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“Um, Akiyra? Is there a problem between you and Tiri?” I ask. When we were here earlier, Tiri had seemed a little hostile to us. But now the way he is acting reminds me of a child throwing a temper tantrum. Not supplying what we need, questioning Akiyra, and being a blanket ass.
“Nothing that a factory reset won’t solve.” She throws a finger at the ceiling.
“Akiyra!” Tiri admonishes. “Is that any way to show your love for me?”
“Keep pulling these stunts and it won’t be love I am showing,” Akiyra grumbles as she pries herself out of her seat. “We should be fine to walk around now. How about we finish that tour?”
We follow her down a small hallway at the back of the bridge and through a door. I stop dead, looking around us. The ceiling, back and side walls of the room are all glass. We have an unobstructed view of space. To match, the floor is sunk down two steps with a two-foot space to walk around the pit. The sunken area is full of pillows and blankets.
“Cool!” Jax shouts as he launches himself into the pit, burying himself in the process. A muffled, “I’m good here. You guys can go on without me.”
Roberd walks over to the window, staring out at the stars. “There are so many. You don’t even get to see half of them from the planet.” His voice is filled with awe, reminding me again of how much he has missed in his life.
Carefully I follow him, setting a hand on his shoulder. “There are more stars than you can imagine. You are only looking at one small piece of space. Now you have the opportunity to see as much of it as you can.”
He turns to look at me, then over my shoulder at Akiyra. “Are you sure, Fynn? Has anything really changed?”
I shake my head vehemently, “No, she is different. Just give her a chance, meanwhile start thinking about what you want to do, where you want to go?”
He looks back at the stars, “I don’t even know where to begin thinking about it, or if I could even leave. You guys are all that I have known, well since I was fifteen. I know nothing of the universe besides what I could get my hands on to read, and that wasn’t all that much.”
I didn’t hear Akiyra approaching us until she spoke, “Roberd, why don’t you know much about the universe? Didn’t they give you any form of education? I know you can read, so you should have been able to get numerous books and publications.”
I watch Roberd’s shoulders slump, shaking my head. “Xistrosie allows owners to limit what their servants can access. Some are not even allowed to read at all. Then on top of that Xistrosie limits the information that is given to the people, even the elite are restricted in the information they have available to them. Everything on Xistrosie is scrubbed. Many don’t know of any settlements except those on Xistrosie and her moons.”
The look of shock on Akiyra’s face is almost enough to make me laugh, if not for the truth of the matter. Of the five of us, Sawyr is the most educated. He came here on a pleasure trip with his parents as a seventeen-year-old. He has never spoken about what happened or how he came to be on the auction blocks, maybe he doesn’t even know, but we know he shouldn’t have been there.
Sawyr’s quiet voice fills the room, “I tried to teach them what I remembered learning, to get the books and vids we needed when Umbri was in a good mood. But their education is sorely lacking.”
If Akiyra had shown pity or similar emotion, she would have fallen off the pedestal she had set herself on, well maybe we put her on it, but how can you not when she literally saves you from a life of misery. But instead, her hands are clenched into tight fists, her body rigid in anger.
“If returning to Xistrosie wouldn’t land us on the auction blocks, I would single-handedly destroy the planet.” Her breathing is harsh, her words clipped.
“There isn’t much good on the planet, but there are people worth saving there,” Tobis joins us. “I hate how they live, what they do to allow that lifestyle. But the slaves, many of them are serving sentences for things that on other planets would be a fine and a slap on the hand.”
Akiyra takes a deep breath, turning to look at Tobis. “You’re right. I just get so angry when it comes to using people, making their lives miserable just so that you can become rich.” She looks around at all of us, even Jax who has popped his head up out of the pit to listen in. “So want to see your rooms? They aren’t much but when we reach Zanthia we can go shopping for whatever you need. From there we will take a run to Nadulea. I think both planets will show you a lot of what life has to offer.”