Part 4 - Part 09

“I feel like drinking… Hey Enai, before you disappear again, take us to the empty lab and bring us one of Delche’s finest… And cups… I’ll pilfer some food from the dining area and join you in the lab. Ladies are you coming?”

“No thank you…” said Amih. “The ladies and I are going back to the reception area… to do some real work. See you later…”

The jig is up Madam Grooni

The next day Ukasnek quietly knocked on my door. I barely heard the knock but since I was already up and dressed I stepped outside. He whispered something but I couldn’t hear him. I turned up my translating device and asked him why he was whispering.

“It’s still dark and people are sleeping…”

“So, why are you here this early in the morning?”

“It’s your pal… Nagol… He’s outside. He’s been there for a while.”

“What’s he doing out there?”

“I don’t know. He’s sitting in a chair looking at the sky…”

“Did you speak to him?”

“No!”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t speak his language and he doesn’t like these talking cubes.”

“Okay thank you. I’ll look after him.”

I took a chair from the dining area with me and went outside.

“Good morning Sir. How are you today?”

“Fantastic! I got my voice back, my appetite is up, the food is tasty and nutritious, the air is clean and cool. Analeh has good friends and is less annoying… What more could an old man ask for?”

“But why are you outside?”

“Oh, I want to greet the rising sun for a change and see how the first rays feel on my skin.”

“People in there think you’re crazy…” I said without thinking.

He laughed and said, “All my life people thought I was crazy… People thought my friend Prince Voskot was crazy… But you know better… Since when did you care what other people think anyway? Every society has its own rules… Who’s to say what’s crazy and what’s not? I want to enjoy the remainder of my life; crazy or not.”

“Okay Sir, I’m with you…”

“Now sit beside me here and face the sky… The sun is coming up…”

Moments before the sun came up Captain Orihci showed up with a chair in his hand, sat beside us and began to look at the sky. This reminded me of a movie I once saw back on earth a long time ago, when a man with a broken neck came out of the doctor’s office, looking up at the sky. To everyone watching it seemed like he was looking at something in the sky. Then, one by one, everyone started looking up at the sky…

Suddenly the first rays of the sun hit my face.

“Doesn’t it feel wonderful?” asked Nagol.

“Yes it does!”

“Tell Nagol we have news of what we talked about yesterday. Then after I’m gone, come to the new lab, the one we were in yesterday to discuss the details. I’ll get the others,” said Captain Orihci as he took his chair and left.

After I told Nagol what the Captain had said, he said, “Let us go then…”

I took both chairs and we left.

“Who brought the chair out here for you Sir?”

“I did it myself… I told you I’m getting stronger…”

When we reached the lab the door was open and everyone who was in on the caper was there. The moment we went inside Enai locked the door. He escorted us into a back room and turned off the lab lights. There was a whole pile of stretchers at the back of the large room that looked like morgue beds. Enai had some chairs arranged in a circle around a small table with a machine resting on top of it. Enai asked us to sit down and gave us each one of those new universal translators. I already had mine on so I stuffed the second one in my pocket to use as a spare. Enai showed us how to put them on, set them and adjust the volume. Nagol made no fuss about wearing one.

“Turn up the volume and speak softly so that your voice doesn’t interfere with your hearing… And…, just in case the walls have ears… What you are about to hear is very important.”

After Enai turned the machine on there was silence. “This is when the frequency was activated… at precisely midnight,” said Enai. “Now please listen…”

A male voice came on and said, “It’s about time you reported…”

Then Madam Grooni’s voice came on and said, “Well I had nothing to say until now…”

Captain Orihci said something excitedly. Enai stopped the machine.

“What is it Captain?”

“I know that voice… I know that voice! I’ve heard it before… It’s the voice of the central intelligence director… What in the hell is she talking to him for?”

“Enai, more importantly, how did you break the encryption code?” asked Ori. “It must have been hell.”

“Actually, I didn’t break anything. This is how I found the machine. The message had been automatically decrypted. The machine did it on its own.”

“So, you say the machine was set up to automatically decrypt one of your most secretive codes? Whose machine is this anyway?” asked Nagol.

“Now that I think of it… The machine belonged to the owner of this facility. After he was killed during the raid I collected his junk and gave it to the authorities. But I must have missed this machine. I didn’t even know we had it until I started cleaning up this place to look for space to set up the DNA machines.”

“Enai, listen to me carefully… Don’t let anyone know we have this machine… Not even your most trusted associates… Record everything you have in here onto a separate device and hide it. And don’t erase what you have on this machine… There could be evidence of a massive conspiracy here…” said Nagol.

“Don’t worry…”

“It would appear that the top spy agency in our consortium was in direct communication with the boss of this facility…” said Captain Orihci.

“Indeed! Enai start the machine again…” said Nagol.

The director said, “Do you now have something to report?”

“Well no, nothing of substance but I need to make good on something I promised. So I need your help.”

“How can I help?”

“Please expunge or make it look like you expunged the record of one named Ukasnek; a local hoodlum. It appears he is favoured by our target and it would please him if we did. Also do something to honour one called Enai who works here and his fellow countrymen. He too is favoured by our target.”

“I know Enai… I should say I know of Enai. He’s a traitor… But if it pleases you, I’ll do it… Consider it done. How is our target? Did you get to talk to him? Is he as clever as they say?”

“No. He’s an idiot; a buffoon. I have no idea how he lasted this long.”

“He must have help… What about the others?”

“They’re all clowns too. They don’t know anything. Now they’ve brought this old fool from Ostikon who thinks he knows me from a thousand years ago. Do I sound anything like Grooni? He thinks I’m Grooni because I sound like her. Half the time he can’t even hear. Can you believe that?”

“No, you don’t sound at all like Grooni. She was a kind old lady with a soft-spoken voice. I liked her… Too bad we had to bump her off to give you her persona.”

“Well, now they all think I’m her and they’re beginning to trust me…”

“Did you discover anything new… anything we didn’t know?”

“No, no, no. They don’t even know half the things we know. We’re wasting our time here. Just blow up the damn place with everyone in it and get it over with.”

“Not yet… How are the actors I sent with you working out?”

“Perfectly…! They’re tight-lipped and keep to themselves. The locals truly believe they are real investigators… They suspect nothing. I also have a tight leash on the actors, of course…?”

“Of course… Anything new with the soldiers? Can we salvage them? Did you find out how he controls them…?”

“No. He doesn’t know. They don’t know… no one knows… I’m telling you they’re all a bunch of idiots… Not worth our time…

Send the two destroyers at night and bomb them out of existence… They don’t monitor the skies… I don’t think they even know how.”

“Not yet. We have a request from King Rodot. He wants to take a shot at our target because he killed his son… He wants revenge… If he fails then we’ll do it your way. I have control of the destroyers… I will dispatch them and the entire place will go bye-bye…”

“When were you going to tell me about Rodot? And now that you did, when and how is he going to do it?

“He’s sending his best assassins… Six of them… They’ll come unarmed so as not to raise suspicion. They will then challenge our target to a duel and cut him to pieces… That’s Rodot’s plan…”

“What?”

“I know, I know, Rodot is a fool. He has never been outside of his kingdom but he thinks he knows everything… And get this, he assured me he will succeed… because… wait for it… His assassins have never failed him. Oh well, since we got into bed with him we’ll have to humour him.”

“I don’t care about Rodot… I want to protect my own ass… I want to know when and how?”

“Early tomorrow morning before sunup... The assassins will surround his ship and wait for him to arrive… They won’t be coming inside the facility so you have nothing to worry about. Just lay low… They’ll surround his ship and block him from calling his troops. They have a blocking device… We gave it to them. They’ll block his ability to call on the super soldiers to help him… and when they don’t show up… the assassins will chop him to pieces… That’s Rodot’s plan.”

“And what if he’s inside his ship and doesn’t want to come out?”

“He’ll come out. When he sees they’re unarmed, he’ll come out. He won’t know who they are. They will goad him until he does…

Megalomaniacs like him welcome the challenge… to beat up on a bunch of hoodlums. Let’s see how good he is…”

“But…”

“No buts… Stay out of the way… Call me when it’s over… Anything else to report… while I still have you here?”

“Nope, can’t think of anything else… Don’t forget to do what I asked you… I want to make friends here and see them squirm when they find out how I screwed them. Livè… I mean Grooni, out.”

“Base out…”

Enai turned off the machine and said, “That’s it!’

“Oh my God… We are screwed…” yelled Ukasnek.

“Take it easy, man… Now that we know what they’re planning we will screw them!” said Captain Orihci.

“It will be difficult without the power of the super soldiers…” said Ukasnek.

“Slow down, slow down… We will think of something… Give us a moment to think…” said Captain Orihci.

“Listen to me,” said Nagol. “Let’s be rational about this. Now that we know their plan we will deal with them. I’m sure Captain Otsiron will find a way to deal with them… I have seen him in action before. What’s important for us now is to make sure what we know remains a secret. I guarantee you we will defeat them if we maintain secrecy. No one must know what we know and no one must act any differently than normal. That imposter is very clever and if she suspects anything she will ruin our plans… whatever they may be… You must keep this a secret from everyone… even from your wives… What do you think Otsiron?”

“Let’s take things one at a time… Let’s take care of the assassins first. While I fight them off I’ll call on Nine to help me. When they

block me, Enai you figure out what kind of blocking system they’ll be using to stop me. Once we get rid of the assassins we will analyze their blocking system and devise a method to counter it. We cannot afford to lose communications with the soldiers. We’ll need them to blast the destroyers out of the sky… No offense Captain Orihci.”

“Are you sure you can take on six assassins?” asked the Captain.

“Not me. My guards will decimate them… They’ll eat them alive…”

“Oh yeah… Madam Garbage doesn’t know about your guards does she…?” said Ukasnek.

“More importantly, King Rodot and his sponsors don’t know about them… Or Rodot’s sponsors don’t want Rodot to know about them. In other words, they don’t want him to succeed because one, they don’t want him to take the credit and two, what reason would they then have to attack and destroy the facility and everything inside it? Otsiron is not their only target… They have a bigger mess to clean up. They want to give everyone a chance to eliminate Otsiron first and fail before they strike with the destroyers because there would be no other option… But why two destroyers…?

“Because Otsiron’s little ship can only attack them one at a time, while the second destroyer bombs the facility?” Captain Rolo said.

“One destroyer can easily do the job. And besides this is supposed to be a surprise attack… And even if we find out in time that we are under attack, what can that little ship do to defend us? Otsiron was able to disable the second destroyer only because he surprised the Captain. A destroyer’s cannon range is unlimited compared to the little ship’s cannons. Besides if he’s lucky enough to avoid the destroyer’s blasts, the local squadrons will eat him alive. There are hundreds of little ships inside the destroyer that will come out and attack him before he gets in range to fire,” said Captain Orihci.

Oh my Mother Nature! They are planning to send both facilities to hell… Maybe even destroy everything on this beautiful planet. They want everyone dead… They want no witnesses… How much do you

want to bet they’ll even kill Madam Garbage to cover their tracks?” asked Nagol.

There was silence in the room… It was a devastating revelation… Nagol’s words shook us all to the core.

“We will find a way and we will stop them,” I yelled.

Enai backed me up and said, “I have seen this guy work miracles and fight his way out of impossible situations… and he has survived. After all he was the one who stopped the war…”

“Like I said; one step at a time… Another thing we have to do is watch the skies… We haven’t been doing that. Do we have the capability to do that Enai?”

“Yes we do… and some… We have sensor arrays that can spot a ship on the other side of the galaxy… But we found no use for them so we don’t use them.”

“Start using them Enai but make sure we don’t tip our hand. Make it part of a new training program or something. If anything is detected report it immediately,” I said.

Ori spoke up and said he would like to head such a program as part of a training exercise to teach Galaxy Trader consortium students how to watch the sky. There would be a big prize for the student who spots and reports the largest number of stars in a given time. The real aim of the program, however, was to remain a secret and would start immediately…”

At that point Captain Orihci began to look a little nervous.

“I know we can’t stay here too long because people will get suspicious as to what we are doing, so we need to part ways as soon as possible. But before we go I want to summarize what it is we need to do.

1. Act normal wherever we go. Tell jokes and kid with Madam Grooni like nothing has happened. She thinks we’re stupid so we should play our part…

2. Enai, prepare to monitor tomorrow morning’s situation without looking suspicious. As far as you are concerned Otsiron, you will be attacked by a number of hoodlums whom your guards will take down. Don’t call on the super soldiers. Enai, you monitor for unusual activity and see what kind of device they will be using to block his communication with the super soldiers. If such a device is found, hide it, like it was never there. We’ll analyze it later.

3. Ori, go with Enai right now and get him to teach you how to use the sensor array. If anyone asks tell them you’re preparing lecture notes for a student course on observing the stars… like we discussed... At the same time keep an eye on the sky for the destroyers.

At that point Delche piped up and said, “I’d like to work with Ori. He can’t monitor the sky day and night by himself and we can’t trust anyone else to do it. I’ll relieve him until we get reliable people.”

We all agreed that Delche should join Ori and the two should share the responsibility for monitoring the sky. Nagol also recommended that we don’t tell anyone what we are doing.

After that we all left the meeting. We came out of the lab two at a time to avoid suspicion and made sure no one saw us exiting. After that Nagol and I went to the dining area and, even though we took a long time to get there due to Nagol’s slow walking, we were the first to sit at our table. Moments later we were joined by the ladies, including Madam Grooni who had the others captivated with her stories which Ireva translated.

After we greeted each other with smiles on our faces Ireva said, “Did you know that this lady here,” pointing to Madam Grooni, “served as a medic in the Aimez disaster and saved many people…?”

“Yes, I remember that disaster… We heard about it in Ostikon too. I was just a little boy when it happened. I didn’t know what it was but I can remember people being sad… very sad…” said Nagol.

“Imagine that… Our Madam Grooni is a hero…” said Amih.

“Yes, she has accomplished many things in her lifetime…” said Ilisa.

“And now she’s here with us, to help us…” said Admiral Aneleh, trying to fit in with the others.

This surprised both Nagol and I because Aneleh wasn’t that free in giving compliments; especially to pretentious people like Madam Grooni. We were also surprised by diplomat Ilisa not challenging her on the facts of the matter but we figured she was a guest on this planet and it wasn’t her place. All in all the fake Madam Grooni figured she had us all eating out of her hand.

The others began to appear in the dinner area in twos even before the food was brought in. The two Captains were involved in a serious conversation in Captain Rolo’s language when they sat down.

“What are you talking about Dad? You look so serious.”

“Politics my dear, he tells me the situation in Ostikon is really bad… I would like him to take up residence here with us… He really doesn’t have anywhere else to go… really…”

“And when was he going to discuss that with me?” protested Ilisa.

“It’s my fault Ilisa. I shouldn’t have brought up the subject. Anyway nothing is final… We were just exploring the possibilities you know…”

“Of course I would stay here with you… I would love to stay here. This is where we are really needed. I wouldn’t miss the opportunity… But once in a while I like to be consulted… so that

we can plan our future together… I know he didn’t have any choice when he was active in the service but now he does.”

I looked at Nagol and noticed he was observing fake Madam Grooni’s reactions and remembered what she’d said about him in the recording. But he maintained his cool, laughing when the others laughed and kept up with his image of the fool that she had painted him to be.

“Oh that’s wonderful to have you here with us…” said Nagol when he was caught looking at fake Madam Grooni.

“Of course, I wouldn’t have it any other way. You are all caring and wonderful people. I’m happy to be here with you and share my life’s stories.”

Just then the kitchen staff began to deliver the food. We allowed the ladies to go first, even though Nagol and I had arrived there before them.

“What are you two chatting about…” asked Ireva when Delche and Ori appeared in the dining area.

“We’re discussing our future…” said Delche.

“There isn’t much for us to do here but we want to help. We’re discussing what to do to help… to be useful…” said Ori.

“What are you good at?” asked Ireva.

“Exploring space… Traveling… Observing planets… stars… You know the usual kind of stuff. I’ve wanted to do that since I was a little boy,” explained Ori.

“Why don’t you do exactly that,” said Madam Grooni but realized they were visitors here so she added. “I’m sure I can find something for you to do. I’m sure Enai has an observatory around here somewhere…” thinking to send them somewhere out of her hair. But when she realized that what she was offering wouldn’t contribute much to our cause she added. “Start a school or

something… Bring the little children from the farms here and show them the stars and outer space. I’m sure they’ll find it fascinating and they might even learn something…”

“An excellent idea… What do you think Captain Orihci?” asked Delche.

“I’m full of good ideas…” Madam Grooni interjected.

I could only imagine what Nagol was thinking.

“Yes, yes… if Madam Grooni agrees by all means…” replied the Captain.

“Of course Madam Grooni agrees… Hey you, big fellow over there… call Enai with your brain and ask him to come here immediately.”

Then just, as I was about to contact Enai, he appeared in the dining area. Everyone stared at him with their mouths open.

“Wow, how did you do that…?” asked Amih.

“It’s magic…” replied Madam Grooni and immediately went into a rant ordering Enai to find work for Delche and Ori as agreed, before anyone had a chance to say anything different. She wanted it to be her idea and no one else’s.

Enai was completely confused so I used my mind trick and told him to agree to everything she asked for and that I would explain things later.

“Thank you for your idea, Madam Grooni. If that’s what Delche and Ori want and if Captain Orihci agrees, I’ll do that…”

“Yes, yes, that’s what they want and yes Captain Orihci agrees… We already went over that. Now you three go and do it…”

Aneleh must have been looking at Nagol, figuring he was going to explode any second now so she suggested that they go back to work.

“Ladies, we should go back to work… They’re fully grown adults, I’m sure they’ll figure out what to do. Let them eat their lunch first… Let’s go Madam Grooni, tell us another one of those fascinating stories…” And with that all the women left the dining area.

“Thank you my dear… You read my mind,” said Nagol. “A few more seconds of that and I was sure I was going to either have a heart attack or strangle her…”

After we explained to Enai what had happened he said, “This turned out to be far better than we planned… And by the way, no one has to sit behind a screen to monitor the sensor array… Our system has an auto feature which allows a computer to watch the skies all around us via satellite and record everything that moves… I mean fast like a ship… and reports it to the operator. The computer compares frames and calculates the speed and trajectory of moving objects. I programmed it to record such activities and report them to us immediately via an audible alarm at the operator’s console or to this portable device I have in my hand, which now has been activated… I told you we have the best monitoring equipment in existence…”

“Okay, okay Enai… That’s fantastic… We don’t need to know the technical details… just teach these guys how to use it… And let me know if you spot anything big moving fast this way,” said Captain Orihci.

When Enai, Delche and Ori went to get their food, Nagol looked at me strangely.

“Is there something wrong, Sir?”

“Yes! No! I mean there is nothing wrong but when you spoke to Enai with your mind earlier I saw you weren’t wearing your crown. Well how in Mother Nature’s name did you do it? That’s one part… The other part is Enai doesn’t have a transmitter, right? Then how were you able to hear him?”

“I don’t know… Perhaps Enai might have an explanation…”

“Can you do that with the soldiers…?”

“No, Sir!”

“Yes you can… you did it yesterday when you told me they liked my touch. How did you know that?”

“I just knew… I could feel their emotions…”

We spoke at great length with Enai about this while we all toured the observatory but we had no idea how we had communicated. So Nagol suggested we find out. Everyone agreed that I should experiment communicating with the soldiers without the crown and see what happens. Or wear the crown turned off to give the appearance that I need it to communicate with the soldiers.

At dinner time, when the ladies came back to eat their supper, we spent time joking around and drinking plenty; giving the appearance that this was just another ordinary day.

Delche and Ori, once again, thanked Madam Grooni for her excellent suggestion and couldn’t stop talking about the tour they’d had and the telescopes and other equipment they saw.

Appearing to be completely plastered I said goodnight to everyone and stumbled my way to my ship.

“Aren’t you going with him?” Madam Grooni asked Ori.

“No!”

“Why not? He might fall or something…”

“Because that little confined space in there will stink to high heaven when he pukes all the rakia he drank…” said Delche as he tried to stand up and fell back into his chair.

After laughing out loud she said, “Some rakia king you turned out to be… You can’t even handle your own product.” And with that she got up and left. Everyone else followed.

When I saw everyone leave I contacted Enai and asked him to bury several monitoring devices around my ship and record the voices of the assassins… I watched him do it from inside my ship. When he left I activated my guards and placed them in high alert mode, which meant they would fire their weapons without hesitation or orders from me the moment I was threatened.

God favours us or maybe we’re better spies

I didn’t sleep most of that night. I couldn’t… not because I was afraid or anything but because I was trying to figure out how to approach my impending problem, without revealing that I knew about it beforehand. I contemplated wearing battle gear in case I was fired at, but if I did that some people might wonder why… I contemplated hiding a firearm in my pocket… God knows I had plenty of those in my ship’s armory. But everyone knows I don’t carry arms. I contemplated letting my guards out alone to take care of business but again that would be out of character for me. I never send my guards out alone and rarely take them with me. Even having my guards follow me around would be out of character. Why would I take precautions unless I knew something was going to happen?

Everything was normal that day so I had to act normal, even if I risked being harmed.

I must have fallen asleep and was still sleeping when someone knocked on the ship’s hull. After the third knock I decided to answer.

“Go away… My head hurts…,” I yelled. I heard another knock so I yelled, “What do you want…? Go away…”

No answer, but another knock.

“Okay, okay, I’ll open the hatch… come on in…” I said and ordered the guards to stand down.

I was buck naked when I saw a shadow approaching from the side of the hatch. It was a man, a short fellow. He was surprised when he saw me naked and stopped momentarily, giving me enough time to give him a kick in the chest and toss him out of my ship. When he fell on his back I purposely stepped outside naked to look around. I saw others running towards me while yelling something. I immediately ran inside my ship, reactivated my guards and put them on high alert. Later I would be say to Madam Grooni that, ‘I had to activate my guards. I had no choice. I was being attacked’. That

would be my cover… The moment a couple of them tried to board my ship my guards pounced and fired at them, killing them on the spot. The moment the guy who’d fallen on his back saw them, he bolted. They went after him like blood hounds. One of them shot him in the back. My guards then ran after the others and killed all six of them in a matter of seconds. I had no idea that my guards could run that fast.

I jumped out of my ship, still naked, and started shouting, “Stop! Cease fire… Stop shooting… Everyone stop shooting…”

After the guards came back we went inside and I had them deactivated and back in their stations. I got dressed and went outside yelling, “What happened here? Who are these guys…? Does anyone know? This is a disaster…” I then looked closely at the guy who was shot in the back and saw a burn right through his upper body from his back and out his chest. He looked like he was shot with a cannon ball. I had no idea that those little pistols my guards carried were so powerful. People started running out of the facility to see what had happened. Among them was Madam Grooni.

“My poor boy, what happened? Are you okay? I ran out here the moment I heard the commotion…” she yelled while looking at the dead bodies.

Soon after, Enai arrived. He had people with him carrying stretchers. He too began to yell and ask what had happened and if I was okay.

When Madam Grooni saw Enai and his helpers ready to take the bodies away she yelled, “STOP!” Everyone stopped in their tracks. She then told the people to leave the scene.

“This is a crime scene, everyone leave the area NOW!”

While Madam Grooni was distracted I contacted Enai mind to mind and asked him if he’d found the device. He said yes, he’d seen it but hadn’t retrieved it. From the recordings he took he said he knew what the device was and how it worked. They had used devices like that in the field in the past to disrupt communications. In that case I suggested we leave it where it was. He said it wasn’t a good idea

because a device like that in Madam Grooni’s hands might cause us grief in the future and we’d best find it before she did and destroy it. He had triangulated its position and told me approximately where it was and what it looked like. It was still transmitting.

“Hey Madam Grooni, this one here might still be alive… Shouldn’t we take him to the hospital?” yelled Enai to distract her.

“No, not before I look at him…”

“Please look at him before he dies…”

When she went to look at the assassin I looked around and found the gadget. I stepped on it hard and heard it crack. I then casually went back to where I’d been standing before.

After she looked at the man she looked behind and saw me. I was still standing in the same spot where she’d left me. “This one is dead too…” she yelled

From there she went to look at the others, one by one. They were all dead. Then when she found the gadget she said, “Enai, you can take them away now.”

She picked up the broken gadget and showed it to me. I didn’t say anything.

“I reckon this is the weapon they threatened you with…?”

“I don’t know… It doesn’t look like a weapon to me. It looks more like a communicator…”

“This must be the weapon because I don’t see any others… If this isn’t the weapon then why did you sick your guards on them?”

“I don’t know? I thought they were here to rob me, kill me or something.”

“Those little guys…? Rob a big man like your? Ridiculous… But I’ll tell you what. We don’t have to report this because for sure

you’ll be charged with six murders and your guards will be confiscated and melted down. Let this be between me and you. I’ll cover for you, okay?

“If that’s what you want… You’re the boss…”

“You are damn right… I’m the boss and don’t you forget it… I’m putting my life on the line here for you.”

“What are you going to do with the gadget?”

“I am keeping it as evidence…”

“For what reason…” Why not give it to Enai to examine?”

“No, no, no… The less he knows about this the better… We need to cover it up…”

“In that case you shouldn’t need it for evidence…”

“Okay, okay…” she yelled in a frustrated tone of voice and took a rock, put the gadget on the ground and furiously smashed it into tiny little pieces.

What Madam Grooni didn’t know is that our voices were being recorded. We were standing on top of a recording device. In the meantime the two Captains, with help from Delche and Ori, had triangulated the landing location of their ship and, through Enai, had given me its location. All I had to do now was fly my ship there and intercept it… But how was I going to do that without tipping my hand? How was I going to explain that there was a ship there, let alone how I’d found it… without showing Madam Grooni that I had prior knowledge? I figured if the ship had no pilot, meaning that one of the guys who was killed was its pilot, the ship would be going nowhere. We just had to wait until someone “accidentally” found it. But if a pilot was on the ship, he or she would soon attempt to fly away, in which case I would have to go in pursuit and shoot it down. We just had to wait and see what happened.

“Madam Grooni, I’ve never seen these guys before. Do you think they’re locals?”

“How should I know? They must be locals or else how did they get here? There’s no ship or any other kind of vehicle… Did you see any? They’re probably local hoodlums from the farms…”

“I guess so… In any case we should let Captain Orihci and Ukasnek know to be on the lookout in case we get another attack. Let’s go and wake up the Captain.”

Dawn was about to break when we arrived at the Captain’s door. I hesitated before I knocked.

She immediately knocked hard and said to me, “This is an emergency… And all you care is about waking up the Captain?”

There was a muffled response coming from inside, “What is it? Is that you again, Ireva? It’s the middle of the night… Go away…”

“It’s me… We have an emergency situation, get dressed and get out here…” she yelled at the Captain and then looked at me and quietly said. “We don’t want you running out here with your ‘shlong’ sticking out like this guy here…”

“Oh you saw that… I am so sorry… I was completely distracted. I wasn’t even aware I was naked…” I said shyly.

“Don’t worry about it… Why is he taking so long?”

Her comment just confirmed to me that she’d been there all that time watching my ship to see how things would transpire.

“What’s wrong…? What’s the emergency…? asked the Captain, sounding surprised.

“Well…. While you were sleeping your facility was attacked by burglars…”

“Burglars…?”

“Yeah, this guy claims he was attacked… Actually he claims he was ambushed… Maybe because they saw him running outside of his ship naked. I don’t know why he had to run outside naked but he did… I saw him outside naked, looking around when the supposed assailants ran towards him. He then ran back into his ship and sent his guards out after them… And I tell you, even though the supposed assailants were unarmed, his guards chased them and shot them in the back without a warning. I went out there, risking my own life to help him… There were six alleged assailants and all of them are dead… Were they all locals or not? That I don’t know. So Captain Orihci, I want you to go out there and post guards. I don’t want incidents like that repeated.”

“Okay, I’ll ask Ukasnek to post guards and investigate the incident.”

“There is really nothing to investigate. I examined the crime scene and it looks like his guards killed those men plain and simple. Who was at fault? I don’t know. They’re all dead now and they can’t tell us anything…so what is the point of investigating…?”

“Okay, you’re right. We would be wasting our time investigating…”

“Thank you Madam Grooni for reporting the incident and for your time… We will talk later. Will you join us at breakfast this morning?”

“Yes, I’ll be there…”

The Captain then left to look for Ukasnek while I went with Madam Grooni to wherever she was going.

Just as she was about to enter the common room she said, “You’re safe now. You don’t need to follow me around… Go back to your ship… or something… I’ll see you at breakfast in a couple of hours.”

This was my opportunity to get together with the others and assess the situation without being suspected of knowing anything. I went to see Ori and Delche first. Enai was with them and they were

monitoring King Rodot’s ship in the forest. It was still there motionless.

“It hasn’t moved since we spotted it landing hours ago…” said Delche.

“How long have you guys been here?”

“Since we left dinner last night… We’ve been here watching all night. The ship arrived a few hours past midnight,” replied Ori.

“The assassins didn’t come out until much later and activated the disruptor device just after they attacked you. The moment I saw the signal I instantly recognized it so I went to the upper floor windows and watched,” said Enai.

“I guess you saw me come out naked, right? I had a bit of a dilemma there as to how to approach the problem without being suspected of having foresight.”

“I figured as much. You gave us quite a performance. Anyone who saw you will think you’re a coward now …” said Enai.

“I don’t really care… The important thing is that Madam Grooni thinks that I’m a coward. I gave her no reason to suspect anything else.”

“Good…!”

“I’m telling you there is no one on that ship…We’ve been watching it almost since midnight and nothing has moved; not even a flicker of light… It’s dead, dead, dead…” said Delche sounding frustrated.

“Delche, please don’t frustrate yourself. If you’re tired and sleepy go to bed, I’ll watch the ship.”

“And how are we going to explain to Madam Grooni why we’re not there at breakfast?”

“Well then, let’s get the others together and decide what to do,” I said.

“I’ll go and get them…” Enai said and left.

Moments later they returned. Captain Rolo and Nagol were missing.

“What about…”

“I’ll inform Rolo later… You can inform Nagol. Now let’s not lose any more time. Let’s get this done before breakfast,” Captain Orihci said.

“I’ll handle this… I’ll run around looking for you and ask Madam Grooni if she has seen you and when she asks why I’m looking for you, and I’m sure she will ask, I’ll tell her that a child coming from the farms this morning saw a dead ship in the forest. I’ll take it to mean a crashed ship and that I am looking for you so that we can go to investigate it. How does that sound?”

“It will work…”

“What if she wants to go with you?” asked Enai.

“So what… I would prefer her not to be with us… to give us a chance to check the ship out without her… but if she insists let her come…” replied the Captain.

“I tell you what, why don’t I send Nine with you. With her at your side you can have protection in case someone is in there… and that will deter Madam Grooni from coming with you… I think she’s afraid of Nine…”

“Bring Nine here then…”

“No, not here… I’ll go to my ship and you, and whoever else comes with you, can come looking for me in my ship. That’s were Madam Grooni expects me to be. I’ll call Nine from there after you arrive. Since I know her better than any other soldier I’ll try calling her without the transmitter. I already know I can see what she sees and

feel what she feels… Enai, you prepare the most sophisticated monitoring equipment you’ve got and engage it when I call you… I want you to find out how we communicate. Does that make any sense?

“Yes!”

I then turned to Ukasnek and said, “Okay Ukasnek start running around looking for Captain Orihci. And you, Captain Orihci, look surprised when he finds you…”

“Where should I go?” asked the Captain.

“You should go and look for Ukasnek. Isn’t that what Madam Grooni asked you to do earlier? Pretend you haven’t found him yet.”

While Ukasnek bolted for the common room, Captain Orihci took a different corridor asking people if they’d seen Ukasnek. When Ukasnek reached the common room he burst inside panting like he was out of breath and said, “Has anyone seen Captain Orihci?!”

Being more curious than angry with Ukasnek for barging in without knocking, Madam Grooni said, “Speak up man, why are you looking for… you know… that Captain!”

“A boy… a farm boy… told me he saw a dead ship… I mean a crashed ship in the forest… Should we go and investigate it?”

“Are you sure it was crashed?”

“The boy said ‘dead’. I assume he meant crashed… Why else would he say dead if it wasn’t broken up or in pieces?”

“Were there any dead bodies? How about living ones…?”

“I told you, I don’t know!”

“Don’t get snippy with me. I’m trying to help you… Ah, here is the Captain.”

After Ukasnek told the story again, Madam Grooni insisted she wanted to go with them.

“We can’t go there directly… Not before we scan the area for radiation. It’s best we send a super soldier with a tester since we have no robots… Radiation can be dangerous you know, even lethal. Let’s go find Otsiron and ask him to send a soldier.”

“I know where he is… He’s in his ship… Too traumatized I guess and probably drinking… I feel sorry for him.”

Captain Orihci should have asked, “Traumatized from what?” but he didn’t and Madam Grooni didn’t catch it.

When the three came close to my ship, Captain Orihci knocked on the hull. I didn’t answer. Madam Grooni then picked up a rock and smashed it against the hull and yelled, “It’s me… I know you’re in there. We need to talk to you…”

After Ukasnek explained what had happened, for the third time, I put my crown on and tried to call Nine. But instead, unbeknownst to them, I called Enai to turn on his monitoring equipment.

“This damn thing isn’t working, for some reason …”

“Did you turn it on…” asked Madam Grooni.

I took the crown off my head and looked at the switch, grinned and said, “Ah, that’s what it was…” I then turned the transmitter on and off again and put it back on my head.

“Calling Nine, calling Nine…” I said. “She’s not responding she must be sleeping…”

“Well, wake her up… We haven’t got all day!”

I watched her eyes open and she looked around. She was looking for me, wondering where my voice was coming from. She realized that this was an unusual call and didn’t know how to react to it. I then sent her a suggestion to dress in battle gear and come to my ship. I

showed her the way with images. I realized this was going to be a little more difficult to do without the transmitter and the aid of the computer inside my chip, but I was determined to do it anyway. I still didn’t know how we had communicated.

When Nine arrived Madam Grooni was not at all intimidated, even though Nine was armed with a big plasma gun that looked like a cannon.

“Let’s go… Tell her to go… What are we waiting for…?” ordered Madam Grooni.

“You forgot to tell her to bring the radiation equipment…” the Captain reminded me.

“I’ll contact Enai and tell him to bring some testing equipment, as well as a hazmat suit… Just give me a moment…”

In the brief moment I spoke with Enai, I found out that Enai also had no idea how we’d communicated… “It has to be telepathic…” he said. “What else could it be?”

Moments later Enai arrived and offered the hazmat suit to Madam Grooni.

“Why don’t you wear it? You’re the scientist…” she said to him.