Chapter 11: Sobody’s Seat

Far from Green Hell, an asteroid without a corresponding solar system slowly made its way to a region called Ballard’s Expanse in Union galactic maps. The asteroid would reach this dense dust cloud around the year 5020.

The asteroid was a wanderer on a course across the Galaxy for many eons.

This big chunk of rock and ice was hollow and known as Sobody’s Seat. One of the fabulous Galactic Markets operated by this neutral and enigmatic civilization.

Some claimed that the Golden were somehow related to the Kermac, but the Golden themselves never confirmed or denied that, and always were strictly neutral facilitators of trade and commerce throughout the Galaxy.

The Golden kept trade relations with many civilizations, quite a few no one in the Upward Sector had ever heard of.

Their Golden Markets were often called Golden Bazaars and anyone who would stick to their rules and pay a fee and a percentage of the profits could set up a store or booth in a Golden Bazaar.

Raffolk Oker was such a merchant and he maintained a large alcove store at the third main tier of the inner balustrade ring. His store was there for almost 700 years now, originally founded by the first Oker and subsequently managed by family members ever since.

The store was known far and wide as Oker’s Artifacts and Rarities, a place where the most precious and rarest items of long gone civilizations could be purchased.

Oker’s wares were genuine and his clientele the richest of the rich, including purchasing agents for Union corporations and galactic governments with virtually bottomless purses. Raffolk was human and some claimed he came from the New Siam Kingdom before it became Union, but like the masters of this bazaar, Raffolk never really told anyone where his family originated. He certainly wasn’t a Union Citizen or had ever set foot inside Union Territory, He didn’t care much for the self-important Union, but then he considered the Shiss and any of the Galactic Council as self-important and didn’t care much for them either. He had no particular opinion about the Nul, but then no Nul ever made any purchases. However he loved money and he didn’t care where his customers came from and he liked being the expert. His store front windows were covered with heavy curtains, only once in a great while would he display something, usually a piece of junk none of his real customers wanted.

Most of his wares were presented as holos or in catalog presentations first and only if he really knew a customer was serious about the deal would he allow actual inspection.

Dealing with artifacts had its dangers of course, even here on a Golden Bazaar where the Golden Guards kept everything running smooth and safe, but they could not be everywhere and a determined thief or crook could slice his throat before his body guards could react to prevent it. Sometimes a certain item caused the interest of more than one collector and in this market, competition was fierce and deadly.

Raffolk Oker came down from level 500 far up where he had a luxurious palace like villa complex to open his store as he did every day.

He was only mildly surprised to see two humanoids waiting for him. His regular customers knew his opening hours; most of his customers had been doing business with the Okers even before he took over from his father.

He took stock of the two. One male one female, both dressed in expensive clothing. The male was significantly shorter than the female and dressed in a tailored suit of Sitaurian brocade. She was tall and had long black hair. Her eyes hidden behind a stylish visor.

He smiled inwardly as he was certain they both were rich Union Citizens, probably arrived in their own multi million credit yacht.

Someone at an exclusive VIP party mentioned his name and they came, oblivious to the pirates in Free Space and lucky or perhaps their yacht was simply too fast for the scum out there.

Her attempt to disguise her true heritage was a joke of course. She was Saresii, silver hair dyed black and hiding her purple eyes behind those Terran style shades. He was also pretty sure she was a genuine female.

He was harder to place, but probably from one of the countless Terran Colony worlds. He looked rugged and appeared to be more at home in a workman’s pressure suit than the expensive suit he wore.

Raffolk relaxed and decided to greet them and let them in. No reason for not starting the day with a nice little sale. He did have a few pieces of nice old junk he needed to sell anyway.

Normally he would of course wait for his staff and security guards before he let anyone in, but he could handle a Saresii. His mind was shielded by a Saresii Psi Shield of the First Empire. Not even the Union had something as fine as that and the stubby human was no match for him either.

To the two he said. “I am Raffolk Oker and I am the proprietor of this place, you are a little early. Normally we don’t expect to wait on customers before Calum time and that is still almost two hours away.”

He pressed his hand on the signature sensor and the door curtains changed from rigid steel like condition to soft breezy velvet and brushed the curtain aside, while the lights in his store came on.

The sales room was a gold and red affair with antique looking auto-adjusting furniture, low golden coffee tables and an elaborate sales counter looking like the nightmarish kitsch version of what a demented Saresii jewelry designer thought Snow white’s glass coffin would look like.

Inside a few pieces of small alien artifacts.

He made a sweeping gesture. “Please feel free to look around while I complete my opening routine.”

Both of them nodded gracefully, and followed him. The tall woman clutching a genuine Pre-Astro Louis Vuitton hand bag as she approached a glass display case.

Raffolk occasionally dealt with Pre Astro Antiques; while Terran Pre Astro Artifacts weren’t anywhere as old or exclusive as the things he usually dealt with, he was continuously studying them as the market demand for genuine Pre Astro was growing every year.

Her bag, in such exquisite condition would easily bring three or four million genuine Union Credits at auction. Her using it, and not having it in a safe made him certain they both had more money than knowing what to do with it.

He opened the rest of the curtains and then said to his customers, pointing at the woman with an open hand. “I am ordering refreshments from an excellent service vendor down the row. Let me guess Naddian Tea for the lady and I would guess either Terran Coffee or perhaps beer for the gentleman?”

For the first time his guests actually spoke. The female said. “Yes a spot of Naddian tea would be lovely. Should I be more surprised you got Naddian Tea so far from the Perfect worlds or that you guessed I am Saresii by birth?”

Raffolk spread his arms. “This is a Golden Bazaar, if it is sold anywhere chances are very good you can buy it here and I do pride myself of good observational skills.”

The shorter male grunted. “In the old times when I was digging for ore in those blasted mines myself, I would have not refused a beer for breakfast, but now I take some water. Never good to drink before a business deal.”

Raffolk keyed in the Order in his PDD while he offered them seats and reclined himself in one of the red upholstered chairs. “So what brings you all the way from Union space to my store? A special recommendation of a friend perhaps?”

The man pulled on the legs of his trousers before he sat down. “Let’s talk business my friend. You fell for our act just as expected. Let us for the sake of this conversation assume, she is a Saresii and I am a Rich Colony Terran Mine corporation owner.

That is exactly what you find when you check us out, but to make things short and sweet. You can continue do business as a healthy man after we leave or you find yourself in whatever place your kind believes you go in the afterlife if you make things difficult.”

Raffolk immediately knew this was not a joke and in all the years dealing with the most desired items in the Universe, there were more than a few attempts to gain what he had without paying the astronomical prices.

He paid a stiff fee to the Golden for additional security and the Golden Guards were known for thousands of years to do a very good job.

He had a staff off well trained security guards and the best security systems money could buy. However he had been lax, nothing had happened in years and very few wanted to anger the Golden. His guards would not be here for at least another hour.

He smiled never the less and said. “You doing it all wrong, I can be bought that is no secret and I sell to you whatever I have to sell, but I don’t respond well to threats or bad jokes. My father Ruffal taught me that.”

This was a spoken code that was for his Computronic to raise a security alert and activate his personal safety measures.

His visitors remained as collected as before and the woman playfully removed an Itomarian power stick from a show case that was supposed to be alarmed and laughed charmingly but it was a cold laughter that gave Raffolk the chills and panic slowly rose from the bottom of his stomach as the protective force he expected did not activate and his chair did not drop with him on it into his safe room below the store.

The woman now held the power stick with both hands, almost like a sword and she said. “Pay attention now what my associate has to ask you. What we have left in your safe room doesn’t like to share tight spaces with someone else. I think you should be glad you are not down there right now.”

The short man said. “Mister Oker, you are the last one who knows about the Saresii ship and we must make sure there are no records you keep of any kind.

The dealer wrinkled the skin of his forehead and looked totally perplexed. “What Saresii ship?”

“It was one of your first deals you made when you took over from your father; you obtained and then sold a Saresii Log Crystal.”

His face changed as he recalled. “The log file of the Mila Tyray. The first complete and undamaged log file of First Empire, from before the Saresii were punished by the Dark Ones. It was found on a planet called Green Hell I believe.”

The man smiled. “Exactly that one.”

“I sold it and I don’t keep records to whom I sell things. The privacy of my clients is paramount. So why all this?”

“Translocator Technology of course, Admiral Stahl brought it back from his exile. It was Seenian technology, just like the Devastator.”

Raffolk made the connection. “Of course the Old Saresii were as developed as the Seenians and they were allies fighting a war together and it stands to reason that an old Saresii Ship might just as well be equipped with Translocator Cannons and Trans Dim Shields.”

His visitor slowly nodded. “You see now how important this is, especially since the Log file tells us where that ship is today. It took you very little thinking to make the connection. We can’t have anyone making such connections.”

Raffolk shrugged. “Even I know where it is, or where it must be. On Green Hell of course, but whatever is left of it will be safer than on Arsenal. Nothing survives in those jungles and it is a Union World which doesn’t allow any full scale operations.”

“Everything except of course a Greenie.” The Woman said. “You remembering this so clearly is the reason why we are here. We must make sure no one knows what we know.”

Roy decided that sleeping in the rough was not as romantic and problem free as he imagined it would be. Out here was no bath room, no shower and nothing to drink. Oh sure he knew things he could eat, but surviving on a diet of nothing but raw things again was completely different from snacking on things while roaming through the jungle and then eat at home.

However he had made his decision and he thought in a week or so he would be used to it.

He petted Partner and said. “Thank you for keeping an eye open.” Partner sneezed and Roy left the cave entrance and again was taken by the sheer beauty that greeted him.

He was still relative high in the mountains and there was a cover of sparkling dew over everything. It had the appearance as if the entire world had taken a morning shower and was now fresh and new to begin another day. From up here he could see an Insecto Saurus fight with one of those living boulders and in the distance he saw two Lightning Bolters float lazily across the horizon, their long tentacles fishing and filtering small things out of the air.

He carefully scanned his surroundings to make sure he noticed any possible danger or threat and to decide what to do with an entire day before him.

To his right, about 250 meters was a tumble of boulders and it looked like the genuine kind, not the camouflaged living ones and on top of the largest boulder sat a woman in a green dress. He smiled and waved at her and kept on looking and then it hit him, there was another human being out here with him, a woman!

She wasn’t anyone he knew, none of the kids and none of the adults, of course there were many people in town he had not seen before. She appeared to be completely at ease and did not even wear a Bio seal suit, so she must have been one of the real Greenies.

She did return his gaze and so he waved again and began to climb over the rugged terrain to get within speaking distance. He had to avoid new life forms he had not seen before. A small version of a Water snake, a stream of black ants much smaller than the red Dragon Ants, avoiding them and a few other things he had no names for, but he made it. He was now close enough to talk without really yelling. She had not moved the entire time he came closer, while Partner was a close behind him.