“Your Majesty, I must confess that I am really interested in partnering with you. Not just in getting rid of the Tarvians, but also in working on other commercial and industrial ventures, especially on my planet,” Richard said.
“That can be arranged, Richard. It depends on what you want and how you intend to pay us for our services. What do you have on your planet?” the queen asked.
“Well, I have a lot of resources on it. For most of them, I have been using technologies to extract them without any damage to the environment. But the gold there has been a problem to me. Before the invasion by the Tarvians, we were still struggling with how we could extract it,” Richard said.
“You have gold on your planet?” Queen Rashiva asked.
Richard nodded. “Yes. In vast quantities.”
“Then maybe you will make payment to us in gold, Richard. I don’t know if you are aware of this, but there is a very high demand for gold all over the universe. In fact, in many regions and dimensions, it is actually used as a currency and a means of exchange. Unfortunately, our Planet Mendetl has very little deposits of it,” Queen Rashiva said.
“Then in that case, we can enter into a partnership. How much gold would you accept as payment for your services?” Richard asked.
“We will take 80 percent of all the gold on your planet, Richard,” Queen Rashiva said.
“Eighty percent is too much, Your Majesty. It is a new planet and I have a lot of big plans for it. Plans that will require a lot of money to develop. I will give you thirty percent,” Richard said.
“Thirty percent is too low, Richard. Make it seventy percent. I am sure that you cannot get people as skilled as my race, the Mendetlets, to get rid of the Tarvians for you. And we are going to do it in record time with the least possible damage to your infrastructure and facilities,” Queen Rashiva stated.
“The Tarvians already smashed everything on their first invasion. Let me offer you forty percent, Your Majesty,” Richard said.
“You know what, Richard? Since you said that you are having difficulties with refining the gold, why not let us extract and refine the gold for you, all the gold on your planet. And when we do so, we will keep sixty percent of it, while you can have forty percent of it,” Queen Rashiva said.
“You will extract and refine all the gold on my planet?” Richard repeated.
“Yes, Richard. To the last ounce of gold on your planet. And it will be done in a very clean and precise manner that will not be hazardous but rather very friendly and suitable to your planet’s environment. Just give us sixty percent and it will be done, in addition to eradicating the Tarvians,” Queen Rashiva said.
“I am honored, Your Majesty. I can see that we will have a fruitful relationship with your people. Let us share it 50-50. You can keep half of all the gold that your people can extract and refine, while I keep the other half. I think that is a fair deal,” Richard said.
Queen Rashiva nodded. “You are right, Richard. Fifty-fifty is a good deal, and I accept your offer on behalf of my people, the Mendetlets.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Richard said.
“I will get my legal people to quickly draft an agreement that is up to your size which you can endorse right away. In the meantime, I will also instruct my generals to perfect a plan of attack so that we can get rid of the threat on your planet as quickly as possible. It is only when the Tarvians have been eradicated that we can then begin to extract and purify the gold,” Queen Rashiva said.
“You are absolutely right, Your Majesty,” Richard said.
“And while all that is going on, I will want to invite you and your crew to come and have a look at our planet and its structures. I invite you to take a closer study of how we work so that you can appreciate the kind of service that we are about to render to you,” Queen Rashiva said.
“Well, that would be very nice of you, Your Majesty,” Richard said.
The crew members were then taken on a guided tour by the queen and her advisers. Richard and his colleagues were shown various sections of the planet where several of their people were working.
The queen pointed at a construction site. “As you can see, those are our builders who are working on erecting that building. Over there in the fields close to it are the farmers cultivating all that we are going to eat. And I am sure that you have already met our resilient soldiers when you arrived on our planet.”
Richard nodded. “Yes, we already did so, Your Majesty. I must say that I am impressed by what I have just seen. Your kingdom is operated by well-trained professionals.”
The queen nodded. “Yes, it is. We have builders, farmers, and soldiers, each with their own specific set of skills.”
Richard nodded and looked around. “And they are really doing a wonderful job of protecting and maintaining your planet as well. I like the beauty of the environment and the structures that were erected all around.”
There were several skyscrapers and structures, all well-designed and solidly built.
The queen nodded. “Thank you for your commendation. For us, size is never a problem at all.”
“How soon do you think an attack can be made against the Tarvians?” Richard asked.
“As soon as we have perfected a plan of attack, we will immediately deploy our forces and free the planet. That should be in less than an hour from now,” Queen Rashiva said.
Richard’s eyes widened in amazement. “Less than an hour from now? That is quite fast, Your Majesty.”
“I told you before, Richard. On Mendetl we work very fast and do not believe in wasting time in any venture that we undertake,” Queen Rashiva said. “If you will please excuse me. I will need to confer with my subjects as we get ready for the mission at hand.”
“No problem, Your Majesty. We will be right here waiting for you,” Richard said. The crew members of the shuttle watched as the queen went back and began to discuss amongst her subjects in low voices.
Richard turned to Andrews. “Did you hear that, Professor? A solution has finally come for our planet Dan-X34! You were right. I guess all your conviction eventually turned out to be true about Mendetl. They are the ones to finally liberate Dan-X34 from the hands of those giants.”
“Sometimes, in order to solve a lingering problem, perseverance seems to be the only option,” Andrews said.
“It is really fascinating, Mr. Daniels, the methods that these Mendetlets wish to deploy on Dan-X34,” Michael said.
“I agree as well, Mr. Daniels. Apart from defeating the giants, it will be interesting watching how they will extract and purify the gold on Dan-X34,” Katrina added.
“Maybe if we study their techniques it could give us an idea for designing a mechanism for the extraction and purification of other types of resources, not just on Dan-X34 but on Earth, as well as other planets. We can patent such a technology and become the only manufacturer of such devices,” Richard said.
“You are right, Mr. Daniels. I just hope that they will be willing to allow us to understudy them while they are working,” Andrews said.
“That is, if they will not complain that we might be slowing them down, considering that for us to study them we will have to ask them to slow down their speed of work,” Richard added.
“But they don’t need to slow down the pace at which they are working, Mr. Daniels. We can always install fast-motion-capture cameras on their work sites. Afterwards, we simply analyze the captured footage with our computers. There is no need for us to slow them down in any way,” Andrews said.
Richard nodded. “This is really going to be interesting. I cannot wait to see how this all plays out.”
*** As the shuttle approached the planet, the tablet began to beep again.
…proximity to planet Dan-X34 gate in view…
…adopting stealth mode…
…deploying evasive maneuver tactics…
…deploying radio and radar jamming broadcasts…
…deploying gate decoding sequence for unlocking p
rocedure…
…decoding sequence deployed…
“We are on, sir. We will soon reach the gate to DanX34,” Katrina said from the pilot’s seat of the shuttle. “That is great. I hope the Mendetlets are aware of our proximity to Dan-X34,” Richard mentioned. “Yes, Mr. Daniels. We have been fully aware of your approach to your planet all this while,” a voice said from behind Richard.
He turned and saw the same tiny woman who had welcomed them when they had initially arrived at Mendetl. She was in the seat behind Richard’s, along with thousands and thousands of other Mendetlets. They were all over the seats, chairs, and booth of the shuttle.
“So, you made it on this mission?” Richard asked. The tiny woman smiled. “Did you ever imagine that I would want to miss this mission for any reason? Besides, I am a soldier, and I go wherever duty posts me to, just like the rest of us in your shuttle today.” “I see. Well, I am sure you are all comfortable. At least you can see that some races can be quite hospitable when it comes to dealing with strangers,” Richard said.
“I believe that my queen has already apologized to you for the way you and your crew were treated. It was nothing personal. It is just our standard approach for safety precautions,” the woman said.
“Yes. I understand. But like I told Her Majesty back on Mendetl, you all need to work on it. I mean, you could be scaring away a lot of potential business like that. And with all your skills and potential, it would really be a shame that you would continue to lose good and valuable business simply because you want to adopt procedures for safety precautions,” Richard said.
“I am sure Queen Rashiva and the Council of Ministers are going to work out something soon. Right now, we need to concentrate on the battle at hand,” the tiny woman said.
The tablet beeped again.
…gate unlock procedure successful…
…entering planet Dan-X34 in progress…
…all crew stand by for entrance…
The shuttle suddenly seemed to come out of a dark tunnel. Richard and his crew members had to shield their eyes from the sudden glare of the bright environment on the surface of the planet.
“Fellow Mendetlets, prepare for debarkation and battle!” the tiny woman said from behind.
“All right, Katrina. We have successfully gained entry into Dan-X34?” Richard asked.
Katrina nodded. “We are in the light beam in one of the pyramids. As soon as we land, the Mendetlets can disembark immediately.”
After they landed, the doors were opened.
Immediately, like swarms of angry ants, the Mendetlets started to stream out of the shuttle. They were moving very fast in their thousands.
“They have disembarked, Mr. Daniels,” Andrews said.
“All of them?” Richard asked.
Andrews nodded as he looked around the shuttle. “Yes, Mr. Daniels. Every single one of them has disembarked.”
“And I cannot even see where they went. They move so fast, sir!” Michael said.
“Well, that is their skill. We cannot take it away from them. I remember that I had specifically questioned this approach to battle of theirs. I mean, their generals had insisted that once we got in through the gate, all we had to do was to find the nearest piece of dry land for their soldiers to disembark. No recon, no survey, no nothing. And for such a large planet like Dan-X34. How are they going to find out where all the giants are?” Richard asked.
“You are still questioning the dexterity and expertise of the Mendetlets, Mr. Daniels? Just like ants, there is no need to wonder about how they will carry out their work. They know what needs to be done and will do it their own way,” Andrews said.
“I agree with you on that, Professor. But still, it boggles my mind the level of advancement that they are displaying. And all this without the aid of any technological or scientific devices,” Richard said.
“Ants do not work with any technological or mechanical devices. Yet they can achieve what even engineers on Earth continue to marvel at,” Andrews said.
“And without any harm being caused to the environment,” Michael added.
They all fell silent after this and waited. During this period, Michael busied himself with setting up and launching a number of drones for video recording while Katrina worked on setting up the screens as they started receiving the video transmission from the drones.
Minutes dragged on into an hour, and the hours began to increase gradually.
"I just saw something," Michael shouted and punched some keys to display a video he saw from one of the drones on the main screen. "Can you see this giant? He just disappeared in the trees!"
"Yes, you are right. But he didn't disappear, he fell on the ground," said Richard.
"Three more disappear in the trees in this footage," Katrina said excitedly as she displayed what she received from another drone.
"Send our drones to take a closer look at these three giants and make sure everything is recorded," Richard ordered.
“Hello. Mr. Daniels?” someone called.
“Yes. What is it?” Richard asked. He turned to look around at his colleagues. They all glanced back at him without saying a word.
Surprised, Richard looked around himself. “Which one of you called on me just now?”
“I did,” came the same clear voice.
Richard used the magnifying glass in his suit to look at the door. As he did so, he saw the same tiny woman. There were some Mendetlets with her.
“I’m sorry. What is wrong? You are back. What happened?” Richard asked.
“Nothing is wrong, Mr. Daniels. I came back to inform you that we have completed the mission,” she replied.
Richard blinked his eyes. “Completed the mission?”
The woman nodded. “Yes, Mr. Daniels. All the Tarvians on Planet Dan-X34 have been identified, rounded up, and properly secured.”
Richard gasped in surprise. “But how? You were barely gone for six hours!”
The woman raised her wrist on which was a watch. “About six hours, twenty-three minutes and fourteen seconds, to be precise. We have rounded them all up and they are properly secured. They are now our prisoners, every one of them.”
Richard looked around at his colleagues in the shuttle. They were equally amazed and only stared back at him with their mouths agape.
Richard turned back to the tiny woman. “You really mean that all of them have been caught?”
The tiny woman nodded. “Yes, Mr. Daniels. All of them have been secured firmly. All one hundred of them. You can send your people to verify it.”
“A hundred giants! And they are all secured. In under seven hours. I am just totally lost for words. I mean, I don’t know what to say!” Richard gushed. "Katrina, please check and confirm."
Katrina and Michael started viewing the latest videos from the CCTVs and the drones. They couldn't see any giants.
"Mr. Daniels, confirmed. There are no giants in any of the videos," said Katrina.
"This is just the first phase of our operation. We still have to set up things in order to begin the gold extraction and purification. But before that, we would like for you to meet with their leader,” the tiny woman said.
“You mean the Tarvians’ leader? Why?” Richard asked.
“It has been begging to see you, Mr. Daniels. It has been pleading for mercy and leniency,” the tiny woman replied.
“Begging to see me? Well, I guess the tables have indeed turned in our favor. What do you think, Professor?” Richard asked.
Andrews nodded. “Indeed, it has, Mr. Daniels. What do you plan on doing?”
“As usual, we will meet with them and dialogue and understand what it is they are pleading for,” Richard said. He then turned to the Mendetlet woman. “Guide us to the exact spot where you have bound them all. I would like to meet with their leader.”
The shuttle soon took off and was flying deeper into the planet. As they flew, they went over several mountains and flowing rivers.
Richard turn
ed to the Mendetlet woman who was on the arm of his seat. “You mean to tell me that you were able to cover all this terrain in less than seven hours?”
The Mendetlet woman nodded. “Yes, Mr. Daniels. But I have to point out to you that we did not only cover the entire planet in less than seven hours. We did so as well as apprehend and tie up the hundred Tarvians in less than seven hours.”
“I still cannot believe it. How did you do it?” Richard asked.
The Mendetlet woman smiled. “Even the most complex things have a simple solution. We are the Mendetlets and we know how we achieve such things. It is not in my place to begin to reveal to you our secrets. What you wanted was results, not necessarily the methodology of achieving such results. Or do you wish to join us in our trade, Mr. Daniels? Would you like to become a mercenary like us?”
“I am only impressed, maybe very astounded, at how you were able to do it,” Richard smiled.
What still remains a secret is how the Mendetlets were able to track each Tarvian and apprehend them easily with their binding ropes.
“Did you suffer any casualty?” Richard asked.
The Mendetlet woman shook her head. “Negative. Our casualty rate was exactly zero percent.”
Richard clapped his hands. “This is simply superb! Honestly, it is indeed splendid.”
The shuttle eventually came over one of GEI's dilapidated structures. Just by the side of this structure was an open field which Richard recognized easily. On the wide-open field were several huge giants. They were all seated in a semicircular formation.
The shuttle hovered for a while.
“Are you having second thoughts about landing the shuttle?” Richard asked Katrina.
“Not really, Mr. Daniels. I am just looking for the perfect spot to land us, sir,” Katrina replied.
“Why not close to the shrubs. My people are on the ground nearest to the Tarvians,” the Mendetlet woman said.
Katrina nodded and headed to the shrubs that were close to the field. In no time, the shuttle was being brought down and it came to a rest on the ground.
As soon as Richard stepped out he looked up at the Tarvians, who were still seated at a distance.
Planet DAN-X34 Page 18