CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
NORA
Two days later, Pyrr told us that Dread One had escaped the Sargans and was making structural repairs with materials our teams had liberated from the Tegliar station. If I thought we were going to be bored for weeks until we could get back to Dread One, I was mistaken. We went from holding barracks to holding barracks talking to the people in each one about their needs and reassuring them that we had everything under control.
Some had medical needs which were, fortunately, things I could help them with. The Pican medical AI was geared to injecting bio-translators and tracking chips. The Picans generally spaced anyone who couldn’t be easily fixed.
Deck A had its own mess hall for the crew, such as it was. Fortunately, we had stocked it from stores on Nadoo, so we were able to get food that met our needs. A few days later we, the “fabulous four,” were meeting our mates for the second meal. When we entered the mess hall, they seemed to be deep into a serious conversation, so they didn’t even notice when we walked into the room.
“We have to tell them,” Commander Maktu insisted, “they have a right to know.”
“And what would that be,” Harper said curiously.
All four of them looked up guiltily I thought. Commander Maktu sighed.
“Come sit down, all of you and I will explain everything,” he assured us.
We each took the seat next to our respective mate and looked at Maktu expectantly.
“First, you will understand why we have been reluctant to share this with you, but it was never our intention to keep it secret,” he said. “Our AI team discovered clear coordinates for Earth in the ships AI system.”
“Well, of course, they would know,” said Harper, “they are the ones who stole us from Earth.”
“And there were some more from Earth among the people still aboard the ship when we seized it,” I said. “And you didn’t want to tell us because you thought we would want to go back and leave you…”
“It crossed our minds,” Sahvin admitted, and the others nodded.
“But even though we know its location there, it’s beyond any territory we have traveled before,” Commander Maktu said. “The most direct route would take us through the heart of the Sargus Empire. That would take six months. A safer route would take a year.”
“We knew it was far,” Harper said. “We were on that slave ship for at least six months.”
“Yeah, and it was a lot like this one,” Scarlet said, “but we didn’t have the luxurious accommodations we have now.” She laughed.
“Better than the barracks suite,” Sahvin said. “But you also found communications channels. The Picans have been frequenting non-space faring worlds and stealing people. I’m surprised the Alliance hasn’t caught them at it.”
“They have a method for jamming their scanners,” Maktu replied. “They also monitor their communications, so we can likely contact them.”
“I will be helping them on that,” Sahvin said. “I know the language.”
“How would you contact Earth, when they don’t even know about the Alliance?” I asked him.
“Some of them do. It’s not public knowledge,” Sahvin said. “I have contacts who can get word to your families. The Alliance taps into your internet all the time, I’m not sure we can do it, though. First I will try to contact the Alliance.”
“It will be like sending an email the way I understand it,” Maktu said.
“By now, everybody we knew probably thinks we’re dead,” Harper mused. “Are they going to believe an email that we were kidnapped by aliens instead?”
“She’s right,” Scarlet agreed. “They will probably think it’s a sick joke.”
“I know my parents would,” Zoe spoke for the first time. “They would only believe it if I showed up at their front door.”
“At this point, we can’t even think about going to Earth,” Maktu said gently. “For one, it would be costly, and none of us are pilots. Plus we have our mission to complete.”
“We can’t stop now,” I said. “These people have no one else to save them.”
“I agree,” said Harper. “Zared showed me the holograms. It’s way far and a long time getting there.”
“I sure don’t want to go anywhere without Sahvin,” I said. “It would be nice to see home again one day, but we have a life here with these guys.” I reached for Sahvin’s hand under the table.
“As I have,” Sahvin said, gently squeezing my hand. “My purpose in contacting the Alliance is to warn them about the Pican slavers and the Sargus Empire. I didn’t realize that Empire territory so closely bordered the Alliance.”
“Once you get them the info on the jammers the Picans use the Alliance can probably put a stop to their invasions,” Pyrr said.
“That would be nice,” Scarlet said, “I wonder how many more lives those slimy fish faces have stolen.”
“We’ll probably find some more along the way,” Harper said.
“And we will help them all the best we can,” said Maktu. He paused for a moment then added, “I’m sorry we didn’t have better news for you ladies. That’s why we didn’t tell you sooner. We wanted to make sure we had accurate information before we got your hopes up.”
“But the bottom line is that it’s not likely we can go back to Earth,” Harper finished for him.
“I think we’ve all pretty much accepted that,” Zoe said. “It is a little comfort to know that Earth is no longer a world no one ever heard of.”
We nodded and started talking about other things. As I thought about Earth regarding our situation, I likened it to trying to get to Rome via Red China in a single-engine plane. Not impossible, but only on the very edge of the realm of possibility.
As far as I was concerned, we were home with these four men.