Chapter 30

Serval

There was a lot of information from Prince Qui'tal's combot.

Unfortunately, so much of it was completely useless.

The prince was truly a vapid, obnoxious youngling in a grown male's body. He seemed to care only about what would feel good next. His list of vices was long.

He was into gambling, animal racing, designer drugs, every intoxicant he could get his hands on, and the most beautiful females he could attract with his money. He certainly wasn't doing it with his personality, as even the conversations he had with ‘friends' were uninteresting and annoying. And Serval doubted they were real friends because the relationships seemed so transactional. Very little effort was even made to disguise it.

It was kind of sad, in a way.

It was clear that the prince's mother, queen of her pod, wasn't impressed with him. The females he was with only wanted what he could give them, his friends wanted his life and tolerated him to enjoy it, and every vice he chased was just some way to feel good because he had nothing else in his life that brought him joy.

Sad. Pathetic, really.

But the prince was a grown male, even if he didn't always act like it. There was a point where his bad choices couldn't be excused. Even if he had excuses, even if the situation was sad, they were still choices he was making, and the consequences were still falling on those he hurt, no matter the reason he made them.

And this time, the injured party were the animals he was trafficking. While he wasn't dumb enough to have direct, obvious conversations about the trade, he wasn't smart enough to keep all conversations about it off his combot.

There was one male in his contacts who wasn't one of his vapid followers or greedy females or a contact to get him one of his designer substances – a group of which he still noted so that he could include all that information in the complete report that the authorities would, no doubt, request from him later. All those dealers were potential targets for arrest too.

Though, they weren't what Serval was interested in now.

The single male that wasn't like the others only exchanged a few messages with Prince Qui'tal. They were curt, there was some evidence that the prince was deleting parts of the conversation, and there was little information in them.

But there was meta data underneath them that gave Serval so much more.

He could track where the messages had been received. Better yet, he had the subspace data needed to track back to where they were sent from. That he packed up and sent off to a guy he knew who could do subspace calculations. He also got the comm ID from the male who was identified as ‘Zot' in the combot.

Zot was, as far as he could tell, not a name. It was a word in the shinuk tongue. It translated roughly to ‘fuzz'. Not fuzz like fur, but the shorter, harder bristles that the shinuk people sometimes had. They were considered an unsightly feature, and those who grew zot had them removed.

Serval wasn't sure if that meant the male on the other end was chitinous and had such hairs, or if he really was furry and Prince Qui'tal didn't like the feature, or even if it had nothing at all to do with him and instead was a nod to the animal trafficking. Without actually meeting the male or interviewing the prince, Serval couldn't know.

But he had his comm signature, and he sent that to his tech guy to see what information he could glean from it.

He then started going through the saved photos and videos on the combot's memory. Trying to find something that might help him track down the animal trade.

There were a lot of nude photos of females on this thing. Serval grimaced, checking the door to his father's office he had borrowed for this, some part of him afraid Sophie would come walking through and immediately get angry.

But he had to investigate each shot. The backgrounds more than the females. Prince Qui'tal was definitely the kind of fool to bring females around an illegal operation to impress them, so there might be information there.

He couldn't deny that he felt uncomfortable looking at all these females though. The pictures often went right past erotic and straight into the pornographic. The videos were the same. Prince Qui'tal didn't have his face in any of them, but Serval quickly became familiar with his cock – and he was not happy about that.

But there was also plenty of evidence to add to the drug report. The idiot actually took photos of himself doing drugs, of his dealers, of the drugs and the credz he used to buy them. Some of the dealers were smart enough to look away, though not all of them were fast enough, and he had his combot set to take multiple shots in a row to make sure he got a good one.

For what, Serval couldn't imagine. He certainly wasn't showing these off.

Or maybe he was. In which case, wow, he was even dumber than he thought.

Serval's own combot chose that moment to ring, alerting him of an incoming comm. He checked the ID first and groaned.

Korvii.

"I don't want to talk to you," he sneered at the device, even as he gestured for the combot to answer. "What do you want, Korvii?"

The holo recreation of the domini buffoon was smirking at him, crossing his arms.

"Just checking on you," he said, doing a great job of sounding friendly.

The bastard.

"You're comming to see if you can figure out anything about my story," Serval said dully, seeing through him easily. "Or to brag. Probably both."

Korvii laughed. "I mean, I do enjoy bragging. Did you happen to catch my Hela's recent story? She did the whole presentation on her own, and my viewers love her."

"Of course, they do," Serval smirked. "She's a break from your substandard reporting. I imagine anything would be a relief after that."

Korvii smirked, fangs glinting. "Oh-ho! Look who's feeling sassy today. What happened, Serval? Did your mate finally realize how inferior she is to my Hela?"

"Ha. We haven't even seen your presentation. Unlike you, we're too busy to bother with second rate reporters."

"Yes, I'm sure you're so busy on Wav'aii."

Serval started, surprised. "How did…"

Korvii laughed, poking at his head. "Because I'm intelligent. When I found out that your human has her own channel on Earth, I connected to Earth's net through the communication relays so I could see what she's doing. Your family is cute, by the way. Not sure how they produced a cheap news reporter like you."

Serval's teeth ground tight. Annoyed. He gathered himself quickly, however, and forced a smirk. "I didn't know you were so obsessed with me, Korvii, that you'd resort to stalking my female. If your substandard work isn't keeping you busy enough, you should consider a hobby."

"Still keeping me busier than you. You do your puff piece then immediately turn around and take a vacation? Are you getting too old for the game, Serval?"

"Ha! You wish." Serval crossed his arms. "I've been waiting for a few leads to pan out. Working and introducing my mate to my family at the same time. Because I can do two things at once. I'm sure that's difficult for you. We're just about to leave, in fact."

"Convenient timing, that," Korvii said, grinning doubtfully.

"Not since you're constantly calling and stalking me," Serval returned, lip curling.

"I prefer to think of it as checking up on a friend."

Serval just snorted, unimpressed with his theatrics.

Korvii laughed at his disbelief. "You know what I think? I think you don't even have a story. You're just trying not to be caught lacking, so you made something up and you're using your excuse about bringing your mate home to buy time."

"If that's how your investigative mind works, then I understand how you're so bad at this," Serval growled, annoyed.

"We can just end this now if you admit that my female is better." Korvii leaned in, giving him a mocking grin. "And we both know she is."

"Your female could only aspire to have half the charm of my female."

Korvii threw back his head, laughing. "Be serious, Serval. I saw her channel. She doesn't do any reporting. All her videos are fluff pieces! That's all she does! The last video she posted was her trying sweets from your planet with your sister. That's it! That was the whole thing. My Hela just did a piece on the exploitation of the rural communities on Vander Aim. She's bringing attention to serious issues that need addressing. Your female is eating food. Truly, there has never been a more uneven competition."

Serval could only snarl in frustration, because he couldn't even argue.

He adored Sophie. He didn't mind her recording everything, and he was proud of her. But he couldn't exactly say that what she was doing was equal in importance to the stories that Serval and Korvii covered.

It was frustrating, but all he could do was glare as Korvii laughed at his helplessness.

"Why don't you just admit defeat now? Save yourself the long humiliation."

Serval scoffed. "This story is going to be huge. It will drown out everything you and Hela have done combined. You'll see."

"If there even is a story," Korvii snickered. "I'm certain you aren't going to find it on that peaceful water droplet you call a homeworld. Nice catching up, Serval. See you soon!"

With a wicked laugh, no doubt mocking him, he cut the comm. Leaving Serval standing there, grinding his teeth with annoyance.

Closing out all the unhelpful videos and pictures, he instead started putting in orders for everything he needed to resupply the ship and paid extra to have it delivered to the island tonight. He wanted to take off first thing in the morning.

Korvii's mockery always grated on him. His obsession with competing with Serval, his cocksure attitude, were a harsh reminder why Serval disliked being trapped planetside. He had almost let himself become complacent.

Well, he wasn't going to fall for that.

He sent a message to Sophie, telling her of his new plans. He opened the data in the phone and started looking for hints of where to go. He didn't expect Prince Qui'tal to be stupid enough to just outright state where he was conducting his illegal animal trade deals, but there had to be something that would point him in the right direction.

Sophie messaged him back. Her response was simple, just stating okay. She didn't even argue his sudden need to get off Wav'aii and back to story chasing.

He also messaged his mother and father, telling them that a sudden lead meant that they needed to leave tomorrow. They both expressed their understanding. He felt guilty though, because his mother actually thanked him for warning them instead of just taking off like usual.

Sophie was right. He should keep in better contact with his family. They cared for him, and he had practically ignored them for more than a decade.

Determined to be a better son and brother, he also messaged Valorei, even though Sophie would have doubtlessly told her since they were out shopping together today.

If Sophie could keep in touch with her family from across the universe, he could certainly do the same thing.

Besides, he wanted his mate to still feel connected to this place. Even though they were going to be far away. Maybe they'd come back and continue things after he got this story and, hopefully, shut Korvii up once and for all.

For now, he spent the rest of the afternoon sorting through entirely too much information, trying to find something he could use. Some direction he could take. There was no point boarding his ship if he didn't have a destination, but he couldn't stay here anymore. Not when he had Korvii's obnoxious laugh ringing in his ears.

It took him longer than he hoped. The prince just had so many completely useless and pointless things saved onto his combot, sifting through it was like trying to find a single, lost ovili out in the open waters.

However, some time past nightfall, Serval finally stumbled upon something strange.

There was a space station that the prince had frequented a few times in the last few years. In and of itself, that wasn't unusual. Space stations, which were set up away from planets for ships to resupply or just to offer specific services that might not be legal planetside, were popular. There were entire stations dedicated to gambling, entertainment, huge games of pretend where people could go to act like they were in a different time or something. They were essentially huge gathering places of debauchery and decadence in between serving as waystations. A rich prince visiting such places wasn't out of the ordinary, and in fact was something he did often.

It was the space station itself that was odd.

Unlike the other high-end, luxurious, expensive places he went to, this one was small. It wasn't extravagant or expensive. It was actually rather plain. Their claim to fame was being a place that had more bar types than any other. That included everything from smoking bars, drinking bars, light bars, music bars, etc, etc. But they were more for people with few credz to waste. A place where large transport ships stopped on their circles through the universe, bringing tons of passengers around to various places. The kind of dirty, seedy place that didn't ask questions and where looking someone directly in the face was likely to get you attacked.

Serval had been there before. He had a contact there – a bar owner who was always willing to trade information for credz. He never offered anything for free, however, and if Serval wanted information, he had to ask him directly, face-to-face, because he refused to allow any sort of proof to be recorded in message or comm.

It was not the sort of place Prince Qui'tal would normally visit. While he would certainly enjoy any type of bar that could give him some form of high or intoxication, he had expensive tastes. He would demand only the best, and Fo-Ray Space Station was not it.

Serval sent them a formal request to send him the subspace coordinates he'd need to swing from Wav'aii to their location. He had a subspace machine, but he couldn't do the math required to operate it, so he had to either have someone do the math by hand, or he did it the ordinary way by just asking the place in question to send him subspace coordinates.

With that done, he finally closed his research. He stood, stretching his arms and then rubbing his eyes as the long hours in front of a display caught up with him. He was sore and achy, but satisfied, as he finally left the office.

The island was dark and quiet. Everyone had gone to bed. Serval enjoyed the quiet of the night as he followed the familiar paths back to his room.

Stepping inside, he found that Sophie had already returned. She was laid up in bed, curled under a blanket, sleeping with her mouth partly open. In one corner, she had already packed all their bags, including the shopping bags. She'd even, at some point, had his deliveries put in here so they could take it all to the landing shuttle tomorrow.

The sight of it warmed his heart.

Korvii really thought his Hela was better than Sophie? She took care of him so well, and he hadn't even said a word to her about it.

Heart full of appreciation, he undressed and crawled under the blankets. Sophie didn't wake, but she turned, snuggling into his warmth. He kissed the top of her head, making sure to keep his olules back so he didn't suddenly shock her awake.

He closed his eyes, content to sleep. Eager for the morning. Ready to get back on the trail.