Chapter 54: Something to Offset the Debt

53. Items for Debt Settlement

"Get ready! We set out this afternoon! Once we take that ship, the entire galaxy will be ours! Just imagine! A pirate ship 40,000 meters long! Hahahahaha!!" Kooken continued, "Round up all the outsiders! Once we occupy that giant starship, they'll be our slaves! To hell with the Muens! I'm not afraid!!"

A large number of heavily armed, hideous, and filthy pirates rushed out from behind him. They dragged and hauled all the outsiders, including Vant, tying them up and stuffing them into the cramped cargo hold like cans of sardines.

Inside the bar, the pirates swept all the wine bottles and cards off the tables onto the floor, then hauled crates of firearms and ammunition from the armory to pile them up.

The atmosphere instantly became incredibly frenzied.

Only Taya remained there, singing all alone. She was terrified to the extreme, yet she didn't dare to stop for even a moment.

Vant was stuffed into the very back of the cargo hold, but his mind was incredibly calm. He freed himself from his bindings with great ease and then quietly took the communicator in his hand.

With so many people here, a loud, overt transmission was impossible. Instead, he began to tap rhythmically on the microphone.

...

On the surface of Tatooine, at Truda's starship docking bay.

Yuri Orlov and Vitaly Orlov, having fled in a panic, finally returned to their own ship, only to find it empty—not a single soul in sight.

"Where are they? Where the fuck is Vant?" Yuri searched everywhere, even under the beds, but still found no one. "Fuck! If he doesn't come back, those pursuers will find us sooner or later! We have to get out of here, fast!"

"The problem is, none of us know how to fly a ship. How do we run? We can't just leave Vant and the others behind, can we?" Vitaly said, shaking his head.

"Bastard! It's over, it's over... it's all over..." Yuri slumped onto the bed, clutching his hair violently. Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he said to Vitaly, "Vitaly, go see what that group of Bossans left us as debt settlement."

"You're still thinking about debt settlement at a time like this?"

"Duh! If even this is gone, what the hell was the point of us risking our lives?"

"OK, I'll take a look... but my Galactic Standard is mediocre, I'm not sure what's written here... T, O, R, P, E, T, O... P, O, R, T, O... what does this mean?" Vitaly squinted to identify the letters.

"What? Proton Torpedo!" Yuri suddenly jumped up, grabbed Vitaly's shoulders, and burst into laughter. "Holy shit! Holy shit!! Vitaly! We're rich! Hahahaha!"

"What? What are you talking about?" Vitaly was completely bewildered.

"Proton torpedoes! These are two proton torpedoes! Hahahahaha!!" Yuri laughed maniacally.

"How do you know what these are?"

"Duh! Of course I have to have a basic understanding of the weapons in this galaxy if I want to sell my own stuff!" Yuri said excitedly. "Two proton torpedoes! They're worth at least 15,000 credits! We hit the jackpot! We really hit the jackpot this time! I can sell these for 10,000 credits each! Do you understand, Vitaly? We made a killing on this trip!"

"Wait a minute! Unless you go through military channels, no one can get their hands on heavy weapons like this. I could even ask for 30,000 credits each! Hahaha..." Yuri was already completely immersed in ecstasy.

"But the problem now is, how do we get out of here?" Vitaly was incredibly anxious, pacing back and forth in the cabin.

"Send another message to that damn Vant!! Fu... huh? When did the connection go through?" Yuri suddenly realized that Vant's communication had been connected, but no holographic projection appeared.

He walked over, pressed the call button, and roared, "Vant, you unloved piece of dog shit! I'm fucking leaving and you're still out fooling around! Where the fuck are you now?!"

Inside the cargo hold of Kooken's Hammerhead-class cruiser, the 'Iron Fang', Vant quickly covered the microphone to prevent Yuri's cursing from being heard. He looked around guiltily and noticed that many of the captured people were whispering, so fortunately, no one noticed him.

"Yuri, you goddamn idiot! One day I really should let you see what a Bansa is like, and then stuff you into its excretory pore!" Vant muttered to himself while continuing to tap rhythmically on the microphone.

"I'm gonna..." Yuri was about to continue cursing when he heard the tapping sound. He immediately became alert, realizing something was wrong.

"Vitaly, come here and listen to this sound." Yuri called his brother over.

Vitaly listened for a moment and shook his head. "How should I know what that is?"

"It's Morse code, and it's not sending English letter sequences, but Hanyu Pinyin sequences," the guarding T-850 suddenly spoke up.

"You understand this stuff?"

"My database contains all known languages, and it also stores Morse code decoding tables. This is not a very sophisticated cipher," the T-850 said. "What is being sent now is: 'After understanding the signal, please tap the microphone five times.'"

"If it's not a sophisticated cipher, isn't he asking for death by sending it?" Yuri cursed.

"No! It might actually work!" Vitaly suddenly realized. "In this galaxy, there is no English, no Hanyu Pinyin, and certainly no such thing as Morse code! So even if they crack the Morse code, they won't know what we're saying! No one can interpret the language of another galaxy out of thin air, right? And he's not using English, he's using Pinyin! That's even brilliant!"

Yuri understood as well. "That's right! English is an alphabetic script, which is quite intuitive. But Chinese characters are logographic! Without a reference, the people in this galaxy will never be able to crack it! Even if the communication is intercepted, it won't matter."

"Do I need to reply?" the T-850 asked.

"Reply!" Yuri said. "I don't understand Chinese or Morse code, but Vant must have something to tell us."

Since things seemed to have changed, he finally calmed down a bit.

The T-850 took a pen and paper, then tapped five times on the communicator's microphone. Soon, more tapping came from the other side. The T-850 wrote rapidly on the paper, reading aloud as he wrote, "I am trapped inside Kooken's cruiser. Kooken will set out to attack the mothership this afternoon."

"What? He actually got captured?! Then what do we do? Grow wings and fly up to save him?" Yuri cried out in shock.

"Yuri, no matter what you're thinking right now, we have to hurry! I see people searching everywhere!" Vitaly shouted, holding a telescope.