Yullm, Be Not Proud

2001 short story by Jonathan Hicks

Five years after Episode IV – A New Hope

Yullm walked with a purpose. He wasn’t angry, he wasn’t excited, he wasn’t nervous; he just knew what he wanted and when he wanted it. Being an information broker for Glann Cipple’s vast underworld empire had one disadvantage – you had be sure, absolutely sure, that you got the job done right first time.

The second sublevel of Glann’s Fortress (or Glann’s Palace – it depended on which side of the wall you were on) was teeming with activity. Dozens of beings ran here and there, in and out of the maze of offices, of the mass of turbo lifts or hovered over the multitude of desks and monitors. In the head info broker’s office a meeting was in full swing and a holographic image of the Amagad System hovered in the air over the wide table.

Yullm ignored it. He hadn’t been invited to the meeting (which annoyed him somewhat although he didn’t know what it was about) and he simply walked past without a glance or even an acknowledgement.

Lawgad Greeny appeared by his side suddenly and handed something to him. Yullm looked down on an old, overused datapad.

“If it’s problems, get lost. If it’s more work, get lost,” Yullm said, looking away with disinterest. He continued on his journey across the room.

Lawgad pressed the pad into his hand.

“This months figures on weapons check in violators. Interesting reading…”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Yullm held up the pad and activated it, his legs seeming to steer him on remote. “Oh, joy. Nine blasters and seven vibro weapons. Lawgad, I’m overwhelmed.” He handed the pad back and then suddenly turned right down the Transmission Acquisition section. Lawgad spun on his heel to keep up.

“Melm wants the personnel reports crosschecked,” Lawgad pressed.

“To find out that the guys who passed the point simply forgot, to threaten them to make sure they don’t do it again and then do the whole thing again next month? Sure, I’ll get right on it.”

The sarcasm was lost on Lawgad.

“When can I have the report?”

“What, are you afraid that it’ll look bad on you?” Yullm asked bluntly. They passed from the TA section and into the Logistics Processing area.

“I am the check-in supervisor, Yullm,” Lawgad pressed.

“So, you should do the check yourself. Cover your black spots.”

“I don’t have access to the personnel database.”

“Then go through someone else.”

“I already tried section two, they told me to frag off.”

“I can feel that same phrase rising in my throat.”

“Yullm…”

“Lawgad,” Yullm spun around just outside his secluded office door. The pass badge sensor above the door recognised his identification that hung around his wrist and opened with a hiss. “Lawgad, give me the pad. I’ll check it out. But don’t expect it any time soon, okay?”

“Thanks, Yullm, you’re a star!”

Yullm waved dismissively over his shoulder as he walked into his office.

“Good morning,” the go-for ‘droid behind the small desk whirred. It was antiquated and dented in several places, but its memory core was filled and expanded with all of Yullm’s work over the last few years and he was loathe to get rid of it.

“Call up the personnel database, please, and transfer the unlock codes to my desk,” Yullm asked as he walked through the small room the go-for used as an office and to the door that led to his own larger, windowless room.

“You have fifteen messages, two priority, eleven personal, two unmarked,” the ‘droid clicked.

“Delete the unmarked, folder the personal. Send the priorities to my desk.”

“Yes, sir.”

Yullm walked into his office with a final, “and a cup of chav, no sweeteners,” dropped into his seat behind his desk and started to work.

The first priority message was from Melm, Glann’s ‘operations’ head. It detailed the ideas for a new resource route from an out-of-sector world and he required the logistics of available ships and equipment by the end of the day. Yullm forwarded an edited copy of the message to Logistics Processing and asked for an immediate answer.

The second was from an operative on Chinngard who used a secret code-name known only to Yullm. Yullm read the message, remembered that the operative was still working on a job that had been cancelled three days ago and smiled. As long as he kept the operative on the go he wouldn’t have to face him on his return. Hopefully, by the time the op realised what had happened, Yullm would have been able to finish falsifying his employment records and then put a contract out on him. The local gangleader on Chinngard would locate the operative spying on his trade, find out he was working for someone who was not Glann, then Yullm would have the man killed and the gangleader would be grateful that Glann’s people took care of the problem. The operative had already sent back plenty of information concerning the gangleaders operation so he was no great loss. Fresh contact, fresh business; fresh corpse.

The personnel records bleeped for his attention on another monitor and he gave it a quick glance. After the whole database had been accessed he inserted the connection of the pad that Lawgad had given him into the lower part of the monitor and pressed a switch. The information from the pad appeared in a separate section next to the scrolling personnel records.

“Stop personnel scrolling, access datapad records,” he instructed the computer. The monitor obeyed and the personnel display was reduced to a small flashing icon. The datapad section enlarged.

“Transfer pad records to database and begin matching system. Scroll personnel records against pad records and highlight any corresponding entries.”

Yullm knew that this process would take a while whilst the system checked and double-checked so he turned back to his messages. Before he could even bring up the first personal message he had received the other monitor blooped with a match.

“Display matching records,” Yullm instructed. The monitor revealed four different beings, two human, two alien. One of the human’s came up twice on the datapad records, which told Yullm he was either very forgetful about checking in his weapon or he was an idiot.

“Time date them,” Yullm instructed. The monitor placed them in chronological dates. “Visual secure pickups.” The screen displayed each individual in separate boxes, images from the security cameras dotted about the reception area of the palace. “Playback by date.” The screen showed each being either walking in and going directly past the check-in desk or only checking in some of the items they carried. Each one just wandered the lobby, checking the bulletin boards or just hanging around for a second. Each time they either left before challenged or one of the guards walked up and asked them their business and why they still carried a weapon. Explanations were given in silence – there was no sound on the recordings – and they were either ushered out or they checked in their weapons.

The second human on the list, the man who had forgot to check in his weapons both times, had been challenged by the guards and had left the building. Yullm noticed that he seemed to be checking the bulletin board, but in actual fact just stood there and looked down at something in his hands until the guards approached.

“Highlight image four. Zoom, grid D-six.” The screen enlarged and cleared the picture of the man as he stood by the board. “Enhance grid B-three.” The monitor zoomed in on the man’s hands and Yullm could see he was looking at his wrist chronometer. As the guards approached he pressed a switch on the chronometer and then turned to deal with the guards with a smile and a shrug.

Yullm had a smile of his own.

“He’s timing the response times of the guards,” he whispered. “Highlight personnel records of grid D-six on image four.”

As he read the file Yullm smiled. “Oh, my,” he said. He hadn’t even noticed that the go-for ‘droid had entered his office and left a steaming cup of chav on his desk.

As he came to the end of the file he reached out to his comm unit to notify Melm of what he had found. His fingers curled into his palm without touching the unit as he suddenly thought of a better idea.

He knew he was good at this and it was time to prove it. He knew he was worth more than he was being paid and it was time to show the others what he was capable of. Yullm’s pride in his work had always been his driving force and now he was here, on sublevel two where he wanted to stay, it was time to show everyone how good he really was.

Impress the staff heads. Impress Melm.

At the end of day staff meeting in the head info-broker’s office, Melm sat at the head of the table whilst the rest of the sublevel members sat down the length of it. The holo projector was deactivated and the sounds of the bustling rooms outside could not be heard.

“Item one, monetary discipline,” Melm said after the last of the staff, including Yullm with an armful of datapads and flimsy’s, seated themselves. “Overuse of finances for low-key operations. Remind your people that limited cost is a requirement without the need to risk the op. Yes?”

A man at the end of the table had his hand in the air.

“Do you have an op type limit?”

“No, but all top-level operations will be handled by the relevant personnel. We’re talking about day-to-day ops. Item two, Morb shipment loss. Anything?”

Another man sat forward.

“No leads on the pirate vessel but we may know the whereabouts of the freighter pilot that lost our shipment. Just need more information at this time.”

“Alright. Last item, Glann’s public broadcast tomorrow. Any thoughts on the text?”

There were several grimaces and one man shook his head as if he was about to say something but then changed his mind.

“Well?” Melm prompted.

“He shouldn’t talk about the health service surplus, people might think he’s going to spend the money on the city,” was one opinion.

“True, but if he doesn’t declare the profit made then they’ll think he’s keeping the credits. Which he intends to do.”

“How about the money is going into law enforcement? Streets safer, that kind of thing?”

“And when they’re not safer? We need this cash to disappear, not be thrown at something else with no results. I want good reason as to why this money should disappear or be used legally by Glann. If the information about the surplus had been kept within these walls we wouldn’t have this problem. I’ll review internal security another day, but…”

“Talking about internal security, sir, I think we may have a compromise.”

Melm, along with all the other men at the table, looked over at Yullm. Some were confused, some appearing downright bored. Melm frowned, and Yullm regretted his words; Melm, after all, was the head of internal security.

“Go on,” Melm said.

“Data reports indicate a man on Glann’s payroll, a registered bounty hunter, apparently checking the response times of the guards in the lobby after he failed to check in his weapons. I have all the material here…” Yullm began to lie out the datapads and flimsies.

“Make your point,” Melm said menacingly. Yullm swallowed hard.

“The man has only been on Glann’s payroll for a month, before that he worked for Dressel, but Dressel fired him because he found out he was doing field work for Mister Spyte. Or so our records tell us.”

“Do you have his details?”

“Yes.”

“Have him picked up for questioning. Anything else?”

There was a shake of heads and a few ‘no’s’.

“Then that’s it for today. I’ll apprise Glann of the items of today. That’s all.”

Everyone started to rise and depart. As Yullm got to his feet Melm lifted his hand to get his attention.

“Yullm, one minute.”

With a confused expression Yullm slowly sank back into his seat. The other attendees of the meeting looked at him with quizzical expressions of their own and fell to whispering as they left the office.

Yullm waited nervously, with his datapads and flimsies still tucked to his chest.

“What was the purpose of that?” Melm asked with a frown.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Reporting a possible security violation at a staff meeting. What are you trying to prove?”

“I was just…”

“If it’s a breach and this man was a possible infiltrator then why didn’t you contact me directly?”

Yullm felt his stomach tie in knots.

“I didn’t get the information together until just before the meeting. I thought it best…”

“To concern other staff heads with problems other than their own? There was no need for that. Or were you trying to make an impression?”

There were a few moments of silence as Yullm considered his answer, The best he could think of was, “Why would I do that?”

“Because you’re good at what you do, because you’re tired of being an info broker and want to get out in the field.”

That’s not the reason, Yullm cried in his thoughts. I was just showing off!

“I’ll talk to operation and see if I can find you a placement off-world, get you in the thick of the action. You’ve obviously got an eye for this kind of thing. I’d hate to see it wasted behind a desk.”

“But, Melm…”

“Thank you, Yullm, goodbye.”

“But…”

“Goodbye, Yullm.”

Melm’s face was set, defiant and hard, as if he knew the conversation was over and any more words would be useless on Yullm’s half. Slowly, the belittled info broker got to his feet and walked from the room.

As he exited the door, he leaned against the doorframe and slowly slid down it to a sitting position on the floor, his items still gripped to his chest.

“What the freck have I done?” he said to no one.

Yullm, Be Not Proud

2001 short story by Jonathan Hicks

Five years after Episode IV – A New Hope

Histories – Set just prior to the events of the 1999 short story Reports From the Edge, this Jonathan Hicks tale shows the way that Yullm, second grade information gatherer for Glann Cipple worked his way into becoming a field agent.

Cast of Characters

Yullm

Melm

Lawgad Greeny