First Contact (Galactic Axia Adventure) (26 page)

∞∞∞

“So what’s the word?” Sherry asked anxiously when her doctor entered her room. She was sitting up in bed and looking much different than when her friends had first seen her two weeks ago. Jake stood beside the bed while the Hassels, the boys, and Leatha were wedged inside the small room.

“The metabolic enhancers were more effective than I’d hoped.” Everyone broke into smiles.

“But,” the doctor said abruptly, “before I’ll allow Sherry to go home, I require certain conditions to be met.”

“What are they?” Jake asked

“She’ll report three times a week for three hours of therapy to the clinic at Port Mulvey,” the doctor instructed. “Alternate days are to be spent in quiet inactivity. Those bones have mended quickly but I don’t want her to push them until their density is back to normal.”

“Then she can go home?” Jake asked, not quite believing what he’d just heard.

“Of course she can go home,” the doctor said. “She’s too much of a nuisance around here anyway. Now, everyone out while we get her ready to go. You,” she said, pointing a finger at Jake, “go down to the admissions office and start taking care of the paperwork.”

Jake’s shoulders slumped. “I hate paperwork,” he said and turned toward the door. The others took their cue and followed him.

Robert, Agnes, and the three young people walked down the hall to the visitor’s lounge. “So what are you three going to do?” Robert asked as he settled into a chair. Agnes took a seat beside her husband and looked up at the young people.

“I don’t know,” Delmar answered. He and the others sat down. “I think I’ll hang around and help get Sherry home or something.”

“You’ll just be in the way,” Agnes replied unexpectedly.

“Take that as a warning,” Robert said. “With Agnes in charge, you’d be smart to disappear.” Agnes playfully slapped at her husband.

“I’ve got to get back to my ship,” Stan said. “I have orders for a special assignment to a planet called Sol-3 to investigate their computer network and eliminate all data about the Axia from it. Sounds boring. But orders are orders.”

“Sol-3?” Delmar asked.

“Yes, why?”

Delmar and the Hassels exchanged knowing glances.

“What?” Stan asked.

“Sol-3 is the planet where my father died,” Delmar answered.

“Your father? I thought...”

“My natural father, John Eagleman,” Delmar said. “He was on assignment there with a survey team. I was just a kid when he died.”

Agnes watched as Delmar’s eyes clouded over. She knew painful memories of his youth had flooded back to him. She knew he was thinking about his abusive brother, Dorn who’d been killed by the police after escaping from the authorities and holding a young woman captive. She could tell by the tear trickling from his eye he was thinking about seeing his mother killed in a terrible traffic accident, and about learning of his father’s death on a distant planet. The boy had been through so much in his young life. And now to have his closest friend with orders to visit the very planet where his father had died. He would need their love and support more than ever now.

“What about you, Leatha?” Agnes asked. Robert saw Stan perk up to hear her answer.

“I really haven’t decided yet,” Leatha said. “I still have some leave left, so I might go exploring out toward the rim.”

“You could always give Stan a lift back to his ship,” Jake suggested as he walked into the room. “I’ll bet he’d love the company.”

Leatha’s brow furrowed. She and Stan had already decided this very course of action while visiting the Science Museum over a week ago. They’d planned a slow, round-about course back to his ship so they could get to know each other better. She thought it was a secret. From the look on Stan’s face, so did he. Unknown to either of them, but Stan’s friend Ert had been monitoring her ship computer the day she and Stan had laid out their course back to his ship and had notified Jake in his starmail. Agnes caught the exchange of glances between Stan and Leatha. Was there a fledgling romance in the air?

“A very tempting offer,” Leatha said diplomatically. “I’ll consider it and let you know.” Just then a nurse entered the lounge and announced that Sherry was ready to go home.

“I’ll go see about transportation,” Robert announced.

“You won’t have to,” the nurse offered. “The company that owned the transport is arranging everything. The flitter should be on the roof pad soon.”

∞∞∞

Tim was getting bored. Already their keeper, Justin, had driven them around the core of the city while he rattled on about this museum or that monument. Although Tim and Diane feinted interest, this was not what they were hoping for when they left the dreaded reports behind. They were being kept on a short leash and they knew it.

Tim glanced at Diane who nodded ever so slightly. Reaching into a side pouch of her purse she pulled out a roll of breath mints. Offering one to Tim with her right hand, her left secretly pushed a hidden control sewn into the pouch. She silently counted down the seconds of the built-in electromagnetic pulse timer.

“And there on the right you’ll see the news sports stadium,” Justin was saying as he pointed in the proper direction. Suddenly the van lurched and the motor died. “What now?” he said as he steered the coasting van to the side of the road.

“Something wrong?” Tim asked, leaning over the front seat.

“We seem to have a problem.” Justin tried to restart the engine. Nothing worked. “Looks like an electrical problem,” he said as he reached for the hood release.

Justin opened the engine compartment to look for the trouble. The locks on the van had been activated, making them prisoners. Tim raised an eyebrow but Diane just smiled. Justin returned and opened his door and poked his head inside.

“Looks like the engine control module has died.” He picked up his portable phone. “I’m going to call for another van.” He tried to place a call but realized it was also dead.

Just then a police car pulled up beside the disabled vehicle. Laying down the useless phone, Justin got out to speak to the officer. Tim and Diane waited patiently for their opportunity. It was clear that Justin didn’t want them to go anywhere.

Watching from the back seat of the van, Tim and Diane saw Justin trying to explain his difficulty to the officer. “This is sure getting interesting,” Diane said quietly.

“Wonder what this is all about?” Tim said.

Suddenly, the police officer ordered Justin to position himself spread eagle against the side of the patrol car! The couple heard Justin protesting loudly as the officer unexpectedly secured wrist restraints on him. Over Justin’s continued objections, the officer opened the back door of his patrol car and shoved his prisoner inside. With the now screaming driver secured in the police vehicle, the officer walked back to the van and opened the driver’s door of the van.

“Sorry for the inconvenience folks,” he said to the startled couple. “I’m going to take your friend in for some questioning.” The officer paused for a second as Tim found himself momentarily speechless. “Seems this van was reported stolen this morning. You’ll be better off without him.”

“But what should we do in the meantime?” Diane asked the officer. “Neither of us know how to operate this vehicle.”

“Have fun,” the officer answered quietly in Axia standard. “Take a walking tour. It’s really a quaint little planet once you get used to it.”

With that the officer returned to his patrol car and drove off, Justin still a prisoner in the back seat. Tim looked at Diane as the vehicle disappeared out of sight into traffic.

“That wasn’t quite what I had in mind!” Diane exclaimed.

“I think we just got a little help,” Tim said with a grin. “Now let’s go do some real exploring!”

Diane reached into her purse again and in moments the doors unlocked. After they were outside, she reactivated the locks so the van would be secure. Tim produced a supply of local currency. Smiling at each other, the two joined hands and stepped onto the sidewalk. In only moments they were able to blend in with the local population. Their accents would easily be attributed to being foreign tourists, which in a most extraordinary sense of the word, they were.

∞∞∞

For several hours Tim and Diane wandered around, exploring the small city surrounding the launch complex. Except for language and minor cultural nuances, it was not unlike many other such towns surrounding Galactic Axia bases throughout the galaxy. They found the native foods somewhat exotic. They were happy to be free of the constant paperwork that had dogged their every step since arriving on this strange world.

“So, what’s your gut feel so far?”

“Do you mean the food or the town?” She did not receive an immediate answer.

“If I had to sum it up in one word, I’d say paranoid,” he answered. “There’s an air of mistrust among these people. And they’re so busy they don’t have time to care about the condition of their planet.”

“That’s because their whole idea of society is local, not planetary. I don’t think they see themselves as part of a whole. There seems to be a lot of negative social interaction among the people.”

“Have you had enough sightseeing?”

“As much as I can handle today.”

“How about we finish up here and head back to the complex?” Tim suggested. “The chairman is probably having fits wondering if we’re all right.”

They left the fast-food establishment unaware as they pushed their way through the door that a man near the back of the room was appraising their vulnerability.

Tim and Diane had only walked a few blocks toward the launch complex when someone came up behind Tim. He felt something blunt stuck against his ribs and instinctively reached for his sidearm then remembered this was a diplomatic mission, not an armed one. He glanced over at Diane and saw that someone had restrained her as well. He could see that she was just as frustrated by this assault as he was.

“I guess this is what you meant by negative social interactions,” Tim said as they were forced toward an alleyway.

“Shat’up and keep movin’,” a gruff voice said into his ear. He felt what he suspected was a weapon of some kind shove harder into his back. From the corner of his eye he could see Diane resisting the temptation to lash out at their attackers.
Well, this is one way to find out about their society
, he thought as they entered the dark alley.
Nothing like first-hand investigation
.

Chapter Eighteen

The chairman was down on the control room floor congratulating the staff when an aide told him there was a call waiting. Frowning about the interruption, he picked up a nearby receiver.

“What?” he exclaimed and then hushed his voice when several people looked his way. The chairman grew more agitated by the second as his aide on the other end of the call frantically explained the situation. After hissing something into the receiver, the chairman hung up and tried to calm himself outwardly as he rushed back to his office.

Images of the visiting alien couple being attacked by the seedier elements on the streets readily came to mind. Those were quickly followed by the imagined repercussions it would have on their evaluation by the Axia. Thanks to the commander, the chairman well understood the Axia’s concern for the safety of even one of their citizens. They would not be pleased if something happened to their envoy team.

Reaching his office, the chairman hastily contacted the security department of the launch facility. “What do you have for me?” Glancing at his desk, he saw several other lines blinking for his attention but ignored them. He already had too much to deal with as it was.

“We already have someone enroute to the police station to spring Lutes,” the security director reported. “I’ll have him brief you directly when he gets back here.”

“Never mind Lutes!” the chairman growled. “What about our guests?”

“I’ve dispatched another van. We’ll have them safely back in custody soon.”

“Just be sure they’re safe and unharmed!” the chairman snapped. “You’ve no idea the repercussions if our guests are harmed.”

“I’m on it personally, sir!” the security director replied. “I’ll have them back within the hour!”

 Not entirely convinced, the chairman grumbled to himself and hung up. Now all he could do again was wait. If everything went well, the situation would be back under control in a few minutes.  He would personally deal with Lutes. Minutes seemed to drag by on leaden feet when his direct line to security rang again. The chairman grabbed the receiver.

“Chief we’ve got a problem,” said the nervous voice of the director of security.

“What now?” the chairman asked apprehensively. He’d already had enough crisis for one day.

“My team reports the van is empty,” came the anxious report. “No sign of the passengers. My team questioned a few bystanders but nobody saw any sign of them.”

The chairman weighed the idea of sending out search parties to look for the couple. Every minute they waited would make it more difficult to trace the missing visitors. Unfortunately, any search could also backfire, causing undue attention to their presence and precipitate a confrontation with local law enforcement authorities. Such a search could also adversely affect the evaluation the couple was doing of Maranar society.

“Tell your men to bring me Lutes as soon as he’s picked up from jail. Have your team quietly search for our guests. Keep it low key and don’t attract attention.”

“Yes sir,” the security director replied. “Anything else?”

“Just keep me posted,” the chairman said gruffly and then hung up. Regretfully, there was little else he could do. As much as he hated it, he would just have to wait for the couple to show up somewhere on their own. He could hear cheering in the background as the shuttle, now safely landed, was pictured on the main monitor to reveal four happy astronauts waving to onlookers. Somehow the excitement of the moment paled as the chairman contemplated how to handle this disastrous situation.

∞∞∞

As their abductors led them into a dingy building off of the alley, Tim found himself assessing their situation. That he and Diane were temporarily captive of a group of small-time thugs was obvious. Although they hadn’t yet stated their intentions, Tim suspected the main motive for the abduction was robbery. That the makeshift gang had also failed to make any effort to bind or restrain their victims would be their undoing.