Part 1 - Part 06

I went back inside and looked around. I counted the chairs. There were fifty two of them. There were thirteen rows of four chairs each. The skeletons were tied with straps on the chairs. There were forty-seven skeletons. The rest of the chairs were empty. I looked around some more and found a room on the side without a door. There was a long bench on the far side. It was loaded with dust. The room looked like a waiting room. There was a washroom with running water next to the entrance. There was a dresser with towels and bed covers in the washroom. There was a sink but no shower or bath. Next to the washroom was a large cabinet. It was locked.

I could only speculate as to what this place was but from the skeletons I assumed it was a mausoleum.

I waited for the men to return but there was no sign of them. It became dark very quickly so I decided to use the bench for a bed and spent the night there in silence, among the skeletons, trying to

understand what was happening to me and why I was being put through these trials.

Early the next morning I heard the lock on the door click open. The two men were back. They looked for me. Again, I had the impression that they were surprised to find me alive.

They unlocked the locked cabinet, took out a uniform and motioned for me to put it on. It was a full uniform that included a pair of pants, a shirt, underwear, socks, shoes and a jacket. They adjusted it to fit me just right. They then threw Vos’s uniform that I was wearing into a metal trash bin with some old rags. I ran over and got my lighter, knife, watch and Vos’s name tag. They then grabbed me and the trash bin and took us outside. One of them poured something into the trash bin and lit it on fire. We waited for a few minutes until everything had burned down and went to the ship.

Meeting Oripson

As we flew to our next destination, I couldn’t help but feel sad for what had happened to Vos. He was always on my mind. I constantly saw his friendly, smiling face everywhere I looked. I was hoping and praying that he was all right. He was my friend and I had a hard time accepting what had happened to him.

Suddenly I felt the ship take a sharp turn. We landed behind a junkyard. It was dark. A man holding a large suitcase walked over and sat beside me in the little flying machine.

He looked at me, smiled and said, “It’s an honour to meet you Sir.”

He spoke in Macedonian. He was young, younger than me, and looked very nervous.

“It’s an honour to meet you too. But would you mind telling me who you are and how you know my language?”

He hesitated at first and said, “My name is Oripson, I studied your language in school.” He then paused for a moment and added, “Princess Vieria sent me. She sends her regrets that she couldn’t be here herself because she is planning her brother’s funeral.”

Hearing those words filled my heart with sadness. Vos was dead. My friend was gone. He predicted that an attack was going to take place and it had.

I felt terrible and heard myself say, “I would like to go to his funeral!”

Oripson hesitated for a moment and said, “Sorry Sir, that is not possible, we have orders to take you back to Apserpon.”

He then went on to say that Princess Vieria had authorized him to be my translator as well as answer all my questions.

After I took several deep breaths and composed myself I asked him how Voskot had died.

“According to police reports,” he said, “he was instantly killed by the Karon ship that attacked the industrial facilities in Apserpon.”

This was disturbing news to me. I left Vos alive but someone had told the police that he had been killed. Only four people knew what really happened; myself and the other three men who arrived after the blast. Vos told me they were his men. Vieria too trusted them and told me to do what they asked of me. At the same time I knew for a fact that Vos was alive for at least twenty minutes after the attack. He was alive while we were trying to gain access to the big door. What was interesting is that during all that time no medics had arrived to help him. That was indeed disturbing.

I opened my mouth to ask Oripson for an explanation but he looked at me with a mysterious look on his face and squeezed my wrist. I figured he also knew about the inconsistencies. He had probably learned about them from Vieria and didn’t want to tip off these guys. The fact that he didn’t speak to me in Macedonian to tell me not to ask questions, led me to believe that our conversation was probably being monitored and recorded and these guys had their own interpreter. I got the message and kept quiet for the rest of the trip.

It was well into the night when we arrived at the facilities. The ship landed on the right side of the yard. There was a large tent pitched on the left side and the place was guarded by armed guards. The moment the door of our little ship opened, we were greeted by the first man, the man who had remained behind with Vos. The first thing he asked the other two, according to Oripson who later told me, was if I had passed the “keeper of secrets” tests. The answer was yes. The next thing he asked was if they had procured the “firewater”. The answer to that too was yes.

The third man, who I later found to be the district chief of police, ordered the two to immediately give him the jug with the firewater.

He ordered us not to move while he went away to secure it. When he came back he asked Oripson who he was and what his role was in all this. He kept us inside the ship while he asked questions, which was further proof that he was monitoring our conversations. Oripson

told him that he was a simple interpreter assigned to me by Vieria. The police chief then ordered him to talk to me only in his presence and to report everything to him. Oripson agreed with absolutely no hesitation. He then asked Oripson to translate for him and turned to me and asked me what my role was.

“I don’t know. I don’t have a role.”

He then said that he would give me a role later but for now my job was to obey him. He said that from today forward he, and only he, was the boss and giving the orders. He then asked me if I understood. I said yes. He asked me if I agreed with his demands. I said absolutely. He was happy to hear that.

A moment later he reached in and grabbed Vos’s badge from my neck.

He said, “You won’t need this anymore.”

I pulled it away from his hand and objected harshly. He wanted to know why.

“It has sentimental value. Voskot was my friend. He gave it to me and I would like to keep it for a while.”

He looked at me and said, “What if I need it to do something?”

“Then I will give it to you but for now I would like to hold onto it for a while.”

He gave me a suspicious stare and said, “Okay, okay!” and left.

The two men, who had brought us here, according to Oripson, were district detectives working for the police chief. They ordered us out of the ship. When they noticed Oripson was carrying a suitcase they stopped him and wanted to know what was inside. Oripson immediately opened it and showed them the contents. He had clothing and a shaving and hair cutting kit. He opened the kit. It contained just instruments and soap. They were satisfied with the inspection and asked us to follow them.

While the two detectives were walking ahead of us, escorting us inside, I very quietly said to Oripson, “Meet me here later,” and pointed to the top of the woodpile.

When we went inside the room where Vos and I usually ate our meals the two men told us to take some of the food and water from the table to our rooms. Before they separated us they told us that we were not allowed to talk to one another. One of them took me to my room and the other took Oripson to Vos’s room. Before the detectives left they posted guards outside our rooms.

About an hour later I came out of my room and was stopped by a guard. I pointed to the outside, to the tent where the soldiers were housed. He let me pass. But instead of going outside I climbed on top of the woodpile, hid behind the wood and waited. About half an hour later Oripson showed up. I waved at him and he climbed on top of the woodpile. I quietly pointed to the hidden entrance that led to the next room, which was only visible from the top of the woodpile. We both slipped down. This was the room with the water fountain and shower. The side door to the building was locked.

There was nowhere to sit so we both sat in the corner on the floor near the washroom. I said to him, “I don’t think they know about this room so it should be safe for us to talk in here. But we need to speak very quietly.”

He agreed, “We can’t stay here too long, the guards will come looking for us.”

“I have many questions,” I said, “starting with what happened to Voskot. I left him alive and now you tell me he’s dead, killed by an attack? That’s not right.”

“Vieria thought so too because you told her he was alive after the attack and the police told her he was killed during the attack. I think she believes you more than the police. She told me to cooperate with you and not with the police until we get to the bottom of all this.”

“What else did she tell you?” I asked.

“She suspects the police want to gain access to the ‘chamber of secrets’ and when they found out that you were being primed to take over Vos’s position as ‘keeper of the secrets’ they killed him. Vieria told me to ask you to stall the police. Don’t allow the police to gain access to the chamber of secrets until we find out what’s going on.”

“Surely they can force me,” I said.

“Yes, they can but they won’t. They need you because you have successfully completed the trials. Many have tried going through the trials but ended up dead. I understand you passed the trials and you are still alive. It is easier for them to convince you to open the door than to try and find someone else who will cooperate knowing that they might die.”

“This whole thing is very confusing to me. I tried opening the door but I couldn’t. They forced me to do it twice and both times I failed.”

“Yes, they did that to see if you had been initiated and found out that you hadn’t been. That’s why they put you through the initiation and here you are, still alive,” he replied.

“So why don’t I just go, open the door, get in the ship and fly off?” I asked.

“Well, you can’t because you need to drink the firewater to be able to withstand the shock of initiation. And we don’t have the firewater. The chief took it away and hid it as a precaution.”

Surprised Oripson then said, “So, the big secret is a ship?!”

I didn’t want to reveal any more information so I didn’t answer Oripson’s question. Instead I said, “Why don’t we meet here again at sunrise?”

He agreed and we climbed back on top of the woodpile. When the coast was clear I went back to my room. A while later Oripson did the same.

Lying in bed I thought about how to get the firewater. I figured we had to find it and steal it from the chief. It would be risky. Then we would have to extract the four drops and put it in a glass with water. After that we would have about ten minutes to get past the guards as well as gain access to the chamber of secrets.

I don’t think I slept at all that night. When it started getting light outside I got out of bed and went out of my room wearing only my underwear. I looked half asleep. My guard stood up but I walked past him like he wasn’t there. He let me go. He figured I was going to the washroom. I climbed on the woodpile and found Oripson crouching behind it.

“We have to talk fast,” he said, “I told my guard I was going to the washroom. He gave me five minutes. I have already been here more than that.”

“Listen carefully,” I said, “you have to find the firewater and steal some, but not too much so as not to raise suspicion. When you have done that, scratch you right ear to let me know you have it. Then place four drops into a full glass of water and leave it on the table. After I drink it I will cause a distraction. When the guards run out to see what it is, you slip past my room and go down the hall and wait for me. I will join you there.”

With those words Oripson slipped off the woodpile and, ignoring his guard, went into his room. A minute later I too returned. While scratching my head and yawning, I passed by my guard and went back to my room. About an hour later I came out fully dressed in the uniform the two detectives had issued me the day before.

I sat in my usual place and began eating my breakfast. I noticed Vos’s door was open and Oripson wasn’t there. His guard was standing in front of the door. I pointed to the door and made a motion to his guard. He pointed to the outside and then to his mouth meaning he went outside to eat with the others.

After I ate my food I grabbed Vos’s black box and began to play with it. I got it to talk and name the objects it was displaying. My

guard was not amused and went to the back room. About half an hour later Oripson came by, put his glass of water on the table, scratched his right ear and went to his room without saying a word.

His guard saw him going in and went and sat with my guard. I drank the water and moments later felt its effects. I then went over to the next room and pointed in the direction of the tent. The guards ignored me so I walked away. I took Vos’s black box with me. But instead of going outside to the tent, I jumped on the woodpile and slipped into the next room. I grabbed the 22 rifle from the cabinet, filled my pocket with bullets, climbed on the woodpile, lay down and began to fire.

After I fired the fourth shot the guards ran past me and went outside. I quickly got off the woodpile and ran back through the door and bolted it from the inside. I ran down the hall and found Oripson waiting for me.

I handed him the black box and rifle and told him to hold onto them. I told him we needed to hurry because the locked door wasn’t going to hold them for long. We needed to get behind the blast proof door. He agreed and we ran down the stairs and along the corridor until we reached the door with the big shield.

Oripson looked at it and said, “Wow the chamber of secrets… It’s real!”

I quickly went through the motion the same as before and again I was shocked but this time I did not let go. It hurt just as much as before but I was able to withstand the pain. After the door opened I turned on the lights. Oripson saw the ship.

I took the box and rifle from him and asked him, “Where does your loyalty lie, with me or with them?”

Without hesitation he said, “My loyalty lies with Princess Vieria and no one else!”

“Good!” I said, “Now come with me.”

I pulled him inside, closed the big door and locked it from the inside.

“We will be safe in here,” I said.

Dragon Fire

While Oripson was admiring the ship I looked around. The entire hanger was surrounded with heavy duty metallic cabinets. They were all locked. I slipped my badge into one and it opened. There were all sorts of bits and pieces of equipment looking like spare parts for the ship. As I pushed the door shut I realized that the guards would be looking for us and might try to break in through the metal door and in the process might damage the locking mechanisms.

It would be best if we left the hangar, I figured. I quickly went to the side of the ship, slipped Vos’s badge into it and went through the sequence of entering the long password. I then placed my hand on the hand pad. It was scanned halfway and then “zap”, I was shocked. I endured the shock. I then entered Vos’s short password from the game. The door on the back of the ship began to open. Oripson ran towards me and asked what was happening.

“It’s time to go in and fly out,” I said and shut the panel.

He looked at me and asked, “You mean this relic can fly?”

“It’s time to find out.”

We both ran inside and I pushed the button to close the ship’s door.

When we were inside I asked Oripson to sit on my left in front of the communications panel. I took the captain’s chair and went through the sequence the same way as I had during the game and started the engines and everything else, including the robots. I then activated gravity control. A good idea if you are flying in outer space, something Vos strongly emphasized. Everything worked as it should. The inside came alive and so did the five robots.

“You will need to operate the communications panel, are you familiar with the panel?” I asked.

He looked at it and said, “Yes, but this is an antiquated panel that belongs in a museum, we used panels like this in our games when we were children.”

“Good! Now strap on your seatbelt.”

I did the same and pushed the button to open the hangar roof.

There was a lot of banging and crackling and finally the roof was fully open. The ship took on a dark green metallic colour under the light of the rising sun. I then activated the docking button and the centre robot took control of the ship. There were a lot of puffs and hisses coming out of the ship, which raised a lot of dust inside the hanger. The ship eventually began to rise out of the hanger and above the dust. When it rose high enough above the roof I pushed the button and the hanger roof began to close.

“We don’t want those guys getting in through the roof,” I said.

Oripson didn’t say anything. He probably didn’t hear me. He was trying to process everything that he was doing.

I raised the joystick up, pushed it slightly forward and the impulse controls disengaged. The ship moved forward and flew over the facilities. I pulled back on the joystick and the ship flew up into the empty sky. We were in outer space in no time. When we leveled off we were confronted by about a dozen border guard ships.

“They are ordering us to stop or they will fire,” said Oripson.

I instructed Oripson to ignore them and contact Vieria and bring her up to date with what was happening. Also let her know that we have an armed ship in our possession and want instructions for what she wants us to do next.

Oripson agreed and began to set up communications. In the meantime I wanted to test what this ship was capable of in terms of speed and slowly pressed the joystick forward until it reached its limit.

I checked my display; it showed that we had been fired upon more that fifty times but we had outrun the little ships and they were nowhere to be found.

Oripson made contact with Vieria and assured her that the police had failed to gain access to the chamber of secrets and that we had an old ship in our possession and were flying in outer space. She suggested we stay there and keep an eye out for armed Karon ships.

I also told Oripson to tell Vieria that she had foxes in her henhouse that needed to be taken care of. Oripson told her exactly that and she understood what it meant.

I figured it was best to say as little as possible in simple communications which, according Oripson, even children could figure out. Discretion was necessary, I thought.

I told Oripson, “We’ll do exactly what Vieria wants us to do, stay here and watch for Karon ships, but first we have a score to settle down at Apserpon.”

Oripson strongly disagreed with my decision to return to Apserpon and insisted we stay up here as ordered. I told him this was my decision and this was my ship and had nothing to do with him or Vieria. He was about to make a call but I turned off his panel.

He told me I was crazy but I ignored him.

Moments later we were hovering above the facilities at Apserpon. The guards and police were still there. When they saw the ship they began to fire at it.

I told Oripson I was going to turn his communications panel on again and not to do anything unless I asked him. I also told him that it was time to test the weapons on this ship to which he had earlier referred as a relic.

I powered up one of the energy cannons and set it to minimum. I then asked Oripson to relay a message to the guards and ask them to

drop their weapons and surrender. He said he didn’t know how. He didn’t know what their call number was.

“Perhaps they will understand this,” I said and fired the cannon above their heads. A bright flash of light came out and hit the hill on the other side of the facilities.

More guards rushed out and they too joined the guards already firing at us.

I powered up another cannon and set it at minimum.

“I have no idea what this thing can do but if they don’t stop firing at us I will be forced to fire at them,” I said.

Oripson practically freaked and kept screaming, insisting that we stop this and leave immediately.

I got angry and fired. The flash at such close range blinded me. When I could see again I looked outside. The entire area was burned and looked black. There was no one firing.

Oripson became hysterical and began to scream. I landed the ship in front of the facility yard and tried to calm him down. When he did calm down I told him to stay there and keep quiet.

I opened a cabinet, took three energy hand weapons and handed my guards one each. I then opened the ship’s door and began to walk outside. The two women robots automatically followed me. The moment I stepped out the two detectives charged at me and my female guards shot them dead. I checked, they were dead.

I walked towards the tent, my female guards following closely behind. I opened the tent door and there was the chief with his hands up. I raised my hand and my guards lowered their weapons.

I raised my weapon, pointed it at him and in Macedonian said, “This is for my friend Vos.” I then pulled the trigger.

When I turned around I saw Oripson behind me vomiting.

When he composed himself I asked him to go and get the jug of firewater and his suitcase and go back to the ship. I went to the big room and filled the three empty jars with the rest of the wine and put them inside an empty bucket. I then went to the cupboard and got four jars of jelly and placed them in the same bucket. After that I went to my room and got my stuff including the uniform that Vos had given me and returned to the ship. Oripson was there waiting for me, looking glum.

After I closed the ship’s door and took my seat, I asked him to contact Vieria and inform her of what we had done here and that we were going back into space to resume our mission of monitoring the border.

After composing himself Oripson did what I asked. To his surprise Vieria didn’t object to the diversion from our mission. In fact she approved of what we had done and said she would have done exactly the same thing. She then added that there were a few less rats to worry about. What I had done was as personal for her as it was for me.

Moments later we were again in outer space and took a stationary position behind some space debris facing Barkon, the Karon planet.

I got no satisfaction from what I did back on the planet because it wasn’t going to bring Vos back. I was angry, however, very angry, which surprised me. I was also angry at Oripson for not understanding. He had sensed that and was afraid of me.

“It’s time to talk,” I said. “I want to know everything. Start from the beginning and tell me what is going on here.”

He said he didn’t know much but he would do his best.

“Let’s start from the beginning. Who is young Princess Anelia and what does she have to do with Vos?” I asked.

“Who is Vos?” he asked.

“Vos is Voskot, that’s what I called him,” I said and asked, “And may I call you Ori?”

“Yes, yes, I would like that,” he replied.

He thought about it for a second and said, “Let me begin with the royal family. Vos was the oldest of the three senior royals followed by Vieria and King Velion. After his father died Vos was crowned king of the planet. When Vos found out that he couldn’t have children he abdicated his position and appointed his younger brother Velion to become king. After that Vos isolated himself and chose the position of keeper of the secrets. His father before him was both king and keeper of the secrets. Since Vos couldn’t have children of his own he wanted to adopt Princess Anelia, one of King Velion’s seven daughters, but she was either not interested or Vos thought she was not mature enough. And, as it turned out, she was unpredictable, undisciplined and an embarrassment to the royal family.

I don’t know how you fit into the picture but some from the ruling class began to worry that Vos was spending too much time with you and was cooking up something.

No other people, except for the keepers of the secrets, knew what the secrets were. Most people assumed they were something important that needed to be guarded by the rightful keepers.

Unfortunately many people at the top didn’t want these secrets to go to you, an alien. And from what Vieria told me, the authorities had been trying to get their hands on them for a long time. But, it seems, Vos for some reason didn’t want the authorities to have them, which is why he held onto them. He wanted to pass them on to someone who was not corrupted by the politics on this planet. At least that’s what Vieria thought.

When the authorities figured out what Vos was about to do, make you the keeper of the secrets, they decided to act. So they grabbed you and because you are an alien and not from here, in other words you have no deep loyalties or caring for this planet, they figured they could convince you to give up the secrets to them.

After you passed the three trials they would have given you anything you wanted if you were prepared to give them access to the secrets. But I think they underestimated you. You had become too attached to Vos and much faster than they had anticipated. So, according to Vieria, they used the Karons to assassinate Vos but failed. So then they killed him and tried to blame the Karons.

The authorities figured that with Vos out of the way your connection to him would be terminated. They figured it was now a matter of time before you folded and they could get their hands on the secrets. But that didn’t work for them either,” he replied.

What were these trials I went through about?” I asked.

“I’m not certain but from what I’ve heard in the past they were purely ceremonial. But then many people died doing them so they figured a keeper had to be of a certain character to pass them. The first trial was drinking the firewater. If you don’t know the formula and drink too much you will be poisoned. Too little and it would be ineffective. The second trial, the drinking of the blood of the Sopion is also poisonous to most people and they would die in a matter of hours. The third trial was sleeping in the chamber of the dead, the former keepers of the secret who supposedly would have ended your life if they had no faith and confidence in you.

But you survived the three trials while they had you in their hands and they figured it was now a matter of time before they broke you and got their hands on the secrets. No one knew what the secrets were,” he replied.

“Is the Karon threat real or just a scare tactic?” I asked.

“The Karon’s themselves, as I understand it, are peaceful creatures and want to survive like everyone else but there are elements on this planet that don’t want them to exist and refuse to accept the wrongs they have done to them. Many, including Vieria, think someone else is behind the Karon revolt and is stirring them up to cause trouble. And, until yesterday, Vieria believed the influence came from the outside, probably from the elements they do business with. But after

Vos was killed, she thinks the influence is coming from inside this planet, probably from the high echelons,” he replied.

“Tell me about Vieria. Does she have a family?” I asked.

“No. She never married. She has an abrasive character. She is pushy and very demanding which makes her unattractive. She is now minister of education. She became very bitter and isolated when Vos bypassed her and made Velion king. She was in line for the throne but Vos figured she didn’t have the right character to be a diplomat. But deep down she knew Vos was right,” he replied.

“Tell me about Vos.”

“Everyone knew and admired Vos. He was head of the military academy and commander and chief of the military forces, which we don’t have. He broke everyone’s heart when he quit being king. I think he quit because he didn’t like what was happening with our society. He didn’t want to be just a figurehead and be blamed for everything others did. In other words, he was fed up with our society and decided to isolate himself. He became a hermit. He also had reservations about who to pass on the secrets to and held onto that position far too long,” he replied.

“Tell me about King Velion.”

“King Velion is a simple and jovial man. He enjoys his position as a ceremonial king and loudly laughs off the criticism he gets. He is often called a buffoon. He loves to throw big parties and play loud music. Everyone on this planet was disappointed with him when he married a woman from the planet Stredeon. He has seven daughters very close in age and they are all spoiled brats,” he replied.

“Tell me about the government of this planet.”

“Well, the planet is divided into zones and each zone has districts. There is a middle zone and four outer zones. The outer zones have basically lawless districts run by gangs and self-appointed governors. The middle zone has strict laws that are well-enforced. Each district in the middle zone has elected representatives that run

the ministries. Each district also has its own law enforcement. These guys, the police, actually run the planet.”

But before he was able to tell me the whole story I interrupted him and said, “Too much information. I won’t be able to remember it all. Tell me what was written on the big door with the shield back in the facilities.”

“Oh, the big door!? A few days ago I thought the chamber of secrets was a myth made up to make the royal family look mysterious and powerful. I thought it was a fairytale until I saw the door myself. According to legend the chamber of secrets was guarded by priests. The secrets themselves were passed on from generation to generation. Nobody knew what the secrets were and that’s why they were called secrets. Of those who believed that such secrets existed, many thought they were ancient knowledge written down on ancient tablets, locked in a secret room. Some thought they were magic potions. Some thought they were ancient weapons. Some even thought they were mythical creatures like dragons. And so on.

People basically just speculated as to what the secrets were and the more they speculated the more mysterious the secrets became. As for the writing on the door, it was random symbols without any meaning,” he replied.

“Tell me about yourself.”

“Well, there’s not much to tell. I come from a middle class family and am still in school. I’m at the top of my class studying communications with a minor in languages. When Princess Vieria came to my school to give a lecture, during question period I asked her what alien language she would recommend for me to study. She said one of the more ancient earth languages. When I asked her which one she said Macedonian. That was probably the only one she knew about. The next time she came over she recognized me and asked me how I was doing. I told her that I was at the top of my class learning Macedonian. The truth is I was the only one in my class learning Macedonian but I was good at it. She congratulated me.

Several days ago she came back and asked me if I wanted to go on a mission for her where I could use the Macedonian I had learned. I was thrilled and said yes. My parents agreed and gave Vieria permission to take me.

When we got to her office she told me what I needed to do and briefed me about you. She then told me to pack a suitcase and wait in the junkyard to be picked up by a ship, where you found me. That’s it,” he replied.

There was a blip on the panel that I hadn’t seen before.

“What’s that?” I asked Ori.

“It’s an incoming call from Vieria,” he replied.

“Take it,” I said and went to the washroom.

When I came back I asked, “What did she want?”

“She wanted to know how we were doing and if we were okay. I was a bit late with my report and she was wondering why,” he replied.

“I’m getting the feeling that Vos didn’t teach me everything about this ship, is there any way we can learn what all these blips and green lights, the flashing lights, etc., on the panel all mean?” I asked Ori.

“Of course!” he said. “The ship contains files with diagrams and explanations on the operation of every part of it.”

After touching a few symbols on his screen Ori said, “Here is the file on communications. We have two types, general and secure. A general call is a blip and a green light. A secure call is a blip and a yellow light. So far we have been communicating on general channels that can be monitored.”

“It’s nice to have secure communications,” I said. “Earlier I had the impression that the ship didn’t have secure channels.”

“So did I,” replied Ori, “but I guess I was wrong.”

He then went on to say, “Here it says every call, incoming and outgoing is recorded in the ship’s logs.

Ah, here it talks about the ship’s sensor arrays. We have six short range and six long range sensors, front, back, left side, right side, top and bottom. And here it says all sensor information is recorded and logged. All visual information is also recorded in the ship’s logs.

Here it talks about propulsion, weapons and gravity and damper control. Did you know that the energy weapons take half a second to fully charge? And no more than one should be fired at a time? There are four energy guns and one torpedo tube. Use of the weapons is also recorded in the logs,” he replied and I told him to stop.

He was giving me a headache. He apologized. I told him that it was enough for one day and that we would resume studying the ship the next day.

After spending three days sitting among the space debris both of us were running out of what to study and talk about. We were becoming stir crazy.

“We need to do something or risk going mad,” I said.

Ori agreed and asked what I had in mind.

“See that bucket over there, I have some wine in it. Would you like to have a drink?”

“Drinking wine or any other alcoholic beverage is prohibited. They are illegal here,” he replied.

“We’re already fugitives and going to jail anyway,” I said jokingly and added. “I’m having some, do you want some or not?”

He hesitated for a long time and said, “Yes.”

He probably thought I would shoot him or something if he said no. He didn’t look happy.

“Can you play some music on that thing?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“So, play some music… your favourite music,” I said.

I looked through the cupboards at the back of the ship and found a couple of plastic cups. I filled them half full and handed Ori one. I then showed him how to toast and we did. We toasted to “new adventures”.

I took a gulp and said, “In my culture it’s impolite not to drink after you toast.”

He hesitantly took a sip. The poor man, God knows what they told him would happen if he was caught drinking.

He licked his lips, looked at me and said, “This is good.”

I raised my cup up and thought he liked it only because it was sweet.

By the time I looked again he had drunk the whole thing. I was about to tell him to sip it slowly but it was all gone. I realized that it was my fault. I didn’t tell him the effects the potent wine would have on him. The music he put on was monotonous and annoying.

About five minutes later I watched him moving in his chair to the music and smiling.

“How do you feel?”

“Great,” he said and began to move his body from one side of the chair to the other.

“Is that how your people dance here?” I asked.

“Nope, I just feel good.”

I quickly removed all the contents from the bucket, and just in time.

He bent forward and vomited violently. I caught the vomit in the bucket. He vomited a couple more times. I took him to his bed and sat him on it. He lay down and fell asleep.

I turned off the music. I had to figure how to do it on my own. I then dumped the vomit in his toilet and washed the bucket. I had to use an entire bag (about a litre) of water to wash it, and then flushed it into the ship’s waste tank. After that I continued to drink wine by myself.

A few hours later Ori was up and feeling fine. He wanted to know what had happened. I told him the truth and apologized for getting him sick.

To my surprise he looked at me and asked for more wine. He promised me he would sip it very slowly this time. I filled his cup a quarter full and gave it to him. He wanted to know what had happened to the music. I told him I had turned it off and asked him what kind of music it was. He said classical.

“What kind of instrument created those continuous tones without a pause. When does the musician take a breath?”

He laughed and said, “I studied that kind of music and musical instruments in my ancient history class. This is synthetic music created by a machine.”

“Tomorrow I want to go to the surface and have a proper meal, something roasted on charcoal,” I said and asked him if he wanted to join me.

After he had some more wine he said, “Yes.”

I then asked him if he knew of a place we could go, perhaps in the evening. He said he knew of a place from his friends in school who had been there. He was going to call one of them and get the coordinates. I thanked him for it, gulped the rest of my wine, set the

sensor alarms to on and went to bed. Ori sat in his chair for a bit longer contemplating what to tell Vieria in his report.

It was dark in the space debris when I was rudely awakened by the loud and annoying sound of the sensor alarm. I jumped out of bed wearing only my underwear. I sat in the captain’s seat. The screen was blinking with hundreds of moving objects coming towards us. I quickly powered up the ship’s engines and all weapons and set them to maximum. I raised the ship out of the debris and pointed it at the incoming objects. The objects stopped moving. My sensors identified them as ships. I yelled at Ori to get up. He too showed up in his underwear and took his position.

He looked at my screen and said, “Mother Nature, they are Karon ships. Look at them all, there are thousands of them and they have their weapons trained on us. We have to get out of here and fast.”

“We aren’t going anywhere,” I said. “Just open a channel and talk to them, ask them what they want.”

He objected and advised me to get the hell out of there before we were blown to pieces. I told him to calm down and do as I asked.

Seeing that he had no other choice he opened a general broadcast channel and made an announcement.

We got no reply.

“Tell them we need a reply or we’ll be forced to fire on them,” I said.

Ori was freaking out so I yelled at him to do it. He did and they replied with “continuous clicking” (loud laughter in the Karon language).

“Okay then,” I said, “I’m targeting the last ship in the distance, that larger one that is facing to my right.”

Ori jumped in and said, “Are you crazy? Fire on these ships in the front to stop them from attacking us. That ship in the back is too far even for the most sophisticated modern energy weapons.”

“Stop arguing with me and tell them to back off or we’ll be forced to fire on them,” I said.

He did and immediately after that a dozen or so ships in the front began to fire at us. Then I did what Vos had warned me never to do. I fired all four energy weapons at once. There was a huge bang and a flash that lit the entire surface of the planet below. Our ship shook so hard I felt my feet go numb. For a moment I thought our ship had exploded. When I realized that we were still alive and in one piece I looked outside and saw a gaping hole in the ship formation. Everything in the path of the blast had vaporized.

Ori was freaking out and pulling his hair. I was freaking out from the unbelievably tremendous blast.

I heard myself say, “Dragon fire.”

I don’t know why I’d said that.

When Ori stopped freaking out he asked, “What did you say?”

I said, “Dragon fire. The ship, the flash, it looked like a dragon spitting fire.”

I told him to send a general message and tell the rest of the Karon ships to go home, the war was over.

One by one the ships turned around and left.

Ori then yelled at me, “What was that all about? You could have blown up the ship and killed us.”

“But I didn’t and, because of what I did, the Karons will never bother us again.”

All of a sudden his communications panel lit up. People wanted to know what had happened. I told him to immediately contact Vieria and tell her everything. Let the politicians deal with the fallout.

I went to the back and put my clothes on. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I was shaken, first by the ships and second by the explosion. It was horrifying. The fact that I had also taken so many lives bothered me a lot. I tried to convince myself that I’d done the right thing and that I had done it for Vos… That’s what Vos would have wanted, I thought. He’d told me so himself.

I grabbed my cup and filled it to the top with wine. Ori looked at me and asked me for some. I filled his a quarter full and told him to sip it slowly.

Moments later he called me and said, “Listen to this.” He realized I didn’t understand the language and said, “I’ll translate for you.”

“Today a tragedy was averted by our Military Commander Otsiron, Captain of the War Ship Dragon Fire, and protégé of Prince Voskot of the planet’s Royal Family. It was estimated that over one hundred fully armed Karon ships were destroyed with a single blast from our warship’s weapons. Commander Otsiron took pity on the rest, numbering over nine hundred or so armed Karon ships that were poised to invade our planet and told them to go home, the war was over. It is sad that Prince Voskot was not able to enjoy this victory as he had trained Captain Otsiron himself. Tragically Prince Voskot was recently assassinated during a Karon attack at the industrial facilities in the ancient city Apserpon.”

“And there you have it, a lot of crap. Now they’ve named our ship ‘Dragon Fire’. And why wasn’t your name mentioned?” I asked Ori.

Ori immediately contacted Vieria to congratulate her on the announcement but before he had a chance to ask her why he wasn’t mentioned, she said it was done for his own protection because if his name was revealed the “bad guys” would go after his family.

“This isn’t right. You should have been mentioned. You deserved to be mentioned! And who told them to call our ship ‘Dragon Fire’?

Surely we could have come up with something better like some bird of prey whose name sounds like one thousand years. And you’d better start using Ori as your pseudonym from now on,” I said.

I then asked him to open a secure channel and talk to Vieria and give her his pseudonym so that she could mention it in the next media briefing but he refused.

“Just open the channel and I will tell her myself,” I said.