• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Free!” she whispered, and savagely kicked at the box, sending it scuttling along the floor.

“We will only remain that way if we make haste,” Tuvok warned them, and this time Crusher wasn’t inclined to argue with him.

They helped Grace out the window first-though with her catlike agility, she didn’t need much assistance. The Vulcan went next and the commander brought up the rear.

As Crusher poked his head out, he saw that his companions were standing in a narrow alleyway alongside the dance hall. Clambering through the window opening and swinging down, he landed in something that squished and smelled awful. Fortunately, the darkness prevented him from analyzing the substance too carefully.

“We must return to our ship,” Tuvok told Grace.

“Where is it?” she asked.

“In the foothills west of town,” said the commander. “Don’t worry, we know the way.”

The Orion snarled softly beneath her breath. It was a sound Crusher had never heard before.

“What is it?” he asked.

“We are on the easternmost side of the city,” she pointed out. “By the time we reach your vessel, they will have found Mendan Abbis and his friend and realized that I am gone.”

“And they will overtake us,” the Vulcan concluded.

Grace nodded-and even that small gesture was alluring. “Can you not purchase passage on a-?”

“No,” Tuvok said emphatically.

Crusher shrugged, apologizing for his friend and agreeing with him in the same gesture. “I’m afraid it’s not an option.”

“Very well,” the Orion told them. “Follow me.” And she started off down the length of the alley.

“We came from the other direction,” the commander told her, plodding through the muck to catch up.

“I am aware of that,” Grace replied. “However, if you take the direct way back, we will almost certainly be caught. I know a more winding route that may get us there safely.”

Crusher looked back at Tuvok. The ensign looked concerned about the change in plans, but he came along.

Grace turned out to know the streets rather well for someone who had to that point in her life been prevented from leaving the dance hall. What’s more, she seemed to have an instinct for when to duck into the shadows and when to slip boldly out into the moonlight.

The commander asked her about it.

“I have many hours,” she whispered back. “I talk with the men who come to me. They tell me much, not thinking that I am truly listening to them. They even show me maps-pointing out their businesses, their homes, where they like to eat.” Her voice dripped contempt.

And Crusher didn’t blame her one iota. It couldn’t have been an easy life she had led.

Later, when they were sitting in the lee of a building waiting for a band of drunken revelers to make their way across the street, he asked her another question. “How long have you been on Debennius Six, Grace?”

The slave girl turned to look up at him. Her face was cloaked in deep shadow, but her bright green eyes caught the light of a streetlamp and glittered like distant stars.

Crusher had heard all the rumors about Orion “animal women,” how no man could resist them, how they were all heat and allure and violent sexuality. He knew now that the rumors were true. Like a witch out of Terran folklore, Grace had already cast a spell on him.

“My mother was known for breeding fine female stock,” she said. The words hurt the commander as if they were weapons. “I was bought as a child, and I have lived most of my life here on the Last Stop to Nowhere.”

“It’s not your last stop,” Crusher assured the Orion. “You’re free now, Grace, and we’re going to take you to a place where you’ll be safe. I promise you that.”

“Commander…” said Tuvok.

Crusher returned his glance. “Yes?”

“It is unwise to make promises you may not be able to keep,” the Vulcan advised him solemnly.

The human was about to respond when Grace said, “Your friend is correct, Commander Crusher. We may not even live long enough to get back to your ship. But you are right about one thing… I am free now.”

Crusher found that his