Manager Kim was the first to meet him. It was the way they worked out things amongst themselves. Kim would be the one in charge while he was away. That gave him the first opportunity to brown-nose.
“It is a great honor, my lord. I will not disappoint. You may travel freely knowing I will continue to keep output optimum.” Kim said this in a hurried speech as Jadis picked up the pace.
Manger Li’em was next, his heavy green form not even attempting to match strides. His forked tongue tasted the air and he bowed deep. “You have great confidence in your next task. I wish you luck, Sal’um pe.”
Jadis refused to pause though the title made his chest burn. It was another reminder that he was a beloved pet to the king, not offspring, not blood. He walked onward, encountering his final manager.
Manager Tylen bowed respectively, though his eyes betrayed his nature. “Should I ask what dark deals our CEO hurries to?”
Having made his share of dark deals with Manager Tylen, Jadis was not disturbed by the man’s words. “Something I’m supposed to keep a blind eye to, so you keep extra vigilant, Tylen. This one feels different.”
“Yes, sir,” Tylen said, his mischievous tone gone.
The Endeavor was a custom cruiser that was good for short trips into the outer reaches of this sector. Jadis spent nearly as much as he made running the power station upgrading it into a long-range vessel. He had a reptilian pod onboard that would easily allow him to enter into a forced hibernation state rather than the stasis pods that Humans used. Every waking moment, he’d spent studying his own biology, sending samples to “experts”, but it was still questionable whether he could maintain hibernation for long periods. Granted, it was obvious that he aged slowly, much like the Lyten and the Drafers, but the risk was that it wouldn’t work and he’d spend a hundred years completely conscious while waiting to reach Alpha, or he could go into a permanent hibernation. The fact was he still needed a stasis pod in case there were any issues on his route to Alpha. The dampers were also low grade and had a tendency to short out when given too much push or gee. The artificial gravity was not strong, nor was it necessary for the trip, but it would be if he encountered any resistance. The most important part of the journey would be oxygen and fuel reserves. He had enough storage for about a five-year journey, not a hundred-year trek.
His latest upgrade had been purely self-indulgent. He’d wanted his own pond away from the power station where he could swim freely and wet his gills without onlookers gawking at his mutations. In the Endeavor, he could be completely nude, relax and allow his mind to drift. In those moments, his mind turned to D’yanna. His body performed a release of sorts when she was strongest in his thoughts. Sadly, it always ended in disappointment and self-loathing. It was obvious his body wanted her. She was also his only friend. If he were not some genetic experiment cast into the cosmos, if he were a true reptilian, like D’yanna, he could have become something more to her.
Once the pre-flight check was complete, Jadis set a course for the mining planet, Lidaris One. It was a ten-hour flight, which meant time to swim and think about his next move.
Ten hours later, he was garbed in his public attire. A black scarf to cover the moisture pads on the gills at both sides of his neck, a short shirt, overlaid with a black vest to disguise his misshapen form of scaled torso and ant-like abdomen, and a pair of heavy trousers to conceal his thickened, furry thighs. The vest served another function as it was inundated with many hidden pockets, concealing various knives, a set of pulse pistols, and a few gadgets he’d bought from shady dealers in dark alleys. The worker boots were large and bulbous to hide his massive toes, though the heels had a hidden compartment for another blade. A trench coat completed the attire, it’s lining a nanite mesh that tricked any scanner in believing that he carried nothing that would be considered a threat.
The Endeavor entered the atmosphere of Lidaris One with a sudden tremble that caused Jadis to strap into the black captain chair on his main deck. There were other chairs at various stations that stood empty. The deck was normally quiet, save for the sound of ventilators, oxygen scrubbers and the perpetual hum of the ship’s engines. Now there was the tremble of turbulence and the sound of metal resisting. Another breath, or perhaps two, and the trembling eased into a smooth and steady deceleration to the planet surface.
He’d made arrangements with flight control for Lidaris One hours before his arrival. As such, his vessel was immediately taken control of by the automated system. He kept watch for any deception that might toss him into a mountain side or hit the landing site with a little too much acceleration. The trip was without any issues, as it always was. Jadis breathed a sigh of relief when he reached the coordinates with the slight hiss of the landing gear. The feel of true gravity took over.
The pre-flight checks were already in motion while he opened the two cargo bays at his port side. His scanners indicated that he’d landed in a mining camp off an Orange site. Such places rarely had interplanetary traffic due to the unstable mines beneath. This was some really out-of-the-range-of-people-and-places type of deal. It was described as a simple smuggling run, which did not ring true to Jadis.
The scanners also indicated high-end mining equipment. None of it was operational. The buzzing in his head forced him to clamp down on his own operating frequencies. There were feds all over this area, but they were observing. He could feel them, one cybernetically enhanced mind to another.
This was a front like none he’d ever seen in his short career on the power station. What in the stars were these people trying to get him to smuggle?
Jadis swaggered down the gang plank as it touched the soft soil. The light of day was a constant hue of violet. It was gentle on humanoid eyes, and also illuminated the area well enough to identify the snipers hidden in the rocky encroachments surrounding the camp.
There were eight crates in all. The black cubes were twice his height. The width was seven to eight meters. Two men carried rifles that did not look standard, though they were pointed downward. The men held them lazily, their hands not too distant from the triggers, though not necessarily close either.
Jadis immediately discerned that there was no chance he could take these people down. In fact, he decided to be extra careful about his manners when he reached them.
“Salutations and greetings,” Jadis said over the hum of his engines.
The man on the right pulled a tablet from one of the many pockets on his black gear. Jadis was immediately curious about the gear and whether he could get the specs. His mind lit up with various information provided by their suits on an open channel that Jadis piggy-backed and stored for future usage.
“Eight packages. You deliver this to docking station 132, no questions, and no looking. Each crate has a tamper proof seal. If you look, you die. If you peak, you die. No marks, no deal,” the man on the right said gruffly.
“Well, of course, no deal, I’d be dead. I got it. I was told marks—”
“You’ll see the marks once the last crate is on your ship.”
“Agreed,” Jadis said. Their manner gave him the impression it was better if he played the subservient type.
The man on the left waved a hand and the crates were loaded into the bays. It took only a few minutes over the rocky terrain with the magnetic fork-lifts. Jadis kept his gaze on the two men the entire time, and they in turn held up their end of the staring contest.
Jadis admitted defeat first. “Thank you for your business. I will be underway then?”