Bactine (53 page)

"Uhm, if I remember well I am the person who put you in danger, sir, as I came up with the basic idea," Daniel wanted to correct him.

"None of that, Mr. Zacharias. You are a hero." Huajo said it as if it was a fact.

Daniel laughed out loud, not caring if that was appropriate here, in this building. "I am being called all kinds of things here, Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy. A hero. A preacher."

"These titles suit you." The man emptied his glass. "I do apologise, I have business to attend to, Mr. Zacharias. Do not feel pressed to leave, you are most welcome here. Varning will see to that, you just have to call for him." He hoisted himself to his feet with considerable effort and shook Daniel's hand again. "It was a pleasure, sir. A real pleasure."

Daniel quickly got up. "My pleasure also, Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy."

The fat man nodded and walked off.

Daniel sat down again and started at the large glass on the table in front of him. A preacher. A hero. Alone.

Daniel had left the building of the Society. He had taken off the medal and slipped it in the small box it belonged in. There was a carriage seemingly waiting for him, so he was on his way - no, not home. At least it was the next best thing.

As he reached Sygra's house, he quickly went inside and changed into something more comfortable. He had an idea, but before he got the chance to leave again, the hydger beeped. Curiously he looked at the display. An incoming message from star base.

Daniel sat down on the bed and looked at what was coming in. It turned out to be a message from Rhonda.

"Dear Daniel. I received a message today, from Tomlin Barker. He says he knows me from long ago and he heard you tell about me. I am sure you are familiar with him. In his message he wrote that you have done something amazing, by taking out the pirate that flung you off the ship? Daniel, are you okay? Please, write to me that you are okay. I don't want to worry about you. Rhonda."

Daniel read the message twice. He could not believe this. Tomlin had contacted Rhonda- It might be time to pay that man a visit. But he grinned at the same time. He started composing a message to Rhonda. Read what he had written. Changed some words. Unchanged them, as he remembered how stupid he had been last time. And then he sent the message off.

Still in disbelief of the message, he called a carriage, put on a jacket, slipped the hydger in a pocket and left the house. The carriage arrived quite soon, and Daniel programmed where he wanted to go.

As the backland came into view, the new hero of the Society grinned. He stepped out of the carriage and started up the trail to the place where crazy Aldrick the inventor lived and worked. As Tomlin had done, he went through the small gate instead of going around it, and walked up to the house.

"Aldrick? Are you in?" Daniel tried not to call out too loud.

"I am," a voice yelled from the inside. "Give me a moment, I am coming outside."

The sound of something falling reached Daniel. Then the sound of something breakable breaking.

The door opened, and Aldrick emerged. He wore what looked like a suit or armour, but then made of brass plating and canvas. "Ahhh, Daniel!" Aldrick waved at him, making his suit of armour clang and rattle. "How good to see you again!"

"I am glad to see you again too, Aldrick," Daniel said. "What is that you're wearing?"

Aldrick did his best to look at himself. "I am not exactly sure. But I am trying it on, to make sure that it is comfortable."

"Oh. Really. It doesn't look very comfortable to me."

Aldrick looked pained. "It isn't. Would you mind helping me to get it off?"

Daniel laughed as he helped the man out of his impossible costume.

Once Aldrick was freed of it, he sighed. "Well, it was a good try. To what do I thank this visit, Daniel?"

"I am curious to see what you are up to, Aldrick. And to be honest, I am bored out of my mind. They gave me a medal for taking Birkle the pirate out of commission, and that's it. I have nothing to do."

"Oh! In that case, I have a great thing for you! And for me of course! Come, come!" The man waved his arm as he trotted off.

Daniel followed him to the same part of land where the airship had been. And then he stopped walking.

"Well, what do you think?" Aldrick said.

There was another airship. An entirely different shape and idea as what they had flown to rescue the Pricosine crew. The ship itself was flat, and large. There were six floaters on the ground on each side of it. The rigging with which the floaters were being kept under control was clearly redesigned.

"Aldrick, this is amazing." Daniel walked around the ship, looking at the material. It was all water-chemical safe, he saw. Some things needed improvement, but that was for later.

Aldrick stood on the ship, near the steering wheel that he had installed. It probably was as useless as the one on the other airship, but it gave a special touch to the whole contraption.

Daniel jumped onto the ship also and looked around. "This is incredible. You can do so much with this!"

Aldrick nodded. "I know! I want to make this the first airship for emergency transports. When people are hurt or so. It will be able to carry a doctor to them, and carry the people back. We saw how important that can be, as we returned from the island of the pirates. Landing in the water takes too long. This airship can land on the land also, and then things will be so much faster." The man beamed at his invention and the idea that was behind it.

Daniel shook his head. "You deserve that medal, Aldrick." He could already see the ship in flight. "Have you tried it already?"

"Oh, no. There is still a big problem with the engine, and the tanks for the floater gas are not done yet, and the tubings have leaks. There is so much work here, Daniel. If you want to help me get this done. That would be a big gain, I am sure. You know how to fly and sail and all that."

The two men sat down on a bench on the new airship and started talking. Aldrick picked his sketches from the small cabin and outlined to Daniel what his ideas were. When they looked up from the paper, it was because it had become so dark that they could hardly see it anymore.

"Daniel, if you can come here tomorrow morning, we can work on all this."

"You bet I'll be here, Aldrick. And I am going to ask Tomlin to look into the engine design."

They walked back to the house, where Aldrick fetched a light so Daniel would not be lost on the way to the road.

When Daniel came back to Sygra's house, the smell of food greeted him.

"Good evening, sir," said a servant. "You've arrived rather late. Would you care to freshen up before supper?"

Daniel wished he could peek into the dining room. He hoped the senator had not sat waiting for him. "Do you think there still is time for that?"

"Most certainly, sir," the servant said with a smile.

Daniel hurried to get himself in order and all but ran into the dining room.

"Oh, good evening Daniel." The senator turned around to look at him. "Come see what nice statue I managed to acquire."

Daniel looked. It was indeed a very nice statue. He liked the colours. He just wasn't very sure what it was. "It looks nice, indeed."

Sygra turned to the little thing again. "Yes. Do you have any idea what it depicts?"

Daniel grinned. "Not a clue, Sygra."

The man nodded. "I thought so. Well, come, let's sit down. The kitchen will start to worry about us."

As they sat to eat, Daniel could not help but bring to table what he was thinking about. "Do you allow me a question?"

"Of course. Ask away, Daniel."

"Do you have any idea about Rayko's feelings towards me now? I mean, I got the man killed that she believed to be her father. So much happened to her and her life after I came to the planet. We had a few good talks. The preacher bit also was very nice. And how she looked when she first touched Kernak..." Daniel smiled at the memory. "She was as happy as a child."

Sygra looked calmly at Daniel. "Indeed. She was very happy. And she was not so when she left here. I told you that. Unfortunately, I have not had much time to speak with the Dandra ko Galem family. They either do not want to communicate, or they are too busy with other things to respond. I am sure that I know what you want to know, Daniel. Alas. I have no answer for you."

Daniel nodded. "I understand. I can imagine that she feels bad about it all. That worries me. She is so..." he looked for a word. "I don't know. So immature at times. So limited."

Sygra frowned. "You are talking about Rayko Dandra ko Galem, aren't you?"

"Indeed."

"I just need to be certain we are talking about the same person. Let me tell you, Daniel. Rayko is not immature, nor is she limited. She is a special person, and her ways of doing things are not always the ones you would expect from a young lady of her standing."

Daniel carefully thought before he spoke. "I am sure you know her better than I do, Sygra. It is how she strikes me. She even kicked my shins at that party."

The senator nodded. "Yes, that was most entertaining."

"You saw that?"

"It was very hard to miss. Mr. Slindris, may Nahmyo tend to his weary soul, also saw it, I am sure. He would have loved the attention of Rayko in that way." Sygra had the biggest smile on his face.

Daniel buried his face in his hands. "I wonder what more I did to make all of this a mess."

Sygra patted him on the shoulder. "There is no mess, Daniel. Remember what is written in the book I gave you. There are no challenges put on your path that are greater than you can handle. You need to look at them carefully and decided which of your strengths you will deploy to take up the matter."

"I know. I have read that passage many times. But it is so easy to read it and so very difficult to actually do it."

"Nobody said it would be easy, Daniel. You did the great things with great skill. Now do the small things with small skill. And improve that skill as you go along."

"That sounds nice. I'll think about it and give it a try." Daniel leaned back against his chair. "I'll put on the preacher's clothes again and see if that helps."

"You do that, Daniel. You do that. And you may find that it will actually do so."

Later that evening, before he went to sleep, Daniel sat on his bed. He wore the brown clothes and the grey hood, and the book of Nahmyo was in front of him.

-=-=-

Daniel stood on the new airship. The floaters, all eight of them now, stood high above him. There was something odd about the construction. Aldrick had never mentioned the light Polychlon beams to keep the floaters up. Also the way the floater cables were connected to the airship was new to him. Curiously he wandered around the ship. Too many things were... odd... The steering wheel had gone though, which was an improvement. The cabin that held the steam engine was higher. And painted bright red.

"Now there's a change we could do without," Daniel muttered, wondering where Aldrick might be.

The colour screamed out load against the blue of the rest of the airship. Now wait... the first airship was blue, but this new one had been grey when he first saw it. How'd that become blue all of a sudden?

Slowly Daniel started to understand, as the dream wore off and he woke up.

The room was dark, so it was still night time. He reached for the matches and lit the candle next to his bed. He tried to recall what he had seen in his dream as he located a few sheets of paper and a pencil. As well as he could, he wrote down what he had noticed. He made crude drawings, and wondered if this was something he should show Aldrick. The inventor would probably die a happy man: laughing.

Daniel grinned at himself as he lay down in bed again, the candle still burning. After a few minutes of ceiling gazing, he picked up the hydger. No messages, of course. The noise of those would have woken him up. All the others would have the common sense to just sleep in the night.

"So, what are you going to do, Zacharias?" Daniel asked himself. "Stay here and help crazy Aldrick invent new forms of airships?" He chuckled at the idea of becoming as crazy as that man. At least that would make life here a lot more interesting, he assumed.

Maybe, he then thought, he could send another message to Rhonda. Ask her if there was any chance that he could be reinstated to something resembling his old position at star base. Or somewhere else, as long as it was not near Troy and his smelly command.

"Sure," he mocked himself, "just because you managed to not get killed here a few times, that will be a clean bill to get back. Forget that." He blew out the candle and lay down to sleep again.