Gundar

by Loretta Johns

  “Do you wish to eat or anything before we depart?” Gundar asked.

  “No. I thought only to notify you of my arrival and then our later departure.”

  “Let us be on our way, then,” Gundar said, gesturing towards the shuttle. “We shall take our own shuttle. We’ll be right behind you.” Gundar tapped his kunnarskyn. “Sending you the heading co-ordinates now.”

  “Thank you.” Nefrix spun on his hell and walked back to his shuttle. Gundar, Dorflan, and the security detail crossed the hangar to their own craft.

  “I have a feeling things are going to get even more complicated,” Dorflan said, addressing his men. “So keep sharp.”

  Gundar grunted. “Let us hope not. I do not wish to have this prolonged any longer than it already has been.”

  “I do not, either, especially for the sake of the child. She must be confused and perhaps frightened. She is already facing moving across the galaxy, getting a new father she has never met, and now all of this attention.”

  They entered the shuttle. “It would be more than most children could handle without difficulty,” Gundar agreed.

  Conversation stopped as Gundar took care of departure clearance, following on behind Nefrix’s personal shuttle as promised. The flight to Sydney was short and thankfully uneventful, and both landed on the roof of the registry office without incident. It proved to the calm before the storm, as they entered the office only to discover the bride and her child were not there, nor was the security detail who’d been sent to escort them. A human male wearing what Gundar now knew to be a very expensive suit was there, the bridal registry officer eyeing him with distaste. The bridal registry officer made to move towards Gundar, but was pushed aside by the human male.

  “Welcome to Sydney, Australia. I’m Harold Keynes, I represent Joseph Foyle,” the man said, thrusting a hand out towards Gundar. Gundar made no move to take it.

  “Where is the bride and her child?” he asked the registry officer.

  “I apologize, Commander Gundar. I am Byleg. I regretfully inform you that the security detail has been detained. They are with the bride and female child, at the bride’s home, along with several police officers. This man works with the law as some kind of advocate. He has apparently filed some kind of petition to try and stop the bride from coming to be claimed.”

  “An injunction,” the man said, with an oily smile. “I filed a request for an injunction, citing the duress such a move would have on the child and questioning the legality of the mother to take part in a forced marriage.”

  “Forced? I am forcing no one!” Nefrix said angrily. “She applied to the Bride Program and after no match was found, was entered into the database for an off-world match. I am her match.”

  “But she doesn’t know you. She is now considered yours just because you came here. She can’t say no. There’s no get out clause. There’s also no provision for the child to see her father, nor any reassurances that a human child would even be safe on your planet, no disrespect intended. Hell, son, we don’t even know if you’re an all right bloke. Nobody’s even met you before.”

  “I assure you, no one who is a criminal or mentally unfit is allowed to participate in the Bride Program,” Byleg interjected. “I’ve told you this repeatedly.”

  Harold Keynes held up a forefinger and waggled it back and forth. “Nah ah ah.” He said, as if scolding a naughty child. “She was matched with this Nefrix bloke not under the Bride Program, but under the Groom program.”

  “That’s the off-world extension of the Bride Program! Not a separate one!” Byleg said angrily.

  “We’ll let the judge decide that. In the meantime, he’s agreed to let my client meet his little girl for what might be the last time.” Foyle’s phone rang. He looked at the screen. “That’s the court now." He answered the call. “I see. I understand. Thank you.” He ended the call. “Well, my injunction has been denied, so I expect Lou Ann and Sally will be here shortly. I’ll call my client and let him know to make his good byes. No hard feelings, all right? I just do what I’m paid to, within the law.” The assembled Mylos sneered at him. He seemed to take no notice, turning away and taking a few steps to gain a semblance of privacy. “Joe? Harold here. I’ve just heard from the judge and it’s still a no go, I’m sorry. Joe, calm down. At this juncture, your best bet is to let them come here to the office and meet Lou Ann’s new husband. These guys can fly across the galaxy real fast, so you have a chance here to get on his good side and maybe get something worked out so you can see here sometimes. Joe? Joe! Damn it.” He turned to face Gundar and Nefrix. “He hung up on me. The local boys will have been notified by the court, though, so your blokes will have no trouble escorting the girls here.” He reached into his breast pocket and handed Nefrix a business card. “If you decide to work out a visitation agreement, this tells you how to reach me. I’m on retainer. I have no doubt I’ll be seeing you later.” Foyle turned and left without further ado.

  “He did not seem to be heavily invested in what is best for my mate and our child. He gave up s easily, it felt as if he had no convictions behind his actions,” Nefrix said, puzzled.

  Byleg spat out, “Those sort have few ideals, beyond accepting money to dance around the law to get the outcome the people who pay them wish to have. I have seen his kind on the television.”

  “How vile,” Dorflan said. His men nodded in agreement.

  The phone to the registry office rang. Byleg hurried to answer it. His face became even more grave when he heard what was being said on the other end of the phone.” Thank you for letting us know,” he said before hanging up. “Commander, the situation has become even more serious. Joesph Foyle became enraged when told the judge refused the injunction. It seems he took a concealed knife to the house to meet his child and held her at knife point, yelling that he’d been promised he’d get to keep her and get a lot of money. One of the human officers shot him in response. The child is unharmed physically, as is her mother. The security detail is bringing them both here immediately, but the police are requesting they not leave earth orbit until they are able to make an official statement.”

  Gundar nodded and turned to Nefrix. “I will assign you and your family guest quarters aboard my ship for today. Your mate can give our AI her statement tomorrow and we will send it to the human authorities. You will be free to go afterwards.”

  “I thank you for your hospitality and care,” Nefrix told him. He wrung his hands. “I hope Lou Ann and Sally are not emotionally damaged by today’s events. I know I am stressed, and I was not even present.”

  “You are an architect, yes? I do not imagine you get acts of violence happening on a regular basis,” Gundar said.

  “Yes, I design high rise living spaces. I recently won an award for the park level on my most recent project.”

  “Congratulations, that is quite the achievement.”

  Nefrix gave a faint smile. “Thank you, Commander. The competition was fierce. I am happy to say that the living space I acquired is on the edge of that very park. The living space had been held as a show unit and now that all the units had been sold, was about to be used for guests of the holding company. I managed to convince the director to sell it to me instead. I had to promise to design three more buildings for his company, but it was worth it.”

  Gundar nodded and smiled. It was obvious the man was looking forward to being a family man. Just then, the door opened. A thin, red headed woman with freckles came in, strain lines evident on her face. She held a small girl by one hand. Nefrix stepped forward. The little girl looked up at him, peering around a stuffed toy she clutched to her chest.

  “Are you my new Daddy?” she asked.

  “I am,” Nefrix said. Sally pulled her hand loose from her mother’s and ran forward, wrapping her arms around Nefrix’s legs. “Mummy said I had a new daddy, and he was a real daddy and that you’d love us and take us to live with you forever and ever. And we’ll always have ‘leccy and nice stuff to eat.”

&n
bsp; Nefrix stroked Sally’s hair while gazing at his bride. “Your mother was right. The universe matched us as a perfect fit. Besides, I am the luckiest Mylos in all the universe. I have you and your mother to call my own.”

  “The scary man said he was my real daddy. I knew he wasn’t,” she whispered.

  Nefrix cocked his head to one side and looked down at the child, lifting her into his arms. “Oh?”

  “Uh huh, ‘cause he was mean and scary, not like a real daddy. I’m glad you’re my daddy instead,” she confided. “You love us, right? Mummy said so.”

  “I’ve loved you since before I knew you,” Nefrix replied. “Meeting you just showed me who held my heart all this time without me knowing.”

  Chapter Twenty-four: Darla

  Darla couldn’t believe it. She was in Hawaii, staying at the Hilton resort, a place she’d only ever seen on TV. A thrill ran through her as she drank in her surroundings while Gundar went through the check in process. A young woman sidled up next to her.

  “Long trip?” she asked Darla.

  Darla turned to her. “Yes, and no. It took longer to get from Big Island to here than it did to get from Tennessee to Hawaii.”

  The woman laughed. “That bad, huh? Airport delays suck.” She bent over her handbag, rummaging, then whispered, “It’s okay, I’m a friend. Your friend Angie contacted us on social media and let us know your plight. We’re here to help get you out.” She straightened up, a pair of sunglasses in her hand. “There they are,” she said louder. “Well, nice meeting you. See you around.” She sauntered off.

  Darla stood stock still. Okay, what the hell just happened? She began to wish that they’d brought the security detail from Nashville with them, honeymoon or no honeymoon. She hurried over to the desk where Gundar was just receiving their keys.

  Seeing the expression on her face, he knew immediately something was wrong. “What happened?”

  “Some woman just came up to me and said she and somebody else were here to ‘get me out’ and that my best friend from back home, Angie, had sent them or something.”

  “Get you out?”

  “I think they mean they are here to get me away from you.”

  Gundar turned towards the desk clerk. “Are there cameras here? I think someone intends to kidnap my wife.”

  The clerk looked startled. “I’ll get a manager immediately. If you’ll go on up to your room, he’ll come meet you there.”

  Gundar nodded. Taking Darla’s elbow, he guided her to the elevator, their luggage on a trolley being pushed by a bellboy. Darla fumed. This was incredible, and here she was unable to fully appreciate it, because someone wanted to take her away somewhere, thanks to her best friend, Angie. She followed Gundar out of the elevator after he made sure the hallway was clear, then into their room. She immediately ran to the balcony windows, momentarily forgetting the upset downstairs.

  “Oh, wow! The view is incredible!”

  “It is truly beautiful,” Gundar agreed, coming to stand behind her once the bellboy had left.

  “I can’t wait to get to the beach. Ohhh, I wonder if we’ll see any surfers!”

  Gundar wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned down, resting his chin on the top of her head. “I am glad you are so happy. Hopefully we can resolve the problem from downstairs quickly.”

  “I should call Angie. That woman said Angie had spoken to them on social media, though she didn’t say which platform they were using.”

  A knock sounded on the door. Gundar reluctantly let go of his mate to go answer it, first peering through the peephole.

  “Hi, I’m Tomas Makaho, the manager,” a man in a suit said, holding up picture identification. Two police officers stood next to him. “This is Detective Hirabayashi and Detective Ramos from Honolulu Police Department.” Gundar opened the door to admit them. They turned to face him, waiting to speak until he closed the door.

  Ramos spoke first. “We understand you told the desk clerk who checked you in that someone wanted to kidnap your wife and that you asked about security footage.”

  Darla spoke up. “Yeah, he was busy checking us in and I was hanging back a bit, just taking in the sights, right? And this woman came up to me, acting like she was also a guest here, only she started whispering that she and somebody else were here to ‘get me out’. She claimed my bff from high school got in touch with them via social media and told them about me. Then she walked off. It was all very weird. I went and said something right there and then to Gundar about it.”

  “Any idea why your friend Angie would tell people you needed help getting away from your husband?” Ramos asked.

  “I literally have no idea,” she replied. “I haven’t seen or heard from Angie since the day we went to the Bride Registry Office together. Though I’m only just past the eight weeks no contact thing, so it’s only been a few days that I would have been able to look her up. I’d actually intended to do that when we got back to the ship, fill her in on my wedding, our trip to Hawaii, tell her about my studies, and all that.”

  Ramos nodded. “Okay, I have to ask this. I’m not accusing anyone of anything. I just have to ask just in case, all right. Do you want to be here?”

  “Um, yeah. I’m here on my honeymoon! Oh, wait, you mean, here, as in, with Gundar. Yeah,” she nodded emphatically. “The matching thing, it was so spot on. We’re made for each other. I really love him.”

  “Okay, sorry. I had to ask, standard procedure, you understand.” Ramos turned to the manager. “Can you have them pull footage from the lobby and out front?”

  “I’ll have that taken care of right away,” Makaho said, stepping away to call someone on his cell phone.

  Hirabayashi asked Gundar, “Sir, can you think of anyone who might have a reason to want to hurt you? Someone who may have deiced to gain access by approaching your wife’s friends here on Earth?”

  “If we were in Sydney, I’d have said friends or family of the man who died there,” Gundar replied.

  The two officers looked interested. “What man was this?” Hirabayashi pressed.

  Gundar told the officers about the Groom program matching that had gone awry.

  “I heard about that, it was on the news,” Ramos recalled. “You were one of the Mylos present that day?”

  “I was, but at the bridal registry office. I never even met the man, just his lawyer.”

  Ramos looked at his partner. “Could be the same people who promised him money if he got the kid. Maybe they are organized over the net and there’s just small cells of some anti-Mylos group scattered about.”

  “Could be,” his partner agreed. “Mrs. Gundar, we’ll need the contact information for your friend. Please don’t try to contact her yourself. We’ll keep you informed.”

  “Sure,” Darla agreed. “Let me get a pen and some paper and write it down.” She spotted a pen and pad of paper by the room’s phone. “Perfect," she said, quickly jotting down the information. “I don’t know her cell number. I only ever used my phone contacts list to call her, and I didn’t bring that with me. To be honest, I forgot all about it as we don’t use them onboard our ship.”

  Ramos glanced at the paper she’d handed him. The name of the college Angie attended and her social media accounts were all listed. “This should do fine, thank you. We’re going to review the security footage and see if we can get a hit on who it was talking to your wife. Just enjoy yourselves and don’t worry. Who ever they were seemed to think you would want to go with them, so I don’t think they’ll try just grabbing you from somewhere there’s people. Keep your door locked and don’t go anywhere alone, and above all, keep your eyes peeled.”

  “And if you see her again, call us immediately,” Hirabayashi added.

  Makaho completed his phone call. “Security say they have clear visuals of Mrs. Gundar talking to the woman and footage of the woman entering the lobby as well as leaving. They have it ready for you to view.” He turned to face Gundar and Darla. “Please, if you need anything, con
tact the front desk. Please feel free to ask for me.”