by Max Jager
"So what is it you want from us?" Asked Orlak
"No stirring up international trouble, or hacking communication satellites, and next time bring someone who can speak to the president."
"No guarantees on that," replied Rekton, "As none of us may be back, however we'll pass the word along." Then Warmaster said as he and his partner were leaving.
"Stay away from the middle east, got that?"
"We will," replied Matt, "But be sure to let your superiors know I could probably find some people who would be more than happy to come here and turn that whole area into a parking lot."
Both agents gave him dirty looks,
"Maybe all of you should just leave right now and go back where you came from."
"We'll think about it," Replied Orlak. As the two men left, everyone stared at the scanner screen; it was now a real circus outside. Bruce was trying to get statements from the agents only getting rebuffed in the process. Turning to the others, Matt said,
"Thanks you guys for helping me out back there, that bit about the wind generator was a touch of genius."
"No problem," replied Skart.
"I'm gradually picking up your penchant for exaggeration to reinforce a point," added Slavek. Then Matt had a thought, looking at Skart he asked.
"Can you guys really tamper with the weather like that?" Skart just grinned and shrugged.
"Perhaps, but not with this ship."
"Well gang," sighed Matt, "Let's go meet our fans." Stepping outside into the cold and snow Matt was quite surprised by the amount of people gathering around them. The street was jammed with cars, although he could see the two black SUV's cutting cross-lots through the snow to get out. Frank the cop along with his father came up looking rather worried.
"This whole thing is getting out of hand Matt," exclaimed Frank.
"Well as soon as that reporter gets a few shots of us we're outta here," replied Matt. Orlak came up to him and said,
"There's no point in continuing the cloaking mode, I'm shutting it off and switching on the searchlights." Moments later the loud whining stopped, and the ship materialized just before the spotlights unfolded from out of the hull and lit the area up like daytime.
"There were shouts and cries as people were caught by the incredibly bright lights. It didn't seem to faze anyone though, now that they could actually see the ship it only encouraged people even more. As Matt and his friends stood just outside the hatchway, people cautiously approached not entirely sure if these aliens meant them harm. Matt was the only one who wore no side arm, and in short order found himself translating for people who wanted to take a picture.
"Don't' let any of these people try to take a picture of themselves standing next to any of you," he warned his friends, then he shouted at the crowd,
"We will pose for pictures only once, it's cold out here, and we have to get going, so if you want a picture take it now!" Mr. Grainger then came up to Matt,
"I've got to get to work son, so good luck, and we'll see you later."
"Bye dad…Later!" Then Frank the cop came up looking even more harried.
"We're just getting ready to go," explained Matt "But we need to get people away from this ship."
"Easier said than done young man, look at 'em!" Then Orlak came over,
"I don't use it much but this ship has a warning siren; I think everyone will leave when I sound it."
"Well let's get the hell out of here," exclaimed Matt.
Once they were all inside, and seated, Orlak activated the warning alarm which must have been loud because everyone laughed as they watched people start to scatter.
"It get's everybody's attention that's for sure," chuckled Orlak, "So where are we off to now?" He added.
"You wanted to hunt very large and dangerous animals," replied Matt, "I think I know just the place."
Chapter 70
Titan Stand Chapter 70
Once Orlak had established the Azani into a stable orbit he asked Matt where they would go next.
"Honestly Orlak," said Matt, "I'm not quite sure. I know that you and Rekton want to see dangerous animals but being that's its winter on the North American continent all the bears are going to be in hibernation however I think I know where we can see some polar bears. You won't be able to shoot them though. All the grizzlies and brown bears will also be in hibernation as well, nothing we can do about it…Sorry. Now I think I know where we can see elephants, Cape buffalo, rhino's, and lions they are all considered very dangerous. The good part is that they are all concentrated in one area, the bad part is that there will be lots of people around, all trying to do the same thing we are."
Orlak then replied,
"Rekton and I have our own reasons for wishing to observe these creatures, so if there is the slightest possibility of getting up close to them we will accept your offer.
"Well I'm warning you now," said Matt, you get a cape buffalo, or a rhino, charging you I don't even think the kind of weapons I have would stop it"' " "Don't trouble yourself concerning that," replied Orlak, we brought special stun rifles for just such a possibility."
This concerned him, as once these animals got going; high powered rifle bullets often times didn't stop animals like these.
"So where exactly are these animals located?" Asked Rekton. Matt retrieved his world atlas and opened to Canada.
"The polar bears are up here at Hudson's bay near a place called Churchill. Then the other animals are scattered all over the African continent, which is here. I figured our best chance is down here in South Africa at a place known as Kruger National Park. Keep in mind that all these animals are all protected, and the place will be crawling with tourists, as well as park rangers. I suppose if we land in cloaked mode we can remain hidden. There are other areas of Africa where these animals live, but there's just too much land to cover."
"We trust your judgment Matt," replied Orlak, "That's why we asked you along."
"Well I hate to keep beating a dead horse," he replied, but I can't believe you went to all this trouble and expense to see a bunch of animals that can easily kill you."
Both Rekton, Orlak, Skart, and Ifwol looked at Matt for a moment, then Rekton pointed to an empty chair at the end of the galley table.
"Sit down Matt, you're right, there is more to our story than that." Strangely, Ifwol led off.
"You haven't been in the "Empire," long enough to know much of it's history or even much about our particular races, or our pasts."
"Have you ever heard anyone mention the M'rauer-Quis war?" Matt thought a moment, then shook his head,
"Can't say that I have." Everyone nodded,
"I'm not surprised," replied Ifwol, "It was a time…Well let's just say a terrible time, and leave it at that." Ifwol waved his hand indicating Rekton, Orlak, and Skart.
"Rekton and I were soldiers in that war, officers to be more precise. Orlak and Skart were a part of our unit flying an attack ship." Then he took a deep sigh, the sadness in his face could not be missed.
"We are all that's left of the fifth order of the Cyan-Quis Highland Scouts. All of us came from a district of Rim'ea known as Cyan-Quis. When the war broke out, close to seven thousand of us enlisted, at last count, I believe there are only fifty-four of us left." Matt gave out with a low whistle,
"No one's ever said a thing about a war, what was it all about?" Rekton then took over.
"All of us were roughly your age when we joined up, and who wouldn't, our world was being attacked. They called themselves the "Klix," a genetically re-structured sapient race. With the exception of a few planets out past Fort Kamata, everyone was affected. The war lasted close to four and a half yeans, but it changed our galaxy forever. Rim'ea, O'b'ora, and Glar were completely destroyed, the same as Bline-Aichel." Rekton paused, then added,
"All of us came from Rim'ea, it was a colony of Golia." He paused again, to let the terrible realization sink in.
"You mean whole planets simply wiped out?" Stammered Matt.
"There was one more," said Orlak, "Clak-Cliixx, the home world of the Klix. Early in the war, I got lucky and managed to shoot down one of their transports. We found a couple of their warlords as well as data that revealed the location and course of their home world, but it wasn't until two yeans later that he had the wherewithal to launch an attack and destroy that cursed planet of theirs. Now obviously there is much more to the story but the reason we are telling you this is why we are here. It's only been eight yarns since the Empire has been in existence, so far, so good, however it will take many yarns for the scars to completely hear, many of which never will. When you have experienced protracted combat as we have, it's hard to return to the life you once knew."
"We call it "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," replied Matt; a lot of the soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan have it."
"We simply call it combat exhaustion, or the "wearies. Anyway, when you have experienced the things we have it's very difficult to return to your previous life. However we are fortunate in that we have managed to acquire generally exciting careers, ones that earn us a lot of credits. Sooo, from time, we pick someplace we've never been, travel there and see what we can stir up."
"Well," replied Matt, if you want to stir the "shit," you've certainly come to the right place."
"On previous "adventures" continued Orlak we have visited Zesis where we alleviated some of their Kibzeku problem, and Laq'Tak where we took care of the Sezzen and Gyrga."
"What are those?" Asked Matt,
"Well the Kibzeku were genetic creations of the Klix. Zesis was one of their staging areas where they created these monsters. Six legs extremely sharp and wicked claws as well as being extremely fast. They would drop them on planets where they would attack anything that moved…Very hard on the civilian population. The Vel'Takz were involved with that as well, that's why every one of them is under a permanent death order, you would be arrested if you were somehow able to bring in live prisoners to the authorities. Then the sezzen are small hairy bi-podial creatures that carry "tem-tem" a transmittable disease that causes your muscles to deteriorate. The Gyrga are large brown insects that can wreak havoc on agricultural crops but when boiled are very tasty, the Selantrian's just can't get enough of them."
"Look you guys," said Matt; "It sounds like you have really been through the shit. Anytime you want to talk about it I'm here, I'm always ready to listen. And here I thought the Loridian Empire was this big peaceful benevolent empire." His friends all began to laugh.
"Not hardly," replied Rekton, However the only positive thing to come out of that war that everyone can agree on is that it brought everyone together. The "Empire" existed before the war, but the dire situation everyone found themselves in and the fact that we came damn close to loosing it made us all realize we needed each other, now if we can just keep things that way."
"I don't mean to keep prying," continued Matt, "But was this war anything like they must have fought on Ussen Ommo?"
"Well I don't know a whole lot about that place," replied Rekton "Other than the fact that it's haunted, and it made my skin crawl just being there."
"Well," added Matt, "I'm afraid this planet is nothing but a history of war, it seems to be the only thing we know how to do well, maybe I can find some old video's on World War 2 or something."
"That's all right Matt," replied Ifwol, maybe another time. Tell me, is there anywhere we could go where we could just relax on a nice sandy beach and listen to the water lap against the shore?" Matt smiled,
"Sure, plenty of places, but finding a place like that without a lot of people hanging around might be a little tough, but I'm sure I could think of a place like that."
"Excellent," replied Ifwol, "I don't know about the others, but I came here to relax."
Then Matt turned his attention to Gyod,
"Why did you tell me to "drop it" when I was talking to those Government guys? We are going to need a way to hack into earth's communication system in order to call people, or surf the net." Gyod snickered.
"And so you shall, but, I think I can come up with a way to do it without alerting anyone. First of all, we need to find that satellite again."
"Well there's any number of them floating around," said Matt, "Pick one. So what do you need to do?"
"Well we need to give it an internal imagery scan so I can determine where I need to install a mechbot that whenever we, or someone with the right code can activate it. By the way, do your people ever come up here to service them?"
"Uh not to my knowledge," he replied. "They are built for the long haul, and when they eventually quit working, they are abandoned and eventually their orbits deteriorate and they fall to earth burning up in the process." Gyod gave him a puzzled look,
"No one recovers them?"
"No," replied Matt, we don't really have a way to do it effectively. Unless something really fucks up bad, they generally last quite a long time."
"Interesting," mused Gyod.
Eventually they located a satellite, but Orlak was afraid they would damage it trying to get close enough for Gyod and Skart to float over to it. Finally they found one whose solar panels were spread out enough so Orlak could come up right along side. The scan revealed that Gyod could access the internals from the top of the craft.
"So what is it you're going to stick in there?" Asked Matt.
"Gyod held a round object roughly the size of a baseball.
"This is a "Mechbot, it's all folded up right now, but once I activate it the device will "live" in that satellite maintaining it. It's AI will absorb every detail of the satellite's internal operation making itself "useful" until such time as it receives the proper signal code, then it will act in unison with a special comm pod I will install on the outside that will basically receive and transmit signals to the onboard transmitter." Then Gyod grinned,
"It didn't take long to figure out how this satellite functions Matt, I'm afraid it's design, along with it's transmitter and coding system are rather primitive, I was building things like this when I was but a youngster."
What he was hearing simply astounded him. Although he didn't know a whole lot about the design and construction of communication satellites the fact that Gyod had no trouble "commandeering" it was amazing.
"So you and Skart are going to do a little "spacewalking?" Gyod shrugged,
"No "biggie," I've done it numerous times, Skart are you ready?"
Matt watched them put on their "exo-suits," then carrying their tool bags head for the airlock hatch. The first thing they did was shoot a grounding cable over to the satellite which caused sparks as soon as it touched the hull. Then another tether line before the two engineer's slowly made their way over to the satellite.
Everyone watched on the scanner as Gyod and Skart went about their work. Matt grinned to himself wondering what the company that owned this satellite would think were they to know that "aliens" were out here tampering with it. At one point Skart had to return to get a tool Gyod had forgotten to take, as well as several parts. Finally after over an hour, they buttoned everything up, disconnected the grounding cable, and returned to the Azani, where they disconnected the tether line.
Once back inside, Gyod ran a series of tests finding everything working properly.
"Go ahead and call your parents Matt," said Gyod, let's see how it works." As he placed the call, Gyod studied one of the computer screens looking for any sign of trouble.
"My Mechbot seems to be doing his job, everything is reading normal," commented the engineer. Matt got through to his mom who told Matt his father was out clearing the driveway.
"We are really getting dumped on," said his mother, "Where are you anyway Matt?"
"Hanging over earth mom, just called to see what happened after we left." His mother laughed,
"Well it didn't take long for word to get out about the "aliens" showing up. The media is trying to get here, but with it snowing and blowing so hard, they have the highways closed." They talked for a little
longer, then each wished each other a Merry Christmas before he disconnected. He then tapped into the internet, showing the others pictures of Churchill, South Africa, and Kruger National park.
"All this looks very interesting exclaimed Orlak; I'm ready to go if everyone else is." It was still dark when they came in over Hudson's Bay using the river to locate the town. Heading southeast along the bay, they kept a close eye on the scanner, looking for large "life forms. He had gotten used to the fact that when set properly, the scanner could pick up all manner of sapient life forms including some organic ones. Going into cloaking mode, Orlak put them down a short distance from several moving yellow dots.