*short story from Ytterbium Fires
"A slave?" asked Aris.
"Yes, a slave," answered Owis, bemused why the Earthman's facial features had suddenly shrivelled up.
"Why in Gaia's name did you do that?" asked the renegade cop from the human-infested Milky Way.
Owis thought it obvious, but explained, "This is the slave capital of the Dark Galaxy."
"And?"
"The Kocubani's last words," said Owis, drinking. "It mentioned slavery, right?"
Aris replied, "The deceased Kocubani pointed us to Brinner's Moon. Doesn't exactly specify anything about owning a slave." The human hadn't touched his beverage. He seemed genuinely outraged.
Owis uttered, "Slave I have been and shall remain, To a cruel tyrant, I'm tied with invisible chains, Yet always I put on the same brave face, Forever a slave, Forever I gaze."
The Earthman sat at a bench, wedged in a booth that overlooked the rail terminex of Brinner's largest city, Llegamos. In seven megahours, the sun will rise and the entire city's population will