Iesha woke with a start. The alarm flare had been fired off. It made a shrieking sound as it climbed into the night sky and then a low explosion as the world around them turned bright red with glowing flare dust. Her heart froze. She could see the red glow through the entrance flap in the large tent she was in as it was buffeted by the winds. The flare dust would last for only a few minutes in this wind. Just like it had last time.

She was fully awake and her heart was hammering. She heard the cries of men yelling orders and shouting back and forth as they armed themselves. Saif swords being belted and drawn. She jumped from her bedroll and dashed across the rug covered floor of the tent. The three other young girls that had not been part of this tribe as long as Iesha were just staring wide eyed from their blankets.

Just as Iesha was poking her head out of the tent flap she heard the roar of motors. She had to fight back terror. She sprinted back to her bed roll and yelled, “Hide!”

One of the other girls asked what it was in a voice almost choked off entirely with fear, only asking because she could not face what it obviously was.

“Pirates!” Iesha yelled back over the uproar now in full swing outside the tent as she ransacked her own belongings for the knife she kept hidden. It was illegal for a woman of any age to own a weapon of any kind. They were allowed cooking knives, but this was not a cooking knife. It was wicked and curved. She had stolen it four years ago.

She turned, the other girls were just sitting there staring at her with wide eyes and open mouths. “HIDE!” She hissed as she dove for cover under several animal skins she had been working on that day.

Only seconds after she had made it under cover holding the knife in its sheath, two people entered the tent covered head to tow in clothing and weapons and armor, grabbed the girls that were scrabbling for some sort of hiding place, shoved cloth over their mouths and dragged them from the tent. Iesha was sobbing, fighting with herself to stay quiet and not simply run madly from the tent in terror as memories and images were flashing through her mind. Please, please, please, mercy, she prayed over and over in her mind. But there was no mercy for her tonight and two more figures entered the tent. She held her breath, heart bounding in her chest, tears streaming down her face, sweating under the hot animal skins as she gripped the handle of the knife.

She had no time to react, as soon as they saw the pile of skins they jumped! It was as if they knew she was there! They pinned the leather around her and then lifted her over to a rug and rolled her up in it. She screamed when they had grabbed her and had tried to make a fight but they had pinned her too fast for her to do anything.

Iesha screamed wildly and sobbed as she was carried through the village. She hoped faintly that someone might hear her and save her. But when she felt herself placed in the back of a desert sled and heard the motor roar as the treads ripped through the sand, she also felt the empty blackness of any last hope leaving her.

She lay there still with tears streaming down her face, not knowing what came next. Images of her older sister Adia being taken four years ago by pirates lay before her in the darkness. She could see nothing else.

Her sister Adia had been such a brave woman. She had fire in her eyes. She was alive and talkative. She was clever and funny. All of this was well hidden from the men of course. Women had to act according to custom. Iesha wanted to be everything that Adia was when she got older. Adia was 14 when Iesha was 9. They shared everything. Iesha told Adia all of her secrets and all of her thoughts and ideas.

“I want to learn to fly,” she confided once. “Like falcons on the wind!”

Adia could have said to stop being silly. Women aren’t allowed to be pilots and they aren’t allowed to go to school. But she didn’t. She smiled and said, “Hold on to that desire. Keep it hidden from men. And one day when you see the chance, you might learn to fly. But you must never give that desire to anyone but me, because others would try to take it from you. Dreams and desires our the most precious and fragile things.”

Then one day Adia was married. Her husband was a wealthy tribesman through trade camels and stock as well as managing a tech repair business, but he was not kind to her. When Adia came to Iesha’s tent, several days after her arranged marriage, Iesha had started to cry for her sister. The fire in Adia’s eyes was gone. Adia had managed to get her to stop crying and had put on a fake smile. Iesha had hated Adia’s husband.

Shortly thereafter the pirate attack happened. It was said that pirates always strike just before a sandstorm. It was said that they killed men, took valuable trade items and goods, and captured all of the young women and girls. It was said that they were vicious and swift and had no mercy on any man. Iesha had learned those things were true.

That night there was a sand storm expected. The men had read the forecast on their devices linked to the sky. The flare had gone up and only a few moments later Adia was in Iesha’s tent hiding her under a random pile of skins and rugs and other items. Adia had told her to be quiet no matter what happened and set about disarranging everything in the tent. It made it look as though it had been ransacked. But as she was about to hide herself, they came. She fought hard and even managed to club one of them with a stray object, but they pinned her to the ground and put something over her mouth that made her sleep and carried her away.

Iesha felt despair. She lay there unable to move much at all. Only just able to breath. She couldn’t cry any more. She had no sense of time, but at some point they stopped and the motor cut. She was lifted out of the sled. What was going to become of her? Did she even want to know? Was she going to be worth anything to these dreadful men? What had happened to Adia? Did she fight them? Oh, she fought them. Adia would have fought them until she died. Iesha felt the knife pressed against her. The knife! She felt something rise in her. What would Adia do? She would fight like a sand devil! Her eyes would have had fire again and she would fight like no woman ever had!

Iesha breathed and tried to muster her nerves. Tried to gain some sort of composer. Do what Adia would have done. What she must have done. Iesha held that in her mind. She said it over and over as she was carried somewhere.

Doors opened and closed she had no idea where she was put down on the floor. She could hear other voices. They unrolled the carpet by giving it a firm shove. Iesha came out of it and rolled into several other girls on the floor. She managed to keep the knife out of view. There were several other young girls and women in the room on the side Iesha was in. There were several pirates on the other side with weapons. Iesha tried to take it all in, it was so confusing. She kept the knife hidden behind her.

Someone down the hall outside the room shouted, “Captain on deck!” And the pirates immediately stepped aside and removed their headgear. They were all women! Iesha’s mouth dropped open in stunned surprise.

A stunningly beautiful woman dressed in desert war clothing with gold strips on the shoulders stepped through the bulkhead door. Iesha went numb. The captain walked over to Iesha and knelt down on both knees in front of her, her fiery eyes never leaving Iesha’s. Iesha’s eyes filled with tears and she could only get out one word as she fell into the captain's outstretched arms, “Adia,” she whispered, utterly stunned.

“My Iesha... you will learn to fly,” Adia said quietly as she kissed her younger sister’s head