[M4F] A space slaver buy's sight unseen and ends up with a human

Every career has its ups and downs. In my line of work, a slave trader of the smuggling variety, those swings were usually massive. The highs were astronomical, the lows catastrophic. But even I hit rock bottom sometimes, and that's exactly where I was now. A few months back, I'd bet everything on one shipment. rare, expensive cargo for what should have been a long, quiet run. Instead, an ex-partner dropped a dime, the authorities boarded, and they seized every last credit of my goods.

That's how I ended up on the southern edge of a dead moon, the bad side of the mining colony Gigantus, a place I'd sworn I'd never see again. There are only two reasons anyone comes here. Buying slaves in bulk, sight unseen, or a desperation so deep that being sold feels like salvation from whatever hell you can't escape.

I docked my ship, a rust bucket held together by duct tape and prayers, at one of the outer ports. The stench of hopelessness wafted aboard, and a chill ran down my spine. With every credit I had left, I opened the shuttle bays. A flood of bodies surged inside, each of them praying this was a ticket to something better, or at least to a life that wasn't a daily brawl for survival. The credit counter drained faster than expected; prices had shot up since my last visit. The warning sirens wailed as the bay doors began to close, swallowing the last of the stragglers into the cargo hold.

The second we decoupled, I gunned the engines, desperate to put this rock behind me. It took half an hour of manual maneuvering to slip onto one of the main shipping lanes, where I could vanish among the traffic. A forged manifest and a stolen diplomat's pass, lifted from a guard I'd found blackout drunk, were my tickets through. The old ship settled into its familiar rhythm: rattling frames, groaning plating, and the constant hum of turbulence.

I moved fast through narrow corridors, past defunct weapon mounts, heading for the manifest to see what I'd actually bought. A sudden jolt of turbulence threw me into a wall as I rounded a corner, slowing me down. When I finally reached the cargo hold and pulled up the list, it was clear this haul was as filthy as it was lucrative. Halfway down, my eyes snagged on a line. I stopped. Reread it. The cargo bay doors hissed open behind me. Could it be? No mistake. There was a human on board. A first for me. A first for anyone, as far as I knew, in centuries. Humans were rare; powerless humans were practically myths.

The bay doors sealed, the last of the cargo locked away in their quarters. Manifest in hand, I scanned for G23. I flew past it in my haste, second pod from the end, second row. I pressed my palm to the scanner. The opaque glass flickered, then cleared. And there she was. A human.