Lexi, Geena, and Ron spent hours, off and on, sifting through the records captured from the big house, as well as interviewing all of their passengers regarding their abductions. All of them were taken on Naragene Nine and all but two while visiting Designs by Klendin. A few of the women were able to give descriptions of the staff who waited on them. Their descriptions matched those of the six who helped Jis with her fitting.
The captured records revealed little other than the criminal enterprise was both well organized and very businesslike. The mine was close to petering out, surveyors had failed to discover any additional deposits of the rare mineral large enough to be worth mining. The operation was scheduled to be shut down within a few months. Whether or not Kraft would have taken his hostages with him when he left the planet was unknown. They uncovered nothing that explained the purpose behind the kidnappings.
During its eleven years of operation, close to twenty-thousand slaves had died in the mines. Bodies were hauled away and burned on almost a weekly basis. There was nothing they came across that could be used to identify the unfortunates who died. They also found no clues pointing to who Kraft worked for, the true owners of the operation.
Chapter 35
Arrangements
Urania arrived at Borgol forty-one days after departing Hepca. Her passengers and crew suffered no worse than minor bruises and frayed nerves all around, Jis being the notable exception. Ron broke up a couple of fights on the trip, but everyone was in decent shape. He didn’t understand where they found the energy to fight. It wasn’t from caffeine, they ran out of coffee after the first three weeks.
Jadkim E’Kret met them at the port this time. After a tearful reunion with his family, he tore himself away to meet privately with Lexi, Geena and Jis. Kahvia was married to a prince and understood how things had to work sometime. Kacen and Koe were so excited to be home they didn’t think about it. Ron stayed behind to keep an eye on the other ex-hostages, now being held with official apologies in a well-appointed VIP lounge at the port.
All were promised transport to a hotel shortly, where they would be able to bathe and order replacement clothing. Arrangements were being made so that both for their convenience as well as that of the authorities, they could be housed at the same hotel. In the meantime, the amenities of the lounge were at their disposal. While there was nothing approaching a full service dinner in the lounge, snacks and treats were readily available. Kahvia, after a brief discussion with her life mate, joined them in the lounge to answer questions about what they could expect while on Borgol. By then, Kacen and Koe were already in route to the palace. She explained that while they were being held for a short time, their stay would be made as pleasant as possible. Borgol was cooperating with the Naragene Nine authorities. Once Borgol authorities questioned them, they would be free to go. Borgol would help with arrangements if requested.
Jadkim strode into the diplomats’ lounge where Geena, Jis and Lexi were waiting. He immediately rushed forward to clasp the hands of each of them. “I am grateful beyond words for the return of my family. As you can well imagine, I want to get back to them as soon as possible. Despite that, both Kahvia and I have duties to discharge and we both understand that. All of the reward and reimbursement money has already been released to your account. My office has received your preliminary accounting of expenses. I’ll admit I’m curious as why I’m paying for enough hull-metal to rebuild your ship, which doesn’t appear damaged, but I don’t really care. I assume I’ll find it explained in your report once I have time to read it.” He thought briefly of his life-mate and added, “That may not be for a day or two.”
“Thank you, Da E’Kret,” Geena said. “We ordered it for our remodel prior to your hiring us on Cardin. It was fortunate we had it. It was used to build an exoskeleton for our ship. It’s all in the report. There is another problem we hope you can help us with.”
He nodded. “I assume you mean the other unexpected victims you brought back with you. I will join them in the lounge when we’re done here. Kahvia is already with them.” He smiled. “Once I can fill in for her she’ll be heading to the palace to bathe. I almost think she’s more excited by that than spending the night with me. Perhaps I’ll join her in a tub later. As to the off-world victims, I am in a very good mood at the moment, but hope I would offer assistance regardless. We’ll be reaching out to their embassies, but for now, I will take them off of your hands. Not only is it the right thing to do; pragmatically it doesn’t hurt to have political friends on other worlds.” His gaze traveled to Jis as he said that.
“My staff is currently booking them into one of our finest hotels. The hotel should be more comfortable than embassy accommodations. The embassies will send message drones to their home worlds. Borgol will collect the rewards, if any, and transfer those funds into your account as well. We’ll wine and dine them in the meanwhile. I suspect you will find your efforts on my behalf to prove far more lucrative than any of us imagined. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if some of the Naragene magnates have rewards posted that make mine look paltry.” He grunted. “I thought mine were substantial. However, I’m not going to compete with them.”
If anything, his smile became larger. “I would greatly appreciate your being my guests at the palace for the rest of your stay here. I want to also mention it is clear to me that profit was not your primary motive in accepting my case. You will always have my deepest respect and gratitude.” He turned his attention to Jis. “I am overwhelmed that you risked your life for my family. I was puzzled as to why you wanted to go with Aeolus. I had no idea you were planning to let yourself be kidnapped. We need to talk privately before you return home.” He paused. Smiling, he said, “Perhaps not privately, exactly. I think my father and elder brother should be present as well.”
“Thank you, Jadkim,” Jis said. “You are a decent man, which I appreciate, especially as Koe has plans to make you my future father-in-law.” She smiled.
Jadkim smiled back. “Does he now?”
“Yes. It happened rather suddenly while we were making a giant lizard with a magnetic building set Geena bought for him. I’ll join you with the others in the lounge when you go. What about those slaves who are not of prominent families?”
“Until we figure out what to do with them, we’ll put them up in the same hotel as the others,” Jadkim said.
“We’re stopping at Naragene before we return to Cardin,” Lexi said. “We’ll provide them enough funds to get settled or to book commercial transport back to their own worlds if they want to go with us.”
“You may use most of my share of Jadkim’s reward for that purpose,” Jis said. “I merely require payment of one Borgol credit, in cash, please.” She giggled. “I am going to frame it and hang it on the wall in my office. I doubt any of my family has held a paying job for generations.” She looked thoughtful for a moment, “I wonder if Ostrieachia uses cash?”
Geena frowned at her. “That was random, Jis.”
Jis smiled back agreeably at her. “Yes, it was, wasn’t it?”
Ron reminded Lexi over the comm, “We made a promise to the miners we left behind on Hepca to send a transport back for them. See if Jadkim will assist with making that happen and getting them as far as Naragene.”
***
In total, they spent four days on Borgol. Urania was serviced, cleaned, and aired out. The royal family covered those expenses. They stayed at the palace and did touristy things around the city. King Han even threw a small belated birthday party for Lexi, although all of the Borgolians considered the custom to be strange. Belated because they were still in hyperspace on the eighth of December. Admittedly, all the children in the palace loved it. It was hard to tell which they liked most, the cake, the games, or the goody bags. The twenty-five candles on the cake were tapers, rather than small birthday candles, but it was a big cake and Lexi was both touched and able to laugh about it.
Jis left for Ackalon the day before the others left for Naragene. Before she d
eparted, she took the team aside and said, “Shortly after I reach home, I’ll arrange for one of the laws on Ackalon to change. I imagine you will be interested. Going forward, commercial and privately-owned ships of Ackalon registry will be permitted to be legally, and lethally, armed with the signed approval of the planetary ruler.”
She smiled. Lexi was surprised that this woman could look grim while smiling. “That will be me in just over seven months. Still, I am confident I can persuade Father to make it law sooner if you can make it there before then.” She winked. “I’m afraid there will be paperwork. There’s always paperwork. It’s unavoidable. So stop by when you’re ready. I’ll show you a good time while the work is being done. I’m going to miss you all.” She giggled. “You too, Urania. I wish I could hug you.” She shrugged. “Someday I will.”
Jis hesitated. “Lexi, I know all five of us agreed to suppress plans for your Zappers. I’ve thought about it further and decided I want them. All three sizes. They won’t be shared with anyone. I don’t intend to rearm Ackalon’s fleet. When we discussed what you would do with them, I stated it wouldn’t be wise for the Accord to have them. For now, at least, I stand by that. I’m not the Accord. I’m Jis Boc Seckan, an adjunct member of Aeolus Investigations. You guys lead dangerous lives. If anything should happen to you, I don’t think that technology should be lost.”
Chapter 36
Naragene Nine
They still had people sleeping on mattresses in the torn up hold for the trip from Borgol to Naragene. But it was only for eleven days and the ship’s systems mostly kept up with the stress placed on them. Everyone could even take a shower every other day. It was still a relief when they arrived, being assigned to a VIP berth at one of the orbital stations. Message drones from Borgol alerted the moguls that their offspring were coming home on the ship belonging to their rescuers. The six ex-hostages who were repatriated to Naragene, somewhat oddly, decided to return home on Urania, rather than wait for their yachts to come get them. At least the ship no longer smelled. And they restocked the coffee.
Geena and Lexi helped with getting the servants settled on Naragene. Naragene, to Lexi’s surprise, had almost no regulations concerning immigrants. Just show up and register. After thinking about it, she realized that was all she had to do to get her Cardin’s Paradise ID. Apparently that wasn’t uncommon for Accord worlds. Geena mentioned that people in the Accord didn’t tend to emigrate to other worlds, so why go overboard with red-tape for the few who did?
None of them would actually be emigrating. While those who didn’t have spouses or children to get home to planned on using their funds to vacation for a week or so, all planned on booking transport back to their home worlds anyway. Most did have lives they wanted to get back to. The portion of the reward money Jis forfeited for their benefit would get them passage home with a modest sum left over. As it turned out, the vacations were all expenses paid by the Naragene governors. No one warned them ahead of time about that.
Once home, the Naragene natives convinced their parents to pull whatever strings could be pulled to smooth the way to help settle the captives who had been their servants. Despite being off-the-charts wealthy, the ruling families of Naragene were decent people. There were a few tearful goodbyes as people gathered outside of Urania’s hatch. They had lived in close quarters with these people now for almost two months over and above the time spent at the chalet.
The orphans Ron rescued, Nina and Toby, were invited to stay with one of the Naragene families. It wasn’t a last minute decision. The former hostage, Milein, who offered them a home broached the topic with the Aeolus team and then with the children on the flight from Hepca to Borgol. She promised them, as foster children, she would ensure they were well taken care of. She had brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews close to their ages and her parents enjoyed having a gaggle of children around. Their own parents died when the liner they were traveling on was hijacked.
While Lexi and Geena were occupied with that business, Ron met with both Cade and Lawry, the detectives still working the E’Kret and Boc Seckan kidnappings. The cases had gone cold, with no new leads in months. Because of the Naragene victims, they couldn’t let go. Ron felt obligated to relate his experience as a victim. He further informed them all of the hostages were either now safe at home or, at least, on their way home. He turned over the testimonies given by the hostages while on Urania as well as what information the team garnered concerning the identity of the freighter used by the criminals for transport. Not only were the detectives truly impressed by what the Aeolus team accomplished, they already received instructions filtered down from the highest echelons to cooperate in every way possible with the Aeolus investigators.
Lawry mentioned with a chuckle that his captain told them in no uncertain terms they were to fetch coffee if requested. Ron laughed too, saying, “That won’t be necessary. I’ve been warned about your coffee.” After Ron provided a list of the other hostages brought home, they understood why. Six of the nine corporate families were affected.
The detectives invited him to spend time with them tracking down the Naragene Nine connections to the kidnappings. Designs by Klendin, they quickly learned, no longer existed, although Klendin herself was known to already be scouting a new location at which to rebuild. A left-wing extremist faction claimed credit for the early morning explosion three days prior, killing a dozen people in the upscale shop. Among the dead were the entire staff on duty at the time Jis and Ron visited the establishment. Of course, after learning that, Ron wasn’t surprised to learn that two male bodies found in a supply room were local thugs known by the names of Marn and Gurk. He wasn’t sad those two ghouls were no more.
Karl Gee, the Elegan concierge who pointed Jis to the Klendin studio, hadn’t shown up at work for the last five days. Nor could he now be located. He was listed as missing, presumed dead. He may have died in the explosion at Klendin. Not all of the bodies were identified yet.
Ron concluded that the entire operation had been shut down. The detectives agreed, but promised to follow up on the disappearance of the concierge and the murders at Klendin.
Sori, the diplomat Jis met with at the Talmon embassy was recalled to her home planet six weeks earlier. Concerned both of the Talmon diplomats Jadkim and Jis met with may also have been killed, the detectives planned on looping Talmon security investigators into the case. Ron knew that Sori, at least, and probably her boss, hadn’t been involved and may have been spared from what appeared to be a brutal cleanup operation.
***
Aeolus had little choice about attending the celebratory parties thrown for them by the hostage’s six immensely powerful families. The fun and thrill of those events did little to alleviate the disturbing fact that there was no trail left for law enforcement to follow. The team knew it wasn’t their problem. Nevertheless, it left a sense of unfinished business in their minds. All in all, despite the obscenely large, unexpected rewards posted to their account by the six Naragene moguls, it was not a totally satisfactory conclusion to the Naragene episode.
Urania departed from the orbital station for the mining planet the day following the last of the parties to meet up with the transport E’Kret sent to retrieve the rest of the slaves. The transport ship left Borgol the day after they arrived with the hostages. Despite the days the team spent on Borgol and Naragene, they still expected to arrive at Hepca ahead of the slower transport.
Based on his time in the mines, Ron believed there should be enough ore, mined but not yet shipped off planet, to cover the miners’ relocation expenses. The conclusion to the Hepca episode proved devastatingly unsatisfactory.
Chapter 37
Kill Them All
“It’s my fault. My decision to leave them unprotected,” Lexi said, sobbing, alone with Ron in their cabin. Even Urania was giving them privacy.
“No, Lexi,” Ron argued, holding her against his chest. “It was the team’s decision. Mine, Geena’s, Urania’s and yes, I won’t deny it, yo
urs too. The blame, if there is any, is not yours alone. We all share it. Equally.”
He gently squeezed her, adding, “We’ve taken to deferring to your leadership, love. But we retain our right and responsibility to disagree. What else could we have done, kiddo? We couldn’t have taken them on Urania. The only other thing we could have done was to wait here with them. What would the result of that have been?”
The part of her mind that wasn’t stricken with grief and fury knew the answers to those questions. We could have used one of Kraft’s message drones to tell Jadkim we had his family but we needed a transport to bring back the miners. If we had done that, we would have still been here, on Hepca, when the slavers arrived. They would have still slaughtered the miners. The four of us, Jis, and the twenty-six others we managed to rescue would have died along with everyone else. Sitting ducks; all of us. We wouldn’t have been able to fight off the slaver ship once we destroyed the Zappers. Even if we didn’t destroy them, we wouldn’t have been able to target an overhead starship with the exo. It was designed for ground combat only. I doubt we could bring down a starship with two hand-helds. The slaver was obviously heavily armed. The slag-lined pits where the buildings of the mining camp used to be attest to that.
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