Solbidyum Wars 3: Pirates of Goo'waddle Canals

by Dale Musser

  The next morning Kerabac met me as soon as I came down the stairs. He called me outside to the patio, away from the bug in house. “Tibby, today is the deadline date that the Brotherhood gave us to turn over the ship. What do you think will happen?”

  “I’m not sure, but I do know we’re not going to let them have the ship!”

  “I could get some of the Ruwallie Rasson to guard the place here for us — that should keep the Brotherhood out,” Padaran said.

  “Yeah, but it would probably keep Logden out as well.” As we spoke, we noted a small but well-appointed boat pulling up to one of the docks at the front of the estate. “It looks like we have company,” I said.

  “It’s Agama and his men,” Kerabac noted. As the group approached the house, they noticed us on the side patio and diverted their route to walk directly toward us.

  “Kerabac,” Agama said, “you are looking well. I heard you had some problems, but you seem to have handled them.” While he greeted Kerabac, he was also looking around the property rather intently, especially noticing the newly replaced windows and doors. “Word has it that the Brotherhood is not too happy with you. I also hear tell that you had a run-in with the Ruwallie Rasson cartel, and that they were not too happy with you, either. But you seemed to have resolved that issue to your advantage. Oh, congratulations to you — Padaran, isn’t it? I hear rumors you and Kerabac are now partners and that you now are leader of the Ruwallie Rasson. I never thought I would see the day a white man would become their leader.”

  “You came all this way to congratulate us?” Kerabac said in a joking tone. “That was really nice of you, Agama.”

  “Actually, we came to discuss some other business. We hear the Brotherhood is planning on making things difficult for you — in fact, rumors are circulating that they want to kill you. So we’re thinking you might be planning on leaving Goo’Waddle real soon. We happen to have a need for someone to transport a colleague of ours — sort of a courier, like you. Only he won’t be needing a courier band. He needs to make a long trip to the other side the Federation, and we hear that you’re familiar with that side of space. We‘re hoping you would be willing to transport him there in exchange for a significant fee. Of course, it would be dangerous… and we need to you get him through the Brotherhood blockades. Since you‘ve done it once, we figure you can do it again.”

  “I don’t know, Agama; that’s a mighty long trip. It could take over a year to traverse all that distance; I can’t afford a whole year out of my business to just transport one person.”

  “Not even for, let’s say, 20 million credits?”

  “Twenty million,” Kerabac said with a shocked look. His acting was superb. “What makes him worth twenty million?”

  “Let’s just say that there is someone on the other side the Federation that has a need to see him really badly.”

  “I see. And does this man have a name?” Kerabac asked.

  “Yeah, he’s got a name. But that’s on a need-to-know basis and you don’t need to know.”

  “So how are we supposed to talk to him then if he has no name and he is on my ship for year?”

  “OK, you can call him…ahh, call him Sol... Yeah, call him Sol,” Agama said, grinning and puffing out his chest as if he had just said something really smart.

  “Let me talk it over with my associate and my crew,” Kerabac said, as he motioned us over to the far end of the patio.

  “What do you think, Tibby?” he asked.

  “It sounds to me like he is in league with Logden. It would make sense — if Agama and his brother have been smuggling goods from Ryken to Goo’Waddle in the past and Logden was also a pirate and smuggler, he may have worked with them before. He may have approached them for assistance in getting off the planet and past the Brotherhood. It’s obvious from what Agama just said that they’ve been listening to everything going on in that room, like we thought. I say we go for it.”

  “I agree,” Padaran said. “The longer we wait, the more difficult this is going to become.”

  “Marranalis, what are your thoughts?”

  “I agree with you, Tibby. When he was searching for a name to call Logden, he went with Sol. Clearly he was thinking of the solbidyum and thought he was being clever.”

  “Yeah, I caught that. One thing disturbs me, though. They say they want you to carry him all the way across the galaxy. That doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t think they would trust Logden with a three-way split and let him make the trip all by himself, leaving them behind with no guarantees.”

  “I suspect you’re right, Tibby. What do you think they’re planning?”

  “My guess is they plan to meet up with him someplace outside of the area after we get them past the Brotherhood blockade, possibly not until we get somewhere inside Federation territory, where they’re less likely to encounter any more Brotherhood ships. At that point I suspect that Logden plans to pull a stunt like Lexmal did when he took over the TRITYTE. Then they’ll all get together on a larger ship, more suited to Agama and his brother’s tastes, to make the rest of the year-long journey to wherever their destination is. So…this means they’ll have to follow us in a second ship when we leave. They’ll be stopped by the Brotherhood, of course, but once Logden and the solbidyum are not found, they will be right after us again. They’ll probably wait a few days before contacting Logden to make his move.”

  “What’s to keep Logden from making a run for it once he’s off-world, if he were to gain control of our ship?”

  “Who knows? I suspect that he needs them to complete the solbidyum sale. Even with a three-way split, he would have more money than he will ever use in a lifetime. Or maybe they plan to put a courier band on him. I think we should tell them we will accept the deal, but for 40 million credits, since the conditions of this job require us to proceed without knowing why it is so important that he get off-world in secret and without understanding what dangers we face. No doubt they will try to bargain it down, but don’t go less than 35 million credits. If they accept that, I think we can be pretty certain that Logden and the solbidyum are the cargo.”

  We walked back over to where Agama and his men stood. Kerabac began, “Since we are expected to complete this escort without knowing the identity of the man we are to transport or the final destination or, for that matter, the risks we face from the Brotherhood, should they succeed in intercepting us, we feel we cannot possibly do it for less than 40 million credits.”

  “FORTY MILLION!” Agama shouted. “That’s preposterous! Absolutely no way! Even if we had that kind of money, we would never agree to that.”

  “What would you agree to?” Kerabac replied. “Considering that 20 million will not get your friend Sol off this planet on our ship.”

  “Mmm, 30 million – that’s the max I can go!”

  “Thirty? You’re asking us to risk our lives and livelihood for at least a full year… for reasons that we do not know, to a destination we do not know, and at the wrath of the Brotherhood, as well. We cannot possibly do it for less than 40 million,” Kerabac retorted with a stubborn look on his face.

  “OK….32 million, I will go to 32 million, but that is all the money I can pay you! That is a fortune; you and your crew will never have to work again.”

  “Make it 35 million and we have a deal.”

  “Thirty-five? I can’t pay you that now; you would need to wait until you have reached the destination for that amount.”

  “OK then…32 million when we leave here, and the remainder at the other end, before we deliver your friend, Sol,” Kerabac stated.

  “Deal,” Agama said. “We’ll need two days to get things arranged. In the meantime, I suggest you stay out of the way of the Brotherhood; I fear they fully intend to do you some serious harm later today. If I were you, I would get out of this place. I’ll contact you in two days, so be prepared to leave immediately thereafter.”

  After Agama and his men left I said, “You know, I think he is right. We need to ge
t out of here before the Brotherhood shows up. A confrontation now could jeopardize our mission. It’s time to get ourselves to Tondor’s estate inside the Ruwallie Rasson sector of the city where the Brotherhood is not welcome. I have no doubt that his compound remains under heavy guard at all times, so we should be safe there for the next few days until it’s time for us to make our get away with Logden and the solbidyum. It would be really difficult for the Brotherhood to reach us there without starting a war.”

  Padaran then politely stepped forward to join our conversation. “Sirs,” he began, I believe this plan will also give me an opportunity, as the leader of the Ruwallie people and cartel, to get some things in place that will solidify the new conditions for the Ruwallie Rasson so they don’t revert back to their former ways. I need to appoint someone to be my voice here after we leave.”

  “Then it’s settled. Get everyone together, let them know we are leaving and to gather up any items that we brought with us from the ship. Anything we purchased here stays here.”

  “What about Tanden and his sister?” Marranalis inquired.

  “They go with us to Tondor’s estate. We need Jenira to tell us where we can find their father so we can give him money to pay off his debts. We need to see if we can get the entire family together and get them on the ship.”

  “I’ll get Endina to search for their parents as soon as we get into the new place. She may have already made some progress on this issue,” Marranalis said.

  Padaran made a call to Tondor and notified him that we would be moving over to his estate that morning. Tondor insisted that we use the luxury transport which was now Padaran’s property, and said he was dispatching it to us with a security detail as they spoke.

  While we waited, Padaran, Endina, Sokaia, Marranalis and Kala checked around the estate to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind that might reveal our true identities and purpose. While they were engaged in that task, Kerabac and I got in touch with the RASSON BEDAN to let them know we were relocating and to find out any news that we may need to know. Because the ship was inside the local solar system, we did not bring a DSC system with us to the surface — mostly to prevent its discovery if we were captured. However, the RASSON BEDAN did have a DSC system and was in touch with what was happening throughout the galaxy.

  After relating details concerning recent events and the upcoming move, Norkoda replied that he had been waiting for us to contact them. During the night, they received word from Admiral Regeny that another Federation frigate, the LOCOLAT, had been attacked by a very large spaceship of unknown origin two days earlier in an episode similar to the attack on the GROTTOM. The unidentified ship reportedly used the same or similar technology to render the LOCOLAT’s crew helpless. Unfortunately, the frigate had not yet received a cloaking or RMFF system and the ship was captured. As the ship was being boarded, one Nibarian crewmember who, for some reason, had not been affected by the enemy’s weapon, was able to send out a gravity wave message pod relating the attack, but since then, no new messages had been received from the ship.

  Just a day later, according to the admiral, the nearby planet, Kublac, was attacked by Brotherhood ships accompanied by the LOCOLAT and the larger ship we now suspected to belong to the Tottalax. They sacked large portions of the planet, emptied out the armories of their military supplies, and took all the available ships — both military and civilian. Kublac was mostly an outpost planet that hosted no significant resources; and it only had a token military force with a few troop transports and patrol ships — nothing heavy or significant — hence, they were vastly outnumbered and out-gunned. The admiral said that the incident occurred near the Federation border, not too far from this region, and that we should keep our eyes out for any large, unfamiliar ships.

  He also related that many of the ships captured in the raid were military ships stationed at the planet, ships of both Federation and the planetary guard. Most of the ships captured were in space; the bodies of the crews had been discovered floating in space by the Federation ships that arrived in response to the distress call when the attack began; but by then the Brotherhood and the mysterious enemy ship had vanished from the area.

  “This is not good,” Kerabac said. “We know there’s a large contingency of Brotherhood gathered here, and yet they had a great enough force to attack a planet in the Federation as well. Even though we’ve known that they’re spread throughout the Federation, it looks like their numbers are far greater than we believed. In spite of you and the Federation having wiped out large numbers of their ships, the Brotherhood seems to be increasing in numbers and strength; and with each attack they’re commandeering even more arms and ships.”

  “I am not sure what to do about it. The sooner we can get the solbidyum back and get into Federation territory, the better. Norkoda, get in touch with Commodore Stonbersa on the NEW ORLEANS with instructions for the commodore to contact Admiral Regeny directly. He should suggest that the admiral might want to pass all available information about the attacks to A’Lappe, so he can analyze the data and see if he can come up with some sort of defense against this new weapon threat.

  “Also, find out exactly where the frigate RIVED was when it was attacked, and where the LOCOLAT was when they last transmitted. Then let’s connect the dots and see if there is any clear progression or direction to these incidents. I think the ship that was with the Brotherhood in this latest attack may have been the same ship that attacked the RIVED. If we can trace it back, we may be able to discover where it originated.

  “One more thing. I don’t think it’s necessary for the NEW ORLEANS to remain staged at the opposite side of this system any longer. Tell Stonbersa to respond here with the NEW ORLEANS remain cloaked for the time being.”

  It was about an hour and a half later when Tondor’s transport arrived. To be honest, it was more like a huge luxury houseboat, richly appointed with wood paneling, marble-like floors in some places and rich carpeting in others. There was a main lounge equipped with a fireplace, a galley staffed with two chefs, numerous well-appointed cabins for guests and an opulent master suite with the richest furnishings and details that one could imagine.

  “WOW!” Padaran exclaimed, as the captain toured us around the boat. He turned to me and said in a voice the captain could not hear, “I’m almost tempted to stay on Goo’Waddle and run the Ruwallie Rasson, if this is how their leader lives.” I was about to say something when he added, “But I have no intention of staying here or continuing to rule the Ruwallie Rasson. Tondor can do that in my stead. All I want to do is give him directions as to how to rule them from now forward and to end some of their more nefarious practices.”

  “I think that’s a wise move, Padaran. You can guide from afar without all the headaches of dealing with daily minutia that way.”

  “Yeah, and I doubt that my being in charge here would go as smoothly as it will with a Ruwallie Rasson in charge. While, at the moment, most of the Ruwallie Rasson are willing to follow me, believing it’s the will of the gods, it is only a matter of time before some of them begin to challenge that idea… and I don’t want to end up poisoned.”

  Kerabac was behind me when Padaran said this and he laughed. “You are indeed a wise man, Padaran. This way you will go down in Ruwallie Rasson history and legend. If you were to stay, you would most certainly be killed and quickly forgotten. I think you can do a lot to civilize this renegade band. They have given a bad name to my people and portrayed a despicable image of my culture and race long enough. No true Ruwallie Rasson thinks, believes or acts as these do.”

  “We have had similar situations on my home planet,” I said, “and among my own race. By far, the largest portions of the white people in my country were not prejudiced against blacks, nor did they want or approve of slavery; but there were those who did. These conflicting views caused a lot of tension at times and, unfortunately, it was those who were prejudiced that made the most trouble and nurtured an image of hatred between the races, often where l
ittle or none existed. To be fair, though, many of my own race should have stood up in more firm opposition and told the racist bigots to sit down and shut up. Instead, they sat back and let things go, rather than get involved. Too often, their silence was taken as consent by the bigots and by their victims, as well. Tolerating bullies and bigots is never the right thing to do.”

  “I agree, Tibby. You and I think alike on that matter,” Kerabac said as he placed his hand on my shoulder.

  As we approached the area near Tondor’s estate inside the Ruwallie-controlled calganas, we began weaving in and out of gated canals. Each gate was manned by guards, who opened the gates and saluted as we passed. It became obvious that the calganas and canals there were deliberately situated like a maze, in the center of which was Tondor’s estate, occupying the entire expanse of one very large calgana.

  “It certainly looks like the Brotherhood would have a hard time getting in here,” Kala said as she slipped her arm through mine.

  “I was just thinking the same thing,” I replied.

  “Have you tried any of those small pieces of meat on the sticks laid out on that tray over there? They’re delicious!” Kala exclaimed just as my stomach rumbled. I looked in the direction she pointed to see a large buffet of food selections laid out on an island-type bar in the center of the room. Tanden and Jenira were busy sampling all the dishes with extreme delight. It looked and felt good to see them laughing together. Tanden had his hair cut and groomed, I suspect by his sister, and was dressed in slacks and a collarless shirt of some soft fabric. He still had his arm in a cast; but otherwise, he had gained some weight and was beginning to look like any other healthy and happy boy his age.

  Kala and I approached the food bar as Tanden looked up and said in an excited voice, “Tibby, you need to try these fruits. When you bite on them, they pop in your mouth and all this wonderful juice squirts out! They’re really yummy.”