Stowaway

by Robert E Colfax

  “A gentleman should hold a door for a lady,” Lexi prompted, after a momentary frown, looking at Ron meaningfully. She read somewhere there was a trick to kicking a door open. She didn’t know it. She doubted any door could withstand Ron, trick or no trick.

  “That’s an Earth custom you know, but OK.” He smiled and leaned into the door. Still smiling, he muttered, “Stout door.” Then he backed up a bit and hit it with his shoulder, splintering the jamb on the other side. He held the door open and followed Lexi into the office. Jameson looked up, startled, as his door flew open. The young woman on her knees in front of him didn’t seem to notice.

  “Get out of my office,” Jameson yelled. “I’m mentoring a student.”

  Lexi strode forward, Ron right behind her. Jameson’s office fit him, cluttered and messy, with books and stacks of papers haphazardly arranged on his bookcases along with a dead dieffenbachia. He had a couple of dusty plastic plants in the corners. The desk, with so many books and papers scattered across it that the surface was completely obscured, was too large for the room. At a glance, it didn’t look like anything had shifted position since she had been in here weeks ago. He had the usual collection of diplomas on his wall, most from foreign universities.

  He sat with his hands clasped around the large pink gemstone the Samues spent two years of their lives seeking. Lexi reached down and snatched it from his sweaty grasp. It was slightly smaller than she pictured, but she had to agree with Ron; it was a beautiful piece. It wasn’t just the exterior, there was an interesting pattern embedded inside, one almost fractal in nature. So, you’re the Rose of Light. Pleased to meet you. She looked into it and said, “Oops, maybe I shouldn’t have done that.”

  When Jameson tried to use it on her over a month ago, under the guise he was interviewing for a new teacher’s assistant, it didn’t have any effect that she could tell. Then again, he had been fondling it and she hadn’t gazed into it. Now with her brain hyper-actuated by the Wraixain education technology, the internal crystalline lattices of the Rose imprinted themselves on her mind. She felt it happening, unable to do anything to stop it. It was like a precision laser etching icy lines in her brain. Oddly, it wasn’t an unpleasant experience. It was over in an instant. Afterward she felt no different although she suspected something might have permanently changed. She was sure she hadn’t imagined it.

  Ron asked, “Shouldn’t have done what?”

  “Tell you later, sweetie.” She recognized the girl on the floor still busily doing her damnedest for Jameson despite the presence of an audience. “Marcia,” she said, still holding the Rose and concentrating on its depths as she pictured Jameson doing, “get up now, collect your things and go hang out in the commons for a while. Forget that you were here at all this morning.” Whatever she just did, and apparently she had done something, made her brain itch. With her eyes on Jameson, busily trying to rearrange his clothes as Marcia stood up to do as just instructed, Lexi said, “Ron, if this bastard gets out of his chair, knock his teeth out for me, will you?”

  “Absolutely, sweetheart.” Ron replied, perhaps overly enthusiastically.

  She walked around the desk and glanced down at Jameson, saying, “Well, I guess that explains your ego.” She nodded her head and added, “Compensation.” Then she opened the upper-right drawer of his desk and removed the slightly worn, very intricately decorated case that he stored the Rose of Light in. It was oddly heavy for its size. She wondered if there was anything special about the case. Maybe it charged the Rose? But what charged the case? From indentations in the lining, she assumed the Rose had been kept in it for a long time.

  “You can’t take that,” Jameson protested, “it’s mine! I’ll have you arrested for theft.”

  Lexi inserted the Rose into the box and closed the lid. She dropped the ensemble into her otherwise practically empty leather backpack. “Well, Professor, it’s mine now. I am interested in its provenance, though. In other words, how you came to have it.”

  “I see no reason to tell you anything about it, Ms. Stevens. You’re finished here. I’ll see to that.”

  She smiled sweetly at him and said, “Ron, if he’s not going to talk to me, I don’t think he needs his teeth. Would you mind?”

  Damn, I like this woman, Ron thought as he moved closer to Jameson. This guy deserves at least a punch in the face.

  Jameson paled and said, “Wait, Shamu. It doesn’t matter. I bought it from a vendor in Istanbul. One of the ones in that big enclosed bazaar they run for tourists. It was mixed in with a collection of glass paperweights, but I could tell it was different from the rest. Even in lira, it was damn expensive. I bought a rug there too. They shipped that for me. But I could never tell you which shop; they all look alike. I’m not even sure I still have a receipt.”

  “This is your first year here. You move around a lot, don’t you, professor?” Ron asked.

  “Well, yes, I enjoy frequent changes of scenery,” Jameson replied.

  Or perhaps, before the number of unexplained pregnancies among your students catches up to you. Urania had done some internet research for her in the early hours of the morning. Lexi was not pleased in the least with what Urania found. She took a deep breath, deciding to follow through with her plan. There was no one else to deal with this bastard. She reached into her pocket and removed a small paper envelope. She opened it and dumped a single light-green pill onto his desk.

  “I need you to swallow that for me, Jameson. It will put you to sleep for six to eight hours. That will give us time to get out of town. We’re leaving the university. You won’t see us, or your Turkish paperweight, again. But hey, there’s some good news; you get to keep your rug and your teeth.”

  “It’s just a sleeping pill?” he asked, looking at it like it was about to swallow him.

  “If you don’t take it, Ron will give you a concussion. The consequences of that, for you, are more unpredictable but suit my purpose just as well.”

  Chapter 16

  Partnership Woes

  Jameson nodded reluctantly, picked up the pill and put it in his mouth, swallowing it with a swig of water from the bottle on his desk. Lexi and Ron stood on either side of him, waiting silently for two minutes until he abruptly fell forward, banging his head on the rounded edge of his heavy oak desk. Ron stepped in closer to him. Lifting Jameson by his hair, he held the professor’s nose and mouth closed. There was no struggle. The man was definitely out. After a moment Ron let go and watched expressionlessly as the man’s head banged into the edge of the desk a second time. “That’s going to bruise. You didn’t answer his question, kiddo. What did you really give him?” Ron asked.

  Her expression grim, Lexi said, “It’s something Urania and I whipped up. I understand this medical stuff now. I absorbed the medical suite this morning by the way. That’s why I know I can fix Geena’s pills.” She was not smiling. “It will make him sleep, like I told him. It is also going to make it impossible for him to remember anything that happened for about the last hour. He won’t know we were even here. He won’t remember Marcia was here. He won’t even remember how he lost the Rose. In that respect, it’s a roofie. It’s designed to break down, leaving no trace.”

  She paused, and her expression became hard. “I can’t let him go unpunished, Ron. I just can’t.” As she spoke, she removed an injector loaded with a milky white fluid from her pack, located a vein in Jameson’s neck and triggered the device. Ron watched without comment as she put it away.

  “He’s a serial rapist but there’s no way we could ever prove it,” Lexi continued. “I asked Urania to check. It seems likely he’s already impregnated three women since he’s been here. It’s worse than that at the last place he worked. None of his victims remember a thing. Even DNA tests of his offspring would only be circumstantial. The weapon he uses is an impossible alien artifact. So I’ve taken care of it. Marcia will be his last victim.”

  She shook her head, anger blazing in her eyes as she looked down at him. “The ser
um I just injected is going to modify his DNA slightly over the next several weeks. Once it’s done its job, for the rest of his life, whenever he even thinks about sex he is going to experience excruciating pain. Fall to the floor and curl up in a fetal position kind of pain.” She paused. “He is going to think about sex a lot; that injection is also going to amp up his sex drive enormously and permanently.”

  Ron thought about that, responding, “You took medical too? Um, Lexi, then why did you ask me about children? You should know it can’t work for us.”

  She smiled, despite the fact the Jameson was still face down on his desk, all trace of grimness gone. “Women my age always think about that when they’re contemplating a future with a guy they like, Ron. You’re a smart man. That’s one of the things I find really sexy about you. So, figure it out. Why did you ask about him moving around?”

  “There were indications that the Rose was in Indiana for a while, also in a college town. That time, Geena and I were both there playing the part of undergrads.” He looked down at Jameson, who was now snoring. “Apparently, he was there too. Stupid. We should have checked on adjunct professors moving between institutions. We checked for students and full-time instructors transferring from Indiana to here. There weren’t any.”

  His expression became momentarily grim as he said, “Lexi, you should have discussed your plan for dealing with him with Mom and me. That’s how teams work. Understand? We’re all responsible for what you did whether we knew about it or not. We should have known about this.” She looked into his eyes and nodded. He was right.

  “You don’t know Mom very well yet. You don’t even know me very well yet. Not really. I don’t think either Geena or I would have voted to stop you,” he added. “OK, what’s next?”

  “I do know how teams work,” Lexi said. “I was just so angry when I realized what he was doing I didn’t think it through. I’m sorry. I know I blindsided you. I’ll apologize to Geena when we get back. Ron, what I don’t know is the first thing about being an investigator, insurance or otherwise. You guys are going to have to train me on that.”

  “Not a problem. Mom trained me. She can train you. Who knows, I might even know a couple of things she’s forgotten.”

  Lexi smiled at him. “Thank you. Next stop is my house. There a few things I want to pick up; family things mostly, but also a couple of books, some clothing and a couple of exquisite wine glasses a fascinating man recently bought for me. There’s not a lot, most of what I own is in storage at Dad’s. Other stuff, like kitchen utensils, I can just leave with the girls. It’s Tuesday and still early enough that Liz and Jenny should both be there. I want to give them a power of attorney to dispose of my car, furniture and stuff. I need to have them take care of my credit card bills. I guess I’ll leave them a few blank checks. I also need to tell them that I’m running off with you so they don’t file a missing person report with the police. I’ll need you to stand around and look overwhelmingly sexy.” She ran her eyes up and down his body. “On second thought, just stand around. You always look overwhelmingly sexy.”

  They took care of her business at the apartment. She took a moment to compose a quick email to her father, letting him know that she was going traveling with her boyfriend and would be out of touch for a few years. She admitted he was a new boyfriend and apologized for not having an opportunity to introduce him, but that she felt really good about the relationship.

  Lexi felt guilty about not giving him the whole story. She had a close relationship with her father, but he would probably think she was insane if she told him she would be traveling with the new boyfriend on a starship, making it sound like she joined a cult. Maybe when she eventually came back she’d explain it all. He’ll probably think I’m insane for abandoning my degree anyway, but with the educator, getting my doctorate has become meaningless. I won’t be entering the Earth workforce either. Besides, there are levels as to how insane my choices would sound. Claiming to be star hopping almost certainly tops the list.

  There was a lot of hugging and well-wishing. Lexi stood by with an amused look on her face as her roommates took excessive care to thoroughly hug Ron goodbye at least three times each, even though they had never met the man before. He seemed to both enjoy the attention and be slightly bemused by it as well. He does do hugging well.

  As they headed back to the car, Lexi’s cell phone began to play the Star Wars theme, the ring tone she assigned to her newest friend. She listened in silence and then said, “Thanks, Urania. We’re on our way.”

  “Urania’s using cell phones now?” Ron asked, surprised.

  “Yes, and we have a problem,” she said, as they got in the car, her voice low enough that Liz, settling herself in the back, wouldn’t hear her. “The competition is at the barn, waiting for us. They snatched Geena.”

  Chapter 17

  Competition

  Yes, her decision was, it not totally stupid, at least poorly considered. Geena realized that as soon as she rushed out through Urania’s hatch, running around the side of the old barn to see what was responsible for the horrendous noise. It sounded like a large tree must have come crashing down somewhere nearby, taking out any number of other trees with it. It was so close and so loud she was worried the car might have been crushed. She could have used the ship’s sensors to check. They were quite capable of reading through the wooden wall of a barn. For that matter, in this bizarrely altered world where she owned, or rather was partnered with, a ship with a mind of her own, she could have just asked. Three simple words, “What was that?” was all it would have taken.

  When she took time to think about it later, it also occurred to her that Urania should have volunteered the information, or at least voiced a warning before Geena left the barn. She supposed her ship might still be adjusting to not being “just a ship.” Taking initiative might still be strange to her. In fact, despite her apparent sentience, it might not be a trait Urania would ever master.

  Geena was a bit distracted, she allowed herself that excuse, trying to decide whether she resented being sent after groceries, while her son and his unlikely girlfriend finished the job she devoted two years of her life to. It wasn’t a clearcut situation. She felt like she should be feeling some resentment, and probably did, but she also felt a weirdly satisfying sense of relief. Still barreling over the waterfall, it seemed. So she had that going on. The bottom line was in another couple of hours, they would have the Rose in their possession.

  She had groceries to put away. Some would go in storage, some in the cold room and some in the freezer. She really hadn’t bought that much. There was very little they could cook while in hyperspace where you really didn’t want grease spatter and crumbs flying around. Still, the oven contained grease from baked and roasted foods. Fruits and vegetables were almost totally fine if you were careful with them. They had some interesting ones on Earth. She loved peaches. Ron liked avocado. She had no idea what Lexi might like.

  The champagne Lexi specifically requested was still out in the car. It was a cheaper vintage and if she understood correctly, couldn’t really be called a champagne because it was Californian and not from some small area in France. Still, the clerk at the wine shop said it was a good one. He asked her what she was celebrating. She thought, Ah, we’ve finally located a fifty thousand year old object that enhance the mental powers of an alien race. What she said was, “We’re adding a third member to our partnership.”

  She told him what wines she liked and he pointed her to this brand. She figured she may as well collect it from the car while she checked on the noise. She only bought the one bottle, enough for a celebratory toast before they jumped to hyper. Carbonated beverages weren’t the best things to open in zero-gee, although she and Ron occasionally risked it with beer, but the champagne could be enjoyed while they were still in n-space. Zero-gee was always a pain in the butt. You just had to learn to cope or find a dirt-side job.

  If she went around the other side of the barn, she would have seen t
he Helgan ship before she was in sight of its crew. Of course, she wasn’t expecting a starship to be the cause of the disturbingly loud noise so she took the shorter path to the car. She knew the ship was Helgan, but only because the two roly-poly aliens approaching at a run were clearly recognizable as such. She also knew she was in trouble. If they challenged her to one of their Honor duels, she was worse than simply in trouble, she was dead. She knew that too. She worried about why they were here at all, especially now, but they were too close to really invest time pondering it.

  Geena knew she couldn’t outrun them. They didn’t look it but they were fast and relatively agile. She didn’t have a weapon of any sort. The guns in her small ship-board armory may as well have been on another planet. She would never get to them in time. The closest thing to a weapon she could put her hands on was the heavy glass bottle of champagne in the car. She almost reached it, too. She had the car door open and was reaching in for it when one of the men jumped onto the hood of the car, slid down on her side, and slammed the door on her wrist with a stout kick.

  Three decades ago, give or take, Geena had been a cop, trained for, if not exactly unarmed combat, at least unarmed self-defense. Those skills are long gone, rusted through by now. She did her best, ignoring the pain of a wrist that hurt so badly it was possibly broken, using her feet and the elbow and palm of her good hand to fight for her life. Against most human opponents, that might have been enough. She had the reach on these guys by a significant margin. The Helgan who faced her was just too damn fast. The pain she was already in didn’t help in the least.