Galactic Axia Adventure 1: Escape to Destiny

by Jim Laughter

  “Robert?” a voice said from behind them. “Is that you?”

  Delmar and Mr. Hassel spun around to find themselves face-to-face with a man of approximately Mr. Hassel’s age. The man had short gray hair and stood well over six feet tall. He carried a clipboard in his left hand while he reached for Robert with his right.

  “Kuba Trepp,” Mr. Hassel replied with a smile. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “Well, you found me,” the large man answered. “What brings you to Jasper Station? You’re not due to requalify your flight status for another couple of months. Where’s Agnes?”

  “She’s back home. Kuba, I want you to meet a friend and pupil of mine,” Mr. Hassel answered. “Delmar Eagleman, meet Kuba Trepp, a friend of mine from the good old days.”

  “Let’s just take it easy on the old part if you don’t mind,” Trepp said. “Please to meet you, young man,” he said, reaching for Delmar’s hand.

  “Yes sir,” Delmar answered, still a bit in awe of his surroundings.”

  “Delmar has lived his whole life on the farm,” Mr. Hassel said to Kuba. “We’re on a field trip, and I’m trying to enlighten him on the intricacies of the Axia.”

  “Then you couldn’t be in better hands,” Trepp said.

  “Actually,” Mr. Hassel said, “I was hoping you’d be willing to help.”

  “How’s that?”

  “We’re at the point of our lesson now where we discover that not all is peaceful and calm in the universe. And since you have such intimate knowledge of Red-tails, I wondered if you’d mind telling Delmar about them?”

  Delmar looked expectantly at the large trooper, who in turn looked the young man over from head to toe.

  “Sure,” he finally answered Robert. He reached over and placed a large hand on Delmar’s shoulder. “You listen real close, son. You understand?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “The Axia really only has one enemy, which comes from a neighboring galaxy,” Trooper Trepp began. “They’re called Red-tails. They are humanoid in appearance with thick, leathery red skin. They have vestigial horns growing from their foreheads, and have a long pointed tail. The depredations of this enemy are enormous. Until the Axia mounted effective defensive fleets, the Red-tails would attack entire solar systems with enormous fleets of ships that appear out of intergalactic transit tubes from their home galaxy of Hadeous. They destroy indiscriminately and thoroughly and herd humans and other warm-blooded mammals aboard large transport ships, abducting them for later consumption.”

  Delmar looked dubiously at Mr. Hassel then back at Trepp. He was sure the man was pulling his leg. “Aw, come on.”

  “It’s true,” Mr. Hassel said. The look in the old farmer’s eyes let Delmar know the subject they’d broached was serious indeed. He’d heard about the Red-tails, rumor and stories mostly but had never actually seen one. He’d heard they were terrible creatures but he’d always considered them to be stories his mother had told him to keep him quiet.

  “You bet your boots it’s true,” Trepp said. “And believe me, you don’t want to tangle with one. The Red-tails are fierce opponents in battle, and no quarter is given. Many attempts were made to deal reasonably with these invaders, but without exception the Axia negotiators were taken captive and eaten. Understandably, the Red-tails are both feared and loathed.”

  The three men walked through the large hanger until they came to a set of steel double doors. “You ready for this, son?” Kuba Trepp asked.

  “For what?” questioned Delmar.

  “To face our enemy,” the large man answered.

  “You mean you have a Red-tail here in this building?” the boy asked with a catch in his voice.

  Both Mr. Hassel and Kuba Trepp nodded. “Right here in this room.”

  Delmar swallowed hard, his throat had suddenly grown very dry. He wasn’t sure he wanted to see the thing they were describing. But he couldn’t chicken out either. What would Mr. Hassel and Trooper Trepp think of him if he showed how scared he was?

  “Ok,” he said. “I’m ready.”

  Trepp pulled one of the heavy doors open and Delmar looked inside the dark room. He heard what sounded like a growl come from the darkness. Mr. Hassel and Trepp stepped through the door. Trepp grabbed Delmar by the elbow and pulled him in as well and closed the door.

  Trepp turned loose of Delmar’s arm and he found himself alone in the dark room. The growl sounded again, this time very close to Delmar. He felt warm breath on his neck. A cold chill ran up his spine.

  “Mr. Hassel. Is that you?”

  Another growl spun the boy around on his heels and he tried to find his way back to the closed door, but couldn’t. Then something grabbed him from behind and spun him around. Delmar screamed and lashed out hard at the thing that had hold of him, connecting with his fist against the thing’s jaw. He felt the thing turn loose of him and he stumbled backward, falling hard on his backside on the floor. He scooted backward, desperately seeking any exit until he came to rest against a wall. He was trapped and the terrible creature was still loose in the room.

  “For cryin’ out loud!” someone said from the darkness. “That kid really whacked me good. Trepp, where are you?”

  All around him, men began to laugh. The lights came on and Delmar found himself facing over a dozen laughing men, Mr. Hassel and Mr. Trepp among them. Another man sat on the floor a dozen feet away. He held his jaw and looked stunned.

  “Trepp!” he yelled. “You’ve had it, buster! You never said nothin’ about this kid takin’ a swing at me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Delmar stammered. “I thought… I thought you were…”

  “Don’t sweat it, kid,” Trepp said, reaching down to give Delmar a lift up. “Old Junior here never could take a punch.”

  “Mr. Hassel?” Delmar asked, still stunned. “You were in on this?”

  “Yep. Set it up from home yesterday. Figured you’d like to meet some of the boys.”

  Trepp lifted Delmar to his feet and then clapped him on the back. “You did real good, kid. Robert said you were made of good stuff.”

  “He did?” Delmar asked, still visibly shaken. “I thought I was going to wet myself.”

  Everyone in the room broke out into loud laughter then surrounded the boy, each one shaking his hand and introducing himself. Every man was at least fifty years old, so Delmar assumed these were friends of Mr. Hassel’s from many years gone by.

  “Delmar,” Mr. Hassel finally said, “these are the boys from the old 653rd. My old unit. And these fellas have faced the enemy first-hand. Listen to what they have to say, just don’t take any wooden coins from any of ‘em.”

  The rest of the day went by without incident. From the 653rd, Delmar and Mr. Hassel visited a memorial museum on the base, and then they toured the spaceport. Mr. Hassel seemed to know everyone, and everyone seemed to know him. He was on first name basis with many people.

  The only disappointment Delmar had was that they weren’t able to go up in a spaceship. However, he understood this was a military installation not a recreational facility. But they did get to tour one of the large cruisers that was on station. Mr. Hassel knew the cargo master so they were able to go onboard for a brief visit. While onboard, Mr. Hassel showed Delmar how to operate the communications console, and explained to him how the subspace transmitters, emergency beacon, and the ship’s identity transponders worked.

  All too soon, it was time to catch the shuttle back to the flitter parking area. Delmar was fascinated by everything he’d seen and wanted to learn more.

  Before returning to the flitter, Mr. Hassel and Delmar stopped at the flight line café for lunch. “Did you enjoy yourself today, son?” the old farmer asked.

  “Sure did,” Delmar answered around a mouthful of hamburger. “All except for that Red-tail trick you played on me. I thought I was a goner for sure.”

  Mr. Hassel laughed aloud. “You should’a seen the expression on your face when the lights came back on!” he sai
d, tears welling up in his eyes. His laughter caused Delmar to start laughing, then before long both he and Robert Hassel were enjoying each other’s company more like father and son than teacher and pupil.

  The flitter ride back gave Robert a chance to test his theory. “So what do you think of troopers now?”

  “They just seem like regular guys.”

  “Not the blindly-loyal boot heel of the empress, eh?” Robert jibed. Delmar blinked and looked at the older man. Robert thought he saw the beginning of comprehension on the boy’s face.

  “No, not really,” Delmar finally admitted. “And I was surprised to find out that not only you but your wife was a trooper too.”

  “Not were,” Robert corrected. “Although retired, we’re still troopers at heart and spirit. Once you join the Troopers, you’re a member of a life-long brotherhood. You never lose your rank or status, even if you retire or resign from the service. You saw that most of the men in the 653rd were well past active service age but they still serve in a reserve status on local missions to nearby planets and systems.”

  “And Mrs. Hassel? Is she a reservist trooper too?”

  “Agnes is a Lady of the Fleet. She was a flight officer on one of the big cruisers and is qualified in every way to pilot almost any ship in the fleet. She actually piloted a ship with the Empress aboard once, but that was long ago, and was the mother of our current empress.”

  “So you’re still loyal to the empress?” Delmar asked.

  “Not so much to the person as to the ideal,” Robert explained. “We are part of a three way trust between whoever occupies the throne and the citizens of the Axia.”

  “But I was taught that the Axia is spreading tyranny,” Delmar admitted. “That’s why Erdinata is independent.”

  “And who told you this?”

  “As far back as I can remember, it was part of school,” Delmar answered. “That’s why I didn’t care for the subject. Too much bloodshed and oppression.”

  “And those troopers you met today, did they oppress you?”

  “No,” Delmar admitted. “But they sure know how to play a practical joke!” he added with a grin.

  Robert smiled but didn’t answer. After a short silence, Delmar spoke up again.

  “So who runs the Axia anyway? If it’s a trust like you say.”

  “The empress or emperor, whichever the case may be, is ruler by bloodline,” Robert explained. “Assisting her is the Council of Nine. They act as advisors and can temporarily rule in case the ruler is incapacitated. Beyond that are the usual government agencies and the service, which is made up of troopers and Ladies of the Fleet.”

  “But if the troopers are so loyal, what keeps the empress from using them to subjugate other planets like ours?”

  “Like I said, the troopers are loyal to the ideal of the throne. But more accurately, they’re loyal to the trust that throne represents. It’s a system that counterbalances the different powers in the Axia. If a ruler gets out of line, the troopers can speak back. It’s foundational in our constitution. Above all this are the citizens of the Axia. This is a commonwealth of choice, not conquest.”

  “And the troopers are like the glue helping bind it together?” Delmar asked.

  “Exactly!” Robert exclaimed. “The Axia is so big and has such a long history to guide it that it would be difficult in the extreme for any one person, even the empress, to try to change it into something other than what it is. If you please, what we have here is the result of social evolution over the thousands of years the Axia has existed.”

  The flitter grew quiet again while Delmar pondered these things. “Can we study more about it?” Delmar asked after a long silence.

  “Sure we can.”

  “Good, because I want to be sure of this for myself,” Delmar stated.

  Inwardly, Robert smiled. The door is open, he thought as he swung the flitter around to land at Keeler field. He was looking forward to telling Agnes about the breakthrough. This is a banner day in more ways than one! Robert thought happily.

  Chapter Four

  Only a year later, the courses in the mail were completed and the graduation examination scheduled. Delmar reported for work early that day, and as soon as he arrived, Mr. and Mrs. Hassel drove him to town in their ground car. Dropping him off at the examination site, they went to do some ‘shopping and such’. Delmar reported for his exam and was assigned to one of the computers reserved for the process.

  While he sweated through the various subjects the computer drilled him on, Delmar wondered who programmed the demented machine. Several times, he noticed spelling and grammatical errors in the questions and became disgusted at the obvious sloppiness of the “expert” who had written this.

  Delmar handed in his scoring cartridge to the test monitor after only three hours. Inserting the cartridge into the scoring machine, the man looked crossly at the boy. His elapsed time to complete the test was definitely below average and the test monitor was sure Delmar had failed.

  A minute later, the machine produced Delmar’s graduation certificate. At the same time, it filed the actual score (which the students never get to see) with the central computer at the Education Department in the capital. Frowning, the man handed Delmar his certificate and the boy joyously left the building.

  ∞∞∞

  While Delmar was taking his test, the Hassels were again checking on the legal status of the boy. They’d waited for two hours, first in this office, next in that one, each time waiting while some bureaucrat consulted with yet another supervisor. Mr. Hassel’s patience was wearing thin when they were finally ushered into the office of Prudence Hornbeck, the regional director of the social agency. Her assistant supervisor closed the door and the Hassels were left standing while a narrow-faced, hawkish woman continued to talk on the phone.

  While he surveyed her desk, Mr. Hassel mused that it looked overly neat and little used. He as certain very little productive work ever got done there. It was then that he noticed the indicators on the phone the director was using were not even lit. Recognizing the game, Mr. Hassel decided they could gain more by going along with the sham.

  Motioning his wife to follow his lead, and without waiting for the director to tell them to, Mr. Hassel sat down. Hornbeck frowned at them and then continued with her bogus call.

  The standoff went on for several minutes, during which time he thought the woman should receive an acting award for her ability to fake a supposed two-way conversation. Pasting smiles on their faces, the Hassels continued in their efforts to outwait the director.

  Frowning at them again, she finally concluded the call and turned her attention to the couple. “What may I do for you?” Ms. Hornbeck said with poised sweetness. Feigning the forgetfulness of old age, Mr. Hassel acted startled at her question.

  Assuming he was both hard of hearing and probably a little senile, the director repeated her question, this time enunciating the words louder with exaggerated lip motions. “I said, may I help you?”

  “You don’t have to holler,” answered Mr. Hassel. “We’re not deaf. We’re here to inquire about Delmar Eagleman.”

  At the mention of Delmar’s name, Hornbeck’s expression clouded and she spoke quietly into the intercom. After a minute, the secretary of her assistant supervisor brought in a file and placed it on her desk. She perched her glasses on the end of her nose and opened the file. Peering down through her bifocals gave her the appearance of looking at something distasteful on her desk. After a minute, she closed the file and looked up.

  “I see you’ve inquired before, Mr. Hassel,” she said tartly. “You know what the court said. What brings you here today?”

  “I was wondering if there has been any change in your agency’s determination about the boy,” Mr. Hassel replied.

  “We thoroughly investigated your accusations against his older brother and found the situation didn’t merit change. According to our evaluation, he is an exemplary citizen and doing an excellent job of caring for hi
s younger brother,” she replied gruffly.

  Mr. Hassel didn’t care to be called a liar but held his temper in check. “Are you sure?” he asked evenly.

  “I most certainly am!” Prudence Hornbeck answered hotly. “I have the report from the investigator right here in the file!” She flipped the file open and stabbed a page with a bony index finger.

  The tension in the room was broken when the assistant to the director came into the office. After a hurried conference, she and the director left the room.

  Mr. Hassel slid forward in his seat and scanned the report, reading it upside down. He noticed the investigation had been made by telephone with the investigator asking Delmar’s older brother if anything was wrong. The response recorded was negative, followed by a comment from the investigator about nosey busybody neighbors. Mr. Hassel also noted that the report was dated over two months after he had filed the complaint. He slid back in his seat just as Hornbeck returned to the room.

  “You’re still here?” she asked. It was obvious she wanted them to leave.

  “We were just leaving,” answered Mr. Hassel. He and his wife stood. “Thank you for your time,” he added as they moved toward the door.

  “The matter is closed, Mr. Hassel,” Hornbeck said curtly as the couple slid by. “Further interference by you will have serious repercussions!”

  “I’m sure they will!” Mr. Hassel said, casting an angry glare at the director. He and Mrs. Hassel exited the building.

  As soon as they were again in their ground car, Mrs. Hassel spoke her mind. “Of all the self-righteous, pompous, self-serving pinheads I’ve ever met!” she spat out. “What are you going to do about the way she treated us, Robert?”

  “Exactly what I should have done long ago.”

  He pressed the starter switch on the vehicle and drove in silence to the post office. Once there, he asked the clerk for a special delivery Imperial packet. After paying for the packet and a tablet of paper, he returned to the car. He took his pen and wrote several pages of notes about the situation and the treatment they received from the social agency.