Fighting Lory (English Edition) (Lords Of Arr'Carthian 2) (16 page)

“This is a special material. It keeps you really warm.”

Lory rolled her eyes, sighing.

She pulled a few long fur items from the pile, frowning.
 

“Are these also part of my outfit?”

“Yes, those are your stockings. They’ll keep your legs warm.”

“Fur stockings? Attractive!”

Kordan laughed.

“Wait till you’ve seen my outfit.”

“Well, we’re not planning to stay there for good, are we?”

“Definitely not. I don’t like this planet at all. The people are really strange, so it’s best for you to only speak when you have to. Leave everything to me and Amano.”

Lory had put on the stockings and the dress. The stockings had leather soles, so at the same time they were a type of shoe. The dress went straight down, all the way to the floor. The long sleeves were bell-shaped and it had a waistband embroidered with gold. Over all of that went a long fur coat that she would only wear whilst they were on the cold surface. Kordan had not exaggerated. His outfit far outdid hers. It consisted of a knee-length fur skirt over knee-high, shaggy, fur socks, finished off with black ankle-high shoes. On top he was wearing a purple tunic that trailed down to the floor at the back, but at the front ended just above his navel. On his head he was wearing a type of beret, also purple. Lory could not suppress a giggle.
 

“Yes, go ahead and make fun of me,” muttered Kordan sullenly.

Lory’s giggling increased to fits of laughter. She threw herself onto the bed and curled up with laughter until she was in tears.

“Sor … hehehe … rry… hehehe … I … hehehe … can’t … hehehe … help it,” she sniggered.

Kordan stared down at her glumly, his arms folded. He was tapping his foot crossly and let out a warning growl.

“OK. Hehehe. I un … hehe … umm … understand. You look really … umm … amazing.
 
Hehehe … sorry.”

She took a deep breath and dried her eyes.

“If you’ve laughed enough at my expense, can we go now?”

“Of … hehehe … course. I’ll get myself … hehe … under control … ummm … in a minute.”

“Great!” he groaned, turning away.

Lory followed him into the transporter room where a stupidly grinning Charly and a miserable looking Amano were already waiting for them.

Lory grinned back at Charly.

“Right then. Onto the platform,” said Kordan, irritated, and they all stepped onto their marked spots on the transporter platform. The officer behind the control panel was also suppressing a grin with great difficulty.
 

“Beam us down!” Kordan commanded, and at once they were in the crisp cold on the surface of Moron2.

“This is bloody cold,” complained Charly, her teeth chattering.

“Come on, quickly. There’s the entrance,” Kordan shouted to them over the loudly whistling icy wind.

He took Lory by the arm and pulled her forwards. Amano and Charly followed them. They reached a rock face. Lory swore inside. What was this about? There was no entrance here. Were Kordan and Amano mistaken? But Kordan did not seem to find anything unusual and just carried on running straight at the rock face.
 

“Whatever …?” she began, then they were through it.

“Whatever was that?” she cried in amazement. “Did we really just run through the wall?”
 

“The wall’s just a hologram. To hide the entrance,” explained Kordan. “Come on. The lift’s over there at the back.”

The lift took them downwards and opened out into a huge hall. They had left their coats at the top, in a cupboard intended for that purpose. Lory hastily grasped Kordan’s hand to see whether she was dreaming. There were all kinds of exotic looking plants and little streams. Everything was bathed in a green light, shed by crystals hanging from the ceiling. A lot of people, dressed as they were, were walking back and forth busily. In the middle of this unusual jungle there was a sort of market place. Kordan led her confidently through the exotic forest, along the edge of the market place. They came to a corridor that led off the main hall and was much darker. Only a few crystals along the wall gave off some light. Now and then there were doors to their right and left on which there were strange symbols. They changed direction again and again. It seemed to be an almost unending system of corridors. Now and then they came to another hall but none were as big as the one that they landed in. But then, after half an hour of walking, they again entered a large hall where farming seemed to be taking place. There were small fields with various plants that were probably intended for eating and there were russet meadows with various animals in them. A few looked a little like sheep but had ugly, pointed snouts with warts on them and long pointed ears. Yet others looked like hens with blue and yellow feathers, orange beaks and golden tufts on their heads. But they only had one leg to stand, or hop along on.
 

Kordan led them along between the fields to another corridor that led to a hall containing numerous shelves full of books. In the middle of the room stood an impressively huge telescope – this reached outside through an opening in the ceiling – an opening so big that the telescope fitted through it exactly, leaving no cracks that the cold could have entered by. Next to the telescope was a huge desk covered in countless star charts. At the desk stood a man with long white hair and, as Lory ascertained when he turned round, an equally long white beard.
 

“Master Arahonoka,” Kordan greeted him, bowing briefly.

Lory hastily followed his example, as did Amano and Charly.

Master Arahonoka looked at them from his small eyes behind thick spectacle lenses.

“Carthians, am I right?” he cried, his voice croaking.

“General Kordan of the Arr’Carthian at your service.”

“I know your father. You’ve been here with him. I remember a blond boy who mixed up all my maps.”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m afraid that was me,“ replied Kordan, and Lory tried desperately to stop herself grinning.

“What brings you to me this time, General Kordan?”

“We need your help. These two ladies were abducted from their home planet and we hope you can help us locate the planet.”

“Hmm. Right. Well, let’s see. Come over here, ladies. Sit down here and tell me everything that you know that might help us to locate the planet.”

Lory and Charly did as the old man said. Lory told him how long they had travelled from earth to the desert planet. She described the blue planet and the other planets in the solar system. Master Arahonoka kept on taking out new charts and studied them with the women, in search of the features described. After hours of searching in vain, both women were becoming more and more frustrated. Then master Arahonoka suddenly tapped his forehead.
 

“Holy Mother of Life, why didn’t I think of that straight away?”

“Have you thought of something, Master Arahonoka?” asked Amano.

Both men had been so quiet the whole time that Lory had almost forgotten that they were there.

“Yes, of course,” replied Master Arahonoka. “When I was little my father spoke of a beautiful blue planet that would be particularly good to live on. But those in the small landing party beamed onto the surface were barely alive when they returned. They reported that there were gigantic lizards that were about to eat them. A strange planet. Are you sure that this could be the right one? It sounds pretty hostile.”

“Dinosaurs?” cried Charly in surprise. “How, how many years ago was that?”

“Oh, I don’t know, my little lady. Time hardly has any significance for us. I’ve already lived for so long that I no longer have any idea. Births happen very rarely here as we have limited space down here, of course. But the green crystals have a very good effect upon our health. That was another reason why the old folk were against a move to the blue planet. The journey had already made them age enough, despite the fact that they had crystals on the spaceship. Just the brief moment on the surface of the planet had made them age considerably. That’s how we first discovered how important the crystals truly are for us. It had indeed been known that they were of great significance for our health, but the full extent of their power was only realized after the journey to the blue planet. Since then we’ve stopped space travel. We live a very secluded life here and have very little contact with the other planets in the Federation.”

“And where is the blue planet?” asked Lory in excitement.

The old man shook his head.

“I don’t know. We need to search for it.”

Lory really did want to grab the old man by the neck. First he filled them with hope, having realized which planet they were dealing with, then he no longer knew where that planet was situated. It was enough to drive a person crazy.

“It must be in the documents somewhere,” the old man murmured. “I need to search through the old records. I think it’s somewhere on the shelf over there.”

He pointed to a shelf that must have contained a good two hundred books or more. How were they going to find the necessary information there?
 

“Perhaps we should first find some accommodation and leave you alone with your reports so that you can search in peace,” suggested Kordan.

“Certainly. That will probably be best. I’ll begin right away.”

“Thank you, Master Arahonoka,” said Kordan, signaling to Lory and Charly that they should get up.

“I’ll let you know when I’ve found something,” said the old man, shuffling over to the aforementioned bookshelf. Lory shrugged her shoulders and they left the hall.

“That’s not going very well,” Charly pointed out as they walked along the corridors.

“First we’ll arrange some accommodation then we’ll wait and see what Master Arahonoka finds out. I know him. He’ll find it. Have faith.”

“I hope it works. Keela was so excited when we told her about our mission. I promised to find her friend Susan for her and take her a message. Keela gave me her address,” said Charly, sounding disheartened.
 

Amano squeezed her hand.
 

“We’ll find your planet and we’ll find Susan.”

“OK! Enough of this moping,” said Lory. “Where are we going now? I’m ravenous, by the way. I could handle a double whopper.”

“What’s a dubbel wupper?” asked Kordan, irritated.

Lory laughed.

“Double whopper. It’s a special round bread roll, cut in two so that you have an upper and a lower side. Then a double hamburger is put on top and tomatoes, gherkins, onions … ohh, forget it. It’s something to eat and it’ll be the first thing that you get to eat on earth. I can’t describe something to you that doesn’t exist on your planet. You’ll see, it’s delicious.”

“Oh, yes,” enthused Charly. “I want one, too, and a large coke with ice. Oh, I miss fast food.”

“You like eating quickly?” asked Amano, puzzled.

“Fast food is a special type of food. They’re meals that are prepared quickly,” explained Charly.

“Oh, wait. That’s given me an idea. If you’ve eaten or drunk certain things that don’t exist on your planet, can you then program them into the food generator?” asked Lory, turning to Kordan.

“Certainly. That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Cool. In that case there’ll finally be fast food on Karrx7. The planet will then be perfect!” Lory cheered, beaming.

They went into a small hall that they had not been in before. In the middle was a circular desk behind which three women were standing. Kordan went up to one of them and arranged accommodation, whilst Lory, Charly and Amano waited at the side. After a while Kordan returned with two long metal bars that had strange symbols engraved on them.

“Are they our room keys?” asked Charly.

“I don’t understand the meaning of that word,” replied Kordan.

“Will those open the doors to our rooms?” Lory tried to help.

“Oh, this? Yes, yes. Come on. Along here.”

He led them along a corridor to a door and gave Amano one of the bars.

“Here you are, this is yours. Shall we meet in the oasis for dinner in half an hour?”

Amano nodded.

Kordan took Lory by the arm, pulling her along. They passed a few doors and Lory stopped to look at him.

“Aren’t we staying near to Charly and Amano?”

“No, we’re staying just here, round the corner. These were the last two rooms. There are only twelve rooms for foreigners and there’s a delegation of the Federation here right now. Come on.”

Lory was pleasantly surprised by the room. It had a very light, friendly lounge, a bathroom and a small but clean bedroom. In the lounge there was an L-shaped stone couch covered with thick cushions, as well as a stone table. Tapestries, with beautiful images of plants, hung on the walls and there was a mini waterfall with a small pond in which little colorful fish were swimming. The bed in the bedroom was likewise made of stone, covered with a thick mattress and cushions.

“Do you like it?”

“Yes, it’s much more beautiful than I would have imagined,” Lory admitted. “I’m not finding it as strange here as I imagined. Apart from the stupid clothing …”

“I need to tell you something else before we go to eat. It’s very important. There are a few rules here that you mustn’t break under any circumstances. At worst you’ll be condemned to death, at best to thirty or more years of forced labour. Of course I wouldn’t give you up without a fight, but I’m just asking you to help me, by not making this necessary, by abiding by the rules.”

“OK, understood,” sighed Lory. “So, what are the rules?”

“Firstly, you are not allowed to speak at the table. It is strictly forbidden for women to speak during meals. If I ask you something, or anyone else does, it will always be a question that you can answer with a nod or by shaking your head.”

“OK. And what else?”

“Basically, it would be easiest if you were not to speak to anyone or do anything before asking me first. If you have any questions during the meal, give me a sign and we can go a few steps away so that you can speak. Stay next to me the whole time and don’t look at any of the men directly. Master Arahonoka is an exception. He’s old school and won’t be so strict, but the younger generation here has established strict rules and they watch out eagerly for someone to break them.”