Chapter 3 – The Cost Of Doing Business
Sun Fac decided to visit one of the Gladiators he'd become friendly with while working at the arena. He wanted a professional assessment, as it were, of Poggle's petrana-ki trial, and to gauge the mood of the gladiatorial class in general. It seemed to him that they'd appeared unusually testy as of late, and he didn't know why.
The Gladiators occupied an oddly shifting niche in Geonosian society, sandwiched somewhere between the low and middle ruling classes. Their status depended entirely upon their success in the arena, and their turnover, as might be expected of creatures bred purely for bloodsport, was immense. Fac had always felt an affinity for them. They were an offshoot of his own Royal Warrior class and few Warriors could thus resist entertaining a few delusional fantasies about their own fighting ability and dabbling in arena sport themselves. Curiously, despite sharing the same background, in temperament they could not have differed more. The Warriors were the most gregarious of Aristocrats; the Gladiators, quarrelsome and competitive, could not be trusted to share any sort of communal quarters and had to be housed in separate cells altogether. Since few of them lived very long, no one ever begrudged them the extra space.
Fac's friend lived in a typical middle-class residential sector close to the coliseum. Two stories of cells lined a network of broad passageways, the lower level offering easier access, the upper ones more privacy. Gladiators liked their privacy. Fac had to climb a ladder-like set of rough projections left on the rock wall to reach his goal.
He paused and uttered several clicks to announce his presence, keeping well back from the small circular entrance. Even a Vaulted would have done the same; Gladiators, always volatile, were inclined to attack anyone foolish enough to catch them by surprise. A long snout jutted out of the entrance, took a whiff, clicked a reply. Reassured, Sun Fac finished climbing up and inside.
The occupant of the cell was relaxed and in a good mood (Fac was relieved to note), and welcomed his visitor warmly. His name was Tau Lee. Like their Warrior cousins, Gladiators acknowledged their lineage with a strain identifier, although they used it as a suffix rather than prefixing their personal names. The Lees were an exceptional line renowned for their diversity; Tau was one of the great ones and Stalgasin's current reigning Fighting Champion. He had always given Fac good advice and had even sparred with him once, an experience which the officer had found truly humbling.
Tau Lee also carried the dilution factor that lightened his body to a yellowish fawn and his brown eyes to amber. The mutation had cropped up spontaneously some decades ago and had caught on with the general public, who liked the way the paler colouring contrasted against the arena sand and better showed the blood. Most Gladiators were now fawn, and in some lines, the normal variety had been bred out entirely. Spectator preference had overcome the loss of natural camouflage.
Sun Fac thought Tau a striking fellow. He was always in perfect condition and exceptionally svelte, even for a Geonosian.
"Interested in a good money match against one of my own?" Tau asked him now. "I have an overconfident youngster you should be able to handle. Arrogant, careless little twit. You'd be doing me a personal favour if you killed him."
"I'd say yes, if I had the time," Fac replied. "I'm busy keeping an eye on that felon that won the petrana-ki—Poggle."
"Ah yes, that one."
"I've been wondering if you had an opinion on what he accomplished. The trial itself and…after."
An odd hard expression crept over Tau's face, one which Fac could not exactly identify. Nonetheless, he gestured at one of the platforms ringing the cell's interior, then seated himself on another, folding up his long legs and squatting down on his hocks in a Geonosian sit. Fac followed suit. It appeared that Tau Lee had rather a lot to say.
"Poggle," the Gladiator said, "was lucky. Lucky in that he was allowed to fight alongside two other participants. Lucky that one of them turned out to have some natural ability so they could cover one another."
"Does Poggle have ability?"
"Yes he does. He's undisciplined…untrained, of course, but…clever, very clever. Using the pillars, that was smart of them."
"Was that a rule violation, what they did?" Fac asked.
"Technically, no. Petrana-ki participants are allowed the whole of the arena floor." He paused and laughed, a short harsh bark. "Not that it was much of a petrana-ki."
"Oh?"
Tau's mouth worked. Fac sensed that the Gladiator was all of a sudden seething and struggling for control. Alarmed, he gathered himself, ready to jump should his host explode.
"It was a mockery," Tau abruptly cried out. "A mockery! That Hadiss—" He halted himself, took a few quick calming breaths. "It was not a proper pretrana-ki. Not at all! If Archduke Hadiss wanted to execute those criminals, by all means, what do I care? But he ought not to have insulted our rituals that way."
"It dishonoured them?" Fac ventured, his tone carefully neutral. Tau tucked his chin and blew a sharp breath through his mouth, an expression of disgust.
"Of course it did! The petrana-ki, there has to be some principle involved, some integrity; otherwise it becomes just another mindless entertainment only a stupid grub of a drone could enjoy. Hadiss should never have tried to trick those two the way he did. He should have just turned that acklay loose with the lot of them right away, if he wanted them dead so badly. No one would have minded that."
"No one but the actual participants, you mean."
"They were criminals," Tau declared curtly, still too angry to indulge any witticisms. "They deserved death. But they fought well, those two. Both of them earned their redemption. Hadiss shouldn't have used the acklay."
So much for the testiness, thought Sun Fac. "About that acklay, has anyone else ever defeated one?"
"Never," said Tau. "Never." His slender neck arched proudly and the amber eyes now blazed with a different emotion. "What Poggle did was unparalleled. Phenomenal. It was the bloodlust. It transcended him. He should have been a Gladiator. He would have been an easy champion, perhaps the best ever."
"Better than you, Tau?"
"With training, yes. He has it in him."
The Gladiator's bald pronouncement gave Fac a lot to think about. He walked home later mulling over a multitude of images and possibilities.
Fac could hear a bit of commotion underway in his residential cell as he strode up, a not unusual consequence of having a good two dozen of his comrades off duty at the same time. The lot of them, arena workers all, lived much as did the Lessers, in a single large common area encircled by small cubicles into which individuals could retreat for privacy. A major difference was that some cubicles were co-joined, offering larger spaces for those who wished to share, and since gene brothers invariably stuck together, it sometimes made for comical arrangements. Fac and Rit had been easy enough to accommodate and had snagged a nice double cubicle, but the seven Tacs assigned to the cell had wound up cramming themselves into a space really only meant for four. They were perfectly content to lie half draped on one another while resting or looking out of their little upper level entrances, their lean downfaced heads nestled cheek to cheek or stacked on top of each other, like a pile of snoozing drones. It was a sort of familiarity the other Aristocrat classes could simply not have tolerated.
Creaking laughter greeted Fac as he entered and he was delighted to discover that Sun Rit and Poggle were the cause of it. Poggle had evidently been holding Rit up as a bad example of some sort again and Rit, predictably, was protesting vociferously. The other Warriors were having their fun at their work-mate's expense.
"Yes you ARE, Rit," one of them was saying. "You're bone lazy." Addressing Poggle, he added, "He only yells at his soldiers when there's a superior around, otherwise he sits back and lets them do as they please."
"All the drones want to work for him," said another Warrior.
"Who could blame them?" remarked a third, to which Sun Rit responded with a string of vicious oaths.
"You ill-bred culls, I'll thrash the lot of you!" he cursed, a threat that might have meant something if he hadn't been hopping from foot to foot with happy excitement at the same time. Rit was one of those Geonosians who just loved being the center of attention, even if that attention was negatively gained. He never fooled anyone, not even the dumbest of drones.
"Thank you for that lovely show of gentlemanly restraint!" Poggle crowed with equal glee. "I'm glad to see that your decorum matches your work ethic."
Of course, all that did was to get the Warriors laughing and Rit sputtering all over again. Fac regarded the instigator of it all with admiration and a little awe. It had taken Poggle just three visits to win all the Royal Warriors in Fac's cell over completely. They'd initially welcomed him only because they were eager to hear more about his petrana-ki and fight with the acklay, then remained to listen to Poggle's ideas about earning status through sheer accomplishment and not by birthright. His theories resonated well with the officers, all of whom were experienced and smart enough to know that they'd never advance beyond their current positions, although most felt capable of much more. The thought of having the responsibilities and perks normally reserved for the higher classes enticed and excited them. None of them cared anymore that Poggle was a Lesser. They looked at him the way they looked at those few superiors they had any respect for, the way they were supposed to look at the Commander, but never did. Sun Rit, Fac knew, adored Poggle, finding in him the perfect foil and mirror for his own love of sarcasm. The two had leapt into such an instant heated exchange upon first meeting that Fac had feared that they'd come to blows. But later, with Poggle gone, Rit had said, "Why didn't you tell me he was so funny?", then chastised Fac for not having introduced them sooner.
Even the service drones liked Poggle. Fac looked around and saw that every single one of them was present and had found some work to do, whether lending a hand at the grooming tables, shining up one of the officers' harnesses, or just pretending to tidy up a nearby cubicle while its occupant was out; anything that allowed them to look busy and stay close enough to watch and listen in on the conversation. The Warrior had never seen anything like it.
Sun Fac waited now for a lull in the chat roiling about him and managed to catch Poggle's eye. A moment later, the two of them were climbing up to the Suns' cubicle, Rit following behind. The rest of the Warrriors gazed after them wistfully. They knew full well that their residence-mates and the Lesser were plotting something and they wished that they could be a greater part of it.
Fac quickly outlined what had occurred at Tau Lee's and Poggle clasped his hands together with satisfaction. He knew that Tau headed Stalgasin's gladiatorial society and spoke for all his kind. Having the Gladiator class onside would be an obvious and tremendous boost to his fighting forces.
"I've been busy too," Rit revealed. "Contrary to the opinions of some people—" Here, he looked pointedly at the Lesser. "—I do get up off my lazy hocks now and then and take a stroll around to check things out. A couple of our stiffs seem inclined to lean your way, Poggle."
"Who?" asked Fac, surprised.
"Those two Citizens running security for the upper tiers. And Brossar—he's a Patriot," Rit clarified for Poggle's sake.
"Brossar's sympathetic to Poggle?" Fac exclaimed.
"Course he is," Rit insisted. "Not that he'd ever let anything like that slip to someone like you."
Poggle laughed happily. "This is excellent! Three more possibles in the middle class, now we're getting somewhere." He looked at his two new supporters with pleasure. "Good work, both of you. I'll leave you, Rit, to keep sounding out your superiors. Speaking of, I suppose there's no chance that Nadeer…?"
"Forget it," Rit sniffed. "He's one of Hadiss' cronies. They stick together in the archducal box during games like a pair of nexu in heat."
Poggle laughed again. "Well, too bad. Who's off tomorrow evening? You, Fac? Could we go see your Gladiator then?" He flipped his snout in Rit's direction. "Given my luck, he'd get himself killed off in the very next event and Fac here would have to start all over again, eh?"
"Seize the opportunity, that's my advice," Rit said, and Fac rolled his eyes. Exasperation expressed, Fac did confirm that he would be off the next evening and would introduce Poggle to Tau Lee. The Lesser decided that he would also make use of the next day to approach the one lone supervisor in his own work sector that had expressed some sympathy for his ordeal in the arena, plus try out another possible over in the admin area.
"May as well kick off the next level of our campaign in a big way," Poggle said. "And if I don't show up for our meeting," he joked to Fac, "you'll know I've been arrested again."
"Don't even think it," Fac chided. "I'm sure it will go well."
"We hope," Rit added, and Fac seized his opportunity to cuff his gene brother on the head.
One look at Poggle's stormy face the next evening and Sun Fac knew that their plans had suffered a setback.
"It didn't go well, did it?" he asked quietly, falling in beside the Lesser. Poggle shook his snout and opened his mouth wide in an angry grimace.
"No. And I don't like the pattern I'm sensing," was all he'd say.
He'd settled down by the time they reached Tau Lee's cell, luckily so, for the Gladiator was not happy to see him. Despite his high regard for Poggle's arena performance, Tau disliked having anyone of such low class in his personal quarters, and he looked over his new visitor with obvious hostility, wings lifted slightly off his back in a show of aggression. Fac hoped that Poggle wouldn't behave in too antagonistic a manner. A lot of the Gladiator's favourite fighting blades were hanging on the walls within easy reach, including the two Fac had seen him use just days ago to slash open both sides of a reek's throat in a glorious double fountain of blood.
"Why is he here?" Tau demanded, speaking only to Fac.
"I think you might want to listen to what he has to say," the Warrior replied.
"You're imposing upon our friendship."
"I know, but it's important."
Tau examined Poggle again. The Lesser at least looked good, Fac thought with relief, his wings and epidermis newly healed and gleaming, his strong male body appearing sound and healthy and well-carried. Weakness always provoked a Gladiator. But this one evidently found nothing objectionable in Poggle, for he quit his scrutiny, then hopped up on a platform and sat down.
"Speak," he said, waving at his unwelcome guest.
Poggle launched into his plea, speaking of his belief that their social system had become antiquated and inefficient, making his promises that if he were Archduke he could surely better run things and bring greater prosperity to the people of Stalgasin, even to the whole of the sovereign system of Geonosis, if only he were given the chance. As always, he spoke eloquently, even elegantly, Fac thought. Throughout it all, Tau Lee remained perched on his resting platform, sitting with preternatural calm, forearms resting on his upper thighs, hands dangling limply; his only sign of life the shifting highlights in his glossy amber eyes as he stared at Poggle, then at Fac, then back at Poggle.
"Well?" the Lesser concluded at last. "What do you say?"
"I ought to report both of you," Tau said coldly.
Poggle laughed. "No you won't. You know I'm right."
Tau Lee stretched a leg out and down to the floor and stood up. A tremour passed through him, rattling his four overlapping wings. Fac jerked his snout up with alarm, but Poggle stood firm.
"I should kill you myself," Tau growled.
"You can try," Poggle retorted, and actually lifted his hands into a defensive position. For a few long seconds they looked as if they were about to do it, fly at each other in a murderous fury, and Fac, watching, held his breath. Then the Gladiator snorted.
"You've got nerve," he conceded. "I'll grant you that."
"If I do, it's from watching people like you in the arena," Poggle countered smoothly. "I could be a friend to you, Tau, to all of you. I'd want our coliseum to be the finest in all Geonosis. I'd fund the gladiatorial society, see to it that your ranks were expanded."
"How much funding?" Tau interrupted.
"A lot."
"How much, exactly, is a lot?" Tau persisted, and Poggle flicked his wings irritably.
"I don't have the exact figure in my head. But once I'm Archduke—"
"Find that figure. Better yet, bring me a down payment."
"You want money?" asked Poggle, dismayed.
"Doesn't everyone? Sorry, but I won't commit my people on a promise. A sizable contribution, however…"
Poggle flicked his wings again, not at all shy of showing his annoyance. It seemed to amuse the Gladiator.
"Disappointed?" he asked.
"Yes. But—I understand. You'll have to give me time."
"Take all the time you want. I'm always here," said Tau Lee, and on that note, their meeting adjourned. Poggle and Fac were soon trudging back to the Warrior's residence, Fac by far the more unhappy of the pair. The Warrior even stopped en route to buy them both a treat of dried sand melon. Munching the sweet fruit seemed to help take the sting out of their unproductive evening, at least for Fac.
"I was so sure he'd support us," Sun Fac fretted, once they were safe in his cubicle and free to talk. "He was so angry with Hadiss."
"He'll come around. So will the others. You have to look at the whole schematic, Fac. They're interested, just afraid. Thanks to our glorious Archduke, everyone knows that backing me is not exactly the safest of ventures, eh?"
"We all support you," Fac insisted, gesturing out at his cell's common area.
"People like us don't have much to lose," Poggle pointed out. "The middle class, though…" He began rubbing his chin and lower jaw, pondering aloud. "We need money. That's what they all wanted, payment in advance. We have to find a wealthy patron or two. I can't chance going about this in a small way again, Fac. We need people in positions of power."
"I could try some higher-risk matches. Tau Lee said he had—"
"No! No more fighting. I need you, Fac. I don't want you risking yourself anymore. You're too smart for that."
Sun Fac was too dispirited to enjoy his friend's show of confidence. "Am I," he said listlessly.
"Of course you are. You're remarkably intelligent."
Fac's head hung lower. He looked at the floor. When, after several seconds, nothing more was forthcoming, he chanced a glance at the Lesser and found him staring back with cool intensity.
"You were waiting for it, weren't you?"
"Excuse me?" Fac exclaimed, startled.
"You were waiting for the rest of it. Expecting me to finish it."
"I-I—"
Poggle snorted derisively. "You think I haven't heard it too? Even worse than you? Oh, Poggle, you are so smart! Why, Poggle, what a head you have for figures!" Voice dripping disgust, he went on, becoming more and more caustic. "How talented you are, Poggle! My goodness, Poggle, what a clever fellow you are! Such a shame we can't promote you, but you know how it is. Yes indeed, Poggle, you truly are so very intelligent. For a LESSER."
A sense of deep shame swept through Sun Fac, why, he didn't know. He looked at the floor again and his breath came fast.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
Poggle vaguely waved a hand at him. His mouth was open in another grimace.
"Don't be ridiculous, Fac. You have nothing to do with it. It's the system. And you are smart. You could run this whole planet."
"I…wouldn't have the vision."
"Work for me, then. I'll supply the vision."
Sun Fac licked his mouth. He felt tugged by powerful forces, a little light-headed, like flying unexpectedly into an invisible atmospheric vortex. "That could be arranged," he murmured.
"All right, then."
The two regarded each other with mutual satisfaction. Their setback no longer loomed with such importance. Fac's feeling of giddy dizziness subsided.
"What's to be done, sir?" he asked.
"For the moment, not much. Let's give our contacts time to think things over. You and Rit work on your people a bit more. Maybe we can arrange a little accidental meeting at the arena with that Patriot Rit mentioned—they all know that you're tasked to watch me, yes?"
Sun Fac nodded vigorously. It would be quite in order for Poggle to hang about the stands waiting for Fac to come off duty after the next scheduled games and the Warrior knew exactly where Poggle should place himself to best catch Brossar the Patriot's eye. They discussed the setup in greater detail for a few more moments, then parted for the night in far better spirits than when they'd entered the cubicle. Fac would fill Rit in as soon as he next saw his gene brother.
Poggle walked home through the usual constant flow of foot traffic using the passageways at all hours of the day and night. Often, he could catch little snatches of whispered conversation starting up behind him—that's him! Poggle! the one that beat the acklay, he would hear. Less frequent but more satisfying were the slight nods afforded him by fellow Aristocrats as they passed, some of them coming from the same middle-class members that would normally have stared past him with indifference. Poggle felt good about his notoriety. Far from fading, it seemed to be feeding on itself in a way that excited the masses, that gave his peers and the upper classes pause. It made all the pain and anxiety he had suffered to date seem worthwhile.
Poggle's rather turbulent evening turned out to be not quite over after all. As soon as he entered his residential cell, he was confronted by an odd trio and several fellow Lessers, one of whom, the nominal leader of the grouping, was especially glad to see him.
"There you are!" he cried. "I was just about to send someone off to look for you."
"What is this?" Poggle queried. Two drone guards stood flanking an odd-looking little droid by the entrance to his cubicle.
"You tell me," said the other Lesser. "The guards say this mechanoid has a message for you."
"For me? From who?"
"We don't know, sir," one of the guards offered. "We were just told to bring it to you."
Poggle eyed the contraption with interest. Droids were, of course, entirely familiar to his people—they churned out enough of them in their foundries—yet were rarely used for everyday matters which drones could accomplish equally well. This droid looked to be of unusual manufacture, a suspicion confirmed by the guards, who maintained that it had come off a visiting alien commercial freighter.
"Well, let's hear it, then," Poggle decided, ushering the little droid into his cubicle. "You drones, scat. You too," he added, looking at his work-mates, who moved off good-naturedly albeit disappointed.
"You WILL let us know what's going on, yes, Poggle?" one of them called.
"Sure. Whatever," Poggle muttered. Having ensured his privacy, he turned back to the droid. It sat there serenely, waiting. "Well, I am Poggle the Lesser," he said to it. "Do you need me to say more for a voice-match? Some other ID?"
"No. Identity confirmed," the machine intoned in decent, although metallic-sounding Geonosian. A broad faint blue beam emanated from its front and a small holo-image began to form in midair before it. The image looked like some alien to Poggle, something that could have been bipedal under an enveloping, covering cloth. It began to speak in the dull flat monotones he thought typical of humanoid languages.
"Halt. I don't understand that gibberish," Poggle interjected irritably. "Translate into Geonosian and replay."
The droid obediently did as ordered. This time the words rang loud and clear.
"Greetings to you, Poggle of Geonosis, from the heart of the Old Republic. I have a most interesting proposition for you…"
TBC