by Steve Simons
Ed said, "We had best get a refund on our Transvec return ticket before checking inn."
Richard replied, "No way, that will give away the fact that you are not intending to return home."
Ed pointed out, "But it'll be obvious when we fail to turn up."
"Yes but in the meantime, if someone is tracking your movements they will suspect that there's something up and possibly figure out our plans." Richard replied.
Richard shook hands and disappeared as quickly as he had before.
Chapter 7 - An Interesting Place
Wesley and Jack checked into their flight, just slightly ahead of time. They met each other in the departure lounge, as if they had not seen each other for a while. They exchanged pleasantries grabbed a drink, sat down then seemed to be occupied in a great deal of reading. Every so often they broke off and seemed to be interestedly taking note of their fellow passengers.
The flight though long, passed off with no events. No-one seemed to have any interest in the two boys. They seemed too intent on their study, during the early part of the flight and in the latter part grabbing some sleep, along with the other passengers.
The Jedhaed space port was brightly decorated and whilst it was not enormous like the Hescedion space port, due to the lack of people seemed huge in comparison.
Wesley walked in a determined way towards the information desk and asked how he could get to the Hausian Hotel. The clerk pointed towards a conveyor belt labelled Hausian Express way and said, but you will need to check your baggage here, it is unsafe to take it with you.
Wesley handed over his bag.
The clerk looked confused, "Sorry you appear to have the wrong baggage this belongs to Ed...."
He didn't finish his sentence, instead another voice was heard to say, "All is correct this is the baggage of Wesley Heffner destined for the Hausian Hotel."
Wesley realised that he hadn't actually heard the voice more like remembered it. The feeling was strange. The clerk simply placed the bag on a platform and it sank into the ground.
Jack Gestner appeared to have the same sort of confusion with his luggage at first it appeared to belong to someone called Paul, then to Jack Gestner destined for the same hotel. The clerk again smiled and pointed to the conveyor belt marked "Hausian Express way".
Wesley and Jack stepped aboard and were gently whisked away into a transparent tube. They could see many similar tubes heading off in different directions, then as the tubes gradually dispersed, buildings could be seen as could be the occasional plot of greenery and coloured plants.
Wesley said to Jack, "seems a very pleasant and orderly place."
Jack was too busy taking in the scene to take any notice of Wesley's comment, let alone reply.
Soon they were standing in the lobby of the Hausian hotel. They walked over to the reception desk.
The clerk, slim and tall, with a rather oval looking face that was rather expressionless like a robot; looked odd wearing a totally purple all-in-one outfit. He looked up and said, "Good day Wesley Heffner and Jack Gestner. Your baggage is already in your rooms, 220 for you Myster Wesley and 221 for you Myster Jack. I hope adjoining rooms is satisfactory, we can change it if you wish, we can put you on separate floors or even wings?"
Wesley answered, "No that's perfectly alright with me."
He turned to Jack with a questioning look.
Jack responded, "And with me. Do you need us to sign-in or anything."
The clerk responded, "No you were registered at the station, directly from you e-dentity."
"Oh!" was all Jack could muster in reply, then said, "Thank you."
"Should you need anything else Mysters, please do not hesitate to contact or discuss it with me. I hope your stay is profitable and pleasurable at the same instant." responded the clerk.
"Thank you." said Wesley as he turned to walk away, he nodded towards Jack then to the transfer tube. Jack followed his lead.
They stepped into the transfer tube one at a time. As soon as Wesley stepped in, he seemed to disappear. When Jack stepped in, he felt a strange shiver go up his spine, then he saw Wesley standing in the corridor in front of him.
"Yes strange feeling isn't it?" asked Wesley.
"Too right it is, one second you're in the reception, next you're in the corridor to your hotel room. What's more you feel like you've had a thousand volts shot up your spine." replied Jack.
"Not only that, but outside your room, look 221." said Wesley pointing to the door.
The door opened as Jack approached it. He exclaimed, "I've been robbed already!"
Wesley rushed in, nearly knocking Jack over. "Oh hang on, I've heard of these rooms before, they're called e-rooms. You decide on the layout you like from the screen just inside the door, you've got to stay in the entrance way, as the furniture is constructed to meet your specifications. The particle beams used in the construction are pretty dangerous if you get in the way. You may need surgery to remove the leg of a chair or something similar if you get in a beam's way when it is constructing. You've also got to watch where you put things, in-case you accidentally call up the re-design facility." said Wesley.
"This must be the screen here." said Jack pointing to a small panel just inside the doorway. "Where's my baggage then?" asked Jack.
"Oh look it's down there in that recess below the panel, best to leave it there. Have fun designing your room, I'll see you in about an hour when I've unpacked and had a shower." replied Wesley.
"Where's the shower?" asked Jack.
"Wherever you want it to be, that's part of the fun." replied Wesley.
"How on earth does it fit in with the plumbing?" Asked Jack.
"I think its the other way round, the plumbing fits in with your design." said Wesley as he left to design his own room.
Jack had great fun working out the design of his room, he placed and erased things a number of times, until he settled on something he really liked. Then he found the lock option, so he couldn't accidentally embed his socks or something else in the depths of a wall, piece of furniture or the shower fittings. Jack was really pleased with the end result. He watched a musivid for a few minutes, then realised that he needed to take a shower before Wesley came back.
Jack had just got in the shower, when the doorbell sounded. Jack touched the control panel that activated the intercom, "Yes who is it?" asked Jack.
"Me you dork! By the sounds of it you're still showering, shall I come back?" responded Wesley.
"Na, come in and appraise my design work." said Jack as he pressed the element of the panel that opened the door. As the door slid open two girls walked by and glanced in, they could see the naked top half of Jack in the shower. He forgot he'd put it in line of sight of the door and that the top half was transparent.
One of the girls said in a loud voice, "Nice room!"
The other giggled uncontrollably.
Wesley didn't know where to look, but smiled weakly as the two girls passed by.
As the door slid in place behind him, Wesley said, "Nice one! We weren't supposed to get ourselves noticed, but instead blend into the surroundings."
Jack replied, "Awe forget it, they were only admiring the room."
"I don't think somehow that was all they were admiring." said Wesley. He looked around the room, which seemed somewhat bigger than his own. Then he objected, "Hey your room's bigger than mine!"
"Not at all," responded Jack, "It's simply a matter of design and perspective. If I know you, you've probably over done it with the furniture and it appears to eat up the space. I've gone for the minimalistic approach, making best use of space."
"Blimey an interior designer now eh?" asked Wesley.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Jack.
"Well judging by my stomach growling, it must be lunch time, so we'd best seek out some food, then see if we can arrange some transport to the temples." suggested Wesley.
Strangely enough ther
e were no catering facilities in the hotel apart from room service, but the expressionless reception desk clerk directed them to a "popular eatery" which was conveniently near the hotel.
He quickly produced a map with the route clearly marked out on it. The boys thanked the clerk who had already turned his attention to another guest.
"Busy place." remarked Jack.
Wesley didn't reply, he was concentrating on the map and trying to identify landmarks. Jack reached across and pointed to the flashing marks at the bottom of the map, "That's us, the map re-draws itself as we walk along, you'll notice the two dots only move when there are choices behind us."
"That's clever." said Wesley and he seemed to be more relaxed now.
They were soon at the "eatery", which had the atmosphere of a MacDonald's restaurant at 2 in the morning.
However, that did not really bother the boys they were just hungry. Soon their appetite was satisfied with some not very exciting, but none-the-less filling food. The servoid returned to the table and dropped an e-screen on the table with a short grunt. Wesley picked up the e-screen, glanced at it and told Jack that it was the bill. Wesley raised his communicator and pointed to it then to the servoid, which remained totally motionless. Wesley seeing no response announced, "Please charge it." and again pointed to his communicator.
The servoid, grunted, made some wheezing sounds, then pointed to the e-screen, then to Wesley.
"Yes, please charge it to this." said Wesley again raising the communicator.
Another round of unsatisfactory noises emitted from the servoid and it pointed to the e-screen again.
A rather deep stranger's voice was heard from behind Wesley, it said, "Can I be of help?"
Wesley turned around and was most surprised to see a small woman standing behind him.
She had obviously spotted the very surprised look on Wesley's face as she said, "Yes sorry about the translator, it doesn't exactly match the way I look, but hey it was a bargain at 23 hexatjeeps and it gets most discussions spot on."
"Yes," Wesley responded rather weakly, "This servoid doesn't seem to understand that we'd like our bill charged to our e-account."
"Au contrair, it wants you to press your thumb on the e-screen, as that's the way things are done here." replied the stranger.
"Oh I see, how stupid of me." said Wesley, going rather red with embarrassment.
"You weren't to know. Glad to be of assistance, have a nice stay." and with that response, the stranger turned sideways and disappeared!
Wesley, pressed his thumb on the e-screen and instantly it displayed, "Thank you, sorry about the mis-understanding, please come back and see us again soon."
Just as mysteriously, as the stranger disappearing, two mints appeared on top of the e-screen.
"Safe to eat?" asked Jack.
"Yes" displayed the e-screen. The boys took the mints and left the e-screen in the capable manipulators of the servoid.
"Where to now?" asked Jack.
"Hotel reception to enquire about transport." replied Wesley.
When they got back to the hotel, the desk clerk had changed. Wesley confidently walked up to her and started to discuss transport arrangements. At first she appeared quite interested, until two uniformed men walked into the reception area and she nodded in the direction of Wesley and Jack. Jack had seen them coming and had got rather nervous, so when it came to the lets run for it, he was well in the lead and was well away from the hotel before the man chasing him had even started to run after him.
The uniformed men had an advantage over Jack and Wesley, they knew the layout of the "land" so to speak. Both Jack and Wesley relied heavily on obvious obstacles that blocked the view of the pursuers. There were a number of occasions when the pursuers got quite close to either Jack or Wesley. No shots were fired, so they either didn't want to harm any bystanders or they had strict instructions to bring the boys in alive.
Amazingly the boys managed to stay quite close to each other, yet most of the time keep their pursuers at a safe distance.
Suddenly two more uniformed men joined in the chase, which made things even harder. The boys were soon separated and the uniformed men seemed to be concentrating their efforts on Wesley. Jack took advantage of the lack of attention on him and really legged it, putting significant distance between the uniformed men and himself. He found a group of buildings with lots of people milling around them. He slowed up and was soon absorbed into the crowd. He walked quite calmly and after a considerable time found a little caf?, he ordered a drink and sat at the back somewhere.
Jack was worried sick about his brother and what was happening to him. The likelihood of him escaping the attention of the four uniformed men, was very slim; even though he was highly devious and very fit. Then Jack turned his attention to himself, what was he going to do? He had nothing apart from the clothes on his back, if he tried to use any form of e-dentity he would be tracked and caught in a matter of minutes. Come to that how was he going to pay for his drink? Where was he going to sleep tonight? How was he going to get his brother back safely without handing himself in?
Chapter 8 - One Down
Jack was suddenly aware that someone had sat down beside him. He heard them say, "For goodness sake turn off your comms device, you're broadcasting your e-dentity, its like having a neon sign pointing to your head saying "Here I am".
Without question Jack did as the stranger instructed. His common sense told him that it was a wise move to turn off his comms device, after all their e-dentities had been easily read when they they were at the space port, this location would be no different.
Once Jack had turned off his comms device, he turned his attention to the stranger. She was dressed averagely and wouldn't stand out in the crowd. Her face was covered by a thin cloth, so he could only see her eyes and they didn't give much away. There was nothing for Jack to judge the stranger by apart from her voice.
Just as Jack was pondering his next move, the stranger spoke, "At this time of year, the two moons of Jedhaed appear to be part of the temple complex as they are so low down."
Jack was completely taken aback by the stranger's comment, it sounded like they were continuing an earlier conversation. Then he remembered that it was the pass phrase that Richard had given them and he'd said that if they got into trouble one of his colleagues would get in touch and use this phrase. Jack racked his brains for the proper response phrase, but with all that running and worry his mind went blank, so he said nothing for a while, then weakly responded, "Yes I had heard they look like two extra domes." Then suddenly the correct pass phrase came back to him,
"The temples are like passageways to the celestial domes."
"Well that confirms you didn't hack Jack's arm off and take his communicator so you could advertise your location to me and any other interested party." replied the stranger.
Jack detected the sense of humour and smile in the voice.
she continued, "If you're wondering what happened to Wesley, he was caught by those thugs. As I speak our people are trying to track him down, but its not easy as unlike you, they had the sense to turn off his comms device."
"You have me at the disadvantage, you know my name, but I don't know yours." prompted Jack.
"Just call me Sylvie, its not my real name, but hey its safer that way." replied Sylvie, then she continued, "Oh and in answer to your other questions, I'll pay for your drink, your tab has been replaced by my own; I have somewhere safe for you to sleep tonight; and lastly we'll handle getting your brother back, that's our job."
"How the heck did you know that's what I was thinking?" asked Jack.
"Obvious really, that's what I'd be thinking if I was in your shoes." replied Sylvie.
Jack wasn't fully convinced by her explanation, but it would do for the time being. He wondered where the safe place was likely to be and if it were anywhere near where his brother was being held captive.
Sylvie said, "I sa
id we don't know where Wesley is, we're trying to track him still. As for the safe place, its quite far from here, but that is what makes it safe."
Jack thought he was going mad, he was sure he hadn't spoken his thoughts out loud, yet Sylvie seemed to know what he was thinking.
Sylvie quietly said, "No you're not going mad, I can read your mind, its a useful gift I have had since childhood. Well gift is probably too much of a glass half full, optimistic approach, it can also be a curse. There are times when you just don't want to know what someone thinks about you, etcetera, etcetera."