by Max Jager
"I know it says on your card, but where are you from again?"
"Earth, I'm from earth," he replied. This wasn't registering with them, only drawing more puzzled looks.
"It's two points off the Tannhauser gate, go straight on till morning; it's out in the Dagobah system." He knew he was risking trouble screwing with the guards like this, but they just shrugged,
"Can we expect more of your kind?" One of them asked.
"I kinda doubt it," replied Matt, "But that might be a good thing."
Once he was on board, he stashed his gear in one of the gear lockers, then sat down to wait for Grak and Karlt to arrive. It wasn't long before he heard voices at the bottom of the loading ramp with the two Golians coming up the ramp followed by two more Golians, which he figured were the businessman and his wife. Grak and Karlt were carrying their flight bags as well as the passenger's baggage, which they took to one of the small cabins. When Grak returned, he asked Matt,
"I forgot to ask you back at the bar, but can you fly a spacecraft?"
"Oh fuck!" He thought, "I'm screwed now!"
"Uhh yeah, well kinda, Amber's been teaching me, I'm still pretty weak on navigation though."
"How are you at reading instruments and entering data?"
"Umm well I'm a lot better at that, yeah, I'll go ahead and say that I'm comfortable with that sort of thing."
"Good," replied Grak, I'll enter you as a co-pilot."
"Say if it's not too much trouble, could I just watch you guys while you're flying?" He asked, "I mean I know all the basics, it's just making sure I don't get lost, you know, making sure I maintain the right headings and know ahead of time which areas are dangerous."
"Oh I suppose," replied Grak, "You can take Karlt's seat when he's relieving himself or off eating."
"Thanks guys!" Replied Matt, "I really want to learn this stuff, and I've been working hard on learning to read your language." Grak patted him on his shoulder,
"Well you did right by us with all those reward, and scrap credits, not many would have done that." Matt's face brightened,
"When we get to Golia are you going to take me to "Neb's Nebula?" Grak gave him a questioning look,
"I know I said something about it but you might be a bit young for that place, however if you insist…" Then he was introduced to Laapkan Doltoda and his wife Eltiag, both bombarding him with questions about earth.
Chapter 38
Titan Stand Chapter 38
It didn't take Matt long to start a conversation with Mr. Doltoda and his wife, especially since they were very curious about him, and his origins.
"Well we're pretty far out there," he explained, although I've run into people who have either been there, or know others that have."
"Well I like to think that I know my galaxy quite well," replied Mr. Doltoda,
"But I'm afraid this planet earth of yours completely escapes me."
"Well like I said," replied Matt, I'm only here out of the courtesy of others. Could I ask you a question Mr. Doltoda?"
"Why of course, what is it?"
"What do you know of the Malhazars?" Doltoda gave him a look of horror.
"I certainly hope you haven't angered any of them?" replied the businessman.
"Why is that?" asked Matt,
"Because they have been known to hunt people to the edge of the universe, who have committed some transgression against them or their families, they are quite vicious about it as well." Matt nodded,
"I thought they acted like the mafia."
"The mafia?" asked Doltoda.
"Yeah," replied Matt, "we have a criminal organization back on earth that behaves the same way. Anyway, we returned a couple Malhazar children back to their relatives, after raiders killed their parents. Along the way, those little brats screwed with the minds of a couple friends of mine turning us all against each other."
"You didn't antagonize them did you?"
"No sir, however they did ask me all sorts of questions about the raiders, who I later killed when they attacked our ship."
"Did they now?" commented Doltoda,
"Sounds like you know something I don't," said Matt.
"Well you said you killed all the raiders, for which I commend you, so I'm not really sure what they will do. Oh they'll put their informers on the case looking for family, friends, that sort of thing, but again, raiders are a pretty tight knit society, still, those Malhazars are a pretty determined bunch. I expect at some point, bodies will begin to turn up in the most unusual places."
"I'm not in any danger am I?" Asked Matt.
"Probably not, if you were honest with them and they will check, then you have nothing to worry about."
"Intergalactic Mafia!" Thought Matt, "Fuck!"
He then told Mr. Doltoda about Ussen Ommo, Amber, Gandric, and Drok.
"This is rather interesting. For the most part, my business ventures are centered primarily in the Zan-Argo system, however I've been on the scout for over-looked locations. I've heard of Xandrus or Maltorret as it was once known.
Wasn't there a war there or something like that?"
"Yes," replied Matt, quite awhile back, the Sibranthi created a race of android slaves, then abused them, and paid the ultimate price. All the androids are trying to do is return to productive lives, they certainly have the manufacturing ability, I've been there, seen it."
Mr. Doltoda turned to his wife.
"Well dear, it looks like we may be returning to Fort Kamata in the near future, perhaps we too might be able to come to some sort of agreement with these androids."
"Don't worry Mr. Doltoda," he assured, "Those androids won't bother you."
Matt was able to spend a little time watching and learning from Grak and Karlt as they piloted the spacecraft. Karlt was able to explain in greater detail the formula they used to perform fast calculations when checking their positions.
"Normally the navigational computer takes care of everything," explained Karlt.
"But there are times when a malfunction might interrupt the process, you know, things like an electrical short, a raider attack that knocks out the computer for even a moment. Although the newer ones have been upgraded and improved, a lot of these older navigational systems will reset themselves and it's up to you to re-enter your position."
Amber had shown him roughly the same thing, but she didn't explain it in a way he really understood.
"On top of that," added Karlt, "Loridia has their own system which being employees of the company, we are required to use, however not everyone does."
"I don't think Amber uses it," Karlt chuckled,
"For some reason, Androids have their own system, based on a higher mathematics and pure logic, but we mortals tend to stick with an easier process."
Matt had never been a math whiz, and the kind of mathematics in use here was something entirely different, but with the help of his computer, and a careful explanation from both Grak and Karlt, he was able to gain a good working knowledge of the formula.
He also showed his friends the dog tags, watch, the strange pistol, and the camera, asking them if there was some place that might be able to decipher the information contained in them. Bothe of them looked over the trinkets, with Grak commenting,
"What you are looking for is someone who can recover data from old tech. You're problem isn't so much in recovering it, but in reading and understanding it. Those identification tags are no doubt in code, but possibly even in a "dead" language. Who knows, the Gri'Foda of today might not even use the same language their ancestors did. The camera, shouldn't be too hard, I can direct you to a place on Golia that can probably do it. Let me take a look at this handgun."
Matt handed him the gun, whereby Grak carefully examined it.
"The battery appears to be inside the grips but I've never seen this strange screw before, it must have to come out to open the thing up."
Then it hit him, handing Grak one of the dog tags, he pointed to the strange extension on the en
d. Grak looked at it, grinned and just slowly shook his head.
"Right under our noses." Using the "screwdriver" built on the end of the tag he was able to open up the battery compartment revealing a small round battery.
"About the size of three fifty cent pieces stacked on top of each other," Thought Matt.
"Well I've seen round batteries," said Grak, "But nothing quite this big, still, I'd check into it."
"What kind of pistol do you think that is?" Asked Matt. Grak looked at it some more and shrugged.
"It's obviously military in nature, and resembles a Ka'Toc MM10, but beyond that I couldn't say. Hand weapons aren't my specialty, but we might get lucky at Nub's. I know a fellow who comes in there from time to time, if he's there, I'll point him out to you and you can ask him."
With the businessman and his wife taking up one cabin, and Grak and Karlt the other, Matt was forced to build a pallet in between two large shipping crates down in the cargo area. He also threw a thin metallic tarp over them to create a "tent" allowing him a semblance of privacy, as well as blocking the cargo bay lights.
While he was eating breakfast one "morning," Mr. Doltoda sat down and began to engage him in conversation.
"You know Matt, I've been thinking about what you told me about your planet, and quite frankly, I'm curious. I have a lot of friends in the Golian government, and my wife's brother is well placed in the Loridian organization. If I was to organize a trade delegation to your planet, what might we expect?" Matt frowned, and shook his head.
"Probably not what you would expect."
"Oh, how so?"
"Well depending on how you announced yourselves, and where you landed, either panic, or you would be killed outright." This revelation shocked the businessman.
"I find that very hard to believe, are you saying that your civilization is uncivilized and savage?"
"No," he replied, but half of my world's governments are totalitarian, and would probably attack you before you even landed. You might also run the risk of being arrested by the government and held in captivity never telling anyone. Look Mr. Doltoda, there is a sizeable number of the population that thinks we are alone in the universe, but there is a large number that are convinced we're not. Then were you to simply show up, a lot of religions would freak out for obvious reasons."
"If I were going to contact earth I think I'd do it another way."
"And that would be?" Asked Mr. Doltoda.
"Well there is a space station constantly orbiting earth, it usually has astronauts from my country, as well as Russia, but others from time to time. I'd pull up next to them and announce yourselves from there. But you would run into a big translation problem. I'm wearing this translator, so I can understand you and you me. But those astronauts certainly wouldn't. Then you'd have to make sure you were on the right radio frequency. From what little I know on the matter, everybody "out here," operates on a totally different, as well as a more advanced system, you might not even be able to pick up the frequencies we use." It was clear Mr. Doltoda hadn't considered the various problems Matt had stated.
"So you're saying that if we managed to overcome the obstacles dealing with communication, we could "announce" ourselves, and "prepare" your people."
"Pretty much," replied Matt, "I'd also make sure everyone on the planet could hear you so the government couldn't keep you a secret, but I certainly wouldn't try and land until you got some serious promises."
"Very interesting," replied Mr. Doltoda, "Are you going to be around in case I or my associates wished to speak with you again."
"Oh yeah," he replied, I'll be around, if you need to contact me, I'll be keeping an eye on the Loridian message board. If you can figure out the language barrier, as well as radio frequencies, let me know, I can give you the names of several people who could make things easier. Oh hey, I just thought of something else. We have a moon that's fairly close to earth, you could always "park" up there, pick up our radio frequencies until you figured them out, languages too, although it seems like everyone on earth speaks a different one."
"Thank you," replied Doltoda.
Thankfully the trip was uneventful, so when Grak announced that a fighter escort was joining them, everyone, least of all Matt, breathed a sigh of relief. Although he had long accepted the fact that he was in an alien world, it wasn't until Grak called him to the bridge and pointed out Golia, and the hundreds of spacecraft coming and going from the planet, along with a massive space station, Grak said was called the "Irkron." As he observed the tableau out the window, he thought of his home world, and the fact that it could only get one space station into orbit.
"I suppose that's a rather impressive sight for someone coming from a world without the ability to travel in space," commented Karlt. Continuing to stare out the window, Matt replied.
"Back on earth all those spacecraft would be waterborne ships traveling to and from other nations instead of planets."
"Don't be too hard on your race," replied Karlt, "At one time we were as you, but one day we just decided to do something about it, and what you are looking at is the result."
"I know, replied Matt, "But when I see all that, I'm just glad you guys are peaceful."
As they came closer to the planet, Matt guessed Golia was roughly the size of Neptune, with indications of a considerable amount of water, which Grak said was around forty percent.
"Khemnia is the capitol," he added, "We'll be landing at the space port outside the city so you're going to get an exceptional view in just a moment."
"Grak certainly wasn't kidding," thought Matt, as they came through the cloud cover. Using the magnifier on his translator, Matt could make out a beautiful futuristic city spreading out for miles; obviously, Khemnia was the centerpiece of the planet. He spotted the massive landing area on the Southside of the city, with hundreds of craft parked in a rough circular pattern.
"If you look to the east side of the landing field," said Karlt, you'll see the Loridian landing area. Once we land, and Mr. Doltoda and his wife have left the ship you need to come with Grak and I to the flight control office where we'll need to validate your identification, you can drop your gear in the holding area, then we'll head for Neb's."
Before he and his wife left the ship, Mr. Doltoda came up to Matt and said.
"I was serious about making a visit to your planet Matt, I will be talking to people I know about this matter, so expect to hear from me in the near future."
"Well good luck with that sir," he replied, I won't be too far away from the Loridian message board." Matt waited while Grak and Karlt shut the ship down, and as they were heading down the ramp Karlt asked.
"What was that business with Doltoda back there, I heard him saying something about visiting your planet."
Matt chuckled,
"He's got some idea about sending a trade delegation to earth, I tried to explain to him the problems that might occur should he try that, but he seems bound and determined to go through with it."
"What would happen if he did?" Asked Grak.
"Nothing good," replied Matt.
Chapter 39
Titan Stand Chapter 39
Since they were at the Loridian terminal Matt was required to verify that he had flown as an extra crewman.
Are you sure I won't get in trouble over this?" He asked.
"Naa" replied Grak, "As long as we don't abuse the privilege they won't say anything, now let's get over to the Hostelry before the place starts filling up."
They stepped aboard a moving walkway which took them outside and up what Matt guessed was a city block to the crewman's lodging Hostel. He was grateful for the moving walkway as he was able to set down his duffel bag while they moved along. It also offered him a first-hand look at Golia. The buildings were pure white, with gold trim and black windows. There was no traffic at street level other than quite a number of pedestrians. Pointing to the buildings and what appeared to be flying cars Matt asked.
"Is that one way glass, and
what are all those flying things? Both Grak and Karlt chuckled.
"Yes, when you're inside those offices you can see outside normally. Those are reflective surfaces that not only reflect the heat and sun, but help to power the building with all the solar energy they suck in. As for those flying craft, they are private craft, or public "Tac-tac's" that take you wherever you need to go. All the heavy transport between these buildings is underground, and when we get up here a little farther you'll see the transport tubes that move citizens around the city." Grak was right; Matt spotted a gold tube cutting through buildings like an enormous snake. It seemed to be roughly ten stories up but due to the reflective "skin," he couldn't see inside. Checking into the Hostel, Matt took a "single" while his friends opted for a larger room with a little more room.