Solbidyum Wars 3: Pirates of Goo'waddle Canals (20 page)

“I had also thought about possibly using you as part of an undercover team that will be visiting the planets’ surfaces.  Your knowledge of the Brotherhood and their ways would certainly be useful.  But I have decided against that idea.  The chance that stories of your desertion and participation in events at Alle Bamma have reached the area and the risk of you being recognized by Brotherhood members puts you at too high a risk.  All it would take is for one Brotherhood member to identify you and everything would be blown.  Nevertheless, your knowledge of the Brotherhood and their operations can help us immensely.  When the time comes, we will return with the solbidyum, at which time I may need you to help take out as many Brotherhood ships as possible when we leave this area and return to Federation space. 

“Tell me, have you ever heard of a Brotherhood member named Shydak?”

Felenna’s eyes widened and she stiffened when I said the name.  “Yes, everyone in the Brotherhood has heard of him.  He’s a hardcore member, with a real hatred for the Federation.  Are we going up against him?”

“Possibly.  We know that he was part of the planned operation to steal the solbidyum.  The Brotherhood planned to use the funds from the sale of the solbidyum to finance the construction of a large order of new warships.  Logden’s theft of the solbidyum has put a real hurt on the Brotherhood’s coffers, as they had ships on order at the Gaimseian shipyard and now can’t make the payments.  Last we heard, Shydak was headed there to work out some sort of arrangement or, more likely, to intimidate the Gaimseians into submission.  After our covert raid there to recover the Mirage Fighter stolen by the Brotherhood and the subsequent damage we inflicted on their shipyard, I don’t think the Gaimseians will be too receptive when he arrives.”

“From what I have heard of Shydak, he’s not one to run away from a fight.  If you manage to recover the solbidyum and he discovers you have it, he will pursue you as long as he has a ship to do so,” Felenna replied between bites of food.

“Good.  I hope he does! Once we have the solbidyum, I hope he brings every ship in the Brotherhood to pursue us — it will make it easier for us to destroy their fleet.”

During the rest of the meal, I outlined the plans to Felenna and my crew.  The
MIZBAGONA
would be shielded, cloaked and positioned on one side of the sector of space wherein Ryken, Yentum and Goo’Waddle were located and the
NEW ORLEANS
would remained cloaked and shielded on the other side — just in case Logden tried to make a run for it.  If necessary, the two starships would have to take out any Brotherhood ships trying to stop Logden while also making sure he didn’t get away. 

Kerabac outlined the plan to be followed by the surface team and Felenna clued us in on methods commonly used among Brotherhood members to identify each other, as well as other habits and operational methods they followed.  It was going to be much easier to spot them outside the Federation, as they operated openly here in the same way that the Ruwallie Rasson did.

After dining, I met with Kala, Kerabac and Marranalis in one of the smaller conference rooms to finalize the list of people we would be using for the covert surface missions.  It was decided that Kala, Sokaia, Marranalis, Padaran and I would be the ones posing as Kerabac’s slaves.  Endina and Norkoda, as well as seven other crewmembers, would pose as crewmembers onboard the freighter with Kerabac.  A meeting was set up to fully brief all candidates early the next morning and begin preparations.  We were about to end the meeting, when I decided to call on our invisible guest.

“A’Lappe, do you have something you would like to contribute before we break up?”  I had detected that ever-so-faint cedar scent in the air that always alerted me to his presence.  Suddenly, A’Lappe appeared in our midst, giving me one of those
How do you do it?
stares.

“Honored First Citizens,” he said with a nod in our direction, “I think I may have something that will make your mission preparations a little less painful.  At least, I hope so.”  From a bag he had slung over his shoulder, he produced a small device about the half the size of the palm of my hand.  “This should allow you to create convincing bruises without having to injure yourselves severely by actually getting beaten.  If I may demonstrate.”

He walked over to Padaran and placed the object on his arm.  Padaran instinctively started to pull his arm back.  “No need to fear, Padaran, you will not feel any pain.” A’Lappe pressed a button on the side of the object.  There was a slight humming sound.  After about five seconds, A’Lappe removed the object to reveal a nasty-looking reddish-purple bruise. 

“Wow,” Padaran exclaimed, “that didn’t hurt at all.”

Marranalis looked at Padaran’s arm closely.  “How long will that last? Will it wash off?”

“It will last as long as any other bruise lasts,” A’Lappe replied.  “It’s a real bruise; it won’t wash off.  This device causes small capillaries under the skin to rupture
and create the bruise; but unlike a bruise sustained in a fight or a beating, you won’t have any of the stiffness or pain.  Your normal reaction time and movements will be unaffected, so you will not be compromised if you have to get into a fight.  You can use these devices to apply appropriate-looking bruises as needed.”

“A’Lappe, you’re a genius,” Kerabac said with a look of relief.  “It truly bothered me to imagine my friends having to suffer blows to get bruised up for this mission.”

“This isn’t going to do away with the possibility that, at times, you and others in the crew may have to strike or beat us for the sake of show,” I interjected.

“I know, Tibby, but at least it won’t be a daily beating session.”

“I also have something else for the slaves,” added A’Lappe.  “At the moment, your hands and feet are too soft to be those of slaves — at least those of the men, anyway.  I have a lotion to be applied to your hands and feet once a day before going to bed.  Use it as long as you’re on this mission and you will have tough calluses that will make you look like you’ve been toiling as a slave for years.  One more thing,” he said while producing from his bag a rather haggard-looking wrist communicator.  “All the slaves will need wrist communicators linked to Kerabac as your master, so he can provide you with commands when you are out of his sight.  These devices will perform that function in the normal sense, but they have other hidden capabilities.  Keep in mind that, because of their small size, these are very limited functions that are available to you only once before recharging. 

“There is a cloaking mechanism, but it will work only for a duration of approximately three minutes; after that, it’s done.  There also is a weak but deadly laser feature; it also has only a one-time functionality.  Now, I’m afraid it’s an either-or situation; if you use the cloak, you have no laser, and if you use the laser, you have no cloaking capability.  I simply cannot cram enough power into a
com this small with all the other functions and give you both.  There is one more item – a built-in solbidyum detector.  If you get within a meter of the solbidyum, it will begin to vibrate.

If you do use the laser or the cloaking feature of the wrist com, you can recharge it on the ship using a standard com recharger.  It will take twice as long to recharge it as it does a normal wrist com.  I would suggest you only use this as a last means of defense.”

“This is great, A’Lappe,” I said.  “Thank you.”

He beamed at me, and then leaned close to me and softly said, “I still want to know how you know when I’m around!”

The next day, we made a stop at a nearby planet called Malninal, a small planet with a slightly lesser gravity than Megelleon.  This was last planet inside the Federation boundary before crossing into the space around Ryken, Yentum and Goo’Waddle.  After a lengthy discussion we agreed that the best cargo to carry on the freighter for trade would be rare and exotic liquors sought by the thirsty inhabitants of these planets; there were some liquors that simply could not be simulated in a synthesizer.

“Liquor trade will give us a good excuse to visit the many bars and drinking establishments on the planet without being conspicuous,” Kerabac said.  “Though I do not like the idea of it, we might also see if we can’t make a trade with a Brotherhood dealer for some God’s Sweat, as well.  On most planets outside the Federation territories, it’s not an illegal substance, and the demand is still plenty high.  Having it onboard as a possible trade product will further remove us from suspicion as spies or Federation operatives.  We would not actually have to resell the cargo; we’d only have it among our goods so it appears that it’s for trade.  After our mission is complete, of course, we’ll destroy it.”

“I’m not sure I like that idea,” I replied, “but I certainly can see where it might be useful in giving us come credibility.  Let’s try to hold off on that idea and only consider it as a last resort.  Kerabac and Piesew, see if you can put together a shopping list of rare vintages of wines and liquors that will likely be in demand.  Don’t shy away from the good stuff — with my immense wealth, we can fill the cargo hold of the freighter two-thirds full with all sorts of choice items that are certain to be highly sought after.”

Kerabac thought a moment.  “We may want to create a dummy story about a raid on a liquor supply warehouse at one of the Federation planets near the border.  The news will quickly make its way to the planets by way of the traders.  Many would believe we fenced the heist; but they won’t do anything about it, as we‘ll be outside the Federation jurisdiction.  However, the rumors surrounding our cargo will go a long way toward the goal of creating a gritty image of our group, and should help to alleviate any suspicion as to our true intentions.”

“I like that idea.  See to getting it done,” I responded.

During the next three days, we found time to practice and train for our mission.  Kerabac and A’Lappe located some exotic liquors and had them stocked aboard the
RASSON BEDAN
, the new name for the freighter.  A’Lappe and Kerabac had managed to provide very authentic blast markings to the hull to lend the appearance of damage from a recent firefight.  Also, many of the original parts on the ship had been swapped out for efficient, though obviously second generation equipment that gave some provenance to the ship being a true trader’s vessel that relied on whatever parts were available on the outer worlds.

Quarters on the vessel were clean but oddly decorated, to the obvious tastes of their individual occupants.  Several small sparse cells were set up in the cargo hold area for the male slaves; each had a toilet facility and a plain bunk and nothing else.  The women slaves were, for obvious intentions, meant to stay in Kerabac’s cabin.  A sofa-like seat occupied a portion of Kerabac’s cabin, and he made it clear that he would sleep there, if visitors happened to be aboard, and Kalana and Sokaia would use the bed.  Otherwise, he would sleep use spare bunk in an unused cabin.

The last issue we had to deal with was currency.  Inside the Federation, hard currency was seldom seen and transactions were completed by way of Federation credits that were transferred electronically; but outside the Federation such credits were worthless.  Instead, coins of various weights and worth were used and their values were based on current metal prices.  One of the principal currencies was a metal called durtronium and another commonly used in this sector was maxalite.  There was also another form of currency that consisted of small standard electronic chip components used in practically everything.  Exactly what they were or how they worked was a complete mystery to me; but Kerabac and A’Lappe assured me that having just one or two of these small chip coins were a great wealth outside the Federation.

We loaded up with several million credits’ worth of these currencies, which were kept in a safe inside Kerabac’s cabin.  A’Lappe and Kerabac checked out the cloaking device, the new engine and the RMFF upgrades.  All were pronounced to be in working order.

It was on our third day that our sensors picked up the signal of a large warship ahead of us near Ryken.  Before long, a second and third ship appeared on the screens.  While under cloak, we slipped inside the protective ring and moved in closer to the planet.  As we approached one of the moons of the planet, we decloaked just long enough for the
RASSON BEDAN
to disembark.  Then, just as quickly, the
NEW ORLEANS
cloaked again, leaving the
RASSON BEDAN
apparently alone near the moon.  To anyone observing on long-range sensor vid screens, it would just seem that the
RASSON BEDAN
suddenly came into range of their sensors and that there were no other ships in the area.  Once clear of the
NEW ORLEANS
, Kerabac gave the orders and Norkoda guided the
RASSON BEDAN
toward Ryken’s largest city and spaceport.

We secured a landing space and touched down.  Kerabac paid the landing fees and took care of all the paperwork.  He, Norkoda, and two others from the ship then went into the city on the pretext of trying to find buyers for our cargo.  This followed a typical pattern for an arriving trader vessel.  The rest of the crew and those of us assuming the role of slaves stayed onboard until we were needed.

Kala and Sokaia monitored local news and communication channels with the hope of picking up useful information, but the only news of any real interest was the embargo that the Brotherhood had around the planet and the outrage it was causing globally.  Clearly, the Brotherhood was not held in high esteem with the population at the moment, but they had the muscle to enforce their agenda and continue their actions without resistance.  Though ships were being detained for inspections, no one was denied exit from the system, once their ship had been cleared by the Brotherhood.  The fact that none of the cargos of the detained ships were being taken made the situation marginally tolerable, even if the intimidation and delays were infuriating for the traders and other travelers.  Rumors abounded on the news; the most popular broadcast related frequent updates regarding the Brotherhood’s search for a man named Logden, who was said to have cheated the Brotherhood in some contractual agreement.  The Brotherhood was offering a 1 million credit reward for anyone turning Logden in alive or to anyone who provided information leading to his capture.