Then Hamilton was on the two of them from behind. His Army Ranger training kicking in, he hit them like a ton of bricks and sent them sprawling. Then in two vicious motions he lashed out with a lethal kick and karate chop to break both of their necks.
Aurora looked up at him from the ground, rubbing her bruisedthroat. “Thanks,” she croaked.
As Aurora got to her feet, Hamilton pulled the leather jacket off one of the men, and reached into his pocket to remove his wallet. He looked back. Across the baggage area some of the members of the mob were finally descending the escalator. There was not much time to be lost. He held up the jacket to Aurora. “Here, put this on!”
The priestess made a face, as if offended by the smell of the jacket, which in fact was quite rank by any standard.
“Just put it on! We won’t get anywhere with you in that black robe.”
Aurora nodded and, grimacing, threw the foul garment on. The black bottom of her robe still showed, but with a Christian Crusader motorcycle jacket covering her upper body, her appearance was no longer obviously Minervan. He pushed her through the revolving door and ran towards the taxi stand.
As they made it to the lead cab, one of the pursuers emerged from the revolving door and called out, “Stop them!”
The cabbie turned to Hamilton. “What’s the big idea, Mac?”
Hamilton reached into the wallet and pulled out two $100 dollar bills. “Grand Central Station, and make it snappy.”
The cabbie hopped into the driver’s seat. “You got it, pal,” and before they could even close the back door, hit the gas and sped off in a screech.
Chapter 24
Doing all she could to avoid gagging from the hideous stench of the garment Hamilton had forced her to wear, Aurora stared out the cab window at the unspeakable squalor of the Earthling city. There was garbage on the street, pornographic posters on the walls, and in every shop window there were signs proclaiming things that were manifest lies. Worst of all were the mobs of Earthlings themselves, many of whom were purposely disfigured, and all of whose enraged thoughts boiled forth uncontrollably to fill the mental ether with noxious fog as they pushed and shoved each other in all directions. She opened the cab window to let in some fresh air, but was assaulted by a chemical odor and horrible din that exceeded her worst imaginations of Tartarus. The cab they were in kept moving and changing direction with apparent randomness, repeatedly barely evading deadly collisions with other horrid primitive vehicles of similar construction.
“Here we are, Mac, Grand Central Station,” the cabbie eventually called out. “You got those two bills?”
Hamilton passed the cabbie two pieces of tree-flesh, that were dyed green, each with a very bad portrait of some prehistoric Earthling imprinted upon it. “Thanks pal,” the cabbie said. Then Hamilton took her hand and opened the cab door.“Come on,” the Ranger said. “Let’s go.”
As they crossed the sidewalk to enter the station, the cabbie called out after her.“Hey Babe. Nice jacket!”
Aurora stood and watched as Hamilton approached an Earthling who was kept in a cage and gave her some tree-flesh, obtaining other tree-flesh fragments and some filthy circular metal disks in return.
“OK,” he said.“I’ve got us some tickets to Peekskill. The train boards in thirty minutes. Is there anything you want to do in the meantime?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I want to get rid of this jacket. It’s making me absolutely nauseous.”
Hamilton’s smile was infuriating, but there was nothing to be done about it. “I see,” he eventually said. “In that case we’ll need to buy you a different jacket to wear. Youcan’t very well go parading about dressedas a Minervan priestess.”
Aurora had to agree. “Right. So how to we do that?”
Hamilton pointed down a dingy corridor whose floor was littered with trash. “Last time I was here, there were a group of souvenir stores down that way. They should be open at thishour.”
They walked down the corridor, which smelled of urine and decayed fermented drinks, and soon enough they found an open and well-lighted room filled with the most incredible collection of ugly refuse that Aurora had ever seen. “This looks like a good place,” Hamilton said.
They entered the room. At first it did not seem that promising, but then behind the piles of junk Aurora spotted a rack filled with jackets and, miracle of miracle, they were not made out of materials from murdered animals or plants. Instead, as all civilized clothes were, they were purely technological creations. One of them even had a picture of a Goddess on it. She was green, and was holding a torch high aloft.
“Who is that?” she asked Hamilton.
“It’s Liberty.”
Liberty. There was no such Goddess, but her features were not unlike those shown in some depictions of Minerva. There was also some writing under it, consisting of the letter “I”, then a non-alphabetic symbol, then the letters“N” and“Y.” She started to searchHamilton’s mind for a translation, then decided it was not worth bothering about. “I’ll take that one,” she said.
Hamilton gave the storeowner some more tree-flesh, and then handed her the Liberty jacket. Gratefully she threw off the animal carcass and put on the new outerwear. But as they left the store, the clerk came running after them.
“Miss,” he said. “You forgot your jacket!” and handed her the stinky coat.
Aurora smiled at the man.“Why don’t you take it? Idon’t need it any more.”
“Oh, no,” the man said. “It’s much too valuable.”
After he left, Aurora held up the horrid garment and queried Hamilton. “This? This is valuable?”
“Yes. It’s genuine leather.”
“You mean it’s really the skin of a slaughtered cow?”
“Yes.”
Aurora shuddered. “Can’t we just throw it out?”
Hamilton looked about. “Not around here, there are too many people watching. Someone would be sure to think it was suspicious if they saw you throw something that valuable away. We’ll have to find a more pri- vate place to ditch it.I know, the Ladies room.”
“The Ladies room?”
“Yes, it’s a private room where women go to defecate.”
A group defecation room! Aurora suddenly felt like throwing up.
“Come on,” Hamilton continued brightly. “It’s right down this way.”
Aurora could not believe that she was actually allowing herself to be led into a collection point for Earthling female defecation, but there seemed little choice. She walked as if she was in a trance.
Suddenly, Hamilton turned to her. “Aurora, I’m curious. Back at the airport, why didn’t you use your robe to electroshock those assailants?”
The question caught her by surprise. “The robe? Oh that won’t work outside of the environs of New Minervapolis. It needs to access a helicity field for its power.”
“But it’s still bulletproof?”
Aurora shook her head. “No. Without access to a field it’s a mere material fabric. A solid projectile with sufficient momentum could penetrate it.”
“So are you telling me that away from New Minervapolis you are just as vulnerable as an ordinaryEarthling?”
“Not quite. I still have my mind.”
A dark expression fluttered briefly across Hamilton’s face, and Aurora read his anger at her possible implication that Earthlings didn’t have adequate minds. However, while true enough, that wasn’t her point at the moment. She decided to clarify.
“What I meant was that since I am telepathic and they are not, I can anticipate Earthlings’ moves. I can also trick them by suggesting actions which in a sufficiently hurried situations they think are their own ideas.”
“Like you did with me with the shoe-throwing incident in the transport?”
“Yes, and when I got you to drop your rifle before it exploded. Those suggestions both benefited you. But I can also use it to set traps, for example, by getting an adversary to run too fast in one direction to
catch me when I change course.”
Hamilton nodded.“Thus your spectacular feat of dodging that mob in the airport. But now that you mention it, you can also use your mind to paralyze people. Why didn’t you do that today?”
“I couldn’t. In order to block an Earthling’s thoughts from reaching its locomotor control centers, you need to have a fairly good map of their outer mind, which takes hours of probing to construct. Since I had just met thoseEarthlings, there was nothing I could do to immobilize them.” Aurora grinned.“But you on the other hand, I can still freeze without difficulty.”
With that, Aurora entered Hamilton’s outer mind and masked off the access points to his locomotion initiators. It took Hamilton several seconds to realize he was frozen. Aurora bit her lip and laughed inwardly. For the past hour she had been in the very unnatural and degrading position of being Hamilton’s ward. It felt good to turn the tables back again to their proper orientation.
Finally Hamilton caught on. He tried to talk but of course he couldn’t, and his face turned beet red with frustration. Suddenly, he screamed a thought at her.“Aurora, cut it out!”
Reluctantly, she released him. “Don’t be angry,” she urged. “I was just trying to show that despite....”
Hamilton cut her off. “You are not to do thatagain.”
Aurora answered with a mischievous smile that adequately expressed the probability that she would take orders from an Earthling. “I’ll try to refrain.”
Hamilton would not accept that for an answer. “Now you listen. You’ve asked me to help you and I will. But we are not in New Minervapolis anymore and we are not on the Weegee fleet. I am not your captive, I am not your study specimen, I am not your pet, and I am not your volunteer deckhand.”
He was so vehement that Aurora was mentally stunned. “Then what are you?”
Hamilton took a step closer to her and looked her in the eyes. “I am your friend,” he said.
Aurora gulped. The idea of having an Earthling for a friend was preposterous. Friendship required fundamental equality between two beings. But she desperately needed a friend. Hamilton would have to do.
“Do you want me to be your friend?” he pushed.
“Yes,” she answered humbly.
“Then you need to be my friend. And friends treat each other with respect.”
“You mean you don’t want me taking any advantage of your mental infer…, er lack of mental education?”
“That’s right. I’ll spell it out. I mean no mind reading, and no mind tricks against me or anyone who I introduce to you as someone who I hold dear. Youare to,” Hamilton paused. Then he continued. “You are to respect our minds.”
Aurora smiled. Even thoughHamilton really didn’t understand the First Commandment, she had to give him credit for attempting to quote it. She held up her right hand and made the sign of the Holy Owl. “Very well. I will treat you and yours with mental courtesy. I will not abuse your mental privacy. This I swear in Minerva’s name.”
“Thank you,” Hamilton said.
Aurora continued. “But against other Earthlings, whether open ene- mies or simply strangers, I reserve my right to use all the powers which the wise Goddess has given me.”
Hamilton nodded. “Fair enough.” He held out his hand. “Let’s shake on it.”
Aurora looked at the hand. She was aware of the Earthling custom of certifying agreements with the two-handed gesture. It seemed unnecessary in this instance, since she had sworn a binding oath. But Hamilton’s desire to reach closure through this means was clear.
She grasped his right hand in hers and moved them up and down. “Friends,” she said.
“So, here’s the Ladies room,” Hamilton said. Aurora looked at the entrance with distaste. A smell emanated from it that was so putrid as to defy description. She knew that if she went inside, it would be absolutely unendurable. Yet enter she must, if she was to rid herself of the horrible leather jacket. She steeled her nerves, telling herself that it would only be for a moment, and so much was to be gained that a few seconds of olfactory torture was a small price to pay.
The priestess thought a brief silent prayer for strength, and then entered the stench-filled enclosure. Inside she found a large room with an optical reflecting surface on one side. Unfortunately, this room offered no privacy, as it contained two ugly Earthling women who were busy making themselves even more ugly through the application of mildly toxic colored substances to their faces. She looked around and saw a row of paint-covered steel stalls, each with its own door. Since the stalls were opaque, they offered the prospect of immunity of observation by Earthlings.
Aurora took a step in the direction of the stalls, and then stopped. The smell had increased. Clearly the stalls were the source of the stench.
One of the ugly women turned and gazed at her. “Do you need any help, dear? You appear lost.”
“No,” Aurora said quickly. “I was just, er,thinking.” With that she forced her feet to take rapid steps until she was inside one of the stalls and had the door closed.
Inside the stall there was a white porcelain bowl filled with water, with a metal handle attached to its side. There was also a cylinder about which was wrapped a very long strand of rather thin tree-flesh. Disgusted yet fascinated by the weird device, the priestess realized that she was in the presence of an Earthling defecation machine. She hung the jacket up on a metal rod that protruded from the door, and made haste to leave.
Suddenly she was struck by a horrifying thought. For some time to come, she would be living among Earthlings, and would have to use such systems herself. Indeed, she had need of a waste-photolyser now. But none was available, nor would any be available until she reached New Minervapolis, on the other side of the continent.
Grimacing she re-entered the stall and closed the door. She had no idea how to use the strange device, and spent several minutes trying to analyze it. Fortunately an Earthling woman came along and knocked on the outside. “Would you please hurry up in there,” the woman’s voice said.
The Earthling clearly qualified as a stranger, so Aurora seized the opportunity to probe her mind until she found the required information on defecation machine operation. Then, with infinite distaste she put the hideous procedure into practice.
Finally she was done, and as quickly as she could, she exited the stall. The woman on the outside was the same ugly creature who had briefly offered her assistance in the reflector-wall room.
“It’s about time,” the woman said.
Without a word, Aurora hurried past her to run water over the waste fragments the defecation-machine procedure had caused her to deposit on her hand. There was a kind of cleansing agent near the water-spout, but it was not completely effective. She tried using it several times, but it just didn’t work the way a real cleanser should. Enough residue always remained to make her smell like an Earthling. Disgusted, she made for the exit.
Hamilton was waiting for her in the corridor. “Hey, there you are. What tookyou?” Then an expression of concern seemed to cross his face. “Is something the matter? You looksick.”
Aurora had never been sick, so she had no basis for comparison, but she felt horrible. “Let’s get out of here,” she gasped.
The conveyance that Hamilton had arranged for the next leg of their journey was nothing like the small wheeled vehicle that had taken them from the airport to the Earthling city. Instead of having a nearly private compartment with just one stranger driving, in this alternative system they had to share a relatively large compartment with scores of Earthlings who were sitting on rows of soiled cushions. Needless to say, the compartment stank beyond description, but there were transparent windows which could be opened, albeit only partially and with some difficulty, to let in comparatively clean outside air. For this reason, Aurora chose the position on the cushion that was closest to the window.
Making a hideous racket, the conveyance started to move along a metal track that was attached to the ground below. At first t
hey traveled through a tunnel, but after several minutes the system emerged into the open. Looking through the transparent window, Aurora could see that it was evening. They were still in some kind of Earthling city, but it seemed only partially inhabited. Most of the buildings were in ruins, made worse by the presence of inscriptions that evidenced the transient presence of minds that were clearly deranged, even by Earthling standards.
“What is this place?” she asked Hamilton.
“It’s called the Bronx. Pretty messed up, isn’t it?”
Aurora nodded. Messed up wasn’t the word. It reminded her of the
ruins of Pegasus 3. The conveyance started to move faster, and the outside scenery changed to include some hovels that were not completely ruined, as well as a significant amount of vegetation.
“These are the suburbs,” Hamilton said. “ This is where the rich people live. Not too shabby, eh?”
Aurora said nothing. The homes of the rich Earthlings were very unimpressive. But at least the atmosphere here was not manifestly toxic. She leaned back in her seat and let the breeze from the window opening rescue her tortured olfactory senses.
But then, from out of nowhere, the ugly woman from the Ladies room appeared, walking down the aisle that ran between the cushions of the conveyance compartment. “Oh, there you are!” she exclaimed. “I’m so glad I found you. Youleft this behind in the Ladies room.” With that, she handed Aurora the horrible jacket.
Aurora wanted to scream. Just when it seemed that the nightmare had finally ended, this had to happen. She managed to contain herself for a few seconds while the woman walked away, but then she could take it no longer. Throwing caution to the winds, she stuffed the hideous garment through the window opening, sending it forever to well-deserved oblivion.
Her action did not escape observation from the other passengers.
“Hey, what did she do that for?” one man called out.
In reply, Hamilton shrugged and whirled his finger next to his head. The meaning of the gesture was unclear, but it seemed to satisfy the other Earthlings who returned to their various amusements.
The Holy Land: Fanatical Earthling planet assassins are spreading chaos through the galaxy. Is there any nice way to stop them? Page 23
