Crap Shoot
Page 7
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Earth turned slowly below, a blue-green jewel that took the breath of the crew away. Even Arlin who had seen thousands of worlds, paused to admire the beauty. Then Yuri announced, “Orbit established. Scanning… no other activity. What now?”
“Kay, Find the Security Satellite His Grace put in orbit and make a report. Tell them what happened, what to expect and request a warship to keep an eye open for Marduk. If he follows your trail here, he’ll decimate the planet before the Fleet arrives. I’d like them to be waiting.” Then turning to Yuri, “Plot a course back the way you came. If we run now, Marduk will follow here, mark Terra for future raiding and continue after us. If he meets us going back, he may not check where we were and not discover Terra. But also plot a running course to the Commonwealth and maybe we can lead them into out territory to meet a real military force. Also keep watch for any Demon Ship. If we are chased, we can run for cover and let the Demons deal with Marduk.”
“The same Demons who enslaved you? You expect them to help?” Barbara asked first but all were thinking the same thing.
“Of course. Drakonis may be independent but the Demons still see us as their … I don’t know the English word. Not property but like property. Kay? Yuri?”
“Earth is a protectorate of Drakonis and Arlin’s people protect Earth from people like Marduk. Drakonis is a protectorate of the Demons who protect all Weir, fight for the empire and in turn, take whomever they wish for their tech-slaves. Sort of like paying taxes only the Demons want their taxes paid in people.”
“Thank you. If we are being chased, the Demons will protect us, IF we can find them.”
Gabe laughed, “Will wonders ever cease, a man who isn’t afraid to ask for help. I suppose he also asks for directions?”
K: “Sometimes. Message ready. Do you want to review it, Arlin?”
“Is there a reason to question?”
Shrugging, Kay continued, “Message transmitted and received. Now I guess we can leave.”
Looking around, Arlin asked, “Does anyone have any unfinished business on Terra? Anything else to load?” All had done that while waiting and how many times can you tell your family goodbye, especially to people to whom you could give no details and who felt that they were better able to run your life than you were.
Just before they broke orbit, Sarah thought of something, “Arlin, if this communications satellite has been up here all that time, and if you are some kind of technical genius, why didn’t you just build a radio and call for help?”
He looked back, “And embarrass my family by admitting that I couldn’t rescue myself?”
“But you didn’t. We rescued you.” She said with a certain amount of smugness. “Is it so embarrassing to admit that you were hoodwinked by a couple women?”
“I don’t understand the word, ‘hoodwinked’ but I gather it means conned?”
“Something like that.”
“No, why would I be embarrassed by that?”
Kay laughed and broke in, “Sarah, Drakonis is an empire that covers more than fifty star-systems stretched over almost 10,000 cubic light years. It is so large that if your parents announced your birth on one end by radio, you would be long dead of old age before the signal reached the other end. It’s big! Bigger than I can imagine and I deal with stellar distances. And do you know who the Emperor of this place is? An immigrant! Kimama, the Dictator of the entire Drakonis Empire is a Comanche Indian Squaw from the 19th century Texas. She’s ruled Drakonis for almost seventy years. Drakonans aren’t embarrassed by women who are as good or better than they are. Not even if the woman is a lop-tail dayfly human.”
“Besides, I wasn’t rescued, YOU all came to retrieve me because you needed me. Whenever you are ready Kay.”
The dome overhead shimmered and the stars turned slightly blue as the ship accelerated out at sublight then as the Earth faded beneath, the Myship went Hyper and the stars ahead went violet. “Course laid in and we are on course. I don’t like this Arlin but I guess that we have to do it to protect Earth. Have you any plans?”
“Not much, return to Glamdering, steal Marduk’s Crystal, sell it to someone very rich, use some of the money to hire an assassin to kill Marduk and go home for a vacation.”
“You make it sound so easy. I hope we live long enough to spend some of that money.” Yuri laughed.
“If you wanted to live forever, you wouldn’t be here.”
END
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