Plutonian

Chapter 70

I follow the rest of the squad into the dimly lit bar, surprised at how small it looks from the inside. Unlike the brightly lit, multicolored stalls outside, the Trader's Inn has bare, murky brown walls, a few lopsided yellow lights hanging from the ceiling and a small bar at one end. 

There is a small square raised platform next to it which I guess to be a stage because there are two Taygetian females dancing seductively to the slow paced music playing in the background. 

We walk past a few occupied tables and I catch the male Taygetians and Elcians looking at us curiously, no doubt wondering who the new comers are. We head to an empty table and I take a seat on a very worn out chair. 

"This place is a dump," Remulus says as he eyes his chair and takes a deep breath before sitting down. 

"Let's order a few drinks," Altair leans in eagerly and then his face turns serious when all of us stare at him. "To blend in obviously."

"I want a Twisted Passion, neat and on the rocks," Remulus replies without even looking at the menu and I pick a random drink because I don't plan on drinking much of it anyway. Not while I'm on a mission.

"Hey there, sexy." A tall rowdy looking Elcian with a long red beard leans on our table, facing Pollux. "Can I get you a drink?"

I bite my lip hard, suppressing my laughter when Pollux swings his long platinum blonde wig over his shoulder daintily and turns to look at the flirt.

"That depends. Can you tell me what I want to hear?" Pollux bats his eyelashes at the Elcian and he immediately puffs up and sticks out his chest, looking eager to impress. 

"Of course I can, dollface. What do you want to know?" He asks in perfect Plutonian, despite his unkempt appearance. 

"Tell me about the rebel blasts on the moons. I can't believe such a thing happened," Pollux gushes in the most believable female voice and I catch Deneb biting his lip before looking away.

"Sorry doll, don't know much about that," The Elcian says and Pollux scowls. 

"Then forget it. Not interested," Pollux says, turning away from the Elcian. 

He stares at Pollux with a sunken expression before lifting his arm off the table and walking back to his table. 

"Does everyone here speak Plutonian?" I ask Remulus and he nods his head. 

"Plutonian is the universal language and Plutonian gold is the universal trade currency. That is how we make profits from every single trade transaction in the universe. Not to mention all the lanes in space are patrolled by Plutonian drones and when a trader from any planet passes through they have to pay a small amount to the Plutonians each time. To put it simply, the Plutonians are out of this world rich," Remulus tells me. 

I stare at him while I mentally try to estimate how much the Plutonians make from their two thousand colonized planets and quickly give up. It's safe to say that it must be a lot. I learnt about the trade route charges and the transaction charges but I never really could picture how it all worked. 

Plus there were many colonized planets like Earth and Cixin which hadn't advanced to the level of space travel that the other planets had so the Plutonians took other things from them instead. Like herbs and medicine from Cixin and humans from Earth. 

"It doesn't make sense to me," I say frowning. "How did such a small planet with a fake atmosphere achieve such control over the entire galaxy?" 

"The Plutonians have been around for millions of years and they only moved to Pluto because their first planet was destroyed by an asteroid. I've heard that the previous planet we lived on was much nicer and there was no need for a protective atmosphere. It actually was a lot like Earth," Altair says, looking at me and I still in surprise.