Chapter 27

The group of students meet up in their hotel lobby after they moved into their rooms. It was around nine pm and they were quite tired, but still agreed to talk.

"So, are you planning on seeing them?"

"Definitely," Swen nodded, but Thomas was looking at Mat.

"Maybe…"

"Are you scared of Lucas?" Suzy asked and Mat slowly nodded.

"Fuck him, he cannot do shit, but annoy you! Just ignore him," she said angrily.

"Why are you so hostile towards him?" Mat asked genuinely curious.

"I dislike people who use the little power they have by their position to bully people," she explained.

"Still he has the power to mess with me…"

"Not really, he just scared you and you know it! You are just too lazy to do anything about it,"

"But act as a mortar all the time," Thomas added.

"Is this my intervention or something?" Mat said jokingly but got no response.

"Seriously?"

"It was not planned, but Suzy told us about some of the details and we want to help!" Ember explained.

"And talking with those private vultures might help you see some other options," Norr explained.

"But mostly to see how big of a fuzz will Lucas make," Suzy added.

"You think he will figure it out?" just as he finished asking the question he knew the answer.

"Obviously, he will know you turned off the WW, looks up the names of those two from Ox company and he will put two and two together," Norr explained.

"Yeah, might as well go through it to the end," Mat nervously laughed.

"Look, you don't have to join them or anything, but just listen. Even I am not going to sign any contract with them!" Swen smiled.

"Yeah…"

"Anyway, we will all go with you! So don't be shy!" Ember said enthusiastically.

"You all are going?" Mat asked and they all nodded. He felt relieved, he would probably not try this alone.

"Since it is in the evening it does not affect plan during the day, so we will wake up at 7:30 for breakfast and go check out the Dutchess?" Ember asked and everybody agreed.

"I honestly did not expect a royalist here, this is going to be interesting!" Swen laughed.

"Yeah I had no idea their society exists, so it could make for a great article! Monarchy on a desert planet…are they trying to LARP?"

"Well, it was her grandparents who created the kingdom! I did some reading before the trip and their whole small planet is one crazy incident after another,"

"I just wonder why people stay there as slaves,"

"Not slaves but just feudal underclass," Norr corrected Thomas.

"Same difference," Thomas waved his hand.

"Probably desperation, they are not much different than any other company apart from the aesthetic and some internal laws. They don't really use contracts but just inner taxes…their planet is pretty well developed," Norr explained.

"What is after that?" Mat asked.

"It is a scientific presentation about Tidally locked planets," Ember said happily.

"Then we get another discussion about Earth's monopoly of humanity origin," said Thomas happily.

"I don't remember we picked that one, what is it?" Mat said.

"It is a discussion about how people out of Earth zone do not have easy access to visit Africa and ancient monuments. Due to the effect of living in low gravity or heavy gravity, together with strict control and regulations,"

"That is a weirdly specific…"

"It is a great issue, many people are attached to Earth more than we who live here. They feel like they should have the right to pay respects to their ancestors,"

"I know that there is actually a big market for ancient artifacts since it is a pretty rare commodity," Swen added.

"Alright, I am not arguing! Then lunch?"

"Yes and free time! We wanted to meet here at 8pm but with that restaurant we…"

"We can still do that, let's not change our plans for those two clowns. They said they will be there until midnight, so let's join them at 9 pm," Mat suggested.

"That works for me," they all agreed.

"Any idea what are we going to talk about with them?"

"I want to start with talking about Free pilots," Swen said.

"Right away?"

"Yes, then we can talk about their company if they know nothing about them,"

"Sure!" they were all tired to continue and so they slowly shuffled to their rooms.