Solbidyum Wars 3: Pirates of Goo'waddle Canals (28 page)

“Why would they want to bug us,” I asked, “and how do you know they bugged the room?  I didn’t see you in there.”

Endina laughed.  “Tibby, you have been on Goo’Waddle a day now and already you are forgetting the technology you have?”  She pointed to her cloaking device wristband.

“How could I not have thought of that?” I said, slapping my forehead.  “So tell us, what happened in there?”

“It went well, I think.  I was standing right behind Agama when he opened the case, and there were indeed gemstones in it.  I would estimate a reasonably small fortune, in fact.  They removed Kerabac’s courier band, so now we can come and go with the
RASSON BEDAN
cloaked whenever we please without the limitations of the timer.  Agama was impressed that we had gotten through the Brotherhood blockade; and apparently the rumors of us having a jump drive are already circulating.  The Brotherhood is scouring the planet looking for our ship.  Agama said the Brotherhood is offering a reward for anyone revealing the location of the
RASSON BEDAN
; but he told Kerabac not to worry – that it was worth more to him that Kerabac could transport goods for him off-world without being caught or detected.  He also seemed to express some personal dislike for the Brotherhood; I gathered that the Brotherhood may be shaking down some of the non-cartel businesses in the area in sort of a protection racket.”

“That would make sense,” I said.  “Did he happen to say what it is he wants us to transport?”

“No, he didn’t.  He just told Kerabac to go about whatever other business he has on the planet and that he will be in touch in a few days.  He also said he would make it well worth Kerabac’s effort, if he carries out the next mission successfully.  He also suggested that Kerabac be careful and emphasized that the Brotherhood knows he is here and are watching him now — and if they don’t find the
RASSON BEDAN
soon, they may come here and try and force the information from Kerabac directly.”

At the mention of the Brotherhood possibly coming after Kerabac, I saw Tanden flinch and glance at the grate over the air vent.

“Don’t worry, Tanden; I assure you that Brotherhood is far more interested in Kerabac and our ship than they are in you.  If they come here, I doubt they will even notice you,” I commented and ruffled his hair.  He looked up at me with his dirty face and smiled.  He looked rather pathetic, standing there in his filthy, ragged clothes with his arm in a plastic cast and his matted hair that hadn’t been cut in ages.

“Kerabac will probably be out here shortly.  Right now, he wants to put on a good show; but as soon as he can, he will brief you on his impressions.  One thing we will have to do is to figure out a way to disable the device without it looking like we know about it.”

“For right now, it may be to our advantage to leave them in place,” I said.  “When the time comes, I’m sure we’ll think of something to disable it without arousing suspicion.  We’ll need to be very careful when in range of the bug to use our assumed names.”

It was a few moments later that Kerabac joined us.  “I think it would be best if we spent most of our time out here deciding what we’re going to say while in the house,” he grinned.

“I don’t understand,” Tanden interjected as he looked back and forth between us.

“Ahh, Tanden.  You’re going to need to keep this a secret, but we aren’t really slaves, and Kerabac isn’t really a trader.  We’re in disguise, looking for someone who has stolen something.  We need to get it back.”

“You’re looking for that Logden guy, too?” Tanden said, suddenly wide-eyed.

“You know about Logden?” I answered in surprise. 

“Sure, everyone does.  The Brotherhood is offering a huge reward to anyone who turns him in,” Tanden said.  “If I could find him, I would get enough money to pay my dad’s debt and set my mother and sister free, and we could all live in a nice house.”

“Tanden, when we get finished with our work here, I will see to it that your father’s debt is paid and your mother and sister are set free and that you have a nice place to live,” I said.  Tanden looked at me incredulously.  “In fact, if you like, I’ll give you this house for your family to live in,” I continued.
  “How is that?”

“But doesn’t this place belong to the Brotherhood? Aren’t you just renting it?”

“Good point.  How about this, instead?  I’ll pay off your dad’s debt and we’ll take your entire family to a nicer planet, where there are no slaves, and I’ll buy you a nice house there that we all pick out together.”

“Wow, can he really do that?” Tanden asked Kala with amazement. 

“Yes, he can,” Kala said with a large, approving smile on her face.  “He can do that and a lot more.”

“Tanden, you are going to need to stay out of the main house for right now.  If the men that were here earlier put a device in the house to listen to what we say and they hear your voice or even your small footsteps, they will know you are here.  Do you understand?”

“Are they looking for Logden, too?” the boy asked in a puzzled voice.

“They might be.  We don’t know, but we need to continue fooling them so they don’t tell people that we really are not traders and slaves.”

Tanden squinted at us for a moment as he analyzed what we said.  “OK, you have been nice to me, so I guess I can do what you say.  But I hope you know what you’re doing, because the Brotherhood will kill you for sure if you don’t.”

“I wouldn’t worry about the Brotherhood too much, Tanden.  Tibby has dealt with them before,” Marranalis said with a comforting smile.

Later in the day, the decorator that Endina contacted during the morning hours showed up.  I stayed out in the slave house with Marranalis and Tanden, while Endina and Kerabac dealt with decorator.  Kala, Sokaia and Padaran stayed in the house, as would be expected of house and sex slaves.  While they were inside, Tanden told us about his life as a slave, and it angered me that anyone could treat another human being in the horrible ways he described — let alone a child. 

As my time in the Federation grew longer, the angrier I found myself becoming toward the Brotherhood.  More and more I was seeing undisputable evidence that confirmed the Brotherhood would quickly turn every planet into a planet of slaves and slaveholders, if they were to ever succeed in their quest to gain power in the Federation.  Kala told me that regulations existed on some planets that allowed indentured slaves as to their care and work conditions; but from what Tanden was telling us, Goo’Waddle was not one of them.  Basically, a slave master could do as he pleased and go unchallenged.  The image I was getting was one where very few slaves ever gained their freedom and that most slaves led a terrible, tortured life.  Many died within a few years from poor nutrition and relentless abuse.

After a few hours, we saw the decorator leave, but no one came out of the house.  Through the window we could see Kerabac and the others moving about; it looked like they were laughing and making noises.  Their behavior looked most bizarre.  We decided it would be best to wait until one of them came out before we joined them.

After about an hour, Kala came out to the slave quarters, laughing.  I looked at her curiously and she said, “Tibby, I wish you could have been in there to see this.  Sokaia got the idea that we should act out a scene that would convince anyone listening to the bug that Kerabac was a typical Ruwallie Rasson slaveholder with two sex slaves.”

She started laughing again so hard that she could barely talk.  “We put on a show with dialogs and sound effects like you would not believe.  Anyone listening will get the idea that Kerabac is one sexual fiend.  Right now, Sokaia and Kerabac are in there moaning and groaning, feigning a sexual liaison, the likes of which legends will be made of.  After they finish, I doubt that anyone listening will expect to hear any sounds other than snoring.  “Kerabac should be out here in a few minutes.  Padaran is going to stay inside and make noises like someone sleeping in the room just to keep up appearances.”

We looked back toward the house and could see Kerabac with his mouth open, making some sound, and he was slapping his hand on the wall.  Sokaia was laughing with her hand over her mouth.  Occasionally she would uncover it and make some sounds.  Padaran was sitting on the stairs in the house, making various sound effects.  The scene was so comical that, even though we could not hear them, we had to laugh as well. 

After several more minutes, I noticed things were slowly tapering down.  Finally, Kerabac and Sokaia slipped out of the room, leaving Padaran to wander about and produce what they hoped would sound like normal activities of someone alone in the room.  A few seconds later a beaming Kerabac and a laughing Sokaia came into the slave house.

“I don’t know when the last time was that I had that much fun,” Sokaia said.  “I’m sure that anyone listening will think you are the galaxy’s greatest lover.”

“Think?” Kerabac said mockingly.  “I’ll have you know I
am
the galaxy’s greatest lover.  However, it’s the galaxy’s best kept secret.”  Everyone broke out laughing at Kerabac’s sarcasm; and Kerabac laughed the loudest of us all.  All the while, Tanden sat looking us like we all had totally lost our minds.

With the cloaked
RASSON BEDAN
hidden in orbit above the planet with the remainder of our party onboard, there were fewer of us to scout the planet and gain clues as to Logden’s location.  Kerabac went out with samples of liquor to make the rounds at local clubs and bars, while Padaran was sent into town to buy supplies With Marranalis and I in tow to carry the items he purchased. Endina, Sokaia and Kalana stayed at the estate with Tanden, arranging the house and making the place look as if we were going to be there for a long period of time. 

It seemed that slaves were everywhere on the planet, performing all sorts of manual chores.  All of them wore the same style of electronic collars that prevented them from running away and guaranteed obedience in their servitude.  Age seemed to have little influence on who was enslaved; just as many slave children were seen as adults; but one thing that was conspicuous by their absence was elderly slaves.  There were none, and I was suspicious about the lack of elders overall.  I suspected that they met a similar fate as that intended for Tanden, once they were no longer of any use to their masters.

Just as we saw on Ryken, naked prostitutes stood on the streets, on the decks of boats in the canals and before the entrances to various establishments, as their masters or mistresses tried to set them up with possible clients.  There were also a number of other individuals on the streets – finely dressed and most accompanied by bodyguards and small entourages of followers and slaves, as they went about their daily business.  We also saw a number of Brotherhood troopers strolling the streets and businesses in their menacing battle garb and with equally menacing attitudes.  Many stopped and haggled with owners of the slave prostitutes, while others went in and out of bars and clubs that lined the streets. 

Snippets of conversations, words and phrases, could be heard as they questioned the local merchants.  The most frequent words I heard as the Brotherhood men showed some object to the merchants were,
Have you seen this man
?,
Logden
, and had they heard anything about a
Ruwallie Rasson trader who managed to get through the Brotherhood blockades?
  There also was mention of huge rewards, but we were unable to hear any of the details.  A number of Ruwallie Rasson traders were doing business in the town; and the Brotherhood troopers observed them closely, but did not confront any of them.  There seemed to be a tangible air of tension and hostility between the Ruwallie Rasson and the Brotherhood. 

Padaran was able to lease a conveyance vehicle that I would equate to a truck on Earth.  Marranalis and I loaded the vehicle with the goods he purchased and rode in the back as we returned to the estate.  Unlike the conveyance we used on Ryken, this one was able to move both on land and in the water.  As we navigated our way back to the estate, I had a chance to look about at the other vessels passing through the canals.  Some were as large as ocean cargo ships back on Earth.  A number of craft were clearly the equivalent of luxury party yachts filled with wealthy merchants and traders who paid little attention to us as we passed. 

On one vessel I noted a young slave girl kneeling at the side of her master.  She turned her head and looked at us with a vacant stare as we passed.  She would have been about the right age to be Tanden’s sister and I wondered if it might be her.  I vowed that, once the matter of Logden and the missing solbidyum was resolved, I was going to find some way to use my fortune to rid the galaxy of slavery, even if it took all my wealth to do it.

When we arrived back at the house, we discovered a large delivery vessel blocking the small access canal behind the house.  Padaran brought us up beside a smaller docking area carved out of the side of the canal and, in character, called Endina on his wrist com to check out what was happening.  She barked at him, stating that the decorator had returned with a large shipment of furniture and that it was being brought into the house as we spoke.  She demanded that Marranalis and I get to the house at once to join the delivery slaves in the transfer of the furniture and crates.

We were met at the dock by Sokaia.  Marranalis and I took opposite ends of a large divan and carried it to the main house.  As we entered the door, I was taken aback by a strange being that stood there supervising the delivery of each item.  He, or
it,
as I couldn’t be sure of the gender, looked us over, and then looked at the item we were carrying and then motioned for us to continue into the house.