The black emptiness was suffocating. An absence of everything. She stood in front of the airlock, looking out. Small dots of light shily trying to bring light to the harsh and empty world, some weakly reflecting on the ship hurtling through space. She knew it right then. This was it, the turning point in her life. The moment that would define her the most. It was funny then, that it felt like it did. She thought it would be hard to decide what to do, that she would be torn. But she already knew, the decision had been made instantly. In her gut she could feel it. This was the only way for her.

If anyone had asked her to choose before this moment, she would have needed minutes, no, hours to think it through. To balance the positives with the negatives of each side. Argued that it wasn’t such an easy choice. Her life was in the balance after all. But when it all came down to it, she already knew her answer deep down.

Chuckling, she walked out of the airlock, a small and bloody chip falling behind her, a soft smile on her lips. She had been unbelievably lucky and the rest of her life was beginning. It would be glorious, if probably short.

The airlock was now empty except the small chip on the ground, and a man’s body who half stood up, held there by a tube going through his head.

****************************************

Philip couldn’t believe they had sent him for such a routine task. That son of a bitch Marco thought he could send him to do whatever he liked! He wasn’t some lowlife like the slaves in their cargo. He wouldn’t get away with it, not this time.

It had been the third time this week he had slighted him. The first was when he hadn’t asked his opinion when clearly, he had been the expert at hand, the second when he hadn’t even been called to join an important meeting.

But Philip would show him, no one treated him like crap and got away with it… Peter, the previous captain, would testify to it, if he could. The crew he passed in the hall all stopped to salute him, and it did bring joy to his heart to see the lowly crewmates recognize his superiority, as they should. Marco was lucky he had acted so fast after Peter had… disappeared.

But somehow everyone had voted for Marco as the new captain! It should have been him and Marco knew it. That bastard. Did he know what happened to Peter? No, he couldn’t. He wasn’t smart enough to understand even a fraction of Philip's plans. It had all been planned perfectly. Even if things hadn’t landed exactly as planned.

A smell assaulted his perfect nostrils that brought him back to his task at hand. It seemed he had found the missing crewmate. The man’s head was thoroughly skewered by some sort of tube… His corpse was still half upright because of it.

Yikes, what a loser. Imagine dying from a stupid accident like that. It had to be when the thrusters malfunctioned. Talk about unlucky. Tch, what a waste of his time. He had better things to do than to look for some lost crewmates. Especially when they were missing because of some random accident. He would have to check the recordings if there were any, but it was pretty obvious what had happened.

He was about to leave when something caught his eye on the ground. Bending down to pick it up, he saw a small bloody chip on the ground. Aha, they had a slave on the loose. This could be worth his time after all. Philip was always up for chasing down some stupid escaped slaves.

It was detective time, and there wasn’t anyone smarter than him on this ship. He started by inspecting the corpse more closely, he saw that both the man’s gun and mana crystals were gone. With half his tools to boot. The corpse looked at least an hour old. Maybe the stupid slave had simply walked back to its quarters? They did tend to be really stupid. Why else would it have taken the weapon or the tools? Licking his lips in anticipation, Philip drew his gun as he walked towards the slave quarters.

It’s not like it had a chance. He was trained, fast, strong and smart. In short, an elite.

****************************************

As he arrived in the slaves’ quarters, Philip wouldn’t have thought anything was amiss if he didn’t know better. Well, he probably would have noticed anyway, but knowing something was up was a huge advantage. On the surface everything seemed normal, the malnourished humans were looking at him with almost vacant eyes. Checking with his scanner he saw that none of them had removed their slave chip, so they couldn’t do anything to him.

But he knew there was someone on the loose. Maybe it hadn’t come here to free the others? It had taken the tools so obviously it had thought about doing something with them. What else could the lowlife want with tools?

He continued scanning the next compartment, then the next. All the chips were still in order and working. Just stupid slaves. But Philip was smart. He could feel something was up. Everything seemed too… normal.

As he went out of the last slave compartment he turned around. It suddenly struck him, that feeling of oddness. They were all holding their hands over some parts of their body without moving them. They were usually stupid and weird, but nothing could escape his genius.

“You, come here.” He ordered one of the smaller and weaker slaves. The child walked forwards slowly and stood before him, looking up.

“Remove your filthy hand and show me what you are hiding.” He asked with the authority of someone of his rank.

Instantly he could feel the tension in the air. All eyes intently upon him. The little shits were hiding something. Truly, nothing could get past his genius. Slowly he could see the hand of the slave move despite its best effort to resist his command. A grin slowly spread on his face until he could see what the slave had been hiding.

His eyes widened in shock, as he saw all the slaves now rapidly remove their hands where they had kept them. On his scanning device, countless alerts were popping up. Philip didn’t have the time to listen to the sounds of the slave chips hitting the ground.

Throwing himself back, he started shooting wildly before they could rush him. Half the shots missed but one clearly went through the child's head, splashing some blood on Philips shoes.

Backpedaling with his ass on the ground he kept shooting until he was out of the stinking and now very dangerous room. As soon as the door shut he sighed in relief before quickly double checking the door settings to make sure they couldn’t come out.

He tried to put the door and area on lockdown, but it kept refusing him. So he decided to override the protocols with his authority and forced the locks shut. That should do it.

He took a deep breath to calm himself. How had they removed their slave chips? They couldn’t think about or do anything to remove them. But somehow the scum had not only dug them out but they had kept them on their body so it would keep counting as functional, the only thing keeping them in place had been their hands.

Ah, understanding struck him. The freed slave had come and helped them get rid of the chips. Only a free person could get rid of slave chips. What a little bitch, not even daring to face him one on one. Damn lowlifes. They truly were inferior to him.

Standing up and looking around he started walking to the other compartments to make sure they were all locked down correctly. The stupid slaves hadn’t stood a chance against his reflexes, and neither would these, but better safe than sorry. It was personal now. And it wasn’t at all because his pants were slightly wet between his legs from that last encounter. No. Philip was a genius. And he knew one thing for sure.

It was all that damn slave's fault.

****************************************

Marco sat in his comfy chair, a frown on his face.

“You found the missing crewmate?” He asked the returning crewmate.

“Yes sir, it seems to have been an accident. Most likely from that thruster malfunction. We had some wounded but he seems to have been particularly unlucky. The timing matches.” The lizardman responded.

“Thank you, dismissed.” He ordered. The other person acknowledged before leaving the bridge.

That he had to send another person after sending Philip was a testament to the fool's incompetence. Not only was he an annoying prick, but he was also incompetent to boot. He had once almost laughed when he had heard Philip muttering how everyone else was stupid but him. What a delusional moron.

But he was useful, in a way. Everyone hated Philip, which made him appear so much better in contrast. It was a useful trait of a second, even if everyone knew he wasn’t as trusted as a second was supposed to be. How he even became the last captain’s second was a mystery.

That he had presented himself against him as the next captain had been both hilarious and a boon, as even people that didn’t particularly like him just had to vote against the idiot, meaning he had won by a landslide.

He truly looked competent with that moron beside him. But why wasn’t he back yet? Lakkar had found the missing crewmate in fifteen minutes tops, and it had already been like two hours since he sent Philip.

As if on cue, the whole ship shuddered and trembled for a second. That wasn’t good. Opening a comspell to the ship's engineering center he started pacing back and forth.

“Damage report, now.” He said as soon as the spell was cast.

“We are on it Captain.” He heard someone answer.

“It seems to be that damn thruster Captain, the right one malfunctioned again.” Someone else soon said.

“Didn’t we turn it off for repairs?” He asked, confused.

“We did.” The voice answered. There was silence for a while as nobody dared speak up. Marco’s mind was going through countless possible scenarios. Most of them seemed to involve Philip somehow.

“Did my second come back or report to any of you? He has been missing for a while.” An almost audible groan could be heard from the other room at the mention of Philip.

“No sir, I haven’t seen the i-, your second.” the man corrected himself.

“Alright, I’ll be right over.” He said before cutting the comspell.

Did Philip plan to get rid of him somehow? The last captain, Peter, had died in a most tragic airlock malfunction. It was highly suspicious but there had been no proof. Although Philip had seemed most pleased with himself at the time… even pushing to vote for a new captain as soon as possible.

Maybe he should have gotten rid of Philip some time ago. He was incompetent but dangerous, somehow. A very dangerous mix if you thought about it for a second.

Having finished changing into his battle gear, he put it out of his mind for now as he walked through the bridge. A few crewmates ran past him in a hurry, some giving him a surprised look at his outfit.

Yeah, he wasn’t taking any chances with Philip on the loose. Who knew what the dangerous idiot had cooked up. He just prayed the ship wouldn’t implode on itself in the meantime.

****************************************

Philipp was rushing to the engineering bay after the explosion that had rocketed the ship… again. But he knew it was the slave. It had to be.

On the way to engineering, a human girl passed him by and didn’t salute him. What caught his attention was that she was cute, and he was sure he would have remembered that face.

“Miss?” Turning around, he called out to her. She froze for a second before turning around.

“Yes?” She said, turning around with eyes on the ground in submission. Something about the way she handled herself really called to him. She looked cute and submissive, his favorite combination.

Philip could already picture her attached on his bed, pleading that he stopped, but still moaning in pleasure, her sadistic side brought to light under his tender yet firm care.

“Sir?” The girl asked again, startling him out of his fantasy. Right, he had to find that damn slave. This was yet another point against the absolute scum. He would be having so much fun with this new recruit if that slave hadn’t messed everything up!

“Ahem, I think you forgot something.” He said, patiently waiting.

The girl's face quickly changed before settling on a puzzled expression. Had that been panic he had seen? No, probably not, maybe she was really new and didn’t know the proper protocols? His [Sense Secrets] skill was tingling… this would be a lot of fun to uncover later.

A tense silence stretched, until finally he couldn’t contain himself.

“Salute, you forgot to salute your superior.” He finally said, and saw a visible tension drop from her body.

“You are lucky it was me, as other officers could have punished you harshly.” He continued with confidence.

“Thank you sir.” She said as she saluted properly.

“Where did you learn to salute? Your posture is all wrong young lady! This will not do. You really are lucky I’m the one who you stumbled upon. I’ve decided. I’ll personally teach you the proper forms when addressing your superiors. You’ll come to my quarters tonight after dinner, understand?” He finished with a firm voice that left her little choice. Yes, a personal lesson in his bedroom was exactly what the doctor ordered.

The girl apologized for her inadequacies and was quickly on her way. He stared after her for a second, his eyes resting on her round, bouncing, mesmerizing a… Ahem! He had things to do! Right, the slave!

****************************************

It had taken her almost an hour to free all the slaves, and she hoped no one was on her trail. She knew she had to hurry.

Finally leaving the slave quarters and leaving all the doors on open, she hurried towards the engineers quarters. She knew that with the explosion she had felt earlier, almost all the engineers would be on duty which would make it easy to sneak into their personal quarters.

She had only passed by one group of crew members on her way, and with [Unnoticeable Presence] they hadn’t questioned a slave being alone, or hadn’t noticed her at all. Just another person running around on a big ship.

But for the next step of her plan, looking like a slave would not work. The week old grime on her face and her tattered clothes would instantly attract attention to her even with her best skill trying to hide her presence.

No one else was in sight when she finally arrived at her destination. She unlocked the door with the digital code she had learned just in case.

The room revulsed her and she almost backed out. Dreaded memories came back to the surface. Bile was rising in her throat. Pushing it down, she cleaned her mouth with some water before quickly jumping in the shower to clean herself.

It was hard to suppress the memories of the place, but the urgency of her task and adrenaline made it possible, for now. Her hands were shaking as she used soap to clear all the grime away.

Jumping out of the shower, she quickly looked around for the standard engineer outfit and threw it on, it was slightly too large but it would do. She went by the room and couldn’t help but glance at the bed.

Memories of her screaming in pain flashed in her head. Get it together Kali, she thought to herself. Not now. And not ever again.

She steeled her resolve and placed all the different tools on her brand new stolen toolbelt. She had kept the dead guard's anti-ballistic belt underneath the engineer outfit just in case, but kept it off for now. The faint sheen of the shield would give it away.

Now looking like any other engineer, she made her way to the engineering bay. There had been a malfunction somewhere, and she was determined to make it worse, explosively worse, but for that, she had to know where to go.

She soon arrived at the engineering bay. It was mostly empty as they were all undoubtedly working to fix whatever it was.

One a big screen on the far wall of the room, she saw a hologram of the whole ship with the right main thruster grayed out. They had put it offline, probably for repairs? That wouldn’t do, she thought as she grinned.

Looking for directions, she saw the different labels to where the hallways went and picked the one to the right thruster. As she got closer and closer, the amount of people she saw continued to rise until finally there was activity all around as [Engineers] tried to fix whatever had happened.

No one paid her any attention, one engineer in the crowd. She started going around, trying to understand how she could do the most damage.

Her knowledge of thrusters was basic. Mana goes in, ship goes woosh. Apparently it was very much more complicated and to some, very interesting, but she didn’t care.

After looking around for almost ten minutes, she finally found the perfect spot. Fairly hidden, but close to the mana intake.

Taking out a tool, she started taking off a metal panel in the wall. Someone walked by and she tried to make it look like she was checking the mana cables beneath.

Apparently her deception worked, but she knew it was because the person hadn’t really paid her any attention. Still, she had to hurry.

If there was one thing she had learned, it was that mana crystals were to be handled with care. One thing they all said was, never, ever feed them too much mana.

Discreetly she took out a dozen mana crystals. They had all been on the anti-ballistic belt. Pausing for a moment, she decided to put a few back into the belt. It wouldn’t last long with so few crystals but she needed to make sure the explosion did enough damage. After hesitating a bit she decided to save two and blow up ten. It should create a big enough explosion to not only damage the thruster, but make the mana intake tube chain react, hopefully.

Cutting up a mana cable, she redirected the two ends to one mana crystal. It wouldn’t charge fast, but it would overload within the hour for sure. Maybe even faster. She continued to cut up mana cables and soon all the ten crystals were charging without any of the usual failsafes.

Putting back the metal plate to hide her timebomb, she looked around, saw no one and simply walked away.

Her heart was beating incredibly quickly as she was making her way out. Adrenaline pumping. It felt like everyone knew what she had done, like all eyes were somehow on her. But no one stopped her.

She had barely been walking more than five minutes before a huge explosion made her almost fall down. That had been faster than she expected, a lot faster.

[New Class! → Infiltrator]

[Level up! → Infiltrator Level 3!]

[New Skill Gained → Fabricate Bomb]

The system messages surprised her. But that new skill was sure to come in handy. The knowledge of how the skill worked was still not completely clear, but she knew she still needed stuff that naturaly blew up to create a bomb.

Quickly she retraced her steps back to the engineering bay and was soon in the hallway that led back to the living quarters. She had done it and gotten away. That would make sure everyone was too busy fixing that thruster for the next hour at least, afraid that it would blow a third, and probably final time. Relief flooded her when something unexpected happened.

“Miss?” She heard from behind her. Her heart stopped right then and she froze. Was this how it all ended? Had he found her out? But he was coming from somewhere else. There was no way he could know. Right?

But why would he stop her? What had given her away? Was it that the engineer uniform was slightly too large for her? A thousand thoughts flashed in her head.

Turning around she activated the only skill that came to mind. [Sense Desire] activated and she tried to follow the feeling it gave her. She hated the feeling she got when using that skill, but knew it could well save her now.

“Yes?” She answered, trying to appear submissive and weak. She made an effort to not look at him as that would instantly give her away.

The man stood before her and was staring at her intently. Soon she felt the kind of stare that no girl ever wanted to be subjected to. She suppressed a shiver of revulsion at the feeling.

She heard him lick his lips while lost in thought. There was no doubt in her mind on what was going on in that brain of his.

“Sir?” She finally said, trying to get the pervert to say what he actually wanted, still looking down.

“Ahem, I think you forgot something.” The disgusting man said, completely full of himself. All the doubt came crashing back down on her.

Had she given it away somehow? Made a mistake? But when? And how had he found her out? Unlikely scenarios of what could have happened kept popping into her head.

“Salute, you forgot to salute your superior.” The man finally said, bringing her out of her thoughts. She almost sagged visibly in relief when the words were processed by her panicked brain.

The man was simply a stickler to protocol. And probably a disgusting pig, or maybe she was making that up.

“You are lucky it was me, as other officers could have punished you harshly.” he continued.

“Thank you sir.” She said and did her best to salute properly. She got a glimpse of his face and they made eye contact for a second before she quickly looked down again. Worry churned in her stomach as she was sure her rebellious eyes would give her away.

“Where did you learn to salute? Your posture is all wrong young lady! This will not do. You really are lucky I’m the one who you stumbled upon. I’ve decided. I’ll personally teach you the proper forms when addressing your superiors. You’ll come to my quarters tonight after dinner, understand?” He said with conviction, and more than a little visible lust at the end there.

That confirmed it, disgusting pig ahead. She tried to hide her disgust as best she could but was not sure she had succeeded.

Luckily the man didn’t seem to notice, too full of himself. So she excused herself as fast as possible without being too suspicious and started power walking as far away from that man as possible.

Did she feel his stare on her ass the whole way out or was it just her imagination?

She couldn’t wait to escape this godforsaken prison of a ship and make it all blow up. Or die trying. But one thing was for sure. Never again would she allow herself to become a [Slave].