by Steve M
“Loyal as a mother swan, but more deadly,” she replied with a smile.
About fifty tox later a man brought his wife forward. She didn’t want to come with him and struggled against his grip. The large man was more than a match for his diminutive wife that he held in a bear hug as he approached Allor and Ova.
“Put her down,” said Ova in an annoyed voice.
“She is sick. Please heal her,” said the man with the big beard and large arms.
“No, I’m not sick. I’m just sick of you,” replied the small, pretty woman behind a dirty face.
“Then prove it to your queen. Let my machine show your good health. Do it for me, your queen. Or if you like, think of it like doing a favor for a friend.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the woman said, and she moved forward to stand in front of Ova.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” said the man.
“Is he your husband?” Ova asked the woman as she knelt down and began to scan the woman from her feet upwards. She looked over at Allor, who was helping a man with a shrunken arm.
“Yes. He took me from my father as soon as I became a woman,” said the woman.
Ova watched as the corns on the woman’s feet disappeared, then a chipped ankle bone as it reconstructed.
“She was a good wife, at first,” complained the man. “Now she hates me.”
“You killed the man I loved,” said the woman with a mean tone.
“You love another?” Ova asked.
“This monster’s brother,” she replied. “We’ve been in love since we were children. But my father traded me to the monster instead. I’m worth one square kilomaatar of prime forest.”
“I overpaid,” said the man.
“I am not a cow or a sheep or a horse. I am not for sale.”
“If I’d paid nothing, I would have still overpaid for you,” said the man. “My life is worse for you.”
“And mine for you. I wish you a long, slow, painful death for killing Apo.”
“Heal her,” pleaded the man. “I’ve never had a wife. I’ve only had three years of constant anger and humiliation at her hands.”
“Why are you still together?” asked Ova.
“Marriage is for life,” replied the man. He was about to add to this then realized he was going speak about Ceros law. Instead, he fell silent.
“Maybe it should not be,” said Ova.
“Nothing would make me happier,” said the man.
“You couldn’t measure my delight to be rid of you,” said the woman.
Ova watched the remedium correct some cancerous cells in the woman’s breasts. A moment later she began using the device on the woman’s head. The process was slow, and the progress bar for information transfer indicated as much.
“What is this?” asked the woman. “What is this?” she repeated. “What is happening to me?” she asked anxiously.
“Knowledge. Join me in knowing,” said Ova.
“I don’t understand. How?” asked the woman.
“Technology from the stars,” replied Ova.
When the scan was complete, the woman insisted that her husband also be scanned. It took a little longer to complete the scan on the husband. When it was done, he was silent for a few moments before he finally spoke.
“I’m sorry,” replied the husband, looking at his wife. “I should never have bought you. Or killed Apo. If you leave, you can take whatever you want. Or I will give you half of my land and build a house for you to live in.”
“And I am sorry,” said the wife. “I should have run away with Apo when he asked. I should not have made him try to murder you.”
“Is it true that we come from the stars?” asked the man.
“Yes,” said Ova. “It makes much more sense than the fables of our mothers and fathers.”
The large man looked down at the small, pretty woman.
“We have much to talk about,” he said to her with a smile.
“I know,” she said. And they began to walk away. “How much land do we own? In total?” she asked.
The king and queen ate dinner that night at the home of a carpenter, a man who had built his own home and many of those in the town. His wife was nervous at first until Ova took her aside for a few minutes. She wouldn’t tell Allor what was said.
Allor told them about his mother coming to their town to look at the golden masks of Nobbs, the prize possession of the richest man in Isla. He told the elaborate and comical story of his first attempt to steal the masks. The carpenter roared with laughter at the thought of a naked man swinging a sword trying to kill a momentarily visible Allor who thought he was invisible, and all before he had discovered the protective suit’s capabilities.
When Ova and Allor left to return to the temple, their hosts were given a scan, along with one for their livestock. Eight cows, seven pigs, eight chickens, nine sheep, and two goats. And thirteen cats. The capture of the pigs offered the carpenter and his wife much delight. Their king chasing a pig would be the story of their lifetime.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
“I am not a pet,” said Koven with an annoyed tone of voice, his face painted with a scowl.
“Just enjoy the food,” said Ova as she stood on the other side of the bars that formed the door of his cell. “It is from our wedding.”
Koven picked up the plate and threw it against the wall. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been violently angry. Maybe it was when he had helped subdue the man that had accidentally killed a historian on Dulfour. He remembered punching the man several times beyond need. Now he looked at his dinner splattered against the wall of his cell.
“If you cooperate, you will find your circumstances improve. But if you continue this behavior, well, it won’t go well for you,” said Allor.
Allor pointed at the door and the guard responded by unlocking it. Koven was faced with a guard, Allor, Ova, Dubitam, and MinKey. Agent training was excellent, and there was a very high probability that Koven could win in a physical battle against them. But Koven didn’t attack his captors. He came out of the cell. Allor led them back to the larger interrogation room. Allor pointed at the table when they entered.
“Wait a tix,” he said to Koven. Then he pointed at Koven’s chains. The guard removed them.
“There, more comfortable, I hope,” said Allor, motioning for Koven to sit down at the table.
“Don’t expect me to thank you,” replied Koven.
“I don’t,” said Allor.
“You’ve fared better than the Ceros priests,” Ova said.
“Why did Punford agree to the Compromise of Accensor?” Allor asked.
“Because she had little choice,” said Koven. “She could have battled the Entol and defeated them on the day. But her history of atrocities was such that it would have been a temporary victory only. She would have lost her last allies and would have eventually seen defeat and probably killed. She agreed to become a figurehead because she believed that it was the only way for her to survive.”
“Thank you,” said Allor. “Why were there no attendees at the funeral of Owsel the Chemist?”
“Because he was working on airborne drug delivery at the time of his death. People were afraid that he would have a final joke by intoxicating everyone at his funeral,” said Koven. “But he got them in the end, anyway No one expected him to be able to dose the entire planet’s water supply. It was a strange three days on Huff.”
“Why did Eliz dress as a soldier during her coronation?” asked Ova.
“Because she wanted everyone to know that she was first and foremost a warrior princess that was becoming a queen.”
“But she died in battle the next day,” replied Ova.
“Yes. Historians generally agree that it was not only a fitting ending for her but also that her death led to a revitalization of science under the reign of her sister. Eliz discouraged interest in things she didn’t understand. She even resisted the explanations from those who could have helped her underst
and them. Active ignorance is something that psychologists have never adequately explained.”
“Why geostationary orbit?”
“Shorter distance, faster comms, quicker arrive and escape, the list is pretty long. Do you want to know all of it? It will take lengthy discussion in order to ensure you understand.”
“Never mind,” said MinKey, and then she looked at Dubitam, who had a puzzled look on his face.
“Thank you,” Ova said.
“You have to give back the technology.”
“We won’t do that,” said Allor. “Especially now that we have you. You are our Rosetta Stone.”
Koven interlaced his fingers on the table.
“Do you know what happens when they wipe a memory? The victim doesn’t remember anything, not even how to speak. They are returned to the level of an infant.”
“This is what they did to our ancestors when they were put here,” said Ova.
“Yes. And it took many, many revs for the people of this planet to make the limited progress you have achieved. If you don’t return the tech, there is a significant chance that everyone on this planet will have their memories wiped again. And that starts with one major event when it happens.”
“What is that?” asked MinKey.
“Famine.”
“But we are making progress to get out of quarantine,” complained Allor.
“By using technology that you haven’t developed. This is forbidden. It is the belief of the History Department that if the planet meets the contact criteria on their own then they have the maturity to join the federation of planets. Otherwise we could have another Razore.”
“Did he really destroy that many planets? Thirty-four?”
“Yes. But he had help from some of the planets themselves. They were too trusting. He was a most agreeable person. Most people said he made them feel like an old friend. This helped him convince them that their limited defenses were unnecessary.”
“Fools,” said Ova.
“Do you know what else is foolish? Not giving back the tech. Especially when there is a shortage of habitable planets. Earth 7 could be sold to developers, like happened on Earth 4. Developers won’t buy a habitable planet with an indigenous population.”
“So they move us somewhere else,” replied Ova.
“No. They kill everyone.”
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
“He was a lottery baby,” Indira said as she squeezed Eflin’s hand in hers.
“Really?” replied Professor Wingut, sitting on the sofa in his office.
“Yes. The last one hundred revs lotto, at the very tail end of it,” Eflin said.
“We have no signal from his identification technology,” replied Wingut.
“PPS?”
“Nothing. He’s not wearing it. And his droid is offline too,” said Wingut.
“So go get him. That’s what you do. Send in a team. It’s what we did when we were agents. When are they landing?” Eflin asked.
“Every available agent is out looking for a physicist that could cause our galaxy and another to collide,” replied Wingut. “Professor Longley is not prepared to pull agents off that search to send to search for Koven.”
“He what? Would you please repeat that? Just want to make sure I heard correctly,” said Eflin with a face as calm as the eye of a hurricane.
“Longley won’t give me any agents.”
“Wrong answer,” replied Eflin.
“I know. I’m headed to 7 tomorrev. Check the last places his comms pinged from. But it’s just me and a couple of benchers that aren’t allowed down on the planet.”
“Not anymore,” replied Eflin. “You’ve got spares on board?”
“Yes.”
“See you tomorrev. And please let Longley know that I will be bringing charges against him as soon as my son is safe at home again. If my boy dies…” Eflin didn’t finish his words.
A few minutes later, Indira was in comms with Tanit.
“What do you mean, missing? He’s on techscale or something all the time, isn’t he?”
“Only while he is wearing his PPS,” Indira replied.
“Is he dead? Are you being polite and can’t tell me that he’s dead? If this is some of your strange historian shit, I need to know,” Tanit demanded as she moved her hands constantly.
“It is not,” replied Indira. She admired the slightly chubby girl with the wide range of permitted emotions. “He is missing. We are going to look for him tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? What’s wrong with today?”
“We’re going with his mission sponsor, Professor Igna Wingut. No one is allowed within one million kilomataars of a planet in quarantine.”
“Legally,” said Tanit. “A-sector? I’ve heard it’s the shit hole of the galaxy. Dangerous.”
“It’s worse than you think.”
Indira gave Tanit the rest of the briefing and answered questions for a few tox.
Less than 200 tox later, Tanit was back in the propulsion laboratory. She took the prototype for the newest FLT cruiser, a sleek mirror-coated vessel that bent space and time and achieved speeds 106X faster than current FLT cruisers. It might have blown up seven times during testing, but Ova was certain they had fixed the problem, and the last two tests had been successful. Still, she was gripping the captain’s console very tightly with one hand as her other hand was soft and lightly gripping the joystick as the composite metal ship rocketed off the planet.
She didn’t have a plan yet, but she had an address, the Grand Temple of Allor.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Tanit arrived in orbit over Earth 7 in just under one hundred tox. She received the comms as soon as she slowed down below FLT. The message was from her team leader, Tomasco. Tomasco, the man that always flirted with her subtly. There was no flirting in his comms. He looked sympathetic in the video, but his message was clear. She had to return the Cruiser 304 within one rev or he would be forced to report it as stolen. He had also turned on sublight tracking. In under 300 tox he would know she was within a quarantine zone. Then she would really be in deep shit.
Tanit had to read the manual on the mapping system. She was an engine woman. Navigation and mapping were a different team. Cartography systems went in long after the engines were on. After a few stumbles and some clever work with the forward camera on the ship, Tanit stood near the air lock. Her personal transport device enveloped her in its golden bubble. As she opened the outer airlock, she switched on the most vital tech she had, her shielding device. Propulsion physicists don’t get weapons, and her quick search before leaving yielded nothing but cutlery. She had a packet of pudding in her pocket, along with a spork.
She dove out of the cruiser and floated softly at first. She looked down at the planet below, the huge continent and the beautiful oceans on both sides, and saw a set of islands far away from the mainland. It was very pretty. She had done similar jumps before and enjoyed the view before the acceleration kicked in.
She entered clouds and stopped in them, hovering over the temple. She waited until it was clear before softly floating down into a corner behind the stables. She looked for her image in a trough of water in front of the stable. Nothing. She moved towards the steps of the temple. In her pocket was a remedium and a toothbrush, along with her pudding and her spork. On a Primitive 3 planet, she knew that Koven would be having fits about his dental hygiene. All historians adopt some form of obsessive compulsive behavior. Koven chose well.
Tanit’s stomach rumbled, and she wished she had eaten during the flight.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
It was a modest diversion. Tanit found the late-night market as she walked towards the temple. None of the foods looked good to her. One thing looked like a potato but was soft and fleshy on the inside, more like a turnip. She turned away from the crowd, placed the nasty vegetable on the ground, and walked away from it.
Moving through the crowd was something that was not going well with Tanit. She tried hard to avoid bumping
into people, but the crowd was thick. People would turn to apologize and find no one there. One woman screamed, a man swung his arm at empty air.
Finally she found something that looked and tasted like an orange. She ate six of them along with her pudding before she reached the temple. She checked the PTD settings. The cruiser coordinates were dialed in and a simple command away.
The temple was full of people. There was a man standing in front of the crowd at an altar.
“We come from the stars, brothers and sisters. We’ve been out there,” he said, pointing towards the sky. “And it’s time that we return. Allor wants us to join them again. He brings healing. But most importantly, he brings knowledge.”
There were several thousand people in the main temple. Tanit moved carefully around the edges of the crowd. But again, she bumped into people who couldn’t see her. But finally, after the last invisible apology, she reached the chambers and hallways behind the temple. She found a quiet corner and sat down. She was scared. She watched the pairs of guards standing outside of some of the rooms off the hallway in front of her.
“They can’t see me. They don’t even know I’m here,” she whispered to herself. She felt more confident for a moment. It was a moment that ended when three men walked down the hall with baskets filled to the top with human heads in glass jars filled with a clear red fluid. The heads looked terrible, the faces all contorted by the anger and hatred of battle. All except one, the smiling one.
Despite the cloaking, Tanit settled into one of the dark corners behind the columns. She chose the one with the best view of the hallway. Now it would be her waiting game. Koven had taught her a lot about waiting. It was the guards at the far end that gave her the first opportunity. They both were called into the room. When they entered, they left the door open.
Tanit didn’t waste any time. She had already taken off her shoes to be as quiet as possible. Then she sprinted as fast as she could down the hallway towards the room then through the open door.