Part 5 - Part 02

berries, preferably in a truck or trailer. Ukasnek, you, Ireva, Delche and Ori should go to the grove early in the morning and arrange things. Bring as many helpers as possible because the farmers don’t have any staff. Let us know how many of you are going and we’ll bring you your breakfast. Captain Orihci and I will lead the soldiers from here right after breakfast… Captain Rolo and whoever else wants to can come marching with us… Just remember we’ll be walking all the way there. Amih, you get a number of your helpers and bring the food… Perhaps Captain Orihci can reserve a vehicle for you…”

“I’ll do it myself, thank you…”

“Delche and Ori make sure you take a translator with you because you may find yourselves alone out there…”

“I’ll take one of our young people from Ostikon who speaks both languages…” said Delche.

“Take two of them, one each… We need to expose these people to the outside world and this is a good opportunity… After the berries are collected and secured, Delche and Ori you look into how we’re going to process them… Ask around… Captain Orihci, don’t forget to bring money to pay for the berries and everything else…”

“It’ll be gold. Ireva and Ukasnek you find out how the farmers want to get paid, by bushel or by weight and make sure you keep track…” said Captain Orihci.

“It would be easier if we pay them by the bushel… I’ll take a farmer with me and count the bushels as they’re emptied into the bins… So make sure the bushels are full, heaping full if possible…” said Ukasnek, which made everyone laugh.

“Are you going to allow the soldiers to eat berries? It would be a shame not to…” said Captain Orihci jokingly.

I knew where he was going with this so I said, “One berry per soldier, if that’s okay with you…” and everyone cracked up laughing again.

“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “When you tell me we’ve picked enough berries to fill all the storage areas I’ll have the soldier eat the rest… How’s that…?”

“And what if they have to eat dozens and dozens of berries… Do you know what happens when they do that…?” asked the Captain.

“Oh for heaven’s sakes…” yelled Ireva.

“Be quiet dear… What happens…?” asked Amih.

“They have diarrhea…” I said.

“Oh my,” said Amih and everyone cracked up laughing again.

Even Ireva started laughing and said, “If you’re going to do that… let me know in advance so I can get the hell out of there… I certainly don’t want to be there when that happens…”

“Okay, okay… settle down please…” said the Captain. When they’d stopped laughing he continued, “Does everyone know what to do? Or I should say is anyone unclear about what they need to do? No one…? Okay then this meeting is adjourned…”

The next day when we were ready to march we found Amih outside the facility’s main entrance ready to drive the bus with everyone from our jail, including Livè and some others. She had breakfast for those at the grove in the back of the bus on carts. She was ready to roll.

I was going to say, “What the hell?” but she beat me to it and said, “I brought some extra plates for the farmers… Ireva told me how impressed she was with the lunch they’d given her a few days ago so I figured it was only fair to pay them back. And oh, I was about to leave but I realized I didn’t know the way. So I decided to wait for you.”

“Okay, we’ll show you the way… When you come to an intersection look back and I’ll point left, right, or straight…” I said.

The moment she said okay she started slowly rolling and who did I see towards the back of the bus? Everyone from our group, including Nagol, was waving at us... I looked at Captain Rolo and he said, “I was going to tell you but Nagol insisted I don’t because he didn’t want you to worry about him… He’ll be fine…”

By this time the soldiers had started coming out of the main door so we started marching; following the bus slowly rolling in front of us and the soldiers followed us single file.

Midway up the hill Captain Rolo started falling behind. He looked like he was out of breath. “He’s going to have a heart attack if we don’t stop,” whispered Captain Orihci.

I waved at Amih and she stopped the bus. I wasn’t sure if she’d recognized my signal or if she was watching Captain Rolo struggle, but when we got there she opened the door and Rolo walked in panting and sat beside his wife. He looked outside and thanked us.

We continued climbing until we reached the crest. As we turned back and looked down… we could see the long line of soldiers still coming out of the facility’s main door.

“My God, they look like black ants from here. This is quite an undertaking… To look after a million incapacitated human beings… It’s mind boggling… I have no idea how we do it… I know why I’m doing it but I can’t understand why you’re doing it. This is my planet and these are my people… Three of those ants are my sons and my daughter… I’m doing it for them… but you? I don’t know… just let me say I’m thankful that you are…” said Captain Orihci.

“We’d better get going… The soldiers are piling up…” I said and we started moving again.

“When Amih saw the farms we were headed for she left us behind and drove quickly to the destination. She parked beside the pile of bushels and began to offload the bus. By the time we got there she had given everyone their breakfast and they were eating standing up; looking at the long line of black ants coming down the hill. By the

time we got there the farmers, with help from our people, had shaken hundreds of trees. So, without wasting any time, I instructed the soldiers to grab a bushel and start picking. The first soldier picked up the bushel and held it while the other five followed, went to a tree and started picking. I had to show the first group how to do it and visually showed the rest. There were three trucks available to carry the berries to the storage area in the pressing factory. When one was filled it left and another one took its place. The bushels were filled full but not heaping full. That’s how Captain Orihci wanted it. He didn’t want the farmers to feel we were cheating them. Nagol kept shaking his head in amazement and laughing joyfully like a little boy. Ukasnek inspected each bushel before it was dumped into the back of the truck and clicked the counter which Enai had given him. This way there was less chance of making a mistake with the count. Ireva spent most of her time with the ladies, showing them various things on the farm. Amih kept an eye on Livè who was very quiet and didn’t talk to anyone. The others, including Bibi, did what Amih asked them; like collecting and washing the dishes, working the shaking machines and driving the three trucks to relieve the drivers. When one of our ex-prisoners took a truck Delche or Ori and their assistant went with them. By the time all the bushels were used up we had about one hundred teams of soldiers working. I decided to park the rest of the soldiers on top of the hill and every hour or so I sent in new teams to relieve those already picking berries. I also ordered the soldiers to start coming out of every door of the facility and assemble at the top of the hill, otherwise it would take all day before everyone was out.

“All that was needed was about five hundred but no more than a thousand soldiers… I don’t know what I was thinking… bringing everyone here…” I said to Captain Orihci.

“The trucks are going to be your bottleneck soon,” the Captain warned. “Look down there… the soldiers carrying the full bushels are lined up waiting for a truck to arrive…”

“There’s nothing I can do…We don’t have any more trucks… I think we should continue working this way, skip lunch and go back for supper. We’ll do whatever we can today and come back tomorrow and finish the job…”

The Captain and I then went up the hill to gauge how much work had been done and how much remained. We estimated that we would be able to pick less than half the grove by dinner time the way we were going.

“We should go down and talk to the farmers… See if they have any ideas on how to expedite the process…” Captain Orihci suggested.

“I know they have a local warehouse; that’s what they told us the last time we were here… But we have no more bushels…” I said.

We spoke to one of the farmers and he pointed us to the old lady who’d made the village food for us the other day. The moment she saw us she ran over and gave me a kiss as she pointed to the shirt she was wearing, which was meant to be given to Livè but I’d given it to her instead. She knew I didn’t speak her language and was surprised when Captain Orihci spoke to her in her language.

“Can we ask you a question?” asked the Captain.

“Please do… I didn’t know you were a local…”

“Born and raised… The young lady you gave lunch to the last time they were here is my daughter… She couldn’t stop talking about how good your village food tasted…”

“Well, I never knew that city folks like you could even eat poor man’s food like that, never mind like it…” Then she looked at me and said, “I know he liked it… He said it reminded him of home… somewhere out there… I forgot where…”

The Captain sighed and said, “As you can see we’re running a bit behind with the trucks… We have a lot of workers but no bushels to pick the berries in or a place to store them. The last time you mentioned to my friend that you had a warehouse… Can we store them there for a while?”

“Of course… We also have hand held carts… big ones… You will need two strong men to roll one of those. I think we have five of

them. We no longer use them. We can’t roll them but you’re welcome to use them.”

“Thank you… please show us…”

The old woman took us to another building.

“This is our warehouse and those are the carts,” she said and turned around and left.

The warehouse was huge and in front of it were parked the five wooden, two wheeled carts.

“How are we going to do this now?” asked the Captain.

“I looked at the carts. They looked like they could hold ten bushels each. There was no way two men could lift them even empty, but four probably could if each held a handle. Once upright they could be rolled on their wheels. But how could we empty them when they were full.

“There’s got to be a way…” said the Captain, “but I don’t want to go back and ask the old lady how… It would be embarrassing…”

“What are these rings on top of the handles?” I asked.

“Probably for hooks to lift them…” said the Captain.

When we looked up we saw four hooks hanging from the roof, connected to a piece of rail that led to the centre of the warehouse.

“I see how they do it,” I said. “They hook the cart, lift it, roll it to the centre of the warehouse and flip it over to offload it. Why don’t we try it with an empty cart and see how it works.”

“You’re the big guy, be my guest…”

I pulled the hooks down and attached them to the rings of one of the carts. Then I pulled on the rope hanging from a bunch of pulleys and was able to easily lift it off the ground. I pulled another rope that

took the hanging cart to the centre of the warehouse and then pulled on another rope but realized it wasn’t attached. I brought the cart back and attached the end of the free rope to the front of the cart where I could see the rope marks. I sent it back again and was able to tip it over.

“Very impressive…” said the Captain.

After that we went outside and I called Nine and Enai’s daughter to come down, only because I had memorized their numbers, and got them to roll out the cart. At the same time I showed all the others how it was done by imagery and invited teams of four to come down and grab a cart. After that I ordered teams of thirty to start collecting berries and load each cart. When all that was done we invited Ireva and the old lady to keep count of the carts being unloaded.

Captain Orihci said, “Our bottleneck now is going to be the shaking machines… Will they be able to shake enough berries to keep up with the pickers?”

“It will be supper time before the soldiers catch up to the shakers. Not to worry…,” I said.

We continued to work like a well oiled machine way past dinner time and had almost every berry tree picked. Amih collected her party and was ready to go back. She was waiting for us for instructions.

When I got there I said, “You take everyone back and have your dinner, take the farmers with you, we’ll finish picking the rest of the berries and join you soon. Captain Orihci, myself, Ukasnek, Delche, his assistant, Ireva, the old lady, the old farmer, the shakers, the drivers and the soldiers will stay behind until all the berries are collected and put into storage.”

“Okay…” she said and started gathering everyone. By the time she was finished her bus was full to capacity. Captain Orihci also gave her the gold to take back. He said it had been a stupid idea to bring it with him; it was too heavy to carry around. I encouraged him to go

back with Amih but he refused. He said his place was here… I didn’t argue with him.

We worked until it was almost dark, so I decided to dismiss part of the force and let the soldiers go home. I was sure they were tired and hungry.

The old farmer lady must have sensed that too and said, “Let those poor creatures go home and have their dinner and rest… We’ll pick the rest of the berries tomorrow. There are less than one hundred trees left. We can do it… we are used to doing the work. We’ve done it for years…”

I looked at the Captain and he too was in agreement so I ordered the soldiers to march back home. The Captain and I emptied the last carts and, after the farmer lady and Ireva counted them, I closed the warehouse doors and waited for Delche and the other drivers to return… But before they were back Amih had returned with the bus.

“What are you doing back here…” yelled Captain Orihci.

“I came back to pick you up… Did you think I was going to let you walk back…? After working all day? C’mon everyone, I’ll give you a ride back… We saved some food for you… Let’s go and eat.”

“Sorry dear, we can’t,” said the old lady. “The drivers aren’t back yet.”

While waiting for the drivers to return the old lady and Amih started a conversation.

“Is this young lady that I’ve been doing the counting with your daughter by any chance?” asked the old lady.

“Women and their gossip…” we heard the old farmer mumble.

“Yes she is. How did you know?”

“She has your eyes dear… And so does this one… This big one here beside your husband…”

“How did you know he’s my husband?”

“Well, if she’s his daughter and you’re her mother then he must be your husband… It adds up…”

“Yes, he’s my husband and the big one is also my daughter; they’re twins…” said Amih and began to cry…”

“Sorry dear, I didn’t mean to upset you… I lost two boys to this nightmare too…”

“You should come and get tested… I’ll try and find them for you…” said Amih sobbing.

By then the trucks had arrived and Captain Orihci went to get the drivers. I could understand why he left. Ireva was fuming…

I grabbed her by the arm and dragged her behind the building. She kept yelling and screaming, “You’re hurting me…!” and some of the people became concerned.

Amih said, “Let them go… she needs to be told… Someone has to do it… I just don’t have the heart…”

“You mean to tell me your girl doesn’t know? Oh, you poor dear…” said the farmer lady.

I grabbed her by both shoulders and she didn’t resist. “I know this wasn’t the time for you to find out you have a twin sister… but when is the right time? Your parents have been agonizing over this and your mother has been paralyzed with fear that you might find out and have a fit… If you were bit more understanding they wouldn’t have kept it a secret… But no…! You had to be hard headed and difficult…”

“You bastard, you knew about this and didn’t tell me?” she yelled and started hitting me as hard as she could. When I didn’t try to resist she stopped hitting me and began to cry on my shoulder.

“I’m truly sorry about this… I know it’s not your fault… I sort of knew she was my twin sister but wasn’t sure… I also knew my aunt couldn’t have children so I figured she was adopted… And if she was adopted why was she the splitting image of me? She knew she was my twin sister too … We were both born on the same day… What pisses me off is that my parents wouldn’t tell me.”

“Because you’re a hard headed, difficult person to deal with and no one knows when you’re going to go off like a cannon…” I said.

She began to laugh and cry at the same time, “Now what?”

“Now we go back on the bus and you tell your parents you’re okay with it and then we’ll go home. Okay?”

“Okay.”

After we walked onto the bus she smiled at her mom and dad as she held onto me like she was glued to me and we both sat at the back of the bus…

I heard Captain Orihci ask Amih if she was okay to drive. She said she was and pulled away to take us home. On the way we passed the soldiers marching back home and I saw Ireva wave at her sister. “I’m okay with that…” she said, “Tell her I love her…” and then she put her head on my shoulder and kept it there until we got home…

When we got back Ireva hung onto me like we were newlyweds, making everyone wonder what had happened up there. When we went to eat Amih decided to tell everyone that Jess, or Nine as I called her, was also her daughter, her twin daughter and told them the entire story, which I think was meant for Ireva. When she was done I asked Ireva to say something herself and let her mom and dad know that it was no surprise to her and that she’d known all along. After she told them she ran over to her parents and said that she was okay with it and hugged them both. Then she came back and sat beside me.

I looked around and saw Livè standing in the corner by herself looking sad. The entire room was packed. Some people had to eat standing up. I looked at Nagol and Rolo. They looked tired but happy.

Captain Orihci stood up and said, “There’s one more item we need to discuss tonight and that is paying our neighbours, the farmers, for the fruit we collected today… Will Ukasnek and Ireva come up here and give us a count?”

“Please don’t bother…” said the old farmer. “We agreed days ago that your money was no good to us. We would like you to keep it and purchase necessities for the soldiers… We have a couple of sons among them… Once in a while we’ll need some clothes and medicine but that’s it. We would be grateful if you could provide us those things.”

After thanking the farmers Captain Orihci said, “That’s all I have to say… Now everyone please go home and rest… We’ve had a long day…” and sat back down.

At that point Amih stood up and said, “I’ll drive the farmers back to their homes. I still have the bus… If anyone else needs a ride please go outside and get on the bus. I would also like my daughter Ireva to come with me, in case I get lost getting there.”

“Oh Mom…”

A visit to the valley

Delche, Ori and I were sitting in the dining area discussing the day’s events. Delche and Ori wanted me to go with them the next day to visit the warehouse and fruit press in the valley. Amih and Ireva had returned from driving the farmers back to their homes.

“Are you still here? What are you concocting now?” Ireva asked, looking at me.

“How was your trip?”

“Good… we’re still in one piece. I’m not used to driving a big vehicle at night…” said Amih.

“Did you return the bus?” I asked.

“No, I still have it. It’s outside… Why?”

“Delche and Ori want to go to the factories in the valley tomorrow morning and they want me to go with them. Would you mind driving us there?”

“Why does she have to drive you? Can’t you drive yourselves?” objected Ireva.

I looked at Ori and Delche and they both shook their heads. “No…, none of us knows how to drive your vehicles…”

“The great Captain Otsiron can’t even drive a bus…” Ireva said sarcastically and laughed out loud.

“You need to cool it a bit dear… I’ll be happy to drive you there. What time?” asked Amih.

“Right after breakfast…” I said.

“Okay then. See you tomorrow. Come dear, don’t pester the men.”

“Thank you…”

“We should get going too…” said Delche.

“Can we sleep on the ship tonight? I want to contact Airam and see how she’s doing? I haven’t spoken to her for a long time,” said Ori.

“Sure, no problem… Is that okay with you Delche?” I asked.

“Okay… And Ori give my regards to her, or better yet let me say a few words before you send her the message…”

“Give her my regards too… And while you’re at it, tell her to contact Ruzha and let her know we’re planning to invite her to come here… Also tell her why. We want her to know before Asora asks her… I’m not sure if Nagol has contacted Asora yet but I’m sure he’ll do it soon.”

When we went inside the ship it smelled a bit musty so I left the hatch slightly open. Delche and I went straight to our beds.

The next morning I heard banging on the ship’s hull and a female voice yelling. I put on my translator and yelled, “Okay, hold your horses…”

It was Amih and she replied, “I don’t know what that means but you’re late for breakfast…”

I opened the hatch for her to come in and then yelled for Delche and Ori to wake up. When she heard that she said, “I’m going back now…” and left.

When we arrived in the dining area everyone was gone but Amih had saved us some breakfast.

“I’m really sorry for being late,” I said.

“I looked for you everywhere and when I couldn’t find you I went to your ship.”

“Is Captain Orihci okay with you driving us to the valley?” I asked.

“His only concern was that it’s a bit dangerous there with robberies and kidnappings but, hey, I have you to protect me…” she said and smiled shyly.

Delche and I looked at each other.

“Why don’t I take my guards with us and furnish you with firearms… Amih. Can you use a plasma pistol?”

“I’ve never heard of one; never mind use one… No thank you, I don’t want one…”

We walked back to my ship and while they boarded the bus that was parked beside my ship, I went inside, activated my guards and picked up three plasma blasters. The moment I stepped on the bus Amih floored it and said, “You have to show me the way…”

We looked at each other… and I said, “We don’t know the way… I thought you knew the way…”

“Never mind, I’ll follow the beaten path and it will take us there…”

After driving for a while we started seeing buildings, many buildings… I had the sinking feeling that we wouldn’t be able to find the warehouse and the press building.

Then Delche said, “That’s the warehouse where we offloaded the berries…” and Ori agreed.

Amih pulled the bus up to the building and asked, “Did you bring keys?”

“I have them…” replied Ori, got off the bus and unlocked the door. We all walked inside.

“That’s a lot of berries…” said Amih looking at the dark blue mountain in front of her.

“That’s less than half of them. We have even more at the farm…” said Delche and scratched his head wondering how we were going to process them. We looked around but the lights weren’t on inside so we couldn’t see anything.

When we were unable to find the light switches Amih said, “What now…?”

“We should take a stroll to the other buildings and ask around to find the owners of this building,” I said. There was a huge building on the other side of the street. It was the size of several football fields. There was no one at the front but we could hear machinery running and trucks going in and out at the back.

“Let’s go to the guardhouse over there and I’ll ask the guard…” Amih suggested.

When we got close we could see there was no one in the guardhouse.

“This is odd…? There should be people everywhere… Where is everyone?” asked Amih.

Her voice must have triggered something and a loud voice came over the outside speakers ordering us to leave the premises or we would be fired at. The loud noise startled my guards and they both pulled their weapons out. Someone came out, two doors to our left, and fired a weapon at us. My guards immediately returned fire and there was a huge explosion.

“We just destroyed a robot…” I said sounding distressed and told everyone to get down on the ground. More shots were fired from the distance. I was hit on my left shoulder. My leather uniform was burned through and my skin was smoldering. I quickly popped a vial of fire water into my mouth, ordered one guard to guard Amih, Delche and Ori and the other guard and I went to confront the shouters. I no longer felt pain but was amazed at how fast I could run. But still I couldn’t keep up with my guard who ran through the fire and destroyed three more of those robots. I caught up to my guard who now stood there quietly, like nothing had happened, and

using her radar eyes and ears looked and listened for more activity. There was complete silence, even the machines inside had stopped clinking. We got back to the others. Everyone was distressed but no one was hurt. Amih got off the ground and noticed the burn on my shoulder.

“You’re hit…” she said sounding worried.

“I’m fine…” I said while looking around. Then suddenly we saw people coming out of the building with their hands up. I ordered my guards, who were getting ready to fire, to stand down. When the people saw me they stopped cold. Amih, realizing they were afraid of me, stepped in front of me and told them not to be afraid. They started moving again. More doors began to open and more of them started coming out. They kept staring at the sky and raising their arms up; like they’d never seen the sun before. They were dirty and wore worn, threadbare clothes. They looked like prisoners who had just come out of a death camp. There were thousands of them, men, women and children.

“What is this…?” I yelled loudly.

“I don’t know…” yelled Amih panicking and started running towards the crowd yelling and screaming. Two men ran towards her and they embraced her. Amih was overwhelmed and passed out. They carried her over to us. Delche poured water on her face. She was delirious.

“Who are you?” I asked them in Macedonian. But since they had no translators they couldn’t answer me. Ori took his off, switched the language from Ostikon to Galaxy Trader and stuck an earpiece in each of their ears.

“Who are you?” I asked again. “And what have you done to this woman?”

“We are her sons,” said one, “and she is our mother. I think she is in shock,” said the other.

Amih was back, she was coherent but mumbling. The boys gave Ori his translator back. We stepped away to give Amih some time to recover. She again grabbed the boys in her arms. We looked around. Thousands of eyes were staring at us. They were silent. A lot lay down on the ground facing the sky, looking towards the sun. No one felt like saying anything. This was a travesty… The only thing that kept us sane at that moment was the thought that these people were finally free. But free from what? What were they all doing in there? Were they the labour force that processed the food that fed us and the soldiers?

I was sick to my stomach thinking about it. I almost vomited. “Look at them… they are skin and bones…” I yelled out loud without realizing it.

Amih ran over to see what was happening. “I know you’re going to say my boys need me right now… But these people need me too. I’m the only one they can understand so please let me talk to them and find out what’s going on…”

While Amih spoke with an old man, Delche, Ori and I went back to where the boys were, to keep them company. They kept staring at me.

“They are afraid of you…” said Delche. “They don’t know what to make of you…”

“I think from what Ukasnek told me they were kidnapped by super soldiers…”

After a moment of silence I said, “I should be with Amih but I don’t think I can stomach it. The horror these people have lived through. I suspect this is the factory that produces our food… Look at us and look at them… It makes me sick…”

We waited for almost an hour while Amih spoke to several of them. Almost everyone was now lying on the ground facing the sun, including Amih’s boys.

Amih finally came back with the first old man she’d spoken to and said, “This is the most senior worker in the factory. He knows all the jobs and most of the workers. I asked him to come with us and tell everyone in the facility what has happened here. For now I convinced the workers to go back to work but they want to be relieved. They want to go and see their families… They’re not willing to work for too much longer. I told them that we would find replacement workers for them soon… I know that was wrong of me given the labour situation here… But you guys are smart, you will find a way. I told them if they don’t work, many people, millions will starve. They believe me… They don’t want that on their conscience.”

We headed back for the bus. “I can’t drive you back… I just can’t; someone else will have to do it…”

“I’ll drive,” said one of her sons. “If someone can show me the way…”

There was no one outside the facility when we arrived so we went to Enai’s lab. There we saw Captain Orihci and Ireva talking with Enai.

“Hold me…” said Amih. “My knees are getting weak… I think I’ll pass out again,” and she started crying. Her two sons ran ahead towards their father and sister. Ireva recognized them first but wasn’t sure… until she saw her mother hanging in my arms like a rag doll. It was a happy and sad reunion. I was surprised to see her sons hadn’t lost their spirit despite what they’d gone through. The Captain immediately ordered everyone to assemble in the common room. I handed him his wife and the boys held onto her. Ireva looked at me with pride.

“Don’t look at him… I found them…” exclaimed Amih. “But it was thanks to them for asking me to drive them there…”

We stopped walking to give them some space. “I should be feeling happy…” I said to Ori and Delche. “But I feel empty…”

“It’s called loneliness, my friend…” replied Delche and turning to Ori asked. “Did you make your call last night?”

“I did and got a response…”

“What did she say?”

“She said they were all fine and she would talk to Ruzha…”

“And?”

“Well, it’s all bad news. Since we destroyed the golden ship here, the Whites have been leaving the planet in droves and abandoning their businesses. Your restaurant has now opened a soup kitchen to feed the unemployed. The outlanders, our friends, have been hit the hardest…”

Just as Ori was finishing telling us, Ukasnek waved for us to come. It was chaos when we went inside the common room. There were loud conversations everywhere. While Captain Orihci was trying to gain control of the meeting I grabbed Ireva by her arm and said, “Go and get some work clothes for your brothers and the other man…”

At that point she noticed the burn on my shoulder and said, “What happened to you?”

“Never mind me… I’ll tell you later, now go!”

She spoke to her brothers and the other man and they followed her outside. When everyone had finally stopped talking Captain Orihci said, “Thank you for coming on such short notice. I felt it was important to bring you all here to let you know what has happened and what we discovered this morning.” He then looked at me but I shook my head no.

Amih saw that and stood up and began to speak. She told everyone everything that she knew. By then her two boys and the other man had returned all washed and in brand new work uniforms. Amih then pointed to the old man and asked him to speak.

“I don’t know exactly what to tell you… I don’t know what you want to know… I have worked in this factory since it was opened. The working conditions were okay; we worked short hours and had plenty of food to eat. But sometime after the robots took it over they forced us to work long hours, gave us less and less food and wouldn’t let us leave the factory or let anyone enter it. Many of us couldn’t endure the conditions and got sick. Some died. They were replaced with people the robots had kidnapped. One of the robots would go outside, grab the next person they found on the street and force them to work. Then the robots started going inside factories and grabbing people. We have worked under these conditions every day for almost a year now with no relief and no day to rest. I’m surprised we’re still alive…”

At this point Ireva came back into the common room, brought three of the new universal translators and asked the man and her brothers to put them on. The old man found his awkward but began to listen to it when Nagol spoke. He wasn’t sure what was going on when he saw how Nagol’s lips moved and he heard something else coming out of the earpiece. He was so distracted he kept missing what Nagol was saying.

Ireva stood up and said, “Give him some time, he’ll get used to it.” Then she turned to the man and said, “Don’t look at the man’s lips, just listen to the voice in your ear…”

After she sat down Nagol spoke again and said, “I’m truly sorry Sir, to hear what happened to you and your fellow workers in the factory, and sorrier that we didn’t find you earlier. But these people here will do their best to set things right for you and send you home to your families. But for now we will need your help to keep the food production going until we find replacement workers…”

“My dear friend, I’m a simple farmer and the last time I heard a stranger like you making promises like that was the day I left my farm and became a slave, working for machines in that factory… Please do whatever you need to do for yourselves but not for me or for my fellow workers… We will do whatever we need to do because we know many lives depend on us… But we can’t do it forever… That’s all I have to say about that… What would be

appreciated is if you would bring us some water to wash and a change of clothing. And when you find people to replace us we will train them. Now please take me back…” He then took the universal translator off and gave it back to Ireva.

Everyone was stunned by what he’d said and admired him for his honesty and courage. Ireva took him back to the factory in her ship. She went inside the factory and looked around. It was like a steam bath inside and the work they were doing looked dangerous. She went to open some windows but the old man stopped her.

“You’ll make us all sick if you do that… We have gotten used to the heat…”

She looked sad and concerned when she returned. She walked into the common room, disrupting the meeting and went straight for her brothers and gave them each a hug. “We need to do something right now to help those people…”

The Captain asked her to sit down and opened the floor for ideas.

“We can appeal, on humanitarian grounds, to the Galaxy Trader government to get some help down here…” said Amih, smiling at her sons.

“That won’t work… and even if it does and they do send people they’re more likely to come here and erase the mess they made… Just remember who runs to the Galaxy Trader government… I wouldn’t suggest that…” said Nagol. Ilisa agreed.

“I have an idea,” I said. “We need to get people in here who aren’t associated with the security services. The only person that I know who can do that is Asora; Delche’s ex-wife and the President of Ostikon… But for that both Nagol and Ilisa need to get involved…”

“I’m sure Asora has her own problems…” said Ilisa.

“She will help us if we offer to help her in return…” I said.

“What do you mean?” asked Nagol.

“Last night Ori got in touch with Airam, Delche’s daughter in Ostikon and she told him that since the Whites, the elite people of Ostikon, began to leave the planet they abandoned their businesses and left many people in Ostikon without work. According to Airam, Ostikon is ravaged by unemployment, especially in the areas where the outlanders live; you know Delche’s people. I think we should bring some of them here. They can use the work and we can use their help. We have a lot of money and we can offer them more than fair wages and cheap or even free accommodation if we can find space in the abandoned buildings in the valley. Anyway, we can work out the details later but for now we need to contact Asora and make our appeal. What do you think?”

Almost everyone was screaming “Yes, yes, yes…” This is the first time that I’d seen Amih’s sons smile, as they hung onto their sister. At that point I felt it was important to reunite the entire family and telepathically asked their sister Jess, or Nine as I call her, to come to the common room.

“You have your answer…” said Captain Orihci.

“We’ll go to the tower right now,” said Nagol, “and make our appeal to Asora, as diplomats and as friends…” Then Nagol and Ilisa, joined by Rolo and Aneleh, left the common room. Moments after they left, Nine walked in which startled her brothers.

“Nine take your helmet off…” After she did that her blonde hair spilled onto her back as she stared at me with her beautiful green eyes. “Nine, meet your brothers and sister…” She turned and looked at them with a blank stare.

There was confusion in the brothers’ eyes. “It’s our cousin Jess… who turned out to be our sister…. I’ll tell you about that later,” said Ireva.

“What happened to her…?” asked one of the brothers. “Why is she like that?” asked the other.

“What!!!?” piped up Ukasnek. “Jess is your sister? Why am I the last to know? So this is a happy reunion then… Hey you guys… I hope you still remember me…” he said to the brothers. They ran over to Ukasnek and gave him a hug.

“Captain, why don’t you adjourn the meeting and spend some time with your family…” I said.

“Okay you guys, everyone out…” he said with a big smile on his face.

“Nine, you go with your sister and brothers and I’ll get you later… Just remember I can see and hear what she sees and hears, so you’d better be nice…” I teased.

“Who is that big guy and what’s that black blotch on his shoulder?” asked one of the brothers as they were leaving the common room.

“He’s Captain Otsiron. You don’t know him… He got shot today… but he’ll be okay… He always is…” said Ireva

“And what about those two good looking ladies standing behind him…?” asked the other brother.

“They are his guards…” replied Ireva.

“Lucky bastard…”

Ireva started laughing.

“Why are you laughing?

“They are machines, not women…”

“Oh?”

“Enough about me,” I yelled, “remember I can hear you all the time when Jess is near...”

“You’ll like him… You’ll fit right in with him…” Ireva told her younger brothers; talking about me.

While everyone else left, Enai, Delche, Ori and I remained behind. I decided this was a good time to take my guards and the guns back to the ship.

When I returned I said, “This was a good day for Amih. She couldn’t have asked for anything better…”

Enai sighed deeply thinking about his own daughter and pulled a bottle of rakia out of his lab coat. “I felt sad for my daughter but very happy for the Captain and his family, so I figured we should celebrate…”

“Where did you get the bottle…? I thought we didn’t have any more…” I said.

“And what made you think that?”

“You told me yourself…”

“No I didn’t…”

After he poured us some we discovered it was village rakia.

“Explain…” said Delche with a smile on his face.

“Well Delche, you said you were going to come back and clean the still but you never did…”

“Crap… I forgot…,” said Delche.

“Instead of dumping what remained in the still, I continued to boil it until the stuff coming out tasted like water. I then emptied the junk and boiled the second-hand rakia again and got premium rakia. This batch was even stronger than the one we’d made earlier so I added water to it and this is what I got. It’s not as aromatic as the first batch but its okay.”

“You should have added a bit of that smelly grass…” said Delche.

“I thought about it but wasn’t sure that it would work… I will know for the next time.”

“You’re not making it the next time… I am.”

“You mean you’re going to stand by the still all day and night?”

“You’re darned right… I’ve done it before and I can do it again…”

“Okay you guys, one of you can work during the day and the other during the night…” I said.

After that we sat there quietly sipping on the village rakia when Nagol and the others came in.

“We did our part… We left Asora a long message asking her to send Ruzha and as many people as she could transport. We told her we could use at least a thousand to begin with,” explained Nagol.

“I also contacted the army post where I worked before I retired and asked them to provide Asora with ships; at least one… to transport the workers here…” said Aneleh.

“I also sent a message to my old contacts and asked them to find a crew for Captain Orihci’s destroyer and the other ships. I’m sure there are layoffs everywhere and there must be a lot of crewmen looking for work now …” said Captain Rolo.

“Where is everyone?” asked Ilisa.

“They left. The Captain took some time off to be with his family,” I said.

“Will you join us for a drink… to celebrate the return of Orihci and Amih’s sons?” asked Enai and poured some for Aneleh, Rolo and Ilisa.

Nagol didn’t want any and said, “I’m happy for Amih and Orihci but rakia isn’t good for my health at my age. I’d best stay off it…”

“Speaking of rakia, what happened with the berries today? Did you find the building with the press?” asked Nagol.

“We found the warehouse with the berries but not the press…” said Delche.

“Well, it couldn’t be too far… It doesn’t make any sense to store the berries far away from the press? The press is probably in the same building. Did you look around?” asked Captain Rolo.

“No… it was dark inside the warehouse and we couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights,” replied Delche.

“Why don’t we eat lunch and go back there and look around… Let’s figure out how to press the berries before they rot. We should take Enai with us… He can drive us there… and figure out the lights. What do you say Enai?” asked Captain Rolo.

“I’d be happy to…”

“What’s the hurry?” asked Ilisa.