The Nathan Daniels Saga: Part 1 (8 page)

“
Sandals?”  Remi asked.  “What are we going to do with sandals?”

“
Nothing if the boss catches us first.  My guess is he is going to put most of his effort into finding me which is why we are splitting up.  After you've cut a deal on the sandals come straight back to the
Nola
.  If I'm not there by the time the sandals arrive, finish the deal and get the hell outta dodge!  Take off and head directly home.  Get it?”

Remi nodded in assent and they split up.  Nathan was going to return to the
Nola
, but he had one stop to make first.

*   *   *

Nathan was back at the
Nola
when Remi and Omany returned.  They reported an uneventful time at the marketplace.  Remi had a huge smile on her face.

“
What are you so happy about, Princess?”  Nathan inquired.

“
Well...”  she began.  “It took a little work but I got the sandals for fourteen thousand!”  She beamed even more, if that was possible.

“
Excellent work!”  Nathan congratulated her. 

The remainder of the day was spent unloading Halifren gems, loading sandals, paying duties and preparing to lift.  Nathan had turned quite a tidy profit on this trip, not counting the money he would get in a year from the Empress.  After the day's events he could see it would be hard giving up Remi and Omany when the time came. 

With the ramp down for the loading and unloading, Max had made a game of keeping the tiny Rhadasians off the ship.  Every time one would venture too close to the top of the ramp, she would bare her teeth, hiss and bat it back down with her front paws.  The cat seemed genuinely sad when they finally closed up for the night.

“
I think we'll all sleep better in orbit,” Nathan said, heading to the control deck.

As soon as everyone was strapped in, he obtained clearance and they said goodbye to Rhadasia.  On the way up, Remi asked where they were heading with the sandals.  Nathan promised to tell her at breakfast.

When they reached orbit, Nathan engaged the autopilot to hold a parking orbit and they all went to bed.  It had been one hell of a day.

CHAPTER IV

The next morning, when Captain Daniels entered the galley, he found Remi and Omany already nursing cups of coffee.  He poured himself a cup and sat at the table with them.

“
What do you know about Jesus?” He asked Remi.

“
According to legend he was born in the year zero, a prophet, claimed by some to be the son of...”

“
Not the man,” Nathan cut her off.  “The planet.”

“
Shortly after the religious wars on Earth, a small desert-like planet was colonized by a group of fundamentalist Christians.  The idea was to build a society around life at the time of Jesus.  They abandoned technology and established primitive communities in an area around a small sea they named Galilee.  I believe they even reverted to practicing the basic tenets of the Jewish faith.” Remi looked at Nathan.  He got lost in those eyes for a moment.

“
Roughly a generation after their colony was established something truly remarkable happened.” Nathan took a sip of his coffee before continuing.  “A young girl by the name of Mary, who was betrothed to a carpenter by the name of Joseph, gave birth to a son in the stable in the town of Bethlehem.  This child grew up, became a great teacher, was betrayed by one of his followers and was eventually crucified.” Nathan took another sip.  There was a look of total disbelief on Remi's face. 

“
But, t-t-that's...” she stammered.

“
Impossible?” Nathan asked.  Remi nodded.  “No,” he continued.  “Here's the impossible part.  Every one hundred years it happens
again
!”

Remi's coffee literally fell from her hands.  She looked to Omany for confirmation.

“I have heard of this story many times, my Princess,” the old man said.  “But never have I seen proof of this claim.  The story always comes third or fourth hand.  Mostly because no one really knows where this planet is.  There is record of the colony being established, but that is all.”

“
Five years ago, when I was leaving Rhadasia, I was attacked by pirates as I approached my null-point.  The attack threw off my vector, but I engaged FTL anyway, because I had to get away.  A day and a half later I was pulled out of FTL by a gravity well.  I found myself approaching a small desert world orbiting a yellow star.  I landed to check it out.  Before I left, I found myself listening intently to a young man by the name of Jesus as he began his ministry.” Nathan stopped again, taking another sip of coffee.

“
That means...” Remi began, with the beginning of understanding in her eyes.

“
Exactly!  It should be close to the end of his ministry.  Hopefully we'll arrive just after he's arrived in Jerusalem.”

“
Okay...  But, where's the profit in it?”

“
We have in our hold the best sandals in this part of the galaxy.  Sandals are the footwear of choice on Jesus, and believe me, these are better than anything produced there.  They even put to shame those worn by the Romans.” Nathan walked over and poured himself some more coffee.

“
So, we sell sandals to the locals and end up with a bunch of local currency.  You can bet they don't use galactic credits!  So, what do we lift with?” Remi asked, freshening her own coffee.

“
Religious artifacts, Princess,” Nathan responded.  “The Holy Grail, the Crown of Thorns, the spear that pierced Jesus' side, the clothing the Roman guards cast lots for.  Hell, maybe even the
cross
itself!”

“
And what do you do with them once you have them?” Remi asked.

“
I took care of that five years ago.” Nathan smiled.  “One hundred grand per artifact.  I'll leave it as an exercise for the student where we'll be taking them.” Nathan drained his coffee and put the cup in the dishwasher.  He headed to he control room to calculate the jump to Jesus.

Two days later, they were in orbit.  Nathan held the orbit tight and fast, so he could do reconnaissance and find an out of the way place to land.

“Okay, smart guy,” Remi said as she strapped into the copilot seat.  “How do we hide the ship?  This will stick out like a sore thumb on a planet like Jesus.”

Daniels dialed a knob and flipped a switch.  The view through the front window looked to be obscured by sand.

“Holographic projectors,” Nathan said.  “From the outside, right now, we look like a big flying sand dune!” He grinned, thumbing the control back off.  “we'll land at night, so anyone seeing us come in will think we are nothing more than a shooting star.”

“
And what about clothes?” Remi asked.

“
Omany will be fine in what he usually wears.  For us, I picked up a little something while we were on Rhadasia.  We'll fit right in.”

“
What's the rest of the plan?"

“
We'll set up shop in Jerusalem's marketplace.  Being beardless, and with my complexion, it will be assumed that I am a Roman.  You will be, as is roughly the case, a woman in my employ.”  Nathan paused, and a smile crept across his face.  “Unless you'd rather be a slave?” He needled.  “We will sell our sandals, gathering as many Denari as possible.  We'll also listen to the gossip among the people in the market to get an idea of what's going on.  When the time is right, we will make our move.”

When night fell on the city of Jerusalem, they brought the
Nola
in for a landing and engaged the hologram.

The next morning, dressed as locals, they realized they had a problem.

“How are we going to get the sandals into town?” Remi asked.  The sandals were packed in crates of fifty.

“
Together Omany and I can carry one of these into town, no problem!” Nathan replied.

“
That will look conspicuous as hell!” Remi countered.  “If we're supposed to be merchants from out of town, we would have a pack animal of some sort!”

“
You're right,” Nathan sighed.  He glanced around the hold.  The crew had opened one of the crates to obtain sandals to go with their linen robes.  He reached in and removed a half-dozen pair of the excellent footwear.

“
I saw a farm not too far from here when I was landing, or at least what appeared to be one.  Let me go see what I can accomplish.” He headed out in the direction of the farm.

An hour later he was back with a donkey.

“Don't tell me you bought a donkey with 6 pairs of sandals!” Remi said, astounded.

“
Nope,” Nathan replied, “But I did rent her for a week, and got food for her as well.”   The donkey was carrying two large bales of straw, which Nathan unstrapped and hid behind the hologram.  Remi went inside and got a large pail of water, while Daniels and Omany strapped two crates of sandals onto the donkey.  When Remi returned they let the donkey drink its fill, and headed out for the one mile walk to Jerusalem.

When they reached the marketplace, they found an empty stall, tied up the donkey, and set up shop.  They did a decent business during what was left of the morning, and by midday paid a few Denari to feed both themselves and the donkey.  They heard rumors throughout the day that Jesus was teaching in Jerusalem, but nothing firm about where he could be found.  By the end of the day, word had gotten around about their sandals, and the area in front of their stall was mobbed.  They doubled their asking price and still the crowd was not deterred.  By the end of the day, they were out of stock, and had quite a large bag of Denari.

They headed back to the ship, tied the donkey to one of the landing pads, where it would stay behind the hologram, and put its straw and water within reach.  They then retired to the ship for the night.

*   *   *

The next morning they loaded their borrowed donkey up with two more crates and made their way back into the market place.

When they arrived, there was already a mob of customers waiting for them.  They started selling the sandals at triple their original price, and still they sold as fast as they could pull them out of the crates.

Just after midday the crowds started to die off a little.  They were down to twenty sandals left, when there were sounds of a commotion at the Temple, just outside the marketplace.  Sounds of coins flying and angry words could be heard above the normal din of the market. 

“
Bingo!” Nathan said.  “I'm going to go tail Jesus and his followers.  We need to know where they are staying so that when the time comes we can follow them to the passover meal.  Otherwise, we will miss our shot at the grail.  After that, keeping up with them will be easy.” More crashes from the direction of the temple.  “Once you have sold out, head back to the ship, I will meet you there.”

With that, Nathan departed, pushing his way through the crowd heading for the temple.  As Nathan headed to the temple he reached into the pouch he had on his belt.  Inside was a sub-dermal tracker.  It was a tracking device that could be implanted just under the skin.  Once activated it would broadcast for seventy-two hours, allowing him to track whoever it was on.  He needed to find a way to implant the device on Jesus or one of the apostles.  It was the only way he would be able to know what house the last supper would take place in.

The tracking device had a small airgun with it.  The manufacturer stated it was accurate to thirty meters.  Actual implantation was supposed to feel like nothing more than an insect bite.

Nathan neared the entrance of the Temple and he saw Jesus and his entourage emerging.  He was worried about implanting the device on Jesus, in case he was somehow able to tell what was going on.  One of the apostles would be a better bet, with Judas Iscariot being his ideal choice.  He had to get close enough to be able to identify his target, but remain far enough away so as not to be conspicuous.

Daniels followed the group through the city, staying at the fringes of the crowd.  He noticed that even with the ebb and flow of the crowd, there was a core of people around Jesus that remained the same.  Obviously, some segment of the group was made up of the apostles, but there seemed to be more than those twelve men.  There was one woman who remained always close to the teacher, obviously this was Mary Magdalene.  She would be a good choice for the tracker, but there was no historical evidence that she was at the Last Supper.

Nathan thought about his options.  He could tag Jesus with the tracker and take the chance that it wouldn't work.  He could tag Mary, and run the risk that she wasn't at the last supper.  He could tag one of the other men, hoping he actually hit an apostle.  All in all he felt the best plan was to plant the tracker on Mary.  Even if she wasn't present at the last supper, she would likely stay with Jesus right up to the last minute.

Now it was just a matter of lining up the shot.  He continued to follow the group and as they headed up a rise he saw his chance.  He took aim with the little gun and 'pop', let the tiny tracker fly.  He was rewarded by seeing her swat at her arm as if swatting away an insect.  Mission accomplished.