Castle Log: Blue Paladin: Entry 17
So, I learned today that humanoids are an extremely rare commodity on swap moons.
Long story short: Hunk and I very nearly became part of a species trafficking thing. It was only thanks to quick thinking and Hunk’s impressive arm strength that we managed to get away without being caught or recognized.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever been to a swap moon. They’re not really common across the universe, and their locations tend to be kept secret due to the whole black market aspect that pops up among the vendors. (Though Coran tells me they aren’t nearly as secretive as they used to be because Zarkon doesn’t crack down as hard on the black market as Altea’s Intergalactic Alliance used to.)
Not all of the vendors are part of the black market, of course. A lot of them are normal shopkeepers just trying to avoid Zarkon’s commerce taxes, because those taxes are complete bullshit. Particularly for alien species that aren’t Galra, or like… close allies of Galra. So all those that can’t afford the taxes congregate in the vast marketplace that makes up these swap moons, setting up booths that are vibrant and colorful (and easily vacated for those days when Zarkon does give a shit and decides to order a raid) all across the moon!
But then the further you venture into the market, the shadier it gets. The whole core of the black market is in the very center of the market, where it’s hidden from the wayward traveler’s unsuspecting view. Makes it easy for them to conduct their business and, you know, sometimes kidnap people for their slave trade or something.
We’ve never really ventured into that area. Usually, whatever we need can be found on the edges of the market, so we’re able to avoid the shadier booths and keep out of trouble. I was hoping for the same this time, but no luck.
I guess most of the vendors decided to close up shop while the winter weather lasts. Probably took their stuff to other swap moons, thinking-- correctly, most likely-- that they’d get more business on warmer moons than here. I don’t know what the other moons are like right now, if they have larger crowds or not, but this moon was like a ghost town. The outside booths were completely empty, and the market streets only had a few people wandering about. Only the black market booths still seemed to be in business, so that’s where Hunk and I went.
Now before you say anything, in our defense, we probably would have had to go to the black market booths anyways to get the information we were seeking. Normal shopkeepers don’t keep track of military ships. Not the way black market vendors do.
So with no other logical choice, Hunk and I took our chances.
Did you know humans are considered an exotic species by other aliens?
If you’re not a human, then yeah, you probably do. It’s pretty common knowledge, I’ve learned, to everyone except actual humans. But if you, like me, are human, then just know that the fact we’ve never traveled beyond our own solar system as a species makes us individuals who have really desirable to species traffickers.
Apparently, there are a lot beings that would pay a lot of money to have a human as a house servant, or field worker, or, in my and Hunk’s cases, as a sex slave and future gladiator respectively. At least, that’s what I heard the guys muttering when they saw us wandering around asking about this ship and started planning our abduction, before they realized how good human hearing actually is sometimes.
But hey, all’s well that ends well. As touched as I am by their assessment of my physical appeal, I wasn’t about to let myself be captured and sold in such a way. And I definitely wasn’t going to let Hunk get sold to Zarkon’s arena. Shiro told us all about those horrors before he was killed, and there’s no way I was letting Hunk suffer through that.
But so these guys were shadowing us for a good while after we ventured into the black market area of the planet, just keeping an eye on us, so to speak. I don’t think they realized what we were asking about or they might have thought twice. The name of the ship Hunk and Pidge were being kept on certainly inspired a good bit of fear in almost everyone we talked to.They would almost always flinch away and look really shifty whenever we brought it up, and several of them seemed to very seriously consider chasing us off and shooting us in the back. (Not that they could have. I would’ve shot them first.)
What I’m gathering from all those reactions is that this specific ship is some sort of high-security prisoner ship, where only the most dangerous threats to the Galra Empire are contained. Bad luck for us, because it means the whole ship is going to be alert at all hours, but also a little bit flattering that Zarkon takes us so seriously.
Not many people actively search the ship out, though, so the fact we were asking about it made a lot of the shadier vendors more cautious. I think they might have seen us as Galra spies or something. Maybe that we were scoping out vendors for the Galra army to raid later.
As we were talking to these vendors, (or well, Hunk was talking, I was looking pretty and subtly watching our backs), the slavers kept inching closer and closer. They weren’t staring out us outright or anything, but you could just tell they were focused on us. They’d throw glances our way every now and then, and walk behind/beside us, forcing us to turn down certain alleys to avoid them, as if trying to hem us into a trap.
Which is exactly what they were doing. I mean, I’m not stupid. I knew they were walking us into a trap, but I also knew they’d get more aggressive if we didn’t stroll right along with their plans, and we really needed the ship information. We couldn’t afford to leave until we got that. So Hunk and I ambled along as slowly as we dared and talked to everyone we could while the slavers kept their eyes on us.
Finally, we found a vendor willing to talk for a small price. I had to give up the luxite shard necklace Keith once gave me, but in return we got all the information we needed about where the ship was and where it was going-- all the things that shady black market vendors kept track of in order to avoid the ship.
Of course, it took us until we were nearly caught in the slaver’s trap to get that information, but we got it. And as soon as we did, we began making plans in order to escape.
The marketplace, especially the area with the black market booths, is riddled by small alleyways filled with crates and baskets of goods. It helped that the slavers were already trying to direct us into these alleyways. Probably trying to trap us in a deadend, where escape would be rather difficult, if not impossible. They didn’t realize who they were dealing with though. Hunk and I have escaped from worse scenarios hundreds of times.
We continued down the alleyways like they wanted, but finally found one where following us would be too conspicuous. I don’t think us going down that way was too alarming for the slavers. They probably didn’t deal with many victims with enough experience to realize what was happening and actually plan an escape. As tit was though, Hunk and I stopped in that alley, and took a moment to gather our bearings.
“We could just fight our way out,” Hunk suggested. Which was true. We had enough strength and fire power to overwhelm any attacker. However, our weapons were also pretty distinctive and would tip off everyone there that the Voltron paladins were back in action. And I know from past experience just how quickly shady merchants will sell us out in order to get a reward and clemency from the Galra Empire.
What we needed was another pathway. Something to through the slavers off our track just enough to run back to the castle pod and leave the Swap Moon.
Thankfully, the inner booths of the Swap Moon are set up inside some old, square buildings that have probably been around for centuries. They were made of piled rocks and clay, and were sturdy enough to hold our weights if we were to climb on top. At least, that’s what I hoped.
“Lift me up there,” I told Hunk, pointing at the top of the building. “I’ll help pull you up, and we can use those to escape. They’ll never think to look up.”
Hunk was worried (for good reason, to be honest, since I was just planning based on guess work) but we didn’t have a lot of other options, so he went along with it. He easily hoisted me up high enough to let me scramble onto the roof, and then I used what minimal strength I have to help pull him up alongside me. The old buildings were all lined up, one alongside another, in close succession, so it was an easy task from there to just sprint away from the center of the market and back to where it was safe.
I did hear a shout of alarm as we ran, though I can’t tell you if it was just from a surprised merchant or from the slavers themselves. Either way, we got enough of a head start to stay in front of the slavers, even when we had to jump down off the buildings and continue running through the abandoned areas of the market to the pod.
We got there just in time. And once the pod doors had closed and we lifted off, on a course to the castle, Hunk and I both collapsed onto the floor and started laughing.
I forgot how much of a rush it is to get stuck in a situation like that and have to find and escape. I was always good at that. Keith is all instincts with little to no plans, and Pidge and Hunk often get too caught up in fixing the mechanical and technical things keeping us trapped to think of much else, so I was usually what was left. I would be the one analyzing and planning and directing, and I was actually rather good at it. I forgot all about that.
Well remembering now will come in handy in the next few weeks, because we’re going to need the best possible plans in order to pull off what we’re about to do. Now that we have the info about the ship, it’s time to take advantage
It’s time to go save Pidge.
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