All That Glitters Ch. 52

"How did you manage that?" Caye-Ur wanted to know.

"Human business allows you to pay in arrears, thirty to sixty days after purchase depending on what you have negotiated." Alya explained. "When you pay up front, you take the risk of being cheated by the seller. That is mitigated by the fact that we have future contracts against these same companies. They will want to make sure we are happy with them in order for us to complete those same future contracts.

"The companies in question do not have to wait thirty days to gain their funds as we pay on receiving the items. That gives them a major advantage in their own work, allowing them to fulfill our future contracts by buying ahead. It's a win-win for both sides of this equation. We have a large enough war chest to complete all of our transactions and to complete the customs and import fees at the other end, with the Harradi.

"I have been in contact with the Harradi Consulate on Terra and determined the fees we will have to pay. It is all well within our budget. Once we have completed our transactions, anything we make over cost is our profit.

"We still have to stop at Anuura for spices and Green's World to transfer the medical equipment purchased by Accan Hallat. That is covered under the shipping fee we will receive. Since Anuura is 'behind' Green's World from here, we will do the spice run first, then the medical equipment," Alya finished.

"How soon before we are completed here?" Mind-Ur asked.

"We should be finished by this time tomorrow. By mid-afternoon tomorrow we should be jumping to Anuura. I have already contacted the spice merchants there and they are expecting us within the next forty-eight hours," Alya advised.

Caye smiled. Hiring Alya had proved to be the right thing to do...

The Wanderer, Parking Orbit, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

Marrat Mutt Semt had just returned from a quick trip to Pod-Saar on The Jean Beaumont , where she had contacted Shugrand through the Pod-Saar ICS antenna. They now had a list of planets that were in theory free from ships of the pirate fleet, a list of Raddon who supported Unaayel, a list of Raddon whom Shugrand was uncertain of, and a list of Raddon who were adamantly opposed to her.

The Asoc contacted the latter to see how they were fairing and was pleased to note that most were doing all right. There were five major planets that had pirate ships in the system keeping an eye on the Gurn and Raddon of those systems. Even on these five planets, there was an extensive network of Gurn who supported Unaayel and who were acting as spies for her.

The next task was to contact those Raddon who were opposed to Unaayel but were minor planets in Unaayel's consideration. These were the planets that the Asocs group would recruit from. The Asoc contacted the Raddon of >KashtinAR in the Paalind System some 230 light years from AsocAR. >KashtinAR was the newest world of the Asocans having been granted full status. It had been opened less than seventy years before.

"Let me understand this, Asoc. You have ships available to go after these killers but you need spacers to train on them?" Raddon Summate Mutt >Kashtin of >KashtinAR demanded. "Why spacers?"

"We do not have a great deal of time to train our people, Summate. We need people who already have experience in space so that all they need to train on is the ship's systems," the Asoc explained. "With spacers, we can have our ships ready in a few weeks. Those who have no space training would take considerably longer to train."

"I understand, but that would leave us short of spacers to work our space stations for trade," Summate replied.

"We are aware of this, Summate," the Asoc answered. "We do not intend to take all of your spacers. We would take a maximum of fifteen percent from any one planet. That will leave you with enough people to continue with customs between space and the surface. For now, we need to man four additional ships that will be in our possession soon."

"How many ships do you have now, Asoc?" Summate wanted to know.

"I cannot tell you that, for now," the Asoc told her. "Unaayel has spies everywhere and it would not be good practice to allow her to become aware of our total numbers. Suffice to say that we will be able to give Unaayel's fleet a true challenge. Our ships are newer and far superior in capability to what Unaayel has; however, her crews are pirates with years of experience in fighting in space.

"Will we prevail? Short answer is yes, but not without losses. I expect to lose a third to half of my fleet subduing Unaayel's fleet simply because of our inexperience. But we cannot allow Unaayel to become the Asoc. She has already shown the horrors of what she is capable. Her reign as Asoc would be unimaginable.

"We will not give words covered in Guster leaves (a large leaf used to wrap meat for cooking that imparts a sweet taste to the meat). We will tell our recruits the truth about the risks involved.

"On the plus side, they will be incorporated into our new Navy. In a few years time, the officers of these fleets will retire to run our commercial FTL ships, so long as they survive this upcoming battle," the Asoc finished.

"I had heard that you were going to provide the Raddon with FTL ships of their own," Summate said.

"Correct," the Asoc confirmed. "Grell Class Fast Ships, named after the Raddon they serve. Your ship would be the Grell Raddon KashtinAR. However, those ships are now on hold as we convert them to armed fast ships of the Yarl Class. We have a number of Grell Class ships ready to enter service in the next month. Converting them is relatively easy. This will give us the numbers we lack for our offensive. It will mean a little more of a wait for the Raddon but they have done well without FTL ships until now."

"I see. In one way, I am disappointed that I will not have access to an FTL ship, in another I am pleased that I do not. Unaayel cannot demand my presence if we have to rely on the Djinaëte for transportation," Summate stated with a toothy smile.

"Very well, I will consent to you recruiting among our spacers, so long you do not exceed the numbers you have given me. We currently have 8,000 spacers. Fifteen percent of that is 1,200. Will that suffice?" Summate demanded.

"Yes," the Asoc admitted. "We can man one of the large Ensch Class Frigates with three hundred, the Yarl Class with fifteen. Your planet alone will allow us to crew three Ensch Class and twenty Yarl Class. Recruiting from only five planets will give us a viable force ready within six weeks.

"Thank-you, Raddon Summate Mutt >Kashtin. You have served your people well," the Asoc said with a small bow.

"I am a Raddon, Asoc. I live to serve the people," Summate gave the traditional greeting with a more substantial bow.

"I wish all of our Raddon felt the same, Summate," the Asoc returned.

The Piscium Family Apartment L-1229, Lima Deck, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

Junelliya received a signal from Pod-Saar the next morning and opened the link to see the Kumaraie with Prakeshya in her lap.

"Good day, Atohan. Prakesh wanted to say hello to our mutual friend Clarrisiya," the Kumaraie stated, the little one smiling and waving her arms.

Ikekiya and Zarreniya came over to the couch and said hello to their friend and their Godmother, speaking in very passable Pod-Drran. The three started babbling to each other telling each other what they had been doing that day. Clarrisiya moved over to sit with Junelliya.

"Wow, Prakeshya is doing much better in her language skills," Clarrisiya remarked, hearing the little female speaking. Prakeshya heard the translation and smiled at Clarrisiya.

"Hello, Prakeshya. It will be a little more difficult to understand each other, as we are so far apart. But the translators should help," Clarrisiya explained, getting a nod from Prakeshya after a moment's pause for the translator to catch up.

Then Ikekiya and Zarreniya pulled out their Ukulele and started playing songs together, Prakeshya clapping along with them. They had learned a new song and wanted to play it for their friend.

During a break in their singing, Prakeshya started singing herself, only she wasn't singing in Standard or in Pod-Drran but in the original language of Rhum-Oran.

Recognizing the words and the cadence, Junelliya joined in singing with the little female. Ikekiya and Zarreniya both recognized some of the words from the songs that Junelliya sang in ancient Pod-Drran but they did not know enough of the language to successfully join in.

"Mommy, you teach," Zarreniya said to her mother after she and Prakeshya had finished the song.

"I do not know all the words, Zarry. You can ask Prakeshya, she will teach you this language." Both of her children clapped and cheered when Prakeshya nodded in agreement. They quickly pulled out the Pod-Drran language blocks and sat down in front of the monitor while Prakeshya did the same on her end, teaching the Piscium children the language of lost Rhum-Oran.

In the palace of the Kumaraie, many people looked on in awe, including the High Priestess, as the Prakesh gave language instruction to her two friends in the ancient language of Rhum-Oran. While she was familiar enough with the words herself, the High Priestess recognized that the Prakesh was definitely a native speaker of the language and said so to many of the more important members of the Palace staff. Word swiftly got around the palace that Prakesh was indeed the re-incarnation that had been predicted.

SSP The Piscium, In Orbit Planet Anuura, Caiden System, Fifty-Six Light Years from Terr a

The ship found its parking orbit and sent out a call to the merchants it had contracted with. They included Junelliya's father and Fayad's father, both of whom were spice wholesalers.

Mind-Ur, Caye-Ur, and Alya Gallant went down to the planet to the spice warehouse in Aereet City to meet their clients. They brought with them Lannat Claren, a Harradi merchant from the Hallat Trading Company. He was helping in deciding on the purchase of spices for the Harradi.

"Hello, Penat Herlan, Naadir Ouihya, it is a pleasure to see you both again so soon after the Denders summit," Caye-Ur greeted the pair.

"And I you, Caye-Ur," Penat replied. "Especially when you are purchasing so much spice from us."

Caye laughed at that. "We are heading to Harradi space. They love your spices. However, they do have a problem with the pure spices. It is too strong for their constitutions."

"Ah, then you might want to look at the older spices. Our spices begin to lose their potency after five years. The prime time for us to sell is between three and four years. Our older spices go down in prices drastically as they lose potency. It could be more suitable for Harradi tastes," Naadir advised them.

They went to a part of the warehouse that held massive amounts of older spices, everything from seven to ten years old. Lannat looked carefully at all of the older spices and then told Caye to purchase the lot as his people would love it. They also purchased many tons of prime spices for sale elsewhere.

The spice merchants were pleased. They now had a customer for their newer and older spices. The group went to several different warehouses and purchased all the older spices, much to the relief of the merchants, who were looking at a loss on them. They also bought much more of the prime spices.

In the end, they wound up with one hundred tons of older spices and forty-two tons of the prime material. As well, Penat had given them several large sacks of spices to give to Junelliya, to Siobhan Riley, the Master Chef on The Wanderer, and for the Chef 'Franky' Storn, the owner of the BBQ Shack on Liramor-23.

The Piscium left orbit two days later, laden down with more material...

Warship Astigalin, In Orbit of AsocAR, The Asocan Realm

Admiral Rudolph Grazia, ships Captain Joseph Matteus, and the Boatswain Mark Prestel, were in the conference room for the latest intelligence brief. Several other of the fleet's captains were connected via vid-link for the conference.

"We have heard some disturbing news from our intelligence net. It appears that the Asoc may have several navy ships available to her," Commander James Brallier, aide-de-camp to the Admiral told his boss.

"Our best estimate is that she may have as many as fourteen Ensch Class Frigates, vessels of like size to the Fairling Class, a Tarl Class, about the size of the Union Presidential Yacht, and at least two dozen Yarl Class, similar to the Valour Class. This gives her a small but efficient fleet, sir," Brallier explained.

"Thirty-nine ships is a good sized fleet; however, they will be shy on training," Captain Matteus stated for the record.

"Yes. Our fleet has many years of experience fighting in space," the Admiral admitted.

"Yes, sir," Commander Brallier admitted. "However, the Valour Class had shown some significant capabilities during the raid on the Alliance. They seem to be able to jump multiple times in short succession before requiring to rest, and their 50mm rail guns were ruthlessly efficient against all manner of ships. Their targeting was such that they were able to selectively choose what parts of a ship to hit, even at relatively high speed differentials between the ships. This could prove a problem for our fleet, sir."

"Noted. Captain Matteus, let's see if we can get some additional information on how the Yarl Class would be used by the Asoc's team. We need a counter to their tactics. We can be certain that even if the Union will not participate in the internal affairs of the Asocans, they will at least assist in the training of these crews," the Admiral stated, getting 'Aye, sirs' from all in the conference room and on the monitors.

L-1229 The Piscium Family Apartment, Lima Deck, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

The children were now down to sleep and Clarrisiya had opened a contact with Petronellaya on Hollander's World. The image of her boss in her office, with several other Counselors in attendance, was now on the monitor.

"Good day, Clarrisiya. What has happened?" Petronellaya asked, concern showing on her face.

"Nothing spectacular, Petronellaya, yet," Clarrisiya replied. "I have been doing daily contacts with the Kumaraie and Prakeshya since we left Denders. In the last week and a half, our little princess has progressed remarkably quickly mentally, as was predicted.

"However, something unusual happened today. Ikekiya and Zarreniya wanted to show Prakeshya a new song they had learned on their Ukulele. Prakeshya enjoyed the singing, so much so that she started singing herself. Unfortunately, she was singing in the ancient Pod-Drran dialect, that of the language of the lost world of Rhum-Oran. Her memories are becoming stronger. She is now taking on the airs of someone much older.

"I have heard of such things before, 'past regression' or something like that, where someone believes they have the memories of a past life. I have never personally encountered such until now," Clarrisiya ended.

"Few people have. It is a very rare occurrence and there has always been doubt as to the authenticity of the event. From what you are saying, there is no doubt Prakeshya's case?" Petronellaya asked.

"Very little. She is too young to be doing something like this on her own. I also sensed empathically the presence of another, stronger mind in Prakeshya when we connected at Denders. That mind is becoming more dominant of late. How far that will go I cannot say until we touch empathically again, which I hope to do in the next week or so.

"Prakeshya is still very young, her mind is impressionable. I have no idea what will happen if the other presence decides to impose itself on their relationship. We may lose Prakeshya to the other mind completely," Clarrisiya stated.

"I understand. There is little that we can do in this instance. All I can recommend to you is that you keep working with her and try to allow her to enjoy her life as a child. She will grow up much too quickly as it is. All three of them will," Petronellaya stated.

"What of Junelliya? How is she fairing?" the Counsellor demanded.

"Very well. She seems to be enjoying being a mother of two rather gifted children and the friend of the mother of another. She has started her training with Augraf, Tougrate and Malnar. What they are doing is amazing. I have learned so much about controlling my abilities just being on the periphery of their telepathic training. The techniques I have learned are remarkable.

"What scares me the most is that the children have included themselves in these activities. They seem to be significantly increasing their telepathic ability and their empathic ability is flowing in lock step with that. I have no idea how far they will go as empaths but it is evident that they will be as powerful as their mother as they get older. More than likely even more powerful," Clarrisiya told them.

Something landed on her shoulder and Clarrisiya turned her head to see the bobbing head of Juneya, who called a greeting to her and rubbed her head against her ear. She turned to the monitor and bobbed her head at Petronellaya, greeting her in turn.

"Hello, Juneya, Junelliya," Petronellaya greeted the newcomers.

"Hello Petronellaya. How are things on Hollander's World?" Junelliya asked.

"Not very good, Junelliya. William Chartrinyea is resisting his training in responsibility," Petronellaya admitted. "That is why we are speaking in my office."

"That is unpleasant to hear," Junelliya admitted. "It is still early in his retraining."

"That is our hope. If he continues to resist we will be forced to permanently cut his link to his empathic skills. We are not sure what that would do to this young man," Petronellaya explained.

"When some people get a taste for power, Petronellaya, they cannot be turned from it. Unaayel is a perfect case in point," Junelliya countered.

Petronellaya took a moment to reflect on that before she nodded to Junelliya. "How is your training coming with the Toolend?" she asked pointedly of the younger woman.

Junelliya's face lit up. "It is amazing what it is doing for me, Petronellaya. My control over my abilities is advancing at an amazing rate. Even if most empaths are never able to manifest telepathic abilities, these control techniques will help them immensely," Junelliya stated, her face glowing as she spoke.

"I hear your children are sitting in on these training sessions, Junelliya. Is that wise?" one of the other Counsellors asked.

"It cannot hurt them, Counsellor. Their power is getting stronger by leaps and bounds. They will soon be able to do what most young adult empaths are capable of. I would rather they have better control over that kind of power so as not to accidentally abuse it.

"Besides, that the children are capable of understanding and using this training is goading Guinevere, her mother, and Dr. Maya, who seem to think of it as a challenge to them. They don't realize that the children simply do not understand that this is supposed to be difficult," Junelliya told the Counsellors with a smile.

"Anything else new on the home front?" Petronellaya asked.

"Professor Kuaté has convinced me to go for my degree in music. I have filled in the comparative study forms and given her a draft of my dissertation," Junelliya told her with a very proud smile on her face.

That brightened Petronellaya's day. She signed off feeling a lot happier than when she opened the conversation with Clarrisiya.

SSP The Piscium, In Orbit of Green's World Harn System, Twenty Light Years from Terra

The Piscium dropped into orbit and was ready to start loading almost immediately, the requirement to file flight plans being a major asset to cargo ships and their customers who were now prepared for the ships when they arrived in system.