Shackles for Shackles

All across the galactic frontier there are an uncountable number of people living their lives in the shackles of slavery. It isn't an unknown for whole communities to be ravaged by slaving groups and flesh merchants, whole generations stolen and pressed into whatever service their captors see fit. Even the lucky few that are eventually able to regain their freedom, the scars of their ordeal will haunt them till their dying day. But for the majority they will spend their lives switching shackles for shackles.

The metal links clinked quietly in Tal's hands. Each metal link was almost as long and thick as one of his fingers and, although time had weathered away much of the metal surface, Tal could still make out the faint hexagonal pattern that criss-crossed it like scars. It was the same metal that the Covenant races used to build their starships. The only metal that Tal's captors had strong enough to restrain him.

His eyes bore down onto the shackles with a burning intensity. Remembering the pain they had caused, what it had felt like to be so powerless. To be unable to free himself no matter how much he had fought against them. The pain of his imprisonment still flared in him now, almost two years since he had finally achieved his freedom.

Tal was staring so intently he didn't hear Zoey walking over to him.

"Hey Tal, I was kinda hoping you could gimme a hand in the engine room. The damn coolant line is leaking again and I could use your cyber-muscles."

She stopped abruptly as she rounded the container Tal was sitting against, he didn't break his gaze on the shackles as she looked down at him.

"What are those?" she asked, peering past his shoulder to look at the shackles.

"The restraints used to bind me in Hellion V" replied Tal, his voice as dull as the metal he stared at.

"I didn't know you kept them" Zoey tried to see his face but it was hidden by his shoulder.

"I used them to escape, the last shackles I ever had to endure. I kept them as a reminder"

Zoey tilted her head "Reminder of what?"

"That I failed"

Without any reverence Tal dropped the shackles by his side but didn't break his gaze from them.

"When I fought my way off of the Bloodied Profit's I swore that I would never again be someone's property. That I would choose my own fate, not have it decided for me. No one would control me. Not another keep, not the Covenant, not some slaver scum."

Tal sighed, finally breaking his gaze from the shackles to look at Zoey. Fire still burned in his eyes but it was a cold heat, not the flames of fury but the flickering embers of regret.

"But I couldn't last alone and before I knew the path I had set myself on I had traded one pair of shackles for another. First the Azakai and then final a dark cell in Hellion V."

"But you are free now?" said Zoey, confused "I don't see how you failed."

"I failed because I spat on the memories of all who fought for me on the Profit's. Thinking they were dying so that others would be free. Even though in the end, I just chose to trade shackles for shackles."