Somnus V - Chapter 27

“It’s the stallesp,” Jaalin’s response was short and to the point. “Honestly, I don’t know why you even bother to ask those questions. ‘Someone with superhuman computational powers is influencing the financial markets of my underdeveloped world.’ The answer is always the stallesp. Even if they didn’t have a history of intervening illegally in your world’s ascendence and integration, it would clearly be the stallesp. They take to financial fraud like your desoph friend does to swimming. It’s just what they do.”

 Dorrik, Jaalin, Stekat and Kat sat on a wooden bench with skewers of spicy meat in their hands while they watched Toorvu and Kaleek wrestle in a dirt pit. Around the outside of the ring, a couple other aliens were exchanging bets while enjoying meals of their own.

The thirteenth floor wasn’t exactly what Kat had expected, but at the same time, it was a fairly positive experience. Hundreds if not thousands of avatars gathered there, many from noticeably higher levels.

Their current floor was a large city, bound by an informal but tightly enforced non-aggression pact. For every player, there were four or five ‘villagers’ generated by the Tower to round out the floor. Some of them operated shops or ran messages from one dreamer to the other, but most of them milled about, giving everything the feel of a bustling city.

If someone wanted to delve in dungeons, the city had a massive set of catacombs beneath it, but even at the breakneck pace set by Kat’s group, it was important to rest and recharge once in a while.

 “What about the sanctions that the stallesp are under?” Kat asked, turning her attention back to Jaalin as she took a bite from her meat skewer. The spices attacked her throat, making her eyes water. Still, for all the suffering the food inflicted on her, Kat couldn’t set it down. It just tasted too good for that.

 Jaalin angled her head toward Kat, squinting slightly.

 “What about them?” She asked. “The stallesp were not supposed to interfere in your planet’s development. They did anyway. They got sanctioned. They lied about the scope of their actions. They got sanctioned. It’s what the moles do. They lie and get sanctioned. In between their sanctions, they make enough money from pressuring new Consensus members to triple the cost of their sanctions. Clan Ahn has been complaining about the arrangement for centuries, but no one will do anything about it.”

 “Probably all paid off,” Stekat remarked, tearing a mouthful of meat off of its spit. “The moles make a ton of money. Sure they spend a bunch of it to fill those tunnels of theirs with gems and modern comforts, but it’s not like they’re dumb. If they were, we’d have ground them into dust long before any of us were born. Money buys friends, and friends let them make more money.”

 With a roar from the arena, Kaleek managed to slip behind Toorvu, wrapping his arms around the lokkel’s waist, and with a bend of his back lifting the reptile into the air. Toorvu’s hands and feet pinwheeled wildly, trying to grab hold of the otter behind them, but ultimately unable to get a hand into Kaleek’s fur.

 Kaleek planted his feet and spun, throwing the lokkel over his left shoulder and slamming the other warrior into the ground with a bone jarring thud. Toorvu tried to stand up, only to stumble, and Kaleek raised a single fist into the air shouting in triumph.

 In the stands the cheers slightly outnumbered the groans as spectators began to exchange marks. Evidently Kaleek had been the slight favorite so there were a few more smiles on the collection of alien faces.

 “It just doesn’t seem like a great idea for the stallesp to stick around on Earth,” Kat said with a quick shake of her head. In the fighting pit, Toorvu waved off a healer, likely unwilling to pay the marks for a quicker recovery when time would restore their hit points on its own. “They got caught once, so people must be watching like a hawk to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Dorrik’s even there as an observer. There have to be greener pastures for them to play their little imperialism games in.”

 “Katherine.” Jaalin sighed. “You’re a smart woman. I don’t know why you insist on acting like a stupid one. The stallesp represent a sizeable fraction of the Consensus. They are playing the same game in every newly discovered world. The lokkel clans are helping where we can, and more often than not the stallesp are being chastised for their actions, but that isn’t enough to stop them entirely. There is no need for them to stop their activities on Earth so that they can go to greener pastures. I am sure that they will be operating more secretively, the stallesp don’t want a repeat of the massive fine that was levied against them for their last set of escapades, but that won’t stop them. They might not be able to get away with dropping entire cadres of infiltrators onto your world but one or two disguised agents? That’s very possible. In fact, I’d be more surprised if they didn’t.”

 Kat wanted to snap back at Jaalin, but it was hard to muster any anger toward the lokkel. After all, she was right.

 The stallesp didn’t play well with the rules. It’s true that they had faced some financial consequences for their actions, but by the same token, Kat remembered vividly how much it took to actually reach that point. Active infiltration hadn’t been enough. Only when a stallesp battleship had literally been shot out of orbit did the galactic community intervene.

 Even then, the intervention was nothing more than a fine. True, the money from that fine would go a long way toward establishing Earth in the galactic community once someone finally managed to ascend, but that was only if the stallesp didn’t manage to intervene in the process and trick someone into waiving the fee.

 “If it is the stallesp,” Kat began, trying to sort her thoughts out by saying them out loud, “how do you think they’re managing it? I doubt the moles can keep any serious assets on Earth. I can understand trying to undermine the Consensus, but even when they were actively interfering with our development they did their best to keep their infiltrators hidden. Now, they’d be beyond crazy to try something out in the open. That’s a good reason for them to manipulate our financial markets, I just don’t know how they’re doing it without someone picking up on their actions.”

 “I doubt there are any actual stallesp left on planet,” Jaalin began.

 “I have already scanned for their biological signatures,” Dorrik chimed in. “I can’t reveal the results without violating my role as an observer, but there are no full blooded stallesp left on Earth. There are enough samples of their technology lying around to confuse the scanners somewhat so I can’t guarantee that there aren’t hybrids or clones hiding out, those are much harder to distinguish after all.”

 “It doesn’t help that I’m doing all of my scanning from a literal factory devoted to reproducing stallesp technology,” Dorrik continued, a bit sourly.

 “There you have it,” Jaalin replied. “Your planet is repurposing stallesp tech which means that there are stallesp biomarkers used in the activation sequences of the equipment you’re studying. That’s enough to frustrate a fairly intrusive scan if they are using something low impact. Maybe if there were an entire team to manually investigate every low grade false positive, then Dorrik could figure out where they’re hiding, but without proper support he’s going to tune the sensitivity on his sensors. That means that he’ll be able to find a full blooded stallesp or a human with heavy augments. Someone with minor alterations like decryption hardware would likely be able to slip through the cracks.”

 Kat chewed on her lower lip for a second. Kaleek was leaving the fighting ring, a huge grin on his face and Toorvu a couple steps behind him. Jaalin’s words made sense, but they really didn’t do much to comfort her. Sure, exposing the stallesp might have limited their capabilities, but fame and power came with their own problems.

 She wasn’t the scrappy infiltrator sneaking into a rich idiot’s house to rob them blind. Kat was the rich idiot. That meant sitting still with a target on her back while her opponent’s plotted and schemed against her. They had the benefit of disappearing into the night to rearm and reorganize. Theoretically Kat had more resources to hunt them down and destroy them, but that hadn’t worked to date.

 Whoever it was that was hunting her, they were as good or better than Kat at covert operations. She could probably beat them in a fair fight, the brief scrap with Ice Cobra had ended with the other woman turning tail after all, but Kat doubted that she’d ever get a chance at a fair fight. Unless she managed to improve her intelligence services by a factor of five, the only warning she’d get would be the click of high explosives detonating nearby.

 It was beyond frustrating. Whippoorwill was second to none on cyber security. Top end equipment combined with years of training had catapulted her past any known samurai. It wasn’t that she was smarter or better at programming than the others as the combination of her tower granted abilities and alien tech made her all but untouchable. Even with all those advantages, Belle, Emma and Whip couldn’t make heads or tails out of the people gunning for them.

 Kat paused, a full frown clouding her face. Maybe that was the secret to it. Whoever they were dealing with, they had someone as smart as Whippoorwill, but that person had the same or better tech. Right now, Whip was using modified stallesp hardware, but the scientists had assured both of them that it barely held a candle to the real thing. If the bad guys had an operative that could read and process the stallesp language at full speed, that meant that they would be better at hacking than anyone on Earth. Suddenly, all of GroCorp’s secure data vaults seemed more like invitations for the unnamed opponent to feast rather than bastions of secrets and wealth.”

 “Katherine Debs, level thirteen versus Pleon-Ket, level twenty one, crossbows!” The male voice drew Kat’s attention to the speaker, a bullfrog the size of a large dog clad in gleaming platemail. The alien sat atop a steel pillar raised slightly above the arena itself. “Starting bets are five to one in Pleon-Ket’s favor.”

She stood up, twisting her body to the right in order to stretch out any kinks from her long seat. Kat took a final bite from her spit of meat, enjoying the burn from the spices as she clambered over the stadium’s bleachers toward the railing. On the other side of the arena a tall thin alien clambered into the pit.

Kat jumped over the edge as well, using her domain to slow her fall. She landed on the sandy floor below, brushing dust off of her armor before looking up at her opponent.

Pleon-Ket stood almost three and a half paces tall, towering over her. Despite that, his shoulders and torso were only about as wide as Kat herself, making the giant look almost emaciated. They only had two arms, but each limb was almost a pace and a half long, terminating in large spidery hands with ten fingers. It nodded respectfully to Kat and she returned the gesture.

“Contestants,” the armored bullfrog continued. “Please approach the podium and present your stakes while the arena is being prepared.”

 Almost immediately, a grinding sound began to echo around the clearing as massive stone pillars pushed themselves up through the sand. In the stands above them, aliens were enjoying snacks or seeking out bookies in an attempt to make a couple marks from the contest.

 “A skill stone for Blade Burst, as promised.” Pleon-Ket’s voice was higher pitched than Kat expected. Almost reedy.

 The warrior reached up to the announcer, sitting a glimmering stone on the pillar in front of it. It reached out with a metal clad hand, touching the stone for a second before nodding.

 “Confirmed,” the announcer croaked. “Blade Burst is a silver tier skill, and one of the more useful ones at that. Its open market value is approximately five thousand marks although I doubt anyone would be able to find a market selling them short of the eighteenth floor.”

“Competitor Debs,” it continued, turning its attention to her. “GIven your lower level, a handicap has been applied. Please deposit a stake of at least four thousand marks in value.”

Kat winced. Four thousand marks would basically wipe her out. That was months worth of dungeon raids and selling off monster parts. If she lost their fight, she would have to either borrow marks from the rest of the party or go without new gear and consumables for a couple of dungeons. Neither possibility sounded particularly great.

Of course, that was only if Kat lost. Half the draw of the thirteenth floor’s arenas were the rarer items that were put up as stakes. Ordinarily, it was all but impossible to buy skill stones or materials from higher floors. Occasionally a dedicated merchant would make the journey down from an upper level bringing new wares, but those journeys were few and far between. Usually those products were purchased quickly and at a heavy premium, ensuring that the merchant had enough money to pay the guards that they would need to climb back up to the floor where they were gathering their resources.

The thirteenth floor circumvented some of those norms. It was a hub for warriors that had made it past the twelfth floor and advanced their classes. Short of the twenty fourth floor and their second advancement, if a climber wanted to relax for an extended period of time, they would usually travel back down to the relative safety and comfort of the thirteenth floor so they could enjoy their marks in a more cosmopolitan setting.

She jumped into the air, altering her personal gravity enough to let her leap carry her up to the top of the platform. Kat caught onto the lip with her left hand, swinging her right over the edge and tapping it down on the announcer's armor so that she could deposit her savings with the metal clad toad.

 Then, she kicked off with both legs, letting herself sail back a half dozen paces as she arced back toward the sandy floor of the arena. A couple people in the crowd cheered at her acrobatic display, led mostly by Stekat. Jaalin watched her closely, eyes narrow as she nodded occasionally at Dorrik’s cheerful banter.

 “Confirmed.” The announcer’s voice snapped her back to the present. “Both parties have deposited their stakes, and as soon as the arena is done being reconfigured the match will start.”

 The frog hopped to the edge of his pillar peering down at the two of them before continuing in a lower voice.

 “You understand the rules of the match, yes? No weapon skills, no spells, no Psi abilities, and blunt weapons only. The two of you fight using crossbows only with the first to hit the other being the victor.”

 “Right,” Kat replied. “Movement skills and class abilities only. Beyond that, we’re basically playing tag rather than fighting.”

 “Acceptable,” Pleon-Ket wheezed, pausing for a second before squinting at Kat. “You are a human right? From Earth?”

 “Yes?” Kat asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “A rare race,” the alien replied, their long, thin fingers stretching and contracting rapidly. “Especially on the dreamscape’s higher levels. It is strange that I’ve seen two of you in the last stellar cycle. Even more strange that you are here with lokkel given that the other seemed to be an ally of the stallesp.”

Kat raised an eyebrow, cocking her head slightly to the side.

“You’ve seen another one of my people?” She questioned. “I could swear that there are only a handful of us that made it past the twelfth level, and theoretically I’m supposed to be the only human at this level that’s working with the other races.”

“It was strange,” Pleon-Ket agreed. “None of his five companions spoke much, but they watched everything. It was more like they were guardians or assistants than actual companions, but at the same time I have not met a stallesp that would perform those duties out of the goodness of their hearts. I am curious about what he has offered them in exchange for their help, but at the same time I know better than to ask those sorts of questions. The stallesp are not known for being friendly to those inquiring about their business.”

“I don’t suppose you managed to get the human’s name,” Kat asked only for the tall alien to hold out a hand, extending all of its overly long fingers at once.

She blinked. That was probably some sort of body language that she was supposed to pick up on, but whatever Pleon-Ket was, she’d never seen something like them before

“I do not ask,” the alien replied. “He was small, like you. His skin was darker than yours. I do not know if that represents a cosmetic change or if he had altered his skin tone to fit in better on the floor. He was competent and he was violent. I wish no struggle with either the lokkel or the stallesp. Their troubles are large ones fit for larger species. My race’s integration into the Consensus was difficult enough even without the major powers fighting over us like a pair of starving hounds.”

Kat couldn’t help but smile despite herself. The simile fit. She wasn’t exactly thrilled for humanity to be the bone that the lokkel and stallesp were fighting over, and the lokkel certainly weren’t that bad as far as political groups went. Clan Ahn frankly seemed like they’d be better at running Earth than anyone currently living there, including Kat.

That said, she couldn’t fault the tall alien for their reluctance. The stallesp had allies and as best Kat could tell, they held grudges. Picking a fight with them wasn’t the best idea for someone with an alternative choice available.

“Come Competitor Debs,” Pleon-Ket said, interrupting her rapidly spinning thoughts. “The pillars are almost in place. It is time for me to win my four thousand marks from you.”

Kat shot the tall alien a quick smile. In the stands she could see Kaleek talking urgently with a bookie, trying to get in a last bet before the battle began.

“Fair enough,” she replied, “I’d like to earn that skill stone from you and get my marks back. If we can finish this quickly enough, my team already has our final dungeon picked out for the floor.”

Pleon-Ket graced her with an alien grin, gripping both of their oversized hands into fists.

“I admire your confidence Competitor Debs. Even without my weapon skills, I am almost double your level. We shall see who comes out victorious, but either way. To a good contest.”

“To a good contest Competitor Pleon-Ket,” Kat responded, nodding briefly toward the tall warrior before unslinging her crossbow and jogging out into the arena.

During their brief conversation, the formerly open and sandy arena had transformed into a forest of stone. Every two or three paces a pillar jutted up from the ground. Each of the structures was maybe a half pace across, enough to provide some cover and to impede movement, but not enough to block lines of sight too much. Bow duels were meant to be tests of evasion and aim, not camouflage and ambushes.

“Final call for bets!” The armored bullfrog’s voice boomed out, silencing the boisterous chatter that filled the stands. “Katherine Debs level thirteen versus Pleon-Ket level twenty one. Odds have shifted to seven to one in Pleon-Ket’s favor, but this is a crossbow duel. One lucky quarrel and the scrappy underleveled fighter could be the victor and you could bleed the arena dry of marks. One last chance to see if she’s your lucky star.”

Kat rolled her eyes, slipping a quarrel into her crossbow and checking the string’s tension while the announcer continued trying to hard sell the crowd on investing more money into the arena.

“You there! In the orange robes. Just think of how many marks you could make on this fight here. You’re not going to find another battle with a level differential this high. That makes a bet risky, but you could make enough money to change your entire climb!”

“Lay off Botor,” the robed figure shouted back. “She doesn’t stand a chance. It’s not my fault that the girl thinks she can fight that far above her level. She’s in for a painful learning experience and a chunk of lost money.”

“But not me,” he said with a quick barking laugh. “I already put a hundred marks down on the tall one. Now quit stalling and start the fight!”

Kat pursed her lips. It didn’t surprise her that none of the spectators had much faith in her, she was smaller and much lower level than her opponent after all, but at the same time it was a bit disheartening. Plus, Pleon-Ket was significantly taller than her, and in a bow duel that mostly meant that they were a bigger target.

Despite everything, the skill was worth it. Kat wouldn’t have a real chance to earn a silver ranked skill stone until she hit the eighteenth floor, and even then it was hard to find one that worked so well with her party’s abilities.

“Fine!” The frog, Botor apparently, shouted. “Competitors-”

Botor let the word drag out for a second as Kat set her legs, crouching slightly and bringing her crossbow up to her shoulder. Across the arena, through the forest of stone pillars she could see Pleon-Ket doing the same.

“Fight!” Kat didn’t even fully register the word. She was already running.

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