Part 5 - Part 03

“Well, once we get involved with the people arriving from Ostikon we won’t have time for the berries and if we leave them too long they’ll rot. I would like to see more rakia made if nothing else,” replied Rolo.

“Rolo is right…” said Nagol, “you go right ahead but count me out.” Aneleh and Ilisa also declined.

By now it was way past lunch time but after we’d discovered how our food was made, no one felt like eating.

When we arrived and got inside the warehouse we looked around. Enai figured out how to turn on the lights. He also discovered that the entire internal part of the warehouse was a machine for processing fruit.

“The berries are resting on a huge bowl shaped floor with a hole at the bottom which leads to a conveyor belt. When activated the conveyor belt carries the berries up to the press. The berries are washed on the way up and dropped into the press. When the press is filled to a certain level, the pressing begins,” said Enai looking at a schematic diagram of the machine’s control panel.

“Here are the instructions on how to operate the machine…” said Enai and began to read them out loud,

“1 – Flush tank 2 – Activate conveyer and press 3 – Dispose of pressed material 4 – Repeat 5 – Initiate boiling 6 – Empty boiler 7 – Initiate cleaning…”

There was a push button and a light in front of each step except for number four. The lights were all off.

“Should we do it?” asked Enai.

We looked at each other with uncertainty.

“Do it…” said Rolo, “it’now or never…”

“I can’t believe how simple the process is? And it’s all automated,” said Delche.

“It has to be, otherwise the berries would rot, I guess…” said Ori.

Enai pushed the first button to wash the tank. We all stood there excited, waiting to see what would happen. The light came on. Then there was a loud click and we heard water pouring and splashing, then there was a gurgle and another loud click. The light went off.

“I guess the tank has been cleaned…” said Enai and pushed the second button. There was a loud winding sound, a loud click, water

splashing both on the conveyer belt and inside the press, water rolling out of the press and another loud click. Then everything went quiet. Then there was the sound of air blowing. Enai looked at the light. It was still on.

“I guess the machine is waiting for the washed berries to dry…” he said.

The winding sound started again and we heard berries falling to the bottom of the press. After that a siren began to sound and we could see the bolt, lowering the top of the press, turning. As it got past a certain point the siren stopped and we could hear juice flowing and being pumped into the boiler tank.

When the light went off Enai pushed the next button to dispose of the pressed berries. We heard a swishing sound to the left side of the press. A small door started to open and squashed berries began to fall. They fell into a bin as a solid cube. It was automatically pushed out.

“We need to empty the bin and put it back before we start pressing the next batch. Clearly this machine was built to be operated by a single person,” said Enai.

Delche and I went down a set of stairs and figured out where and how to empty the bin. When we returned and put the bin back Enai began to repeat the process.

“You know this will take hours…” Enai said.

“Well, what should we do?” I asked and then remembered I’d left Nine with Ireva.

“Well, one of you should stay here and operate the machine. I’ll have to look for containers to put the syrup in after it boils…”

“I’ll operate the machine,” said Delche.

“I guess I’ll stay with him,” said Ori.

“I guess Rolo and I should go with Enai…” I said. “But first I should look into how Nine is doing… It should only take me a moment.” When I thought of her I could see her looking at a piece of paper with writing on it but I couldn’t read the language it was written in. I then focused on Enai at the same time.

Without asking him he said, “The sign said ‘Please send her back’…”

“What sign…? I don’t see any sign…” said Rolo. I had to explain to him what we were doing. “Ohhh” he said and left it at that.

The moment Nine moved, Ireva moved in front of her face and said, “Please send her back to the barracks… She’s making our brothers feel very sad…” so I dismissed her immediately.

“This is one hell of a mess we’re in…” I said. No one asked what I meant by that…

Making new friends

After we’d left Delche and Ori at the factory, Rolo, Enai and I got on the bus and returned to the facility. There we found Amih looking for her bus. She seemed distressed.

“Where have you been?” she asked, sounding annoyed.

“We went to the factory to press the berries…” I said.

“What…?” she asked like she didn’t know what I was talking about. Maybe she didn’t.

“Never mind… How can we help you?”

“I need the bus to take my sons back to their work…” she said and started crying.

“I grabbed her in my arms and asked her what had happened.

“Things were going so well until they started asking questions about what happened to Jess and why Jess was like that. When I told them they became very upset and wanted to leave immediately. They demanded that we take them back into that hellhole. Why? I don’t understand why? I thought they would be happy now that they were free and with us again. I told that them I was so happy that they hadn’t been turned into super soldiers like Jess and they just snapped. I just don’t know why… What did I say that was so wrong? I told them I would take them back, if that’s what they wanted… I’d do whatever they wanted to make them happy… They said they wanted to go back…”

“Please Amih, don’t cry, don’t torment yourself… You didn’t do anything wrong. They’ve been through a lot and it will take them some time to adjust. They don’t know what happened out here… It’s too much to handle everything all at once…”

“Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m happy that I found my boys. I’m grateful that they are alive and well… I’m just disappointed the way things worked out. That’s all.”

“Please give it some time… Where are they now and can I talk to them?”

“They are with Ireva in the reception area. They are in the booth… They’re not ready to face people gawking at them.”

I marched straight into the reception area. Amih stayed back with Rolo and Enai. I hastily opened the booth door and told Ireva to get out, but she said she was staying. I slammed the door shut.

They looked at me and movedcloser to each other. They were afraid of me… terrified. Ireva was sitting on the opposite side and made room for me to sit beside her. Then they started looking at my wound. It bled from time to time and the black streaks of blood had dried down my arm to my hand.

“I see you’re still wearing your translators so you should be able to understand what I have to say. Your mother tells me that you want to go back to the factory, with which I have no problem … In fact I commend you for that… It’s very noble of you to want to help your fellow human beings. What worries me is that you’re upsetting your mother… She is out there crying her eyes out, not understanding why you’re abandoning her… in this manner. You should talk to her and tell her why you’re leaving… She’s acting like this because she’s your mother and cares about you. And not just about you… She cares about all of us… I’m a stranger to her but she cares about me more than most… She is the pillar in our community here. She has done more for the people here than anyone… And there wasn’t a day that passed that she didn’t ask about you. Never once did she abandon you…” I said and looked at Ireva. She nodded her head in agreement.

“You can go back but first I want you to make peace with your mother. I know it’s difficult, considering what happened to you… but we all had to go through that… I wasn’t born like this but I accepted my fate and moved on… and so should you. Your mother is precious to me… I have never met a person so kind and caring… Do you understand?!” I said the last part a little louder and heard Ireva sigh deeply. They looked terrified.

“He’s right you know… We only have one mom… Go out there and talk to her, make her feel good… Do the best you can. Don’t let the weight of the world keep you down. Take one step at a time…” said Ireva and escorted them outside to the bus.

When they got there Ireva told her brothers and her mother to get on the bus and asked the others to stay outside for a while and give them some time to sort out their differences. In the meantime she came over to me and grabbed my left arm and said, “I’ll go back and get you a new uniform and a medical kit to clean your wound…”

As we stood outside we watched mother and sons battle it out, voices raised, arms flying, tears flowing…

“She is a tough woman…” said Enai, “she’ll survive. I’ll bet you deep down she is happy to be yelling at them… She may have lost one but she still has three. I have none…”

We all stood there in silence. Ireva came back and offered me the uniform. I looked at her.

“Okay, okay, I’ll hold onto it until we find a place for you to change… Not that anyone would want to look at you naked…” she said and started washing my wound.

“I can’t wrap it until you remove your uniform… And since it’s one piece, I guess I will be seeing you naked.”

I didn’t say anything.

They stopped the yelling in the bus and each son took a turn to apologize to his mother and hug her; at least that’s what we thought they were doing.

Amih came outside and said, “I’m glad we got all that sorted out. I apologize for keeping you all out here. Now please hop on the bus and let’s go… Someone else drive…” Enai did it.

We all went with Amih to give her our support and dropped off her sons at the factory. But before we did that I took everyone to the press factory to show them what Delche and Ori were doing. After Amih introduced hers sons, even though Delche and Ori had met them earlier, Ori said, “We need to spend the night here… It will take all night and maybe part of tomorrow before we’re done processing the berries. Then we have to boil the juice. That too will take a long time and after that we have to put it in some sort of container or containers, which we don’t have.”

“Okay, I’ll go back and bring my ship here. We can sleep in it.”

At that point, seeing that we had things to do, the older son said, “We have to go now…” After giving their mother a hug, the two left in a hurry and crossed the road to the food processing factory. The rest of us, except for Delche and Ori, got onto the bus and left.

On the way back I asked Amih what had happened between her and her sons on the bus but all she said was that they had worked out their differences. “Did you threaten my sons?”

Ireva laughed out loud and said, “Those little bastards… They haven’t changed a bit… They used to do that to me… tell you I threatened them when I hadn’t…”

“Yes because you were a tyrant…” said Amih and laughed.

When we got back to the facility I went straight for my ship. Ireva followed me. I looked at her.

“You forgot already? I’m bringing your uniform and need to bandage your wound…”

“Oh,” I said as I punched in the codes to open the hatch. When we got inside she looked away while I put my new uniform on, halfway up, and then put the rest of it on after she bandaged my wound.

“This is a bigger sized uniform…” I said.

“It’s the same size… You probably lost weight… It’s better for you… More air will get in and you’ll stink a little less,” she said, grabbed my old uniform and ran out of the ship to the facility; waving goodbye as she ran.

I got to the factory faster… faster than it took me to shut the ship’s hatch. “That’s the only way to travel…” I said to myself out loud. I saw Delche standing by the door looking like he was eating something. Then I realized I’d forgotten to pick up our supper.

“We had no lunch and now we won’t have any supper… I forgot to get us some food,” I said and apologized.

“No problem… Tonight we feast on fruit… That’s what we used to do in Ostikon, right?” said Delche.

Ori came out too and we went inside my ship. “I just started the press. It will take several minutes to do its thing before I have to empty the bin again… I need to sit down for a while...” Ori said.

“Why don’t you take a break for a while and we’ll look after the press. Contact Airam and see what’s happening at home…” said Delche and we walked outside.

Delche pulled a couple of berries out from his pocket and handed them to me. They tasted delicious.

“I see you got yourself a new uniform… How’s your shoulder?”

“I’ll live…”

As I threw the berry pits out towards the street, I saw two figures coming towards us in the dark. “Ori, turn on the ship’s lights, grab a pistol and get out here...”

“No need,” one of them yelled. “It’s us, Haon and Nosam … Amih’s sons… We met earlier…” one of them yelled.

“Ori cancel that order.”

One of them was carrying a tray full of food and the other one was carrying two, twenty litre white buckets with lids.

“We know you missed eating lunch today and probably didn’t eat supper either so we’re here with a peace offering,” said Haon, the older son.

“We also heard that you were in need of containers for the syrup you’re making. So we’ll give you all the containers you need in exchange for two containers full of your syrup,” said Nosam, the younger son.

“It’s a deal…” said Delche.

“We have a lot of syrup; we may need a thousand of those… Would you have that many…? And aren’t you going to get into trouble for giving them away…?”

“Hell no…! We’re the bosses now… we have a warehouse full of buckets…” said Haon.

Delche and I looked at each other and invited them into my ship. Delche picked up some empty jars from the shelf and had the boys fill them with food. We each ate one and the boys filled them again.

“We finally got our fill of food after you got rid of those robots…” said Haon.

“Are you going to have enough food for the soldiers and the facility workers?” I asked.

“Hell yes… It’s not that there is no food! There’s plenty of food… It’s just that the robots wouldn’t allow us to eat more or make more than what the quota requirements allowed. The portions of food we made were for regular folk, not for big guys like you or for hard working people like us…”

“So now that the robots are gone, who will to manage the food factory?” I asked.

“We will. We always managed the food processing… The robots were there to keep us working and not slacking or running off… and to keep the quotas filled. We know what to do and are willing to do it… The only thing we want is shorter hours and some time off.”

“How long do your work?”

“Half a day, every day… in two shifts…”

“The old man said you don’t have water…”

“We have plenty of water… It’s just that the robots wouldn’t allow us access to it. We were short of water during the drought and the robots were told not to let us shower, but when the drought was over no one told them to let us have our showers back… so they continued and wouldn’t let us shower.”

“What was the argument with your mother today?” I asked.

“It was nothing… It was stupid… First we couldn’t understand why you hadn’t come to rescue us earlier… a long time ago… Then it was about the sister we had and didn’t know about… Then Jess stood there like a big doll ignoring us… The entire argument was stupid.”

“It wasn’t that your sister was ignoring you… Her mind was stripped of all her memories… She was assaulted in the worst way imaginable…”

“We know, Ireva told us later. She told us what happened to her and a million others like her. That angered me the most…” said Haon. “And all this time we hated and feared people like her… not knowing that they were our brothers, sisters and neighbours… How people could do that to other people… I don’t know…”

“What happened, happened… We can’t change that… All we can do now is look forward…” I said.

“I agree with you…” said Haon and began to eat another jar of food.

After he was done, Delche and I took the brothers to the press area in the factory; allowing Ori to send his message to Airam. We emptied the pressed berries and started up the press again. When we were done we went outside and stood beside my ship in the dark.

“One thing that has been my concern is that the soldiers aren’t getting enough food,” I said. “Is there any way to increase their food supply?”

“Yes,” said Haon.

“Well, tell me more…”

“What we can do is use all the raw materials delivered to us. Right now we fill quotas. If more raw materials are delivered we just throw them out in the garbage. What we can do is process everything that is delivered and you can decide what to do with it. In other words, some days you will get more food than other days… It’s the same to us… In fact it’s easier for us to process everything… because it’s done automatically… than to measure the quantity produced like we do now…”

“Okay then, please do that… We will be eternally grateful to you… especially the super soldiers…”

“We would do anything for our sister if it makes her happy…” said Nosam.

“Ireva told us that you’re the only one that Jess listens to… She said you talk to her telepathically…” said Haon.

“Yes, that’s true… of the million soldiers we have here, she is the only one I can talk to telepathically…”

“You must have a special connection…” said Nosam.

“No, no no, he’s the great Otsiron… Remember what Dad used to tell us?” said Haon.

“Whatever your dad told you is probably not true… I only got my telepathic abilities after I was turned into a super soldier…”

“C’mon…! I saw how you leapt and ran like a demon this morning… I have never seen a human run like that before. Especially after you were wounded… I saw the robot shoot you and you didn’t flinch…”

“C’mon guys… I’m just an ordinary person… turned into a super soldier… You can ask Delche here…”

“No you’re not… Why aren’t you like Jess then?” asked Nosam.

“Something happened to the process… Something broke when the big robot was trying to make me into a super soldier…”

“No… You are a super human… Ireva told us…” said Nosam.

“No she did not!”

“Not in those words… but she did say you destroyed the big robot that made the super soldiers and we saw you destroy the robots that kept us prisoners… And on top of that Dad told us you outsmarted the best captain we ever had? Is that correct?”

“Please Delche, help me out here…”

“No thank you… But I can see that they are Ireva’s brothers… Good luck to you…”

“Okay guys enough…”

“Get to know him first… and you’ll find out for yourselves that he is an ordinary person like he’s telling you…” said Delche.

“What’s the atmosphere like in the factory…?” I asked.

“I don’t know what that means exactly but if you’re asking if we get along with each other, I would have to say that we support and look after each other. Most of the people in there are locals, simple

people… But they are most kind and loyal. They would give their lives for us… and us for them. We respect everyone and they respect us. That’s why we wanted to come back here more than anything…” said Haon.

“What happened to your clothes?” asked Delche.

“One day whoever supplied us with clothes, stopped delivering…” said Nosam.

“Hey, I remember now. Ireva said you’re the king of rakia. I didn’t make the connection until I remembered Dad talking about you…” said Haon.

“How do you know about rakia? Do you even know what it is?” asked Delche.

“Yes we do… We used to sneak some from Dad’s supply. Personally I found it disgusting… But the way people talked about it… it seemed special… So, imagine that… The day we were freed we weren’t only reunited with our parents, thanks to you guys, but we also got to meet the great Otsiron and the king of rakia… all at the same time,” said Haon jokingly; mocking us.

“Guys… You are nuts… just like your sister Ireva…” I said.

They started laughing. Nosam went inside the ship with his empty food container. When he came out they said goodnight and laughed all the way back to the food factory. They left their white buckets behind for us to fill with syrup.

“Ireva must have had a lot on influence on them when they were growing up. I’m sure their mother didn’t instill this foolishness in them…” I said.

“I guess we have to fill those buckets with syrup…” said Delche and we went back inside the factory to see how the press was doing. When we returned Ori had finished sending his message to Airam and said he was going to bed to sleep. Delche and I spent some time talking about what would happen when people started arriving from

Ostikon by the thousands. One thing we agreed on was that the facility couldn’t support them all. We were sure there was space to house them inside the bowels of the facility, since it was built to house a couple of million soldiers. But we wouldn’t have enough food. We needed to find another source to supply us with food or drastically expand the current supply and production.

It was almost morning before we pressed our last berries and were ready to boil them. At this point we were preoccupied with what to do about making rakia and where we could store the syrup. We decided to boil this batch and worry about making rakia from the berries stored at the farm. Delche was hesitant for a moment but pushed the button to start the boiler.

After the light went on the boiler began to hiss, the hissing became louder with time and finally, minutes later, we heard rumbling sounds. The big boiler started to boil.

“I’m sure this will take a long time to complete. There’s a lot of juice in there. All the water needs to be boiled out of it before we can call it syrup. I’m glad the process is automatic otherwise I wouldn’t know what to do,” said Delche.

It was getting lighter outside and we couldn’t decide what to do. Do we go to sleep or plan how to bring the rest of the berries here from the farm? We went back inside the ship. After pondering for a while we decided to fly to the farm and assess the size of the job. Just as I was ready to close the hatch I heard a beep and saw a red flashing light emanating from Ori’s communication’s console.

“It must be from Airam… Should we listen to it…?” asked Delche.

“We’d better not… there might be some personal stuff there…”

“I can’t wait… I’ll wake him up…” said Delche.

“You don’t have to, I’m awake…”

“Let’s go,” I said. “Give him some privacy…” and we went outside.

It didn’t take too long before Ori came out to give us the news.

“All is well back home. Ruzha is coming and Airam was asked to recruit one thousand workers for us from the outlanders. Airam needs money and wants us to send her some with the ship that will bring Ruzha here when it returns. She’ll be coming with a small group of experts… on what she didn’t say. Oh yeah, if all goes well, Ruzha will be here in five days…”

“Yeah, she needs a whole day to pack her stuff. It only takes four days to get here…” I said.

“You haven’t lived with a woman have you?” asked Delche sarcastically.

“Yes I have…” I said. “I spent some time with Nine…”

They both started laughing. Suddenly there was a rumbling sound. “Mother Nature, I hope that’s not the boiler…?’ yelled Delche and the three of us ran inside the factory. It wasn’t the boiler; the sound was coming from outside. Seconds later we saw Amih’s bus followed by three big trucks rolling into the driveway of the food factory next door.

“Good old Amih, what’s she up to now?” asked Ori.

“Those are water trucks… we can use them to bring our berries from the farm here…” said Delche.

“Let’s go and see what she’s up to…” I said and we began to walk towards her bus.

“Ah good morning boys, nice to see you up early this morning... I brought the workers some clothes and water to wash. Have you seen my sons?”

“Yes we have, they brought us some food last evening and we had a nice chat…”

“How did they seem?”

“They are fine… but you have to stop doing things for them… unless they ask you to…”

“You’re right… sometimes I can’t help it…”

“They could use the clothing but won’t need the water. You can take the water to the farmers and replenish their supply… I remember hearing them complaining about not having enough water…” I said.

“Okay… Can you get my sons out here please?”

“Haon, Nosam… get you butts out here…” I yelled as loud as I could.

“Oh I see, they won’t talk to me but they’re on a first name basis with you…”

“Sometimes it’s easier to talk to strangers… It doesn’t mean anything…”

A man came out and said, “Can I help you Sir?”

“I guess they don’t understand Macedonian…” I said before Amih interrupted and said, “We want to see Haon and Nosam.”

“They’re sleeping Madam, would you like me to wake them?”

“No, please don’t… I have some uniforms here for the workers… who can I give them to?”

“I’ll send some boys out to pick them up…” he said while Amih showed him where the uniforms were.

“I could only get about one hundred… We’ve exhausted our supply. I’ll try to get you more as soon as I find out where to order them from …” yelled Amih as the man started to walk away.

“Please don’t forget, we have women and children in there and they could use new clothing too …”

“Okay…” said Amih, looked at us and added. “Where in God’s name am I going to get that kind of clothing? And did I hear him right? He said they have women and children in there? This is a tragedy… Guys I need your help…”

“We can give then some of our super soldier uniforms…” I said jokingly.

“I’m sorry but please this isn’t the time for jokes…” she replied, thought about it for a second and then started laughing… Delche, Ori and I also started laughing. The truckers driving the water trucks began to wonder if we were losing our marbles.

“We are pathetic, aren’t we…? Laughing at other people’s misery… But it is funny…” said Amih.

“I have an idea…” I said.

“That’s what I want to hear…” said Amih.

“Delche, what did the army in Ostikon do with the old uniforms when they replaced them with new ones?” I asked.

“They were sold to wholesalers and they are being sold at second hand clothing stores. Why do you ask?”

“They have clothing for women too, right…?”

“They sure do.”

“How about we buy several thousand uniforms and have them shipped to us?”

“We can do that. Ori send a message to Airam and order the uniforms in my name. We’ll send the money with the ship that’s bringing Ruzha here.”

Ori immediately ran into the ship to prepare a message.

“That’s fantastic… I knew I could count on you… Ruzha is coming? For real…? Oh Rolo and Ilisa will be thrilled. When is she coming?

“In about five days…”

Moments later we watched the clothes being offloaded by a dozen young men wearing rags. When they were done the previous man popped his head out the door and yelled, “Thank you” and closed the door behind them.

“What now?” asked Amih.

“When Ori is done we’ll fly to the grove to see what to do about the berries. You deliver the water to the farmers…”

“Okay…” she said and went to speak to the drivers to let them know the plan had changed. As soon as she got back to her bus they drove off.

“What about the boiler?” asked Delche.

“It’s automatic; it can look after itself… It will stop boiling on its own…”

“I know that but what if something goes wrong…?”

“If it does, it does… nothing we can do about it…”

By now the bus and trucks had cleared out and were out of sight. We went inside the ship.

“You can fly there while I’m putting the message together, you don’t need me…” said Ori, so that’s what I did.

“By the grace of God, I thought an angel was coming to visit us…” said the old farmer lady after we landed in the yard in front of her warehouse.

Ori removed his translator and gave it to the old lady.

“We’re here to see about moving the berries from here to the press in the valley…” I said.

“Why would you want to do that? Besides, you can’t… How are you going to get so many berries out of the warehouse? We have a press inside but we don’t have the water needed to operate it.”

“That was a nice surprise…” said Delche.

“We do…” I said. “How much water will we need?”

“For that amount of berries, I would say about five to six truck loads.”

“We can do that… Where do you put the water?”

The old woman unlocked and opened the warehouse door and showed us the pipe. As we walked deeper into the warehouse she gave Ori his translator back and left. We were suddenly faced with a mountain of berries. There was a nice aroma emanating from them. We started looking for the control panel but before we had a chance to find it we heard Amih’s bus and the water trucks roll into the driveway.

“Did you ask the farmers where they want this water dumped?” yelled Amih.

“Yes, bring the drivers here and we’ll show them where to dump it…”

At that point I asked Amih to tell the drivers to bring one more load of water after they emptied this load and to leave one truck behind so that we could load it with berry juice for making the rakia.

“If you don’t need me anymore I’ll go back to the facility…”

“Thanks for everything… See you later,” I said and she left.

After the drivers emptied the water they went back to get another load. We went back inside the warehouse and found the light switch

and control panel. It was identical to the other one. We also found where to dump the pressed berries. After that Ori suggested Delche and I get some sleep while he worked the first shift processing the berries.

A few hours later Ori woke us up to tell us that the old lady had brought us a late breakfast or early lunch. When we got up we saw that the drivers had filled the tank with water and had left one of their trucks for us to fill with juice. Ori said the press was working fine and he was going to operate it for a few more hours so that we could get some more sleep.

About four hours later, after we’d gone to sleep for a second time, I heard a beep from Ori’s console and went to get Ori to see what it was.

“Ori, there might be a message for you… your console just beeped.”

While going in, Ori ran into Delche who said, “Why didn’t you wake me earlier? I would have taken over for you.”

“No problem, I’m doing okay…” he replied and went to see what the message was. It didn’t take long before he came out and said, “I got a reply from Airam. She said she’ll buy the uniforms and send some with Ruzha and the rest with the next ship that comes our way…” Then he went back into the ship to get some sleep.

“We’ve been pressing for six hours… What do you say we fill the tank of the truck with juice for our rakia… and see what the juice looks and tastes like?” said Delche.

“Do you know how to get it out of the big tank?” I asked.

“See that long hose with a nozzle at the end? It’s attached to the tank.”

I went back to my ship and got a couple empty rakia bottles. “Pour some in here and let’s see what it looks like…” I said.

The moment Delche pressed the lever, black stuff squirted into the bottle. He stopped and said, “I’ve never seen juice look like that. It’s disgusting.”

“The berries are yellowish inside. The hose must be dirty… We should have cleaned it when we rinsed the boiler… Too late now…” I said.

Delche kept running the hose until the juice was clear. Then he poured some into the other bottle.

“Too bad we had to waste so much juice… But look at this… it looks like gold… Do you want to try some?

“Yes,” I said so he handed me the bottle. “It’s delicious… I estimate it has about five to ten percent sugar…”

Delche also took a slug and was in agreement. He then stretched the hose, climbed on top of the truck and started pouring. “Check at the back and make sure its not dripping.”

I went all around the truck and said, “I don’t see anything dripping…”

He kept pumping for about ten minutes before the tank was full. After that he sealed the lid and opened the tiny valve on top. “This is so it can breathe. The moment the juice starts fermenting it will start expelling air. All we have to do now is take the truck to the facility and patiently wait for the juice to ferment.”

“I guess we’ll boil the rest when we’re done pressing and turn it into syrup…” I said.

“Speaking of syrup, we mustn’t forget to go to the other place and give the boys their syrup and get our buckets…” said Delche.

Our first mission

Before we started boiling our batch of berry juice at the farm, we collected every empty jar and bottle we had in my ship and filled them with juice; some to give away and some to keep so Delche could experiment with making starter yeast to start the fermentation in case it didn’t start on its own.

After we secured the bottles and jars we flew off and went to see how the boiling was doing at the press factory. Just as we got there we saw Haon and Nosam emerge from the food factory and head straight for us.

“I hear you were looking for us this morning…” said Haon.

“Oh my, oh my… Is this that famous ship…?” asked Nosam before I interrupted him.

“Yes, your mother was here. She brought some clothing for the workers… And yes, this is that famous ship… You saw it last night…”

“Okay, okay, no need to get defensive… It was dark last night, I couldn’t see much…” said Nosam.

“What you got there? Is that rakia…?” asked Haon looking at Delche.

“Yes it is… I’ll give you a bottle each if you bring us some food…”

“Go!” said Haon to Nosam, who ran back to the food factory.

“Let me try some…” said Haon.

Ori gave him a bottle.

“This isn’t rakia, it’s watered down berry syrup.”

“That’s rakia but it hasn’t been made yet…” said Delche.

Haon scratched his head and said, “My brother doesn’t know what rakia tastes like so let’s play a trick on him…”

When Nosam came back he filled the unwashed jars we’d used the night before with food and said, “Can I have my bottle now…?”

“Mmm that’s good rakia,” Haon said.

Nosam opened the bottle, tried some and said, “Are you sure this is rakia? It tastes the same as watered down berry syrup.”

“Of course I’m sure!” said Haon and started laughing.

“Why are you laughing?” asked Nosam.

“Some day you’ll find out…” he replied and both brothers ran back to the food factory.

“We’ll have your syrup ready in a short while… will you come and pick it up?” I yelled.

“Yes, leave the buckets outside our door…”

“By the way, what are you going to do with the syrup?” yelled Delche.

“Sweeten our tea…” replied Haon before they both disappeared into the food factory.

When we went inside the press factory we noticed the light was off, which meant that the boiling was done. But the big boiler was still very hot.

“This may take days to cool…” said Delche.

“Will it be safe to empty some into the buckets?” asked Ori.

“I guess so… There’s only one way to find out…” I said and went and grabbed the nozzle, dragged the hose to the drain and let it run.

It was black and thick at the start but quickly cleared. The liquid coming out was hot.

Delche brought the buckets over and watched me fill them. “I guess the liquid thickens as it cools,” I said.

“If it thickens too much and doesn’t run we may have to reheat it to empty the boiler,” said Delche.

Besides being hot to the touch, the buckets were really heavy. I had to deliver them myself; they were too heavy for Delche and Ori to carry. When I got back Ori informed me that we had received a text message but he couldn’t read it. It was written in the Galaxy Trader language. I immediately contacted Enai telepathically and he told me what the message said.

“The message was sent by our communications tower. It’s an invitation from Captain Orihci, inviting you to attend a meeting to be held in the common room right after supper… which is in ten minutes.”

“How come they sent us a text message and not a voice message…? Don’t they know we can’t read your language?” I asked.

“I don’t know… When they couldn’t find you anywhere and your ship wasn’t here, they figured you had flown somewhere…”

“Well, for their information, we were pressing the berries at the farm… We’ll be there for the meeting…” I said and told Ori and Delche to start eating their supper while I flew back to the facility. I ate my food after we landed. Before we left my ship we took a few bottles of berry juice for the meeting; to celebrate with our friends the harvesting of our first crop. Amih and Ireva brought glasses out and served everyone.

Captain Orihci did the toasting, “To our health and prosperity… Let this be the first of many fruits we will gather here…”

After we all had a sip of the juice the Captain said, “I asked you all to assemble here because a number of developments have occurred

in the last couple of days… First and most important to my family and to our community, is that we found our sons and a large number of people who haven’t yet been identified and we need to help reunite them with their families. Amih has volunteered to do that.

Second, we need to elect a governor to legally run the affairs of this planet. I have been doing this job unofficially and will continue to do it until we find our governor. Amih, with Nagol and Ilisa’s help, will look for prospective candidates for both a governor and a local leader.

Third, Enai informed me that our transmitter is operational and we can begin to use it anytime we’re ready. Amih has informed me that she found three volunteers to operate it; Bibi and two of our DNA machine operators, one from Ostikon and the other from one of our Galaxy Trader planets. One of his associates will train several people to work the controls and do the technical work. This is to start us out but we’ll add more people as needed when we develop our programs.

Fourth, we were informed by the Ostikon government that they will send Ruzha here…” Cheering erupted and when everyone had stopped the Captain continued, “as well as experts to help us get organized. Later they will send us about one thousand workers as soon as they recruit them. Ruzha will be arriving in five days… The rest we don’t know.

Fifth, we need new clothes for our workers in the food plant and for us here. Amih tells me that we have exhausted our local supply but we can purchase military uniforms from Ostikon… Is that right?”

“Yes, and they will be delivered here with the next shipment,” said Delche.

“Oh good! Thank you for that Delche.”

Sixth, Ukasnek has been our unofficial civilian protector here in this facility. I would like to extend his authority to the entire planet and make him our official protector. Any objections?”

No one objected.

Seventh, we have a very powerful army here and the mightiest ship in both of our worlds I propose that we adopt the ship and the army and make them the official defenders of our planet. I propose we appoint Otsiron as the supreme commander of our army…” Cheering erupted again. “Any objections?”

No one objected.

Eighth, Nagol, Ilisa, Ireva and a couple of their assistants have been working very hard to make contact with other planets and open diplomatic missions. I’m happy to say that they have succeeded. Ireva made contact with the authorities of our closest planet and they were invited for a visit. They are leaving tomorrow morning after breakfast…”

“I expect it will be a short mission, since it’s our first and also we want to be here when Ruzha arrives; especially Ilisa, her adoptive mother, who is anxious to see her,” interrupted Nagol.

“Ninth, Captain Rolo has informed me that he asked his contacts in Ostikon to find and hire crews for my destroyer and for the other ships parked in the ravine.”

And for my final point, we will need to feed and house all these new people who will be arriving here. I believe we have space in the facility to house them for now and we will be looking to occupy the empty homes in the valley in the near future. But the problem we’ll have is finding enough food to feed them. I will ask my sons Haon and Nosam to look into it.

I will now open the floor for discussion. Thank you,” concluded Captain Orihci.

Ukasnek stood up and said, “Regarding food sources, we should look around our planet; especially around the other facility… There must be farms all around that facility… If we get enough workers we can start growing food there.”

“Yes, we should do that, as well as make an attempt to salvage the gold and whatever else we can find as soon as we get more people to help us…” replied the Captain.

“That’s a good idea…” said Enai. “We are running out of parts here. Soon we won’t be able to produce universal translators and I believe we will need many. So until we establish contact with our original suppliers, if they still exist, we need to find a source and quickly… It’s worth going to the facility as soon as possible…”

“Enai, you must know where the parts came from in the past and you still have access to your old records. Get some of those actors to help you… They’re sitting around doing nothing… Get them to make some calls and get your parts purchased. If they can’t deliver we’ll send Ireva to fly there and pick them up…” said the Captain.

I looked at Ireva. She smiled.

“Any other questions?” the Captain asked.

I stood up and said, “Tomorrow is march day for the soldiers. I’ll be marching them up the hill for a change. Should I have them armed in case Ireva gets into trouble?”

Captain Orihci laughed and said, “Why not… you know Ireva will get into trouble…”

“I resent that…” she yelled and smiled.

“No hot-dogging…” warned the Captain.

“Don’t worry Captain, she won’t do that under my watch…” said Nagol and laughed.

“Well anyway, good luck tomorrow and fly safely…” said the Captain.

“We will keep an eye on you from the observatory…” said Delche jokingly.

“They’re teasing you dear… Don’t let them intimidate you… You’ll do fine,” said Amih.