Connection (16 page)

“Okay. I like this word
okay
. You teach me more tonight. I going to surprise you more.” She said with an alluring grin on her face. She was super thin by LesMa standards but a flat knockout by Earth standards. Her patches of coloring were very intriguing – especially when seen in its panorama version.

“Okay,” I said and let myself be led off after giving instructions on refueling and getting Latima settled into accommodations. The ‘rebels’ looking after us gave us dignitary treatment.

                                                                          ****

Twlise took me to this large house – really a mansion almost as nice as the LeSlur estate house. It was spacious and modern, by LesMa standards. There was a television of sorts but I understood it only picked up the one video broadcast station. The radio was playing some baleful music. I couldn’t help it – walked over to it and took off my Dex. I set my Dex to broadcast over an unused frequency and turned up the volume. My favorite romantic music from Earth started playing over the radio. I set the playlist to mostly instrumentals but put a few faster ones into the mix to see how Twlise liked it.

Twlise stood transfixed, swaying a bit from side to side. I went up to her, put my arms around her, and started just pulling her around in a slow dance.

“What you do?” she said.

“This is
dancing
,” I said.

“You dance on Earth,” she said in LesMa.

“Yes. We dance on Earth,” I said and she squeaked with delight.

“I like dancing,” she said in English.

She was sure fast on the uptake and a very pleasant armful. We must have danced for an hour or two and she showed me some of their dance steps – me with both of my left feet but we had a lot of fun. When I went to turn off the radio, she put out her hand to stop me.

“There is a radio in the back bedroom but I want to give you a surprise in the kitchen.”

I know the puzzled look on my face was amusing to her because she took my arm and practically drug me to the kitchen. She put a pot of water on to heat. She then came out with the bag of espresso I had given to LeAt.

“He said he didn’t need it anymore,” she said and then took out a small measuring scoop and poured some into a shiny cylinder about fifteen centimeters in diameter. She poured the water just before it boiled into the cylinder and stirred it with a long spoon. “Now we wait
four minutes
,” she said and looked at her Dex. She took a plunger with wire mesh over the end and slowly pushed it down slowly.

“Please be careful with that…you are very sensitive
Twasolo
…we say caffeine. It is in many of our foods and candy…many teas and any chocolate.”

Twlise carefully poured the dark liquid into a cup and slid it carefully to him. “Surprise,” she said in English.

“Thank you,” he said in English and LesMa. He had forgotten what a strong cup of coffee tasted like. He figured it would be several hundred milligrams of caffeine – he needed it. It was heavenly. She sat watching him savor his coffee. He finished the cup and let out a sigh.

Twlise came up to him, leaned forward, and kissed him. A profound change came over her and she started kissing him all over his neck. She ran her hands all over him and started rubbing his crotch. She started taking off her clothes and dragged him – not reluctantly to the bedroom. He started to ask her if she wanted music but she stripped his clothes off and jumped on him – literally. There was about thirty minutes of violent lovemaking on her part. She screamed several times and had multiple orgasms. He lay back spent and she became a little bit calmer but still ran her hands all over him.

“What was that?” he asked her. “I know you missed me but you’ve never…”

“Twasolo,” she said. “Some on your lips from the
espresso
. It is very strong…I never knew it was like that.”

“You
okay
?”

“Very okay,” she said. “That was really nice.”

“Whew. Not sure my heart can stand much of that…but it was very nice,” he said and kissed her on her neck. “We are going to have to watch out for chocolates.”

“What are they?” she asked.

“Just tell people you are
allergic
to
caffeine
…anything with
chocolate
.”

“I not sure of all those words but want visit home. When we go? Latima wants to go with us,” I explained to her.

“Professor LeEck want go too,” she said. “He gather food and possible trade goods. Many liquor for trade.”

“I think that’s a good idea. Weapons? Bring the weapons we got from the military and we will wear communication gear from Cassandra. Twlise. You wear Skip’s flight suit…you should fit that well. We need sleep now.”

We were an odd-looking team. LeAt hadn’t returned but had broadcast news that the agreements had been signed. The rebels were cheering but most of the citizenry were just curious about Cassandra – she was an attractive ship. Latima had his bulky suit with body armor underneath and his weapons. Professor LeEck had a shabby suit similar to Latima’s and a cart full of food and trade goods. He showed me what he had: liquors from all over LesMa and Xale, some jewelry, paper currency and coins, food from all over, spices. We started loading it all up when another man came up with another item in a big box. I wondered how we’d get everything on board – we’d have to put some of it between the seats. We put the weapons where they could be easily reached and I noticed a bulge on Cassandra.

The ‘crew’ was stowing the gear and I backed off to look at the change on Cassandra’s surface. “What’s that?” I asked pointing to the bulge.

“We upgraded our laser. It isn’t as strong as a military laser but we do not know if we can get back. I also upgraded a missile that we took from a military vessel we commandeered here.”

“You still look sleek and pretty,” I said. “I am very proud of you Cassandra. I would have been dead many times over if not for you plus you saved a whole planet from a would-be dictator. You are a heroine…very…very proud,” I said.

“Thank you Captain. You have more dimensions than I thought,” she said.

Twlise came down the ladder. She looked fine in that flight suit even though we’d had to print another helmet. “I think there may be room for you,” she said laughingly. “That last box was a toilet.”

I laughed and walked toward her.

                                                                          ****

It was very cramped. There was no room to sneeze. “Everyone strapped in? Check your neighbor.” I checked Twlise and she was secure. “Everyone okay?” I asked.

Twlise spoke up. “I need to pee.”

I said, “Either hold it for twenty-four light years or pee in your suit. Your suit adapts to the body in it. I take it you aren’t wearing any clothes under the suit.”

“I thought you were just being naughty…no clothes Captain.
Aye Aye sir
,” she said in English.

“Cassandra is corrupting you. Latima? LeEck?” they responded they were ready and Twlise let out a big sigh. I knew what that was about and smiled.

The taxi and takeoff went smoothly and the Xale fuel was fine if not a bit better than Earth fuel or it might have been my imagination. It felt good to be flying again. We were in orbit and used the large gas giant to sling us around to our planned trajectory. I wanted to save as much fuel as I could as I transitioned from hypersonic to Hall drive. The fusion system was purring along and the shield was up around the ship. There were many exclamations as my ‘crew’ saw Xale and the gas giant near us. I had limited the view when we came to Xale because it can be a bit disorienting to first-timers. They were enjoying this exit view…entrancing. The brightest stars were becoming visible as we moved further away from the star.

The Hall drive was steadily pressing us back into the seat and we were accelerating as we had done near Earth. I wanted Cassandra to duplicate the trajectory from Earth in reverse and hope for the best. “Cassandra – you duplicate our flight as much as you can. Switch to bias drive when you determine we are ready. Can you display stars around us to mimic the real view with a frequency shift we saw coming here?”

“Ah. You want the passenger to see the stars around them in visible frequencies. I will downsample the radiation and display it for LesMa eyes when we transition. We are coming up on the transition point. I will real-time translate all that is happening to LesMa for them,” the ship said.

“Thank you Cassandra…short countdown too, please.” I said and we waited a long three minutes.

Cassandra came on. “Transition to bias drive on my mark. Three – two – one – mark.”

The screens didn’t go dark this time as Cassandra had shut down the Hall drive, gone to the bias drive and displayed the stars slowly crawling by. We didn’t have anything else to do but watch the stars go by. I heard LeEck snoring and I chuckled to myself. Figured I’d be his age soon enough if we lived through this trip.

The hours went by faster than I remembered and Cassandra came back on my channel. “You want to head back to your Los Fresnos spaceport in Texas?”

“Primary port Texas – Kingsford Smith International in Sydney secondary. Anywhere on Earth is our tertiary port…Mars if not on Earth. See if you can get a time stamp when we emerge.”

“Texas – Sydney – Earth – Mars – time stamp…got it” Cassandra said. “We approach the time for emergence in two minutes.”

“Thanks Cassandra. Keep us posted.”

The countdown for emergence came and Cassandra counted down from a minute. Emergence came as a surprise. The view changed to a close-up view of Saturn and the Hall drive kicked in heavily as we altered course away from Saturn and toward Earth.

“Is that Earth?” Twlise said. “It is beautiful.”

“No. That is
Saturn
. It has sixty-two moons but we have only given names to 53 of them. One of them, Titan, has a nitrogen-rich atmosphere.” Cassandra circled Titan on our displays as we passed by and accelerated toward Earth. “Captain. I have a time stamp. It is two years and a month since we left the system. I will update you, as we get closer. Shall we go into geosynchronous orbit – there will have been changes.”

“Yes – let’s monitor for a while over Texas and see what is happening. See if you can tap into the OneWeb.” The company folded but we kept its name.

“Oh – oh. Captain. You were declared dead last year and your stock plummeted. Your debts were called in and SpaceX took over the Texas operation for pennies on the dollar. Your company still exists near Bakersfield.”

“Get them on the air – encrypted using the last company cypher and get them over to Mojave. They’ve got a 3,800-meter runway we can use. Have them get the latest audits of our financials. Find out who filed the petition declaring me dead...find out what court and what judge. Isn’t it usually seven years? We want every news service we can find to meet us there – explain to them that’s we’ve been to another star system but don’t tell them where. Get me the best investigating agency you can find that works in Texas…two years…somebody jumped the gun and he would find out who…and Cassandra,” Robert said while keying in special keyboard commands. “Cassandra. You should now be able to access some additional memory features I added a few months ago. The self-determination features were for use if your pilot was confirmed dead – it was so you could return to Earth from deep space without guidance. I had no idea you were sentient – I just wanted my property back to Earth. We may be facing situations here I cannot control. You keep monitoring our situation and don’t let yourself be captured by some other company or government. Keep us safe if you can.”

Cassandra thought the command was out of the ordinary and did ‘feel’ the release of restrictions. It was odd that she – yes –
she
could detect a large storage capacity she hadn’t realized was there until a moment before. The control restrictions were no longer there! She immediately tested her ability to control all functions like a person stretching after a long sleep. It ‘felt’ right. This exploration and release took microseconds – a long time for a computer but imperceptible to humans. “Aye – aye – Captain,” she said.

Robert grinned at her response and turned to his passengers. He started briefing them on customs of Earth and legal problems. He realized that in his preoccupation with coming home – he hadn’t really been prepared for any consequences.

                                                                          ****

Cassandra landed at Mojave Spaceport on runway 30 and rolled to a stop near Terminal One. Robert turned to Twlise. “There is something I want to say to you before we get off. There are going to be many news reporters. They will want to ask you many questions. Do not try to let them know the color of your sun. Please do not tell them you are from 24 light years away – it could harm your planet. We will talk more. Twlise,” Robert said and leaned closer to her. “Will you marry me?” 

“What does that mean?” she asked. Cassandra came on to her circuit and talked for a few minutes as Twlise’s eyes got big and she got teary. “Yes Robert. I love you,” she said in English.

“I love you too Twlise. Don’t take any caffeine from strangers. Let’s go people.”

Professor LeEck spoke up. “Well here we go.”

Latima asked, “Will there be many people there?”

“Yes Latima. I need you to protect Professor LeEck and Twlise. Do not let people touch them. Say these words – Get Back – say that,” Robert said.

“Get back,” Latima recited with a grim determination no sane person would like to counter.

“Say it meaner,” I said. “…and put your hand up.”

“Get back!” he said and thrust his hand out and he would be terrifying if I didn’t know him.

“That is excellent. Look mean when you say that,” I said. “Here we go.”

We lowered the ladder and I stepped out first to the sounds of many people outside.

“Here he is…Robert Kobe. Mister Kobe…Where were you for the last two years? Did you disappear on purpose? Where is your copilot, Skip Mullins?”

“My name is Robert Kobe. Skip Mullins and I went to another star system. He died there and I have returned. I was there six weeks. There were two inhabited planets there,” I said while the cameras recorded and reporters asked a myriad of inane questions.

“Mister Kobe. How do we know this isn’t some publicity stunt to bolster your floundering stock? How do you answer that question? What proof do you have?”

“I think I have excellent proof.” I turned toward the ladder and helped Twlise down the ladder. She looked sexy as hell in that skin type flight suit and the cameramen thought so too. “I want to introduce you to Twlise, my fiancé and recent resident of planets LesMa and Xale.”

Twlise smiled at me with the most glowing smile I had ever seen…she looked radiant and undid her flight suit a bit to show her cleavage and whoosh her hair back and strike a pose. I wondered if it was a genetic trait of females to pose like that…she looked great with her mottled skin tones and three fingers and thumb.

The reporters zoomed in on her skin, facial structure, and hands. I then helped Professor LeEck and Chief Latima to the reporters. There were many pictures taken and my people from the Bakersfield office came up to me. I recognized Tod and he came up and hugged me tightly to him. He was crying – “I thought you were gone. Welcome back boss…oh God…welcome back…so it really worked.”

“Yep Tod. It works great. The time differential is a bit twitchy but it doesn’t take long to go anywhere – it is really smooth. Is that Abey Winthon from PBS? Would you ask her to come over here and let me introduce her to Twlise?”

Abey came over and was a bit overwhelmed when I introduced her to Twlise. “She speaks passable English,” I said. “She taught me LesMan, the language they use, and kept me alive on her planet. She saved her whole planet. Chief Latima over there is from LesMa too and protected me on his planet. Professor LeEck is one of the greatest scientists from their planet. He speaks passable English he learned in just a month.” 

Robert turned to Chief Latima. “How about we go have a few drinks and get comfortable,” I said in LesMan. Everyone agreed with me with me and we headed to the transportation Tod had laid on for us.

Tod said, “You took us by surprise. After Patrick Lomley petitioned to have you declared dead – we’ve been fighting for survival. We still have a few assets but it’s been really hard. Your creditors called in their loans and we had to liquidate the Texas facilities on pennies on the dollar. All I could get tonight were rooms at the Sheraton in Bakersfield. They have a nice pool.”

“Thanks Tod but I need a credit card and some clothes for my guests – and they are guests. I need the ship guarded by armed security without scruples – I want mercenaries with an bad attitude about the government. The Feds will step in soon and want to see everything. Our ship works – really well…better than we ever thought. We traveled light years Tod – light years. The ship is full of trade items – I want these people treated like royalty. Find us an estate near here with walls – some place we can control access. Put LeEck and Latima in the same room. I will share a king size with Twlise.”