“So you wish to help us. Why?”
“I hate seeing anyone or anything treated badly just because they are different than the majority. I don’t know how much you know about our history, but on Earth we have had a problem with something very similar for hundreds of years. For a long time we sold and bought each other as slaves. And for thousands of years we have been killing and enslaving each other for nothing more than the color of our skin or our religious beliefs.”
“We had the same thing happen on Sendara. It is one of the reasons that we had to leave in the first place. Different factions warred against each other until finally they brought about the death of our entire planet. We Astara who live on your Earth today are from the faction that did not want slaves. We believed in equal rights for all. I would like to say that all of the members of the other faction was destroyed too, but alas it cannot be said. I fear that a small number of them hid themselves on our ship and came here with us. We tried our best to quell them from starting over and have had moderate success in this camp, but I am afraid that news from other camps is not so good. I fear that the much larger camp know to you as Camp Houston is full of members of the faction that wants slavery and destruction. It seems that by the luck of the draw most of the ones who hid aboard our vessel ended up there. We have a few here as you found out for yourself on you first day here, but most of them stick to the shadows and have very little sway over the community. I hope to keep it that way.”
“Yours is an interesting story Elder Rin, but I still don’t understand why you wanted to talk to me.”
“You will soon enough.” She turns to Bol and nods. “It is time Bol.”
Bold stands and looks Jamie in the eyes. “Some of us are very sick. We need medicines, but we get very little other than what we grow ourselves and what we can bribe the guards to bring to us. Only bribing doesn’t always work. Eight times out of ten they take whatever we are using to bribe them with and keep it for themselves without giving us what we asked for in return.”
Jamie sits up in her seat. “And what do you want from me? You want me to smuggle things in to you?”
“Only a small quantity of the drug you call antibiotics. If you could bring us a few pills or better yet a whole bottle I could synthesize the drug and mass-produce it for the sick.”
“Why are you asking me?”
“Because the guards have changed around the camp and we don’t know any of them well enough to bribe yet. We would wait and gain the trust of a few of them, but such a thing takes time and time is not something we have at the moment.”
Jamie sits for a minute and lets everything that she just heard sink in. To help the Astara is one of the reasons she came here, but she also knows that if she gets caught smuggling anything in to the aliens that she will get life in prison for aiding the enemy. She isn’t sure she is willing to risk her freedom to save a few sick Astara. Looking around the room, she meets the gaze of Bol and remembers how gentle he was with her and how he had saved her life.
“Okay.” She takes a long drink of her soda. “I’ll help, but you need to tell me exactly what you want and how much.”
“You are doing my people a great service.” Elder Rin nods to her and stands. “I will leave you two to discuss the rest of the plan.” As her hand reaches for the door she turns back around and looks at Jamie again. “I will not forget what you have done for us, young woman.”
The door closes behind her and Bol sits down in the seat that Elder Rin was using before. “I cannot thank you enough for what you will do for my people.”
“You already have. You helped me out of a dangerous situation on the first day I was here and you bandaged me up when I was hurt. I can ask for no more, but if you are willing there is one more thing I will ask for.”
“Name it and I will see that it is done.”
“Show me around your camp when I get back. I would like to spend a couple more days with you and find out more about your people. I haven’t seen too much outside of your home yet.”
A broad smile spreads across his face and he nods. “That sounds like a fair trade Jamie. A fair trade indeed. Now here is what I need...”
*****
The next day Jamie is waiting outside the gate for Larry to pick her up in his SUV. The guard who let her out is the same one that let her in a few days ago. Now that she is outside of the walls he smiles at her.
“Decided to cut short your vacation with the Ass-tars huh?”
“No, I forgot some key equipment. I need to go back to the paper and pick it up.”
“Why didn’t you just tell your boss what you needed? He could have brought it to you. I bet you hated it in there didn’t you?”
“It wasn’t so bad.” Jamie tugs at the brim of her large floppy hat and hopes that it still covers up the bandage on her head. “I just didn’t want to give out the code to my locker over the telephone is all. I’ve got some personal stuff in there and I don’t want just anyone knowing the code.”
“I hear that, but I still bet the other side of the wall wasn’t what you thought it would be. Stinks like hell over there. And don’t even get me started about how ugly those bastards are.”
Keep it together Jamie, she tells herself. She has to clench her fists so hard that her nails bite painfully into the palms of her hands to keep from lashing out at the guard and telling him that the reason it stinks in there is because of people like him who insist on keeping the Astara locked up in the first place. He’s an idiot who was too stupid to get a degree and barely smart enough to join the army so they have him guarding a door that doesn’t need guarding. That’s all. Now don’t yell at him.
“I guess it does stink a little.” She agrees with him just to keep on his good side. In the distance she can see a plume of dust rising in the air. Larry’s SUV tops a small rise a few hundred yards away and she breathes a sigh of relief.
“Say. You wouldn’t want to go out some time would you?” the guard asks her.
She stifles a laugh. She doesn’t want to hurt the man’s feelings. “I’m sorry, but I’m married to my work and I don’t cheat.”
“Fair enough. Just thought I’d ask.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the compliment, but I just don’t have time for dating right now.”
“Sure I understand. Why don’t I give you my...”
Larry pulls up and Jamie runs toward the SUV without waiting for the guard to finish his sentence. She knows the game he is playing and wants no part of it. Opening the door, she hops in and smiles at Larry. He notices her hat and a frown blooms on his face.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“Not now.” She motions to the guard. “Get out of here first and then I’ll tell you all about it.”
Once they are turned around and heading the right way she explains to Larry all about the incident that happened back when she first entered the camp. She explains about Bol saving her and how he nursed her back to health. When she tells him about the antibiotics and smuggling them back in, he slams on the brakes so hard that she nearly cracks her head on the windshield.
“What!? You have got to be kidding? You’re telling me that you want to smuggle drugs to those aliens. You do know that if you get caught you’ll get life in prison, right?”
“I know Larry. And it’s not drugs. It is medicine that they need. Bol says that he can synthesize enough medicine from one bottle of pills to help all the Astara that are sick in the camp. Besides, I didn’t get your story yet. I spent the last few days getting better after getting cracked in the head. Now I don’t need your help, but this would go a lot smoother with you. What do you say?”
“You’re crazy. You know that?” He pulls away with a shake of his head.
“I know, but you love me.”
“Only because you’re the best damned reporter that I’ve ever had. Alright, let’s get out of here and get you some antibiotics.”
Twenty-four hours later Jamie and Larry pull up in front
of the gate again. She breathes a sigh of relief when she sees that the guard is a different one than last time. With a wave to Larry she starts for the gate. The guard steps in front of her and holds up a hand.
“Reason for going into the camp?” He asks.
“I’m a reporter.” Jamie sits the bags in her right hand on the ground and holds up her press ID. “I’m here to document the daily life of the Astara.”
“Sounds like boring work,” the guard says as he turns around and unlocks the gate. “You must have did something bad to get stuck with a horrible job like this.”
“I may have told the boss where he could go when he tried to grope me at a party.”
The guard chuckles and opens the door. “Bet that didn’t go over too good.”
“Not really.” Jamie steps through the door. As it closes behind her she shakes her head and mumbles to herself. “Some people really are pigs.”
A few people are milling around the square. As she looks up it reminds her of the first time she stepped through the gate. Reaching into her purse she touches the butt of her pistol and grins. Let them try something like that again. Last time it all happened so fast that I didn’t have a chance to think, let alone go for a gun. This time it will be different.
She spots Bol standing across the square from her, near the well where Grum was standing last time. Bol raises a hand and rushes over to her. A grin splits Jamie’s lips as she watches him jog to her. She is taken by surprise by how glad she is to see him.
“Are you well?” he asks as he takes the majority of her bags.
“I’m great. How about you?”
“Better now that I have seen your face.”
Jamie’s face grows red hot as she blushes. She hides her blushing face by turning and pointing at the wall. “I was wondering if your people built the wall or if my people did.”
“Your people forced my people to build it from whatever they could find in a hurry. I helped. It was brutal, backbreaking work.”
“I’m sorry Bol.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for Jamie. You did not do these things. Your people did.” He perks up. “Were you able to get your equipment that you left behind?”
“I was. Let’s get back to your home and I will show it to you.”
“Sounds good. Follow me.”
Neither mentions the pills for the fear that the government might have some sort of listening probes or bugs planted around the camp. They know that Bol’s home is safe because he is built a device that allows him to detect bugs and probes at a short distance.
Bol shuts the door behind Jamie and sits down her bags. He disappears into the small back room where he keeps his equipment and returns with a small handheld device that looks a little bit like a television remote. On top of the device are a green light and a red light. As he sweeps it around the room, he explains to her that the red light will only come on if there is a probe, bug, or a hidden camera. The green light stays on the whole time and he nods, satisfied.
“Here.” Jamie digs into her purse and pulls out a box holding six bottles of antibiotics and tosses them to Bol. The box is a tampon box. As he catches it he looks at her with confusion.
“I do not understand.”
“Open it.”
Bol opens the box and a smile splits his face. “You got this many. By the Creator! You risked much to bring this to us.”
He drops the bottles of pills on the table and rushes toward her. She isn’t sure what is about to happen until he wraps her in a hug and lifts her clean off the floor. A giggle of delight escapes her as he spins her around a couple of time. He sits her down and puts a hand on each side of her face. She looks into his eyes and smiles.
“You would have done the same thing for me.”
Bol nods his head down until their foreheads are touching. Jamie gets the feeling that this posture is one of gratitude in Astaran culture and makes a mental note to ask him what it means later on. He straightens up and lets go of her face.
“You are correct. I would have done the same thing for you if asked to do so.”
“I’m not going to lie. I’m still kind of tired and my head hurts a little. I’m sure that you have a lot that you need to do tonight, so if you don’t mind I think I will lie down on the couch and let you get to work.”
“I think that is a good idea, but take the bed. I have the feeling that I will not be getting much sleep this night.”
Jamie stretches out on the bed as Bol disappears into his secret room with his box of pills held to his chest in a protective grip like they were the most important thing in the world. To him and his people right now they probably are the most important things in the world, she thinks. Those pills mean the difference between life and death for a lot of Astara. Maybe even the whole camp in the long run.
*****
Throughout the night Jamie wakes up a couple of times. Each time she wakes she can hear Bol working in his secret room. The sound of small motors and the hum of computers fills the house. Once she gets up and goes to the bathroom. The trip brings her excruciatingly close to the door to the secret room. Every reporter instinct in her body tells her to go into the room, but she resists and returns to bed, her curiosity unsated.
The next morning she wakes to the sound of Bol humming some unknown tune in the kitchen as he cooks a meal over the stove. She sits up on the edge of the bed and watches him for a moment with a smile on her face. The excitement in his actions and voice is infectious and she finds herself in a good mood.
“Did it work?” She asks as she gets out of bed and walks into the kitchen.
“It is a little early to tell, but I believe that it is going to. I won’t bore you with all the details, but I was able to break down the drugs with ease and right now my machines are synthesizing the new product for my people.”
“Good.”
“Indeed it is.” He motions for her to sit at the table. “I have some breakfast ready. I thought that maybe we could eat a bite and then I could show you around the camp a little for your report.”
“That sounds great, but what about your medicine?”
“It will not be ready for many hours yet, so until then I have free time. If you are up for walking that is.”
“I can manage.”
An hour later Jamie finds herself walking around the square that she was able to see from the bathroom window. As she stops at various stands Bol explains to her what the different fruits and vegetables are. Some she knows such as carrots, tomatoes, apples, and other Earth foods, but others she has never seen before.
“We were able to save some of the seeds of the plants from our home world.” Bol explains as Jamie picks up a lavender-colored fruit about the same size of a softball. “Since out two worlds were much the same in atmospheric makeup and soil composition our plants grow well here.”
“What is this one called?” She holds the fruit up for Bol to inspect.
“That is a canva. It is very sweet and juicy fruit.” He digs in his pocket and pulls out a dull, flat coin made from metal. “These are our only form of currency in the camps. We make them ourselves so that we have a way to buy and sell things. Here.” He flips the coin to the vendor. The man catches it out of the air and makes it disappear into a box.
As they walk away from the stall Bol pulls out a folding knife and takes the fruit from Jamie. With the knife he punches a hole in the top side of the fruit. Handing the fruit back to her, he indicates that she should drink the liquid inside. Jamie tips up the fruit and puts her mouth over the hole. A thick syrupy liquid pours into her mouth. Sweetness mixed with a slight sourness explodes in her mouth.
“That’s delicious.” She offers the fruit to Bol. He takes it and drinks the last of the liquid. “I’ve never had fruit so good. I don’t know why the government hasn’t started planting these all around the world.”
“I’m sure they have their reasons.”
“Maybe so, but then again maybe I can bridge the gap between our tw
o peoples.”
“That is something that will be easier said than done Jamie. I am afraid that the bridge may take many years to build. A longer time than either one of us has left on this Earth. But maybe our children will see it happen.” Bol’s face grows red and he turns quickly away. “I didn’t mean ‘our’ children as in you and I having babies. I simply meant that...”
Jamie lays a hand on his arm and grins. “I know what you meant Bol. I took no offense. Now, what else new do you have waiting for me at this next stall?”
For the next several hours Bol shows her various fruits and vegetables and even some goods that his people make that would be helpful to the outside world. She listens with care and takes pictures every chance she gets of the people and their wares, but she finds that her heart isn’t in the reporting. She is having such a good time just being with Bol that she is having a hard time focusing on the task at hand. A few times she completely forgets to take pictures and has to go back and snap some quick photographs.
“Would you like to see the Elders’ Square?”
“Of course. Is that where the Elders live?”
“Yes, but it is also where we hold our camp meetings. There we elect new Elders and make decisions about issues that arise in the community.”
“Will it be okay for you to bring an outsider to such an important place?”
“Of course. Well, not just any outsider, but the Elders know what you have done for us and that gives you a sort of exemption from the normal rules we place on the outsiders.”
“Is that why people have been so nice to me today?” Jamie recalls that so far no one has made the slightest remark about her being an outsider.
“It might be, but who can really say?” Bol smiles and turns down an alley.
At the end of the alley stands Grum and a few of his buddies that helped him attack Jamie on her first day in the camp. Grum flashes a smile that is all teeth, but it doesn’t touch his eyes. Jamie reaches into her purse and takes a grip on her pistol, but Bol pushes her back and steps forward.
“What is the meaning of this, Grum?”
“We just wanted to greet you and thank the outsider for what she has done for our people.”
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