The connection

The following morning, Dustin sat bolt upright on the ambassadorial bed, disturbing Naera and Rye who’d curled into him after they’d finished a quick three-way the previous evening. He’d suddenly had an idea, and the grumbles from the Rabyth and Caenii women didn’t deter him as he stood and headed to the ready room. Behind him, the sound of kissing indicated that they’d opted to make the best of the situation before breakfast, but that too didn’t distract Dustin for once as he rummaged in the pile of tablets he’d left spread out after yet another attempt to spot the links between the different terrorist groups.

What he wanted had been buried in a report on known organizations, between an arms dealer that had been supplying the original team that’d attacked his bunny girl, and a shipping firm that had ‘lost’ a dozen crates of thermal goggles. Tapping the tablet excitedly, he checked his hunch - before setting the device down and grinning to himself.

As he did so, Meli walked into the room, dressed only in a long t-shirt that was stretched tight around her expanding stomach. Running a hand sleepily through her messy bed hair, his wife glanced at him as she shuffled to the automat. “You found something, husband?” she asked, punching in the order for breakfast drinks for the two of them.

“I think so. Remember I told you about me and Yaerwen yesterday? Well, after we’d…” Dustin blushed and paused. Despite all this time, and despite how eager his wife could be about new women joining their circle of lovers, telling her he’d fucked someone else still embarrassed him.

Meli turned, setting the drinks onto the table then bending down awkwardly for a kiss, before settling into a seat near to him. “After you and her had fun in the showers? Do you mean when you explained to her that you wanted her to wait for Aricia to get intimate with you as well before she got her welcome orgy or before that? I don’t know what you did to her in that shower, but I was surprised she didn’t even complain about being made to wait to play with the rest of us…” the Velca said softly, her eyes sparkling as she lightly teased her man.

Dustin sighed, before gesturing to the tablet. “She made a passing comment about not jumping into having kids unlike other members of her family. Well, I woke up this morning thinking about it - dunno why - and it suddenly clicked. Here.” He slid the tablet across to her. “Crime family. Literally, a family - like the old Earth mafia groups. They’re not connected on the surface to any of the rebels we’ve been investigating, but look at the list of property they own, and more importantly the businesses that are believed to be paying them protection money.”

Meli scanned the figures quickly, tapping the tablet a few times to check details before she glanced up. “They’ve got a presence in or near every single one of the groups that we’re investigating. Or the organizations those groups hit up for equipment. It’s so heavily obfuscated by criminal activity, you’d not notice it if you didn’t know exactly what to look for… Husband, you’re a genius.”

Shaking his head, Dustin took the tablet back. “No, just got a lucky hunch that turned out to be right. Lemmie drink my mocha and grab something to eat so I feel a little more like myself and I’ll get in touch with the locals to pass this information on. If their teams can sweep some of the bigger players in this family, we might just find out who they’re working for.”

His wife frowned at that, but before she could ask why he was sure the criminals were working for yet another outside boss Sammie walked in with her arm draped over Emely’s shoulder, and Dustin had to explain the entire setup again. Once they’d heard everything (and after she’d set plates of food down in front of the other three before retrieving her own breakfast), the pilot kicked her legs over the side of her chair and gestured vaguely towards the tablet with one dark-skinned arm.

“So they’re blatantly working for someone else, right? No way crooks want to destabilize things that much.” Sammie’s words made Meli’s frown return, so after a quick glance at Dustin for confirmation the pilot explained. “It’s simple, Meli, tho probably not from the perspective of a species that’s been stable as long as the Velca have. Criminals want a certain level of uncertainty. Too little, and it’s hard to do crimes without getting caught. Too much, and nobody wants to spend money on crime-related things because they’re too focused on surviving.”

Sammie drummed her fingers on the table as she thought how to get the concept across. “Basically, any criminal organization like this one wants some level of chaos in government - ideally, bureaucratic chaos because that means the paper-pushers are busy telling people no while the crooks get to make money saying ‘yes, actually’. But actual conflict? Sure, you’ll sell a few guns or whatever, but people dying is bad for business. Besides, the government might bring the military in, and they tend to like simple solutions that aren’t as easy to bribe your way out of.”

Dustin grinned at his pilot as she finished her explanation, then leaned over and asked her “so how often did your folks smuggle stuff?” Sammie’s cheeks immediately tinted, and she shook her head rapidly. “We never… Well, only occasionally, and only small things… just chunks of rock for private collections, nothing serious…”

Reaching out, Dustin patted her hand. “Nobody, and I mean nobody, Axworth included, cares. You’re a damn good pilot, and your family and the rest of the cargo crews flew their asses off keeping people alive during the battle for Sol. Besides, I read your file - EarthGov one hundred percent knew about the trade in Martian, Lunar and outer planet rocks. Debated legalizing it three times, decided against because Star Command asked them not to - because if the cargo ships were smuggling dirt, they weren’t smuggling anything more serious.”

Turning back to Meli and Emely who’d watched the exchange with open eyes, he smiled. “So you see, if the criminals are doing this, they’re not doing it for themselves. That means either someone has leverage on someone high up in their command structure, or they’re getting paid enough that it’s worth it despite the loss of revenue from their regular business going down during any time of civil strife. Either way, that points to government-level actors. Which, given what we know so far points a rather large picture of Durathisian influence to my mind - we just haven’t found the exact link yet.”

The conversation with the Uil’l administration later on was far more efficient. It took mere moments for Dustin’s hunch to be checked before the defence minister ordered a number of high-ranking members of the crime syndicate be brought in ‘for questioning’. Given the matter was one of national security rather than petty crime, he reassured Dustin that they would be getting answers - if only because there was no way all the heads of the syndicate were in alignment on betraying their people for whatever levers might be being used against them.

In the meantime, Dustin returned to an idle state. He really had nothing to do - Yril’k and Emely were handling monitoring things with the locals, Sammie and Rye had gone (under heavy guard) to further investigate the water pipe issue she’d found previously, while his other lovers were equally busy with their own projects. For once at a loose end, he took a trip down to the observation deck.

As usual when there was someplace more interesting to be, the deck was deserted. Grabbing a drink and a snack from the automat, Dustin settled with his back against one of the large supports that held the massive windows and stared out over the surface of the Uil’l homeworld.

From up close, it was pretty obvious why the primary life on the planet had evolved underground. While the caves were full of water and plant life (the locals having rather proudly shown him around a damp moss-covered cave that was apparently a carefully managed replica of the sort of environment their ancestors had first used tools in), the surface was blasted by the heat of the system’s star. Between the sun and the thick volcanic clouds from the range of near-constant eruptions at the equator, the world outside the window was hot, humid and lit by a warm red glow.

It kind of reminded Dustin of drawings of hell - if hell had decided the appropriate setting for the ambient light was ‘family log fire at Christmas’. The juxtaposition of rocky wasteland and warming light was weird, but it provided a lot for him to think about as he sipped his drink and munched idly on the bag of crisps he’d chosen.

A soft voice interrupted his reverie sometime later. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been sitting, but he had nearly finished the large bag of salted potato product as he jolted back to reality. Glancing around, he saw Aricia stood nearby, the butterfly girl smiling at him. “Sorry, what?” Dustin asked, blinking.

Aricia raised her tablet. “I asked if you’d mind if I took a picture of you while you’re sat there. It’s very ass-the-trick… at least, I think that’s the word?”

It took Dustin a moment to work out what she meant, then he began to laugh, waving a hand as he did so. “Sorry… sorry! I know I shouldn’t laugh when people get words wrong, god knows I can’t speak Lieviran properly, but… the word is ‘aesthetic’. Tricks and asses means something very, very different. And yes, you can take a picture of me - any particular pose?”