Front Matter

The Alien that changed the world

Part 5

Otsiron’s Rise to Power

A novel

By Risto Stefov

The Alien that changed the world Part 5 Otsiron’s Rise to Power

A Novel

FICTION - ADVENTURE

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December 14, 2023

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Looking ahead

“Is it okay if I come with you to the grove tomorrow?” I asked Ukasnek and Ireva.

“Sure, why not?” replied Ukasnek.

“Any particular reason why you want to go with them?” asked Captain Orihci.

“I just want to look around and perhaps speak to Livè… I’m curious to see what she thinks of the situation she’s in now…”

“I’d like to punch her in the nose for lying to me… How could she lie to me like that…” interrupted Ireva.

“There’ll be no abusing the prisoners… And you,” looking at me, “you’d better take an extra universal translator with you if you want to talk to her… We confiscated all the translators and all other gadgets they had on them…” said Captain Orihci.

“No need, just bring yours, I’ll translate for you… I’d love to hear what she has to say,” said Ireva.

“Does anyone else have anything to say before we end the meeting? No? No one…? Meeting is adjourned…” said Captain Orihci and then turned to me. “Soon I’ll need to go to reserve that vehicle and a driver for you to take to the grove tomorrow. Do you want to come with me?”

“Sure, let me know before you leave and I’ll come…”

Before we left the conference room, Nagol came over and grabbed Ireva by the arm and said, “My dear, I don’t mean to overburden you but the trips we’re planning to go on we’ll have to depend on you for a lot more things than just flying us around and translating… We’ll need you to make appointments for us to see people, make reservations for places to stay, order food for us to eat… and other things like that… I think you’ll need some help. You should hire a

couple of assistants… One to run things locally and one to accompany us on our trips… What do you think?”

“That will be my first priority Sir, the moment we come back from the grove tomorrow and after I test my ship. Thank you for mentioning it to me… and please don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything…”

Right after that Nagol went over to Amih and said, “My dear, I promised to help you draft a list of questions to help you select that local political leader we need here… I’ll do that for you before we leave and I’ll have Otsiron and Captain Orihci look over the list to make sure we’re all in agreement… But that’s only part of your task… You will have to make appointments and prepare interviews and interview the prospective applicants… And, to be fair, you will have to interview everyone who applies… That may take a lot of your time… And like I told Ireva, you’ll also need several assistants to help you.”

“Thank you Sir, I appreciate your help and look forward to getting that list. But first I have to look into increasing the food supply for the soldiers… You know the thing Otsiron asked me to do… or I should say, I volunteered to do… Then I’ll look for assistants. I’m good at that…” replied Amih.

After that Nagol came over to me and said, “You know, with us gone to other planets you will be alone here so let me tell you something that might be helpful for you in the days ahead. You know that this planet and all of us here mean nothing without you. It’s your power and how you use it that put us on the map. Please be very careful how you use it. I know you’re young and anxious to do things… and you want things to go your way but… for every action you take, no matter how small, there are consequences… for someone. What you did here recently changed the world in ways we can’t imagine. You have great power and everyone will want to be your friend. You told me that yourself earlier but you have to watch who you make friends with… and what you do for them. So please be careful and always remember I’m here for you… I’m only a call away…”

“Thank you Sir. I know all this, I remember everything that Vaskot taught me… but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded once in a while… Thank you!”

At this point Captain Rolo came over and grabbed Nagol by the arm, ready to take him back to his quarters. But before he did that Nagol said, “Rolo, my friend, you look after this young man like he’s your own son. He means a lot to me… and please help him with whatever he needs…”

“Thank you Sir,” I said and they slowly walked away.

Was Nagol getting cold feet about his mission? What did he know that I didn’t? I’d managed to do fine so far. Why worry about me now?

I looked away and saw Captain Orihci waving at me.

“It’s time to go,” he yelled.

As we walked away he said, “Earlier I was talking with Nagol about what to do with the prisoners at the grove… and honestly… we have no legal reason to keep them here, especially the actors, you know, Madam Grooni’s so-called investigators, the wrestlers and the ship’s crew. We haven’t charged them with anything and I don’t think we have the authority to charge them either. I also spoke with Ukasnek and he had no idea what to do with them. If we don’t let them go soon, we’re liable to get charged with kidnapping. I need your help with this one…”

“Well Captain, it seems we have no legal authority to hold them but we should keep them here until the legal authorities do arrive to pick them up. Let them deal with them. I’ll speak to them tomorrow and see what they think we should do. Is that okay?”

“Yes! I’m relieved to hear you say that…”

“What about the berries? Are we going to purchase all of them from the farmers? And what will we do with them all? We can’t turn them all into rakia. We’ll need a factory to do that… And besides what

would we do with all that rakia? Sell it? We have all the gold in the world in this facility plus the gold in the other facility. We don’t need money and we certainly don’t need to introduce a beverage like rakia to the world. We are careful in how we consume it but it can easily be abused…” I said.

“I’m so surprised to hear you say that about rakia but I do agree with you. For now let’s just make enough for us, and yes let’s purchase all the berries and turn them into sweets. That way we can preserve them,” said the Captain.

“Okay then, I’ll tell the farmers to collect all of them… If they can’t, because of labour shortages, I’ll take the soldiers there one day and collect them as an exercise. They’ll probably eat half of them anyway…”

The captain started laughing out loud, “You do know what happens when you eat a lot of fruit?”

“What happens?”

“You get diarrhea. Imagine those soldiers all getting diarrhea at once… they’ll fertilize the entire grove…”

That got me laughing too so I said, “I guess the farmers will be happy about that… provided they survive the stench…”

“Here we are. This is the place where we book things. Let me go inside, get the vehicle reserved and then we can go home.”

I sat outside for several minutes and saw hundreds of trucks going in and out of the place. I’d never realized how much effort it took to cater to a million soldiers.

Several minutes later the Captain came back and said, “Okay, let’s get back now. Someone will come and pick you up right after breakfast tomorrow morning outside the main facility door. Do me a favour and tell Ireva and Ukasnek to be ready.”

“Okay Captain.”

“Do you have any idea what you’re going to talk about with Livè?” asked the Captain.

“Yes. She knows a lot about the super soldier project and can help us fight the propaganda waged by the central intelligence service that is trying to paint us as the bad guys. Nagol and Ilisa’s mission without evidence might not be enough to convince the world that we had nothing to do with the super soldier program, but if we can get Livè’s testimony we might be able to turn the tide.”

“What kind of evidence do you think she can provide?”

“Names, dates, places, suppliers, scientists, factories, people… She must know something. Most importantly she might know who sponsored the project. Information like that could spook some of the culprits associated with the project and lead them to confess their sins. Some may even want to make a deal with us; information for clemency.”

“Sounds good... See what you can dig up.”

When we arrived back at the facility we ran into Amih who was waiting for us. She was sitting on the ground beside the main entrance holding her face in her hands. We thought there was something wrong and rushed over to see what was happening.

“What’s wrong dear? Why are you out here, did something happen?” asked Captain Orihci with a tone of concern in his voice.

“Oh, this… It’s nothing… too many things on my mind… But that’s not why I’m here. I want you both to hear something…”

“What is it?” I asked.

“The boys in the tower have been monitoring the airwaves like you asked them to, and they recorded something that you need to hear. I asked them to make a copy for me. Come, I’ll play it for you on my portable device in the reception area.”

When we got there she said, “I didn’t get the entire report, just the essentials. If you want to hear the whole report you’ll have to go to the communications tower.”

“So what exactly will we be listening to?” asked the Captain.

“It’s a news report. The central security services are blaming Madam Grooni and Tolo for the destroyers being blown up. I’ll play it for you.”

When we got to the reception area she took us into a booth and closed the door. She reached up on the shelf, pulled out the recording device and pushed the play button.

“…We just spoke to the chief of the central security services and he confirmed for us that two of his agents went rogue, one called Madam Grooni, whose real name is Livè, and the other called Tolo, who apparently is her younger brother. According to the chief they were responsible for providing the enemy information that led to the destruction of our two destroyers, leaving us defenseless. According to the chief, Livè and Tolo were sent on a secret mission to learn more about our enemy but, it seems, instead of providing us with information they sold us out. They were the only two in that region who could have done this because they were the only two who knew the whereabouts and activities of our destroyers. The security services have now issued arrest warrants for them and all the others who worked with them. The penalty for this crime is death…” the report concluded.

“What do you think?” asked Amih.

“Can I get a copy of that report and a player? I’d like to play it for Madam Grooni tomorrow and see what she has to say…”

“Sure. You can have this one…” she said and handed me the device.

“As to what I think of the report? I think the security services don’t want those two going back, and if they dare go the security people will execute them before they can say a word. Of course we know what they’re saying is all lies, that’s how they operate. They want to

pin their disaster on someone and they found their candidates in Livè and Tolo. I’m not saying they don’t deserve it but we can use this to our advantage…”

“How so?” asked Amih.

“Well, for one, it will make Madam Grooni think about her future… and after that, when she sizes up the situation, she might want to talk to us about protection in exchange for information…” said the Captain.

“She certainly wouldn’t want to go back home and get arrested… That’s for sure… but let me talk to her tomorrow first and see what she thinks. Especially after she listens to the recording… And thank you Amih for getting the recording and pointing it out to us. Also, please let the others know so we don’t leave them out of the loop.”

“You’re welcome… I’ll ask the others to meet me in the tower and have the boys there play the entire recording for them. It’s only about half an hour long.”

I didn’t want to discuss this any further with anyone until I’d spoken with Livè, and the Captain agreed.

The next morning our ride arrived. It had four seats. I sat in the front beside the driver. It was an old woman looking rough and covered in dust. I felt awkward and said, “This must be different for you, driving us around…” Ireva translated.

“Yes,” she said. “After this I have to go back and finish my work.”

“But isn’t this part of your work?”

“No!”

“Why not?”

“There’s no one else to do my work… We don’t have any people to spare…”

I felt sorry for her so when we arrived at our destination I reached into my bag and grabbed the few toiletries and clothes I’d brought with me to bribe Livè and gave them to her. She gave me a big smile and then drove off in a hurry.

“Another girlfriend, I presume…” said Ireva jokingly with a bit of sarcasm in her voice. But when I didn’t reply she said, “I guess you like little people, huh…?” Again I didn’t say anything.

At that point the farmer and his wife, who this land belonged to, came out to greet us. After Ukasnik spoke to them, they took us inside a big rundown room and sat us down at an old rickety wooden table. After Ireva told them that we’d purchase their entire crop of berries I figured they would be happy, but they showed no enthusiasm. They were happy about our visit and invited us to stay for lunch but that was it.

I wanted to know why they weren’t happy about selling their crop so I said, “You don’t seem to be too enthusiastic about us purchasing your entire crop.”

“We need people, not money, besides we’ll never be able to pick the entire crop; not before the berries rot. Certainly not with the people you sent us. Besides not having a vested interest in what we do here, they are completely useless. They get tired even before they pick a single bushel of berries. They are useless for this kind of work,” said the old woman.

“I’m sorry things aren’t working out for you but we just don’t have the kind of extra hands you need. It seems there are labour shortages everywhere on this planet. What if we bring the army here and get the soldiers to collect your crop, would that be okay? You don’t have to pay them either? What do you say to that?” I asked.

“That would be great… for this season… but it doesn’t solve our problem in the future.”

“I’ll arrange for the soldiers to come here during their marching exercise the day after tomorrow, so please have your bushels, bins, transport equipment and whatever else you use ready...”

“Thank you… but we’re not prepared to do all that work in a single day… We don’t have the necessary equipment to store them in or the facilities to transport them…”

“We don’t have any place to store that many berries in the facility either…” said Ukasnek.

“Do you have any storage here on the farm?”

“Yes we do but even there we can’t accommodate the entire crop, maybe most of it but not all of it…”

“I’ll tell you what. Let’s fill your warehouse first and whatever remains you can deliver to us at the facility. I’m sure the soldiers will also eat some… maybe a lot…”

Ireva began to laugh… Then we all began to laugh at the idea. Imagine all those soldiers eating one berry never mind dozens of them. There’d be no crop left.

“That sound good,” said the old lady, “at least they won’t go to waste.”

“So let’s do that then…” I said.

“Will you be staying for lunch?” she asked.

“Yes… Thank you!” I said after looking at Ukasnek and Ireva. “But first we should speak with your new workers and see how they’re doing…”

“I’ll take you to them,” said the old man. “They’re back here…”

“I’ll start on lunch…” said the old lady.

When we got there we found them all sitting down under a tree. I looked at the old man’s face. He looked frustrated. “I told you people when you were done picking one tree to move onto the next one…” He then got a machine out, pointed it at the next tree and it

made a weird thumping sound and shook the berries off. They all fell to the ground. After he did that the old man shook his head, grabbed a bushel and began to collect berries.

“So Captain Otsiron and you, my dear Ireva, did you come here to gloat?” asked Livè.

“No Livè, or whatever your name is…” yelled Ireva. “We came here to witness your incompetence… It seems you’re not even capable of collecting berries…”

“That’s enough Ireva…” yelled Ukasnek and quietly said to me. “That must have hurt…”

“We’re not here to make fun of you Livè. We’re here to let you know that we’re releasing you. As of now you’re free to go wherever you want. But you can’t leave the planet. You’ll have to stay here until the authorities from the central security services come to pick you up. Your ships have been confiscated. And as free citizens, from now on you’ll have to pay your own expenses for everything…” I said.

Livè was the first to jump and cheer with joy. Then everyone cheered except Tolo who said, “Where are we going to find the money to pay for everything? We have no money…”

“We’ll get paid for working here… We’re not working for free you know…?” replied Livè.

At this point the old man behind us started laughing.

“What’s so funny old man?” asked Livè.

“And how much do you expect to get paid for collecting less than a quarter of a bushel of berries a day, lady? Do you think that’s enough to pay for your food and accommodations, with some to spare?”

“I expect to get paid… I expect all these people to get paid. I demand it!” she yelled.

“Get them all out of here right now. They’re all fired,” yelled the old man.

“What about our money?” yelled Livè.

“Your money…? What money? All I have here is ten bushels of berries. That’s all you’ve picked the whole time you were here. You can have one bushel as payment. I think that’s more than fair… It’s generous. I’ll throw in the bushel for free if you get the hell off my farm right now. I’ve had enough of you…” said the old man angrily.

“You heard the man. You’re free to go and now you can go wherever you want…” said Ukasnek.

“Wait until my people hear about this treachery… I’ll have you all arrested and punished for abusing us… Especially you old man for your cruelty and for refusing to pay us… which is illegal and a punishable offence… You wait and see…”

“Okay Madam Grooni… we heard you, you’re right. Now march your butt out of here and take your cohorts with you. Go find yourself a place to stay until your friends come to get you,” said Ireva.

“Wait!” I yelled and everyone stopped. “I almost forgot. I have a message for you… from your friends…”

They all ran back to hear it. Ireva and Ukasnek hadn’t heard it yet either.

They all came over, including the farmer, and listened intently. When it was over Livè looked at me angrily and said, “You bastard… you set us up…!”

“I’m sorry Livè but this has nothing to do with me. This is all on you. You chose to play with the wrong people and I’m sure you’ve done a lot of backstabbing yourself during your time… I guess now it’s your turn to be stabbed in the back. Hell, what am I saying? You and your friends here and at the central security services were

planning to kill us all and destroy the planet. And you think I’m the bastard? Wait until the locals find out about this… There’ll be no place for you to hide in this world … You’ll be lucky if you don’t starve or freeze to death before your friends have a chance to get you.”

“You bastard… You wouldn’t dare!”

“Yes I would! Now think about what I said. You have one day to decide. After that you have three options, you can take your chances living here and making this planet your home, you can wait for your friends to come and collect you, or you can come to me and confess all your sins and beg for forgiveness. If I’m happy with what you say I might offer you protection. All of you think about your options and then when you’re ready to commit come and see me at the facility. You have until tomorrow noon. If you’re not there by noon, tomorrow afternoon I’ll make an announcement to the people of this planet and tell them who you really are and what you were planning to do here. It would be unfair to them if I didn’t tell them all that. Everyone deserves to know the truth… Do you understand?”

“Yes!” said Tolo. “But what do we do in the meantime? We have no food or shelter.”

“Well you can eat grass and sleep outside for the next day or until your friends from the central security services come here to collect you…” said Ireva before she was interrupted by Tolo.

“You know what the security services will do with us…?”

“You work for them, what could they possibly do to you? I’m sure they’ll offer you protection until you clear your names in court…” said Ukasnek.

“No they won’t… The moment they come here they’ll execute us.”

“Why would they do that?” asked Ireva.

“Because they’re afraid we might talk… Say something to incriminate them. We know a lot, not just about the super soldier

project but also about a lot of other illegal activities they’ve been conducting. Besides, they’re not going to change their practices for us…”

What practices? What are you talking about?” asked Ireva.

“Eliminating witnesses… You have no idea what those people are capable of…”

“Okay, enough! My offer stands, talk it over amongst yourselves and I’ll see you tomorrow at noon. I’m going inside to eat lunch.”

“Now get the hell off this man’s farm… And don’t think for a moment of breaking the law…” said Ukasnek.

“Take your stinking berries with you and leave my property. Go to the market and sell them. See how much you’ll get for them and how much food that will buy you. We’ve being feeding you, sharing our scarce food with you and all you’ve done is give us grief. Go buy your own food…” said the old farmer.

After we went inside we found the old lady making lunch. Ireva decided to go and help her. Ukasnek and I sat at the table with the old man, hoping to have a conversation with him but we found he wasn’t talkative. He would only answer questions and very tersely.

At one point he decided to talk and said, “I’m glad you got rid of those people… They were completely useless… They’re not suitable for this kind of work. I hope you’ll do something different and bring us some farmers, perhaps from another planet. I’m sure we can offer them a good life here. We need young people… to take over the farms from us…”

“Why do you care so much about what happens to your farms?” I asked.

“I don’t know… It’s been ingrained in us I guess… from when we were young. We were expected to take care of our land… that’s what we do.”

He paused for a moment then looked at me and asked, “Do you have children?”

“No.”

“You Miss, what about you? Do you have children?” he asked looking at Ireva.

“No but I know how my mother feels about me…” she replied.

“Why does she care about you… can you explain that?”

“I can give you many reasons but the only one that sticks with me is that she loves me…”

“I guess you have your answer. We love our land and we want it taken care of, even after we’re gone…”

“I understand…” I said.

“Let’s not get too philosophical about things… Now, let’s eat lunch. We call this food village food,” said the old lady and served us a ladle full each.

“Why do you call it village food…?” What’s in it?” asked Ireva.

“Everything that’s edible… all cooked together in one pot with salt and spices… We got accustomed to eating this way during the scarce times and now we eat like this all the time,” replied the old lady.

“It’s really good. It has a certain appeal, especially the hot spices in it. It reminds me of the foods we used to eat back home…” I said.

“In Ostikon, I didn’t know they had foods like this in Ostikon,” said the old woman.

At that point I had my mouth full so Ireva answered for me. “He’s not from Ostikon. He’s from another planet; a distant planet called earth.”

“Oh, that explains then why you have to translate what he says…” said the old woman.

After we ate our food we thanked the two old people for their hospitality and, before leaving, I gave them the rest of the goodies and other things I had in my bag, including the bag itself. We decide to walk back to the facility but before we’d made it halfway, our ride met us and took us back. Ireva went with Ukasnek to try out her ship and I went to find Captain Orihci who was anxiously waiting for me to return.

Rakia runs in Nelez

After I returned from the grove I found Captain Orihci in the reception area talking with Amih, trying to figure out how to increase the overall food production to up the food quota for the soldiers; especially with the current labour shortages we were experiencing.

As soon as she saw me, without me asking, Amih said, “I spoke to everyone about the news report and they all had a chance to listen to it in the communications tower.”

After I thanked her, Captain Orihci asked me how my trip to the grove went and about my meeting with Livè.

After I told them everything that had happened, Captain Orihci suggested we have a meeting to decide what to do with the berries, Livè and the rest of her cohorts.

At that point the Captain left to let everyone know about the meeting. I also left and went to look for Delche and Ori. Eventually I found them in Enai’s research lab, building the still to make rakia.

The moment Delche saw me he said, “I know it’s like putting the cart before the horse but we figured we should build the still now, test it and have it ready to put into production. That way we don’t have to worry about it later. It can sit here and wait for the fruit to ferment. Besides it’s an opportune time… We have nothing else to do…”

“That’s great… but why do I get the feeling that you’re apologizing?”

Enai and Ori cracked up laughing.

“Well, because I know how much you wanted to be here with us when we built it… But honestly, when I got the fever to build it I just couldn’t wait.”

“That’s okay my friend… Thank you for your honesty… But I do have a question for you.”

“What is it?”

“Actually the question is for Enai. Do you have space here to store some berries; a lot of berries, a press and a huge bin to ferment them in? I ask this because any day now we’ll start getting deliveries by the truckload.”

At that point all three of them exploded with joy, like little children being promised toys.

“Of course we do… This place has everything. However, you don’t need to bring the fruit here. We have a factory in the valley that has presses. All we need to bring here is the fermented juice, which we’ll ferment in the tank of one of the water trucks we use to deliver water,” said Enai.

“We can press the berries and put their juice in the tank and leave it outside. When the fruit is fully fermented we’ll distill the rakia from it in this still here,” added Delche.

“That’s great… It looks like you’ve thought of everything…” I said.

“The question now is, who’s going to do the picking and pressing and all that…” asked Enai.

“Well, Delche and Ori you should take charge of acquiring and processing the berries and turning them into sweets or rakia. My soldiers will pick them. Captain Orihci thinks we should turn most of them into sweets so that way we can preserve them…”

“Okay. When do we start?” asked Delche.

“The day after tomorrow… I’m taking the soldiers to the grove to pick the berries and after that they’re yours… You can find out from the farmers where to take them and how to get them processed. Please be sure to measure the quantity of berries you take so that

Captain Orihci can appropriately pay the farmers. Also, make sure the farmers are in agreement with what you take.”

“I’ll take care of the accounting…” said Ori.

“What do you want me to do?” asked Enai.

“Whatever you want my friend. I think your time is best spent here… managing things in the facility.”

After I’d told them all that, I also informed them that Captain Orihci had said that he wanted to hold a meeting...”

“When?” asked Enai.

“I don’t know… but I’m sure he’ll send someone to let you know well in advance…”

I could see that they were anxious to get back to building the still, so I told them I was going to the reception area and left.

On the way there I ran into Ukasnek and a smiling Ireva. The moment she saw me she took a run, jumped into my arms and gave me a big kiss.

“Wow…” I said. “What gives…? Have you been dipping into the rakia again?”

“I love you…” she said. “And your stupid jokes too…”

After she got off me she ran into the reception area looking for her mom and dad.

“She loves that ship… It responded to her like it was made for her. She was ecstatic…” said Ukasnek as we both walked into the reception area to find Ireva hugging and kissing her parents.

“So, I hear you like the little ship. I heard you like me too… and my jokes. In fact I heard you say you love me… Should I start

proposing now or should I ask your parents for their permission…” I said before I was interrupted by Ukasnek.

“Let her have her moment… She’s been looking forward for this for a long time…”

“Okay, you’re off the hook… for now,” I said.

“We’re meeting after dinner in the common room. Let the others know. I’ll get Nagol, Aneleh, Rolo and Ilisa. See you later,” said the Captain and they all left.

“I guess Ireva will be taking them to see her ship… and have some quiet time with them. Why don’t we go and see Enai, maybe he’ll scrounge some rakia for us,” Ukasnek suggested.

“I just came from there. They’re building the still, you know the machine to make rakia?”

“That should be interesting to see…”

When we arrived there we found Enai and Delche arguing.

“What’s the hoopla all about?” I asked.

“They’re trying to determine where to connect the incoming water supply to the cooling tank; top or bottom,” replied Ori.

“Gentlemen, which end of the distillation pipe do you want to be colder, the top or the bottom…?”

“The bottom…” they both said at the same time.

“Then connect the incoming cold water to the bottom…” I replied.

“But the pressure from the water in the cooling tank will push the water right back out into the source,” said Enai.

“Then, either put the cooling tank lower than your water source or use a water pump to push the water up.”

“Okay, we’ll use a small water pump… I’ll go find one…” said Enai.

“Enai, before you go, Captain Orihci will be holding a meeting this evening in the common room right after supper. Please be there… all of you please be there…” I said.

“I will… Do I need to prepare anything…?” he asked as he began to walk away.

“No, just bring a bottle of rakia. Thank you…”

“The still is ready. We put some water in the pot and we’re ready to test it. The steam should rise through the hole in the lid of the pot and go up the pipe, down the distiller and out the spout at the bottom. Running steam through it should be sufficient to wash the pipes clean before we actually use the still to make rakia. As soon as Enai hooks up the cooling pump we’ll give it a go… First we’ll wash the pipe with steam and then we’ll do a run…” explained Delche.

“A run with what…? You don’t have any fermented fruit…”

“Yes we do, remember the bucket of fruit we got when we landed in the grove and the basket of fruit the farmers brought us the next day? Well, I’ve been fermenting all that and now it’s ready for processing…”

“You mean to tell me today is going to be an historic day here on Nelez for rakia?”

“I guess you could say that… Why not?” said Delche. Ori had a big smile on his face and looked excited.

“Will we be able to sample the stuff or does it have to rest for a while…? I know nothing about making this stuff…” said Ukasnek.

Enai came back with the pump and hose to connect to the water source and the return, which he suggested we dump in the sink.

“Turn on the power to maximum to boil the water, while I connect the pump and start filling the cooling tank,” said Enai.

“Do you think you’ll have enough time to do all this before supper?” I asked.

“Oh, yes…” replied Enai, and Delche agreed.

“Then let’s surprise everyone at the meeting with our first batch of homemade rakia…” I said.

A few minutes later we could hear the water inside the large pot boiling. I touched the pipe above it. It was very hot.

“Don’t touch that!” yelled Delche. “You’ll burn your hand…”

Moments later a thin string of cold water began to run out of the spout at the bottom of the distiller.

“We’ll let it run for a few minutes to clean the pipes…” said Delche.

After that Delche brought another pot. It was full of what looked like purple mud and smelled funky.

“This is the fermented fruit we’ll use to make the rakia,” said Delche.

Ori was the first to look at it and take a sniff. “I’m not drinking that… it stinks… It will stink no matter how much you boil it,” he said.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get used to it…” said Delche.

“How about we add some spices to it…?” suggested Enai. “That might take the smell away, or perhaps mask it.”

“I have an idea,” I said. “There’s a kind of grass growing under my ship which has a nice aroma. I noticed it there when I slept outside.

Why don’t we go get some and boil it with the brew and see what happens…”

“No, it might ruin the batch…” said Delche.

“Nobody is going to drink that stuff anyway, I guarantee you… It stinks…” said Ori.

“What the heck… What do we have to lose? Go get some grass and we’ll try it.”

Ori and I went outside and I showed him what the grass looked like. We picked a handful and came back.

“Toss it into the pot,” said Delche and he poured his slop on top of it. He then sealed the lid tight and turned on the heat. “We must watch it carefully now so that it doesn’t overboil,” he said.

“You’re separating the distillation into three batches, right?” I asked Delche.

“No. It will all be rakia. One batch…”

“Delche, listen to me… You need to separate the stuff that comes out into three parts. The first part, which is poisonous, boils at a lower temperature. That needs to be separated. The second part, which is premium rakia, you keep and drink. The third part, which is also rakia, you keep and distill it again. This part smells and needs to be boiled again. You can boil it later, after you collect enough to fill the pot again…” I explained.

“I didn’t know that…” replied Delche.

“Okay, but how do you distinguish the poisonous part from the good part?” asked Ori.

“You need measuring instruments… But since we have no such instruments, you’ll let the liquid drip onto your finger and smell it. If it smells like flowers, it’s poisonous. It’s usually very little and takes only a few minutes to extract it. When the smell is gone you start

collecting the stuff in a new jar. That’s the rakia you keep and drink,” I explained.

“How do you tell the premium stuff from the regular stuff…?” asked Ukasnek.

“Same thing… You let the liquid drip onto your finger and smell it. If it smells like rakia you let it run… if it starts smelling pungent you start collecting it in a new jar… You should continue boiling your batch with the regular stuff for the same length of time as you did the premium stuff. If you boiled the premium stuff say for an hour then you should also boil the regular stuff for about an hour. That’s the best you can do without any measuring instruments,” I explained.

“So, what do you do with the poisonous stuff?” asked Enai.

“You can use it for cleaning… It kills germs so you can also use it to clean surfaces, wounds and sanitize things… But you mustn’t drink it… It causes blindness.”

By the time I was finished explaining, the brew had started boiling and Delche turned the heat down. Moments later a clear liquid began to drip out of the spout. Everyone suddenly became excited. Delche washed his hands and placed his finger under the drip.

“It feels so cool…” he said and smelled his finger. “I’ll be damned… It does smell like a flower… and all these years I’d never noticed…”

All five of us kept going at it with our fingers for the next five minutes before Delche declared it no longer smelled like flowers and placed an empty jar under the spout. He then said, “So, this will be the stuff we drink, right?”

“That’s right…” I replied.

For the next while we watched Delche sample the brew by putting his finger under the spout and smelling it while Ori recorded

everything that took place; how long it took, how much liquid came out and so on.

Eventually Delche said, “It’s starting to smell a bit different…” so we all took a turn smelling it and sure enough we had reached the third stage. After he put an empty jar to collect the rest of the liquid Delche said, “Let’s sample this stuff and see what we’ve made.” He took the jar with the premium stuff, which was a little less than he usually got from his still, and poured each of us some. “That’s not as much as I used to get from my batches…”

But after we each sampled the stuff, we agreed that it was clearer, purer, smoother and much more aromatic than Delche’s stuff. But it was also very, very strong and almost undrinkable.

“No one is going to be able to drink this stuff…” declared Delche.

“No problem Delche, we can fix it,” I said.

“How?” asked Ori.

“We’ll add some water to it…” I said.

“No, no, no…That’s one thing you don’t do… The best rakia maker himself told me that when I was in Macedonia…” Delche insisted.

“Delche, do you trust me?” I asked.

“With my life…” he replied.

“How strong do you want to make it?”

“As strong as my stuff…”

“Then find me a plastic stick or straw about 200 to 250 cm long and bring it here. Enai, you bring us a bottle of Delche’s rakia.”

“What are you going to do?” asked Ori.

“I’ll make a measuring device so we can make this rakia the same strength as Delche’s rakia… Obviously this rakia I much stronger and needs to be diluted.”

“I see…” said Ori.

Delche brought a plastic stirring device that Enai used in his lab, washed it and asked, “Now what?”

After Enai opened the bottle of rakia I dropped the stirring stick into the bottle. It sunk to the bottom and then popped up again. I marked the spot where the top of the liquid reached and made a notch on the stick with a knife. We then took an empty bottle and filled it about half-full of the new rakia and kept adding water until the liquid was touching the notch. Then we tasted it again...

“Damn, this stuff beats my rakia by a mile… in everything… I’ve never tasted rakia this good; not even in Macedonia… It’s clear, smooth, odorless and aromatic… I guess the grass gave it the aroma… Man I can’t believe this… We did make history today… in quality too,” declared Delche.

“I guess we did well, considering we had no measuring instruments…” I said.

“Just like the old masters…” said Delche. “Now I hope we can reproduce the process the next time we make a batch…”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Ori. “I recorded everything we did… That’s what good rakia makers do…”

“What are you going to call it?” asked Enai.

“Rakia of course…” replied Delche.

“You can’t call every concoction you make rakia…” said Ukasnek.

“You have a good point… If we experiment we can come up with all sorts of drinks… and you’re right we can’t just call them all rakia…” declared Delche.

“Call it ‘village rakia’…” I suggested.

“Why ‘village rakia’?” asked Ori.

“I ate some amazing food today for lunch at the grove. The woman who made it called it ‘village food’. It had everything edible in it including grasses and spices… It was a concoction of chance… just like our concoction here…” I said.

“Good enough for me… From now on we’ll call it ‘village rakia’… Any objections?” asked Delche.

No one said a word, except for Enai who reminded us that if we didn’t leave soon we’d miss dinner.

Delche turned off the power to the still and said, “I’ll clean this up later…” grabbed the bottle filled with the village rakia we’d just made and we all left.

We rushed to get there but by the time we reached the dining area our friends had eaten and left.

“If we’re going to make it to the meeting on time we need to get going now,” said Enai. So we filled our plates with food, grabbed utensils and hurried to get to the common room as soon as possible. When we got there Captain Orihci was preparing to start the meeting so I apologized for being tardy and for bringing food to the meeting.

“I’m sorry we’re late, it’s my fault, but we do have a surprise for you…” I said.

Everyone looked up at me, wondering what the surprise was.

“Let’s all have a bit of rakia first and I’ll give you the surprise,” I said.

Ireva and Amih grabbed some glasses from the cupboard and Delche poured a bit of rakia in each and handed them out, starting with Nagol.

“This isn’t rakia, it looks like clear water… It lacks the white tinge…” remarked Captain Orihci.

“What, now you’re an expert on rakia?” I said jokingly.

“I’d better be. I’ve been drinking this stuff for a long time…”

After everyone had a cup Captain Orihci raised his and said, “To the surprise…” and we all took a sip.

After making a lot of “hmm” sounds and pleasant remarks Nagol spoke first and said, “This isn’t like any rakia I’ve had before…”

Before he had a chance to say anything more I interrupted him, “Surprise, it’s homemade village rakia, made right here on Nelez with the berries from our local grove…”

Everyone erupted with joy, making all sorts of positive remarks and all at the same time. I couldn’t hear or distinguish what they were saying, except for Ireva who was laughing out loud. We all turned and looked to see what she was laughing at.

“I’m not laughing at the drink… It’s fantastic and I’m proud to have tasted the very first batch… and that it was made here on our planet… It’s historic… I’m laughing at the name ‘village rakia’…” she said, looked at me and added. “He named it, didn’t he…? He took someone else’s invention and got to name it… That’s what I’m laughing about…”

“How do you know he named it?” asked Captain Orihci.