Torl's Journey

They boarded the ship without incident and Lerot began to think that they had finally escaped persecution until he received a summons to the captain’s suite for first thing tomorrow.

Now what? Were they already in trouble? He had not even gone into the gambling areas yet. They had just boarded and settled into their suite, and then they had taken a short rest. Nothing else had occurred. He just could not figure out what they had done. Even Alaes had not been allowed to roam the ship. As far as anyone should know, they were just tourists enjoying the ride. Well, no sense in worrying and making something bad happen. The captain probably just wanted to welcome them aboard.

Lerot decided that they should play the part, go to the gambling areas, and begin to enjoy the trip. Before they left, Lerot cautioned Alaes to be careful with her credits. She would not be able to have any more when those he had allocated for the evening were gone. He secretly hoped that she would get the message to lose a little.

When they entered the main casino, Lerot headed for the pinochle table. He figured that the house had a better chance with him playing a game that the dealer could alter slightly. Alaes stayed with him for a while until she got bored with the complex rules. Then she wandered over to the slots.

Lerot watched her for a short while, noting that she was losing some money and winning some, staying just a little ahead of the game. She sure was a quick study, he thought, thank goodness. Then he returned to his own game. They both played for a few hours, winning considerable amounts of credits very slowly. But the trip was beginning to wear on them so they returned to their suite to sleep the remainder of the period.

They awakened in time to experience a real liquid refresh and eat a light breakfast before Lerot had to report to the captain’s quarters. Lerot still could not think of anything that they might have done to warrant this notoriety so he decided to play as though this was an everyday occurrence. And for all he knew, it was.

When he arrived, the captain was in conference with his first officer and several others of his staff. So, as had been the case back on Earth, he hurried in so that he could wait. Nearly an hour later he was still waiting for the captain to get around to meeting with him. By this time Lerot was genuinely perturbed. No one had ever made him wait this long before.

The captain sent for him at last and Lerot was ready to give him a piece of his mind when he entered. But, manners prevailed, and Lerot held his temper. The captain greeted him cordially, with an outstretched hand, and apologized for the delay.

It seemed that they had an officer asleep on duty the sleep period before and had to determine how to deal with the unlucky individual. While he spoke, the captain brought out a cloaking device and adjusted it. Jesul, did everyone have one of these devices? Lerot had seen only one in his life before he met Jelru, now he had seen three tuned for his benefit in the past few days.

How did these people get them? Why were they so open about using them around him? More importantly, was this another trap? Or was the captain another friend of Jelru’s?

“Your name is Torl, is it not?” the captain asked. “Jelru asked me to look out for you and see to it that you reach your next stop without incident. She also told me of...your, ah, nature.” he added as he slipped his big hands into white pants pockets.

“Further, it seems that I and a great many others owe you our gratitude for some tax collection corrections. Oh yes, there is some money owed, too. Well, with your nature, I’m sure that you can collect what is owed at the gaming tables. Please don’t take too obvious an advantage of us though. Cheating is a serious charge.” he stated then straightened his gold braided collar.

“By the way, I’ve instructed my dealers to ensure that your games are honestly dealt. That means that it is up to you to keep things looking honest. Is this agreeable?”

“Well, I...I don’t know. How do you know Jelru? And what exactly do you think that you know about me?” Lerot asked, determined not to give himself away again.

“Jelru? She is...was my neighbor. She was also my first mate. Not the space ship type, the man-woman relationship type. Now she handles my financial affairs and takes care of my farm. As to you, Jelru told me that you might be a little wary of strangers. To clarify, she asked me to tell you about her ability to hear mind talk and that she heard your conversation with Seala and some guards. I don’t know what that means but she said that you would. Is that enough to satisfy you that I am not an imposter?”

“Yes. And I will be careful around your gaming tables. Did Jelru say anything else? Did she tell you our final destination?”

“She said something about you wanting to contact the Honorable Lia. Is that true?” the captain moved to within three inches of Torl’s face.

“Well, sort of.” Torl backed away. “Seala...Alaes does. I wish to settle on one of the planets she represents. Can you tell me how to get there?”

“Yes, I could.” the captain said and turned his back on Torl. “However, I don’t believe that we should risk telling you that yet. If you are patient, and pass all the tests that you will face, you will get there.” he turned around. “If we find that you are an imposter, you will face reprogramming or worse.... I do not relish the thought of someone reporting the whereabouts of these planets to the authorities, or the Witch Hunters.

Jelru trusts you, and that is enough for now. But, I and many others will continue to question your motives until proven wrong. After all, our sources show that you come from Old Arth. We have not seen anyone come from there for many, many years. That place is riddled with Witch Hunters and we are not aware of any who have been able to fool the modern master hunters.”

The captain walked over to Torl again. “If you are truly that good, you will be a great asset. However, I doubt that anyone is that good. Even Lia was caught once by a master hunter. Only her skills saved her from certain death. You will have to prove yourself. Okay?”

“Okay. I expected no less. I did hope for a welcome of a more congenial nature but I did not expect it. If you have nothing else for me, I believe I should return to my quarters before we raise suspicion.”

“Agreed.“, he confirmed, walking Torl to the door. “I will contact you again just before debarkation, to give you further instructions. By the way, Phillipe sends his thanks. He did escape, he and his family. He said that you provided him with the necessary information to avoid a trap. Again, I don’t know any more, but if you know about planned traps, one would have to question how.”

“It’s a long story and telling you would change nothing. I am happy that Phillipe escaped. If you speak to him again, please tell him that.”

“Very well. You are dismissed.”

On his way back to the suite, Lerot contemplated all that the captain had said. Yes, there would be doubters. How would he convince them that he was not a Witch Hunter’s spy? And what was all this about being tested? He would have to be on his toes. Well, that was nothing new. This whole trip had been one big gamble, and so far, he had been up to the challenge.

Further, the alignment of the stars spoke well of his chances of success. Astrological readings that he had done indicated that if he overcame some personal issues, he would indeed reach this goal. He had been unwilling to read beyond the success of this trip. Retrograde Pluto conjunct Saturn was enough to deal with, especially for one with a sun sign of Scorpio...thinking or planning ahead of the changes needed was not advisable.

Right now, what he needed to do was just to focus on what he was attempting to accomplish and what internal self-destructive baggage he had to shed. The rest would take care of itself.

He suddenly realized that he had walked right past his own suite and was nearly to the gaming rooms. He had been so deep in thought that he lost track of where he was. Well, back to the suite. Alaes must be tired of waiting by now.

He returned to his suite and found Alaes had guests. Some well-dressed people from one of the Shanon Systems, by their looks, were sitting in the main room talking congenially to Alaes. When he entered, they acted startled, and nervously introduced themselves as Jonar and Katera, miners, class four and five, respectively.

It seemed that they had been very fortunate in locating a particularly rich deposit of titanium on Shanon Seven and received this cruise as a reward for their achievement. They were not much on gambling though and had sought out company. Alaes had been kind and offered to let them sit and talk for a while.

Lerot looked them over. There was no sign of gas scaring about them nor were there any signs of dirt beneath their nails and they seemed all too comfortable with wealth. Who were they really? Alaes was too trusting. Why did she let them come into the suite? Well, what was done was done. He needed to find out what they really wanted.

Lerot played along with the ruse, hoping to find something out. This was really getting old. Wasn’t anyone who, or what, they seemed to be? It would sure be nice to get to a planet where the use of the power colors would allow one to eliminate the possibility of falsehood.

“Titanium. What an incredible find on Shanon Seven. How did you ever recognize it? I thought that it looked just like sven dust in the raw. And neither is known to exist in any quantity in the Shanon system. The head geologist must have been very impressed.”

They looked perplexed. Jonar was first to recover and respond with an explanation.

“Well, to tell the truth, we didn’t know what it was. We came across it late on the third shift and were really looking for an excuse to take a break. So, we contacted the shift geologist and told him that we thought it should be analyzed. He got very excited thinking that it was sven dust. When he analyzed it and found that it was titanium, he called a shift halt. He rescheduled the whole crew to our tunnel and we ended up working harder than usual trying to get the damned stuff out in a quantity large enough to indicate profitability. Turned out that it was a significant deposit. One part per cubic ton.“, he confidently said.

He beamed with feigned pride, but Lerot had studied enough computer rips to know that the conglomerates did not consider it profitable to mine anything less than fifteen parts per ton. He had even spent some time working with the code modifier for the Slent System to change their minimum to eighteen parts per ton. This guy was definitely not who he said he was. Now to find out who or what he really was.

From his lack of knowledge of mining criteria, he probably was not involved in it in any way. Not a credits accountant or a comp spec. Probably not an auditor or efficiency spec. Maybe not even from the Shanon Systems. What then? An immigrations officer or a farmer or a Witch Hunter. These were the most likely groups to be checking up on them. Well, what did Jonan know about? That would give some clues as to who he was dealing with.

“You know, I once did an audit for the conglomerates, and I learned that sven dust is sometimes used for bedding soil on some of the farming planets where fertilizer is uncommon. I would think that that would make it the more valuable of the two minerals.” Lerot said, slipping his left hand in his pants pocket. “I did notice, however, that titanium has been used in the star ship hulls. I suppose that the question of star ships versus farm crops is like the question of which came first, the chokl bird or the egg. Both are a matter of opinion. What do you think?”

Again, he had confused them. And again, Jonar was the first to come up with an answer.

“Why, of course the star ships are more important.” he said matter-of-factly. “They carry much more than just farm crops. They carry people, and minerals, and tools. Without the star ships, we would still be confined to Old Arth. With them, we control most of the known galaxies. And Arth ran out of farm land a millennium ago. How would we have found more places capable of producing farm crops without the star ships?”

“Yes, I suppose that you are right. The star ships must be most important. I just have a hard time accepting the fact that anything that allowed any of those damned witches to escape their just rewards could be good. Without the star ships they would have all been trapped on Arth and we could have eliminated them once and for all.”

This time it was Katera who recovered from the shift first. She reacted with such determination that it startled Lerot at first.

“Even allowing witches to escape justice is well worth the value gained by the use of star ships. You are flying on one now and you say that you question their value? Just because a few witches escaped justice. My word. How can you compare the two? The witches are on the run and so of no consequence. But the star ships make the entire race wealthy, and comfortable. What is the matter with you?”

Well. At least they were not Witch Hunters. But this response would seem to rule out all of the enforcement fields as well. What was left? These two obviously didn’t give a hoot about the witches one way or another. That would be normal among most people not related to either the Witch Hunters or enforcement or politics. The only thing that they did seem to care about was the star ships.

Well, that left only a few hundred occupations. The only problem was that Lerot could only think of one that would give them any reason to try to fool them. And that made very little sense. Only the crew of this ship would have any reason to try to fool them. And they had no reason to. The captain knew who they were and what they were. Why would he send these two to play games with them? Lerot would have to remember to ask the captain when he saw the gentleman again.

“Yes, of course, you are right again. I just can’t seem to control my emotions properly. Of course the star ships are important. Without them there would be nothing of what we think of as OUR space frontier. I guess I just never thought about how important they really are before. There must be a million things that they do for us that we never even think of. I wonder how many different types of star ships there are now. I know that there are the war ships, the passenger liners, the cargo ships, and the scout ships. But I suppose that there must be more.”

Again, Katera jumped to the challenge. This time she seemed somewhat appeased.

“Why yes. There are star ships that are dedicated to research in every field from biology to environmental conditioning. Star yachts serve as neutral ground for inter-racial negotiations. Some star ships even serve as floating factories with null grav production lines for comp chips and gas isolation and packaging factories. Most of the modern credits banks are now completely housed in armored cargo ships and escorted by war ships.

Then there are star ships that are mostly for pleasure, like this one, dedicated to those who wish to gamble. star ships house everything from people, to farms, to cargo, to factories and laboratories. Why, I can’t think of anything that is done on a planet that is not done on or by a star ship. I like the pleasure ships best myself, but you could find anything that you wanted to find aboard a star ship.”

That settled it. These two were crew members from this or another star ship, probably a pleasure ship. But, the captain seemed too shrewd to have sent such a pair to try to spy on him. So what were they doing here? Was it just standard practice for them to check out all winners at the casino or were they really trying to find something out? What would he and Alaes know that they wanted to find out? Well, it didn’t matter. Forewarned was forearmed as the saying went. Now to make sure that Alaes had caught on to what he had discovered.

“Alaes likes ships, too. You two should have a lot to talk about. Or has he already talked your head off?”

“Oh no! He has been the perfect gentleman.” Katera smiled at Alaes then looked back at Lerot. “You must be proud to have such an intelligent and polite young man for a son. He told us all about the wonderful sights that you two have been seeing. It is a shame that you will not be going by the Shanon Systems. There are so many wonderful sights to see there. But then, I suppose, there must be some limits on your finances.”

This caught Lerot off guard. He hadn’t realized that they didn’t know that he had already figured out that they were not really miners from Shanon Seven. Fortunately, Alaes covered for him.

“Yes, Father. Katera told me that they have a crater on Shanon Seven that is larger than the entire planet of Selba Three. She says that there is a whole different eco system in the crater. The plants and animals are totally different from the rest of the planet. That planet must be marvelous. Do they make star ships that can carry us all the way from Sheltered Six to Shanon Seven, Jonar?”

What a brilliant child, Lerot thought. She was letting him know that she understood what he had uncovered. She knew that they were somehow associated with star ships. That was more than these two adults had figured out so far.

“Not for passenger travel, I’m afraid, young man. But if they did, I’m sure that you would come out to see our world. I can’t imagine anything stopping someone like you from seeing the things that you wanted to see.

Well, it has been a very pleasant afternoon, thanks to you two. But we really should get going and let you enjoy the pleasures of the ship without a couple of old party poopers like us hogging your time

Katera, are you ready?”

“Yes dear. Thank you, Alaes, for a wonderful afternoon. Lerot, it was very nice to meet you. Alaes was a perfectly wonderful host. Thank you for letting him visit with us.”

“You are entirely welcome. Thank you for stopping by. Feel free to come and visit with us again.”

“Thank you. We might just do that.”

With that, the two turned in unison and left the room. As soon as they were gone, Alaes started to laugh.

“Do you really suppose that they think we bought all that? What do you suppose the Crew Members want with us? Did I win too much yesterday? I tried to do just like you do, win some then lose some, then win again. I only left with a few thousand credits in winnings. Was that too much?” Alaes smiled.

“A few thousand? I thought from watching you that you had only won a few hundred. If you can fool me I don’t think that they were here about your winnings. I am not really sure what they were doing here. Maybe it is standard procedure to check out all the new passengers.”

“Well, maybe. But they sure seemed to be fishin’ for something. You better be careful around them Lerot. They might not be as dumb as they seem.”

Lerot laughed. Now the student was teaching the teacher. She was truly incredible. He tousled her hair. Then they dialed up a meal, ate and went back to the casino. Lerot did ask Alaes to try not to take quite so much of the casino’s money this time. No sense taking too many chances. Alaes took the opportunity to tell him to move around to more games this time, too. After all, if he consistently won a lot of credits from the same table, someone would get suspicious. Again, Lerot was amazed at how quickly this girl learned. He was certain that he hadn’t understood such complex issues at her age.

They gambled for the remainder of the day, stopping only to eat and discuss the different games around. Lerot taught Alaes the simplest of the card games. He thought about trying to teach her the more complex games like Pinochle, but decided that a child of her age winning at such games would draw more attention than they wanted.

At the end of the period, they both returned with winnings that would go completely unnoticed by any who were not specifically watching them. They returned to their suite early for the night, then sat and talked about the sites they would see on Sheltered Six.

Sheltered Six was an industrial planet, much like Arth. It had factories that turned raw minerals into the end products that they were most useful for and then recycled every bit of waste into something serviceable. There was everything from food processing factories to orbiting star ship factories and everything in between. But it also had some rather unique features.

First, there were the ancient ruins, a large city like area, where it was believed that space travelers had had a settlement long before Earth emerged from the ice age. It was rumored to have wonders that the scientists had still not even figured out how to study.

Then there were the caves. A place where almost an entire mountain range had been carved into a series of caves full of organic growths that existed in no other place known to man.

And of course, there were the native life forms. Sheltered Six was the first planet that man had found which actually had its own natural life forms. There were many discovered after Sheltered Six. But it had the distinction of being the first discovered to have life.

There were the Woks, five legged beasts, with no head at all. They simply absorbed nutrition from the ground. Then there were the Ilk, large monster like beasts that were comfortable in the seas or the deserts. And no one wanted to miss the chance to see the Feans, the small furry creatures that attached themselves to one human, and one only. These creatures were reputed to maintain a link with humans that knew no boundaries.

It was reported that they would attach to someone, and when that person died, even sectors away, they would die, in a very similar way. If the human died of a heart attack, they would die of a heart attack. If the human were shot by a laser, they would be found to have what appeared to be a laser burn in their body. They also appeared to die at the same instant as the human they had attached to. No one seemed to know how or why these creatures picked someone to attach with, but about one out of ten of the humans who visited the hatching areas would be attached.

Since the animal export laws were passed, this had become the most dominant way for people to choose to immigrate to this planet. It seemed that the creatures created some changes in the ones that they attached to also. And that these people found it very hard to leave the small animals behind.

But alas, even talking about such interesting and exciting things as these, could not fight off the fatigue that they were both feeling after the long day. Soon they both went to their sleep areas and quickly drifted off to dream land.

The next day began without them, as they slept well into the simulated lunar rise. When they finally awoke, it was nearly a quarter of the way through the period. But, they both felt much better for the extra sleep and approached the day with a new vigor.

After they had eaten and enjoyed the refresh units, they decided to visit the exercise areas. Lerot decided to teach Alaes how to play rock ball. So they reserved a court and soon were deep into a game.

The rules seemed very simple to Alaes, you just hit the rock with a device that looked very much like an oversized spoon, making it bounce off the negative grav wall and come flying to a place that your opponent had difficulty in reaching. The other player then had to hit the rock again before it hit the floor. Lerot considered himself to be better than average at the game, but soon found himself hard pressed to win.

This young lady continued to amaze him. First logic, now physical prowess. Was there anything that she was not good at? When he only managed to win the third game by five points, Lerot decided that it was best to call an end to the exercise period.

Throughout the trip, they spent many hours together and became quite good friends. Alaes was beginning to think of Lerot as a friend, and a very intelligent and powerful peer overcoming the tremendous crush she had had on him in the early part of the journey from her home planet.

She began to wonder what had happened that he was not married. Why didn’t he have children of his own? It occurred to her that he didn’t seem to be like the other adults she had known. He was more reliable and very self-sufficient. The question should not be why had he not found someone, but why didn’t someone find him. Why did others not see in him what she saw?

This man risked his life, his freedom, his very being for a young girl that he didn’t even know. Yet people saw him as a shy, backward person, who wasn’t very unique or interesting. How could this be when he knew so much and understood people so well? The last night of the trip she finally asked him why he didn’t have any lady friends. No, she didn’t mean like Jelru. She meant special friends, like a wife or a girlfriend. What he said in return really puzzled her.

He said that no lady had been crazy enough to hang around him long enough to get to know him. They just stayed around enough to find out that there was no political influence to be gained by knowing him and then they went on to greener pastures.

What did he mean by political influence? He was very polite. And he had certainly influenced her life. Well, maybe when she grew up she would understand. She hoped that she would not ever find something that would make her want to go out into some green pasture and wait for a man to come along. That didn’t seem like a very productive thing to do. If you want a girlfriend, or boyfriend, why can’t you just go up to someone you like and ask them to be your special friend? This whole thing seemed too confusing.

At last, they reached the end of the flight. They would soon be debarking and touring another planet. Alaes was excited. The Tiranus had been fun but it was getting old. Especially the regular visits that they had had from Jonar and Katera. They had run out of things to say now, what with both sides pretending to be someone that they were not. Lerot had been concerned the last few times that they had come to visit.

And now he was visiting the captain again. What would the crew of this ship have to gain by spying on them? This whole trip, Alaes and Lerot had been under some kind of inspection. It would be very good to get off the star ship and be free to move around a whole planet and to leave this crew behind them.

Sheltered Six would be a relief, even if they didn’t know anyone on the whole planet. Maybe because they didn’t know anyone. Maybe she would even be able to dress like a girl again. Alaes just hoped that she would not have to quit calling Lerot “Father”. She liked that and it seemed to please him too...

Lerot didn’t return until just before time for them to debark. Alaes was beginning to get worried that he would not return. But just like always, he came back. This time, he seemed unhappy. When they were alone again, she would have to ask him what the captain had said that made him unhappy. He had never even told her what the captain wanted with him the first time. Alaes didn’t know a lot about star ships but it did seem pretty unusual for the captain of one to call a passenger in for two meetings on the same trip.