(Jom Gabbar Tavern, Keen-arra City, kisArra)
There was a LOT of talk in the tavern today. Why? Because a certain ship docked at the spaceport earlier in the day. That in and of itself wouldn’t be a big deal, but this ship was special, at least to the people in the tavern. Last time that ship was in port, there had been a minor shakeup as one of the groups of bandits were taken down, and Brojixl had gotten himself and his buddy killed when he started picking on the wrong crowd when he was drunk. Two of his cousins lost their tails! So when the black on black freighter appeared at the spaceport, calling itself Daughter of Trigon, well, people were wondering what could be happening now. This was the most excitement they’d had in a while, after all.
Of course, adding to the excitement were the rumors about who it was that was that owned that black freighter. The Starlight Raven had been shown several times on the trids, when that Black Star guy who went and threw the whole gorram universe into chaos decided he was going somewhere without a fleet. Black Star’s freighters and Assassins were pretty well known by now, especially with anyone who was stuck dealing with pirates. They were pirate hunters, which made the pirates a little nervous.
Others, it made reckless.
One man in rough-looking but functional desert clothes was trying to convince his friend about his latest plan to get them all out of this sandy hellhole. “Look, I got it all figured out. They only had a few people last time, right? We get the drop on ‘em, and we can take ‘em down, easy!”
The second man snorted at that. “Oh sure, Paul, that worked out real well for ol’ Brojixl and his boys, right? There wasn’t enough of Dakid’s head left for them to even figure out who he was, since that chem spill three years back burned off his fingerprints. Everything from the neck up was just gone!”
“Bah, that wasn’t the people from the ship. That was the Felisan that said she made custom guns.”
“Didn’t matter much to Brojixl, once she shot a hole in him.”
“Well, Brojixl was an idiot, trying to step up on the girl when she already had the big gun on him. Anyways, the catgirl isn’t here anymore, right? She shipped out, and ain’t been seen or heard from here since then. So don’t worry about her and her big gun.”
“Fine, fine. Say we don’t have to worry about the Felisan with the huge gun. That still means that even if they came with the same crowd as last time, there’s six of them to the two of us. Don’t know about you, but them’s bad odds. Especially when you know how fast that guy moved when he cut the Sandscale brothers’ tails off. Didn’t even hear the energy blade humming before their tails were on the ground, with one strike.”
“That’s nothing. He just got the drop on the two of them, while they were all looking at the catgirl. You could have done that if you’d had his blade.”
“Maybe, but we don’t got anything like that, and it is still six of them to the two of us.”
“So we go and grab a few more guys. Nothing says we gotta do this just the two of us. And it is always the one guy with a whole group of women, right? So we sucker in as many as we can. The ones as can’t fit or don’t wanna go when we take the ship, they get to keep the girls. We get a ship like that, and we’ll be living easy once we’re someplace we can run it like a freighter ought to be, or just sell it.”
“Why sell it? Why go through all that if you’re just going to sell the ship to someone offworld?”
“Because that’s a Black Star ship, and they’re stuffed full of all kinds of goodies, which means someone will pay a ton for one if we can get it to them without too many eyes on us. We’ll be set up for life on some little planet where we can act like gods!”
“Set for life, right. Until he comes back and kills us all. He’s one of those ‘Nomad’ types! They don’t stay dead! You’d just have him angry and coming after us. You think he won’t want to find whoever shot him and took his ship?”
Paul frowned, and said, “Fine, we don’t shoot him. We got that collar that was on the whore Billy killed last month, right? Cleaned the former owner’s signature and everything, so just waiting on one of us to slap it on someone and then they belong to us. So we put it no the guy, yeah? Suddenly, everything he has belongs to us. We get him, the girls, the ship, his company, everything!”
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
The other man considered that, and said, “Well, that’s the first somewhat smart thing you’ve said all night, Paul. Now, how are we supposed to get a collar on the bastard? He isn’t just going to let us walk up and put it on him. And then we’re still at the 6 to 2 thing.”
“Like I said, we get some guys to help. Maybe not as many as we were thinking when it was just to take the ship, but how many guys you know would be willing to risk their lives to have a cute slavegirl like the ones he brought in last time? And you really think someone like that is going to go and not find anything valuable on this rock? Even if it is just a load of spice, we can make it worth whatever we sell our stuff here for, at least.”
“Fine, that could work. I think the Dusthaven crew is due in tonight, so lets go see if we can’t convince Triswil and his boys to help us out.”
(Smuggler Trading Post, Keen-arra City, kisArra)
“Well, well, it has been a long time since I’ve seen you around these parts.”
I’d just pulled off the mask of my stilsuit to talk to people inside the trading post, and it looks like I was recognized almost immediately. Looking over to the speaker, I grinned when I saw a familiar face.
Doctor Wellington Ehyu
Human Male
Level 90
Titles: Doctor, Trader, Conditioned Physician
I offered my hand to shake, since the doctor had always done right by us, and said, “Doc, good to see you again. I’ve been pretty busy, what with all the craziness going on, and thought it would be a little too visible to show up here for a while until some of the stuff died down.”
“Of course, of course. I can only imagine the things people would say if you’d brought your fleet here. How you convinced the Confederacy to allow you to actually build all their warships in their home system I’ll never know.”
I laughed at that, “Oh doc, you know it is probably just the same as how you convinced the Empire to let one of their prized Conditioned Physicians out of their sight! I just did it, had a good explanation for anyone who asked, and didn’t bother with permissions. Oh, and I can be incredibly persuasive if need be.”
Ehyu laughed at that. “All right, there may be more truth to that then you’re letting on.” After all, someone who had undergone the Conditioning was someone that could be trusted to treat the Imperial Royal Family themselves. They were utterly loyal to those they served, and could not be broken, coerced, or bribed to harm their masters. For one of that rare group to be outside Imperial control was almost unheard of.
I grinned, and said, “So, as you probably heard a half hour before we actually made landfall, my ship’s back in system, and I was looking to see if there were any jobs that needed doing before I went on to my next port of call. After the recent bit of unrest, it is probably best if I’m not over by Dimiya anytime soon.”
“What did you do this time? Last thing I’d heard, you’d basically gotten your fleet mauled protecting that planet you found from those creepy X’thari. Damn bugs don’t have any appreciation for business, let me tell you!”
I shrugged, and put on a long-suffering expression. “What can I say? Some people hate it when others have success. Especially when those successes start getting in the way of their political ambitions. The Shining Path types were getting pissy with me because I made the Imperial Civil War a helluvalot shorter, so they never got to get involved and try to get their pound of flesh from the Empire. Then I went and found a whole new colony, and instead of getting them to join the Confederacy, I convinced them to become a free port. Oh, and the Terran Empress backed their claim, so they couldn’t get a foothold in that arm of the galaxy and play gatekeeper to make sure the other groups stayed out. Beating the X’thari with a few light ships and being outnumbered across the board was just the last straw, it seemed, so they started getting a little unfriendly towards me.”
Ehyu smirked, and leaned forward against his counter. “And when they started getting unfriendly, that’s when one of the biggest mercenary groups in Known Space gets their asses handed to them by a freighter, and a whole bunch of Shining Path types end up dead due to ‘internal politics’, huh?”
I nodded. “Yes, a terrible shame, that. When I left, there were some rumors going around that several of the people who had died were apparently falsifying their tax records to appear more successful than they were, as they were all flirting with bankruptcy when people went to divide their estates. Even the one with that ‘dead man switch’ life insurance policy wouldn’t have been able to pay out if the bounty hadn’t been put in escrow long ago.”
“HA! They ‘just happened’ to all go bankrupt, hmm? I seem to recall a lot of big businessmen, criminal types, and old money politicians in that crowd. They all have some kind of accident?”
“Well, I wouldn’t know about that. But in other news, my company received a lot of untraceable anonymous donations to help us rebuild and expand our fleet as thanks for helping to stop the ‘X’thari aggression’. Very nice, whoever those anonymous donors were.” I sighed, and said, “But at any rate, I figured that it would be best if I was away from Dimiya for a while, until people find something new to get excited about.”
Ehyu nodded sagely, a smile on his face. “And you figured that there was no better way of removing yourself from the public eye than by visiting the most remote, desolate place in the entire Confederacy.”
“Except for Jagloth.”
Ehyu frowned, but then nodded. “Yeah, except for Jagloth. Damn shame about that. Lot of good people dying for nothing. But like I said, you came all the way out here just to hide from the press?”
“And to see if there were any jobs worth doing while I arrange for a load of spice for my freighter. Going to see about opening new markets.”
“Oh? And what market would you be trying to open? Not that I’m against more money coming into our little world, but a bit of information would help.”
“Well, as it so happens I’m friends with a few people on Nuevo Edo…”
“Just ‘friends’ is it? Been hearing talk from the couple of Nomads who come through here, trying to build their rep with the smugglers like you did. You been very friendly with a lot of beauties, and not just the ones you brought with you.”
“Well, I can’t help it if I was an attractive man on a planet full of women, now can I?”
“Well, to tell the truth, I might have a couple jobs that’ll need to be handled, and I can get you a line on some spice cheaper than the normal rates. Private holdings, you understand. Not worth much here, but when you take it off world…”
“The price goes up, I understand. So, what is the catch on this ‘private stock’ of spice?”
“Well, it is an old man’s retirement fund. Only, I’m not nearly old enough yet to considering retiring, so I might be willing to cut a deal on the price of the spice in exchange for a couple favors.”
“I’m listening.”
“Simple really. I want to go somewhere that I’m not always getting sand in places best left unmentioned. A lovely planet with a large number of available women sounds like a perfect place to relocate to. But since I’d be giving up my retirement fund, I’d need to work. So perhaps you know a couple ears you could talk up old Ehyu to as I establish a medical practice there?”
“Doc, you are going to LOVE Nuevo Edo.”