Rajani Chronicles I
Page 8
“Then let us train aboard the ship,” Dempsey replied.
“What do you mean?” Rauph asked, hating the translating device more and more each day.
“I mean,” Dempsey continued, “let me set up a room where my team can train on the way to Rajan. We wouldn’t lose as much time, and I truly think the better we’re prepared for our arrival on Rajan, the more successful we’ll be when we get there. Half my team hasn’t even discovered their powers yet.”
Rauph sat silently for a moment, thinking. The Human did have a point, unfortunately. Neither he nor Bhakat, or even Janan, had the knowledge to install a suitable training room aboard the ship. That left hiring someone else to do it. The only place anywhere close to their route that could possibly install the equipment on the ship was the Mandakan Space Port. That still left a few problems, such as how they would pay for it, and how long it would take to be completed.
There was no type of monetary system on Rajan, so it was always difficult when the need for bartering for goods or services came up when they were off-world. On Rajan, if you needed something, you asked. Population was calculated to determine how much needed to be planted or manufactured, and any excess was either stockpiled for emergencies or traded off-world.
We don’t have time for this, Rauph thought. He looked across the table at the Human. He knew he had taken a big gamble, not only in placing his hopes for a chance to free his world on the Humans, but also giving them such awesome powers to accomplish the goal. He was well aware not only did the Humans outnumber them; they were also now vastly more powerful. He had to do what he could to make them happy. He couldn’t afford any type of mutiny.
“I agree to your request,” he said. “We must stop at Mandaka, a space station close to our route back to Rajan, and have the necessary equipment installed.”
Dempsey smiled. “That’s great. How long until we get there?”
“I would have to verify our location with Bhakat and Janan,” Rauph said, thinking over the details. “I think it would be ten days, with a layover of two to three for equipment installation and ship repair.”
Dempsey nodded, still smiling. “Okay.”
“Before we end this meeting,” Rauph continued, “there is something else I have been meaning to speak with you about.”
“What?” Dempsey asked, caught off-guard.
“Your initial evaluation of your team?” Rauph asked, absentmindedly playing with his braid, a habit he’d developed years before. “You’ve made it abundantly clear we erred when we chose those Humans in your general proximity due to time constraints, but I want your honest assessment of them. Do you think you and your team will be able to succeed?”
The Human sat for a moment, looking down at the desk between them. Rauph could not read his face, either because of his unfamiliarity with Humans, or because Dempsey had the ability to hide his emotions well. He suspected it was both.
“I honestly don’t know,” Dempsey finally said, looking up. “I’ll know better after we’ve trained together for a while. Hell, we still don’t know if three of them will have powers, nor what those powers will be if they do manifest. I think it’s too early for speculation at this point. I’m not sure Gianni is much of a team player to begin with. He’s the one I’m worried about at the moment.”
“I agree,” Rauph said. “That being said, I will trust in your further assessment. If at any time in your training you feel that Gianni Moretti—or any other member of your team—is more of a liability than an asset, we can place them back into suspended animation until the mission is over and you return to Earth.”
He disliked lying to the Human. He’d come to admire him, but he would make sure any Human who could not be trusted to help would never wake up again. The stones were too powerful of a weapon in the wrong hands, and once they were implanted, they could not be removed—at least not from a living being.
“I’ll take it under advisement,” Dempsey said, “but to do so could cost me the trust of the entire team.”
“A valid point, I’m sure,” Rauph said, standing up. “Now I must return to my duties on the bridge. Unless you have anything else to discuss?”
“No,” Dempsey replied, standing himself. “I’ll let the team know we’ll begin training as soon as the equipment is installed.”
#
David was surprised to find the little alien known as Janan was pretty cool to talk to. They had begun speaking at dinner the night before, and Janan had brought the translating device with him to David’s room to continue their conversation afterward. The Sekani had a sharp wit and wanted to know everything about life on Earth. After about an hour, he excused himself, and a few minutes later, returned with what looked like a bottle of wine.
“It is a custom on Rajan to drink with newfound friends,” Janan said, pouring the dark liquid into glasses. He handed one of the glasses to David. “What was it we were talking about before I left?”
“About Rajan,” David replied. “The attack of the Krahn Horde on your planet.”
“Ah, of course,” Janan said, sipping the liquid. “You must forgive me if I don’t know much. I was knocked unconscious by falling debris in the first wave of the attack. My entire family’s dwellings, I’ve been told, were destroyed.”
“Your entire family?” David asked the diminutive alien.
“Yes,” Janan replied, sadly. “They’re all gone.”
“I’m so sorry,” David said.
Janan held up his glass. “We‘ll drink to them. A custom on your planet, is it not? A roast, yes?”
“Toast,” David corrected. He was looking at the dark liquid in his glass. “By the way, what is this?”
Janan looked at his glass. “It is called ‘fernta’ in my language. It is one of the few things left over from my world. We lost so much when the Rajani came ...” He paused a moment, looking at his glass. “To freedom,” he finally said, holding his drink high over his head. “No matter the cost.”
“Freedom,” David replied, taking a drink for the first time. He gasped as the liquid burned a path to his stomach. It soon turned to comfortable warmth. “Whoa,” he said, smiling.
Janan smiled as well. “Good stuff, yes?”
David held out his glass for more as they both laughed.
Interlude
Jebediah Morris was pissed off. He was known to his friends as Jeb and to everyone else—mostly his employees at the marketing firm he owned—as Mr. Morris. Angry, as anyone who knew him could tell you, was his usual state of mind. He was on the phone talking to his son’s girlfriend, Lisa, when he should have been shutting down his computer and heading home for the night. He was pissed he had to talk to this stupid cow, when he would rather be enjoying a beer or three.
“Where the hell is he?” he bellowed into his iPhone.
“I don’t know,” Lisa replied, used to this man yelling whenever she talked to him. It was the only volume he had. No wonder David doesn’t get along with him, she thought. He’s such a dick. “The last I saw him was last month, after my birthday party.”
“And you weren’t worried almost a month has passed without word from him?” Jeb asked.
Lisa was incredulous no one knew where David was. “What?”
“He hasn’t shown up for work for a month,” he continued.
“Oh my God,” Lisa replied. “I thought he was just avoiding me.”
“Why would he?” he asked her. “What did he do this time?”
“He proposed,” she answered, feeling miserable she would be the one to tell this man.
“Let me guess,” he said, not yelling now. “You turned him down. Figures. The boy can fuck up making ice.”
“For your information, sir,” she told him, now feeling defensive for both of them. “I did not turn him down. I just ... didn’t say yes.”
“Well,” he said, a new level of disgust in his voice now. “That explains a few things, at least. When he crawls out of hiding, you can tell him he’s fired.”
Chapter Five
James felt better after talking to Rauph the day before. He had been having some doubts about the situation, but then he reasoned, why shouldn’t he? It was still unreal to him that he was aboard a ship traveling through space. There was no feeling of weightlessness, no sound of engines firing or shifts in the level of the floor underneath him. He could set the handheld tablet in his room to the view the space outside the ship, but even then, it was more like watching a dark television screen. There were no stars to be seen; no sweeping panoramas moving past the ship as it flew—the Tukuli was traveling too quickly. This brought him back to his present concerns. If he were to accidentally put a hole in the hull of the ship while powered up, it could tear the ship apart.
James also knew he eventually needed to have a face-to-face chat with Gianni. He wasn’t looking forward to it, but knew it had to be done. He needed everyone on the same page on this mission, and even one person not buying into what they were trying to accomplish could undermine everything.
It would have to wait, though. He was going to have dinner with Yvette. Just the two of them. He’d been surprised when she asked him. Yes, he had mentioned something about getting together to talk, but she was the one who turned it into an actual dinner together. She was aloof most of the time, and while he was attracted to her physically, he didn’t really know much about her, other than she was a senator’s daughter and had a good sense of humor.
This would also be the first time in a several years that he had a dinner date with a woman, and he was nervous, even if the dinner consisted of eating protein bars as he spent his time hoping he didn’t have anything stuck in his teeth when he smiled. At least they would have a chance to be alone together. He knew he was being foolish; she probably wanted to talk about the team and what he expected from her once they arrived at Rajan.
Have I really been that lonely? He thought about it a little while longer as he was heading back to his quarters after the daily information session with Rauph and the others, and realized the answer was an overwhelming yes.
#
Rauph, Bhakat, and Janan had decided they would take shifts working on the bridge on their trip back to Rajan. With only the three of them, they had to improvise.
Bhakat was preparing to take over for Janan. He preferred the night shift. Most of the time there was no one to bother him, and he was left alone with his thoughts. When he was relieved by Rauphangelaa in the morning, he would usually go back to his own quarters and read or pray, preferring to stay away from the Humans. This night, he was feeling depressed and discouraged about the entire situation. Besides the fact he was having doubts concerning the Kha and the teachings of Ruvedalin, he also didn’t think their mission could succeed once they arrived back at Rajan.
The odds were against them repelling the Krahn with only five Humans, even if they were implanted with the legendary Johar Stones. There were thousands of Krahn on Rajan, and they were equipped with projectile weapons and a large colony ship outfitted with an energy cannon. As for the smaller Krahn ships, some had projectile weapons and some energy—it depended on what was scavenged from the various ships they attacked over the years since Ronak’s exile.
The Galactic Alliance maintained records of all of its members, including the Krahn, in its Administrative Authority department. Anyone could access information at any time, as long as they had the proper security level. Not all information was free for everyone to see.
After they escaped Rajan, Rauphangelaa had accessed the Alliance Central Computer via the Tukuli’s main computer and learned as much as he could about the Krahn Horde. They had known some about the Krahn, a relatively new race to the Galactic Alliance, but being as secluded as they were on Rajan, knew nothing of the Horde and the fact it had steadily been moving toward Rajan over the course of five years, pirating the space travel corridors and expanding its numbers exponentially.
The concept of a single ruler was foreign to the Rajani, who were governed by the Elder Council. The files on the Krahn suggested the Krahn had a stable government once Ronak was banished.
Bhakat had made his way to the bridge. He pushed the intercom button and waited for Janan to let him in. After a minute or two, Janan opened the door.
“Were you sleeping?” Bhakat asked irritably as he entered the bridge.
“No,” Janan replied, wiping his eyes hurriedly.
Bhakat could see his friend had been crying, and his demeanor softened. Janan was the only one he considered a friend. They had known each other since Bhakat had pledged to Rauphangelaa’s house, and they complemented each other in many ways.
“I too grieve for your loss,” Bhakat said quietly, sitting down next to the diminutive Sekani.
“It still doesn’t seem real sometimes,” Janan said, looking at the giant screen wall. “It’s like we’ll get back home and none of this will have really happened. My family will be alive and waiting for me like all of the other times I’ve returned.”
He stood and wiped his face again. “My father will tell me about the gardens around Rauphangelaa’s estate, and my mother will complain about the quality of food at the marketplace, and my brothers will pester me for stories about my adventures aboard this ship until I make up something good because nothing exciting ever happens aboard a Rajani ship.” He smiled and looked at Bhakat, then turned serious once more. “But none of it will ever happen again. They’re all gone. Even if we win this war and repel or kill all of the Krahn, it won’t change the fact my entire family is dead.” Tears began to stream from his eyes again, and he bowed his head, covering his face with his hands.
Bhakat said nothing. His friend needed to cry. It was part of the grieving cycle. He needed to accept his loss. Bhakat’s parents were both dead, had been dead for a few years, and Bhakat still missed them. After a moment, Janan was able to compose himself. It can’t help matters, Bhakat thought, that Rajan was betrayed by a Sekani.
Before the initial Krahn attack, the Tukuli had intercepted a transmission from the planet’s surface to the Krahn colony ship that had given detailed information on the location of the Elders and their houses, as well as maps of Melaanse. Each individual on Rajan was given a computer identification number. Whenever someone logged into a computer console on Rajan, their number was sent to a log on the central computer system. Bhakat had discovered the transmission was sent by someone logged in with a Sekani number. They thought at first the central computer on Rajan must have been destroyed, because they couldn’t access it to see who the number belonged to.
Then they couldn’t access the full extent of the information given or the name associated with the identification number because parts of the Tukuli’s computer memory were damaged in the escape from Rajan. The computer had been experiencing glitches in its memory even prior to the attack, but now an entire data section was missing, including everything right before the attack. Bhakat had been meaning to run a diagnostic on the computer to see if the Krahn had downloaded a virus to all of Rajan’s computers through the central computer located in Melaanse, but other matters had taken precedent. He would get to it eventually.
“I suppose I’m just tired,” Janan said, breaking Bhakat out of his reverie. “I’ve been spending too many late nights talking with David.”
“Drinking fernta,” Bhakat added, frowning disapprovingly.
“Ah, yes, that too. We’re getting low, by the way. We’ll have to restock when we get back,” he smiled at Bhakat, who kept a serious expression on his face for as long as he could before he too smiled. He didn’t smile often, but when he did, he usually looked like he was going to bite someone.
Janan always had a way of making him smile. He supposed it was why they were friends. Even though Janan was his only friend, he didn’t begrudge the fact the Sekani was spendi
ng a lot of his free time with the Human named David. There was something fascinating about the Humans; each in their own way, though Bhakat preferred not to become too familiar with them personally.
“Tonight,” Janan said, “I’m going to bed. I’ve been staying up too late recently. I’m not going to be any good to the mission if I’m still hung-over when we get home.” He walked to the door before turning back toward Bhakat. “Thank you for listening, Bhakat.”
“Any time, my friend,” Bhakat replied. He watched as Janan turned and walked out of the bridge, wondering if it was better or worse he had survived, when all of his family was now dead.
#
James and Yvette were talking, seated on the comfortable couch-like piece of furniture in James’s room. The bed behind them was much larger than a king-size. There was a small table with a few simple-looking plates on it in front of them, which James had brought into his room for them to eat on.
“Those nutritional supplements leave something to be desired,” James said. “Hopefully we’ll have something better for dinner tomorrow night.”
“Yes,” Yvette replied, smiling. “But we’re probably far healthier than we were before coming aboard this ship.”
They were seated at a comfortable distance from one another as they talked, though both were more at ease than the first time they’d sat together in his room, weeks earlier.
“True,” James said. “You were pretty willing to come on this mission. Why, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“Why not?” Yvette replied, still smiling, though James thought the smile now looked more like a cat’s.
James leaned toward her, surprise on his face. “Why not? We haven’t talked about this as a team yet, but you and I both know we’re probably not going to win this fight. The odds are against us.”
“Yes, I know, but there’s nothing like a challenge to get the blood flowing.”