Soul Sibs

A long tradition of slavery has existed within the Rakki Imperium. Though the Federation of Aligned Worlds forbids taking any sentient race as slaves, it does not free those who already belong to the ruling clans of the Imperium. According to Imperial law It is the right of any Clan Head to dispose of slaves by selling them to slave traders or slave labor overseers. The political might of the FAW is less effective than the military might of Space Corps in restraining the slave trade. Fearing loss of assets, slave traders have only one distant sector of space in which they are able to trade freely. The area is deep within the borders of the Tagashi star system and Space Corps is forbidden from entering it.
Ana von Lou is a healer, more than that she is the head of a healing clan. Clan Koof’na exists only because she was accepted as Shte’ik through the tans-dal, a soul test. The tans-dal bonded her soul to the souls of seven Te’ik. After a year of being bonded, their lives are no less important to her than her own. So when a merchant speaks of Te’ik being sold and traded in the slave pens of the Tiree System, there is no way she can sit idly by. After a healing contract she splits her clan and sends all but two of her soul sibs to Terra, to be cared for by her last living relative.
Despite the deadly risk, the warriors of her clan win the freedom of many who are special, pure of their kind, including kry-an and Te’ik. After escaping the slaver planet Ana is found by a part of her clan after an accident nearly destroys the Space Force troop carrier that she had been held prisoner on. Ana is forced to face the repercussions of her actions while separated from the clan. One soul sib is bound closer to her and the bond she has with another is severed. In an effort to honor one of her fallen warriors, she loses another. Is it possible for a Terran to retain their humanity when they are treated like a Karrish or will Ana fall victim to the absolute power she wields as Shte’ik?