by Renee Duke
I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. “We should be on Borel sometime tomorrow. Would you be able to come and get us? Covertly?”
“I am afraid not. The Association has seen fit to set up a blockade around Cholar. No ships can leave the planet’s surface without being fired upon as soon as they reach suborbital space. An act the Directorate claims is necessary because we ‘failed to co-operate with the measures being taken to contain the virus sweeping the Zaidus system’. The independent planets know there is no such virus. None of them have people afflicted with it, and cases have only been reported by the puppet governments of AUP-member worlds. Most of the independents are poised to come to Cholar’s aid if asked, and even without them, our military is fully capable of breaking through the blockade, but I am not prepared to order that at this point as it will involve loss of life on both sides.
“Opposed though I am to you putting yourselves in danger as you have — something we will discuss once you are back here — I know there is at least a chance you can return Challa and Kadi safely home. The Association’s leaders will then have lost the means by which they thought to rekindle their alliance with Drazok and be forced to withdraw their forces and take the consequences of their actions. Which this time are likely to be even more debilitating than the last.”
“How can we get back to Cholar if there’s a blockade?” Arlyne asked.
“A one-way blockade. Ships cannot leave Cholar, but ships from other independent planets may go to Cholar if they ‘choose to take the risk’. They must, however, submit their passenger lists to the commander of the AUP fleet — who is, I believe, our friend Captain Zyoth — as well as scans of the passports of all aboard. This is said to be so AUP physicians may determine if any of them are at particular risk but, in reality, gives Zyoth the means to find out if incoming ships are carrying anyone likely to have found and rescued Challa and Kadi. A ship he could then legitimately intercept under intergalactic contagion laws.”
“We do not think Drazok knows you left Cholar on such a mission,” said Vostia. “But the passenger lists will most certainly be forwarded to him, and…well, we know you to be very enterprising and are sure you can find a way to not be on a passenger list.”
“Aye,” said Kirsty. “We’ll just have to give it a bit of thought.”
“That is why we wanted to warn you ahead of time,” said Taz. “I will end the transmission now. Once you and the children are en route to Cholar, advise me on this frequency and as soon as the ship you name is in Cholarian space, my ships will move in to protect it.”
Being forewarned about a passport and passenger list check was all well and good, but when we went into orbit around Borel we still hadn’t come up with a viable way around it. We took a transit barge down to the capital city’s starport and, wary of Drazok’s people, wandered separately around its least exposed areas until the freighter the others were supposed to be on came in and all the barges transferring goods down from it had docked. We then regrouped and made our way to the freight yard, where, much to my relief, the stowaways were waiting for us behind a storage shed, out of the way of the machines unloading the barges and the people operating them.
“Hiding was fun,” Challa informed me.
She and Kadi were both wearing long hooded cloaks that hid most of their features, items Jip told us she’d just had time to buy in an open-all-hours children’s boutique in the starport on Lurgos before joining Simon and the little ones on the cargo barge. Kadi wasn’t too enamoured of his and kept trying to pull back the hood, which Challa virtuously replaced each and every time. She’d been told it was important he keep it on, and three-year-olds are extremely diligent when it comes to making sure their younger siblings do what they’re supposed to do. Arlyne had even tried it with an infant Simon. (To no avail.)
We told the others about the blockade and the edict concerning passports and passenger lists.
“Well, that could prove awkward,” said Simon.
“Aye. Taz canna come for us, and if we’re for understanding this neutral thing right, Borelians will neither help us get to Cholar nor stop us from going,” said Kirsty.
“If they are not inclined to stop us, we might find it fairly easy to stow away on another freighter, or even a starliner,” said Jip, who now seemed quite taken with that mode of travel.
I wasn’t. “We’d have to take different ships again and I’d rather not.”
“Same here.” Arlyne sighed. “It’s times like this it would be helpful for us all to have a second passport. Not just me.”
Our parents happened to be home on Earth when Simon and I were born. Or, in my case, en route to home on a Terran ship (the Andromeda, hence my name), but Arlyne Rosemary Brent had been born while they were on assignment on Ploxia in the Sajarlon system, making her an automatic citizen of that planet. Ever one to think ahead, my father made sure she could enjoy any benefits this might bring by registering the birth there with the Ploxian version of her name — Breni Arlyah Rosem — and always keeping her Ploxian passport up to date. She’d never used it, but she had the right to and always carried both her passports with her.
“That’s it. Other passports.” I could almost see the wheels turning as Simon said this. “Passports with names Drazok would never recognize.”
“How are we supposed to get those?” I scoffed.
“It’s something I could get my backup guys working on.”
“Backup guys?”
“Yeah. A couple of guys I know. They’re on Borel taking a break from university. I contacted them just before we left Cholar and they were due to head back. I didn’t give them any details. Just said I expected to be on Borel soon and might run into some trouble so could they please stay on a few days and be ready to lend a hand.”
“And you’re thinking they’ll be willing? Even if it’s an illegal hand you’ll be after?” Kirsty wanted to know.
“Sure. I know where they’re staying. I’ll go talk to them and meet you down on the lowest level of the starport. It’s cordoned off for renovations, but they haven’t been started yet.”
No one bothered asking Simon how he knew that. He usually studies the lay of the land before he goes anywhere and had probably read up on the capital’s starport.
As he scuttled off, I asked Jip how long it had been since the kids had eaten.
“They finished the last of the solid food in the hold-all just over an hour ago.”
“Not too long then, but they probably wouldn’t mind a snack. Let’s take them to the cafeteria before we go to meet up with Simon and his friends. Other than obscurity, there’s not much to be gained by staying here.”
The visit to the cafeteria proved a bit taxing. We chose the most inconspicuous corner we could find, but Kadi liked wearing a hood inside even less than he’d liked wearing it outside. And being now more interested in polishing off a dish of Borelian Choco Delight than in harassing her baby brother, Challa could not be relied on to put it back on whenever he yanked it off. We took turns doing it ourselves, marvelling at his tenacity. And his good nature. He never once voiced any objection to being thwarted in this way.
After we’d eaten, we went down to the level under renovation. It was deserted, just as Simon had said it would be, so once we’d squeezed past the barrier and started along a corridor, we let Kadi dispense with the hood. He almost seemed disappointed. Maybe it had been a game.
Simon was standing at a corner a little way down the corridor.
“Any luck?” I asked when we reached him.
“Yes. The guys knew who to go to.”
“How long to get the passports?”
“A while,” someone around the corner said. “but they’re already in the works.”
And into view stepped two people I really hadn’t expected to ever meet again.
Nathan and Leopold Praeger.
Chapter Fourteen
“Nathan and Leopold?” I spluttered, resisting the urge to violently shake my brother. “Nath
an and Leopold! They’re the guys you think are going to help us? Are you out of your mind?”
“It’s okay, Meda. They’ve changed. I’ve met up with them quite a few times since I caught sight of them in a park near the palace just after we got to Cholar.”
“Where they’d no doot gone so’s they could case the place whilst on a day pass from a juvenile detention centre,” said Kirsty.
“Cholar doesn’t call them that,” said Leopold. “They’re guidance homes. And we were in one for a while after we got hauled to Cholar. They do good work.”
“I suppose the people at yours made you see the error of your ways and turned you from your life of crime,” I said scornfully.
“It was already losing its appeal,” said Nathan. “The Ring of Beom was the biggest thing we’d ever been involved in, with more repercussions and political fall-out than we had any idea about at the time. We did what we did because the Cholarian guy who approached us — some emissary of Drazok’s — offered us pretty good monetary incentive. But it wasn’t just that. Director Ramsweir paid us a call too, and made it sound like it was our duty to help AUP acquire Cholar by swiping the Ring of Beom. He also made it clear our father’s future with AUP depended on it. We’d had a few brushes with the law on a couple of worlds Dad’s been stationed on and AUP’s influence got us out of them. According to Ramsweir, we owed them.”
“And with your freely admitted criminal background, had no trouble accommodating his wishes.”
“Not much, no,” Leopold acknowledged. “With Dad in charge of AUP’s security team, getting the guards’ patrol schedules adjusted was easy enough. Making sure Cholar’s Hereditary Keeper of the Sacred Ring was…unwell on the target night was a little trickier, but we managed. Other people had already made sure certain security devices weren’t operating at peak efficiency, but the motion detectors and scanners programmed to pick up concentrations of body heat were more resistant to tampering and would have been hard for guys our size to get past. That’s why we recruited Simon. He wasn’t big enough to register on them, and as soon as we realized what a clever kid he was, we knew he could disable any other potentially troublesome alarms and pull off the job.”
“Clever?” I snapped. “Oh, yes. Very. But not clever enough to figure out you two were crooks.”
“Hey, we made it sound like a game,” Nathan protested. “And however high his I.Q., he’s still just a little kid. No offence, Si. There’s nothing wrong with being a little kid. Just means you didn’t have enough life experience to size us up properly.”
“Then or now,” I said, glaring down at my brother and then back at Nathan and his brother.
Leopold winced. “Meaning you don’t believe we want to help you.”
“Why should we?”
“Because, just like Ramsweir thought we owed him, we do owe Supreme Ruler Taziol. He’s been good to us. Really good. Drazok’s guy made it clear we could expect repercussions if we didn’t get the ring back from you, so after you got away from us, we lay low for a while. When things fell apart for Drazok we thought we might be all right but just after the Supreme Ruler’s coronation, we heard he had people looking for us. We’d been pretty scared before, but we were really scared then because he wasn’t just a disgruntled crooked politician looking for power. He was an absolute monarch who had a lot of power. We figured he was going to…well, we didn’t know what he was planning to do to us, so we headed for Smugglers’ Stronghold in Klavor’s Outer Regions. And that place isn’t as safe for people on the run as it’s purported to be, because it didn’t take some Ralgonian guy called Skoko very long to track us down.”
“Skoko and a Royal Guardsman took us back to Cholar, and when we were summoned before the Supreme Ruler, we thought we’d had it,” Nathan picked up. “Thought we were going to be imprisoned for life, or shot at dawn, or something. But it wasn’t like that at all. Oh, he made sure we knew what we did was wrong. Big time wrong. But he also said he was willing to make allowances because we were still young and had been lied to and intimidated. He thought spending some time with the house parents at the guidance home would help us find a better direction for our lives. He told us if we wanted to make a fresh start on Cholar afterwards, we were welcome to stay. And, well, we decided to. Cholaris has a great university and Leo and I have found better directions for our lives.”
“What are you studying?” I inquired. “Criminology?”
“Nate is.” Leopold grinned. “Figured he’d be starting with an edge. Me, I’m into archaeology. Our mom’s thrilled. We’ve been, uh, quite a worry to her these past few years.”
“And your dad? The AUP security chief who looked the other way when Simon was stealing the Ring of Beom?”
“He didn’t look the other way. He honestly thought everything was working the way it was supposed to. It was a couple of his security people who lessened the effectiveness of some of the devices. On Ramsweir’s orders. They aren’t really to blame either. Ramsweir outranked Dad.”
“Dad doesn’t work for AUP anymore,” said Nathan. “He was so steamed at the Directorate for getting us mixed up in the Horrible Cholarian Business, he quit. Went back to Earth and started up a private security firm. Mom’s pleased about that, too. She never did like all those alien world postings. Says the only reason she’ll leave Earth now is to come visit us. She and Dad are planning to do that quite soon. We were talking to them when Simon came by the hotel asking for our help, so they know all about the royal rescue and want us to help. Mom thinks you’re really plucky kids and said she’d like to meet you if you’re still on Cholar when they get there.”
“We’re going to love showing them around,” said Leopold. “I might even have my own vehicle by then. Not sure what kind. Once I’m an archaeologist, I expect to be going to places that might be hard to get to, so I want something versatile. That old Alcavian who whisked you guys away from the starport said he’d help me look for one. I took lessons at his driving school. He was really impressed with my skills and recommended me for an all-vehicle licence. Said I was a natural.”
“You see?” said Simon. “They’re not bad guys anymore.”
Kirsty was still skeptical. “If they’re now on the straight and narrow, how is it they’re still in a position to get hold of bogus passports? Other than Klavor, I canna think of any world that looks upon their manufacture with favour.”
“Including Borel,” Nathan had to admit. “And its penalties are harsher than most. Probably because so many Borelians have a talent for changing their appearance. But even strict laws don’t keep Borel from being one of the leading suppliers of fake passports. Leo and I made a quick trip here for some when we were on the run. The guy we used is considered the best in the business.”
“False identities did not keep Mr. Skoko from finding you,” Jip remarked.
“Yeah. That guy’s really thorough. And he has a suspicious nature. A very suspicious nature. We’ve run into him on Cholar a couple of times, and even though we’ve turned over a new leaf, I don’t think he trusts us much.”
“I don’t blame him,” I said. “But I can’t say he likes us much either.”
Leopold pounced on this. “Then we have something in common. Another thing we have in common is a desire to foil Drazok. Simon filled us in on his plans, and while you may still have doubts about us, you must know there’s no way we’d benefit from having Drazok in power. He’s a nasty piece of work, and sure to seek revenge on anyone who failed him last time round.”
“Aye, or won oot over him” said Kirsty, yielding a little. “I’m thinking he’s wanting revenge on Taz even more than he’s wanting control of Cholar.”
“Like you, we want to keep that from happening,” Nathan avowed. “So, come on, girls. If the Supreme Ruler could give us another chance, why can’t you? Don’t you trust his judgement? That ring of his is supposed to protect him from ne’er-do-wells.”
“It’s not infallible,” I rejoined. “It only works on Cholarians. And on
ly if they’ve taken the Oath of Loyalty. It’s the Shield of Beom that’s supposed to offer actual protection.”
“What’s the Shield of Beom?” Leopold asked. “I take history classes but haven’t studied anything about that yet.”
I briefly explained, his interest finally allowing me to warm to him a little. I still didn’t fully trust him, or his brother, but was starting to think we didn’t really have much choice if we wanted to get off Borel. Fake passports were the best way, and we certainly didn’t know how to go about getting them. Nor did I want to be stuck on Borel for who knew how long trying to come up with an alternative solution.
Challa wasn’t keen either.
“When are we going home?” she demanded.
She and Kadi had been quiet throughout our exchange with Nathan and Leopold, but only because Arlyne hates discord, and not having been personally involved with the two boys, had taken the kids off to the side to play pat-a-cake or something. Challa appeared to have become bored with that and wanted action.
Nathan went over to her. “Pretty soon, sweetie. We just have to get you looking a bit different.”
“Different?” I queried.
“Of course. Arlyne here may have a Ploxian passport, but she doesn’t look Ploxian, and it would be better if she did. The rest of you, too. It’s a rush job, and the guy said it would be easier if you were all the same. His services include having someone give you a make-over. Borelians are really good at that.”
“So I’ve heard. Okay, okay. Do you think we could maybe get started on that bit?”
“Sure. If you’re finished arguing.”
I gave him another glare but followed when he led us all back up into the starport and put us on a ground bus with Leopold to go to their hotel.
“While you’re getting Ploxianed up, I’ll go see how the passports are coming along.”
A Borelian woman was waiting for us in the lobby and went up to the room with us to change us into Ploxians. She decided to start with Challa and Kadi, which was a mistake, because neither of them wanted any part of having their dark skin lightened, their black hair changed to purple, their upswept eyebrows shaved off (like Ralgonians, Ploxians don’t have any) and their slightly ridged foreheads covered up to look flat.