Let me know what you think, enjoy the rather short beginning of this series

Tay was laughing for the first time in a week. It had been hard listening to the recovered humans, even harder to participate in the tribunals. The Admiral had deemed the slave owners as combatants in collusion with the Intec, a dubious concept that allowed for swift and, above all, quiet action. She had spent nearly a month taking witness statements. Now, reliably as always, Bork had made her day. 'Chief, get up here. We need to talk.'

Chief Engineer Roaden, the founding member of the Intel Engineering department and veteran of the Human Defence Force, woke up at his desk again. He checked the time, Crap.. he simply responded, 'Captain, give me ten minutes, I'll be up to you', then jumped into the shower. This ship was so damn big that his office had a full bathroom, bigger than the Admiral's one on his old ship. Then he pulled on fresh overalls and went to see what madness his Captain was up to this time.

'Chief, are you unhappy with your quarters?' was not the first question he was expecting.

'What? Captain, my quarters are fine, magnificent even. Why?'

Tay grinned at him.

'Because, Chief, according to the regulations, as interpreted by Bork, they are vacant and should be reassigned. You haven't signed in to them for over a month. Chief, you haven't left your office for weeks. I'm sorry, I didn't realize how much pressure you were under.'

Roaden paused, thinking back. He remembered getting bits and pieces moved, but not when. The Captain had been wrapped up in the tribunals, he was busy with the new teams. At some point, he had just started sleeping on the sofa in his office. Everyone just assumed he was there, it had saved a long walk every time something needed doing. He looked at Tay, 'Sorry, Captain, I didn't notice. It just seemed simpler to stay put.'

Tay nodded,' I know, Chief, but you can't babysit everything. The teams need to learn, just like we did.' Roaden carefully didn't mention that he knew that the Captain hadn't even seen her new quarters yet. 'Yes, Captain.'

Tay brought up a file. His file. 'You haven't taken leave since we met, in fact, you haven't taken any since the war began. That's not good enough. As it happens I need a senior Engineer for something, and that is going to be you. Bork's planet has never had a visit, in fact only the XCC knows anything about it.' She grinned again. 'Guess who I'm sending. Go and see if we should recruit there, go fishing, relax a bit. I'll hold the ship together while you're away.'

'Captain, perhaps another time, in a month or so…'

'Chief. In a month this ship is undergoing trials. Captain Sullivan is assembling a collection of enemy shipping for us to play with. I need you fresh and I need to meet the new crew. Take a week off, see what you think and relax. It will all still be here when you get back.'

Despite the grumbling, cursing, and last-minute packing, Roaden found himself in a shuttle and on an unexpected holiday. That was pretty much his last thought as, some hours later, his shuttle was slammed into by an Intec Privateer, then as he was dragged from the ship in a blur of pain and confusion. The shuttle collapsed under fire, falling into the dark along with his consciousness.

He awoke to the sound of a medbay, humming to itself as always. For a moment he couldn’t remember a damn thing. Then the smell, the pain, and shock all returned. The enemy. The Intec. He tried to rise and, to his surprise, found it easy. He wore no chains and his burns were gone. The room was grey, dark to his eyes but not a cell, just another Intec ship. He had dismantled enough of them to recognize the scavenging, thieving bastards that they were. He wondered where they had stolen the medbay and who had died in the theft. Slaving bastards.

The lights came on, gently rising to galactic normal. An Intec stood at the door, its mask hiding all intent. Roaden looked around but there was nothing that he could use, no handy plot device to escape. Years of bad novels had been ruined for him.

It moved forward, ‘Chief Engineer Roaden of the Curiosity, you are a prisoner of war. Remain calm and prepare for interrogation. Food will be made available shortly. Any attempt to interfere with the ship's systems will result in immediate death, probably for all of us. This ship is quarantined due to your hazardous nature. Do you understand?’

Roaden was confused and angry, ‘So now you take prisoners? I thought you took slaves. A prisoner of war, am I? As if you thieving bastards knew what that even meant.’ He glared at the creature, every report fresh in his mind, ‘I just met the last people you stole, you dumbfuck, don’t pretend you even know what it means. Then I met their children. Now you are meeting their fucking ancestors, asshole and we will kill you all.’

The Intec hadn’t moved, ‘ Yes. You will. You poor innocents, dragged into the light with your hidden armies, with your trail of blood and war finally reaching the stars. We cannot stand against you. I know humans, even as slaves you were dangerous. We thought you dead, and then we find you on every ship, turning our sheep into wolves. You think you understand, you poor fools. Our blood is being used to pay everyone's debts. You are not here to die, or to slave. You are here to understand.’

The door closed and locked behind the Intec, leaving only food of some kind and water. Roaden was getting angrier and angrier. This was a job for Tay, shit he barely left the damn ship. Why drag him into it? He wasn’t even an officer, just another engineer. He was no Marine, ready to kill with his teeth. Mind you, he had already spotted three faults in this room that he could use to cause the power to fail. Maybe one that might blow the ship, if he could find some copper wire and a toothpick. He was harmless. He ate the tiresome rations and drank the water and then he waited, occasionally mapping the garbage systems they had stolen and tied together. Amateurs.

After some time passed, after his mind had ranged through all the worst possibilities of what might be coming, the door opened. This time there were three of them, all inconveniently armed to the teeth. ‘It is time. You must come with us and speak with the interrogator.’ In silence, they marched him towards another grey room. The leader knocked gently on the door and announced, ‘We have the human, as ordered.’

‘Enter’

Roaden was pushed into the room, another utilitarian cabin space as ugly as its owner. The door closed behind him as he faced the interrogator, trying to prepare himself for what might come.

Tay was surprised when Bork arrived unexpectedly. He never did anything unexpectedly. Usually, she got three memos before he would print anything, or request office supplies. She waited for him to start.

‘Captain, the Chief Engineer is late, nearly twenty hours now. The civic reception has been postponed, our ships are looking for him and we have found the burned wreckage of a shuttle in the outer system of our Capital system.’

Tay rearranged the information and called the Admiral, ‘Sir, the Chief has been taken or killed on his way to the Bork homeworld. I need Fleet support immediately, we need to find him. If the Intec have him..’ She stopped speaking, beyond words at this point. She had sent him out there, forgetting that wars have two sides, that no-one is stupid, that the Intec have fought every species in the damn galaxy and lived. Everything had been too easy, every victory expected. Apparently no-one had told the Intec that.