The Project

Chapter 40

The Project Chapter 40

By this time Gruk and Kleg had returned, picking up a story they had been telling Ronjac. Alex continued to nurse his beer but mostly stare up at the ceiling, or observe the people sitting near their booth. He hadn't noticed it before, but every so often, a tiny light would streak across the heavens. Comets, asteroids, or spaceships? When he pointed it out, Gruk replied,

"I guess I never noticed it before, but then I don't stare up at the ceiling all the time. After Alex had finished his meal it sounded like his friends were planning on closing the place down. Taking this as a hint, he announced,

"Guess I'll head back to the hostel, I think I can find my way." Then he thanked his friends, as well as Ronjac.

"Are you going to be all right?" Asked Kleg,

"Sure, I'll be fine, I'm a lot more confident in myself that I used to be. If nothing else, I'll go look up Mr. Doltoda and see if he's still interested in going to earth."

Well good luck," replied Gruk, "Maybe we'll see you around."

"Well you guys take care, I'm sure I can find something around here. I'm going to try and get back to the Fort; maybe I'll catch you guys back there." Then turning to Ronjac, he added.

"If you do decide to visit earth again look me up, I post messages under 3x5526, I can show you where to land or people to meet that won't try and kill you."

"Thanks, I'll do that," replied Ronjac, see you around." Alex made his way back out to the street, but not before checking to see if perhaps Neb's carried a line of souvenir tee-shirts, or even shot glasses. Sadly not, other than the Spork he got with his Chibat, it was obvious the Golians didn't go in for advertising of this nature. He then wondered if they were into souvenirs at all,

"Sure would be nice to have something that says I've been to Golia."

As he was coming through the lobby of the hostel, he happened to look to his right and spotted the Ruddorian girl he had been talking to in Neb's. It looked like she was doing something on an iPhone, but since he knew they didn't have such things here, he figured it to be a small computer.

"Hey, nice to meet you again," he casually announced. She looked up at him and smiled,

"Is it Alex? I think that's what you told me your name was." Smiling, he replied, "You remembered, now as I recall, your name is Tiag. Is that a computer you're fooling with?"

She held it up,

"Oh it's much more than that Alex. Communicator, computer, imager, medical encyclopedia, all known data on every planet in the Oxynian trading empire, plus few outside of it. Why, do you have one as well?" He grinned,

"Yeah, but I left it at home."

"Oh that's too bad," replied Tiag. Alex shrugged,

"About the only useful thing on it would have been the camera, but I brought my regular one. Were you talking to someone?"

"My mother, she…So tell me a little more about yourself, my brother Stapkas is getting something he left on our ship, he should be here any time. Oh, I hope you don't mind, I told him you were from earth, he wants to know more about it."

Alex studied her for a moment, for just a casual encounter, she seemed awfully interested in him, he wondered why. Pointing to her communicator, he said.

"Back on earth, we have phones like that; we can take pictures, and talk to pretty much anyone in the world, plus a whole lot of other stuff."

"Well let me show you something Alex." He could see that there weren't any buttons on the face, everything looked touch screen,

"I'm calling my friend back on Ruddoria," explained Tiag.

"Niope! How are you? "Oh I'm just fine. Right now Stapkas and I are here on Golia, and I'm talking to this cute earth boy, here, take a look." She held the device up so Alex could see the image of an attractive Ruddorian female looking at him. The girl then asked him,

"What is your name, and where is this earth…Never heard of it."

"Umm, well, it's pretty far out there," replied Alex. Tiag then lowered the device,

He could just hear the other girl ask.

"So what are you two doing, I heard that your parents are just letting you two travel around for awhile." Tiag looked at Alex and smiled,

"Looking for adventure, and whatever comes our way, you know my brother."

There was a suggestive giggle from the girl on the screen.

"So are you two going to this earth?" Tiag frowned, and looked at Alex.

"We have no idea, Stapkas hasn't made up his mind yet, they've just issued a raider alert for the Zan-Argo system so we're not sure yet."

"Let me speak with that earth boy again," said Niope. Tiag handed Alex the comm device. He held it like a phone until Niope scolded him.

"What are you doing? Just hold the vision plate in front of you, yes, like that."

He saw her looking at him in her device screen but at the same time trying to give him a better look at her.

She also seemed to be doing something with her vision plate or whatever they called them.

"Say!" She then announced,

"Are you trying to pull something on my friend there? I show no data on any planet named earth."

"It's a real planet and all," replied Alex, "Like I told you, it's so far out half the world doesn't believe there is anyone else in the universe."

"Well what kind of stupidity is that?" Then Niope raised her voice loud enough so that Tiag would hear her.

"Tiag, don't go anywhere with this person, I think he's lying to you." Tiag took the device and attempted to calm her friend.

"Just calm down Niope, he certainly looks honest to me, look, I've gotta go, father is going to kill me when he sees the call charge, talk to you later." She brushed the screen with her hand with the screen going blank.

"She sounds like my old girlfriend," commented Alex, "All I can tell you is that I'm who I say I am, I'm honest and trustworthy, but right now, I've got to find a job so I can get back to Fort Kamata."

"What sort of job are you looking for?" Came a voice from behind. It was Tiag's brother Stapkas. Alex turned around to see a Ruddorian male a little taller then himself staring at him with his red eyes. His black hair was cut short, almost like Alex's hair.

"So you're the fellow my sister was gushing over?" this brought a squeak of protest from Tiag, but Stapkas ignored it. He then held out his left hand with his fist clenched as if he was going to punch Alex, who now realized this as a gesture of greeting.

"Damn! He thought, "He wants me to respond, but I don't know what to do."

Then a thought came into his head,

"Clench your fist and lightly bring it down on the guy's fist like a hammer."

With nothing to loose, he did so, which caused Stapkas to respond by bringing his clenched fist down on Alex's clenched fist. Judging from the Ruddorian's response, it must have been the correct thing to do.

Stapkas sat down, continuing to study Alex,

"What does your race refer themselves as Alex?"

"We call ourselves human, as in "members of the human race."

"Interesting," replied Stapkas, who continued to study Alex, who was beginning to feel uncomfortable by the Ruddorian's gaze.

"Why do you keep staring at me?" He asked.

"Well we've never encountered one of you "humans" before, anyone else I can easily figure out, but here's the situation we find ourselves in. I'm not only going to need a gunner, but someone who could handle co-pilot duties as well." turning to his sister, he added.

"I talked with three individuals concerning the position but they all want way too many credits and quite frankly I was just a bit suspicious about one."

"Well I just talked to mother not long ago; she absolutely insists we take a "responsible party along,"

"What's she mean by that?" Questioned Stapkas, Tiag just rolled her eyes.

Her brother sighed and made a face before turning to Alex.

"Are you a "responsible" individual Alex?'

He looked at both of them and shrugged,

"II guess so, I'm not one to horse-ass around a lot if that's what you mean?"

"Well I'm not familiar with that term," replied Stapkas, "But if it means what I think it implies I guess we can use you.

Obviously you've never operated a "proto phason" turret system, but how are you at flying or filling in as a co-pilot?" Alex frowned, and shrugged.

"I've been studying pretty hard at flying and navigation, obviously I've got a long way to go yet, but I do have a decent working knowledge of what to do, there's that, but not long ago I was involved in an incident which involved killing a whole crew of raiders who were trying to hijack our ship. It's on record, check it out."

Tiag gave him a strange look, then started to fool with her little computer.

Moments later, her face showed surprise,

"Here it is…Incredible!" Handing her device to Stapkas, he studied it for a moment then looked up at Alex.

"I've heard of this Slyr fellow, and Kreed Freihork. Says here that you shot Freihork and a couple other raiders outright, then you and one Gruk Armier then stormed onto the raider ship where you then shot Agrat, and the rest of his crew.

Simply amazing, well that's good enough for me. Well now that we have that settled where should we go?"

"Ahem," exclaimed Alex, "About that gunner, and turret business what exactly does all that involve? I've never handled anything like that before."

"Our father insisted on installing it," replied Tiag. "Basically it's a semi-automated weapons platform that fires on anyone attacking us from the rear, however it requires someone to make certain adjustments, as well as spotting targets. Don't worry, once we figure out where we want to go, Stapkas can show you how to operate the thing."

"Speaking of which…" Exclaimed Stapkas.

"I take it you two have free reign to tear-ass all over the galaxy and now you can't decide just where to go?" Asked Alex. Both Ruddorians nodded,

"Ever since we were babies our parents have carted us all over the galaxy, we've pretty much been everywhere so I guess we're just a little jaded," said Tiag.

"So Alex, have you found yourself on any interesting planets since your arrival here in our little part of the universe?" Asked Stapkas.

"Well we first went to Deneva, then Doradus, then Xindus, Fort Kamata, then Moriedia, and Ussen Ommo, then here to Golia."

"That's quite an impressive itinerary," remarked Stapkas, "Especially Moriedia, what were you doing there?" Alex proceeded to describe the whole adventure behind that, as well as the children's messing with Kelly and Bria's minds.

"You don't say," replied, Stapkas, "Well Moriedia is certainly a very interesting place, however I'm more impressed by the fact that you were on Ussen Ommo. Were you by any chance in the company of that new Oxynian representative Drok Irdurg?"

Alex wondered how he knew that but let it pass, as Stapkas was now asking him about earth again.

"So where exactly is this planet of yours?" Asked Stapkas. Alex pulled out his wallet, and took out a piece of paper which he had written down the coordinates Arna had given him.

"Uh sector 000658000, quadrant 765007. Mega 126002, and keva 6000466."

"You really are a long way from home," replied Tiag.

"Just where did you get those coordinates?" Asked Stapkas, "That 8000 annex on your sector coordinate, as well as the 6000keva figure are way beyond anything I've ever remotely seen."

"The pilot of the ship Kelly and I came here on is called the Karla-Ann, her pilot is an android named Arna, maybe later I'll tell you the rest of the story. Anyway, she told me there have been those who have actually traveled to earth. I was even talking to a Golian back at Neb's who told me he's been there. She told me that the coordinates have been verified by people who have been there."

"I see," said Stapkas, then looking at his sister he grinned and with a shrug announced.

"The trip might be a bit on the dull side, but I'm ready to go, then looking at Alex said.

"Since it's your home can we assume that you will show us around, the fact that you mentioned that there are a lot of people who don't believe we exist intrigues me, plus it's not a place everybody has been to."

While he had been talking, his sister had been doing calculations on her computer.

"Well if we re-fuel at Fort Kamata, and grab an emergency fuel cell, we should have plenty of fuel to get there and back with some to spare, count me in."

"Well Alex, what do you say?" Asked Stapkas.

"Well I'm certainly fine with it," replied Alex, "but if we go I'd like to make a quick stop on Deneva to pick up my friend Kelly, she's pretty homesick, and I think just wants to go home. I also need to contact Arna and let her know what's going on."

"What's her ship number?" Asked Tiag,

"I think its 3380 Ek, Kalk." he replied. Tiag then started brushing her finger across the vision plate until she smiled, and said,

"Here we go; I believe it's your pilot." Taking the device, Alex looked at it directly; sure enough it was Arna, obviously flying the Karla-Ann.

"Alex!" She exclaimed, "Where are you at? What is this about?"

"Uh hello Arna, right now I'm here on Golia, but I've made a couple friends, who want to go to earth. First of all, where are you at?"

"We just dropped Kelly off on Deneva; we're on our way back to Fort Kamata where Bria will be getting off. She saw what she wanted to see on Xindus, I was about to send you a message concerning this very matter."

"Well we'll be stopping at the fort to re-fuel so we can pick up Bria, then swing over to Deneva and grab Kelly."

"So are you saying goodbye to Garmik and I Alex," replied Arna.

"Oh no! Arna," He exclaimed. "I'm sure this business with the purifiers and getting the manufacturing on Xindus will take time, we'll be stopping at the fort again on our return so I'll contact you then, but I do want to get back to Ussen Ommo to see those machines operate, I'll just be out of your "hair" for awhile that's all."

"Well it's true, that we'll be rather busy for some time," replied Arna, I will post messages from time to time. How about I use the name of the abandoned village where Gideon and I first met you."

"That would be fine," he replied, "Well good luck Arna, you too Garmik, catch you later."

"Same to you Alex," she replied. After the call was cut, he looked at Tiag and asked.

"I didn't know you could do that with a comm device?" said Alex. Tiag grinned,

"You can't but this one is…Special. Something funny was going on here with these two he thought, but then Stapkas asked.

"Who is this other person Bria, you just mentioned your friend Kelly."

"Uh sorry," replied Alex, "Bria's parents are king and queen of Doradus; she's a princess, whose parents have given her permission to travel around the galaxy for a couple yarns meeting new people, and familiarizing herself with the empire."

Stapkas looked at his sister, then back at Alex.

"Alex, we haven't been truly forthcoming with you, but I think it's time we told you who we really are. First though I need your solemn oath to keep all that we tell you a secret, our very lives could be in danger if you don't." Alex stood up and held up his right hand,

"I swear upon my honor to keep all that I learn a secret, and to myself." Stapkas studied him for a moment longer, then in a low tone said.

"Our father is the foreign minister of Ruddoria; our mother is the Ruddorian ambassador to Golia."

"That's who I was talking to earlier," added Tiag.

"Anyway raiders would love to get their hands on us for ransom purposes hence the reason for the added proto phason turret. Our ship carries four plasma rapid firing cannons but while I or Tiag are busy shooting at someone, we could easily be hit from behind before we could take action.

We too are doing as this Bria you speak of is engaged in its sort of a "rite of passage" for young people on our planet before they decide on their life's career or continue on with their education. Tiag then broke in,

"Stapkas and I already know what we'll be doing; we've been training for it since we were very young."

"Let me guess," said Alex, "The diplomatic service?"

"It's why we're eager to visit your home world Alex," said Stapkas, "We know everyone worth knowing, that's why traveling to someplace new sounds very interesting and full of adventure at the same time. We aren't familiar with this Bria or her parents, Deneva and Doradus being way out on the rim of the empire so I'm looking forward to that as well."

"If you're so worried about being kidnapped by raiders," asked Alex, "Then why are your parents letting you wander around like this?"

"Because unlike most Ruddorians, Tiag and I are well versed on all the dangers out there, our ship holds secrets I haven't told you about," explained Stapkas,

"Besides, we have to start living "life" at some point in our lives."