“Slaves aren’t human to Pilgrims,” Calla murmured darkly.
“No, we aren’t,” Bragan agreed. He paused to collect his thoughts, a far-away look coming into his eyes. “I did Jess and Logan, and they both lived. But that wasn’t good enough for them. They wanted to escape, but they wanted the others to escape with them. And they wanted to destroy the base before they left. They didn’t want any of the miners to be able to ever hurt another slave again.
“So they started organizing. Ultimately all the men agreed, they were willing to risk death to escape. It’s not like they had any hope here, after all,” he said. His tone had become strangely smooth, almost sing-song as his story progressed. “So one by one, I took out their implants. Some of them died–quite a few actually–but they disposed of the bodies in the mine. Made ‘em look like accidents. It wasn’t hard to fool the Pilgrim bastards. They never did give us enough credit for our intelligence.
“The ironic thing is that in the end, there was nobody to take out my implant. They’re wrapped around the spinal nerves, you know, so you can’t just cut them out. They offered to try, but I didn’t see any point to it. So they decided they would escape, then come back with a doctor to free me if they could find one.
I told them it was foolish, but they wouldn’t listen. Of course, they haven’t come back yet, either. I figured I’d wait until I couldn’t take it any more, then kill myself. I don’t know what I expected to happen.” He paused, licking his lips. “Can I have another sip of water?”
“Of course,” Calla said quickly, raising the cup to his lips.
“So they planned and waited,” he continued. “One day, a bunch of the miners left to go to another base, some kind of meeting. When they’d gone, Jess and the others overpowered the men watching us. There were only two of them, and about fifty of us. They were so smug–they thought they could kill us with a touch of a button. You should have seen the looks on their faces when they realized the implants weren’t working! It was beautiful to see, although I wasn’t very close. I had to stay away, you know, because my implant was still active.
“When they realized their emergency activation wands weren’t going to work, that’s when they got scared. Then they started screaming, and one of them actually got down on his knees and begged for his life. This was the same guy who, just a week before, had killed a slave for walking too slow. Bastard.
“They killed him, of course, and they killed the other guard too,” Bragan got a hard look in his eyes. “I still think they let them die too quick, but Jess and Logan were pretty clear from the start. They’d kill the Pilgrims, but they weren’t going to torture them. Said they wanted to be better than them or something, I don’t know. Anyway, once the guards were dead it was easy to take over the base. There were hardly any men left; they took all of them out and shot them.”
“What about the women?” Calla whispered, a sinking feeling in her stomach. Seth had described the charnel pile he’d found to her. “What about the children?”
“They herded them all together in one of the transport ships. Sent them off toward the main base on a slow route, I guess. Told them to tell everyone what happened, and that Pilgrims better not sleep soundly anymore,” he added with a vicious smile. The gleam in his eyes was almost feral. Calla was glad he was still tied up, because at that moment he scared her. She could see the madness in his eyes. “We didn’t want to hurt them. Most of them were as much victims as we were, although some were real bitches.
And there was one…well, anyway,” he said, looking away from her. Calla sensed he was hiding something from her.
“What happened?” she pressed. “I want to know.”
“You’re not going to like it,” Bragan said, still not meeting her eyes.
“Tell me,” Calla said with quiet confidence. “I’ve survived a lot myself. I can handle it.”
“Well, Jess was always watching her,” he finally said. “He talked about her all the time, and when we finally took over the base, he took her.”
“What do you mean, her ?’ Calla whispered. “Who was she? What did he do to her.”
“She was the station leader’s daughter, and what the hell do you think he did to her? Use your imagination,” Bragan snapped. “He said she was his, that she wasn’t going with the others. He was keeping her. For himself.”
Calla felt sick to her stomach. The Jess she knew would never hurt a helpless young woman, but she could see the truth in Bragan’s eyes. She pushed it out of her mind, it was too much to think about. Jess was gone– free! A part of her felt like singing with joy for him, the other like crying for him and the woman he’d taken prisoner. The Jess of her youth was gone beyond her reach, she realized with sorrow. She would never find him now. “Tell me the rest.”
“Well, once they got rid of the women and children, they set a trap for the men. When those buggers returned, they ambushed them and killed them. All of them,” he said with dark satisfaction. “I helped them do it, too. I’ve lasted a long time here because I’m a doctor and they needed me. The others weren’t so fortunate. I’ve seen a lot of young men die on this rock. Killing those Pilgrim bastards was justice. I’d like to do it again,” he muttered, dark pleasure lighting his face.
“When they got done, they had a council and decided to go their separate ways. Logan was taking a bunch of them with him, and I guess Jess was going to meet up with them later. He took that girl and went off to find you. There was another group who wanted to go hunt down more of the Pilgrims and rescue their slaves. They were the ones who were coming back for me with a doctor… I was going to go with them, to remove implants,” he said. “I guess that’s not going to happen now.”
“I guess not,” Calla whispered. “I don’t know what to tell you. Even if I had a way to get you out of here, I can’t do anything about the implant.”
The two sat in silence for a while. Sarai watched over them, still holding the gun. Finally, the woman spoke, startling both of them.
“You aren’t very good at keeping your voices down,” she said. “I heard what you said. I had no idea you were a slave, Devora. Or should I call you Calla?”
“Devora,” Calla said tightly. She squeezed her eyes closed, willing her situation to change. She didn’t think Sarai would intentionally harm her, but the woman was weak. Eventually Calvin would find out, and then she’d be caught.