Royal Palace, Ventil II
Within the stone walls of the Ventillian Royal Palace, the victors of the recent battle met; Fossk’s army elements which had been initially deployed as the vanguard of the invasion had been driven on the ground by the native Ventillians assisted by Roger’s and Donahue’s men. More importantly, the arrival of Inferno Fleet had forced the invasion fleet to abandon its plans and flee from the system. With their mostly bloodless victory, the Ventillian King had invited the offworlders to a feast. The two Bothans, too used to being cooped up in high tech starships and sealed bases, were surprisingly refreshed with the somewhat primitive and feudal culture in which they found themselves immersed. As the guests ate from silver platters and drank from Auradium goblets, Donahue’s protocol droid engaged the king in his alien tongue.
“Fossk may have been driven from the system, King, but there is no surety that he will not return, this time in force. Fealty demands that you look after your people, and those of your allies in order to ensure that their success is not for naught,” implored the protocol droid in Ventillian tongue.
The alien replied in a series of clicks and whistles, and abruptly stopped. The protocol droid cocked his head, and held it there for a few seconds, as if it had been deactivated. The king replied to the gesture by rapidly beating his wings together, forming an odd dual-toned buzz sound. As the wings fluttered to a stop, the droid bowed and turned back to the delegation.
“His Royal Highness, in the most basic terms, believes in maintaining a status quo that existed before Fossk’s incursion. Mr. Rogers, the Trader’s Precinct will continue to be under your direct control. The king does believe, however, that the master of the red ships which so valiantly scared Fossk away, deserves some sort of reward. He offers a monthly tribute of Fifty Qulashes of Kowo Grain and Ten Qulashes of Rxinor Meat, and the right to establish a castle on any unoccupied tract of land. But I must warn you, to accept this tribute within the Ventillian Culture is akin to swearing an oath. In return, he will demand your service in a time of war, as a loyal ally. If one so breaks the oath without forewarning and a significant parting gift, he and his people will everymore seek to kill you as a traitor. Do you accept, sir?”
“What’s a Qulash?” questioned Sei’lar, parting his lips from a goblet.
“I do not know exactly, sir,” replied the protocol droid, “Perhaps an authority on the matter, Mr. Rogers knows.”
Rogers shook his head. “Beats me. I never trade with the locals except in very small amounts, but I’m guessing that’s at least several tons per Qulash, based on what a Kilash is. I’d take the offer, Dha’tey. Free food never hurts. And the gift? Heck, you could win their eternal allegiance by giving them a pair of starships if things go south.”
“Then why haven’t you?” questioned the Bothan, “Wouldn’t you want their eternal allegiance? Domination over their lands?”
“Heck no,” replied the smuggler, “Why would I do such a crazy thing like that? They’d be frakking glued to me, and my home is what, two kilometers away from the castle? There would be issues. Your home is on a starship. They couldn’t get to you if they wanted to. Heck I bet they’ll have to ship out the tribute to you via my spaceport. More money for me.”
“Very well,” stated Bandor, “I will accept the tribute.”
The droid bowed and waddled over to the king to announce to him the news. Rogers wryly grinned at the two Bothans.
“Does either of you want to negotiate the use of my facilities now for the tribute?”
“Well-” started Sei’lar.
“No,” cut in Dha’tey, “Why would I use your facilities when I can set my own up in a ‘castle’ as the Ventillians say.”
Rogers frowned. “Challenging my market leadership on this world isn’t advised…”
“I’m not,” replied Dha’tey quietly, “the base will only be used to exchange the tribute between my fleet and the Ventillians, and whoever Donahue decides to leave behind.”
“You’re leaving?” asked Rogers incredulously, turning to stare at corpulent man.
“That’s right, Dha’tey’s my ticket out of this joint,” announced the mechanic, “our fleet just secured the yards as Fossk ran away. And now the yards are light-years away from here, in a new home.”
“For Dha’tey’s fleet’s work? Are you nuts? You got plenty of business from my people and the legities in the rest of the Sector. You’ll be loosing a lot of credits…”
“I can’t stay here,” replied Donahue, “Fossk has realized that I have some less…well…scrutable business, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he finds out about my Alliance past. I imagine I’ll be executed if he ever gets his hands on me…”
“Stealing another one of my people, eh Kolir?” growled Rogers, “I might have to vape that castle you build…”
“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” replied the Commodore, “given that it wouldn’t take much effort on my part to completely vape all of your holdings. Second because I do have some special work for your people. And lastly, because my castle will be underwater.”
“What?”
“You think we can have it here in the open?” laughed Sei’lar, “Fossk would hit it so fast…there are spies among us. Among your people, or your customers, at the very least.”
“I do hate to admit it…”
***
One week later…
A blob of a barge dropped out of hyperspace and into Ventil’s orbit. The craft’s body was little more than makeshift scaffolding with emergency ion engines and a hyperdrive slapped onto it. Most of the craft was completely overlayed in the cheap alabative mesh used on probot and messenger droid hyperspace pods. But even that material could disguise the bulbous shapes which the barge carried. In the main habitation sphere, nearly twenty men stared at the screens which showed the starry vista and the mottled world below. The base’s commander nudged a new recruit fresh from Entrus.
“Ready for the drop?”
Gunther shook his head.
“Heck boy, you better be. You know you want to fall through the sky in an ‘underwater castle’. I bet I could get anyone else to do it. Besides, it’s not an Inferno product. It’s the best Rendeel Industries, Entrus Resistance, and the Uugo’cor techs could come up with. We’ll be fine.”
“I’ve got a pretty promising location on my screen, sir.”
“Hm…” considered Colonel Lorington, “That does look pretty good. Let’s take it. Let’s drop.”
The barge nudged itself forward with its engines, and the barge began its frightful free-fall to the surface. Gunther watched in motionless horror as the craft bulleted through the cloud layers. As the last cloud layer disappeared, the base members were greeted by the roaring waves of Ventil II’s Quekka Sea. Gunther let out a groan. At the last minute, the barge’s and the globalur module’s repulsorlifts kicked in, dramatically decreasing the pre-fabricated base’s descent. The barge hit the waves and immediately began to sink. Several of the men applauded, while the base’s Mon Calamari contingent stared at the viewscreens intently, watching the native creatures swim out to the sinking mass curiously. The water’s hue was in continual flux, but always growing darker.
“We’re at twenty kilometers below the surface…based on sensors, we’ll be hitting the bottom in another ten kilometers,” reported the sensor operator.
“Pssh…no problem. I’ve been in these at much deeper depths. These things are based on the original Rendeel Type 07034 deep-sea plant, even though they’re designed to be deployed anywhere, in any environment with a few modifications. We’ll be fine.”
The hull of the base hit the bottom with a dull thud, sending minor reverberations throughout the base.
“Barge status?”
“Barge is out of commission, as planned. Most of the alabative plating has been burned up by reentry; maybe by laser shots if Rogers shot at us…it is wonderful armor, you know..”
Several people laughed, fully aware that while the alabative plating did protect against reentry, it did not afford it much protection from enemy fire. But each module was as armored as an AT-AT, meaning that the base itself could shrug off most starfighter attacks with arrogant ease.
“Rest of the components, engines, the like, don’t seem to be to badly damaged by the landing. We can probably recover them and restore them with a little work in the machine shop.”
Lorington nodded. “Grab a mini-sub from the hangar module and go grab them. I’d like to take care of that before we permanently place the base’s module and lay it all over with Fabritech’s glorious CN-15 Camou Netting. And after that, see if you can scrap some mud and what not to cover up the modules once we’ve moved them into place.”
“On it.”
“And Shira, take your team and get our weapon’s emplacements out of storage and set’em up around the base. Fit them in with the landscape as best as you can, but keep them in a general circle, and near enough that we can put the camou netting over them without too much trouble. Thank’s missy.”
“Yes sir.”
“Gunther,” ordered the Colonel, “come with me. We need to make sure that both of the fabrication modules are working correctly. We have one for catching and processing any sea critters around here, and another that collects minerals and turns them into manufactured goods. Oh, and the sensor blind. That’d help us a bit if anyone gets around to exploring our little neck of the woods...”
“Right…Colonel.”
“And then our little underwater castle will be complete, and Dha’tey will be happy.”
