Chapter 28 October 406 AD Cuban Archipelago-Right of Passage

            The last few months had been very busy for Muuza. Originally, he was sent out to the Western Sea to find the Merchant Guild. Instead, he found two groups of people. The first was a rather primitive group of people who lived on a massive river called the Casarabe. They were very happy to trade with Paulsland, although the only thing they had to trade with were people. Despite that, the people, who were legally freed immediately, were very happy to help Muuza learn their language, and talk about their primitive nation. The second people group were known as the Cubans, a rather violent group of people, who forced his expedition to head back to Paulsland before his mission was complete.

            Although the mission was incomplete, their Cuban prisoners gave away a lot of information. Well, not at first. First, they had to learn the Cuban language, and that was made a bit difficult once the Cubans started getting the shakes from alcohol withdrawals. That was a big problem for the Cubans as Paulslanders didn’t like alcohol that much, as they were well known for not being able to keep their wits when they drank. Despite that the medics were able to whip up some in ten days, as alcohol was the world’s oldest medicine and their women knew how to make something so simple. Once they gave the Cubans the worst alcohol they ever had, the Cubans became much easier to work with, and by the time they reached Paulsland they had a very basic understanding of their language, and had gained a lot of intelligence.

            Although he learned a lot from the Cubans the most important part was that they had a generations-long blockade on at least a half a dozen large nations. This blockade allowed the Cubans to trade with them by sea, but nobody else. The Cuban’s didn’t even have to pay a lot of money to enforce this blockade as they had raider and pirate groups that gladly did so, and the surrounding nations had long forgotten their sailing skills, assuming they even had them to begin with. The only reason why the Cuban raiders and pirates didn’t raid Cuban shipping is that the owner of the shipping company was often the owner of the ships owned by the raiders and pirates, and the raiders and pirates couldn’t keep their mouth shut when they went after other Cubans. When they went after Cuban shipping the Landowners got involved, and publicly gave demonstrations as to why it was a bad idea for Cuban raiders to go after Cuban merchants. Those demonstrations were long drawn-out painful exercises that often involved drugs that the raiders from dying from shock from torture.

            Considering this, Muuza thought Cuba had created a great opportunity for his employers to exploit. When they reached Paulsland he sent the intelligence to his bosses, and his bosses decided to start the Western Trading Company, and give Muuza a fleet of ships to exploit their new trading partners.

            Muuza wasn’t surprised by their decision as the only trading partner Paulsland had on the west coast was Rome, which meant that the east coast of Paulsland was far more profitable than the west, even though the west had more potential for building industry.

            Once the corporation was created, and assets moved around, Muuza’s fleet was armed with the new steam rifles to demonstrate Paulsland’s power to the Cubans. In fact the Cuban prisoners got to see a demonstration of Paulsland steam cannons before the ships went back across the Western Sea. Once the prisoners had enough fear and awe, and Muuza’s fleet was loaded, it was time to head back.

            Muuza’s first stop was the gigantic river where he met the Casarabe people. He renamed the river Malkia, in his CEO’s honor. Then they spent time building a base of operations on one of the islands at the mouth of the river, and building relationships with the Casarabe people. Building a proper base took extra time since their were no local quarries they could get stone from.

            The reason for building at the mouth of Malkia River was that they hoped in the long run to colonize it, assuming they found something valuable there. In the short run the river was so large it was an easy landmark to find if storm knocked a ship off course. Furthermore the locals were primitive, needed their medicine, and already had some contact with the Cubans and were glad that Paulsland could act as protectors. In the midterm Paulsland corporations found economic benefits in having a base at the half way point between Paulsland and several trading partners.

            Once the base was set up Muuza made his way north toward Cuban territory. He kept his Cuban prisoners in chains, and during the day they stayed on deck, as he wanted them to act as envoys.

            As they traveled they kept the steam vessels of the rifles hot at all times. In fact they had to anchor their ships a few times so the sailors could go on land and cut down trees to fuel the steam vessels. It didn’t matter, when they met the Cubans they wanted a show of force.

            They were on the water for three weeks before they met the first Cuban ships. As expected there were several of them, as it was always much safer to travel as a fleet than alone. The Cuban ships fled when they saw the Paulsland ships, but that wasn’t much of a surprise to Muuza, as he had a fleet of ten mother ships, and thirty trimarans, so he badly outnumbered the Cubans. He ordered his fleet to follow, and also had three of the trimarans to break away from the fleet and catch up with the  Cuban fleet in the hopes that the Cubans would turn and fight.

            Nearly eight hours later he got his wish, and watched as the five Cuban ships decided to test their luck and attack the three trimarans. Once the Cuban ships were in range the three trimarans used their steam rifles to sink four of the five ships. The surviving ship fled. The trimarans spared the last one so they could follow them home, and so that the ship could tell their people how dangerous the Paulsland ships were.

            Unfortunately for Muuza’s fleet the Cuban ship managed to evade them in the night and it took another eight days until they met another small fleet of ships. This time the Cubans had ten ships, and once again Muuza sent out his trimarans to sink all the ships but one, only to have the survivor escape at night. This cat and mouse game continued for nearly a month before Muuza’s fleet came across one of the Cuban settlements. Muuza got a nice long look at the settlement pulling their longships out of the water as soon as his ships reached the horizon.

            Now that they found a settlement Muuza took his prisoners, gave them a small boat and had them send a message to the settlement saying that he wanted to talk. When they didn’t hear back from the settlement Muuza had some of his men burn some of its buildings down, while the riflemen provided them cover. It wasn’t long after that the Cubans sent a message saying they would meet.

            The next day around fifty men carried a longship to the sea, a handful of the men got in it, and paddled out to Muuza’s fleet. Muuza graciously allowed the men to come onto his ship, although they were disarmed first, where they were led to his quarters.

            Muuza’s quarters were opulent. He had clear windows and stained glass windows. Curtains made with silk, cotton, and wool. Furniture made with fourteen different types of trees. Cutlery made with stainless steel, silver, and gold. Plates made in Paulsland, Parthia, and even China. Odds and ends from around the world. The food was taken from their canned stuff. They had thirty different types of alcohol and only four of them were laced with narcotics. On the walls were photographs. On the desks were books. The captain’s quarters were filled with things that were for sale. As much as Muuza may dislike the Cubans, he still wanted to trade with them. Profit was the most important thing after all.

            As the Cubans entered in and saw the opulence, all but one gawked. The exception gave the room a nod of appreciation before looking the captain in the eye and asked in Cuban, “What do you want? Why do you trouble our waters?”

            Muuza laughed and responded in Cuban, “From what I hear you are the ones who trouble the waters. As for what I want its simple, I want to trade with the Cubans.”

            “Trade requires the consent of two parties. What you are doing is raiding. If you are serious about trade then leave our waters.”

            Muuza rolled his eyes and said, “Really? Think about it for a second. Why were we able to come into your territory so easily?”

            “You had a lot more ships than us, and you had that weapon.”

            Muuza raised his eyebrow and said, “I would have just said it was due to our weapon. And since we are here to trade, perhaps we would be willing to trade our weapon.”

            “Are you willing to trade your weapon?”

            “Not yet.”

            “Then go away.”

            Muuza scoffed and said, “Here is what is going to happen. I am a part of the nation of Paulsland. Paulsland has met with the Merchant Guild, and we know that they share a border with you on the sea. We are going to find them and trade with them. We are also going to find other nations on this sea and trade with them. The question you have to ask, is whether or not we are going to trade with you as well.”

            “You can’t do that. This is our sea. Nobody but the Cubans are allowed on our sea.”

            “Who’s going to stop us?”

            “We will.”

            “How many ships will we have to sink before you allow Paulsland ships to pass unopposed? A hundred, a thousand, ten thousand?” The Cuban leader stayed silent. “I want to be clear here. We don’t want to stop your blockade of the other nations. As long as they can’t use your sea then we can come through this territory and trade with them without any competition. That said, if you try to stop us we will sink your ships by the thousands if we have to.”

            “Good luck with that.”

            Muuza thought for a minute, then said, “Oh, you must have some sort of plan to attack my little fleet. Good. My men will escort you back to your long ship. We will wait here for a little while, and hopefully your people will attack our fleet before we lose patience and move on. Once we crush your little fleet, hopefully you will be willing to talk.”