41:03:23
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They only had to wait a couple of minutes for the next zip port. Stepping aboard, Lyra and Neela took seats near the front of the conveyance that faced toward the river. Seelam eyed the dozen or so other commuters, who furtively regarded the high-Tavit riders. A few of the men gawked openly at Sera with her green eyes, athletic body, and fiery red hair.
Lyra glanced at Sera and laughed. "Pretty much all the women on Inusagi have dark hair and eyes. Your exotic looks are a hit, Rendix."
"Not with the wives," she grinned back, watching the reaction of the women who were muttering animatedly at their spouses.
"Hah! Wouldn't they be surprised to know how you feel about their husbands?"
The tall woman shrugged and looked out the unbroken canopy. The zip port neared the palace entrance, a long, broad parkway flanked by rows of sakoola trees full of swollen buds just days away from blossoming. A big cul-de-sac out front was as close as vehicles could approach, and a high iron fence ran all the way around the property.
Milling outside the gates, scores of pale shirumon with a sprinkling of the darker ankriti held holoprojectors that inscribed phrases and slogans in the air above their heads. Sera couldn't read the Inusago words but judging by the reactions of Seelam and the others aboard, it looked like they were divisive. Squads of men and women stood athwart the closed gate. Most wore Inusagian uniforms; blousy white pants, shirts and short jackets with black sashes. Their caps had long iridescent feathers and bright silver badges that reflected the sunlight. The butts of long ceremonial blasters rested on the ground beside each of them.
Mixed in were a few wearing olive-gray caps and uniforms that had a decidedly Imperial cut. They held modern blaster rifles though the muzzles were lowered. Sera saw that a few carried riot guns as well, and they all had stun truncheons.
She nodded toward them. "Are those military troops?"
"The ones with the black sashes are the Parahanei, the palace guard. We call them Feather Guards or Feather Caps, for obvious reasons."
"And the Imp play-actors?"
"Gray Caps." She said it with a derisive grunt. "A civilian security force. Officially they act as auxiliary peace officers, assisting the Lankash police."
"Unofficially?"
"They're thugs, or near enough to it," Lyra grumbled. "Even though the Empire removed its troops and returned civil administration to the Chieftess a couple of months after Endor, a lot of holdovers stayed on. Inusagi's part of the New Republic, so the Empire has no legal authority here, but that hasn't stopped them."
"The Chieftess allows that?"
"The Imperial administrators professionalized the clans' operations so they're not rushing to push those people out the door, even if they are light-skinned off-worlders. From what I've heard, the Gray Caps are tolerated as long as they don't harass the Tavit-dar or the Sajoku."
"So those people protesting outside the gates are..."
"Asantu-sar. They want the Tavit system to be dissolved. They're demanding that the Chieftess step down and they want the monarchy replaced with a democratic parliament elected through universal suffrage."
"Radicals and malcontents," Seelam muttered.
Lyra felt like snapping at him, but she decided to stick with the soft approach. "Some might be radicals, but I can't blame them if they're not content. Even if they're treated well, they aren't free. They're either constrained by their Tavit or they're bound to service for life.
"I'll tell you something I've learned about humans, Seelam. They don't like being held down." She and Sera exchanged a meaningful look. "Wars get fought when people don't control their own lives, wars that can rip a world apart."
"Or a galaxy," Sera put in.
The zip port stopped to exchange a few riders before gliding away from the palace and the protests. Seelam sat silently and indifferent, but Sera could see the circuits firing as he mulled Lyra's words.
Five minutes later the zip port halted at a broad grassy avenue, bustling with foot traffic. They exited, stepping into a dense midday crowd. Stores lined the street, brightly decorated for the Sakoola festival and festooned with signs advertising bargains. Enticing aromas wafted from cafes and scores of street vendors strode among the shoppers, hawking every kind of merchandise and service.
Lyra started toward a row of textile shops where she thought she could find some things to soften the Skipjack Chimera's bland, impersonal interior. She ducked into shop after shop in a marathon of spending and haggling, emerging four hours later looking pleased with her multitudinous acquisitions.
Sera ticked off a list on her fingers. "You bought rugs, hangings, pillows, and enough material to cover every meter of wall, Nimor. Doc won't know his own ship."
"Hey, if he gets to add docking rings and auxiliary ships, I can at least make it comfortable."
"You know, it's going to take Yuzu like a hundred trips to haul that stuff into the Chimera. With all the extra weight you'll only be able to carry half the cargo."
"Funny," Lyra snarked.
"So, guess you're getting ready to move in with Doc full time, huh?"
Lyra stopped in mid-stride. "I..." Dammit Rendix. Emotion swirled across her face. "I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet," she admitted quietly.
Sera wore a wry look. "You don't have to stay for our sake, Imp. In fact—"
Lyra ignored her quip and walked past the ex-Rebel into the street. A commotion on the opposite side caught her attention; angry voices and raised fists, and a trio of Rayeths, one falling backward.
"Hey!" yelled Lyra at a pair of men wearing the Imperial-inspired uniform. One of the Rayeths lay on the ground, an arm thrown up in fear, obscuring the creature's face. The other two had backed away, seeming to hesitate between helping their fellow and avoiding the guards' batons.
She broke into a sprint and crossed the parkway, dodging pedestrians and a slow-moving zip-port. Sera, Kallista, and Seelam came hard on her heels, bewildered.
"Hey!" Lyra repeated angrily and grabbed the man's arm as he raised it to deliver another blow to the shrinking Rayeth. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded in a fierce tone, verging on rage.
Her vehemence temporarily stunned the man, but a second later he shrugged off her grasp. "This is official police business. Don't interfere, citizen," he commanded. His partner took a step toward Lyra.
Lyra scoffed. "You're not police any more than I am. And since when does official business include beating unarmed people?" she snapped, heedless of the other security troop and the pedestrians who diverted their tracks apprehensively. Seelam tried his best to interpose himself between Lyra and the Gray Caps, but he looked supremely uncomfortable.
"You want to be arrested?" challenged the other one, whose hand crept toward his blaster.
"That," Sera interjected, smiling blandly, "would be a mistake."
The man hesitated, seeing the stony look and the set of the commando's body. His eyes got wide when he caught sight of the dark special forces tattoos inscribed on her thigh, and he took half a step back. "Let's go, Zel," he advised, slapping his partner's arm with the back of his hand. "She's not worth the paperwork."
"They're just a couple of women," protested the hothead.
"She's a noble, idiot," he said with a jerk of his square, stubbled jaw toward Lyra.
"She's not," snapped Zel, pointing at Sera.
"You don't want to mess with her, trust me." Sera's answering half grin looked as sinister as the hard glint in her eyes.
Zel vacillated for a second. Finally, he sneered and pointed his baton past Lyra toward the fallen Rayeth. "Stay in the water where you belong, stinking sharkbait!" He glared at the women. "Better not catch you out after curfew." He stalked away, arguing with his partner.
Lyra knelt by the Rayeth, a breeding female to judge by the teal blush of the gill fringes on each side of her neck. She shrank when Lyra offered her hand.
"No one here will harm you, Revered Mother." When the creature didn't respond, she switched to a high sing-song tone and repeated her assurance in the Rayeth tongue.
The Rayeth hesitated a moment, then took her hand. Lyra helped the creature to stand. She was amazed at how light the aquatic humanoid was. One of her swim membranes was torn near her shoulder and her left arm bled from a laceration.
"Seelam, do you have a bacta bandage?"
The footman had receded several steps. "We... should not be involved, my lady." He carefully but purposefully crossed his arms.
Lyra looked daggers at him. Only then did she notice that Neela hadn't followed her mad dash across the street. "Go get Neela," she snapped. Coward! She hurled the thought after him as he strode quickly away. Apparently he hadn't learned anything. "Rendix?"
Sera already had her personal medkit in hand. "Where's yours, Nimor? Doc put one together for each of us, you know."
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"No place to put it in this," Lyra brushed at her sayaka and scowled as she spritzed the wound with antiseptic, then applied the bacta patch to the Rayeth's arm. The tear in the mother's membrane was more problematic. «I can't do anything for that,» she trilled in Ka-rayet.
The female said something lengthy in a lyrical voice, too quietly for Lyra to make out. The other Rayeths drew closer. One of them took something like a small sponge from a pouch that was attached to his waist, though Lyra couldn't see how since he was, like nearly all Rayeths she'd ever seen, completely naked. He began dabbing at the tear. The female cringed briefly, then relaxed. He finished his ministrations after a few seconds and they all wrapped themselves in their thin flexible swim membranes, their arms hugging their shoulders.
«Why have you come to land, Revered Mother?»
Speaking Basic in a small, firm voice, the Rayeth said, "We do not often find Inusagasa who sing as we do."
Lyra's lip curled. "My mother believed in the benefits of an eclectic education. Will you answer my question?"
"My offspring was abducted by land-dwellers. He is one of many. We hear the same lament in the songs of the colonies. We came to seek aid from your Chieftess but we were re... rebuffed."
Their smooth faces made reading expressions hard, but Lyra could see that the Rayeths were distraught. "Your child was taken on land? When?"
"Not on land. In our home waters, eight days ago. But we have suffered predation for many tide-cycles."
Lyra looked over her shoulder at Sera. "Predation? From whom?"
"Land-dwellers."
Lyra screwed up her mouth. "That's not much to go on."
The Rayeth's dark eyes glittered, perhaps a sign of frustration. "They come in vessels that can dive to our colony." She murmured to the male accompanying her, who took a small vial from his streamlined waist pouch. "One of our guardians chased a land-dweller to the shore. He found this."
Lyra took the vial and held it up to the light. It was nearly empty but there were a few tiny bead-like granules clinging to the glass. She handed it to Sera. "This looks like—"
"—the drug that Hrakian had, back on Lantillies," Sera finished for her.
"That minx of a ranger called it 'breeze' or something."
Sera twitched a smile at the deprecating description. "Doc got a bad feeling from it. Something dark, he said."
"You mean, like the Force?"
"Maybe. He said he got the same feeling from that load of ceraglass."
Lyra frowned at that, but turned back to the Rayeths. «Revered Mother, could I keep this?»
The males voiced protestations in strident Ka-rayet. The female hesitated. "It is the only link to our missing, our only evidence. If I give it to you, we have nothing." Her eyes reflected a distrusting light.
Lyra pursed her lips, then handed the vial back to the wary humanoid. "I understand." She thought for a moment "There's a man I'd like to show this to. I think he might be able to help." She hoped that at least Taz could verify if the stuff in the vial was the same substance they'd encountered on Lantillies.
"Is the man in your government?"
Lyra shook her head. "He's a friend of ours."
The Rayeth's smooth face managed a skeptical look. "What can a man do?"
Lyra shrugged. "Maybe nothing, but the way I see it the authorities here in the capital won't help, so what do you have to lose?" When the Revered Mother made no answer, Lyra uttered a sigh. "Look, I don't know how things stand between Humans and Rayeths these days. I've... been away for a while, and honestly I never paid much attention to things like that when I was growing up. But it looks like relations aren't very good. If you want the royal authorities to act here on land, you'll have a better chance with someone like me to advocate your case."
The Rayeth seemed to consider that. "Is your man friend here?"
Lyra shook her head. "He's in Pratikaya."
"We should not linger on land," she said, "and Pra-ti-ka-ya is not near the sea."
"No, but it's only a short flight to the ocean. Your people were in Pratikaya two days ago. I saw them."
The shorter Rayeth shrugged her slight shoulders. "From the embassy, perhaps."
"Did you ask your embassy for help?"
"They... fear intruding into affairs of the Inusagasa, even for such an offense." The female's stiff features twisted into what must have been an expression of disgust or despair.
Lyra let out a long breath. Whatever was going on sounded complicated, maybe even dangerous. Those characters they'd met on Enarc were the kind she didn't want to tangle with. And the fact that neither the Human nor Rayeth authorities wanted to get involved didn't make her feel any better. Maybe Seelam was right and she should leave it alone too.
"Rutting hell." She pulled a miniature datapad from her bag, activated the holoprojector, and showed the female a map of Nogu, then zoomed in on the Akushima peninsula.
The Rayeth pointed to a spot on the western shore. "Can your man friend come here?"
Lyra nodded. The Rayeth stepped back with her escorts. "Go to that place tomorrow at this time. We will meet your man friend." With that, the three Rayeths huddled together and strode toward the royal park and the pool that would carry them to the Nikotama Sea.
When they'd passed from sight Lyra turned harsh eyes on Seelam, who'd returned with a nervous-looking Neela in tow. "Next time I ask you for something, you'll produce it. Is that clear?"
The footman executed a low formal bow, touching his forehead and lips. "I beg forgiveness for my disobedience, Lady Lyra."
Lyra scowled. She wanted cooperation from the man, not obsequious excuses. She knew most humans didn't like getting involved with the aquatic, mysterious Rayeths, but this was abuse, obvious and blatant. "I won't be lenient next time," she said with just enough snarl in her voice to make him wince. In a less truculent tone, she added, "Turning away from injustice is how it spreads." She let him stand there, doubled over for a few more seconds. "Stand up, Seelam."
"Yes, my lady."
She uttered a long sigh. How did I live like this for so long?
Sera peered over her shoulder at the projected map. "That's four hundred klicks from here. How are they going to travel that far?"
"My mother used to say that Rayeths flew through the water faster than a speeder could fly through the air."
"Sounds like a child's story but what do I know? Next question: What are we getting ourselves in the middle of, exactly?"
Lyra shrugged. "Not sure, but hey, you're the one who's always saying you want to get into a little trouble every now and then."
"And you're the one who wants everything to be nice and quiet, remember?"
"They need our help. There are only a few Revered Mothers in a colony."
"Revered Mothers?"
"Breeding females. They don't come to the surface unless there's a really good reason."
"There's no one in the royal government who'll help?"
"You heard her. Rayeths have an embassy here and regular diplomatic relations, but it doesn't look like that's working very well— if it ever did."
"I can't imagine relations with the Rayeths were very good under the Empire." Sera glanced around. "Even without them, your people don't seem very eager to engage with them."
"No," she agreed.
Sera regarded the pilot. "Well, we came here to shop, and I know you're not done redecorating." She looked across the parkway at the row of stores they'd been heading toward.
"Right," Lyra said, brightening at the thought. She let Neela help straighten her sayaka, then they started walking.
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Sera's expressed interest in shopping had translated into her making only a single purchase. Lyra teased her all the way back for being such a persnickety buyer, but Rendix just smiled and looked inscrutable. That only made Lyra even more exasperated.
After paying the necessary courtesies to Cousin Manu, a task Lyra kept as brief as possible, they were back in the air. Seelam had called ahead and a phalanx of servants waited to carry away the clothing, textiles, fresh food, and other goods that Lyra had stuffed into the aircar's modest hold. Much more had been sent directly to the Skipjack Chimera at Pratikaya's spaceport.
It was evening when the Aerosine landed at the Nimor compound in Pratikaya. Everyone gathered in a small parlor, seated on comfortable cushions around a low table. A light-skinned servant, an older woman with a long pale yellow sash knotted three times, brought evening tea, wine, and bite-sized refreshments.
"So, how was shopping?" asked Rei, munching on an airy pastry stuffed with seafood mousse and tender green shoots. "Did you find some nice furnishings for the Chimera, Lyra?"
"Mm hmm!" she replied and recited an impressive list. Taz whistled when she finished and Reiko gave him a smile that had 'told you so' written all over it.
"What about you, Sera-sha?"
Lyra interjected, "Almost nothing! What kind of shopper are you anyway, Rendix?"
Sera shrugged. "A careful one, I guess." She turned to Reiko "There was one thing that caught my eye." She took a box out of her jacket pocket and set it in front of the engineer.
Rei looked at her with an expectant expression. She opened the box and took out a necklace of sea amber and golden pearls. Reiko made a joyful sound and threw her arms around Sera's neck. "It's beautiful, Sera-sha!"
Sera fastened it around her neck with a quick kiss. "It looks great on you, Rei-sha."
"Did you enjoy the trip?" Reiko asked, twirling the necklace between her fingers and looking ecstatic.
"For the most part," answered Sera.
"We ran into a group of Rayeths," Lyra added.
"Like the ones who were here when we arrived?" Rei looked bright-eyed.
Lyra nodded soberly. "They were assaulted by a couple of thugs masquerading as security forces." She waved Taz's questioning look aside for the moment. "What's important is that the Rayeths asked to see you."
"They asked to see me?"
"More like you were volunteered," Sera said, drawing an obligatory frown from Lyra.
"They don't often come to the surface. Someone's been abducting children from their colonies under the sea. They claimed it's surface dwellers committing the crimes."
"That's awful!" cried Reiko.
"Sounds like a job for the authorities," Taz opined.
"They went to the royal security service and got nowhere," said an exasperated Lyra. "I think they were trying to get another audience when the Gray Caps accosted them."
"Gray Caps?"
She let out a harsh sound. "They're an unofficial division within the security service, holdovers from when the Empire ran the civil administration under the Governor's office."
Taz wore a dark look, and so did Reiko, both recalling their conversation with Raga and the brutality of the Protectorate on Filve toward the non-Human population. "I'm sympathetic, but I don't understand what it has to do with me."
"The Rayeths had a vial with grains of something that looked like the drug we saw on Lantillies. Rendix said it gave you a bad feeling."
Taz grew solemn. "There was a strong presence of dark Force energy. It was seductive and hungry." He screwed up his mouth. "I don't have a better description than that, but I can tell you it felt dangerous."
"I told them you'd examine it. If it's the same thing, that might mean it's related to that ceraglass shipment we dropped at Enarc." She flicked a glance at Sera but didn't say anything more.
Rei looked perplexed. "Was something wrong with the ceraglass?" Then she remembered. "That's why you took more guns, isn't it Sera-sha?"
Rendix nodded and patted Rei's hand on the table.
"Was there trouble? Why didn't you tell me?"
"The drop went fine, Rei," Lyra spoke up, planting a grin on her face that she hoped was convincing. "But I think the customer was a front organization for the Zann Consortium."
"Why?" Her look of concern verged toward alarm.
"There was a woman at the handoff. I'm pretty sure she runs an outfit called Zephyr. They've been all over the news vids, helping to keep the shipping lanes clear, delivering freight and supplies, funding construction projects, that kind of thing. But they're neck-deep with the Zann organization, and the work they're doing would provide all the cover they'd need if they're running some kind of drug distribution op in the Mid Rim."
"You sound like a cop, Nimor," Sera quipped.
"I was a cop, Rendix, or near enough. One thing I know is that crime syndicates don't turn into good citizens out of the blue."
"You think that Zann or this Zephyr group are behind the abductions?"
Lyra shrugged. "The Rayeth wasn't very helpful." She wore a mild scowl. "Guess I can't blame her; every one of my people either ignored her or attacked her. I know it's just a shot in the dark, but I thought maybe you could learn something by examining that vial."
"I can try," Taz said with a wan grin, "but I don't know how that relates to the abductions."
"Neither do I, Oktos," said Lyra, frustrated and weary after the long day. "But Rayeth colonies are on the bottom of the sea, hundreds of meters down. The only way to get there is by using their tech, which they don't share, or by building a really expensive submersible craft that can handle a lot of water pressure. If someone spent all that money just to abduct some Rayeth children, there must be something important about them."
Taz considered that for a few seconds. "I'll help, of course. What do they want me to do?"
Lyra squeezed his hand. "Examine the vial. If we can confirm it holds the same drug, maybe that'll sway the royal authorities to take another look."
"Unless they're involved."
"What does that mean?" Lyra challenged.
"If the Zann Consortium is behind this they could be paying the local authorities to look the other way. With an organization their size, those kinds of payoffs wouldn't even amount to a rounding error in their accounting."
"It would explain why the Rayeths got such a cold reception from your government," Sera suggested.
Lyra crossed her arms. She didn't like what she was hearing from Taz and Rendix, but she couldn't discount the possibility. Still, it wouldn't do any good to jump the gun. "First we find out what the Rayeths have. Then we'll figure out the next step."