by Saxon Andrew
“I will send the message.”
“Notify everyone that he will be coming back.”
The man stopped and turned back around, “Why would he do that?”
The Wise One smiled, “I suspect he learned that it was me that had his mother killed. He will not take that without responding in kind.”
“He can do nothing,” the man in orange sneered.
“He killed a Green Death. Could any of you do that?”
The man stared at the Wise One and then said, “I’ll make sure everyone knows to kill him on sight.”
“That would be good.”
• • •
Gregor sat in his chair and thought about what the man on the chair told him. He knew at some level that he was telling the truth; he didn’t know how he knew, but he did. So the fact his mother was attempting to leave with him was important. Why did she run? There was something else biting at the edge of his consciousness but he couldn’t pull it out. He tried as hard as he could to glimpse what it was but nothing worked. He reclined his chair and closed his eyes. He immediately remembered the confrontation as a child with the Green Death. He was looking down the shaft he was hiding in at his mother as she pulled a sword out of a scabbard and raised it above her head. The light coming into the cave from the opening was just bright enough for him to see her in detail. As she raised the sword over her head, the Sleeves of the thick robe she was wearing fell down her arms and he saw a flash of gold before she was ripped apart by the giant claws of the Green Death.
His eyes snapped open and he focused on the image of his mother just before she was killed. She did not have the same tattoo as him. The tattoo on her arm was gold colored and appeared to be…round…cornered…irregular…He fell back in his chair; he just didn’t see enough of it to clearly identify what it was.
“What’s bothering you, Gregor?”
“I remember my mother’s death. The Leader of the men in an ancient temple helped me remember.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. She was fleeing them when she was killed. I saw something on her arm when she raised a sword that was basically round and gold colored. But it also had an irregular shape as well. She had a tattoo that was different from mine. She must have come there from somewhere else.”
“That sounds like the gold colored embroidery on your hat.”
Gregor’s head went back and he looked up, “My hat?”
“When you were brought on board, you were clinging to a sword scabbard and wearing a hat with a gold emblem or something on the front. It was plaid and had a pattern of blue, green, and yellow interlocked colors.”
Gregor’s eyes closed slightly and he said, “My mother was wearing a wool scarf around her neck that were those colors. Computer, where is that hat?”
“I have no idea. Emmett must have put it somewhere. I know the man who delivered you to Emmett wasn’t happy that you were clinging to the sword, scabbard, and hat but said that every attempt to take them from you led to your screaming and losing control until they gave them back to you. He suggested Emmett remove it when you were asleep. It took some time before you quit clinging to the scabbard and stopped wearing the hat.”
Gregor felt the scabbard on his back and thought about taking it off. He shivered and decided that wasn’t going to happen. He stood up and started walking off the bridge, “Where are you going?”
“Emmett’s room. I want to see if he put that hat somewhere.” Gregor walked into Emmett’s former room and began looking around. An hour later, he moved a large box in the top of the clothes closet and saw a small box behind it. He pulled the sword out of the scabbard and used it to move it forward toward the front of the wide shelf. He reached up and pulled the box down. He absently put the sword back in the scabbard over his shoulder; he could pull it or put it in the scabbard without conscious thought. He lifted the top of the small box and saw the hat the computer had described. He lifted it out and saw that it hadn’t faded at all and the tartan colors were still vibrant. He turned it in his hands and saw a gold emblem on it. It was some kind of intricate knot made with four golden ropes, cables, or something.
He walked back to the bridge staring at the hat and the computer said, “That’s it.”
Gregor nodded and sat down in his chair. He put the hat on and it stretched and fit his head perfectly. His eyes narrowed and he reached over his shoulder and pulled the sword back out of the scabbard. He took the hat off, turned the sword over, and placed the emblem on the hat next to the sword. His eyebrows moved together. “What are you doing?” the computer asked.
“Use one of your cameras to look at the hat and sword.” Gregor saw the wall monitor come on and an image of the hat and sword started getting larger on it. Finally the image moved in close enough that it was clear that the gold knot on the hat matched an image engraved into the sword’s blade next to the hilt.
“The hat and sword were made at the same location,” the Computer said. Gregor nodded. “And you say your mother had this image tattooed on her arm?”
“I do believe she did. I didn’t see it clearly but it did match the shape and color of the image on this hat.” Gregor looked up, “Find out what community uses this tattoo.”
“I hope you’re not planning to go back to Earth.”
“I’m not…at the moment. However, I want to know about where my sword was made.”
“I’ll start the search now.” Gregor leaned back in his chair and suddenly remembered seeing his mother encouraging him during sword training when he was a young child. That was the only instance of all the training memories he had where she was present. Was there some connection? “No community on Earth uses that tattoo.”
“Are you certain about that?”
“I am. The closest thing I could find to it was the story of Alexander the Great and the Gordian Knot.”
“I don’t believe I’m familiar with that legend.”
“It comes from a time long before humans developed electrical power. A young conqueror named Alexander came across a giant ball of rope that was intricately tied into a giant knot. The priests in the temple where the knot was located told Alexander that whoever could untie the knot would become ruler of the world. Many had tried but none were successful.”
“What happened?”
“Alexander took out his sword and cut the knot in half; the ropes fell apart. He then went on to conquer all of the then known world.”
“Sounds like my kind of guy.”
“I thought you’d like that. Anyway, no human community uses that tattoo.”
“Don’t you mean, Earth Community?”
“Yeah.”
“Look in your databanks and see if it appears anywhere off Earth.”
“Standby.”
After an hour Gregor said, “Have you found anything?”
“Hey, it’s a big universe!” the computer said testily.
Gregor yawned and reclined his chair again, “Wake me if you find something.” He closed his eyes and, in a few moments, fell asleep.
Chapter Seven
The Venzel Queen was growing weary of consuming new mates. This was getting tiresome and though she knew they were working diligently to find the missing human, she could not allow them to live if they failed. The previous mate had only lasted a day. He looked at all that had been tried and immediately told her he couldn’t think of anything else to do. She killed him on general principle, it was sheer stupidity to say that to her. She looked at the new male with his head lowered in front of her and said, “Are you going to disappoint me like the others?”
“If you gave me a small spoon and ordered me to remove all the water from the ocean, if I failed, would you be disappointed?”
“I’d never order you to do that, it would be impossible to do it.”
“If you gave me five thousand warships to cover twenty billion planets and the human didn’t appear, would you be disappointed?”
The Queen’s huge yellow eyes nar
rowed, “What are you saying?”
“The human has obviously discovered that we are searching for him, right?” The Queen nodded. “We have also intercepted a communication from the Dangerous Humans that he was seen on the Human’s home planet and that anyone finding him should kill him on sight.”
The Queen’s eyes went wide, “ON HIS HOME WORLD?!? THAT’S HALF WAY ACROSS THE UNIVERSE FROM HERE!!”
“That pretty much tells us why he’s not been found; he’s nowhere near the sector we’ve been looking to find him. It makes sense if you think about it.”
The Queen lowered her jaw and looked at the male out of her left eye, “Oh?”
“This human must be aware that we and those Dangerous Humans are looking for him. Even though we know all the places he has ever frequented, he learned on that planet named Jester that we knew about his regular haunts and is now deliberately avoiding them. He left this sector and flew to a place so far away that we would never come close to locating him. Now that he’s been reported on the Human’s Home World, he’ll go to another distant place and continue hiding. So, if I have five thousand warships to search billions of planets, will you be disappointed if I don’t find him?”
The Queen stared at the Male and was really irritated by what he said but…he was right. Five thousand ships to search billions of planets was like trying to empty an ocean with a spoon. “What do you intend to do to find this human?”
“I’m going to recall all of our warships.” The Queen hissed and the male quickly said, “There is a huge expense associated with having that many warships out. He’s not going to any place he knows we know about. Keeping the warships there is a waste of wealth and I could use that wealth to buy you the presents you deserve.” The Queen’s head went back and she fluttered her eyes. The Male smiled, “We are going to have to depend on our network of sources to find this human. He will eventually come back to our space and, when he does, one of our paid informers will know it.”
“What if he joins the DH’s?”
“The Dangerous Humans have ordered him killed on sight. We no longer have to concern ourselves about why they needed him or his assisting them. We need to capture him to learn just what their plans are, if he even knows. For the short term, patience is called for and I will try to help you with the waiting by providing you with presents and the attention you deserve, my Queen.”
The Queen came to the male in an instant. This was a male she could appreciate who understood how the world worked. Keeping her entertained would keep him alive and it appeared he knew it. That was a major step in the right direction.
• • •
“Gregor, wake up.” Gregor, wake up.” “GREGOR, WAKE UP!!”
Gregor came up in his chair reaching for his sword, “Wh…whhhh…what’s going on?”
“You told me to wake you up if I found anything.”
Gregor blew a hard breath out of his mouth and fell back in the chair, “You could wake me without yelling!”
“I tried, you didn’t respond.”
Gregor took a rag off his chair arm and wiped his eyes, “What did you find and by the way, how long have I been out.”
“Ten hours.”
Gregor sighed, “I haven’t had much sleep lately.” Gregor glanced out of the viewport and sat up immediately, “Where are we?”
“We’re headed toward Andromeda’s black hole.”
“WHY!?!”
“I found out what that knot is associated with.”
“Oh? What?”
“Bellingham.”
“Bellingham?”
“Yes.”
“What in creation is Bellingham?”
“It’s a planet located across the universe from our current location,” the computer answered.
“Tell me what you discovered.”
“Every data search I did kept taking me to the Gordian knot or something to do with an ancient organization known as Boy Scouts. However, when I did a search and called it a golden knot, only one answer came out.”
“Golden Knot?”
“Yes.”
“What does this have to do with a planet called Bellingham?”
“First I need to tell you about how Bellingham was settled. In the first thousand years after Earth was bombarded and knocked back into a primitive society, commercial traders began going to Earth and trading for animal skins and other exotic goods. There was one community that became highly proficient hunters and very few star traders did anything to antagonize them. They were very good with swords, bows and arrows, and spears. A blaster won’t protect you in heavily wooded terrain from an arrow fired more than two hundred yards away.”
“I though nothing would grow on Earth?”
“Nothing would on most of the planet but there were some places on the planet that didn’t have anything on them that called for a blaster beam when Earth was bombarded. Those places still had forests and things could be grown there.”
“Where was this community located on Earth?”
“In a region once known as the Scottish Highlands.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Most haven’t. Anyway, this Scottish Community was really good at hunting skills. A trader showed up one year and asked if the community was willing to hire out some of their citizens as mercenaries.”
“Why would they want fighters from a primitive society?”
“Hold on Gregor and let me finish.” Gregor sighed and sat back in his chair. “It seems that a small dispute had broken out between the trader’s home planet and another planet that landed colonists on one of their unsettled worlds. The planet was uninhabited and giant trees covered all of the continents. The owners of the planet needed someone familiar with primitive conditions that they could arm and train to go in and remove the settlers from the dense forests.”
The Computer paused and Gregor said, “Go on.”
“Well, the traders hired four hundred men along with their families to go to the planet and take it back from the invaders.”
“I thought you said the planet had settlers land on it? You didn’t mention warriors.”
“That’s right, Gregor. The settlers were not really armed or trained to fight but the Traders that hired the Humans to go and remove them described them in terms that would make it easy to convince their mercenaries to do what they wanted.”
“Why did they take their families into a hostile environment?”
“The women were just as deadly as the men. The warriors also said they would not leave without them.”
“Oh. How much did they pay them to go?”
“That’s what caused the problem that ensued. You know how expensive a mercenary can be?” Gregor nodded. “Well, that’s why the Trader came to Earth; the price to hire the Humans was rock bottom cheap. The mercenaries boarded the trading vessel and it took off for the planet in question.”
“Where was it located?”
“The Zegar Sector.”
Gregor’s head went back, “ZEGAR SECTOR!? That’s clear across the universe from Earth!”
“True, but the savings from hiring Humans more than made up for the fuel needed to transport them.”
Gregor nodded, “Go on.”
“Well, the ship carrying the Humans finally arrived at the planet and another trading vessel was there waiting. The ship carrying the humans landed on the planet’s surface and the humans off boarded and asked the commander of the ship when their arms and the trainers to teach them how to use them were going to arrive. The Trader told them to wait while it discussed the issue with the other ship in orbit and he went back on board his ship, lifted into space, and disappeared into the atmosphere.”
“What happened?”
“It appeared the two planets involved in the dispute had resolved their differences while the humans were being transported to the planet. The settlers left before the humans arrived and by the time the Humans landed, the dispute was over. The settlers found that cutting the giant trees down was
impossible and that the planet was a waste of effort to live on.”
Gregor tilted his head, “The Traders didn’t want to pay for the fuel to take the mercenaries back to Earth, did they?”
“You’re absolutely right. They weren’t paid for transporting the mercenaries by the planet that originally contracted with them to deliver them and they were told that the contract was void due to the hostilities ending before the mercenaries were delivered.”
“How did they resolve it?”
“It finally went to arbitration several years later. The Arbitrator made the planet who ordered the mercenaries pay for the fuel cost of delivering the humans to the planet and offered the two planets that participated in the original conflict two choices on how to resolve handling the humans: either take them back and split the cost of the fuel or deed them the planet. They chose the latter. After all, the planet was basically uninhabitable.”
“What did the humans say about this?”
“No one ever asked them. They were left on the surface of an uninhabited planet with trees that were too hard to cut down and after a few weeks, they knew that something had gone terribly wrong. They were forced to learn how to survive on a new planet they knew nothing about. That happened two thousand years ago and that knot on your hat and sword is a clan marker from that planet.”
Gregor looked out of the viewport at the black hole growing larger and said, “You’re planning to take the 440 to go to this planet you’re talking about.”
“It’s the fastest way to go. And I assumed while you were sleeping that you’d want to go and take a look around. Am I wrong?”
“No, I do want to go but I’m concerned that the Movement might suspect I’d go there after I learned about my mother.”
“Gregor, how would they know you know about where she came from? You never showed any indication while you were with Emmett to find out anything about that hat and they probably don’t know you saw that mark on your mother’s arm. There’s also one other thing.”
“What is that?”
“They don’t know about the fuel blocks Harmony gave you and, without using boosters, it would take months to go to Bellingham. I suspect they wouldn’t want to burn the fuel to get there either.”