The Children of Zegandaria, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov [first color ebook reader txt] 📗

this gives them strength to go on. It keeps them in a state of blue spring, but where is the clue?

The local populace supported themselves mainly by banking on various criminals and that suited them just fine. They hadn't progressed in any other area, but they knew they could survive anyway. The planet Kickluk Sor wasn't too far from Zegandaria, but it was little known to even more astrophysicists. It was shrouded in thick clouds of a special nanomatter that contained eboran technology[72] that could largely obliterate the signals of the various radars. The new generation of Horamon radars had replaced older and obsolete equipment. But not a chicken could fly around the planet. This planet was cloaked, for here were the dirty secrets of those who feared the retribution of ordinary men.

The social system of Kickluk Sor was peculiar and full of mystery. Many thought it subject to a certain adjustment, but this banker's planet was not likely to alter its nature - it was simply not possible. It was in the deep nature of Kickluk Sor to be hostile to virtual reality and anything too technological - this was not born of any particular scruples, but pure pragmatism. There was one cardinal rule in banking, and that was to keep banking secrecy - it came first. Many wanted to have what was called a "Reset" and have all financial transfers on the planet Zegandaria start afresh. It sounded like a foolish idea, but Om Gur Nal had made his bill okay - had plenty of time to make some adjustments. And fools like Roenberg, Durban and Abrams to help him achieve his goals.

- Of course, the timing of the zeroing was no coincidence - it would include not only Zegandaria, but the planets of the so-called Outer Ring, which numbered more than three hundred and forty, and their economies teemed with life - so real that there was nowhere more to go than that.

The assessment of guilt would have been reimplanted in the brains of the adolescents by the genius Doctor Gad ‘Di Enn, but Om Gur Nal did not know that he had long been cold and lifeless, his eyes fixed on another terrible reality from which he himself had tried to escape for so long - to no avail.

The nullification was too simple a procedure, amounting to something too easy. Om Gur Nal would get his share of the secret transfer of stolen money from the drug and arms trade, but he would get the whole planet, and all the other planets of the Outer Ring, making him sole ruler of that part of the galaxy.

Of course, even Equius Mon hadn't the slightest idea how grand his scheme actually was. According to the instructions, he would simply be taken down by the slightest financial blow, as his New Life Corporation had been receiving financial injections from the Sovereign in the form of fees for every illegal operation he assigned to them. It was simple and logical. Om Gur Nal was well aware that despite the difference in the system of governance, money weighed the same everywhere and that would have a huge impact in ceding their sovereignty to his control.

The actual zeroing would have been done through the New Life Corporation, and the simple explanation would have been an accounting error. Yes, too innocеnt, but Om Gur Nal had seen to it that after the implementation of phase one and phase two of his plan, which had already been outlined, he would move on to phase three, which involved the physical elimination of the corporation's collaborators. People already disliked Equius and thought him strange and pompous, unable to empathize with the travails of ordinary people. Hardly anyone would really shed even a small tear for him!

Then the demons could safely rule this planet as long as he could get away with spending his vast fortune. However, there was no point in jumping to conclusions. Eradio Dee Monk had done the rough and dirty work, the more sophisticated and intelligent work remained.

Om Gur Nal knew that there was no eternal power, but there was eternal commerce, and he intended to do just that. He didn't care about religious cults created for weaklings who had never done anything in their lives, absolutely nothing, on their own.

Once he'd conquered the planets of the Outer Ring, he'd tie up active exchange relationships with distant planets like Ossonia and Cebur Nag. And he'd watch his luck! That's right! He wouldn't serve the industrial unions, financial crooks and all the rest.

But there were some other things to happen.

The population of Kickluk Sor was even smaller than that of Zegandaria, but the most interesting thing was that it did not think about tomorrow at all. Nobody cared about anything.

They lived simply because money came from so many places. Many ships that passed by that planet never registered that there was anything there. And that was only for the benefit of its inhabitants.

On the small planet of Kickluk Sor there was exactly one huge polis with a population of approximately one hundred and fifty thousand people. The polis had the strange name "Space Mushroom", as the inhabitants were particularly susceptible to various exotic diseases such as the notorious space plague. The famous architecture that impressed foreign visitors was so deeply symbolic. Many had never even left the place and preferred not to know what was going on outside. It was their way of achieving happiness. Kickluk Sor was one of the most peaceful planets, and the concept of morality generally boiled down to complete non-interferеnce in anything outside of their daily lives that would induce guilt. If anyone did fall under its influence they were declared a sociopath and banished from the polis forever. Naturally, it would be ridiculous to argue that there weren’t exceptions to the rule out there somewhere. There were, but only a few, but Om Gur Nal would use them exclusively to his advantage.

The demons wouldn't find him there for at least a while, maybe an eternity.

At the entrance to the polis, anyone curious could clearly make out the inscription:

 

"Arodo Hi No Boo Tier Won Zak Moon!"[73]

 

Equius had been sent right here by the Sovereign, or so he kept thinking, for he felt that the sudden delay in the transfer was hardly accidental. After his speeder landed at the heavily guarded airport, he was escorted to a place where he could continue with his explorations, but he had to be careful or he would soon be killed according to local customs, which did not allow any foreigner to induce guilt.

Equius was of an age where he knew that to get information you had to give too much credit. And on Kickluk Sor that meant an infinite amount. So he had to offer something else in return that would be more valuable than the bags of credits he could give them.

THE INVESTIGATION

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TEN: THE INVESTIGATION

 

Equius had never met a man completely operated by guilt. People who owed their well-being to just that. He decided to offer them something extraordinary that might be of use to them.

Kickluk Sor 's engineers were quite conservative when they heard his proposal. It sounded extravagant even to their ears, accustomed to startling words and ideas.

Equius promised to give them a patent for the so-called Kunguru pocket, which was capable of opening a fake virtual pocket[74] to a parallel universe where the planet could be hidden for a time, completely free of charge.

Scepticism immediately took over and they put the question to him:

- "Why do we have to virtually move our planet when Eboran technology is enough?," they asked rather awkwardly, expecting Equius to break the guilt rule.

But he answered them most diplomatically:

- It's a pretty old technology that may be generally ineffective anytime soon. It's in the best interest of our banking operations to use such virtual quackery as an additional measure if someone unwanted does violate your visa policy.

- "Our moral code of honor forbids it," Arrudoth, who was something of a governor by their administrative standards, tried to object.

- "I wouldn't say I'm going to make it very difficult for you," Equius Mon, who had traveled the large enough distance as incognito as possible, using neither a merchant navy ship nor the usual military convoys that accompanied any more powerful personage, was gently groping the ground.

- "Look, I'll be as frank with you as possible. There was a problem with the last transfer," he explained cryptically.

The Kickluk Sor looked at him in surprise. They even thought he was lying to them.

- "We've never had anything like this happen to us," Arrudoth murmured worriedly. "Strange indeed, but still possible. How long did it last?"

Banking traditions were above any such intrusion as Equius Mon's statement could be considered.

- "Nearly two minutes," he answered.

- "But two minutes is an eternity," murmured Governor Arrudoth thoughtfully. "It is downright unheard of. Please don't say that in public."

Equius decided now was the time to act:

- The transfer was worth ...

Arrudoth was embarrassed and hastened to interrupt him:

- No need to elaborate, my dear, we'll figure it out. You win! You win!

The two went to a side terminal that was built specifically for bug checks. Even Equius had never seen a display like it - strange characters ran across it that looked nothing like the intergalactic language or the common universal language. The things were more than strange, though. The host's stony expression remained unchanged. It was there that they decided to make some adjustments to the calculations according to a preset transmutation formula that would prove everything.

It took less than a millisecond before the supermodern Evaran computer solved the problem that would normally have taken several hours under other circumstances.

- "Everything seems fine," Arrudoth stated calmly, "unless somewhere in the program code someone has deliberately put a duplicate line..."

- "But why would he do that?," asked Equius, a little unthinkingly. "I don't see much point."

- "Actually, there's a big problem," Arrudoth contradicted him, "most likely the funds have gone to another destination, not the desired one."

- "Impossible!," roared Equius Mon.

For an old wolf like him, it sounded almost like science fiction to be screwed, at least in the technical part of his job.

- "Quite likely by the way!," growled Arrudoth again. "The rest of the Kickluk Sor were silent, clustered around the important stranger, examining the behaviour of his facial muscles."

One false move and they could have liquidated him on the pretext of

Kickluk Sor 's Third Amendment declaration that imputing guilt was tantamount to treason.

But Equius did not fall for the trap. He humbly thanked and politely asked to whom he should pass the know-how for the technology in question.

The residents of Kickluk Sor didn't seem very convinced that they should have let him go.

He tried to get away, but a sharp blow from an Emaradian blade split his scrotum, turning him into a eunuch. Equius collapsed to the ground and nearly fainted from the immense pain.

- "No one can impute guilt to us," Arrudoth calmly retorted. "And you were cunningly trying to slip us in. How can we be sure you didn't make the mistake. We handle numbers and have never been wrong since this planet has existed."

Equius was picking