Front Matter

The Alien that changed the world

Part 4

Otsiron’s Dilemma

A novel

By Risto Stefov

The Alien that changed the world Part 4 Otsiron’s Dilemma

A Novel

FICTION - ADVENTURE

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September 4, 2022

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Back to reality

“Are you out of your mind!?” Enai yelled.

“Did I say that out loud?” I asked.

“Yes you did! We’re going through a crisis here and you’re thinking of leaving…!? Going to earth…? With our people and our ships…? What’s going on here…!? What are you trying to do? Are you out of your mind!?” Enai protested loudly.

“Take it easy! Take it easy! I’m not going anywhere. It was just a momentary thought I had. I didn’t mean to say it out loud. It just came out; it wasn’t supposed to be heard,” I said.

“At this point, given the mess we’re in, it’s bizarre to even think of doing that. Dismiss the soldiers! Let them go back to their barracks and let’s talk. To begin with, what are we going to say to the people who come here looking for their children…? The children who went missing… the people who were abducted from the streets during the war? More and more people are arriving, even from other planets, looking for their missing children. What are we going to tell them?! They’ll need answers. We owe it to them,” Enai said in a calm tone of voice, sounding sorry as if he wanted to make amends for his own sins.

“And what do you suggest we tell them?” I asked.

“Well, I think before we tell them anything we should first tell them what to expect… That their children are… not their children any more… and that they have been turned into super soldiers. The super soldiers whom they fear the most… are their children. The parents need to know that… They should be told that their children are unrecognizable. I know it will be difficult to tell them that…but the parents need to know. They need to know that their children’s minds have been wiped clean and they won’t recognize them or remember anything from their past. Yes, they won’t recognize or remember their own parents. We need to emphasize that before we let them see their children. I’m sure many already know that from the rumours they’ve heard, but it’ll be different when they actually

see their children and what they look like. They’ll need to be prepared ahead of time… We need to tell them that their children have no memories of them or of anything for that matter. They’ll also need to see this for themselves… they need to see how their children have been physically altered beyond recognition... Many… Some may not even believe what they see... that those monstrous looking things are their children… They won’t believe it. They won’t believe us. We must find a way to prove it to them... It’s going to be very difficult, not just for them to accept it but also for us to prove,” Enai said calmly with a guilty tone of voice full of concern.

“Well then, we must first find a way to prove it. We must find a way to identify each super soldier individually and relate them to their parents with proof. Prove to their parents without a doubt that indeed these children are theirs!” I replied and, after a short pause, continued. “There has to be a way that we can scientifically match the soldiers to their relatives.”

“There is a way! By DNA! We can harvest DNA from the soldiers living and dead and catalogue it in a database. Then, with each inquiry, we match the DNA of those inquiring against the DNA in our database,” said Enai, thinking for a moment and then asking. “And what happens after that? How do we reunite the family after we find a match? Do we bring them together? I’m sure that’s what the parents will want. Then what? What will the parents do with a super soldier? A powerful being that doesn’t even know them… that doesn’t recognize them or understand them. I’m sure it will cause a lot of anger and pain…” said Enai before I interrupted him.

“One step at a time, my dear friend, one step at a time... How long will it take to build such a database?”

“We already have a database and you already know the number of every soldier alive. All we have to do is match the DNA with the number. For those who are dead all we have to do is dig them up and catalogue their DNA. You call the soldiers one by one and we will do the rest. It takes only a moment to acquire their DNA and catalogue it,” explained Enai.

“Go do it then and call me when you need me. I see Captain Orihci is heading this way. I’ll go and see what he wants,” I said and started walking towards the Captain. At the same time I dismissed the super soldiers and ordered them to go back to their barracks. Single file they began to head towards the building.

The moment Captain Orihci and I came close to one another he immediately asked me what Enai and I were arguing about.

I told him exactly what I had discussed with Enai. He agreed that something needed to be done for sure because more and more people were arriving at the facilities looking for their missing relatives.

“These people came a long way to see us and deserve some answers. What are we going to tell them?”

Instead of giving him an answer I asked him what he thought we should do. He drifted off into his own thoughts and didn’t answer me.

“What kind of heartbreak will we face when the soldiers don’t recognize or respond to their loved ones?” I asked. “And what do we tell their relatives when they ask us what we’re doing to fix these problems? I fear many, especially the parents of the younger soldiers, won’t like it when we tell them that there’s nothing we can do. They won’t understand why the soldiers don’t recognize them. Even Enai had difficulty accepting that his daughter didn’t recognize him. It was very difficult for him to accept that.”

“You have a point. We need to tell the people something… Give them some hope that perhaps down the line things will somehow improve. But what can we tell them?! And how long will it take to get some results? Unfortunately, for the moment, we have no answers,” he said, thinking for a moment and then adding. “Did you have any luck with Nine? How has she been doing? Did you see any improvement in her? Did she learn anything from the things you tried to teach her?”

“Actually I don’t know for sure? She reacts well with me because I have an internal emotional connection with her. I’m not sure if she really understands me or if she somehow reads what I want her to do and does it. We’ll need to do some more tests. I’ll have to talk to Enai and his people some more about that. We need to find out how she will respond to other people, if at all. We should have your wife and Ireva try and connect with her to see if she responds,” I replied.

Just as we stopped talking I heard someone running down the hill, waving his arms frantically.

“What is it?” I asked.

It was one of Enai’s associates. “Enai needs to see you,” he said and turned around and left. We followed him.

When we arrived at one of the labs, before I had a chance to ask what he wanted, Enai immediately said. “We have prepared the database and the lab and we’re ready to start collecting DNA. We need to start calling the soldiers and bring them here. We know the robots assigned unique numbers to them so, if you please, start with number one...”

But before he had a chance to finish what he was saying, I interrupted and asked, “What about the dead ones?”

“Well, there won’t be any numbers for the dead ones. We’ll just get their DNA and catalogue it without a number. We’ll catalogue them separately. My associates are working on that right now. Unfortunately we can’t start matching until we harvest the DNA of every soldier. So we need to do this procedure as soon as possible,” Enai explained.

“In that case I should start calling the soldiers right away,” I said and turned on my transmitter.

“Calling 1 – No reply – enter missing in the database. Calling 2 – No reply. Calling 3 – No reply. Calling 4 – No reply.

Calling 5 – No reply. Calling 6 – No reply. Calling 7 – No reply.

Calling 626 – Present and on their way here. Calling 627 – Present….”

As each soldier arrived in the lab one associate took their blood and numbered the vial with the soldier’s number and the other associate ran it through the machine. A second or so later the machine entered the DNA ID into the database and the associate labeled it with the soldier’s number. Enai and Captain Orihci supervised, making sure no mistakes were made. One by one I called the soldiers to the lab and sent them back to their stations after the procedure was done. I also made sure each soldier’s number was correctly entered into the database. The numbers were important since we had no names for the soldiers. We needed to know which soldier the DNA belonged to. That was the only way we could match a soldier with a relative. At least that was the idea.

As we continued with the procedure, I kept recording how long it took to process each soldier. After we’d processed several dozen of them I figured on average it took about 15 seconds each. So at this rate, even if we worked 24 hours a day we could theoretically process only 5,760 soldiers per day. At that rate it would take us more than half a year to process everyone. That was unacceptable.

I spoke up and said, “Stop everything. Let’s finish what we’re doing and take a break. We need to talk.”

Everyone agreed and after we processed the last soldier present in the lab we sat down around one of the tables and I gave them the news.

“Half a year is way too long. We need to cut down the time to no more than a couple of weeks. It’s unfair to the relatives to keep them in suspense for longer than that. In fact it would be cruel.”

“And how are we going to process over one million soldiers in a couple of weeks?” Enai asked. Captain Orihci shook his head in agreement.

“Gentlemen, that’s why we need to talk, to find a way! We need to find a way,” I said.

I then turned to Enai and said, “A while ago you told me that you and your associates who’d been chipped had the capability to summon the soldiers individually for diagnostic purposes. Do you think you can still do that?”

“Yes we can. We’ve done it hundreds of times. All we need are transmitters like the one you’re wearing on your head. But so what? We only have one DNA testing machine and that’s our bottleneck,” he replied.

“So it’ll be ten associates, you and me. There will be 12 of us calling on the soldiers and getting their blood. We don’t have to take the blood ourselves, we can get others, volunteers to help us. All we have to do is identify the super soldier by his or her number and label each blood sample...” I said before Enai interrupted me.

“So, let’s say we speed up the process and get blood samples in 5 seconds. And let’s say we do collect everyone’s blood in say two weeks, then what? We still don’t have the DNA machines to process them. I know it takes about a second for the machine to process a sample but you still need the time to put it in and then take it out. And what about the time needed to clean the machine and do preventive maintenance? And what if it breaks down, then what?” asked Enai with a tone of concern.

“You mean to tell me this is the only DNA machine in this entire facility?” I asked.

“Yes, as far as I know,” said Enai looking at his two associates. The two nodded their heads in agreement.

“What about the other facility that was destroyed? Could there be a DNA machine there?” asked Captain Orihci.

“I don’t know… I suppose we can fly there and check?” replied Enai.

“I bombed the place pretty good. It was on fire when I left. What about getting some machines from the other Galaxy Trader planets?” I asked.

“I can ask, there’s no harm in asking,” replied Captain Orihci.

“While you do that, also please ask your daughter to contact Ostikon and see what kind of help Asora’s government can give us with this,” I said.

With that everyone, except for Enai, left the lab. One associate took Captain Orihci to the communications tower and the second went looking for Ireva, Captain Orihci’s daughter.

“I hope we find what we’re looking for because I hear more and more people are arriving asking for their missing relatives. Wait until people from Ostikon come looking? We’ll have a flood of people here and nothing to tell them. Especially you, they’ll be looking to you for answers. You did promise them you’d end the war and send their soldiers home. You ended the war…” Enai said before I interrupted him.

“Yes, of course, even though I never did say those exact words, I’m pretty sure many will interpret it that way. They’ll want answers as to what happened to their missing children. I think we should invite the Ostikon government to send an investigative team to see for themselves what the situation is here on the ground. They may even have some suggestions as to what to do with the super soldiers.”

Just as I said that we both stepped outside of the facilities to get some fresh air and sat down on the ground.

After looking into the distance in silence for some time Enai spoke up and asked, “Why is it important to identify the dead super soldiers?”

“To bring closure to their families, I suppose. I don’t see any other reason.”

“You know that we’ll waste a lot of time and resources tackling that task. Perhaps we shouldn’t do it right now. Perhaps we should label the dead soldiers ‘missing’ for now and put a priority on identifying the living ones, since time is a critical factor. What do you think?” he asked.

“You’re absolutely right. For now we will report to the relatives that they are missing and get their contact information. Later, after we process them, we’ll let them know if we find a match and, based on what they want, we’ll take appropriate action.”

“I’m glad you agree. In that case I will recall my associates and have them reassigned,” Enai replied.

“Have them find as many transmitters as possible, at least one for every associate as well as one for yourself; even some spare ones if possible. Have them manufactured if necessary. Also, is there any way we can use the robots that have been deactivated for any of this?”

“I’ll have them do that immediately. I know we have at least 12 operational transmitters and some more sitting around on shelves in the labs. As for the robots…? Only you have the authority to order them around but you don’t know how. It will take you a long time to learn… Plus, it’s dangerous messing around with them. One little mistake and we’ll all be in trouble!” replied Enai.

“You’re right. We’ll leave the robots alone for now. Our priority is to get the DNA as soon as possible. But I’m afraid the bottleneck will be the testing… since we only have a single machine,” I said.

“I hope Captain Orihci will have some luck finding us more…” he replied, got up and went inside to look for his associates.

I looked around and into the distance. The place was buzzing with trucks and shuttles. The trucks were bringing food and other

materials into the facility and every new shuttle arriving brought more people looking for their missing relatives.

While thinking about how we were going to handle all these problems I heard footsteps. Someone was coming down the hill behind me. I turned around slowly and looked. It was Amih, Captain Orihci’s wife and Ukasnek, Captain Orihci’s friend.

“You look worried?” said Amih the moment she glanced at me. “I’ve never seen you so worried,” she added.

Hearing her voice through the universal translator reminded me that we’d need translators, many translators, to talk to the people from Ostikon when they started arriving here. We’d also need a lot of people to receive them and find accommodations for them. And what were we going to tell them about their missing children? Suddenly I started looking even more worried.

But before I had a chance to say anything I heard Amih’s voice apologizing.

“I didn’t mean to upset you, I am so sorry.”

I looked at her again and smiled thinking to myself how kind and considerate these people here were as opposed to the people in Ostikon; especially those dressed in white like Ori’s parents.

She smiled back warmly and continued to smile as she listened to me unload my problems on her one after another. To my surprise, she not only understood my situation but volunteered to take over some of my burdens; especially the difficult ones that had to do with dealing with people and the inquiries about their missing relatives.

“Frankly this isn’t your problem at all; you didn’t cause any of this. As residents of this planet, it’s our problem and we need to get organized and handle it. I will do everything I can to handle the inquiries. I will ask for volunteers to help me. I’ll also organize groups to handle problems as they arise. That will free you to focus exclusively on the soldiers. If you need people to help you, let me

know and I will find them for you.” Then she tapped me on the shoulder and left.

Just as I thanked her, Ukasnek spoke up and said, “I’m also here to help in any way I can. I’m better at dealing with machines than people but I also have persuasive skills and a lot of experience in trade. Just tell me what you need and I’ll get on it.”

“Thank you!” I said and then asked Ukasnek to go and see how Captain Orihci was doing and if he needed any help.

As Ukasnek was leaving for the facilities I sat down on the ground, put my elbows on my knees and covered my eyes with my hands. Doing that sometimes helped me think better.

Moments later I heard footsteps rushing towards me. I looked up. It was Captain Orihci followed by Ukasnek running towards me. Captain Orihci had a worried look on his face, wondering what was wrong with me sitting there holding my face. But before he had a chance to say something I said, “You’re rushing to give me some good news, I hope?”

After realizing that I was okay, Captain Orihci looked at Ukasnek with a puzzled look and said “Oh yes, of course, I managed to locate three machines. They will be delivered sometime tomorrow along with experienced operators and millions of vials and other materials. We can keep the machines for as long as we need them. The health authorities from one of our planets will divert them to us. They had just purchased them and can afford to lend them to us for a while. All we have to do now is find space for them in our labs and they’ll install and operate them for us.”

“That’s great. That will cut down our processing time a great deal but we still need additional machines. Perhaps Ireva will have some luck too. We’ll see what she says when I see her. In the meantime we’ll need to find the transmitters. Enai told me we have enough to equip everyone. I mean all those who have a chip that can communicate with the soldiers. Also, before I forget, we’ll need to find some universal translators, as many as possible. We’ll need them to talk to the people from Ostikon once they start arriving,” I

said and after a short pause I added. “One more thing… After Ireva finishes her task, I want to get everyone together and have a discussion.” Then I got up and left for the communications tower to look for Ireva. Captain Orihci and Ukasnek followed me into the facilities and went the other way.

Before I arrived at the commutations tower I spotted Ireva and one of Enai’s associates in the distance going the other way. I yelled at them but the translator wasn’t loud enough for them to understand what I was saying. When they heard me they both turned in my direction and started walking towards me. There was a big smile on Ireva’s face.

When she got close enough she said, “I have great news. I got in touch with Asora and she was more than helpful. She will send us everything we need including the machines I asked for. She’ll send us five machines immediately with the first shipment along with experienced operators and translators. They’ll arrive here in about five days. If we need more she’ll send us more.”

“That’s great,” I said, “well done. We could use more machines but we are doing great for now. Great job... Thank you!”

“What’s next?” she asked. “What do you want us to do next?”

“I want to get everyone together and figure out how to move forward with all this. We have a lot of things going on and we need to make sure everything is handled properly,” I said an, after pausing for a moment, turned to Ireva. “Ireva you find your mom, dad and Ukasnek and bring them to the main conference room for a meeting in two hours.”

I then turned to Enai’s associate and said, “You go and find Enai and all the other associates and bring them to the conference room in two hours. I’ll go there right now and organize my thoughts about what we need to discuss.”

Immediately after that I turned around and left.

Getting organized

There was no one in the conference room. I had less than two hours to figure out what I was going to say so I began to prepare some notes.

The first thing we should do, I wrote, is gather and test the transmitters and universal translators. We should find space in the labs to install the DNA machines and other equipment we’ll need. Enai and his associates should do that. Enai should assist Captain Orihci in receiving, installing and testing the 3 new DNA machines that are arriving tomorrow.

We should establish a reception area with a help desk near the main entrance of the facilities to assist visitors and answer questions, as well as find accommodations for them. Amih should do that as soon as possible.

We should have a separate DNA machine and operating crew in the reception area to take DNA and contact information from people looking for their missing relatives. We should do that the moment they arrive. We should take the DNA information and add it to a separate database along with the person’s contact information. This should be done immediately. We should start with the people who are already here. We should handle each case separately on a first come first serve basis to minimize waiting times and inconvenience the people as little as possible. Amih should work with Enai and his associates to install one of the DNA machines arriving tomorrow in the reception area. This machine needs to be operational as soon as possible.

We should prepare to receive the DNA machines and operating crew from Ostikon. Ireva should work with Enai and Amih to find space in the labs for the machines and accommodations for the operators. Given the differences in languages Ireva, who speaks the Ostikon language, should test the universal translators and make sure they work properly before the Ostikon operators and others arrive. Ireva should also work with Enai to install universal translators in key areas in the reception room and labs. Enai’s associates working with

the super soldiers should be able to freely communicate with the Ostikon people operating the Ostikon DNA machines.

We should establish a process with Ostikon where they can send us the DNA and contact information of those looking for their missing relatives instead of sending them all the way here in person. Ireva should look into that.

We should send someone over to the other facility to see if we can scrounge another DNA machine. I know the facility was damaged badly but it would be worth our while to investigate. Captain Orihci should work something out with Ukasnek. They’ll need to find a shuttle or some other small ship for Ukasnek to fly there and look around, to see what else we can salvage.

We should establish a steering group and have regular meetings to discuss progress and pending problems. We should tie this group to those who handle traffic control, the food supply and distribution management, waste management as well as the facility management.

Each member of the steering group should establish working groups to handle the day to day routine tasks, as well as problems that might arise.

We should establish a routine meeting schedule as well as a process to handle health and safety emergencies.

That was all I could think of for now. I decided not to bring up the issue of what to do with the super soldiers in the long term. That would have to wait for later until we got more information. Perhaps someone here or outside this planet might have some ideas.

Just as I was finished writing my notes I opened the conference door and to my surprise everyone was there waiting. They were discussing ideas on how to proceed.

After we sat down I told them what I wanted them there for and assured them that I would answer all questions after I was done talking. I didn’t know exactly how to start since I’d never done this before, so I read my notes out loud in Macedonian as the universal

translator translated into their language. Each time there was a task assigned I looked up to make sure that the person it was assigned to was in agreement.

To my surprise no one had any issues or questions. They all felt this needed to be done first before we tackled issues of less priority.

Amih was well on her way to establishing her working group. She had already found a number of volunteers.

Enai assured me that he and his associates would cooperate with the others and give them what they needed to do their jobs.

Before they all left I asked them to come back here tomorrow morning after breakfast to discuss the next day’s events. Just as I dismissed the meeting I asked Captain Orihci and Ukasnek to stay behind. We needed to find a ship for Ukasnek to fly over to the other facility.

“Every little ship and shuttle we possess is in use. The civilians here need them to do their jobs. In fact we’re short of ships… none can be spared. I looked into this earlier in case we needed a ship. All I got was complaints that we needed more ships…” replied Captain Orihci.

“What about the shuttles on your destroyer. Surely there must be a shuttle or two there?” I said.

“It’s a long shot…” he replied but didn’t elaborate.

“What does that mean?”

“Well for one, I don’t know where my ship is. I know it’s on this planet somewhere because I saw it on our way here, but without coordinates and the aid of another ship we could end up looking for it forever. Also, I have no idea if we can still board the ship using my old codes. I have no idea what shape it’s in or if those bastards left any shuttles on it intact,” he replied with an angry look on his face.

“Why can’t I fly your ship?” asked Ukasnek.

Both Captain Orihci and Ukasnek looked at me with a curious look, anxiously awaiting my answer.

“I guess you don’t know the story about my ship,” I said and smiled.

“I know it’s a powerful little ship with a big reputation but a ship is a ship!” said Captain Orihci.

“I’ll tell you the story some other day when we have more time, but believe me when I tell you that no one but me can fly this ship and I can’t afford to leave the facility for too long. I have no idea how the super soldiers will react in my long absence.”

“Can you at least help us find Captain Orihci’s ship?” asked Ukasnek.

“I can do that. I can leave the facilities for a couple of hours at a time, I suppose… At the same time I can bring my ship closer to the facilities… In case I need it for an emergency or something. I’ll have to run diagnostics first and make sure everything is operational before we fly…” I said with hesitation. For some reason I was afraid to get back on the ship and the Captain and Ukasnek could sense it.

“Why don’t we do that right now since we have some free time, before we really get involved with our projects,” said Captain Orihci with a serious look on his face; not sure how I would react.

“Sure, why not,” I replied and started walking out of the conference room.

We walked in silence when I heard my stomach growl like a hungry lion, low and loud.

They both laughed. I heard Ukasnek whisper to Captain Orihci, “Otsiron is so worried about things he forgot to eat lunch.”

“I heard that!” I said and they both laughed.

“We can eat on my ship. There’s plenty of food there.”

“And plenty of rakia too… I hope…” said the Captain laughing.

I didn’t say anything more as we continued on our way in silence.

As we got closer my anxiety began to rise. I was afraid I would forget the ship’s entry codes.

Then I heard Captain Orihci yell, “What’s that?”

I looked in that direction and both Ukasnek and I simulataneously said, “That’s Enai’s ship.”

“Why can’t we use that ship?” asked Captain Orihci.

Ukasnek looked at me. When he saw that I had no answer he said, “It’s too small and useless! Besides, it has no navigation or power to fly long distances, even if we know the way there. But I can fly it back to the facility. It could be useful for something.”

The Captain looked at me a little disappointed but didn’t say anything. Ukasnek went towards the little ship.

“We’ll be right behind you,” I yelled. “See you at the facilities. Come and join us for some food and drink.”

After I used my badge and entered the codes correctly, the hatch on my ship began to open. The Captain waved at me to go in first.

“I know your ship is booby trapped and I don’t want to go in first and risk being injured.”

I smiled.

As soon as the Captain sat down I powered up the ship and followed Ukasnek, landing behind his ship on a patch of grass in front of the main entrance of the facility.

By the time I started opening the hatch Ukasnek was there waiting to get inside.

Whispering, the Captain said to me, “I know him, he would travel the galaxy for a drink…” and smiled.

“My kind of person…,” I said and smiled back.

After Ukasnek sat down I grabbed three jars of meat and three spoons, passed them around and said, “I hope the food hasn’t spoiled.” I sat down and we all started eating like hungry wolves.

I finished first, got up, grabbed a bottle of rakia and three cups. The Captain and Ukasnek put their jars down, took a cup each and held it in front of me while I poured rakia into them. Ukasnek gulped his right down and made a satisfying sound. Captain Orihci held his cup out and toasted us before he took a sip.

“You taught us to toast and then sip the rakia slowly to get the full flavour as it goes down,” he said

“That’s right. I would have said that but I don’t remember saying it to you.”

“You, the rakia king, I don’t remember who said it either…who cares… all I know is that it came from you,” he replied and had a second sip while Ukasnek took the bottle from my hand and helped himself.

After I toasted the Captain and Ukasnek I had a few sips and started running the diagnostics on my ship.

The rakia calmed us down and we were feeling lazy when I received the news that the diagnostics had passed without a single problem and that my ship was space worthy.

“Well gentlemen, we are ready to fly. Are you up to it? Which one of you can navigate…?” I asked.

“You want to go now?” asked Captain Orihci.

“Why not? I’ve only had a couple of sips of rakia.”

“We should tell someone we’re leaving. Open a channel and we’ll inform the tower,” the Captain said.

“If only I knew how!” I replied.

“Well, even though I was the Captain of a destroyer with hundreds of crew members to do the jobs for me, I still knew how to open a channel…” said the Captain.

He was interrupted by Ukasnek who said, “I’ll do it!” and instead of pushing a button he walked out of my ship and into the facility.

We suddenly laughed out loud, clinked our cups and had another sip of rakia.

We waited a long time for Ukasnek to return and when he did we made fun of him, teasing him for getting lost after having only a couple of drinks. Fortunately he had good news for us. He’d run into Enai who was familiar with my ship and explained to him how to use the communicator as well as how to enter coordinates into the navigation computer. Enai offered to come with us but Ukasnek convinced him his time would be better spent in the facility. Ukasnek also obtained a map of the path they’d taken in getting here and was convinced he could retrace their flight.

After Ukasnek pushed a few buttons on the communications panel he informed the tower of our departure and headings. He then instructed Captain Orihci on which buttons to push on the navigation panel to enter the flight coordinates to follow the path they’d taken here.

Then he said, “Fly low and slow and look for a big ship.”

Captain Orihci laughed a big laugh and pointing at Ukasnek said, “What would we do without this guy?”

After I pushed the joystick slightly up and forward, the ship hopped up and began to move.

Without looking back at me, Ukasnek shoved his empty cup towards me and kept it still while I filled it half full of rakia.

“Drink!” I said. “You earned it!”

The Captain did the same. I felt like drinking too and my massive body would have absorbed the rakia without becoming inebriated but I felt it would be inappropriate… to drink and drive.

The Captain looked at me, smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

Moments later the two broke into a song that was unfamiliar to me and my universal translator.

“It’s an old pirate song, sung in an old, abandoned dialect spoken in this part of the planet before it joined the Galaxy Traders consortium,” said Captain Orihci.

“We used to sing it when we were youngsters… We were going to be pirates you know… Follow in the tradition of our ancestors…” added Ukasnek.

I smiled and said, “I know so little about your people. I don’t even know the name of your planet.”

“It’s called Nelez. It means green in your language. It’s not an important planet. That’s why most of our people abandoned it except for the farmers, those who want to toil in the soil and earn their living the hard way. The rest of us… I joined the military. My friend here maintained our old tradition by earning his living trading whenever possible… And by other means… You know!” explained Captain Orihci.

“Tell him the truth. He already knows I was a pirate but what he doesn’t know is that I was the best pirate. I was a successful pirate and very good at my job. And that was okay. Right?” added Ukasnek.

I smiled but didn’t say anything.

They again broke into a song as they intently looked ahead, hoping to spot Captain Orihci’s ship. When the song ended the two went silent. Too silent… I figured they’d fallen asleep… But I couldn’t tell from behind. They were still in a sitting position.

About twenty minutes into the trip, Ukasnek startled me when he yelled loudly, “Holy Shit!”

“What is it?” asked Captain Orihci.

“Look to your right. There’s your ship. Now look to your left. Down there… Down the valley…” said Ukasnek excitedly.

“Holy Shit is right! It looks like a parking lot for large ships. Every ship belonging to the Galaxy Traders must be here. How did we miss this on our way here?” asked the Captain.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked.

“Land your ship on the left side of the destroyer about midway down and look for a hatch. If all goes well I’ll try to board it from there. As for the rest of these ships, we can’t do anything with them right now. Let’s focus on my ship,” the Captain said as I landed my ship where he pointed.

I was surprised to see that Captain Orihci was so nervous and excited as he approached the hatch and told us to go back inside my ship and wait. We did as he asked without asking why. After he opened the hatch he waved for us to come out and follow him inside.

“Those bastards locked my ship up tight but forgot to change the codes. Good thing too because the locks are tamper proof. The ship would have fired an energy burst and sometimes they’re lethal depending on where they hit you.”

The ship’s corridors were dark and every door was locked. The Captain flipped a switch inside a panel and some lights came on. I assumed these were emergency lights in case the ship lost power and I was right.

“Everything on the ship has been turned off. My poor ship is as good as dead. Only emergency power is available and that won’t last long. It will take days and a large crew to bring the ship back to life. Even if we find shuttles inside it, without power we won’t be able to open the hatches to take them out… But let’s not worry about that for now. Let’s see what we can find,” the Captain suggested.

“Imagine what we could do with a ship like this… If we had it all to ourselves…” said Ukasnek.

“That’s right my friend. I guess you’ve never been on my ship before. With its firepower it could split planets in half. She is a gentle but mighty beast. She doesn’t look it but she is one of the most powerful ships in our galaxy,” replied the Captain.

After walking down the corridors for what seemed like an eternity, we finally arrived at the back of the ship facing a cavern which, in the dark, looked like a very large cave. The Captain turned on another set of emergency lights and turned off the others. It looked like there were at least a dozen shuttles in the bays, all lined up ready to fly out. They looked like large beetles.

“Well here we are. We have more shuttles that we can fly but how do we get them out?” asked the Captain with a tone of concern in his voice.

“There has to be away!” said Ukasnek.

“There is!” I replied.

“There is?” they both asked.

“How?” asked the Captain.

“I can blast one of the hatches open with my ship’s cannons.”

“Oh no, no, no, no!” protested the Captain loudly. “You’re not going to do any such thing to my ship. Not as long as I’m alive!”

“There has to be another way! Are there no manual overrides on the hatches? What happens when the motors break down and you need to open the hatch manually?” asked Ukasnek.

“I call the maintenance crew,” replied the Captain and we all broke into uncontrollable laughter.

Immediately after that Ukasnek dashed down the rails to the back of the ship to examine the hatches.

“If there’s a way to open them, I’m sure Ukasnek will find it. He’s very resourceful when it comes to breaking and entering,” explained Captain Orihci.

Just as he finished saying that we heard Ukasnek yell, “Found it!”

We both ran down as fast as we could and saw Ukasnek pointing at a wheel that looked like those on a submarine hatch. Ukasnek tried to rotate it but couldn’t. The Captain also tried but couldn’t do it either.

“It’s stuck.” He looked at me and said, “If you can’t rotate it we’re screwed.”

I tried but couldn’t rotate it either; even with my immense body and super soldier strength.

“Maybe we can bang it with something and loosen it,” Ukasnek suggested but the Captain wouldn’t allow it. He didn’t want his ship damaged.

“There is another way,” I said, “but we mustn’t tell anyone about it. Swear to me that you won’t.”

They both agreed and had a laugh at my expense.

I grabbed a vial of the fire water I was carrying with me for such an emergency and popped it into my mouth as they both watched me curiously. A few seconds later I raised my arms up high, growled like a lion as loud as I could, for effect, and banged my arms down on the rails. The moment I began to feel the effects of the fire water, I went to the wheel and spun it as hard as I could like a spinning top. The moment the hatch was fully open I turned towards them, lifted my arms up and started growling and breathing furiously. I then started laughing and said, “You should have seen your faces…”

The moment they realized that I was teasing them the Captain said, “I have never before seen a hatch open so fast…”

But he was interrupted by Ukasnek who asked, “What the hell was that stuff? Can I have some…? Imagine the money it would bring selling it on the black market…”

“Sorry Ukasnek that stuff, I was told, is poison and only a few select people can tolerate it. In Ostikon they call it fire water. I have very little of it and use it only in emergencies.”

“Wow, how many more secrets do you have that we don’t know about?” asked Captain Orihci. He looked outside his ship through the open bay door and said, “We should be able to fly a couple of these shuttles out. You’re better pilots than me. Take them out and I’ll shut the bay manually and lock down the ship.”

“Sorry, I don’t even know how to get into one of these shuttles, never mind fly it,” I said.

“Didn’t they teach you anything in the academy?” asked Captain Orihci sounding slightly frustrated.

I smiled, raised my shoulders and said nothing.

Captain Orihci then turned to Ukasnek and said, “In that case you take both shuttles out, park them outside and wait for me. I’ll join you after I lock up.” The Captain then turned to me and said “You leave through there and bring your ship around. We’ll escort you

back to the facility so you don’t get lost,” he said while pointing at the open bay door.

I felt a bit insulted when the Captain said that but he was right. I wasn’t a real pilot or a real Captain. I was nobody caught up in circumstances not of my making. Like a leaf caught in a windstorm.

The Captain was always surrounded by competent people who did what they were asked and did it with pride. All he asked me to do, a skilled pilot, was take a shuttle out of the bay and I refused to do it… because I truly didn’t know how. But he didn’t know that. I wondered what he really thought of me.

I parked my ship beside the shuttles and went outside and joined Ukasnek. While watching the ship’s bay door slowly close, Ukasnek said, “By asking me to fly the shuttles out he admitted to me that I’m a better pilot. You saw that right? He could have taken the second shuttle out but he didn’t. Why? Because he would have embarrassed himself if he scratched the shuttle. Is that why you refused to fly it out?”

“Yes, I have a robot doing the precision flying for me in and out of tight spots so I never learned how,” I replied, attempting to cover up my inadequacies.

He didn’t say anything as we waited for the Captain to return.

When we saw him approaching from around the ship he waved for us to get into our ships and get ready to fly out.

Ukasnek took the lead and took us back in a couple of minutes. We parked the ships one behind the other on the grass in front of the main entrance.

Just as I came out of my ship, I turned on the transmitter to check on the soldiers to make my presence known and make sure everything was okay.

When I was done with the super soldiers the Captain apologized to me for being a bit brisk with me earlier.

“It’s not in my nature to be rude to people so I apologize if I was. We truly don’t know you or your situation but we are sure grateful you’re here. You’ve been here for us when we needed you... Are we good?”

“Yes, we’re good. Thank you,” I replied.

Moments later Ukasnek, looking a bit anxious, joined us. “What do we do next?” he asked.