Part 3 - Part 05

“You must have enjoyed your time with Voskot,” he said.

“Very much, he was a simple and complex man all in one. I learned a lot from him.”

“And him from you. He was very proud of you and respected you… enough to give you his most prized possession, his mistress… which he spent his entire life courting.”

I didn’t reply but looked at Gen who looked bored.

“You should translate for the ladies so we can keep them in the conversation,” I said.

Nagol ignored what I’d said and waved the server to bring us food and hot drinks.

He brought me a plate of home fries, bacon and eggs and a cup of coffee, which I found bitter. The coffee was made from poisonous beans, hazardous if not properly baked. Nagol only had a hot drink which looked like concentrated fruit juice and the ladies had sweet crepes and pancakes.

I looked at the admiral. She had no problem using a knife and fork. She must have done this before. After she ate some of her sweet stuff she looked at me and pointed at my home fries with her fork. I shook my head acknowledging that I saw them. I didn’t realize she wanted to try some until she stuck her fork in my plate, took a piece of potato and put it in her mouth. First she made a face and then took another potato and then another. She then said something to Nagol. Nagol waved at the server and he brought the admiral a plate just like mine.

“So, the lady isn’t sophisticated,” I said to Nagol, thinking that he wouldn’t translate but he did which made me feel a bit awkward.

“You’re very brave for a young man,” she said, smiled and added. “I take it this is Macedonian style food.”

“Yes,” I replied sheepishly.

The next thing I noticed was Gen’s fork in my home fries.

Nagol laughed out loud and ordered another platter for Gen.

“I’m happy that we’re together like this, even if it’s for a short time. In my old age I’ve learned to relish every good moment I have. I take it you and the girls will be leaving as soon as they come back from shopping?” asked Nagol.

“Yes Sir,” I said.

It was only half past nine when Ruzha and the girls got back.

“I’m surprised you got back so soon, in less than an hour. Did you get everything?” I asked.

“Yes, yes. Is it too late for breakfast?” asked Ruzha.

Nagol pointed to the crepes, pancakes, home fries and asked, “Which one?”

To my surprise Ruzha took my fork and sampled a crepe and then a potato from Gen’s plate and pointed to the home fries. The girls said they’d have what Ruzha was having.

Nagol looked at me and said, “I would have bet the other way…” and waved at the server to bring more food and drinks.

As I watched the ladies eat and enjoy their breakfast chatting in their language, my hearing began to tune out and came to a point where I could hear nothing. I was overwhelmed with a sadness that I could no longer control. This had happened to me before and I knew it would be temporary so I excused myself from the table and went to the washroom. I was feeling fine when I returned and announced it was time to go.

I noticed that Ruzha had already set up her equipment and had been recording us all along. Everything I said and did was recorded. I felt like saying something but what for. Ruzha was a responsible person and I was sure she wouldn’t make our private moments public.

No one objected to my announcement to leave. After we took everything from our rooms we came back to the lounge and casually

said goodbye without shaking hands, hugging or kissing, as Gen had suggested the day before.

After we walked out I grabbed the big box from Daf’s hands and gave it to one of my guards to carry.

“You’ll have to find space for all this. You can store some stuff in the armory wherever you find space,” I said.

“Ruzha estimated we would be in outer space for a month or even more,” said Daf.

“Are you kidding me? It won’t be more than a week or two,” I replied.

After we boarded the ship the girls did find space to put their stuff but had to rearrange some things.

It was ten past ten when we lifted off for outer space.

“It was stupid telling Ruzha to delay broadcasting our departure. I’m sure we’re being watched by Anelia’s minions at this very moment. The only people who won’t know we left are the people who should know, and that’s the ordinary people,” said Vel.

I decided to let Vel’s remark fly because she was right.

“You’re right Vel…” I said.

When we reached outer space I said, “We need to go and see the galaxy trader captain first. We need to deliver the box of rakia and see what information he can give us. When we near his planet I want every detectible item on this ship turned off.”

“That means we’ll be flying blind,” remarked Daf.

“Now we have a choice to make,” I said. “We can fly normally at top speed and get there in several days or we can activate the hyper drive and be there in several minutes. The second option, unfortunately, is very risky. This has to be a unanimous decision.”

After I gave Daf the piece of paper with the coordinates the captain had given me and she entered them into the navigation computer she said, “I looked at the logs and I know how to activate the hyper drive and the path to take. If we do a jump then it will have to be done in two steps. One, follow the path that Delche set, because we know it’s safe, and when we get there calculate the second path. We’ll use up a bit more fuel but it’s safer this way.”

“I’ll run diagnostics on the hyper drive and see how it’s functioning,” I said.

“I agree with Daf, we should do the first jump on hyper speed and then see how it goes from there,” said Vel.

After the diagnostics ran and passed I asked Daf if she had maps of the system we were about to enter. She said we only had what Delche had left us in the ship’s navigation computer and that wasn’t much.

“You’d better contact someone and get the most up to date maps from all the sectors before we leave,” I said.

“I’ll contact the admiral,” said Vel, “and find out where we can get such maps.”

After contacting Asora, who had one of our communicators, Vel spoke to the admiral who put us in touch with the captain of the lead ship that had brought the troops back and he allowed us to upload the maps from his navigation computer.

Daf smiled a wide smile and said, “My display just lit up, we now have detailed maps from all the sectors in this and other galaxies.”

“Are these maps current?” I asked.

“As current as a few days ago.”

“Can we do a single jump now?” I asked.

“No, I’m not experienced like Delche. I’d feel more comfortable doing it in two jumps,” replied Daf.

Vel agreed.

“Before we do it let’s make sure everything is strapped in and packed tight,” I said and looked around the cabinets and tested the straps on the boxes.

After we got back to our seats and strapped ourselves in, I powered up all sensors and set them to maximum sensitivity, then powered up the energy cannons and set them on auto fire at maximum. I powered up the retro rockets and finally set the hyper speed timer to one minute and forty seconds.

“Here we go,” I said and punched the hyper speed button.

“What happened?” said Vel, “Why did we fizzle out?”

“Check your instrument panel,” I said.

“Holy Mother Nature,” yelled Daf. “We’re there… We made it. I can’t believe it… and it only took seconds.”

“Now plot a course to the captain’s planet and we’ll do it again,” I said.

“I’m sorry sir, I don’t feel confident enough to do that. Besides, by the time I run all the calculations, we’ll be there. It should take us less time at maximum speed to get there than for me to do the calculations.”

“Why would it take you a day to do the calculations? It took Delche only minutes.”

“With all due respect Sir, Delche fudged everything. He didn’t do any calculations, he visually looked at the maps and, because it’s mostly empty space, he guessed there would be no obstacles in the way, no big obstacles anyway,” replied Daf.

“Vel, please check the logs and see how many times the cannons fired,” I asked.

“None Sir, they didn’t fire at all,” she replied.

Daf was about to say something but didn’t.

“Is there something on your mind Lieutenant?” I asked.

“What I said shouldn’t be taken as a criticism of Delche. I don’t know what happened when you were here the last time. I don’t know what the circumstances were, so I’d like to apologize for what I said.”

“You’re right about that, you don’t know. Apology accepted,” I replied.

“Now set us on a straight trajectory to the captain’s planet,” I added.

“It’s best if we move ahead and take a well-traveled route that we know will be clear of obstacles and if you’re going to turn off all communications and sensors, I suggest we travel at a slower speed before we run into another ship or the planet,” suggested Daf.

“We don’t need to turn off everything. We only need to turn off the equipment that can be detected by passing ships, like the galaxy trader border patrol,” I said.

“In that case we’ll turn off the communication’s transmitters and long range sensors but fire up the engines to maximum for a short time and as we get closer to the planet we’ll turn them off and drift like a comet,” said Vel.

“There are no such comets in my star chart, we’ll be spotted immediately,” argued Daf.

“Ladies, please, let me worry about that,” I said.

“And if that happens, what are you going to do, Sir,” asked Daf.

“Always the curious one, eh…? When they come closer to investigate us we’ll blast them out of existence,” I said.

“The coordinates have been set, Sir,” said Daf.

“The long range sensors and communications transmitters are off, Sir,” said Vel.

After I set the speed to max and punched the autopilot I said, “Ladies, now sit and relax.”

Just as I lay there looking outside the windshield into the black space something occurred to me.

“Oh crap,” I said.

The girls turned slightly and looked back.

“Do you speak any of the languages spoken in this galaxy?” I asked.

They both said no.

“So, how are we going to communicate with the galaxy trader captain… or anyone for that matter in this galaxy?” I asked.

After thinking for a moment Vel sarcastically said, “I’m sure you’ll find a way, Sir.”

“Well, you’ve met him before, how did you communicate with him then?” Daf asked.

“It was complicated. The captain had an interpreter who spoke your language. The captain spoke to him, he interpreted for Delche and Delche interpreted for me,” I replied.

Vel laughed again but didn’t say anything. I knew something was bothering her.

“Vel, you can’t stay angry at me forever, so whatever it is spit it out,” I said.

“Since you asked, Sir, here it is: The whole world spoke of you and how great you were, especially Ruzha to whom I devoted a lot of my time listening. You turned out to be another jerk who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Some great hero you are. You, you don’t even know how to operate this ship and yet you brought us out here. And you’re going to save the world?” she said and began to cry.

Daf was in shock. She couldn’t believe what she’d heard.

After simmering for a while; simmering because I was risking my life to do this the best I could for their planet’s benefit, I calmly said, “You’re right Vel, you’re right about all of it. So, if you’re angry you should be angry at yourself for believing the crap people told you about me. I never told you those things and I never promised you anything, except that I would try. Now, let me ask you this; what do I get for sacrificing my life to save your world? Last time I did this I was kicked off the planet and exiled on my own planet to live a cruel life as a hermit. Do you think that was fair? Look at the difference between what your people said to you about me and what they actually did to me. If anyone here should be angry, it should be me. If I was the jerk that you think I am, do you think I would have come back to help you again? In reality, after what your people did to me I should have destroyed your planet. I should have used this ship’s guns to take revenge on those who exiled me and ruined my life. I accept I don’t know what I’m doing for many reasons but to fault me for that I think is cruel. I was never trained to be a military strategist, a politician, a captain, or a pilot. I was only taught to fly this ship on a simulator. Voskot was killed before he could finish my training. I don’t know anything about how the ship works or how to read the instructions to find out, but I’m managing. Being in this situation wasn’t exactly my idea or my choice. So I can’t see how you can fault me for all these things. Also, I was always truthful to you about what war is and you haven’t seen any of it yet. So if there’s anything romantic in your head about all this I didn’t put it there.”

After I paused for a while I said, “If you want to quit this mission I’ll drop you off on the captain’s planet and you can do what you

want from there. I’ll go on the mission alone… And I don’t plan on coming back!”

After I said all that I felt very angry but when I saw that both of them were crying I felt sorry for them and stopped talking.

Without looking at me Daf extended her dirty hand smeared with tears and other things towards me and I took it. There was no point in punishing her for how Vel felt about me. Daf stopped crying. When Vel saw us holding hands she began to cry out loud and covered her face with her hands.

Daf tugged at my hand and motioned something with her head. I didn’t know what she wanted. She got off her seat and pushed me towards Vel. I got up and walked in front of her, grabbed her hands and pulled them away from her face. Still crying she opened her eyes, full of tears, and looked at me. She looked terrible but her eyes were beautiful. She jumped out of her seat and squeezed me tight around my shoulders. I squeezed her back and held her until she stopped crying. She then began to laugh. I didn’t ask why she was laughing. She wiped her face with her hands and sat back down on her seat. She looked at me, smiled and laughed again. I felt like saying “crazy woman” but it would have been inappropriate. Then Daf pointed to my shoulder where there was a pile of fluids, tears, saliva and other sticky things on my uniform.

Just as I sat down I heard a muffled sound, “I’m sorry.”

Vel looked up at me and said, “Let me wipe that off.”

“No,” I replied. “This is my badge of honour and it stays.”

Vel came over, sat on my knee and said, “I don’t want to leave. If you’re not planning on coming back, I’m not planning on coming back either. And if you don’t mind I’d like to give you a big kiss.”

Before I had a chance to reply she kissed me, smiled and went back to her seat.

Daf looked at me.

“You crazy woman, look what you’ve done. You’ve made Daf jealous.”

“Let her kiss you and make it even.”

I bent forward and Daf gave me a peck.

“There is still the matter of how we’re going to inquire about anything in this galaxy without knowing the language,” I said.

“You called me a woman; this is the first time you referred to me as woman,” said Vel.

“Vel, I’m being serious…” I replied.

“Like I said, I’m sure you’ll find a way. I have confidence in you, Sir,” she said.

“That’s enough!” yelled Daf. “We’ll worry about it when we get there. Now make up and stop bickering. Vel, I’m surprised at you.”

At that moment Vel reminded me of Jean with her stubborn streak and evil ways. Was she going to be another Jean?

No one said a word until it was lunch time. I went and got a jar of meat and three spoons. I was too lazy to go looking for plates so I gave the girls a spoon each and asked them to pass the jar around. I then went and got a cup and pulled a bottle of rakia from the big box which was now filled to the top with women’s stuff. Daf looked at me.

“Do you want some rakia?” I asked.

They both shook their head yes.

After I handed them the cups full of rakia I toasted to “our final adventure”.

I immediately realized that what I had said wasn’t appropriate but that’s what came out of my mouth so I said, “To Otsiron’s final adventure!”

Daf said, “To our success in ending the war!”

After waiting for a while Vel said, “To our magnificent captain!”

I realized I was going to have problems with Vel especially at critical times but then I figured I was no different than her. I too was a thorn in peoples’ behinds and only time would tell how things were going to go.

After I had a few drinks I pushed my chair back to the sleeping position and said, “Wake me up when we arrive.”

What seemed like moments later, I was rudely awakened by a loud beeping sound.

“What’s that damned racket, please turn it off,” I said.

“I can’t, only you can turn it off. It’s the emergency alarm,” said Daf.

“Someone is scanning us from the surface. They’re powering up weapons, do something!” yelled Vel.

After I turned off the alarm I said, “Standby and don’t do anything.”

“They’ll fire at us, change course quickly, Sir,” yelled Daf.

“Stand by,” I said, “and don’t do anything.”

“They’ve stopped scanning us and turned off their weapons,” said Vel.

“Proceed on course and prepare to land.

“The entire planet is a swamp, except for that small green patch that looks like an island,” said Vel.

“The coordinates we’re following will land us on that patch,” said Daf.

“Daf, please calculate the landing speed for the atmosphere on this planet and read it out to me,” I said.

After I fired the retrorockets to slow the ship down, I entered the speed and punched the autopilot. But as soon as I did that another emergency alarm went off.

“What now?” I asked.

“Take the ship off autopilot and fly it manually. The coordinates we have are for the centre of the planet,” said Daf.

“Thank you Daf,” I said and imagined what Vel was thinking.

“No comments from you, Vel,” I said.

“No Sir. I imagine you’re very lucky, Sir.”

I didn’t say anything.

After we flew the ship along a path we ran into a grove of fruit trees in the middle of the island, inside which was a building and other structures. I landed the ship next to another beaten up ship and before we left I ordered my guards to hold their hands up where they could be seen. I did the same and suggested Vel and Daf do that too.

After I closed the hatch and proceeded to walk towards the building, the door flung open and a tall, skinny young blond girl jumped out and, with a big smile, ran towards us. Wow I figured, what a welcome I was going to get. But instead of coming to me she went past me and grabbed Daf and hugged her, speaking to her in their language. She then ran to Vel and did the same. The blond girl then grabbed the girls by their shoulders and took them inside the building and closed the door. My guards and I were left outside waiting. My guards still had their hands up.

Just as I ordered my guards to lower their hands, the door opened and the captain waved us in. As we walked in I watched the girls talk to each other in a language neither I nor the captain understood. He smiled and slapped me on the back. I remembered these were different people, friendlier and more sociable than the people of Ostikon.

I forgot to bring the box of rakia so I grabbed the captain by the arm and took him to the ship. By the reaction on his face he seemed amazed at the security protocols I had to go through just to open the door on my ship.

He let out a big “ahhh” when he saw what was inside the box.

When we were back in the house the blond girl started talking non-stop, in a language that only the captain understood.

The captain said something and the blond girl offered her hand to me and I took it. She kept smiling and I kept looking at her while holding her hand.

“She’s trying to shake your hand. But I guess her father never taught her how,” piped up Vel.

After I showed her how it was done I said, “So, you’re the captain’s daughter?”

Vel translated.

“I am.”

I noticed she had a round head, golden blond hair and beautiful transparent and peaceful green eyes. I could have stared at them all day.

She then pointed at herself and said, “Ireva”, pointed at the captain and said, “Orihci” and then pointed at an older blond woman who had just arrived and said, “Amih”. After that she took a few steps into another room and pointed at a man lying in bed and said, “Ukasnek”.

“That’s her mother, I don’t know who the man is,” Vel said.

So Vel and Daf sat side by side with Ireva and we began to talk.

To spite her, because of her criticism of Delche having to translate through another translator, I asked Vel to translate. Surprisingly she was happy to do it.

The first question I asked was how the girls knew each other. Captain Orihci answered that one.

He said that after Ostikon opened its gates to trade with the galaxy traders he’d sent Ireva to school in Ostikon under an education exchange program to learn their language. The idea was that one day she would take over the rakia business that he’d established with the other captain and run it on her own. The girls had met and become friends at the academy in Ostikon.

While translating Vel also told me that her and Daf and her other friends in the academy had no idea that Ireva was a galaxy trader or that she was a captain’s daughter.

In addition to learning the Ostikon language she’d also studied navigation and had become a capable navigator; again so that one day she could fly her own ship. She was already a pilot.

When I said that she was too young to have acquired so many skills, Captain Orihci said that she was thirty two years old. I too was that age but looked like an old man compared to her.

After I found that out and the fact that these people lived way longer than the people from Ostikon, I developed a new appreciation for her.

We spent a long time talking and after we discussed everything there was to discuss about personal things, we took a break and had supper. The main course was fish, more like catfish, that Amih had caught in the traps she’d set in the swamp. It had been prepared well

and was delicious. One thing about the galaxy traders was that they loved their food and made every effort to make it taste delicious.

After we ate Captain Orihci and I went outside and back inside the ship. I got a bottle of rakia out of the big box and grabbed my cup. He grabbed Vel’s cup, sat in the admiral’s chair and extended his arm out. I filled it to the top and did the same with mine. I sat in my chair and we both took a big gulp. It was sad that we couldn’t converse. Language was a barrier for both of us. Captain Orihci was a decorated captain of one of the biggest galaxy trader warships and he could have taught me a lot of things. I wanted to ask him what had happened to his ship but in order to do that I had to involve two translators. It was just too cumbersome.

No one noticed when we came back.

We were on the planet a long time and I noticed the sun hadn’t moved at all since we’d arrived. When I asked why that was, Ireva said the planet didn’t rotate and continuously faced the sun. She also told me that the island was artificially created by galaxy trader scientists. They’d created the island a long time ago and used it as a base to study this sector of space. The island was abandoned many years ago. Captain Orihci and his wife fled to this place after their two sons were captured and taken to serve in the war. Before they arrived here they sent Ukasnek, their trusted friend and business partner who had his own private ship, to look for their sons but he couldn’t find them. The wreck outside was his ship. He had been badly wounded a few days ago when the ship was shot at. He would tell us more as soon as he recovered. He’d been back for two days and was recovering nicely but still couldn’t speak. His ship had been attacked and crippled but he’d managed to escape and land here barely alive. The moment he felt better Captain Orihci would talk to him.

After a long talk with Captain Orihci through two interpreters I began to appreciate how difficult the conversations were.

In our long conversation I jokingly asked the captain if it would be possible to leave Vel here and take Ireva on my mission, given her language skills and experience.

“Vel isn’t very happy with me so I’m wondering if I can trade her for Ireva on my next leg of the mission in exploring the war.”

They all knew it was a joke but reacted sharply to it. Amih, Ireva’s mother, spoke first.

“I’ve already lost my two sons to this cursed war. I’m not going to lose another child!”

Captain Orihci said, “Absolutely not! There is no damn way I’ll send my daughter to get killed. If you want someone experienced I’ll go with you.”

The captain then paused for a moment and said, “You shouldn’t be taking them with you either,” pointing to Vel and Daf.

Captain Orihci then walked out and went to empty the case of rakia and fill it with identical bottles of the green stuff and gave it to me. He then went back and brought glasses for everyone, poured us rakia and added some of the green stuff on top and we toasted again.

“To a quick end to the war!” toasted Captain Orihci.

After she added more rakia to the green stuff, Amih toasted, “To peace and prosperity.”

The rest of us toasted to peace in our various languages.

Amih frequently walked out of the room to see how Ukasnek was doing in the other room and kept telling us that he was resting.

It was past midnight Ostikon time when I figured it was time to leave and go to bed. But, unlike the people of Ostikon, the galaxy traders were culturally different and didn’t want us to leave.

Amih said, “You’re my first guests since we arrived here. It’s nice to have company, especially for my Ireva who hasn’t seen or spoken to anyone since we left our home.”

Ireva spoke up and said, “Mother, these people need to sleep, they’ll be back after they’ve slept and we can visit some more with them.”

And with those words Ireva escorted us to our ship and asked if she could stay a bit longer and visit with the girls. I said yes and went to my bed.

The next morning when I got up I found Ireva sprawled on my (the captain’s) chair and the girls sprawled on their chairs with an empty bottle of rakia laying on the floor. The ship’s hatch had been left open all that time. I was surprised that Captain Orihci and his wife hadn’t come looking for their daughter. Maybe they had and thought it was okay for her to get drunk with her former fraternity mates on my ship. In any case, I wasn’t going to say anything.

Very quietly I tried to sneak off the ship to see if I could bypass my guards but it didn’t work. As I dashed outside they ran after me. I looked back inside and the girls were still sleeping. My God, that was a lot of rakia they drank, I thought.

When I walked inside the building I found Ukasnek awake, talking to Captain Orihci and his wife. My presence and the presence of my guards startled him and he passed out.

Ukasnek talks about the war

Amih said something and the captain escorted me out of the room and signaled for me to stay outside. He figured we should stay outside until Ukasnek recovered and was assured that my armed guards and I posed no threat to him.

Why was Ukasnek afraid of us? What is because of the uniforms we wore or the weapons we carried? Was it because my guards were machines? But he couldn’t have known that they were machines. I had to find out. I went back to the ship to wake the girls in hopes of getting some answers.

I first picked up the empty bottle from the floor and put it away. Then as my guards were going back to their docking positions I took Daf’s hand in mine and tapped it lightly. She made a snorting sound and opened her eyes. She then made a face with a painful expression and placed her hand over her head. I assumed she had a bad headache. That’s what happens when you drink too much. In English it’s called hangover.

“Wake the others and meet me outside,” I whispered to her.

Just as I stepped on the ramp to go outside my guards followed.

Moments later the three girls came outside and found me staring at the sky. I couldn’t get over the idea that it had been daylight all this time.

“I’m surprised the planet hasn’t burned up from constantly being heated by the sun,” I said.

“As you can see it’s cool out here. That’s because the planet on the dark side is frozen and cold water currents find their way here and cool the surface. Feel the breeze? It’s cool,” replied Ireva.

“It’s a nice place,” I said.

Vel then piped up and said, “When we were on our way here we were scanned and we registered weapons being powered up. Who did that? Are there other people living here?”

“Oh I’m sorry, that was me. There are no other people living here. I’m in charge of monitoring the sky to make sure we’re not ambushed. Had you powered up your weapons or turned away, I would have fired at you and destroyed you. By not doing that I knew you were friendly. We have a pretty hefty defense system installed in that tower over there. In fact, that thing standing upright isn’t a smoke stack; it’s an energy cannon that can smash a small moon into pieces with a single shot. It was here when we arrived. It must have been installed here when the scientists were using this place as a base. At least that’s what I was told. But I think it’s a border defense system. I any case, I’m happy that it’s here and I know how to use it. I love it,” replied Ireva with a smile on her face.

“Maybe you should go with him after all, you seem to love your toys as much as he does. I’m sure you’ll get along well,” replied Vel in Macedonian but didn’t translate.

Ireva smiled but I doubt she understood what Vel had said.

I looked at Vel, shook my head and said, “You can stay here if you want, I’ll take Captain Orihci with me.”

“No Sir, I’m afraid you’re stuck with me,” she said, shook her head and in her language quietly said something to Daf (When I later pressed Daf she told me what Vel had said. “What an idiot he is, he thinks he can take Captain Orihci instead of me. And how are they going to communicate?” to which Daf replied. “He’s managed to do fine so far?”)

At about that moment Captain Orihci came outside and called us in.

He said he’d spoken to Ukasnek and assured him that we were friends and no threat to him

“He isn’t afraid of you; he’s terrified of your guards. He’ll explain why.”

When we went inside, Amih was helping Ukasnek sit in a chair at the centre of the table. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and his wounds were exposed so that they could air out. He had severe burns on one side of his face and on his chest.

I sat my guards down on the floor behind us and ordered them to look the other way. The girls and I then sat on the opposite side of the table while Captain Orihci and his wife sat at each end, adjacent to us.

With an expression of pain on his face Ukasnek began to tell us what had happened.

“I was in my warehouse offloading cargo from my ship when Captain Orihci came to see me about his sons. By then his sons were gone and he had no idea where they were. His neighbours had told his wife Amih that they had been abducted by uniformed men and were probably taken to be processed and trained to fight in the war. The captain was worried that they were also going to take his daughter and wife next and decided to leave. I knew where he was going when he said, ‘When you find them bring them to the island.’ By that he meant here in this secluded place where we, I mean I used to hide illegal merchandise,” he said and looked at the captain.

He took a deep breath and continued, “My ship was originally an attack ship. I purchased it from a pirate. The moment I got it I stripped its weapons and converted it into a cargo ship. It was a lot faster and sturdier, not to mention cheaper than a commercial vessel its size. Anyway, after I offloaded my cargo I dug out the ship’s weapons which I had hidden in the warehouse and converted it back to a warship. I didn’t know where to look for the boys so I kept asking around until I saw a young man being chased and abducted by uniformed men. I followed them and saw where they took him. It was a large transport ship parked outside the city. I went back, got my ship and waited in the distance until it left. I followed it. I was careful not to be detected, which I’d learned during my pirate days. I was one of the best pilots to avoid the authorities. One time I flew right by them just after I broke a couple of my friends out of jail. I flew so close to the police that they thought my ship was just

another cargo ship passing by. I made sure everything that didn’t belong on a cargo ship was turned off. If you panic and run then you get caught…” Ukasnek said and then was interrupted by Captain Orihci who gave him a hand signal to get back on topic.

“Anyway, I followed the big ship until it landed in this huge valley. It was one of hundreds that had landed in a long line facing a huge building with a metallic ramp leading to the upper floors. There were kilometre long lines of people coming off the ships, climbing up the ramp and going inside the building. The building was too small to house them all and I didn’t see any coming out.

I landed my ship in a grove on a small hill some distance away and got my viewer (I assume he meant binoculars) and watched. The lines were moving slowly. I could see guards with energy spears poking at the people, moving them along.

Then, suddenly, I heard a twig snap behind me so I instinctively raised my arms up and dropped my viewer. That’s what criminals do you know, if they don’t want to get shot. It’s a nice trick to remember.

Anyway, I turned around slowly and looked behind me. I saw a short man, even shorter than me and he was laughing like he knew me. He wasn’t armed. I kept looking at him until he came close by and sat next to me. He was filthy. He pointed into the distance and said something. I said, ‘I don’t understand you friend.’

He looked at me and in my language said, ‘What are you doing here? Did you escape?’

He’d seen my ship so I couldn’t lie to him. I told him the truth and asked him if he would help me find the two boys.

He said, ‘Look out there, how can you possibly find anyone? Do you know which ship they came in?’

I didn’t know anything so I asked him who he was and how he’d learned to speak my language, a language spoken in another galaxy. To my surprise he said he was one of the abductors responsible for

committing a lot of crimes against humanity. He said he was one of three technical people who operated the machinery that processed the people and turned them into soldiers. He said he wanted to leave but they wouldn’t let him so he pretended to be crazy and ran all over the facilities like a madman. One day, when no one was looking he ran off and hid underground. He then escaped through the drainage system. After that he told me he spoke five languages, which was a requirement for the job he was doing. When I asked him how he was surviving he said he ate discarded food dumped in a garbage dump further down the valley.

I asked him to go back inside with me so that I could search for the boys but he refused. He told me that if they’d been processed I wouldn’t be able to recognize them and they wouldn’t recognize me either.”

Ukasnek paused for a moment to compose himself and said, “The man told me they took ordinary people and put them through a string of violent and painful procedures. They first injected them with a powerful chemical that heightened every nerve in their body. Then they put a ring with wires around their heads which zapped their brains to erase their memory. They then injected them with large doses of hormones that made them super strong. After that they injected a control chip into their spine at the base of their neck and sent them underground to bulk up and train for the war.

You keep saying they, I said to the man. Who are they?

He looked at me with a surprised look and said, ‘You’re not from around here are you?’

When I said that I wasn’t, even though I was, he began to explain. He said, ‘They’re robots, machines made by two brothers who were competing to make perfect soldiers. In the beginning the brothers worked together but, after some creative differences, they split up and each opened a laboratory, one here and the other on the other side of the planet. Because their work was a bit on the shady side, they couldn’t get anyone reputable from the scientific side to work with them. So, to overcome their problem one of them built himself a big robot and programmed it with all the scientific knowledge

required to do the job, which was illegal. When the other brother found out he stole his brother’s plans and he built an identical robot. When they ran out of money the two brothers began to steal gold. After it’s melted and mixed with other gold, the gold becomes untraceable. They used their super soldiers to steal it. As they kept looking to steal more and more gold the super soldiers from the two sides began to collide. One day they had a big skirmish during which they left a lot of innocent people dead and a lot of destruction. After that the authorities got involved and began to hunt them down. During a massive raid on both facilities the brothers were killed because they refused to surrender. Unfortunately the raid activated the self-defense mechanisms in both robots. The self-defense mechanisms were programmed into the robots in order to protect them from such attacks. As a result the leading robots declared war on everyone and that’s how the war started. After that these leading robots captured and reprogrammed every working robot they could get their hands on and now these robots work for them. They are the ones with the spears in their hands. They are the ones that lead the raids and control the planet’s defense systems. That big robot at the beginning of the line is the lead robot. It’s the boss and one of the culprits running this war. They use the super soldiers they create to fight their war. The robots don’t care for human life or for the damage they cause.’

After he told me that, I asked him what his role was in all this. He said the robots didn’t know how to operate or fix the machinery so they kept people like him alive working as slaves serving the robots.

I wanted to take a closer look at the facility but the man told me that it was impossible. Not if I fly close over the facilities I told him and asked him to come with me. After he told me that I was crazy and that I didn’t know what I was doing, he fled into the woods. I realized I’d made a big mistake asking him to come with me. I should have kept my mouth shut. I could have learned more from him but by then it was too late. Despite his warning I went ahead with my plan and did a fly by anyway.

I looked around and saw no ground defenses or attack ships nearby so I figured with my great flying skills I’d be in and out and gone before anyone detected me. How was I supposed to know that the

bloody lead robot was equipped with an energy weapon which blasted my ship on approach? I was hit and a fire started inside my ship. Good thing my fire suppression system went off and put the fire out. I would have been completely burned. I was also lucky the ship’s hull wasn’t punctured. I didn’t know where to run so I came here. That’s about it,” concluded Ukasnek.

“It’s a hell of a story. I’m happy to have you back alive,” said Captain Orihci.

“So, there are no aliens attacking the galaxy traders,” I said. “This whole thing sounds insane. Can you tell us how to get there?”

“Ireva can show you from my ship’s logs. I think the navigation logs are still intact. She knows how to operate my ship better than me. I taught her how to fly it myself,” said Ukasnek.

Captain Orihci gave Ukasnek a look to which Ukasnek replied, “Someone had to do it; you were away most of the time.”

“Can you tell us more about the other facility, on the other side of the planet? Do you know where it is?” I asked.

“No, I’m sorry, I don’t.”

“What about the man in the forest? Is there any way we can get hold of him?”

“I’m sorry I don’t know. Perhaps if you land in the grove he’ll find you. The coordinates are in my navigation computer.”

“What can you tell us about the soldiers? How do they recruit them?” I asked.

“Are you kidding me? You can’t call that recruitment. They grab people by any means possible and take them away.”

“Who grabs them?” I asked. “The robots?”

“Yes, the robots. They’re fearless and unstoppable. They will not relent until they finish the job. The only way to stop them is to destroy them. They are fast, accurate and relentless. The only good thing about them is that there aren’t that many. So I advise you, please leave your robot guards behind because you don’t want them in their hands. One of them is worth a thousand of us. And if you get into a skirmish with them, run or fly away as fast as you can because they’ll come after you. There is no escape from them, that’s another thing the man in the forest told me.”

“Thank you for that, I’ll keep it in mind,” I said.

“Did you find out what happened to our warships, to my destroyer after it was confiscated?” asked Captain Orihci.

“I’m sorry I don’t know. Outside of the transports, I didn’t see any other ships there in the valley,” replied Ukasnek.

After thinking for a while I asked Ukasnek, “How was it possible that a small number of robots took over the galaxy trader destroyers without any resistance?”

“I can answer that,” said Captain Orihci. “In my case my ship was disabled by a computer virus and we were stuck in space. After we called for help the authorities came with a small repair crew. They told us that they couldn’t repair our ship and would have to tow it to the shipyard. When I refused they arrested my crew and took them away. I knew something wasn’t right so I covertly escaped in a shuttle and went home.”

“So, what happened to the ship and crew?” I asked.

No one had any answers.

Now that we all, more or less, knew what was happening with the war we had to make a decision on what to do next.

“I had high hopes of negotiating a peace treaty with the two factions but how do you negotiate with robots that don’t understand what

that is. I doubt that they were programmed to understand anything outside of their main functions. They are machines…”

“Yes, you’re right,” replied Ukasnek. “Don’t waste your time attempting anything outside of their destruction. The moment they detect you they’ll come after you, capture you and turn you into a brainless fighting machine.”

No one had any suggestions as to what to do next so we sat there looking at each other.