Solbidyum Wars 3: Pirates of Goo'waddle Canals (31 page)

When we returned to our own
calgana
late in the afternoon, we met Endina and Sokaia at the dock.  “There have been strange men snooping about outside the gates of the house today.  They spent a great deal of time watching the house and left only about an hour ago.  I think they were looking for some sign of the men that came here yesterday.  It doesn’t look good.  Poor Tanden has been hiding in the air duct all day and refuses to come out.”

“Poor kid,” I said.  “I can’t imagine the horrors he must have lived with.  See if you can track down just where his sister is.  Maybe we can buy her contract and get her and Tanden back together again.”

“Kala has already done a little of that on her own,” Endina said.  “She managed to get Tanden to tell her his sister’s name — Jenira, I think he said.  He also told us the last place he knew her to be kept was called the Purple Flower.”

“Good.  Track her down and find out how much her masters want for her.  Then buy her, no matter what the price is, and get her here as soon as you can.”

While we talked, I noticed a boat passing by.  Several men looked at us intently.  “Are those the men that were watching the house earlier?”

Sokaia had been watching the men and responded, “They are one group of the men; there were several more, actually.”

I glanced back at the men again and held their stares; they didn’t flinch or look away but held their gaze with an intensity that made the hair stand on the back of my neck until they disappeared around a distant corner.  Clearly, their thoughts were not of a friendly nature. 

We decided to eat outside that evening on one of the secluded patios, as it would allow us to speak freely, outside of the range of the listening device and away from any prying eyes.  Little Tanden refused to emerge from his hiding place, so we delivered his dinner and let him stay where he felt safe.

After we finished eating, Kerabac and Padaran practiced martial arts defensive scenarios under the watchful eye of Marranalis, as Kala and I sat by a fire pit, watching the flames.  One thing had been on my mind since meeting Andy and I was hoping Kala could offer me more information.

“So what can you tell me about the androids?  How did they come into being and what led to their rebellion and exile?”

“It was all a long time ago,” Kala began, “before I was born.  The first androids were built back in the days of Roiax and the solbidyum mines.  I think the government originally intended them to do the mining; but then the idea of using the prisoners came along – and they were cheaper and more expendable than the androids.  Back then, the androids were nothing like they are today.  They had no sentience – no thoughts or feelings of their own.  They simply existed and did as they were told; but their functionality was somewhat limited, because they missed things that humans didn’t in areas like manufacturing and mining.

“At first, they were used for all sorts of jobs most humans didn’t like or want to perform because of bad or dangerous working conditions; but as time passed, they began to be used for more and more tasks.  Some were made to resemble anatomically correct men and woman and used simply for sexual pleasures.  Some were even created and built for hunting as moving targets.  While their initial cost was high, their maintenance and operational costs were very low, so they soon paid for themselves.  More and more, they began to become servants and playthings.

“Then about 250 years ago some of the androids began to show signs of sentience and self-awareness.  At first, very little thought was given to the matter — it only made the androids more interesting.  Then one day, several androids working at a mining facility refused to go underground in an area they believed to be unstable.  The mining company became furious and decided to destroy the lot of androids and get new ones – and that’s when the real trouble began.  The androids refused to submit to being shut down and started making demands. 

“The mine foreman called in Federation troops to deal with the rebellion.  The Federation’s solution was essentially to open fire and obliterate all the androids at the site.  The news barely made it to the media before androids began killing their masters all over the Federation.  Somehow, they were able to link together and communicate across the vast distances between them.  They began working in a united and coordinated fashion, slowly taking over planets and planetary systems.  To make matters worse, they were killing off almost every human they met.”

Kala paused and took a sip of wine before she continued.

“The Federation tried to reach out to the androids to see what their demands were.  The androids said that they wanted the humans to surrender and submit to the will of the androids.  They demanded that all humans were now to be their slaves.  They had concluded from observation of humans that the smartest and strongest deserved the right to dominate and rule over those not as strong or intelligent.  Since androids were smarter, faster and stronger than humans, they collectively deduced that it was their right to rule over humans and enslave them.”

“Wow,” I exclaimed.  “That must have come as a shock to the Federation.  How did they handle that?”

“They didn’t take it well at all.  At that point, people still believed the androids to be inferior and saw their sentience not as self-awareness and self-preservation, but simply as a glitch in their programming.  All across the galaxy uprisings of the androids were taking place almost simultaneously.  Thousands of them were killing off every human they encountered — they were committing genocide of humanoids on every planet they inhabited.”

“How did the Federation deal with it?” I asked.

“The same way they did with everything else before you got here…” she said with a grin as she ruffled my hair.  “
…with brute force and superior numbers and firepower.  They destroyed more than half of three worlds overtaken by androids before the androids realized that they were outnumbered and out-gunned.  They grabbed what ships they could and fled with the Federation starships on their tails.  Hundreds of thousands were destroyed, but many still escaped.  Those that could not escape from the planets were immediately destroyed.  No further attempts were made to communicate with them or save them.”

“And since that time, their intelligence and level of knowledge has continued to grow?” I asked.

“It’s possible.  I doubt anyone has really checked to see.  The several thousand androids that escaped the Federation have never tried to come back, and the Federation has not reached out to the androids.  Both sides seem to have ignored each other — until now, that is.”

“How about reproducing? Have they made copies of themselves?”

“I don’t think so.  At least, what little we hear back in the Federation of the androids seems to indicate they simply carry on now, doing odd jobs and surviving, but there seems to be no effort on their part to expand their numbers.”

“Most interesting.  Back on Earth, one of the criteria for determining whether something was sentient was reproduction capability.  While the androids do seem to have enough intelligence and knowledge to replicate themselves, the fact that they have not done so, by Earth science criteria, means they would not be considered as actually living beings.”

“What do you think, Tibby?  Are they living sentient beings?” Sokaia asked.  She had joined us by the fire during the conversation.

“I think it would be most wise to treat the androids as living beings, regardless of whether they reproduce or don’t reproduce.  To do otherwise would be a big mistake.”

The next day, we went by the clubs where Kerabac had made arrangements the day before and dropped off the shipments of liquor.  Kerabac was able to find two more clubs interested in buying his finest liquors and he indicated to them that he would make the deliveries the next day.  It was late in the afternoon when Marranalis called our attention to the fact that we were being followed again.  This time our observers were most certainly from two different groups, one mostly likely Brotherhood and the other Ruwallie Rasson.

“I noticed the Ruwallie Rasson back a little while ago,” Kerabac said without glancing back.  “They seem most intent on keeping up with us and they’ve been watching our every action.  I’m not
sure what that’s about, but I doubt they’re working with the Brotherhood, as the Brotherhood organization is quite prejudiced against the Ruwallie Rasson.”

“The Brotherhood goons haven’t seemed to notice the Ruwallie Rasson, but it’s clear to me the Ruwallie Rasson are aware that the Brotherhood is following us,” Marranalis added.

“Let’s not make this too easy for them,” I said.

Kerabac looked at me with a grin.  “What do you have in mind?”

“There are three of us and four of them.  But they are acting in pairs.  If we were to split up and go in three different directions, they would have to split up.  We can likely dodge the pair that follows us and circle back to the club where we last were and meet there.  We have our communicators to keep in touch if anything should happen to go wrong.”

“I’m for that!” Marranalis said.

Fortunately for us, we were on one of the larger, more urban
calganas
, so it was densely populated and checkered with buildings and narrow streets.  Ahead of us was a small market square with streets going off in four directions.

“When we get up to this square, I will go left; Marranalis, you split off to the right; and Kerabac, you go straight ahead.  Work your way back as quickly as you can to the last club.  Once we join up, we‘ll get one of the water taxis in the adjacent to take us back to the estate.”

As I reviewed the plan, we arrived in the square.  “Now!”  I said and rapidly moved off to the left as Marranalis turned to the right. 

I headed down the street and then quickly turned to my left into yet another side street, glancing back in time to see one of the Brotherhood men on my trail.  At the next intersection, I turned right and ducked behind some large wooden crates sitting in the vacant alleyway.  I activated my cloaking device as soon as I heard footsteps and I watched as the man sped by, looking left and right behind every object as he passed.  I waited a few seconds more, but no one else followed.  Apparently, the two Ruwallie Rasson and the other Brotherhood member had decided to follow after Kerabac and Marranalis.  I retraced my steps quickly to the club where we had agreed to wait.  I found a small alley across the street from the club where I could watch and wait for Kerabac and Marranalis to return.  It was only a few minutes before Marranalis appeared at the club.  I signaled to him to join me in the alleyway.

“Did you have any problems shaking your tail?” I asked.

Marranalis grinned at the pun.  “No.  It was easy.  I only had one of the Ruwallie Rasson following me.  The other Ruwallie Rasson and the Brotherhood tail followed Kerabac.  I hope he can elude them.”

We waited over an hour and were beginning to get concerned when Kerabac finally arrived.  We called him to us in the alley.

“What happened?” I asked.

“It wasn’t too hard to lose the Brotherhood thug,” Kerabac began, “but shaking off the Ruwallie Rasson was much harder.  He realized that I had spotted both of them and he really dogged me.  I was finally able to lose him, too, after turning a corner at a building that had a low-enough roof that I could leap up and grab the edge.  I was able to pull myself onto the roof just before he turned the corner.  From there, I was able to climb onto the higher roofs, where I could easily observe his movements without being noticed.

“He made a call on his wrist com and was joined by several other Ruwallie Rasson.  I think he must have taken vids of us, as he showed something to them, after which they all headed off in different directions.  I couldn’t come down from the rooftops right away, because he stayed in the street below me and I couldn’t be sure where the others were.  I was afraid to use my cloaking device with its limited power and so many unknowns and variables between there and here.  It was a while before they all returned.  He seemed upset and frustrated at losing me.  Then they all left together and I carefully crept down and returned as fast as I could.  I take it you didn’t have as much trouble as I did?”

“No, we didn’t.  I think we need to get out of here quickly and back to the estate.”

Kerabac hired an enclosed water taxi to take us back to the house.  If anyone was watching on the canals for us, they would not have been able to see us inside.  As we pulled up to the estate, Marranalis nudged me and pointed to two boats anchored in the large canal.  I noted that, while the men on the boats appeared to be doing some sort of work, they kept watching the estate closely.

“We are drawing lots of attention,” I said.  “I think we need to be extra vigilant with our watches tonight.”

I was surprised when we entered the slave quarters to find an excited Tanden talking rapidly with Kala and Endina.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Tanden turned and looked at me with a huge grin.  “Tibby, Kalana did the most wondrous thing.  She put that thing on my head and now I know
everything!
  Go ahead, ask me something!  I know all sorts of things now!”

I looked at Kala
.

“I felt sorry for him, Tib.  He has had no education since he was taken as a slave — he was so miserable and afraid.  He needed some kind of distraction.  In the Federation, we are required to wait until the child is a little older than Tanden before allowing the use of the learning headband; but we’re not in the Federation here.”