Part 4 - Part 13

Madam Grooni. You were all there and saw both Otsiron and Enai fall to the ground, having a momentary seizure. Our enemies had to eliminate Otsiron, not because he posed a danger to the world, but because he stood in the way of hiding their dirty little secret… their failed super soldier experiment… which consumed millions of lives and was about to consume this entire planet… and all of us here. So, I hope you can understand why so many things had to be kept secret for so long. Later, the circus and the wrestling charade were concocted as a distraction for a couple of reasons. One was to get us all out here in the open and make us easy targets for the central intelligence attack ship that would be sent to kill us. Thanks to Otsiron, Delche and Ori that ship was eliminated before it got here and could do any damage. Had it arrived, in addition to us, it would have also destroyed all our ships, shuttles and even Otsiron’s ship, the Dragon Fire… so that no one could escape this planet alive and tell about it… You all saw that ship blow up in our atmosphere. It wasn’t because it entered the atmosphere too fast, as Madam Grooni later reported to her boss… It was because Otsiron’s ship blasted it out of existence. The second and more important reason why the circus and wrestling charade were concocted was to disable Otsiron temporarily and hold him in place long enough for the central intelligence attack ship to arrive and kill him. They disabled him because they wanted to be sure Otsiron couldn’t call on his soldiers to help him. This last part of the job was left to the circus announcer. His role was to activate the disruptor that Tolo had delivered in his ship. The announcer did this when Otsiron was in the wrestling ring. He informed his co-conspirators in the intelligence services through his announcer’s microphone, which doubled as a transmitter. The announcer told them to turn on the disruptor. When they did, Enai detected the signal and told Otsiron to fall down. When Otsiron fell to the ground the announcer reported this to the security services. Otsiron saw him with his own eyes. When Otsiron was on the ground he noticed the announcer speaking into the microphone but heard nothing coming from the speakers. At that point Otsiron was sure the microphone doubled as a transmitter. Then Otsiron reported this to Enai telepathically and they both concluded that the announcer was the eyes and ears of the intelligence services here on the ground. He was the one who told the intelligence services when to turn on the disruptor and when Otsiron was on the ground convulsing. With Otsiron down they figured it was now safe to

dispatch the attack ship to kill him and all of us, as well as dispatch the destroyers to destroy the facilities and every living thing on this planet. The appearance of the ships in outer space was confirmed by Delche and Ori who saw them coming. They saw three ships, the attack ship and two destroyers heading our way fast. Unfortunately for them we anticipated their actions correctly and managed to stop them. We beat them at their own game. We managed to stop them from disabling Otsiron by removing the disruptor from Tolo’s ship without them knowing. We replaced it with a device that Enai built, which mimicked the disruptor’s operation but without the disruption signal. We did that when we were installing the cooling unit on the upper floor. We used covers to protect our ships from falling debris. But the real reason for the covers was to hide our activities inside Tolo’s ship. During that time Ukasnek and Enai removed the disruptor and replaced it with the fake disruptor mimicking device. Enai was also our eyes and ears with regards to the disruptor’s operation during the wrestling match. In other words, as I said earlier, Enai telepathically told Otsiron to fall down and pretend to be struck by the disruptor signal. This way we not only kept Otsiron active but by him pretending to be disabled we had a good reason to arrest Madam Grooni, Tolo, the announcer and everyone else in their party as suspects in a caper to harm Otsiron. And, like I mentioned earlier, Ori and Delche confirmed that the ships we’d been looking for from the observatory for many days had been dispatched. Now, how those three managed to overpower the destroyers… that I don’t know… Perhaps they’ll tell you if we ask them. As for me… from now on no more secrets… That’s all I have to say for now,” said Nagol.

“So that’s what all that sneaking around was about. The secret gatherings in the lab, the whispering… the disappearances in the middle of lunch and during the night… I knew you were cooking up something…” exclaimed Ireva.

“We would have kept you in the loop but you were too chummy with Madam Grooni… who, by the way, lied to you about… just about everything!” replied Captain Orihci.

“Well… well I admit that… but I didn’t believe everything she said… I didn’t believe she was older than Nagol… that’s for sure…”

“She’s probably not much older than you. She had her physical appearance altered, not to mention she had the real Madam Grooni bumped off to acquire her persona. But from her character and mannerisms alone, you should have known she wasn’t from Nelez. The people from here aren’t like that. They are mostly good people…” said Nagol.

“I suppose that’s true but a lot of people’s mannerisms are learned, they’re not genetic,” replied Ireva.

At this point Captain Rolo, with his big voice, piped up and said, “I’m interested to know how you shot down the destroyers. How did your soldiers even find them with their naked eyes at such a distance, never mind target and hit them... No weapon in existence has that kind of capability…”

Delche, Ori and I looked at each other and laughed nervously. No one wanted to say anything because no one would believe us if we told them.

Finally Delche said, “Do you believe in luck…?”

Everyone laughed.

Captain Orihci looked at as and said, “It’s nice to think about the things that happened… But I’m interested to hear more about what Otsiron said earlier… ‘Us failing to inform our people...’ I thought about that and tend to agree. Maybe it’s time that we inform our people about what really happened here… assuming they don’t know. We found out because we came here… and because we know, we shouldn’t assume everyone else knows… We should start informing people about what we know… some of us like Enai, Ukasnek, Otsiron, for example, are first-hand witnesses… I know that this was officially supposed to be Madam Grooni’s job but, as you know, she failed,” said Captain Orihci.

“We have no such capability here. Outside of this facility, never mind outside this planet, we have no means of talking to the people directly. All we can do here is record our stories… Then we’ll have

to rely on the networks around the planets to broadcast them locally to the people. On top of that who do we send our stories to? We don’t know anyone outside of here. It’s a waste of time…” said Enai.

“How about we take our stories directly to the people and see who is interested… People who lost children and relatives might be interested… I’m sure they’ll want to know what happened to them…” suggested Nagol.

“And how do we do that… The only worldly people we have here are you Sir and Ilisa… You’re both retired and not from these planets…” said Captain Orihci.

“I didn’t mean me or Ilisa when I said that…” said Nagol and laughed slightly.

“You’re the only diplomats we have with experience … Hell, you’re the only diplomats we have… who understand our situation and sympathize with us,” replied Captain Orihci.

Nagol looked at me. He knew how I felt about being suckered into somebody else’s problems but asked for my opinion anyway.

“Otsiron, you haven’t said a word today. What do you think we should do…?”

“I think you should do it Sir. You, Aneleh, Rolo and Ilisa should go on a road trip and tell everyone who is willing to listen. And you are right; everyone who has lost a child will want to know what happened… They deserve to know what happened… And you Captain Rolo, you should use the opportunity to recruit a crew for Captain Orihci’s destroyer. I have the nagging feeling we’ll need it… and soon.”

“Thank you for having such confidence in us but who will take us? And how will we speak to the people when we don’t speak their language?” asked Nagol.

“Take Ireva with you, she speaks both languages fluently…”

“Me?!”

“Yes you! You’re a qualified pilot too… you can fly them from place to place, even to other planets… and also translate for them…”

“Why me? You want to get rid of me?”

“No…? Why would you think I want to get rid of you?”

“Go dear, this is a great opportunity for you to do something for you… Something you’ve always wanted… to be a pilot,” said Amih.

“What, fly a shuttle? Are you kidding me?”

“No, no one said anything about a shuttle… You can fly Tolo’s slick, fast ship… That is if Captain Orihci and Ukasnek release it to you and with your mom’s approval,” I said.

There was a big smile on her face. “I will consider it then…,” she said, “and I don’t need my mom’s permission.”

“So what do you say Captain Orihci and Ukasnek…? Will you give Ireva Tolo’s ship?” I asked.

They both smiled and said, “YES!”

Everyone cheered. When the cheering stopped Enai said, “Everything in that ship has been shut down and needs re-initialization. Also Ukasnek and I should give it a thorough inspection to make sure everything is operational and free of booby traps.”

“No problem Enai, you guys do that…” replied Captain Orihci.

“I want to be there with you…” said Ireva, and her father agreed.

“We’ll be happy to be of service to Nelez on a diplomatic mission with Ireva at our side, of course, but it will have to be an informal mission because Nelez is not a sovereign planet…” said Nagol.

“Sir, with the firepower we demonstrated recently and if we get Captain Orihci’s destroyer out into space, every planet will want to have diplomatic relations with us… This is a great opportunity for you too… to make history. Everyone will want us to be their friend. I bet you in time this planet could become the centre, not only of the Galaxy Trader consortium, but also of Ostikon and its sister planets.”

“Oh, God help us…” said Amih quietly but everyone heard her.

“I’m just saying you know… It doesn’t have to be that way… All I’m saying is that what we have done here has gained world attention and it’s up to us how we make use of it…take advantage of it or not. One thing I can tell you is that we must not allow this opportunity to pass us by because our enemies will be back… and more prepared the next time…”

“Well said, thank you my boy…” said Nagol.

“It’s time for a break. Let’s all stretch our legs for a while, have supper and come back here for a drink. See you all back after supper,” said Captain Orihci and dismissed the meeting.

After most of the people had left, Nagol came over to me and grabbed my arm. Captain Rolo also came over and was about to say something when Ireva interrupted and said, “No more secrets… you promised us…” She then looked at me and gave me a big smile; the likes of which I’d never seen before from her. Then she left.

“You made her day… Hell you made her year… I have never seen her so happy… If I’d known that’s what she wanted I would have given her my own destroyer…” said Captain Orihci.

“I was eyeing Tolo’s ship myself… but I’m glad you gave it to her…” said Captain Rolo.

“So was I…” said Ukasnek.

“And what would you have done with a ship like that? Your pirate days are over my old friend…”

“I wasn’t thinking of keeping it for myself. I was thinking of giving it to her… She’s wanted a ship of her own since she was a little girl.”

“She got the ship she wanted without asking for it. That’s what matters. Now she can feel she earned it… Her father didn’t give it to her because she’s his daughter… Ukasnek didn’t give it to her because he promised her one a long time ago… And because no one objected to giving her the ship, we all gave it to her… She wouldn’t have wanted the destroyer… It’s not in her nature to destroy… She might appear to be tough on the outside but she’s a good natured person… a softy inside.”

I looked beside me and standing there were Ori and Delche, keeping silent.

“Well Delche and Ori… what do you have to say…?” I asked to bring them into the conversation.

“It’s Ostikon all over again… Remember what happened with Asora, my wife, during the crisis in Ostikon? Well it’s starting to happen here. It seems history is repeating itself and we seem to be in the middle of it… again,” replied Delche.

“We can’t ignore the similarities… I have to agree with Delche on this one Sir,” said Ori.

“Maybe… maybe not… What I see here is unfinished business that needs to be finished… Remember Mother Nature works in mysterious ways… patiently and very slowly… You must have faith… We all must have faith… We drove the evil out of Ostikon and it decided to land here. Now we must drive it out of here…” said Nagol.

“I didn’t know you to be religious Sir, but thank you for that…” I said.

“If we don’t go now we’ll not only miss supper but Ireva will likely accuse us of conspiring to keep secrets…” said Captain Orihci jokingly and we all walked out of the common room together.

Surprisingly, even though we’d left last, we were the first to arrive in the dining area. I paid particular attention to how the food was delivered and wondered how a small staff like this could cook and deliver so much food for so many people. When I asked, no one at our table knew. Captain Orihci then waved the last woman pushing the cabinet in which she brought the trays of food and asked her.

“I watch you every day deliver so much food with so few people and admire your effort and dedication… But how do you do it?”

“Our job is to take it out of the trucks and roll it out here. That’s it... Then we come back and take the empty trays, used plates and utensils and put them back in the trucks.”

“Who prepares and cooks the food?”

“It’s done automatically in factories down in the valley. We’re not allowed to go there but I assume they have dedicated robots that work around the clock.”

“What happens to the leftovers…?”

“We send them back in the cabinets… I’m not supposed to know this… but the robots chop the leftovers up into paste and feed them to the soldiers at the next meal…”

“Is that what they feed the soldiers? Slop…?”

“Pretty much… The food is already chewed for them… They just suck it out of the feed pipes.”

“How much do they feed them…?” I asked. She had no universal translator so Captain Orihci had to translate.

“One portion per meal, same as us…”

“No wonder they’re hungry all the time,” I said.

The woman started getting nervous and wanted to go so Captain Orihci thanked her and she left.

Then, as we got up to get our food, the rest of our party arrived.

“Where did you go? Are you having secret meetings now too?” I asked, looking at Ireva.

“Guess…?” she said with a big smile.

“You went to see the ship didn’t you…?”

“We sure did!”

I shook my head in amazement and went back to get my food. The moment I returned to our table, I told Ukasnek that the women had gone to visit Tolo’s ship and that it was imperative the ship be inspected as soon as possible.

“I’ll get Enai and we’ll get on it tonight. Tomorrow I have to go to the farm and see how the prisoners are doing. After that I’ll hand it over to Ireva.”

“Don’t forget to get the ship’s codes from Tolo…”

“That ship has no codes. It’s not like your ship. It only has a lock… and I cracked its combination remember? When you asked me to fly it to where it is now… I left it open on purpose so that anyone could fly it in case it got in the way…”

“I didn’t know that… Thank you.”

“I’ll change the combination and give the new one to Ireva,” said Ukasnek and sat beside Enai.

After Ukasnek and Enai ate their dinner they went to get tools and headed straight for the ship. The rest of us went to the common room for a few drinks… But no drinks were found. I told everyone Enai had an important job to do and couldn’t get us any.

Ireva piped up and said, “Ukasnek and I are going to the grove tomorrow to check on the prisoners and, Dad, we’ll need a vehicle. Can you get us one for after breakfast until lunch?”

“Okay, no problem… I’ll also find you a driver who knows the way… Anything else dear…?”

“No Dad. But what do we tell the farmers about the berries… You know… the ones Delche needs to make rakia?”

Before the Captain had a chance to reply, Delche interrupted and said, “Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you… The berries we picked up the night before have already fermented and I’m sure in a month or so we can make the rakia. In the interim I’ll need Enai’s tools and assistance to make the machine to make the rakia.”

“That doesn’t tell me how many berries you’ll need!” said Ireva.

“It depends on how much rakia you want?”

“Dad, can you help me out with this?”

“Tell them we’ll let them know later… in a few days… a week at the most. We haven’t decided yet. We’ll have a meeting about this later. Ask them to save us a truckload for now. Okay?”

“Now that we’re on the subject of food… I would like to recommend upping the food for the soldiers to a portion and a half per meal if possible. Can someone find out if we can do that?”

“I’ll look into it…” said Amih.

“Would you have the time? I don’t want to overload you with work. I know you have plenty on your plate…”

“Don’t worry about me. I have all sorts of helpers who will be eager to do that…”

“Any more items for discussion?” asked Captain Orihci.

“I have one,” I said. “We may need some transport ships, at least one big one. I think we have several of them parked in the valley where the destroyer is parked. It’s nice to have at least one operational in case we need to evacuate people or something.”

“Yes that would be a good idea except we don’t have the captains or crews,” said Captain Orihci.

“We do have Captains, two of them Rolo and Ukasnek… I’m sure Captain Rolo can muster a crew. What do you say Captain Rolo?”

“I can ask some of my retired friends… They’ll be more than happy to join us… I’m sure they’ve had enough of retired life by now?”

“Okay then… tell your friends we can pay them and there will be plenty of free rakia for them… Get some old guys for my ship too…” said Captain Orihci.

At this point Nagol raised his hand and said, “I thought you said Captain Rolo would be coming with us on our diplomatic missions…”

Captain Orihci and I looked at each other expecting the other would respond with an easy answer. But neither was prepared to speak. When Ilisa saw us struggling she came to our rescue.

“I don’t mind going alone… I’m sure Otsiron offered Rolo the chance to come with us to keep me company on the mission. I’ve been with Rolo on his ship and know how it is to be cooped up… So I don’t want that for him. He’s a free spirit and would be very happy if he was Captain again...”

We all turned and looked at Captain Rolo who indeed already looked happy.

“I think we have our answer…” said Nagol. “At our age happiness is one of the most important things in life. Now the question is, when do we start all these things…”

“It’s up to us isn’t it…?” said Ireva.

“If you all go off in all directions, then who will look after the affairs on this planet?” I asked.

“Why you of course… You’re the only one who can’t leave…” replied Ireva.

“I don’t mean the security of the planet… I mean the political and other day to day affairs. We’ll need to have a government, a small one, to look after law and order, build roads and bridges, collect taxes, issue permits… those sorts of things… We’ll also need a leader, a civilian who knows what they’re doing, to lead that government…” I said.

“You can be our leader…” Amih suggested.

“I mean the kind of leader who knows the real day to day problems of this planet and can offer fair and practical solutions… I can’t do that. That can only be done by a local person who understands the wants and needs of the local people, as well as has some idea of how the world works and how to deal with it. I’ll look after the security of the planet… as I’ve always done since I arrived here…”

“So how do we find such a person…?” asked Amih.

“Don’t look at me…I already have a job… in the diplomatic core…” said Ireva and smiled when I accidentally looked at her.

“What about you, Enai? You understand things more than most people. You can be our leader…” suggested Amih.

“I’m sorry my dear lady… I can’t even lead a half dozen educated men without having a yelling match with them… I’m sorry…”

“Amih, it’s not that simple…” I said.

“It seems nothing is…”

“The person needs to have the right qualifications… If they don’t, the job will destroy them... I made that mistake once before when I recommended Asora, Delche’s wife, for president in Ostikon. It destroyed her life… She left Delche and struggled because she didn’t want to be a quitter and disappoint me. I’ve regretted that ever since. We need to find a strong person committed to the cause of improving the lives of his people… a person who is willing to take on challenges…”

“I’ll tell you what… You tell me what those qualifications are and I’ll make sure to write them down and post them in the reception area and see who turns up. Maybe one day soon, we’ll have a person like that and we’ll elect them to lead us. Okay?”

“Deal…”

“I’ll help too…” said Nagol.

About this time Enai and Ukasnek returned and Ukasnek handed Ireva a folded piece of paper.

“What’s this…” she asked.

“The combination to your ship… We checked it out. It’s fine and ready for you. Tomorrow after we return from the farm I’ll take you flying and teach you one or two new things… things our old ships couldn’t do. I’m sorry you couldn’t be with us, we were in a hurry to get it ready for you…”

“Does it have cannons and torpedoes…?”

“No. And you don’t need them…”

“So what happens if we come under attack…?”

“I’m sure no one will attack you… Not as long as the big guy is alive and kicking…”

At this point Ireva jumped out of her chair and gave Ukasnek a big hug and kiss like she had in the old days before the war; when he’d taught her how to fly his old ship.