Eight cadets and a captain led our party aboard the Flume. Military attendants of the Flume stood straight and tall as the captain advanced among them. I stood in the open shuttle door and watched. An officer cadet stepped from a makeshift office in the rows of shelved items. He adjusted his lapels as he approached. I was just stepping from the shuttle as the officer cadet stopped and saluted the captain. They were ahead of us and I could not hear their words. Rigil stood behind the captain. I stood behind five of my agents one of whom was Bollate. Rigil turned and motioned for Bollate to approach. Bollate walked forward to confer with Rigil and the Captain before returning to me with the news.

He reported, “Captain Taush will make an inspection. We are asked to wait here.”

Captain Taush, Rigil, and the officer cadet disappeared past the makeshift office, a mere desk, chair, and light. My agents shifted impatiently in their position just in front of me. I sensed they would rather be busy than idle. Our probe had provided the pilots with much to busy themselves. Now they felt stalled. They were not aware of the plan. As the captain led the officer cadet down the warehouse aisles between stacked items higher than their heads, the eight cadets in our party silently positioned themselves behind the attendants of the Flume, five in total.

An unseen commotion from the aisles, loud enough for me to hear at the shuttle entrance, roused the attendants. They tensed and took steps toward the noise. Our cadets subdued them. Before I could blink, five disgruntled attendants lay upon the deck, their hands tightly cuffed. My agents were startled by the sudden move and spoke excitedly among themselves. At that point, Taush and Rigil led a cuffed officer cadet out from the shelving into the open area under the floating lights. I witnessed the captain snap a quick succession of orders to his cadets who then collected the cuffed attendants and officer cadet into a tight group. They were marched into the shuttle and Bollate excused himself to pilot the shuttle away. Taush and I stood face to face, his chiseled humanoid face set in classic military fashion.

He turned and motioned with his left hand toward the far end of the vessel. He asked in his somber and somewhat intimidating voice, “Shall we?”

It had been the plan all along to remove the members of the ship. My suspicion about the hidden Flume had been fleshed out between Rigil and Bollate. The stripped core of the vessel was big enough to accommodate many of the Kee we had come to suspect were being held there against their will. Bollate, who knew the Captain, brought him in, and between us, a plan of action had been devised. I was impressed by the Captain, he had made it all seem so easy. We walked quietly to the far end of the Flume. Rigil lifted the floor hatch and we descended into the core.

Taush had gone first, waving a light to him and sending it down. Rigil followed and I climbed down the ladder last. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I could see the other two ahead of me bathed in the soft light of the floating orb. The core seemed wide and dim. I saw what I thought at first were bags piled against the walls. Then, they moved. They stood and waited quietly. The smell of unwashed Kee assailed my senses. I stepped forward to join Rigil and the captain beneath the light. I could now see more movement far along the dim tube. Confused voices whispered in the dark and my heart was crushed.

I stepped in front of my companions and filled my lungs with the foul air. “Hear me,” I said into the darkness. “My name is Jees. All of you, follow me into the light.”

It took a while. We could only help them up the ladder one at a time. Rigil stood at the bottom of the ladder to assist the weak. Taush helped each individual out at the top. More cadets arrived and seated the frightened Kee in groups. Food and drink were distributed. Matters of health were attended. All the while, I went back and forth along the core of the Flume, gathering, comforting. I knew my father was watching but he said nothing. I was at the far end of the core. Only a few of the Kee were left. A female took my hand.

“Help Tiri,” she pleaded.

She pulled me to the very back of the core. The light over me illuminated an unconscious Kee female bundled in blankets. I knelt to check the unconscious girl. Her pulse was weak, her breathing alarmed me. I turned to the Kee who had asked my help and gave a quick command.

“Take the others and run to the ladder,” I told her. “I will bring Tiri. Go.”

I gathered the girl into my arms and struggled to my feet. I could smell the infection. I ran behind the others calling ahead to Rigil for help. We got the unconscious girl up the ladder and into the proper hands. The medical attendants placed her on a stretcher. A needle was put in her arm and an attendant held a clear bag of saline above her as the cadets lifted the stretcher and rushed her into the shuttle. I was tense with worry. I would have followed with her but there were one hundred and seventy-nine other Kee to be dealt with.

I turned from the docking bay to survey the seated Kee. Cadets were still ministering to their needs. I walked to the Captain who was seated at the desk speaking with Rigil. He stood as I approached. He seemed apprehensive. Rigil turned to me and sadly, slowly shook his head from side to side. I stopped and took a breath. A moment passed before the Captain spoke.

“This is tragic,” he said in a somber voice. “I would never have imagined something like this could happen in our military. I can only apologize. Be assured we will find the ones behind this.”

Rigil offered, “The pilots are yours to command.”

Taush nodded to Rigil, turned and nodded to me, then stepped in among his cadets to begin the processing of the Kee. All of them would need medical testing. Many of them, it was obvious, needed treatment. Transporting them to the medical ship would require a relay of pilots. Rigil sat behind the small desk and placed his hands on his knees. He shook his head again.

“I didn't think it would be this bad,” he said.

I replied, “I have no words.”

He looked up and said, “There is one good bit of news.”

“What is that,” I asked?

“Mikal is in custody. You know, the entire military is on alert. They are trying to find the right side of the issue to stand on.” He smiled up at me and added, “They have to save face.”

A cadet walked up and stood at attention behind me, waiting to be recognized. I turned and said, “Yes.”

“Your shuttle is ready,” he reported.

I was horrified by the affair but I was relieved to know the matter was over. The girls had been rescued. They had been treated. They had been placed throughout the Kee population and given work but the matter of the trial was pending. The military had acted with surprising haste. In all, three hundred cadets had been arrested. All of them were nines or below. Under the noses of their superiors, Mikal and his five closest comrades had taken captive one hundred and eighty female Kee, imprisoned them in the core of the Flume, and sold them as sex slaves among the fleet.

“This is big,” Rigil later told me as we sat in my residence. “I'm sure the interrogations will lead to new arrests.”

I was still quite dazed when I replied, “No doubt.”

“News is out,” he added. “The armada is on fire with it. I sense the fleet rattle as the guilty scurry to cover their tracks.”

“I am sure,” said I, “that Taush will weed them out.”

After Rigil excused himself, I paced in my quarters for turns. The new encampment in the third fourth was nearing completion. It was a busy place and overcrowded with Kee. Some of the rescued would be relocated to the new camp. I wanted to visit but the sleep cycle was in place. I would have to wait. In the meantime, I was stuck in my room. My companions were the feelings that crawled the darker realms of my thoughts. How to explain my sorrow? I had been on so many ships in search of the enemy of my people. In each of them, I walked through metallic corridors and stood in metallic rooms. Finally, I descended into the hell of the core line where the floating lights reflected from metallic walls. I found the dull glint of our bare walls to be despicable. I stopped pacing and looked about at my own walls. There and then, I made the decision to have them covered in panels of wood.

I could take my pacing no longer. I stepped into a transport tree and stepped out into the dark metallic halls of the Mercy, our medical ship. I stood alone for a moment, then thought to visit the Kee still under observation. I wanted to visit the poor girl I had carried up the ladder. I needed to know that she was recovering. A medical attendant spotted me and approached.

“Sir,” he queried? "May I help?"

I looked at him. I took a burdened breath and sighed wearily. The attendant was of the blue T'ta race. They were an advanced insectoid species with an evolved exoskeleton limited mainly to their joints. They were a short race, like the Kee. Their round faces, convex black eyes behind crystalline scales, and vestigial mandibles made them appear doll-like. The T'ta were one of the races that opted for their true form in their atomic progressions. I confess I dealt little with the beneficent T'ta. They were gentle and caring. Medical attendants were comprised mostly of their unsung species. They were certainly worthy of more reverence than we showed.

“You are kind to ask,” I replied. “I thank you. I wish to see the Kee girl named Tiri.”

“I will guide you to the room,” he said.

The Mercy, as you might imagine, was a mid-sized ship. It served, almost exclusively, the needs of moleculars. In some cases, it assisted with level nines and below but atomics rarely had health issues the techs could not handle. While the ship was mid-sized, at that particular moment in my personal distress, those damnable metallic hallways seemed to go on forever. I suffered them silently and my attendant made no small talk. At long last, we came to a room at the furthest reach from the transport tree I had stepped from. The attendant opened the door with a touch of his four-fingered hand and ushered me inside. He turned to leave but I reached out and turned him back.

“What is your name,” I asked.

He clasped his hands, bowed slightly, and answered quietly. “I am called 43S7,” he said.

I reached out and took one of his hands. I said, “I thank you for helping me, 43S7.”

He replied, “I could do no less.”

43S7 left and in his absence, I turned into the room to find that I was not alone. There were eight Kee sitting on the floor around the medical bed. Lights from the wall-mounted monitoring screen flashed lethargically, bathing the dimly lit room with an alternating red and blue cast. I stepped to the bed and sat in the unoccupied seat. I took the hand of the unconscious girl and studied her face. I was surprised to see that the young Kee was the girl I had seen fleeing from Mikal.

“Thank you,” said one of the Kee. I looked up to find a haggard male standing before me. “Save daughter. Dagra thank Sais.”

I held a long quiet conversation with Dagra. I learned many things from our talk. Dagra was an intern on the navigation ship, Line of Sight. The ship was a perfect sphere with deeply nested control rooms. Dagra worked a tier above the central console, parsing symbols for the Anun. The Anun were a race with elongated skulls and no skin pigment. For the most part, they kept their own company but their navigational prowess had carried our fleet forward without fail. We were indebted to their skill. Dagra worked a relay under their supervision.

He spoke of his mate and his daughter, Tiri. Dagra's mate, Sama, was highly placed among the stewards of Tzhan Simach, our female residence. I had yet to gain an audience with the Great Lady on that ship so, I grilled Dagra about his mate's situation. I thought that I might use Sama as an angle for gaining the audience I sought. Dagra, also, had sought a leave for Sama to attend her daughter on the Mercy but the petition had been denied. Dagra seemed desperate on that point and I well understood. I promised him I would do everything in my power to bring Sama to her daughter's side.

Tiri was a jewel among the Kee. Her father could not praise her enough. Dagra spoke of her sweet nature, her compassion, and her tireless work under the T'ta on the Mercy. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Tiri was in training to be a nurse. The blue insectoids rarely took on acolytes in their craft. It spoke well of Tiri. Her work with the T'ta must have greatly impressed them. I looked at the sweet sleeping face of the young girl and was equally impressed.

Dagra had returned to the group seated on the floor. They engaged in whispered conversation which left me alone with my ruminations. Normally, I was the type to drop a matter when my petitions met resistance but I had to gain an audience with the Great Lady. The completion of my investigation depended on it. Sama was highly placed. Perhaps that was an in. Also, I thought, her daughter figured prominently into the pending legal action. How to work that angle vexed me. Perhaps Rigil could help. As my mind fell blank, I felt the gentle intrusion I knew was my Father.

A soft voice behind my right ear said, “Come see me. I'll get you in.”