Slave Ship

by neetha Napew

  For a few seconds longer, Kud'ar Mub'at watched via the optical node in the smaller chamber as the disguised Balancesheet resumed its cajoling flattery of the Trandoshan Bossk. The assembler kept its own thoughts hidden, disconnected from the strands that might have conveyed them to the accountant subnode or any other that Kud'ar Mub'at had created. Its resolve, that it had already made regarding the fate of Balancesheet, was even stronger now.

  As soon as this business with the Bounty Hunters Guild is over, Kud'ar Mub'at assured itself. Definitely. The assembler allowed its consciousness to flow back from the extended neural fibers of its web and recondense in its own body. Kud'ar Mub'at was once again aware of the main web chamber surrounding itself, where it had left Gleed Otondon, the True Guild's emissary, waiting. Better safe than sorry. . .

  " It's about time," Gleed Otondon grumbled as the assembler raised its head and blinked its multiple eyes." I don't have endless Standard Time Units to waste on this matter."

  " An infinity of apologies. My most profound regrets." Kud'ar Mub'at rearranged itself into the gently sighing, accommodating nest. The assembler performed another imitation of a humanoid bow, lowering the narrow triangle of its head before the visitor." Farthest from my mind is any wish to seem other than entirely honored by your presence; believe me."

  " Let's just try to wrap this up." The assembler's flowery language produced a sour expression on Otondon's sharply angled muzzle." There's really only one basic issue that needs to be settled. And it's a simple one. Are you with us or not?"

  " Pardon?" Kud'ar Mub'at spread wide two of its front legs." What is the precise meaning of-'with'? I don't mean to imply that your words are not of pristine clarity, but-"

  " Stow it. ' Gleed Otondon's irritation was obvious." You know what the score is. There are two factions that came out of the Bounty Hunters Guild, and there's only going to be one left, eventually. And the True Guild plans on making sure it's the one that survives."

  " But of course," said Kud'ar Mub'at with a semblance of a smile on its triangular face." Survival is such a lovely virtue. I've practiced it throughout the course of my existence."

  " Then you'll want to go on practicing it, I bet." Gleed Otondon leaned forward, his hard glare reflected in the assembler's multiple eyes." And the best way to do that is to make sure you're on our side. The True Guild isn't going to feel very friendly toward anyone who didn't help it put the Bounty Hunters Guild back together again. Those renegades in that so-called Guild Reform Committee-they're dead meat. And that's what will happen to anybody else who gets too cozy with them." Otondon turned his head to one side, peering more closely at the assembler across from him." Just how cozy are you with Bossk and that bunch of his?"

  " My dear Gleed." With its upraised forelegs, Kud'ar Mub'at made a fluttering gesture." I understand the appropriate nature of your inquiry, but I am a trifle shocked by it, nevertheless. Suspicion is all very fine-in your trade, it's certainly a necessity-but I've never before been suspected of being an idiot. I do know how things work in this galaxy."

  " I thought you might." Otondon's smile was made even uglier with its suggestion of brotherly conspiracy." You really aren't an idiot, are you?"

  But you might very well be. Kud'ar Mub'at kept his response unspoken." I have not reached the advanced age and influential position that I possess by making poor choices as to friends and alliances." The assembler tapped the claws at the ends of his forelegs together." So you and the others in the True Guild- and of course I regret not having the opportunity and the pleasure to address each and every one of them directly-may rest in the utmost assurance that I am, as you say, 'with' them in this regard. And while the bonds of friendship and the great admiration I have for such eminent and respected bounty hunters as the members of the True Guild would naturally dictate such a response on my part, I would like to ease and reassure your mind even further. It's good business as well, my dear Gleed." The assembler refolded its legs around its cushion-cradled abdomen." Business that I wish to continue carrying out in the future, as mutually profitable as it has been in the past."

  " I don't know about 'mutual, '" grumbled the True Guild's emissary." It always seemed to put more credits in your coffers than ours."

  " How grievously wounded I am to hear you say such a thing." Kud'ar Mub'at let himself sink down into the soft embrace of its nest, the better to indicate its mortification." Perhaps, at that happy time to come, when the upstarts have been so righteously and inevitably vanquished and the original Bounty Hunters Guild has been restored in all its glory, then we can go over our account books together and come to a financial reconciliation." The assembler's voice became even more soothing." If you yourself were to feel that you had suffered some personal hardship, you and I could talk about it. . . privately. Yes?"

  Otondon scratched his elongated chin." Are you talking bribery?"

  " Oh! That's such a crude word, don't you think?" Kud'ar Mub'at shook its head." I prefer to regard such practices as merely a matter of making our friendship-the one between just you and me-even more satisfying than it has been already. And of course, as a matter of friendship, if you were to return to the other members of the True Guild, whose interests you so ably represent, and you were to assure them of the avidity with which I wish to maintain business interests with them. . ."

  " Yeah, yeah; I understand what you're getting at." Otondon gave a slow nod." But I'm not going to do anything like that if it isn't true. The bit about you wanting to stay hooked up with the True Guild, and not having anything to do with Bossk and that Guild Reform Committee bunch."

  " But, my dear Gleed, that is the truth." The assembler lifted one of its forelegs into the air with a dramatic flourish." I swear it. Absolutely and unconditionally." Kud'ar Mub'at tucked the leg back with the others around itself." That's not the sort of thing about which I'd even be capable of prevaricating."

  " It'd better be true," said Otondon grimly." Because it wouldn't be worth my life to tell the other True Guild members that you're with us, and then have them find out that you had handed us a line. Our kind of bounty hunters doesn't reward stupidity."

  Too bad for you, thought Kud'ar Mub'at wryly. The assembler's visitor would have done well for himself, if that had been the case." Rest assured, my most precious Gleed, that the relationship between myself and the True Guild-and the Bounty Hunters Guild, when it has once again come into existence-will be one of exclusivity and mutual profitability. You have my word on it."

  " Good." Otondon gave a satisfied nod." You know. . . I kinda felt all along that we'd be able to do business together."

  Fool. This was the easiest sort of negotiation: telling someone exactly what they wanted to hear. Part of Kud'ar Mub'at wished that they could all be this easy; and in fact, most of them were. It was only when the arachnoid assembler was matching wits with creatures such as Prince Xizor or Boba Fett that the game became both dangerous and interesting. That was what the other part of Kud'ar Mub'at appreciated, what made its own existence worthwhile. The assembler had lived for a long time in the drifting web that it had inherited from its murdered predecessor. Kud'ar Mub'at had been putting together complicated deals and intricate, self-serving schemes before any of the creatures it now encountered had been born. When that much time passes, the search for a worthy opponent becomes an obsession.

  That was why it had been inevitable that Kud'ar Mub'at would have let itself become involved in the scheme to break up the Bounty Hunters Guild. Not so much for the profits that would accrue to the assembler's coffers-though the credits would in fact be substantial-but for the thrill of the game. And the quality of the opponents. Kud'ar Mub'at had been able to see past Prince Xizor, who had brought the scheme here to the web and laid it out before the assembler's multiple eyes, all the way to Emperor Palpatine, so far away on the planet Coruscant. Strings as delicate and intricately connected as any in the web were being pulled, and not all of them were in Xizor's hands. The Falleen noble enjoyed playing
dangerous games as well-Xizor hadn't risen to the top of the galaxy-spanning crime syndicate Black Sun without having a taste for risk, and the skills to pull off those kinds of gambits. Kud'ar Mub'at was well aware of how deeply Lord Vader, the Emperor's black-robed fist, loathed and distrusted Xizor; the Falleen only had to make one wrong move, and every suspicion that Vader had planted in Palpatine's thoughts would be confirmed-fatally so, for Xizor. When you play those kinds of games, mused Kud'ar Mub'at, for those kinds of stakes. . . you can't complain about what happens when you lose.

  In the minuscule heart inside its carapace, Kud'ar Mub'at felt sorry for the little accountant subnode Balancesheet. It had never played at that level, never developed those kinds of sharp, hard gaming skills. If Balancesheet had some notion of mutiny against its creator, as Kud'ar Mub'at had rebelled against its predecessor, it also had little idea of what it was risking. It might never know; the game, and its existence, would be over before it realized.

  Such thoughts were pleasing, but there was business to be concluded. Kud'ar Mub'at turned its attention back to the True Guild emissary sitting before it.

  " I'm sure your time is valuable, my dear Gleed." The assembler swept two of its legs out before itself." Much more so than mine, which is only well spent when it is given to wait upon visitors such as yourself. With that in mind, are we at last in perfect agreement and harmony? The interests of you and the other True Guild members are identical to my own, as far as I'm concerned."

  " They may not be identical," said Gleed Otondon," but I guess they're close enough. For now."

  " Ah. So wisely put. I trust you'll have no problem with going back to your fellow True Guild bounty hunters and assuring them that their friend and business associate Kud'ar Mub'at is indeed, as you say, 'with' them?"

  " Maybe." Otondon shrugged." There'd be even less problem if we settled that other business as well. You know, the bit about the bribe."

  " That unpleasant word again." From deep inside the feathery mandibles of its exhalation apertures, Kud'ar Mub'at sighed." But I do know what you're referring to. After all, I brought the matter up. A little more delicately, though."

  Avarice showed in Gleed Otondon's smile." If we could work it out right now, so that there were some tangible evidence along those lines. . . then I think we'd really be rolling. Got it?"

  " Oh, yes. But of course." With one claw tip, Kud'ar Mub'at scratched the lowest point of its triangular face. The emissary's request for a transfer of credits, from the web's coffers into his pocket, actually raised some difficulties for the assembler. Its accountant subnode Balancesheet usually handled all those kinds of financial details-but right now, Balance-sheet was busy impersonating Kud'ar Mub'at from inside the assembler's discarded exoskeleton. The Trandoshan bounty hunter Bossk was unaware that the actual Kud'ar Mub'at had been in simultaneous negotiations all along, with one of Bossk's enemies from the True Guild. And Kud'ar Mub'at had no intention of ending the masquerade; to do so would send both Bossk and Gleed Otondon into murderous rages, not directed at each other, but first at Kud'ar Mub'at." Actually," said the assembler after a moment of silence," I'm very embarrassed, inasmuch as I cannot presently fulfill your eminently reasonable request."

  " What?" Gleed Otondon barked a harsh, skeptical laugh." You gotta be joking. Everybody knows you're stuffed with credits out here. After all the business you've done, you must be sitting on piles of them."

  " Sadly-that is not the case." Kud'ar Mub'at gave a slow shake of his head. Around him, the assembler's various subnodes gathered closer, like piteous orphans seeking shelter from cold stormwinds. Their various eyes turned toward Otondon's face." Not all of my business ventures turn out so well, as do those where I have joined my feeble abilities with those of your profession. That is why I am so eager to renew the bonds of mutually profitable loyalty between myself and the true heirs of the Bounty Hunters Guild's mantle. There are so many untrustworthy and devious creatures in the galaxy, and I am but a humble go-between, a mere arranger of business between various parties. . . and I am so easily cheated out of what is rightfully due to me." The assembler dabbed at a few of its beadlike eyes with a claw tip, though moist displays of emotion were physiologically impossible for it." And I have so many expenses." The tip of the claw pointed to the clustering subnodes." Really. . . the upkeep on a place like this. . . it's practically more a medical than a business expense. . ."

  " Spare me." The True Guild emissary gazed at the arachnoid creature with disgust." You want to plead poverty, take up somebody else's time." Otondon began fastening the brass hooks of his outer cloak." I don't want to hear it. But don't forget" -he stood up from where he had been sitting, then menacingly leaned over the assembler-" you owe me."

  " A debt of honor," squeaked Kud'ar Mub'at, drawing back from Otondon's jabbing forefinger." Every Standard Time Unit will begin with my recall of exactly this matter."

  " Yeah, I bet." With his massive shoulders almost scraping the chamber's curved, fibrous walls, Otondon looked around himself." How do I get out of here? I've got to get back to the Guild. They'll be waiting for me."

  Kud'ar Mub'at let one of the internal guidance subnodes scurry away and lead Otondon to the web's main docking area. There was another, smaller dock on the other side of the web; that was where the Trandoshan bounty hunter Bossk's ship Hound's Tooth was moored, safely out of Gleed Otondon's view. When Bossk had contacted Kud'ar Mub'at about coming out to the web, to have their business discussions together, the assembler had convinced him that there was a need for secrecy-powerful forces, hinted at but not named, were watching the web and keeping track of its visitors' comings and goings. That had been enough to convince Bossk to go along with the approach and docking arrangements that had kept him unaware of the True Guild's emissary entering the web at the same time. Gleed Otondon had been similarly hoodwinked, and just as easily.

  Without leaving its nest in the web's main chamber, Kud'ar Mub'at reconnected with the neural input from the optical node he'd used just a little while before. The deeply suspicious face of the Trandoshan Bossk immediately came into view, just as clear as if the assembler had been in the other chamber with him, instead of the disguised accountant subnode Balancesheet.

  " What's that?" Bossk turned his head, listening to some distant sound.

  Over the elongated strand of silken neurofiber that connected them, Kud'ar Mub'at directed the optical node to refocus, so that the assembler's discarded exoskeleton could be seen as well.

  " Pardon?" A voice identical to Kud'ar Mub'at's spoke from inside the carapace. The accountant sub-node Balancesheet spread two of the exoskeleton's forelegs apart in a gesture of bafflement." To what do you refer?"

  " What I heard. . . just now." The nostrils on Bossk's scale-covered snout flared wider, as though he could breathe in some telltale molecules from the web's recycled atmosphere." Sounded like a ship taking off."

  In the vacuum of space outside the drifting web, the rush of the low-power docking engines from Gleed Otondon's ship would have been inaudible. But enough vibrations, from the disengagement of the docking subnodes, had traveled through the structural fibers of the web's exterior for Bossk's sensitive hearing to have picked up.

  A smaller tremor, one of apprehension, moved inside Kud'ar Mub'at's chitinous body. If Balance-sheet, inside the assembler's shed carapace, bobbled its response, then Bossk might very well leap to the conclusion-accurate enough-that the web had had another visitor while he had been here.

  " Yes, it did sound like that, didn't it?"

  All of Kud'ar Mub'at's spidery legs clenched around its nest, as it heard the distant subnode's words.

  " But," continued Balancesheet's voice," of course it wasn't. How could it be?"

  In the view from the optical node, dangling from the ceiling of the smaller chamber, Bossk's slit-eyed glance turned toward the carapace with Balancesheet inside." You tell me," said Bossk," just why it wasn't a ship leaving here."

  " It's simple enough
," said Balancesheet mildly." My dear Bossk, the only reason any sentient creature

  comes to my humble web is to conduct business with me. And very grateful I am for their visits. But you see me before you right now, don't you? And for all this time that we've been together, and that I have enjoyed to such a degree-is that not so? I couldn't very well have been discussing business affairs with any other creature, as you've had my undivided attention all the while." A set of the exoskeleton's shoulders lifted in a parody of a humanoid shrug." So why would anyone else have been here? Really-I don't delude myself that my home has charm sufficient to attract guests for any other reason."

  Bossk's eyes squinted even narrower, signaling deep distrust. The scales of his brow tightened as the brain behind them scrabbled at the problem." So what was it, then?"

  " Merely the waste disposal function here aboard my web." The Balancesheet-steered carapace slowly shook its head." How embarrassing to talk of such things, rude plumbing and all! But I have the same housekeeping dilemmas as any other vessel that moves through such empty space as that surrounding us. Some certain waste products must be jettisoned, and for hygiene's sake, it's best to expel them with sufficient velocity to leave the navigational zone around oneself free of-shall we say?-distasteful impediments." The carapace's triangular face, a replica of Kud'ar Mub'at's own, displayed a slight smile." Really, my dear Bossk, even the ships of Palpatine's Imperial Navy do very much the same thing."

  " Oh. Yeah. . ." Bossk slowly nodded." I guess you're right."

  Not really, thought Kud'ar Mub'at to itself. Though the assembler admired the fabrication it had just heard the accountant subnode deliver, the truth was that the web completely recycled its constituent

  matter. Kud'ar Mub'at had an instinctive aversion to letting go of any particle, no matter how small or insignificant, that had ever entered the web's living construct. To do so would have been like losing a piece of the assembler's own body. But, it admitted, as long as this Trandoshan is fooled, the truth hardly matters. . .