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ABOVE ALL, before Ayni went on her way, leaving me without any way of communicating with my new ward, I asked the Translator to explain what it was a “master” was supposed to do for his “student.” At the same time, I asked what would happen if I just left the underage kitten here and went back home. After all, I was not going to be able to stay on Medu-Ro IV much longer, and I was not planning to spend the rest of my life among Miyelonians.
Ayni answered a bit latter, first asking what I meant by “kitten.” I answered as delicately as possible, trying not to wound the ego of the Miyelonian lady, as I had just accidentally compared her race with a species of house-pet:
“Cats are small predatory creatures from my home planet covered in thick fur. They often live in homes with people and serve as a source of affection and silliness. People feed them, train them, care for them and pamper them, receiving in return a loyal friend and companion.”
“Gerd Gnat, you’ve just answered your own question about what a master is supposed to do. But as for the second question, the answer is simpler. The Pride has rejected Tini. He is your ‘kitten,’ now. See, his description has already updated. You could add him to your pride or leave it as is. But if you’re going to fly off, you would be required to either take your student with you, or make sure he is provided for until your return. You could abandon him of course, but that would seriously damage your Authority. And as far as I know, that is very important for high-profile players.”
I hadn’t really grasped the full importance of Authority yet but, overall, I could agree that low Authority deprived a Gerd of some of their bonuses. But what had Ayni said about Tini’s description? I opened the info on my foundling and discovered some serious changes:
Tini Wi-Gnat. Miyelonian. Pride [undetermined]. Level-17 Thief.
Wi-Gnat??? What did that mean? Every person Tini robbed from now on would see my name as a calling card. Would that open me up to complaints and demands for compensation? What a stab in the back!!!
And also, I immediately had more questions about the next lines than answers. For example, Pride “undetermined.” What did that mean? Where would Tini go when he exited the game, if his Pride had rejected him? And what would happen if I managed to convince the leadership of the Human-3 Faction to let this newbie join our group? I was sure that, at least just as a test, Radugin and his deputies would agree, because the situation was very unusual. But what did that get us? Was I bringing an alien to Earth? After leaving the game, would Tini come out of a virt pod under the Dome?
I imagined that. A real live alien among us! That would cause a furor the likes of which hadn’t been seen since Yuri Gagarin’s first space flight, or the Americans landing on the Moon! But after that, it was easy to predict that my “kitten” would be taken for study and interrogation by austere bearded academics and gloomy military types that would inevitably flood the Dome. And getting caught in their sticky fingers was a very gloomy perspective for the Miyelonian. He’d probably never be let back into the game.
By the way, maybe I should ask Tini his opinion about all this. What if the level-17 Thief was not overjoyed with becoming the companion of an alien who had hurt him and humiliated him. What if my student was going to flee from his unwanted master at the first opportunity? Through the Translator, I asked that question to the disheveled, agitated Miyelonian.
“I don’t know, Gerd Gnat. I still haven’t recovered from the shocking news that the Pride of the Heavenly Warrior rejected me so easily! I’ll admit, that really hurt. By the way, I don’t know what kind of master you are, but I can say one thing for sure: my pride-mates haven’t forgotten about the platinum in your inventory. I know them too well. I’m sure the information about the precious metal is being sent where it needs to go, and they will try to pickpocket your valuable property or take it by force.”
Ayni, translating this long message for me, added a personal addendum:
“By the way, I’m in complete agreement with Tini. Here on Medu-Ro, there is a very simple rule: if something can be taken without paying, that is exactly what will happen. It’s the law of the jungle here. Only power is respected, and no one helps the weak. So, if I were in your place, Gerd Gnat, I would hurry back to my ship and tell the captain everything I know. Gerd Setis-Vir is a very authoritative Free Captain. Very few would risk tangling with him.”
Ugh, if only it was so simple... I definitely didn’t want to meet Gerd Setis-Vir, whose ship I had accidentally damaged. But I also didn’t want to admit that I tricked Ayni and got the pass dishonestly. I had to try something else. It was dumb to expect nobility and honesty from a group of space pirates, so I needed to immediately make useful connections and get support or get rid of this platinum. And at that, I shouldn’t get rid of it on the sly, but loudly and obviously, so the dangerous locals would stop bothering me.
I asked the Miyelonians if they happened to know where I could meet a member of the Pride of the Bushy Shadow, which dealt in precious metals. For example, Captain Ami U-Miya, who had taken the platinum from the Geckho.
Ayni did not have that information, but Tini said eagerly that the highest leader of the Pride of the Bushy Shadow, Gerd Abi Pan-Miay, was known to frequent the local casino. According to my “kitten,” Abi was not just one of the most authoritative and successful Free Captains, he was also a gambling man. He had even blown whole fortunes more than once. But sometimes he also won fabulously huge sums, leaving his enemies without cargo, or even starships.
As it turned out, the casino on the station was right on the residential floor not far away at all. We wouldn’t even have to go down through the dense crowd of pilgrims to get there. I asked Ayni to accompany me and help in negotiations, promising the orange cat good pay as a Translator. The Miyelonian lady’s answer surprised me:
“Gerd Gnat, I’d go for free. Finally, the game is interesting again! If only you knew how bored I am after sitting for days on end at that loathsome registration desk! I would be overjoyed to become your ‘kitten,’ but my age is already too high to be a student, and who would let me leave the Pride now?!”
We passed through the gloomy forking corridor and stopped thirty steps from a set of doors lit with bright flashing signs. At the entrance to the casino, there were a few very colorful Miyelonian characters standing and chatting. They seemed to be in competition for the most earrings or trophy tails. All of them were looking around in agitation then took turns secretly sipping a bubbling purple liquid from a narrow transparent vessel. But my eye was drawn by something else. One of the cats was twirling a little remote in his paw, exactly the same as the one in my inventory. Hey, that was a roll manipulator, a tool for cheating in Na-Tikh-U!
Tini quietly jerked my sleeve, warning me through Ayni that they were professional players, local hustler, and that I shouldn’t tangle with them.
The regulars watched us as we walked inside, sizing us up. Once through the doors, we stopped. The light was very bright and took some getting used to. The sharp smell of plant-based perfumes and constant noise was a bit much as well. The gaming floor was actually not so large, just barely bigger than a basketball court. There were a few short tables with jubilant players sitting right on the floor playing a game I didn’t recognize. But around the edge, there were stands for spectators of all kinds of unbelievable races. Also in the bleachers, there were armed security guards on patrol.
“You know, most of the money that changes hands here is actually in bets between spectators, not at the game tables,” the underage thief whispered to me. “The gaming floor is divided from the stands with a sound-proof one-way forcefield, so the viewers cannot intervene in the games or give hints, but they can see what’s happening at the tables perfectly. There are also little camera drones flying around and sending video to the big screens.”
Astrolinguistics skill increased to level fifty-eight!
Eagle Eye skill increased to level fifty-one!
What could I say? It was laudable foresight not to let the viewers meddle in the games. Although, the fact that electromagnetic signals could still go through the force field was a vulnerability. That needed to be thought over well. In fact, I already had one scheme in mind. As always, it was either genius in its simplicity, or completely idiotic. But before I tried it out, I wanted to do what I came here for.
“Tini, you know the leader of the Pride of the Bushy Shadow by face. Point him out.”
My ward spent a long time looking around at the players and viewers. I understood his answer even without Ayni’s help. He was not here. I told Ayni to ask one of the guards, whose answer she then translated:
“Gerd Abi Pan-Miay is not here. He is a frequent guest of the casino, but today the respected Free Captain went off to hear the sermon of the great Priestess Amiru U-Mayaoo.”
Aw crap... Had we come here for nothing? I asked my companions to find out about other members of the Pride of the Bushy Shadow. But soon, a huge tomcat with dyed-gray matted hair, draped head-to-toe in blades and firearms walked up to me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t read any information about him, so I had to just trust that he really was an official representative of the pride.
I asked Ayni to relay my message to the leader of the Pride of the Bushy Shadow as literally as possible: I had a large amount of purified platinum, around six hundred seventy-five pounds, already in bullion. The problem was that my cargo was in the exclusive economic zone of the Geckho on a recently-discovered planet. And although there were practically no security forces, just one Sindirovu-class Geckho interceptor for the whole system, I was looking for a courageous captain not afraid to take a stealthy and fast starship to an inhabited planet to buy precious metals from the natives. The preferred form of payment was Geckho crystals, although other options were possible, including barter. If my proposition was of interest to the Pride of the Bushy Shadow, we could discuss a price, landing site and other details. Also, it was easily possible that our partnership could become long-term and regular.
The gray tomcat stroked his nose with a clawed finger in thought and promised that he would convey this information to the pride leader or other highly placed players.
Now, with my main mission complete, nothing was stopping me from enjoying myself in the casino a bit. I also hoped I could sell the platinum on me. I called both of my helpers along and, after buying the herbal smelling drinks the Miyelonians asked for at the bar, took a seat at a spectators’ table and started explaining my plan in painstaking detail.
* * *
THE SLIPPERIEST MOMENT was somehow exchanging sixteen and a half pounds of powdered platinum for the multicolored many-sided tokens used in the casino. I suspected we wouldn’t find a single sane trader willing to pay a member of a little-known alien race that much for something of unknown provenance. And I was first rejected, which didn’t really surprise me. But I pitched a fit, stomping my feet, beating my fists on the desk and cursing in all languages I knew. I was playing the role of a dumb rich outworlder, visiting civilized space for the first time. I wanted to create the image of someone intoxicated by new surroundings and desperate to bet all his gold beads on a horse. Ayni looked embarrassed just like a person and put her ears back, translating my juiciest epithets and curses from Geckho. As I raged, I was laughing on the inside and even mentally reassuring my Translator, because she did not understand my most bombastic curses which were all, naturally, from earthbound languages.
The notion that I may not have had any real platinum to sell and might have been just trying to pass off some worthless powder was not a doubt that occurred to the casino workers. One advantage of a video game was that information could be authenticated by just reading a description! It all hinged on the purity and value of the metal I was trying to unload, but the main obstacle was whether I could take payment not in crypto but some other way.
Finally, the casino’s greed prevailed. Security came up to the cashiers, whispered something, and finally they accepted my platinum. I suspected that the guardsman had been transmitting an order from the higher ups. If this naïve foreigner wanted so badly to part with his valuables, why not? I was given a handful of colored tokens with a total value of six thousand three hundred fifty crypto for my sixteen and a half pounds of metal powder. Yes, the exchange was far from fair, but I wasn’t going to be fussy. Especially because I saw a suspicious number of members of the Pride of the Heavenly Warrior among the spectators, who were not in the casino before. Seemingly, Tini was right, and some enforcers with less than peaceful intentions had already been sent to track me down.
What could I say? My first mission was accomplished, and all the hunters after me knew that Gnat no longer had any platinum. Now, I needed to get to the main part of the plan. Accompanied by the orange Translator, I entered the gaming floor and headed into the Na-Tikh-U area. I stopped next to a table with a Miyelonian player waiting for an opponent and angled my gaze up at a row of spectators. Tini gave me the secret sign that everything was ready, and I took a seat opposite my opponent right on the plastic floor.
The Miyelonian threw a black token on the table with a bored look. It was shaped like a circle with a section cut out. That was his bet for the game: one thousand crypto. I copied that bet, then gave all the rest of my tokens to Ayni, ordering the translator to put it all on me. An inspector walked up to make sure everything was above board, took Ayni to the viewers stands and turned on a force field blocking our table off from the outside world.
Alright, here goes nothing! The “cat” pressed the keyboard, and a randomly generated game field appeared over the table. My opponent got the first move, and he couldn’t resist a satisfied predatory grin: twelve-twelve, the highest roll possible! While he placed his ships on the three-dimensional holographic screen, I could barely hold back a smile of my own. Just wait and see what I have in store for you, furry hustler!
Break-in skill increased to level twenty!
Electronics skill increased to level thirty-five!
It was somewhat strange that, although Tini was using the manipulator in the stands, I got the experience. Was that just because he was my ward? Anyway, the fact the Miyelonian was my student was still unknown to the casino regulars. A Thief, as with a few other game classes, could temporarily hide their information, which Tini took advantage of. The little thief was well known here. They even gave him a bite to eat sometimes, so Tini’s presence didn’t surprise anyone. Anyhow, security thought he was in the Pride of the Heavenly Warrior, which meant they didn’t much care what he did. And certainly no one was thinking the adolescent might be conspiring with me. I wondered how long I could keep up that confusion...
But I didn’t bust my brains over it, instead concentrating on the game.
My roll was somewhat more modest: two-seven. And you really should have seen my opponent’s reaction when he rolled a second twelve-twelve in a row. It was now a somewhat tortured smirk, and the professional was now no longer quite so elated. One important factor was that I had not chosen my opponent at random. This was the very same hustler I had seen with a roll manipulator earlier. Before I sat at the table, I activated Scanning to make sure it was still on his person. And it was, stashed in a case on his belt.
When my opponent rolled yet another twelve-twelve, I was now allowing myself to grumble in dismay, even though it hurt to look at the Miyelonian. The professional sharp clearly didn’t understand what was going on. Furtively (or so he thought), he reached for his roll manipulator and took it out, placing it under his bony bottom. I meanwhile was playing badly on purpose, making questionable and even obviously weak moves, giving away the momentum and not even trying to improve my position or control the board. In the eyes of the viewers, I probably looked like some weak newbie, who had just barely learned the ABC’s of the game and didn’t understand a smidgen of tactics. But winning was not my objective. I was trying to concentrate on defense and stop him from quickly beating in just a few moves. I set a goal to hold out for just ten turns. The inspector would be sure to notice my opponent’s rather curious luck.
Break-in skill increased to level twenty-one!
Electronics skill increased to level thirty-six!
The game ended much sooner than I anticipated. Just five turns in, the Miyelonian rolled another twelve-twelve, and the forcefield over us sharply turned off. The inspector walked up with a pair of sullen armed security guards. I saw the Translator hurrying over and didn’t miss the chance to complain:
“My opponent is clicking something before every turn, then getting the best roll! I don’t know what kind of trick he’s using, but he’s hiding it right under his butt!”
When Ayni translated my outburst for all to hear, the inspector told the frightened card-sharp to stand up in a harsh tone that would not bear objections. The Miyelonian tried to kick the roll manipulator under the table, but they noticed. The two security guards grabbed my opponent hard by the shoulders, gave him a shake and stood him up straight. The inspector picked up the manipulator and put it in his bag, then he said something full of reproach. I even recognized some of the words:
“Oni U-Muaa... (incomprehensible)... so experienced (incomprehensible)... could get by without cheating in a game against (seemingly something insulting) ... newbie. You know the... rules... (incomprehensible)... You’re banned... (a verb coupled with a curse) ... from the casino for ten days!”
Astrolinguistics skill increased to level fifty-nine!
Tini had explained to me that cheaters always lost officially if caught, while all the bets made by players and spectators were still counted. So everything came together just how I hoped. But what came next caught me totally off guard. The inspector took a curved glowing lilac blade from a sheath and cut off my opponent’s tail at the very root, then tossed it before me on the table.
Tail of Oni U-Muaa, Level-144 Rogue (trophy)
Fame increased to 40.
Fame increased to 41.
Authority increased to 7!
You have reached level fifty!
You have received three skill points! (total points accumulated: six)
Congratulations! You now have three more skill slots!!!
