"How many wounded men do you have? How many men are left on all the ships?" Ron asked brusquely.
"I'll have to check. It will take a few minutes," the Admiral said.
Ron, Gus and Tik discussed how to get a large group of wounded to the planet. They all agreed, they didn't want any of the Nodac-Liujians on Auntie. Besides, her cargo bays didn't have much room. They decided they needed to use the seized ships; which hopefully, would be fairly empty. It was decided that Ron would stay as pilot of Auntie and stay on station to make sure that there was no funny business from the warships. They needed Kota and Zibo to pilot the good ship and Tik and Gus would fly the other one after they checked it out. If it was too badly damaged, they would not use it. One big concern was fuel. They had no idea how much fuel was in the other ships. Ron checked Auntie and she had used all the fuel in the rockets, except what they needed to burn for the next load. Auntie's main tank was almost full, so they had no problem there.
Tik called Kota to see if he and Zibo could help with the other ships. When she explained that she and Gus would fly the damaged ship, Kota would have none of it. He reminded her that he and Zibo were much more experienced pilots. They would fly the damaged ship or they wouldn't help. Tik finally agreed. Tik asked Kota if he knew how much room was on the two ships and he told her they usually had two cargo bays that were about 350 feet long by 140 feet wide. There would be plenty of head room but no real way to utilize it. Tik asked him to send a message to Fu to let him know there were a lot of wounded who would be arriving shortly as well as prisoners of war. Zibo moved their ship moving closer to Auntie. Tik and Gus would transfer to their ship and then they would head towards the seized ships. Tik said the Alcantaran ghosts could fly the seized ships towards them for the transfer.
Auntie had been monitoring the radio traffic from the big warship to all the others. There was no answer from the last ship she had shot. She reported that there was nothing suspicious about the radio messages.
The Admiral came back on the radio and told Ron that he had 4000 wounded and maybe another 4000 to 5000 troops left on the five ships. He said they hadn't been able to raise the one ship, so he had no idea how many were left on it.
Ron asked where they needed to be to start transferring wounded. The Admiral described an escape door, close to the nose of the warship. He said they had a special tube that would seal over that door and to the door of his space ship. Using a tractor beam to keep the tube taut would allow them to move personnel fairly rapidly. Ron told him they only had two ships to transfer everybody, so it was going to take some time. He also told him that if there were any tricks or anyone tried to approach the flight deck on either ship, the Alcantaran ghosts would dump the whole load of personnel into space and the rest of the crews would face an agonizing death that would take days or maybe even weeks. The Admiral said they would cause no problems. Ron knew if all the other crew members were as disheartened as the Admiral, they would be afraid to try anything.
Kota and Zibo reported the damaged ship was still space worthy and they would have no problem flying it. They also reported that they would have plenty of fuel. Tik reported they had plenty of fuel as well. They started loading wounded and then flew them to Europaische. It took four days to get everyone off the warships and the escort ships. Ron took catnaps in the pilot's seat and only left to go to the bathroom and to stretch once in awhile. Tik and Gus traded off flying, so they could get a little sleep on the way to the planet and on the way back. Kota and Zibo did the same. On the last load of personnel, Kota transferred to his ship and flew it back to Europaische. Ron followed in Auntie; and as soon as they landed, Tik and Gus came into Auntie and Zibo went to their ship. They were all exhausted and slept for the next 14 hours.
Tik was the first to wake and get out of bed. She walked into the living room and cried, "Oh, my gosh!" She was staring at the view screens with her mouth wide open. Ron and Gus came running in, expecting serious trouble. They stopped and stared at the screens with their mouths open, too. There were at least a dozen more space ships of various sizes sitting in the space port. One screen showed a giant space ship parked in orbit with several other ships around it and others scattered in orbit around the planet. The trio looked at each other. Had the Nodac-Liujians evaded the Charter Navy and still carried off the invasion of Europaische? They all ran to the situation room to check out what had happened while they slept.
Auntie announced that Kota and Zibo were at the edge of the shield requesting permission to come aboard. Ron told her to let them in and to rush them to the situation room. Kota and Zibo came running in out of breath.
"What's the matter? Auntie sounded like there was some kind of alarm," Kota huffed breathlessly.
Tik pointed excitedly, "Look at all those ships here at the space port and there's more in orbit. Do you think the Nodac-Liujians went ahead with their conquest plans?"
Kota and Zibo started laughing; which was hard to do, considering they were still out of breath. Finally, Kota stopped laughing and caught his breath.
"Those aren't Nodac-Liujian ships, except that big one in orbit. Those other ships are Charter Navy or news media. The big one is a troop transport that will be used to get the prisoners of war back home. Europaische doesn't want to feed and house them any longer than is necessary," Kota explained.
"Oh," was all Tik could say.
"You three are much in demand, too. A Charter Navy Admiral just called us and wants to set up a meeting. Evidently, Auntie is not putting messages through," Zibo added.
"Auntie, do we have messages?" Ron asked.
"Yes, you have 23 and counting," she replied.
"Why in the world did you hold them? By the way, why didn't we get an alarm about space ships coming in?" Ron asked with some irritation.
"I monitored your health as you came into the ship yesterday and saw you needed rest. You were sleeping so soundly when the ships started coming out of hyper-space. They were identifying themselves as Charter Navy on a mission of mercy. Even the news media identified themselves as soon as they came out of hyper-space. I didn't think I needed to wake you since they posed no threat -- unless you would like to add them to a possible threat list?" Auntie reported.
"No, they aren't a threat," Ron replied.
"The calls started very early this morning and none of them seemed extremely urgent, so I just let you sleep," Auntie stated matter-of-factly.
Ron grinned at Kota and Zibo as he shrugged his shoulders, "Well, there you have it. Our space ship is now our social secretary and nurse maid. I guess you two are lucky that you weren't attacked by our robot chef since you did run up here."
"I alerted Dolores to the fact they were coming. She was ready to defend but is fixing breakfast instead," Auntie commented.
Everyone broke out in laughter at that statement. They could all picture Kota and Zibo being chased by a robot chef with a broom to help them along.
"What in the world does a Charter Navy Admiral want with us?" Gus asked.
"We don't know; but he seemed a little put out, because he couldn’t make contact with you. They have an emergency interrupter for Trader space ships, so that is what woke us up," Zibo declared.
Suddenly it dawned on Ron what Auntie had said. He asked, "Auntie, did you say that everyone coming here now is identifying themselves right away?"
"Yes, everyone starts broadcasting identification as soon as they pop out of hyper-space and the Navy deployed shields right away, too," Auntie replied.
"Did the Navy fly by those warships on the way here?" Ron asked.
"Yes, and they still have a guard there to keep the news media away. All the other Charter Navy ships took their time as they flew by. I'm sure they were surveying the damage," Auntie reported.
Ron looked at Kota, "Did you send a message after the little fracas out there?"
Kota looked pretty sheepish as he replied, "Yeah, I did. I sent a few pictures because the damage was so incredible that words just couldn't
describe it. I might have said that it looked like more than one ship had attacked."
"Must have been the Alcantaran ghosts again, huh?" Ron quipped. The trio laughed along with Kota and Zibo but their laughter seemed a lot more nervous and strained.
Ron quickly changed the subject as he told Auntie, "Well, Auntie, you'd better get this Admiral on the line before he really gets his shorts in a knot."
An Admiral in full dress uniform appeared on the view screen, "Congratulations! I am Admiral Dursun Aydin of the Charter Alliance Navy. You all have performed an incredible feat stopping those warships and saving this planet! I would love to hear the story of how you did it; but right now, we need your help again. The Nodac-Liujian Admiral refuses to surrender to anyone except the pilot and crew of the Galactic Antiquarian. He claims you were the ones that defeated him and kept the Alcantaran ghosts from finishing off the rest of his command. He said you stayed on station for four days straight to keep them at bay. Whoever heard of ghosts doing that much damage or being able to finish off warships?"
"I don't know but I think you must. Why was it that all of your command identified themselves as soon as you came out of hyper-space? I didn't think that was standard protocol," Ron said with a chuckle, which was joined by the others.
Admiral Aydin turned a deep purple in embarrassment, "Well, we saw the pictures of the damage and we couldn't take a chance that they were real and still on guard. There's too much at stake here to take chances."
"I couldn't agree more, Admiral. We really have to thank the Alcantaran ghosts for all their help; not only in space, but here on the planet also," Ron said with a mischievous smile.
The Admiral looked closely at Ron and then at his two companions. He was sure they were pulling his leg but…
"Admiral Aydin, what do you need us to do to help with this surrender? I'm sure you know that Kota and Zibo were as much a part of this fracas and rescue as we were. They were the ones in harms way, waiting right by the entrance point to pinpoint those warships when they arrived. We just jumped from hyper-space, fired a few shots and then demanded the warships surrender. The ghosts had already done enough damage to encourage the Nodac-Liujian Admiral to surrender. Kota here is the one that taught us to fly, so he is more the hero than we are," Ron continued.
Kota started to protest but Admiral Aydin held up his hand to stop him, "They both need to be there with you. Can you be ready in an hour to meet us in the terminal? I'll get things arranged at the POW camp and we'll get the surrender taken care of…."
"Wait a minute. We just got out of bed and we haven't had breakfast yet. We still need to get ready, so why don't you make it two hours? How are we getting to the POW camp? Do you have some transportation?" Ron asked.
"I hadn't even thought of that. I just assumed there were vehicles here for transportation," the Admiral said.
"They do have but the residents here are less than six feet tall and if you are close to Kota's size, you'll look like a pretzel in there. We have a driver that hauls us around. Maybe he has friends or knows some other drivers. We'll give him a call to see if he can be here by then. We'll let you know how many people he can haul. We'll be talking to you, Admiral," Ron said as he signaled Auntie to cut the connection.
Ron looked at Kota and Zibo as he asked, "Have you eaten yet? You're welcome to join us."
They declined and said they needed to go back to their ship to get ready. As they left the room, Ron told Auntie to contact Fu on the radio and have him ask the driver about chauffeuring them and several Charter Navy people. The trio ate and then went to get ready. It dawned on them that they really didn't have any 'dress clothes'. Ron said they would have to remedy that, once they were in space. They did have their concealed weapons, as well as the other ones in the shoulder holsters.
When they walked out into the terminal, Admiral Aydin was already there. Ron walked up to him and introduced Tik, Gus and himself as he shook hands. The Admiral was eyeing their weapons.
He asked, "Do you really think you will need those right now with all these Charter Navy personnel around?"
"Well, it's this way, Admiral. These are life savers," Ron commented.
"Life savers?" a puzzled Admiral asked.
"Yeah, if someone sees us wearing them, they aren't likely to try anything; therefore, it will save their lives. If we didn't have them, someone might think they had a chance to collect 50,000 credits and would wind up badly injured or dead," Ron said with a tight smile. "Besides, they make the Alcantaran ghosts rest easy."
The Admiral gave a start at the mention of the ghosts and quickly dropped the subject. The Charter Navy had armed guards outside the terminal to keep the news media and onlookers at bay, but when they walked out, it still created a big stir. As they walked out, the trio's driver was waiting for them with a huge grin. He had enough vehicles to haul everyone and he was going to drive his friends and heroes. He announced that they could not pay for anything that day. He said they were heroes for saving Wuensche and it would be a terrible insult if they even offered any money or gifts that day. The trio invited the Admiral, Kota and Zibo to ride with them. The Admiral briefed them on the procedure for the surrender and the rest of the ceremony during the drive.
They arrived at the POW camp for the ceremony and the news media had crews there. The media who had been at the space port had followed and quickly set up their gear. The ceremony quickly proceeded. The Nodac-Liujia Admiral gave them a ceremonial sword in surrender and then thanked them for holding the Alcantaran ghosts at bay while his troops were shuttled planetside. The news media had heard rumors about the ghosts and now were ready to go into a feeding frenzy to find out more details. Admiral Aydin surprised the trio, Kota and Zibo when he stepped up and presented them with medals of valor for rescuing enemy troops. The 'enemy troops' cheered louder than anyone else at this. All five were now super heroes in their eyes. The news media noted the cheering and were frothing at the mouth to get a chance to do interviews.
When the ceremony was done, the driver didn't take them directly back to the space port. He turned and took them downtown. Thousands of Europaischens lined the streets, cheering and waving as they went by. The trio, Kota and Zibo were embarrassed and didn't know what to say.
Ron quipped, "If they want a speech, I'm sure it is Tik's turn."
Gus quickly agreed and she whacked both of them. They didn't have speeches that day but the driver informed them that they had another parade with speeches and such scheduled in four days. He said there would be national leaders there from countries all over the planet. He asked if the five star travelers could be present for the festivities and they were forced to say yes. None of them wanted to alienate a whole planet by not showing up at a party given in their honor.
The driver finally got them back to the space port and they headed for their space ships. Kota asked if he and Zibo could talk to the trio, so they invited them into Auntie.
The trio led the two Traders to their living quarters where they would be more comfortable. After a little preliminary chat, Kota asked, "What are you going to do with those warships and the salvage rights?"
"What do you mean, what are we going to do?" Ron asked in shock.
"We just helped wreck them. How can we have any salvage rights?" Tik quickly asked.
"It doesn't make any difference what you did. The Nodac-Liujians can't do anything with them. That is part of the surrender terms. The Charter Navy wants to make it very painful for a planet that tries galactic conquest. We filed a preliminary salvage rights claim for you," Kota replied.
"What would you recommend? If we have the salvage rights, half belongs to you," Ron said.
"But we didn't do much…." Kota protested.
"Never-the-less, half is yours," Ron said adamantly.
"We couldn't take half. Why don't we make it 1 share out of 4?" Kota said as he tried to dodge ownership.
"OK, you take the 75% share and we'll call it even," Ron said in a determined voice.
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"That's not what I meant. We would take the one share," Kota protested.
"Nope, that won't work. I guess you will have to take it all," Ron declared.
"Why don't we split it five ways and we'll take two shares?" Kota pleaded.
"That will work," Ron grinned in triumph. "Now, what do you recommend we do?"
"We don't want to try to do any of the salvage ourselves, nor do we want to supervise the salvage. All we wanted was two of the fighters and a few of the personal weapons on board. We have heard some very good reports about the fighters and we'd like to have some of the personal weapons to stock our armory on the freighter. We would also like to send some of them to the scientists of the Traders. They study them to see if we have defenses against them and also if they are better than our weapons. They also check to see if little improvements would make a big difference in performance. We would really like the fighters because when the freighter is retrofitted, we lose our space ship there. The fighters would be a good fit in the freighter to get around in a solar system or on a planet. You should look at getting three for yourselves. You might have to make some modifications to Auntie to hold them but I think you would find that they could become a valuable addition. As for the salvage, the Traders have their own salvage company that would take on this job. They would get the maximum value out of it and are very reasonable in their prices," Kota explained.
"How much money would we have to have up front?" Gus asked.
"Nothing. As a matter of fact, they would pay a deposit to you for the rights," Zibo chimed in.
The trio looked at one another and they all nodded yes. Ron told Kota, "Let's do it. Maybe we could fly out tomorrow and look at one of those fighters. Although; if we want to bring five of them back, it will mean two trips. Is there a way to get a list of weapons aboard those ships? We might want to stock a few more modern weapons in our armory."
"There will be an inventory list somewhere. Our salvagers could find it for us. I'm not sure how far radiation has spread through the ship. We saw some of the troops that came off those warships and they had radiation burns. Why don't I call the salvagers and let them check it out. They can be here in two days with a survey crew and they could take possession of the ships then. If the fighters are covered with radiation, they will decontaminate them and they could even fly one here. If you like it, they would gladly fly the rest of them here. We won't be able to take our fighters with us. We'll have to ship them to where the freighter is being retrofitted," Kota responded.
Alcantaran 1: Alien Abduction Page 34