Published: 6 Jun 2019

I jumped from the car almost before it stopped and galloped up the huge stairs. The doors were pulled open from the inside just as I reached the top. I burst through the doorway almost at a run, sliding to a stop about five feet in. There, twenty feet away stood Sam. When I saw her my eyes bulged open and my jaw felt as if it had hit the marble flooring on which I stood.

Sam was dressed in a pink dress, gloves and jeweled shoes. I had never seen her like this before. I found myself suddenly rather warm and embarrassed. Even though I had been given a really nice suit, it couldn’t hold a candle to her.

I found myself experiencing the stirrings of other feelings as well and realized Sam was a beautiful woman. “How could I have ever seen her as just a teenage kid?” I thought.

As I walked towards her I noticed a couple of things others probably would not have. Sam’s hands were clenched vise tight and her eyes burned laser holes in mine. Everything on her face said ‘happy’ but I knew from my first look at those eyes that she was anything but. When she threw her arms around me I could feel the tension in her body.

“It’s about time!” she whispered waspishly in my ear. “Get me out of here!” I backed up a step and held her by her shoulders, just looking at her.

“You have got to be one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen!” I said realizing that I meant every word.

Sam looked at me like I’d gone mad but then her eyes opened wide and went ice cold with what I could only assume was fear.

“Do… Do you… ah… really mean that?” she asked haltingly.

“Yes, of course I do. I’ve never seen you look prettier.”

I watched as the ice melted into something close to panic. Her cheeks went rose red and she ducked her head, looking at the floor. Reaching up with one finger to her chin, I raised her head to look at her. All at once, without really intending to, I found myself kissing her gently on the lips. Suddenly, Sam threw her arms around me again and locked her lips to mine as if held there magnetically.

“Uh hum.”

The kiss continued.

“Uh hum!” more urgently.

We finally separated and realized, to our embarrassment, that everyone was staring at us, waiting. A rather severe looking woman stood beside us, some functionary or other.

“You are Mr. McFarlane I’m told.”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“I am Mistress Elnora, personal assistant to Lady Tessara. Please follow me. This way.” she said, crooking one finger and stepping out briskly across the hall.

We followed obediently to a side room. She rapped sharply twice on the door and without waiting for a response, opened it and stepped inside. We found ourselves in a largish sitting room with lots of carpet, puffy chairs, pastel colors, art, gold leaf, crystal chandeliers and carved wooden tables. A real wood fire crackled in an over sized hearth.

There, I was introduced to Lady Tessara. Princess É-Lin’doa was there as well. She was dressed in a fine gown, cape and tiara, looking regal, as was befitting her status.

We all sat and talked for some time, Leon joining us as well. Our stories were told in full that morning and everyone agreed it was a good outcome, even with the losses we had suffered.

“Lady Tessara, if I may… “ I said finally, “I greatly appreciate all you’ve done for us. Words alone don’t quite cover it I know but if there’s anything I can ever do for you, please tell me. You have only to ask.”

“Thank you Jared. I may just take you up on that someday.”

“Anytime. Now, if it isn’t being rude, Sam, Princess É-Lin’doa and I have other friends waiting to hear from us. Then we must be on our way. We have a mission to complete. I’m sure you understand.”

“Oh yes, I understand completely. However, I will not allow you to leave on an empty stomach. Lunch is being prepared now. You simply must stay at least that long.”

“What do you think?” I said, looking to Sam.

“All right. I owe Lady Tessara that and much more besides.” she answered with a smile but the look in her eyes said she wanted to leave as much as I did.

“And you Princess É-Lin’doa?” I asked, turning to her.

“It is the proper thing to do. It would be rude to refuse.” she answered, as if trying to teach a commoner manners.

“Very well. We’ll stay for lunch. But we must leave afterwards. Now that I have regained the Princess, as well as the members of my family, I simply can’t justify any further delay in completing my contract.” I said, knowing that Kaylar was most likely turning over every asteroid in the galaxy by now.

“I fully understand and agree. There is much at stake and many people waiting on you. It will be as you say.” Lady Tessara answered, nodding her head once towards me.

“I’ll go make some calls and get your ship ready for departure.” Leon said, clapping his hands once and rising from his place.

“You don’t need to do that. I can take care of it.” I said. I’ve never liked anyone else messing with my ship unless absolutely necessary or unavoidable.

“Sorry old chap but I won’t take no for an answer. You’ll just have to live with it.” Leon answered, already moving across the room.

“But… heh…” I started but it was too late. I had to just sit there and watch him disappear out the door without a backward glance.

“That is Leon, through and through.” Lady Tessara said. “Do not even try to change his mind. Once he decides on something there is nothing anyone can do to dissuade him” she added with finality.

“I don’t like it… but okay. I do need to at least make contact with my friends and business partner though. Is there a place I could make some calls… in private?”

“Yes, of course.” Lady Tessara said, raising one hand slightly and summoning one of her servants.

“Take Mr. McFarlane to my office please. Tell Mistress Elnora to show him the coms and leave him alone.” she said to the girl.

“Yes M’lady.” the girl responded, as she curtsied.

I was shown to an office and allowed to use a com panel. I first made contact with Kaylar. It took almost a half hour to satisfy him before he accepted that I would give a full report in a couple of weeks, after I had delivered the Princess.

Then I contacted Madame DuPree and talked to Ryan for several minutes, telling him to be ready to leave by 14:00 hours. We would pick him up and explain everything then. By then, the girl had returned to summon me for lunch. We eat a splendid meal and talked much about the past few days. By the time we left were all stuffed to bursting.

Lady Tessara made gifts of the outfits Sam and the Princess were wearing. She also gave me a new suit. It was made of Ithruen silk from Roanmara 2. This silk is unlike any other. It has an iridescent quality that shows through no matter what color it’s dyed. Mine was done in a deep blue under normal light but varied from almost a midnight purple to a washed indigo when I moved through spots of sunshine and shade.

The jacket had gold buttons on the cuffs and front. The shirt was a white material that almost sparkled. Its sleeves fastened with gold cuff links, a ruby set into each one. The shirt itself had ruby studs rather than buttons and closed all the way to my neck. It was the type you wear without a tie.

The shoes were simple polished black leather but felt as if made just for me. They were the most comfortable pair of shoes I’d ever had. To top off the outfit, there was a man’s evening cape in a silver blue color and fastened at the neck by a gold chain set with a large ruby clasp at each end.

There was also a top hat and a walking stick made of ivory, inlaid with silver figures and designs, topped with an emerald so large it felt like holding a baseball. I wasn’t very fond of the hat but wore it out of respect for Lady Tessara.

We picked up Ryan and spent some time with Madame DuPree and the others. They told us that the boy, Ceeril, who helped us, would stay with Madame DuPree. He had no one else and I could see that it did a lot of good for her. After losing Ja’qu’ill, it kind of filled the emptiness.

John and Laurant wanted to come to my ship and see us off. When we got to the spaceport, no one so much as questioned us. On board my ship, I did a walk through to see that all was ready. I found it fully stocked and fueled.

As I was going through the manifests, I noticed something odd. One of the cargo holds, which had previously been empty, was now full. I made my way to the hold. When I walked through the hatch, I found John & Laurant there. They both had full sacks of something and guilty looks on their faces.

“What the hell is all this crap?” I asked. Here I was trying to leave and now I had to deal with a bunch of junk.

“Well… um… you see…” Laurant stuttered, red faced.

“Oh good Gods! Just spit it out!” I didn’t have time for this nonsense.

“You may as well tell him. He knows now.” John said, rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

“Okay, okay. It’s like this, when we were searching Phy-Tong’s bunker we found all this stuff that’s worth a lot of money.

We couldn’t just…” Laurant began explaining.

“Heh! What to you mean ‘We’? It was your idea! Besides, you’re the one had Sam’s comlink and access to his ship’s computer!” John protested.

“Fine! I then, just couldn’t leave it all there to be destroyed. I figured to use it to help all the slaves and kids that trash was holding captive.” Laurant continued.

“And you didn’t once think of yourself did you?” I growled in displeasure and disbelief.

“Ah… oh all right! Yeah, I didn’t think it would hurt anything to keep some myself. After all, I am the one who acquired it.” Laurant said belligerently.

“Yeah okay, I guess. There’s nothing to do now but deal with it. Right! So, what all do you have here?” I asked impatiently.

“We took everything that was in that treasury. You know, all the art, gold, silver, platinum, statuary, gems and jewels, clothes etc.” John expounded on the items.

“Yeah! Then I found this one storage room with all these blocks here.” Laurant said, motioning to the stacks of plastic wrapped packages behind him. ”I already tested it. It’s high grade weed, probably worth a couple thousand credits a pound.”

“How much is there?” I asked, curious now.

“Each block has a bout a hundred pounds and there are sixty seven blocks. That’s about 6700 lbs. And worth around 13.4 million credits.” John detailed.

“And that doesn’t include the 2300 plants we took, over there.” Laurant motioned to the other side of the hold. I looked over and saw a small forest of plants in pots. Each one almost four feet high and about two in diameter. They looked to be almost ready to harvest.

In one corner stood a dozen statues carved in marble, wood, bronze, ivory, jade and even one in what looked to be solid gold. There were at least twenty paintings in frames. There were ten cloth sacks stuffed with things and a rack full of very nice looking clothes.

“Okay. Look, we can do this one of two ways. One; you can take what you want and I’ll keep the rest. Two; I can take it all and sell it, then divide up what I make and have it put into an account for you. Which would you prefer?” I asked.

“How about if we take these two bags of coins we have here…” Laurant began, holding up a small cloth bag the clinked and clanked when he shook it, then pointing at a similar bag John was holding.

“The two together will be enough to help Madame DuPree and all those kids as well.” John continued.

“Then you sell the rest and send us whatever you think is fair.” Laurant finished.

“That’s fine but it may take some time. I’ve got things to do first, that are more important, as you already know.”

“Of course.” Laurant said.

“Understood.” John added.

“Now, would you two please take your little sacks and get the fuck off my ship!” I growled.

We all laughed, shook hands and walked out to the main hatch where we parted ways. It felt almost like leaving part of my own family behind. I had no idea when, or even if, I would ever see these people again.

When I arrived on the bridge Sam and Ryan were there waiting. Sam had activated the pre launch already so all I had to do was radio shipyard control for clearance.

We hit space five minutes later and set our course for Bracktor. It would be a two week trip. When I suggested hyper-sleep chambers no one seemed interested at all. We spent the time just being together. We had a lot to talk about.I also spent time giving Kaylar a detailed account of our adventures and experiences, as well as cataloging all the stuff John and Laurant had put in my hold. Kaylar said he’d do his best to find buyers for it all and to my surprise, wouldn’t charge his usual cut.

We arrived at Bracktor without incident. When we set down on planet we were greeted by an entourage of at least 30 palace dignitaries and staff, surrounded by an entire regiment of the military.

We spent the next month being wined, dined, gifted, toured, interviewed and generally pampered by both the Bracktors and Sliveniens. They insisted we all stay for the royal wedding. Ryan, Sam and I really didn’t want to but we had no choice. It seemed we had become local heroes and therefore duty bound to stay.

I received the rest of my pay from the Bracktors and Sliveniens which I had been promised. On top of that, they sent in a team of their best mechanics and repaired my ship from top to bottom. Sam insisted on supervising them, as I knew she would.

By the time we were allowed to leave, the ship had been upgraded with every new feature they could cram in. All three of us had been measured to an inch and gifted an entire new wardrobe as well.

One day during our stay, Sam burst into my room. “Jared! Guess what!” she panted, breathless.

“What’s wrong?” I said, leaping up, panicked.

“No, no. Nothing’s wrong! Something’s right!” she announced, bouncing on her toes. If she got any more excited I was afraid she’d start leaping in the air.

“Okay, so what is it that’s got you so wound up?” I asked anxiously.

“Guess!” she said.

“No. I hate guessing games. What is it?”

Oh come on! Guess! You’ll never figure it out!”

“Sam…” I said, warning. “Just tell me! I’m not going to play!”

“Party pooper!” she spat at me. “We found someone, ah, something… oh I don’t know. We found Chip!” she blurted finally.

“WHAT! Chip! How? Where?” Now I was ready to dance. I hadn’t dreamed of ever retrieving his program. I had reconciled myself to the loss, so now I could hardly believe my ears.

“Do you remember the cargo of data pads you took on?” she asked.

“Yeah… ah, I think so. What about… NO! You don’t mean…” I sputtered. “Yup! He put himself into them. How, we don’t know, but he did.” she answered.

“Is he up and running?” I demanded.

“Not yet. His program is spread over 10,000 data pads. The techs are reassembling him but they say it could take a while.”

After that, I could hardly stay away from my ship. I kept checking and rechecking the techs work. Finally, after a week of me looking over their shoulders, they complained to Sam. She dragged me away and kept me so busy I didn’t have time to go back.

“How are they coming along with Chip?” I asked Sam one day, almost two weeks later.

“I don’t know.” she answered sheepishly.

“What do you mean ‘you don’t know’?” I asked.

“They won’t even let me onto the ship any more. They’re working on some secret project and won’t let anyone know about it.”

The last week there was torture. We couldn’t get anywhere near the ship. I couldn’t even get my personal pass code to my own ship’s AI to work. The day we were to leave, the old regent, the new prince and princess and nearly the entire royal staff turned out to see us off at the spaceport. Thousands of people from the capital city lined the streets and spaceport perimeter, cheering, waving and celebrating.

I was the first one through my ship’s main hatch. As I walked in, Chip came strolling down the hall to greet us. I was so astonished by him that I stopped dead in my tracks. He also stopped about ten feet away.

“Hey dad!” he said, grinning from ear to ear. He was acting as if nothing had happened at all.

“Hey kiddo. How are you?” I asked, looking him up and down. There was something odd about him I couldn’t quite wrap my head around.

“I’m great, now that you’re back.” he answered nonchalantly.

“That’s good but I meant how are you, as in, is your program intact?” I asked, concerned.

“Yeah, it’s all there. In fact, it’s better than ever. Here, I’ll show you.” he said, a mischievous look in his eyes.

Suddenly he ran forward, straight at me. With him being a hologram, I just stood there. When he collided with me and wrapped his arms around me, I felt his solid impact. My mind raced and went into overload.

“Wha… what the… you’re… you’re real!” I sputtered in disbelief.

“Of course I’m not. At least not like you mean.” he laughed.

“But… How?” I still couldn’t make sense of this.

“I’m an android now. The techs built me.” he said, looking up at me, smiling.

I dropped to one knee and put my arms around him. Hugging my long dead son felt really weird. For over one hundred years I’d lived with a holographic representation of him but had never been able to touch him. Now, to actually hold something that looked, sounded, acted and even felt real, was truly astounding and confusing at the same time.

“This is going to take a lot of getting used to.” I told him, as I released him and stood up.

“That’s okay, we have time now.” he said, taking my hand. We continued into the ship and made our way to the bridge.

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