Planet broker book 2, p.1
Planet Broker Book 2, page 1
Chapter 1
“Colby.”
“Mmm-hmm,” I hummed absentmindedly as I poured over the data on my hand-held, Almort-designed screen.
“Colby,” Omni repeated.
“Yeah, uh-huh, sounds good, buddy,” I mumbled. I squinted at a line of estimated numbers and grumbled under my breath when my math didn’t check out.
“Colby Tower,” the AI persisted, nearly incessant. His synthetic voice was also rising in volume, and I spared half a glance at the bedroom door, worried about waking Neka and Akela. After the feast last night, we had all retired to the same bedroom and spent a few hours making ourselves good and exhausted in a very fun way.
When we were finished, we had all piled into bed together and fell asleep wrapped up in each other, like we had the night before. Slipping out of bed this morning had been harder than all the Almort’s trials put together, but kissing their sleeping faces as I left had almost made it worth it.
I sat back with a sigh and rubbed at my tired eyes.
“What is it, O?” I muttered. “I’m a little busy.”
‘Little’ was an understatement. I was currently up to my eyeballs in research. Profit margins and expenditure estimates, timelines and deadlines. Yesterday, I had won the Akornath and Chief U’eh’s favor. He would negotiate with me now. However, that meant I needed a detailed game plan to present to the stern Almort male, which is why I barely slept last night, even after the feast and its revelry.
I had started the framework of a plan during our week long journey through hyperspace as we had made our way to Proxima V, but I had little to no knowledge of this planet and its people before we landed. There were things I hadn’t taken into account, their technology being a prime example. The Almort screen and system that I was using weren’t as advanced as Omni or anything we had on the Lacuna Noctis, but they were more developed than anything I had first assumed the Almort would have.
This actually worked in my favor because, as I discovered this morning with a little finagling, the Almort’s technology was compatible with Omni’s, which I guess was a double-edged sword. It meant that Omni could theoretically operate any and all Almort tech, and I could import files from the ship to look at and work from, but it also meant the AI could hack and hijack any tech that I was currently working on whenever he so chose.
Case in point, the screen before me went blank, all my data and numbers blinked into nothing. I sighed. I knew Omni hadn’t actually deleted anything, but it was still a little irritating to be interrupted.
“Okay, O,” I said as I leaned back against the silver cushions that surrounded me in the central living area of our guest pod. I set down the hand-held screen, careful to make sure it didn’t slide off into the midnight-dark pool that I sat beside. “I’m all ears. What is it?”
“Thank you for your consideration, Colby,” Omni intoned dryly. I rued the day I deleted his sarcasm and humor dampener.
“Anytime,” I quipped back as I tried to stifle a yawn. I had learned my lesson from the Opalks feast and made sure to take it easy on the alien liquor last night, but I was still tired as all hell. “But seriously, O, what’s up? Please don’t tell me another giant sea creature is attacking the ship.”
“Worse,” Omni replied, and I immediately sat up because what could be worse than a gargantuan, murderous squid with dozens of eyes and even more razor-sharp teeth?
“It’s Arden Warrick,” the AI continued. “He’s… done something.”
A drop of cold fear slid down my spine. “Is the ship okay?” I asked. If Warrick had laid even a single one of his slimy, greedy fingers on the Lacuna Noctis…
“The ship’s fine,” Omni assured me, “but there’s something you need to see.”
A moment later, the screen I had set beside me flickered back on. I picked it up, but instead of the spreadsheets of data and other research I had been looking at, a video played.
“What is this?” I asked, but I got my answer an instant later when a message scrolled across the screen.
“Attention Galactic Corporations,” I read aloud, “let it be known that the former Terra-Nebula broker known as Colby Tower has hereby been declared an outlaw, a tyrant, and an enemy to the state of our union. He has conquered the peaceful people of Proxima V, known as the Almort, against all Corporate regulations and Galactic Law. He has imposed himself as the ruler of this planet and now seeks to claim ownership of the rest of the Icarius star system and the interconnected network of wormholes therein.”
The written text was then replaced by the video clip I had first seen when the screen turned on. It was an aerial shot, probably taken from a cloaked, low-flying drone, but the resolution was crystal clear. It showed a courtyard of dirt and stone, ringed by a crowd of Almort, and in the center stood me. I was dirty, and my face was speckled with bright blue blood, and across from me crouched K’lox, bleeding freely into the dirt. There was a spear in my hand, and an ugly snarl twisted my face. As I watched, the me in the video darted forward with a fierce yet silent scream. It was a strange, out-of-body experience to see my face and body twisted in such violent emotion. I watched myself slide into K’lox’s feet, watched as he flipped over my body and I wrenched the spear out of his six-fingered hand. I vaulted back to my feet, and then the video seemed to slow down a fraction as I hauled back the spear and sent it rocketing down toward K’lox’s head. However, instead of showing how I embedded the spear tip into the ground, the video cut off, freezing on a close-up image of K’lox’s terrified face.
The video then switched back to text, and I found myself numbly reading the last words out loud.
“By the authority of the Terra-Nebula Corporation, and on behalf of all Galactic Corporations and the people of Proxima V, Colby Tower is now declared a wanted criminal. Terra-Nebula has assumed the duty of bringing their former employee to justice and now seeks to liberate Proxima V and the Almort from Tower’s control.”
I sat there and gaped at the screen as the message loop restarted, the words “Attention Galactic Corporations” once more rolling across the screen.
This was a Corporate broadcast, something that was only ever done for PR purposes. I should know, I had sent a few of them out myself, usually after a deal had been brokered, to boast of Terra-Nebula’s growing empire and vast wealth of resources, tech, and power. The broadcast went out to all Corporations, Mega and lesser. It went out to Corporate vessels, Corporate colonized planets, basically anything that was Corporate owned or even affiliated, which was about every damn thing in the known universe.
This message was going out to billions, and even if he hadn’t signed it, this had Warrick’s name written all over it.
“H-he fucking declared war on me,” I stuttered in disbelief. The video clip had started up again, and I tossed the screen away from me in disgust.
“You knew he was planning something,” Omni pointed out.
“Yeah, but I didn’t think he was insane enough to attack a peaceful planet,” I groaned as I dragged my fingers through my hair and down my face.
I sat there with my face in my palms and took a deep breath.
Alright, so Warrick had made the first move. He’d declared me public enemy number one. It was actually a brilliant plan, the bastard.
According to Corporate regulations and Galactic Law, Corporate interference of non-colonized planets is illegal. An agreement must be reached, and a contract signed between the native people of a planet and a Corporation before any work or allocation of resources is performed.
Terra-Nebula and every other Mega Corporation out there desperately wanted Proxima V and the Icarius wormhole system. Whoever could colonize this planet and gain control of the wormholes would be the number one Corporation in all the galaxies. The potential profit was unimaginable. However, since Chief U’eh and the Almort had denied the Corporations and their contracts, they had no legal standing to take Proxima V.
But this system was too significant to lose, especially with the way the tensions between the various Corporations was ratcheting up. Terra-Nebula needed to control this planet and this system, and so they’d decided to bend the rules a little, the hypocrites.
They couldn’t technically invade the planet as a colonizing force, but if they tweaked the facts a bit, just blurred the truth a fraction, and were instead a liberating force, that was a whole different story.
A story in which Terra-Nebula were the heroes, I was the villain, and the Almort were a species in distress.
Coupled with the fact that the Almort had no means of interstellar communication and as such couldn’t tell anyone that Terra-Nebula was, in fact, lying, it really was a fucking brilliant plan.
So what was I going to do about it?
Before I could give much thought to my countermoves, I heard a quiet click and hiss of hydraulics echo throughout the living room. I looked up just in time to see Neka and Akela step out of the bedroom, and the sight of the two women made my mouth go dry.
If it was any other day and if my life weren’t a perpetual series of emergency situations, I would take my assistant and mechanic by the hand, drag them both back into the bedroom, and not leave for several days except to get water and sustenance.
However, as I was too poignantly aware, I didn’t always get what I wanted, so I had to settle for trying not to drool as Neka and Akela padded across the room to me.
“What’re doing up, CT?” Neka yawned. She rubbed at her eye with a closed fist and was all around adorable, but I had a hard time dragging my eyes up from where the fabric of my t-shirt ended on her slight frame and where the skin of her bare thighs began.
“Don’t tell me there’s a bonus trial,” Akela joked, her amethyst eyes bright even though she had just woken up. The mechanic wore a tank top of her own, but the tight black shirt paired with a pair of illegally small, black spandex sleep shorts did little to calm my racing heart.
All I wanted was a quiet morning, where we could eat breakfast and joke around, but I knew there was no time for that.
“I wish,” I responded to the silver-haired woman, and something in my tone caused Neka to freeze mid-yawn and Akela’s smile to slide off her face.
“What is it?” Akela asked right as Neka said, “What’s wrong, CT?”
Instead of replying, I picked up the screen from where I discarded it earlier and held it out silently to them. Neka looked afraid, but Akela stepped forward and took the hand-held device.
The two women were silent as they read and watched the broadcast, but I could read the emotions that skittered across their faces like an open book. Disbelief, fear, uncertainty, anger.
When the broadcast finished and looped back to the start again, Akela lifted her gaze to mine.
“That fucking prick,” she seethed, her violet eyes sharp as glass again. “Warrick did this, didn’t he? As payback for when you showed him up at the second trial.”
At the mention of the other broker’s name, Neka’s eyes narrowed into slits, and she bared her fangs in a hiss.
“You should have punched him in the face again,” my assistant grumbled, and I couldn’t stop myself from grinning at the feisty cat-girl.
“As satisfying as that would have been, the end result would probably have been the same,” I reasoned. “Warrick most likely had something like this planned from the start. He’s a two-faced bastard like that.”
“So what are we going to do?” Akela asked, straight to the point as always.
And that was the billion credit question. What were we going to do now?
If it was only Warrick I had to deal with, I might have simply punched him in the face and been done with it. This message, however, changed the game. Now, any actions I took were going to be slanted and skewed to fit my new tyrant image. If I dragged this fight out, more Corporations would come, vultures circling a battlefield ready to pick the carcass of Proxima V clean.
So, no matter how much I wanted to hop into the Lacuna Noctis and blast Warrick out of the sky, I couldn’t. I had to be smart about this, and the more I thought about it, the more only one solution made sense.
I had to recruit the Almort.
I didn’t want to. I thought about Cy’lass, Slal’ops, and Sef’sla. I thought of all the things I had learned this week about this indigenous population. They were a peaceful people, like Warrick had said in his carefully crafted message. They were healers and farmers, and they had coexisted on this impossible-seeming planet for centuries, undisturbed. They knew nothing of warfare, and the scope of a galactic war probably wouldn’t even translate for them. In this way, they were primitive, naïve, and I envied them this fact. I wanted nothing more than to protect this innocence and keep the Almort away from the darkness of war and greed that humanity had spread amongst the stars.
However, that ship had sailed now. The Almort were part of this war, whether they wanted to be or not, whether they were prepared for it or not. The Corporations were coming for Proxima V, and we had to work together if we were going to stop them.
“I have to speak with Chief U’eh,” I said aloud in response to Akela’s question. “We need to prepare for Terra-Nebula’s arrival, and the Almort have to help us do it.”
“Why?” Neka asked, her head cocked to the side and her tail twitching anxiously. “What are you planning, CT?”
“Warrick’s messaged called me a tyrant,” I explained, “so any actions I take will be seen as a tyrant’s actions. If we went to war alone, other than the fact that we’re outnumbered and would most definitely lose, it would look like I was fighting to maintain possession of my prize. But if the Almort fought alongside us, they’d be defending their home from an invading force. I’m sure Warrick’s put up atmospheric interference so we can’t broadcast our own message, but if we can figure out a way to get around that and show the universe what Terra-Nebula is really doing--”
“Then their lie will be revealed,” Akela finished for me as understanding dawned in her eyes. “And if their lie were revealed, the other Corporations would have to execute sanctions against Terra-Nebula or risk galactic upheaval and the dissolution of galactic law. It would be anarchy.”
“Exactly,” I said with a grim smile.
“But,” Neka started, and her eyes were round and scared and lipid, “CT, the Almort don’t have any weapons.”
“We’ll give them some,” I replied. “Hell, we’ll build them some. Akela rebuilt an entire space station in under a week. This will be a piece of cake.”
The mechanic sighed at my oversimplification, but I could see a faint hint of pride in her eyes.
“Okay,” Neka conceded, “but that doesn’t change the fact that they can’t fight. I don’t think they’ve ever really been to war. They live peacefully and consider all life precious as we’ve found out. War is the opposite of all their values. War is… is…”
She trailed off and looked at me helplessly.
“War is hell,” I said in agreement. “And if I had my way, the Almort would never have to experience it. But war is coming either way, and if we don’t fight, if we don’t convince the Almort to fight, Terra-Nebula is going to seize control of this planet and drain it dry, like our ancestors did to Earth.”
I looked over to Akela. “Like T-N did to Oevis and Theron. They won’t stop until they’ve taken everything they can from Proxima V and then they’ll abandon the Almort here to die. We can’t let that happen.”
Akela clenched her jaw as she remembered all the suffering that had been brought to her home station because of Corporate greed. “We have to stop them,” she agreed. “Whatever it takes.”
I turned to Neka, and the cat-girl nodded. She still looked frightened, but my assistant knew the horrors Terra-Nebula could wreak.
“Whatever it takes,” Neka said resolutely, and a flicker of anger flared in her yellow eyes. “We’ll make them pay for everything they’ve ever done to us, and make sure they can’t do the same to the Almort.”
I was a little surprised at the malice in the cat-girl’s voice, but then I recalled the brothel I had found her in was secretly owned and operated by a subsidiary of Terra-Nebula.
My blood burned all the hotter.
I stood up and took the handheld screen from Akela’s clenched fist before I tossed it on the cushions behind me.
I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out to scratch behind Neka’s ears and run my fingers across Akela’s smooth cheek. More than the Almort, however selfish it was, I wanted to keep these two women safe no matter the cost. I would do anything to keep them from being hurt.
“Let’s get dressed,” I said to them firmly. “We have a war council to convene.”
Chapter 2
After we had dressed, we exited our pod, and I asked the guard turned diplomatic envoy and errand boy if he could contact Prince Cy’lass because I wanted to speak with his father, Chief U’eh.
The Almort male blinked at me in surprise. “The chief and his son already expect you,” he said as he gestured up to the tower that loomed over us. “I was to take you to them when you awoke.”
I spared a worried glance at Neka and Akela. Did Chief U’eh already know? Had Warrick somehow sent them the broadcast?
I kept all these questions to myself. “Lead the way,” I said instead to the Almort.
The male dipped his chin in deference, and we headed toward the tower. Along the way, several Almort raised their hands in greeting to us. I merely nodded as we passed. Neka waved at them every time. Akela seemed to be lost in her own head, her eyes glazed and her faced pinched with concentration. I wanted to pause and ask if she was alright, but we reached the tower too quickly, and before I knew it, we were ascending the winding staircase.
When we entered the room at the peak of the tower, Chief U’eh, Prince Cy’lass, Advisor Slal’ops, and Princess Sef’sla were waiting for us. The chief and his son stood before the large table that took up the center of the room. They seemed to be caught up in discussing something that was spread out over the tabletop and didn’t turn to address us the moment we walked in the room.
