I groaned as I woke in The Dream, My body felt as though I had been dropped from a building. I glanced down to see bruises and cuts down my arms and my exposed torso. Maybe I was dropped from a building, did the ship crash? I thought.

My vision swam for a moment before revealing the walls of the room around me. I was in a luxurious living room, The cream walls and white leather couches, one of which I was sitting on, my arms secured behind my back. I felt like frowning at the lack of metal around my neck, I'm not wearing a slave collar, I realized. I would have smiled except for the man sitting opposite me, stretched out on a long couch was the lord of Cunts, Carlton. I could feel an involuntary shiver run down my back and clenched my fist to stop my hands shaking. I flicked my EM sense out in a wide arch, taking in the surroundings. I frowned at what I felt.

On the other side of the wall, there was nothingness. The dark expanse of space. We were on a ship in the shape of a ring, floating in outer space. My heart sank into my stomach, Even If Jackson was following me, how could he find a single ship in the whole system? We could be anywhere.

The scumbag was popping square-cut pieces of dark fruit into his mouth, his small eyes watching me as I focused on him.

“I told you the beatings wouldn’t wake him, it only took some patience and time, just as Havar used to say,” Carlton said to someone behind me. His voice like fingernails on a chalkboard to my ears.

“Cunt.” I spat. I didn’t care what Jack said. I wasn’t going to play nice.

Calton’s eyes snapped to mine and a fist slammed into the side of my head from behind.

“I see you still haven’t learned respect, slave,” Carlton said. His effort to appear magnanimous was pathetic, and his voice was soaked in vitriol.

“Who would respect a fucked cunt like you,” I growled, receiving another fist to the side of my head.

“Now that I have you back, where are the others?” Carlton asked. Placing another piece of fruit into his mouth.

I blinked at him. “Who?” I asked.

“Where are my slaves? You and the rest of the stock cost me two million credits. Where are the others?” Carton asked slowly. His eyes narrowed at my obvious attempt at ignorance. “You’re going to play the part of the fool. No matter.” Carlton waved a hand through the air, gesturing to one of the men in the room. I saw the flash of gold on his hands realized that my fingers were now bare of the rings I had taken from his corpse, the last time we had met.

Before I react I felt the man behind me flap a hand to my forehead and wrench my head back against the couch, I struggled for a moment but he had the leverage of the couch and held fast as a second man stepped from behind him, a thin knife flashing in my sense.

The knife sliced across the flesh on my chest. The man's arm tensed with the effort of cutting through my flesh. I ground my teeth at the pain but didn’t say anything. Even still, Carlton smiled at me. “And another for good measure,” he said and the knife slid across my skin again.

“Where are the others?” Carlton repeated.

“Who Dat?” I asked with a snarl, “Dono what you’re talking about.” Carlton's nose twitched and the man sliced across my chest again.

An hour later I groaned as they threw me through a doorway. I lay on the floor, doubled over with the throbbing pain in my chest from so many cuts, blood-caked my skin and droplets ran down my stomach. It was a supply closet, filled with cleaning products and tools. As soon as the door closed I rolled onto my back and stared up at the Metalic ceiling, my arms still bound under me. I could bide my time, or I could... I rolled to my feet and grunted as I raised my arms as far above my head as I could. Twisting my arms I held them in place and took a deep breath. Then a pushed from the ground and slammed my back into the wall while twisting my right shoulder, the joint popped as my arms were forced up vertically. I growled at the pain as I rolled my shoulders forward, bringing my shackled hands down in front of me.

My right arm hung limp and I looked down at the now dislocated shoulder. Clenching my jaw again I slammed it into the wall with enough force that the joint popped again as it was set in place. Fuck that hurts, I thought, wishing I had seen more action movies of people who had better ways of getting out of handcuffs. I was at least thankful that I didn't have a slave collar on, since it would have made everything that much more difficult. With my arm now usable, though sore, I looked down at the cuffs. They were a pair of titanium bands connected in the center by an electromagnet. I could feel the device like a lantern in my EM sense.

I reached up and grabbed the edge of a shelf, with my right hand. Then I began to strain against the magnetic bonds. I twisted the dial and slowed my perception of time as my back muscles tensed, shoulders pulled back. I remembered my father teaching me to shoot a hunting bow as a kid, reminding me to pull with my back, not my arm.

Slowly, my wrists began separating, my face contorted in the effort as the moved a millimeter, then two. I knew that if I haven’t ranked ninety-nine I wouldn’t have had the strength to pull them even that far. They were five millimeters apart, then ten, then two centimeters, as they moved further apart the force binding them became weaker and weaker until my arm snapped back, free. I smiled as I held the two bands apart. Not wanting them to reconnect. I reached into the shelf and grabbed a pile of rags, taking two I wrapped them roughly around each wrist, using my teeth on the chemical stained material to pull them tight and tuck the ends into place.

Then I looked around the room further as I panted to regain my composure, If I had of paid attention in chemistry, maybe I would be able to mix some of the cleaning products to make a strong acid or a bomb, but I had at least paid enough attention to know that I would be more likely to just produce some noxious gas that would make me sick. I ignored the cleaning agents and grabbed a mop and broom from a rack and snapped the thick plastic handle in half. Leaving sharp jagged edges. Then I moved to the center of the floor and sat in front of the locked door. Sooner or later, they would be back to question me again, And I would be unleashed.

Hours later, I was drifting in and out of an almost meditative state, one part of my mind was constantly feeling the movement of people within the ship. My body had been tensing every time a person came close to the door of my little prison, only to relax when they passed by.

Then two large framed men approached the doorway and tapped the panel on the wall. Before the door had even slid halfway open the sharp end of my broom handle slipped through the gap and entered the man's throat. He let out a deep gurgle before dropping to the ground. I flew through the now open doorway, twisting and bringing the second broom handle around. I ducked a slow-moving fist and slammed the handle into his temple while simultaneously sweeping his legs from under him. He tumbled to the floor and I stabbed down through his chest, the tip of the plastic cracked and was left behind in the wound as he died below me. I reached down and pulled his scanner free, slamming it onto my arm.

I took off at a run, leaving the bodies on the floor. I moved away from the room where Carlton had questioned me. While sitting in the cleaning closet, I had felt the deep hum of a large electronic source a quarter of the way along the ship's ring. The only other times I had felt such a strong source of electromagnetic energy had been from the power and server rooms of the Flair and the Dutchess. As I ran I checked the scanner as it booted and registered to my body.

I skidded to a halt in the middle of a hallway as three bodies exited a room ahead of me. Two men and one woman. I hesitated for a moment, taking the time to scan over their bodies for weapons and more importantly, slave collars. They wore neither.

I set off towards them again, and their eyes went wide as the noticed the half-naked man covered in cuts and dried blood sprinting at them. One of the men scrambled against the carpeted floor, trying to push past the other two and back into the room. But before he made it, I was upon them. I lashed out three times in quick succession, slamming my makeshift spears into the sides of their heads with just enough force to knock them unconscious.

They all crumpled to the ground and I stepped over them and pulled myself into the room where the source of the EM radiation came from. There in front of me was a large flat battery pack, there had been the same on the Dutchess and Tomas had told me that it was charged from the engines and solar panels outside the ship, used to power the primary lights and controls of a ship. I smiled as I reached up and pulled two thick cables from its side that ran into the walls. The room fell into darkness.

There would be secondary and tertiary power sources throughout the ship, though they would only power the life support, emergency lighting, and communications.

No sooner than the lights went out that a small light illuminated in the corner of the room, It washed the room a dim red. Enough to see by, though casting long shadows. I kicked out at the large battery three times, each time the metal panel shook and began rocking on its mountings, a fourth kick sent it crashing to the ground.

I tapped my scanner twice and ran from the room, turning back the way I had come as the call connected.

“Erick, where are you? There is nothing happening at Carltons estate, and none of the ships that entered the planet’s atmosphere were registered at the way station.” Jack said, his voice coming through the scanner.

“No fucking clue. Not on Scaratous, I know that much. I’m on Carlton's ship, big ring thing with an engine in the center,” I said. Then I ducked as two men came around a corner in front of me, both of them raised pistols and fired down the hallway.

“Is that gunfire? I thought I said to bide your time?” Jack hissed.

I ignored him as I pushed off, closing the distance to the men in a second. I shrugged off two bullets as the punched into my already sore shoulder and jerked my head to the side to avoid a third before I slammed into the men at full speed, stabbing both in the chest with the spears. The right spear shattered on the man's clavicle, and I stabbed again with the new sharped point, this one piercing between his ribs and into his heart. I dropped the spear and replaced it with the man's pistol.

“Yeah, that's gunfire. Hey look, can you just track the ship or this call or something. I don’t want to hang around any longer than I have to,” I said, firing while on the run at another man who rushed from a doorway, I twisted the dial in my mind, giving myself ample time to aim and the bullet slammed into his eye. I twisted it back so I could speak normally again. “This is fun and all, but sort it out man,” I said.

Jack grunted down the line and I could hear him talking to Petra.

“Okay, keep the line open. We’re tracking the call and looking for any signals from a …class two solar sailer,” Jack said. I assumed that Petra had knowen the type of ship based on my description.

“Look out for any distress signals, I killed the power,” I said. Then I went quiet as I flew through an open doorway and into the living room where they had sliced my chest open.

On the other side of the room were five men, including the one who had wielded the knife. It was secured firmly to his thigh. I flashed my teeth and kicked a table closest to me. Bullets peppered the walls behind me as I darted left, watching the table fly across the room. I Dashed after it, using it to obscure their view as I made my way across the room. then the table hit the floor and I vaulted it, right into the middle of the men. It took five seconds, though it felt like fifteen after I twisted the dial. Ever strike fell a man, and soon I stood among five corpses.

“Erick, Are you okay?” Jack asked.

“I’m fine. Now shut up and trace the call, you’re distracting me.” I ignored his replay and pushed through the doorway. This wasn’t the largest ship. It was a decent size, and I assumed that most of the people on board would be engineers, pilots, or servants to provide Carlton with his lush lifestyle. Surprisingly I had yet to see a single slave collar, perhaps Carlton didn’t trust slaves on his personal ship.

Through the doorway was a gold-trimmed dining room. A large marble table inlaid with the Carlton family crest of a stallion, held up by bent backed slaves. As I passed, I slammed my fist down on the table, rupturing the marble top and leaving a deep crack through the pathetic symbol. Shaking my hand and expecting it to bruise later I walked through the door on the right side of the far wall, no longer rushing to intercept any resistance. I could only fell three bodies in the next rooms.

Through the door was a hallway and on the left. I kicked the door in to reveal a sickeningly luxurious bedroom. The usual headache that came with the use of my time manipulation, I had lasted longer before it started than normal, though I knew I wouldn’t be able to use it for much longer without being unable to think through the pain. I raised my arm to absorb a bullet fired from across the room and quickly fired back. My bullet was not defended or dodged. It entered the man's eye and dropped him instantly. The only people left in the room were Carlton and a petite woman.

Carton cowered, unarmed, behind the curtains of his four-poster bed.

“Are you going to hide like a little bitch? Or going to act like a man as I kill you again?” I asked with a snarl.