Laura Jo Phillips (15 page)

Garen pulled out a chair at the table and sat down.  He reached for the coffee pot still sitting on the table and poured himself a cup, then passed it to Faron.  When they all had coffee Garen took a sip of his, thinking carefully about all that had happened.  He had a strong feeling that more was going on than they knew.

“I want to know all that happened on the
Cosmic Glory
please,” he said.

Faron nodded, took a moment to settle himself and began.  He told his Prince everything that had happened and everything that had been said, leaving nothing out.  When he was finished he refilled his coffee cup as he waited for Garen to think about what he’d heard.

“The Captain was there when you spoke with Jackson?” he asked. 

Faron was startled by the question, not understanding the significance.  “Yes he was,” he replied.  “He offered us the privacy of his quarters when I asked for the use of a vid terminal.”

 “What time was that?”

Faron looked to Dav.  “It was 14:53 JST,” Dav replied without hesitation, as Faron had known he would.

“Interesting,” Garen replied.  “Tell me what you remember about the explosion.”

Faron stared at him, nonplussed.  He did not understand what his Prince was thinking.  He had to refocus for a moment before he could answer the last question.  “The two men in the trunk started talking, but I didn't think much of it at first.  Moments later they began yelling, and I caught the scent of burning flesh.  I barely had time to cover Saige before the ground-car exploded.  After that, I just tried to get everyone out of the vehicle.”

“After we transported everyone back here last night, we went back to the site,” Garen said.  “We discovered the remains of what we believe were two humans.  There wasn’t much left of the bodies.  What we did find was completely charred.  I am quite sure that those two men were the source of the explosion, though I admit I find that difficult to believe.  Either something they had on them, or something they had in them caused the explosion.”

“I can’t believe that the Bearens would have failed to remove anything remotely dangerous from their persons,” Dav said.

“Nor can I,” Garen agreed.  “That leaves something in them.”

“But why?” Faron asked.  “It makes no sense, even if they had an explosive planted in their bodies.  Why would they just blow up?”

“I think that the Captain informed someone of the conversation he overheard between you and Jackson Bearen.  He is the only person, aside from ourselves and the Bearens, who knew that you were driving to the ranch last night with Saige and both men in the trunk of the car.

“Here is something you do not know,” Garen continued.  “After we returned to the house with Saige's luggage, we received a call from planet security.  The
Cosmic Glory
was destroyed in an explosion that vaporized the vessel along with everything, and everyone, on board.

“As far as I can tell, Saige called me for help within no more than three minutes of when the ground-car explosion occurred.  My vox log shows her call coming exactly one minute after the
Cosmic Glory
blew.  We have no proof of course, but I have a strong feeling that the two incidents are connected.  I think that whoever blew the car, blew the ship as well. “

“If the explosions are connected, and it seems reasonable to assume that they are, I don't understand the reason for the delay,” Faron said.  “The car explosion took place nearly two and a half hours after we left the liner.  Why wait that long?”

“Because Jasani space security routinely monitors all transmissions from all ships that are broadcast within one light minute of Jasan,” Trey said from the doorway.  Everyone looked at him in surprise.  He shrugged as he and Val entered the dining room and sat down at the table.  “It's standard regs and ‘cols,” he added.  “I don't know whether the
Cosmic Glory
was outside that range or not, but it might be worth checking.  If not, we might be able to track down the call.”

Dav grinned.  “Doesn't matter if it was inside the range or not.”  Everyone turned to him.  “We placed the
Cosmic Glory
under close surveillance when it failed to return to Jasan after our first turn around request.  That means every transmission in or out of that liner was automatically plotted and recorded while it remained in Jasani space.  And the captain would not have known that because that is not published protocol.”

Garen looked at Trey.  “At a guess, how long do you think it would have taken the
Cosmic Glory
to get beyond the one light minute range?”

Trey thought about that for a moment.  “A liner as big as that, two to three hours.  It depends on how hard the Captain was pushing the engines.  Could be less, could be more.”

“Sounds like it’s at least possible that the Captain waited until he thought he was outside of the expected monitoring range, and then made a call that resulted in both explosions,” Garen said.  “Trey, contact Signals Intelligence and have them start going through those transmissions.”

“Right away,” Trey said, reaching for his vox as he stood up and headed out of the room.

“What I don't understand is why would anyone blow up those two men?” Garen continued.  “Jackson told me that the three humans were little more than idiots, and that the two you had in the trunk very likely knew nothing.  If that is the case, why bother killing them?”

Faron stared at the coffee in his cup and thought carefully about everything that had happened.  A thought occurred to him.  “There was a small silver case that Jackson recovered from the three men in the cargo bay,” he said.  “He put it on top of the car, with Saige's luggage.” 

“We thought that was Saige's,” Val said.  “It's with her luggage.  I'll go get it for you.”

Faron watched Val leave and turned back to Garen.  “There’s a strange object inside that case that Jackson overheard the men call a
prime controller
.  It gave me a bad feeling just to look at it.”

Val returned with the small case and set it on the floor since it was charred and black from the fire.  In spite of the external damage of the case, Faron had a feeling that the contents would be unharmed.  He bent down and flipped the catches, opening the case with a screech and pop of warped metal.  As he suspected, the item inside sat undamaged in its protective bed of foam.  He carefully removed the object and set it on the table where everyone could see it.  There was something ominous about it that made every man there want to destroy the thing at once. 

“Now that looks like something that someone would not want us to have,” Garen said softly.  “Perhaps that thing is the real reason for the ground-car explosion.  We need to get that to the council scientists as soon as we can.”  He looked up as Trey came back into the room.  “When Signals calls back about those transmissions, ask them to send someone from Scientific Intelligence for this thing,” he said, gesturing toward the silver object on the table.  “High priority.”

Val knelt down and removed the foam insert from the ruined case and placed the silver object in it for safer transporting.

“There's something else that Jackson wanted me to tell you,” Faron said.  “I don't know if it has anything to do with all of this, but given that the
controller
was taken from the humans who planned to use it on Saige, I think it may all be connected.”

“What?” Garen demanded.  He did not like all of these incidents occurring so close together.  He was certain they were all connected, but he needed more information to determine how.

Faron related what Jackson had told him about the unusually large amount of unclaimed luggage at the spaceport.  “Also, Saige was due to arrive yesterday morning.  Yet, when Jackson searched the system for her luggage, he discovered it had already been tagged and stored as unclaimed.  The usual procedure allows at least 24 hours for travelers to claim their luggage before it is tagged as unclaimed.  He thought perhaps it was because she had been reported missing, but I am beginning to wonder about that.  He found the other missing woman’s luggage there as well.

“And, according to what Saige remembers of her abduction, there is some race involved that seems to be a mystery to everyone.”  Faron repeated Saige’s description of the iridescent male with the perfect features.  “Have you ever seen or heard of such a being?”

Garen shook his head and looked at Trey and Val, who also shook their heads.  “There are a lot planets, and a lot of beings in The Thousand Worlds,” Garen said.  “I am certain there are many we know nothing of.”

“True,” Faron said, “but at the same time, this being seems to be of a technologically advanced race.  Such beings tend to be well known to us, and everyone else.”

“To have a new one suddenly pop up out of nowhere is troubling,” Garen agreed.  “Did Saige remember anything else about her abduction?”

“Yes,” Faron replied.  “And there are a few other things about it that are troubling as well.”

Chapter
13

Lariah knocked softly on the guestroom door.  “Saige it’s me,” she said.

The door opened a crack and Lariah saw one light green eye peek out at her before the door opened the rest of the way.

Lariah stepped in and closed the door behind her, taking a moment to study the expression on her friend’s face.  Saige appeared to be equal parts angry and hurt.  “That was unfortunate,” she said.

Saige paced away from Lariah, then back again, her steps quick and nervous.  “They were so rude Lari,” she said.  “And mean to you.  You know how I feel about people who are mean.  There’s just no excuse for it.  And he had no right to snap at you that way.  If he wanted to ask something about me, I was standing right there.”

Lariah listened as Saige continued to vent.  After a while she crossed the room to a chair and carefully lowered herself into it, amazed that Saige was able to rant for so long over an incident that had only lasted a few moments.  But she knew Saige well enough to refrain from pointing that out.

Lariah had known Saige for six years, since they’d both started working at the library, Lariah as a historical librarian, Saige as a security guard.  Like herself, Saige never dated, never seemed to have much interest in men, and other than Lariah, she had no friends.  It wasn’t that she was not likeable.  She was just considered strange, like Lariah had been, partly because neither of them ever dated or even appeared interested in men.  The two of them had gravitated toward each other, each finding something in the other that they found familiar, even though they were as different as night and day. 

While Lariah was generally quiet and sometimes shy, Saige was outspoken and, at times, temperamental.  She had a good heart and she was very loving of those she cared about.  She was also extremely protective and if angry, had a tendency to speak first and think later.  Knowing this, Lariah waited patiently for her friend to blow off enough steam to cool her anger.  When she was finished, then they could talk.

“Holy heart failure, Batman!” Saige exclaimed.  Lariah giggled.  One of their favorite things to do on weekends had been to borrow stacks of digital copies of ancient television shows from the media section of the library and watch them while eating junk food.  Batman had been one of their favorites.

Lariah looked up and saw Tiny standing at the patio door, an expression of surprise on his wrinkled face.  “Saige, please let Tiny in for me.”

“That thing’s name is
Tiny
?” Saige asked, laughing as she opened the door.  The giant dog lumbered in, and headed straight to Lariah.  She patted him on the head and scratched his ears. 

“Tiny, this is my friend Saige,” she said, while at the same time sending feelings of affection directly to Tiny’s mind, letting him know in her own special way that Saige was a friend.  Tiny thumped his tail on the floor, turned his head towards Saige and let his very long, pink tongue flop out of his mouth. 

Saige grinned at his comical expression and fearlessly approached to scratch him behind his big floppy ears with both hands.

“He’s gorgeous,” Saige said, admiring the dog's unusual gold and black markings that reminded her of an Earth tiger.  “How lucky you are to have a dog!” 

While dogs and cats were not extinct on Earth, they were rare and very expensive.  Saige had always wanted a dog, but there was no way she could ever hope to afford one on her salary.  “Does he belong to the Dracons?”

“No, Tiny is mine,” Lariah replied, her face suddenly sad.

Saige looked at her speculatively.  “Tell.”

Lariah hesitated.  There was a lot that she still needed to tell Saige, and not a lot of time to do it in.  However, telling her Tiny’s story was a perfect way to tell her one of the things she wanted to share with her friend. 

Lariah told Saige how she had found Tiny, explaining how she had discovered her ability to communicate with animals at the same time.

“I have since learned that Frith Yanger won Tiny in some sort of gambling game.  Tiny is a very rare breed of dog, and Frith’s intention was to raise him and charge exorbitant amounts of money to breed him.  I am not sure how he expected to breed him when he was nearly dead when I found him,” Lariah finished, her emerald eyes burning with anger at the memory.  “I’m just glad I was in town that day and heard him.”