Part 1 - Part 07

He did and I told her to mention that Lieutenant Ori had assisted in the operation. I also asked her to promote Ori to Lieutenant because we shouldn’t have civilians running military ships.

She agreed and Ori was flabbergasted at my audacity.

“Now, when I order you to do something you have to obey me or it will be curtains for you,” I said and smiled. “You have no idea what happened here today, do you? People on all these planets will be talking about this day for generations.”

He was about to say something and I said, “Yes the Karons too will be talking about it, about the lives we took and about the lives we spared.”

After I said that I ran diagnostic tests on the ship to make sure everything worked okay and everything did.

“Do you still think she’s a relic?” I asked Ori.

He smiled.

“Vos told me to never fire more that one energy cannon at a time. Do you know why?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied, “it’s basic physics because the straight energy beams when fired side by side will join together to form a forward moving spiral of magnified energy that not only magnifies its power but extends its range… And because of that it could travel very far and do a lot of unintentional damage.”

“Do you know why I did it?” I asked.

“I can think of several reasons,” he replied.

“The overpowering reason was to destroy the command ship in the distance. Yes! As well as to demonstrate our ship’s power and its captain’s willingness to ruthlessly exercise it. Two cannons would have done the job but this captain is crazy, so don’t mess with him,” I said and added. “In the long run this will save lives, believe me.”

A couple of hours later we received a call from one of the district police commanders who sounded livid. He was yelling at the top of his voice upsetting Ori and pissing me off.

“What’s he saying?” I asked.

“He’s calling you a lot of names.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Fool, idiot, moron, traitor, and many other things I’m embarrassed to say.”

“Why?” I asked.

“For letting the Karon ships go and not going after them,” he replied.

“Now he is ordering you to go and turn their cities into craters,” he added.

“What’s the word for stop (shut up) in your language?” I asked.

“Klom.”

“Open the channel.”

“It’s already open Sir.”

“KLOM,” I yelled out loud.

He stopped yelling and went silent.

“Tell him, I don’t take orders from him and then cut him off. When you make your report to Vieria make sure you tell her about the police commander and his demands.”

The talk

When Ori was finished making his report I said, “We’d better have the talk before we have any misunderstandings.”

We both sat down in our chairs and I began.

“Today we did something extraordinary and very brutal. It was an historic moment. We will be heroes to some and villains to others. We will hear many comments from the mediums both good and bad. Some will see us as saviours and others as a threat.

We are neither heroes nor villains but simply soldiers doing what we were ordered to do. But that’s not the whole truth. We aren’t really soldiers; we are vigilantes and we do what feels right without weighing the consequences. I took a lot of lives today for absolutely no reason. These creatures had done nothing to me and I killed them for no reason. That pains me. What’s worse is that I did this for the wrong reasons.

Deep in my heart I believe the Karons are in the right; they are the victims and deserve justice. Your people are in the wrong for not giving them their justice. The right thing to do was turn the ship’s guns against the perpetrators, and that’s your people. The Karons did the right thing but the wrong way. And this is exactly what happens when you do things the wrong way.

An armed attack on your planet was the wrong thing to do. Attempting to kill innocent civilians who don’t even know who the Karons are was the wrong thing to do. Retaliation from your people, I’m sure, would have been immediate and swift. And then no more Karons.

Now you and I are caught in the middle of a fiery storm, a bitter fiery controversy that we will not survive unless we are smart and united. One thing we have that is to our advantage is the might of this ship. And as the old saying goes, might is always right.

So when I order you to do something, next time please don’t hesitate or question my judgment, especially in critical moments when many

lives are at stake. Vieria has faith in you and you should have faith in me. I push the buttons to fire the cannons, I command this ship and I am responsible for what happens. Your job is to advise me when I need advice and follow my orders when I give them. Are we clear?” I asked.

“Yes Sir!” he replied.

“Friends?” I asked.

“Friends!” he said and reminded me that Vieria had ordered us to stay here in case the Karons decided to come back.

“Fat chance,” I replied but I don’t think Ori understood what that meant and he didn’t ask.

The controversy

While I was having lunch and polishing the last remnants of my wine, Ori was glued to the communications panel listening to reports coming from the planet’s surface.

“You were right!” he yelled. “The planet is divided. Some are calling us heroes for attacking the Karons, for saving our planet. They are, however, disappointed that we didn’t finish the job by eliminating the Karons. The rest, the majority, are calling us killers, criminals, vigilantes and calling on the authorities to arrest us, dismantle our ship and put us in a dark jail cell.

They’re saying the ship is dangerous, we’re dangerous and we shouldn’t be allowed to have that kind of power in our hands. Some are saying they are afraid to go up to the surface because of us.

Some people, even respectable people from the big networks, are calling for our demise. Famous people whom I admired for their integrity are calling for our demise. They are siding with the Karons and calling us murderers and killers of peaceful and innocent creatures.”

“Turn the damn thing off and take a break,” I said. “They will drive you crazy if you let them. We did something we can’t take back or deny, but was it the right thing or the wrong thing to do? It all depends on who you listen to. But who is right and who is wrong? They are all right and they are all wrong. But we have to do what we have to do,” I said.

“Did you get the coordinates of the place where we’re going for dinner tomorrow? We’re going to the surface for dinner tomorrow, right?” I asked.

“Aw heck, I forgot. I’ll do it right away,” Ori replied.

“One more thing When you talk to Vieria ask her if she wants to see the sensor logs from the attack and send them to her from the moment we heard the sensor alarms go off until after we ordered the Karon ships to go home.”

“Sure thing!” he replied.

Dinner and a haircut

I got up late the next day. I was surprised that I could even sleep after everything that had happened the day before.

Ori was up and when he saw me he said, “They are still going at it on the news about us. The voices about getting rid of us, about blowing us out of the sky, are getting louder. They even reported fist fights taking place between the pro and anti movements.”

“Don’t worry about them, they don’t know what they’re talking about. We have the power in our hands and they can’t do anything about it. Did you find us a nice place for us to eat tonight?” I asked.

“I sure did. I even programmed the coordinates into the navigation computer.”

“Do you know how to work navigation?” I asked.

“Yes! But I don’t know how to read maps or stars; we’ll need an experienced navigator for that. All I know is how to enter the numbers into the navigation computer.”

The rest of the day we spent figuring out how to turn the female guards into our dates for the outing. I had Ori look through the ship’s computer and after hours of persistent searching he found out how to custom program their clothing and mannerisms.”

“You mean to tell me you can program the robots to understand Macedonian?”

“I’d never thought of that but I think I can. All I have to do is upload the Macedonian language dictionary, which I already have in my home computer, and in theory you can give them commands in Macedonian,” he replied with excitement.

“Go ahead and do it then.”

He made a couple of calls, did something to the computer, asked me to restart the robots and told me to give them a command in Macedonian.”

I looked at the nice lady to my left and said in Macedonian, “Kiss Ori,” and pointed to him. And she did.

Ori didn’t like that.

“We need to give them names,” I said. “Can we do that?”

“Their names are blank in the computer. I’ll try writing something. What do you want to call the one to your right?” he asked.

“You mean my date? I want to call her Glory,” I said and laughed. “I kind of like that name, she reminds me of the girlfriend I left behind.”

“Okay, try her now.”

“Glory, give me a kiss,” I said. And to my surprise she took a step, bent over and kissed me on the head.

“What would you like to call the other one, your date?” I asked Ori.

“Morning, as in the start of a new day,” he replied.

When he was done I said, “Morning, go pat Ori on the head,” and pointed at him. She did.

“This is fun,” I said and ordered them to go back to their docking stations.

After that we busted our heads deciding what clothing they should wear. We looked at many images of them on the screen with various dresses but in the end we agreed that their clothes should match ours. I only had two sets of clothing and they were both uniforms. I decided to wear the camouflage dress Vos had gotten me and go military style. Ori only had civilian clothes and after he decided what to wear, he selected Morning’s dress and colours to match.

Imagine a couple of men deciding what their dates should wear. In what world is that possible? I wondered.

Ori reprogrammed the images of the robots in the ship’s computer with their new attire and saved them in a file called “date 1”. He then said, “Say the words ‘guards date 1 mode’ and then ‘guards guard mode’…”

I did as he asked and their attire changed.

“Are their clothes holograms?” I asked.

“Yes they are!”

“Glory date 1 mode” and only Glory’s clothes changed. “Wow, this is great. The possibilities are endless!” I exclaimed.

When we were done we looked at each other. I hadn’t shaven or cut my hair for weeks. We both looked a mess.

“I noticed you had hair cutting equipment in the bag back at the facilities. Is there any chance you can cut my hair and give me a shave?”

“That’s not the problem. The problem is we don’t have water on the ship. Also you don’t want bits of hair getting into the air filters. And, if gravity control malfunctions we will be breathing our own hair. I’ll take us to a proper hair salon where we can have a haircut, shave and shower. We could both use a shower. My treat,” replied Ori.

“So, we should get going. It’s not too early to go now is it? We can spend some time walking around outdoors on the surface. I miss the aroma of fresh flowers and ripe fruit. Contact Vieria and let her know what we’re going to do,” I said.

We were on the surface in minutes and landed in a field inside a grove as per his coordinates.

“The ship should be secure in these trees. We can walk from here to both of our destinations,” said Ori.

Just as we stepped outside of the ship my guards, as expected, followed. “Guards date 1 mode,” I said and their black and intimidating attire switched and they looked like normal women.

I then said, “Guards smile”. No reaction.

“I’m afraid smiling is not part of their programming,” said Ori.

“They are serious dates then,” I replied.

Ori thought for a moment and said, “Yes serious!” but didn’t find my pun amusing.

As we walked to our first destination I kept taking deep breaths and enjoying the ever present natural aroma in the cool air. I also noticed that it was not as stifling here as it was in Nirelon and Apserpon.

There was no one at the hair salon when we arrived; it was a slow day. There were three male stylists working.

One of them said, “We don’t cater to women here.”

Ori laughed and said to me “He thinks they are real women.”

He then told the stylists that the women were with us and asked me to order them to sit and wait. I did and they both sat and watched.

Ori told the stylists what we wanted and they quickly and quietly did their jobs. Having a shower with soap and warm water was very refreshing for me. It added a kick to my step and I was looking forward to having a great dinner.

After Ori paid our stylists we walked out of the hair salon and our dates, looking serious, silently followed behind. Ori and I walked side by side and our dates walked side by side behind us. I felt like we were back in Macedonia with one exception; our women here were quiet.

After walking for a while, we arrived at a place, which according to Ori was called “The Bar and Grill”.

“It sounds like the kind of eatery you would find in Canada, the place I come from on earth,” I said.

“I was under the impression that you came from Macedonia.”

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell it to you someday when we are sent on some boring mission,” I replied.

It was early and there was nobody inside the restaurant when we arrived. A young lady came to the door and escorted us to a table in the centre of the room. She asked us what we wanted to drink. I said rakia. Ori then said that the woman was asking if we wanted yellow or white rakia. I said to tell her yellow for me. Ori also ordered yellow rakia even though he had no idea what rakia was.

“What is rakia?” he asked.

“Alcohol distilled from fermented grapes,” I replied.

“I know what alcohol is but I have no idea what grapes are,” he said.

“Isn’t it illegal to serve and drink alcohol here?” I asked.

“Not here, this is a lawless society, if I can call it that.”

All the while we sat there our dates sat beside us motionless like dummies.

“Is there any way we can liven them up?” I asked Ori.

“You’re the boss, order them to do something.”

“We didn’t think this through, did we? Ask the bartender if there’s something these ladies can do so they don’t look like they’re bored.”

He did and the bartender pointed to the video games.

I took Glory by the hand and sat her on the barstool in front of the bar and asked her to sit and play a video game. I asked Morning to do the same on another game. The video games were free and apparently popular with the young women in that part of the world.

“Now we all look like we’re doing something,” I said to Ori.

Just as I came back to the table, the bartender showed up with three drinks of rakia on his tray. He handed me one, he handed Ori one and kept the third for himself.

The bartender then raised his glass and said “Na zdravie” (to our health) in Macedonian.

We clinked our glasses and had a sip. Ori made a face. He had never tasted rakia before and found it very strong

It took me some time to realize that he was speaking Macedonian to us.

The bartender asked, “Do you like the rakia? I made it myself.”

“It’s nice, strong and smooth,” I replied.

“Too strong for me,” said Ori.

He asked if we were university students here on vacation.

“No,” I said and asked him how and where he had learned Macedonian.

“I am retired now but in my younger days I served as a navigator on a science research vessel and spent four years studying the mountains in a region called Bitola in Macedonia. I learned Macedonian in school here and some more from the locals there. I also learned how to cook and make wine and rakia from them. I love to speak Macedonian, it’s such as beautiful language but there is no one to speak it with.”

He smiled and said, “I named the drink rakia also, that’s what they called it in Bitola and that’s how the girl who took your order knew what it was.”

He then excused himself because customers were lining up to buy drinks. Before he left he said, “The food and drinks for you and for your lady friends are on the house, provided you do me one favour.”

“What’s the favour?” I asked.

“Be my guests tonight after work.”

“Thank you,” I said and promised him that we would.

“And here I was wondering how we were going to pay for all the food and drink,” Ori said smiling and then added. “Vieria offered to pay all our expenses. She gave me an account number to charge them against.”

The girl who served us came back, topped up our drinks and asked Ori if we were ready to order our meal. I told Ori to tell her we wanted some of their Macedonian cooking. I also told him to sip his rakia slowly. The girl then asked Ori if we wanted to order something for our dates.

Ori looked at me, smiled and said, “The girl wants to know if our dates want something to eat or drink.”

We both laughed and Ori said no.

Much time had passed before our main course arrived. We tried to drink the rakia very slowly so we wouldn’t get drunk. We were already feeling its effects when the food arrived.

Ori looked at the plates and said, “The food has a delicious aroma and there’s so much of it.”

The roasted meat and what looked like small roasted glazed potatoes and roasted peppers were served on real porcelain plates. Our server even brought us knives, forks and napkins. Ori had never seen food

like that. He had never seen plates, knives or forks. I showed him how to use them and he started eating. He was impressed with the flavours.

“With this kind of food, the rakia will go down easy,” I said.

He agreed and said, “Our friendly bartender here has taken a liking to your Macedonian culture. I’m sure you two will have many stories to exchange.”

“But did you hear? He said he was a ship’s navigator.”

“Yes I did! Perhaps we should try and recruit him,” he added.

“It won’t hurt to ask,” I said and thought that there was no chance in hell he would come out of retirement or give up his little restaurant business to come and fly with us.

Just as we were enjoying our meal, I noticed a chubby and stocky guy trying to talk to Glory. I called her over and asked her to sit next to me. She did and the man got upset at me and started yelling. I asked Ori what he was saying.

He said, “The man is accusing you of interfering in his affairs to make contact with the woman he saw first and wants to make an example of you.”

“Tell him she’s my date and to buzz off.”

He did that. The man got angrier and started charging towards me. And just as he was about to grab me Glory tripped him and he fell flat on his face. The bartender jumped in and helped the man up. He was about to say something when I interrupted him and told him to tell the man that I was going to give her to him if he did me a favour. I then winked at the bartender. If he lived in Bitola for four years surely he would know what a wink meant.

“And what favour do you want from this man?” the bartender asked.

“Just get him to kiss her on the lips, even if by force, and she will be his,” I replied. “I’ll send her to the dance floor, this could get violent.”

I noticed everyone in the restaurant was looking at us wondering what the commotion was. I then heard the bartender making an announcement. Ori said it was about the kissing. The bartender started taking bets as to whether the man was going to kiss the girl on the lips in five minutes. Everyone ran over and placed their bets.

“What are they saying?” I asked Ori.

“Almost everyone bet. Almost everyone bet on the man. They think he will succeed because he is huge and strong and she is so scrawny,” Ori replied.

“I will go bankrupt if she loses,” the bartender said in Macedonian.

After Glory and the man took their positions in the centre of the dance floor a metre apart from one another, the bartender set his big timer on the wall to a five minute countdown and said “Go!” and pushed the start button.

The man lunged at her and tried to grab her but she was too fast for him. She moved out of the way and he fell forward. There were a lot of laughs and boos from the crowd. She helped him up and he pulled her towards him but she jumped out of the way and ended up behind him. There was a lot of yelling in the crowd but they were all having fun and so was Ori. The worried look on the bartender’s face began to fade. Everyone on the floor was cheering and ordering drinks.

I heard a woman in the back shouting. “What’s she saying?” I asked Ori.

“She’s cheering for Glory and telling her to fight him, do it for all the women on this planet.”

Just as the man was about to turn around and look for her, Glory slipped between his legs and ended up in front of him. He didn’t see her. The crowd was furious and booing. When he turned around

Glory grabbed him by his shoulder, put her leg behind his leg and pushed him back. He fell flat on his back. The bartender was ecstatic and cheered her on.

He looked at me and said in Macedonian, “She is tough like the village women in Bitola.”

After about four minutes of being outmaneuvered by a little woman, the crowd began to feel sorry for the man, but loved the moves she was making. The women in the bar were cheering Glory loudly, except for Morning who sat there watching her emotionless.

“One minute left!” yelled the bartender.

By now the man was too tired and figured it wasn’t worth it but kept going through the motions to entertain the screaming crowd.

Then there was the five minute “ding” and the bartender declared the contest over. The woman had won.

He called on those who had bet on Glory to come and collect their winnings. Only one person came, the woman who had cheered for her loudly. The bartender gave her double the money back from what she had bet.

After she picked up her winnings the woman came over to our table and offered to buy as a drink. I told Ori to thank her but decline because our ladies didn’t drink and we were already drunk. Ori also told her to buy a drink for the man who had lost.

We watched her walk over with five drinks on a tray, put them on the man’s table, say something and point to us. While looking in our direction the man raised a drink, smiled and gulped it down.

“At least he got something for his humiliation,” said Ori.

Glory and Morning went back to playing video games. A young man came over to buy a drink and looked at Morning.

The bartender said, “I don’t understand what these women find in these games.”

The man looked at the score. It was low.

“Would you like me to teach you how to play?” the man asked Morning.

She didn’t respond.

“You can play against her and beat her. That will teach her to ignore you,” said the bartender.

“Yeah!” the man replied.

The bartender got my attention and asked me to come over.

“The man at the bar beside your woman wants to challenge her to play a video game, ask her if she wants to play him.”

I said something to Morning and the bartender said to the man, “She accepts your challenge.”

The bartender then announced the competition and read the highest scores shown on the game’s scoreboard.

Then he made an announcement.

“The young lady who has been playing the same game all day long has a score of 196, the young man, the well-known top gamer and champion of video games, has a top score of 208 out of a possible 250. The game will go on for ten minutes only, I’m taking bets.”

It was evening and the restaurant was full of people eating and drinking and looking for excitement. Almost everyone ran up to the bar. They all knew the young man and that he was the regional champion. No one knew the woman or her capabilities. The bartender plugged the game into the big screen above the bar so that everyone could see it. The scoreboard was reset to show 000:000. The left score was the woman’s. The bartender set the clock to 10

minutes, told the competitors to get ready, yelled “Go!” and pushed the countdown start button.

There were a lot of cheers from the crowd for the man as his score kept going up fast, and boos for the woman who kept falling further and further behind. The bartender looked our way with a worried look on his face.

I winked at him.

It didn’t help, the score was still widening until the man passed the one hundred mark and started slowing down fast.

“She finally figured out his moves,” I said to Ori.

The crowd was going wild and ordered a lot of drinks. I looked over towards the bartender, he was smiling now.

He yelled in Macedonian, “At this rate of drinking I will run out of rakia soon.”

“Make sure you save some for us for later,” I yelled back.

No matter how hard he tried the man couldn’t push his score past 200. In the meantime Morning crossed her old score and was going for maximum. By the seventh minute she crossed 200 and was on her way to winning the game, except the game was getting progressively more difficult with every second. By minute eight she had crossed 208 and was about to pass the man’s top score. By minute nine the score was 212:207 and when the clock stopped it was 215:208. When it was over the man was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. He congratulated her and declared her the winner.

“Six out of the sixty-seven people who bet, bet on the girl, all six were women,” the bartender told us when he came over to our table. He then added, “This was fun for everyone and I made a lot of money.”

The man who had competed with Morning also came over to our table and wanted to know how Morning had done it and without breaking a sweat.

Ori said, “I don’t know. I just met her yesterday, and as you can see she prefers playing the video game over being here with me.”

Ori then handed him one of the extra drinks lined up in front of him. Each of the women who won bought Morning a drink but the girl serving them brought them to Ori because Morning didn’t drink.

The girl serving food brought us each a plate of small chunks of fried meat and said, “A snack, compliments of my boss to go with your drinks.”

Then she came back with another round of rakia.

The navigator

It was getting dark outside and the restaurant started emptying. People suddenly began to leave.

“Why are they leaving?” I asked the bartender.

“This place gets dangerous during the night. But you don’t have to worry you will be spending the night here with us; my daughter and me.”

“The girl who was serving us is your daughter?” I asked.

“Yes she is. And I am very proud of her.”

Everyone was gone within five minutes and the bartender locked the outside door.

“Can we give you a hand to clean up the place?” I asked.

“No.”

I asked Ori if our guards were capable of performing such tasks. He said he didn’t see why not. Just show them what to do and they will do it.

“There are a lot of dishes and glasses to be washed, the girls can do that for you,” I said to our host.

“But you are supposed to be my guests.”

Moments later I had Morning and Glory washing, drying and putting away dishes and glasses.

“Look at that… And not a single complaint...” he said to me and then said something in their language (I wish my daughter was like them).”

His daughter gave him a dirty look.

“They aren’t women, they’re machines, robots,” I said.

Our host laughed and said, “I can see that.”

Ori then interrupted and said something to him in their language. Suddenly both our host and his daughter turned serious.

“Show them,” Ori said to me.

“Guards, guard mode,” I said.

Their clothing suddenly turned dark and now they looked like warriors but continued to wash the dishes.

The daughter thought they were cool while our guest watched them with amazement.

“Where did you get them? They must have cost you a fortune,” he said.

We didn’t reply.

“By the way, we don’t even know your names,” I said and introduced myself as Otsi and my friend as Ori.

“My name is Delche and my daughter’s name is Airam. My wife named her after her own mother.”

Both Ori and I stood up and shook hands with both of them.

Delche said, “I see you are traditionalists, you follow the Macedonian tradition of shaking hands.”

We didn’t say anything.

Then there was the look on Airam’s face. She said something.

“What did she say?” I asked.

Both Delche and Ori said, “She says she knows you!”

I shook my head. How could she possibly know me?

Then there was the same look on Delche’s face.

“You don’t speak our language, do you? I haven’t heard you say a single word all night. You must be that alien they were talking about in the news who was involved in the royal scandals.”

Both Ori and I became uneasy and didn’t know what to say.

Delche laughed out loud and said, “Mother Nature, of all the places on this planet you could have gone to you came to my restaurant, what are the odds… I am so grateful to you Mother Nature.”

“And here I thought you would be upset,” I said.

“Upset? I despise that society and would be happy to see it crumble. It imprisoned my wife for nothing, for trying to do something good. I am happy in so many ways that you are here, that you chose my place.”

Both Ori and I relaxed and we all sat down. The guards completed their task and took their position standing motionless and expressionless behind me. Airam couldn’t take her eyes off them.

“I need a drink,” Delche said and the three of us grabbed a full glass each and clinked them.

Delche toasted, “To our health and friendship.”

Ori and I repeated the toast. I looked at Airam sitting in front of me admiring my guards.

Delche said, “My daughter doesn’t drink this stuff, thank Mother Nature, it would have rotted her liver.”

“You mentioned a wife. We haven’t met her yet, where is she?” I asked.

“She’s still in jail,” he replied, “This will be her twentieth year. She was jailed when Airam was only two years old. I had to bring up my girl alone. I had to leave the city because of the stigma and to avoid harassment from the authorities. That is why I came here and opened this restaurant. While I was on my mission to earth my wife joined a protest group that protested against the establishment and against how it conducted itself without any authority. After that she was watched and monitored. Then, one day, they stormed into our house and arrested us, including our baby. When I proved to the court that I was an army veteran and absent from this planet when the supposed criminal acts took place, Airam and I were released. They unfortunately sentenced my wife to life imprisonment. She is very stubborn and refuses to compromise on her principles.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that, it’s so sad,” I said.

Airam said something.

“She’s tired and wants to go to bed,” said Delche.

She got up, shook our hands and left. She then stopped, looked at the guards, waved to them and continued. They remained motionless and expressionless.

“How did you get the name Delche,” I asked.

“This is a pseudonym; it’s not my real name. I use it here to avoid being harassed by the authorities. They have eyes and ears everywhere. And hiring an assassin here is easy and cheap. There’s a funny story behind the name Delche. I was very young, in my early twenties and just out of school when I was sent on a scientific mission to study the mountains in Bitola. At the time I was an assistant to the navigator and spent a long time on the ship studying stars and maps. I was bored and wanted to go down to the planet but didn’t have the qualifications to do the work the scientists did.

Anyway, after persisting they decided to send me down but I had to be on my own and not interfere in the other people’s work. They read me what you call the riot act, of course, to make sure I didn’t goof up. They also gave me a name, an identity, clothing and a bag

of food so that I could look and act like the locals. They dropped me off on a path near our science laboratory and told me to go. I started walking along the path and kept walking in hopes of running into a settlement. After I walked for about an hour I ran into an old man riding a donkey. I took my hat off, said good day and put it back on. This is what our anthropologist had told me to do when greeting a native.

The man did the same and said, ‘Who are you supposed to be … Delche…?’ I couldn’t make out the words precisely.

“Are you some kind of actor?” he asked.

“Yes, yes,” I said. “I am an unemployed actor looking for a job.”

“And what exactly can you do with those soft hands?”

I didn’t know what to say so I shrugged my shoulders.

The old man then smiled. He was missing a lot of teeth.

“Come kid, come with me, I’ll take you to the next village. You are going the wrong way, that way will take you up the mountain.”

As we walked along down the path I saw the old man pull out a metal flask from the saddle, take the lid off and take a gulp.

“What are you drinking?” I asked.

“Rakia,” he replied and handed me the flask.

I raised it up over my mouth and let a few drops drip onto my tongue. It was horrible and it burned. I gave it back to him.

“Nice rakia, huh?” he asked.

“Very nice and strong,” I replied.

“I made it myself,” he said.

About forty-five minutes later we arrived in a village. When we got to the village square the old man yelled, “I have a young man here, an out of work actor who needs a job.”

There was loud laughter everywhere. That can’t be good I thought. Then a woman come over and grabbed me by the hand.

“Come my son, come with me, surely there is something we can find for you to do here. Don’t listen to them laughing at you, they are all idiots. You must be starving. Were you traveling a long time? Where did you come from?”

“Yes, I was traveling a long time. I came from up there.”

“From the north of our country!?” she asked.

“Yes.”

Before I knew what had happened she took me to her house, sat me on a chair near a table and gave me some bread and cheese to eat. I had never seen bread or cheese before. I didn’t know what to do with it.

“You must be really tired,” she said and brought me a tiny glass of rakia. “Drink it, it will calm your nerves.”

She then ran over to the window and grabbed a photograph. She pointed at a young man in the picture and said, “This was my son… You look like him. He was killed during the Greek Civil War. Those bastards killed my son, my only boy, and I have to live with that every day of my life. I left my home and came here to Bitola to save myself. My husband is missing and I don’t know if he is still alive or dead.”

She ran back to one of the rooms and when she came back she grabbed me by the hand and pulled me away saying, “This was my son’s room, you can stay here for as long as you need to, these are his clothes, you can have them. Get rid of those silly clothes you are wearing, you look like a Komita (revolutionary) from the Ilinden era.”

When we went back and sat down at the table she broke a piece of bread from the loaf and a piece of cheese. She first bit a larger chunk of bread and a very small chunk of cheese and chewed them together. I did the same, it was quite delicious.

“That’s all I can afford on my own, I’ve become a charity case for these people. I used to be a very proud woman and had my own house and lands. We were well off back home before the war. Now we are spread out all over the place. They don’t like us here. I don’t blame them; we have become a burden to them.”

She went and poured herself a small glass of rakia and began to slowly sip it. I did the same. The woman seemed very nervous and sad.

I took her advice and took her son’s room, clothes and chores. I felt sorry for her but I didn’t know how to ease her pain. I didn’t even know how to do my chores. She had to show me everything. She wondered what kind of world I had come from. She often cursed my parents for not teaching me anything. I didn’t even know how to sweep the yard.

After I learned how to do things I tried to help everyone in the village and whatever the people gave me in terms of money or food I gave to her. She made food for me and washed my clothes. She even taught me how to cook. After a while I became the son who she’d lost to the war, even though I was about half his age. He was about my age when he’d been killed.

When people got to know me they adopted me and I became part of their families. Almost every father in the village who had a daughter, of marrying age, wanted me as his son-in-law. The men taught me how to plow, plant seeds, water the gardens and even how to roll and smoke tobacco and make rakia. It’s illegal here but there making rakia was an art.

One old man said to me, ‘You are not a man until you learn how to make rakia. Everybody can drink but how many can make the drink?’ He taught me how to make good rakia from fermented

grapes. He said rakia could be made from all kinds of fermented fruits. I make my rakia here from the local fruits. They are plentiful.

I learned a lot in those four years, much of which I brought with me here. I’m grateful to those simple but honest and loving people for teaching me how to live and how to respect others and treat them as my equals.”

“Tell me more about your wife. Is there anything we can do to help her get out of jail?” I asked.

“Well, the only way they will release her is if my wife recognizes their authority and admits fault on her part. But she won’t. She is stubborn.”

“Will she leave the jail if the authorities admit they made a mistake in jailing her?”

“Fat chance getting the authorities to admit fault when they are in charge of everything. How are you going to make them do that?”

“I have a war ship with big guns. I can be very persuasive!” I replied.

“So, you are that crazy captain who blasted the Karons out of existence… It was idiotic of those simpletons to attempt an attack on Ostikon. What were they thinking?”

“Perhaps someone convinced them. Someone from your planet,” I said.

“So, obviously, you aren’t from here. Are you really from earth? And what is the deal with you?” Delche asked.

“I am Macedonian, I was born in Macedonia. Everything that they said here about me in the news is true except, as you can see, I’m not sick or a conspirator like they claim. I’m a simple person caught in a complicated situation that isn’t of my making. I want the best outcome for myself, for your planet and your people. Eventually, I want all of this to be over so I can go back home.

I also want justice for your wife and for all those who are oppressed. I understand how that feels. I’m willing to get it for her if you help me. I need a navigator for my ship. Not a full time one but only when called upon. What do you say?”

“I’ll think about it,” he said, smiled and added. “I invited you here to be my guests so that we could have some fun and not discuss politics or how to save the world. Why would you want to save a world that doesn’t want to be saved? Anyway, you didn’t tell me where you came from in Macedonia.”

“I come from a region called Lerin...” I said and was interrupted by Delche who jumped in and said,

“That’s where she was from, I mean the woman who looked after me. I wrote about her in a report that I submitted to the anthropologist on the ship but my report was rejected because I was unqualified.”

“This Macedonia sounds like a very important place on earth,” interjected Ori.

“Not really,” replied Delche. “Our teams investigated the entire planet. It just happened that they dumped me in Macedonia, in a remote area where I could cause the least harm. They were very careful to observe but not influence the locals. The people where they dropped me off were simple and lived traditional lives. It was a situation where they could influence you much faster than you could influence them. They felt they had everything they needed to survive and everything you offered them was nice to have and everything you told them was a nice story. The most important thing for them was their family, a value which we here lost a long time ago. The most important thing for us is material things and popularity, which that simple society in Macedonia despised.”

There was silence.

Delche broke the silence and said, “We can sit here and talk forever and our conversations will never end. How about we call it a night

and tomorrow I will come and see your ship and give you an answer as to whether I’ll join you or not.

We agreed.

Ori and I then went to bed. Delche apparently had only one spare bedroom which he gave to Ori. Without telling me he gave me his room and he slept in the bar.

Attack on the rats

The next morning I was rudely awakened by a loud knock on the door and Delche yelling at me that it was time to wake up. I was then startled by my own guards standing on each side of my bed.

“I see that you also picked up some bad habits from the villagers in Bitola,” I yelled.

“What’s that?”

“Trying to wake the dead!” I replied.

He laughed and walked away.

When I came down Ori and Delche were waiting for me in the restaurant.

“I made fried eggs for breakfast for all of us,” Delche said proudly.

“Where did you get the eggs?” I asked thinking he was talking about chicken eggs.

“There are no chicken eggs here. They are the eggs of a bird you are probably unfamiliar with. You can get anything here if you have money. But don’t judge the eggs until you try them.”

Ori wasn’t familiar with what eggs tasted like and said that he was willing to try them. Until a few days ago he said he’d never heard of all the things we were discussing here and was amazed at how many things were going on on this planet, of which he was not aware.

I noticed Delche had set four plates on the table and before I had a chance to ask him, I noticed Airam sat had down and started eating her eggs. It kind of made me feel happy to see her do that but I didn’t know why. I didn’t say anything.

Delche said something to her and he got her approval.

“Okay,” he said, “Let’s eat and get going. I want to see that ship of yours.”

We were all excited and finished our breakfast quickly. Delche then pulled out a couple of bottles about a litre each and said, “These are for you, my gift to you.”

“What are they?” asked Ori.

“It’s a surprise,” replied Delche.

When we arrived at the site the ship was still there.

Delche looked at it and said, “She looks magnificent. I recognize the glistening green alloy. It’s the strongest stuff known to science. It is so expensive that only the front shield of very important ships is coated with it. In your case, it looks like the entire hull is made of it. How thick is it?”

Ori piped up and gave him a number, something he had read in the ship’s database.

Delche looked at me and said, “Do you have any idea how much this ship is worth?”

“I paid nothing for it and it’s not for sale,” I replied.