Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire (52 page)

The first day was spent moving the animals, and guiding the Master of the Menagerie in their needs, which occupied most of Haveram’s time. He was in touch periodically with Saber, but the Sheik was busy with setting up his rush reception in such a short time. He had some playthings and harem decorations, as he termed them, for sale or trade.

Kadar, in reaction to a question from Haveram, was indignant when he asked if some of the females that were to have been delivered by the Delta Dawn, with the Christoph boy, were intended for a sheik’s harem.

“No! The youngest were playthings for sale or trade, and the oldest, at fourteen or older, could have been concubines to be trained by the most influential harem wives, if they proved suitable and trainable. They were not of the faith, and could never become a member of a harem.”

“I see I have much to learn of what is most valuable to the sheiks. I’m willing to pay you for my education.” He offered Kadar ten percent of his commission on the animals.

The haggling went on for a time, before Haveram agreed to ten percent of what he earned for delivering the boy, which could be a very large sum, and twenty-five percent of what he earned from the animals. He knew he’d been taken advantage of, but since he didn’t intend to pay him anything, it didn’t matter.

Haveram acknowledged his ignorance. “I had thought the youngest girl recovered by the Poldark authorities was to be raised here as a servant, since she was sexually immature. There were two somewhat older girls, and I assumed they were to fulfill a different role in a harem. I tried to purchase all of them through my same government contacts as I did the boy, but I was told they wouldn’t risk that sale for the lower prices they would bring. They needed to have something to turn over to the police anyway, to show what they recovered from the jettisoned escape pod from the Dawn. My contacts knew the boy was the real prize, because they assumed he was being taken for ransom. I paid a lot for him.”

Kadar nodded his approval. “You made the better bargain, to buy the boy instead of the girls. The Sheik wanted that boy very much. If his father retains access to the wealth he inherited, and to what he stole from the Sheik, it will be a great deal of money. All of it in Hub credits.”

“So the girls were not valuable? I assumed I could obtain more like them on many Rim Worlds. They would be much easier to obtain than wealthy brats for ransom.”

“I didn’t mean they were not valuable at all. They are, particularly if young and fair, and virgin. But they did not have the same potential for pleasing my Sheik. He’ll reward you well for the boy, even if a ransom isn’t possible. He was going to sell the girls anyway.

“My Sheik has many fine wives to provide him male heirs, and daughters to marry off for advantage, but his personal taste does not include young girls. He wanted that boy several years ago, when he was even younger. If there is no ransom, the short miserable life of that boy will end very badly. Only a vast sum of money will save him, and even then he will require reconstructive surgery if returned alive.”

“So pre-teen boys would be a better cargo for Sheik Sayed?”

“For my Sheik, sometimes yes, but he makes them last for months, so he doesn’t need many. In truth, he loves money, trading, and coliseum games more than most boys. Young pretty girls for him make for excellent haggling and trading with the sheiks he invited here, to buy their fighters, to view other boys they may have to offer in trade, and for exotic animals, or fine horses or camels.

“The prestige of what you brought him for haggling is what has made him happy and excited. Alien animals may not thrive here, so he wants to sell them quickly. When he’s happy, my life and those that serve him are happy.”

“Then his meeting me, with my contacts on the Rim and beyond, may prove life changing for these sheiks. When will I meet him?”

“Tomorrow, for breakfast. I will fetch you after the protocol instructor and tailor have visited you today and again early tomorrow. You need to rise early. Being late isn’t acceptable. I have other duties now, to prepare for security when our visitors arrive. Several of my men will remain with you. One of them speaks Standard well and he will guide you to your quarters below the floor of the arena.”

Great, he’d get to smell the exotic dung of the animals kept down there, as well as that of those he’d brought. At least he’d be with Kim and Karl, since the Sheik wasn’t trusting enough to have them inside the palace, even if caged.

After Kadar left, he entered the shower stall in his quarters, housing which was considerably larger and nicer than he’d expected. The protocol instructor would be there in an hour, accompanied by the tailor, so he needed to get the day’s stink removed. He firmly pushed one of the men Kadar left behind out of the bathroom. He wasn’t going to be watched
that
closely, even if his Comtap links were one hundred percent private.

“Bill. How are they treating you? Has Sayed been to see you?”

“Hey Chief. Doing fine. They left me in our own restraints, but let me out of them long enough to shower and put on some flowing pastel colored robes. I’m in a locked and guarded sort of bedroom, with bars on the windows and on this side of the door. Then some girly looking man sprayed me with perfume, even under the damn robe. I wanted to scramble his brains, but Sarge talked me out of it. They took my underwear, boots, and clothes. I have on some damned sandals, and they put our wrist shackles back on me. There are other primitive looking restraints hanging from the walls here. A bizarre form of decoration I guess. Sayed only stepped into the room briefly, never spoke, but looked at me with a strange eager glint in his eyes. I don't know what that was all about.”

The mental image of a tall, medium toned skin man, with a paunchy build in flowing white robes and a headdress was sent to him by Saber. Haveram knew what that glint in the man’s eyes was all about, and what the wall décor was really for, but he didn’t think telling Billy any of that would help the kid’s disposition. The boy sure as hell wouldn’t let the Sheik survive any attempt to take advantage of his presumed helpless prisoner. A Krall might reluctantly decide to eat you, despite your poor taste. They would never try to bugger you.

Thad, from a secure stealthed perch on a high ledge out of anyone’s way, informed them that Sayed was bustling about the palace, shouting orders, bullying his hundred member staff on details of food, guest room preparation, décor, fresh flowers, and a hundred other trivial things.

Haveram shared with the team what he’d learned of Sayed’s liking of boys, his apparent sadism, and that his invited guests were of similar dispositions, but usually preferring young women or small girls. Fortunately, it appeared the Sheik would be too preoccupied today to find time to get his perverted ass killed by provoking Saber. Sayed really wanted the gathering to happen on schedule, and it seemed that most guests were expected to arrive by close to midday tomorrow.

****

Before the sun was above the horizon, the protocol instructor and tailor had returned to Haveram’s quarters, followed soon by the Master of the Menagerie. Haveram stood to be fitted as he was also being instructed, and fielded questions about the animals.

It appeared that none of the Sheik’s men had slept much, because this was an unprecedented rush to display not only the new animals, but to brag that the son of the infidel that had stolen from Sayed was now in his grasp. This was important, to secure his retribution either monetarily, or extracted physically from his enemy’s only son. Image and reputation among the sheiks was a very important matter to them.

“Captain Haveram, I am asked to display each of the animal types you brought, but separately in the arena, for the guests to evaluate and to make bids for them. How can I get the four rhinolo to leave the arena and enter one of the side passageways? You told me that the blue antelopes and rhinolo would mingle safely so that may not be a problem for them. Except, I cannot place the whiteraptor or the rippers in the arena with them, or each with any other animal. It would be pandemonium, and some animals might be lost before they can be sold.”

“I can help with that, and it will display how valuable, intelligent, and tame the rippers are, when they see how they obey my commands. After the rhinolo are seen, I can send the rippers into the arena and order them to chase the rhinolo into whichever passageway you wish. I suggest you have those steel doors pined securely today.

“After that, the rippers will leave the arena while you let the blue flash antelopes enter from a different passageway and door. When those four animals have been seen, the rippers will herd them back into the same passageway they came from to be locked inside, and then the rippers will vacate the arena again. The whiteraptor can come in last, completing the presentation, since the rippers will have already been seen in action.”

“How will only the two rippers chase that big raptor back into its cage afterwards? It must be thirty feet long, and it weighs at least three times as much as that large male ripper. It isn’t intimidated by anything,”

“That’s why I only brought that single juvenile male raptor, barely a year old. He’s easier to manipulate than an adult dominate female member of that species. Trust me. I can get it out of the arena.”

Keeping it
inside
the arena would be the real problem
, thought Haveram. This planet had only ninety one percent of Earth standard gravity, or point six one g’s less than what that raptor normally lived under on Koban.

The protocol instructor resumed his history and cultural lecture after the animal master left. “The Planetary Union society is offensive to our people, and you must avoid discussing or agreeing with women appearing in that government. We are told things are changing since the war pushed males into positions of authority again, but even having women participate in government is intolerable to our people.” By the term “our people,” he of course meant males. He condescended to explain the evidence proving women’s offenses against men.

“We have the judgement of one of our great teachers here on Khartoum’s Destiny, before he died at the end of the Gene War and just before the Collapse of Man. It came from our great Imam El Erian. He told us that Shaytan had used infidel women scientist to create the disease that killed only men, and through the work of their cloned jinni that looked like men, spread the infection to every corner of space where men dwelled. It is a fact that only men died, that clones and women could spread the disease, and women then took power as most men died.”

He offered sage advice. “If you wish to have a smugglers career longer than a week, serving the needs of our sheiks, you should take my advice and speak not of the government of the infidels.”

“I have listened and I will remember.” Haveram promised.

“I hope you do. Because restricted news from the Hub worlds has reached here recently, and animals like your rippers were seen in a Tri-Vid report of a conflict with a Krall on Earth, and described a disagreement with that mistress of Shaytan, Erthrid Medford the false PU leader. Two tiger-like animals were shown in that video, said to come from a world called Koban, which is beyond the Rim of Human Space, and they were the same color with the same species name as those you brought with you.”

Haveram nodded, “Damn, I had hoped to keep my source for these animals secret for several more trips, but yes, all of my exotic animals came from Koban. I have contacts there, after some of them visited Poldark. You may have observed in the video that the Kobani are not on good terms with the PU government. The Kobani want Hub credits to buy what they need for their isolated world, and I can make good deals with them for Hub credits.”

Haveram knew this information would be fed directly to Sayed, of course, who surely had already made the connection. Sayed was an evil man, not a stupid one. The confrontation between Kobani and Medford on Earth would make it seem more plausible that such rebels would seek ways to make money that bypassed PU laws. Smugglers and criminals, as Haveram presented himself, thrived by finding disaffected people willing to deal with them outside of the law.

The tailor, using his digital measurements, had fed the data to his computer in the palace, and assured Haveram that the formal suit he was now verifying the fit, would be perfectly fabricated and ready for the reception at midday. The less formal new clothing, just fitted for him, would serve well for his breakfast meeting with the Sheik, and would be finished in an hour.

The tailor and the protocol instructor departed together, leaving Haveram time to Comtap with the other ten Kobani, the two rippers, and Saber. He was certain he was being observed, so tachyon modulated Comtap use ensured no electromagnetic transmission would be detected. Even if encrypted, such a signal’s existence would spark suspicion with a probable fatal outcome offered by the Sheik to the person so engaged.

Thad had been in communication with the four other ships, which had originally arrived hidden behind an ice giant planet to conceal their White Out energy bursts. They had T-cubed drives, but the Federation scientists, human or alien, had not yet solved the problem of how the Olt’kitapi ships smothered their own gamma ray signatures. With stealth active, the four ships had moved to orbits spaced around Khartoum’s Destiny, keeping the palaces of at least twenty or more sheikdoms under passive surveillance.

Thad gave him an update.
“Chief, it looks as if each sheik has control of an armed cutter with a ten man crew, and some of the wealthier sheiks seem to have two of them, usually parked at their palace landing pads. There are about two hundred heavy plasma cannon batteries, sprinkled around the planet, and they seem to be automated, but have watch standers housed near them if something breaks or manual control is required. They obviously don’t see our ships, so we could safely knock them all out if needed.”

“I wonder how the sheiks plan to arrive here, in a cutter or a luxury ship like Sayed owns? The cutter that escorted me down I think is his and it is still parked on the pad. You know the Falcon isn’t armed with missiles, and a cutter should mount at least two launchers, and certainly lasers and plasma cannons. I don't want to try to fight to get away from here if things go sour. If more cutters are coming, we might need a ride to get us all out of here.”