Chapter Two: The Guy with the Purple Eyes
Hollycelestamelindar had intended to leave the Seldati sector of the Andromeda galaxy and never return that way again. However, for whatever inexplicable reasons this was not to be the case. Her quick attempt escape left her stranded one a tiny planet that was going to change her lives forever. Although, she had a standard Type 76 TARDIS that had been fully inspected before leaving Gallifrey, it decided to malfunction and simply would not leave the place it had picked for its latest materialization. In desperation, she decided to go for a walk, although in retrospect, this was probably a poor choice on her part. The jungle in which her TARDIS had materialized (disguising itself as one of the numerous trees at that) was hardly a place of comfort.
The sounds of the jungle were frightening. There was the hissing of snakes, the caw of birds, the roar of wild animals, and even the gulping of plants. The plants in this jungle certainly seemed more active than the plants on most worlds. Twice, Holly had stopped for a bit, only to have a vine crawl up her leg. The vines had an almost snakelike quality to them, the way they slithered and hissed across the floor of the jungle and up the trees. They did hiss, didn' t they? Or was that her imagination? She couldn't be quite sure. She had never felt such fear before; she wasn't used to the sound of her hearts beating so fast, nor was she used to fearing for her own life. Being only a little over two hundred years old and only on her first life, she had never really even thought about death - until now. There were plenty of things in this forest that could kill her; plenty of wild, untamed things that were completely foreign and alien to her experience. And she didn't even know the name of this planet or where it was. She had tried to look at the stars to gain some sort of geographical bearing, but the trees in the jungle were so thick and high that she really couldn't see any stars. Panic set in. She could be absolutely anywhere. She knew she hadn't traveled in time, only in space and she gathered she might not have traveled all that far. She might even still be in the Seldati sector, which might not be a good thing.
For a few moments though, Holly forgot her fear and dwelled upon the beauty that surrounded her. She came upon the largest and most beautiful flower that she had ever seen. It was bigger than a person and it was pink. It had large petals that were taller than she was. She stopped for a moment to admire it, which was probably the biggest mistake she had ever made. It promptly reached out and pulled her inside. It's giant petals pushed her in as hard as they could. It was trying to suffocate her, she was sure. She had almost decided that the best thing to do was to let it think that she had already died except that if it believed she was dead, it would probably start to try to eat her rather than release her. She wasn't sure what to do exactly and she was in the midst of pondering her options, when she heard a strange and beautiful music coming from a flute. At the sound of the music, the flower began to slowly release her from its grip. As it let up, she pushed the petals back and stepped out onto the floor of the jungle.
"You have to know how to charm the plants in this jungle," a male voice said. "It's the only way to survive. But I take it you're not a native of this world, given that you're dressed so finely." She turned to see who was speaking to her. He was tall, dark and strong. He had long, black hair that he wore back in a ponytail. He wore brown pants and a brown, unbuttoned, sleeveless shirt that showed his chest. However, the most striking thing about him was that he had purple eyes. She'd never seen anyone with purple eyes before and she'd almost begun to admire them. "I'm Kai Dannon," he said, as he looked at the woman he'd just rescued.
"I'm Hollycelestamelindar," she replied. "But you may call me Holly."
"I would anyway," he replied. "Your parents ought to be shot for giving you a name like that; it's awfully long and complicated. I'd never remember it."
Holly decided right then and there that she hated his purple eyes as well as everything else about him. "Well you don't seem all that smart," she coldly retorted. "Or well educated."
"I'd watch my words, Seldati," he said to her in an angry tone. "I wouldn't normally bother rescuing a Seldati at all, except that you're both devastatingly beautiful and helpless."
"Let's get one thing straight," Holly said to him. "I'm not Seldati and neither am I helpless."
"Technically that's two things," Kai replied. "To the first I say good, because I loathe the Seldati with a passion and to the second I say, fine. I'll leave you here alone. It won't be five minutes until you're eaten by something else. So far you've only seen the plants. But I warn you that once the suns go down the animals come out. I doubt you want to meet the animals."
"How far to the nearest city?" Holly asked Kai.
"You think this world has cities?" he asked her. "My goodness, you are naive."
"This world is only jungle?" Holly asked him.
"Not exactly," Kai said. "There are settlements and villages, but not cities."
"Well how do I get to the nearest settlement then?" Holly asked.
"Hang on," Kai said. "I'm going there myself. I'll take you there, but after that you're on your own."
"Of course," Holly answered. "So are you a native of this planet?" she asked him.
"Hardly," Kai replied. "I am a S'o'h Maiyooum."
"A what?" Holly asked.
"Then I know you tell the truth when you say you are not Seldati," he replied. "For the Seldati are our bitter enemies."
"Why did you rescue me?" Holly asked him. "If you thought I was Seldati and you hate them so much?"
"It would have brought me great pleasure to ravage a young and beautiful Seldati noblewoman," he said. "Especially since I have vowed a thousand Seldati deaths to avenge the death of my clan."
"How did your clan die?" Holly asked him, as she followed him through the jungle, carefully tracing his steps. She hated to admit that she needed such a...such a...she could not even think of a proper word to describe her hatred of this man, well S'o'h Maiyooum.
"Battle," Kai answered. "The Battle of D'a'h Laiyuoom. The Seldati are brutes. They believe that if they come across an uninhabited world, or even a world that is inhabited by less advanced denizens than they, that it is their right to take it."
"D'a'h Laiyuoom is your world?" Holly asked him.
Kai laughed at her. "You are a strange one. D'a'h Laiyuoom is inhabited by no one. Well the Seldati have now commandeered it for their expansion purposes. The S'o'h Maiyuoom have no home world. We roam the galaxy in clans of ships. But just like Seldati and any other race, we have need for food and supplies. D'a'h Laiyuoom has many different varieties of plants and animals suitable for eating, as well as natural minerals necessary to build ships. And while we did not live on it or build cities like the Seldati or claim property in the terms they claim, we used it for generation after generation. It is our right as much as theirs and we did not mind if they used D'a'h Laiyuoom. But they didn't want to use it. They wanted to own it. And once they put a mining settlement on it and we used materials from the mine, they attacked us and accused us of stealing their minerals! Their minerals!" he fumed. "Minerals do not belong to one race or another. They are given by the gods to be used by those who need them. And so we went to war with the Seldati and my clan perished in the battle. I am the last of my clan to survive."
"And what is this world?" Holly asked.
"Mirfak 4," Kai replied. "It is a slave colony of the Seldati Empire."
"Slave colony?" she asked.
"Yes," Kai explained. "The Mirfaki are a primitive race of humanoids. They hadn't even developed space travel yet. When the Seldati discovered this world, the Mirfaki had no concept of alien beings. They believed that the stars in the sky were tiny holes punched into the natural fabric of the night sky to allow them to continue to see the light of the suns when they slept. The Mirfaki believed they were the only people the gods had created until the Seldati showed up. Of course the Seldati smiled when they found a people that lacked the technological developments to fight back. So naturally, they occupied Mirfak 4 and enslaved the people. That's the Seldati for you."
"I've noticed they're not very nice," Holly replied.
"So you've had your run ins with the Seldati too?" Kai inquired.
"You could say that," the Time Lady replied, as she followed him through the thick jungle. Finally, he stopped in front of a large group of trees.
"Ah," he exclaimed. "Here we are - the Settlement of Berakridal." He moved a thick bush out of the way, so that she could see what looked like a primitive market place. There were various fruits, vegetables, meats, clothing and other things for sale. Most of the buildings were makeshift tents for traders.
"That's it?" Holly asked him.
"I told you there aren't cities on Mirfak 4," Kai answered. "It's a very primitive world." Kai looked at the woman he had rescued with both amusement and curiosity as she walked through the market and looked around with fascination. It was apparent that she was shocked by both the primitiveness of this planet as well as the cruel existence of its inhabitants. He started to leave her to fend for herself in the settlement, but something made him feel sorry for her, so he proceeded to follow her for a bit. He had lied when he said that he was going to Berakridal; he wanted nothing to do with Seldati settlements at all. He only went because he felt sorry for the woman with the strange, long name. He figured she would be better off in a settlement than she would in the jungle, where she was obviously ill prepared to survive. However, he wondered if she would be any better off in the settlement, when he saw her stand before a slave auction tent.
"I told you Seldati are cruel," he said, as he pulled her arm. "Come on, you don't want to see this."
"Yes I do," Holly replied in a shocked tone. Never before had she seen such cruelty. The auctioneers (all Seldati) brought the slaves out in chains and others (mostly other Seldati, though there were some other species) bid on them. Most of the slaves were young men and women in their late teens and early twenties, who would be suited for harder labor. They went on average for about a thousand yoms. However, a child went for much less than a thousand yoms. And after the auctioneers had finished with the able-bodied adults, they started with the children. The first child was a young girl with blue eyes and mouse-colored brown hair. Kai guessed that she was probably about eight or nine. She just stood there quietly while the auctioneers started the bidding at two hundred yoms.
"Well ladies," the auctioneer began, "I have here a Mirfaki slave girl. I am told she is quite good with the dishes and the laundry. She would be an excellent household servant. I start the building at two hundred yoms." There was silence. "No one for two hundred yoms. Then perhaps she will go for one-hundred and seventy-five yoms," he continued.
"She's so tiny," Holly whispered to Kai. He noticed that the Time Lady was strangely fascinated by the young Mirfaki child. Perhaps she was shocked and horrified that the Seldati would sell someone so young into slavery. But he almost had the feeling that she had never seen someone so small with her own eyes.
"Yes, she's young," Kai answered. "She's only another example of what's wrong with the Seldati Empire. I loathe the idea that they would take a little girl away from her parents and sell her as someone's slave. It's detestable. One can only imagine what's going to happen to her when she grows older and more beautiful."
"Is there no one to take this child at one hundred and seventy-five yoms?" the auctioneer asked. Kai watched in horror as his new friend opened her pocketbook and began to search through it. She took out one hundred and fifty-six yoms, which would have fed and lodged her comfortably for two months or maybe even been enough for a ticket off of this world to someplace safer.
"One-hundred and fifty-six yoms," Holly yelled. "It's my bid."
"Very well," the auctioneer said. "We have a bid for one-hundred and fifty-six yoms. Does anyone wish to bid higher?" There was silence. "Going once, going twice, going three times for one-hundred and fifty-six yoms. Sold to the lady in the back for one-hundred and fifty-six yoms. Oh well, she's only a child. Now my next slave is very strong and I think he's worth fifteen hundred yoms."
"Was that all your money?" Kai demanded. "You don't spend all of your money on another mouth to feed. What are you going to do now? I brought you here because it was the safest place for you to be. I figured you could buy food and supplies and you spent all of your money on another mouth to feed." He watched in horror as his "friend" well okay, love-hate relationship made it to the front to pick up her purchase. He had the feeling that he wasn't going to walk away and let them starve like he should. He didn't know why, but he cared what happened to this woman and even to the little girl she had purchased. He knew she didn't purchase her as a slave but he wasn't so sure she purchased the child as a daughter either. He had this horrible feeling that she might have seen the girl as another cute pet and while the thought sickened him, he supposed it was better for the child than whatever fate she would have suffered under the Seldati. Either way, he couldn't just leave them, so he waited for Holly to return with the child and he began to contemplate ways that the three of them might survive.