The Princess Key

Doctor G’traxx had invited the Schofields to dinner at one of the Promenade’s restaurants. After they’d ordered their meal, G’traxx turned to the Schofields. “Thank you for meeting with me,” she said. “As Doctor Dan knows, I’ve been Ciji and Lisa’s therapist for several weeks. If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to you both about how their cases are progressing.”

Rae frowned. “Isn’t this a conversation you should be having just with my husband?”

“You’re both important to them,” the Thorian woman said. “They’ve informed me that they’ve spent a lot of time with your family. I thought it would be appropriate for you to be here for this as well.”

“Ah. Thank you. As a matter of fact, they’re watching our kids right now,” Rae said. “Lisa wants to learn to babysit so that she can contribute financially. Soon, she’ll be able to watch the kids independently.” She chuckled. “She probably could already, but Ciji likes playing with their toys.”

Dan remained silent for the moment.

“Yes, the young ladies often speak of your children. They enjoy spending time with them. Tell me, Ms. Schofield, what is your considered opinion of Za’cijimaa?”

Rae hesitated. “I think …” She looked back and forth between Doctor G’traxx and her husband. “I think … she’s dangerous.”

“And why is that?”

Rae sighed and gave Dan a pleading look. “There are too many unanswered questions about her. Where’s she from? Why did she come here? And on an expensive ship. How’d she get it? And my biggest question is, how the hell did she get covered in blood?”

“Hmm, yes,” G’traxx said. “We’ve talked at length about that. It would seem the blood came from the ship’s previous owner.”

Rae’s eyes went wide. She clenched her fist, almost slammed a hand down on the table before remembering where they were. She turned to Dan. “You see? I told you.”

“He was her master,” G’traxx said. “He owned her. She was his favorite. His lover. More a sex slave, really.”

“And she killed him?”

“It was not a consensual relationship,” G’traxx explained. “This Varnian, whom she claims not to be able to name, was a serial pedophile. He would buy or kidnap a young girl, usually a Dholamite. He would abuse them. When he was tired of them, he would dispose of them—and by that I mean kill them, with no provocation—then get a new favorite, younger slave. He purchased her when she was, oh, twelve to fifteen. I would estimate that she is now anywhere from seventeen to twenty. She was his pleasure girl. None of that was Ciji’s fault.”

Rae nodded and turned to her husband. “A pleasure girl. You know what that means, don’t you?”

“Judging from what we both know, it wasn’t pleasurable for her,” Dan replied. “You’ve seen her back.”

“All that was courtesy of this nameless Varnian,” G’traxx said. “It seems he had a collection of cutlery. He was also an appreciator of great beauty, which he chose to express by his taste in young girls. It pleased him that they each had a featureless back on which he could leave … his personal touch. He would work on this blank canvas with various implements. Or even the end of a lit cigar.”

Rae gasped and put a hand to her mouth.

G’traxx locked eyes with her. “Tell me, Ms. Schofield, how old are your children?”

The change in direction startled her. “What? Umm, four and six. Why?”

“That’s roughly the age at which Ciji’s mother sold her to Gith and Syliar, her first masters. They employed her as part of a small criminal enterprise.”

Rae’s head was spinning. It’s unimaginable, she thought. A child? A little girl, like Susan? It can’t … Her eyes narrowed. “How do you know any of that’s true?”

G’traxx smiled. “Thank you for identifying the pachyderm in the room.”

Dan’s eyes narrowed as well. “You think she’s lying?”

“I don’t know,” the therapist replied. “I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure. I have given her a thorough physical examination. There’s evidence of broken bones and scarring. All indicative of the kind of life she’s described. Your head nurse had the forethought to collect samples from the blanket she arrived in. Varnian indeed. As a result, we’ve gained some insight into these Varnians.

“It seems that their bodily fluids are acidic. Their interactions were cauterizing Ciji’s uterus. If she were Human, she likely wouldn’t have survived more than a few encounters. That was the fate that awaited young Miss Allen, probably in just a few more days. Dholamites have robust healing processes. I’ve known of Dholamites that have grown back missing teeth, fingers. I even knew of a male who grew back an arm.”

“A whole arm?” Dan said, his eyes wide. “That’s amazing.”

“It took about a year. Looked very odd when I first met him, but by the time I left, you would never have known it had been missing. They may look Human, but that is not uncommon.”

Doctor G’traxx paused. “The basic bipedal template is logical from a biological engineering standpoint. But, of course, some, like Xenim or myself, differ from people such as yourselves. And yet we have our internal organs arranged more or less like yours. The same number and arrangement of limbs, even our DNA is compatible up to a point. Things like that seem to be constants in the universe. Even beings like the Xaz have similarities to the rest of us.”

“That’s true,” Dan said, scratching his chin. “Gelt has lungs, kidneys, all that.”

“No heart because he has no blood to circulate,” G’traxx reminded him. “But it would seem Elion decided on a basic template for sentient life early on.”

Dan smiled. “Yet another name for God, I suppose.”

“Indeed. In fact, Ciji’s faith in The Eye may be the one thing that’s kept her as stable as she’s been thus far.”

Rae sighed. “I’m sorry, but I still think she might be dangerous.”

“You may be right,” G’traxx replied. “However, I can verify that what she’s said about her past is likely true. There’s the physical evidence and what I’ve heard from her ward. Their stories corroborate. Even so, that doesn’t tell us anything about her future.”

Dan shook his head. “But she’s had opportunities to commit all kinds of mayhem since she’s gotten here, and she doesn’t seem to have taken any of them. She’s a reliable worker. Conscientious.”

“Which leads us to the possibility that the Consortium has sent her under deep cover. I’m convinced she cannot say her Varnian master’s name. He terrorized his slaves and forbade anyone to say it. This would make sense if they were ever asked to testify against him. That opens up the possibility of brainwashing. She might not even be aware of her true purpose for being here.”

“Good Lord,” Dan said. “What can we do?”

“I am suggesting we proceed with caution,” G’traxx said. “She’s spent years, her whole life, really, in a living nightmare. The condition of her body tells us that. Much of that has healed, but minds are not as capable of regenerating.”

Rae drummed her fingers on the table. “So she might one day snap and go completely off the rails. She might be triggered into betraying us all. Going berserk. Or she might just be damaged and fighting her way back to normal.”

G’traxx nodded. “A most succinct evaluation.”

Rae glanced back and forth between them. “So you agree? That she might be dangerous?”

“She might be,” G’traxx said cautiously. “But she might not. Everything she says might be true. She is much more victim than perpetrator. I believe she warrants observing but deserves a chance.”

Dan shook his head. “I don’t think she’s dangerous. I would agree with being cautious, but not to the point of paranoia. One indisputable fact is that she’s in a lot of pain. But she’s tough. They both are. They’re survivors.”

G’traxx smiled. “That much is true, indeed.” She took another bite and gazed up at the ceiling. “My last assignment before coming here was with a team that traveled throughout the unaffiliated territories providing medical aid. We weren’t allowed to wear uniforms, as we were outside Defense Fleet jurisdiction. The legality of such teams is questionable, but many of the places we went had no other access to health care. The Defense Fleet simply lists it as a training exercise. Covert compassion, if you will.

“The culture that Ciji comes from is fascinating. Wonderfully diverse, in many ways. I’ve seen a few of these marketplaces she speaks of. They are often huge, some several kilometers across, with a tarmac or dirt surface. Flat as a table. Two days before the market opens, they’re completely barren. Then the vendors begin arriving. Some fly shuttles down from ships in orbit, some have just small ships. You could buy or sell anything and everything. On Earth, I believe such things are known as ‘flea markets.’ Although fleas are not sold.

“There’s always a Qaalamite controller: Humanoids with purple skin and no hair, and according to rumor, impervious to telepathy. A very rough, guttural language. Everything there is connected to the Qaalamite Consortium. They get a percentage of every transaction and maintain order. Their authority is absolute.

“People like Ciji’s first masters, Gith and Syliar, would set up a stage and begin playing music through a sound system. Women, and sometimes men, would get up on the stage and dance seductively while patrons gathered around and bid for …” She glanced at each of the Schofields. “… their companionship. They never put groups of pleasure slaves near each other, because one group’s music would clash with their neighbors.”

Rae listened in stunned silence.

Dan nodded. “Did any of these entrepreneurs offer the companionship of children?” he asked.

“There always seemed to be a few, yes,” G’traxx said. “Young girls, young boys, almost always Dholamites. Their rarity, and the taboo of most societies to pedophilia, put a premium on the price of their services. The market would go on night and day for a week, maybe two. Then, whoosh, a barren plain once again.” She took a sip of her tea. “Fascinating culture.”

~ ~ ~

When the Schofields got home, Ben was already in bed. Ciji, Lisa, and Susan were in the living room sewing doll clothes. The little girl looked up and grinned at her parents.

“Ciji knows how to sew!” she announced. “She used to fix her own clothes.”

Dan laughed. “She’s talented, all right.”

Rae flashed on an image. A little girl Susan’s age, but blue with red hair.

“Ben was being a pill,” Susan announced. “Ciji made him go to bed early.”

“He got dinner and dessert,” Lisa said. “I think he was tired.”

“Yeah, he gets cranky sometimes,” Dan said with a smile. “I suppose it was over that television show?”

“Hey, you said they couldn’t watch it,” Ciji smiled back. “So we didn’t. And frankly,” she stage-whispered, “I don’t like it anyway.” She got to her feet. “So that’s the news from Schofield Central.”

Rae reached into her purse and pulled out the usual two coins. She looked into Ciji’s face, and her heart jumped into her throat. She threw her arms around the younger woman, and tears squeezed out of her eyes.

Ciji was startled. She froze, put an arm around Rae and patted her back. “What was that for?”

Rae shrugged. “Guess I’m tired, too,” she said, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Dan kept right on smiling. “She gets huggy when she’s tired.”

Susan threw her arms around Ciji’s waist. “I’m tired, too,” she said, and they all laughed.

Rae looked at Lisa for a moment, then pulled out another ten-credit coin and handed it to her.

“Uhh … but Ciji always gives me some of what you give her.”

The young mother smiled. “I think you’ve both earned it.”