Freedom's Landing by Anne McCaffrey

With a tale of human and other slaves abandoned by harsh masters on an ostensibly deserted planet, McCaffrey begins another highly readable series about successful survival in difficult circumstances. Kristin Bjornsen, an escaped human slave on the planet Barevi, saves one of the Catteni masters, Zainal, from being killed in a blood feud. When she tries to return him to the capital city, she is caught in a roundup of troublemakers designated for colonization duty.