Angelika Queen Of Mars

Chapter 29

Chapter 29 The Return of The Queen

As Temmik worked on his discovery, I asked him,

"Had any luck with your inquires?" He made a face and sighed,

"Apparently there are no records going back that far, these Indians didn't keep many records word of mouth, and tribal information were all kept up here," he explained as he tapped his head.

"Someone sent me information stating that back then families and tribal elders maintained all information concerning individual members. There was a lot of turmoil and deaths completely disrupting everything, so it looks as though my efforts have all been in vain, well at least I tried. Anyway Weeko's name is out there, one woman promised to keep her name in mind as she was researching her ancestors as well."

"Well keep your hopes up Temmik," I replied, "Her name could still turn up."

We continued to watch the hysteria unfolding on the TV concerning the activity on Europa as well as wild speculation concerning what it was that Angelika was really up to. The media seemed obsessed with digging up every crackpot with a wild theory to sell, Carman thought there was a disinformation campaign underway by the government, it didn't help that there weren't a whole lot of facts coming out over the situation, other than photos taken through various telescopes. For some reason the Hubble telescope was having problems it just couldn't seem to focus properly, I suspected the Falthians might have something to do with that as they were very concerned about it's capabilities when I told them about it.

Both Carman and I suspected that even though Angelika had long since announced her presence ending the argument of whether we were "alone" or not and most people were mildly aware of it the activity taking place on Europa and the constant yammering about it by the media had awakened the general public to a problem that wasn't there.

Spring was coming to the Black Hills, the snow was almost gone, the nights were getting warmer, Kaitlan happened to be spending the night as she was here "interviewing," Temmik for a report she was doing on "life" elsewhere in space. Obviously she couldn't write about Falth or it's inhabitants but she was taking information Temmik had given her to carefully construct a report taking facts given her and posting them as conjecture and speculation.

Anyway, we were all standing outside observing the night sky trying to locate Jupiter when Carman pointed towards the southwest.

"That light…No, wait look, there are two of them,"

"Probably satellites," I replied.

"Satellites don't make right angle turns," added Kaitlan "I see them now!" Of course we all knew what those lights really were, I handed her my binoculars but the lights were moving too fast.

"Well Kaitlan," I said, "Your in luck, looks like you get to see the Giuffrida land, although that didn't explain the second light. Soon we had our answer, a low rumble overhead sounding like thunder announced the fact that our friends had returned.

Since no Falthian spacecraft ever landed here on earth with their running lights on for obvious reasons we could only make out a dark and ominous shape descending from the sky.

The Giuffrida was in stealth mode her shape defined by a distortion of the night sky and a very soft rumble. It was rather creepy when you thought about it and I'm sure what we were witnessing would scare the hell out of anyone not familiar with what we took for granted. No sooner had the craft set down than another shape descended as well, this one landing some distance away in another clearing, I didn't have much time to guess who it might be when I heard Dori's squeal as she rushed up to me and we embraced and kissed. Breaking apart, Dori blurted out,

"Oh Jake, you'll never guess who is here!" Before I could reply, a familiar voice spoke.

"Hello Jake, how have you been?" It was Angelika followed by everyone else.

"Your Highness!" I replied without thinking, "What are you doing here, I thought you were off in deep space or something?"

We hugged each other as she smiled that Angelika smile of hers.

"Now you know Jake I'm not a queen anymore, I'm doing more important things, I had to take one more opportunity to fly the Guiffrida before officially turning it over to her new crew." Thinking she had sold it to someone I spoke with alarm prompting her to laugh.

"I haven't sold her to anyone Jake I'm turning my old ship over to you, Dori, Sharla and Rek, oh and that charming pilot Kha'Mak, I believe. By the way the other ship down there is the Kor'Math I've got that land speeder as you call it aboard, Yarod's flying and I've got old Tarf and Meta aboard as well." Before we all went inside I called Carman and Kaitlan over,

"Carman, Kaitlan, this is Angelika Aelfric or as you know her, the "Queen of Mars. Commander, this is my assistant Carman Walsh and this young lady is Kaitlan Jessup."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," said Carman, "You are certainly keeping NASA stirred up." "Yes, well the frustration is quite evident in their transmissions to Mars or so I'm told, I haven't been there but a short time and I'm heading out again very shortly."

Kaitlan seemed to be taking all this in stride,

"Uh Ma'am, If you have time, could I do a quick interview with you, I wouldn't publish it or anything…Honest, but it would be good for the experience." Angelika studied the girl then smiled,

"Well we'll see about that, it just might work into something Naval Command wants me to do in regards to the situation with the Elansa."

Once again the kitchen was crowded with "Aliens," with Angelika sitting at the head of the table, snacks and coffee were being served up as Angelika prepared to explain the situation.

"Jake, this is pretty much for you as everyone else has been briefed on the situation now going on Beta 6. We encountered a group of settlers on a planet they called Vandor, they were being terrorized by what they called Skaven raiders. Well we made short work of them and in the end took the remaining settlers on board with the original idea of re-settling them on Falth, or one of the outer planets. From what they told us their original home…Elan, exploded and they along with others escaped it to find homes elsewhere. Now here's where it get's interesting, most of the settlers are very young, however their leaders, if you will are droids…Very sophisticated ones." Looking over to Kha'Mak, she grinned and added.

"No disrespect to you Kha'Mak but the droid who calls himself Jofyr is beyond anything I've ever seen, and that includes you and the droids back on Grocyra. Anyway there are four of them, Jofyr, Andapell, Deeron, and Tarmon. All have a specialized skill as far as starting a new society goes, they also had something else that really has the high command, as well as everybody back on Falth all stirred up, and that is…Or was what they called a Terra Bomb. Jofyr offered it to us on the condition we take he and his Elansa elsewhere which we have done.

Now, on our way back here, we discovered another planet called Gale Celesta. At first Jofyr thought they might prefer to settle there, this time offering the bomb to the Celestians, however their technology level is roughly at the level it was here on Kagor over a hundred and fifty dorns ago, very polluted, on top of that their leadership took to arguing and bickering over what to do so we simply packed up and left. Well I won't boor you with all the details, but the powers that be really wanted to see this Terra Bomb work, plus my husband and I think there are other factors at play here. Anyway, as you know the bomb was detonated over the moon you call Europa, and from what Jofyr says, is doing everything it's supposed to, and that is transforming a barren world into a living one. He says that the whole process will take a little over two dorns to fully complete but the scientists are reporting that the landform is changing, growth has started, and signs of an atmosphere have started, so we'll have to see, unfortunately I won't be here to see it, but once things have settled down, I'm told several firms from Falth will construct dwellings as well as other structures for these Elansa to live in."

This was a truly incredible story, I saw Kaitlan getting it all down on her computer, Angelika sipped on her coffee then resumed.

"As I said, We're going back out, the Kombaric, and the Narjasic are currently stationed on the dark side of your moon, we are waiting for the arrival of a heavy cruiser from Falth to arrive because there is another element to the story. Shortly before we discovered the Elansa, we came across debris floating in space, all evidence points to a great war taking place, in fact, Jofyr confirmed it. Our report to naval command has made them very cautious as to what could be waiting out on the fringes, as a precaution, they are sending a heavy cruiser to join us, and that means a full squadron of fighters so we could be going in harms way…One more thing Jake, We're pretty sure those Gale Celestians originally came from here…Kagor, I spoke to some people from the university who also suspect the same thing, they haven't a clue as to how they ended up on that planet, nor anything about their past, all the records were conveniently destroyed, so there may very well be someone else out there we need to be concerned about."

All I could do was shake my head, a truly amazing story, or as Kaitlan said,

"Awesome!" The informal meeting then opened to everybody tossing questions around mainly over the fact of the Falthian government agreeing to explode a bomb of an undetermined nature in our galaxy. Angelika replied with,

"Draycon thinks this is an indirect "Kick in the pants" to you Kagorians hoping that it will spur increased development in your spacing technology, however that's another thing, and here is where young Kaitlan here might be useful." Suddenly the attention shifted to the girl who looked embarrassed but let Angelika continue.

"As I told you it's going to be two or three dorns before the Elansa become established on their new home, in the meantime, we don't want Kagor sending probes, or those silly robot vehicles they have running around on Hyach 3, or worst of all the sending of people to this moon."

"They want me to make a video of myself standing in front of my ship somewhere here on Kagor explaining to your leaders that they are forbidden from closely investigating Beta 6 too closely. Command is very concerned that people on this planet not be aware of our presence other than myself and my so-called "people." We want to give your leaders the impression that the Elansa are my people, just re-settling on another world. We want to assure them that there is no thought of "invasion," or some silly idea such as that." Then addressing Kaitlan she said,

"Kaitlan, your idea of interviewing me is a wonderful idea, I want to assure your leaders they have nothing to fear from me, but at the same time, I want my people left alone until such time Kagor receives a formal invitation to visit. This is because there will be a lot of Falthian vessels over the moon as well as a lot of construction activity once things settle down. We want the Elansa to be able to fully adjust to their new home without any problems, it's the least we can do for them.

I think too that many are hoping this effort could be a stepping stone for your people to take off for the stars, but only time will tell on that account." It was just like the old days when Colin Blessing owned this place, people from another planet just sitting around and talking in the kitchen, Temmik and I showed Robarik the P.A.D. which he confirmed was well over a hundred and twenty-five dorns old,

"This is indeed a P.A.D. these are antiques, we use these now, whereupon he produced a device that looked like a derringer.

"This is also a P.A.D. and made by the Kemmick firm, for safety's sake we'd better make sure that weapon is completely de-activated." The engineer from the Kor'Math then took it and with a small machine on the Kor'Math removed the plasma cell which surprisingly still had a small charge left in it.

"Anyone squeezing that trigger might have caused this thing to blow up not only killing themselves but anyone else close to them." He also buffed it up improving it's appearance giving it back to me. Robarik took down the serial number promising to check it with a friend of his.

Kha'Mak had gone through most of the books in Moreck's old library prompting Carman to purchase a number of sci-fi novels from a used book store. Among them was a copy of Clifford Simak's "Way Station." I had read it in high school borrowing a copy from a friend, Kha'Mak "devoured" it in less than an hour agreeing with me that it fit perfectly with the old farm.

"Through your kindness I've been able to read all these fine books which has opened a portal to my knowledge of your people, their hopes and aspirations, I've also found these tomes to be quite entertaining. Pausing to reflect he then added,

"I think I'd like to own a few of the best ones for my own collection and possible share with friends."

Kha'Mak also became quite popular with not only Kaitlan but Colin Blessing's son Robert. These kids would be the ones entering a world where androids would be a reality, to them, Kha'Mak was "Awesome," and "cool." Because we were trying to wrap up all our coffee and peanut deliveries before the Giuffrida was due to head back and Angelika would be off as well I was unable to go with the Draaka's back east to meet with the Bickford descendants however both Robert and Kaitlan did receiving their first rides in a spacecraft.