Martello walked back to his car fuming mad. “Who was this piece of white trash and what game was Karen playing?” Martello grabbed the mike to the radio and called the operations center. Colonel Johnson happened to be in the center at the time of his call.
“Yes Captain, what do you want?”
“Hello Colonel, I wasn’t expecting you to be in the control center.”
Johnson was in no mood for Martello’s chatter. “I’m here. What can I do for you?”
“Colonel, Major Brown has made a planned contact with Oria without providing us much of an itinerary. She is heading down the Cheat River in a canoe. I need a chopper to maintain surveillance.”
“Very well, one will be dispatched.”
Once Martello completed his call to the operations center, he felt comfortable that he had them set up a surveillance satellite to monitor Karen’s activity on the river. There was no way Karen was going to cut him out of the loop. No sir; Captain Martello wasn’t going to let a woman best him.
Meanwhile, Oria and Karen were paddling down the river. Karen closely watched Oria with the intent of determining his skill level and if he was up to handling the rapids ahead. She felt responsible for his safety and after losing one friend in Ocean City, she did not want to lose another friend. She couldn’t help but think of Jack and the growing emptiness left behind. It was only a couple months ago that Jack and Bob had joined her on the very same river.
Oria enjoyed the scenic ride down the river. He was perfectly comfortable letting Karen assume the helm and maintaining responsibility for their voyage. He had nothing to prove and was quite comfortable with himself.
Karen admired Oria’s strength and natural coordination at paddling the boat. He used a slightly different technique than she was accustomed to, but it was quite effective. “Oria, you look like you’ve done this before.”
Oria laughed. “Yes, I’ve been paddling canoes since I was old enough to walk. It’s one of the few things in addition to sailing that really relaxes me.”
“Oh, so you’re a sailor too. Does that mean you have a lady in every port?”
“Not quite, just lots of wannabes.” Both Karen and Oria laughed. Karen told Oria he was doing a fair job of using slang.
The sound of rapids grew louder. “Oria it’s going to get rough around the next bend.”
“That’s what you keep telling me -- don’t worry I’ll be fine. I’ve been in worse situations than this.”
“Yeah, I bet you have. Say what was that sound?” asked Karen looking around her. “It sounds like a helicopter.”
Above them, a chopper slowly came into view. It looked like the same chopper that tailed them in West Virginia. At first, the presence of the chopper surprised Karen. She thought the one tailing them had returned to refuel. Then it dawned on her, Martello did not have a detailed itinerary. He obviously was working his job to the extreme, by making a request for the chopper to continue following her down the river.
Oria looked up at the chopper and laughed to himself. “Karen, I think it’s your friend Martello, the one that’s been tailing us since we left your apartment.”
Karen pretended to be surprised. “Oria, what are you talking about?”
“Like you don’t know; we’ve had an Air Force helicopter tailing us since we left your condo.”
“I guess you caught us.”
“Like it was hard to miss; our tail must have gone to Three Stooges Spy School.”
“It sure looks that way. Hey, I’m sorry about the tail. As you might guess, my office is somewhat interested in you.” Karen was fearful that the continued surveillance would cause a rift between them. She didn’t know what else she could do about it though, so she figured that she might as well let Oria in on the plan.
Sensing Karen’s concern, Oria tried to calm her down. “I imagine so. It’s not the best situation for us. Although, if we weren’t on crossing trails, we may never have met. If you’re worried about us, don’t. We have to pursue our personal journeys and make the most of the time that we are able to spend together. It will take more than our jobs to change how I’m starting to feel about you. By the way, we’re already at the rapids. Are you ready?”
“Yeah, let’s go”
Karen skillfully guided the canoe into the center channel. They picked up speed fast while Karen steered the canoe away from rocks and stones in the river. Oria repeatedly kept the canoe off several large stones hidden just inches below the river’s surface. Karen was amazed at Oria’s uncanny ability to know exactly where each stone was.
Karen and Oria paddled frantically through the rapids. Their boat shot, twisted, and turned and ended up in a small whirlpool where they nearly capsized, except for an incredible stunt pulled off by Oria that quickly righted the boat and shot it into the next series of rapids. As the canoe raced through the second series of rapids, it came closer to shore.
Karen was breathing hard and feeling a tremendous exhilaration. It was during times like this that she felt most alive. Her mind and body worked together and became one in a perfect harmony. She felt the energy of life surge through her body as she skillfully guided the canoe by one dangerous obstacle after another. Fear surged though her body as she saw a low hanging branch just ahead. She started a J-stroke to guide the canoe away from the branch, when her world went black. She had missed another low hanging branch, which collided, with her head forcing her into a world of blackness and her body into the cold and churning waters of the river below.
Oria, feeling the canoe twist at Karen’s vain attempt to steer them towards the safety of the river’s center, barely had time to duck from a low hanging branch himself. He heard a loud thud just behind him, looked back, and saw Karen as she fell into the wild river. Oria felt an ice-cold chill encompassing him. On another trip, many years ago, Oria remembered losing his wife. He was in a long canoe out on the Chesapeake Bay. Only hours before his new wife helped him load their canoe with fresh bear meat. The water was getting rough making it hard to maneuver their canoe. As they got closer to the shore, Oria noticed too late, a Susquehanna raiding party rapidly closing the distance between their canoes. An arrow flew across the water striking Oria’s bride with such force that it knocked her into the Bay. Oria abruptly turned his canoe around towards his enemies in a vain hope to rescue his bride. In horror, Oria watched a finned sea monster grab his wife, pulling her under water. The water below quickly turned red from his wife’s blood. The Susquehanna seeing the frenzied sea monster’s attack froze in their canoe. Taking a deep breath, Oria returned to the horror of the present. He could not afford to lose his second love, as he lost his wife so many years ago.
Oria continued down river another 100’ before he could bring the canoe safely to shore and get off. Once ashore, he took off at a full sprint up the river’s rocky shoreline plowing through brush, water and any other obstacle that presented itself. He finally reached the location where he remembered Karen falling overboard. Pulling out a sensometer, Oria held it in his hand and used it to pinpoint Karen’s location. It indicated that Karen was trapped, and close to death at the river’s bottom. Oria dove into the river battling its currents and swam for the location indicated by his sensometer. Karen’s face was bloated and she was clearly dead or very close to it. Oria used a small laser device to cut her free of wood and debris pinning her to the rivers bottom. He then reached an arm around her and pulled her through the river’s currents and to the safety of the shore.
Martello was flying about half a mile behind the canoe stewing about Karen’s lack of cooperation. He saw the canoe get closer to shore and felt angry that Karen would put Oria, their target, at such unnecessary risk. What was she thinking? Martello dropped the binoculars for a moment and raised them back to his face. Where was Karen? Oria was shooting down the river alone! Within seconds, he saw Oria beach the canoe and run up the river’s edge defying the laws of human strength and endurance. He held some sort of device and pointed it towards the river. Martello witnessed Oria throw the device to the ground and dive into the wild river. No man could possibly make headway in those currents. Yet there he was, and then he disappeared below the river’s surface. It seemed like an eternity, but after a minute Oria rose to the surface with Karen in tow.
Martello watched the scene in awe. If he hadn’t seen Oria swimming hard through the rapids with his own eyes, no one would have been able to convince him that it was humanly possible. He watched Oria hoping that he could work further magic and revive Karen. Even though Martello despised Karen, he in no way wanted her to die. He would have willingly sacrificed his own life in trying to save her. After all, they were in the same service.
Oria hoped he wasn’t too late as he carried Karen to the shore and laid her down. The bruising color of her face was extensive. Oria knew death all too well and Karen was as close to death as anyone he had seen. With his mind in a blur, he wasn’t quite sure how his ETU ended up in his hand, but it confirmed what he already suspected. Karen’s injuries were much too extensive for him to address on Earth. She had severe trauma to the head with extensive brain damage, a broken neck including paralysis, and her lungs were full of water. Oria had to get her on the Hercules if she was to have any chance at survival.
Martello’s close surveillance complicated Oria’s ability to get Karen onboard the Hercules. He had to move Karen before transporting her up to the Hercules. Another delay would further reduce her chance of survival. Oria knew he had no choice if he was going to have any chance of completing his mission, a mission that would save more lives than just the woman he was falling in love with.
Oria gently lifted Karen and carried her into the safety of the woods cover. From there, he was able to signal Captain Borella.
Borella was in his cabin when Oria signaled. “Admiral, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon. What’s up?”
“It’s Karen -- we’ve had an accident. We need to beam her up immediately into the medic ward. Can you get us there, now?”
“Aye sir.”
Borella wasted no time and passed Oria’s order on to the transport room. In less than a minute, the Hercules beamed Oria and Karen into the Hercules’s medical ward with Commander Turrani and several nurses standing by. Oria carried Karen to one of the medic stations and gently placed her down. Turrani skillfully ran the complex medical diagnostic routines and gave Karen a complete exam. She took a deep breath before turning and speaking to Oria.
“Admiral, she’s in pretty bad shape. Her frontal lobe received the brunt of the blow. It must have caused her head to snap back. As a result, she has severe bruising in her brain stem with a clean break towards the top of her neck. The frontal lobe is bleeding extensively. I’m not sure if we can save her. Give me 20 minutes. Either she’ll die or we will have her completely healed.
“She’s in your hands Commander. Please do whatever it takes, she must not die”.
Exhausted and with a heavy heart, Oria thanked the commander and headed for his quarters.
Oria was going through a whirlwind of emotions and feelings as he made his way back to his quarters and his large lounge chair. “How could his mission have gone so wrong? Why did he allow himself to fall for Karen? What would happen to Earth and the future of Azortec? The Creytes were already on Earth and plotting to destroy him and all that he knew of his past and came to know of Earth’s present. Oria knew that the strength was inside him, the inner strength that his father had ingrained in him as a boy, that strength which enabled him to become the great warrior that he was.” Oria took a deep breath and reached down deep inside of him. He reached for the strength that his father and Master Jedico had taught him. Oria reflected back on Master Jedico’s words and his early days on the planet Hitaro.
“Oria, you must calm yourself and focus your inner strength. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly. Let your spirit settle and be unbiased. Even when you’re calm don’t let your body relax, and when your body is relaxed; don’t let your spirit slacken. Don’t let your spirit be influenced by your body, or let your body be influenced by your spirit.”
The rude sound of Commander Turrani’s voice over the intercom interrupted Oria’s thoughts.
“Admiral, Karen has recovered and appears a bit overwhelmed by our ship.”
“Thanks Commander. That’s good; I need to return to Earth with her and I don’t want her to remember what happened up here.”
“You’re welcome. I think I can temporarily block her memory of being on board this ship. For your information, I added some biosynthetic material to her neck. If she ever undergoes surgery, they will spot this material.”
“That’s fine. By the time anyone would be likely to perform that sort of operation, we should be in full contact with Earth.”
“Ok, since I have her, I will clean up the usual stuff that we find in people from primitive planets like Earth. I will be another 20 minutes.”
“Great, let me know when she is ready to return.”
On Earth, Martello saw Oria carry Karen into the woods disappearing completely from sight. He couldn’t even get an infrared signature on them. Martello followed SOP (Standard Operating Procedure), and radioed the operations center requesting Colonel Johnson to authorize his search and retrieval of Karen. Johnson agreed that it was not worth losing Karen’s life to continue playing their game of cat and mouse. He gave Martello authority to intervene as necessary to protect Karen’s life.