It was one of my dumbest decisions to attend this auction. Yes, there were definitely a lot of slaves for sale, but only a small fraction of them were useful or children.
I did not buy that Zigerian girl. They were asking so much for her that I could have bought a dozen or more children for the same amount. This without knowing who she was, if she had parents, etc. Absolutely wasted time with this group of slave traders.
I was just planning a route through Tatooine to cover the largest settlements on Tatooine. The problem was that our route could only go through cities with spaceports. Mos Espa was one of the largest settlements on the list. Sometimes, because of the size of this city, it seems to me that there is more population here on Tatooine than even on Lothal. Although, if you believe the expert estimates, Tatooine had at most a tenth of the population of Lothal.
Also, the whole plan with the orphans meant spending a lot of time on Tatooine. I'm not saying I'm in a hurry, but that might make Kash not work for me, so this whole operation has to happen very quickly.
***
Mos Espa can be considered the second capital of Tatooine. It was a very underdeveloped capital where slaves were bought and various jobs were performed by slaves without any secrecy. In general, all I did now was look in every shop and ask the locals if anyone had orphaned slaves or knew of other owners who might have them.
I felt a strong psionic presence, even while running my psionic shield generator. It might be interesting to meet a strong local psionic. So I went to Watto's junkyard with the owner, who was a Toydarian. Damn, I can't stand those monsters. I'm not even talking about the quality of the mechanisms in this place. It was literally called a "junkyard". Watto, which was the name of this salesman, was almost asleep at the counter when I walked in.
"Oh, customer! What are you buying?" He took off on his wings until he reached the height of my gaze.
He probably also spoke some other language. No, thank you, I have no other language after "galactic standard".
"I'm looking for droid brains. Non-working versions will do, but I'd prefer to get working versions."
"I have a working security robot brain. Such parts are hard to find and in high demand. It won't be cheap, not cheap. How will you pay for it?"
"Republic credits."
"Republic credits? Republic credits are no good out here. I need something more real."
"Ha, well, let me think. I have a quarter ton of water on my ship. Will you make the exchange?"
"No, it's an unequal exchange, even for a brain that doesn't work. If you sell half a ton of water..."
"Bah! No trade. You want too much for a droid's head. Okay, one more question. Do you have any slave children? Preferably orphans without parents."
"I have one boy, but he's too valuable. He has a mother as well. No, I won't sell him for a ton of water."
Analyzing the psionic field, I found this human boy. Even though I was under my mobile psionic suppression generator, I felt his strong presence in the psionic field. It was incredible. I wish I could open the way to the world of psionics for him, to make him my discipline. The problem is that in a purely hypothetical sense, I could teach any psychic how to use their powers, but from a practical point of view, I couldn't resist the psionic entity on my own for long. It was too big and too strong for me alone.
"Well, in that case, goodbye. May your business prosper."
***
I take back all my words when I said that Lothal was an undeveloped planet of the Outer Rim.
"Are you seriously unwilling to accept Republic credit?"
"What do I need this junk for? I'll trade it for 200 kilograms of water."
"That's too much, I'll take 180 kilos."
"190 and we have a deal."
"Fine, you can take the water tank. Mark, let's go."
He probably also spoke some other language. No, thank you, I have no other language after "galactic standard".
"I'm looking for droid brains. Non-working versions will do, but I'd prefer to get working versions."
"I have a working security robot brain. Such parts are hard to find and in high demand. It won't be cheap, not cheap. How will you pay for it?"
"Republic credits."
"Republic credits? Republic credits are no good out here. I need something more real."
"Ha, well, let me think. I have a quarter ton of water on my ship. Will you make the exchange?"
"No, it's an unequal exchange, even for a brain that doesn't work. If you sell half a ton of water..."
"Bah! No trade. You want too much for a droid's head. Okay, one more question. Do you have any slave children? Preferably orphans without parents."
"I have one boy, but he's too valuable. No, I won't sell him for a ton of water."
Analyzing the psionic field, I found this human boy. Even though I was under my mobile psionic suppression generator, I felt his strong presence in the psionic field. It was incredible. I wish I could open the way to the world of psionics for him, to make him my discipline. The problem is that in a purely hypothetical sense, I could teach any psychic how to use their powers, but from a practical point of view, I couldn't resist the psionic entity on my own for long. It was too big and too strong for me alone.
"Well, in that case, goodbye. May your business prosper."
***
I take back all my words when I said that Lothal was an undeveloped planet of the Outer Rim.
"Are you seriously unwilling to accept Republic credit?"
"What do I need this junk for? I'll trade it for 200 kilograms of water."
"That's too much, I'll take 180 kilos."
"190 and we have a deal."
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"Fine, you can take the water tank. Mark, let's go."
The ship had already begun to move away from Tatooine, but thanks to the acceleration dampers and gravity generators, it was almost impossible to feel it. I walked further into the ship and the confused Mark followed me. He was less and less afraid and more and more interested in the ship. This is what I love about people with less technological knowledge. They can be incredibly surprised by such simple things. We walked a little further and reached the rest room. The door that separated the rooms opened and Mark and I went inside. Inside there were about fifteen kids sitting on the warm floor listening to a story that Kash was telling. Kash's brother Jan, who was older than the other kids in the room and maybe 6 years younger than Kash, nodded at me. He was the only one who responded to my entering the room.
"... And the Mandalorian said, "You can't fool me, you sneaky Hutt, I've already sworn to help my friends! And then the Hutt lost confidence in his victory and became afraid of his friends' combined strength. He was so frightened that he fainted. The friends thought and thought and locked the evil Hutt in a large cave. Since then, the friends have lived happily ever after, traveling the galaxy and leaving the evil Hutt to live in a dark cave.
I honestly will never get tired of the uniqueness of some types of fairy tales. I'm very curious about the Mandalorians and what kind of Beskar material they have, but that's for another time.
"So, Mark, meet your new group."
I honestly will never get tired of the uniqueness of some types of fairy tales. I'm very curious about the Mandalorians and what kind of Beskar material they use, but that's for another time.
"Mark, these children are your new family, with whom you will spend the next few years until you come of age. Go ahead and say hello."
I left the slightly frightened boy with the group of curious children and walked over to Kash. She was a little tired, but very happy to spend time with the children. Still, not seeing her family for 6 years was a big blow to her. Priya, Kash's younger sister, didn't remember her sister very well and this reunion was important for the family.
"So? How do you like taking care of children? Do you want to do it for a living?"
Kash was not pleased with my humor.
"Are you serious? You literally bought these kids, gave me the job of entertaining them on the ship, and you're laughing at me? Do you have any sense of tact?"
"Maybe. I've never needed it before. You see, I'm not used to living with non-members of my species."
"So that's it? You're going to buy everyone out of slavery and give them a basic education to pay you back? How do you expect to make a profit on that investment?"
"Patience. I can easily wait a decade to see results from my investment. Besides, it was each of them's choice to take out my student loan individually. They will grow up, learn more about the world, improve their lives, and only then will they pay off my debt. It is important to me that they pay it off, but it is not urgent."
"What about me?" Jan interrupted our conversation, "What do you expect from us?"
"You are free. Kash has been saving this money for years for a reason, although I'm really surprised that you've collected so much and so little at the same time."
"It's not all my money. I invested some of it in stocks of various companies and just couldn't use it in time. I'll be able to pay you back when we get to a more or less developed planet." Kash replied.
"You don't have to take money out of your stocks. You may still have time to pay me back, and if you make a profit on the shares, it will bring you and me more in the long run. Though I wonder how you would have access to it if that pirate left you behind."
"I don't know. It was a rash thing to do. I.."
"All right. What happened is what happened. Kids, who wants to go stargazing?"
***
Kash's POV.
I was just resting in my room with my family. I was on the floor with Jan and I put my sisters to sleep on the bed.
I was not ready to raise kids. I was ready to take care of my brothers and sisters, not a whole group of little children who had been slaves in the past. Of course, I would never protest or take away their opportunity for a quiet life, but even so, it was easy to see how much stress these children were under. Most of them were between the ages of 8 and 12, which made it a little easier to take care of them.
The most amazing thing was watching the kids and how they reacted to Alex. Most of them had nothing to lose, but they still called the man who had ransomed them "Scary Uncle Alex". He was against the use of the Master saying: "If someone wants to call me Master, he must be old enough and swear loyalty to me."
I honestly couldn't understand why he did it, but I have nothing to complain about. He helped me free my family.
It was clear that he had children in the past, but also that he was not used to spending so much time with them. It is not clear whether this is due to a peculiarity of the species or just a peculiarity of his character.
However, he definitely liked to show the children something new. He would show them stars, holoscreens, the structure of a plasma pistol, a droid... It's not clear if the kids really understood what he was showing them, but it definitely interested a lot of them. The only problem was that we still had a long way to go through Hutt space.
I don't know exactly what he's up to, but he certainly deserves a minimum of trust. I don't know how hard it will be to work in the [Capitol], but it will definitely give me and my family enough security from raiders and pirates. I hope I won't regret my decision.