The Project

Chapter 37

The Project Chapter 37

Before taking off, Alex checked with Drok concerning the "souvenirs" he was taking,

"You're welcome to it all Alex," exclaimed Drok, none of it means anything to us anymore it's all part of a past every one of us on Ussen Ommo would desperately love to forget." As he lay in his bunk, examining the camera, watch and dog tags, Alex wondered if there was someone or someplace that might be able to "dig" into these items and pull up the data and pictures he was sure were hidden inside. When not doing that he and Kelly worked on learning how to fly the Karla-Ann. Kelly seemed depressed, and her attention to her studies showed it. As a result Arna's temperament worsened. Although he didn't like it, Alex suspected the reason and tried not to antagonize her. Kelly, on the other hand just didn't seem to care anymore, a fact that even concerned Bria. At first, she thought that perhaps she had something to do with Kelly's problem, but Alex quietly explained to her what was really troubling her.

"I think it's a lot of things Bria," explained Alex.

"First of all I think she's desperately homesick, secondly, something about Ussen Ommo has really bummed her out."

"I think there's something else as well," replied Bria.

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that she's in love with you Alex."

"Get outta here, I don't believe that for a moment, in the first place we don't really know each other, I only brought her along because she seemed to know a lot about aliens, and stuff like that, she was always putting on the big "tough girl" act with all that Goth s**t, guess I was wrong on that account."

"All she talked about was you, and how wrong she'd been about you. In case you weren't aware of it she's very shy. After you told us about what those stupid children were doing to us, I had a very long talk with her. She was so afraid you hated her."

"Well I don't hate her," he replied, "As far as paying attention to her, I'm sorry but I've just had too much on my mind lately. Look, I know it's not nice to say, but she's going to have to rely on herself, besides I thought those stupid fairies got her head squared away."

Now completely exasperated, Bria threw up her hands,

"I simply do not believe this, I'm not a human, nor do I come from your planet yet I understand what's going on even better than you do Alex!" He grimaced, then shook his head,

"Sorry, I can't help you Bria, I don't know, but maybe living with the fairy folk is the best thing for her." Shaking her head in disgust, Bria got up and just walked away.

Later, as he tried to get to sleep, Alex wondered about his choices, and if it had been a good idea to bring Kelly.

"And here I thought she was one of these tough and independent types, Ha! Guess I was wrong about that. But then if I had brought Palmer god! What a disaster that would have been, she would have been freaking out the moment she realized she couldn't use her silly-assed phone anymore. Wyatt? Umm, maybe, he'd have been cool with things, but after he stole Palmer…Fuck him! It's just too bad Kelly isn't more like Bria, now there's a tough chick. Umm, trouble is she's got an attitude problem and, well…She's just not my type. f**k…What am I going to do now?"

When he woke up, Alex discovered that Kelly had just gone to bed having been up while he was asleep. Alex thought at first she was deliberately avoiding him, however Arna informed him.

"I thought it best that you two be split up. In this way, I can devote my full attention to just one person at a time, with only one of you sitting in the pilot's seat; I can react to things much quicker. This is for my convenience as well as a way to better instruct the both of you, not because you think Kelly is upset at you." Alex strongly doubted her but let it slide.

"Have you changed your mind about being dropped off at Fort Kamata," asked Arna.

"No. Look Arna, getting those people those people on Xindus back to work comes first; I'm with you and Garmik one hundred per cent on that. You two are going to be pretty busy running back and forth from Xindus to Ussen Ommo until everything is up and running, I'd just be in the way. You've got my I.D. code, and I'll post to the Oxynian message board anytime I go somewhere. And if nothing else, I do want to see those purifiers working, so I'll make it a point to get back to Ussen Ommo in the end."

"Are you going to be all right?" She asked, "I'm responsible for you, you know. Gideon asked me to watch out for you, and that's what I intend to do."

"I know Arna," he replied, "And I appreciate it, really I do, but I'm hoping Gruk and Kleg are at the fort, if they are, I'll see if they will let me tag along with them."

Arna made a snorting sound,

"Those two…Well I hope you know what you're doing, you know, you still have a long way to go with your studies?"

"Yeah I know," he admitted, "I'll try and pick it up as I go, besides, I'm only talking a couple senth's, don't worry." The trip to Fort Kamata was rather uneventful, other than the fact that Alex and Kelly got in more flight time, and Kelly taught Drok how to play poker. The stop at the fort was a little longer than originally planned, due to re-fueling, along with a lengthy meeting with Zeb and Deev, the Oxynian representatives. Alex and Kelly hugged each other with Kelly promising to re-join the ship when she felt better about things.

"You take care of yourself Kelly," said Alex.

"I'm sorry Alex," she replied, I just can't deal with this s**t any longer. I'll be OK; they told me that I would always be welcome there. When you decide that it's time to go home, you'll know where to find me."

"Well that might be awhile," he replied, "As far as I'm concerned, the adventure is just getting started. Look Kelly I'm sorry for dragging you along on this, I…I just figured you could handle things better." She then glared at him with her tear streaked face.

"Go to hell, goddamn you Alex, what did you think I was?"

"Well excuse the hell out of me!" He replied, "Obviously you presented yourself as someone you weren't. Look I don't want to fight about this, my fault, your fault, nobody's fault, we're here, and we have to deal with things as they stand. If you want to go and just hang with the fairies, be my guest, have a good time, but as for me, I'm going to make the most of the opportunity." As he started to leave, he turned and kissed her on the forehead.

"Later Kelly."

On his way out, he stopped and said goodbye to Garmik and Drok,

"I'll catch you guys later," he exclaimed. "I do want to see those purifiers at work on Ussen Ommo."

"Well that won't be for some time yet," replied Drok, but once we get things going on Xindus, we'll be back there most of the time."

"Well good luck," stated Alex, "see ya!"

Alex left his three bags at a temporary holding area the Oxynian Company provided for travelers, then went looking for his friends. Just as he expected, they were tucked into a booth at the local watering hole along with their lady friends. He heard Gruk call out his name before he spotted them, then making a beeline for their table he sat down as Gruk made room for him.

"I figured I'd find you two here," He announced.

"What are you doing here?" Asked Gruk.

"Well right now Arna and Garmik are involved with a guy named Drok who's the new Oxynian rep for Ussen Ommo. They're working on a plan to build these huge purifiers on Xindus then take them to Ussen Ommo where they'll sweep up ever scrap of metal, rubble, and anything contaminated to try and bring life back to that haunted planet."

The four Golians all gave him puzzled looks,

"Have you ever been to that place?" Asked Kleg.

"Yeah," replied Alex, we just came from there," Then Kleg's lady friend said,

"I didn't think there was anything on that planet except a bunch of sand people." He looked at her and replied,

"That would be the Gri'Foda, Drok Irdurg is one of then and now the new Oxynian rep for the place. As for anything else…Well there's plenty of ghosts, I've seen them; I've also seen destruction on a scale that is unlike anything you could ever imagine. I took pictures, but I don't have my camera with me at the moment."

"Actually I've seen one of those purifiers. "Remarked Gruk, I think it was on Vlen-Apsi or some drikkin place like that. Anyway it looked like a giant heiboth beetle moving across the surface, pretty impressive, but then I was standing quite a distance away."

"Did they have a war there too?" Asked Alex, Gruk gave him a funny look, then answered,

"No, they had a class eight ore freighter explode right over the planet and come down there. Thankfully it crashed in one piece but it was carrying a full load of refined chay ore, and combined with the plasma fuel from the freighter heavily contaminated the whole area, thank Shimma it crashed in an uninhabited area."

"Did it clean everything up?" Asked Alex.

"Oh yeah," replied the Golian, "good as new, the only thing it saved was all the metal from the ship, as I recall, it was like a course powder, which they transferred to a scrap hauler." Then Gruk immediately switched gears and said to Alex.

"Say, are you doing anything?"

"Uhh no, why?"

"Interested in a job?"

"Yeah! What is it?"

"Well don't get too excited," added Gruk,

"Kleg and I have to run back to Golia, with a high level businessman and his wife. We could use you and that weapon of your for a bit of security. We'll have an escort leaving here and one as we get close to Golia, but there's a long stretch with nothing. This fellow is in a hurry to get back home, and doesn't want to wait for the special navy transport that isn't due here for several more cycles."

"Well…Yeah," replied Alex.

"Problem is that since you're not an official Oxynian employee I can't pay you, but I can list you as a "crewman backhaul" so it's a free ride to Golia. There's plenty of eabak on board so you won't starve, what do you say?"

"In on one!" he exclaimed.

Then Kleg asked,

"Say, where's that dwarf princess, and that female human that were with you?"

Alex shrugged,

"Bria wants to see Xindus so she's off with Arna and Garmik, Kelly…Well things have just gotten too much for her, she's gone back to Deneva to hang around with the fairy folk." All four Golians chuckled at that,

"Well good luck with that," replied Gruk. "We'll be leaving shortly, so if you have any gear better get it now; we're parked on pad seven, just go through security as you normally would, tell the guard you're signing on as an "X-0556."

Alex left the bar with a big grin on his face,

"Damn! My first job and a free ride to Golia to boot." At the place where he had left his gear, Alex rented a small arostat, or floating platform to carry his gear on, then made his way over to landing pad seven. Finally he had a purpose; somebody was hiring him for a job. He briefly thought back to the bloody firefight with the raiders, but quickly dismissed it from his mind, the fact that he was back with his friends once more was all that mattered. Although he was certain the security guards had seen him before, they still gave him curious looks, with one asking,

"I know it says on your card, but where are you from again?"

"Earth, I'm from earth," he replied. This wasn't registering with them, only drawing more puzzled looks.

"It's two points off the Tannhauser gate, go straight on till morning; it's out in the Dagobah system." He knew he was risking trouble screwing with the guards like this, but they just shrugged,

"Can we expect more of your kind?" One of them asked.

"I kinda doubt it," replied Alex, "But that might be a good thing."

Once he was on board, he stashed his gear in one of the gear lockers, then sat down to wait for Gruk and Kleg to arrive. It wasn't long before he heard voices at the bottom of the loading ramp with the two Golians coming up the ramp followed by two more Golians, which he figured were the businessman and his wife. Gruk and Kleg were carrying their flight bags as well as the passenger's baggage, which they took to one of the small cabins. When Gruk returned, he asked Alex,

"I forgot to ask you back at the bar, but can you fly a spacecraft?"

"Oh f**k!" He thought, "I'm screwed now!"

"Uhh yeah, well kinda, Arna's been teaching me, I'm still pretty weak on navigation though."

"How are you at reading instruments and entering data?"

"Umm well I'm a lot better at that, yeah, I'll go ahead and say that I'm comfortable with that sort of thing."

"Good," replied Gruk, I'll enter you as a co-pilot."

"Say if it's not too much trouble, could I just watch you guys while you're flying?" He asked, "I mean I know all the basics, it's just making sure I don't get lost, you know, making sure I maintain the right headings and know ahead of time which areas are dangerous."

"Oh I suppose," replied Gruk, "You can take Kleg's seat when he's relieving himself or off eating."

"Thanks guys!" Replied Alex, "I really want to learn this stuff, and I've been working hard on learning to read your language." Gruk patted him on his shoulder,

"Well you did right by us with all those reward, and scrap credits, not many would have done that." Alex's face brightened,

"When we get to Golia are you going to take me to "Neb's Nebula?" Gruk gave him a questioning look,

"I know I said something about it but you might be a bit young for that place, however if you insist…" Then he was introduced to Laapkan Doltoda and his wife Eltiag, both bombarding him with questions about earth.