The gnarled Laurin Oghr who had yet to say a word held up both her claw like hands and showed me five of her fingers, she had three fingers and a thumb on each hand.
Har-Hi cursed and said. “This dump has five stories, doesn’t it have an elevator?”
Something strange happened, the Oghr woman was only looking at Har-Hi without saying a word yet and he seemed to answer to a statement she made. He said to her: “You got to be kidding, fourteen levels and a permanently broken elevator; I pity those who live all the way up and have to climb these stairs every day.”
While we kept climbing I asked my Dai friend. “Was she whispering or something? I haven’t heard a word out of her so far.”
Har-Hi who was behind me on the stairs said with a strange smug tone in his voice. “She hasn’t shut up since she opened the door.”
I was still wondering about that as we reached the fifth floor. Oghr were not known to be psionic gifted and even if she was, Har-Hi was a Union officer and thus should have been shielded. But only Psionics could explain that he could hear her and I could not.This fifth floor did not look any different up here than it looked on the previous floor, except perhaps a little less graffiti. The old woman opened a door at the end of the corridor. It looked just like any of the other doors, peeling paint, exposed press-wood, that started to disintegrate at the corners.
The Ithe waiter said. “This is as far as I go; I need to go back to work and from the mess you both made it will be a long night cleaning up.” Without waiting for a response and without turning he went back to the stairs and rushed back down. We entered what looked exactly like a poor old woman’s apartment supposed to look. Pieces of wet laundry hung on strings. The walls were covered with a once decorative layer of papery material, which peeled in large sections off the wall. A moldy, organic odor with a slight sour and rancid smell hung in the air. There was a tiny living room that was decorated with cheap plastic and ceramic knick knacks of alien design and smudgy seat cushions instead of a sofa or chairs.
An old looking electronic boxy looking device with a flat 2D screen flickered grainy pictures of a military parade. A door led out from the living room onto a tiny balcony, with barely enough room for a person to stand. A flimsy looking rusty railing missing several pieces appeared to be an awfully inadequate safety measure. The vista from her balcony was as depressing as the rest of the apartment. All one could see was the brick wall of another building just like this less than five meters distance. I was sure this Ithe made canyon of brick and concrete created one of those narrow alleys we had rushed through coming here. I had my hand on the butt of my blaster I was carrying underneath the boiler suit and checked the rest of the small flat. There was a tiny hygiene chamber and a small bedroom with a pile of blankets on the floor that appeared to be the bed of the old woman. This was supposed to be a NAVINTcontact and so far everything appeared all right, but I no longer trusted appearances and wanted to make sure we were alone in the apartment. This was only one safety measure of mine; I hated to be surprised in situations like this. As I returned to the living room, Har-Hi seemed in a conversation with the old Oghr woman, yet I could only hear his responses. She held up a framed picture of a much younger and somewhat less ugly looking Laurin Oghr wearing a dark gray uniform and standing next to a black flyer.
Har-Hi said. “Ah I see your son is the pilot chauffeur to the Magistrate.”
I spread my arms and said. “Can someone tell me why I can’t hear a thing?”
I was certain Har-H I was actually grinning behind his Ithe disguise as he said. “Patience my Captain, patience is an important trait in this clandestine spy business. Someone told me that once and not too long ago.”
I wished I could actually stick my tongue out at him and said. “Right back at me, I know.”
He chuckled and said. “You can’t hear the woman because she is a Bunthik and has many methods of having a conversation.”
“Didn’t you say she is a Laurin Oghr?”
The old Oghr spoke for the first time in heavy accented Union Lingo. “They tell me you are a formidable Captain and all that, but it is apparent you haven’t spent much time outside the protected Union space of ours.”
I glared at her, forgetting that glaring was not really possible with stalk eyes and said.
“You are quite correct; it’s more or less my first time.”
Then I looked around and said. “We are able to speak freely. I made sure of that.”
She said. “So did you? This apartment is bugged and under surveillance like every other apartment, but here are even more bugs than elsewhere and when my son comes there are actual agents listening, not just recorders and machines.”
She pointed to her ceiling lamp. ”Karthanian Intelligence visualizer” Then she gestured towards the window, ”Laser ear picking up the sound vibrations of every spoken word.”
I completed her litany and said. ”Drak audio amplifiers embedded in the wall. Your neighbor to the right only lives there to keep an eye on you. I might be a bit green around the gills when it comes to this sector of space, old woman but don’t mistake my apparent youth for foolishness.”
She cackled a dry laugh and said. “It appears that she who calls you Soja has trained you well indeed, how do you know all this?”
I said to her. “I won’t let you see all my rune stones before I know more.”
She laughed again. “Whatever you do to make this flat surveillance proof, please stop it. There are very advanced NAVINT devices that feed the listeners all sorts of information, just not the real kind.”
I exposed my Wrist Comm. and said. ”Shea, you heard the woman I am sure, give the word to Circuit and the others.”
Shea’s spoke directly through the tiny ear piece I carried and she said. “Yes Captain. Our team followed you and was busy securing the place. Circuit is recalling his Nanites and Lt. Bergdorf who was right behind you is on his way back to base. However Narth and Ensign Three-Four haveal ready neutralized the laser ear agents. They are happily lasering the neighbor’s window now and Lt.Fifcheer made the neighbor watch a Tele-entertainment show instead of listening in, do you want them to do reverse that?”
I responded. “No, let it be and tell everyone to stand by for the next part of our plan.” “Aye Captain.”
The woman said. “Relax Captain we have been doing this for years now. Would you care for a cup of Young-grass tea? My son won’t be here for at last another hour.”
I declined, saying: “No I am fine.”
The little kitchen area was separated only by a different floor cover from the living room and she begun to boil water anyway and while she prepared tea she said. “Yes I am of the Laurin Oghr Kingdom.” She paused and made sure I saw her opening one of the shabby cupboards filled with miss matching cups and dishes, some made of faded plastic and some of chipped ceramics. With a gesture to the cupboard she asked again. “Something else perhaps, I have beer, ale or something to eat?”
I raised my hand. “No not at the moment.” I did not want to explain to her that the disguises we wore didn’t let us eat or drink as Ithe and human facial features did not line up. Besides I wasn’t a big fan of tea or the local cuisine.
She snickered and said. “Suit yourself then.”
The shelves inside the cup-board suddenly moved up, cups, plates and all, while with an almost inaudible humming sound a modern, expensive SII-MOLRECON Serv-Matic pushed into view. The machine produced a cup of tea in no time and it did not smell like the bitter grass tea that everyone on this world appeared to be drinking. She said: “Since we have a little time, I believe it won’t hurt if you learn a little about the Oghr kingdoms as they are strewn all over this region of space and some of them are quite big and a force to be recognized.”
I sighed silently and sat down in one of the cushions.
She pointed at her own face and said. “This is not a disguise, I am really that ugly and I am really of the Oghr race and I am well aware how other beings loo
k at us. It is a curse we bear for a very long time. Even the other Oghr species usually shun us and don’t give us the time of day.”
She sipped on her tea and gestured towards Har-Hi. “Your friend is Dai. He knows much more about the Oghrs then the usual Union members. Yes you may know a little about your own Oghrs, the ones that were smart and joined our illustrious Union, but what about the Nine Kingdoms out there? Your Dai friend he surprised me, he even knows one of the ancient and quite secretive sign languages and knows about the Bunthik.”
She raised her hands holding the cup and her fingers moved in what I thought was just a nervous habit and now I saw Har-Hi who still had his arms crossed move the fingers of his right hands in a similar fashion.
He said. “Because the Laurin Oghr are smaller and weaker than any of the other Oghr species they do not hire out as mercenaries, heavy laborers or guards as many of the Oghrs you know do. The Laurin are however known to be good domestic laborers. You know the ones doing laundry, tailoring, gardening and being chauffeurs and such. They are ugly and they know it and because of it they learned to stay out of sight as much as possible, they do their work almost as if being invisible and have made an art out of that. This talent gained them a very good reputation and Laurin domestics often get better pay than domestics of other species.”
I listened as my friend told me about multi-cultural interactions of beings and species I barely knew existed.
The Oghr woman said. “Our kind is promoting and cultivating this reputation for a very long time. However as much as you can be a good domestic you can be a bad one. The talents my species cultivated over the millennia can also be used for other purposes. Those who leave our poor kingdom to seek employment as domestics elsewhere are known at home as the Ranthik. However those who use their skills for other purposes are called the Bunthik. When a Laurin is exposed as being part of the Bunthik he or she is executed in public and by the judgment of our Queen herself for the damage it could cause to the Laurin Oghr reputation.”
She sighed and sipped from her cup, before she continued saying. “Our kind has caught the short end of the stick in many ways after the big Oghr war that broke up the old Empire. We have been breed and used for domestics in the old days and the former Oghr Colonies that became the Laurin Kingdom are poor on natural resources. Being a good domestic is like a religion to us. It is a way of life for almost 5000 years.”
She put the cup down and looked at us for a moment as to see if we still paid attention. Satisfied with whatever she saw she continued to explain. “The Bunthik are like the worm in the Union, a secretive underground organization. They are among the best thieves in the Universe and they know how to obtain information from their masters without them knowing and use it for black mail for example or to sell information to the highest bidder. We Bunthik began our existence out of resentment to be nothing but domestics, barely above slaves. Shunned and dismissed as ugly, forced to dwell in the shadows or wear funny face masks and robes, so we don’t offend has been accepted as our lot in life by the Ranthik, but not by us. One of these days, Captain Velvety you need to learn why there are so many different Oghr species and why it is not nature that made us so ugly and weak.”
She sighed sounding quite human. The Bunthik are a small group, hunted almost to extinction and to stay alive and to give our skills and knowledge to new generations, we have developed many secretive ways, including forms of communication no uninitiated observer would ever even notice.”
Shea who was on the bridge of the Tigersharkand holding the Conn at the moment could see what we saw through the micro optics installed in the stalk eyes and she said into my ear piece. “She needs to be more careful. I have decrypted her finger language. She was asking Har-Hi how he knows that sign language so well and he told her that his nanny was a Bunthik who taught him many of their secrets.”
I turned and asked him. “So how come you had an Oghr nanny?”
The Old woman said. “She learns fast, your Captain.”
He sighed. “Yes she does especially since she has a Level 12 Intellect girlfriend peeking and giving her advice.”
To me he said. “My tribe once raided an Oghr convoy and a Laurin Oghr was one of the survivors. As you know my tribe never participated in slave trade and we never used any sentient beings as forced laborers. We set the survivors free, but she who later became my nanny wanted to stay with us. At first she acted as a spy for an Oghr king, but she really liked me and came clean to my father. She stayed with us and became the Nanny of all my father’s children.”
From the subtle tones of his voice I noticed how much he cared about that Nanny and I wondered why he had never told me about her before.
Our host got up and put the Serv-Matic away, then she said pointing at the Tele-entertainment viewer and the images flickered more than before. “My son has entered the building. He has two guards with him; they will come in for a short moment, check out the apartment and then leave us alone. So I must ask you to hide until they are gone.”
Shea said into my ear. “The apparent flickers of the visuals are a code as well.”
She made us go into the tiny hygiene room. It had only room for a body waste disposal unit that appeared to be made of concrete, a small sink with mirror and a shower stall. She said. “You can see and hear what is going from here and as soon as they are gone you can come out.”
Har-Hi said. “What kind of security goons would not look here first? It’s not exactly a very good hiding place. Not that your apartment has many other choices.”
She wiggled her fingers, saying. “Silly Dai!” and closed the door. We could hear her walking to the front door. I whispered to Har Hi. “I have to agree this was a silly hiding place. They will check this place first.”
Har-Hi tapped me on the shoulder and I turned. The mirror above the small wash sink no longer reflected our images. Instead we could see a mirror image of the small bathroom but without us. We watched as two Ithe in gray coats opened the door looked into the empty bathroom, left the door open and we could even see them step out the front door. The old woman closed her flat door and now I noticed that the entire bathroom rotated 180 degrees. Har-Hi said. “I think this shabby apartment has more than one hidden surprise.”
I agreed. “This is pretty useful if you urgently need a second toilet too.”
A somewhat taller and younger version of the old woman stood in her small living room. That he was male I only assumed because she called him his son and that she was female was only because she was wearing things that looked like things an old woman would wear. Other than those hints there were no real differences between the two Laurin Oghr. Both their skin was greenish and they had big heads that sat on their shoulders without a visible neck. Like their big Oghr relatives they had big maws and yellowish tusks piercing their lower lips. Their tusks were of course much smaller than those of full size Oghrs.
What made them so ugly were the deformed faces, and humps that had the appearance of wart like growths. It looked as if the skin was more or less loosely draped over their skulls and was full of wrinkles and flaps. In appearance they reminded me of the Yotenen, the disguise Mother Superior had chosen as she helped me to escape the slave pen on Alvor’s Cove. I wondered how the old woman knew that Mother Superior called me Soja and the only explanation was they knew each other.
The Oghr in the black uniform held out his hand and said. “I am Cracktik. May I ask you to identify yourself and I insist on Blue-Blue-Red protocol.”
I wondered how this would be possible, but I pressed the biological sensor section that was part of my officer’s implant I had received at the academy. It transmitted a weak Trans Dim-scatter pattern message pulse from my CITI with a complicated code sequence that could only be received by military grade Computronics that were linked to MATA HARI the NAVINT AI.
The old Visualizer screen switched from the grainy flickering images to a crystal clear 3D field screen and the typical female Computronic voice all Fleet
systems had in common said. “Blue-Blue-Red protocol initiated. Correct sequence one received.”
The Oghr chauffeur must have done the same thing as the voice verified receiving sequence two. I swiped my code key against his PDD and he did the same to mine. Only after we also exchanged the basic day code was the procedure complete and he satisfied. He said. ”Captain Olafson it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Lt. Commander Cracktik, NAVINT Section 912. Welcome to NAVINT Field Office Itheamh.”
He gestured to the old woman. “This isLt. Commander Cracktaand she really is my mother. I know this is a bit unconventional but things are never as easy and straightforward in the Intelligence business as they are in the Fleet.”
I acknowledged his statement with a nod.
He gestured us to find seats and took a cup of tea from his mother then he said. “I am a Lauran Oghr, my parents were domestics of a Drak officer many years ago and while they accompanied him and his household on a trip off planet, the ship was raided by Togar corsairs, my father did not survive the attack and we became Togar prisoners. The Togar consider us Laurin to ugly even for soup and sold us to a Slaver. We were purchased by a Karthanian slaver alongside with several Union citizens. We were set free on Outpost 175. My mother had no place to go; she was an ugly Laurin Oghr with a small child.”
The old woman seamlessly took over the story and her eyes glittered moist. “The Union Immigration officers treated us kindly and showed compassion. For the first time in my life I was treated like a real being. I was asked for my needs, my child received medical care and no one looked down on us for what we were or how we looked. I was asked for my opinion, my wishes and when I asked if I could stay I was not turned away. I received my Union school right there on Outpost 175. There were Togar in my class and Bruth Oghrs, a Karthanian and other former slaves and all were treated equally by a Klackteacher. I learned that I did not have to be a domestic and could become whatever I want to be.”
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 6 (The Galactic Chronicles Series) Page 150