Wishing On A Star

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"After Sandrick and his men left, Morkai and Nargra came over and said, "I thought he would never leave, why were you two giving him a hard time," inquired Morkai, "Not the smartest thing to do around him." "I'm just not comfortable with him knowing all of this personal information about me, that's all," I replied. "Well we're all wrapped up here," said Morkai, "Grab any clothes, or personal effects and we'll go catch a "Tap-Tap" for Drolugi's, now remember what I told you, once we leave this ship and head for security, and on over to the hotel you women are going to be hit with all sorts of strange and unfamiliar sights and sounds, let's try and keep it together, shall we?"

He wasn't joking, the minute we walked off that loading ramp the noise level rose to an uncomfortable level, all sorts of craft were zooming across the sky, vehicles moving under their own power were rumbling around as we walked towards a small grey building. Hanna and I covered our ears, but it only partially relieved our discomfort. I then noticed a small group of people coming towards us, Morkai and Nargra spotted them as well, and stopped to greet them. Everybody shook hands, as the group of three men and one very attractive woman stared at Hanna and I. ""How goes it everybody," greeted Morkai. "Things have been slacking off lately," spoke a tall and muscular looking fellow, "How's that Kagorian harvesting business going Morkai?" Before waiting for an answer he studied Hanna and I, and chuckled. "From the looks of things you two seem to be doing all right." Morkai and Nargra ignored the comment and greeted the female, "Juko, you're looking well, still keeping this foul crew in line?" snickered Nargra. She flashed a wicked looking grin at us and said, "There's no need to "rub it in," just because we were off world and never heard about this harvesting offer the Shai Alyt put out, father is working on getting a slot to open up, he has "friends" in that organization."

While she was speaking, I studied my first Nuelian female up close. She had the same grey silverish "cat eyes" as the men, but they gave her sort of an evil look to her stern looking face, Juko was dressed in a tight fitting black leather short waisted jacket with black cargo pants similar to what I had been wearing. She wore high-heeled black leather boots, as well as some sort of sidearm at her waist. The men all wore either grey or tan cargo pants brown leather boots with a long strap wound around them. Morkai then asked, "What brings you over here to the Shai Alyt terminal?" Juko spoke up first, "Those idiots made us land clear over here on the edge of Vormak property, so the Shai Alyt security gate is actually closer." Morkai and Nargra let them go ahead of us just long enough to answer our questions. Talking right into our ears, he said, "Kith and Juko are married, that husky guy standing next to Kith was his brother Amrick. The other taller guy staring at Hanna was Juko's brother Lerok, they're not the most pleasant people, Juko's father owns a big freighting company, Kith is an all right sorta guy, Juko tends to run things in that family, the two brothers are damn handy in a fight though."

We had no problems passing through security, with Morkai directing us to a rather dirty and dented up horseless carriage, which was apparently called a "Tap-Tap." There appeared to be no operator, and when Hanna inquired about it, Nargra merely said, "Don't need 'em, they are all automatic, there's a terminal somewhere in Cluria that monitors and flies these things remotely, everything is on camera, someone sitting at a control monitor is watching us right now, no doubt taking a visual scan of Morkai and I, we've ridden in these things so much they have a "record" of us." What Nargra was telling us was going in one ear but not making any sense, flying carriages that didn't need someone to operate them, being flown by someone possibly miles away, my head was starting to hurt. The men ushered us inside, so I could only assume they were safe (I later learned much to my displeasure, that they were not.) Morkai called out "Drolugi's," and off we went, staying roughly three feet off the street, the experience was frightening, Hanna and I covered our eyes. Suddenly the vehicle stopped with a lurch, "We're here ladies," announced Morkai with a snicker.

Drolugi's reminded me somewhat of a fancy New York hotel I attended a party at while in college, but the design was far more futuristic, and building materials were in use here of which I could only guess at. We entered through a large glass door trimmed with a bright silver metal, the place was very crowded, and few gave us much notice. Morkai directed us over to the front desk, where he and Nargra spoke with a woman who appeared to be handling check-in's. I studied her and compared her to Juko, while having the same eyes, this woman looked much friendlier, and not as dour. Hanna cried out as she backed into some sort of floating "man-like" contrivance that had startled her, this caused a mild scene until it was explained to both of us that this thing was a robotic porter which had a sort of small "bed" mounted on its rear where we were instructed to deposit our bags and gear. Once we had reluctantly done so, it zipped off to our rooms according to Nargra. ""It's pretty much like DEXX, that security robot you saw when we were harvesting," said Morkai, "Same company makes 'em."

We then walked to the far side of the lobby where we stood before several large doors; Morkai said were lifts that would take us to our floor. The "ride" up was rather novel, a small room that moved up and down. Both Hanna and I gawked at the brightness of everything, no smoky gas lamps or open flames anywhere. Once in our room, I noticed a large bed and a bathroom larger than some parlor's I'd been in. "Unlike the Na'Vas," pointed out Morkai, "The bath and shower here are water, I have to run out and pick up a few things, so in the meantime take a shower or bath and relax, I'll be back in just a few."

While Morkai was out, I undressed, and stepped into the shower, and after a brief period of learning how to control the water, I enjoyed a shower beyond compare.

The towels were large and soft, there was a white robe hanging on the inside of the bathroom door, so I put it on. Near the spacious sink, I located a hand held device that when a button was pushed, hot air blew out, there seemed to be instructions, but I could only speak Falthian, not read it. Through trial and error, I realized that this device was a hair drier, which quickly dried my hair, and when used in conjunction with my brush, did a marvelous job of re-styling my hair. Morkai soon returned, carrying a large bag, with something written on it, "Here," he said, "I ran down to the women's shop here in the hotel and got you some proper clothes, and uh, some ladies under things as well."

Being the perfect gentleman, Morkai could only describe how women on Falth wore the "under things" he purchased. "I uh, took a guess at your uh, chest size, you wear that over your uh, breasts, and that's all. There's panties, and that's all the dress goes on over everything." I was more than willing to get away from the hot and heavy clothes I wore back on earth, but just one light garment worn over my breasts to more or less hold then in place really took some getting used to., and the panties, "Oh my gosh!" I wasn't sure it was the panties or the short skirt that concerned me, but the blouse was a short-sleeved affair that was pulled over my head, with two small buttons at the upper chest. The dress itself was incredibly light and airy; it was a bright light blue in a swirl pattern, and according to Morkai, made of a material called Saran. He also had three pair of flat-soled slipper like shoes each a tan color. The third pair was my foot size, although Morkai said the shop could do a better job of fitting if we only stopped by. At first, I was very self-conscious, and was afraid to wear something like this in public. "That dress is pretty modest compared too much of what you'll see Falthian women wearing," observed Morkai.

Morkai really had to do a "sell" job to get me to go downstairs in this dress, but we stopped at Nargra and Hanna's room where it turned out Nargra had been doing some shopping as well. Hanna's dress was somewhat similar, but was yellow, and of a slightly different cut at the blouse. Hanna was surprisingly quite nervous as well, over the thought of wearing the dress in public. She nervously laughed as she said, "I would wear more than this when I was actually "working" believe it or not!" Finally, we bucked up our courage and accompanied our men downstairs. Our first stop was the women's shop where we got better fitting shoes, plus some simple jewelry, as well as a new nightgown, which presented its own problem being extremely short, and practically see-through. At first, we were very self-conscious wearing these clothes, but no one seemed to pay us much attention, so gradually we adjusted to the new clothing.

Morkai and Nargra introduced us around until two women entered the room, I had just turned from the friend of Nargra's we were talking to when he waved his hand at one of the women and said, Pricilla, Ann, over here." I noticed Morkai and Nargra wore suspicious looks, indicating something was up. As the two women approached, I studied their eyes; they were just like mine, "What was this?" I thought, Morkai never said anything about other earth women on this planet, but then again, I may not have been paying much attention. The women introduced themselves as Pricilla; recently married to the man we were just speaking to, Jaerka Sarlayn. The other woman was named Ann and judging from her heavy accent, came from the south; she was also married to another one of the contractors, Ambor Korthal. "We had heard two more women had arrived from earth," remarked Pricilla. We all sat down at a table and Ann ordered wine, "You two have been quite the buzz around here," remarked Pricilla. "Word obviously travels fast," I replied, "Well, my name is Holly Bickford, I come from around Pittsburgh…I." Pricilla squealed, and reached out to shake my hand, "We're practically neighbors, I come from around Johnstown, been here a little over a year, just got married last month." We shook hands, as Hanna introduced herself, "My name is Hanna Brown, I come from out Cheyenne way, Holly and I were in the same coach when the Indians attacked it." Both Pricilla and Ann looked at each other and guffawed, "We heard you all was in an attack, somebody was killed and I hear you was shot as well, Holly," said Ann giving me a funny look. "For the record," replied Hanna, "My friend Mary Duffy as well as a whiskey drummer, along with the driver and his assistant were killed. Hanna was shot with an arrow just below the shoulder, we managed to escape, and were rescued by Morkai and Nargra."

"Quite a story, replied Pricilla, well I'm sure you two certainly won't want anything to do with one of the other women brought back here." The way she sneered when she said this, put me on immediate alert; leave it to American females to ostracize someone, even on an alien world. "Who is this woman we're supposed to avoid?" I asked. Both Ann and Pricilla seemed to take objection at my remark, but Ann went ahead. "Her name is Weeko, she's a full blooded squaw, don't know what tribe she's from, I suppose it don't really matter, she's off with her man Gitel right now, but Pricilla 'n I don't have much truck with her." That did it for me, come Hell or high water I was going to meet this Weeko, it was too early to go on the "attack," but sure as God made little green apples, I was going to have it out with these two, but first I needed to gather a little information first.

"Any more earth women, besides you two and Weeko," I asked. "Yes," replied, Ann, just another Yankee like you 'n Pricilla, her name's Sara, but she and Karuk have gone to his folks place somewhere here in Cluria." I calmed down a little bit, and asked, "Well it seems you ladies have been here awhile, what's your opinion of these people, and this planet?" Pricilla spoke first, "We were scared out of our minds at first, but speaking for myself, I'd never go back to earth to live, the clothing alone is reason enough, no more hot summer's wearing hot, tight wool dresses, and confining underclothing. Also the medical advances they've made here make all the doctors back in the states seem like "witch" doctors, everyday I thank God Jaerka brought me back here." "How about you Ann?" asked Hanna. "Same as 'Cilla here," she replied, "I still miss my home some, I hail from near Lynchburg Virginia, and yes, I know the War Between the States is over, so you don't have to keep reminding me of it like Pricilla and Sara. However, I think I can speak for them when I say that I love my Ambor as much as they love Jaerka and Karuk.

"These men are nothing like you'd ever hope to find back in the states, which I assume is why you and Hanna are here as well. Something about their personalities, simply radiates charm, dignity, strength, well my oh my, I certainly don't need to ramble on like that." "What can you tell us about this "Educational upgrade," our men keep talking about," inquired Hanna. Both women shrugged, "Before we got them," replied Ann, "We were as dumb as rocks about this place, afterwards, we not only read their language, but can speak it better, just know all the everyday terms and the names and functions of all these contraptions and devices they have here. One thing is for certain, we never felt so rested and refreshed in our lives when we came out of there," she added. "Basically," added Pricilla, We just know as much as the rest of the citizens here on Falth, we don't bother our men anymore with endless questions anymore."

I had been noticing out of the corner of my eye, the strange way Hanna had been looking at Ann and Pricilla since their previous comments concerning Sara and even Weeko. She then began quietly, but then her voice became very firm and determined. "No doubt you two will eventually hear of this, so I'm going to tell you right now, and face to face. Mary Duffy and I were what is known as the demimonde, "soiled doves," "Ladies of Commerce," you get the idea. My friend Mary is dead, God rest her soul, I am no longer in that line of work, as you say, I've found a good man, whom I plan to marry, if you have any problems with my former life, say it to my face, or otherwise, say nothing at all. Holly knows of my past and has accepted me as her best friend; if she can forgive like that I think you can too…Any questions?"

Both women professed no objections, and Ann admitted to having a cousin who worked in the profession during the war. Then Pricilla said, 'Have you two had a good chance to really get around the city and see how women in general dress?" "No," I replied, "We just got here." Both women giggled, "Just observe," said Ann, "We will say no more, but I think even you Hanna will be quite scandalized." Hanna's eyes widened and she touched her dress, "You mean I may be considered "overdressed" in even this?" "Just observe," added Ann. She wasn't fooling, we saw women wearing little or nothing on the streets, clothing that in the states would have definitely been considered risqué, and scandalous, and would have gotten the wearer tossed in jail. However here on Falth such clothing was considered normal.

Later, as I was returning to my room I ran into Sara, and we stopped to chat for a minute. Sara was a rather vivacious blonde with shoulder length hair. "I come from around Jackson Michigan, lots of walnut trees around there that Sandrick fellow has been after me to talk my father into selling all his walnuts to the Shai Alyt, but since I sorta ran away from home, my parents and I aren't exactly seeing "eye to eye," right now." What about this "Weeko," I asked. Sara lowered her head, "That poor girl, I have no opinion one way or the other about Indians, we never had problems with them like they did out east or in the west, that Ann has a racist streak in her, and she just sorta gets Pricilla to go along. I talk to Weeko when I can, she was the first one of us women to arrive here from the states, goodness that's well over a dorn, er I mean a year, or so. Mostly she and Gitel go to a place he has off in the Sky Blood Mountains out to the west of here, they both stay out there until near harvest time. On, one more thing, whatever you do don't get Ann going on the civil war, I had an Uncle die in Andersonville, and according to her, she had relatives killed or starved to death in Atlanta, it's a touchy subject, so beware. By the way, did you have family in the war?" "My father fought in a Calvary unit from Pennsylvania fought at Gettysburg among other places, come to think of it, I remember him speaking well of Calvary units we fought with from Michigan during that engagement. My Uncle fought in an Infantry unit, got wounded right as the war was ending." Sara beamed, My father fought with the Fifth Michigan Calvary, at Gettysburg, perhaps he and your father fought side by side?" "Perhaps we can get them together," I replied, might make for some good stories."

I said goodbye, and headed for our room. Morkai had offered to purchase another room for myself, but I wouldn't hear of it, instead, he got the hotel to provide what he called a "day bed" a folding bed that rolled under the main bed, he volunteered to sleep in that one, while I used the main one. I was very self-conscious about this, but he insisted. Somehow, both of us knew this arrangement wouldn't last forever, but for now, it seemed the only proper thing to do. As I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, I said, "Morkai, what's the story with Weeko and Gitel?" There was a long pause, then he spoke. "Weeko was the first Kagorian woman to come here, apparently Gitel saved her life or something, he's very private, and never really gave us the full details. Anyway, as frightened as you other ladies were upon arriving here, poor Weeko was simply terrified, you women at least have an understanding of a basic industrialized civilization, Weeko didn't even have that. Gitel was beside himself, he meant for none of this to happen, she had to be sedated, and in fact it was Gitel who thought of the "educational enhancement program. It took over a full week to bring her to a basic understanding of life here on Falth. Then Gitel started taking her to a place he has in the mountains, I don't know what they do there, he won't say, but now she is calm and surprisingly quite knowledgeable in our way of life. Both of them are madly in love with each other, and in fact were wed three months ago. All Gitel will tell us is that she is very happy when they go to the mountains, she hates it here in the city, but that would be expected, and Karuk thinks Gitel is teaching her the basics of flying, I believe it, he's that good of a teacher. Why these questions about Gitel and Weeko?"

Ann and Pricilla made some rather nasty comments about her to us, because of such comments, I intend to befriend her and make her welcome with the rest of us." "I would suggest you speak to Gitel first," replied Morkai, "As I said, he's very private, and tend to take slight at any perceived threat to his wife."