Angelika Queen Of Mars

Chapter 36

Chapter 36 Mr. Troublemaker

For the next Alyt, my life was filled with running back and forth between training missions with the marines, and working with Moreck as we moved the business along. Coffee sales remained brisk, with our current shipment being sold out roughly two alyts later. Moreck was finally where he wanted to be, all the major bugs had been worked out, the permit and license situation had finally been resolved, but most of all we were making a lot of credits. Moreck also received something I think he was looking for more than wealth, and that was nothing more than respect from his father. He never said, but from things Dori had picked up, as well as things he had told me, accolades from his parents really made him proud. Dori was also making changes in her life at this time as well. At Sharla's urging, she had started taking classes in business administration. She explained it all to me, but the system of learning is so much different on Falth, business administration is the closest thing I could compare her studies too.

N the military front, I was as busy as ever, attending meetings, and planning sessions dealing with our training village. From what Branak was now telling us, there was a damn good chance my team would get to participate in a full marine training exercise, actually traveling to one of their training planets, (a large asteroid actually) where we would have to wear full spacesuits. However because of gravitational differences, as well as proper use of the suits, we would have to essentially take "astronaut" training. According to Branak, "strings" were now being "pulled" to make this happen. However, in the midst of all this I suddenly received a missive to report immediately to the office of space travel, a sub department of the space administration. My guys offered to accompany me, but the order specifically named only me.

Once again, traveling to the government sector of Cluria, I was directed to a meeting room where Mr. Kormas again welcomed me. There were also several other interesting Falthians present as well, such as Darnorick Torrick the foreign affairs minister, as well as Ormarlack Skamma the Amulian Ambassador, along with a few others I didn't recognize.

"What the hell did I do now?" I thought to myself as I scanned the dignitaries, at one point, I didn't think I would be leaving that room a free man. One thing about the Falthians, they don't screw around, getting right down to business.

"Mr. Gandrigg," said Mr. Kormas, "I'm glad you could attend this meeting on such short notice. I'm not sure you're aware of the uproar you have created with your request to donate what you refer to as a flying saucer. Quite frankly, I'm rather surprised by the flood of reaction as well; in short, you've turned the prime directive right on its head." He paused for a moment, letting it all sink in, but all this information did was to convince me even more that I was in real trouble. Quickly speaking up, I apologized.

"I'm sorry if I upset the apple cart, believe me, that was not my intention, I wish to be a good citizen of Falth by not stirring things up." No one said anything until the foreign affairs minister spoke.

"Mr. Gandrigg, rest assured, you are not being accused of anything, nor are you in any trouble, perhaps if I explain a bit it will all become clear. First of all, your knowledge of the prime directive is quite correct, and coming to Mr. Kormas was the proper thing to do. As you may, or may not know, there has been a renewed interest in your planet, especially since commander Aelfric, or as you know her, Angelika, queen of Mars, has been teasing this NASA organization which as we understand is in charge of space travel and exploration." I quickly raised my hand, whereby he pointed to me and said,

"You have a question?"

"Yes Mr. Torrick, I do. First of all, NASA is the space agency for the United States, countries like Russia, and China have their own agencies, plus there's the European space agency, along with a couple private ventures."

"Thank you Mr. Gandrigg, for that information," he replied.

"I might also point out, that since we detonated the terra bomb over Beta 6 our base on Hyach 3 has been involved in some rather testy exchanges with these NASA people. Now of course, they believe they are speaking with Angelika's people, and we wish to keep it that way, however you're offering to donate this craft of yours obviously in queen Angelika's name, might be taken as a sort of "peace offering." You can't imagine the late night discussions and debates that have gone on over this matter, but I think we've finally reached a consensus. Please tell us Mr. Gandrigg, once more a detailed description of what it is you would like to do with this craft, I know you've already told Mr. Kormas, but there are several in this room who have not heard your original offer."

I then carefully re-stated my original offer to donate my saucer to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum in Angelika's name, along with the clear understanding to NASA that this craft be displayed center stage, and not hidden away in some secret warehouse. In the end, I also stated,

"I fully understand the prime directive, which forbids the selling, or transfer of technology greater than the receiving party or race has, and I totally agree with that position. However, I see this offer as a way to demonstrate to my home planet that rocket power isn't the only way to travel in space. All the critical components of this craft have been removed, so nothing really important will be given away, and who knows, some clever scientist might just stumble on the right way to make this thing fly. In other words gentlemen, I like to think Angelika would phrase her gift in these words.

"All right Earthlings I'm offering you a gift, there IS another way to get around in space, and here it is. Now I don't want to make things too easy, so I've removed a couple critical items, it's your job to figure out what they are and how they work, and by the time you do, we'll be ready to greet you on New Uromath."

Everyone chuckled at that one, with a Mr. Tormeck asking,

"What exactly would you require to get this craft located in the right spot in your country?"

I hadn't thought about this part too much, so I improvised.

"Well naturally we'd need a ship that could carry the saucer, I've got a place in mind where we could leave it, however I'd like to get some pictures of it sitting on the Martian surface with the backdrop clearly indicating that it is on Mars, or Hyach 3 as you call the planet. I realize Angelika is on patrol way out beyond our galaxy, but a message from her originating on Hyach 3 to Earth, along with separate messages to several news organizations would be needed to prevent the government from covering the whole thing up."

I also discussed alerting several news agencies, along with the Smithsonian itself about the priceless gift about to fall into their lap.

"I want to make one thing perfectly clear about our decision on this matter Mr. Gandrigg," said Mr. Kormas. "Although it might seem as though we are violating our own rule, we're just "bending" it a little. Although the technology involved in this craft is advancement well beyond anything you Kagorians have at the present it is what we refer to as class XM technology, most of what is for sale out at Yedor-Rus, is XM salvage. After much discussion and haggling, we of the Falthian space agency feel that by offering this craft to your world, it will, in a very subtle way, offer a look at an alternative propulsion method. What we wish to determine however, is whether you Kagorians will take the hint, and begin development of something more practical in the way of space travel."

It now became clear what they were up to, I was always being told how smart we as a race were, and maybe a little "kick-in-the-ass" was all we needed. Basically, the gift of this craft would say,

"All right you dumb asses, you're going down the wrong road with rockets, here's a little something to get you headed in the right direction, let's see if you take the hint!" Then another official who didn't give his name spoke up,

"Consider this a sort of "test" for you humans; we're going to be watching what happens very carefully, monitoring the situation as it were. There are a number of things we will be watching for in the way your people deal with this gift. I'll be frank with you Mr. Gandrigg, should these agencies you spoke of fail, it will impact heavily on any future dealings or policy changes with Kagor." This sounded like a threat, so I quickly responded.

"Are you implying that you'll just walk away from us say for example, my saucer just disappears, and no further mention is made of it, or some alibi is offered by the American Government?"

"That is exactly what we are saying," came the reply, "Now this won't stop the limited contact we now have, any Kagorians wishing to attend the university, or even become Falthian citizens will still be encouraged, it will tell us all we need to know about your governmental system and mindset. You may as well know that there is a sizeable contingent here in the government that wishes to make official contact with your planet, this offering of one of our outdated spacecraft will determine which way we decide on the matter."

So there it was, pass the "test" and the citizens of Washington DC might wake to spacecraft landing on the mall, fail it, and it's back to business as usual and,

"Well it looks like we were right all along; Kagor still has a long way to go before we make any contact with them." Well, there wasn't much I could do about it; I'm just one man holding duel citizenship keeping my mouth shut. I don't know, maybe they were right, maybe we humans just weren't ready to leave the "house" yet, after all, we can't even get along with ourselves, I didn't blame the Falthians one bit for looking at us with a critical eye. The meeting was over, but the foreign minister indicated that he wanted to speak to me. Standing with him was the Amulian ambassador who looked anxious about something.

"I believe you've met ambassador Skamma," said the foreign minister, "He's approached me about a matter involving you."

"I'm not in trouble over the saucer am I?" I asked.

"No, not at all," chuckled minister Torrick, "It seems that the Amulian's wish to send a couple observers to your planet to monitor the reaction your government has towards the gift of the flying saucer, as you call it, would you be willing to put them up like last time?" Smiling at the ambassador, I replied,

"Of course, these observers will be more than welcome; in fact, I've recently completed a separate building equipped with a comfortable room, a kitchenette that will allow them to prepare their own food, as well as an office to work from. It's separate from my house, so they won't be bothered, and as last time, I will offer any assistance they might need."

The Amulian seemed quite pleased by my offer and thanked me before indicating to the foreign minister that he wanted to discuss some things with him. Later, that evening, I received a call on my wrist com from the foreign minister,

"I just wanted to take a moment to thank you Mr. Gandrigg, for again offering your home to these Amulians, I know they can be trying at times, but you seem to have no trouble with them."

"It's no problem sir," I replied, "I suppose you could consider me a sort of "ambassador without portfolio," I certainly consider my home a sort of "way station, or unofficial Kagorian embassy. I know my great great grandfather would certainly be pleased to know that once again his countrymen still sit at his kitchen table laugh and tell stories. I think it would also warm his heart to know that the Amulians are welcome here as well."

There was a brief pause at the other end, then the foreign minister said,

"Ah yes, Moreck Gandrigg, I've studied much about him, and I think his contributions have been very underrated , perhaps we'll have to do something about that."

"When are these Amulians supposed to arrive at my place?" I asked,

"We're not sure yet," came the reply, they're being rather vague at the moment, but I suppose about the time we bring the craft, which by the way, you are to meet with captain Hathas Neshok at Drolugi's tomorrow around eighteen shons, bring your wife." The com turned itself off indicating that the foreign minister was done, but this wasn't going to work so well, I was scheduled to be in meetings all day with the marine liaison officer and one of their training department heads, no doubt a meeting that would continue into the evening hours, well, maybe I could kill two birds with one stone.

When I called Branak Narshu to explain the situation, he told me that I was in luck, as the training people weren't ready yet and had called him earlier to beg off.

"I think they'll be ready in another una or two," he explained, "There seems to be some disagreements on the feasibility of constructing an even larger village, but this one would be situated off world, I'll get back to you." Another call to my men brought cheers, since it meant that they were free to carouse at Drolugi's hopefully, in another room.

Dori was eager to go along, wearing one of the new outfits she and Sharla had designed based on some Grocyrian patterns they thought would go over big. Although it wasn't as revealing as some of the evening wear Falthian women generally wore, it turned heads, both women were interested in starting a line of fashion wear, with Tarsig steering them to a friend of hers in the business.

I had figured captain Neshok to be of a younger age, but he certainly fell into the senior class, he looked very distinguished, wearing a trimmed Van Dyke beard that was grey. Falthian men don't wrinkle like we humans which is surprising for a subtropical planet like Falth. Introducing his wife, I was surprised at how attractive she was for her age. The captain admitted they were both one hundred and twenty dorns old, something I would have never believed had he not told me. Another surprising fact was that he knew my name.

"When they asked me if I wanted the job of transporting your ship I asked of your name, when they told me it was Gandrigg, something up here told me I had heard this name before," explained the captain.

"I'm not as young as I used to be so it took me a moment, but it finally came to me. When I was young, I don't know, perhaps eight or nine dorns, I read a remarkable story by a Kagorian describing her life and adventures both here and on her home world. As I recall, there was an attack on her and her husband, as well as a crash involving a ship she was piloting back to Falth. It seems that one of my children borrowed the book at some point and never returned it." At this point, his wife Narsa, mildly scolded him for blaming one of his children for stealing.

"Now you know perfectly well, Hathas, you gave that story to Lorvam when she was twelve, I would imagine she's passed it down to her children." Captain Neshok merely grunted.

"Well anyway," he continued, "I remember that name from the book." I grinned, as I explained,

"Sir, Moreck Gandrigg was my great, great grandfather, his brother, and father, along with another had a long standing grudge against the Draaka's so they slipped down to earth, where they ambushed The Draaka ship, the attack went south, Moreck was the only survivor of the attack, he was accused and charged by the Falthian government, but later the charges were dropped, and he was allowed to return to Falth. However, in the meantime he had married a Kagorian woman, choosing to remain on Kagor for the rest of his life, passing away there only last dorn." The captain reflected for a few moments then said,

"Mr. Gandrigg, I've been everywhere in this galaxy, lived a full life as they say, however it is my fondest wish, and Narsa's as well to travel to your planet. I don't know, but there are some things in my life that I need to resolve before my end comes." At this, his wife protested,

"Don't talk like that Hathas; you still have a lot of dorns left in you." Then turning to Dori and I, she added,

"Pay no attention to him; he gets like this whenever he wants something."

Changing the subject, I asked,

"I understand you own quite a large recovery company captain?" Captain Neshok grinned,

"Actually my father started it, I and my brother just kept growing it, he passed a number of dorns ago, now it's just me, my children have other interests and aren't interested, I'd like to see the company continue after I'm gone, but it doesn't look like it now"

"Why don't you offer it to your employees," I replied,, "Companies in my country do it all the time, each employee would put up whatever they could towards your asking price, then of course they'd have to appoint a board of directors to handle the una to una business affairs, but that might be a solution."

Captain Neshok looked at me for a moment then turned to his wife,

"Here I've been loosing sleep worrying about the future of my company and this young Kagorian who've I've never met before comes along and offers up a possible solution." Seeing what was coming, I quickly added,

"I'm afraid I can't help you anymore than that sir, that's about all I know on the matter, other than the company stays together, and nobody looses their job." He reached his hand over, and patted my shoulder,

"Sometimes, Mr. Gandrigg, a simple suggestion is all it takes."