Wishing On A Star

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Eventually Mrs. Benning and her son became more at ease in our company, and told us how she and her husband had settled on a tract of land along the Bitterroot River, coming from the Dakota Territory where they had tried making a go of homesteading but insects and drought forced them to leave.

"Henry and I had only lived here slightly over a year, he had real hopes of finally making a go of things here, but obviously that wasn't to be."

Morkai and Mr. Elcon then returned with Mr. Elcon speaking to Mrs. Benning.

"Mrs. Benning, we buried your husband on a little point overlooking the river, and on top of expressing my sympathies on behalf of the Falthian government I'd like to offer you this settlement. I realize it can never replace your husband, and it isn't intended to but rather as a means to replace lost income due to the death of your husband."

He handed her a round can obviously containing gold, she examined its contents then said to Mr. Elcon.

"Thank you kind sir, for your kind offer, perhaps I shall use it to pay off the land, but I really don't know what I'll do with it as yet."

Mr. Elcon then announced, "We'll be leaving here in 48 shons hopefully your people will have returned by then, our work here is finished." He then left as Morkai called for attention.

"If Colin and Weeko aren't back by the time Captain Zakorra is ready to leave," announced Morkai, "You can wait until they do return Gitel, then pick them up, Holly and I will be returning in the Comet, since I have to turn it in."

"Sara and I will probably accompany Gitel and Weeko back home," replied Karuk, "As I'm sure the others will be going back on this ship."

"Speaking of which…" Said Gitel, as he approached me. "Since we've got some time to kill, and I really want to have a crack at that Comet, remember I promised you that we had a "date" so I could teach you some advanced flying skills? Well, no time like the present."

We headed for the hanger deck where the Comet was parked. Obtaining clearance and filing a flight plan, Gitel took the co-pilot's seat, and simply said,

"Show me what you can do, take us out to your moon." I did as he requested, exiting from the assault ship, and setting course for the moon.

On the way, he started putting me through a series of rapid maneuvers, rolls spins, and twists. He showed how by positioning the stubby wings either in full deployment or halfway the ships flying characteristics changed.

"You have to know your ship," said Gitel as he explained how to totally focus on where you were going. "If you're trying to out maneuver someone, escape from an attack, or avoiding space debris coming at you, you make damn sure you know what your craft is capable of."

All the way to the moon, he repeatedly had me engaging in all manor of flying techniques, coming into the moon's gravitational field of the dark side.

"Now things are going to get real interesting, watch and learn."

Gitel took the auxiliary control and dove towards the moon's surface,

"What I'm about to do only comes with years of experience, Holly, it takes a keen eye, and of course pod racing experience doesn't hurt either, but the important thing is that you truly know your craft's capabilities, as well as a thorough understanding of exactly how fast your traveling."

We rocketed through canyons, across deep craters barely kiro's above the surface. My knuckles were turning white as they gripped the arm rests on the chair as Gitel brought up to massive crater wall's then shoot straight upward. Finally, he walked me though simple and basic flight maneuvers, flying narrow canyons calling out, "Roll, twist, turn, flip, as we approached junctions and crevasses'. We spent the whole "day" flying and practicing on the moon. Slowly but surely I began to absorb Gitel's teachings, Morkai was right, he had a gift. Gradually I lost my fear of these fast and violent maneuvers. At one point, we set down on the moon's surface to take a break, and I asked him.

"Are you teaching Weeko to fly this way?"

He grinned and replied, "She is a special case, because she comes from a culture completely alien to any form of technology, I was forced to take a different approach to her. Just as you and the others underwent educational enhancement, I was force to run her through a special program that educated her, as a child would be. I hated to do it, I was torn, but I do love her so much. Doctor Metana recommended to me a special program one of the research facilities is conducting."

Gitel was clearly distressed by his recounting of Weeko's mental "enhancement" and I asked that he stop as it was clearly very painful for him to talk about, but he shook his head and said,

"That's all right, you of all people have done so much for her it's only right that you should know, the treatment she underwent was as if she grew up on Falth, and it's as though she has two "memories," the one she actually lived on Kagor, and her "artificial" one living on Falth. Whereas you and the other's treatment took, only a few short una's Weeko's took a full relfa. Nothing was rushed; in fact, they had to place her in an artificial coma for two una's to give her body a break from the water. I suppose you can imagine the way I was feeling during all this time.

"So basically she knows more about Falth and the surrounding universe than I or the rest of us women do," I inquired.

"Pretty much," he replied, "You've no doubt heard that we go to a place I have in the mountains, this is where she recovered, it's where we merge our two cultures, the outdoor life she led on Kagor, and the technical futuristic life she lives on Falth. She is a remarkable woman Holly, she's my life."

"Why did you let her go with Colin?" I asked.

"Because she's been keen to locate any possible relations, she's pretty sure there's a brother around somewhere, in fact I believe that's what she and Colin are doing right now, looking for her brother, or someone who knows him and she can get a message to."

"So what kind of pilot is she," I asked.

Gitel chuckled, "Not bad, probably about as good as you or a couple of the others, let's put it this way, I can get a few shons of sleep while she's flying and not have to worry."

We resumed our flying, racing around the moon, practicing, always practicing. As we were crossing a particularly large crater, Gitel turned to me and asked,

"The thought occurred to me that if anybody on your planet is looking through an especially powerful telescope there's a good chance they might be able to see us, do you know if there's any such instruments like that on Kagor?"

"It's possible," I replied, "But wouldn't the distance preclude any possibility of that?

Gitel grunted, "Probably."

Finally, we broke off the training, and headed back to the navy ship, as we approached it Gitel chuckled, "What do you think your countrymen would do if they realized a Falthian Assault vessel was orbiting over their home?"

"You're the second person to ask me that," I said, "Do the Falthians have ideas of invasion on their minds?"

"Not really," he replied, "However it's hard to resist the thought when you're parked over a totally defenseless planet such as Kagor."

Back on board, Gitel sought out Morkai and pointed to me saying, "You've got an incredible wife here Morkai, she's learning, they'll be talking about us on the moon for dorns to come."

Morkai chuckled, "See Holly, I told you he was the best."

Giving him a look, I replied, "Of course it wouldn't matter if half the time I was white as a ghost."

Both of them laughed, "That's nothing," said Gitel, "obviously you've never had fighter training."

We spent a little more time talking about my experience, then it was off to the galley with Morkai for something to eat. Later, in bed, Morkai told me,

"Elcon and I were talking to that Benning woman about where she wants to go, and she's not sure, her farm is gone, she and the boy have no place to stay none of us have any ideas, I think Pricilla mentioned something to her about returning to Falth with us, but she nixed that."

"I've got an idea," I replied, "Let's ask Colin, maybe he can help her, or if she's a mind to go back east, maybe Andy can do something for her?"

Shortly before the navy ship made preparations to leave for home, Weeko called to say they were waiting to be picked up at their drop point. Since Morkai and I were flying back in the Comet, we left first, Gitel left in his ship to go pick up his wife, and Colin, we didn't learn the full story until we were back on Falth listening to Weeko and Sara in Drolugi's.

Our return trip was much the same as when we came, although I showed Morkai some of the things Gitel taught me, but like before, we enjoyed the intimate time together, and the one on one instruction Morkai provided. Before we knew it, we were back on Falth, turning in the Comet, Morkai vowing to keep pestering the navy people in charge about buying that ship. Because we left first, we beat everybody back, however, one evening after everybody was back, we all sat around enjoying our favorite beverages listening to Weeko and Sara tell the story.

Sara started things off by telling us that Mrs. Benning had accepted an offer by Colin to come to his place near Deadwood with no obligation on her part. "Colin felt real bad for her," said Sara, "He came right out and told her that he had a place near Deadwood, but he was planning on building a decent sized house overlooking that new Wort field, and that she and her son were more than welcome to live there. I'm not real sure what's going on with them," continued Sara, "But she surprised us all by accepting, so we dropped them all off at his place near Deadwood, and left, I guess we'll find out how things are going come this fall when we return for the harvest."

Then Weeko took her turn telling us of her and Colin's search for the Dekkens, and the rescue of the Benning's.

"Once Gitel dropped us off near Missoula Colin went into town and bought horses as well as a pack horse for our gear. After that, it was basically just following a trail towards the last known position Morkai fixed on them. I certainly have to say it's been awhile since I was on a horse, but it felt so good, Colin thought I was crazy for racing around, but it felt good. We followed along the Bitterroot River, staying away from other travelers as much as we could. Our first night out we found a small cave where we spent the night, which was good, as it rained hard later that night."

"The next una we continued staying up in the high country, Colin shot a large grizzly bear that reared up in our path, my horse spooked, but I was able to stay on. Afterwards, I skinned it out and did a quick scrape of its hide, as well as saving some of it's claws. I also saved its liver as well as other parts of its meat for trading, which we got a chance to do later that una. We came across some of my people. I was so happy; I hadn't spoken with anyone from my tribe in so long. They told me about everybody being forced to live at the reservation and take the bad beef the government gave them. They told me they were out hunting and my offer of the bear meat as well as the fur pelt was most welcome. I also asked them to spread the word that I was looking for my brother and to tell him I would be at Lost Trail in five moons."

I asked her if Colin's presence created any problems.

"Umm, a little, they were suspicious at first but I convinced them we were looking for some other people, but not our people. We continued on our way south working our way towards the west fork of the Bitterroot River, towards the painted rocks." Weeko then thanked me for the use of my rifle,

"I shot a deer with it giving us meat as well as a nice hide which I brought back; we found a large deadfall which we camped under." She then smiled at Sara, "I know I already told you Sara, but your brother is quite an amazing man, shooting that bear, making sure I was all right. Late the next una we arrived at the location indicated by Morkai's readings, we found ourselves looking down into a river canyon but we saw nothing. Then I remembered the binoculars, then as I was scanning the river bottom, I spotted what looked like it could be a cave, but the angle we were at made it hard to be sure. I showed Colin how to use them so we could take turns watching."

Weeko then chuckled, "Colin was amazed that these binoculars allowed him to see at night, but he was the first one to spot movement in front of what we thought was a cave. He told me he thought he saw something move but it was gone. The next morning we changed positions moving down to our left, we had to move the horses back into the woods quite a ways lest their whinny and possibly alert anyone down below. About a shon after I took over watching, I spotted a little boy coming out from clumps of piled up brush towards the river with a bucket. It was then I realized whoever was down there had disguised the cave opening making it look much smaller than it really was, but there was that boy, Caleb, fetching water from the river. I saw no one else as he came up from the river with his bucket of water. We watched for another shon but nobody came out, I didn't want to call unless we were absolutely sure, it might have been people living in that cave, but then about dusk the boy came out again only this time I spotted someone standing just inside the entrance. The boy seemed to be having trouble returning with the water, and just for an ock, the person stepped out farther, and appeared to be gesturing to the boy. I got a better look this time, it was a woman wearing Falthian leather I knew we had them."

Weeko continued with her story, "I called the navy ship with them telling us that they were on their way. Before it got too dark, Colin moved upriver and then began to make his way down the canyon wall. We each had a comm unit, but I was afraid the Dekken's might pick up our signal, so we couldn't use them, I just hoped Colin could make it down there undetected while I went to find a spot for Gitel to land. I found a very small open spot just barely large enough for him to land in, but he was able to do it. By now, it was completely dark. The marines all had night vision devices, so I led then to where we had been observing. I told them Colin had gone down to try and grab the boy should he come out again. While the marine officer directed from our location, I was able to get a couple shon's of sleep aboard the ship. Near dawn Gitel took off with several of the marines, he then was able to set down about a li back from the opposite side of the canyon."

"The marines then hiked to the edge of the canyon and slid down ropes ready to storm the cave. I was in the ship with Gitel, but we listened on the military channel. According to the marine officer who was directing his men from where we had been watching, reported that the boy emerged from the cave heading for the water. Colin later told me that he was hiding just below a slight rise along the river bank , when Caleb came down to fill his bucket, Colin grabbed him and told him not to cry out. Colin told me that the boy then realized that Colin wasn't one of the bad people and kept quiet. Apparently, at this point, the marines were in position and stormed the cave. We heard them shouting and alerting us that there was a ship hidden inside the cave. They reported that they had caught Juko by surprise, outside the ship. Kith was still asleep and was taken as he woke; they reported that the boy's mother was locked in one of the cabins."

"After things were secured, Gitel took off and picked up the marine officer and his second, then landed in front of the cave. Two of the marines stayed to fly the Dekken ship back to the navy Assault ship while Gitel dropped Colin and I off back where our horses were."

"Did those two say anything to you when they brought them aboard," asked Ambor.

Gitel laughed, "Juko spit at us and cursed me, but one of the marines cuffed her pretty hard so she shut up."

"What happened after that?" asked Hanna.

"I told Gitel that we still had some unfinished business," replied Weeko. "Colin and I then continued down to Horse Creek Pass, where we worked our way back north looking for any signs of my people. Finally, at Nez Perce pass we came across a small encampment. The chief told me that they had been given permission to hunt in the area but not to cross into Montana Territory. Best of all he knew of my brother, but not where he was. This particular band was very leery of Colin, and only I could enter their camp. Colin understood and kept his distance. They thought he was my husband at first but I explained to them we were only riding together searching for some bad people, but again not Indians. They let me stay in camp overnight, so poor Colin was forced to make camp a ways from us, but he said he understood and didn't press I."

I told the chief, that if he could get the word out to my brother, I would meet him at Lost Trail in five moons. After that, I gave them my horse, as they were not in the best of shape, and certainly needed a horse. When Colin learned of this, he had me offer them the other two horses, and we walked to a meadow where I signaled Gitel to pick us up, after that there's nothing to tell."