Read 07. Ghost of the Well of Souls for Free Online Page A

onto a much larger center.
    Yabbo was a semitech hex; no one could use the sleek electric scooters beyond this point, or the big fusion rigs that moved heavy freight.
    Doesn't look like theres a similar station on the other side of the barrier or whatever that thing is, Ari noted. I wonder if Yabbo is as bureaucratic?
    Depends on what the hell they are, Ming responded pragmatically. Besides, steam engines wouldn't be much use down here.
    That was true, although there were a lot of other things that could be done in a semitech hex, even underwater. Many of the underwater semitech hexes were said to have substantial volcanic activity, for instance, which could be harnessed.
    It was in the Customs house that they saw their first Yabban, and they were definitely—different.
    It had an exoskeleton, which glowed from some inner light and yet seemed transparent. They could have sworn they were looking at a smudged or unclear X ray. The creature had long, thin, plierlike claws in front that appeared to be mounted on natural ball joints and seemed to be able to turn any which way; the claw itself could also revolve as needed around its wrist joints. Four long, spindly legs, two on each side, were in back of the claws. At the rear, on each side of the back end, was an incongruous-looking pair of flippers. The head seemed nothing more than two independent eye stalks, and beneath them was a round orifice filled with what seemed to be constantly writhing little tentacles, although a close look showed two gill slits on either side.
    There were others in the Customs station, and so they could see two Yabban types. One was slightly smaller than the other, and had a translucent waving membrane on top of the head which changed color through a series of pastel hues. Clearly two sexes, although which sex was which was impossible to tell.
    "I have been dealing with the Corithian Sons Company since I apprenticed my trade," a Yabban was saying to a Kalindan Customs officer as they drew closer. Ari and Ming had seen pictures and gotten a basic briefing on all the neighboring hexes, but that wasn't the same as seeing a Yabban in the flesh. At least after all that time with the other races in South Zone, the odd workings of the translator modules no longer seemed strange. The Yabban sounded just like a Kalindan to them, even though they could not imagine where any conversational sounds could emerge from it.
    Maybe they didn't. Who knew what Yabbans actually sounded like to each other?
    "I know, I know," the Customs officer responded, sounding exasperated. "You are a well-known trader, Citizen Slagha. But pending clearance from the Security Service, I must hold you and your family here. It is nothing aimed at you; it is everybody who is going through this. We are having a serious problem at the moment and we must take extra precautions."
    "Indeed?" the Yabban snapped, those thousands of little tentacles around its mouth almost frenzied in pulsing movement. "And what of my customers? We cannot make the level of refined tubing we require, and a whole new subdivision is awaiting the shipment. Suddenly nothing is going out or coming in without going through this horror of a bureaucracy!"
    "I'm so very sorry, but it's the war, you know—"
    "Don't give me that!" the Yabban snapped. "That skirmish is over anyway!"
    Ari and Ming decided not to dwell on the conversation but rather to go into the small, nearby cafe and get the gossip from Kalindans who were coming back home via this road house. It was odd how quickly and easily "us" meant the leathery-skinned reptilian mer-people and how everybody else had become "them."
    It didn't take long to get a general picture of where they were going. There were no roads in the Kalindan sense, but Yabbans had laid out a series of markers using a grid system that could be "read" by the magnetic "sixth" sense. The numbers and directional signals would tell how far one was from anyplace in the hex and also the direction to