Having returned Alenna was still up, she looked a little sheepish as she said to me, “Err Jake, did you have a pleasant day with Perri’s family?” She did not seem at all relaxed, something was bothering her.
“Yes but what’s up Alenna, you look like the cat that had stolen the cream, is there something bothering you?’’ I replied.
Alenna had tears form in her eyes. At once I was concerned and said to her, “Is everyone ok? You are distressed about something, tell me what is wrong?”
Alenna took a deep breath and said, “Yes everyone is fine, but… I… Oh Jake, I offered the House of Tartan the credits as compensation from Earth but they would not accept it without conditions. The conditions were that they would take half but only if…” Alenna now hesitated before gritting her teeth and saying, “Only if… You Jake would accept River as a new wife, then it would then be acceptable to accept the credits as compensation for the time they spent captivity, also as we would now all become family.”
Quickly I said, “Fine, we will keep the credits I can think of many ways to spend them.”
I was about to walk away when Alenna said, “Go into the sunroom Jake I will join you in a few moment where I will discuss the matter further with you, I just need to help Perri put Isabell and Honey to bed first.”
“Ok,” I said, before walking into the sunroom, only it was night so the sun wasn’t shining in.
I entered leaving the lights off and walked up to the window. The moon was bright in the night sky. I have often tried to make out the dome that the House of Zinda’s reside in with the naked eye, but have never been able to from the distance of Alkarr. It appears as a tiny dot on the face of the moon through a telescope, although its size is almost two miles in diameter. Suddenly I was startled by a voice behind me, “Hello Jake my dear husband.” I turned round as a pair of lips were thrust to mine. I could not pull back right away due to the girl’s arms pulling me tight against her.
I eventually manged to pull back and by the moon light I could make out the face of… River. At once I sputtered out, “River!!!” Before saying, “Alenna!!!” I quickly switched on the light.
To say I was not pleased did not explain how I felt, which was that anger was welling up inside me. I believed I had been betrayed. I was starting to get very angry and felt like screaming out at Alenna. At the same time I was thinking how I could punish Alenna in some way, when River said to me, “Aren’t you glad to see me Jake? I thought you loved me and had missed me, I have missed you so much.”
I knew she liked me, but I had no idea she had fallen for me in that way and actually loved me. River now had tears in her eyes, I just hate girls being upset, especially if the reason was down to me. As now I could do absolutely nothing about what had happened I just said to her, “Of course I love you, putting both my arms around her.” I did not blame River in anyway, my thoughts were towards Alenna who I had put the full blame on for this situation.
I decided not to hold a conversation with Alenna when she came to the sunroom. When she did I only gave her a distasteful look before saying to her, “I will have a word with you tomorrow about this and not until then.” I stormed out of the room holding River’s hand and dragging her with me. I was going to leave Alenna alone to stew in her boots and let her chew over in her head all night of what I might say to her in the morning.
By the morning I had calmed down and would talk with Alenna later on subject of extra wives. I spent most of the morning alone in my man cave. I had been reading up on what to expect at a trade fair. I wondered if any of those in the trade delegation could point me toward a dealer in armaments, I would casually ask them at some time during our trip to Earth. Lara had come back to our residence from the city with details of when the trade delegation would arrive at the port. I asked Perri, Luka and now River to accompany me to the port as I needed to unlock the five cabins ready for our guests. They were clean as they had not been used, but Luka insisted they should have a wipe over and a check that everything was satisfactory.
While checking one of the cabins Perri suddenly said, “I just noticed that there is something missing in here. There isn’t a fake window. Do you think they forgot to install it?’’
I quickly replied, “No, don’t concern yourself. Two cabins don’t have the fake windows.’’ I wanted to change the subject because I had taken them for my man cave.
Perri would not yet let it go and continued with, “I am glad this is not our room. Why do you think they did not equip all the cabins with fake windows Jake?’’
“Let it go Perri,” I said, “I know why there is not a fake window in here, I took it out for a reason, so forget it.’’
“Why did you take them out Jake?” now asked Perri.
A little annoyed I replied, “Perri don’t go on about it, I took them out to use in my man cave so no more on the subject, please!’’
Perri snootily replied, “Why didn’t you say so in the first place instead of beating about the bush with your answer?”
I did not reply to her but instead took River by the hand and led her to the hologram room where I demonstrated its operation to her. River’s family had the same cargo ship as our old ship and like everybody I have shown the wonders of new hologram room to, River adored it as much as them and could not wait to spend some time in it. There was plenty of time during our voyage to Earth to show her around the wonders of the new cargo freighter, so I skipped that tour for now instead we all returned to the residence. Time to have that talk with Alenna.
I led Alenna to my man cave at the residence and invited her in. I am not Alkarren so unlike male Alkarrens who would never let a female enter, I really did not mind too much if a female came into the cave, but only when I invited them to do so.
After showing her a seat it was time for me to lay down some new rules to her saying, “Alenna I want you to promise that you will not do any business or enter into any alliances that would facilitate any more wives. Can you promise that and keep that promise?’’
Now I did not expect Alenna to answer so positively but her immediately answer was, “Jake I promise you, I will not bring any more wives into our family, if that is what you want.”
“Err, I thought you would not agree to that Alenna,” I said.
“ No I understand how you feel about the subject and I am sorry you had to accept River but it won’t need to ever happen again, I can assure you,’’ replied Alenna.
I now said to her, “I believe you. Thanks for agreeing to no more wives’.”
Her final words on the subject were, “Just don’t forget I can’t guarantee that you won’t be hijacked at any time in the future so don’t go anywhere on Alkarr without a chaperon and also when we have unmarried guests on our ship.’’
“Fine,’’ I said to Alenna, “that make good sense, I will insist that you or one of the other wives accompany me during those times.” I thought now that I had learnt my lesson after I stumbled into Emily and would no longer venture anywhere alone where there was any possibility of meeting an unmarried Alkarren.
I now officially had ten wives but unofficially it as nine plus an extra sister. Adding Yarkeli, my real sister Rachael and of course myself that was a total of thirteen adults but as Lara stayed on Alkarr, we now have a complement of twelve to run our new galaxy class freighter, great.
It was the day that the trade delegation was due to arrive. Alenna had assigned cabins as follows; one for the two Dregg, one for the three Lusianians and the Alkarrens were to share the three remaining cabins between themselves. They started arriving by midmorning bringing with them crates of goods for show and demonstration. These were left for Perri, River and me to stow on board. By late afternoon the last group to arrive were the Dregg. The thing about the Dregg i
s that they smell, not a terrible smell, more of a musky mothball smell. Minty had gone around our ship and had left air fresheners behind her wherever she went. This surprisingly masked the smell very well. I was a little concerned with the displaying of all those goods on Earth. On Alkarr they could leave them unattended and they would not get stolen, but Earth that is another thing. I would need to stress how important it is for them all to keep a watch on what they had on display. I foresaw if anything got stolen not only would it really upset them, especially the Alkarrens but would not bide well for Earth’s reputation. We set off for our journey to Earth as soon as everyone had settled into a seat on the bridge. Not so strange was that there were spare seats either side of the Dregg as nobody seemed to want to sit next to them on the bridge, I hope they did not realise and feel at all offended. They did seem at ease, so perhaps they weren’t. I had my permanent chaperons assigned to me throughout the trip. It did change as to who was doing the chaperoning at any given time. Our guests had all retired for the night quite early and as such were early up the next day. First thing to happen was that Alenna had gathered all of our guests in the large entertainment room. This gave me a chance to have a word with everyone. As soon as Alenna had finished discussing about where they could and could not go on the ship I grabbed the opportunity before they left the room to speak with them all. I stood up and asked for their attention, Alenna was surprised but let me continue. First I asked Jenner to translate to the Dregg and Yarkeli to the Lusianians I was ready to make my speech in Alkarren.
I started, “Earth is not like any of the other planets in the alliance that you visit. I must stress how important it is to keep an eye on your goods at all times. I don’t want to admit this to you, but many humans are opportunists when it comes to stealing. Please don’t think all humans steal because they don’t and don’t think I or my sister do as we know right from wrong and would not shame our house. If you have any way to track your items that you have on display, please make sure they can be, just in case. We have hired a security company which might deter some from attempting to steal but you must still be on your guard and report it to me if it happens to you. Thank you.’’
I had said my bit and left with Emily and Luka to make our way to the galley for first meal of the day. We were soon followed by all those on board. Yarkeli loved having other Lusianians on board and they soon felt at ease in our company. Jenna was trying her best with the Dregg but they were really keeping to themselves somewhat, perhaps not a bad thing. I thought they were discussing something funny at the time as every now and again one or the other laughed about something. What they were actually talking about was a mystery as they conversed in Dregg. We finally arrived at Earth and landed at the new cargo port. A customs party soon arrived at our ship. The authorities had come up with a way to register those that came and went from the port. It took a little while for everyone to be processed. We were each photographed, had our hand scanned which produced our fingerprint record. This along with our name and species was put on an identity card and we had to show our card whenever we entered or left the port. No one was subject to a search, which made me conclude they just wanted to know who was here and who had left. I had contacted the new owners of the transport shuttles and they were expected to collect them over the next three days. I would not be offering any flying lessons this time. It will be up to the purchaser. I had everything labelled in English and had left full instructions. It should not be that hard for anyone with helicopter flying experience to fly one; after all they don’t go into space. We had a day spare so I made the most of it by unloading all transport shuttles. We have at our disposal one of four large warehouses to keep them hidden in until collected. We had now hired a large van for the next morning to take the goods to the venue and a coach to take the trade delegation and nine of the adults plus the three eldest daughters from my family. Only Minty, Emily and Sabrina were to stay behind on the ship to look after all the other children.
During a meal in the galley I casually asked the Alkarren party, “Oh by the way do you know of any arms dealers?”
The Alkarren in charge of the party Kadi gave me an odd look before saying bluntly, “No! We don’t know of anyone. We have never been asked before about arms and we would definitely leave that subject to the military.’’
I also asked the Lusianians and had a very similar reply. Only the Dregg left. I waved over Jenna and asked her to translate for me. The same question was asked of them, “Do you know of any arms dealers?’’
One of the Dregg called Nindy begged us closer and whispered, “I have a cousin. She is regarded by the family as a bit wayward, but I do get on well with her. She is a bit of a rebel in that she dabbles in arms and used military space craft of all sorts. Her name is Zitter Bobeck and she trades with frontier worlds. I will warn you now, Zitter will be very suspicious of any stranger until she gets to know them, but if I give you her contact number and you should mention my name, she may be then more open to you if you do.’’
“Thanks for that Nindy,’’ I replied.
I now had my first lead in requiring more weapons for Earth I was not sure when I would get a chance to contact her as we still had not resumed our usual delivery schedule. Perhaps I could find out later from Alenna if there was any possibility of going to the Dregg home world in the near future. I had a call from the Prime Minister. All the governments which I wished to sell the plasma cannon to were more than willing to acquire them, so that was another deal to conclude. I was now fast becoming an arms trader as well as a transporter of goods, though I did not wished to be popularly known for the former.
The day of the trade fair was very hectic. The Alkarrens were not used to males doing business and the unmarried females had to be chaperoned probably for the first time in their life. They had never experienced being subject to this type of restriction before. It would be a disaster if one became separated so it was ingrained into them how important it is to stick close to their assigned married Alkarren chaperon. I thought Rachael was going to be the one who just kept an eye open on things and was to be prepared to intervene when and if necessary, but I later turned out to be quite wrong. Rachael by the way is the only one who could be left alone with a human male and then not considered married to them. Strange that, because it does not work the other way round. Look at what was expected of me. Alenna would not explain why, other than by saying she was not Alkarren, well neither am I. Very strange, but what if she was left alone with an Alkarren male or I was left alone with a human female? I was left to ponder that one. The first day was an experience for everyone. Jenna translated for the Dregg, Yarkeli and I for Lusianians and six wives along with my three oldest daughters for the Alkarrens. A lot of business was done that day. One Alkarren reported she had orders for fifty thousand pid’s and another had orders for education units. Fusion reactors and anti-gravity lifts were among a number of other goods that had received many orders. Several transport shuttles were collected that evening on low loaders. I assisted by hovering them on to the transport. They were not much bigger than a coach so this was probably the best way to transport them if you did not wish to try flying one that is, it was up to the purchaser to do the offloading at their destination. The trade fair went without any major problems the next day and again that evening three more transport shuttles were collected by their purchaser. The last day of the fair went well until one of the Alkarrens named Jacey came up to me in tears, somehow someone had walked off with a pid. Up to now we had only encountered problems with the odd human male thinking they could chat up one of the Alkarrens. River turned out to the best at rebutting their affections and she also intervened if another Alkarren was being pestered in any way. She had acquired some colourful language from her time in captivity and knew how to use it to her best advantage. Now to get that pid back. All I had to do to locate the pid was to ping it. This way we could track it whereabouts. We first info
rmed the police of the theft. Though the police were a little hesitant at first, due to diplomacy they agreed to provide a patrol car with two officers and to take Rachael with them. She had her pid on track mode and could tell the driver which way to go as she could pinpoint exactly were it was located. By this time the thief had assumed wrongly that he had made a clean break with the pid. It was tracked to a bus which the police then stopped. Rachael got on the bus in front of an officer, and they proceeded up the centre gangway together and quickly located the individual concerned. The police officer then arrested the passenger on suspicion of theft before recovering the pid from him. Rachael was satisfied with the outcome. She was left to return to our cargo freighter, where she was delighted to be able to present the recovered pid to Jacey. The final transport shuttles had been collected and the trade delegation having being satisfied with the business they had concluded, it was time to return to Alkarr.
Chronicles of Jake 2: The Invasion Begins Page 14
