"The Slave Trade"

[OdileCondacin 0]

Oh, wow. Wasn't that nice. Yet another alien species that was going to play friendly, offering up hearth and home, their "market", then undoubtedly blow them out of the sky at the first opportunity.

 

It wasn't that Odile didn't like meeting new folk -- it was just that they rarely liked meeting her, and most of them didn't even particularly like her shipmates. Again, most of the time it was that "blow out of sky" kind of dislike.

 

And to market they would go. Wasn't that nice. They'd get to go down to market armed with nothing but panniers to carry their little wobbly-headed-alien dolls and snowglobes back to the ship, and likely wouldn't have a phaser between the lot of them. Ah well, the Odd one had her knife, and that was quite enough for her. And if they made her leave that on the ship... unhappy camper much?

 

What had she done to deserve such a fate? She'd die at the hands of an unhappy merchant who didn't like the Xenexian's style of bartering -- "You give me that, and I don't kill you." She'd die messily and painfully, too. What a sad thought for a noble warrior like Odile.

 

And what were they to barter with? Was she supposed to start selling her crewmates off for slave trade?

 

Oooh! There was a thought! Some exotic harem-keeper might like a feline slave! Or a feisty over-friendly Jellyfish who thought her crew liked being sent down to foreign planets never to return! Or a power-hungry amnesiac who thought his department consisted of slaves to his whims! Or ghosts! Yes! For a scientist! They could study Friend Ghost!

 

How much would Kitty or Spineless be worth? A slow grin spread over her face. She would be very wealthy.

 

Or she pick the less fun route and just... hide... and hope that the planet's residents were Xenexioid enough that she would blend without being mugged or otherwise murdered. Unfortunately, since she didn't have enough time to develop a system for trapping and storing slaves for trade... that would have to do.

 

Unless she used catnip.

 

Naaaaaaaah.