Connection (8 page)

“What’s the best way to get to those coordinates?” I asked.

“We steal a car or rent a car or motorcycle. We’re going to be pretty conspicuous carrying a rifle and a backpack. Let’s go out the back. I know where we can borrow a motorcycle from a friend who won’t ask many questions,” she said. Cassandra translated pretty well for me now.

The place we were headed was a good ways west of the city. I was afraid I’d lose contact with Cassandra soon. I asked he if she would be coming soon – she said she’d be here before dusk when the sun would be in everyone’s eyes. They stepped out of the hotel and were halfway down the alley when two guys stepped out the direction they had been going. A car came roaring up behind them and the back door swung open.

A man with a gun yelled from the back seat. “Get in or I’ll shoot her.”

I decided I did not want to get into shootouts with everyone I met because the odds were I’d be shot soon or Twlise would be. We jumped in with all our gear. There was another guy in the front holding a gun on us – harder for me to reach. I figured I couldn’t disarm them both before he’d get a round off. Figured I’d just not say anything and see what was going on. One of them spoke into a portable transceiver – it was huge by my standards. “We have ‘em – headed your way,” was all he said.

Cassandra came on. “This is the same frequency that I monitored in orbit a few hours ago and then arranged for a car near where that abandoned airfield is located. They may be from Xale – that Jovian moon colony. Will let you know more when I get close. They also had contact with someone from the Prath.”

The car backed rapidly out of the alley, turned, and sped out of town.

“What took you so long? We thought we were going to find our own transportation to the airfield. This is Twlise, my girlfriend, and tutor. Friends call me Robert.”

Twlise looked over at me, smiled, and patted my leg. I held her hand.

The guy in the front looked shocked and tilted his head. “Shut up,” he ordered.

We drove for a few minutes and Cassandra signal was beginning to break up. “You’re headed for that deserted airfield. You take the right fork about two kilometers up ahead.” She said and I lost her signal.

We drove a few more minutes and came to the fork in the road that Cassandra had told me about. The driver stopped and asked the front passenger which way to go. He said he didn’t remember.

“Take the right,” I said. “The airfield is not far.”

The guys in the front looked at each other and turned the car onto the right fork. We arrived at the airfield just as Cassandra had predicted. A freighter, twice the size of Cassandra sat on the field and had already been refueled because a fuel tanker was just leaving.

One of the buildings looked like it was used regularly so I headed that way with my backpack and rifle hung over one shoulder. Twlise and the three guys had to scramble to catch up.

“Wait. You can’t walk off like that?” said the guy who had been in the passenger seat.

“Why not? Weren’t you told to pick us up and bring us here?” I asked.

I turned back and kept walking toward the building. I went right in like I owned the place. The interior was lit with some dim bulbs and a couple of guys sitting at a table drinking. One was a tough looking guy and the other was dressed like any bureaucrat. I approached the table. I set my pack and rifle on an adjacent table, stepped back and stepped behind a chair.

“May I join you? I am called Robert and this is my girlfriend and language tutor, Twlise. I am sure you are concerned about me, and my ship.”

The big fellow (a freighter captain?) pointed to the chair with a funny grin on his face – apparently enjoying the discomfiture of the other man. I sat down in the chair and indicated Twlise to sit near me. “I am still learning your language so please…” Twlise said the word for me. “Yes. Please bear with my poor language skills.”

The freighter captain spoke up. “You have been here how many – nine days…and you speak our language?”

“No choice,” I said. “Twlise and my ship helped.”

“Your ship? Your ship has been at the LsPlay Confiscation Yard.”

“Yes. It has…hasn’t it? I can still talk with it.”

“That’s impossible,” said the bureaucrat.

“As impossible as coming from another star system? You limit yourself if you think it is impossible – just because YOU can not do it.”

“You don’t even know what is going on here. You couldn’t – if you are who you say you are.”

“Who do you think I am?” I said getting curious at this point.

“We hear you destroyed a patrol cruiser and then gave LeSlur a huge shipment of Twasolo,” said the bureaucrat.

“Close. My name is Robert Kobe. I came from a planet we call
Earth
about nine of your days ago. Seeing a ship in your system and being low on air – we went closer and that ship tried to damage us with …not sure of your words…energy weapons. Then they fired two missiles at us and we left. I landed and LeSlur came up with fuel I could use in my ship. I gave him a box of
coffee
– to me just a breakfast drink.”

“Are you saying you were damaged and had to land here?” asked the freighter guy.

“No. No. My ship was just a lot faster than the missiles even with our large…size…” I turned around to Twlise and she gave me the word… “Mass…our large mass. Their energy weapons do nothing to our ships.”

“That’s impossible,” said the bureaucrat.

“Now I know you are from the government,” I laughed and even the freighter guy chuckled. “The patrol ship’s missiles turned on them after we left. I can have my ship play you the recording later if you want.”

“What do you think is going on here?” asked the freighter guy.

I sat there thinking I ought to be honest with these guys – needed some support – had an inkling, what they were up to. I also figured how it could help me. “
Okay
.”

The freighter guy repeated, “
Okay
?”

“Means…” I held my left hand out with my index finger lifted up…”I think that is correct.”

Twlise patted me on the arm and motioned me to go ahead – obviously proud of her ‘student’.

I pointed at the guy I thought was a freighter captain. “You are probably the pilot or whatever they call the freighter commander – also probably a high-ranking leader of the colony on Xale,” I said and saw his mouth drop open just as he was about to take a drink. I pointed to the other guy who (ah ha) had a resemblance to the freighter pilot. “You are probably his brother or family (I didn’t know how to say cousin).” Twlise said the word for me. “Yes…cousin of the pilot but working with the Prath.” I noticed the pilot take a gulp and pour himself another shot.

“You want me to go on?” I asked and the pilot put a glass in front of me and poured me a shot. I took that for a ‘yes’. “Your colony is struggling and the government has probably cut support because you want independence. You started smuggling Twasolo because it was the only thing you had that paid more than the transportation costs. Your ‘cousin’ has been supporting you here. LeSlur (actually his father – LeChak) wants all the profit because he was once a wealthy elite here but has fallen on hard times. You doubt my…” I turned around to Twlise and she suggested a word. “My role in all this…” I said and reached into the backpack and pulled out a bottle of Sema LeSlur and the espresso.

“I know what that is,” said the pilot “…but what is…”

I handed him the espresso. “All yours. On my planet it is a mild breakfast drink.”

“You obviously have found out its use here,” said the bureaucrat looking at Twlise.

She spoke up for the first time, “He has NO need for Twasolo. None at all,” she said reaching forward and rubbing my neck.

“How close was I?” I asked.

“Nearly accurate. How could you know? How do you fit?” the pilot asked.

“I don’t like governments that think they own everything – I don’t like governments that think the people should serve them and not the other way around. I don’t think Twasolo deserves ships in space to stop it – how can they justify the huge expense. Our colonies also went through a painful period breaking away from the government. It took twelve years.” I asked.

“The government is determined to obtain control of all of Xale. They already have a small military base there,” said the pilot, “but we can’t get troops close without being seen. The leader there is a general named LesTo. His men have raped children and destroyed whole towns.”

“Why didn’t you just destroy the base instead of attacking it over ground?” I asked. I was truly puzzled why they just didn’t destroy it.

“How? We don’t have weapons that powerful.” He said with a serious expression.

“You don’t want to kill any of the soldiers then. I don’t understand. You don’t want to destroy their base. Really? You’re serious?”

I chugged the rest of whatever it was they had poured in my glass – cheap vodka like stuff and poured myself some Sema LeSlur. “LeSlur makes good liquor,” I paused. “I could easily destroy this whole country.”

“You have weapons that powerful?” the bureaucrat said incredulously.

“You do too. Any species capable of interplanetary spaceflight has the means. You deflect a…” I turned to Twlise and asked her how to say a ‘rock in space’ and she gave me the word. “You get an ‘asteroid’ and direct it toward that base…
poof
…no base.”

“I understand how we could redirect an asteroid but what if we got one too big,” asked the pilot. “We don’t want to destroy our ecology. We are trying NOT to destroy Xale.”

“It would not take a very big one. You know the gravity of Xale, density of air at different heights. You guess the mass of the asteroid.” I said using the new words, I’d learned. “You release it at the right time and you have no base and no radiation. You don’t even have to use a
fusion
weapon.” I didn’t know the words for ‘fission’ or ‘fusion’ or ‘nuclear’ for that matter so I turned to Twlise. She didn’t know either – oops. They did have great meat dishes though.

“You have these weapons?” asked the bureaucrat.

“No. We use
nuclear
weapons to deflect asteroids if we detect them soon enough. We’ve only used those a few times on people – kills too many.” Had to turn to Twlise again and explained about people not in military who know nothing. She gave me the word, “Kills too many innocent civilians, and makes others want to use their own
nuclear
weapons.”

“But the government could do that to us too,” said the pilot.

“Yes. Unless they realized survivors could drop a rock on LesMa – anywhere – any time – destroy any country on this planet or create high water that would destroy all coastal cities around the world.” Twlise gave me the name for ‘tidal waves.’

“I’d want a scientist to check my figures before I released anything. What can we do – we need trade with LesMa to survive. We need support,” said the pilot. “We only have a few thousand who will fight with us. It is a difficult calculation.”

“Not difficult at all. It happens that Professor LeEck should be here later today. My ship could calculate a drop like that in a minute. I invited LeEck to discuss this possibility before you picked us up. My ship should also be here about dusk. I asked it to come,” I said realizing I had intended to pick the scientist’s brain for technology we could easily import to LesMa. I also wanted to figure a way to get Skip out of jail. Maybe I could do both but I was afraid LeChak (LeSlur’s father) wasn't out of the picture yet. “I suggest you place guards for anyone coming this way. We’ll know when my ship gets here but even flying a…” again I turned to Twlise and asked her for the words. “Flying a ‘trick route’ and I cannot hide the noise. LeSlur is an angry old man unused to people saying ‘no’ to him.”