by Amelia Esla
An hour or so later, Harlex didn’t feel any better and the longing to return to his home world still tormented his memories. The alcohol didn’t really help, just dull the details not the cause. He tried to listen to the Shiss. Tuzzzh told once more how he ended up here and not in a much nicer POW camp. First reason was of course that there was no war between the Shiss Empire and the Union at the Moment and the second reason was that Tuzzzh wasn’t officially a soldier but had been caught as a Pirate and trialed in a civilian court. Of course everyone knew that the Shiss Raiders were directly sponsored and supported by the White Nestling himself. The Shiss government officially denounced these raider actions as Pirate acts of independent individuals in no way sanctioned.”
Harlex had heard the story several times and could have told it as good as the Shiss himself, but there was nothing else to do and the disgraced corporate lawyer wanted to hear it.
To vent his frustration, he interrupted the story and said. “You are lucky it was a Federal Police cruiser who stopped you guys and not a Fleet Unit. The fleet deals with Pirates in a much more terminal way.”
The Shiss didn’t like to be interrupted and felt his Warrior honor tainted by the fact that he and his shipmates surrendered to Federal Police. He was still a Shiss and stronger than everyone in the room. The fact that he was intoxicated lowered his low threshold to act on violent impulses, that were never far from a Shiss in the first place didn’t help. It took very little alcohol to get a Lizard drunk . He jumped up to teach the Human a lesson.
Napha, the owner of the Tavern was sentenced for life to this place and was allowed to run this small business. The Warden however didn’t care if his place was trashed, torched or if patrons killed themselves. He could hold his own in a bar fight, sharing the genes of a Thauran mother and a father native to Hoffman’s World where humans lived under six Gee for over two thousand years, living the harsh life as a fringe region Scooper raider and running a tavern on a Prison colony steeled his fists and he knew almost all of the dirty tricks and moves. However going against a drunk and enraged Shiss was certain suicide. He needed to protect his business so he pulled the old chemical slug thrower from under the bar.”
The Shiss however didn’t fare as well as he thought he would against a much smaller, drunk human. The Greenie was fast and reacted even before the Shiss committed to his fast attack and evaded the claw swipe that would have maimed the human. Greenies had this unexplainable ability to somehow sense danger and react and the mysterious conditions that made every life form on that planet into lethal killing machines influenced humans that were born there as well.
Harlex didn’t have any stingers, no deadly poisons and never had any military or any martial arts skills, yet the palm of his right hand stuck the Shiss right underneath its teeth filled maw at one of the beings sensitive nerve clusters. The Shiss howled in pain and stumbled a few steps back.
The former lawyer’s only combat skills were honed in court proceedings and board rooms, so he tried to find refuge under the next table.
How the situation would end was almost certain, but then a sound everyone here knew and never hoped to hear on this side of the planet. The distinctive high whistle of a Union Arti Grav shortly followed by greenish light lowering into the Bar room from outside the building. A space ship was landing where no space ship was allowed to land.
The fight was a fast forgotten as it had started and the four beings scrambled through the door to see.
A sleek ship just settled on its landing struts. The greenish shine of the Arti Grav ebbed to a faint glow and then blinked out.
The lawyer pushed himself between the Shiss and the Bar keeper and said. “That is a Bombardier One-fifty, diamond edition.”
Only ships of the Correctional Service were allowed to approach this world and land and only at the Warden’s Island 3000 miles to the east. Like all Penal Colonies there were Sensor satellites in Orbit to ensure that no one shortened the sentence of a friend or smuggle in illegal things such as drugs and weapons.
Escapes from Penal Colonies were almost unknown, but not impossible. The most famous case being of course the escape of Admiral Richard Stahl as the Peace Hawks sentenced him to a life sentence on the harshest Penal Colony known.
He came back many years later at the height of the War against the Y’All and saved the day.
All this went through the mind of Harlex as he watched the ship extending a boarding ramp.
The curvy woman wearing a Bio Seal Suit with the typical Dual color scheme Greenies preferred. No one but Greenies would wear these suits everywhere they went.
Even Harlex still wore his old brown and green suit. One of the few items of personal belongings they had left him (there was nothing better to wear on a world where it rained more than on Splish Splash and every life form was either fungus or slug based.
The woman coming down the ramp filled out her two tone suit rather nicely and was flanked by two Pertharian giants in what looked like the latest Corporate Security Battle suit design. The four armed monsters carried SII Fafnyr Thermo Bolter Gatlings, enough fire power to take on a Squad of Cerberus Robots.
Probably a good idea for a woman visiting a prisoner camp where the only women they saw were printed on posters. The female prisoners were kept on the other continent of the planet and without ships as unreachable as if they had been on another world.
She didn’t sink to her knees into the yellow muck as everyone else did who had to cross the road during one of the planets four rain seasons. That meant she wore Terran All Terrains with the full package, including Personal ArtiGrav Adjusters. Now as she stepped from under the ship into the rain, Harlex recognized her. Dr. Ieshia Yeager, the Science Corps Researcher who was his partner in crime smuggling and selling Green Hell life forms on the black market. Seeing her like that made his blood boil. While he was rotting away on a planet where a real dry place was equated with nirvana and she crossed the galaxy in a luxury yacht. She had been arrested just like him and found guilty by the same court, the same jury and sentenced by the same judge. Not even her super expensive Star lawyer from Pluribus made a difference during the trial. The sentence was harsher than everyone expected, because one of their smuggled Insectos got free aboard a transport ship and caused the death of a dozen men.
He had opted for Penal Colony and she asked for Psycho Surgery. She should not know who she was, she should have no memory and no connections to her old life and to make the new life a punishment, anyone taking Psycho Surgery would wake up as a low wage earner as far away from the planet of birth as possible and a whole set of new memories.
She waved at him, right away dispelling any notion that she was someone else or here by accident.
The landing of the Yacht had brought everyone of the small settlement outside, despite the still pouring rain and they stared and gasped. Right there and then the Pertharians opened fire and hidden weapon ports on the ship opened.
The Inferno was as complete as it was brutal and swift.
The heavy gatlings spat sun hot plasma bolt after the other, flash vaporizing penal colonists by the dozen. For every structure there was now a crater with molten white glowing magma in the middle . The Shiss he had fought just a few moments ago, had been turned into molecular ashes To his right were the smoking leg stumps of the lawyer, sticking in the muck. The rest of his body missing. The Tavern and its owner were gone
Through the pouring rain, the billowing clouds of smoke and steam , back lit by the red glow of burning ruins and trees she approached Harlex. As if taking a stroll on a sunny afternoon a cross Ring Park In Pluribus, with her auburn locks swinging in harmony with her swaying hips she walked over the muck and due to her reduced surface pressure barley leaving a track. In her right she casually held a compact H&K RP 9 (Raketen Pistole).
The man crawling through the mud just before here, was horribly burned and held up his crimson red arm in agony . She didn’t miss a step or lost her charming smile she displayed on her r
ed lips as she discharged her weapon and the mini rocket ripped the man apart, creating a small geyser of mud, blood and humane flesh.
Harlex noticed the Pertharians combing the area with sophisticated life sign scanners and he could hear the occasional crackling blast when their sensors had picked something up.
She had reached him , holstered her weapon and stretched out her hand. “Nice to meet again Harlex. I came to get you out of here and then my employers of mine have a interesting proposition for you.”
Harlex was still in a state of shock. Less than maybe ten or five teen minutes had past, since the ship had landed and everything happened so fast, yet to him it appeared as if had been hours. So many questions wheeled in his mind, to say he was confused would have been an understatement.
He spread his arms and finally managed to say. “Why?”
She kept her smile on her lips that, given the situation disturbed him even more than the destruction around him and then she said. “You are the only person who can get us what we want, of course. You are a genuine Greenie after all.” She pulled her weapon and pointed it at his stomach. “Your cooperation is not optional I might add. You are a criminal now, forgotten by the world. Do what is asked of you and you will be a rich and free man.”
Harlex never was the most honest man in the Galaxy and didn’t mind to bend the rules a little if he thought he could benefit from it. That is why he accepted her proposal back then in the first place, but what the woman had done was mass murder and nothing less.
Federation Police would eventually find out. And as the old saying went. Federation Police worked slow, very slow but always caught the bad guys, always. That this was not just some advertisement slogan but the truth, he knew.
“You will never get away with this. A raid of such brutality will make them turn every rock and if they think I am part of this, I won’t escape the Noose this time.”
She laughed. “You are a simple man, Harlex, a simple man indeed.”
He watched as the Pertharians carried the bodies of two dead Shiss from the landed ship and dumped them in the mud.
She waved the gun. “We are done here, Harlex. I suggest you play along you would not like the alternative.”
Numb and not sure what to think he sloshed trough the mud to the waiting ship with her right behind him. “We will get away with this just fine by he way. The Feds won’t really investigate much, the evidence is clear. A Shiss Raiding party sneaked in the System, jammed the Watch tower satellites and rescued their ship mate.
“It will cause some diplomatic ruckus, Union accusing the Shiss of an act of war. The Shiss denying any knowledge and neither side will risk real war over the death of a few felons. I doubt this little incident will ever make the News.”
After he had stomped up the ramp into the ships hold, he finally managed to ask a more coherent question. “What is it you want from me?”
“We want you to get us something from that planet of yours, something hidden in the Jungles of Green Hell and we figured only a Greenie can get it. No worries we fill you in and in a few month you can afford a beach house at Para Para or Maritime.”
Harlex could not help but wonder what was so valuable on Green Hell that could explain all this.
Chapter 10
Isehia pressed a sub-dermal contact on the base of her jaw and tapped it twice and with that she activated her Data Brain connection to GalNet. She now could make GalNet calls directly using her minds speech center without opening her mouth. It took a little practice to separate what you were thinking and what you wanted to say without using your vocal cords or your mouth, but she was doing it for a long time and because of that she earned a very generous salary. She was an employee, but even she only knew her employers as: ‘The Company’ and her direct contacts only as the ‘Managers’. She had never seen one in person, or more precisely she didn’t know if she had ever seen one.
With a few movements of her tongue she scrolled through the GalNet menu displayed directly into her retina and blinked at the necessary symbols to make the desired connection. The expensive Bombardier Private Space Yacht had left the Penal Colony, already raced past the orbit of the fifth planet and slipped into Quasi Space.
Her Manager came on right away. A suave looking green skinned humanoid posing as a Hegloian and wearing an expensive Saresii Silk Business suit in the classical and very distinguished Cambridge cut. Yet she was certain it was a generated image and had nothing to do with how the real person looked like. He sat behind a featureless glass desk in a sterile white looking office. He had his finger stapled and said. “Ah my dear Isehia, I gather there weren’t any complications?” “None at all, Manager. As predicted the Watch Tower satellites were over 1000 year old, well maintained but completely obsolete and inadequate. We left plenty of Shiss Engine Trail residue, used an old Shiss computronics Virus routine to disable the Watch towers. The Warden’s Island was void of any life signs and the Guards shuttle was gone. We destroyed it anyway.”
The manager did not change his position and remained almost like a static image, if it wasn’t for his moving lips. “The Warden and his small staff were very open to the suggestion to take a little vacation. I know of all the details Isehia, did you secure the Greenie?”
“Yes, Harlex Gedde is currently sitting in the yellow salon enjoying his favorite whiskey and my company.”
“How did he take his liberation and did you make him aware that his new employers insist on his full cooperation?” “His reaction of our activities co-related to his predicted Psych-profile are right on the money. He currently enters stage two : Realization of his current situation.” “Good news then Ieshia. I trust we can proceed then. Failure would not only ruin his day but I would have to re-evaluate your employment status with a very terminal outcome.”
-“”—
While the rented Bombardier Yacht traversed space; speeding with glowing Isah Pods and many times the speed of light through this other dimensional condition known as Quasi Space; towards its distant destination, almost two thousand light years away a man disconnected a highly secure GalNet link and with it a Simu-Life ™ sequence entitled: White Office.
The real surroundings however weren’t all that different from the simulation. He was accused of many things, but never accused of having too much of a creative streak or any real imagination.
Clive Khan was the owner of a small but very profitable consulting firm, specializing in advising import and export companies about the legal and cultural conditions doing business with Free Space civilizations. For almost forty years he crisscrossed Free Space as a Freelancer living hand to mouth doing little jobs and slowly build him a reputation of being reliable, never asking too many questions and knowing every Pirate Outpost, every Free Space Trading market and where to get what. Everything changed when he stared to do business with the Hanuman Cartel and now he was a respected business man with a plush office in the second tallest sky tower of Pluribus. His unseen business associates bankrolled everything; including his high roller lifestyle of course failing them was no option. He had never asked questions or was too curious, but even he wondered what was so valuable on that strange planet, to explain such a detailed operation that went on for many years.
Of course he knew that Green Hell was the origin of the drug Califerm, but the stuff was now grown and synthesized all over the place. Drug business was still a somewhat profitable venture, even though not even once percent of the Union Population used any illegal drugs.
Heck even the use of legal recreational drugs had steadily declined over the last millennia and the Union Health Council estimated that less than eight percent of the entire population were using rec drugs on a regular basis.
Main reason was, that the very reason for drug use had virtually vanished from the daily lives of the main population.
No one had to work if they didn’t want to (surprisingly 90% wanted a job). GalNet Virtual Worlds were a much better escape from reality than most drugs could p
rovide (Virtu-World addiction was a much more severe problem).
Many of the social problems and conditions that existed in societies where illegal drug use was rampant simply didn’t exist at least for the average Union Citizen.
The Gal Drifts who were the main group of Illegal Drug users were mostly Non-Cits in the first place and their numbers were truly insignificant.
Okay, the exotic animal market, especially the black market on dangerous life forms was very lucrative. Rich collectors, private hunting venues and of course the Death Arenas paid astronomical sums for something rare and deadly, but even that did not really explain the operation his clients made him execute.
He was certain he was part of something much bigger.
Curiosity in his line of business and especially in this case would be deadly, but if there was something profitable beyond drugs and exotic animals, he really liked to have a bigger slice of the pie.
So he pulled up his desk unit and made a general info request: Most valuable substances and items. The GalNet Search was instant and populated his field screen with a list:
The most valuable substance by weight is Tritherium shelled- Ultronit lattice Neutronium. A gram of this material manufactured by SII costs about 1 Billion Credits. While it is theoretically the ultimate indestructible material and thus the material of choice for Battle ship armor. The manufacturing process takes many years and the cost of machinery and processes makes it prohibitive to be used. Still it is the most expensive material/ item/ substance known.
Information is among the highest valued commodities. It could be argued that it is the single most valuable commodity. Considering what Governments and Corporations spend on resources to gather it.
Artifacts and items – Verified artifacts of extinct civilizations: Items from such civilizations as the Dark Ones, Celtest, Pree, Uni or the The First League are the highly valuable items and are traded both legally and illegally. (Illegal items are artifacts that are working military weapons)