by Renee Duke
“Gethev would be lovely. It’s one of the places we really wanted to visit. We just can’t afford the passage at the moment.”
Craig looked thoughtful. “If Waldo and I were to pull a few of the right strings, we might be able to get you there on the Derridus. What do you think, Waldo?”
Waldo stared at him. “I think you’re insane,” he said.
“No, I’m not. We can fix it up. It’ll be a snap.” He turned his attention back to us. “The Derridus isn’t like a regular passenger ship. It’s just used to ferry around royalty and other dignitaries. The AUP Directorate finances its operation, and since it’s going to Gethev anyway, you shouldn’t have to pay to travel on it.”
We looked at one another in delight. “That’s great,” I said. “Can you really arrange it?”
“Of course. Nothing to it. We’ll go back to the ship and secure a cabin for you. It won’t be up to royal standards, but it should prove comfortable enough. What do you say?”
Although Waldo still appeared to have some misgivings, we certainly didn’t. We accepted Craig’s offer without hesitation.
The boys dropped us off at the Imperial Exhibition Hall and arranged to meet us later at a small all-night café across from it. Excited, we went inside to fetch our belongings and hand Mr. XanChiv our notice. Late as it was, the director was still in his office, talking with some security guards. When I told him we were giving up our jobs, he just grunted in acknowledgement and waved us out.
We hurried upstairs to get our things before the museum’s back entrance was locked up for the night. As we entered our room, a light was flashing on my computer’s message board. Calling up the message, I read it out to the others. It said:
Dear Meda:
It being in my interest to keep an eye on reports to child welfare departments, I noticed that, early this evening, someone told the local one about an Earth boy who appears to be all on his own here on Heltiga. Fortunately, the worker who took down the details isn’t scheduled to come in for a couple of days, and the file now seems to have disappeared. Which is good. If I'd been picked up, I would probably have had to tell them all about myself. And about you. But not to worry. As I said, the file’s disappeared, and by the time you read this, I should be on my way to some other planet. Preferably one where no one pays much attention to stray kids. Please don’t bother to file another report on me. I can look out for myself.
Your loving brother,
Simon
P.S. I know it was you who put the authorities onto me. I appreciate your sisterly concern, and there are no hard feelings. To prove it, I’m giving you a present. One of my employers bought this little trinket and passed it onto me as a souvenir. I can’t say I’m all that taken with it, but I’ve heard girls like such things.
There was a small parcel on my cot. Kirsty was closest, so I motioned for her to open it.
“Trust Simon to find oot where we’re staying,” she said as she withdrew an attractive replica of the Ring of Beom and turned it around in her hand. “I wonder how he got in here. Only museum employees have access to this floor. He must have sneaked past the guards somehow. You’d think they’d have been a wee bit more vigilant, what with the treasures being here, and all.”
She gazed at the ring admiringly. We had only been able to afford the cheapest Ring of Beom replicas, and even to hold an expensive one delighted her. “This ring’s a real beauty. It fair puts oors to shame.”
I was not interested in her evaluation of my latest acquisition, or the obvious stupidity of the museum guards. “I don’t care how Simon got in here. That’s not important. What’s important is that he’s left Heltiga and could now be on his way to almost anywhere. What are we going to do?”
“We’re not going to do anything. We’re leaving Heltiga oorselves tonight. If we turn him in again before we go, he’s as good as said he’ll do the same to us. Gethev’s on the list of planets he knows we want to visit. Officials there’d be on the look oot for us before we even got there.” She paused. “He’s a clever wee laddie, Meda, and he’s handled everything pretty well so far. Can you not just trust him to keep it up?”
“No. He’s my little brother. I’m responsible for him. I know he can be an out-and-out little fiend at times, but I happen to be quite fond of him. I don’t like the idea of him wandering around unknown worlds all by himself. Or, worse still, in the company of those two boys we saw.”
“Aye, but to stop him, we’d have to drop oor own travel plans here and now. You’re not really wanting to do that, are you?” I shook my head miserably. “There you have it, then. Now, hurry up and get packed. They’ll be locking this place up soon. We dinna want to get stuck in here and miss oor chance of getting aboard that VIP ship.”
Chapter Six
We waited for Craig and Waldo at the all-night café. It wasn’t busy, so the owner did not object to our occupying a table for a couple of hours while we sipped Alcavian pond- water sodas.
The boys arrived just before midnight, and a ground taxi took us all to a military base just outside Heltig. The base was practically deserted when we got there. The only person we saw was the night guard on the gate. Craig said they knew him quite well, but the man scarcely acknowledged his hearty greeting and scowled the whole time he was scanning their identity cards.
“This better not come back on me,” he snapped, flinging the cards back at them.
I commented on his surliness as our escorts led us out to the little connector ship they were taking up to the Derridus.
Craig shrugged. “He’s just a little jumpy. This assassination thing with the High Prince has made everyone nervous. That’s why we have to ask you to stay in your cabin all the way to Gethev. Tension’s pretty high aboard ship. The captain won’t like it if you add to it by wandering around getting in people’s way.”
“We won’t. We won’t cause any trouble at all. It was good of your captain to say we could come along.”
Waldo glanced at Craig. “Yeah, the captain’s all heart. Come on. That’s our connector down there.”
The lights aboard the Derridus had been dimmed to simulate nighttime. The ship, like the base, seemed empty. Our footsteps echoed as we followed the boys down to the quarters they had secured for us on the lowest deck.
Craig set down the bags and backpacks he and Waldo had graciously been carrying. “Well, here it is.” He pressed a button and a door slid open to reveal a nice little four-bunk cabin. “No one comes down here much, so you shouldn’t be disturbed. The bathroom is right in there and there are dispensers to provide you with food and drink.”
I thanked him and said the cabin looked very comfortable.
“It’s a pleasure to be of service.” He gave us a mock bow. “Waldo and I have early duty tomorrow. We’ll come by later in the day to see how you’re getting on.”
“In the meantime, make sure you stay in the cabin,” said Waldo. “Everything you could possibly want is right here.”
The trip to Gethev took three days. Confined as we were, it seemed much longer. Our cabin was very nice, and Craig and Waldo did drop in whenever they could, but by the afternoon of our second day in space, Kirsty was becoming restive.
“Och, I canna stand being cooped up in here any the longer,” she said, jumping up from the bunk she’d been lying on. “I’m away for a walk.”
“The boys said we weren’t supposed to get in anyone’s way,” I reminded her.
“I dinna think there’s anyone on this deck to get in the way of. And I’ll not go far. Do you want to come with me?”
“I’m busy,” I said, even though I wasn’t. “And I don’t think you should go either. We don’t want to make nuisances of ourselves.”
“I’ll not make a nuisance of myself. It’s only a walk I’m taking. Jip?”
Jip shook her head.
“Right, then. I’ll be back in a wee while.”
Kirsty’s wee while stretched into an hour. She was still out when Craig and Waldo stopped by
for a visit.
“Afternoon, girls,” said Waldo. “Where’s Kirsty? Having a shower?”
I turned off the music we’d been listening to. “She’ll be back in a bit. She went out for a stroll.”
Waldo and Craig both turned pale. “She didn’t,” said Waldo, leaping forward and grabbing me by the arm. “She didn’t. Not really?”
I shook him off. “She won’t bother anyone. At least, I don’t think she will. Although, with Kirsty, you can’t always be sure.” I added honestly.
Waldo staggered to a chair and threw himself into it with a low moan. “I knew something like this would happen. I knew it.” He glared at Craig, who was shaking his head in disbelief. “You just had to play Sir Galahad and rescue the little damsels in distress, didn’t you?”
The boys’ behaviour frightened us. “Is something wrong?” I asked. “I know we were supposed to keep out of people’s way, but—”
Craig sighed. “Meda, you’re not supposed to be here at all. You’re…well…you’re stowaways.”
“What?” I cried with a gasp of horror.
Jip gasped too. Stowing away on a freighter, as Simon had, was one thing. Provided stowaways kept a low profile, and didn’t loot the ship’s stores too much, freighter crews usually ignored them. Stowing away on a passenger ship, especially a VIP passenger ship, was a criminal offence subject to severe penalties.
“You should have told us this before,” said Jip.
I agreed, but didn’t want to waste time reproaching them. “Come on. We’ve got to find Kirsty and bundle her back here before anyone realizes she’s not a proper passenger.”
We started forward, but Waldo motioned us back. “You two stay here.”
I shook my head. “Kirsty’s been gone ages. She could be anywhere by now. Four people can cover a larger area than two. If we meet anyone, we’ll duck out of sight.”
Vorlans do not advertise their ability to travel through dimensions (it tends to upset some people), so Jip did not offer to search, unobserved, from another dimension and I didn’t think to suggest it. We all shot in different directions to make a thorough, but conventional search of the area around ‘our’ cabin, which was really just a courtesy cabin for military personnel wanting transportation to somewhere the Derridus was going. It was on the same deck as the engine room, but not close enough to it for engineers to have to pass by too often. Had we stayed inside as we had been instructed, there was a good chance no one would ever have known we were there.
“She must have gone up to another deck,” I declared when we met back at the cabin door. “If we want to find her, we’ll have to do the same.”
The boys reluctantly agreed. “We’d better pair up with you,” said Waldo. “People are sure to be suspicious if they see either of you girls on your own.”
There was no sign of Kirsty on the next deck either. Waldo and I went up two more with no better result. We ran into several people along the way, but some coveralls Waldo had filched from a laundry room beside the turbolift helped me look as though I was going about ship’s business.
We got all the way to the Derridus’s VIP section without being challenged. Then, as we rounded a corner, Waldo suddenly sprang back with a cry of alarm.
“Oh, my,” he said. (He actually said something else, but young ladies are not supposed to repeat such expressions.)
“What is it?” I asked. “A security team?”
He shook his head.
“Is it Kirsty?”
He nodded.
“Well, then, let’s go get her.”
“She’s not alone.”
“Who’s with her?”
“High Prince Taziol.”
Aghast, I put my head around the corner. He was right. Except for their slightly shorter stature, slightly ridged foreheads and distinctly upswept eyebrows, Cholarians look a lot like dark-skinned Earth humans, and the slender young man with the bold, brown eyes and trim black beard was, unquestionably, Cholar’s dynamic Supreme Ruler-to-be. I had seen him on countless news clips about the treasure exhibit and recognized his handsome features and regal bearing instantly. Kirsty had seen the same clips, but while she usually finds good-looking young mean as attractive as I do, she was, on those occasions, more interested in the treasures than in their owner. She did not appear to have any idea of the identity of the person she was talking to.
The Prince was wearing expensive, well-cut clothes set off by an intriguingly designed medallion that had obviously caught Kirsty’s attention. She was manhandling it, and exclaiming over it, and prattling on to the High Prince about his good taste in jewellery.
I knew I had to act quickly. Being stowaways was bad enough. It was probably a crime of an even higher order for one of the peasantry to accost an anointed, or soon-to-be-anointed, ruler and make him listen to a monologue about his own medallion.
“Follow my lead,” I whispered to Waldo before striding down the corridor in a determined, and hopefully, official, looking manner.
“Arabella,” I cried, as Waldo seized Kirsty from behind. “Whatever do you think you’re doing? Tsk, tsk. Running away from your attendants like that. Shame on you.”
“What’s that?” said the Curse in bewilderment.
“You know you’re not supposed to go anywhere alone,” I went on. “You always get into trouble when you’re unattended. We must get you back to your cabin right away.”
“We certainly must,” Waldo agreed. “Come on, now, there’s a good girl. We’ll be there in no time.” He propelled the puzzled, protesting Kirsty down the corridor as fast as he could.
As soon as they were out of sight, I turned to the High Prince, who was, not surprisingly, looking a little confused. Smiling sweetly, I said, “I’m so sorry, Your Highness. We try very hard to keep her confined, but every now and then … ah, well, I mustn’t make excuses. This should never have happened. And we must make sure it doesn’t happen again. She was all right with you just now, but she can sometimes be quite dangerous.”
“She can?” High Prince Taziol sounded intrigued.
“Oh, yes. One minute’s she’s perfectly okay, and the next, well, there’s just no knowing when she’s going to turn violent. In fact, I think I’d better go and help that crewman with her. I’m usually a calming influence.” With that, I smiled sweetly again, made a quick bob, and fled along the corridor in the direction Waldo had conducted Kirsty.
I caught up with them on the deck below.
“What’s going on?” Kirsty demanded as I skidded to a halt beside them. “Have the pair of you gone clean off your heads? That young man’ll be for thinking we’re all daft.”
“That young man, as you so causally call him, happens to be Prince Taziol. High Prince Taziol of Cholar. You’ve heard of Cholar, haven’t you? That mineral rich, strategically important, little planet that’s been so prominent in the news of late? And Prince Taziol? The guy everyone connected to AUP has been trying to impress so that his, as yet, independent little planet will cease to be an independent little planet, and become a nice, loyal, AUP-member planet?”
“Crivvens.” Kirsty turned pale. “And there I was, blethering away to him like a mad thing. It wasn’t just me talking, either. He said he appreciated good workmanship, too. We had quite a discussion on the subject. I never once gave a thought to him being…Crivvens.”
“Our sentiments exactly,” I said. “But your presumptuous little exchange with a royal personage is the least of our problems. It seems our friends, Craig, and Waldo here, have been less than honest with us concerning our status aboard this vessel. Telling us to stay in our cabin because the ship’s crew was under tension was a load of rubbish. They just didn’t want us to be seen by anyone. Or at least, not by anyone who outranks them—which I’m beginning to suspect covers just about everyone aboard. Prince Taziol’s bodyguards, indeed. They’re probably the captain’s cabin attendants.”
“The first and second officer’s attendants, actually,” Waldo mumbled, blushing.
>
Kirsty’s eyes widened. “Are you saying we’re stowaways?”
I nodded. “We’ve been looking for you for ages. Didn’t any of the crew or passengers you saw on the way up here ask you who you were, or what you were doing?”
“No, nary a one.”
Waldo tried to contact Craig on his wrist communicator to tell him we’d found Kirsty, but received no response to his signal. “We’d better go back to the cabin and try him later,” said Waldo. “We’ve been pretty lucky so far, but we can’t count on escaping notice up here forever.”
Nor did we. Just as we were approaching the turbolift, an authoritative voice ordered us to halt. We halted, and turned, slowly, to see two security guards leveling stun guns at us. At least, I think they were stun guns. They could have been liquidators. Not being too familiar with side arms, I wasn’t about to make any sudden moves that could lead to my finding out.
Chapter Seven
The guards marched us into the turbolift. While one punched in a deck number, the other flicked on his communicator. “Tell the captain we’ve got them. We’re taking them to join the others right now.”
“Others?” I had a sudden sense of foreboding. “What others?”
“Your little friend and the other dimwit crewman you talked into helping you get aboard. They were apprehended about half an hour ago. It’s next to useless to try and get anything out of a Vorlan, but young Putnam told us about you two. After he got that communicator signal from Brown, it wasn’t hard to locate you.”
“Where are you taking us?” I asked, concerned.
“To the interrogation room. Captains like to interrogate stowaways before they throw them in the brig.”
“I wouldn’t have thought you got many stowaways on a ship like this.”
“Haven’t had any until now. With all the publicity surrounding this Cholarian run, I shudder to think what they’ll do with you girls. The trial itself will probably take years.”