what to do with her, so he had offered her the post of first officer. It might have been dangerous, but he owed it to another survivor of Admiral Percival’s selfishness. “It’s like I’ve never been away.”

He settled into the Captain’s chair and felt, for the first time since Admiral Percival had betrayed him, years ago, that he was happy.

“Helm, bring up the drive field,” he ordered, calmly. “Set course for the Rim.”

A series of dull thumps echoed through the starship as it settled into orbit, waking Stacy Roosevelt from a fitful sleep. Naked and alone, her hands secured behind her in the private cell, she knew that she was trapped and helpless. The rebels who had liberated her from the prison cell at Cottbus — God alone knew what had happened to Lady Madeline Hohenzollern, as if she cared — had promptly put her in another one. There was apparently a warrant out for her arrest… and, when the ships had arrived from Earth to report that Admiral Wilhelm had been defeated, she had found herself being tried and sentenced. She had gone to sleep in her cell on Cottbus and woken up in a very different cell, being treated like a common prisoner.

The hatch hissed open as her restraints unlocked themselves from the wall. She struggled against them, as she had several times in the last few days — if they had been days — but it was futile. She tried to struggle to her feet, but it was so hard with her hands bound that she felt a brief moment of pleasure when she was able to stand upright. She glared towards the hatch, expecting some leering commoner or depraved guard to come to molest her, but there was nothing.

“You will depart your cells,” a cold voice said, so coldly she knew that a machine produced it, rather than anyone human. “You will depart your cells and fall into line.”

It wasn’t the sort of voice that anyone, even Stacy, would dare to challenge. She limped over to the hatch, feeling her legs trembling from disuse, and staggered out into the corridor. There were other cells, an entire line of them, housing their own naked captives. Some of them looked terrified, others looked defiant and a few even pleaded their innocence, but they were all bound. Male, female, even a pair of aliens, they were naked and at the mercy of their captors.

“You will walk through the door and into the holding area,” the voice ordered them. This time, the floor sparkled and stung anyone who dared to hesitate. Stacy found herself moving faster than she would have believed possible, following the bare buttocks of a tough-looking man, wondering just what was going to happen to her. She wasn’t even sure where she was. The holding area was just as dark and drab as the remainder of the vessel, with shelves of clothing and small bags of equipment, waiting for them

“You will now pay attention,” the voice intoned. Stacy felt her cuffs unlock and pulled her hands free gratefully. Now she could see them properly, she realised that she was wearing metal bracelets that had been bound to each other magnetically. “You have been condemned to a permanent sentence on the planet Cozen. You will be aware that Cozen is a penal world. You will also be aware that there will be no return from the surface.”

The voice paused to allow the prisoners to vent their frustrations, and then continued, as if it hadn’t even been listening. “You will dress yourselves in the outfits provided and inspect the contents of your bags,” it continued. “You are advised ” — she heard the stress on that word — “to listen carefully to the following lecture. It covers what is known about the world that will be your home for the rest of your lives.”

Stacy tuned it out, knowing that someone in the group would help her. Someone always had helped her, even in the worst moments of her life, and she was sure that it would always continue. The voice coldly described horrors such as monstrous creatures and deadly insects, some of which could kill with a single bite. She barely heard it covering the monsters as she felt a hand settling on her behind, and then reaching around to fondle her most sensitive places. No one had touched her there without her permission.

She spun around, seeing a leering commoner, and slapped him across the face. It should have been enough to stop him in his tracks. Instead, he smacked her back, punching her right on the nose. She fell to the ground, screaming in pain; she’d never been hurt like that before. Her assailant, as naked as she was, leaned over her. She couldn’t take her eyes off his penis as he pressed her down, ignoring her protests. The thought of what would happen when he forced his way into her, or when he started to take her, consumed her. She tried to close her legs, but he pushed them open hard enough to hurt…