02: Outermost World

The sailors do not mind the arrangement,
for they know that this way there will, at the least, be one person who, at the last,
will notice when they do not come back from the sea, and will mourn their loss;
and their wives content themselves with the certain knowledge that their husbands are also unfaithful,
for there is no competing with the sea in a man’s affections,
since she is both mother and mistress,
and she will wash his corpse also, in time to come,
wash it to coral and ivory and pearls.

Neil Gaiman

Three males, dressed in outdated Tandorian attire and speaking standard Tandori, met Al and the others as they disembarked from the Peaceful Avenger. This was a first for them, actually landing on a planet rather than at a space-based station. But the One was clearly used to these situations and handled the ship’s landing perfectly.

“We’re looking forward to discussing these issues with you,” the first man said. “This is Resslik, our Trade official, Ssrk, our Minister of Health, and I’m Tilseck, Noxim’s Diplomat, tasked with establishing relationships with other planets.”

“We’re pleased to meet you. As the last outpost of the known regions this far out, we want as much information about what lies beyond your borders as possible. We’re planning to venture into the unknown systems further out. Having run into a ‘welcoming committee’ before reaching Noximclarure, we’re especially interested in knowing any potential areas we need to avoid.”

“Ah, the Nurrod drift,” Ssrk said, nodding sagely. “It’s a known problem,” Tilseck admitted. “Since there’s a large collection of free-floating debris, ships drop out of faster-than-light speed to navigate it. That leaves them vulnerable to attack by smaller, more maneuverable vessels.” He glanced over their oddly-constructed ship before continuing. “We hope your ship wasn’t damaged. Typically, most ships surrender a small part of their cargo, and the pirates let them pass.”

“There was no fear of that. We’re no trading vessel, but a fully armed Zssizliq warship, so we are more than capable of defending ourselves. I’m afraid your ‘friends’ got more than they bargained for. We didn’t leave any survivors to report their losses to their ... associates.”

“We are hardly friends,” Resslik insisted, straightening as his eyes dilated. “We can’t be responsible for rogue pirates taking advantage of ill-prepared voyagers!”

“So you claim, but you certainly can’t say you don’t trade for whatever loot they offer, or that you don’t provide them safe harbor and repairs once they land.”

“The three individuals glanced at one another before Resslik spoke again. “There’s no way we can know what crimes an individual ship may have committed far from our system. As long as their paperwork is valid, everyone is free to trade with us. If we’re informed of a crime, we’ll take the necessary actions to prevent it from continuing.”

“But you don’t restrict them trading stolen goods, even when dealing with both the thieves and their victims,” Al pressed.

“It’s difficult verifying the claims of various individuals and proving guilt without direct evidence,” Tilseck offered as he wiped his hands on his tunic. “It’s a known issue, but one we lack the ability to address directly.”

“Well, we took care of those we encountered, no thanks to your efforts.” Without belaboring the point, Al introduced his crew, including Solomon, who sang a gentle song of guarded welcoming and trust.

“We don’t know much about the space beyond us, as previous explorations proved fruitless.” Tilseck motioned for everyone to follow him inside, out of the dry howling winds on the surface. “None of the worlds in this region had any indigenous advanced life, but were terraformed by the Tandorians roughly a millennium ago. The lands are harsh and unforgiving, which is why we turned to trade between the outlying Tandorian systems and the non-aligned planets in the sector. But there isn’t much of interest past these borderlands. Mostly just a few isolated minor bodies, with few stars of any significance.”

“You mentioned you had various plant samples you were interested in trading,” Resslik said. “While we’re definitely intrigued, this is an especially harsh atmosphere and a largely unproductive environment laden with heavy metals making it unreceptive to farming, and restrictive for any other uses. Most of our agriculture is indoors, using imported soil, or supplied from the few fertile planets in the region. Your plants would have to be incredibly resilient to survive.”

“If you can’t benefit from them, we’d rather retain them. We’re hoping to locate a world orbiting a dwarf star, as they’re largely undetectable from this distance. We can trade our seeds elsewhere, or use them on our new home. And if we never discover another world, we can live off them for some time.”

“Those are lofty goals,” Tilseck observed. “You overthrow the Emperor of the largest empire ever dreamt of, only to venture off, searching for some unknown planet which likely doesn’t exist. If you didn’t claim such astonishing discoveries, I’d consider you a complete nutcase.”

“Changing topics,” Ssrk said, “what about these claims of you shutting down the reporting by the Tandorian aids. That’s of more interest to us than anything you might do once you depart. Many of our visitors are Tandorians fleeing the Empire to escape such surveillance. Once they reach here, most either stay, or migrate to the other nearby systems. Even then, they’ve remained reliable trading partners.”

“Have you kept the aids you removed? If so, we can show you how to disable their reporting features so you can sell them. We left several Tandorians trained and capable of altering them, but they can’t handle everyone. There’s a tremendous market for the safer, updated aids in Tandorian space. You could trade their existing ones for your modified versions to preserve your trading stock.”

Etta cleared her throat, but before Al could respond, Ssrk continued. “No, they must be suspended in living cells, which allows them to survive in the body. Without a constant supply of fresh blood, the supporting cells die, rendering the aids worthless. There’s no value in retaining useless aids without the supporting cells.”

“That’s too bad, but you could still follow the same procedure. Travel to established Tandorian worlds, modify their aids and request a portion as partial payment. That way you build stock for faster sales. If a few traders announce others can get the same treatment here, more travelers will venture here in hopes of getting treated sooner.”

“That’s not a bad idea. We’ve always had trouble attracting people to these outlying worlds. If anyone travels this far—it’s such a major journey for everyone but you, apparently—few opt to return. That’s especially true if the Tandorian worlds are in the financial straits you suggest. With that many people, we could build functioning economies, rather than scrambling to survive.”

“Could you demonstrate how to disable the aids if we have no functional ones here?” Tilseck asked.

Al shrugged. “Sure. We’ll simply turn on one of ours and guide you in how to disable the reporting function.”

Resslik jerked back. “Won’t it reveal where you are, and how you accessed our system?”

“Not if we first transfer it to one of you,” Theo suggested. “If you pick someone who doesn’t know how to access your world, there would be little risk. What’s more, if the person were unconscious, there would be no conscious thoughts for the aids to intercept.”

“There’s really no need,” Al assured them. “What we do is to instruct them not to report specific information. They continue reporting other data, like whether someone is in distress so medical assistance can be dispatched. We don’t disable the communications. We simply make the aids more discreet about what they transmit.”

“And why has no one ever figured this out before?” Resslik pressed.

“Simple. When they first instituted these security features, the Tandorians accepted the restrictions, never realizing the impact on their culture. Once they understood how easy it was to be arrested for their thoughts, the whole civilization lost their ability to think creatively and innovate. No one wanted to take risks, so there weren’t any attempts to disable the devices. Doing so would set off immediate alarms.”

“And having disabled yours, you weren’t susceptible to the same limitations,” Tilseck summarized. Al didn’t bother correcting him.

“Your idea for marketing the modified aids is a tremendous concept. Not only will it establish us as genuine traders with the Tandorian authorities, but provides an incentive for more settlers to journey to these outlying worlds. We’ll win in either case. The Tandorians abandoned their terraforming efforts once interest in this sector diminished. With more arrivals, we may revitalize those interests.”