“Sir Vazik...I was under the impression all planet mining operations were now required to use Duct Repmining?” Georigi asked, knowing Repmining was the only safe way to mine a planet without negatively affecting its environment.
“Ah, yes, that is usually standard procedure, but since this is a “dead” planet and the cost of maintaining a fleet of Duct Repmining vessels is well beyond a barony such as this...it was decided to use traditional petty mining methods.” Vazik let slip a smirk.
If this was any other time, Georigi would have called the man out, knowing the costs of Duct Repmining should be covered by the ruling duchy, and the purpose was to allow active terraforming while removing the needed raw materials, the current state of the planet's environment being of little meaning.
The process of Duct Repmining was simple. A Repminer, a type of moveable space station, would extend large tubes from orbit, deep into the planet's surface and extract the earth back into space. The raw resources were then mined and the unusable material, mixed with a nutrient rich soil or pure water, depending on the terraforming requirements, was pumped back down into the gaps. This kept the negative mining effects on the planet’s surface ecosystem to a minimum, along with replacing large portions of rock and other barren sediment with the nutrient rich soil or water. The mined resources were then either transferred directly to waiting freighters for export or returned to the surface, via the mining tubes, to the sorting or manufacturing facilities that usually littered the planet's surface.
An elbow struck his side and he winced, noticing that Vazik was staring at him, as if waiting for a response. Georigi nodded for him to go on and Vazik once again turned to his assistant, a smaller section of the projected planet highlighting red.
“These are breeding grounds for the Minisola, a 10 meter tall, twelve legged carnivorous insect that produces some of the finest red silk in the galaxy. The petties farm this silk, and again, we sell it to the business interests within the barrier oasis,” he eyed Lady Vickie, a sly smile showing on his lips. “That red gown, if I am not mistaken, is made of Minisola silk.”
Lady Vickie smiled back. “Very good eye, Administrator. I love the way it feels against my skin.” Georigi looked closely at the dress Lady Vickie adorned, but could not identify it as being any different than the hundreds of other dresses in her wardrobe. Assistant Administrator Illion also stared intently and Sir Georigi immediately recognized the look in his eye, the same look that had taken his crew when Vickie adorned her more revealing attire. The young man turned away when he noticed Georigi's gaze, then, at Vazik's' irritated glance, highlighted another portion of the map green.
“Here we have the Moss stone deposits. This green stone is extremely rare and sells for a high price in duchies that have a requirement for its use, such as Hulk'Zif, that utilizes green within its livery.” Vazik gazed at them both, appearing to try to garner a response, but Georigi held his tongue. “And that is about it for exports. We do have some modest precious metal and rare spice mines, but nothing to brag about.” The projection of the world faded and the next lunch course arrived. The conversation died down, with Lady Vickie answering a few nondescript questions, nothing of importance, until the meal came to an end.
“I would like to thank you both for joining me. Baron Tuhbil has instructed me to provide you all the comforts you require. He has decided to cut short his tour and shall be returning in a few days time. But for now, I will have someone show you to your room.” Vazik and Illion stood, bowing deeply. He and Lady Vickie followed the receptionist, in the tight green uniform, into the main hallway and back to the elevator.
They arrived at another grandly decorated lobby with green gem adorned walls and lush, dark green carpets surrounding a tall fountain in the center. They were escorted up one of the two curving flights of stairs that ran parallel to the fountain and through another ornately carved door. The noble apartment they entered was even more grand then the lobby. A single seating area was situated in the center, the green and gold cushioned couches curving around a stone table that edged a pool lined in moss stone shined to a reflective finish. The curving walls were covered with a single massive programmable matter mural that displayed fearsome animals the likes he had never seen, viciously hunting the small and weak. A large hallway cut through the mural just beyond the stone pool, Georigi assuming it leading to all the amenities they could possible ever need.
“If you require anything, please inform a provided servant,” the woman instructed stiffly as she bowed, closing the door behind her as she exited.
“This is worse than I thought,” Lady Vickie whispered, Sir Georigi having barely heard her.
“Did you pick up on something?” She looked up at him, a hint of fear in her eyes.
“Yes...officially this may be part of the Alutia Duchy, but they are still openly loyal to Hulk'Zif and Duke Zehman...” He'd suspected as much, but hearing it from her lips made it sound even worse. He searched the room for a BAP, finding one, but his attempts to actually access it were denied. The PDU on the table was also locked out, only providing limited functions.
“Sir Ea'Qwa, can you communicate with the rest of your men?” HCis guard captain stood near the door, having silently followed with the rest of his twelve man team.
“No, sir, it appears communication within the barrier oasis is restricted and frequency use requires an encryption key.” Georigi turned to Lady Vickie, who selected the servant icon from the PDU, then looked up into his panicked eyes.
“My dear, this is to be expected. We will be treated as prisoners until our loyalties can be ascertained,” she paused as a female servant entered the room. “Have my things and personal servants delivered immediately.” The servant bowed and scurried away as Lady Vickie turned back to him.
“Might as well get comfortable...we may be here for awhile.” He sighed and took a seat at her side.
She leaned in close. “Just because we are detained, doesn't mean we have to stop with our......personal entertainment.” Her hand ran up his thigh as her seductively voiced words trailed off. He smiled, pushing aside the thoughts of what fate may have in store for them.
Chapter 11
A brisk breeze flowed over the observation outpost, tussling Regalia's lovingly arranged hair. A single lock fell free, swaying across her brow, blocking her vision and tickling her nose. She tried to push the wayward lock back into place, but had little luck, instead, being forced to stick it behind her ear. A tiny bug, which must have been tangled in her hair, was knocked free, landing helplessly in her tea.
It was an odd bug, unlike any she'd ever seen before, just a transparent disk without any noticeable limbs or mouth. She leaned close, poking it with a curious finger, but quickly pulled it away as the bug began to undulate and rise, puffing out its tiny body to catch another gust of wind. Her eyes followed the bug as it vanished over the edge of the platform, spotting movement on the wall of the distant palace. She accessed the enhanced vision setting of the projected viewscreen that spread before her eyes, born of the portable PDU she wore over her left ear. The viewscreen zoomed in on the distant palace, stopping within a few meters of where she'd perceived the movement. A moment later, a familiar hole formed in the outer wall, but no sign of the culprit.
“I just saw a hole appear out of nowhere,” said Regalia with little of her past exuberance, pointing towards the area of the palace she was referring. Tiana and Yukie followed her finger, zooming in their own portable PDU's for a better look.
“Nothing again,” Tiana sighed.
“You actually saw it form this time?” Yukie asked.
“Yes...it started in the middle and grew out, but I never saw anything on the outside or exit the hole,” she sighed, resigned.
The mystery of the strange holes had prevailed for the last 34 days and they'd been gradually spending more and more time relaxing at the observation outpost, instead of actually searching for clues. Queen Vahna had been the first to stray, immediately noticing a few other advanta
ges to the elevated viewing platform the first time they arrived. It not only provided a perfect view of the ever growing Alutia Palace, but also the city emerging around its perimeter. Regalia didn't feel any animosity towards the queen for giving up the search, actually being glad she realized one major feature was lacking throughout the entire palace; balconies. This had led the queen to call upon the Royal Biological Architectural Core, and the newly formed Alutia Biological Architectural Core, who also noticed the advantage of the elevated viewpoint, turning half their outpost into a new base of operations.
Another sigh escaped her lips as she returned to the problem at hand, but was distracted again as the ever increasing number of construction and transport shuttles flew low overhead, on route to the newly completed Alutia City Spaceport. The shuttles worked nonstop, delivering millions of immigrants a day alongside the massive amounts of goods and materials required for the tens of thousands of buildings currently under construction nearby.
Regalia had overheard the chief biological architect mention that the population of Alutia'Earth had already surpassed 100 million. But this number would rise drastically as additional Alutia passenger transports and star liners were brought online and dispatched to rendezvous with the billions of accepted immigrants awaiting transportation. She sighed, realizing her life had become rather dull since Trent and Sasha left, such little tidbits of information her only excitement. She couldn't wait for them to return in four days time.
“The trail! Look at the trail!” Yukie shouted enthusiastically as she rushed to the edge of the platform and pointed to the palace. Regalia and Tiana stood, rushing to her side, leaning far over the railing, and again, zooming in on the newest hole.
She couldn't believe she missed it the first time. But it was there; a barely visible trail of the greenish slime running down the side of the palace. She quickly traced it and found that it appeared to be flowing straight down the outer wall, then, like it could defy gravity, angled left,
“How...” Tiana's voice trailed off.
“Well I'll be.” An architect, who'd been working nearby, joined them when she overheard Yukie's excited shout.
“That green substance may hold a trace of sentience,” said another architect who joined the first.
“No...all our tests returned similar results...just normal plant matter,” Queen Vahna joined them and Regalia suddenly noticed Tiana and Yukie were gone. Eyes wide, she searched desperately, unable to see through the gathering throng of adults. But when one shifted, she noticed the two girls standing in a tube transport with Yukie's guards, waving for her to hurry, their excitement written all over their faces.
“If you'll excuse me,” she curtsied, then started weaving through the preoccupied adults, making her way to the other side of the platform to squeeze into the tube with the other girls. The door slid shut and they started to descend.
“We need to hurry, it might get away!” Yukie and Tiana were both bouncing with anticipation, their catillians matching their movements.
The door slid open and Yukie bolted out first with her 12 Empress Guards hot on her tail. Tiana grabbed Regalia's hand, and with a giggle, they followed close behind.
The streets of Alutia City were bustling. Men and women of all makes and sizes, pushing hover carts filled with goods and furniture into the custom designed biological buildings that rose on all sides. Hovering freight shuttles could be seen overhead, spilling out more goods then Regalia thought possible into openings in the buildings roofs.
They pushed passed a meandering group of debating nobles, Regalia only overhearing part of the dispute, something about the rising costs of growth agents. Tiana turned unexpectedly; skirting past a blocked street where transport engineers were feeding materials down a hole to a transport tube construction vehicle, or TCV, that would safely bore tunnels throughout the planet's crust while laying the transport tube network that allowed for easy transportation to central points within each colony. After another couple of minutes, and a few close calls and apologies, they emerged onto a main thoroughfare, lined with tightly packed biological buildings that Regalia knew were constructed for some of the leading business organizations in the universe.
Regalia had accompanied the queen, at her request, to a conference with a few hundred of the largest common and noble business interests in the universe. Most had arrived with skepticism, not believing that a paradise planet would be fully developed, thinking the private and noble news reports were propaganda to drive business. But when they found it to be true, the land rush was on. Everyone wanted their Alutia headquarters close to the palace to allow easy access to the decision makers responsible for the duchy. Primarily because of the immense gorian deposit, every business hoping to negotiate some sort of exclusive buying agreement. But Queen Vahna had also explained that there was a type of prestige factor for having your headquarters located adjacent to a palace, making it even easier for the businesses to attract talented commons and nobles to Alutia. So by moving large portions of their business operations to Alutia'Earth, they could attract, or steal, talent from their competitors, increasing their own profitability.
Regalia had listened intently, but didn't completely understand the concept and why this was so important, except that the more business performed on Alutia'Earth, or within the Alutia Duchy, the more revenue for Alutia; for Sasha and Trent.
Her mother, on the other hand, had been extremely embarrassed when Queen Vahna had asked why Regalia seemed to not fully understand the NHA’s free, but heavily regulated, market based economy. So for the next week, her studies had concentrated on business, and only business.
There were five major sectors of business within the NHA: manufacturing, trading, retail, services, and academics/research. Retail and services were the largest of the private sectors, since heavy industry was controlled by the NHA ruling nobility. This meant untapped raw material deposits throughout the NHA were always owned by their respective nobles, who ruled over the sector of space where they could be mined. This meant that no private companies, neither noble or common owned, could exploit any raw material deposits in the universe, their ownership always being in the hands of the local nobility or emperor. So a barony that had a tilitium mine would handle the mining operation, usually through the use of petty vassals, then after taxes, were able to keep 10 percent of the mines output. The rest would be allocated further up the chain of nobility, with the marks or earldoms taking 15 percent, duchies being given 40 percent, the galaxy kings owed 15 percent, while the remaining 20 percent was provided to the emperor. The ruling nobility could then sell the tilitium to companies, or other landed nobility, for a minimum price set by the King's Economic Council, or KEC. The prices were regulated per galaxy to avoid exploitation of certain required commodities, but kept close to market driven norms to avoid any sort of major price fluctuations.
After acquiring the raw materials, the businesses would either resell them to other businesses or noble holdings in another galaxy for a higher price, simple commodity trading, or they would use the materials in the construction of a product. Products were interesting, since the consumer market drove the vast majority of occupations for the commons. So to keep the system fair, and drive competition, each product invented was catalogued and controlled by a special Program on Origin. Businesses were allowed to manufacture and sell any products within this catalogue, but were required to pay royalties for each sale of said product to its creator, or the ancestors of its creator. An example her mother used was the interior of Alutia Palace. The actual palace was built by vassals of the king, the Royal Architects and Engineers, but the goods that filled its tens of thousands of rooms were purchased from tens of thousands of different common and noble owned companies.
So, from what Regalia gathered about the system was that businesses were sold surplus materials that were not required for the general construction of mining facilities, noble owned factories, starships, colonies, or any other required use for operating an NHA nobl
e holding. Then the excess material was used to either create products to sell or they would resell the raw materials in hopes of making a profit based off the varying galaxy prices. Her mother explained the entire process in-depth, including NHA credits and how the government was able to regulate its value since the Programs kept tabs on every credit in existence. But she didn't recall much more then the basics, finding she understood the politics of the noble court much better then business and economics.
Regalia ducked as a startled workman stopped his overloaded hover cart moments before crashing into her and Tiana.
“Hey! Be ca...” The man's shout was drowned by the noisy street as they continued on, unfazed, hurrying past a few newly grown buildings that looked identical to the native tree species that filled Alutia’Earth’s pristine forests, then past the startled ABF Battleguards who were on duty at the rose covered arch that led into the palace grounds. Yukie and her guards turned down a side path, cutting between two of the palace wings, then through the immaculate gardens that covered any open space, heading towards the spot where they assumed the oozing green slime would land.
“There!” Yukie shouted as Tiana and Regalia finally caught up, both grasping their knees as they gasped for breath. A trail of green slime flowed to the ground and turned, weaving its way to another path between two wings, in the direction of the undeveloped side of the Alutia Palace grounds. They continued after it, but came to halt as it vanished into the dense growth of Alutia'Earth's native foliage. Yukie tried to continue her pursuit, but two of her guards grabbed her from behind.
“Let me go, we need to find it!” Yukie shouted, trying to wiggle free, but the guards stood firm.
“It is too dangerous, Your Majesty,” Yukie looked like she was about to pop. Regalia, knowing this was her only chance, grabbed Tiana's hand and rushed passed the group, into the virgin jungle.
They easily located the trail of green slime, most of the foliage being partially transparent, providing only a slightly hazy view of the ground beneath. Tiana took the lead, pushing aside the single leaf bushes to allow Regalia to pass, then leading her through the densely packed trees. The going was slow, but bearable, until they came across a patch of semi-transparent, purple bushes that were very spongy, but also very stiff.
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