I then gave some indication of price having looked up what the current price gold was trading for on Earth. If I sold ten of these frigates to Earth we would earn enough profit for one of those new galaxy class freighters. There were twenty, wow, though I had no intention of splitting my family between two ships the whole point was keeping everyone together. They wanted all the ships if available. I now also said, ‘‘It would be a good time to try and see if you would all agree that planetary defence should be under one command as it would be Earth’s first step towards the goals of the Alliance.’’
The US president said, ‘‘That may be difficult to accomplish.’’
I said, ‘‘Come on I am sure that you all could come up with a system that you all had a say in.’’ As I did not want one nation buying the lot I said, ‘‘Also please note I will not sell all the frigates to one nation, but I do expect the larger nations to purchase more than the smaller ones here today. As for training I will see that you get some training to fly these ships but that’s all I can say for now, so if you are prepared to pay the price as stated and earth is allowed to purchase these then I will arrange purchase and transport to earth of these frigates.’’
As the meeting ended I asked the prime minister if I could speak with him privately on another matter; it was only to say to him that he may wish to make a permanent landing port for incoming ships for bringing and exporting goods to and from Earth. This would put Britain in a good position to be the first in establishing such a port. I thanked him for his kindness during our stay and said I hoped we could meet again in the near future.
In the limo on our return journey Lara wanted to know what we had discussed at the meeting. I replied that if she wished to know then she would have to be with Alenna when I get the chance to speak to her later. In fact all of the wives should be present as it would concern them as well. We went straight to the galley on our return. Our guests were there. When they first met me I could see they only had contempt and distrust for me. Something had happened with regards to River in particular. Every time now when I was in the same room as her she gave me that look, no not a look of say hate or distrust, or irrelevance, quite the opposite and she smiled continually at me, a little like Lumi did. I tried not to smile back but it would have been rude of me not to; I definitely would have to watch my back with that one over the next week during our return to Alkarr.
I wanted to get this meeting over with Alenna as soon as possible so I said to her that I would like to have a talk with her and the other wives on a matter that could benefit our future. She was intrigued, so after we had finished eating we all went to the bridge leaving Rachael, Yarkeli and our guests to care for the children. I was going to have to be a bit tricky how I handled and informed her about the meeting. So, after she said, ‘‘Well what’s so important then?’’
I started by saying, ‘‘Do you want our family to have one of those galaxy class cargo freighters?’’
She replied, ‘‘That would be nice but we can in no way ever afford one of them. In time we may be possible to have a second ship like this one.’’
I said, ‘‘What, you would want to split the family up between two ships as your parents’ house have done between three ships?’’
I was adamant, ‘‘No thank you I want us all to stay together.’’
Being a little tricky I asked the other wives, ‘‘Do you all want another ship like ours or the larger galaxy freighter so we could all stay together?’’ As expected they all preferred the larger ship. Well I went straight to the point and said, ‘‘You know we discussed those old planetary defence frigates. Well I can confirm earth are very interested in them.’’ Continuing with what was said during the meeting finally telling them how much we could earn from the transaction.
When I finished speaking, all eyes were on Alenna. She just stared ahead in silence while in thought, then she opened her mouth as she was about to say something before closing it again. She was still working something over in her head, when finally, she spoke up saying, ‘‘It all sounds very good. However, the only way I could come to terms with the amount of profit this transaction would procure’ was to give half away to our guests’ house as a compensation from Earth for their time spent in captivity.’’ She then asked, ‘‘If you would all accept this idea then I could see no reason why we should not take this opportunity if all went well.’’
All the wives were excited over the prospect of our house owning one of these cargo ships. They knew that the facilities on board for our entertainment during trips were fantastic. I only really wanted enough for one ship so Alenna pledging to give away the other half was a sacrifice that had to be made and not that much of a problem. Unfortunately I had not considered some important aspects, which may have a future consequence later. The family got busy in preparation for the imminent arrival of Erika and her daughter Sonja. Their cabin was cleaned until it was spotless. My three older girls and Pooky formed a delegation to have a word with Alenna as they wanted Sonja to share with them as she was just a year older than they were. This was even though they had not met her yet. Alenna explained she could not say yes. It would have to approved by her mother and also explained that they should meet her first and get to know her a little.
We had retired to the entertainment room and again River was continually smiling at me, which had not gone unnoticed by some of my wives, who were laughing and giggling watching her, while I tried to avoid looking her way. On Earth a girl would probably be jealous if another girl was doing that to her husband; not so to Alkarrens. It’s a form of flattery in that she is making a statement that you all are lucky to have a great husband. It wasn’t long before some of the wives had River join them. They were now all giggling together at my expense. I pretended to take no notice of them. Luckily I had a distraction in that I had Misty next to me with a book on piloting. I was teaching her some flight rules she needed to learn. I was a little worried that Lumi, Perri and Luka were let's say, getting on far too well with River and giving her too much information on me. This could have resulted in her ending up trying to become a wife. I wished they were more reserved with her. Anyway we had a call that the ambassador was arriving in five minutes. Alenna virtually ordering Lumi and Perri to stay with me while the other wives went to greet her, they did not require my services to even to carry her luggage. I had been side-lined. Alenna and Lara had now taken command and would now organise everything without a man interfering, which was probably best as I would only get under their feet.
It was some time later before Erika and Sonja were brought into the entertainment room and introduced to the rest of us. They had to converse in English which the ambassador spoke fluently. Her daughter could just get by. My daughters and Pooky soon had taken Sonja under their wing and were getting on well with her. Alenna said that it was best if Erika spent the time on her trip learning some Zeln and Jenna would be her tutor which in conjunction with an education unit should see her with some basic phrases by the end of our trip. Sonja on the other hand would be expected to learn some Alkarren. However, she would have a lot of willing assistants in her efforts though. It was way past bedtime for even the older children and my elder daughters and Pooky in the short time they had met Sonja had persuaded her to ask her mother if she could have the spare bunk in their room and she had agreed. At least she would not be lonely, especially going to a strange new world.
The next morning had arrived and this was when we would say goodbye Earth. All we were waiting for now was some diplomatic luggage for Erika. When this arrived there were boxes and boxes, it looked like she had been sent a box from each nation. Anyway, the children assisted Erika in taking them to her cabin. It was a good job Sonja was sharing a cabin with my older daughters as all the bunks in hers were piled high with these boxes. By now the crowds had taken every inch of space to bid us farewell and as the time nea
red I allowed the children to go to the bridge along with Rachael as supervisor to spend some time just waving at the crowds.
Finally it was time for all on board to take their seats on the bridge. I had Misty in the co-pilots seat. I usually allowed one of the other older daughters to sit there and Lumi did the same when she was piloting. It was first time for Misty and the other girls were now going to have to get used to another sister taking turns. After everyone had strapped in I spun up the anti-gravity pods, before turning round to check every one was seated. They had their glare fixed on me, which could be off putting at times. Our guests had not witnessed a man fly a cargo ship and their faces showed that in no way were they relaxed about it. Anyway, with the crowds waving franticly, I slowly lifted the ship off the ground, up and up before retracting the undercarriage struts and moving forwards and upwards. Soon the people below watching us depart could not be made out any longer. At that point I let Misty take control of the ship. All she had to do was with her left hand which controls pitch and yaw of the ship was to keep the ship’s nose up thirty degrees and not let it bank left or right at the same time with her right hand which controls direction follow the path on the screen to orbit. I operated all other necessary controls; however, she did well for a first attempt. I only had to nudge it on course a couple of times. The ship was quite capable of flying to orbit by the computer, but where was the fun in that. No sooner had we made orbit then everyone started leaving the bridge.
Very soon Jenna, Misty and I were the only ones left behind. All I had to wait for now was for Jenna to plot a course and for myself to engage the star drive. While I waited I pondered about our rescued Alkarrens and what sort of reception they would receive from their family. The ambassador with her daughter and how daunting a new world will be to them, my family and how in only three years’ time my oldest girls would be at marrying age, the possibility of that new cargo freighter which I was determined to get.
Finally, there was a war coming. Wars are disastrous and destructive let alone scary and, worst of all, people get killed. At that moment Jenna said, ‘‘Now.’’ I then engaged the star drive and we were on our way back to Alkarr. So, what does the future hold? Well, that’s a story for another time.
About the Author
I was brought up in the county of East Sussex in the UK. Although I had left school with almost no qualifications I still managed to find employment in consumer electronics where I served an apprenticeship in electronic servicing. As to my interest in sci-fi, I have always liked reading and watching films which involved imaginary aliens from other worlds. As for writing a novel, I would have never contemplated myself actually doing so if it was not for something that happened. You see I had a dream that I had not forgotten. As it kept going over it in my mind, I decided to put pen to paper and then I expanded on that dream and this novel is the result. If you enjoyed reading this novel and have any questions you wish to ask you can contact myself or if you wish you can address it to any of Jake’s family at [email protected] where subject to constants it will be answered but please keep it clean.
Acknowledgement
Cover illustrator Paul Beeley (Create Imaginations)
Dear reader
May I take this opportunity to thank you for taking the time to read my novel, I do hope you enjoyed it. If you did I would very much appreciate it if you could spare a few moments to consider leaving a rating and review of a line or two on Amazon. This would I hope encourage others to read the novel along with encouraging myself to write the second part of the story.
Many thanks
Peter
Chronicles of Jake 1: My Return to Planet Earth Page 18
