Chapter 10

When I exited the jump back to Toolondo, I had a message waiting letting me know that the Nukkalinna was ready, so I backtracked to Kai’ka and took her to Toolondo to prepare her for deployment. Back in the marketplace, we had the normal day of craziness with buyers bidding on the bulk goods, and the usual crowd at the marketplace.

I also had to deal with reporters again. A ship as big as the Nukkalinna doesn’t just show up above a planet without causing some excitement. Once other ships began reporting the presence of a monstrous ship, people--especially reporters--began asking about it. Riif got the scoop, as well as a tour of the ship. In her report, she explained that we had designed the ship to mine an asteroid belt in the far reaches of space and she even did a brief interview with me as the owner of the ship. Her report was broadcast just as the news conference I called to answer questions from other news outlets began.

In the morning, the girls were too excited to complain about having to get up so early. Even Riif got to go with us. Her boss was practically salivating at the thought of her reporting on the Nukkalinna’s deployment. Nafisa was so excited that she literally couldn’t stand still. Her mother just smiled knowingly.

We made a stop at the Parookoondowla to drop off the extra androids, as well as to pick up the extra pirate ships and shuttles to do the scans of the system where I planned to deploy the Nukkalinna. We ate lunch just before making our next jump, this one to the second solar system that I chose for mining asteroids. I decided to name the two systems the M-1 system and the M-2 system. This time, the Karkallian androids aboard were already experienced. I had sent more to the Parookoondowla each time the Ferrum returned so they would get the experience.

The setup went a little faster this time since the Karkallian androids had already done it once. There is a large difference between programmed knowledge and practical experience, even for androids. I had also swapped two hundred of the new Terran androids for two hundred experienced Terran androids from the Parookoondowla, which helped even more.

When we left the Nukkalinna three days later, mining pods were already being set up on two of the planets in the system, and another Karkallian android clone of Ramina’s personality and memory was in overall control of the ship. Another clone was in a Karkallian android helping my brother as he shuttled goods from my Greek letter planets back to Terra Ceti. The original Ramina and my other three original androids had been transferred to Karkallian android bodies.

On the way home, I wondered about the star chart that I had. The two large galaxies I chose were eighty million and ninety million light years from Karkalla, more than five times as far as Karkallian charts covered. The Gorokian charts showed even less. The Dubanians shared charts with the Karkallians but had explored just about as far as the Karkallians, although in the opposite direction. Where the hell did these charts come from? They were extremely accurate, so they were real. The detail shown on the charts was correct, so someone did the extensive exploration.

Right now, at the current rate of exploration, it would take explorers more than five hundred years to reach M-1 and M-2. They could only jump as far as their scanners reached without risking a collision with a sun, planet, moon, or asteroid, or having an unfortunate meeting with a black hole. Terrans had tried blindly using hyperspace to do exploration for a while. They entered hyperspace for three months each time, surveyed what they found, and returned. The next trip would be for six months in the same direction. Since they didn’t know about jump drives, the trips were all in hyperspace.

Six percent of the ships were never heard from again. Still, the wealth earned from visiting systems we had seen with deep space telescopes but hadn’t visited, or for discovering and exploring new systems lured more and more explorers until the space claimed by Terrans reached the current boundaries, and reached the territory claimed by the Karkalla Confederacy and the Duban Kingdom. The addition of the area I sold them increased claimed Terran space by a quarter. At that point, exploration was focused in other directions. I think of Karkalla as “east” of Terra, and Duban as “southeast.” Current exploration was directed north, south, and west. The systems I just sold the Terran Government were well north of previously claimed Terran territory.

I pondered what to do with the star chart I had. Karkallians were more civilized than Terrans. I still didn’t trust the Gorokian Emperor, didn’t like the way he forced women to be his consorts, and especially didn’t like what he did to them if he let them go. I didn’t really know enough about Dubanians, having only met a handful, and Aneta was the only Dubanian I knew beyond a single meeting. Like the Karkallians, their history was mostly peaceful for the last three thousand or so years.

Since the trip to establish the Nukkalinna took a day less than I had planned, we spent the extra day at home relaxing and riding horses. All the girls’ families joined us again for dinner, and Penola’s younger sister Darriya joined us in the bedroom afterwards. She’d had her birthday while we were gone and was eager to join us in bed.

She loved the shower in the morning, but I could tell that last night was nothing more to her than experiencing a new guy. I had to laugh at myself when I was relieved. When I spoke with Tashia last month, she had no interest in changing her status from slave to concubine and hoped to spend every night in my bed with my wives when I was able to marry them. That meant I was responsible for five, and soon six, women. Talara was spending more nights in our bed and I had a feeling she could be a permanent fixture if I gave any indication that I wanted her to be.

Since I had spent the previous decade of my life looking for, and unsuccessfully trying to interest even one woman, I was overwhelmed with the thought of having so many women wanting to spend their lives with me. Mainly, I hoped it didn’t blow up in my face because it would break my heart to lose one of them, and would probably kill me to lose all or most of them.

When Aneta showed up to spar, she had a companion, one with whom I was familiar. “Meokka,” I addressed the other woman, bowing slightly, the same way I did when she came to sell me the electronic books. She smiled happily and was dressed in much finer clothing this time.

“See, I told you that he had manners,” she teased Aneta.

“I never said that he didn’t have manners,” Aneta protested, only to find the woman grinning at her.

“Captain Parker, this is Hedvikka. She and I ... work together,” Aneta explained.

“It’s always a pleasure to put a name to such a beautiful face,” I told Hedvikka as I took her hand and pressed the back of her wrist to my lips in the Dubanian custom.

“Now I see why you keep coming back here to ‘warm up,’” Hedvikka teased Aneta. Aneta started to protest again, but saw Hedvikka grinning again. Instead of protesting, Aneta moved against me and kissed me, running her hand over my crotch to speed up my response.

“Now you can see why I keep coming back,” she teased Hedvikka back as she pointed to the bulge in the front of my pants.

“Anyway,” Aneta commented, her mood turning serious, “Hedvikka has a request.”

“You are leaving soon for Terra,” Hedvikka said. It was a statement, not a question.

“In two days,” I agreed.

“When you return, I wish to reserve passage for four people,” she said.

“Uuuuuhhhhhmmmmm, my ships aren’t really designed to carry passengers,” I explained.

“You have cargo shuttles aboard; one of them will suffice as quarters,” she replied calmly.

“I suppose, but I can hardly charge you to sleep in a cargo shuttle. Where do you plan to go?” I asked.

“We’re not sure yet, but we will need to leave with you,” she said cryptically.

“Okay, I’ll let Aneta know when I’m going to leave,” I agreed, having no idea why I was agreeing to take passengers, especially since they didn’t know where they were going.

“We’ll know,” she replied, smiling. “You two enjoy your workout,” she teased as she turned to leave.

“You’ll get used to it,” Aneta said, then slapped her hand over her mouth as if she had said something she shouldn’t have.

I wanted to press her to find out what she meant, but remembered that she was the bodyguard of the Dubanian Princess, so she was probably privy to things others weren’t supposed to know about, including me. “I’m sure you’ll tell me more about it when you can,” I replied.

It must have been the right thing to say because neither of us had the energy to spar after we finished warming up. Neither did the girls who joined us. “Thank you,” she said lovingly as we were dressing. “For not asking,” she added, sensing my uncertainty about why she was thanking me. She kissed all six of us goodbye and left.

Riif had to work the next day, and the girls had to go back to school. Tiyya insisted that I wear the vest with no shirt and visit the marketplace. I noticed that the crowd at the fast food place had grown significantly. I wasn’t sure if it was the new Terran dishes, the milk, the ice cream, the Perseus paste we had available, or the female Terran androids working there and serving the food wearing the customary Karkallian mini sarong so everyone could see their neatly trimmed blonde, brown, or black pubic hair.

Five Karkallian women each claimed an hour of my time. After the fifth one, I ate a late lunch aboard my shuttle and sat down, still naked, to think. Tiyya woke me up when she got home from school.

“You behave,” Nafisa told Little Marc sternly while shaking her finger at him. Then she lowered him and sat on my lap with Little Marc nestled in the clothed area between her thighs.

“And don’t you get any ideas,” she told me as she tilted her head back as far as she could so our lips could touch for a fraction of a second. “I already have too many of those,” she lamented as she turned to her schoolbook to study.

“Sixty-eight more days,” Nafisa sighed resignedly in the morning when I kissed them all goodbye. Remembering Hedvikka’s request, I ordered four high-quality beds to be delivered when I returned and realized that I had no idea what Dubanians slept on. I also needed to figure out where to put the beds and what was going on.

The Terran government was excited to get a second roll of the carbon/ silicon fiber. Their initial tests showed what I already knew--that it was much stronger than common carbon fiber material. The round trip reminded me yet again that they were now boring. I had to laugh since the four-year round trips had never bored me, yet these trips that I had down pat so I was only gone one night bored me to tears. I knew it was time to retire from making the trips.

In another month, my farms on Planet Alpha and on Iota would be able to supply all the produce for Karkalla except tree fruit. Soon, chocolate, clove oil, spices, and tree fruit were all I would need to buy, and I was bored of making the trips.

I was home late the next evening after another uneventful trip. Having Aneta show up right after dinner was a surprise, especially when she asked to spend the night. Tiyya quickly agreed. I took Aneta aside and asked if they wanted one large room with four beds, or something akin to a suite with a common area and four separate bedrooms.

“Like Hedvikka said, a cargo shuttle is fine,” she replied.

“I’m hardly going to make the Dubanian contingent here sleep in a cargo shuttle,” I protested.

“The Princess will be quite comfortable when she goes to sleep,” Aneta promised. I’d figured that the princess might be one of the passengers, hence my desire to have nicer accommodations. I also had a feeling that Aneta wasn’t telling me something and figured that it had to do with some sort of relationship the Princess had with one of the other three women, so I didn’t press the issue.

I was definitely comfortable when I went to sleep that night, although most of the women were still at it. My naked Nafisa sprawled atop me with her head on my shoulder to join me in slumber. She was still there when I woke up. “Sixty-seven more days,” she sighed longingly after giving me a good morning kiss.

Once I had the women up and moving in the morning, I headed for the marketplace aboard a shuttle. I gave Ramina mental instructions to have some of the androids build a large suite in a corner of the cargo hold near my cabin, and I headed down to the raucous marketplace to escape the even more raucous bidding wars just beginning aboard the three ships.

I tried to wander through the marketplace, but gave up because it was too crowded. Instead, I had two of my military androids join me and we headed for the Gorokian marketplace. I wanted to see if I could find the man I bought the star chart from to ask him where he got it. I even sent his image to my two guards and my cloaked shuttle overhead and had the shuttle’s AIs scan everyone in the Gorokian marketplace with no luck.

I did stop by to see Nardu, although he was very antsy. Motioning me closer, he looked around conspiratorially, and then pulled a fist-sized object from beneath the counter and turned it on. “This jams the probes that are everywhere for about half a minute,” he explained, “I hear things that I can’t discuss,” he continued, still looking around.

“Stay aboard your ships for a few days and be ready to leave at a moment’s notice,” he warned right before the light on the device turned red. He shut it off and put it away, saying nothing further. He shook his head when I started to ask something, his eyes still darting back and forth furtively.

“Thank you for stopping by,” he said. Then I remembered that I was looking for the guy with the star charts. He told me where the man was, but the man there now wasn’t the one from whom I bought the star chart.

When I went back and described the man I was looking for, Nardu looked confused. “Olabode is the only Gorokian on the planet I know who sells star charts,” he commented.

I went to see Olabode again and asked if he had someone working for him a few months ago. “I miss a day or two occasionally, but nobody else sells my charts,” he replied. When I described the man, explaining that he was in this very stall selling star charts, Olabode looked confused. He asked his neighbor who confirmed that the man was here for only one day, and didn’t do much business because his prices were too high. He even remembered me buying something, wondering why I would buy anything with the prices being so high.

“Yet another mystery,” I sighed. I bought a star chart from a vendor who was only here for a day, and the chart was thousands of years ahead of ours. I get a mysterious warning from Nardu to be careful, and to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. To top it all off, I had the Dubanian Royal entourage planning to be passengers on my next trip, and they didn’t even know where they would be heading. I hoped that I wasn’t getting in some sort of trouble for agreeing to let them be passengers.

I was still unsuccessfully worrying about the puzzle when the girls got home. I felt a little better that my androids and AIs couldn’t figure it out either. I asked the girls to have their families join us for dinner again.

When everyone is together for dinner, there is usually lots of laughing and talking. Tonight’s dinner was subdued and I was sure it was because I was tense and nobody knew why. After dinner, I spoke with the adults.

“I’m concerned because of some unusual things that have happened,” I started, and went on to explain about the odd request from Hedvikka, and the warning I got from a Gorokian I dealt with frequently.

Then I took Jnilo onto the bridge and told him about the star chart I bought. Jnilo was so excited that he almost fell out of his chair. He gasped when I showed him how far away the Parookoondowla and the Nukkalinna were. I showed him the area I sold to Terra, and a similar area that held six habitable planets I would sell to the Karkallian government for a similar sum.

Even as my finger traced the area I would sell them, he was on the phone to the Prime Minister. An hour later, the Prime Minister and the leader of each of the two houses of their Parliament arrived, accompanied by Fleet Admiral Teryawe, the Admiral in Chief of the Navy, as well as the General in Chief of the Marines. Fleet Admiral Teryawe I recognized, having met him once before in my dealings with the navy.

Seconds after the last one of them boarded, there were five loud pops that sounded like someone popping a paper bag, and then the clatter of five objects dropping to the deck. While we all turned to stare, Ramina commed me mentally, letting me know that the AIs followed my previous command and scanned for any type of devices that recorded or transmitted audio or video. These cloaked probes had just entered the hatch following the government officials.

For a second, I was worried that they were some sort of protective drone meant to protect the officials. The stunned look on their faces, however, quickly dispelled that worry. “I take it those aren’t yours,” I commented.

“Where the hell did those come from?” Fleet Admiral Teryawe asked angrily.

“They followed your entourage aboard the ship,” the disembodied voice of my AI replied.

“Those are Gorokian,” the Fleet Admiral said accusingly.

“Captain Parker had an interesting warning from a Gorokian merchant today,” Jnilo told them.

I explained about the warning, as well as the strange request from the Dubanians.

“Did your Gorokian friend say the threat was specifically directed at you?” the Prime Minister asked.

“He said that he hears things he can’t discuss, and that I should stay aboard my ship for a few days and be ready to leave at a moment’s notice,” I replied.

“Did the Dubanians say why they were leaving, or when?” the general asked.

“A woman named Hedvikka said they weren’t sure yet where they would go, but they would need to leave with me. I’m scheduled to leave for Terra in six days, but my friend told me to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.”

“What about the Dubanian delegation?” the Prime Minister asked.

“I told them I would let Aneta know when I was going to leave. She is the bodyguard for the Princess, and we spar once or twice a week,” I told them.

“That must be painful,” the General chuckled.

“I beat her every time,” I replied smugly, much to the amazement of the General.

“She beats our best every time they spar,” he gasped.

“Anyway,” I said, wanting to get back to my point, “when I offered to let Aneta know when I was leaving, Hedvikka said they would know when I was leaving.”

“Hedvikka is their telepath,” Jnilo explained.

“So, the Dubanians know that something is going on and are making plans to leave, and a Gorokian friend warned you to be ready to leave,” the Prime Minister concluded.

“I think the Gorokian who warned me is one of their agents, but it’s just a feeling. I don’t have anything to base it on,” I explained.

“Okay, so tell us about this mysterious star chart,” Fleet Admiral Teryawe said as we reached the bridge. The star chart suddenly filled an entire wall of the bridge and elicited five gasps.

“By the grace of Awajii,” Fleet Admiral Teryawe gasped reverently. “This is as far as our charts reach,” he said, his voice filled with awe while he circled a small portion of the chart with his finger. He jumped when the detailed chart came up for the system his finger touched first.

I stepped to the chart and reduced it back to the original size and then touched M-1 to bring up more detail of the solar system. “This is one of the two systems that I just started mining. Note the abundance of the various metals that are in short supply here,” I told them. Fleet Admiral Teryawe touched a portion of the chart closer to Karkalla, and then tapped one of the systems.

“We just started exploring this system a few days ago,” he commented, although his attention was on the detail the chart showed. “Everything here is correct, and much more detailed than what we’ve already learned,” he said.

I touched the system where Iota was. “This is where the giant trees come from,” I said as I pointed to planet Iota.

Next, I backed out and showed them the area I sold to Terra, and then the area I proposed to sell them. They were excited that it included six habitable planets. The area would increase their territory by 20%. They gasped when I offered it for ₭50,000,000 a year for ten years.

“That’s all?” the Prime Minister asked suspiciously several seconds later.

“That’s all. I have no desire to be stuck dealing with selling or leasing mining claims. I know the government will make much more than that each year. I have a similar deal with the Terran government for the territory I sold them. I can’t imagine needing more money than that. If I do, I have all the minerals from twenty-three planets and two asteroid belts, and tens of thousands of solar systems in multiple galaxies to choose from if those planets run out of easily accessible minerals.”

“What do you plan to do with the rest?” Fleet Admiral Teryawe asked, motioning to all the territory that would remain unclaimed.

Shrugging, I replied, “Probably leave it for my children and grandchildren to deal with.” The comment elicited chuckles from the men.

They agreed to my terms and promised to have the agreement drawn up tomorrow. I let them take a data drive showing their new portion of the star chart as a gesture of good faith. Besides, my androids automatically recorded everything they saw and heard, so it was recorded from several different places on the bridge--not that I expected to need it.

“Well shit,” I thought after they left, “we still didn’t figure out what was going on.”

I was still preoccupied, worrying about everything, and fell asleep in the captain’s chair on the bridge where I had been busy until late, setting up recall protocols in case I needed them. Which one I used would depend on how much warning I had before we had to leave. Aside from leaving immediately, and leaving everything behind, the shortest one was eleven minutes and brought all the androids on Toolondo aboard shuttles I would station strategically around the city.

The girls’ ship would remain near them, cloaked, and shielded above the school when they were there. Four platoons of military androids were cloaked and nearby in case they were needed. One of my shuttles stayed near Riif with a platoon of military androids aboard. Anyone trying to mess with the girls was in for a world of hurt.