by Terry Frost
“To answer your other question Hopus, we make our home on a planet named Earth. Earth is a long, long, way from here. May we ask what is the name of this home?”
Spreading his arms out wide Hopus said, “This world is Yopa.”
“Are we the leader of all Nawi?”
Just as he was about to answer, the Battledogs returned with all their mounts including their commanders. Two of his soldiers dismounted and each man initiated their lassos and put both of them around the pugan’s head, then remounted.
Hopus got on his mount and asked, “Do we have an animal to mount?”
“No, we didn’t bring an animal with us.”
“Please follow. We take you to our pound. We will feast well this day. Pugan make a good stew. Pound not too far from here. Hopus give answers to your inquiries when we get to pound.”
They headed south along the river bank and after a mile, they turned and went into the forest on the same side as the shuttle was parked. Before Jak could finish his thought about needing to communicate with the Colossus, Jeeves spoke in a whisper.
“Colonel, we have to contact General Dubois and inform him we have discovered intelligent life on this planet and they call their home, Yopa.”
“I know and we will, but I don’t want them to see or hear us contacting our people just yet. They might think we are about to bring an invasion force and we can’t chance that without the opportunity to tell them more about us.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little odd that Hopus didn’t ask how we got to their world?” asked Jeeves.
“I surely do. But he did say he would give us answers at their pound. Which brings me to another thought I have. Do you find the humor in them calling their home the pound?”
“I find nothing humorous about that.”
“You know, pound, like in dog pound, like in Battledogs and dog pound?”
“Why, yes. I do see the reference to pound being at astronomical odds of being used for the name of their home. But, I also believe it is purely coincidental.”
“Coincidental or not, Jeeves, it definitely fits.”
Chapter 7
Back on Colossus, Rear Admiral Anatoly Petrov was in charge of the bridge while Admiral Allen was in his Ready Room grilling General Dubois in private about the lack of communications coming from Colonel Hammer and Commodore Jeeves.
“I’m sure Colonel Hammer is aware of his need to report in if they find something, Arvin.”
“Well, I’m happy that you’re sure, Alias. But we both know that Colonel Hammer has the propensity to accidentally forget his orders when it suits him.”
“That is an understatement, sir, but I wouldn’t want to be traveling through the cosmos without Colonel Hammer and that is a fact, Admiral.”
“Maybe so, Alias, but why hasn’t Commodore Jeeves called in? You know how excited he gets when discovering new things. Not to mention how dependable he is on following orders.”
“Now that is a concern. Our science officer does become excitable about his discoveries. So what are your orders, Admiral? Do you want me to break silence and try to reach Colonel Hammer?”
Admiral Allen didn’t answer for a few seconds and had walked over to his viewing port staring out at the purplish planet and finally said, “No, let’s hold off for another hour and I’m not comfortable doing that. But if the hour passes, then we will break silence.”
“Meanwhile, in the event, they don’t report in and we can’t make contact with them, I want you to ready the Perseus to enter the planet’s atmosphere to look for them.”
****
The Nawi and the two Humans had walked a mile deep into the forest when they started hearing a sound similar to a waterfall, a very big waterfall. When they came out of the forest the site was breathtaking.
One of the branches of the major river was flowing in front of the mountain range they had seen coming in for their landing in the shuttle. Standing at ground level the tops of the mountains disappeared through a layer of mauve colored clouds that hadn’t been present earlier in the day.
A thirty-foot wide bridge made of large, dark purple stones, which were six to eight inches thick and about the size of picnic tables stretched out over the raging river. Jeeves noticed the stones had been cut to perfectly matching lengths and widths. He couldn’t wait to ask how they managed to cut such stones and how did the bridge span over a river that had to be fifty yards wide without any supporting structure.
The bridge was aligned to the entrance of a cave-like never before seen by the eyes of Humans. Not only was the cave entrance huge in its entirety, it had been carved by the aliens so its presentation resembled a large gaping mouth with long canines, and it actually looked like a real animal.
The entrance freaked Hammer out for a bit but he was sure to not let his feelings be known. The area of land before the cave entrance was flat and void of any grasses. The ground was a mauve color, same as the clouds in the sky at that particular time.
Down the north side of the mountains were two stockades. One was holding a sizable herd of the zebra animals. The other was holding what looked to Jak to be a herd of tiny prey animals colored a bluish green. They stood no more than two-feet tall with long necks fairly proportionate to their bodies and looked similar to llamas, only they had flopping arrow shaped ears. Jak thought they would make a great pet because they were adorable.
As fascinating as everything he was seeing was, Jak knew he needed to call the Colossus. He was sharp enough to know that it had been too long since his last contact with the Striker and Captain Slain and expected to hear the sonic boom an airship would make after breaking through planet Yopa’s stratosphere.
Jak caught up and walked alongside Hopus and said, “We need to inform you that we have to contact our superior commander.”
He wasn’t sure how Hopus would react but was instantly put at ease when Hopus said, “Proceed, but please, do so quickly. We must take you to see Emperor Nulashin.
As the group continued on, with the exception of Jeeves and Jak, Jak pressed his triangle shaped comlink attached to his uniform located on the left side of his chest.
“General, this is Colonel Hammer, do you copy?”
“It's about fucking time, Hammer. I was just about to send the Perseus down after your ass. What in the hell has taken you so long to report in, Colonel?”
“Are you sitting or standing, General?”
“I’m standing, why?”
Only Jak Hammer would dare call his commanding officer by his first name, what with him being subordinate to the general, but at times General Dubois allowed it when speaking privately.
“Commodore Jeeves and I have made First Contact, Alias.”
“Say again, Colonel.”
“We have discovered an intelligent alien race, sir, and have been traveling with them for the last couple of hours while going to their pound.”
“Are you and Jeeves being held captive? And what was that about a pound?”
“No, sir. We are free to move about as we please. General, these aliens are the coolest damn beings in the world. The reason I said pound, is because that is what they call their home and it makes sense they would call it that because hold on to your butt, these aliens biological makeup are those of canines.”
Jak waited to hear if his general would warp out or tell him he was not in the mood for his make-believe bullshit, but that didn’t happen.
“Dogs? What kind of dogs?”
“They are the cutest looking aliens, sir. They look a hell of a lot like the breed of French Bulldogs. The ones we encountered wore full battle gear and they carry a weapon, unlike anything our kind has seen, sir.”
“Well, kiss my old shriveled ass, Jak. Never would have thought the word cute was in your vocabulary. I’ve got to inform the admiral. How soon do you think we would be able to bring down a small investigative team?”
“Hold off on that for a short spell, sir. We haven’t met their leader yet and are on our way to do that. They
are friendly, sir, but I don’t want them to think they are being invaded by something from beyond their world.
“I’m being waved on by the Battledog commander. Give me a couple hours and I should be able to hopefully get their approval for you to send down a small team. Can you give me a couple hours, sir?”
“I don’t see that being a problem, but then again I haven’t talked to Allen yet. Go ahead and proceed. If I have to get back to you prior, make sure you answer, and that is an order, Colonel.”
Jak broke communication and General Dubois was thinking better get up to the bridge and inform Arvin of this amazing news. Battledogs! I love the sound of that.
“Alias, I’ve tried to prepare myself for the day Humans would discover intelligent life somewhere in our known universe. Now here I am and can’t find the words.”
“I have every confidence Admiral, that you will find the words. We’ve been together in one capacity or another for more than fifty years. We fought together as joint forces to put an end to terrorism throughout the Middle East and then came home after what, ten years, and only after a few short years of peace had to fight again in the Mountain Wars.
“When critical and vitally important situations come to bear you have always been able to find the words. That’s why the USC picked you to command Colossus and the reason I’m honored that you chose me to be your Defense Minister.”
“Thanks for those kind words, Alias. Guess I needed to hear it. Well, first things first. I need to enlighten my staff that we’ve found intelligent life. That alone will give me an idea of how professionally trained people will react to the news. Telling them will be in a much smaller setting than just jumping into telling the entire Colossus population.
“We will not be announcing anything to the general population until we hear back from Colonel Hammer. If you haven’t heard from him within the next hour, I want you to contact him. That is all for now, Alias, and thank you for bringing the extraordinary news to me.”
****
The Nawi’s watchmen were standing inside two five foot tall square cutouts on the top of the pound and in plain view at the highest point of the pound entrance. At the same time, they both brought up some kind of curved animal horns and began blowing into them.
The horn’s tune reverberated against the hollowed cutouts which amplified the sound and could be heard for miles. In the next instant, hundreds of Nawi began pouring out of the pound. Only a few of them were wearing battle gear, as for the majority of the Nawi, it was the first time Jak and Jeeves were able to see them in their full splendor.
It became clear which Nawi were female as they were much smaller than the males and almost half of them were carrying a baby or two in a well designed frontal pack. Once again the tough and rugged Jak Hammer was thinking and I thought the Battledogs were cute, but look at their precious little puppies. At a very young age, Jak’s father instilled in him that to show any sign of softness made a man seem weak and he forbade him to show that side of himself.
As the Nawi continued to pour out of the pound they became extremely excited and started yipping and howling. The few Nawi soldiers that came out were thrusting some type of long spears into the air. The spears had designs carved into them and were magnificent in their presentation.
Jeeves noticed the spears too and said to Jak, “I wonder if I could get one of those Battledogs to present one of those to me as a gift.”
“I’m sure they would, Jeeves. It probably only took them a year or two to make.”
Jak noticed that Hopus was a Nawi of great respect as his fellow Nawi dared not to crowd him or any of the Battledogs in order to get a better look at the tall aliens walking with them.
All the males not in battle gear wore some type of heavy cloth covering that slipped over their heads and covered the back and front of their bodies, extending to just below their thighs, and were secured by broad belts around their midsections.
Every adult male had toolbelts which held what was obviously hammers of some sort on one side of the belt, and rings on the other side, openly holding two sizes of purple colored chisels.
Noticing the toolbelts, Jeeves said, “I believe the Nawi are stonecutters, Colonel. They probably cut the stones for the bridge as well as the cutouts above the pound. I would even go as far as to hypothesize that they are also cutters of gemstones as well.”
They finally made their way to the bottom step to the entrance of the pound. There were twenty steps up to the top landing. Hopus and the Battledogs dismounted and several males in the crowd quickly took charge of the zebras and took them in the direction of the stockades.
Four other males had tucked in their belts long glistening knives, which had a large ruby gemstone set into a mount on top of the knife. They relieved the soldiers of the pugan and started south through the crowd.
As Jak began taking the steps to the top, his brain was about to overload with questions and couldn’t wait much longer to have many of them answered, after all, Hopus did promise to answer some questions when they got to the pound. Jak would also bet a year’s worth of credits that Jeeves was ready for a few rapid fire questions too.
Humans stopped using paper money over a hundred years ago and instead the only type of currency used anymore were credits, platinum, gold and silver bars and coins, and gemstones. It wasn’t too difficult to realize the Nawi used gemstones as some form of currency as they obviously considered their stones to have value.
As Jak and Jeeves were about to enter into the pound, Jak was thinking; if they don’t use it to trade amongst their own kind or for purposes of stature, then why the hell would they need currency? I can tell the gemstones serve as a designation of rank in their military but I see a hell of a lot of stone cutters around and there has to be another purpose for the gemstones.
Chapter 8
The interior of the pound was enormous and went so deep back into the mountain that Jak couldn’t tell where it stopped. The ceiling was at least a couple hundred feet high and there was a multitude of staircases leading up to more levels of the pound.
The panoramic view just inside the pound resembled a major train station back on Earth, as there were a dozen or more wide openings trailing off to many different areas on into the pound. Jeeves’s hearing could pick up sounds no Human could ever hear and his ears caught the muffled sound of striking or hammering coming from deep within the pound.
There was an overload of colors that made up the interior of the huge cavern, which consisted of dark and light purple, bluish-green, gold and silver fleck, as well as a polished black onyx floor. There was plenty of light in the pound which seemed to be provided by hundreds and hundreds of fluorescent orbs mounted on top of poles of different lengths.
The orb poles lining the staircases were mounted on the walls of the pound, and in the main lobby sat a roofless gazebo styled structure made up of eight ten-foot tall black onyx poles, each having an assortment of orb colors blazing from the top of them
After walking several hundred feet into the pound without saying a word, the two Humans were spellbound. Looking forward as they walked they could see in a distance a walkway going from one side of the pound to the other, and it was upon what Jak estimated to be about the fourth level of the pound.
They couldn’t tell from the ground floor, but they agreed they could see what looked like the top portion of a gigantic double door encrusted with gold. When they got to the second staircase on the right side of the pound, Hopus stopped and turned to the two Battledogs that had been walking with them.
He held up his hand and said, “We and our visitors are goink upstairs now, so remain here.”
Whispering to Jak, Jeeves said, “That is the second time I’ve heard him say ink instead of ing. Did you hear the same thing?”
“Yes, Commodore, I do. Maybe it’s a glitch in the universal language software.”
“Negative. There is no such thing as a glitch in the USC’s software, Colonel.”
“Of cou
rse not. What could I have been thinking?”
Hopus started up the stairs as Jak and Jeeves followed him one step behind. At the top of the staircase, there was a small landing and hidden behind the interior mountain wall was a hallway cut out of the rock that went for a hundred feet or so to a three-foot wide and five-foot tall door.
The door didn’t have a knob like an average door in homes on Earth. In place of a knob was a slide bar with a turned end for grasping. Hopus thumbed the slide and pushed it to the right and the door opened.
He walked through the door and beckoned his two guests to follow suit. The two Humans, in order to get through the door, had to hunker just a little.
Once inside Hopus said, “We welcome you to we’s home. Would you be havink a seat at the table please?”
The two men walked over to a small table with four handcrafted chairs that any millionaire back home would have had to pay a handsome price to own. The table was round and made of the same material as the purple tree bark Jeeves took from a forest tree. Lying underneath a hard clear top, which was something other than glass, was two alien words with the first being longer than the second.
The words were placed in shining black channels and were spelled out in a mix of diamonds and sapphires that could have only been set by a master gemologist.
Sitting in the chairs was not very comfortable for Jak or Jeeves, as the seats were made to fit the smaller Nawi. Hopus said he was going to go into a separate room to remove his forpa (battle gear) and told his two alien friends to help themselves to a half gallon size decanter that was three-quarters full of some kind of copper colored liquid.
Since Jeeves never ate or drank that didn’t seem to bother Hammer at all and he poured a small amount of the liquid into a small fist size cup. He brought the cup up to his nose and smelled the liquid and the smell was extremely pleasant.
“Colonel, do you think it wise of you to drink an alien substance while on a mission?”
“Probably not, but I wouldn't want to be a rude guest now would I?”