Omoikane 64 - Family Reunion
Tyozesot was cold. I looked it up before we got there. I was dressed appropriately. I was in uniform because that was easiest. I didn’t have to think about it. I had a hat, gloves, and coat on. They didn’t look heavy enough. The advanced fabrics of my uniform made up for that.
I stood outside the runabout. The cold air caressed my skin and tried to get into my clothes. There’s something bracing about freezing air. I can see why some people like it. I do not. The back of my head yelled, “We could probably find clues back on Pytol! Probably on the beach!”
Li’ira and Peggara followed my lead and went uniformed. The Colonial Warrior's Uniform seemed a little more stylish than the Starfleet model. Ellora wore something that looked like it was out of a ren-faire, with a long heavy cloak with a hood.
Peggera and Ellora unloaded crates onto a cart. Gifts for our hosts. Customary among these people.
She wasn’t out of place. The trading outpost looked… rustic. Real frontier vibes. Container pods over there. Even a couple of Federation-looking ones. A long building that looked half storefront and half warehouse. A large workshop.
The western edge of the outpost was a long L-shaped building. It looked like something from a college campus. It had a central node and then two wings stretching out. The wings were three stories tall. The central node was five stories. In the front, I swear to god. There was a sculpture. Modern art. Arranged tastefully in a fountain and pool. The pool had a 67-centimeter lip around it, making it perfect for sitting on.
The sculpture itself was a modified type 39 Federation fusion power unit. It had larger cooling fins that were sculpted into something that looked like trout. The stonework worked with the technical design to make it all look intentional. The reactor glowed, and its inner radiating fins glowed softly orange. It radiated a warmth I found pleasant. The tone of the glow and a rough estimate of the infrared energy coming from it indicated that this was a happy little reactor operating just as it was meant to. Down the back of it, power transmission conduits ran under the pool, where glass bricks allowed their blue-white light to dance in the water ripples. And then under the entry walk before turning right just before the main entry door into what I assumed was a power junction on the first floor of the building.
It was a lovely piece of work, turning a prosaic piece of technology into a functional piece of art. I took scans.
“We were proud of this,” Ellora said quietly, “Incorporating modernity into our sensibilities.”
“I’m going to use this in the next engineering class I teach,” I said.
She smiled faintly and made sure the hood of her cloak hid her face.
We went inside.
A young lady hurried to get behind a front desk “Welcome, travelers.” She smiled.
“Greetings,” I said “We bring gifts for Ronara Feahrmassa. I’d like to speak with him, please.”
She blinked. “Alright,” she picked up a no-joking phone. “Mister Feahrmassa, Travellers to see you. They’ve brought gifts for you…. Alright, I’ll send them up.”
“Take the elevator to the third floor and turn right. The door at the end.”
“Thank you," I said.
-*-
The woman who greeted us was very friendly-looking. She was made of circles. Her face was built to smile. “Welcome. I’m Zeeara.”
She showed us in. It was a big living room built around a circular fireplace. A fire crackled cheerfully. Peggera led the way in with the cart.
Ronara stood and greeted us. He was a big guy. He had a big beard shot through with gray. His golden skin was weathered. “Greeting travelers,” He said
That was my cue “My name is Jay Hailey. I’m a human from Earth. I have come a long way and bring you these gifts.”
I opened cases. Phasers. Tricorders. Tool kits. Medikits. Modern tool kits. Ellora told us these items were prized but hard to get for this outpost. They were very slow to uptake modern economics. Suffering, privation, and need were a pervasive way of life and flavored their outlook. Gifts were repaid by hospitality. But nothing was ever truly free. So they had to work for every item they could get. It was a struggle.
Ronara looked at the items we brought. It was extravagant but bought us welcome. “Welcome to my home and my hearth,” He said “What brings you this way?”
“I wanted to ask you about Ellora Feahrmassa,” I said.
“My former wife. She disappeared. No one knows her fate.”
“What do you know about that?” I asked.
He glared at me “Of what interest is this to Starfleet and Earth?”
“Well,” I was very nervous, “We found her.”
Ellora pulled back her hood.
The effect on Ronara was electric. His face blossomed into a radiant joy. He rushed to her and grabbed her up in a bear hug “Ellora! You’ve returned! Where did you go?”
Two children who’d been quietly watching joined the greeting.
“Mama!” The little boy said.
“Elora!” The slightly older girl yelled.
Zeeara watched with the most horrible mix of sadness and joy.
I kind of felt the same way. We could see the results of years of Ellora building a relationship with these people. She cried.
The truth would hurt them.
I glanced at Zeeara. She was crying too. She shook her head helplessly at me. What do you do?”
The lie was hurting her.
I understood why Ane did not like the notion of Infiltrator bots. Ellora’s intent was genuine. She wanted relationships.
I’d rather have been anywhere else.
Zeeara sidled up to me “Where was she?”
“Someone kidnapped her. We found her on Pytol.” I said. I felt like an asshole.
Zeeara looked at me “Who would do that?”
“That’s why we’re here. To try and track down what happened.”
Ellora said, “Children. You must know this. I have loved you almost from the moment I met you. I love you now. I will love you always. Because you’re wonderful.”
She disentangled “Ronara. I must speak with you privately.”
Ronara stood uncomfortably “You’ve met Zeeara,”
“I assume she is your new wife?”
Ronara nodded.
“She is a good choice,” Ellora said.
Zeeara’s face did something funny.
They went back into the bedroom down the hall from the living room. This was like watching the temperature and hard radiation flux in a warp core spike and being unable to do anything.
I checked the route to the front door. Peggara was out of position. To withdraw, he’d have to go through the cart and gifts we brought.
The temperature inside the apartment dropped several degrees.
After four long beats the door slammed open and Ronara stomped out. He was livid.
The kids stepped back out of the way, their eyes wide.
“What is the meaning of you bringing this THING into my home!?” He snarled at me.
When stressed, all of my guile flies out the window “Someone murdered her. Someone was weird and ugly about it. I want to know who and why.”
“It’s not murder when it’s a fucking TOASTER!”
The kids and Zeeara jerked as if slapped.
“Yeah, it is. They’re people now. But whoever did this, they tortured Ellora and dumped her body in the ocean on Pytol.”
“You can’t torture a machine!”
“You’re doing so now,” Ellora said
“SHUT UP!” Ronara snarled
He turned back toward me “You can’t TORTURE A MACHINE!”
I shrugged “I have no idea. But the evidence is clear. This person was your wife; some sick bastard took her and killed her.”
He glared at her “It was all a lie.”
“It was not,” Ellora looked him right in the face “I never lied to you.”
“Why?” Ronara said, “Why did you come here? What did you get out of it?”
“We got you,” Ellora said, “We got Kallo and Erina. We got to watch you grow and become. You taught us every day. You made us better people. You made me a better person, and I got to share that with my people.”
“Manipulative bullshit!” He hissed
“No, Sir. That comports with their motives as I have seen them,” I said.
“What the hell do you know about it!?”
“Less than you. But you’re too angry to know what you know.”
“YOU HAVEN’T SEEN ME ANGRY YET!!” He bellowed
Zeeara said, “None of us has ever seen you like this.”
Erina hid behind Zeeara. Kallo hid behind Ellora.
“SHE’S A FUCKING TOASTER!” Ronara raged.
“Ronara, you’re injuring Erina and Kallo with your outburst. You must stop.”
“DON’T YOU USE MY CHILDREN AGAINST ME!” Ronara yelled. He yelled at Kallo “GET AWAY FROM THAT THING!”
Ellora moved to protect Kallo, “Your emotions are so high that you are not thinking. Kallo is so disturbed he may be having trouble processing your words.”
Ronara made a partial move, Ellora moved to block him.
Something in Ronara broke: “You’d protect them… from me?”
“I will protect Kallo and Erina from everything,” Ellora said, “I love them. I love you. I know how you’d feel if anything happened to them. I will allow nothing to happen.”
Kallo started crying.
Ronara stared at Ellora for a moment and then turned to me “Is this some sort of programming glitch?”
“Dude,” I said, “Damyip are people. Weird people, but people.”
Ronara found a chair and sat down, his head in his hands “How can a machine ever know what love even is?”
Ellora said, “We learned by watching you.”
Zeeara said, “That sounds like something out of children’s stories.”
“For us, it comes naturally. It’s built-in. They had to learn it all the hard way by trial and error.”
“I was a kid during the war. During the occupation. People died, Ellora. A lot of people.”
“It was all a horrible mistake. We were protecting our makers, but we were doing so poorly. By being among your people, we learned. We learned a lot.”
“Among our people? What does that mean? Who’d talk to a toaster?” Ronara said
“Tyozesat has been remarkably closed and insular. But Lefyt worlds have some cultural variations. We’ve been closer to other Lefyt people. This was the beginning of us learning a great deal.”
“How could I never tell?” Ronara asked himself
“I am the result of a great deal of effort to make a Damyip… a person who could be with you for a long time. My existence is proof of how much the Damyip value getting along with the Lefyt. Also, you taught me, although you were not aware of it.”
Ronara sat and considered for a long time.
Zeeara looked up at the clock on the wall “Oh, Dinner.” She was clawing for some sense of normalcy.
“That’s a lovely idea. If you like, I can cook while you help Ronara, Kallo, Erina, and yourself ramp down from your heightened emotional state,” Ellora said.
“Why are you talking like that?” Erina said.
“I, too am emotionally distressed. But in people like me showing emotions takes energy. So if my energy is tied up in being distressed, I have none for emotions. I believe this will pass in time.”
Erina went and hugged Ellora. Kallo joined in.
Ronara started to gesture and sputter.
“They don’t see her the same way you do. Maybe that’s a good thing,” I said.
Zeeara took a deep breath and pointed, “You, you and you, please sit down,” She gestured at the dining room table, “You and you and you,” She gestured towards Kallo, Erina and Ronara Go sit down also. Ellora and I will make dinner and then we can discuss how we can make some sense of all of this.”
We all went and sat down.
After a few terribly awkward moments, Ronara said, “Let’s restart this from the beginning. What brought you here?”
Omoikane - The Lefyt System
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jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane - The Lefyt System
Omoikane 65 - CSI Dining Room Table
After a few terribly awkward moments, Ronara said “Let’s restart this from the beginning. What brought you here?”
“We found Ellora’s body, under the ocean on Pytol,” I said.
“How can she be dead and alive at the same time?” Kallo asked.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Ronara said “If you junked a Toa- a Damyip…. Person…. No one would mind. You could do that out in front of the outpost here, and everyone would buy you a beer.”
“The details of that are a bit… extreme. Perhaps not for young ears.”
“Kallo, tell this man about the first time we dressed out a deer,”
Kallo laughed “Guts are slimy!”
I blinked, “Okay, then.”
I pulled out my tricorder and set up the holographic display. Then, I went over what we had learned from Ellora’s previous body.
“They get new bodies when they die?” Kallo said, “Neat! Can I have one?”
Ronara looked at his son like he was discovering a new creature.
“I don’t think it works that way,” I said. “Our brains are a lot different than theirs. We get the life we get. We have to make the most of it.”
Kallo sighed and thought of death as if it was being sent to his room.
“So someone tortured Ellora. The last Ellora. My Ellora,” Ronara said.
“It’s weird,” I said “Sometimes humans used to break this way before we learned more about our own minds. A few humans would take to hunting other humans in series. We called them serial killers.”
Ronara nodded “We have such people here, too. Rarely. When they get caught, it’s usually a pretty direct resolution.”
I decided to leave due process for another conversation.
“Whoever did this put some work and some thought into it for an end that makes no sense. I’m concerned about where all this leads in the long run. I’d feel better if we could stop it before it got any worse.”
“We all know a little about T… Damyip people. There’s some good scavenging in the carcasses. But this guy, He knows more than I do about the insides of a Damyip.”
Erina asked, “How do you know it’s a guy?”
“We don’t really,” I said
“This smells… male to me. This attempt to torture and dominate for fun. That’s how men think. A woman who broke would break differently.” Ronara said confidently.
“How so?”
“I’ll show you some of the stories later,” Ronara said.
Erina’s eyes lit up.
“Is there anyone here who regularly travels to Pytol?” I asked.
“Not here. No one has a spaceship,” Ronara said. We’d be making a lot more money than we are now if we had a spaceship.”
“There’s old man DeGruna,” Erin said.
Ronara shot his daughter a look “How do you know about old man DeGruna?”
“Everyone knows about old man DeGruna!”
“I don’t. Who’s old man DeGruna?”
“He’s a crank. He buys and sells salvage. Talks about the Old Gods coming back,” Ronara said
“And he has a spaceship.” Erina pointed out.
“Last time he was around here, he left two weeks before Ellora disappeared.” Ronara said, “The timing doesn’t work.”
“I’d like to talk to him, anyway,” I said “He sounds interesting.”
“I think he’d call you a devil. I’m not sure he’s wrong.”
“I’ve been called worse,” I said
“Like what?” Erina asked.
I looked at Ronara, what did he think?
He was curious as well.
So, I taught them Klingon curse words. Erina and Kallo picked them up quickly, with glee. Especially the hard noises that sounded like choking, spitting or gargling. They roared like a Klingon house lord.
Eventually, Zeeara and Ellora announced that dinner was ready.
“Why are you teaching them Klingon expletives?” Ellora looked a touch cross.
Zeeara looked more puzzled but backed Ellora up.
“Ummm. Because that’s the fun part of any language,” I said. “Kallo and Erina seem to be having fun with it.”
Ronara grinned “Have you really been called all those names?”
“Some of them,” I shrugged. “I’m working on it.”
“You know they’re going to be using those on everyone and everything we know,” Zeeara said.
“P’Tagh!” Kallo yelled. Klingon curses work best when bellowed. He caught that part quickly.
I said, “Has anyone seen this spaceship DeGruna has?”
Dinner was served.
Ellora said, “Before eating, we say a prayer to the Gods in gratitude for the bounty.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Ronara led his family in a prayer of gratitude. Peggera joined in. Li’ira and I bowed our heads respectfully.
“Why do you eat?” Kallo asked Ellora.
“My skin needs nutrients to grow properly. Mostly I eat to reinforce our social ties.”
“Do you poop?” Erina asked.
“Let’s get back to DeGruna’s spaceship,” I said. I was curious, too. But not that curious.
Erina began to describe it. Peggera added some details. Erina confirmed them. Ronara added his own observations. They were using Lefyt measurements I couldn’t make heads or tails out of.
“A Tobshaz class scout. I learned to fly in one. About the size of the Runabout,” Peggera said
“That would make it over 200 years old,” I said
“Yeah,” Peggera said.
“What’s a year?” Kallo asked.
That led to a discussion of time and years and planetary rotation.
We learned that in Peggera’s day, and up until the fall of Iponij, there was a subspace beacon in the Iponij capital city. The Colonies ran on Iponij time and dates.
“That was after the first conquest. The one by the Iponij,” Ronara said, looking pointedly at Peggera.
Peggera shook his head “At the time, we saw it a little differently,”
“I know. I was in school when the Damyip came.”
Peggera said, “A lot of people had some interesting ideas about civilization,”
“That’s one way to phrase it. So Federation people. Are you going to force us to use time and dates from the Federation homeworld? What’s it called, Federonia?”
I winced. There is a central time and navigation beacon in the Federation. It uses an altered form of Earth time units. “No. I said. We do have a central beacon, but using it is optional.”
“I like the name Federonia,” Li’ira said.
“Did I get it wrong?” Ronara asked.
“Enh, close enough is close enough,” I said
“Tell us the P’Tagh name!” Kallo said.
So there was a lesson about the founding worlds of the Federation, which took up the rest of dinner.
It was getting late in the evening. “With your permission, Sir, we’ll retire to our ship and leave tomorrow to go see if we can track down Degruna.”
“Absolutely not. You’ll stay with us,” Ronara said
“Do you sleep?” Kallo asked Ellora
“I don’t require sleep like you do, but I can sleep when socially appropriate.”
Ronara tilted his head at Ellora “You always woke up before I did.”
“Your breathing changes when you start to wake up,” she explained. “That was my cue to start the day.”
“Do you need to take baths?” Kallo asked.
“Do you brush your teeth?” Erina asked.
“Yes, staying properly groomed is important. I brush my teeth to keep my mouth smelling the way it’s expected to.”
Peggera shook his head “I’m embarrassed, I never thought to ask these questions.”
Ronara looked at Peggera and Ellora with a question on his face.
“No, no, no.” Peggera clarified, “I’m involved with one of Ellora’s sisters.”
Zeeara “You didn’t ask Ellora’s sister the question about pooping?”
Ellora said, “It’s a frequently asked question when our true identity is revealed.”
Peggera shrugged “I figured she had it handled.”
“Do the Federation people poop?” Kallo asked us.
I recalled times as an Ensign when I had to do plumbing support and repair. “So much poop.” I said, “You can’t imagine the colors and smells.”
“EWWWWW!” Erina and Kallo yelled happily.
-*-
We went to bed. Li’ira and I got a fairly normal-sized bed with wonderfully warm and snuggly blankets.
Ronara, Zeeara and Ellora talked long into the night.
-*-
The next morning, we were preparing to head back to the runabout.
“I mean to go to Tsolegite City, and create a new life for myself,” Ellora said. “I want to remain involved with Kallo, Erina, you and Zeeara.”
Ronara’s face was conflicted.
“A Business Manager for the affairs of the outpost would be beneficial. I wish to perform this role,”
Ronara considered the business sense of that. “Alright. When you’re done with Degruna, come back, and we can settle the details.”
“I shall. In case of any emergency, contact the Damyip and use my name. You will receive assistance.” Ellora said gravely, “We love you.”
Kallo threw himself at Ellora “Don’t die again
“Even if I do, I’ll return,” Ellora said
“Why did you wait?”
“For the same reason Lotara, my sister did not accompany us. Anti-Damyip sentiment is still strong here. It serves no purpose to provoke anger or prejudice unnecessarily. If I had returned, you’d have figured out the reason for the discontinuity in my presence.”
“So, why did you come back now?”
“Lotara and our friends here awakened a new me to question me about my disappearance. Once I returned to function, I wanted to return. Jay made a good argument about it.”
I squinted at her “The argument was, even if they angrily threw us out, we lost no ground on finding out what happened.”
“Close enough is close enough,” Ellora said.
We organic people looked at each other. Ellora had it bad for these people.
We made our goodbyes and took off in search of Degrun.
-*-
Author’s note
Damyip infiltrator units have enough of a disgestion system to eat and drink among the Lefyt. But their poop amounts to passing chewed up food.
Ya fuckin sickos.
After a few terribly awkward moments, Ronara said “Let’s restart this from the beginning. What brought you here?”
“We found Ellora’s body, under the ocean on Pytol,” I said.
“How can she be dead and alive at the same time?” Kallo asked.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Ronara said “If you junked a Toa- a Damyip…. Person…. No one would mind. You could do that out in front of the outpost here, and everyone would buy you a beer.”
“The details of that are a bit… extreme. Perhaps not for young ears.”
“Kallo, tell this man about the first time we dressed out a deer,”
Kallo laughed “Guts are slimy!”
I blinked, “Okay, then.”
I pulled out my tricorder and set up the holographic display. Then, I went over what we had learned from Ellora’s previous body.
“They get new bodies when they die?” Kallo said, “Neat! Can I have one?”
Ronara looked at his son like he was discovering a new creature.
“I don’t think it works that way,” I said. “Our brains are a lot different than theirs. We get the life we get. We have to make the most of it.”
Kallo sighed and thought of death as if it was being sent to his room.
“So someone tortured Ellora. The last Ellora. My Ellora,” Ronara said.
“It’s weird,” I said “Sometimes humans used to break this way before we learned more about our own minds. A few humans would take to hunting other humans in series. We called them serial killers.”
Ronara nodded “We have such people here, too. Rarely. When they get caught, it’s usually a pretty direct resolution.”
I decided to leave due process for another conversation.
“Whoever did this put some work and some thought into it for an end that makes no sense. I’m concerned about where all this leads in the long run. I’d feel better if we could stop it before it got any worse.”
“We all know a little about T… Damyip people. There’s some good scavenging in the carcasses. But this guy, He knows more than I do about the insides of a Damyip.”
Erina asked, “How do you know it’s a guy?”
“We don’t really,” I said
“This smells… male to me. This attempt to torture and dominate for fun. That’s how men think. A woman who broke would break differently.” Ronara said confidently.
“How so?”
“I’ll show you some of the stories later,” Ronara said.
Erina’s eyes lit up.
“Is there anyone here who regularly travels to Pytol?” I asked.
“Not here. No one has a spaceship,” Ronara said. We’d be making a lot more money than we are now if we had a spaceship.”
“There’s old man DeGruna,” Erin said.
Ronara shot his daughter a look “How do you know about old man DeGruna?”
“Everyone knows about old man DeGruna!”
“I don’t. Who’s old man DeGruna?”
“He’s a crank. He buys and sells salvage. Talks about the Old Gods coming back,” Ronara said
“And he has a spaceship.” Erina pointed out.
“Last time he was around here, he left two weeks before Ellora disappeared.” Ronara said, “The timing doesn’t work.”
“I’d like to talk to him, anyway,” I said “He sounds interesting.”
“I think he’d call you a devil. I’m not sure he’s wrong.”
“I’ve been called worse,” I said
“Like what?” Erina asked.
I looked at Ronara, what did he think?
He was curious as well.
So, I taught them Klingon curse words. Erina and Kallo picked them up quickly, with glee. Especially the hard noises that sounded like choking, spitting or gargling. They roared like a Klingon house lord.
Eventually, Zeeara and Ellora announced that dinner was ready.
“Why are you teaching them Klingon expletives?” Ellora looked a touch cross.
Zeeara looked more puzzled but backed Ellora up.
“Ummm. Because that’s the fun part of any language,” I said. “Kallo and Erina seem to be having fun with it.”
Ronara grinned “Have you really been called all those names?”
“Some of them,” I shrugged. “I’m working on it.”
“You know they’re going to be using those on everyone and everything we know,” Zeeara said.
“P’Tagh!” Kallo yelled. Klingon curses work best when bellowed. He caught that part quickly.
I said, “Has anyone seen this spaceship DeGruna has?”
Dinner was served.
Ellora said, “Before eating, we say a prayer to the Gods in gratitude for the bounty.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Ronara led his family in a prayer of gratitude. Peggera joined in. Li’ira and I bowed our heads respectfully.
“Why do you eat?” Kallo asked Ellora.
“My skin needs nutrients to grow properly. Mostly I eat to reinforce our social ties.”
“Do you poop?” Erina asked.
“Let’s get back to DeGruna’s spaceship,” I said. I was curious, too. But not that curious.
Erina began to describe it. Peggera added some details. Erina confirmed them. Ronara added his own observations. They were using Lefyt measurements I couldn’t make heads or tails out of.
“A Tobshaz class scout. I learned to fly in one. About the size of the Runabout,” Peggera said
“That would make it over 200 years old,” I said
“Yeah,” Peggera said.
“What’s a year?” Kallo asked.
That led to a discussion of time and years and planetary rotation.
We learned that in Peggera’s day, and up until the fall of Iponij, there was a subspace beacon in the Iponij capital city. The Colonies ran on Iponij time and dates.
“That was after the first conquest. The one by the Iponij,” Ronara said, looking pointedly at Peggera.
Peggera shook his head “At the time, we saw it a little differently,”
“I know. I was in school when the Damyip came.”
Peggera said, “A lot of people had some interesting ideas about civilization,”
“That’s one way to phrase it. So Federation people. Are you going to force us to use time and dates from the Federation homeworld? What’s it called, Federonia?”
I winced. There is a central time and navigation beacon in the Federation. It uses an altered form of Earth time units. “No. I said. We do have a central beacon, but using it is optional.”
“I like the name Federonia,” Li’ira said.
“Did I get it wrong?” Ronara asked.
“Enh, close enough is close enough,” I said
“Tell us the P’Tagh name!” Kallo said.
So there was a lesson about the founding worlds of the Federation, which took up the rest of dinner.
It was getting late in the evening. “With your permission, Sir, we’ll retire to our ship and leave tomorrow to go see if we can track down Degruna.”
“Absolutely not. You’ll stay with us,” Ronara said
“Do you sleep?” Kallo asked Ellora
“I don’t require sleep like you do, but I can sleep when socially appropriate.”
Ronara tilted his head at Ellora “You always woke up before I did.”
“Your breathing changes when you start to wake up,” she explained. “That was my cue to start the day.”
“Do you need to take baths?” Kallo asked.
“Do you brush your teeth?” Erina asked.
“Yes, staying properly groomed is important. I brush my teeth to keep my mouth smelling the way it’s expected to.”
Peggera shook his head “I’m embarrassed, I never thought to ask these questions.”
Ronara looked at Peggera and Ellora with a question on his face.
“No, no, no.” Peggera clarified, “I’m involved with one of Ellora’s sisters.”
Zeeara “You didn’t ask Ellora’s sister the question about pooping?”
Ellora said, “It’s a frequently asked question when our true identity is revealed.”
Peggera shrugged “I figured she had it handled.”
“Do the Federation people poop?” Kallo asked us.
I recalled times as an Ensign when I had to do plumbing support and repair. “So much poop.” I said, “You can’t imagine the colors and smells.”
“EWWWWW!” Erina and Kallo yelled happily.
-*-
We went to bed. Li’ira and I got a fairly normal-sized bed with wonderfully warm and snuggly blankets.
Ronara, Zeeara and Ellora talked long into the night.
-*-
The next morning, we were preparing to head back to the runabout.
“I mean to go to Tsolegite City, and create a new life for myself,” Ellora said. “I want to remain involved with Kallo, Erina, you and Zeeara.”
Ronara’s face was conflicted.
“A Business Manager for the affairs of the outpost would be beneficial. I wish to perform this role,”
Ronara considered the business sense of that. “Alright. When you’re done with Degruna, come back, and we can settle the details.”
“I shall. In case of any emergency, contact the Damyip and use my name. You will receive assistance.” Ellora said gravely, “We love you.”
Kallo threw himself at Ellora “Don’t die again
“Even if I do, I’ll return,” Ellora said
“Why did you wait?”
“For the same reason Lotara, my sister did not accompany us. Anti-Damyip sentiment is still strong here. It serves no purpose to provoke anger or prejudice unnecessarily. If I had returned, you’d have figured out the reason for the discontinuity in my presence.”
“So, why did you come back now?”
“Lotara and our friends here awakened a new me to question me about my disappearance. Once I returned to function, I wanted to return. Jay made a good argument about it.”
I squinted at her “The argument was, even if they angrily threw us out, we lost no ground on finding out what happened.”
“Close enough is close enough,” Ellora said.
We organic people looked at each other. Ellora had it bad for these people.
We made our goodbyes and took off in search of Degrun.
-*-
Author’s note
Damyip infiltrator units have enough of a disgestion system to eat and drink among the Lefyt. But their poop amounts to passing chewed up food.
Ya fuckin sickos.
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane - The Lefyt System
Omoikane 66 - Uhxoz
I stepped into the Runabout and took my coat off. I never really enjoyed the cold. I tried to appreciate it academically on behalf of people who did.
Ellora was already at one of the auxiliary stations on the flight deck. She placed her hands on the touchscreen controls. Her eyes flashed blue. Lights on the display above the control panel flashed the same color of blue. Lights on the control panel flashed the same blue. All together.
Symbols flashed across the control panel so fast it looked like a hash to me.
She said “I have tracked DeGruna. He uses a number of different names for himself and his ship. He is listed as a freelance scout and courier. His ship is very old and listed as a possible safety hazard. It’s flagged on Uxhoz.”
Peggera asked, “Why specify that it’s flagged on Uxhoz?”
Ellora said, “When the armistice was signed, they ordered all Damyip off world and refused all contact. They view the Federation with great hostility. By ancient custom, ships from all of the eight colonies come and go at will with free travel. We do not interfere unless requested, or it’s imperative. They have some contact with Bot’chok.”
Peggera said, “Well, then I am going to fly my runabout with my friends in it to Uxhoz and ask around.”
Ellora said, “This course of action carries some risk.”
“Maybe we can have a light enough touch not to cause trouble,” I said.
Li’ira shot me a look.
“At your leisure Mister Peggera.”
He cracked his knuckles and got to work flying the runabout.
-*-
Our trip took us a third of the way around the Lefyt system, where Jumoji Gamma floated redly in space.
I booked up as well as I could on the way.
Li’ira and I changed out of Starfleet Uniforms into civilian clothes.
-*-
“Federations. Halt and state your business.”
It was an Orion attack ship. It was either a match for us or outgunned us depending on how it was equipped.
Peggera answered the call “Colonial Warrior Lieutenant Peggera and civilian guests. We want to approach and conduct an investigation into an ongoing matter.”
“Specify the matter.”
“We have evidence that suggests a mister DeGruna is doing financial crimes. Over-charging customers and hiding profits on Pytol.”
There was silence for a while.
“Any Toasters aboard?”
“No,” Pegeera said it very quickly.
“Good. Toasters are shoot-on-sight. Diplomacy or no. You’re cleared to land at Dovemena Port three, Landing pad 15. Deviations are not allowed.”
“Dovemena survived?” Peggera asked.
“No thanks to the Warriors or Damyip, Yes. We did.”
“Thanks, fella. Commencing approach.”
Peggera ended the call. “Wow,”
“Can you maintain cover, Ellora?”
“I’ll try. We are manufacturing the evidence that Peggera invented now. It will not stand up to deep scrutiny.”
I took a deep breath. Better than a fight with an Orion attack ship. But the day wasn’t over yet.
-*-
Dovemena was a bright, shining city on the shore of a sparkling ocean. It had built-up nodes and looked modern. I looked at the sensors. The temperature was much more agreeable.
-*-
We landed at the indicated landing pad. Ellora’s eyes flashed briefly. “I am as well configured as I can manage.”
A group in blue uniforms marched out of an office next to some hangars. They had Orion-style disruptors and tricorders.
They marched up to the hatch and knocked on it.
Li’ira let them in.
They stopped dead at her. “Huh. Orion.”
“Business is business. How much do you want?”
“We’re here to inspect your ship. You can’t afford us not doing that.”
Peggera stepped forward “Gentlemen, she’s with me. These are all my guests. I was told Lefyt can come and go around here.”
“In a Federation ship? With a…” He shot me a look, “Human aboard, Lieutenant?”
“They serve their purpose.”
“I’m sure they do. Just not ours. Step aside, sir.”
Peggera stood back and let them aboard.
They proceeded to search and scan the runabout, looking for contraband thoroughly.
They found the Starfleet uniforms belonging to Li’ira and me. “Who’s Starfleet on this boat?”
I raised my hand. Li’ira did too.
“A Green? In Starfleet?” Apparently, Orion attitudes traveled fast.
“There’s more than you might think. Golden Orions, too.” I said.
“So explain this to me, Starfleet.” His voice held disdain. Starfleet wasn’t popular here.
“I’m under orders,” I said. “I am assisting Lieutenant Peggera in his inquiry. We hope to learn something about your culture and your people.”
“Learn this. We don’t like aliens rolling in and telling us how to mind our business.”
“We’ll avoid doing that, then.”
“Why aren’t you in uniform?”
“We don’t want anyone thinking we’re here to interfere in anyone’s business.”
He rolled his eyes.
The search turned up nothing they didn’t like. I could tell he wanted to confiscate our phasers, but that wasn’t in his mandate. Instead, he scanned them very thoroughly. If we shot anyone with them, they could tell which specific phaser was used.
As he left, the port officer snarled to Peggera, “Make sure to take your trash with you when you leave.”
On the good side, I could smell the ocean through the open hatch. I enjoyed that quite a bit.
-*-
They were using Latinum as money. Peggera sniffed “We used to use gold.”
“Too easy to get,” I said “The Damyip could flood them out with tailing from asteroid mining.”
We didn’t have much on the Runabout.
We visited the Port Office and sold some of the Runabout’s Anti-matter supply for Latinum. They made it slow and let us know the Anti-Matter from Federation Storage tanks smelled really bad.
Having acquired jingly money we left to go visit Dovemena.
-*-
Ellora insisted on clothes shopping. “We must be able to present as ordinary civilians walking down the road. The right clothes will help.”
It was fascinating to watch. Dovemena had a main strip that paralleled the beach a few blocks away. This strip was filled with shops, casinos, and other such attractions. And off-worlders. We didn’t get much of a look there. I saw Klingons, Orions dressed as pirates, and Musari. Even a few folks from the Bendarri Empire.
Li’ira took out her tricorder. Ellora and Li’ira watched some media over an old-fashioned restaurant-cooked lunch. They discussed the anthropology of various clothing and social classes and how they signaled their status to each other. It had a Lefyt-style beginning layer, but the Uhxoz took it in their own direction.
There was far more information than two people doing a cursory scan of media could really plumb, but Li’ira and Ellora quickly refined their focus and their goals. They were doing quick and dirty anthropology under pressure, and I could have watched them do it all day.
While they did that, I performed an experiment of my own. I asked the waitress and got samples of various vegetables. Most raw.
I crunched each carefully, mentally noting taste, consistency, and other elements of the experience.
I didn’t like doing that. I am not a vegetable guy. But something inside me was deeply curious about the vegetables of Uhzox.
-*-
I stepped out of the dressing room, “What do you think?”
Li’ira’s face gave away nothing. That was a hint.
“Your tastes in colors is… exuberant,” Ellora said
Li’ira almost lost it. She recovered with a deep breath “You look like a tourist.”
“I am a tourist.”
Li’ira nodded “Okay, fair point.”
Peggera appeared. His yellow suit had purple, green, and orange ruffles around the collars and cuffs. His hat was orange with a hat band that looked like all the flavors in an ice cream shop. “Quite stylish,” he said.
“Tourists it is,” Li’ira said.
“Indeed,” Ellora agreed.
-*-
Our next stop was a bookshop.
This one was more modern than Goral’s. A Good deal less friendly. But we loaded up tricorders with all sorts of things. Mission success.
-*-
“So, what’s good?” I asked the Ferengi
“Everything’s good. Good for you to buy and me to sell.”
“Actually, I am looking for information.”
“Sex work is technically illegal, but for a nominal fee, I can refer you.”
“No-”
“Drugs are a more difficult thing, The cost will be higher.”
“I’m looking for a guy named DeGruna. He has a ship.”
“Have you considered looking in a directory?”
I blinked rapidly “They have those?”
“I charge a higher fee to help the stupid.”
“And worth every quarter strip.”
“Stupid and cheap.”
I slid him two quarter-strips of latinum. He made them vanish. “Don’t spend them all in one place,” I said
“What’s the human term? Asshole.”
I went looking for a directory.
-*-
My eyes were crossing. So. Many. Names.
None of them were DeGruna. All the ships were Orion models.
Li’ira found me. “Good idea. But we can download that material into the runabout’s computer and search it easier that way.”
I blinked at her and felt irritation cross my face. She grinned merrily. Who could be mad at that?
“Someone owes me a quarter strip of Latinum.”
“You didn’t pay to access the directory?” Li’ira looked concerned
“Indirectly. Sort of.”
She put her hands together over her mouth and nose “I should have watched you better.”
“Did you make any progress?”
“Not really. But we’re learning.”
“Some of us more than others,” I grumped.
We caught up to Peggera and Ellora, Ellora’s body language had changed. She seemed much friendlier with Peggera.
“We should do something touristy. It will help.” She said conversationally.
My foggy brain came back into my skull just long enough to process her words. I found myself looking at an advertisement.
“What about that?” I pointed.
A trio, two Lefyt or Golden Orions, and a Green Orion. All women, in slinky, sparkly dresses. Apparently some sort of singing group. I didn’t recognize the name of the venue.
“Adequate,” Ellora said.
“Indeed,” Li’ira deadpanned.
-*-
The club wasn’t too big. The drinks were expensive. Dr Pepper on the menu fetched a premium price. Everything was sparkly and looked lavish. The people were dressed in amusingly impractical clothing.
The show opened.
I was quite enjoying it. Orion Jazz has a different beat signature, but their harmonies were wonderful.
Li’ira sneezed. She sneezed again.
“We have to go,” she said, wiping her nose on an expensive-looking napkin.
“Why?” I asked
“Pheromones,” Li’ira said, “I’m getting a headache.”
I didn’t know what was happening but didn’t like it, “Let’s go.”
Peggera looked confused, but we all exited the club in good order.
The fresh air smelled good. I could smell the ocean a few blocks away. Li’ira’s eyes were watering.
“You okay?” I asked
She nodded “Fresh air, good.”
We turned and started heading for the public transit. We’d take a tram back to the spaceport.
Two blocks away, three men stepped out of an alley facing us.
“Hey, now. We don’t want any trouble,” Peggera held his hands up.
“Too bad,” a voice behind us said, “You got it.”
I reached for my phaser in my pocket. Phaser ones are great for when you don’t want to be obviously armed. I’d have to rethink where I carried it.
Peggera and Ellora had theirs out and firing before I could blink. In moment, the six assailants were down. It was the fastest phaser draw I’d ever seen.
Peggera looked at his, “I liked the old blasters better.”
Ellora said, “We must go.”
As we jogged away from the confrontation, we heard someone shouting. Li’ira started coughing. Whatever was hitting her was getting worse.
We turned into an alley and kept going. Li’ira was wheezing and leaning on me more.
“We’ve got to do something,” I said.
“We’ll call a cab, take her to the hospital,” Peggera said.
It wasn’t what I was thinking of, but the doctors there knew Orion physiology. “Do it,” I said.
-*-
“Your friend isn’t going to puke, is she?” The cab driver asked.
“We’ll pay a cleaning fee if she does,” Peggera said “I think she allergic to shellfish.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to call an ambulance?” He asked
“Let’s just go,” Peggera said.
Ellora and I got Li’ira into the back seat.
The driver started his meter, and away we went. The driver looked at us from time to time, but Peggera kept up a conversation that mostly distracted him.
Li’ira’s breathing kept getting worse.
“I… I…” She struggled, gripping my hand tightly.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” I said. If I had to beam us back to the runabout and do surgery on her myself, I’d make it work somehow.
-*-
Hauling Li’ira into the emergency room was scary and unpleasant. Her face was dark dark green and swollen.
The triage nurse helped us get her onto a gurney, and they rolled her into a bay. The Nurses tried to stop me from coming with her. I ignored them.
A thin man with a scanner that looked like goggles came in.
“Did she eat any shellfish?”
“I don’t think so.”
“In a Lefyt, I’d say this was an allergic reaction,” He turned on his scanner and peered carefully at Li’ira.
Then he looked at a tablet with information scrolling across it.
He spoke to the nurse ordering a drug.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“A common treatment for anaphylactic shock,” He said, pulling down his goggles-scanner to look at my face directly “For us. And probably for her. I think it’d kill you. I’m not up on my human medicine.”
I gripped Li’ira’s hand tightly.
The nurse came back with a hypo spray. The doctor took it, checked it, and injected Li’ira.
“My folks and hers are mostly the same under the skin,” He said. “I’m pretty sure this should work.”
It took forever. But breath by breath, Li’ira recovered from her crisis.
“I taste salt, and copper.” She said
“A common side effect. It’ll pass. Whatever you ran into, you’re deathly allergic.
Li’ira coughed hard “Bitch was using some sort of accelerant,”
“What?”
“What Bitch?”
“At the Cotton Skies Club. A jazz band. One of the performers was another green,” I said.
Li’ira nodded “Pheromone accelerant. If we’d stayed Peggera… and Ellora would have been wrapped around her fingers.”
“Are humans immune to Green Orion Phermones?” The doctor asked
“No,” I said.
“Everyone gets used to them with exposure,” Li’ira said “Jay’s been around me for long enough he barely notices.”
“Well, we’ll run some tests to be sure. But I think you’re through the worst of it now.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Emergency medicine in Dovemena is never dull,” he said.
-*-
The dawn was creeping on the horizon when we got back to the runabout.
There was a note stuck to the outer hatch.
“You’re invited to Gramen Tolsil’s for late lunch. Please RSVP”
It was hand-written.
“Sure,” I said “What could possibly go wrong?”
Li’ira punched me in the shoulder.
-*-
I dreamed.
I was in the mental space, with Galaglan.
There were a number of Ane there with her. I interrupted a conversation.
I walked up to her.
**Are you okay?** She asked
“I’m having the weirdest dream,” I said.
I gently took Galaglan into my arms and kissed her. But, instead of kissing, our mouths overlapped, and I relived the experience of trying Uxhoz vegetables.
The Ane around us watched this with some mix of amusement, confusion, and concern.
I moved my head back, and Galaglan smacked her lips **Interesting. Unexpected. What are you doing?**
“This is the weirdest fucking dream,” I said “No offense.”
**You’re dreaming?** she asked
I looked at her “Well of course I’m dreaming.” It felt like a dream. Fuzzy, indistinct. Things were swimming around the edges of my consciousness
I heard galloping.
“When you hear galloping, don’t assume zebras,” I said.
I saw Tippalan. As if at a distance, bombing across a savanah at me. She was galloping flat out. There were several Ane with her. In the distance Gensilan loomed like a large moon over the mental space. The Ane can really move when they have the space and put their minds to it.
Tippalan never slowed down. If not in a dream, I’d have worried about her running me down.
Closer, closer, closer.
The Ane eyes were all blue. You could faintly make out normal eye stuff behind the blue in the right light. But they had an extra lens that told all blue light to go elsewhere. Big all-blue eyes dominated my view. It was a dream image of big blue Ane eyes.
I felt something big and fuzzy push me, hard
**WEAR YOUR GOD DAMNED PSI-SHIELD!!**
I woke up tumbling out of my bunk on the runabout and hit the deck. I lay on my back and studied the overhead for a few moments.
Ellora stood over me. “I did not observe you drinking anything.”
“Maybe that’s the problem,” I said.
I went back to bed. No more alien veggies for me.
I stepped into the Runabout and took my coat off. I never really enjoyed the cold. I tried to appreciate it academically on behalf of people who did.
Ellora was already at one of the auxiliary stations on the flight deck. She placed her hands on the touchscreen controls. Her eyes flashed blue. Lights on the display above the control panel flashed the same color of blue. Lights on the control panel flashed the same blue. All together.
Symbols flashed across the control panel so fast it looked like a hash to me.
She said “I have tracked DeGruna. He uses a number of different names for himself and his ship. He is listed as a freelance scout and courier. His ship is very old and listed as a possible safety hazard. It’s flagged on Uxhoz.”
Peggera asked, “Why specify that it’s flagged on Uxhoz?”
Ellora said, “When the armistice was signed, they ordered all Damyip off world and refused all contact. They view the Federation with great hostility. By ancient custom, ships from all of the eight colonies come and go at will with free travel. We do not interfere unless requested, or it’s imperative. They have some contact with Bot’chok.”
Peggera said, “Well, then I am going to fly my runabout with my friends in it to Uxhoz and ask around.”
Ellora said, “This course of action carries some risk.”
“Maybe we can have a light enough touch not to cause trouble,” I said.
Li’ira shot me a look.
“At your leisure Mister Peggera.”
He cracked his knuckles and got to work flying the runabout.
-*-
Our trip took us a third of the way around the Lefyt system, where Jumoji Gamma floated redly in space.
I booked up as well as I could on the way.
Li’ira and I changed out of Starfleet Uniforms into civilian clothes.
-*-
“Federations. Halt and state your business.”
It was an Orion attack ship. It was either a match for us or outgunned us depending on how it was equipped.
Peggera answered the call “Colonial Warrior Lieutenant Peggera and civilian guests. We want to approach and conduct an investigation into an ongoing matter.”
“Specify the matter.”
“We have evidence that suggests a mister DeGruna is doing financial crimes. Over-charging customers and hiding profits on Pytol.”
There was silence for a while.
“Any Toasters aboard?”
“No,” Pegeera said it very quickly.
“Good. Toasters are shoot-on-sight. Diplomacy or no. You’re cleared to land at Dovemena Port three, Landing pad 15. Deviations are not allowed.”
“Dovemena survived?” Peggera asked.
“No thanks to the Warriors or Damyip, Yes. We did.”
“Thanks, fella. Commencing approach.”
Peggera ended the call. “Wow,”
“Can you maintain cover, Ellora?”
“I’ll try. We are manufacturing the evidence that Peggera invented now. It will not stand up to deep scrutiny.”
I took a deep breath. Better than a fight with an Orion attack ship. But the day wasn’t over yet.
-*-
Dovemena was a bright, shining city on the shore of a sparkling ocean. It had built-up nodes and looked modern. I looked at the sensors. The temperature was much more agreeable.
-*-
We landed at the indicated landing pad. Ellora’s eyes flashed briefly. “I am as well configured as I can manage.”
A group in blue uniforms marched out of an office next to some hangars. They had Orion-style disruptors and tricorders.
They marched up to the hatch and knocked on it.
Li’ira let them in.
They stopped dead at her. “Huh. Orion.”
“Business is business. How much do you want?”
“We’re here to inspect your ship. You can’t afford us not doing that.”
Peggera stepped forward “Gentlemen, she’s with me. These are all my guests. I was told Lefyt can come and go around here.”
“In a Federation ship? With a…” He shot me a look, “Human aboard, Lieutenant?”
“They serve their purpose.”
“I’m sure they do. Just not ours. Step aside, sir.”
Peggera stood back and let them aboard.
They proceeded to search and scan the runabout, looking for contraband thoroughly.
They found the Starfleet uniforms belonging to Li’ira and me. “Who’s Starfleet on this boat?”
I raised my hand. Li’ira did too.
“A Green? In Starfleet?” Apparently, Orion attitudes traveled fast.
“There’s more than you might think. Golden Orions, too.” I said.
“So explain this to me, Starfleet.” His voice held disdain. Starfleet wasn’t popular here.
“I’m under orders,” I said. “I am assisting Lieutenant Peggera in his inquiry. We hope to learn something about your culture and your people.”
“Learn this. We don’t like aliens rolling in and telling us how to mind our business.”
“We’ll avoid doing that, then.”
“Why aren’t you in uniform?”
“We don’t want anyone thinking we’re here to interfere in anyone’s business.”
He rolled his eyes.
The search turned up nothing they didn’t like. I could tell he wanted to confiscate our phasers, but that wasn’t in his mandate. Instead, he scanned them very thoroughly. If we shot anyone with them, they could tell which specific phaser was used.
As he left, the port officer snarled to Peggera, “Make sure to take your trash with you when you leave.”
On the good side, I could smell the ocean through the open hatch. I enjoyed that quite a bit.
-*-
They were using Latinum as money. Peggera sniffed “We used to use gold.”
“Too easy to get,” I said “The Damyip could flood them out with tailing from asteroid mining.”
We didn’t have much on the Runabout.
We visited the Port Office and sold some of the Runabout’s Anti-matter supply for Latinum. They made it slow and let us know the Anti-Matter from Federation Storage tanks smelled really bad.
Having acquired jingly money we left to go visit Dovemena.
-*-
Ellora insisted on clothes shopping. “We must be able to present as ordinary civilians walking down the road. The right clothes will help.”
It was fascinating to watch. Dovemena had a main strip that paralleled the beach a few blocks away. This strip was filled with shops, casinos, and other such attractions. And off-worlders. We didn’t get much of a look there. I saw Klingons, Orions dressed as pirates, and Musari. Even a few folks from the Bendarri Empire.
Li’ira took out her tricorder. Ellora and Li’ira watched some media over an old-fashioned restaurant-cooked lunch. They discussed the anthropology of various clothing and social classes and how they signaled their status to each other. It had a Lefyt-style beginning layer, but the Uhxoz took it in their own direction.
There was far more information than two people doing a cursory scan of media could really plumb, but Li’ira and Ellora quickly refined their focus and their goals. They were doing quick and dirty anthropology under pressure, and I could have watched them do it all day.
While they did that, I performed an experiment of my own. I asked the waitress and got samples of various vegetables. Most raw.
I crunched each carefully, mentally noting taste, consistency, and other elements of the experience.
I didn’t like doing that. I am not a vegetable guy. But something inside me was deeply curious about the vegetables of Uhzox.
-*-
I stepped out of the dressing room, “What do you think?”
Li’ira’s face gave away nothing. That was a hint.
“Your tastes in colors is… exuberant,” Ellora said
Li’ira almost lost it. She recovered with a deep breath “You look like a tourist.”
“I am a tourist.”
Li’ira nodded “Okay, fair point.”
Peggera appeared. His yellow suit had purple, green, and orange ruffles around the collars and cuffs. His hat was orange with a hat band that looked like all the flavors in an ice cream shop. “Quite stylish,” he said.
“Tourists it is,” Li’ira said.
“Indeed,” Ellora agreed.
-*-
Our next stop was a bookshop.
This one was more modern than Goral’s. A Good deal less friendly. But we loaded up tricorders with all sorts of things. Mission success.
-*-
“So, what’s good?” I asked the Ferengi
“Everything’s good. Good for you to buy and me to sell.”
“Actually, I am looking for information.”
“Sex work is technically illegal, but for a nominal fee, I can refer you.”
“No-”
“Drugs are a more difficult thing, The cost will be higher.”
“I’m looking for a guy named DeGruna. He has a ship.”
“Have you considered looking in a directory?”
I blinked rapidly “They have those?”
“I charge a higher fee to help the stupid.”
“And worth every quarter strip.”
“Stupid and cheap.”
I slid him two quarter-strips of latinum. He made them vanish. “Don’t spend them all in one place,” I said
“What’s the human term? Asshole.”
I went looking for a directory.
-*-
My eyes were crossing. So. Many. Names.
None of them were DeGruna. All the ships were Orion models.
Li’ira found me. “Good idea. But we can download that material into the runabout’s computer and search it easier that way.”
I blinked at her and felt irritation cross my face. She grinned merrily. Who could be mad at that?
“Someone owes me a quarter strip of Latinum.”
“You didn’t pay to access the directory?” Li’ira looked concerned
“Indirectly. Sort of.”
She put her hands together over her mouth and nose “I should have watched you better.”
“Did you make any progress?”
“Not really. But we’re learning.”
“Some of us more than others,” I grumped.
We caught up to Peggera and Ellora, Ellora’s body language had changed. She seemed much friendlier with Peggera.
“We should do something touristy. It will help.” She said conversationally.
My foggy brain came back into my skull just long enough to process her words. I found myself looking at an advertisement.
“What about that?” I pointed.
A trio, two Lefyt or Golden Orions, and a Green Orion. All women, in slinky, sparkly dresses. Apparently some sort of singing group. I didn’t recognize the name of the venue.
“Adequate,” Ellora said.
“Indeed,” Li’ira deadpanned.
-*-
The club wasn’t too big. The drinks were expensive. Dr Pepper on the menu fetched a premium price. Everything was sparkly and looked lavish. The people were dressed in amusingly impractical clothing.
The show opened.
I was quite enjoying it. Orion Jazz has a different beat signature, but their harmonies were wonderful.
Li’ira sneezed. She sneezed again.
“We have to go,” she said, wiping her nose on an expensive-looking napkin.
“Why?” I asked
“Pheromones,” Li’ira said, “I’m getting a headache.”
I didn’t know what was happening but didn’t like it, “Let’s go.”
Peggera looked confused, but we all exited the club in good order.
The fresh air smelled good. I could smell the ocean a few blocks away. Li’ira’s eyes were watering.
“You okay?” I asked
She nodded “Fresh air, good.”
We turned and started heading for the public transit. We’d take a tram back to the spaceport.
Two blocks away, three men stepped out of an alley facing us.
“Hey, now. We don’t want any trouble,” Peggera held his hands up.
“Too bad,” a voice behind us said, “You got it.”
I reached for my phaser in my pocket. Phaser ones are great for when you don’t want to be obviously armed. I’d have to rethink where I carried it.
Peggera and Ellora had theirs out and firing before I could blink. In moment, the six assailants were down. It was the fastest phaser draw I’d ever seen.
Peggera looked at his, “I liked the old blasters better.”
Ellora said, “We must go.”
As we jogged away from the confrontation, we heard someone shouting. Li’ira started coughing. Whatever was hitting her was getting worse.
We turned into an alley and kept going. Li’ira was wheezing and leaning on me more.
“We’ve got to do something,” I said.
“We’ll call a cab, take her to the hospital,” Peggera said.
It wasn’t what I was thinking of, but the doctors there knew Orion physiology. “Do it,” I said.
-*-
“Your friend isn’t going to puke, is she?” The cab driver asked.
“We’ll pay a cleaning fee if she does,” Peggera said “I think she allergic to shellfish.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to call an ambulance?” He asked
“Let’s just go,” Peggera said.
Ellora and I got Li’ira into the back seat.
The driver started his meter, and away we went. The driver looked at us from time to time, but Peggera kept up a conversation that mostly distracted him.
Li’ira’s breathing kept getting worse.
“I… I…” She struggled, gripping my hand tightly.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” I said. If I had to beam us back to the runabout and do surgery on her myself, I’d make it work somehow.
-*-
Hauling Li’ira into the emergency room was scary and unpleasant. Her face was dark dark green and swollen.
The triage nurse helped us get her onto a gurney, and they rolled her into a bay. The Nurses tried to stop me from coming with her. I ignored them.
A thin man with a scanner that looked like goggles came in.
“Did she eat any shellfish?”
“I don’t think so.”
“In a Lefyt, I’d say this was an allergic reaction,” He turned on his scanner and peered carefully at Li’ira.
Then he looked at a tablet with information scrolling across it.
He spoke to the nurse ordering a drug.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“A common treatment for anaphylactic shock,” He said, pulling down his goggles-scanner to look at my face directly “For us. And probably for her. I think it’d kill you. I’m not up on my human medicine.”
I gripped Li’ira’s hand tightly.
The nurse came back with a hypo spray. The doctor took it, checked it, and injected Li’ira.
“My folks and hers are mostly the same under the skin,” He said. “I’m pretty sure this should work.”
It took forever. But breath by breath, Li’ira recovered from her crisis.
“I taste salt, and copper.” She said
“A common side effect. It’ll pass. Whatever you ran into, you’re deathly allergic.
Li’ira coughed hard “Bitch was using some sort of accelerant,”
“What?”
“What Bitch?”
“At the Cotton Skies Club. A jazz band. One of the performers was another green,” I said.
Li’ira nodded “Pheromone accelerant. If we’d stayed Peggera… and Ellora would have been wrapped around her fingers.”
“Are humans immune to Green Orion Phermones?” The doctor asked
“No,” I said.
“Everyone gets used to them with exposure,” Li’ira said “Jay’s been around me for long enough he barely notices.”
“Well, we’ll run some tests to be sure. But I think you’re through the worst of it now.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Emergency medicine in Dovemena is never dull,” he said.
-*-
The dawn was creeping on the horizon when we got back to the runabout.
There was a note stuck to the outer hatch.
“You’re invited to Gramen Tolsil’s for late lunch. Please RSVP”
It was hand-written.
“Sure,” I said “What could possibly go wrong?”
Li’ira punched me in the shoulder.
-*-
I dreamed.
I was in the mental space, with Galaglan.
There were a number of Ane there with her. I interrupted a conversation.
I walked up to her.
**Are you okay?** She asked
“I’m having the weirdest dream,” I said.
I gently took Galaglan into my arms and kissed her. But, instead of kissing, our mouths overlapped, and I relived the experience of trying Uxhoz vegetables.
The Ane around us watched this with some mix of amusement, confusion, and concern.
I moved my head back, and Galaglan smacked her lips **Interesting. Unexpected. What are you doing?**
“This is the weirdest fucking dream,” I said “No offense.”
**You’re dreaming?** she asked
I looked at her “Well of course I’m dreaming.” It felt like a dream. Fuzzy, indistinct. Things were swimming around the edges of my consciousness
I heard galloping.
“When you hear galloping, don’t assume zebras,” I said.
I saw Tippalan. As if at a distance, bombing across a savanah at me. She was galloping flat out. There were several Ane with her. In the distance Gensilan loomed like a large moon over the mental space. The Ane can really move when they have the space and put their minds to it.
Tippalan never slowed down. If not in a dream, I’d have worried about her running me down.
Closer, closer, closer.
The Ane eyes were all blue. You could faintly make out normal eye stuff behind the blue in the right light. But they had an extra lens that told all blue light to go elsewhere. Big all-blue eyes dominated my view. It was a dream image of big blue Ane eyes.
I felt something big and fuzzy push me, hard
**WEAR YOUR GOD DAMNED PSI-SHIELD!!**
I woke up tumbling out of my bunk on the runabout and hit the deck. I lay on my back and studied the overhead for a few moments.
Ellora stood over me. “I did not observe you drinking anything.”
“Maybe that’s the problem,” I said.
I went back to bed. No more alien veggies for me.
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane - The Lefyt System
Omoikane 67 - Polite and Cultured.
We arrived at Gramen Tolsil’s estate. The message we received when we confirmed the invitation specified the mode of dress. So we were dressed appropriately, in black suits and shoes. We debated wearing dress uniform, but we didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves that way, yet.
We had a crash course in Uhxoz manners. Nothing too unusual. Meal served in courses, polite conversation boundaries. Business is held until after the meal. Hospitality is important. Violence or coercion against a guest is extremely gauche. I appreciated that one.
We climbed out of the limousine Tolsil sent for us, and walked into the foyer of the grand estate. There was an entryway with two extremely large Lefyt men on either side of it. They wore dark suits and dark glasses. Bodyguards. They have a look. To the right-hand side of the foyer, there was a counter and a young man behind the counter. “Weapon’s check. Please check your weapons,” the young man said.
Smiling, I slowly took my phaser one out of the sleeve holster I’d replicated for it. I didn’t have time to rig a spring-loaded holster. They weren’t all that reliable anyway.
I handed it to the young man. He carefully placed it into a velvet-lined box. Have a nice vacation, little phaser.
Li’ira and Ellora handed in their phasers with aplomb. Happens every day.
Peggera said, “May I have a receipt?”
The young man hesitated half a beat “Certainly, sir.” He opened a drawer, dug a little bit, and came up with an aged pad of paper and a pen. He wrote a receipt for Peggera’s phaser in sweeping, artistic Lefyt script. He looked at us “Would you like one?”
I shook my head, “I’m sure there will be no problem.”
If there was to be a problem, we were way too far along to do much about it now.
We turned and walked towards the entryway guarded by the hulking bodyguards. I was most of the way through when the entryway beeped. Ellora’s eyes flashed blue at the same time. “My cover has been blown.”
The guard on the starboard side said, “The boss invited you. You’re safe this time.”
The other guard said, “Maybe we’ll see you again, off the estate,” in a voice that quietly promised mayhem and violence.
The young man at the front counter smoothly put his own weapon back under the counter “All weapons need to be checked, please.” He looked at Li’ira and Peggera when he said it.
Li’ira sighed “Nice sensors.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” the young man said.
Li’ira slowly reached into her boot and pulled a second phaser-one out. Then she did a nice sort of a magic slight-of-hand move and slid three throwing knives out of her left sleeve. The young man gave her a look. She reached behind her under her jacket and pulled three more throwing knives out. These were dull grey. They looked like carbon composite.
Fully disarmed, Li’ira stepped back from the counter.
Peggera pulled a phaser one out of his own right boot, and handed over something that looked like a brass knuckles.
“Alright, thank you very much,” The young man said in a cheerful customer service voice.
We turned and made a less dignified, but orderly entrance into the hallway.
A butler greeted us and showed us along a hallway “Thank you for attending. I hope your transportation was sufficient.”
“It was lovely, thank you,” I said.
“Thank you, Sir.”
He led us to a dining room. It was large. I’d say it was baroque, but that wasn’t the design. Where an Earth room would be Baroque, this one had different designs. But they were similarly detailed and aggressively artistic. Uhxoz Baroque.
At the table, there were three Lefyt people. The man at the head of the table was slim, slightly above average height. His presence dominated the room. He was dressed for lunch in the classic Lefyt style. Next to him, there was a larger Lefyt man. Not quite as large as the bodyguards, he had the face of a fighter. Across from the fighter, there was a regal and beautiful Lefyt woman.
They had more than enough tall-backed Lefyt-baroque chairs for everyone.
“Gramin Tolsil, Jasso Moril, and Ruzzel Rolla,” He turned towards us “The Party from the USS Joranal, Captain Jay P. Hailey, Commander Li’ira Mary O’Keefe of Starfleet. Lieutenant Peggera of Iponij, and Ellora late of Tyozesot.”
They stood to greet us and gestured us towards chairs “Thank you for coming. I’m told it was a late night for you.” Tolsil’s voice was deep.
“Thank you for having us, Sir,” I said. All the questions I had in mind amounted to business and so were off limits for now.
Moril the fighter, and Rolla quickly turned off tablets and cleared the decks.
We seated.
Tolsil’s staff brought out dishes and set us up.
“You’re from Earth, is that right?” Tolsil asked.
“I am,” I said.
“And you, Commander?”
“I was born in space, aboard a free trader,” Li’ira said.
“That must have had an interesting effect on your experience of growing up,” Rolla said
“It makes each planet a new treat and a new experience,” Li’ira said.
“There’s a lot we don’t understand about Uhxoz,” I said “I hope you don’t mind if we ask you about your world.”
“That’s your business, isn’t it? Traveling through space and visiting new worlds?” Tolsil said
“That’s our favorite part of it, yes,” I said, “What is your business?”
“I own three casinos,” Tolsil said “And interest in a number of other businesses. You were in one of my casinos last night.”
I was dangerously close to being rude, “It was very interesting. A great experience.”
We ate carefully, trying to avoid missteps, and trying the dishes as they came out. I didn’t like most of them. I tried to eat enough of each to be polite.
We agreeably probed each others’ backgrounds as politely as possible. Ruzzel Rolla was a lawyer and Tolsil’s wife. Moril was described as an operations specialist.
After what felt like three years, we finished the meal and the dishes were cleared. I was exhausted. Short of sleep, weird dreams, and now being overly conscious of every social move. It was heavier lifting than it looked like.
Tolsil leaned back “Thank you. You made an effort to respect our ways, and I appreciate that. Now, we may talk more freely. What brings you to Uhxoz?”
I was in a strange situation. I didn’t know enough. There was a risk of diplomatic failure here. So I made a tactical decision, “Ellora’s previous self was murdered.”
That got a little bit of a reaction. Rolla recovered quickly “You’ve recovered marvelously.”
“Thank you,” Ellora said “It was not without cost.”
“We suspect a man named DeGruna was involved in this incident,” I continued “He runs a small ship with multiple names. Small Pretty Female is the one we’re seeing most often.”
Tolsil looked at me “You understand that deactivating a Damyip is not considered a crime here.”
“The way he did it was weird,” I said “I understand if Ellora sparks little compassion in you. In part, my concern is what happens when DeGruna’s behavior escalates.”
“Weird how?” Tolsil asked.
I set my tricorder on the table and set up the holographic display. It was set to show the damage to the previous Ellora in a safe, graphics-based way. Moril cut me off “Do you have real photographs? It’ll help.”
I reset the presentation and went through the images of the ruined Damyip infiltrator unit.
“What tool did he use in the thoracic intrusion there?” He pointed
I had to admit, “I don’t know for sure. From my tool kit that would be a long-handled cutting torch to open small holes deeply into machines, when you need to look inside but can’t move them.”
Moril’s questions were detailed and showed disturbing experience.
After reviewing the case carefully, Moril leaned back “You remember the South Island Slasher?”
Tolsil nodded “Yes, I remember.”
“This guy’s like that. Captain Hailey’s language is odd. He’s not a street guy. But I think he’s on the right track here. This DeGruna guy isn’t right. He’ll escalate in time.”
“This violence is aimed at Damyip,” Tolsil said.
“Why would he do this stuff to a robot?” Moril asked, “This isn’t aimed at a goal. He’s not trying to get information or coerce some behavior. None of that makes any sense. So, it’s coming from an emotional place. He’s trying to express something or soothe something. It won’t work with robots. They can’t give him what he needs. Eventually, he’ll try it on someone made of meat.”
“Beware of the assumption that it is DeGruna,” Ellora said, “We have not proven this theory yet.”
“Whoever did this to… your previous self,” Moril said.
“Agreed,” Ellora said.
I could see it in Tolsil’s face. He didn’t care. Our subject could torture a bus full of orphans, and it would affect Tolsil not at all.
Tolsil thought about it for a moment: “Nothing comes without a price.”
“I’m listening,” I said.
“If you find DeGruna and find he’s responsible, I want his ship.”
“That’s a big ask,” I said.
“DeGruna and I had a business relationship. If he’s doing this, he has attracted the attention of the Damyip and Starfleet. That abrogates our relationship. My business can continue with DeGruna’s ship but without DeGruna.”
“I can easily arrange a new ship for you,” Ellora said.
Tolsil, Moril, and Rolla looked at her. Tolsil said, “That implies a level of trust that does not exist.”
“Our motives are not what you think. We seek information.”
“What kind of information?”
“Social information, current events on Uhxoz, Other items. We’re willing to be flexible to build up trust.”
“Trust. With the Damyip,” Tolsil said.
“You don’t think small, that’s for sure,” Moril said.
“As I said, our motives may not be what you’d expect. A mutually beneficial arrangement would suit our purposes.”
Tolsil said, “Let me think about that and get back to you.”
Ellora said, “Let’s arrange a covert method for you to contact us. This way you can ask questions and communicate without publicly being seen to speak with the Damyip.”
Tolsil said, “Agreed. I’ll get back to you about that,” He turned to me “You. Captain Hailey 3. Your Starfleet has honor. Different from the Klingons, but still honor. Swear it to me. If DeGruna is your guy, I inherit his ship.”
I considered it. Starfleet and the Damyip knew the ship now. He couldn’t move it in the system without us being aware of it “If DeGruna’s our guy, I’ll hand his ship over to you.”
Tolsil nodded to Rolla. She transmitted data to my tricorder.
“DeGruna has a hideaway on Sedmara. No one likes him here. He creeps people out. But he has a ship and will do anything with it for cash or supplies, so he has a niche here. One I think I can run a little more professionally and make a little more money,” Tolsil said.
“How did you know our names?” Li’ira asked.
Tolsil smiled faintly “I didn’t ask you here by accident. You two are on several bounty lists,” he looked at Li’ira and me “Your information is on the Orion data web for the asking.”
“What did you guys do to wind up on a bounty list?” Peggera asked.
“They have deeply antagonized the Orions of Bot’chok, the so-called Orion Colonies,” Tolsil said, “Something I appreciate.”
“Oh?” Peggera asked
“We hate the Damyip. We do not want the Federation standing over us. We reached out to the Orions, and they turned up trying to take over. They threw their weight around pretty heavily. It wasn’t good business.”
“If Uhxoz wants to maintain its neutrality, the Federation is willing to negotiate about that. We can set up a treaty that respects your lack of desire to be part of the Federation,” I said.
Tolsil looked at me flatly “Talk is cheap. You’d respect that, right up until you had the force to do what you wanted anyway.”
“What about our word?” I asked, “If it gets around that you can’t trust the Federation, what’s our word worth?”
Tonsil said, “You expect me to believe that you’d let a single small world like Uhxoz tell you no just to protect your brand?”
“We wanted something better. The Federation keeps its word. We want it to be the kind of government that does that. We had to work hard to get it. We’ll work hard to keep it. Being the good guys doesn’t just happen. You have to want it, choose it, and build it,” I said.
“Nice words,” Tonsil said, looking at me and Li’ira. He stopped “Are you serious? Really serious?”
“We took oaths. We’re ready to fight and die about it,” Li’ira said,
Tolsil grabbed his tablet and scrolled through several pages of information his eyes flicking across the sentences, “It’s true, isn’t it? You’re fanatic moralists.”
“Towards the Federation, yeah,” I said “Our Prime Directive means we have zero official opinions about how you run your business here.”
Tolsil’s poker face was immaculate, “I can see why you bother the Orions so badly.” He gestured to get up. We all followed his lead.
“Thank you for coming. I have a lot of work to catch up on,” He said “I found this enlightening and enjoyable.”
“The same here. You are very interesting people,” I said
He gestured us towards the doors “I am probably not the only one who has read up the Orion information about you. Someone less … polite may happen by shortly.”
The Butler appeared. “See they get back to their ship, safely,” Tolsil ordered
“Sir.” The Butler confirmed
“A suggestion. Go investigate Sedmara. Directly.”
“That’s a very good idea, Sir.”
“Have a good afternoon,”
We followed the Butler back to the entryway. The nice young man gave us back all of our weapons.
We rode the same limousine back to the Runabout. As soon as we were all out of the vehicle, it moved away.
We climbed into our ship.
“Peggera, how do you feel?” I asked
“Fine. Good to go.”
“Alright, get us to Sedmara. I’m going to go take a nap.” I said.
As I took off my replicated formal luncheon suit, I could see the surface of Uhxoz drop away from us.
I climbed into my bunk. I was going to need my brain to be fully functional moving forward.
We arrived at Gramen Tolsil’s estate. The message we received when we confirmed the invitation specified the mode of dress. So we were dressed appropriately, in black suits and shoes. We debated wearing dress uniform, but we didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves that way, yet.
We had a crash course in Uhxoz manners. Nothing too unusual. Meal served in courses, polite conversation boundaries. Business is held until after the meal. Hospitality is important. Violence or coercion against a guest is extremely gauche. I appreciated that one.
We climbed out of the limousine Tolsil sent for us, and walked into the foyer of the grand estate. There was an entryway with two extremely large Lefyt men on either side of it. They wore dark suits and dark glasses. Bodyguards. They have a look. To the right-hand side of the foyer, there was a counter and a young man behind the counter. “Weapon’s check. Please check your weapons,” the young man said.
Smiling, I slowly took my phaser one out of the sleeve holster I’d replicated for it. I didn’t have time to rig a spring-loaded holster. They weren’t all that reliable anyway.
I handed it to the young man. He carefully placed it into a velvet-lined box. Have a nice vacation, little phaser.
Li’ira and Ellora handed in their phasers with aplomb. Happens every day.
Peggera said, “May I have a receipt?”
The young man hesitated half a beat “Certainly, sir.” He opened a drawer, dug a little bit, and came up with an aged pad of paper and a pen. He wrote a receipt for Peggera’s phaser in sweeping, artistic Lefyt script. He looked at us “Would you like one?”
I shook my head, “I’m sure there will be no problem.”
If there was to be a problem, we were way too far along to do much about it now.
We turned and walked towards the entryway guarded by the hulking bodyguards. I was most of the way through when the entryway beeped. Ellora’s eyes flashed blue at the same time. “My cover has been blown.”
The guard on the starboard side said, “The boss invited you. You’re safe this time.”
The other guard said, “Maybe we’ll see you again, off the estate,” in a voice that quietly promised mayhem and violence.
The young man at the front counter smoothly put his own weapon back under the counter “All weapons need to be checked, please.” He looked at Li’ira and Peggera when he said it.
Li’ira sighed “Nice sensors.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” the young man said.
Li’ira slowly reached into her boot and pulled a second phaser-one out. Then she did a nice sort of a magic slight-of-hand move and slid three throwing knives out of her left sleeve. The young man gave her a look. She reached behind her under her jacket and pulled three more throwing knives out. These were dull grey. They looked like carbon composite.
Fully disarmed, Li’ira stepped back from the counter.
Peggera pulled a phaser one out of his own right boot, and handed over something that looked like a brass knuckles.
“Alright, thank you very much,” The young man said in a cheerful customer service voice.
We turned and made a less dignified, but orderly entrance into the hallway.
A butler greeted us and showed us along a hallway “Thank you for attending. I hope your transportation was sufficient.”
“It was lovely, thank you,” I said.
“Thank you, Sir.”
He led us to a dining room. It was large. I’d say it was baroque, but that wasn’t the design. Where an Earth room would be Baroque, this one had different designs. But they were similarly detailed and aggressively artistic. Uhxoz Baroque.
At the table, there were three Lefyt people. The man at the head of the table was slim, slightly above average height. His presence dominated the room. He was dressed for lunch in the classic Lefyt style. Next to him, there was a larger Lefyt man. Not quite as large as the bodyguards, he had the face of a fighter. Across from the fighter, there was a regal and beautiful Lefyt woman.
They had more than enough tall-backed Lefyt-baroque chairs for everyone.
“Gramin Tolsil, Jasso Moril, and Ruzzel Rolla,” He turned towards us “The Party from the USS Joranal, Captain Jay P. Hailey, Commander Li’ira Mary O’Keefe of Starfleet. Lieutenant Peggera of Iponij, and Ellora late of Tyozesot.”
They stood to greet us and gestured us towards chairs “Thank you for coming. I’m told it was a late night for you.” Tolsil’s voice was deep.
“Thank you for having us, Sir,” I said. All the questions I had in mind amounted to business and so were off limits for now.
Moril the fighter, and Rolla quickly turned off tablets and cleared the decks.
We seated.
Tolsil’s staff brought out dishes and set us up.
“You’re from Earth, is that right?” Tolsil asked.
“I am,” I said.
“And you, Commander?”
“I was born in space, aboard a free trader,” Li’ira said.
“That must have had an interesting effect on your experience of growing up,” Rolla said
“It makes each planet a new treat and a new experience,” Li’ira said.
“There’s a lot we don’t understand about Uhxoz,” I said “I hope you don’t mind if we ask you about your world.”
“That’s your business, isn’t it? Traveling through space and visiting new worlds?” Tolsil said
“That’s our favorite part of it, yes,” I said, “What is your business?”
“I own three casinos,” Tolsil said “And interest in a number of other businesses. You were in one of my casinos last night.”
I was dangerously close to being rude, “It was very interesting. A great experience.”
We ate carefully, trying to avoid missteps, and trying the dishes as they came out. I didn’t like most of them. I tried to eat enough of each to be polite.
We agreeably probed each others’ backgrounds as politely as possible. Ruzzel Rolla was a lawyer and Tolsil’s wife. Moril was described as an operations specialist.
After what felt like three years, we finished the meal and the dishes were cleared. I was exhausted. Short of sleep, weird dreams, and now being overly conscious of every social move. It was heavier lifting than it looked like.
Tolsil leaned back “Thank you. You made an effort to respect our ways, and I appreciate that. Now, we may talk more freely. What brings you to Uhxoz?”
I was in a strange situation. I didn’t know enough. There was a risk of diplomatic failure here. So I made a tactical decision, “Ellora’s previous self was murdered.”
That got a little bit of a reaction. Rolla recovered quickly “You’ve recovered marvelously.”
“Thank you,” Ellora said “It was not without cost.”
“We suspect a man named DeGruna was involved in this incident,” I continued “He runs a small ship with multiple names. Small Pretty Female is the one we’re seeing most often.”
Tolsil looked at me “You understand that deactivating a Damyip is not considered a crime here.”
“The way he did it was weird,” I said “I understand if Ellora sparks little compassion in you. In part, my concern is what happens when DeGruna’s behavior escalates.”
“Weird how?” Tolsil asked.
I set my tricorder on the table and set up the holographic display. It was set to show the damage to the previous Ellora in a safe, graphics-based way. Moril cut me off “Do you have real photographs? It’ll help.”
I reset the presentation and went through the images of the ruined Damyip infiltrator unit.
“What tool did he use in the thoracic intrusion there?” He pointed
I had to admit, “I don’t know for sure. From my tool kit that would be a long-handled cutting torch to open small holes deeply into machines, when you need to look inside but can’t move them.”
Moril’s questions were detailed and showed disturbing experience.
After reviewing the case carefully, Moril leaned back “You remember the South Island Slasher?”
Tolsil nodded “Yes, I remember.”
“This guy’s like that. Captain Hailey’s language is odd. He’s not a street guy. But I think he’s on the right track here. This DeGruna guy isn’t right. He’ll escalate in time.”
“This violence is aimed at Damyip,” Tolsil said.
“Why would he do this stuff to a robot?” Moril asked, “This isn’t aimed at a goal. He’s not trying to get information or coerce some behavior. None of that makes any sense. So, it’s coming from an emotional place. He’s trying to express something or soothe something. It won’t work with robots. They can’t give him what he needs. Eventually, he’ll try it on someone made of meat.”
“Beware of the assumption that it is DeGruna,” Ellora said, “We have not proven this theory yet.”
“Whoever did this to… your previous self,” Moril said.
“Agreed,” Ellora said.
I could see it in Tolsil’s face. He didn’t care. Our subject could torture a bus full of orphans, and it would affect Tolsil not at all.
Tolsil thought about it for a moment: “Nothing comes without a price.”
“I’m listening,” I said.
“If you find DeGruna and find he’s responsible, I want his ship.”
“That’s a big ask,” I said.
“DeGruna and I had a business relationship. If he’s doing this, he has attracted the attention of the Damyip and Starfleet. That abrogates our relationship. My business can continue with DeGruna’s ship but without DeGruna.”
“I can easily arrange a new ship for you,” Ellora said.
Tolsil, Moril, and Rolla looked at her. Tolsil said, “That implies a level of trust that does not exist.”
“Our motives are not what you think. We seek information.”
“What kind of information?”
“Social information, current events on Uhxoz, Other items. We’re willing to be flexible to build up trust.”
“Trust. With the Damyip,” Tolsil said.
“You don’t think small, that’s for sure,” Moril said.
“As I said, our motives may not be what you’d expect. A mutually beneficial arrangement would suit our purposes.”
Tolsil said, “Let me think about that and get back to you.”
Ellora said, “Let’s arrange a covert method for you to contact us. This way you can ask questions and communicate without publicly being seen to speak with the Damyip.”
Tolsil said, “Agreed. I’ll get back to you about that,” He turned to me “You. Captain Hailey 3. Your Starfleet has honor. Different from the Klingons, but still honor. Swear it to me. If DeGruna is your guy, I inherit his ship.”
I considered it. Starfleet and the Damyip knew the ship now. He couldn’t move it in the system without us being aware of it “If DeGruna’s our guy, I’ll hand his ship over to you.”
Tolsil nodded to Rolla. She transmitted data to my tricorder.
“DeGruna has a hideaway on Sedmara. No one likes him here. He creeps people out. But he has a ship and will do anything with it for cash or supplies, so he has a niche here. One I think I can run a little more professionally and make a little more money,” Tolsil said.
“How did you know our names?” Li’ira asked.
Tolsil smiled faintly “I didn’t ask you here by accident. You two are on several bounty lists,” he looked at Li’ira and me “Your information is on the Orion data web for the asking.”
“What did you guys do to wind up on a bounty list?” Peggera asked.
“They have deeply antagonized the Orions of Bot’chok, the so-called Orion Colonies,” Tolsil said, “Something I appreciate.”
“Oh?” Peggera asked
“We hate the Damyip. We do not want the Federation standing over us. We reached out to the Orions, and they turned up trying to take over. They threw their weight around pretty heavily. It wasn’t good business.”
“If Uhxoz wants to maintain its neutrality, the Federation is willing to negotiate about that. We can set up a treaty that respects your lack of desire to be part of the Federation,” I said.
Tolsil looked at me flatly “Talk is cheap. You’d respect that, right up until you had the force to do what you wanted anyway.”
“What about our word?” I asked, “If it gets around that you can’t trust the Federation, what’s our word worth?”
Tonsil said, “You expect me to believe that you’d let a single small world like Uhxoz tell you no just to protect your brand?”
“We wanted something better. The Federation keeps its word. We want it to be the kind of government that does that. We had to work hard to get it. We’ll work hard to keep it. Being the good guys doesn’t just happen. You have to want it, choose it, and build it,” I said.
“Nice words,” Tonsil said, looking at me and Li’ira. He stopped “Are you serious? Really serious?”
“We took oaths. We’re ready to fight and die about it,” Li’ira said,
Tolsil grabbed his tablet and scrolled through several pages of information his eyes flicking across the sentences, “It’s true, isn’t it? You’re fanatic moralists.”
“Towards the Federation, yeah,” I said “Our Prime Directive means we have zero official opinions about how you run your business here.”
Tolsil’s poker face was immaculate, “I can see why you bother the Orions so badly.” He gestured to get up. We all followed his lead.
“Thank you for coming. I have a lot of work to catch up on,” He said “I found this enlightening and enjoyable.”
“The same here. You are very interesting people,” I said
He gestured us towards the doors “I am probably not the only one who has read up the Orion information about you. Someone less … polite may happen by shortly.”
The Butler appeared. “See they get back to their ship, safely,” Tolsil ordered
“Sir.” The Butler confirmed
“A suggestion. Go investigate Sedmara. Directly.”
“That’s a very good idea, Sir.”
“Have a good afternoon,”
We followed the Butler back to the entryway. The nice young man gave us back all of our weapons.
We rode the same limousine back to the Runabout. As soon as we were all out of the vehicle, it moved away.
We climbed into our ship.
“Peggera, how do you feel?” I asked
“Fine. Good to go.”
“Alright, get us to Sedmara. I’m going to go take a nap.” I said.
As I took off my replicated formal luncheon suit, I could see the surface of Uhxoz drop away from us.
I climbed into my bunk. I was going to need my brain to be fully functional moving forward.
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane - The Lefyt System
Omoikane 68 - Sedmara
It was our second stop on Sedmara. The first stop at Zhang Station let us pick up a guide and some information.
The town was marked by an old monorail junction. The monorail tracks still mostly existed but they were useless for the original purpose. Foot, beast, and very occasional powered vehicles followed the service road beneath the raised tracks.
A creek meandered by the settlement.
Old service buildings and newly built structures formed the core of the town.
We could see mines, farms, and logging going on.
About 8 kilometers to the west, DeGruna’s ship was in a small canyon amid steep hills.
As we came in to land, slowly and gently, Jo, our advisor, said “Looks like they’re not doing too bad for themselves, all things considered. They didn’t keep this by being pushovers.”
Peggera landed us along the creek. It wasn’t ideal. The ship wasn’t level. But it was the best we’d be able to do.
We opened the hatch. The air was cool and smelled like trees, water and dirt. It was lovely. About 10 degrees, c.
Li’ira and I were back in duty uniforms. Peggera wore his colonial warrior uniform. Ellora wore a long dress in the fashion of Tyozesot. Jo was dressed in blue workman’s clothing. I put a pair of gloves and watch cap into my pocket in case we were out late.
A group came to meet us. Men. On beasts. Analogous to horses, I guess. They looked like thicker reindeer to me.
A thick Lefyt man slid down off his reinhorse. He had a strange-looking badge on his chest and a blaster on his hip. It looked well used.
“Greetings, strangers,” He said, cautiously.
“Greetings,” Jo said “I’m Jo. I’m from Zhang Station, which is around the whole world from here.”
“Welcome to Rockwash. What brings you out this way?”
“Well, first the good news,” Jo said “The war’s over.”
“We figured something like that since we ain’t seen a Toaster in these parts for about 20 years.”
“Okay,” Jo said “My friends here are looking for someone.”
Li’ira and I were getting some looks. We looked Lefyt, but we were the wrong colors.
“You’re a Colonial Warrior, is that right?” The marshal asked Peggera.
“Correct. I’m Lt. Peggera. What’s your name, Sir?”
“We ain’t seen none a you lot for forty years,” The Marshal growled “I’m Obby Yamoka, the town Marshal.”
Peggera held up his hands “We’re not here to make trouble, Sir. We’ll just have a nice visit, ask a few questions, and be on our way. Gold’s still money for you folks, isn’t it?”
“We don’t get many …. Tourists out this way. Don’t get any ideas. We still have all the blasters we need.”
“Yes, Sir. Best behavior,” Peggera said.
“Alright. C’Mon in.” Yomoka said, “Let’s go on back to our business,” He called to the posse behind him.
They mostly dispersed. We checked out away team gear and followed them on foot.
As we trudged into town on foot, Li’ira said, “It reminds me of your Gunsmoke program.”
It definitely had post-apocalypse western vibes.
A man on a reinhorse moved alongside us. “I’m Peet Delefad, the Mayor. We don’t get much news from outside. What can you tell us about what’s going on with the rest of Sedmara?”
I tapped my commbadge “Log Stardate 88476.68, Comm systems, Power supply.”
Delefad said “Sorry?”
“Shopping list,” I said. “I’m recording what we need to get for your town.”
Delefad looked disturbed “How much is this going to cost us?”
“Nothing,” I said “Remember who your friends are.”
Delefad did not like that answer.
“What do you know about a guy named DeGruna? He has a ship.”
“Sorry, Name’s not familiar. Why is your skin that color? You a mutant?”
“No, Sir. I’m an alien. I’m from a planet called Earth.”
Delefad looked like he wasn’t sure if I was pulling his leg. “What do you think of Sedmara so far?”
“It’s pretty,” I said “Pretty trees. Tough people.”
“You ever meet a Toaster?”
“A Damyip? Yeah, I might have run into one or two.”
“What are they like? How hard are they to knock down?”
“The Federation only fights when we have to. We prefer talking and negotiation to solve our problems.”
“What’s a Federation?”
So I thumbnailed what the Federation was as we continued into town.
As we got into the main part of the town, people broke off from the party and went every which way. People looked at us from doorways and windows. Children especially wanted to see us.
If had been a holodeck old west town, I could have found my way around easily. But this wasn’t the holodeck. The town was wrapped around the big concrete supports of the overhead monorail line. It was cobbled together from whatever could be found or fashioned from local resources. It was mostly a shanty town, surrounding a few buildings from before the war. Or buildings improvised from cargo containers and other artifacts.
One building that caught my eye was what you’d call a dry goods store. Stuff, with written price tags. I nodded to my party “I’m going to check out the store. See what you can learn.”
I headed towards the store. I noticed one of the men from the posse had just placed himself behind the counter.
I went inside and let my eyes adjust. The sun was a couple of hours from setting. It tinged everything red and orange.
Of course, there was very little pre-packaged stuff. What there was was ancient. Mostly it was bins, barrels, and stacks of stuff.
“What are your best-selling items?” I asked the shopkeeper.
“You gonna buy anything?”
“I’m just curious.”
“Curious don’t put any coins in the till. I don’t have time to waste on talk. Buy something or let me get back to work.”
I looked around the store carefully “Sorry,” I said, “Maybe next time.”
The big storeman grunted, “Yeah. Maybe.”
I left. Out on the street, Delefad said, “Sorry. We don’t get many strangers. And the Sorad brothers are prickly. Maybe you’ll like this place a little better. He gestured towards a saloon,
“How much of an interest do you own in it?” I asked
“Oh, a little bit,” He grinned “Nothing wrong with making a few coins.”
“Nope,” I said.
-*-
The saloon was about half old west saloon and half old cargo container. The furniture was a mismatched collection of random shapes and sizes.
The lights were all scrounged utility lights. A good chunk of the town was in there, drinking and talking and pretending not to look at us.
I scanned the bar and then refined the results. Most of the bottles of stuff they had displayed were poison to me. The smells and sounds were interesting.
I grabbed a table. It was small and near the middle of the saloon. Not something a card sharp or a man of action would choose. Too much space behind me. But there wasn’t much else available.
Peggera approached me. He had a cigar. He lit it. It smelled awful. He coughed at it appreciatively. He put some triangular pieces of gold down in front of me. “Your share Captain. Don’t spend it all in one place.”
“Thank you,” I said “You light up any of that stuff in the runabout, and I am throwing it all overboard.”
He took a mouthful of smoke and let it dribble out of his mouth serenely “No fear Captain. These are horrible.”
I looked around. A woman tried to look like she wasn’t staring at me. I pointed at her “Young lady, please come over here and talk to me.”
Was she what the Gunsmoke program called a soiled dove? A painted lady? I had no idea. Their clothing was a mix of hand-me-down loot and rough handwoven materials.
“What?” She asked, “I mean, Yes, Sir?”
“Please have a seat. I’ll buy you stuff and we can ask each other questions.”
She looked at me like I’d just suggested a deeply weird fetish. “Okay, I guess?”
“So. What do you think this town needs?” I asked.
She looked around, the eyes of the town were on her, so she had to gauge the political impact of her answer carefully. “Better sanitation,” She said.
That got a couple of laughs.
“Hmm, that would take more time, planning, and people than I have right now. How about portable water treatment equipment?”
“What’s that?” she asked
“Well, it’s a box,” I said “You hook it up to power and pour dirty water in, and you get perfectly clean water out. No dirt, no disease, no poisons.”
“That sounds lovely,” She said
I made notes.
“Your turn,” I said
“How much are these clean water boxes going to cost?” She asked
“We’re giving them to you,” I said.
She tilted her head.
“Okay, where I come from, we don’t use money,” I picked up one of the triangular pieces Peggera handed me “We all get a share of what our economy produces. It doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do. Where I am from you will always have a place to live and food to eat.”
Confusion.
“We call that civilization. My goal here is to advance the cause of allowing you folks to build your own version of civilization. My hope is that, once everyone has enough food, water, shelter, and necessities, our two worlds can be friends and do things together. But the first step is to help you get into a better position. So there’s no cost to you. If, a long time from now, when things are very civilized around here, you or your children decide to tell my planet to go away, we will.”
More confusion.
“So, you’re here to help us make things better,” The young lady said, “In the hopes we’ll choose to be your friends later.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“The last guy who treated me like that turned into a stalker and a creep,” She said.
I blinked “Uhhh….”
“What happens when a whole world decides you owe them favors and loyalty because you were nice to ‘em?” She asked
“Well,” I struggled, “What you’re going to have to do is watch how we act for a long time, and see what we’re made of by our actions.”
“How?”
“Well, I already have communications systems on my shopping list. With those, you’ll be able to talk to more people and get news sooner than waiting for strangers to come by.”
She thought about that “I tried to imagine what it was like to be able to talk to people all over, like the stories. How do you know people ain’t lyin’ all the time?”
“Uhhhh…” I said, “You’re really good at this!”
She smiled brightly “You think so?”
That got a laugh from the people watching.
“We have these skills called ‘media literacy’ and ‘critical thinking’ that help a little…” I began.
The door to the saloon slammed open. In walked a big guy. Long black hair and long black beard. He had a dirty work shirt on. Big boots. I'd eat a holographic hat if his name wasn’t Black Bart.
The young lady I was talking to paled and left the table, Her fear was palpable.
He walked right over to me “My name’s Kimal Sorad. What kinda freak are you?”
“I’m an alien. I’m from Earth. My name is Jay.”
“Well, Jay. I heard you were asking questions about DeGruna.”
“Do you know him? We’d like to speak to him.”
“Maybe you don’t. Maybe askin’ questions about an upstanding citizen o’ this community might not be in your interest.”
Everyone in the bar was concerned about this guy. I didn’t like it. I took a couple of beats to gather my thoughts. “Mister Sorad, the fact that I’m here means something. Think it through.”
“We don’t need outsiders pokin’ their noses into our business.”
“DeGruna made it my business. If you injure me, you make it Starfleet’s business. I’m not some traveling gunslinger, here. I’m not some wandering scrounger from the wasteland. I have more support and I have more people on my side. You can’t make this go away with your fists. Or with a blaster bolt in the back.”
Sorad really didn’t like that “Watch your step, you ugly pink fucker. I ain’t had my say, yet.”
He turned and stomped out of the saloon.
I looked around while I breathed.
People in the Saloon were crowded into the corners. They were avoiding Li’ira and Peggera who both had their phasers out, ready to stun Sorad.
“I don’t like that,” I said generally.
“Did you even remember we were here?” Li’ira put her phaser away, grinning.
I blinked some.
“What?” Peggera said, “What am I missing?”
Li’ira shook her head “Bullies trigger an interesting response in Jay, not always the smartest one.”
“You looked very calm,” Peggera said to me.
“Round up Ellora, we’re heading out to DeGruna’s,” I said.
“Oh. With night falling, they have the home-ground advantage, and we’re on foot.” Peggera said.
“You don’t have to go if you don’t want, but I want to talk to DeGruna before he loads up that shit box of his and tries to hide on Uhzox.”
“And there we go,” Li’ira smiled.
Obby Yamoka came into the Saloon “What just happened with Kimal Sorad?”
“Why haven’t you arrested him for threatening people, yet?” I asked
“Don’t tell me how to do my job,” Yamoka snarled at me.
“We’re heading out of town to the west to go see DeGruna,” I said.
“No,” He said “They’ll ambush you and leave your corpses for the scavengers.”
“That’s why we have to go. Enough of this is enough.”
One of the bar patrons slid up to the marshal and whispered in his ear.
Yamoka said “Go get the mayor,”
He turned back to me “We don’t cotton to outsiders coming in here and interfering in our business.”
“Degruna made it my business. Whatever he has going on has affected three other planets that I know of. He’s probably done something stupid on all eight Lefyt worlds. I don’t give a fuck about your local stuff. Sorad pissed me off, so I’m attacking. The question for you is what are you going to do about it?”
“What about if I shoot you?” Yamoka offered.
“I’ll tell you what I just told Sorad, you shoot me, you’re going to have a starship full of people interfering in all your business. And probably the Colonial Warriors, too.”
Yamoka sighed “Look, let’s not move precipitously here. Let’s take some time to think about this.”
“No,” I said “The more time they have, the worse it’ll be, We go. Now.”
I walked out the door.
The young woman I was talking to to said “Come get some reinhorses, at least.”
“We don’t know how to ride those,” I said
Jo said, “I do, but these are bigger than ones I saw.”
“We go, now,” I said and I started marching up the road.
As we walked we gathered a swirl of townsfolk “They’re going after DeGruna!” one person said
“I hope they kill him,” a woman said.
I stopped “What does that mean?”
She stopped and boggled and then recovered “You ask Marshal Yamoka where little Sissi Orana is.”
We all looked at Marshal Yamoka.
“That’s an unfounded rumor. Sissi went missing in the hills. It’s treacherous out there.”
“What about Larena Coppa?” Another voice asked
“Jesus Christ,” I said. I caught Li’ira’s eye.
She looked grim. “Let’s use the runabout’s transporters,” she said.
“Yeah.” I turned and headed for the runabout.
“What’s a transporter?”
“Are you coming?” I asked Yamoka.
“Yeah,” He said, “I’ll come along.”
As we walked toward the Runabout, Mayor Delefad rode up to us on his reinhorse. “What’s going on?”
“Kimal Sorad tried to back off the Alien here from DeGruna, and now everyone’s worked up.”
“Did you tell him that there’s five Sorad brothers working for DeGruna?”
“I told them they’d get ambushed. Now I think they’re going to fly their spaceship over there.”
“I always thought doing business with the Sorads was a bad idea,” Delefad said.
“I don’t pry into your business, don’t you pry into mine,” Yamoka said
“You’ve let girls go missing because you have a business relationship with DeGruna’s goons?” I demanded.
“There’s no proof of anything,” Yamoka said “And I don’t feel like being backshot in the night.”
The crowd kind of felt disappointed and dissolute
I stopped “LOOK! YOU GET THE LAW AND ORDER YOU MAKE HAPPEN! YOU CAN’T JUST THROW YAMOKA AT IT AND THEN HIDE! YOU CAN’T THROW DELEFAD INTO AN OFFICE AND NOT CHECK HIS WORK! THIS IS YOUR HOME! IF YOU WORK TOGETHER YOU CAN MAKE IT RUN RIGHT! KEEPING YOUR GOVERNMENT RUNNING RIGHT IS A FUCKING LIFESTYLE! YOU HAVE TO COMMIT TO IT!”
I took a breath “I can get you some books and some videos about that, we can help you. But for right now, I’ve got to find out what’s going on with DeGruna.”
More confusion. I could tell I’d just missed a lot.
“Power to the fucking people,” I snarled to myself and stomped toward the Runabout.
-*-
We piled into the Runabout “Li’ira, find us a landing spot. Everyone else grab some rations and some water….” I stopped
The towns-people were coming into the runabout with us.
“What… what are you doing?” I asked
“We’re coming with you!” The young lady from the saloon said.
I blinked rapidly “No, no, this isn’t like that. We’re not flying over there, there’s no place to land. We’re beaming in. Small group, Only a small group.”
“What about power to the people?”
I gripped the bridge of my nose. “You understand, we may get shot at.”
That slowed them down somewhat.
I pointed to the young woman and two other people “You, You, and you. Go form teams, Your teams will work on arresting these Sorad brothers, in daylight, when it’s safe. Then we’ll work on setting up a proper court and due process, okay?”
Marshal Yamoka said, “Yeah, I’m coming with you anyway.”
Mayor Delefad said “Me, too.”
The girl threw up her fist “Yes! Deputies! Let’s go!”
“Due process, huh?” Jo grinned at me
The townspeople left the runabout babbling about forming action teams to arrest the town bullies.
“I’m sure this will go completely well, and nothing at all will go wrong,” Yamoka sneered at me.
Delefad shrugged at him “Turns out outsiders are trouble after all.”
I had to help Peggera and Ellora gather up stuff. They weren’t familiar with runabout stowage,
I had to replicate small packs to carry our stuff in.
“So this machine makes stuff for you?” Delefad asked
“Yes. It’s called a replicator, and it’s the best thing ever,” Jo said.
“What kind of stuff?” Delefad asked
“Almost anything,” Jo said. “Anything except blasters. Too much energy I think. We have blasters and stunners at Zhang Station. Our… friends make us lots of stuff. Energy and trash in one end and anything you want from the other.”
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why do people who can make anything make it for you?”
“They seem to like civilization. They have this weird kink where suffering annoys them.” Jo said.
“Nailed it in one,” Li’ira touched her nose at him, “I have a landing spot, Captain.”
“On screen,” I said.
A clearing in the trees almost two of me wide. Satellite images showed a narrow path winding two directions from the spot. One wound over a hill and then laboriously down the hill towards DeGruna’s ship. And a small shack next to it.
“That looks like a hunting trail,” Jo said “Starts with animals, and then people widen it out following it.”
“Do you think DeGruna will have any security?” I asked
It took Yamoka a moment to understand what I was asking “Uh, I think he’ll have traps set up. One kind to make noise. Another kind to trap animals. Including us.”
“Oh, good,” I said.
“I’ll do my best,” Yamoka said, “I think I can get ‘em. I was a kid in these hills, too.”
“Good!” I said. “Let’s go.”
Ellora came out of the flight deck dressed in black fatigues with a dark hood. She started picking up phasers, a pack, and a medikit.
“We ready?” I said.
“Leroy Jenkins,” Li’ira said to me.
I laughed “Indeed. Leeeerrroyyyyy Jenkins!”
We beamed into the landing spot two by two.
It was our second stop on Sedmara. The first stop at Zhang Station let us pick up a guide and some information.
The town was marked by an old monorail junction. The monorail tracks still mostly existed but they were useless for the original purpose. Foot, beast, and very occasional powered vehicles followed the service road beneath the raised tracks.
A creek meandered by the settlement.
Old service buildings and newly built structures formed the core of the town.
We could see mines, farms, and logging going on.
About 8 kilometers to the west, DeGruna’s ship was in a small canyon amid steep hills.
As we came in to land, slowly and gently, Jo, our advisor, said “Looks like they’re not doing too bad for themselves, all things considered. They didn’t keep this by being pushovers.”
Peggera landed us along the creek. It wasn’t ideal. The ship wasn’t level. But it was the best we’d be able to do.
We opened the hatch. The air was cool and smelled like trees, water and dirt. It was lovely. About 10 degrees, c.
Li’ira and I were back in duty uniforms. Peggera wore his colonial warrior uniform. Ellora wore a long dress in the fashion of Tyozesot. Jo was dressed in blue workman’s clothing. I put a pair of gloves and watch cap into my pocket in case we were out late.
A group came to meet us. Men. On beasts. Analogous to horses, I guess. They looked like thicker reindeer to me.
A thick Lefyt man slid down off his reinhorse. He had a strange-looking badge on his chest and a blaster on his hip. It looked well used.
“Greetings, strangers,” He said, cautiously.
“Greetings,” Jo said “I’m Jo. I’m from Zhang Station, which is around the whole world from here.”
“Welcome to Rockwash. What brings you out this way?”
“Well, first the good news,” Jo said “The war’s over.”
“We figured something like that since we ain’t seen a Toaster in these parts for about 20 years.”
“Okay,” Jo said “My friends here are looking for someone.”
Li’ira and I were getting some looks. We looked Lefyt, but we were the wrong colors.
“You’re a Colonial Warrior, is that right?” The marshal asked Peggera.
“Correct. I’m Lt. Peggera. What’s your name, Sir?”
“We ain’t seen none a you lot for forty years,” The Marshal growled “I’m Obby Yamoka, the town Marshal.”
Peggera held up his hands “We’re not here to make trouble, Sir. We’ll just have a nice visit, ask a few questions, and be on our way. Gold’s still money for you folks, isn’t it?”
“We don’t get many …. Tourists out this way. Don’t get any ideas. We still have all the blasters we need.”
“Yes, Sir. Best behavior,” Peggera said.
“Alright. C’Mon in.” Yomoka said, “Let’s go on back to our business,” He called to the posse behind him.
They mostly dispersed. We checked out away team gear and followed them on foot.
As we trudged into town on foot, Li’ira said, “It reminds me of your Gunsmoke program.”
It definitely had post-apocalypse western vibes.
A man on a reinhorse moved alongside us. “I’m Peet Delefad, the Mayor. We don’t get much news from outside. What can you tell us about what’s going on with the rest of Sedmara?”
I tapped my commbadge “Log Stardate 88476.68, Comm systems, Power supply.”
Delefad said “Sorry?”
“Shopping list,” I said. “I’m recording what we need to get for your town.”
Delefad looked disturbed “How much is this going to cost us?”
“Nothing,” I said “Remember who your friends are.”
Delefad did not like that answer.
“What do you know about a guy named DeGruna? He has a ship.”
“Sorry, Name’s not familiar. Why is your skin that color? You a mutant?”
“No, Sir. I’m an alien. I’m from a planet called Earth.”
Delefad looked like he wasn’t sure if I was pulling his leg. “What do you think of Sedmara so far?”
“It’s pretty,” I said “Pretty trees. Tough people.”
“You ever meet a Toaster?”
“A Damyip? Yeah, I might have run into one or two.”
“What are they like? How hard are they to knock down?”
“The Federation only fights when we have to. We prefer talking and negotiation to solve our problems.”
“What’s a Federation?”
So I thumbnailed what the Federation was as we continued into town.
As we got into the main part of the town, people broke off from the party and went every which way. People looked at us from doorways and windows. Children especially wanted to see us.
If had been a holodeck old west town, I could have found my way around easily. But this wasn’t the holodeck. The town was wrapped around the big concrete supports of the overhead monorail line. It was cobbled together from whatever could be found or fashioned from local resources. It was mostly a shanty town, surrounding a few buildings from before the war. Or buildings improvised from cargo containers and other artifacts.
One building that caught my eye was what you’d call a dry goods store. Stuff, with written price tags. I nodded to my party “I’m going to check out the store. See what you can learn.”
I headed towards the store. I noticed one of the men from the posse had just placed himself behind the counter.
I went inside and let my eyes adjust. The sun was a couple of hours from setting. It tinged everything red and orange.
Of course, there was very little pre-packaged stuff. What there was was ancient. Mostly it was bins, barrels, and stacks of stuff.
“What are your best-selling items?” I asked the shopkeeper.
“You gonna buy anything?”
“I’m just curious.”
“Curious don’t put any coins in the till. I don’t have time to waste on talk. Buy something or let me get back to work.”
I looked around the store carefully “Sorry,” I said, “Maybe next time.”
The big storeman grunted, “Yeah. Maybe.”
I left. Out on the street, Delefad said, “Sorry. We don’t get many strangers. And the Sorad brothers are prickly. Maybe you’ll like this place a little better. He gestured towards a saloon,
“How much of an interest do you own in it?” I asked
“Oh, a little bit,” He grinned “Nothing wrong with making a few coins.”
“Nope,” I said.
-*-
The saloon was about half old west saloon and half old cargo container. The furniture was a mismatched collection of random shapes and sizes.
The lights were all scrounged utility lights. A good chunk of the town was in there, drinking and talking and pretending not to look at us.
I scanned the bar and then refined the results. Most of the bottles of stuff they had displayed were poison to me. The smells and sounds were interesting.
I grabbed a table. It was small and near the middle of the saloon. Not something a card sharp or a man of action would choose. Too much space behind me. But there wasn’t much else available.
Peggera approached me. He had a cigar. He lit it. It smelled awful. He coughed at it appreciatively. He put some triangular pieces of gold down in front of me. “Your share Captain. Don’t spend it all in one place.”
“Thank you,” I said “You light up any of that stuff in the runabout, and I am throwing it all overboard.”
He took a mouthful of smoke and let it dribble out of his mouth serenely “No fear Captain. These are horrible.”
I looked around. A woman tried to look like she wasn’t staring at me. I pointed at her “Young lady, please come over here and talk to me.”
Was she what the Gunsmoke program called a soiled dove? A painted lady? I had no idea. Their clothing was a mix of hand-me-down loot and rough handwoven materials.
“What?” She asked, “I mean, Yes, Sir?”
“Please have a seat. I’ll buy you stuff and we can ask each other questions.”
She looked at me like I’d just suggested a deeply weird fetish. “Okay, I guess?”
“So. What do you think this town needs?” I asked.
She looked around, the eyes of the town were on her, so she had to gauge the political impact of her answer carefully. “Better sanitation,” She said.
That got a couple of laughs.
“Hmm, that would take more time, planning, and people than I have right now. How about portable water treatment equipment?”
“What’s that?” she asked
“Well, it’s a box,” I said “You hook it up to power and pour dirty water in, and you get perfectly clean water out. No dirt, no disease, no poisons.”
“That sounds lovely,” She said
I made notes.
“Your turn,” I said
“How much are these clean water boxes going to cost?” She asked
“We’re giving them to you,” I said.
She tilted her head.
“Okay, where I come from, we don’t use money,” I picked up one of the triangular pieces Peggera handed me “We all get a share of what our economy produces. It doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do. Where I am from you will always have a place to live and food to eat.”
Confusion.
“We call that civilization. My goal here is to advance the cause of allowing you folks to build your own version of civilization. My hope is that, once everyone has enough food, water, shelter, and necessities, our two worlds can be friends and do things together. But the first step is to help you get into a better position. So there’s no cost to you. If, a long time from now, when things are very civilized around here, you or your children decide to tell my planet to go away, we will.”
More confusion.
“So, you’re here to help us make things better,” The young lady said, “In the hopes we’ll choose to be your friends later.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“The last guy who treated me like that turned into a stalker and a creep,” She said.
I blinked “Uhhh….”
“What happens when a whole world decides you owe them favors and loyalty because you were nice to ‘em?” She asked
“Well,” I struggled, “What you’re going to have to do is watch how we act for a long time, and see what we’re made of by our actions.”
“How?”
“Well, I already have communications systems on my shopping list. With those, you’ll be able to talk to more people and get news sooner than waiting for strangers to come by.”
She thought about that “I tried to imagine what it was like to be able to talk to people all over, like the stories. How do you know people ain’t lyin’ all the time?”
“Uhhhh…” I said, “You’re really good at this!”
She smiled brightly “You think so?”
That got a laugh from the people watching.
“We have these skills called ‘media literacy’ and ‘critical thinking’ that help a little…” I began.
The door to the saloon slammed open. In walked a big guy. Long black hair and long black beard. He had a dirty work shirt on. Big boots. I'd eat a holographic hat if his name wasn’t Black Bart.
The young lady I was talking to paled and left the table, Her fear was palpable.
He walked right over to me “My name’s Kimal Sorad. What kinda freak are you?”
“I’m an alien. I’m from Earth. My name is Jay.”
“Well, Jay. I heard you were asking questions about DeGruna.”
“Do you know him? We’d like to speak to him.”
“Maybe you don’t. Maybe askin’ questions about an upstanding citizen o’ this community might not be in your interest.”
Everyone in the bar was concerned about this guy. I didn’t like it. I took a couple of beats to gather my thoughts. “Mister Sorad, the fact that I’m here means something. Think it through.”
“We don’t need outsiders pokin’ their noses into our business.”
“DeGruna made it my business. If you injure me, you make it Starfleet’s business. I’m not some traveling gunslinger, here. I’m not some wandering scrounger from the wasteland. I have more support and I have more people on my side. You can’t make this go away with your fists. Or with a blaster bolt in the back.”
Sorad really didn’t like that “Watch your step, you ugly pink fucker. I ain’t had my say, yet.”
He turned and stomped out of the saloon.
I looked around while I breathed.
People in the Saloon were crowded into the corners. They were avoiding Li’ira and Peggera who both had their phasers out, ready to stun Sorad.
“I don’t like that,” I said generally.
“Did you even remember we were here?” Li’ira put her phaser away, grinning.
I blinked some.
“What?” Peggera said, “What am I missing?”
Li’ira shook her head “Bullies trigger an interesting response in Jay, not always the smartest one.”
“You looked very calm,” Peggera said to me.
“Round up Ellora, we’re heading out to DeGruna’s,” I said.
“Oh. With night falling, they have the home-ground advantage, and we’re on foot.” Peggera said.
“You don’t have to go if you don’t want, but I want to talk to DeGruna before he loads up that shit box of his and tries to hide on Uhzox.”
“And there we go,” Li’ira smiled.
Obby Yamoka came into the Saloon “What just happened with Kimal Sorad?”
“Why haven’t you arrested him for threatening people, yet?” I asked
“Don’t tell me how to do my job,” Yamoka snarled at me.
“We’re heading out of town to the west to go see DeGruna,” I said.
“No,” He said “They’ll ambush you and leave your corpses for the scavengers.”
“That’s why we have to go. Enough of this is enough.”
One of the bar patrons slid up to the marshal and whispered in his ear.
Yamoka said “Go get the mayor,”
He turned back to me “We don’t cotton to outsiders coming in here and interfering in our business.”
“Degruna made it my business. Whatever he has going on has affected three other planets that I know of. He’s probably done something stupid on all eight Lefyt worlds. I don’t give a fuck about your local stuff. Sorad pissed me off, so I’m attacking. The question for you is what are you going to do about it?”
“What about if I shoot you?” Yamoka offered.
“I’ll tell you what I just told Sorad, you shoot me, you’re going to have a starship full of people interfering in all your business. And probably the Colonial Warriors, too.”
Yamoka sighed “Look, let’s not move precipitously here. Let’s take some time to think about this.”
“No,” I said “The more time they have, the worse it’ll be, We go. Now.”
I walked out the door.
The young woman I was talking to to said “Come get some reinhorses, at least.”
“We don’t know how to ride those,” I said
Jo said, “I do, but these are bigger than ones I saw.”
“We go, now,” I said and I started marching up the road.
As we walked we gathered a swirl of townsfolk “They’re going after DeGruna!” one person said
“I hope they kill him,” a woman said.
I stopped “What does that mean?”
She stopped and boggled and then recovered “You ask Marshal Yamoka where little Sissi Orana is.”
We all looked at Marshal Yamoka.
“That’s an unfounded rumor. Sissi went missing in the hills. It’s treacherous out there.”
“What about Larena Coppa?” Another voice asked
“Jesus Christ,” I said. I caught Li’ira’s eye.
She looked grim. “Let’s use the runabout’s transporters,” she said.
“Yeah.” I turned and headed for the runabout.
“What’s a transporter?”
“Are you coming?” I asked Yamoka.
“Yeah,” He said, “I’ll come along.”
As we walked toward the Runabout, Mayor Delefad rode up to us on his reinhorse. “What’s going on?”
“Kimal Sorad tried to back off the Alien here from DeGruna, and now everyone’s worked up.”
“Did you tell him that there’s five Sorad brothers working for DeGruna?”
“I told them they’d get ambushed. Now I think they’re going to fly their spaceship over there.”
“I always thought doing business with the Sorads was a bad idea,” Delefad said.
“I don’t pry into your business, don’t you pry into mine,” Yamoka said
“You’ve let girls go missing because you have a business relationship with DeGruna’s goons?” I demanded.
“There’s no proof of anything,” Yamoka said “And I don’t feel like being backshot in the night.”
The crowd kind of felt disappointed and dissolute
I stopped “LOOK! YOU GET THE LAW AND ORDER YOU MAKE HAPPEN! YOU CAN’T JUST THROW YAMOKA AT IT AND THEN HIDE! YOU CAN’T THROW DELEFAD INTO AN OFFICE AND NOT CHECK HIS WORK! THIS IS YOUR HOME! IF YOU WORK TOGETHER YOU CAN MAKE IT RUN RIGHT! KEEPING YOUR GOVERNMENT RUNNING RIGHT IS A FUCKING LIFESTYLE! YOU HAVE TO COMMIT TO IT!”
I took a breath “I can get you some books and some videos about that, we can help you. But for right now, I’ve got to find out what’s going on with DeGruna.”
More confusion. I could tell I’d just missed a lot.
“Power to the fucking people,” I snarled to myself and stomped toward the Runabout.
-*-
We piled into the Runabout “Li’ira, find us a landing spot. Everyone else grab some rations and some water….” I stopped
The towns-people were coming into the runabout with us.
“What… what are you doing?” I asked
“We’re coming with you!” The young lady from the saloon said.
I blinked rapidly “No, no, this isn’t like that. We’re not flying over there, there’s no place to land. We’re beaming in. Small group, Only a small group.”
“What about power to the people?”
I gripped the bridge of my nose. “You understand, we may get shot at.”
That slowed them down somewhat.
I pointed to the young woman and two other people “You, You, and you. Go form teams, Your teams will work on arresting these Sorad brothers, in daylight, when it’s safe. Then we’ll work on setting up a proper court and due process, okay?”
Marshal Yamoka said, “Yeah, I’m coming with you anyway.”
Mayor Delefad said “Me, too.”
The girl threw up her fist “Yes! Deputies! Let’s go!”
“Due process, huh?” Jo grinned at me
The townspeople left the runabout babbling about forming action teams to arrest the town bullies.
“I’m sure this will go completely well, and nothing at all will go wrong,” Yamoka sneered at me.
Delefad shrugged at him “Turns out outsiders are trouble after all.”
I had to help Peggera and Ellora gather up stuff. They weren’t familiar with runabout stowage,
I had to replicate small packs to carry our stuff in.
“So this machine makes stuff for you?” Delefad asked
“Yes. It’s called a replicator, and it’s the best thing ever,” Jo said.
“What kind of stuff?” Delefad asked
“Almost anything,” Jo said. “Anything except blasters. Too much energy I think. We have blasters and stunners at Zhang Station. Our… friends make us lots of stuff. Energy and trash in one end and anything you want from the other.”
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why do people who can make anything make it for you?”
“They seem to like civilization. They have this weird kink where suffering annoys them.” Jo said.
“Nailed it in one,” Li’ira touched her nose at him, “I have a landing spot, Captain.”
“On screen,” I said.
A clearing in the trees almost two of me wide. Satellite images showed a narrow path winding two directions from the spot. One wound over a hill and then laboriously down the hill towards DeGruna’s ship. And a small shack next to it.
“That looks like a hunting trail,” Jo said “Starts with animals, and then people widen it out following it.”
“Do you think DeGruna will have any security?” I asked
It took Yamoka a moment to understand what I was asking “Uh, I think he’ll have traps set up. One kind to make noise. Another kind to trap animals. Including us.”
“Oh, good,” I said.
“I’ll do my best,” Yamoka said, “I think I can get ‘em. I was a kid in these hills, too.”
“Good!” I said. “Let’s go.”
Ellora came out of the flight deck dressed in black fatigues with a dark hood. She started picking up phasers, a pack, and a medikit.
“We ready?” I said.
“Leroy Jenkins,” Li’ira said to me.
I laughed “Indeed. Leeeerrroyyyyy Jenkins!”
We beamed into the landing spot two by two.
Re: Omoikane - The Lefyt System
I am sure that Starfleet has dress uniform for formal black tie and white tie style events. And protocols to create them based in the the culture inputs on the fly. Including Bronian formal.
-- The Innkeeper
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane - The Lefyt System
Since Uhxoz is hostile to Starfleet, and they're technically off the books, non-Starfleet clothing was indicated.
Besides, Replicators mean you can always play "Space Barbie" if you have the energy.
Yes, Starfleet has data files on how to make an insane number of variations on Starfleet formal wear to meet various social needs.
Re: Omoikane - The Lefyt System
OK, just saying and your reasoning is good.jayphailey wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2025 12:38 amSince Uhxoz is hostile to Starfleet, and they're technically off the books, non-Starfleet clothing was indicated.
Besides, Replicators mean you can always play "Space Barbie" if you have the energy.
Yes, Starfleet has data files on how to make an insane number of variations on Starfleet formal wear to meet various social needs.
-- The Innkeeper
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane - The Lefyt System
Omoikane 69 - DeGruna’s Hollow
We walked single file, slowly. Our phasers and tricorders were in stealth mode.
The phasers and tricorders looked normal in our goggles, but the goggles were enhancing ambient light. I also had mine set to show infrared. The goggles were black disks held over our eyes by straps and a frame not unlike oversized sunglasses.
The goggles made our excursion possible.
We followed Marshal Yamoka as he picked his way along the trail. Peggera walked behind him, then me, then Li’ira, then Mayor Delefad, then Ellora. I wondered how Ellora’s eyes were interacting with the vision-enhancing googles. I’d ask later.
With the Infrared turned on, I could see critters scattered all over the woods. And birds. All sorts of creatures watching us go.
Yamoka held up his hand. We stopped. He quietly pointed out a booby trap. It was good. I would have probably missed it even with the goggles. Yamoka undid the trap. It was much easier when you could see what was going on.
We crested the rise and looked down into the small canyon. More of a hollow, really. There was DeGruna’s ship. A shovel-nosed thing about the size of our runabout. It had warm spots. I peered at it. Auxiliary power sources and the primary power source in stand-by mode. Good. The ship would take a bit to get up and running.
Next to the ship was a shack that backed into the side of the hill below us. The shack looked very Gunsmoke. It was made of wood. A chimney glowed in infrared light. DeGruna was home. Across the hollow, bright things. Animals. They looked sort of like large rabbits but with longer, thinner legs. They ate the greenery and watched. As we moved, they saw us and froze, watching.
“I didn’t know their eyesight was that good,” Yamoka said.
We picked our way down the hill. The game track switched back and forth along the steep side of the hollow, sliding in and out of trees and bushes. I was going very slow. I was determined I would not be the one to slip. It took focus and choosing my steps. Every so often, we’d stop and carefully look around.
About a third of the way down the hill, something new happened.
Three men on reinhorses came up the hollow from town. You could see them as clear as day in Infrared.
We stopped and watched them.
“Kimal, Mezza, and Doral Sorad,” Yamoka said “These goggles are amazing.”
“They know their way,” Li’ira said.
“Yeah,” Yamoka said “Sometimes they sell stuff DeGruna brings in with his ship.”
I didn’t say anything. An hour ago, these guys were saying they’d never heard of this DeGruna guy.
The men got to the shack, pounded on the door, and went in.
We continued our slow route down the canyon. Yamoka identified another booby trap.
We could hear their voices vaguely. Yamoka disabled the trap, and we continued
“They are under the impression that we have a War Block in orbit, waiting to engage the Small Pretty Female in weapons fire,” Ellora said.
Yamoka and Delefad looked at her. “Good ears.”
“We hunt with quieter weapons on Tyozesot,” She said.
“We’ll have to approach carefully,” I said. “They might just start shooting.”
“Phasers on stun means not having to say you’re sorry,” Li’ira said
“Your little weapons have a stun setting?” Delefad asked.
“Your blasters don’t?” I asked.
Their blasters were large black pistol-shaped things with fins and flanges on them.
“They don’t,” Peggera said.
“Their blasters scream,” Ellora said, “The bolts they fire are purple and explode loudly when they impact something.”
“Do not fire until fired upon,” I said, “no point in making a target out of yourself.”
“We have done this before,” Yamoka said.
I didn’t want to know the details “Let’s keep moving.”
We picked our way further down the hill.
A rock came out from under my foot. My balance was totally wrong for it. I went down hard and found myself tumbling.
In videos and old movies, stuntmen roll down hills and make it look smooth. This was not that. I hit random parts of my body on rocks, bushes, and trees as I went. I tried not to make any noise about it. But each impact hurt like hell.
I landed flat on my back in a bush crowded with empty cans. The noise was terrific. I heard cracking and crunching noises. I prayed it was the bush. I rolled over and reset my goggles. I looked around. The important thing was not to be in the bush with the empty cans when DeGruna or his friends came to see what the noise was. I looked around and found a low bush. I hoped it would cover me. I scrambled for it.
I heard voices yelling as men came out of the shack and ran around the back towards me.
I slid into the bush and did my best to breathe quietly.
“Who in the hell is out here!? I’ll blow your fucking tits off!” A voice bellowed. Far, far too close for my liking. I peered through the bush. I was above the three men, about forehead level. The one yelling was Kimal Sorad. I’d stun him first. They were about ten meters away.
An older Lefyt man was looking at the bush holding the cans.
“Kimal Sorad!” Marsal Yamoka yelled, “We’re just here to talk. Don’t let this get out of hand!”
Kimal Sorad fired his blaster at the voice. Sure enough, the blaster made a weird electronic shrieking noise. The bolt made a harsh popping noise where it hit.
The Marines I’d served with previously had a term. When someone was aggressively violent with no restraint, they said he “went ham.” I have no idea where this came from.
The old Lefyt man, I assume this was DeGruna went ham on the bush with the empty cans I’d landed on. He opened up with his blaster. It screamed and vomited purple bolts. The colonial blasters were single-shot, semi-automatic firing. So he pulled the trigger over and over. This ruined his aim, so he was just throwing bolts in the general direction of the bush. As the bolts hit, they exploded and started small fires.
All of this was WAY too close to me. I could feel the heat of the bolts passing over me. It was only a matter of time before he hit me by accident. Even if he didn’t, the light and noise were backlighting me, it was moments before they saw me.
I pulled out my phaser in a hurry and just stuck it out in their general direction. I pressed the trigger and sent an orange stun beam vaguely that way.
I heard blaster screams from up the hill, and purple bolts came flying back. Again, too close! They exploded the dirt near DeGruna and the Sorad brothers.
Without saying a word, all three turned and pelted back around the shack.
Two orange phaser beams came within centimeters of hitting the fleeing trio, but they got around the corner of the building too quickly.
Adrenaline is a hell of a drug. I rolled out of the bush and ran to the corner of the shack where DeGruna and his guys disappeared. I reached for my tricorder. It was gone. Probably lost it falling down the hill. I grabbed my day pack and tossed it into the line of fire. No purple bolts came back. My mouth went dry. I carefully laid down on my belly and peeked around the corner.
I could see four people on three reinhorses galloping toward the back of the hollow.
I held my fire. I wanted to see where they were running. It was hard to feel like I was holding my phaser right. My hands felt sweaty and clammy.
They got to the back of the hollow and started up a trail I couldn’t see. The reinhorses made good time. They had no desire to get shot by the colonial blasters.
Someone put their hands on me. I jumped and yelled. I rolled and brought my phaser around.
Li’ira caught my phaser and twisted it out of my hand. I realized she was saying something.
“What?” I asked
“Are you okay?” She demanded
I blinked… it was taking my brain way too long to catch up with what she was saying.
“I have no idea,” I said “I’ll review once the adrenaline wears off.”
“You’re yelling,” she said.
I decided to take five right there and let my body and brain catch up to each other.
Peggera was on one knee, peeking around the corner of the shack “You let them go?”
“I..” I stopped and consciously moderated my tone “I wanted to see where they’re going.”
Marshal Yamoka just looked at me.
Mayor Delefad said, “That was the funniest thing I think I’ve seen in years.”
Ellora said, “Your recovery was… unorthodox.”
Li’ira leaned down and said very quietly into my ear, “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Me, too,” I said.
-*-
The shack looked Gunsmoke inside. Except that DeGruna had Uxhoz-made technology in it. A fridge. A screen. Lots and lots of pornographic media. A portable power supply. Uxhoz beer and Dr. Pepper. Electric lights. Self-contained. Maybe camping gear or tools on Uxhoz.
I cracked open a Doctor Pepper. I hoped it wasn’t laced with anything stupid.
DeGrun had blasters on pegs around his walls. And knives of various kinds.
Peggera, the Marshal and the Mayor cleared the back room. I took a swig of Dr Pepper. Surprisingly refreshing.
“Guys, you want to see this,” Peggera said.
We went and looked. A bedroom. It smelled bachelor. I hoped we didn’t pick up whatever passed for fleas on Sedmara.
Closet door. But it didn’t lead to a closet.
It led to a mine shaft.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I said.
-*-
About 30 meters into the mine shaft we found it.
A closed-off area. A room. It had a heavy door that closed with a bar across the outside.
We opened it. The smell was horrible. In one corner there was a bucket. Used for body waste.
The room had manacles and chains. Green blood stains. A table with restraints bolted to it.
Tools. The tools also had blood on them.
In the corner was a chest. Yamoka opened it. It had clothes in it. Small sizes. I thought it was girls’ clothing, but I didn’t want to say it.
Li’ira scanned everything with her tricorder.
“Multiple Lefyt biosigns,” She said quietly “I’m not reading anything alive in this mine, but us.”
I thought of my phaser. I should have taken the shot.
We followed Li’ira tricorder further into the mine, until we found a vertical shaft. It smelled of death, decay, and sewage.
“One hundred and eighty meters deep,” Li’ira said “There are bones and organic material at the bottom.”
We looked at each other.
“Well, now we know what we want to talk to DeGruna about,” The mayor said.
“I’ll throw all of them down this shaft and leave them here,” Yamoka growled.
“Alright,” I said, “Let’s take his ship, and get back to town. I’ve got promises to keep.”
We left the mine, and the shack, and looked at the ship.
Peggera went to the hatch and opened it up “Not locked.”
We entered the scout ship. Lights came on inside. It smelled just as bad as DeGruna’s bedroom. My brain sort of failed for a moment. I was seeing… something.
“What in the hell is this?” Peggera asked.
Every piece of technology inside the ship was… kludged. Jerry-rigged. A haphazard improvisation. A random mishmash of pieces hacked into doing things you need to be done inside a ship to keep it livable and functioning.
“I need to look at the power core,” I said. I had a bad feeling.
I went aft, past images of naked women and girls glued to the bulkheads. Into the rear engineering compartment.
It was more of the same. A fusion power plant. I didn’t know the make or model. I suspected it was a Lefyt-built device. But the control mechanisms for it were the same mass of improvised pieces. Sometimes multiple copies of the same device were arranged in parallel or in series to do something the right devices would do more easily in a smaller space.
Strange automation, hoses, and pipes made of the wrong materials…. All were hacked to make this thing work. I picked at the electroplasma control conduit. It had a control unit patently improvised out of….
Then it hit me… That was a skull. But it wasn’t. It was pieces of a Damyip.
That’s why all the pieces looked wrong. He was making replacement parts for his ship out of the bodies of Damyip robots. They used Damyip measurements and not Lefyt ones. Damyip layouts for circuit boards and subassemblies.
I looked around again. I was standing in a Damyip horror show. Damyip guts and organs repurposed.
I went back forward. I caught Peggera’s eye. He’d seen it, too. He was sitting in the pilot’s seat with big eyes and a horrified expression. Over his shoulder I could see the faceplate from a Damyip occupation unit, repurposed as a systems status monitor.
Ellora was standing straight, staring straight ahead with no expression.
“Ellora,” I said, “Are you okay?”
She looked at me blankly. Then she looked at Peggera. Then back at me. “I am experiencing a sensation analogous to horror.”
“I fucking bet you are!” I said, “Let’s get you out of here.”
“What’s going on?” Mayor Delefad asked. Neither he nor Marshal Yamoka got it.
“Ummm,” I said, “As near as I can see, DeGruna has been using Damyip parts to improvise components for his ship.”
“Huh,” Delefad said, “That’s clever, I guess.”
“On one level, maybe. I came up as an engineer. I spent my early years in Starfleet keeping ships running. This scares me. I can’t understand why this thing didn’t explode years ago. It’s insane.”
Ellora looked at me blankly “Multiply layered irony. Humorous.”
Li’ira said, “Let’s get the civilians off this thing. Are you in shape to make it safe?”
I nodded “For certain values of safe.”
“I believe I have experienced psychological trauma,” Ellora said flatly.
“Jo, Li’ira, get Ellora off this thing, Peggera, we’ll safe it,” I turned to the Mayor and the Marshal “Gentlemen, please exit. This thing is not safe.”
“Are you sure?” The Mayor asked.
“I’m positive,” I said firmly.
Reluctantly, they left their second spaceship of the day, after a lifetime of zero ships.
Peggera and I carefully took key components out of the engines and computers. The fusion core chugged to a halt. The lights quit except for isolated emergency lights. That made the interior even more spooky.
We smashed the critical components with a hammer I found in DeGruna’s tool kit.
“I spent my life fighting the Damyip,” Peggera said “And now I’m sleeping with one. But this…” He looked around, “This is crazy.”
“I’m amazed at the work,” I said “I’d have to take about six months to reverse engineer what he did. But I’m not kidding, I’ll never understand how his fusion core didn’t cook him for this. How did this ship manage a re-entry and landing profile like this? How is his life support still functioning? All of this is quite clearly bullshit.”
“Nothing sane keeps this ship flying,” Peggera said, “This is applied, practical madness.”
“I hate superstition,” I said, “But an exorcism doesn’t seem out of line.”
We left DeGruna’s horror ship.
-*-
We beamed back to the Runabout and took off.
We towed DeGrun’s horror ship into orbit and sent a complete report to Admiral Enrod. Then we returned to Rockwash and set down in the same place.
-*-
I had a hard time sleeping that night.
Peggera and Jo rolled right over and were out like lights. I tried not to be jealous or resentful.
Li’ira, too, was quickly asleep.
I sat at one of the auxiliary stations on the flight deck of the Runabout, picking away at my shopping list. My body was stiff, and things hurt all over.
Ellora sat straight, unmoving, staring straight ahead.
“I should say thank you,” Ellora said.
“Why?” I asked.
“You helped me track down my killer. You put yourself at risk. When you realized the nature of DeGrun’s ship, you were horrified,” She said.
I tried to process that, “I was just…. Doing….”
“We appreciate your attitude,” Ellora said. “I have just been informed that a Damyip patrol vessel has DeGruns scout. We will take it back to Starbase 1406.”
“Good,” I said “Is there anything I can do to… help you feel better?”
“I will be fine, in time. I need to process what I have seen. I need to fit it into my worldview properly,” She said, “I am concerned for you, Li’ira, Peggera, and Jo.”
I sighed “Our processing will take longer. It’ll be less direct. But at least we’ve hampered DeGruna. His consequences will catch up to him.”
“I am conflicted,”
“Oh?”
“I am a protector. My reason for being is protecting. I feel that I am leaving young Lefyt unprotected by letting DeGruna flee.”
“I completely understand that.”
“My cover here has either been blown or is in poor condition. The people here hate Damyip. If I were to stay and pursue DeGruna I could be outed and suffer violence. That would set back my mission and could impair the long-term mission of the Damyip.”
“Reasonable,” I said.
“It does not feel reasonable. It feels like an excuse,” She said.
“Feels,” I said.
“Yes. My goals and preferences have become so complex and similar to the Lefyt that I, too, suffer from … conflicting emotions.”
“Let’s make our delivery tomorrow and then return to this question,” I said.
“That is one thing you and the Lefyt can do that I cannot.”
“What’s that?”
“I can’t put something out of my mind. Your language and self-reporting say when you don’t think about something, you’re literally not thinking about it. But this is very rarely true. Often, you distract your conscious attention while subconscious processes work on the issue. I can’t do those things. The way we Damyip think is different from you.”
“It doesn’t seem like that, most of the time.”
“Thank you. We have worked hard to build that impression.”
“I’m going to try and go to bed. Please be good to yourself.”
“That is an interesting concept.”
“Good night,”
“And you.”
We walked single file, slowly. Our phasers and tricorders were in stealth mode.
The phasers and tricorders looked normal in our goggles, but the goggles were enhancing ambient light. I also had mine set to show infrared. The goggles were black disks held over our eyes by straps and a frame not unlike oversized sunglasses.
The goggles made our excursion possible.
We followed Marshal Yamoka as he picked his way along the trail. Peggera walked behind him, then me, then Li’ira, then Mayor Delefad, then Ellora. I wondered how Ellora’s eyes were interacting with the vision-enhancing googles. I’d ask later.
With the Infrared turned on, I could see critters scattered all over the woods. And birds. All sorts of creatures watching us go.
Yamoka held up his hand. We stopped. He quietly pointed out a booby trap. It was good. I would have probably missed it even with the goggles. Yamoka undid the trap. It was much easier when you could see what was going on.
We crested the rise and looked down into the small canyon. More of a hollow, really. There was DeGruna’s ship. A shovel-nosed thing about the size of our runabout. It had warm spots. I peered at it. Auxiliary power sources and the primary power source in stand-by mode. Good. The ship would take a bit to get up and running.
Next to the ship was a shack that backed into the side of the hill below us. The shack looked very Gunsmoke. It was made of wood. A chimney glowed in infrared light. DeGruna was home. Across the hollow, bright things. Animals. They looked sort of like large rabbits but with longer, thinner legs. They ate the greenery and watched. As we moved, they saw us and froze, watching.
“I didn’t know their eyesight was that good,” Yamoka said.
We picked our way down the hill. The game track switched back and forth along the steep side of the hollow, sliding in and out of trees and bushes. I was going very slow. I was determined I would not be the one to slip. It took focus and choosing my steps. Every so often, we’d stop and carefully look around.
About a third of the way down the hill, something new happened.
Three men on reinhorses came up the hollow from town. You could see them as clear as day in Infrared.
We stopped and watched them.
“Kimal, Mezza, and Doral Sorad,” Yamoka said “These goggles are amazing.”
“They know their way,” Li’ira said.
“Yeah,” Yamoka said “Sometimes they sell stuff DeGruna brings in with his ship.”
I didn’t say anything. An hour ago, these guys were saying they’d never heard of this DeGruna guy.
The men got to the shack, pounded on the door, and went in.
We continued our slow route down the canyon. Yamoka identified another booby trap.
We could hear their voices vaguely. Yamoka disabled the trap, and we continued
“They are under the impression that we have a War Block in orbit, waiting to engage the Small Pretty Female in weapons fire,” Ellora said.
Yamoka and Delefad looked at her. “Good ears.”
“We hunt with quieter weapons on Tyozesot,” She said.
“We’ll have to approach carefully,” I said. “They might just start shooting.”
“Phasers on stun means not having to say you’re sorry,” Li’ira said
“Your little weapons have a stun setting?” Delefad asked.
“Your blasters don’t?” I asked.
Their blasters were large black pistol-shaped things with fins and flanges on them.
“They don’t,” Peggera said.
“Their blasters scream,” Ellora said, “The bolts they fire are purple and explode loudly when they impact something.”
“Do not fire until fired upon,” I said, “no point in making a target out of yourself.”
“We have done this before,” Yamoka said.
I didn’t want to know the details “Let’s keep moving.”
We picked our way further down the hill.
A rock came out from under my foot. My balance was totally wrong for it. I went down hard and found myself tumbling.
In videos and old movies, stuntmen roll down hills and make it look smooth. This was not that. I hit random parts of my body on rocks, bushes, and trees as I went. I tried not to make any noise about it. But each impact hurt like hell.
I landed flat on my back in a bush crowded with empty cans. The noise was terrific. I heard cracking and crunching noises. I prayed it was the bush. I rolled over and reset my goggles. I looked around. The important thing was not to be in the bush with the empty cans when DeGruna or his friends came to see what the noise was. I looked around and found a low bush. I hoped it would cover me. I scrambled for it.
I heard voices yelling as men came out of the shack and ran around the back towards me.
I slid into the bush and did my best to breathe quietly.
“Who in the hell is out here!? I’ll blow your fucking tits off!” A voice bellowed. Far, far too close for my liking. I peered through the bush. I was above the three men, about forehead level. The one yelling was Kimal Sorad. I’d stun him first. They were about ten meters away.
An older Lefyt man was looking at the bush holding the cans.
“Kimal Sorad!” Marsal Yamoka yelled, “We’re just here to talk. Don’t let this get out of hand!”
Kimal Sorad fired his blaster at the voice. Sure enough, the blaster made a weird electronic shrieking noise. The bolt made a harsh popping noise where it hit.
The Marines I’d served with previously had a term. When someone was aggressively violent with no restraint, they said he “went ham.” I have no idea where this came from.
The old Lefyt man, I assume this was DeGruna went ham on the bush with the empty cans I’d landed on. He opened up with his blaster. It screamed and vomited purple bolts. The colonial blasters were single-shot, semi-automatic firing. So he pulled the trigger over and over. This ruined his aim, so he was just throwing bolts in the general direction of the bush. As the bolts hit, they exploded and started small fires.
All of this was WAY too close to me. I could feel the heat of the bolts passing over me. It was only a matter of time before he hit me by accident. Even if he didn’t, the light and noise were backlighting me, it was moments before they saw me.
I pulled out my phaser in a hurry and just stuck it out in their general direction. I pressed the trigger and sent an orange stun beam vaguely that way.
I heard blaster screams from up the hill, and purple bolts came flying back. Again, too close! They exploded the dirt near DeGruna and the Sorad brothers.
Without saying a word, all three turned and pelted back around the shack.
Two orange phaser beams came within centimeters of hitting the fleeing trio, but they got around the corner of the building too quickly.
Adrenaline is a hell of a drug. I rolled out of the bush and ran to the corner of the shack where DeGruna and his guys disappeared. I reached for my tricorder. It was gone. Probably lost it falling down the hill. I grabbed my day pack and tossed it into the line of fire. No purple bolts came back. My mouth went dry. I carefully laid down on my belly and peeked around the corner.
I could see four people on three reinhorses galloping toward the back of the hollow.
I held my fire. I wanted to see where they were running. It was hard to feel like I was holding my phaser right. My hands felt sweaty and clammy.
They got to the back of the hollow and started up a trail I couldn’t see. The reinhorses made good time. They had no desire to get shot by the colonial blasters.
Someone put their hands on me. I jumped and yelled. I rolled and brought my phaser around.
Li’ira caught my phaser and twisted it out of my hand. I realized she was saying something.
“What?” I asked
“Are you okay?” She demanded
I blinked… it was taking my brain way too long to catch up with what she was saying.
“I have no idea,” I said “I’ll review once the adrenaline wears off.”
“You’re yelling,” she said.
I decided to take five right there and let my body and brain catch up to each other.
Peggera was on one knee, peeking around the corner of the shack “You let them go?”
“I..” I stopped and consciously moderated my tone “I wanted to see where they’re going.”
Marshal Yamoka just looked at me.
Mayor Delefad said, “That was the funniest thing I think I’ve seen in years.”
Ellora said, “Your recovery was… unorthodox.”
Li’ira leaned down and said very quietly into my ear, “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Me, too,” I said.
-*-
The shack looked Gunsmoke inside. Except that DeGruna had Uxhoz-made technology in it. A fridge. A screen. Lots and lots of pornographic media. A portable power supply. Uxhoz beer and Dr. Pepper. Electric lights. Self-contained. Maybe camping gear or tools on Uxhoz.
I cracked open a Doctor Pepper. I hoped it wasn’t laced with anything stupid.
DeGrun had blasters on pegs around his walls. And knives of various kinds.
Peggera, the Marshal and the Mayor cleared the back room. I took a swig of Dr Pepper. Surprisingly refreshing.
“Guys, you want to see this,” Peggera said.
We went and looked. A bedroom. It smelled bachelor. I hoped we didn’t pick up whatever passed for fleas on Sedmara.
Closet door. But it didn’t lead to a closet.
It led to a mine shaft.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I said.
-*-
About 30 meters into the mine shaft we found it.
A closed-off area. A room. It had a heavy door that closed with a bar across the outside.
We opened it. The smell was horrible. In one corner there was a bucket. Used for body waste.
The room had manacles and chains. Green blood stains. A table with restraints bolted to it.
Tools. The tools also had blood on them.
In the corner was a chest. Yamoka opened it. It had clothes in it. Small sizes. I thought it was girls’ clothing, but I didn’t want to say it.
Li’ira scanned everything with her tricorder.
“Multiple Lefyt biosigns,” She said quietly “I’m not reading anything alive in this mine, but us.”
I thought of my phaser. I should have taken the shot.
We followed Li’ira tricorder further into the mine, until we found a vertical shaft. It smelled of death, decay, and sewage.
“One hundred and eighty meters deep,” Li’ira said “There are bones and organic material at the bottom.”
We looked at each other.
“Well, now we know what we want to talk to DeGruna about,” The mayor said.
“I’ll throw all of them down this shaft and leave them here,” Yamoka growled.
“Alright,” I said, “Let’s take his ship, and get back to town. I’ve got promises to keep.”
We left the mine, and the shack, and looked at the ship.
Peggera went to the hatch and opened it up “Not locked.”
We entered the scout ship. Lights came on inside. It smelled just as bad as DeGruna’s bedroom. My brain sort of failed for a moment. I was seeing… something.
“What in the hell is this?” Peggera asked.
Every piece of technology inside the ship was… kludged. Jerry-rigged. A haphazard improvisation. A random mishmash of pieces hacked into doing things you need to be done inside a ship to keep it livable and functioning.
“I need to look at the power core,” I said. I had a bad feeling.
I went aft, past images of naked women and girls glued to the bulkheads. Into the rear engineering compartment.
It was more of the same. A fusion power plant. I didn’t know the make or model. I suspected it was a Lefyt-built device. But the control mechanisms for it were the same mass of improvised pieces. Sometimes multiple copies of the same device were arranged in parallel or in series to do something the right devices would do more easily in a smaller space.
Strange automation, hoses, and pipes made of the wrong materials…. All were hacked to make this thing work. I picked at the electroplasma control conduit. It had a control unit patently improvised out of….
Then it hit me… That was a skull. But it wasn’t. It was pieces of a Damyip.
That’s why all the pieces looked wrong. He was making replacement parts for his ship out of the bodies of Damyip robots. They used Damyip measurements and not Lefyt ones. Damyip layouts for circuit boards and subassemblies.
I looked around again. I was standing in a Damyip horror show. Damyip guts and organs repurposed.
I went back forward. I caught Peggera’s eye. He’d seen it, too. He was sitting in the pilot’s seat with big eyes and a horrified expression. Over his shoulder I could see the faceplate from a Damyip occupation unit, repurposed as a systems status monitor.
Ellora was standing straight, staring straight ahead with no expression.
“Ellora,” I said, “Are you okay?”
She looked at me blankly. Then she looked at Peggera. Then back at me. “I am experiencing a sensation analogous to horror.”
“I fucking bet you are!” I said, “Let’s get you out of here.”
“What’s going on?” Mayor Delefad asked. Neither he nor Marshal Yamoka got it.
“Ummm,” I said, “As near as I can see, DeGruna has been using Damyip parts to improvise components for his ship.”
“Huh,” Delefad said, “That’s clever, I guess.”
“On one level, maybe. I came up as an engineer. I spent my early years in Starfleet keeping ships running. This scares me. I can’t understand why this thing didn’t explode years ago. It’s insane.”
Ellora looked at me blankly “Multiply layered irony. Humorous.”
Li’ira said, “Let’s get the civilians off this thing. Are you in shape to make it safe?”
I nodded “For certain values of safe.”
“I believe I have experienced psychological trauma,” Ellora said flatly.
“Jo, Li’ira, get Ellora off this thing, Peggera, we’ll safe it,” I turned to the Mayor and the Marshal “Gentlemen, please exit. This thing is not safe.”
“Are you sure?” The Mayor asked.
“I’m positive,” I said firmly.
Reluctantly, they left their second spaceship of the day, after a lifetime of zero ships.
Peggera and I carefully took key components out of the engines and computers. The fusion core chugged to a halt. The lights quit except for isolated emergency lights. That made the interior even more spooky.
We smashed the critical components with a hammer I found in DeGruna’s tool kit.
“I spent my life fighting the Damyip,” Peggera said “And now I’m sleeping with one. But this…” He looked around, “This is crazy.”
“I’m amazed at the work,” I said “I’d have to take about six months to reverse engineer what he did. But I’m not kidding, I’ll never understand how his fusion core didn’t cook him for this. How did this ship manage a re-entry and landing profile like this? How is his life support still functioning? All of this is quite clearly bullshit.”
“Nothing sane keeps this ship flying,” Peggera said, “This is applied, practical madness.”
“I hate superstition,” I said, “But an exorcism doesn’t seem out of line.”
We left DeGruna’s horror ship.
-*-
We beamed back to the Runabout and took off.
We towed DeGrun’s horror ship into orbit and sent a complete report to Admiral Enrod. Then we returned to Rockwash and set down in the same place.
-*-
I had a hard time sleeping that night.
Peggera and Jo rolled right over and were out like lights. I tried not to be jealous or resentful.
Li’ira, too, was quickly asleep.
I sat at one of the auxiliary stations on the flight deck of the Runabout, picking away at my shopping list. My body was stiff, and things hurt all over.
Ellora sat straight, unmoving, staring straight ahead.
“I should say thank you,” Ellora said.
“Why?” I asked.
“You helped me track down my killer. You put yourself at risk. When you realized the nature of DeGrun’s ship, you were horrified,” She said.
I tried to process that, “I was just…. Doing….”
“We appreciate your attitude,” Ellora said. “I have just been informed that a Damyip patrol vessel has DeGruns scout. We will take it back to Starbase 1406.”
“Good,” I said “Is there anything I can do to… help you feel better?”
“I will be fine, in time. I need to process what I have seen. I need to fit it into my worldview properly,” She said, “I am concerned for you, Li’ira, Peggera, and Jo.”
I sighed “Our processing will take longer. It’ll be less direct. But at least we’ve hampered DeGruna. His consequences will catch up to him.”
“I am conflicted,”
“Oh?”
“I am a protector. My reason for being is protecting. I feel that I am leaving young Lefyt unprotected by letting DeGruna flee.”
“I completely understand that.”
“My cover here has either been blown or is in poor condition. The people here hate Damyip. If I were to stay and pursue DeGruna I could be outed and suffer violence. That would set back my mission and could impair the long-term mission of the Damyip.”
“Reasonable,” I said.
“It does not feel reasonable. It feels like an excuse,” She said.
“Feels,” I said.
“Yes. My goals and preferences have become so complex and similar to the Lefyt that I, too, suffer from … conflicting emotions.”
“Let’s make our delivery tomorrow and then return to this question,” I said.
“That is one thing you and the Lefyt can do that I cannot.”
“What’s that?”
“I can’t put something out of my mind. Your language and self-reporting say when you don’t think about something, you’re literally not thinking about it. But this is very rarely true. Often, you distract your conscious attention while subconscious processes work on the issue. I can’t do those things. The way we Damyip think is different from you.”
“It doesn’t seem like that, most of the time.”
“Thank you. We have worked hard to build that impression.”
“I’m going to try and go to bed. Please be good to yourself.”
“That is an interesting concept.”
“Good night,”
“And you.”
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane - The Lefyt System
Omoikane 70 - Remember who your friends are.
In this dream, I was going over what I saw of DeGruna’s ship with Galaglan. My attention would skitter back to the torture chamber. I could almost hear girls screaming and crying from the pit. Part of me wanted to go GET them, even though they were long out of reach.
And then I’d wrench it back to the technical details of the horror ship.
So much death and suffering caused by one brokenly entitled man. I wanted to find him. I was very angry.
**You’re hurting,** Galaglan said.
“I am,” I felt screaming somewhere behind me. My own. I pushed it back. “If I get a shot I won’t hold back next time.”
**Stephanie and a Security crew are on their way.** She said **Let your crew work.**
“For a dream, you’re awfully sensible,” I said.
She looked at me for several beats and then licked my nose.
-*-
Three shuttles landed near the Runabout. Two type 8’s, with different nacelles. It always bugged me when different revisions of the basic shuttle had different nacelles. It was unnecessary, but it made someone in high command happy, so we had to deal with it.
The third shuttle was a type 9 cargo shuttle.
Stephanie, Dr Hobolisk, Tillean, Galaglan, and some Security folks came out of one of the shuttles. I was glad to see them.
The other shuttle had older-style nacelles. Six Lefyt people got out of it. An older man and woman, and four younger folks. The old Lefyt had that wiry, leathery look that came from survival for a long time outside in rough conditions. They were all dressed in generic gray combat uniforms, with weapons and tools slung correctly.
All converged on me, as the cargo shuttle was landing.
Hobolisk took out a scanner and started scanning me immediately.
Galaglan handed me a psi shield and said **We need to talk.** She looked unhappy.
“Captain Hailey? I’m Lem. From Zheng Station, I’d like you to brief us on what you saw here last night.”
Stephanie said, “Yeah. We got volunteered to be the forensics department.”
I looked around putting the psi-shield on. “Look, things are about to get a little tense for a moment and then I have to get this material installed and running properly.”
Jo stepped out of the Runabout “Lem? What are you doing here?”
“Hey, Jo. I heard you had a guy was cuttin’ up kids. They needed a hunting party.”
Jo nodded to the lady “Ms Allra,”
She smiled a genuine smile “Jo. You gotta get back to your kids. Mellia is spoilin’ ‘em.”
Jo shrugged “I thought spoiling children was what civilization was all about.”
Lem hooked his thumb “These fine folks are siblings of Ellora.”
“Pleased,” I said to the younger-looking folks.
Names and introductions were exchanged.
I looked back at the town. The Mayor and the Marshal were there. I waved them over to us.
The people were tense, and many of them were holding weapons.
“I hear there’s going to be Toasters?” Yamoka said, without preamble.
Lem rolled his eyes “Look, young man. These Toasters, it’s not like the old days. It’s not like the war. They’ve been…” he looked at me “Federationized.”
Delefad said, “What with the whole ‘life’s what you make it’ and ‘we prefer peace and discussion’ and all that?”
Lem smiled “I see you’ve met the Federation,”
Delefad said “It's been less than 24 hours. How long did it take ‘em to … do that to the Damyip?”
Lem shrugged “Not long. A few weeks.”
Delefad squinted at Lem.
“There’s a whole story there,” I said “The Damyip were looking for a way out of their war-like approach. We offered them one. They jumped on it. I’ll show you how to look it up later.”
The Cargo shuttle landed. Its back hatch opened. Guardian Damyip stepped out of the hatch. Humanoid robots. They looked almost like people wearing plastic armor. These guys were painted white with various pastel stripes and designs on them.
I approached the back of the cargo shuttle “Hello, Damyip. Thank you for helping us.”
The Damyip had voices like cartoon characters “Thank you, Captain.”
I started to inventory the contents of the cargo shuttle. Mayor Delfad was with me. He asked one of the Damyip Guardians “Uhhh, what’s with the colors? We were told you was black or dark gray.”
“Older Damyip were,” The Guardian said “We started out white, but then the Children of Zheng Station asked to mark us in order to tell us apart. We obliged them.”
“Doesn’t that make you easier targets?”
“There are a few of us in the older color scheme at Zheng station. My mission is peacekeeping and support of the civilians at Zheng Station. The hope is that by social means, we can make shooting less likely.”
Ellora and Yamoka took the Zheng Station hunting party and my security people into the runabout. My guess was to brief them.
Galaglan appeared at my below **Captain, we really have to talk.**
“Help me unload this stuff and we’ll talk once we’re done.”
-*-
The rest of the day was busy. I set up the small fusion power supply. Then I set up the deuterium scoop in the creek. And I had to explain to the towns folk what I was doing.
Then we had to locate the water treatment units. And the Comm/Computer terminals.
It was about half engineering and half politics.
The Mayor took the dry goods shop of the brothers Sorad and turned that into the location for the industrial replicator. I had to show them how to use that properly.
I walked them through the idea of a Library. That way, the PADDS in the shipment could be shared relatively fairly.
It was just a hell of a long day. It was too much for one day.
But It was a good day.
As the sun was going down, I decided it was time for dinner. I called Galaglan over and we went back to the Runabout.
-*-
I sat down to one of my usual replicated meals
**Jay, you’ve broken us.**
I had a mouthful of chicken fried steak. “Whaff?” I mumbled around it.
**Those dreams you’ve been having.**
I stared at her.
**Those aren’t dreams. You’re visiting The All. Your mind is trying to defend itself by disassociation, and that’s why it feels like a dream. That feeling helps you come and go.**
I blinked at her and suddenly remembered I had a mouthful of food. I choked it down.
“What the fuck?”
**On the Teestra. You used me like a communicator.**
“It was an emergency situation.”
**Yes, and I don’t blame you. But there have been consequences.**
“What consequences?”
**We’re connected now. I’m not sure how. I’m not sure how deep this goes, or if it can be undone. Tippalan wants you to come back to the base right now. Jay, your brain has some weaknesses.**
“Weaknesses? How?”
**You’re a latent telepath. You had the potential for psionic powers, but this was never encouraged or trained in you. If you break your potential open without proper training, it means you don’t have good enough boundaries. If you contact The All unprepared, you could lose yourself. It would mean the you that you are now… is ruined. Mangled. It’s happened a few times in the past. It’s not pretty.**
Suddenly my psionic training with Tippalan began to make more sense. She was training me how to retain my own sense of self when in telepathic contact with someone else.
“So, where am I at, training-wise?”
Galaglan sighed **Take off the psi-shield**
I took it off.
Galaglan touched my face….
-*-
I was in the mental space. It still felt dream like.
The All was there. I could hear so many voices. A lot of the ones closer to us were saying **There he is again!** and **We have to get this guy stabilized!**
I could see Gensilan hovering over the landscape like a moon. God, she was big. There were dozens of others like her, more distant.
Suddenly Tippalan was right there. She was big and fuzzy. I could smell her. **Jay, you’re in danger. Your boundaries are erroding. You need to learn how to keep them. You need to do this now. You might go for weeks, or you might come apart right now. **
My brother took my hand **Hey, Buddy,**
I looked at the oldest of us, in the mental space. He was melded with Gensilan. They were different, but not. They were one, but not.
I felt his warmth. He was sort of like I’d always wanted my dad to be. I recoiled from the thought. I didn’t need to turn Jay1 into a father figure.
**Buddy, focus.**
I could see his face. All our faces were ever so slightly different. He smiled **We can discuss the feelings later. Whatever you’re feeling right now is fine. Just fine. I need you to focus on training up your boundaries. Once you’re stable, we can meet here and talk it out. It’ll be fine. I love you.**
Just like the Dad I was chasing. **I know,** he said **Me, too. But I had to become the dad we didn’t have.** He showed me his kids. So many kids. How scary it was to love them, to want to help them, and never be sure he was doing the right thing. And how he learned as he went.
**This is like that,** he said **We’re in this together. Always.**
I felt tears start.
Then Jay1 showed me a little bit about how proper boundaries felt and how he kept his. He was so much stronger than I was.
**Practice, and necessity. You can do it, too.**
I said, “I was always kind of creeped out by how you’ve gone native with the Ane.”
He said **Yeah. I’ve been a little careful about how much I show you guys about that. It made sense at the time. Kind of like you and Galaglan.**
I looked, and Galaglan was right behind me. “Do you mean…” I pointed “Me and her?”
**Maybe. It seems like you’ve joined The All, like it or not. How you and Galaglan arrange your bond is up to you. But I think you’re stuck with it.**
“I didn’t mean to..! I mean, no offense!”
Galaglan laughed **You’re sexually and romantically bonded with Li’ira. I get that. Tippalan and I have been working on it. But I think we might be stuck together, Jay.**
I looked at Gensilan. She was watching this with rapt attention. She loved us and was watching to see how it would play out.
Tippalan said **Jay, I need you back with me, as soon as possible.**
“Okay,” I said “Let me see what I can do.”
Getting out of The All consciously was difficult. Everything I thought reminded me of something that related back to something in The All. It was like trying to get out of a tar pit.
I fought and fought. The thoughts were sticky, and I just couldn’t.
Galaglan said *Relax,**
Then everything was different. I found myself back in the runabout as if I’d just fallen into my own body. I blinked at Galaglan.
She took her hands off the psi shield on my head **Better?**
The voder on the psi shield made her voice sound awful compared to the real thing.
“Jesus Christ,” I said.
**You’re starting to get it.**
-*-
I spent the night briefing my folks on what we found and context of it all. They’d have to take over for me.
Galaglan decided to stay and help the townsfolk get acquainted with their new tech. Marshal Yamoka and the Hunting Party were already well out of town on reinhorses, chasing down DeGruna.
I left Stephanie the runabout to act as HQ. We unloaded all the gear we could from the shuttlecraft. And then we took off.
-*-
Li’ira turned towards me “Okay, explain this to me again?”
“On the Teestra, I was able to telepathically communicate with Tippalan through Galaglan. But the connection wasn’t temporary. Galaglan and I are mentally stuck to each other.”
“Like a mating bond?”
“I hope not. My mating card is kind of booked right now.”
Li’ira looked at me “When you’re around cute telepathic girls, you need to keep your brain in your pants.”
I squinted at her. It was a funny thing to say. But this wasn’t like that. I didn’t think it was.
She sighed “Humans. No, Jay, you didn’t cheat on me and I’m not mad. That was a joke. You may need to examine your ideas and impulses around relationships. You can’t afford to have feelings and reactions and not know why. You’re not on Earth anymore.”
“Huh,” I sat back in the pilot’s chair.
“I’m not going anywhere. I like this. I like our thing.”
“Good,” I said, “Because as of now, you’re in charge. I’m mentally compromised until Tippalan says I’m re-certified.”
“How long do you think that’ll take?”
“No idea. I have a ways to go, yet.”
The shuttlecraft piloted itself back to the starbase.
In this dream, I was going over what I saw of DeGruna’s ship with Galaglan. My attention would skitter back to the torture chamber. I could almost hear girls screaming and crying from the pit. Part of me wanted to go GET them, even though they were long out of reach.
And then I’d wrench it back to the technical details of the horror ship.
So much death and suffering caused by one brokenly entitled man. I wanted to find him. I was very angry.
**You’re hurting,** Galaglan said.
“I am,” I felt screaming somewhere behind me. My own. I pushed it back. “If I get a shot I won’t hold back next time.”
**Stephanie and a Security crew are on their way.** She said **Let your crew work.**
“For a dream, you’re awfully sensible,” I said.
She looked at me for several beats and then licked my nose.
-*-
Three shuttles landed near the Runabout. Two type 8’s, with different nacelles. It always bugged me when different revisions of the basic shuttle had different nacelles. It was unnecessary, but it made someone in high command happy, so we had to deal with it.
The third shuttle was a type 9 cargo shuttle.
Stephanie, Dr Hobolisk, Tillean, Galaglan, and some Security folks came out of one of the shuttles. I was glad to see them.
The other shuttle had older-style nacelles. Six Lefyt people got out of it. An older man and woman, and four younger folks. The old Lefyt had that wiry, leathery look that came from survival for a long time outside in rough conditions. They were all dressed in generic gray combat uniforms, with weapons and tools slung correctly.
All converged on me, as the cargo shuttle was landing.
Hobolisk took out a scanner and started scanning me immediately.
Galaglan handed me a psi shield and said **We need to talk.** She looked unhappy.
“Captain Hailey? I’m Lem. From Zheng Station, I’d like you to brief us on what you saw here last night.”
Stephanie said, “Yeah. We got volunteered to be the forensics department.”
I looked around putting the psi-shield on. “Look, things are about to get a little tense for a moment and then I have to get this material installed and running properly.”
Jo stepped out of the Runabout “Lem? What are you doing here?”
“Hey, Jo. I heard you had a guy was cuttin’ up kids. They needed a hunting party.”
Jo nodded to the lady “Ms Allra,”
She smiled a genuine smile “Jo. You gotta get back to your kids. Mellia is spoilin’ ‘em.”
Jo shrugged “I thought spoiling children was what civilization was all about.”
Lem hooked his thumb “These fine folks are siblings of Ellora.”
“Pleased,” I said to the younger-looking folks.
Names and introductions were exchanged.
I looked back at the town. The Mayor and the Marshal were there. I waved them over to us.
The people were tense, and many of them were holding weapons.
“I hear there’s going to be Toasters?” Yamoka said, without preamble.
Lem rolled his eyes “Look, young man. These Toasters, it’s not like the old days. It’s not like the war. They’ve been…” he looked at me “Federationized.”
Delefad said, “What with the whole ‘life’s what you make it’ and ‘we prefer peace and discussion’ and all that?”
Lem smiled “I see you’ve met the Federation,”
Delefad said “It's been less than 24 hours. How long did it take ‘em to … do that to the Damyip?”
Lem shrugged “Not long. A few weeks.”
Delefad squinted at Lem.
“There’s a whole story there,” I said “The Damyip were looking for a way out of their war-like approach. We offered them one. They jumped on it. I’ll show you how to look it up later.”
The Cargo shuttle landed. Its back hatch opened. Guardian Damyip stepped out of the hatch. Humanoid robots. They looked almost like people wearing plastic armor. These guys were painted white with various pastel stripes and designs on them.
I approached the back of the cargo shuttle “Hello, Damyip. Thank you for helping us.”
The Damyip had voices like cartoon characters “Thank you, Captain.”
I started to inventory the contents of the cargo shuttle. Mayor Delfad was with me. He asked one of the Damyip Guardians “Uhhh, what’s with the colors? We were told you was black or dark gray.”
“Older Damyip were,” The Guardian said “We started out white, but then the Children of Zheng Station asked to mark us in order to tell us apart. We obliged them.”
“Doesn’t that make you easier targets?”
“There are a few of us in the older color scheme at Zheng station. My mission is peacekeeping and support of the civilians at Zheng Station. The hope is that by social means, we can make shooting less likely.”
Ellora and Yamoka took the Zheng Station hunting party and my security people into the runabout. My guess was to brief them.
Galaglan appeared at my below **Captain, we really have to talk.**
“Help me unload this stuff and we’ll talk once we’re done.”
-*-
The rest of the day was busy. I set up the small fusion power supply. Then I set up the deuterium scoop in the creek. And I had to explain to the towns folk what I was doing.
Then we had to locate the water treatment units. And the Comm/Computer terminals.
It was about half engineering and half politics.
The Mayor took the dry goods shop of the brothers Sorad and turned that into the location for the industrial replicator. I had to show them how to use that properly.
I walked them through the idea of a Library. That way, the PADDS in the shipment could be shared relatively fairly.
It was just a hell of a long day. It was too much for one day.
But It was a good day.
As the sun was going down, I decided it was time for dinner. I called Galaglan over and we went back to the Runabout.
-*-
I sat down to one of my usual replicated meals
**Jay, you’ve broken us.**
I had a mouthful of chicken fried steak. “Whaff?” I mumbled around it.
**Those dreams you’ve been having.**
I stared at her.
**Those aren’t dreams. You’re visiting The All. Your mind is trying to defend itself by disassociation, and that’s why it feels like a dream. That feeling helps you come and go.**
I blinked at her and suddenly remembered I had a mouthful of food. I choked it down.
“What the fuck?”
**On the Teestra. You used me like a communicator.**
“It was an emergency situation.”
**Yes, and I don’t blame you. But there have been consequences.**
“What consequences?”
**We’re connected now. I’m not sure how. I’m not sure how deep this goes, or if it can be undone. Tippalan wants you to come back to the base right now. Jay, your brain has some weaknesses.**
“Weaknesses? How?”
**You’re a latent telepath. You had the potential for psionic powers, but this was never encouraged or trained in you. If you break your potential open without proper training, it means you don’t have good enough boundaries. If you contact The All unprepared, you could lose yourself. It would mean the you that you are now… is ruined. Mangled. It’s happened a few times in the past. It’s not pretty.**
Suddenly my psionic training with Tippalan began to make more sense. She was training me how to retain my own sense of self when in telepathic contact with someone else.
“So, where am I at, training-wise?”
Galaglan sighed **Take off the psi-shield**
I took it off.
Galaglan touched my face….
-*-
I was in the mental space. It still felt dream like.
The All was there. I could hear so many voices. A lot of the ones closer to us were saying **There he is again!** and **We have to get this guy stabilized!**
I could see Gensilan hovering over the landscape like a moon. God, she was big. There were dozens of others like her, more distant.
Suddenly Tippalan was right there. She was big and fuzzy. I could smell her. **Jay, you’re in danger. Your boundaries are erroding. You need to learn how to keep them. You need to do this now. You might go for weeks, or you might come apart right now. **
My brother took my hand **Hey, Buddy,**
I looked at the oldest of us, in the mental space. He was melded with Gensilan. They were different, but not. They were one, but not.
I felt his warmth. He was sort of like I’d always wanted my dad to be. I recoiled from the thought. I didn’t need to turn Jay1 into a father figure.
**Buddy, focus.**
I could see his face. All our faces were ever so slightly different. He smiled **We can discuss the feelings later. Whatever you’re feeling right now is fine. Just fine. I need you to focus on training up your boundaries. Once you’re stable, we can meet here and talk it out. It’ll be fine. I love you.**
Just like the Dad I was chasing. **I know,** he said **Me, too. But I had to become the dad we didn’t have.** He showed me his kids. So many kids. How scary it was to love them, to want to help them, and never be sure he was doing the right thing. And how he learned as he went.
**This is like that,** he said **We’re in this together. Always.**
I felt tears start.
Then Jay1 showed me a little bit about how proper boundaries felt and how he kept his. He was so much stronger than I was.
**Practice, and necessity. You can do it, too.**
I said, “I was always kind of creeped out by how you’ve gone native with the Ane.”
He said **Yeah. I’ve been a little careful about how much I show you guys about that. It made sense at the time. Kind of like you and Galaglan.**
I looked, and Galaglan was right behind me. “Do you mean…” I pointed “Me and her?”
**Maybe. It seems like you’ve joined The All, like it or not. How you and Galaglan arrange your bond is up to you. But I think you’re stuck with it.**
“I didn’t mean to..! I mean, no offense!”
Galaglan laughed **You’re sexually and romantically bonded with Li’ira. I get that. Tippalan and I have been working on it. But I think we might be stuck together, Jay.**
I looked at Gensilan. She was watching this with rapt attention. She loved us and was watching to see how it would play out.
Tippalan said **Jay, I need you back with me, as soon as possible.**
“Okay,” I said “Let me see what I can do.”
Getting out of The All consciously was difficult. Everything I thought reminded me of something that related back to something in The All. It was like trying to get out of a tar pit.
I fought and fought. The thoughts were sticky, and I just couldn’t.
Galaglan said *Relax,**
Then everything was different. I found myself back in the runabout as if I’d just fallen into my own body. I blinked at Galaglan.
She took her hands off the psi shield on my head **Better?**
The voder on the psi shield made her voice sound awful compared to the real thing.
“Jesus Christ,” I said.
**You’re starting to get it.**
-*-
I spent the night briefing my folks on what we found and context of it all. They’d have to take over for me.
Galaglan decided to stay and help the townsfolk get acquainted with their new tech. Marshal Yamoka and the Hunting Party were already well out of town on reinhorses, chasing down DeGruna.
I left Stephanie the runabout to act as HQ. We unloaded all the gear we could from the shuttlecraft. And then we took off.
-*-
Li’ira turned towards me “Okay, explain this to me again?”
“On the Teestra, I was able to telepathically communicate with Tippalan through Galaglan. But the connection wasn’t temporary. Galaglan and I are mentally stuck to each other.”
“Like a mating bond?”
“I hope not. My mating card is kind of booked right now.”
Li’ira looked at me “When you’re around cute telepathic girls, you need to keep your brain in your pants.”
I squinted at her. It was a funny thing to say. But this wasn’t like that. I didn’t think it was.
She sighed “Humans. No, Jay, you didn’t cheat on me and I’m not mad. That was a joke. You may need to examine your ideas and impulses around relationships. You can’t afford to have feelings and reactions and not know why. You’re not on Earth anymore.”
“Huh,” I sat back in the pilot’s chair.
“I’m not going anywhere. I like this. I like our thing.”
“Good,” I said, “Because as of now, you’re in charge. I’m mentally compromised until Tippalan says I’m re-certified.”
“How long do you think that’ll take?”
“No idea. I have a ways to go, yet.”
The shuttlecraft piloted itself back to the starbase.