UF-2 The Seeds of War
by Barbie Lee
Edited by Catherine Linda Michel
Copyright April 2002

"His breath reeked of gin and spirits. It was probably the only mouthwash he ever used. He smiled, and his yellow teeth looked bright against the dark recess of his yawning gullet. His lips were thin. Probably from seldom being pulled into a smile. He held his knife to my throat. “I’m going to sell you to the slavers.”

Over the shoulder of the first man, I could see another man coming across the room. He was holding up a slave collar. A cruel device, it was guaranteed to make the person it was placed on, submissive. Voice controlled, the master didn’t need a transmitter. All the master had to do was give a command. If the slave didn’t respond the slave collar would give a cruel shock. I had seen slaves drop to the floor writhing in agony when they didn’t respond to a command from the master. Those slave collars were a product of the government for use on prisoners. Pirates and slavers found a new use for the government prisoner collars."

And off we go in Book two of UF-2 The Seeds Of War. Strap yourselves in and suit up for action in deep space. Pirates, slavers, alien races and war loom ahead for Brandy, Sherry and all the universes and dimensions. Can our heroes and heroines stave off war and win out against the worst that space has to offer? Well here we go!

Hate, greed, desire for someone’s property, a lust for wealth, or for power... wars are as old as life. All it takes is one person who can convince others to believe they are destined to own that which can be taken by force or by con.

That one person lets others die, while trying to achieve his or her goal of undeserved power and wealth. Either by desires to follow, or being forced to fight because the masses are in favor of war, there are those who die because one person wanted wealth or power, or they hated the other person. In the beginning, it’s always the poor, the uneducated, the lower classes who follow the evil dream. Soon nations and worlds are at war because one person convinced a few it was their right. In the end many die, both good people and evil ones, and those who were mislead by one evil person.

May God have mercy on us all as we march to war to defend ourselves, or our friends freedom. Why do we have to fight to live without the repression of an over burdening government dictatorship, or to protect that which is ours. Sometimes peace comes at a terrible price. If we did not pay the price for peace and freedom, the price for dictatorship would cost much more.

It seemed like yesterday, yet it was forty two years ago I met Toni and married him, or took him as my mate. I was born human. My mate was Pash. The Pash were of the cat species, not the human species. Their race was also several millennium older than the human species.

After Toni and I married, I bore him two children. Both of them were girls. Lavess was the oldest, Toness the youngest. Both of them were turning into beautiful young ladies.

Lavess was more like her father, even tempered and always a joy to be around. Toness was more like me. She had a temper and was quick to anger. Thankfully, it never lasted very long. Toness was also the one who would act before she thought things through. They both had their father’s cat qualities. They could walk across the room so silently that one had to be watching to know they were moving. They also had their father’s cat strength.

Luckily, I got my bluff in on them when they were toddlers. They never seriously challenged me later on in years. Don’t get me wrong, they did test me in jest or for fun. I was grateful they didn’t inherit my human side and act like brats or juveniles. Oh, they pulled pranks alright, but certainly nothing cruel or mean.

In all my years living with the Pash, I never saw a mean or cruel one. They had disagreements and fights all right. They were capable of killing if provoked. I finally understood that being civilized didn’t mean one didn’t strike back if it was necessary. Sometimes, other life forms needed to lose some blood, since that was the only message those forms understood.

I loved Toni, our daughters and the Pash. Over the forty six years we had been together, Toni had taken me to see a few thousand other species, spread out among the galaxies. I was so lucky to have married Toni. He was my soul mate. I could have never loved another. Sometimes life worked out. Sometimes it didn’t... My own species, humans, were acting... Well, they were acting human and wanted what didn’t belong to them. It was times like this I really did wish our daughters had morphed me into a Pash as they grew inside me.

“You don’t have to go.” Toni was watching as I dressed.

“It’s my duty. We made a treaty with them. We promised that, if they didn’t destroy the human species, their galaxy would not be settled with humans.” I pulled on my boots and picked up the black bustier from the bed. I wrapped it around me and turned my back to the droid. He fastened the bustier. The black microskirt was next and then, the wide, black belt around my waist.

The Pash droids were an engineering marvel. They looked like two vertical sticks with two horizontal sticks, and they hovered instead of walking or rolling on wheels. The droids were able to manipulate molecular flow. My bustier was a seamless one piece, once the droid bonded the material together. For better or worse, I was also bonded into that bustier, along with the rest of my clothes at the same time.

The idea I was dressed until a bot helped me undress bothered me at first. It took some getting used to. Mostly in the mental department, as I was geared more toward zippers and fasteners.

Females of other species who married Pash, morphed to look like Pash as their babies grew inside them. It was the sharing of life forces between mother and child. Because Sherry and I had been contaminated by the Trag DNA virus, we were still human in a lot of ways. We didn’t change physically in outward appearance, like other Pash wives. The Trag had sent their bio- balls to our outpost where I was captain. Most of the men and women on UF-2 had been infected. Much to my dismay, Sherry and I were two of those unfortunate souls. At first I would have gladly wiped out the Trag for what they did to the other humans and me, but time has a way of changing one’s perspective. Eventually, over time, instead of hating the Trag for what they did to me, I was thankful.

The male Pash seeded their mates with two eggs. Those two eggs absorbed the eggs of their female mates, Then their female mates would gave birth to two males. The male Pash carried only two eggs and they mated for life. Again, because of the Trag DNA, both Sherry and I gave birth to two girls, not boys. Toness and Lavess changed me, but it was mentally. I became telepathic. It was hard at first, as my mind picked up the thoughts from Toni and the girls. It was a clutter of noise, more like being in a room full of people talking. Eventually I learned to focus my mind to one or more mind thoughts. It was similar to listening to one person in a room full of chatter. Tune out the background clutter and focus on the person speaking.

The Pash looked a lot like humans, except for a couple of things. They had yellow cat eyes with vertical pupils. They also had cat strength and were slim creatures. I guess I had become used to the extra long canine teeth all of them had. When I first met Toni and he smiled, I was kind of taken aback. Over the years it got to where it seemed normal. At times I kind of wished I had fangs like my husband and our daughters, but it wasn’t in the cards.

“You’re making it an official visit then?” Toni picked up his sword and blaster off the dresser.

“Yes. I want the Trag to know we support them. We gave them our word. The Pash have never broken a treaty. I am not going to be the one to do so now.” The jeweled dagger went on my left, on the belt. I was also armed with another weapon, one only I could use. It was the Queen's Sword. Retrievable only by my hand, it was invisible. Until I laid my hand on the sword, it was in another dimension. There was also something else about the Queen’s Sword that made it different from any other sword, or weapon, I had ever seen or heard of.

The blade of the sword collapsed any molecular matter it touched. Anything it touched changed into a black hole, but since the mass wasn’t big enough to maintain a black hole, it rebounded back out in x-rays, gamma rays, invisible light, etc. The rebound was too quick to see, but the disappearance of the object when the blade touched it, was startling.

The Pash were divided into clans. Whether it was luck or fate, I had married Toni, who was head of the Pash. Walking over to him, I put my arms around his neck and pulled him in as I gave him a kiss. “I do not deserve to be so happy. You are the most handsome male of all. Thank you for loving me, my Lord.”

Toni studied me with his big, yellow cat eyes. “You grow more beautiful by the day. I’m so in love with you, my Queen.”

Our daughters were at Meliss and Sherry’s house the next galaxy over. I guess every galaxy was the ‘next’ galaxy over wasn’t it? The Pash were star travelers. They figured out polarity drive a long time before humans had come up with the idea that there was something faster than light speed. The other thing about the Pash polarity drive was, they had figured out how to put something live inside that ship. Humans weren’t even getting close to something similar to polarity travel for cargo carriers, much less human transportation.. Humans hadn’t figured out how to balance the energy fields around the drives so energy bleed inside the ship didn’t kill the life forms it was transporting. So far humans were creating a black hole event where everything disappeared as their ship launched. I was positive that, if the Pash had figured it out, humans would also. Maybe in a few thousand or possibly a million more years?.

Toni walked with me out to our little starship. It was the same ship Toni used when he first visited outpost UF-2. He had suggested we get a bigger starship, but I had emotional attachments to that little craft. In all honesty, it was a little one-person ship. Two or more could ride in it with someone sitting in the aisle.

As I walked up to the ship, I touched the side, an opening formed in the side of the ship and a ramp appeared. It was accomplished through molecular flow. That was something else the Pash had figured out several millennia back. Turning to look at Toni, I wrapped my right hand around the back of his neck. “I will see you in a few hours.”

He shook his head. “I should be going with you. I don’t like the idea of you going by yourself to check out how widespread the humans have encroached into the Trag galaxy.”

“I’ll be fine. I dealt with these kinds of humans while I was on UF-2 and I know how to handle them. You must convene the Council for a vote on the treaty. I need to do some fact finding to see how bad this situation has become.” I gave him a kiss and then walked up the ramp. Taking my place at the console, I could see concern on Toni’s face as the ramp flowed back up into the side of the ship.

Jumping dimensions and distance was not an easy task, in spite of how fluidly Toni did it when he was piloting the craft. I pulled up the star charts and picked the Earth and Trag’s dimension. Then I pulled up the two billion light years I would have to travel to get there. When I touched the star chart hologram in front of my face, it changed to the Trag galaxy. I had jumped distance and dimensions back to the Trag and Earth dimension. The little Pash starship polarity drive had already taken me there. Like the Pash bots, the starships were marvels of engineering

I had heard there were humans on the Enren planet in the Trag galaxy. I pulled it up on my star chart, touched it and I was looking at the planet in the hologram. There were lights and artificial heat coming up from several spots. Obviously human settlers and their allies. I was sure they had detected my starship by now.

I touched the brightest light in the hologram and was immediately above the outskirts of the illegal settlement. From there on down to the ground I guided the little ship by moving my fingers across the console. The ship could have auto parked a lot quicker and gentler than I could manually fly it in. Sometimes I felt like doing it without the AI (artificial intelligence) computer built into the ship design, but I needed more practice before I could get that good.

Pushing the console out of my lap, I opened the side of the ship and walked out before it closed. The settlement looked about like what I expected. Slavers and pirates lived with no regard for hygiene or order. They had few rules. Take what you can, and the one with the most power at the moment rules all the rest.

I felt them approaching before they spoke. “Don’t shoot her. Keep your eye on that ship. There could be others. Is she armed? I see a dagger on her side. Looks expensive.”

Holding up my right hand, open palm, I was looking at the one who seemed to be leading the other six. “I didn’t come to fight. Why are you trespassing on Trag worlds? Don't you know it’s against the treaty the Earth Alliance signed with the Trag?”

He walked up in front of me and took a measured look as he mentally undressed me. The way I was dressed, that couldn’t take too much brain power. It was probably more than he possessed. Pirates and slavers didn’t ever strike me as being too intelligent.

He glanced from me up at my ship. “What kind of ship is that? I’ve never seen one like that before. Where you from? You alone?”

“I’m alone. You didn’t answer my questions. You’re trespassing on Trag planets. Don’t you know the Trag aren’t going to allow this? Have you ever met a Trag? Did you know they like to dissect humans and their allies?” I was hoping to jump-start his brain about what he was facing. I should have known better.

He laughed as he glanced around at the other men. “We aren’t afraid of a few Trag. This planet is rich in energy crystals. Len is bringing in slaves to mine them for us. We’ll all be rich.”

“You will be dead if you don’t leave immediately. The Trag will not accept humans in their galaxy.” I looked at the other men to see if I was getting through to them. Again, I should have known better. These kinds of men understood brute force, not dialog. It was as if their minds had never evolved up the evolutionary scale.

The leader reached for my hair. I slapped his hand away with my left hand as I sidestepped to my right and pulled my dagger. I was looking at the business end of five phasers. Maybe I should have asked Toni and a few dozen friends to come along? Somewhere in a small part of my brain, I remembered I'd always had a few dozen soldiers along when I happened to meet these kinds of people. Now wasn’t a good time for my memory to be reminding me of the details though. Obviously pirates and slavers weren’t the only feeble minded ones at this meeting.

“Feisty aren’t you? I like that in a bitch. I don’t know where you came from, but you made one hell of a mistake, dropping in here like you did.” He slowly reached out and took the dagger out of my hand, daring me to do anything stupid.

He pointed at two men. “Look the ship over and see where the door is. I want me a looksee inside that thing when we get through with the bitch.”

He walked around behind me and gave a hard push in my back with his hand. “Let’s go see what Len wants to do with you.”

When he pushed me, I stumbled forward before I gained my balance. They marched me into the settlement. We passed a couple dozen buildings before they muscled me into one of the larger geo-dome buildings. One of them shoved me in the back and I stumbled across the room. I was getting damn tired of their constant pushing. Inside, I counted four men and two alien Churters, not counting the three men that had marched me there.

By a table to my left, one of the men stood up and walked over to give me a thorough examination. “Who the hell is this?”

The man that had taken my dagger smiled as he stared at me. “We have a present for you, Len. She dropped in on the outskirts. As far as I can tell, she’s all alone.”

“Lady, you are either the dumbest bitch in the universe, or the bravest.” The man called Len stepped in front of me and grinned.

Right now, I had to agree with him. I was the dumbest. I was going to see if I could pull this situation up out of the pits. “I may be your guardian angel. You’re trespassing on Trag property. If you don’t leave, you’re going to end up dying. I know what the Trag do to their enemies. It’s not pretty. I can’t tell you in strong enough language that you have no options, except to leave this planet and this galaxy.”

I knew the man behind me was going to grab my arms before he touched me, but those other men still had their phasers pointed in my direction. I couldn’t fight all of them when I was unarmed myself. That was when the one they called Len pulled a knife and stepped up in front of me. I figured he was the leader of this band of miscreants.

His breath reeked of gin and spirits. It was probably the only mouthwash he used. His yellow teeth looked bright against the dark recess of his yawning gullet as he smiled. His lips were thin. Probably from seldom being pulled into a smile. As the man behind me held my arms, Len put his knife point up against my throat. “I’m going to sell you to the slavers.”

I could feel the point of the knife pierce my skin, and warm blood trickled down my neck. Len looked pleased as he stared into my eyes. “That’s so everyone knows you’re my slave. I’ll drop some markers in you so you can be found if you try to run away.”

Glancing down at my breasts before looking back into my eyes, his eyes gleamed with lust. “I’m guessing a bitch with your looks is already used merchandise. A little more use won’t bring down the value any.”

Reaching out, he grabbed my left breast in his right hand and squeezed. The pain was so sharp I almost dropped to my knees. Involuntarily, I groaned. I wanted to strike back, but the guy holding my arms wasn’t my only problem. My mind kept reminding me of the phasers still trained on me.

Len stared into my eyes as he squeezed harder on my breast. “You were wanting to hit me. Control, I like that in a slave. Since we are going to be intimate, we should be on first name basis. I’m Len. I prefer you call me Master. I already know your name, Bitch!”

I couldn’t stop the tears of pain that trickled out of the corners of my eyes. Finally he turned loose and that caused more pain from the release of the pressure. I sucked in my breath.

The other man who was behind me, holding my arms, laughed. “I think we should sell her services here, first. With a body like hers she should be sharing. She’s prime stuff.”

Over Len's shoulder, I could see another man coming across the room. He was holding up a slave collar. A cruel device, it was guaranteed to make the person it was placed on, submissive. Voice controlled, the master didn’t need a transmitter. All the master had to do was give a command. If the slave didn’t respond, the slave collar would give a cruel shock.

I had seen slaves drop to the floor, writhing in agony, when they didn’t respond to a command from the master. Those slave collars were a product that the government used for prisoners. Pirates and slavers had found a new use for the prisoner collars.

Len stepped over to the side, as another man stepped up in front of me. His eyes were devouring me like I was a slave on the auction block. He reached up over my shoulder and pulled my hair away from my neck. He was rough and intended to hurt me. He succeeded.

Stepping up beside the man standing in front of me, the third man opened up the collar to slip it around my neck. I brought my right foot up with all the strength I could manage, and it caught the first man right between the legs. A look of shock and then pain flashed in his eyes. He turned loose of my hair. He was dropping to his knees when I jumped back and tossed my head back at the same time. I was hoping to catch the man holding my arms in the face or under the chin with the back of my head.

Unfortunately, he was ready and bobbed his head to the side. I only managed to bump back against his chest. I could see that slave collar coming at my neck and I tried to kick the guy holding it. He dodged my kick, as the collar snapped around my neck.

“Turn her loose. She’s not going anywhere now.” The man behind me backed away.

I lunged for the guy who had placed the collar on me. An electric shock unlike anything I had ever felt stunned my mind and my body. I fell to the floor, crying and writhing in pain. Even though the shock was only the smallest microsecond, the pain lasted for over a minute before I could regain use of my muscles.

The man who had placed the collar on me, stared at me with lust in his eyes. “Get up!”

Slowly, I managed to get to my knees and then to my feet. “YOU BASTARD!”

The men were laughing as they holstered their weapons. They knew that slave collar could control me better than any threat from any phaser. The man shook his finger at me. “Your name is 'Bitch.' From now on you will call me Master. He nodded toward the other two men. You will also call Chad and Len, Master. When I tell you to do anything you will answer, Yes Master, before you do it.”

“Drop dead!” I screamed, and then I fell to the floor crying in pain. The collar reminded me who was Master.

The third man had managed to find his feet by the time I regained control of my body. I could read his mind. He was thinking of the things he was going to do to me for what I had done to him.

“Get up, slave.” He was staring at my breasts.

I started to get up. Again I received that terrible shock and went to the floor. They all smiled at my pain. “You didn’t say, Yes Master. Now get up Bitch.”

“Yes Master.” I slowly made it to my feet expecting the slave collar to knock me to the floor any second. In my years of living with the Pash, I had forgotten what hate was. These humans were giving me a real strong dose of remembering.

The man I had kicked was rubbing between his legs as he stepped up in front of me. “What’s your name?”

I hesitated, wondering if I should tell them my name. “Brandy.” Again that terrible shock and I was writhing on the floor.

He didn’t give me a chance to get up as he leaned over and grinned. “What’s your name?”

I sure wasn’t going to say Brandy again. “Winters.” And again that pain. What was I not doing right? Then it came to my pain wracked brain. “Yes Master, Brandy.” And again the pain.

All of them were enjoying seeing me writhing on the floor. I was positive I wasn’t going to be able to last much longer.

He leaned down and put his hand between my thighs. “Okay Bitch, what’s your name?”

“Yes Master, my name is Bitch.” Involuntarily, I cringed expecting the shock that didn’t happen.

“She figured it out. That’s good Bitch. Most of the bitches don’t get it right until we tell them.” He stood up. “Now get up Bitch, and tell me your name.”

“Yes Master.” I managed to push myself up off the floor and stood. “Yes Master, my name is Bitch.”

Len motioned the others to give a little room. “Bitches need to be properly trained. Over behind the bar you will see slave rings. Go fetch and bring a handful of them back over here.”

“Yes Master.” As I turned to obey his command I wanted nothing more than to kill him. That slave collar they had slipped on my neck was cruel beyond words. When I was Captain of UF-2, I thought they were a great idea for controlling prisoners. I guess one’s concept of good or bad depended on whether one was wearing one or not.

I walked behind the bar and saw a stack of body rings. I knew what they were for. As if the slave collar wasn’t enough, these men were sadistic enough to want their slaves wearing body-piercing rings in all places imaginable and unimaginable. My mind was going full tilt trying to figure a way out of this mess I had dropped into. I picked up a hand full of the rings and walked back to the group of men. Holding up the rings I waited for Len to take them.

Len nodded. “You are going to make an excellent slave. Show me where you want them placed.”

“Yes Master.” I didn’t move because I didn’t want them placed anywhere in my body.

“Now that’s not very co-operative, Bitch. You know all the places they need to be inserted, so show me now.”

“Yes Master.” I had two choices. Either hold a slave ring over every part of my body I thought these guys would think a well dressed slave would be wearing one, or have that slave collar knock me to the floor and then follow their command. I held a ring up to my nose and each breast. From the look in his eyes, I could see Len thought that was a start, but it wasn’t going to satisfy him.

“The gun is beside the rings. Bring it.” Len commanded as he stared at me.

“Yes Master.” I turned to go get the gun laying beside behind the counter with the rings. It was the insertion tool. A ring was placed in the jaws of the gun and it was placed up against the body. When the trigger was pulled it clipped the ring and drove it through the flesh. Then the ring was spun inside the jaws of the gun and welded back together, along with changing the molecular structure of the ring. One of man’s better ideas no doubt? Made of Vadim alloy, the ring was indestructible once it had been inserted. There was no way to remove them except through surgery.

Some of the slave rings were no more than what they seemed to be, simple rings. Others were a product of a sick mind. When inserted into flesh they spawned tentacles, which spread throughout the body. As if that wasn’t enough, if another ring was inserted, the tentacles would spread and interlock, each successive ring spreading and interlocking as it was inserted. It was unbelievable what man could do to man in their search for power over another. One individual looking for control over another, or a world looking to control the galaxy, it was the same. Ultimately it was control or domination they desired.

I was praying the rings these slavers had weren’t the ones with the tentacles. Those were almost impossible to remove unless the slave was butchered like a slab of beef and then stuck back together after the rings and tentacles had been peeled out. If it was a nose ring or an earring then the slave could forget about removal. Tentacles spread throughout the brain assured the slave owner that the slave would die before the rings could be removed.

There was no doubt in my mind why he was doing this to me. Making me go after my own torture device was added pleasure to their cruel minds. I walked behind the bar and picked up the gun. I walked back over to Len and held it up.

“Load it.” He was enjoying his control over me.

“Yes Master.” I dropped the smallest ring I could find into the jaws of the gun.

Len shook his head. “No Bitch, I think you need something a little more you.”

He reached over to my left hand and picked up a ring that was six inches in diameter and an eighth of an inch thick. “These are you. Load it.”

“Yes Master.” I could hardly believe he thought that ring would go in any part of my body, much less any of the places he was thinking.

“Where do you think the first one should go, Bitch? Show me.” He was waiting along with the other men for me to inflict self mutilation.

My mind was going into overload as I was praying for a way out of this mess. “Yes Master.” How long did I have before that collar hurt me? There was no way out as I held the gun up to my left breast.

“Take off your clothes.” The man standing to Len’s left commanded.

“Yes Master.” I laid the gun and rings down on the table in front of me. With my right hand I reached up behind my back as if I was going to remove my bustier top. I started to wrap my hands around a sword handle no one could see. If my hand touched the Queens Sword, it was summoned from another dimension. Even though it was still invisible, I could feel the hum in my body as my hands got close to the handle.

Toni’s mom, Lass was the prior owner of the Queens Sword. After I accepted Toni as my mate, I inherited the sword, along with the title of Queen, Lass gave me lessons in handling the sword. I hoped the years of practice under her guidance were going to pay off.

The collar knocked me to the floor. It was quicker than my reflexes. I had no idea how it could know I was going to try and destroy it.

The slavers were surprised to see me drop to the floor in pain and then it was funny as they started laughing. Len shook his head. “Get up Bitch.”

“Yes Master.” Slowly I managed to find my feet again.

The man who was holding my dagger touched the point of it with his left index finger and blood trickled out of the prick. “DAMN! That’s sharp!”

Len glanced over at the man, as blood dripped on the floor. “Use it on the Bitch if she doesn’t ditch the clothes.”

Looking back in my direction, Len nodded. “Well?”

“Yes Master, but the slave collar won’t let me put my hands behind my back.”

Len shook his head. “Damn device must be set on extra sensitive. Control, set to minimum. Okay Bitch do it, but I warn you, if you try to move against one of us you will be knocked on your butt again.”

“Yes Master.” I cleared my mind of what I intended to do as I focused on an imaginary zipper running down my back. I reached up over my back for a sword handle that was yet still in another dimension. I was thinking ‘zipper up,’ as I brought the sword up.

As soon as I started to bring the sword up it shifted to this dimension. Now it was most certainly visible to everyone. As I brought it up I sliced through the middle of my neck with it. It was too late for them to react to stop me. Attuned to my molecular makeup, the sword would never hurt me but it collapsed molecular matter on everything else it touched. The sword never really passed through my body. The blade shifted back to another dimension where my body was. To those who were looking at me it seemed as if I had passed the blade through myself. The slave collar disappeared when the sword touched it.

“WHAT THU...” Len was staring at what he couldn’t believe. His slave was armed and no longer wearing a slave collar!