Part 5 - Part 04

“Okay everyone, meeting is adjourned…. before it turns into a circus…” said the Captain and left.

The next day after breakfast I went to my ship and got out my portable communicators. I thought that it was about time we started using them. We almost missed a meeting yesterday. I gave one each to Nagol, Delche, Ori, Captain Orihci, Amih, Captain Rolo, Ukasnek, Ireva, Enai and kept one for myself.

“Turn them to channel nine when you want to talk to me or channel zero to broadcast to everyone. Keep them on at all times...” Ori showed everyone how to use them and assigned each a channel number.

There was very little fanfare with the sendoff because we figured they’d be back in a day or two. The moment the ship disappeared in the sky I called the soldiers to march. They assembled fully armed in the usual squares and just as we started marching Delche and Ori started to walk away.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked.

“To the observatory… Isn’t that what we decided yesterday?” replied Ori.

“Okay, keep me informed…”

By the time I turned around everyone was gone. “I guess you lazy buggers don’t like climbing up the hill,” I said to myself.

When we reached the peak of the first and lower hill I looked at the grove. The farmers still hadn’t picked the remainder of the berries. When we almost reached the top of the highest hill I got a call from Delche.

“Ireva just stopped moving at the outer rim of the planet’s atmosphere. What should we do…? Should we call her…?”

“No… you know how she hates being babied… If she has engine trouble I’m sure she’ll call us. Keep an eye on her for now…”

When the first group of soldiers reached the top of the hill I decided to stop the march and assembled everyone there. I had a feeling that it wasn’t engine trouble Ireva was having and sure enough I got a call from Delche telling me that two armed ships had just arrived and were approaching Ireva’s ship.

“They’re probably an escort…

A couple of minutes later I received a call from Nagol.

“I hate to bother you with this but we ran into a snag up here. Simply put, they refuse to let us go down to the planet.”

“Did they tell you why?”

“No but they’re upsetting Ireva…”

“You talk to them then and have Ireva translate…”

I figured this was a good time to get Enai to the observatory and see what he could see up there. Nine and Enai were the only two people I could made a telepathic link with and see through their eyes.

A couple of minutes after Enai arrived at the observatory I got another call from Nagol.

“It’s no use… they refuse to listen… What should we do?”

“You should turn around and come back home… But if you want to create an international incident I’ll shoot the ships down from here…”

“I want their attention… not their destruction…” said Nagol. “The funny thing about these guys is that when Ireva mentioned that we were from Nelez they couldn’t stop laughing… I don’t want to

waste your time with the details but basically because Nelez isn’t a sovereign planet they don’t believe we are legitimate…”

“Ask them one more time and threaten them with violence if they still don’t let you go down…” I said.

“Are you kidding me?”

“No, with a threat like that they’ll have no choice but to report it to the authorities…”

While Nagol was talking to them I got Enai to look at their ships and help me find them in space relative to the planet. When I looked through the telescope with Enai’s eyes I saw a dark object that looked like a spec of dirt on the telescope’s lens.

“What’s that on the left side of the planet?” I asked.

“It looks like a small asteroid…” said Enai. “Are you planning to shoot it down? If you do that you’ll hit the atmosphere and cause dispersion…”

While I was talking to Enai, Nagol called back and said, “I spoke to them but they won’t budge… In fact they couldn’t stop laughing after I threatened them…”

“I was just talking to Enai and he tells me there is a small asteroid on the left side of the planet. Can you confirm that?”

“Yes, we can see it on our magnifier…”

“Can I shoot that and cause some fireworks?” I asked.

“Sure, why not… That will get their attention…” said Nagol

“Tell Ireva to raise the ships shields to avoid being sprayed with debris and let me know when to fire.”

The moment Ireva raised her shields the security ships began to fire at her. To them it looked like an act of aggression.

“The shields are up. The moment Ireva raised them they fired at us…” yelled Nagol in a panicky tone of voice.

Seeing that the two ships fired first gave me good reason to fire back. The soldiers were already aiming at the asteroid so I ordered them to fire. It was a powerful blast. In fact it was so powerful it could be seen from Nelez with the naked eye.

“Is everyone okay?” I yelled.

“Wow…” said Nagol. “The plasma was so bright I thought it was going to melt our ship.”

“What happened to the other ships?” I asked.

“They’re gone…”

“They were destroyed?”

“No, they just fled when they saw the flash and chunks of the asteroid explode.”

“What about the planet, did we do any damage to it?”

“I don’t know for sure… I did see flares in the atmosphere and a lot of debris burning up as it fell down to the planet. Half of the planet’s atmosphere lit up for a moment. I’m sure a lot of people saw that and are bound to be asking questions… Let’s hope those idiots that fired at us tell them the truth…” said Nagol.

“Fly back down… Forget about the mission. Let’s get together and listen to the planet’s broadcasts and see what they say about this…”

I marched the soldiers back to the facility and dismissed them. Many people in the facility had seen the fireworks and started asking questions. They wanted to know what had happened… What that bright light was on our neighbouring planet. I asked Captain Orihci to make a PA announcement and let everyone know. I also asked Enai to record the announcement and have Bibi broadcast it to the

world on our new transmitter. This would be our first and historic broadcast from Nelez.

Captain Orihci made the announcement and explained to the people step by step what had happened. Bibi added his own commentary before he broadcast it on our transmitter. Unfortunately reports started coming out, calling our report a pack of lies. There were claims that the weapon fired couldn’t have come from Nelez because, according to our neighbouring planet’s authorities, Nelez was a backward farming planet and had no such capability.

“Someone must be monitoring the airwaves…” said Bibi.

“How do you figure?” asked Nagol.

“We just went on the air for the first time about half an hour ago and we were picked up by the official networks. How? But by doing so they did us a favour without knowing it…” replied Bibi.

“How so…” asked Captain Orihci.

“What they didn’t realize was that at this point we have zero viewers. So by quoting our public channel as the source of their story they gave us visibility. They introduced many of their viewers to our channel. In other words, they instantly gave us millions of potential viewers…”

“Many of their viewers will expect a response from us and will turn to our channel to hear it,” said Captain Orihci and gave Bibi permission to continue the broadcast.

Bibi again went on the air and reiterated our position without challenging the claims of the other networks about us.

“Let them expose all their lies… Let’s see how they explain what happened today… Are they going to again say that we’re aliens trying to destroy their planet like they did before? And if they do who’s going to believe them? Also if we were attacking the planet it will make no sense to anyone why we shot at the asteroid and not at their planet itself… Bibi, the next time you go on the air you should

ask that question. We’ll press for answers until they exhaust every single lie they have,” said Nagol.

“And imagine all the viewers it will bring us… The more they lie the less people will want to listen to them. People want to know the truth and we’ll give it to them…” said Bibi.

“You’re right Bibi, that’s why it’s very important to stick to the facts and ask the right questions. Let the viewers figure things out for themselves. Someone once told me, I think it may have been Voskot, wars are won with words and not necessarily on the battlefields. I think today we showed the people of our neighbouring planet that we have the might but now we need to convince them with words…” I said.

“We need to keep our message going… We need to give our viewers more and more information about what happened here but without revealing who was behind this tragedy. Those who committed the tragedy will certainly try and lie their way out. And the more lies they tell the deeper they’ll dig themselves. But we need to do this systematically. We first need to talk about the suffering that took place here, how young people were kidnapped and turned into super soldiers against their will. What happened to their families… The pain and grief it caused… Amih, you lost the most here… You should do an interview and tell the people the story of how your children were taken away… and when Bibi asks who did this to you… you say the robots because that’s all you know. Raise the curiosity of our viewers… make them want to know more… But all of this has to be factual and very innocent…” said Ilisa.

“I can do that…” replied Amih. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time… tell someone about my pain…”

“We should also broadcast our interviews to the people in the facility, to inform them of what we’re doing and I’m sure there are many here who’ll want to tell their story,” said Nagol.

“I have already interviewed about a dozen people myself and their stories are already written down; all one has to do is read them. I can

speak to them and I’m sure they will give me permission to broadcast their stories…” said Ireva.

“I have read those stories and I think we should start broadcasting them immediately and repeat them several times a day to cover a wider audience…” said Captain Orihci.

“I was one of the first people to discover what the robots were doing here and I have plenty of stories to tell…” added Ukasnek.

“Yes, you and Enai,” said Captain Orihci. “Your stories should be told later, after we expose the kidnappings and the pain and anguish they caused. When people start asking what happened to those who were kidnapped then you can tell your story.”

“Do we have any recordings of the lines of people waiting to be processed and the machinery and methods used to convert people to super soldiers?” I asked.

“Yes… I’m sure we do. I know I have recordings of the painful experiments we did. I’ll get my associates to dig up everything we have,” said Enai.

“We should use these recordings later, after we exhaust the interviews as part of the atrocities committed here. We should have Ruzha produce this part… She knows how to do it effectively; she captured the hearts and minds of all of Ostikon,” said Ilisa.

“Okay then, let’s get going. Ireva speak to those people and get their permission… We’ll do whatever we can to keep the momentum going until Ruzha arrives,” said Captain Orihci.

At that point I spoke to Bibi and his people. First I congratulated them on their successful start and then said, “It’s best to do a rehearsal with the people you interview and record them. If they do well, then broadcast the recording. If they don’t do so well, tell them what they are doing wrong and do the interview again… but always stick to the facts. No speculation… No assumptions and no conclusions. Also monitor their body language. The security services are experts in many things and will exploit every little

weakness in our reports. If you trust Tolo have him look over the recordings and have him give you his opinion,” I said.

As I said all this I didn’t realize that Nagol was standing behind me listening. When I was done talking he grabbed my arm and said, “Like my old friend Voskot, I too now feel confident that soon I will have a replacement. Very good my boy…”

“So what happened up there…?” I asked.

“I don’t know. According to Ireva, who made the arrangements with government officials, they were expecting us to arrive this morning. I thought it was kind of quick because usually requests like that take time and have to be sanctioned by almost everyone. But because we are from a Galaxy Trader planet, I figured we didn’t need all that scrutiny, hence the quick approval. I suspect after we made the arrangements someone must have looked at the roster and when they saw my name they changed their mind… but never made the effort to let us know… So they left it to border control to turn us back… Personally, I wasn’t disappointed… I’m a known rebel… and neither was Ilisa… But I can’t say the same about Ireva and her assistants… Poor girls… It was a bitter pill to swallow… What a disappointment… But that’s how you learn…”

“You said the guards were making fun of you when you told them who you were and what you wanted?”

“And how… Who knows what they were told about us… And it’s doubtful that they knew what kind of firepower we have here….”

“Did Ireva record her conversations with the ships when you were up there?”

“Yes she did… Every word of it! She even played the conversation for them, with the official she spoke with when she made the arrangements… He even gave her his name. This is so and so speaking, I don’t remember his name, he said before he spoke to her. We have the whole thing recorded…”

“That’s great… More ammunition for us… Ireva was wise to do that…” I said.

“I instructed her… to avoid misunderstandings… I’ve learned from experience. Most of the diplomatic problems we have are due to misunderstandings… mostly intentional… like this one…”

“Yes… which sometimes can lead to war…” I said.

“Speaking of war… I know I asked you to fire a warning shot to let them know we weren’t joking and not to be trifled with… but you should never use that weapon again, ever, unless you must…”

“Why?”

“I had no idea the kind of destructive power it carries. You can’t allow it to fall into the wrong hands. What I saw today scared the daylights out me… not for myself but for all of humanity… the innocent people in the world. You just nicked the planet’s atmosphere and grazed the asteroid and look at the destruction it caused… This war must be fought with words; not with your weapon… Imagine what could have happened if you actually hit the asteroid square on or the planet itself. It would have been the end of every form of life on its surface. So please, never use it again. Promise me!”

“I had no idea…” I said. “I was aiming for the centre of the asteroid. I guess when the beam hit the atmosphere it must have deflected slightly…”

“You were lucky this time… Thank Mother Nature…”

I sighed deeply and swore that I wouldn’t use the weapon anywhere near where people lived.

We stopped talking when we saw Ireva approaching…

“I know you weren’t talking about me…”

“How do you know that dear?” asked Nagol.

“Look at his face…”

“What’s wrong with his face?”

“He looks like he lost his best friend…”

“Actually we were talking about you… I told him how diligent you were in recording your conversation with those idiots up there. Would you be so kind as to make a copy for me…?”

“Yes Sir. We can broadcast that too and let everyone know that it wasn’t me that screwed up today…”

“I think you learned a valuable lesson today my dear…”

Making use of Madam Grooni

“It seems like priorities change from day to day around here, like the direction of the wind. We seem to be putting out fire after fire…” groaned Delche.

“You know this will create a whole set of new problems… this fighting with words… We don’t know anything about the problems facing the people here? How are we expected to fight with words…? Ori complained.

“Do you guys mind if I hang around with you?” Captain Rolo asked.

We all looked at him and at each other, feeling slightly sorry for him. He used to command a huge science ship the size of a city and visited many galaxies. Now he wanted to hang around with us…

“We would be honoured to have you in our company, Sir…” I said.

“Okay then… what are you guys planning to do? With all the excitement around us I’m getting kind of nervous and feel like doing something…”

“Well, we still have that berry syrup to take care of?” said Delche.

“What about the truck we left at the farm with our berry juice? Shouldn’t we also do something with that?” suggested Ori.

“Yes we should. We should bring it here and keep an eye on it… to make sure the juice starts fermenting… But how are we going to get it here? None of us knows how to drive…” said Delche.

“Can’t we find someone…?” asked Rolo.

“Are you kidding? We hardly have enough people to do the important jobs here… If we ask I’m sure we’ll be accused of abusing our privileges…” I said.

Delche laughed and said, “Get out of here…”

“I know what we can do. Let’s pay a visit to Livè and coax her into helping us… to drive us around… Nobody will mind if we borrow her…” I said and they all laughed.

“You must be a sucker for pain, my young friend… I must object to that… Nagol’s orders… He asked me to protect you… not torture you…” Rolo warned. After thinking about it for a moment he said, “Let’s do it anyway, what the hell!”

“Does anyone know where she is? Where we can find her?” I asked.

“So, no one knows…” I added after looking at their blank faces.

I started looking around for someone to ask. I looked in Ireva’s direction and she smiled back at me.

“No, not her… You’ll never hear the end of it… ask her mother…” said Delche.

“So, what do I do…? Go to her and ask, ‘Where does Livè reside?’ you know she’ll ask questions…”

“Ask her if we can borrow the bus, we need to go to the farm… something like that…” said Ori.

“Okay, I’ll think of something…”

When we found Amih she was arguing with another woman who we didn’t know. Amih paused for a moment and said, “Can I help you boys?”

“Yes,” I said. “Can we borrow the bus for a while…”

“Okay…” she said and went back to arguing with the woman.

“We haven’t seen Livè for a while… Do you know how she’s doing?” I asked.

“No, she spends almost all of her time in her room, 5C. Be so kind and pay her a visit and see how she’s doing.”

“We will… thank you,” I said looking at Rolo who was about to burst out laughing.

“Well gentlemen, we now have a reason to visit Livè,” said Rolo.

“Can we stop calling her ‘Livè…? It sounds so evil… and besides, she’s no longer Livè since she mutilated her face and body… Let’s call her Madam Grooni; it sounds more motherly… She reminds me of my own mother…” said Ori.

“Okay, Madam Grooni it is…” I said.

When we arrived at 5C, which wasn’t that difficult to find, I knocked on the door.

No answer… “Let’s get out of here…” I said.

Rolo knocked again longer and harder…

“GO AWAY!!!” we heard her yell.

Rolo knocked again and began to snicker. For a moment he looked like a big kid… A very big kid…

“I SAID, GO AWAY!!! Are you deaf…?” she replied.

Ori said something which my translator translated as, “Madam Grooni, may we have a moment of your time?”

“Well I’m impressed,” I said. “I didn’t know you could speak Galaxy Trader…”

“I don’t, just a few words…” he replied.

Something clicked and the door opened very slowly.

“Oh it’s you…” she said the moment she saw me. She looked surprised.

I handed her my spare universal translator, which she took and put on.

“What do you want…?” she asked.

I gently opened her door so that she could see all of us… Her reaction went from surprise to fear.

“I don’t see any guns, so you’re not here to lynch me…” she said in the Ostikon language.

“So you do speak our language…” said Rolo.

I laughed and said, “Do you really think we need guns to lynch you?”

“I suppose not… but then why are you here?”

“Well, Amih asked us to come and see how you’re doing…”

“Amih asked the four of you to come here and see how I was doing?”

“Not the four of us… just me… Well, the others are here to support me in case…” I said and laughed.

At that point she tried to slam the door shut. I stuck my foot out and stopped it. Then I grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room.

“Oh my God, they’ll string me up and even worse… they’ll rape me… she screamed…”

Captain Rolo couldn’t help himself and started laughing.

“So it’s God now, eh! You have even forsaken your religion… Do you still have a soul?” Ori asked.

“Okay guys, let’s not get crazy…” I said but Delche had to throw in his own jab.

“The likes of you have murdered millions and ruined my life, and you’re worried about us raping you? You should be roasted on a spit…”

More worrisome than Delche’s words was the look on his face and the murder in his eyes. When Livè saw that she sobered up pretty quickly and stopped struggling.

“Stop that… Everyone please calm down…” I pulled Livè out into the hallway, looked at her and said, “We’re not here to harm you. Your God will take care of that; we’re here because we need your help…”

“My help, after what you did to me… you want my help?”

“Yes… and please tell me exactly what did I do to you?”

“Are you kidding me? You imprisoned me here and made my life miserable… for starters…”

“You mean I came to your planet, forcibly grabbed you from your family, changed your body so that you looked like a freak, stripped you of your memories, robbed you of your speech and every pleasure that life had to offer and condemned you to live like a vegetable?”

Delche started getting angry again and said, “I meant every word I said… You should be grateful to this man… because if it was up to me…”

“Okay Delche, that’s enough… We came here to make peace with her not to torment our souls… It’s what we do that matters… not her… Roasting her over a pit will change nothing but leave a big stain on your soul…” I said

“You’re right, I’m sorry for getting angry… She’s not worth it.”

“Now you listen to me,” I told Livè, looking directly into her eyes. “We need you to drive us to the farm where you worked for a few

days. You can do that or you can go back to the prison you created for yourself. It’s your choice. I need your answer right now…”

She looked confused. Something in her evil brain was telling her to take the offer but her stubbornness was choking her. I got no answer, so a few seconds later I let her go. She collapsed to the floor like a sack of potatoes. No one looked at her as we started walking away. A few steps later we heard her choked up voice say, “Wait.” It sounded like the meow of a cat. Everyone stopped. I turned around and went back. I offered her my hand and she took it. She looked confused. I pulled her up but her legs refused to support her. She was shaking like a bat. When the others saw what was happening they came over and helped me take her to her room. We put her on her bed and Ori brought her some water. She was completely out of it.

“Should we take her to the clinic?” asked Rolo.

“Wait…” said Delche, “I’ve seen this before… Give me a minute…” and he sped off out the door.

“Did we cause this?” asked Ori.

“Probably…” I said.

“She must have a medical problem… and we just exacerbated it…” said Rolo.

Delche came back. He must have run and was trying to catch his breath when he handed me the bottle of berry juice he’d brought back. “Get her to drink some of this…”

A cure for all ailments in a rakia bottle… I wanted to laugh but this wasn’t a laughing matter. I sat her up on the bed and, while Rolo held her, poured some juice into her mouth. She swallowed it. I did that several more times. Delche said that it was enough and helped me hold her up. We walked her around the room until she could stand on her own. It looked like everyone felt sorry for her and was ready to help her. She noticed that. Moments later she looked at me and asked, “Where are we going?”

Rolo, Ori and I looked at each other. We were confused. Delche looked at us and said, “It looks like she has diabetes… You know a certain kind of disease caused by the body’s inability to produce or use insulin properly?”

We were still confused and shook our heads… We had no idea what Delche was talking about but Livè obviously did and smiled, thanking Delche for saving her life.

Rolo and I looked at each other; sure they were pulling one over on us.

“No one recovers from a debilitating problem like that, that quickly by drinking berry juice; unless it’s a magical juice.” I said.

“Well, you become a beast when you drink firewater… How do you explain that?” asked Delche

Livè came over and grabbed me by the arm and said, “So you have firewater?”

“Would you like to try some?”

“Hell no, that stuff will kill you… I mean me… Obviously it hasn’t killed you… yet…” she said.

After we’d all gotten on the bus Ori showed her the way and we ended up at the grove in front of the warehouse where our pressed berries were. Unfortunately we found the warehouse door locked.

“Madam Grooni, please go and get the old lady to open the door for us…” I said.

First she laughed. She must have found it funny that I called her Madam Grooni and then said, “Me… No way… The old lady hates me…”

“And who’s fault is that?” mumbled Delche.

“You’re the only one she can understand…” I said.

We followed closely behind her just in case the old lady decided to take revenge on her.

After she knocked several times the woman’s husband, the old farmer, opened the door. One look at Madam Grooni and he turned around and went back inside. We heard him say, “It’s for you…”

“I wonder who that could be…” we heard her mumble as she came our way.

“Oh, it’s you… What are you doing here?”

“These gentlemen here need you to unlock the warehouse door,” said Madam Grooni.

The old lady popped her head out and looked at us. She recognized me and smiled. She went back inside and got the key, opened the door and asked, “What are you going to do in here?”

“We’ll take the truck back with us…” I said and Madam Grooni translated.

The old lady looked around and said, “Where’s your driver?”

We looked at each other and then I said, “We don’t have one…”

“You fools… you came all the way here without a driver?” said Madam Grooni.

The moment the old lady heard her denigrating words she was ready to kill her. I shook my head ‘no’. “I’ll drive the truck for you… just give me a moment to tell my husband…”

I nodded in appreciation…

The old lady came back quickly, went straight to the truck and drove off.

“We need to learn how to drive,” I said to Delche as Madam Grooni sped to catch up to the old lady.

“We need to learn a lot more things… For starters, to stand up to that bitch…” replied Delche sounding furious.

She heard what Delche had said but ignored it and kept quiet, which infuriated me. I went close to her, sat beside her and calmly said, “I don’t care about you insulting me but the next time you insult my friends you will find yourself in a shallow grave… and no one is going to care… Do you understand?”

She didn’t reply but slowed down the bus and drove normally the rest of the way. When we arrived at the facility we found the truck in front of the main entrance. I asked Madam Grooni to get off the bus and come with us. Just as we neared the truck we heard a whistling noise that sounded like a missile was about to drop on us. Madam Grooni ducked and dropped to the ground under the truck. Delche laughed because he knew it was no missile; the berry juice had started fermenting and the escaping gas was making the hissing sound.

I offered Madam Grooni my hand and she took it. I pulled her out from under the truck and said, “On top of being obnoxious you’re also a coward…” she didn’t say anything but gave me a strange look “Lady, you’re one screwed up person…” I thought to myself.

By the time Madam Grooni was ready to resume walking, my friends had disappeared inside the facility. I looked back at her scurrying to catch up to me, as I sped trying to catch up to the others. It was like looking at an eighty-year-old woman running like a twenty-year-old; walking upright and looking like a stick wearing a nice dress. When she caught up to me she grabbed my arm and hung on to me, as if she was trying to stop me from escaping. When we arrived in the reception area we saw the old lady talking with Amih and getting very excited.

“What did you say to her?” I asked Amih.

“I told her about my sons… That I’d found them…”

The old lady then looked at me and saw Madam Grooni hanging on to my arm like she was my fiancée. She didn’t know what to make of it so she spat on the floor in disgust. I unhooked myself from Madam Grooni and pushed her away. After she saw that the old lady turned to Amih and said “Please, take me to the factory…”

“I’m sorry but I can’t at the moment, I’m very busy… Otsiron will take you, right?” asked Amih.

“Yes, it would my pleasure to take you…” I said in Macedonian and both Amih and Madam Grooni translated my words at the same time. The old lady smiled at me and gave Madam Grooni a dirty look. Everyone followed me as we left for the bus.

When we boarded I told Madam Grooni to drive, despite the fact that she didn’t know the way to the factory. The old lady sat down last. She sat beside me. Madam Grooni managed to find her way by instinct… She was a good detective, I thought. I told her to pull into the factory driveway when we arrived there and we all got off the bus and went to the front door.

After I knocked hard on the door I yelled, “Haon, Nosam… get your butts out here…”

When they came out only Haon was wearing his translator. Realizing that he didn’t have his, Nosam ran back and got it. In the meantime the old lady went on a tirade asking Haon questions.

“Please dear lady, slow down. I can’t understand what you are asking…” said Haon.

“She lost two of her sons and she’s wondering if they are here…” I said.

At that point Haon asked her a bunch of questions and the moment Nosam returned, Haon sent him back. A couple of minutes later, Nosam returned with two men much older than him. When they saw the old lady they ran to her. The rest was too sad to watch so we

turned our backs on them. The moment I did that Madam Grooni ran towards the old lady, ready to get into her business.

Haon stopped her and said, “Give them some privacy… Let mother and sons get reacquainted. They thought their parents were dead… killed by the super soldiers when the men were kidnapped from their farm…”

When we heard Haon talking we turned around to see what was happening. I saw him holding Madam Grooni back. I went over and grabbed her by the arm.

“Who is this old lady? Did she lose a child too?” Haon asked.

“This is Madam Grooni,” I said, “and no she didn’t. She has no children. The next time you see your mother, ask her about Madam Grooni.”

“Nice to meet you Madam Grooni…”

“Haon… don’t forget my buckets… We could use them right about now…” I said but wasn’t sure if he’d heard me because the old lady grabbed him and kissed him before she headed for me.

When she reached me she gave me a hug and said, “Take me home…”

She sat beside me again and kept squeezing my arm and sometimes laughing but most of the time she was crying.

“Soon you’ll become their folk hero… You’ll be known planet wide amongst the farmers…” said Captain Rolo.

“I just wonder what Amih told her about me… I had nothing to do with finding her sons…”

The moment we reached her yard she ran inside to tell her husband. Before she entered the house she gave us a strange wave goodbye and began to cry.

I told Madam Grooni to take us to the press factory. She couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there. What did she think; that the old lady would come back out with a gun and shoot her?

“What’s the hurry?” I asked.

“No hurry…”

“Slow down then…”

When we got there we found a pile of empty buckets outside the press factory door.

“What do you know? The boys delivered on their promise…” said Delche.

“And look at this… they left us food in this smaller bucket… but no plates or spoons…” said Ori.

There was a nice aroma coming out of the bucket when Ori opened it. At that point we heard Nosam yelling apologies from the distance as he delivered us a pile of plates and utensils. I asked him to stay a while but he said he was very busy at the moment and left.

After we ate Ori opened the factory door and we proceeded inside. Madam Grooni didn’t want to come with us.

When I asked her why she said, “I’m not going in there with four men…”

“You have no choice. I don’t trust you out here alone. Earlier I turned my back on you for a moment and you were right there in the farmer lady’s business… Have you no compassion…?”

When she saw that I was coming for her she bolted inside. Delche went in and turned the lights on.

“Do you want to make yourself useful?” I asked her. She didn’t answer so I told her to go and get an empty bucket and give it to Delche. She did that and then went back to where she had been

standing before. Rolo picked up an empty bucket to use as a stool and sat beside Delche. Ori took off the lid and Delche began to fill it with berry syrup. When it was full, Rolo pressed the lid on top until it snapped. I took the full bucket and placed it in the corner of the room.

When I turned around I barked at Madam Grooni, “What are you waiting for…?”

Without saying a word she went outside, got another bucket and handed it to Ori. Then she went outside again and got a bucket for herself, placed it near the door and sat on it. After that, while Rolo was pressing the lid on the full bucket, she handed Ori an empty one. We did this for hours. As we exhausted the empty buckets the boys brought more and left them outside. Then, when we were almost done, Haon came inside to see how we were doing. He brought the old lady’s sons with him to meet us. They looked a bit shy but were sincere. At one point one of them asked Haon to tell us not to discard the wash water that we’d used to rinse the tank, but instead to save it in buckets. They would come to pick it up later. When I asked why, the man explained that they wanted to use it to make tea with. At that point I asked Haon if they wanted some more syrup. When Haon asked them, their eyes brightened up. I told Haon that I wanted to give them all the syrup they could use but he said it was best to leave it here and he would come and get some when it was needed. We only had one key but he said it was no problem that he could cut another one if we trusted him. I gave him the key and he sent one of the old lady’s sons to make a copy.

After that, I laughed and asked, “Shouldn’t I trust you?”

“I wouldn’t…”

“I can always tell your mother if you abuse your privilege…” I said and laughed.

“What do you think, I’m a child?” he replied and laughed.

The old lady’s son wanted to know what I’d said that made us both laugh. When he told him he began to laugh too.

After the man returned with our key, I asked Haon to bring us many more empty buckets and load them on the back of the bus. When he asked what we were going to do with them I told him that we were going to do the same thing at the old lady’s farm. Her sons then asked if we could give them a ride there and back so that they could see their father. I told them that we’d be happy to do that. I figured the old farmers didn’t have a vehicle of their own and didn’t want to impose on their neighbours.

By the time we finished pumping the syrup and had washed the tank, over two hundred buckets had been loaded on the bus. I asked why so many and one of the sons said that he assumed we had a full tank, and if not we should leave the remaining empty buckets at the farm.

When we arrived the sons ran inside the house and came right back to help us offload the buckets.

“I’ve never seen anyone work so hard…” said Captain Rolo.

“Neither have I…” replied Delche. “And I’ve seen a lot of people work, here and on other planets. When they were finished I told Madam Grooni to tell them to spend some time with their mother and father. When they went in their mother came out and invited us to have a meal with them. We accepted.

We went inside the warehouse and did the same thing here as we’d done at the press factory. We only took a break to eat. After that the brothers wanted to go back. While we worked emptying the syrup tank the old lady took them back and brought us a big bucket full of food from the food factory. We ate our dinner at sunset and left the rest for the farmers.

“It was almost midnight by the time we’d finished emptying the boiler and cleaning it. We’d filled about 120 buckets. After I moved them onto the bus I added another fifty-five empty buckets. That’s how many Ori estimated it would take to empty the fermenting juice from the truck.

“I’d prefer to have the juice fermenting in the buckets inside where the temperature is constant and warm, instead of outside where the temperature falls down at night and stops the fermentation.”

When we got back to the facility everyone left and went to sleep. I slept on my ship that night; keeping an eye on the bus to make sure that no one stole our syrup… even though I knew no one would steal it.

Delche and Ori were there first thing in the morning, followed by Rolo and, surprisingly, Madam Grooni. I wanted to tease her but decided I’d better not. I was happy to see her there. I brought drinking glasses with me when I came out.

“What are those for…?” asked Delche.

“To sample the brew…”

“I wouldn’t do that…” warned Delche.

“Why not?” asked Ori.

“It will taste bitter and it will stink…” said Delche.

I went to the back of the truck and opened the tap slightly. A yellow, bubbly liquid dripped into my glass. I looked at it, sniffed it and had a sip. “It’s delicious…”

Delche made a face which made the others unsure. “Give me that…” Madam Grooni blurted and grabbed the glass out of my hand. She sniffed the liquid and took a sip. “It’s delicious…” she said with a genuine look on her face and gulped the rest down. “It’s truly delicious… It tickles the tongue,” she added and went to the tap and filled the glass again.

After we’d each had a glassful we had nothing but compliments about the taste of the partly fermented fruit juice, which convinced Delche to try it. After it passed his sniff test he had a sip and he too was surprised by the taste.

“We should take some to our friends…” suggested Rolo.

“Oh crap… interrupted Delche, “the bottles and jars are in my room… If this stuff fermented that much outside, imagine what’s happening inside the tightly sealed bottles and jars… Ori grab an empty bucket and let’s go and empty them… or they’ll explode… If they haven’t already…”

While they ran off to empty the bottles and jars we helped ourselves to more fermenting juice; only to be discovered by the others who brought their own empty glasses from the eating area.

“How did you know…?” I asked.

“We ran into Ori and Delche…” said Amih.

“This is truly amazing…” said Nagol after Rolo filled his glass.

When Delche and Ori came back they reported nothing had exploded but the stuff inside had fermented much more and was now starting to taste bitter So there was a limited time that the fermenting juice was drinkable after had it started fermenting.

“What’s that inside the bus…?” Ireva asked.

“Oh, that’s the berry syrup…” said Captain Rolo.

“Can we try some of that…?” asked Captain Orihci.

After I brought a bucket out, Delche opened it and used a clean glass to scoop some out and placed a spoonful or two in everyone’s glass. Madam Grooni was the first to drip some into her mouth. It was thick and slow moving but looked like liquid gold. When she started licking her lips everyone had to try it. I was surprised not only by its sweetness but also by its aroma.

“This is truly remarkable…” said Ilisa. “I have been to many planets and sampled their sweets but I haven’t tasted anything so delicious. I think I’ll go back into baking sweets if I can get some ingredients. It’s an old hobby of mine…” she added and smiled.

“I’d like to help with that, if you don’t mind… It’s about time I learned how to bake…” said Aneleh. “Someone else always did the cooking and baking for me…”

“Can I have a jarful of this stuff… to sweeten my tea?” asked Madam Grooni.

“Sure, why not…” said Captain Orihci.

“Can you make rakia from this stuff…?” asked Ukasnek.

“Probably…” said Delche, “we can try and see… We’ll need to add water to it and probably yeast.”

Enai brought a cart outside and, while he and his helpers lugged away the syrup, Delche, Ori, Captain Rolo, Madam Grooni and I emptied the fermenting juice from the truck into buckets. Ukansek poked holes on the lids of the buckets after they were filled to allow the gas to escape. When we were done we had filled 52 buckets. Enai and his crew took them to the lab where the still was. Delche estimated he could make the rakia in one to two weeks.

Ori did some calculations and said, “If the sugar content of the juice was five to ten percent and all of it was turned into rakia, we’d have 1 to 2 liters of rakia per bucket or 50 to 100 litres in total… That’s not a lot of rakia…”

“We’ll have to drink it sparingly… or use the syrup to make more…” I said jokingly.

All of a sudden, the berries that no one cared about a few days ago had became a desired commodity.

“We’ll have to pick the rest of the berries soon…” said Captain Orihci. “We should make a picnic of it.”

The picnic