Published: 21 Mar 2019

Present Time

When I awoke this time there were no alarms or yells for help from Chip. I simply woke up just as the hypersleep chamber is programmed to work. I’d been dreaming again. I hadn’t thought about those places in a long time. I felt rather nostalgic as I waited for the lid to open. At least I hadn’t had that other dream again. In fact, it had been quite some time since I had.

Oh, I still missed my son, but the pain had dwindled little by little over the years. I could even watch the old vids of Chip now without breaking down and crying.

When the chamber opened I set about getting cleaned up and dressed. As I did so I contacted the bridge. “Chip, you online?”

“Morning Dad. I’m here, what ‘dya need?”

“What’s our E.T.A. on Tau Seti Prime?”

“We’re about an hour out and right on schedule.”

“Has Kay-Lar made contact yet?”

“Yeah! Only about a dozen times. I think he’s about ready to spit fire.”

“Okay kiddo. I’ll contact him as soon as I get to the bridge.”

I managed to get Kay-Lar to calm down enough to explain my situation. Once he learned about our passengers, he became downright giddy. He couldn’t wait to meet these 1200 year old people.

“I vill haf zee medi-cals vaiting for your arrival. I vould much like to be zere vhen dey avaken. I am zertain you vill need zeir help to revive zee survivors. Zey vill need to be surally examined and imunized as vell.” Kay-Lar said.

“Absolutely true.” I responded “and you should have your psychologists on standby too. I’m sure it’s going to be quite a shock for them when they find out how long they’ve been asleep, not to mention that they’re the only three survivors.”

“Yes, yes, you do haf a good point. I vill make zertain all is ready. If zere is nozing else, ve vill talk about my cargo vhen vecan be private, yes?”

“Oh of course. I look forward to it. There is one more small matter I’m hoping you can help with though. The old ship’s registry names the boy survivor Ryan McFarlane. Now, it’s highly unlikely, but I would like to find out if we’re related. On the Q.T. mind you. I’m sure you understand why.”

“Zertainly, zertainly. I vill be happy to make all zee arrangements. You need not vorry my friend. I vill see you in thirty minutes, yes?”

“Yes, that’s fine. Aspiration out.”

Kay-Lar was good to his word. He met me at the spaceport dragging a troop of doctors, nurses, specialists, psychologists and other assorted workers. We had said thirty minutes and it was. However, it turned out that it took nearly 6 hours by the time the survivors had been awakened, examined, inoculated, interviewed and badgered half to death by the media.

Informing them about their situation was just as bad as I had feared. The man, one Carl Devon Downing the 10th insisted he had millions in the bank, but had a minor heart attack when he was told that his bank and money had gone up in smoke during WWIII and he was, for all intents, a broke nobody.

The woman, one July Ann Boyal, broke down in uncontrollable, hysterical sobs and had to be sedated. Fortunately they found living relatives on Girovia who were thrilled and excited to accept her into their lives and homes. It would take her about a month to reach them on a planetary transport but at least she had a place to go.

The boy, Ryan, cried about his deceased parents and was very shy and unbelieving when I told him who I was. As it turned out, he had a good amount of training in genetics and was extremely intelligent. He understood exactly what the tests we wanted to do were for and why we needed them.

After the testing was done, we were told it would take 2 to 3 days to do the full genealogical genetic history and compare it to mine. I got permission to take Ryan with me until the evaluation was done.

Together we went with Kay-Lar to his home and settled in to wait. The dinner we were served was excellent and so plentiful we couldn’t have stuffed in a single crumb more. Ryan ate like he was a starving refugee. I could hardly blame him though. He hadn’t had real food for over 1200 years.

When I tried to get him to go to bed he couldn’t get to sleep so I showed him how to use the galactic net and left him to look up the history of the last 1200 years which he had missed.

I found Kay-Lar in his study. He was busy going through his investments, inventory, deals etc. “Is it a good time to talk or are you too busy?” I asked.

“Diz iz a very goot time. Please zit down and ve vill talk. By ze vey, vhere iz Ryan?”

“He couldn’t sleep so I left him using the net. It should occupy him for hours.”

“Goot, goot. Ve can talk without interuption zen.”

“So, what’s this top secret cargo you’ve been hinting about?”

“Vell, az you zay, zis iz top zecret. You do not repeat zis to anyvone and do not talk of it over zee comz, ever. Iz zat underztood?”

“Yes, of course. You know my rep. I would never say anything about my contracts.”

“Very vell. I have been vorking for almost a year to broker a deal between zee Sliveniens and zee Bracktorz. Zey haf beenat var for over a zouzand yearz you know. Zey haf finally found a vey to peaze. Zee prinzess from Sliven vill marry zee prinze from Bracktor.

“Hold on, isn’t the princess only like 12?”

“Yez and zo iz zee prince. It vill be a perfect match and end zee varz.”

“And it’s all thanks to your meddling, ah, oh, I mean efforts.” I said laughing.

“Very funny, ha ha. But you are correct my friend. Of courze zis haz mad zee armz dealerz very unhappy and it iz a zore point. Ve must be very careful. It vould be very dangerouz if zertain people find out about zis.”

“Oh absolutely. They’d destroy you to stop it.”

“Yez, along vith anyvone who iz helping me, like you.”

“So, what is it you want me to do? And I have a feeling I’m not going to like it much!”

“Mozt likely not. Zee prinzess É-Lin’doa iz here in hiding. You vill be taking her from here to Bracktor. You vill be greatly rewarded for zis zevice, firzt by me and zen by both zee Slivenien monarchy and zee Bracktors.

“How well is well? I’m not endangering myself and my ship without a very good reason. You know I’m not adverse to a risky cargo but this one goes far beyond just risky. It’s downright crazy!”

“I zink you vill find the revards vill crazily outvay zee rizkz. Zee Slivenien monarch haf put in vone million creditz already, zee Bracktors vill add anozer million creditz on delivery and I vill perzonally add a zird million creditz ven you return. How iz zat for a payday?”

I almost choked and couldn’t answer for several seconds. Three million credits! I could retire on that kind of money. Added to what I could make from the Starhopper III, it would put me into a whole new level of life and business, not to mention tax bracket.

“Zo, do you aczept zis cargo?”

“Yes, of course I do. I’d have to be insane not to and you knew it before you even asked me to come here!”

“You muzt give me zome credit my friend. After all ve haf known each ozer for a very long time, no? You are zee only vone I knew I could truzt in zis. If anyvone can get zis done, it iz you.”

“Well, I suppose you’ve got me there. Thanks a lot for the confidence. I won’t disappoint you.”

We spent another hour conjuring up a false cargo manifest and travel route, then getting all the necessary paperwork filed for the trip. Once that was done, all that was left was to wait for the medical results on myself and Ryan to come in.

I would meet É-Lin’doa the next day to discuss the plans to get her aboard my ship and the trip after that. I found Ryan asleep in front of the vid screen so I put him to bed, then crashed out myself. It had been a long trying day.

The next day at the meeting it was decided that É-Lin’doa would be disguised as a boy. We need to get rid of every bit of her royal costumes and jewelry. I found that there would be no need to cut her hair, as she didn’t have any. Apparently, all females on Sliven have their hair permanently removed one year after birth. It sounded odd to me but they say it’s the men who have long flowing hair, sometimes hanging as long as their hips and even lower.

To avoid any stares and chance of recognition we would have to have a wig made for her to wear. I couldn’t exactly take the princess to the hairdressers though. So I came up with what I thought to be a great plan, which I put into operation the next day.

“Ryan.” I called, coming into our rooms.

“In here.” he answered from the vid room.

“Hey, I’ve got some good news. The doctor called and says he has our tests back. He wants us to come in right after lunch. I thought we could go do that and then spend the afternoon down at the Kolosian street markets. What do you think?”

“The doctor okay, but a market, I don’t know. It sounds boring.”

“Oh… I think you’ll find it far from boring. This isn’t just a shopping store. You’ve never seen a market like this, I promise. There are vendors of goods from all over the galaxy there. They probably have everything anyone could ever dream of. In fact, their slogan there is “If we don’t have it, it doesn’t exist.” So what do you say now?”

“I guess that could be fun. I’ll go.”

“Great. Be ready after lunch, okay?”

“Okay.”

That afternoon we arrived at the doctor’s office right at one o’clock and just like every other doctor ever, we had to wait almost forty minutes before he actually got around to us.

“So, we’ve done the DNA tests and comparisons. The two of you are a 95.8% match. The only way you could be closer is if Ryan was actually your son. I believe the differences are due to the separation of so many years and generations.”

“That’s really great news doc but what about the genealogical assessment?” I asked.

“I’ve got it right here. It took some doing and there are still a few holes we couldn’t fill in but it shows you Jared to come from one of Ryan’s father’s uncle’s line.”

“Is that for certain? I mean, would it stand up in court? You know, if anyone challenged it.”

“Oh, absolutely. The Office of Histories has certified it. No court would ever dare challenge their say.”

“Excellent news doc. So, what do we do now?”

“That depends on you and Ryan. The justice department has already given permission for you to be Ryan’s guardian pro-tem. You will have to file some legal documents to make it permanent though.”

“Okay, I can handle that with my people. Thanks for all you’ve done for us.”

“No problem and I wish you both well.”

After leaving the doctor’s office we took an air-taxi out to the market. It was a good opportunity to talk with Ryan. He had been unusually quiet.

“So, tell me what you’re thinking. How do you feel about the results?” I asked.

“I’m not sure yet. I just lost my dad and mom, found out I’m the only one left and it’s over a thousand years later than we thought it would be. Now they say you’re my only relative here in this new world and life. I’m really confused and don’t know what to do.”

“Are you scared?”

“Yeah! I don’t know how to live in this world.”

“Are you afraid of me, too?”

“No… ah… no, not at all, ah, I mean you’ve been real nice and helped me. I’m worried they might send me some place else. Would they do that?”

“No! Definitely not. Didn’t you hear what the doc said? The justice department says you get to stay with me.”

“Yeah but he also said you had to file something to make it permanent. What if they say no?”

“Look Ryan, this isn’t the world you’re from. Things are different than you remember. What they’ll want to know is just which way we want to go with it, not if they will allow it.”

“What do you mean, ‘which way’?”

“Well there are two ways we can do this. Number one is that I would be your guardian only. I would take care of you but you would decide where to live and how long you want to stay with me.”

“You mean I could leave any time I want?”

“Yes but you couldn’t just be on your own. You would have to go off to school, or maybe the military academy or something.”

“Oh. So what’s the second way?”

“The second way would be for me to… um… adopt you. You know, as my legal son. What would you think of that?”

“You’d do that?”

“Yeah, sure I would! You’re family! And I would never turn my back on family! Of course, it’d still be your choice. I wouldn’t want to make you do something you don’t want to.”

“You’re not making me. You’re the only family I have. Where else would I go?”

“Okay. I just want you to understand what life with me would be like. I don’t have a home world or house. I live on my ship. I go from world to world and carry cargo. I spend a lot of time in a hypersleep chamber. If you come with me that’s the life you would have.”

“Sounds great to me. When do we leave?”

“Well, there are official documents to file and a court hearing will be held to make it all legal. That could take a couple of weeks to get it all done. It’s going to take that long to get all my cargo contracts, make a schedule, a flight plan and have the ship loaded anyway.”

“So when will you file the documents?”

“I’ll do it later tonight when we get back. Oh, hey, look there. You can see the market.”

The Kolosian Street Markets cover a full square mile. There are indoor shops, outdoor shops, open trade floors, areas where people can rent a space for a day, a few entertainment areas, a large concessions area with many types of ready-to-eat food and drink and many shops to have things made or repaired.

At its center is a five story building that houses all the guilds, the trade commission offices and all the unions. The roof is used as the landing platform for all traffic, which makes it look like a beehive, with all the taxis and carriers buzzing in and out at all hours.

The place is always open, day and night. The vendors change from day to night, as does the clientele. The night shift becomes darker and more dangerous. It’s when deals are made that are not exactly legal. An old space pilot like me can pick up some very lucrative contracts here at night.

We weren’t here for that right now though. I need to get a wig made for the princess. For that I would need Ryan’s help. As we made our way down through the main building and out into the market, I looked for a place where I could speak to Ryan quietly. I figured the best place would be the concessions area so that’s where I steered our path. When we got there I picked a booth to sit at that was isolated a bit. I placed a masker on the table and activated it.

“What’s that thing? Ryan asked.”

“It’s a masker. It prevents anyone else from hearing us talk.” I answered.

“Why don’t you want people to hear us?”

“Because there’s something I need to talk about that’s top secret. I wanted to talk about this in the taxi but we ran out of time.”

“Top secret? Like spy stuff?”

“No, no.” I laughed. “It’s just something important that no one else should know.”

“Oh.” he said, a little disappointed.

“Look, I’ve been asked to do a special job that has to be kept quiet. Since you’re going to be with me from now on, you need to know about it so you don’t accidentally say something wrong, okay?”

“Okay. What’s the job?” he asked in excitement.

“First I need you to swear you will keep this quiet and never talk about it to anyone!”

“Not even you?”

“No silly, we can talk about it all we want but only as long as we’re alone or under a masker!”

“Oh, okay, yeah sure, I swear!”

“Good. So here’s the deal…”

I explained the whole thing to him and my plan with clothes and wigs. Once he had the information and understood the plan, he was eager to help. We went to the wig makers and had six different wigs made to be the hair of a boy of twelve in the styles boys were now wearing. After that we went shopping for clothes. I had taken careful measurements of both the princess and Ryan. Ryan was close enough to her sizes that if I got clothes that were just a bit big on Ryan, they would be just right on the princess. We got a full wardrobe for the princess and another, that actually fit, for Ryan himself. I had it all delivered to Kay-Lar’s home.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening wandering around the market. Ryan was running from vendor to vendor, trying to take in everything they had on display. There was so much that he had never seen or even knew existed. I bought him a music player and about 10,000 songs from all over. Some of them were ones he remembered from before he left earth. We got all kinds of fun things too. I got him his own datapad, comlink, credit chit, and a few other items he liked. We ate so many foods and treats we were both stuffed and felt a bit sick.

We spent almost an hour in a shop that repaired and sold used items and some antiques as well. The girl running the shop said her name was Samira but she preferred Sam. I quickly found we had a lot in common. Her parents had been salvagers and I think I recognized their names but wasn’t sure. We shared a deep hatred for pirates. Her parents had been killed by them and she had been held captive for a time. There were many items in her store that reminded me of my own. We talked a lot about that too but I never mentioned Chip.

“Are you telling me you repair all this stuff yourself?”

“Yeah. I kinda have a knack for it.”

“How old are you anyway?”

“I’m 15 and before you ask, yes I’ve got all my legal papers to live on my own. This is my business and I fix or make everything here. Uh, except for the antiques. I don’t make them, I just fix’m.”

“So you not only repair stuff, you make it too?”

“Yeah, sure. Here, let me show you some of my work.”

It was fun to reminisce about the past for awhile, but eventually we had to get back to real life. Later that night back at Kay-Lar’s home, Ryan said he had liked Sam in the antique store. I agreed with him and told him a bit about my own store. When he asked why I sold it, I couldn’t tell him the truth, at least not yet, so I simply said, “That’s a story for another time.” and put him to bed.

Over the next couple of weeks I filed all the adoption papers, got the princess to stop wearing her royal outfits and into the boys clothes and wigs, negotiated a dozen different cargo contracts and made a court appearance with Ryan.

We decided to make several trips to the markets with both Ryan and the princess, disguised as a boy. If the disguise worked there, we would be safe most anywhere.

All went well at first. Ryan and “Danny”, as we were calling the princess now, were perfect together. It turned out that the princess had never been allowed out of the palace, much less allowed to run, play and explore. The two of them had a ball seeing and learning all the new things neither one had ever seen.

The princess was good for Ryan since she had a very thorough education and was helping him learn all the things he had missed over the 1200 years he was asleep. Ryan was just as good for her because he kept her in check and taught her how to think and act like a boy. They were so good together and so close to the same age and build that we never got a second look from anyone. Or so I thought.

We had made a stop at “Sam’s Fix It or Find It” every time we went to the markets. Ryan and Danny loved it there and for some reason, had really taken to Sam. She was always very friendly and playful with them. I found I didn’t mind it either. It felt comfortable and homey. One day near the end of that two weeks, we were making our fifth and final visit to the markets. I had left Ryan and Danny at Sam’s place and gone to finalize my contracts and flight plan.

I was just walking back through the market when I heard a loud bang from up ahead. At first I thought it was just a rocket or toy but something about that sound was familiar. I hurried faster towards Sam’s and started hearing yells and people started running past me. I knew then that something was very wrong.

Breaking into a run I rounded the last corner and saw Sam being attacked by a mountain of a man three times her size. Running as fast as I could, I took the guy by surprise, bowling him off his feet and straight through the door of Sam’s shop. I don’t know what he fell into but there was a crash, and explosion and suddenly the doorway was filled with smoke and flame. I scooped Sam off the ground and moved back to the other side of the street.

“Where’s Ryan and Danny?” I asked in a panic as I set her down. “There!” she said, pointing up.I looked up to see a small shuttle lifting into the sky. As I watched in terror, it zipped away at full throttle and was gone.

Suddenly there was a scream from inside Sam’s shop and a man shaped object came crashing out into the street, totally bathed in flame. The guy was flailing and screaming and running straight at us. Before the guy could take more than two steps, Sam raised an antique .45 colt and fired twice. The guy went down and didn’t get up again. I blinked and immediately realized why the loud bang I had heard earlier had sounded so familiar. The gun slipped from her grasp and clattered to the ground. I looked down at her to see she had passed out. I also saw that she had taken one hell of a beating.

I could already hear the sirens as the emergency vehicles approached. All I had to do was wait for them to arrive. I don’t know why I did it but I kicked the old revolver down the sewer drain just behind me. I could always retrieve it later. As I stood there waiting I noticed again just how boyish Sam looked. She was dressed in coveralls and boots and had her hair hidden under a hat. She was small like a boy too. She couldn’t have been more than about 70 lbs and didn’t reach even to five feet tall. I could see a few freckles across her nose but right now her face was badly bruised and her nose was bleeding.

I wasn’t sure but I thought she may have a couple of broken ribs. She wasn’t breathing very well, so I hoped there wasn’t internal damage as well. I turned her over to the medics and gave them my contact info before they left.

“I want to know how she is please. And could you let me know as soon as she regains consciousness? I want to come see her.”

“Yes sir. We’ll note it in her file.”

As soon as the constables were done with me I took an airtaxi straight to Kay-Lar’s home. When I told him what happened he was furious.

“Vhy! vhy did you leaf zem alone? You know how important zis iz! How could you be zo foolish? I zought I could truzt you! I zink you muzt be getting ztupid in you old age! Ach! Just GO! I haf things to do, with no time to vaist on you. Go before I haf you locked up!”

I gathered Ryan’s and my own things as quickly as I could and took an air-taxi out to the spaceport. It was then that I found out about my ship. Someone had used explosives to blow the hatch. That had taken out some relays and wiring as well. They had hacked into my AI and scrambled it so badly the ship would not respond. I found the weapons locker open and empty. My quarters had been ransacked and the engine room looked like a junkyard.

The thing that hit me the hardest was when I saw the holo unit that housed all of C.H.I.P.. It was nothing but a smoking ruin. Over a hundred years of recordings, all his personality, all the old vids from Persephony, all my own memories of Chip that I had added over the years, gone! All gone. It was like my son had died all over again. I slid to the floor and started to cry. I don’t know how long I stayed sitting there on the cold steel floor panels.

Are you enjoying this story? You might want to let Jared know by emailing him at: Jared at CastleRoland dot Net