If you ask an average Republic citizen what Tatooine is, the best you can get is that it is Hutt territory. But ask the same question of any smuggler or slave trader and you will get a completely different answer. This is the place where all slave owners try to conduct their slave exchanges. And why is that? It's Hutt territory in the middle of the Republic. Easier shipping, and it's right next to a major trade route, which only makes the exchange of "goods" easier.

That was another reason why I didn't like this galaxy. Slavery? No, slavery was inherent to many species as a way to develop society unevenly. What I really didn't like was the absolute inability of the Republic to enforce laws on their planets. It would be understandable if they were captured planets. But no, the planets were VOLUNTARILY part of the Republic.

Only our 3 ships went into the system. I left the privateers at the southern shipyard (which is actually just a small orbital resource depot with some repair droids) to offload resources. It seems that 5 out of 8 groups of my privateers have already gathered here in the galactic south. That is up to 20 warships. I need to find interesting missions to deliver to the north to bring this number back to the standard 3 groups in the south.

In general, no one has ever had a meeting on the planet itself, unless you have a REALLY big transaction or one of the parties has Hutt cover. I don't know which part of my delivery is referring to, but the Pirate group [Two Suns] objectively refers to the two suns in this system. In fact, it's not the first pirate group with that name in this system, but I'm not sure if it's the same group or if they're using the name of an already known brand.

As we entered the atmosphere, Kash came up behind me. She was fully prepared to meet her "master", complete the delivery, and release her family. In general, I understood her. The opportunity to free her family was incredibly important to her.

We were given an unusual landing site for the ship. I was expecting a spaceport in the middle of the city to unload the goods, but the closest thing to a military camp was designated as the final delivery location. Well, as close as a military town could be on Tatooine. The city had a small fortification in the center and appeared to be accessible to groups affiliated with the Hutts. The city was protected from the desert winds by its location near the mountains.

Our ships were assigned a large area on a hard surface in the non-arid part of the settlement. I was lucky that we were given enough space, otherwise one or two of the ships would have just hung around in space waiting for a landing opportunity.

Despite my fears, the landing was successful. We even unloaded a few crates of battle droids. For now, I'm using B1s mostly because I don't have enough crystals to build a droid computer. Another reason to start mining asteroids.

In general, I was led to the leader [Two Suns] and "asked" to surrender my weapons. This was no less than I had expected from pirates, so I had already tried to hide scanning-resistant weapons. After handing over all our blasters, we went to the pirate captain's lounge. In general, I could understand his taste. A large room, a variety of drinks and several slaves to serve him. I don't know if he just wanted to show off or if this was how he spent his time, but if your entertainment is so simple and monotonous, I don't wish him a life like that.

Seeing us, a smile flashed across the pirate's face.

"What people! Oh, Kash, I was wondering when you would return to me. Please massage my feet, they are incredibly tired."

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Kash knelt down and began massaging the pirate leader's foot. This gave him much more pleasure than it might seem.

"And who are you? The merchant who took this order?"

"My name is Alex, yes, I'm the captain who delivered the cargo. There were more than 200 boxes, will there be a surcharge?

The pirate looked at me questioningly. "No?"

"Well, good. While delivering the cargo, our convoy was attacked by pirates. We hired mercenaries to protect our ships. Will the cost of the mercenaries be covered?"

"No." The pirate said more confidently.

"That's all there is to the cargo."

"You must be the first merchant to be so confident about your safety on this base. All right, all right, I'm willing to pay you... 10,000 credits for the delivery."

"The deal was for 13,000." I objected.

"The contract was for 12,000."

"So you agree that I'm underpaying?"

"No, you were too slow in delivering the goods. I asked for quick delivery." He was unwilling to pay.

"Do you not want to maintain a business relationship with [Outer Wind]? I know the Outer Rim is wide, but I doubt that many will cooperate with you when others find out about the risk of meeting your competitors."

"Competitors?"

"That's what Kash called them to explain why they attacked us." I replied and looked at Kash.

He also looked at Kash.

"And how are you going to get this information to the others if I don't let you out of here?"

"The ships are not fully unloaded, they will leave as soon as the negotiator is captured. You have more to lose than to gain by threatening and capturing me."

Reys sat and looked at me, studying my face. Finding something in my expression, he replied.

"Okay, okay. I'm willing to pay 11 thousand."

"Just to hire the mercenaries costs 2 thousand."

"You decided to hire mercenaries. It wasn't listed as a mandatory item in the contract."

"Nevertheless, you will definitely want to pay the FULL amount." I decided to speed up the negotiations with some psionics.

He stared at me for quite a while, confusing even the guards in the room. Everyone was very quiet and I was getting a headache.

"All right, then. I'll pay you the full amount."

Many people in the room were relieved that the atmosphere in the room had become more positive. Kash looked at me hopefully. Looks like I have to hold up my end of the bargain.

"That's great. Since the delivery will be fully paid for, we can talk about other options. For example, how about I buy Kash back from you?"

"Buy it back? And why would I sell it to you?"

"Because I have the money, right? Especially since you promised her the opportunity to buy you back with money. Our company could certainly use another pilot."

"I agreed to fire her only if she brought the money to ME. In that case, I would release her and her family."

"She gave me the money for safekeeping. I will pay the ransom for her with this money. Or will you not release her?"

"How much did she give you?" He touched her face, "And how much money did you keep, my dear Kash?"

"I had about ten thousand."

"So you trusted a random mercenary over me?" He sat more comfortably. "Okay, let's make the sale. Kash is worth five thousand credits, and her family members... Let's take 2,500 per family member."

"I'm willing to buy the last member of your family." I looked at the pirate again. "I WANT you to sell her."