Alcantaran 1: Alien Abduction

by Terry Compton

  The silver was all done before they dropped out of hyper-space. Ron had found ten more molds of small figures that could have been bracelet charms. They made a bunch of those up for 'eye candy'. All the smelting gear had been put back into storage and the robots were secured. Ron and Gus had loaded more weapons in the armory while Tik had researched more about Auntie. They were all nervous about the upcoming meeting but were excited too.

  Auntie dropped out of hyper-space outside of the solar system. Ron wanted a chance to actually fly before he tried to set down on an inhabited planet. Auntie found a small barren planet on the outer rim of the solar system where they all practiced landing and 'touch-and-goes'. Once they all felt confident of their abilities, they started in towards the planet. Tik thought they should drop a remote detector along their route; so about half way to the planet, they dropped the detector. They also sent out Kota's message again but they received no response.

  They continued cruising toward the planet until they received a radio transmission asking who they were and what their intentions were. Ron answered them and told them they were the Galactic Antiquarian here to trade. The radio transmission directed them to the space port and where to park. Ron did the piloting and was super nervous landing on an inhabited planet for the first time. It was all worry for nothing because he set Auntie down like a feather, right on the designated spot. The radio directed them to the manager's office to fill out the necessary paper work and to get their trading permit. Auntie had been scanning the planet and said they could breathe the air with no problem. She said there were bacteria and viruses that could be harmful but none were close at hand. They would be able to move around the planet without space suits.

  They had selected concealed weapons for this first meeting and had them hidden on their bodies. They had selected several of the smallest silver figures and a couple of the larger ones. Gus was carrying three ingots of silver in his personal pouch and Ron had one in his pocket. They had divided the silver figures between them so everyone was carrying a couple. They went to the rear exit on the bottom level and out of habit, cycled through the airlock.

  As they stood in the airlock, they talked of how they felt. They were feeling nervous, excited, curious and ready to try this adventure.

  Gus said, "It's been three years since I set foot on a planet. I wonder what the weather will feel like again."

  Tik said, "Yeah, it's been 2-1/2 years for me. I wonder if they have flowers in bloom."

  "I guess I'm the lucky one. It's only been two years for me but somehow I don't feel that lucky waiting that long," Ron sighed.

  The airlock took in outside air and they started smelling a planet again. The cycle finished and the door swung open. A different sunshine than they were used to poured in the open door. This light had a bluish tint because the sun was a blue dwarf. There was a slight smell of nutmeg in the air and other fragrances, they couldn't identify. This level had stairs that they could walk down to the ground. When they were on the ground, they looked all around at their first alien planet. They had been watching the monitors as they landed and they knew there was a range of mountains to the north. A broad river meandered around the city they had landed near. The river continued across rolling plains that showed definite signs of agriculture. The space port sat in the middle of a temperate zone about the same as Kansas City in the United States. The alien city was in the middle of the land mass on this side of the planet. During their approach to the planet, they had seen oceans and another large land mass across the ocean to the east. The space port appeared to be 10 to 15 miles from the edge of the city. There were houses and businesses scattered along the road between the city and the space port. It had looked like there were boats on the river and there had been roads scattered across the landscape.

  The trio looked around now and saw the mountains in the distance. There was some kind of large, tree-like blue fauna spaced on the edge of the space port. Under these trees were densely spaced blue bushes that appeared to be about 10 feet tall. If anything went through that hedge, it would have to be smaller than Tik by far. Whatever it was, it made an effective fence around the space port. As they walked toward the space port office, they felt the gentle breeze blowing in their faces. The space port itself was flat and looked like it was 300 or 400 acres. The area closest to the building had a hard smooth surface like concrete but a little different. Two or three hundred yards away from the buildings, the ground had a blue cover that resembled grass. It gave a strange but not unpleasant look. As they got closer to the building, they could see the hedge coming up to the edge of the building. There were small yellow and blue blooms scattered across the face of the hedge. There was a strong, sweet fragrance coming on the breeze from those blooms. Now that they were closer, they could see the large, sharp, brown thorns that were all over the branches on the hedge.

  Ron thought of the air in Auntie and how stale it would seem now. He asked Auntie if she could cycle some of this air inside and refresh their air. She said she would get right on it and things would be freshened up by the time they returned.

  The building was a one story building that spread out for three or four hundred feet. From where they stood, they couldn't tell how deep it was. The outside was a tan color with vivid blue, green and orange swirls and designs over the face. There was a large door in the middle of the building, so the trio headed there. There was a sign over the door written in a strange language. The trio was amazed that they could read it. It said:

  Wuensche NationalSpacePort

  We welcome all pleasant visitors.

  We are here to serve you and to promote trade between the planets.

  The trio stepped through the doors and looked around. Gus noticed that the doors were tall enough for him. He guessed they would even be tall enough for Kota to walk through without ducking. They were in a room that was at least a 100 feet by 100 feet. Passageways went off the center of the room in each direction. There was an exit door across the room and they could see more shrubs and trees outside. They had to walk through some sort of scanner as they entered the building. Once they were through the scanner, they faced a long counter that blocked the exit. The counter was reddish brown with the grain of the wood showing as a dark blue. There were three sections to the counter with openings between each section. Each opening had steps that led to the level behind the counter. The opening was blocked by an arm that was swung out of the way by a mechanical device. The counter was about four feet high and the section to the right had two steps in front of it. The middle section had one step. Ron led the way to the left section which had no steps. He figured they must have different sizes of space farers, so they were trying to accommodate them all.

  As Ron stepped up to the counter, a creature came out of a room off to the left and walked over to the counter. The creature walked on short stout legs. Its body reminded Ron of a cartoon snowman. It looked like three balls stacked on top of one another with each ball getting smaller as it went up. It had two arms with six fingers and a thumb on each hand. The creature was wearing a miniature top hat that was set at a rakish angle. The hat was much too small for its head and Ron didn't see how it stayed on. The hat sat on top of short dark blue hair. The creature had big, round, yellow eyes and a sharp pointy nose. It had thick orange lips that were stretched into a big smile right now. Its skin was pale blue and the black suit it wore almost looked painted on. There were three bright green buttons on the suit jacket that caught the light and sparkled as the creature walked up to the counter.

  "Hello. My name is Fu-Ni-Quc and I'm the space port manager. How may I help you, gentle creatures? Can you understand me or do I need to find a translator?"

  "Hi, I'm Ron Calvin. This is Tik Michi and this is Gusissi Ugde Ghaolh. We understand fine. Our translators seem to understand your language just fine. We had a radio transmission that said we needed to check in with the manager, so here we are. We'd like to see if we could do some trading here."

  "Oh my, we w
elcome trade. Do you have any idea what you want to trade for? How long will you be staying with us?" Fu-Ni-Quc said in a musical pleasant voice.

  "Well, we have no idea how long it will take to conduct a trade, so we don't know how long we will stay. We know we want to trade for some food supplies for ourselves; but beyond that, we would like to see some of what you have available." Ron answered.

  "Right now, we can't help you if you need fuel; unfortunately, we are at war with a neighboring country and we are not allowed to sell any fuel." Fu said as he started filling out some forms.

  "We're fine on fuel. What type of fuel do you normally offer?" Ron asked.

  "We usually have three grades of fusionable material but everything is going to the war effort right now."

  "Gee, that's too bad. I hate to hear of any country at war. It's always so hard on the citizens and soldiers."

  "I know. There are some shortages but, luckily, food isn't one of them. Where did you say you gentle creatures were from?"

  Ron broadcast a thought to Tik and Gus, "What should I tell him?"

  Tik mentally answered, "Just say your home planet. You'll know more details about that and won't have to make things up."

  Ron answered, "We're from Earth over in the Milky Way galaxy."

  Fu filled in some more of the form and said, "We have a landing fee of 1000 rudia or 10 Charter Alliance credits plus a parking fee of 100 rudia or 1 credit per day. How would you like to handle that?"

  "We're not members of the Alliance yet, so right now, all we've got is some silver to trade. Is there somewhere we could trade some silver for the local currency?" Ron said as he pulled a silver ingot out of his pocket.

  Fu pulled a communication device out of his pocket as he said, "We have a representative from the banking industry on site. He can do an exchange for you. Excuse me a moment while I contact him."

  Fu talked on the comm device for a few minutes and shortly another creature appeared. This one was a thinner copy of Fu without the hat and seemed to be a little older. The creature walked up to the counter and said, "Hello, my name is Glueck and I understand from Fu here that you have some silver to exchange."

  "Yes, we have a few more like this. We'd like to see how they exchange for your rudia," Ron said as he showed the ingot to the creature.

  Ron could sense the excitement in the creature. Evidently silver was highly sought after here. He forced himself to keep a poker face so he didn't reveal that he could read their emotions.

  Glueck said, "I'm afraid your companions will have to wait here but I'd like you to accompany me to my work area. I need to test this ingot, and no offence intended, but I have rules to follow."

  "No offence taken. If I had a stranger show up with silver ingots, I'd want to make sure it was silver all the way through," Ron answered.

  Glueck led the way down the hall to a room on the right. When they entered the room, Ron saw a bench with scales and other equipment on its surface. Glueck went directly to the bench. He weighed the ingot. Then he took a drill and drilled three very small holes in the ingot. He took the filings that came out and put them under a small machine that sat on the bench. He turned a dial and pushed a button. In just a few moments there was a reading on the machine's screen. It read .999. Glueck got even more excited at the reading but Ron could tell he was trying to hide the excitement.

  Glueck turned and said, "This is very pure. My scale shows it weighs 100 ounces. We would be interested in exchanging this for rudia. How much of it would you be exchanging?"

  "I don't know for sure. I know that we'll have to do at least one just to pay the landing fee but I need to find out what the exchange rate is. Also I need to find out how much your goods would cost. If a good breakfast meal costs 100,000 rudia and this silver is only worth 100 rudia, then we won't be exchanging much," Ron hedged until he knew the rate. "Also, I would need to know if there is a fee to exchange the silver."

  "Well, I can tell you we will offer you 30,000 rudia for this ingot and there would be no fee for doing it. A good breakfast can be had in the city for 8 or 9 rudia."

  "In that case, for right now we need to exchange two of the ingots. My partner Gus has another one here in the building if you have the rudias to exchange for it. Shall we take that ingot and go get the other one?"

  Glueck grabbed the ingot like he was afraid he was going to lose it. They went to the counter and Ron asked Gus for another ingot. He had been broadcasting what was happening so Gus was ready. Ron took the ingot and they returned to the testing room. Glueck went through the same procedure and was even more excited when he saw the same reading. He picked up the silver filings and placed them in a small bottle. He grabbed the bottle and both ingots and then he led Ron into another room that had a fancy desk made of the same wood as the counter. The rim of the desk had flowers and some kind of bird carved around the entire rim that Ron could see. Glueck pushed a spot on the desk and a smaller, younger creature came into the room. Glueck told him to get 60,000 rudia out of the safe and bring it in to them. Glueck filled out some forms and asked Ron to sign one of them. Ron saw that it was a simple form stating that he had exchanged 200 ounces of silver for 60,000 rudia. He signed it as Glueck's helper brought the money into the room. Glueck gave the money to Ron and then bowed as he thanked him for doing business with them. Ron thanked him and walked back outside to the counter.

  Ron gave Fu 1700 rudia. He told him that he would like to pay for a weeks parking and then see how much longer it would take to make a trade.

  "I'll get you a receipt. Do you wish to get a trading permit now?" Fu asked.

  "Do we need a permit to look around and see if you have anything we need to trade for? How much is the permit and how long will it take to get it?"

  Tik was getting impatient to get out and look around. Ron and Gus both were broadcasting for her to chill out. They had to follow procedure here or they might wind up with trouble and wouldn't get their food supplies. She settled down but still wasn't happy.

  "The permit is 100 rudia and it usually takes two to three days. You are welcome to look around our city but would really need the permit to check out trade goods." Fu replied.

  "In that case, we'd better have the permit. I have money in my pocket and if I see something I really need, it might burn a hole in my pocket," Ron said with a grin.

  Fu returned the grin and started filling out the paper work. He asked what the name of the space ship was and where they were from. When he asked for a company name, Ron told him RTG Traders. Fu finished the paper work and had Ron sign it. Ron gave him 100 rudia and Fu gave him a receipt for both the permit and the landing/parking fee.

  Ron casually asked, "Do you ever moonlight as a consultant or do you know a consultant? We need someone to help us with the local customs. I'd sure hate to offer to shake hands as a friend and find out that's an offer to fight here."

  "Why, I've never been asked to consult before. I try to answer questions here and point space travelers in the right direction. I don't know…." Fu stammered.

  "That's all right. We wouldn't want you to break any rules or regulations. We just need a consultant or guide. We just figured if you had worked here very long, you would know the right and wrong way to get things done," Ron stated soothingly.

  "Well, I have worked here for 10 years and I do have 3 or 4 personal days coming that I could use. If I were to consult, how long would you need me and exactly what would you expect me to do?" Fu asked nervously.

  "We definitely don't want you to do anything illegal or immoral. If we ask something that fits in those categories here, we would expect… no, demand that you tell us we shouldn't do that. We need someone to show us around and to make sure we aren't insulting the local people. Our company insists that we be model citizens," Ron declared emphatically.

  "In that case, I could help you out. I'll be through here in two hours and we could start then. I must warn you though, that I don't frequent those dives east of here that most of the space
travelers go to. I wouldn't know anything about them," Fu asserted.

  "We're not looking for that type of place. We would rather go to some place you would take your family. Do you have a family?" Ron said.