by Ken Pence
“Yes. You saw how much wealth they had to give away. One of the small stones was worth a lot – stones like we cannot get here and the way they were cut will start a revolution. You saw that catalog. I am anxious to learn more about them.”
“They impressed you?”
“They claim to have defeated the Allung. Who knows what they can do? They have over 40 ships in system and claim to have 60 more. Did they impress me? Are you joking? Yes. They were impressive. They have impressive technology. I threatened them when they arrived and they didn’t blink. Yes. They impressed me,” Preechamix said.
“We need to get them down now. Is everything prepared?” Thiacham asked.
“Yes. I am going to meet them and introduce them to the banking officials and get them scanned for weapons. I will report back tomorrow.” Preechamix said and left.
Thiacham turned as a Ylee in a water-filled suit entered the room. “You heard all that I hope?”
The Ylee stopped. “They came from Allung space and from our observations – many of their ships are Allung. They are more likely here to get your government stock of lamlee. They asked about them. Yes. We know. We monitored Preechamix in his first report.”
“You do not think they defeated the Allung?”
“The Allung have thousands of ships and now those Allung ships can jump – they have advanced technology. The Allung use slaves – these may be slaves of the Allung,” said the Ylee.
“Preechamix never said they wore slave collars.”
“The Allung could have threatened their family. You must be careful. They may threaten your limited supply of lamlee.”
“We have plans to kidnap one or two of them to make them think they need us for protection. We will just question them while we have them. We need you to watch out for their ships. Bring in enough ships to keep them away from the planet,” Thiacham said.
“We only need one ship. We have weapons we have never shown you,” said the Ylee.
***
“I do not feel like we should give up all weapons. We will also stand out in our suits. I don’t want to have what happened at Bellatrix when we had knockout gas used on us,” Andrew said.
His wife, Susan, broke into the conversation, “I know what we can try.”
“Go ahead,” Andrew said. His wife always had good ideas. He hoped the trend would continue.
“Tod, our suits show what is behind us and displays it on our front so we’re virtually invisible. Our suits can defeat molecular disruptors and with Rett’s tweaks, as he calls them, give some protection from laser fire. Also the defensive capabilities of the suits could fight off most physical attacks and amplifies our strength. We obviously need our suits,” Susan said.
“We may need them but they look so out of place – especially here. We would draw too much attention,” Tod argued.
“I realize that…but how much processing output can our Dexs handle?”
“They have a lot more power than we use,” Tod answered.
“Could we have them display our civilian clothing and display our heads using holographic projection – the suit material will be invisible and it could look like we had civilian clothes,” Susan said. “It’s worth a try.”
Andrew turned around and looked at the group. “Let’s try it. Tod. See what you can come up with. Use the highest time acceleration while you’re working on this…we need to see if this works – fast.”
***
Tod and Desiree came out wearing civilian clothes. They came out and posed in several different civilian clothes.
“Okay folks. Now try modeling with your suits on,” Andrew said exasperated and ready to get on with the test.
Suddenly the suits were right there. They had been wearing the suits but sure didn’t look like it.
“That is amazing. It makes me think that we could program the suits to project other beings images.”
Tod spoke up when his suit with helmet switched back to the Tod in casual clothes, “It takes about an hour per person to capture images. We could use our images with any suit and that takes little time at all. We should transmit our images to all suit Dexs. We will transmit other images when we have them and update them all on the fly. It may be a good idea to get image scans of natives whenever we reach a new area. I see a lot of opportunities.”
“Get as many updated as you can. How many suits have you added the Rett update too. It saved his life. That was a field modulation wasn’t it?” Andrew asked.
“Yes, Commodore. It is just a software upgrade. All suits have that modification,” Tod said. “How will we work this?”
“I expect them to contact us shortly. They will be slower because we have the advantage with accelerated time. We’ve waited two hours of normal since our meeting with the customs inspector yet we’ve had over a day of time to prepare. I expect to be contacted shortly. I expect them to put a heavy guard around us wherever we are told to land – for our protection. We will need a full ground team escort with shuttle overwatch.
***
From the Journal of Desiree Bardeen
We all were in our suits when we got word from navigation on where to land. We let the system direct us down. It was a good system – though not as good as the one at Earth. Preechamix was as good as his word. We got off the ship and there was a banker waiting for us. They had a system similar to Bellatrix with a credit slate. We gave him some preliminary gold and jewels to secure credit and transferred some for a week of port fees and security.
Speaking of security – they had a whole gob of military looking guys come scan us. I thought our civilian clothes projection would fail but they didn’t touch us – just scanned us for weapons. They wouldn’t have been so confident if they knew how many weapons Earth had learn to hide from scanners over the last five decades.
They…I guess Preechamix – the customs guy…sent us some transportation and we loaded up our bags with lots of electronics, gold, and those manufactured jewels. We even had a stack of catalogs to give out. Those catalogs became collectors’ items too – we were priming the pump. The transportation was a nice, enclosed bus but it was quiet and smooth. I had no idea of the motive power but it was nice. I reminded my Dex to ask Tod to obtain specs so we could make these buses when we got home.
They let us out at a big hotel. It was large enough to have 1,000 rooms and was the first sign that things were looking up. They had two security types escort us inside and spoke with the staff. They showed us to a series of rooms and said they had acquired a whole floor of rooms. It wasn’t bad – they even had small displays in the rooms but they were crude by Earth standards as was the lame programming. Each room had separate baths with showers. There was running water that we could set from chill to scalding. There were bottles of water and fruits in the room – a big step up though we liked the balcony on Bellatrix better. Phillips would want to set up a hotel here for sure and could probably make a killing.
We freshened up and decided to stir it up. We were getting frustrated at having no leads on the Ylee or finding the source of the lamlee when we got a report from our shadow – the shuttle that had been set to invisible but had paralleled every turn or move we made. We got a call from the ships in orbit that several Ylee ships had positioned themselves between our ships in orbit and the planet. The shuttle reported a Ylee ship landing nearby and being met by squads of Irixians geared like military. Maybe it was going to be like Bellatrix. Andrew ordered the planetoid to move back to the rendezvous point because it was the only non-coated ship and couldn’t stand up to the Ylee pulse weapon Octi had described.
We geared up to go on a walkabout with a guide the customs guy had arranged for us. He seemed like the type you’d get in North Korea at the turn of century extoling the goodness of the government. Little dude didn’t know – then – to fear us more than the government. We set out from the hotel to investigate the nearby trade district. They sent us another bunch of observers. I felt a lot better knowing we were sealed in suits
with an invisible overwatch from near-ground troops and the shuttle overhead.
***
“Squad leader, team one to two. We are following their vehicle. We have two males and a female in civilian clothes. They are moving toward the trading center. They have our guide with them,” reported the Irixian supervising one of the military squads following the Earth traders. “They have some large bundles with them.”
***
Tod looked around at his wife, Desiree. She looked good with the image of the tight fitting clothes. She looked real even though he knew she was wearing the formfitting suit AND extended helmet. He looked over at John Brattor who was accompanying them and the little Irixian guide. They’d have to figure out a way to ditch the guide but he had reluctantly agreed to take them to a seedier section of the trading area.
Their bus stopped at a definitely seamy section with the buildings obviously in a slight case of disrepair. They hopped out and looked at the purple sky with its strange smells. They walked into the dimly lit warehouse and approached a back room. The guide talked to an individual who disappeared into a back room and came out with a large Irixian – a bigger Irixian than they had seen before. The guide introduced the Earth visitors. Tod asked the guide to step out of the room but had to repeat it twice before he left the room, with John, to keep him in sight.
“You speak Irixian well,” said the large being. “My name Retranam Elo Toomalik. My friends call me Retra. What can I do for you?”
Tod introduced himself and explained a bit about themselves – a very little. Tod gave Retra a small bag of precious stones. “We need information and understand that if you do not know something --- you can find out. We want to find out about lamlee.”
“Everyone wants lamlee. This bag of jewels can get you the information but is not enough to buy lamlee. The government only gets them from the Ylee and they restrict their distribution. I cannot get you any lamlee.”
Tod reached into his bundle and pulled out a small graphene case and handed it to Retra. “How much information would this get us?”
Retra took the small box and Tod showed him how to open it with a swipe. Retra opened it carefully and squeaked. “It is full of lamlee. You should not carry this unarmed. It is worth…I do not know. What would you have me do?”
“We are staying at the large hotel a short distance from here. Can you start us credit accounts? We understand the government taxes foreigners heavily. Put the accounts under assumed names or whatever you think is best. We need accounts in different banks that are difficult for the government to track,” Tod said. Desiree had been purposely staying out of the conversation since Irixians disregard the capabilities of females.
“You must want to do repeat business. My fees will be considerable due to the risk.”
“We would expect no less. You take 10% off the top for your expenses. We will start businesses here if we can and traders working with us on every planet have made money. Send trade to our planet and we will give you a percentage of every trade if they mention your name. We have broken the Allung control further out on this arm of the galaxy.”
“That is a generous offer but the Allung have thousands of ships,” Retra countered.
“No. Not anymore. We recently destroyed thousands of their ships in many systems. We have twenty of their ships in system that we boarded and took over.”
“I know a lot about the Allung. They have never lost a battle.”
Tod laughed which Retra did not understand immediately.
“Ah,” he said. “Your race has laughter. There are many new ships in system. Are those your ships? I had not thought to find out who they are yet? Now I will check.”
“They have lost every battle they fought with us. We destroyed four of their fleets,” Tod said and handed Retra a learning cylinder. “This contains detailed information on the Allung, history of their organization, interviews with Allung prisoners, their weapons and ship designs. It also has video from some of the battles with them. I thought this might be necessary.”
“That is interesting. I cannot say I trust you but I am leaning that way. Did you know there are many Ylee ships in system? There is one at government house right now.”
Tod keyed his Dex and projected a three dimensional image of the ships in system. “Indicate our ships,” Tod said and a group of ship images turned blue. “Indicate Ylee ships,” he said and three ships turned red. Other ships were indicated in different colors and were labeled as unknown or listing designation if known.
“That is amazing. How long ago did you record these positions?” Retra asked.
Tod laughed again. “These are live or seconds old.”
“This is valuable technology,” Retra said.
“What is the situation with lamlee on this planet? Why the control on distribution? How stable is the government?”
Retra sat still for a minute. He was obviously making a decision. “You were lucky you came to me. The government implemented controls on lamlee about thirty years ago. The Ylee came here and helped install the current government. The situation here is a bit complicated. The council is managed totally by the Ylee. The council members have become insanely wealthy by controlling the lamlee. You can only buy lamlee from the government and most of the money goes to the upper management in that government. The Ylee sell the limited supply of lamlee to the government.”
“Where do the Ylee get the lamlee? They do not make them.”
Retra made a squeaking sound – Irixian laughter or shock. “The crucial question…we decided the same thing as the volume of lamlee has dropped and the prices went way up. We had a ship follow them. It is highly secret. It is my greatest secret and maybe you can help. You may be able to use the information.”
“Go ahead,” Tod said.
“Twelve years ago a group of us commissioned a stealth ship to follow the Ylee. We had determined a ship that brought lamlee to here. The ship following them used a new communication method and there was a micro-transmitter secreted on the Ylee ship. It was capable of transmitting sixty light years. The stealth ship was able to track the Ylee to a planet fairly close to here. There were several Ylee ships in system. They were positioned over one location.”
“Where is this planet? What was at the location they were guarding?” Tod asked.
Retra looked around and gave me the coordinates for the planet. “I give you the coordinates because we have not been able to do anything. We went to the location the Ylee were guarding and we cannot do anything because we know. Maybe you can help,” Retra paused. “When we first arrived we noticed visually that there was something on the planet. It was a large field that covered a large area. The field switched off while our surveillance team was watching, the Ylee rushed in and gathered up something.”
“What type of field?” Tod asked.
“Our team went down after the Ylee left and the field was there but we couldn’t get through it. The field stayed on whenever we were there. We checked the frequency the Ylee went to the planet and it appears to be every four years. We don’t know precisely but there are less and less lamlee being collected or sold. We have been unable to get through that field.”
Tod looked at Desiree. “This was useful information to us. I think we can help. If nothing else, we will help you make a fortune in trade,” Tod reached into his pack and drew out many catalogs and products. He started explaining the items and gave Retra many NuRiz catalogs. He became almost as excited as when we showed him the lamlee.
“Ten percent?” Retra said.
“Yes. Ten percent. We need something to put back in these packs so they look as full when we leave. We expect to be stopped or robbed.”
“I will get you something.”
Ylee Panic
From the Journal of John Brattor
We left the sketchy warehouse and I didn’t have to babysit the little tour guide any more. He was getting really twitchy after an hour and was crazed by they time they came out of the office after an
hour and a half. They nodded to me and we started off. Desiree looked pleased and grabbed Tod by his arm. The shuttle acknowledged transmission of the entire conversation. Commodore Williams congratulated us on the information.
I knew we would buy land for a Eugene Hotel here that would make a fortune. Dr. Schroeder said we’d be making a fortune from the trade here and would all have accounts here before long. I knew I needed to go on these trips. Desiree asked if I’d take their bags back to the hotel and I thought it was a pretty strange request.
She said it was part of the plan – said that in English and I knew something was up. She told me that the shuttle had reported two Ylee ships at Government House and a team of military was shadowing us. I told her okay and we dropped them off in an upscale district for a dinner and kidnapping. God – I never knew how exciting this stuff was – they were so calm about it. I could hear all the chatter from our shuttle and teams flying cover. Boy – these Irixians are going to be in for a surprise.
***
“Team Two to one. They have dropped off a male and female in the Rixtomond district. We are going to stand out a bit here so we’re pulling back a bit. Team one – shadow the last male and the guide. They may be heading back to the hotel. We may have our criminal operatives moving into position. The male and female are alone without cases and are still in civilian clothes. Tighten it up on the east corner. We’ll hit them before they eat – they will be less reactive.”
***
Desiree turned to Tod. “Let’s go in here. Sensors say it smells good.”
Tod laughed and said. “How are we going to retract our helmets to eat? We need to wander. The military is pulling back a little and cover says five locals are moving in.”
“I’m hungry,” Desiree said as two large Irixians stepped out of an alley just ahead of them.
