Chapter 63: Daul and Droids

The returning trip was without any interruptions and the ship landed in the capital city of Daul. Alexander had to undergo a digital identity creation procedure under the disdainful gaze of the an ugly humanoid who was the officer-in-charge of the landing pad. The reason was that Alexander had presented himself as an immigrant from a backwater planet from the Outer Rim. Alexander also had changed the paint job of the ship using magic and also, had covered the ruby on Ark's forehead by a cloth. Ark was registered as a distant cousin.

The capital city was creatively named D-1 while the other cities were named as D-2, D-3, and so on. There were 18 cities of various sizes on Dual and the total population residing on this planet was 500 million which was quite less as the planet was five times bigger than earth and had no oceans. The source of water for the people was the groundwater. The cities were built above the most accessible points of groundwater on the planet's surface. Alexander had to hand it to the explorers, they had designed cities which were working quite efficiently even after thousands of years of existence. According to Ark who had hacked into the local government files, the water supplied to the common people was not the actual groundwater as the underground water wells had gone dry long ago, they were supplied a chemically treated water that was imported from the inner worlds. The upper class of this planet used normal water which was a thing of great luxury in outer rim and the edges of middle rim. Alexander planned to start a revolt but Ark dashed his hopes.

Ark, " This is going on for centuries, any hopes that people had for improvement were crushed long ago, under the harsh reality of living on such a harsh planet and the utterly corrupt administration. Master, There is nothing you cab do as the Senate would send Jedi to apprehend any dessenters for disturbing the peace. The Jedi are also happy with the current status maintained in the galaxy as they considered themselves as servant of the force and not the people from which force originates."

Alexander was happy to see that Ark has began forming his own opinions about the matters presented to him. Alexander, " Ark, I am not going to lead a revolt. I am going to slowly take over the whole galaxy. Lead me to the nearest hospital." The whole conversation was done in English with mind shields protecting their minds. This galaxy was not a safe place to have secret conversations as the amount of ways, people can spy on others are quite plenty. Alexander and Ark arrived before a multi-story building. The building was quite big with at least 20 floors. This was a city level hospital. The buildings in this galaxy were divided into city, region, sector and planet level. Alexander wanted to conquer the planet but before that he wanted more Ballastians to join his kingdom. The hospitals in core areas had old droids let alone a city level hospital of a planet bordering on outer rim. Alexander entered the hospital and let his king's might sweep through the building.

The building had three basements and 20 floors with three landing pads on the top. It was like a normal hospital but futuristic in nature with a few becta tanks and tens of droids. But it was the lowest basement which had Alexander nearly snarl in anger. The lowest basement was like a slaver's holding cell with beings of all ages and both the genders being kept there. There were 80 people held in there. Alexander conquered the whole hospital and the people present inside it and then, moved to the main conference room. Alexander then ordered the director to come and meet him.

The conference room opened and the director came inside and bowed. The director was a green scaled humanoid being with big round eyes. The director spoke up in such a flattering tone that Alexander himself felt disgusted with the director, " Your Majesty!!! What can this lowly being do for you, master? I will sacrifice myself and my entire family on your orders."

Alexander wanted to ask the Director mainly about the captives in the basement. Alexander could have read the mind of everyone present but he didn't as who knows if the large scale mind reading could be detected through force or not. Alexander asked in a hard tone, " The people kept in the basement, who are they?"

The director, " Those are the homeless people who are going to be sold to off-world slavers."

Alexander continued, " On whose orders? How many people are there? Where are they kept? Are there any slavers present on this planet?"

The director, " The chairman ordered this operation. I don't know but generally a thousand people are captured in a month as our contracted slavers return every month. I don't know all the locations but every hospital on this planet has a similar basement. There are local slavers present on this planet who are relayed the coordinates of the meeting point. They are our middlemen. They also capture unsuspecting people and sell them to the slaver's guild or the off-world slavers in return for increase in ranking or money respectively."

Alexander, " Contracted slavers? Does the slavers guild don't pay their members?"

The director, " Every planet dealing in slaves in the outer rim and at the edges of the mid rim have contracted slavers who exclusively deal with us. It helps both the parties in quickly disposing off and acquiring the merchandise. The rates are already fixed due to the existing contract so the disputes are reduced to the minimum. The local slavers get 2 percent of the total amount as commission. The slavers guild has a ranking, the more advanced the slaver is, the more channels are opened up for them. They can acquire anything by spending their points and also the discount for goods also increases with the increase in rank. I had once heard that a slaver acquired a capital ship from the guild. It was the talk of the whole slaver's community."

Alexander pondered upon the new information and asked, " How much time is left before the next arrival of the slavers?"

The director, " Five Days."

Alexander, " For how much years this has been going on?"

The director, " For centuries, Master!!!"

Alexander, " What will happen if the slaves are no longer traded?"

The director paled in fear, " Then, the slavers guild will start attacking this planet and enslaving the resident starting with those who had broken the contract."

Alexander was quite vexed at what to do, if he bans slavery then the slavers would attack leading to further enslavement of this planet. Alexander could conquer this whole planet and ban anyone's entry but that will be the act of attracting attention on galactic level as no planet in this region has capability to withstand orbital bombardment. It was Ark who suggested an idea.

Ark, " Master!!! Why don't we give murderers, r*****s, habitual abusers, pedophiles and other such nasty people to the slavers?"

Alexander coveyed the idea to the Director and the director happily agreed to it. Alexander had in mind the perfect punishment for the director and his ilk, they will be given to the sadists after the deal would be finalised.

Alexander asked, " How many people these slavers can transport?"

Director, " They have a large freighter class starship. I know that they can transport up to 10,000 people in their ships. They always demand more people from us."

Alexander, " How can so many people fit inside such a starship?"

The Director, " They don't care about the slaves. They fill as many as they can inside the cargo hold or other cabins fitted for such purposes and flood the detention cells with strong sleeping gas. The slaves are awaken only after being sold. The deals are finalized on holocall after the details of the slaves are transferred to the buyers."

Alexander, " How many slavers do you know?"

The Director, " We have 20 groups of slavers on contract, if one is not able to come then we call the others."

Alexander, " Call all of them. Tell them that the criminals were getting too bold and tried to kidnap the mistress of chairman. The chairman plans to sell the worst of the lot in order to create fear in the minds of people who are beginning to think above their stations."

The Director bowed and left. Alexander left the hospital and covered all the Daul with his king's might and conquered it in one go. Around 80 percent of the population was guilty of petty crimes, 10 percent of them were eligible for being sold and the rest were living decently as per the standards of this planet which keeping their heads down. Alexander was only able to conquer Daul up to the upper layer of the mantle. Alexander searched through the Droids and found 300,000 eligible droids out of 80 million droids present on this planet. Most of the droids were disqualified as they didn't have the supercomputer powerful enough to develop a separate thought process out of their base programming. Alexander ordered them to assemble outside their cities and shifted towards them with Ark.

Ark was confused on how to change so many droids singlehandly. Alexander helped him, " Magic is all about intent and force is similar to magic. Do as I say, Form a sphere made of force energy between your hands then, fill your intention to change the droids into the sphere. When this is accomplished, release the energy in small waves towards the droids as one batch completes transformation." Alexander was able to suggest this method to Ark as he also had used magic in such a way in the past, now, this method would be applicable for force or not was left to be seen. It took Ark 12 hours to form the sphere and additional 6 hours to intrgrate his intention into the sphere. Alexander, in the meantime, had ordered all the eligible droids on the planet to be gathered in a circle around Ark. It took 4 hours for his new subjects to position the droids.

Alexander watched while sitting inside a hovering speeder as Ark detonated the sphere in one swoop, Alexander could sense a strange ripple in force but thankfully, he had isolated this area from the senses of others so nothing was noticed by others. All the droids had been covered by the ripple and got enveloped in a grey light, when the light eventually faded after a few minutes, 300,000 Ballastians of varying ages were standing in the clearing. No one had reached adulthood yet so there was no need of upgradation. The newly born Ballastians had expressions of wonder on their faces but Alexander stopped them before they could destroy their surroundings by experimenting, by casting a mass sleeping charm. As Ballastians were venerable to magic, they easily fainted. Alexander then reestablished the realm gate and transported the newborns into his kingdom. Alexander raised a separate continent for the Ballastians to get acquainted with their new senses. Alexander then awakened the newborns and transferred all the information about the kingdom, king, their race and their origins to them. The Ballastians were quite perplexed at first but then they all thanked him. Alexander ordered the elves and the matrons of the orphanages of his kingdom to train Ark and the Ballastians and to also give them names.

Alexander then moved back to Daul and buried the realm gate deep inside the ground in a naturally formed underground cave. Alexander then ordered the Chairman to compile all the knowledge of various fields, he could get his hands on and submit it to Alexander. The chairman requested three days to compile all the knowledge present on his planet as he didn't have the sources to acquire the present technology of the core worlds. Alexander gave him permission and eagerly waited for the results.

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