Stars of Charon (Legacy of the Thar'esh Book 1) (17 page)

As we
approached, Loid explained that the other market was an area that the locals
referred to simply as the Hub; and he was right, it wasn’t dingy or seedy. If
anything, it was more luxurious, designed to cater to a different type of
client than the common market traders.

The Hub
was built beneath the Great Market, what it lacked in overall size it made up
for in style. The grey ceiling support pillars were made of some kind of dark
blue smooth stone or polished ceramic, the floor was a matte grey. The
structure of the halls flowed with a natural direction, like a river or a
forest path, and was full of small well-lit private alcoves and comfortable
couches. Instead of booths, there were storefronts built into the wall. Some
had windows with equipment on display, body armor, weapons, various computer
components, though most of them had only small signs on the door written in a
foreign language.

As we
followed our cloaked Noonan, I noticed that the Celestrials and other scattered
aliens in the Hub were much less formal than those I had seen on the streets. I
saw small groups speaking in corners. In front of one shop front, a wrinkled
Celestrial and old grey-bearded human who looked like he could have been
Earthborn were sitting taking turns puffing on some kind of curled pipe. The
place had an air of uniform suspicion. Everyone’s eyes darted side to side warily.
You knew you were watched, but few of the eyes seemed to be prying. This was a
place where beings would let you go about your own business as long as you let
them go about theirs.

“I’m sure
glad they didn’t make all of
this
yellow too,” Ju-lin said as she
dropped back to walk with me.

“Are
there places like this back on the worlds in the Protectorate?” I asked.

“Yes,”
Ju-lin replied nodding to her left. “But they tend to be illegal, so not nearly
as nice as this. That guy there is selling stims, out of a storefront. That’s
crazy. Over there, those rifles in the back? Those are acidic micro-railguns,
they shoot a few hundred tiny, and I mean
tiny
, half a millimeter long
glass containers per second. Each one holds a tiny bit of acid. The containers
burst on impact and the acid will eat right through any armor you have and then
continue to chew right on through the skin.”

“That
sounds horrible,” I said, shuttering.

“That
sounds illegal,” Ju-lin retorted. “You’d have to go out beyond the Protectorate
to somewhere like Smuggler’s Run to find something like that sold out in the
open.”

Our guide
stopped in front of one of the windowless store fronts and gestured us inside.

Loid
bowed again to the Noonan before giving us a warning glance, and entering the
store.

Ju-lin,
finally took a cue from Loid’s lead. She and I each took our bows in turn and
followed him into the shop.

The
interior was in sharp contrast to the exterior. While the Hub had the smooth
and elegant style that I was beginning to expect from the Celestrials, the
interior of the shop was not. I would soon learn that if the Celestrials are
the perfectionists of the universe, the Noonan are the improvisationalists. One
of the wall panels had been pulled up from the floor and bent forward to act as
a display table with all sorts of alien gadgets, the chairs were fashioned from
buckets, and th
e desk in the center of the room
looked like it was made from the hood of a land skiff.

“Welcome, welcome, welcome,” a figure slightly taller than
myself stood up behind the desk and gave three brief bows. Though I had read
that the Noonan were albinos with very pale skin, white hair, and reddish eyes,
I wasn’t ready for the truth of it. The figure in front of us had thin arms and
legs with thin joints a square chin, sunken eyes, and thin golden hair. Beneath
the loosely fitting robe and shadowed hood, I couldn’t spot any of the
tell-tale signs that would indicate their gender. I glanced sidelong at Ju-lin,
she met my questioning gaze with a brief shrug.

“Please, please, please, sit down.” The Noonan waved us
forward with skeletal fingers.

The three
of us returned hurried and inelegant bows, and then pulled up the closest
available bucket-stools to sit opposite side of the desk.

“They call you Eti’katc’kahn.” The Noonan nodded gravely.
“The Skins do not lend their own language lightly. It’s quite an honor to
hold.”

“Some misunderstandings work out better than others,” Loid
said sharply.

“I would bet that’s an interesting story to hear, ye
s it is,” the Noonan responded.

“There
isn’t much to tell, and it’s far too late in the day, and far too early in the
evening to tell them.”

The
Noonan gave a sharp bark-like sound that I assumed was a laugh.

“The Skins
say you keep your business almost as well as you keep your drink.” The Noonan
pulled two cups from a desk drawer, filled them up with two glugs of a thick,
almost syrupy black liquid.

Loid took
one of the glasses and held it up.

“To
profit, to prosperity, to happiness, to drink!” the Noonan clinked Loid’s glass
and they both drank.

I saw
Loid wince as he took his drink as he choked it down, I could only imagine what
was in it.

“To
profit,” Loid croaked out as he tried to clear his throat.

The
Noonan clicked its long fingernails against the desk. I couldn’t tell if it did
so out of annoyance or approval.

“I am
Joof,” the Noonan said, taking Loid’s glass from him and nodding toward the
hooded Noonan who had guided us from the market. “Tolo tells me that you have
weapons to sell.”

“Yes
ma’am,” Loid answered, I was curious if he added the ‘ma’am’ for mine and
Ju-lin’s benefit, but I was thankful for the clarification. “But I also look to
buy, or hopefully, trade.”

“Ah! A
real deal, now that’s more fun,” Joof replied. “What is it I can interest you
in? Cargo scanners? I have a boarding clamp modification system that is nearly
silent, perfect for those times when you need discretion.”

“Actually
I’m looking for something a bit more particular, a messenger drone,” Loid
answered.

“New
messenger drones?” Joof scoffed. “You should be looking upstairs in the market,
we down here in the Hub don’t trouble with such common trifles.”

“I didn’t
say I was looking for a new drone,” Loid answered. “I’m looking for a specific
drone, one that was intercepted by some pirates, and one which you purchased
sometime within the last week, and promptly resold.”

“There it
is,” Joof’s eyes twinkled. “Eti’katc’kahn, the Skins are right to say you are
half mad. Though I would say more than half if you think that you can get me to
give you information on my clients. That is,
if
I had seen or sold any
messenger drones, and I honestly do not recall anything of the sort.”

“I think
you have,” Loid answered. “The man who sent me to you isn’t very well loved by
the Celestrials. He wouldn’t go to them, he’d go to you.”

“There
are more outlanders on this world than just me,” the Noonan responded sharply.
“He could have gone to Kraven the Olsterian, or perhaps the Earthborn fellow
they call Titters, he’s a hacker who works out of the west end, I hear he
dabbles in all sorts of work.”

“Kraven
moved to Nexus, and Titters was air-locked six months back because of some bad
debt.”

“Oh my,
oh my,” Joof held up her hands, palm up. “See I don’t even know who you would
go to. After all, you are Eti’katc’kahn, and I’m just poor Joof.”

“Indeed,”
Loid said icily. “So you no memory of the drone?”

“No,”
Joof responded. “Dearly no, Tolo, have you heard anything?”

The
younger Noonan standing in the corner made a low croaking sound.

“Yes,
see, I think you may have come to the wrong place Eti’katc’kahn,” Joof
continued. “I’m sorry to disappoint. Now to the matter of the goods you have to
sell, did I hear correctly that you have Draugari hardware? Unexploded and
unharmed? That is a rare find indeed. Are they stable? Dare I ask how you came
by such treasures?”

“As your
business is your own, so is mine,” Loid’s face was expressionless.

“Yes,
well,” Joof responded quickly. “What is your price?”

Loid
paused and tapped his finger on the desk, mimicking Joof.

“Come to
think of it, today I am trading first, then selling,” he said at last. “The
drone. You’re certain you haven’t seen one? If you happen to recall anything,
or even know of who may have sold or purchased it, then I may be more inclined
to deal.”

“I do not
deal in names, I deal in hardware,” Joof returned, rising back to her feet.
“And I have no information to trade. If that is what you’re after, I think it
is time for you to leave.”

“Another
day then,” Loid gave a short bow and stood up. “Can you recommend any good
lodging nearby?”

Joof
paused a moment, and tapping the side of her chin with a finger, “Karsh’s is
the closest, but Talash Hall is much nicer and more private, A better value for
certain.”

“Talash
Hall it is,” Loid gave another brief bow.

“Safe
journeys to you,” Joof returned the bow.

“Come
along,” Loid snapped his fingers at his to follow him, and turned and left.

Chapter
19.

The bio-reactive armor was a sign of honor. I slipped the
armor plates on over my shins, arms, legs, and chest. The clasps caught,
automatically retracting and fitting themselves to my form.  The feeling was
strange, foreign. For a moment I missed my clothes and simple armor. I looked
over in the corner where I had tossed them aside. They were the markings of my
old life, nothing but a pile of rags in the dark.

I tried to stand slowly, but I found the suit had a mind of
its own. My legs straightened too swiftly, and I toppled face-first onto the
steel floor.

The bio-reactive suit did its work. My smallest movements
were amplified in strength. Slowly, I moved again. I put my arms down, and,
this time, with control and patience, I rose to my feet. Once stable, I began
to walk. Whatever motions my muscles began, the suit finished with doubled
force.

After several minutes of stepping, lunging, and jumping in my
quarters, I felt more confident. At last, I came to look at myself in the
reflector. My armor made me look fearsome. Strong.

I quieted my mind and felt the rage within and threw my fist
with all my strength. The suit, fed on my energy and enhanced my rage. The
bulkhead rang as I my fist struck steel. I stepped back, rubbing my knuckles
and looked back at the dented steel plate.

Ju-lin
and I followed Loid out of Joof’s shop in silence, walking at a brisk pace. We
were about twenty paces away when Ju-lin grabbed Loid’s arm and pulled him
aside.

“What the
hell was all of that?” She demanded. “Why did we leave? She had to have known
those two were dead, she was testing you. We all know she had the drone, or at
least knew who did. I’ve been around enough Noonan to know that she was opening
negotiations, not shutting us down. If you would have bartered, she would have
given us everything we needed.”

“Hands
off,” Loid pushed her hands away, speaking in low tones. “You’re servants,
remember?”

“I
thought it was slaves?” Ju-lin quieted her voice a little, but was still
seething. “What we are is your clients. Even Eli was surprised you gave up that
easy.”

I
couldn’t disagree. We both looked at Loid, waiting for an explanation.

“Look,”
Loid grabbed both of our shoulders and pulled us in closer.  “Those Celestrial
fighters that the Draugari destroyed at the colony should have been back a few
days ago, right? So whoever sent them is probably getting anxious, and when the
Celestrials get anxious, they cover their tracks. Remember, they are always
methodical, especially when they are scared. I’d bet my ship that they are
watching Joof’s shop trying to find out where she got the drone and if she’s
been in contact with anyone who may know what happened to their pilots.”

“Then why
did we go here?” I asked. “I don’t see what we can gain. Now they may know that
we are looking for it. If they were willing to bomb a colony, won’t they just
hunt us down and kill us?”

“Not only
that,” Ju-lin added. “If they were watching her shop, they probably have it
bugged. They will know where we are planning to stay.”

“Now
you’re getting it,” Loid answered. “Actually, I would be surprised if Joof
hadn’t sent out a wave and sold us out already. They would offer more for us
than we could have paid for the information, and she knew it.”

“First
those pirates at the gas giant, now this, do you make a habit of walking into
obvious traps?” Ju-lin asked. “They probably have assassins around the corner
waiting for us right
now
.”

“We’re
not going to stay at where she suggested,” I broke in. “That will throw them
off.”

“No, we
are going to go exactly where she suggested,” Loid answered.

“What
good does it do if we go exactly where they expect us to be?” I asked,
irritated.

“Maybe it
gives Loid a chance to sell us out?” Ju-lin asked.

“Sell you
out?” Loid answered. “To whom? For what? You’re some kids from a backwater
colony. I don’t mean to sound cold here, but I don’t see why the Celestrials
would want to bother with you two at all. You don’t have anything of value.”

“We saw
what they came for before the ships destroyed the cave!” Ju-lin had said it
loudly, too loudly. A pair of Celestrials down the passageway moved their
heads, they were watching us.

Her face
flushed red.

“
Quiet!
”
Loid snapped. “Dammit, not another word. You saw
something
, you don’t
tell me about, and then decide to scream it so that half of the Hub can hear
you? You may have some crazed death-wish, but don’t drag me into it.”

“I’m
sorry,” she stammered, more to me than to Loid.

“Not
another word,” Loid said flatly. “Nobody will kill us, especially not now that
everyone knows you might have something of value to them. They’ll prefer to
slowly torture you until they find out everything you know. So
shut up
and follow me. I know what I’m doing, unlike you two.”

After
Ju-lin’s outburst, we went to Talash Hall as Joof had suggested. Loid reserved
a two-bedroom suite, one for him, one for Ju-lin, and a mat on the floor of the
main room for me.

When we
were shown to our room, he immediately complained about its smell, demanding
another. I couldn’t smell anything odd, and from her sideways glance, I don’t
think Ju-lin did either, but this time we both held our tongues and followed
Loid’s lead.

The
concierge, a small, young looking Celestrial with flower tattoos on the back of
his hairless head, couldn’t identify or locate the smell, but then, that’s
normal enough. One trick of evolution is that what one human sub-species finds
putrid the next species may find delicious. We were shown to a second room
without hesitation, Loid pronounced the second room to be adequate.

“There,
they probably didn’t have a chance to bug this room yet,” Loid turned to us as
the door shut. He made a sweep of the room, running his fingers along the
windows, looking under the low-mounted desk, and moving around the cushions
that were arranged on the floor that I could only assume were the Celestrial
versions’ of chairs.

Once he
was finished, Loid turned to us, his arms folded across his chest expectantly.

“What?
Ju-lin asked defensively.

“Time to
talk: what did you find?”

“There
was a cave,” I began.

“Eli,”
Ju-lin cut me off.

I
hesitated.

“Look,
you’ve put me in the middle of this mess,” Loid said. “A simple ‘hey Loid’ let’s
run to track who bought a stolen drone is one thing. But ever since we left
your little world, things have been making my life more and more complicated.”

“If
you’re so afraid, why did we come
here
?” Ju-lin’s sass came completely
untied now that we were behind closed doors.

“I think
we were followed,” I interjected. “There was an old man who looked Earthborn
with a Celestrial, two that had been smoking down in the Hub, they left after
we did. I thought I saw them behind us a few times on our way here, and then I swear
we passed the human in the street.”

“How can
you tell one Celestrial from another?” Ju-lin turned to me hotly. “They all
look the same to me.”

“Their
eyes,” I said. “The patterns are different.”

“Their
eyes have patterns?” Ju-lin asked, surprised.

“Eli’s
right,” Loid said, ignoring the tangent. “We were followed, by those two for
sure, and I saw two or three other faces once too often. Ju-lin, you’re clever,
so think it through. Let’s assume that Joof was either bugged, or sold us out
for some coin. Most likely both. If we didn’t come here, then whoever is
following us would be suspicious. If they are suspicious, they will be more
careful, and we will never be able to figure out who they are. Though crime is
different here, there are still laws. Intercepting and selling stolen coms
drones is something that the Celestrial military would not be happy about. They
are trying to build peace with the Earthborn, the last thing they want is a
scandal.”

“Okay, I
give you that.” She said uneasily.

“Back in
the Hub I saw some Celestrials react when Ju-lin mentioned the cave,” I said.
“Won’t they come looking for her? Won’t they want to know what we know?”

“Yes, and
that’s a problem,” Loid answered. “But first, tell me what the hell did you see
back in that cave?”

“Writing,”
I answered. “Well, we think it was writing, ancient shapes drawn on the walls.
We couldn’t read it.”

“Writing?”
Loid scratched his chin. “And they destroyed it?”

“Yes,”
Ju-lin answered. “They flooded the cave with plasma.”

“Okay,”
Loid dropped himself down onto one of the cushions on the floor. “So you saw
some ancient writing on the walls of a terraformed world. That’s interesting.
What about the messenger drone?”

“The
Governor of the colony that found the cave sent it out to notify their corporate
leadership that they had found something,” Ju-lin said.

“Was it
just a message, or did it have images?” Loid asked.

“The one
we saw just had a message,” Ju-lin answered. “My dad intercepted the message
when it was uploaded to the orbital coms relay, no images. Just a description.”

“So then,
Alonso intercepts it, sells it to Joof. Joof sells it to some Celestrials, and
then the Celestrials send some ships to bomb the colony and destroy the cave,”
Loid said as he paced back and forth. “That all makes sense, except the part
where it doesn’t make a damn bit of sense at all.”

“Why
not?” I asked.

“For
starters, a coms drone would take time to decrypt. The Celestrials would have
had to scramble the fighters immediately after breaking into it to make the
time frame we’re talking about here.” Loid answered.  “No preparation, no
planning, they would have had to just send those fighters armed and ready to
burn the site out.”

“That’s
not in their character,” I said tentatively, following his line of reasoning.

“Damned
right it’s not,” Loid said. “An Earthborn will respond quickly for passion. A
Noonan will jump on a quick profit. The Draugari will move decisively for the
sake of tradition and honor.  But the only time a Celestrial responds that
quickly is out of self-defense.”

“How
could some ancient symbols be a threat to the Celestrials?” I knew that my
question would go unanswered. As my words hung in the air I pulled up a cushion
and sat down. Loid was laying on his back, seemingly relaxed. Ju-lin paced the
room.

“The
writing isn’t the threat,” she said. “It can’t be. Not on its own. It’s
whatever MineWorks is after on the world. Maybe it wasn’t the cave, maybe
whatever it is, it’s still on the planet.”

“Why do
you say that?” I asked.

“Why else
would they be monitoring Joof?” she asked. “Why would anyone be following us?
If they destroyed what they were after in the cave, they wouldn’t bother with
trailing us. There is something else to it. Maybe it has nothing to do with the
writing at all.”

“I think
it still has something to do with the writing,” Loid said. “It means something
to the Celestrials. But you’re right about the rest. They didn’t attack just to
destroy the cave. If that was the case they wouldn’t have bothered to bomb the
colony. Maybe it was to scan the area, maybe it was to frighten off the
colonists. Either way, Gramps was right to send you two out looking. The colony
is still in serious danger.”

“We still
don’t know how to figure out who sent the ships,” Ju-lin said.

“Ah, but
we don’t need to,” Loid jumped to his feet. For such a squat man, I was
surprised by his agility. “All we need to find out now is who is paying to have
us tracked.”

“And
that’s easier?” I asked.

“Remember
I told you that, to the Celestrials, crime is just another business?” Loid stretched.
“The thing about business is that it’s regulated.”

“Regulated?
Are you telling me there is some kind of registry for shady lurkers and spies?”
Ju-lin was skeptical.

“Not
quite, it’s nothing so bureaucratic.” Loid answered as he walked toward the
door. “But there is a place for everything, even for shady business. And
besides, I’m hungry. Come on Eli, you’re coming with me. Sorry Twiggy, you will
have to order room service. Just be sure not to order off the second half of
the menu, the Celestrials sometimes like it when their food is still
struggling.”

“You’re
not going anywhere without me!” She barked.

“The
Celestrials are not a welcoming society, and they really don’t allow Earthborn
women your age into the Par’eth.” Loid answered.

“Par’eth?”
Ju-lin looked disgusted. “You’re going to a Celestrian whore house?”

“The
Par’eth is nothing as crude as that,” Loid answered, nodding to me. “And the
translation isn’t whore house, it’s ‘pleasure house.’ It’s a place for food,
drink-”