Starfire and Raan landed the Grennig and they waited at the starboard aircar hatch for their ride to arrive. The faint clang and green light over the door told them it had, and they sat inside the little globe for the short journey to reception. To say it was bland would have been an understatement. Everything was a dreary shade of beige. The carpet was beige, the walls were beige, the windows were neither too big nor too small and the lighting was subdued. If Raan hadn’t warned them about it, they would have been distinctly underwhelmed.
“Ah, I can see you looking at the décor,” a motherly looking Aurian lady held out a pad for their palm prints and retina scans. “We cater for all races and all delights,” she said. “What excites one will offend another, so our décor here is subdued.” She pressed a few buttons on the glass panel of her desk. “That’s you all checked in. Staying for two nights only.” She had been doing her job a long time and she was a good judge of character. She pegged Erion as the leader of the group and handed the flexi computer to her. “You’re all staying at staying at the Crescent Moon. One large suite with parts.” Erion ran her fingers along the room plan and moved the partitions around to make two bedrooms. Because Vermillion had insisted that money was no problem, they had top class accommodations and there was a window with a balcony, a full Vanity and a dinette sitting room. There was a little ping sound and an aircar door opened. “There you go, dears,” she said. “You luggage will be in your suite when you arrive.”
“The Crescent Moon,” said Vermillion, wistfully. “What a lovely name.”
“Probably a dive,” whispered Raan. “Remember, Vermillion, everything here is an illusion.”
“Captain, if I see nothing else on this trip, my heart will be fulfilled. I shall be forever grateful for Delta Ten and you for this adventure.”
“Just don’t go anywhere without me,” muttered Hal. Vermillion turned her head to look at him and he mumbled, “you got no idea what it’s like in the outside world.”
Their suite was everything you would expect for two thousand credits a night and after they wandered around its large rooms and gazed out across the lush, landscaped grounds for a while, it was time to leave.
The Aurian Lounge was a classy venue. It looked like the Cantina, but much more up market. One wall was made entirely of glass and there were couches and small tables around the edge on a carpet of pale green. The centre of the room was taken up with large, circular dining tables and real human waiters glided about, carrying trays.
“Raan!” squealed a voice, and a waiter almost went flying as Rigondal, Royal Princess of the Katraian House of Mur, made a straight path towards him, leapt into his arms and put her shapely legs around his waist, robes flying behind her. She had typical Aurian colouring, wore the dark, richly embroidered clothes of her station, and her copper hair was cut in the same style as Erion’s. He kissed the end of her nose and placed her gently on the floor. Walking behind her, wearing an expression that a father might use for his favourite, but naughty child, was Lord Raemond of Prime. He also had Aurian colouring and looked a lot like Raan, but younger. He shook his head, sadly.
“Rigondal, put Captain Raan down. You are disgracing yourself.” The word ‘again’ was left unsaid but hung in the air like an echo. Raemond smiled broadly. “It is good to see you all.” He and Raan pressed their hands together and he leaned forward and kissed Erion and Starfire on both cheeks. Hal and Delta Ten were treated to respectful nods and Erion started to walk towards the internal aircar hatch.
“We can’t speak here, let’s go to our quarters.” A short aircar ride brought them out into the hall and they quickly entered their suite. “Del, check for listening devices please?” Erion spoke automatically and was about to apologise to Vermillion, but she walked about the suite and then sat down on one of the couches with everyone else.
“There are no listening or watching devices present.”
“Good,” Erion stood up. “Firstly, I would like to say that Hal and Delta Ten represent the two other races that have an interest in this project.” She looked around the room. “Has everyone got a drink?” There were nods all round. “Now, I’d like to put Raemond and Rigondal in the picture as much as I can.” Then, without going into too much detail, Erion described Hal and Starfire’s visit to Serrell. She left out the Trenee entirely, and said that over two hundred and fifty Terrellian families would need sanctuary, at least until they could be siphoned off to other parts of the galaxy if they wished.” Raemond raised his hand.
“What of spies and Federation agents? Our planet is now a secret friend of the Rebel Alliance.” Hal stood up.
“The people I speak for guarantee their authenticity. They are what they say they are. You got my word.” He sat down again and Rigondal smiled,
“Then that is enough for us. We will take in these people.”
“There could be some more, Your Highness,” said Raan. He looked at the others. “There’s still a lot of building work to be done on Katraia. We know where there’s a lot of construction workers and engineers looking for a home.”
“Well done, Captain,” said Erion, “you could be right at that.”
“We can’t guarantee their honesty like we can the Terrellians, though,” warned Raan.
“Maybe we can,” said Hal, from his chair.
“Oh, no,” Starfire shuddered, “you can’t let that mad professor loose on them.”
“We could give them the choice, Lieutenant,” Hal took a drag of his cigarillo, “ have a personality scan and live out their days on a peaceful planet or take a chance on where the Alliance sends them.”
“They could bring their families also,” said Rigondal. “We lost many people when our moon exploded. Good families would be welcome.”
“Sounds like a good idea, Princess,” said Starfire.
“Now this will all be co-ordinated from a little, uninhabited planet we know,” began Raan. “A whole lot of Alliance ships will be taking off from there and heading to Serrell. We ain’t got the space or the fuel to launch this many ships from the Cantina, so everything is going to start and finish from there.”
“First, though we gotta contact our friends on Serrell,” said Hal. “Give the Federation prisoners the chance to prove their loyalty if they want to go to Katraia.”
“How long would that take, do you think?” asked Erion.
“A hundred and sixty three ex-prisoners?” began Hal. “Shit, I don’t know. Maybe they can do ‘em all together. Longer, I guess, if it they gotta do one at a time.”
“Vermillion, would you go with Hal to the ship and try to get a message to Serrell?” asked Erion. “Hal, ask if your friends can maybe scan those prisoners and sort the wheat from the chaff. Tell them that they and their families could have another life away from the Federation if they prove their loyalty to us. Tell them we’ll wait for sixteen hours, then try and contact them every half hour after that for an answer.” The Terrellian system was at least eight hours from everywhere. Sixteen hours was the least they would have to wait to send and then receive a reply.
“Sure.” Hal stood up and Vermillion went with him.
“Major?” began Raemond, looking at the comp pad that she had handed him. “This is an awful lot of ships for twelve hundred passengers.”
“Ah,” said Raan, “We also got to move over five thousand refugees.”
Hal and Vermillion took an aircar ride to the Grennig and Vermillion looked out of the pilot section window as a shooting star arced across the sky.
“Thank you for this, friend Hal.” The android’s eyes watched the stars and the ships taking off and landing. He shrugged and Vermillion, only having Tranter to compare him with, accepted his long silences as normal. Vermillion sat at the co-pilot seat and fluttered Delta Ten's graceful hands over the crystals. It went very quiet for a moment and then she turned around in the seat to face Hal, who lounged at his gunnery console. “The message has been sent, Hal. It will take eight hours to get to Serrell.”
&
nbsp; “That’s too long, Vermillion. Can’t you make it sooner?”
“It is what it is, Hal. The messages travel at the speed of light. There is nothing I can do to change that.”
“It’d be just as quick to damn well go there, wouldn’t it?”
Dinner had arrived in their suite when Hal and Vermillion got back. Vermillion took her leave, saying she needed a rest and left the room. Delta Ten did not eat but Rigondal and Raemond did not know that he was an android and this was the easiest option. After a good meal, followed by lively conversation about absent friends on Katraia, Raemond and Rigondal left, but not before Rigondal shyly showed Erion and Starfire a sparkly jewel on the third finger of her left hand.
“Nobody is supposed to know until the announcement next week,” she explained. “Raemond said I should have left it behind, but I just had to show somebody.
“It’s beautiful, Princess,” said Starfire. She and Erion tried it on and almost got caught by Raemond, who approached them with Rigondal’s cloak. The ring quickly slipped off Starfire’s hand and disappeared into Rigondal’s bag while Erion distracted the young man. They agreed to meet for breakfast, and after another coffee, the Grennig crew also retired for the night.
It was another lovely morning, and they had breakfast on the terrace of their suite. Raan produced a map and they looked through all the domes to see what they fancied doing for the day, until the message from Serrell came back.
“No!” gasped Starfire, when Raan pointed out the storybook dome. “You mean people actually dress up as characters from their childhood?”
“Oh yeah,” he said in a matter of fact tone, “if you want, you can get even screwed by..” he leaned over and whispered in her ear. Starfire pulled a shocked face.
“That’s just gross, Captain. You’re making it up. The fur would stick to everything.”
“I promise you it’s true, Lieutenant.”
“How long till we get an answer from Serrell do you think?” she asked, trying to get the image out of her head by changing the subject.
“It’s gonna be at least late afternoon, I reckon. Even if everything goes straight through, you’re talking about seventeen hours from transmission.” He looked up as Vermillion joined them. “Well Del, this is your day. How do you want to spend it?”
“Gardens,” she answered. “Gardens with flowers.” Raemond and Rigondal met them and they spent the morning strolling round the gardens dome. Vermillion spent far too much money buying seeds and customs certificates for Citizen Hofolhdxhy and she bought holograms of all the gardens and features. They had lunch at the hotel restaurant, and Vermillion excused herself again, saying she had a headache and would join them later. Hal accompanied her to their suite and saw her inside.
“Don’t go out on your own,” he warned. “If you want anything, get me on my comlink and I’ll come back for you.” Vermillion sat for a while looking out across the huge, sunny, landscaped complex from the balcony. Children were playing, there was faint music coming from several venues, exotic birds were singing and a variety of species strolled around or were riding in open topped, electric vehicles. It couldn’t hurt, she thought to herself and left the hotel, head held high and the sun on her face, to take a little stroll.
“Hello, there.”
“Oh, hello,” Vermillion looked down in surprise at the young woman who slipped her arm through hers.
“My name’s Carilla. What’s yours?”
“My name is Del.”
“What a lovely name. Where are you going, Del?” Carilla had a skinny little body and she brushed it provocatively against Vermillion’s thigh as they walked.
“I am just out for a walk,” said Vermillion, “to see the sights of this lovely place.”
“I know somewhere you would like to see, Del,” said Carilla, steering Vermillion to the left, down a small street. “Come on, you’re gonna love this place.”
“I don’t think …. I don’t know,” Vermillion had the growing feeling that the situation was getting out of her control, but did not want to cause offense if her instincts were incorrect. She had been alone with her Citizens for years and her dealings with humans, apart from Tranter and Hal, were non-existent.
“You’re really cute,” Carilla started to pull Vermillion down the little street. The walls were made of some sort of plastic and there small windows, but they were high up, probably on a second storey. “Come on, it’s just down here; we could have a little fun.” Carilla pushed Vermillion into a small alley. There was a grubby aircar door at the end and the concrete floor was littered with rubbish and used cigarillo butts. Carilla called for an aircar and Vermillion backed away.
“I want to go back to my hotel,” she said in Delta Ten’s voice.
“Aw, come on honey,” the young girl undid her blouse and pushed her skinny chest toward Vermillion, who tried to back further away. The aircar door opened and three men stepped out. They were all Aurian, clean shaven and wearing some sort of livery, which meant they worked at one of the big hotels.
“Well, what we got here?” asked one of the men. Carilla left Vermillion in the alley and ran towards him, pulling open her blouse.
“He grabbed me, Marty. He pulled me down here and tried to rip off my clothes.”
“But I did not,” Vermillion turned around to leave and was confronted by another two men who had entered the alley behind her. They wore a different livery and one of them lifted a small hand gun and pointed it at her.
“So, you think you can come here and just rape our women do you?”
“No, I ..” The man continued as if Vermillion hadn’t spoken.
“Look, I get it,” the man with the gun smiled and walked forward. “You got money, you’re here with your family to have a good time and along comes little Carilla here and you think to yourself, ‘maybe I can get a little piece of this. I’m a long way from home and nobody will care what happens to a diner waitress.’ Ain’t that what happened?”
“No, that is not what happened,” Vermillion did not have Delta Ten’s programing. Delta Ten was special. His three laws had been altered to protect people he saw as friends. He could, and had, caused harm to humans who threatened his friends or himself. Delta Ten would have had them all rolling in the gutter by now, the girl included.
But this wasn’t Delta Ten. It only looked like Delta Ten and there was a kind, gentle, confused person in control of his body. Vermillion backed away until she felt the point of a knife prick her back.
“Well now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Their spokesman thrust the barrel of his sonic pistol under Vermillion’s chin. The effect was slightly spoilt by the firmness of Delta Ten’s jaw, which didn’t budge an inch and the man hurt his finger on the trigger guard. “Listen,” he hissed, “the easy way means you give us all your money and valuables and we all go away and forget about this. You have a lucky escape and learn a little lesson about trusting strangers. The hard way is you try and resist and we give you a little beating, maybe mess up that cute face of yours. Then we take all your stuff off your unconscious body anyway.”
“But I don’t understand…” It was beginning to sink into Vermillion’s mind that bad things really could happen to good people and she didn’t know what to do.
“Are you all right, Del?” Everyone spun around, Vermillion included, to see Hal, arms folded, leaning a shoulder on the wall at the other end of the alley. He stood upright and strolled towards them.
“Butt out, Mister. This ain’t your concern.” The owner of the gun removed it from Del’s unbending jaw and aimed it at Hal, who continued to walk forward. “I gotta gun and I ain’t afraid to use it.”
“Likewise,” murmured Hal, who continued to amble up the alley. “Only, unlike you, I have used mine.” He stopped twelve feet from the little tableau and smiled, sardonically. “Well now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is that you scum just disappear back into your little aircar and we all go home in one piece.�
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“Yeah,” sneered the head thief, “and what’s the hard way?”
“I shoot you all. c”
“This gun says different,” snarled the young man. He waved the sonic pistol in Hal’s direction, “and unlike you, Mister tough talk, my gun is already in my hand. There’s six of us to your one. What do you say to that then?” Hal didn’t move, but just stood in front of the group, his arms by his sides.
“What’s it to be?” asked Hal.
“Now you listen to me, Terrellian, if you don’t turn around and get out of here, your friend here will be minus a kidney and eating his food through a straw for weeks. His wife won’t want to look him in the face ‘cos he’ll have no fraggin’ nose.”
“Don’t move, Del,” said Hal, softly, “just keep real still.”
“Didn’t you just hear what I said, you Terrellian piece of shit?” Hal’s blaster fired six shots in just under three seconds. The man with gun sank to his knees, his left hand holding his wrist, to stop the flow of blood pumping from it. His right hand, along with the gun it held, was blasted across the alley. Everyone else fell with wounds to the parts of their bodies that Hal could safely hit without endangering Vermillion. The man who held the knife to Vermillion’s back jerked backwards, his ear and cheek blasted away. The others had pieces blown from their upper arms or, as in Carilla’s case, her shoulder. The screaming turned to moaning and Hal stepped forward to grab the unmoving Vermillion by the wrist.
“Come on!” he snapped, pulling the horrified machine through the blood and body parts. “What did I tell you about going out on your own?” he hissed as they walked out onto the main street.
“But I did nothing, Hal. I did not put myself in danger. I was just walking.”
“They were a mugger gang,” Hal said quietly. “Someone at the hotel probably tipped them off that you had just arrived. They thought you would have plenty of money and you wouldn’t want to ruin your holiday by waking up in hospital on your first day.”
Starfire and the Space Dragons: A Grennig Crew Adenture Page 14