A Justice Provider's Tale 02

Chapter 2

Blisterbahl II was in terms of galactic distances not all that distant from Gullster’s Paradise. In terms of Union space and the core region, the sun Blisterbahl and its four planets were still fringe region.

It was located in the Upward Sector but already within spitting distance of the Coreward sector, figuratively speaking. It was also in the outer spur of the Sagittarius arm and way past Stepping Stone and thus all the traffic to the Large Magellan Cloud. It was on the outer edge of the Galactic disc and Galactic West  of the famous Union-Klack corridor which was without question one of the most unstable and potential troublesome regions in known space. A small strip of space that was considered Union space and was right between the Nul and the Shiss empires.

Despite its distance of almost one thousand light-years to Steppingstone, the Blisterbahl system was well developed. All planets had some kind of installations. Blisterbahl II was the seat of the regional Union court, a region that included Gullster’s Paradise at its most distant edge. There was the regional headquarters for the Union Ranger service and the seat of the 988th Union police precinct.

I dropped out of Quasi space between the sixth and fifth orbit with not much MolGas left in my tanks, because that three times cursed Starfinder had me actually heading of the galactic plane and in a general direction of Zee Point station. Not that I would have had any hope to ever make it to a station that was more or less a million light-years removed from the galaxy and parked at the apex position of the Z-axis in relation to the spiral arm view. Speaking to my journal I added. Yeah, me too, I always wonder how they got it there and what they would do there all day long. Come to think of it, I have no idea how someone gets there and if it is accessible to civilians. Well, not a place for runners for sure.

I was glad to be in a civilized system again, with a considerable paycheck in the form of a frozen Antarian in my small cargo hold after a nice uneventful climax to the nine weeks hunt I chased after Sodiban Renow. From New France planet, the headquarters of DeNoir, in the core region of the Union, across seventeen worlds until he got his brain container perforated by something very hot and fast.

Just be patient, Friend. I show you how a trail is picked up as soon as I get on the next one.

Whenever I was thinking about the four-meter tall stiff, in my hold I got this nagging feeling that there was something fishy the way it ended. Every time I did, I also told myself to forget it. I had all my limbs, wasn’t out of unusual expenses and was soon 70 k richer. Eighty kilo credits or Eighty thousand nice ones were the bounty, dead or alive. I figured about ten went for expenses. Ten percent I had to scratch for taxes leaving me with enough profit to finally get a new SII Cosmos Auto Nav XI. Dang, it galled me to shell out almost twenty k, but I will be damned if I ever fell asleep again and ended up somewhere I certainly didn’t want to be.

I wondered why I didn’t see anyone else of the colony, but then they were out scooping that acidly mineral stuff perhaps, and I hadn’t been to the actual settlement anyway. At this point I was convinced, that sun roasted dark-skinned descendant of some Terran Asian strain of homo sapiens had killed the Andorian in cold blood to make sure there wouldn’t be anyone challenging him sacking the shuttle. Who knows maybe Renow had some of the credits left he had essentially stolen. Greed was still a powerful motif and I had hunted quite a few suckers who made that old motivation the core of their troubles.

Ah, why am I keep thinking about that? Renow had it coming, he had been declared guilty in absence because he failed to appear and aggravated the whole situation by seriously hurting a card dealer of the Golden Dream Casino at Maritime planet. Adding more charges to his already growing account of charges. I guess he didn’t care about this anymore and felt he was beyond redemption. Well, his bounty went from forty-five thou to eighty big ones and from ‘capture alive’ to ‘wanted dead or alive’.

I was almost right away hailed by a Spatial Navy patrol consisting of a wing of Wolfcraft fighters.”This is Blisterbahl patrol, Lieutenant Burrh, please identify yourself. You have entered a star system controlled by the United Stars of the Galaxies.”

Since I didn’t want to be mistaken for someone or something hostile by an over-eager Wolfcraft pilot and end up as a dissipating cloud of energy and molecular fumes, I responded right away. “You have my bloody transponder on your long-range scanners, ever since I came within a light-year distance and without a doubt ran my reg and all that already. What’s the idea?”

“Citizen, this is a measure of precaution intended to increase the overall safety of all Union citizens and assets in this system.”

“I am Angel T. Marifou I just send you my FTL license and this DeNoir Comet chaser is registered as Angel’s Wings and it is fully paid for and almost out of go-go juice. I appreciate your Navy boy’s diligence, but I am in the need for some civilization and intend to take care of my business. Any objections?”

“No, Mr. Marifou it all checks out have a nice time in-system.”

“Thank you, Lt. Burrh. Keep up the good work and all that.”

“We will, Citizen. “ There was a tiny pause and he didn’t disconnect.”Say, Mr. Marifou, we noticed you came from the general direction of Shiss space, seen any Shiss lately?”

“Nope, didn’t see any, but I smelled one. Wasn’t cross the line in Shiss space, guys, just at Gullster’s Paradise, found what I was after and now headin’ back.”

“Just checking, Mr. Marifou.”

It wasn’t unusual to be checked out by a patrol, but usually by federal police and not fleet. While the region of Space the Shiss claimed past Gullster’s were firmly in their control for longer than there was a Union, it was a thinly populated region in terms of stars and Shiss colonies and had always been a quiet one. Having an active Fleet patrol of a wing of heavy Wolfcraft fighters on the prowl might have just been a routine thing.

Blisterbahl II is the exact opposite of Gullster’s in terms of climate. I had been here a time or two and didn’t need to consult GalNet for conditions. It’s a wet and steamy world. A GWC 4A. Temperatures almost as high as on Gullster’s but there is plenty of water, basically a planet-sized steam bath during the day and heavy showers and violent thunderstorms at night. I don’t recommend you go outside unless of course, you are a Shaill, they love the planet and thus make up a majority of Union colonists.

While the D designated a dry world. The A was saying this was a world where a standard BaPhy carbon-based NiOx breather could live just fine. How perfect was indicated by the number. On Blisterbahl II, everything was garden so to speak. No outside surface, natural or not was free of some form of plant growth.

Landing was easy, as it was automated by port control. To give you a little more travel education, because that is what you will do a lot in this particular field of work, Blisterbahl Port was a Class D port. Meaning basically all the necessities were there. Fuel, basic repair and maintenance, hotels, restaurants, Union clinic and so forth. Just not a very big selection, like on a C port. No complicated repair and spacecraft service options as on a B port. And you guessed it, everything you could possibly think of and most likely a thousand things you could not, are available on an A-class port.

The size of a port was dictated by traffic options as well. At an A-class you had space busses leave at every moment, access to Trans-matter tunnels. Big passenger ship service, most likely a space train station within easy reach as well.

My Angel’s Wing was now remote-controlled by port systems slipped past the upper cloud ceiling. Once it had descended past the lower clouds, instead of the usual automated process, a very nice looking Chuckian female appeared on the comm. visualizer. “Welcome to Blisterbahl port, citizen. Your registry has been verified and your TL shipmaster license is in perfect order, Mr. Marifou.”

Like all Chuckians, who were a humanoid species, she had her face painted. She had chosen a flowery image and the pink and white flower matched her pink and white hair do with small flowers woven into her curly hair. Her eyelashes enhanced with tiny white flower petals looked nice on her. However, I was never able to take a male Chuckian too serious.

She continued to chirp with her high voice. “We have you on landing pad eighty-seven. There is no landing fee, but we do charge a daily parking fee of fifty-one credits for a craft of your size. We do have premier parking available for Ninety-nine credits per standard day. Subsurface...”

“Say no more, lovely. I’ve been here before and don’t want to scrape caked-on moss of my ship for days.”

“I am assigning you landing bay fourteen. Please be advised Blisterbahl II is a Weapon controlled community and no weapons beyond class VI may be carried. We are also a zero-tolerance community for Califerm users and dealers and discourage GalDrifts from coming here, anyone knowingly bringing GalDrifts, will be fined and must take them back.”

“No worries then. I don’t have the permit for Class six shooters. I never touched Califerm and I survived the Heart chamber bombing of 4992 on Gore II. That should give you a fair idea about what I think of GalDrifts.”

She blinked with her impressive lashes.”Oh, I can imagine. Welcome to Blisterbahl Port and the city of Blisterbahl-Green.”

“Doing anything special after you directed space jocks down in safe berths, today?”

“No Mr. Marifou, I will tend to the needs of my two boys and my husband when he returns from patrol duty. It’s nothing special but quite satisfactory never the less. You might have luck in the Glitter and Glamour district, however.”

I grinned, disconnected and watched an ocean of lights in every conceivable color appear between the sheets of heavy rain that also pelted the transparent material my ship’s bow section. The landing field was a sizeable six-sided field of black wet glistening material with yellow painted markings and more colored lights. Small orbs of red, yellow, green and blue set flush with the black material to designate lift-off segments, landing areas, and elevator platforms.

Robots unfazed by the torrent of rain pouring out of the almost pitch-black night sky serviced various types and all kind of different sized spacecraft. The biggest one present, an eight hundred meters tall Meteor class freighter, also a DeNoir product. was in the process being loaded. The giant sitting on the far left of the hexagon landing field received a stream on standard containers. Handled with great speed by two Octo-bots. These enormous, many stories tall machines with their long tentacle arms of flex metal and syntho muscle looked disturbingly alien as they grabbed containers with machine speed and precision to lift these heavy objects into the open cargo holds of the freighter.

The Angel’s Wing, deposited by a tractor beam on a parking platform sunk beneath the surface and a big robot arm took platform, Angel’s Wing and all deposited it on a track of rails of sort and moved horizontally for at least a mile or two before it came to a stop and was pushed sideways into a yellow stripes marked open-sided box of sorts.

Well, here we are. Now comes the fun part of the jobs.

Turning everything off and putting Angel’s AI in sleep mode I strolled down the underbelly boarding ramp and lowered the freight compartment access. To no surprise really, the Andorian was still there. Just a whole lot stiffer than ever before as I hadn’t bothered to put him into the stasis box where he would have been if I caught him alive. Instead I had exposed the compartment to space and kept it air free. No need for Mr. Renow to stink up my cargo hold. You’ll learn that bioforms of all kind, especially the carbon-based type starts to decompose after they’ve been dead for a little. Plastic tarp or not, you need a lot of Scrub-a-deck to get rid of that smell. Coming from a place that is essential a planet-sized dead body, this wasn’t something I had to learn, but you might have never seen someone no longer among the living. Especially being in that state for a bit.

At the outside of my ship’s park box. I found as I expected to find a call point in the otherwise empty looking corridor that, brightly lit extended in each direction apparently for many miles. On the opposite site were bright yellow and blue colored glass doors of a Personal transport system.

“Hey, guys. I am here at parking bay five-five-three. I need service.”

It took less than five minutes those doors opened and a Plato-Slave wearing a dark blue coverall stepped out and approached me.

He had the logo of the Yellow Ribbon service company on his coverall and on the coverall matching cap he was wearing. “Good First Hour, Citizen and welcome to Blisterbahl-Green port. I am Lun, Yellow Ribbon Inc. You called for services?”

“Sure do, Lun. I need to rent a porter bot and how much is fuel?”

He tabbed the call point next to me, and a Two-Dee display showed the SII-Energy logo. We sell SIIMGAZ, for 1005 per standard slug.” The number appeared on the display. “If you purchase 5slugs or more the first five days of parking are free.”

“Fill her up then. She’s pretty much dry and you guessed it, she’ll gonna need all five she can take. Also, do a Level two on both pods.”

Thousand -five credits for a slug of MolGas isn’t bad. If you aren’t a spacer and own your own ride you may not even know, but ships or pretty much all spacecraft create the energy they need from the controlled annihilation reaction between matter and antimatter. The matter and the antimatter come from your fuel tanks. Half of the matter goes one way and the other half is changed into Antimatter by the Isah-Schmitt process. Both components come together in a force field -Magno core chamber and create the immense energies needed to propel your spacecraft, establish the ISAH field and slip you inside Quasi Space. To increase your spacecraft range fuel, usually, hydrogen or helium is compacted. Meaning the space between the atoms of the liquefied element is compressed, thus much more atoms and thus fuel fit into your tanks. I thanked the Plato as he expertly and without even consulting an expert system found and opened the umbilical ports of the port side fuel intake valve. Then swiped a fifty credit tip in his cred receiver.

Like all Plato’s he was humanoid in shape and standard human-sized. He had dark blue skin, a face, and head that looked as if carved by a very untalented artist trying to create a human face using a blunt chisel out of a lump of granite. I wasn’t too familiar with the Plato, only a relatively small number lived on Union side as free and independent beings. The majority lived outside Union space as a slave thrall species of the Kermac and the Galactic Council. Some say the Plato are the genetically altered form of a similar-looking life form to suit the needs of the Kermac.

The Plato so I heard, were used in the most degrading and dismissive fashion by the Kermac. Bred and kept alive with only the most basic necessities, to serve and perform the most menial labors. Without regard used in the most dangerous and life-threatening work conditions. Easily and cheaply replaced. Not allowed to have names, possessions or form any sort of social bonds with one another.

All this was only very rudimentary knowledge, I heard here and there, but the few I had met on Union side were usually utmost competent and detail-oriented in whatever they did. I did know that they insisted on being called Plato-Slaves as a reminder that their brethren was still in bondage on Kermac and GC side. I also knew no one hated Kermac more. The robot came and I directed the S-10 to pick up, the frozen Andorian package and follow me, but before I left I snapped my finger as I remembered. I said to Lun. “I also like to get a new Astro-Nav. Would you know a place here that sells used spacecraft equipment?”

“Yes, Citizen. There are several. There is ‘Bromley’s Everything-Used’, right outside the North exit and to the left. He is an Oghr, hoarding and collecting everything. He’s honest they say for a used equipment dealer that is. We got Pick-your-part, all the way over by the freight and cargo terminal. Cheaper than Bromley, but you got to know what you are looking for and most likely uninstall it from whatever the scrap scavengers bring in.”

I sighed.”I guess I have to get a new one.”

“Not necessarily, Sir. We have a very nice SII-ACUR-45. Navy surplus, it’s not the newest model, but genuine Union navy, still in the box. I take your’s out, see if it has still any value, put the ACUR in for sixteen and credit you whatever the old unit is worth.”

I smiled. “Now that is a deal I can live with. Make it happen, Lun.”

With the robot following me, I left the Plato to his work. Plato’s were known for their honesty. Yellow Ribbon Services was perhaps the best commercial thing that ever came out of the Union. Three former Navy Captains and two genuine honest to Mickey real Union fleet engineers came together about a thousand years ago or so and started a Non for profit spacecraft rescue and service company out of Frank’s planet, the busiest and most frequented planet in the universe. Using an old surplus Army barge space tug they modified the thing and towed spacecraft in, free of charge and even offered repairs charging only the parts. In return for a donation of whatever the stranded spacecraft owner could afford and a membership in the Non for profit organization. As a Yellow ribbon member, you agreed to help and if possible tow any other space ship in technical distress to the next port and give a small donation to the service annually as much or as little as you could or wanted.

The concept spread like a virus. Today you can find Yellow Ribbon services on virtually every spaceport D type and up. It has turned into a for-profit company but still operated under the same principles. They offered help to anyone in distress, you paid only what the emergency service actually cost, towing within service range to the next port remains free and you still were encouraged to sign up to become a member. If there is ever one thing I would endorse without any restrictions, its Yellow Ribbon. They probably helped and unquestionably saved millions of lives. To this day they are trusted, know to be honest and utmost competent. They now operated a fleet of very specialized, special built and designed spacecraft, known all over as the ‘Yellow Bugs’.

I know out of my own experience what a welcomed sight one of these pot ugly but utility craft can be. Drifting without fuel, a busted mag core line, 200 light-years away from the nearest port.

The doors of the roomy Person-Mover closed and started moving towards the spaceport terminal.

Yes, my friend if you start on this path you need your ship and unless you are related to Rex Schwartz or something like that, you aren’t going to start with something first-rate, brand new and free of problems. A used spacecraft means there are bound to be issues. Go, become a member of Yellow Ribbon. Those 50 credits a month won’t hurt you.

At the actual terminal, I was stopped like everyone else by a hard light barrier from progressing into the actual terminal and from there to the rest of the planet.

The customs officer was an actual being and not a bot. From the looks of it a Triple-Strong. She was human in appearance as her species was the result of Genetic tinkering and engineering long before the Anti-cloning laws and the strict gene tailoring laws existed. The woman looked as if she could arm wrestle a Botnaar and win the match and from the expression in her bored face, I could see she was actually hoping for a chance to do something like that. She waved me over to the inspection desk after the CITI-check turned green and let me pass.”Mr. Marifou, CITI checks out fine, but I like to know what the Porter bot is carrying. You aren’t trying to sneak in a Non-Cit? That plastic wrap job isn’t very convincing.”

“You must be new on the job. That former citizen inside that wrapper is dead.”

“I am doing this for three years now. Any reason you travel with a dead body?”

“None that concerns you, lady. I am a lawful citizen and I have a valid reason indeed, but none I need to explain to you, dead bodies are not contraband or restricted from being shipped or carried from point A to point B.”

“No, they are not but it might be used to conceal illegal wares or restricted goods.”

“I have no time dealing with a bored Customs officer. Either you let me pass right now or you state the reason you detaining me.”

“I am detaining you for suspected illicit trade of wares or goods and potential crime of murder. Please remain still, so you may be scanned, searched and disarmed. I will also confiscate the wrapped organic item for detailed examination.” She grinned.”You picked the wrong woman to mess with. My shift just started and I got all day.”

“And my PDD just recorded and transmitted everything you said to Legal Central.”

She didn’t like that at all but was joined by two of her colleagues and a security bot.

The bot scanned me and the dead Andorian.

One of her colleagues, a male Chuckian with an orange paint scheme on his face said.”His credentials check out. There are no warrants, he is not on the POI list of either the Federal police nor the justice department. He is authorized to carry all the weapons he carries.”

The other checked the scan results of the Andorian, he was an ant-like Klack.”Deceased male Andorian. CITI information links to Sodiban Renow. Declared Non-citizen by Union court decision and sentenced to death in absence. There is a warrant out for him.”

“And that explains him being wrapped up in plastic and brought in by me, a fully licensed private justice provider. Can I go now? I have business at the closest police precinct.”

The Klack said.”One moment, citizen. Scan shows and active tech device on the deceased that does not conform to Union tech.”

The Klack had the robot cut open the tough plastic film and moments later, Mr. Renow was stared at by several individuals. The robot not having any feelings and thus not being the squeamish type had no problem frisking the dead man. Something that I should have done, to be honest. I sort of expected the sheriff of Gullster’s Paradise to have done that before he locked this Andorian outlaw in whatever he called the local jail. In retrospect and considering the individual that presented himself to be the local law enforcement officer, among other things, this was another one of those mistakes I was talking about.

The robot retrieved a small assortment of things and laid them out on the table. Three hundred credit casino chips of the Golden Dream Casino at Maritime planet. A small Interlink jack. The kind Data brain users often had to jack themselves into Virtu entertainment, six rad shielded Polo-coins and a greenish oval thing apparently made of a somewhat flexible plastic material that looked almost like a flattened egg of something, small enough to fit into the palm of a hand.

The Klack picked it up.”A Shiss Nituzzuzh, that what I thought it is. Nothing illegal here.” I am sorry, Mr. Marifou but we just have to be careful. With the Nul threatening to go to war and all that.”

The orange face paint wearing Chuckian put the things in a little plastic bag and handed them to me and gave my Porter bot permission to pick up the Andorian, now mostly unwrapped and beginning to thaw.

I pocketed the plastic bag.”The Nul threatened with war?”

“We don’t now detail. The warning to be on heightened alert went over GalNet One just about two hours ago. I am sure there is more on the news soon.” The Chuckian said.

The Klack motioned the Triple-Strong to take care of another arriving person and paid me no longer any attention.

Luckily I did not have to go far, the local Union Police precinct was in the same district as the spaceport and underground shielded from the wet greenhouse conditions of the planet. I wondered if the world had moderate regions or if all of it was more or less the same, not that I considered settling here.

Once outside the spaceport, I did notice a large number of hover sled using, man-sized naked snails everywhere. Considering the conditions outside, this world must have been paradise to the Shaill.

The desk sergeant behind the entrance of the police building, however, was a standard human without any distinct features that could have given me a clue as to from what world or society he might have originated. Instead of the usual police helmet or duckbill cap, he was wearing an orange cloth strip that had been wrapped around his head in many layers to a towering thing of sorts. His skin had a darker complexion than mine but was shades lighter than that of the sheriff of Gullster’s. He also featured an impressive mustache that extended past his face to both sides of his nose.

He leaned forward and inspected the stiff and then looked over a display I could not see from where I was standing.”Alright, this is indeed Sodiban Renow. Everything checks out Mr. Marifou.”

He held a thin PDD in document display mode and tabbed at it with his other hand. “If you verify here and here, I am authorizing the bounty transfer.”

This I had done many times before. I checked the document, made sure I didn’t sign some local version of something I didn’t want to sign. Made sure the reward was indeed 80,000 credits and pressed my hand on the tablet.

He pointed to the Credit transfer terminal and with a little happy ding, my credit balance was now showing a new balance that in turn caused a happy smile on my face.

“Much appreciated, Sarge.” “What do you want to do with that?” He pointed at the dripping body of the dead Andorian.

“Me? He’s all yours. You just paid for him.”

“I paid for the bounty and he is dead alright. The body is of no consequence. There are no instructions attached to the bounty as to what to do with the body. There are no relatives listed that want to be notified. So would you please take it out of my precinct. The smell isn’t too pleasant.”

“Can you not dispose of it somehow?”

“This is a police department and not a funeral parlor.”

“What are the laws of disposing a body around here?”

“Since there are no relatives or claims for his remains you are its owner and can do whatever you want with it, but do it outside of here!”

I did leave the precinct with the Porter robot in tow. I was venting my frustration.” Just great, now what do I do with that thawing, stinking thing?”

A man in a brown head to toe Bioseal suit, drawn rain hood standing right there next to the entrance to the police station spoke directly to me. “Can you spare a few creds?”

“Seems the Non-Cit, Gal Drift problem isn’t as well under control as they like it to be.” I was not in a good mood, never liked Non-Cits one bit and outright hated GalDrifts.”

But I said.”I give you ten if you know what to do with a large piece of biowaste.” “Waste is recycled according to its type and may present value.”

“How about a dead Andorian not exactly fresh anymore?”

Leaving ‘Simmi’s Cash for Everything’, I had finally managed to get rid of the Andorian and was even five credits richer. Simmi, a Shaill had paid me twenty-eight credits for the dead guy, but paying the bum for this actually very valuable local information and the robot rental ate the rest. Not that I minded. Sodiban Renow was finally history, at least to me and whatever his new owner would do with it I didn’t even want to know.

I stood there on the outside of ‘Simmi’s Cash for Everything’ with my hands in my pockets wondering what to do next. I was a frugal man for the most part, but after a hunt, I always wanted to blow off some steam, maybe find me some female companionship, preferably the real kind. Even though there were robots that left not much to be desired. While Virtu sex had its charms, to me it always felt cheating on myself, even though my senses told me everything was real.

The city of Blisterbahl-Green was spread out both below and above ground. Most of the above-ground part was under a transparent dome, but the Glitter and Glamour district was close to the spaceport and well below ground if I remembered correctly.

I decided to first eat something fancy, check into a nice hotel and see what the news had to say about the Nul situation. War against the Nul might affect my business or even mean re-activation with the Army if the things didn’t go well.

So I flagged a taxi flyer and climbed in. It was not an automated bubble taxi as they were common at bigger cities, but a boxy Toyo-Benz with a live operator. The green pelted being, I could not think of the species said friendly.”Just arrived, Citizen? Where can I take you?”

“Yep, just arrived at Blisterbahl-Green. Can you recommend a good hotel? Not the most expensive, but not the super economy fifty beings to a room - sleep hall either.”

He laughed.”We don’t have sleep halls for sure like they have at some places with lots of No Cits and Gal Drifts. Blisterbahl-planet management was elected by us to keep those at a minimum, and they do a good job for the last thirty-eight years they are managing things. How about the SuperTree Hotel? It’s both a tourist attraction and a favorite by business travelers as well as locals. It has accommodations in virtually every price class.”

“Sounds like a winner, get me there.”

“It’s on the far side of Lake Ocean, about ten minutes. Is that okay?”

“Sure.”

The taxi took off and he steered it after only a few moments into a larger Verti lift conveyor that took us above ground and through an energy curtain past the dome. The rain pelted the Taxi immediately as it flew over the canopy of a dense jungle.

“Any news on the Nul and the war?” I asked.

“Strangest thing ever and I am eager to hear what the official explanation will be. Three days ago, the Nul contact the Assembly. Threatening to go to war if the Gray Nul is not turned over to them. Accusing us, I mean the Union abducting whatever a Gray Nul might be.”

The Taxi had reached the edge of the dark mass of vegetation below and was now over open water. I was leaning forward.”Gray Nul? Aren’t they purple?”

“Exactly. Not that there was any kind of official contact in the past and there had been quite a few hot skirmishes between them and our fleet.”

“Yeah, I remember those news regarding some sort of fighting action just a little over a year ago. Didn’t the Nul attack a recently established colony of ours and also a convoy of freighters?”

“Sure remember that one. The Devi responded and the Nul intruders were destroyed. Fleet made it sound like a minor combat action, but I heard there were hours of fighting. Anything that takes hours of fighting when the Devi is there, can’t be minor.”

“I hear you. So are we at war?” There were lights on the other shore of the large lake that were getting bigger.

“As I said, Sir. This is the strangest thing. It just came over GalNet Two. Admiral McElligott himself spoke and said that no hostile actions need to be expected between Nul and Union forces and that there was no immediate reason for concern. He apologized for being so vague, explaining that the Assembly Security counsel and fleet command are currently in direct contact with Nul leadership and as soon as they had sorted it out themselves would address the Union again.”

Against the dawning dimness of a new planetary day, the silhouette of a forest of gigantic trees became quickly bigger and revealing the source of the lights to be buildings of sorts, nestled around the trunks of several trees, connected to each other with sagging brightly lit transparent tunnel bridges.

The taxi pilot said.”Well, here we are, Mister. The Super-Tree hotel of Blisterbahl-Green.”

So, the Super Tree was meant quite literally and was not just a brand name. Well a few days taking it easy and playing the tourist might not be a bad idea.

I said. “Who knows maybe I find myself soon operating a Battle walker again fighting Purple or maybe even Gray Nul.”

The Green pelted guy laughed again as he guided his Taxi next to a covered platform.”Army?”

“Used to be, did my twenty-two with the 455th Battle walker regiment out of Fort Bangor. If things go hot with the Nul, who knows they may re-activate me.”

“734th System Defense Artillery, also Fort Bangor. Always ferry Spatial Navy around. Nice to meet a fellow ground pounder once in a while. The trip is on me.”

“Alright, trip on you. Tip on me.” I swiped ten credits in his reader, gave him a nod and stepped on the off white stone material the platform was made off.

Transparent doors slid open and I stepped into a plush hotel lobby that could have been just about anywhere in the Union and I doubted hotel lobby layout and elements had changed much in history. There was the typical subdued atmosphere of warm lights, the standard expressions of commercial luxury. Gleaming stone floors, plush green carpets. Polished brass, glass, and chrome. Beings of various species in small groups talking or lounging in plush looking vari form seats.

A Nowak, the human-sized distant cousins of the Holdians, covered with a green uniform and short, but dense brown fur wherever the uniform did not cover his body greeted me from behind the indirectly lit service counter.” Welcome to the SuperTree Hotel. How may I help you?”

“With nice but not too pricey accommodations for a few days for starters.”

“How about our Water level bubble deluxe room. Standard human appointed. Three night special for 399?”

“It has GalNet right?”

“Of course, avatar enabled GalNet in all our rooms and suites.”

“Alright then, sign me up.”

An elegant soft shape S-20 robot-guided me moments later to a glass and brass cylinder. That thing turned out to be an elevator cabin dropping through the lobby floor and sliding along a thin guide cable towards the water surface. The big tree that carried the hotel lobby had grown right next to the water’s edge. The dense forest behind it presented a dark wall. But there were sources of light between the dense foliage. I now saw big ball-shaped objects suspended by similar thin cables by the dozens at various heights.

The elevator stopped just a few feet over the water surface and next to a sizeable spherical object that appeared to be partially submerged.

A telescopic tunnel extended from the bubble and connected with the elevator. It took only a few moments and the robot led me through that carpeted transparent tunnel and into the sphere that revealed itself to be a very comfortable and nice appointed hotel room with a separate bathroom. Two-thirds of the walls were transparent allowing a view at water level over the large lake, with the lights of the city in the far distance on the other shore. The lower part of the transparent walls was underwater and I noticed a large frog-like thing swim by. The bed was double king and looked very inviting to someone using the narrow bunk of his ship for many weeks.

I dismissed the robot, turned on GalNet and flipped to channel two after using the bathroom facilities. Since I traveled without luggage, I used the Auto Dresser of the room to put me into simple black pants and shirt outfit. I also had the thing give me a shave and my goatee a little corrective trim. With my black hair tied to a ponytail, freshly bathed, shaved and groomed I felt refreshed, only a little tired and very hungry.

GalNet2 simply transmitted an image of an empty lectern with the logo of the Union Fleet command below. An unseen commentator informed the viewers to stand by and he did so every two minutes or so. The content browser told me that the Admiral of the Fleet had spoken and the next address was not yet scheduled.

GalNet One always transmitted what went on at the Assembly, unfiltered and without comments.

So I selected GalNet 5. It was the first commercial channel and featured news and comments all day long. Ursup Maglar, an extremely popular Saurian anchor was speaking while the images behind him showed a Nul. Recognizable by the single cyclops eye, the vertical maw with the small sharp-looking pinchers to each side, The entire being looked as if it was made of bulging layers of rubber hoses of various diameter. It had two arms and two legs, but no apparent knee or elbow joints. The hands ended in two-fingered hands with one opposing thumb on each side. Despite a second thumb, the hands looked clumsy. I had seen images of Nul before, but I have never seen one for real. However, I always thought they all were purple. Yet this one appeared to be grey.

Maglar explained.”This is Xon, according to very recently acquired information. Xon is offspring of the current Nul leader. Only within the past hour did we learn that the Nul were led by an absolute ruler, who is unlike the Nul everyone has seen, not purple but gray. Only one in hundred thousand Nul is born gray. Why the gray coloring is of utmost importance to the Nul is not yet known, but apparently, a grey Nul is groomed to rule the Nul.

This Xon was on his way to a place called Narl Gatu and due to important religious reasons had to take this journey sleeping or unconscious in some form.

Xon was kidnapped and an individual named Duke Donheer accused the Union to have done the deed.”

I had forgotten that I was hungry as I listened to the commentary. If that Xon was some sort of prince or son of the current ruler, no wonder the Nul were about to go to war. But the rest didn’t make sense. Why would the Union kidnap this Xon?

I kept on watching. Duke Donheer I knew was the operator of a Sin 4 death fight arena. As wrong it might be in terms of Union laws, to pitch being against being in a fight to the death. I had to admit, I always paid the extra premium channel fee to see the deathmatches. I was always a big fan of a fighter who called himself ‘Terror Hammer’. But he was either dead or had retired as the undefeated champion he was.

Maglar was not done. The channel just finished endorsing a product of particular interest to Klack and returned to the Saurian.”According to the Admiral of the fleet McElligott himself, an official message was received from the Nul government threatening with all-out war, should the gray Nul not be returned unharmed and without delay.

A DEFCON three alert was issued to all military units just a day ago. According to our sources, the Union military was as surprised about this as everyone. No one had ever heard about a Gray Nul. The intelligence community had no warning and assured the Assembly that no agency or agent had kidnapped any Nul, gray or purple.

Now today the Assembly received a second message from the Nul leadership, that everything is alright and that the Nul would not go to war against the Union, but still prepare to punish the really responsible ones.”

I got up, remembering that I was hungry. Whatever spooked the Nul was interesting, but I figured the real reason the Nul backed down was perhaps seeing the Union war machine starting to churn. It would not surprise me to learn that a certain other Admiral conducted a live-fire exercise that was observed by the Nul somehow. Whatever the reason might be, it appeared there was no war after all and I was still hungry.

Slipping into a black dinner jacket, the Auto Dresser provided. I called the Elevator and went to find me a restaurant.

The food was excellent, the view spectacular as the restaurant was inside another suspended bubble, accessible via a slightly swinging transparent tunnel bridge.

Well-fed and quite content I had returned to my room, watched a larger greenish thing snatch a frog creature and was about to go to bed when my eyes fell on the plastic bag with the meager personal belongings of the Andorian. Room service had returned my own clothing cleaned folded while putting whatever I had in my pockets on a black tray sitting on the room’s desk.

There was a Data Brain jack. From my research, I knew Sodiban Renow did not use a PDD but used a brain implant that directly interfaced with his mind. The users and the technology were called ‘data brain’. I still looked at the brain jack and then it hit me. Sodiban was shot in the head, not just to kill him but to destroy the data brain implant perhaps?

Deluxe models could record or interface with a GalNet terminal.

I also recalled the postmaster’s questions about Nul peace. How did he know about that apparently even before even the Nul themselves? Why ask me?

Not my business! Why should I care? Sodiban Renow was a runner and the case was history.

I needed to sleep.

But once something is nagging inside your mind it’s impossible to turn it off, at least I couldn’t. I opened the plastic bag. The small green egg-shaped thing, apparently made of plastic and aluminum, was a Shiss Nit-something the Klack officer said. I searched GalNet and found it right away, the thing was a Shiss Nituzzuzh and basically the Shiss version of a personal data device. I learned that the Shiss version of a PDD could of course not interface with GalNet and facilitate instantaneous communication all across Union space, but it was the product of a Tech level seven society and thus did have a variety of functions.

Since the Shiss society was also completely different structured than ours, not everyone could own a PDD. The Shiss were governed by a strict caste system and the lowest levels were barred from owning anything.

I learned how to open it and found that it was in perfect working order. GalNet informed me that a working Nituzzuzh, could bring five to ten thousand credits on the small item XChange as a collectible item. GalNet also offered a number of interface devices that would translate and decipher whatever was stored on it into the understandable standard.

Well what do you know, the little green thing was worth some money.

There was a mystery there I had no doubt, maybe the Andorian was running to Gullster’s Paradise on purpose.

Again I told myself, that this wasn’t my business and there was no money in the secrets of a dead criminal.