by Max Jager
"Costumes is more like it," he thought. Naturally, everything Holliqua liked made him look silly, alien fashions just didn't do a thing for him. Finally, he settled on a blue shirt and dark grey slacks that were as close to earth cloths as he could find.
His suspicions were rekindled when Holliqua skipped the measuring and went right into clothing selection choosing a shimmering dress that showed off her cleavage and a whole lot more. She also chose ankle high boots that also sparkled and shimmered. As he studied her choice of clothing, he noticed that it really played against her silver/platinum hair. When it came time to pay, the clerk replied,
"It's already covered."
The room contained most of the same amenities usually found in very expensive hotels on earth, large oval bed, a bar, large video screen and another circular chamber, that when he asked about Holliqua merely winked at him,
"That's for later."
They then dined at a restaurant Matt guessed was an expensive one judging from the clothes people were wearing, confirmed when he checked his credit balance later. Bothe he and Holliqua dined on pippa riku, a turkey-like bird that he thought tasted like chicken. Along with that came ronol that tasted something like asparagus but looked like rhubarb. There was kidyne salad, and of course, yama bread and grimin fruit pie for desert.
The dance club was loud and high energy. Since he was the only human here naturally, he caused a stir over the course of the evening with over a dozen people asking about him and where he was from. He also noted that the dancing was pretty much like that on earth, no formalized steps just a lot of improvising and jumping around. Still, Holliqua was happy and right now, that was all that mattered. When he wasn't fielding questions about who he was, his mind was on whether he had done the right thing by inviting those people to come live on Endor.
Back in their room, it was now time to find out what the circular chamber was for.
He watched as Holliqua punched buttons and fooled around on a small touch screen mounted on the chamber before announcing,
"Take your clothes off; we can't do this right with our clothes on." He just grinned and did as ordered, then both of them entered the chamber completely naked.
The next thing he knew, they were both standing on a completely deserted beach.
"Isn't this beautiful?" She asked
"Yeah," he replied, "What is this some sort of virtual reality simulator?"
"Oh Matt, don't spoil it, let's just enjoy our time together." Smiling, he replied,
"Sure, why not?"
Always curious about alien technology he kept inspecting the sand, the emerald colored water. The beach was lined with mushroom trees and paigae palms with areas of soft bedda grass. The temperature was absolutely perfect as was the water. As they swam and played, Matt kept comparing the quality of this simulation with that of the flight simulator he tested on, continually amazed at the technology he was experiencing.
The swim aroused both of them as they sought the soft bedda grass and made love. Just before he drifted off, Matt thought,
"Boy, a guy could sure make a fortune off something like this back on earth."
When he awoke, it was dark out with Holliqua exclaiming,
"Times almost up, we've got to go." He then followed her to a small structure that was actually the portal to the simulation chamber, and once they entered it, they were back in their room. Holliqua checked the time, shaking her head,
"Better hurry it's almost check-out time."
Chapter 160
Titan Stand Chapter 160
On their way back to Endor Matt decided to do a little probing,
"I take it you stay at that hotel a lot; everyone seems to know your name?"
She looked at him for a moment replying,
"I've stayed there, but then so do others from Moriedia…we have an open account." The way she said it hinted to him to shut up, obviously it was a part of her life they had agreed not to talk about. Changing subjects, he then commented about the simulator in their room.
"You know, a guy could really make a fortune back home selling those simulators. The one I took my pilot's test on was just like the beach one, only it was the bridge of a transport."
"Do you have ten million credits to purchase a license?" Asked Holliqua, "Because that's how much it costs, more for the really advanced ones. And believe me; they know where every single machine is." He shrugged,
"Well I can dream can't I?"
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave you for awhile, business calls."
"How come we never get to spend much time together?" He sighed,
"Because I still have to finish my education, as well as duties to perform, you know that." Matt sighed,
"Yeah, I know."
"Matt, I know we have an agreement which doesn't allow me to tell you exactly what it is I do, but something might be coming up that could easily involve you…interested?" Something about the way she said it immediately roused his suspicions, as she had never done this before.
"Depends, I assume it's dangerous,"
"Oh very…"
"Why are you telling me about this now?" He asked.
"Because you weren't licensed to fly light transports before, it might involve stealing a spacecraft among other things."
"What kind of "other things," are we talking about here?" He asked.
"Like I said, it's dangerous, you'll probably get wet and dirty, that's all I can tell you at this point…interested?" By the way, she spoke, he could tell she was hiding something, but nevertheless, she had put the "hook" into him and he was intrigued.
"Oh, one thing, the spacecraft I spoke of, there is a very strong possibility you could wind up owning it should our efforts be successful,"
"And we don't get killed," he added.
"And we don't get killed," she replied.
Back at New Coryville, Matt told Liam about the Sistorki, and the plan to let them settle somewhere on Endor.
"From what you're telling me," said Liam, we might find ourselves outnumbered, and suddenly find the planet's classification changing to Golian or something."
"Yeah," replied Matt, "That occurred to me as well, but Remden told me he and his people while technically Golian's are considered stateless, but once they come here, will be officially 'Endorian's" like the rest of us. I was all set to reject their request, until he told me about the fact that they were considered stateless, not Golian's, not anything."
"Man that sure is a rough deal for them," commented Liam, "Did they seem like they would up to working and all?"
"I talked with two of them Remden and Diff for quite awhile, they gave me no reason to believe otherwise."
"Well, I sure hope they work out, we can certainly use the help," said Liam.
"I've got to go see Brand about some stuff," said Matt, If Amber shows up with those two, have Masaki fly them around the planet; they want to look over some possible sites to homestead."
"Will do," replied Liam. "By the way, how'd you come out on your pilot's exam?"
"Passed, even got the gunner endorsement."
"Way to go man," exclaimed Liam as they high-fived each other.
Ilmi has started getting me ready with math and navigation but it will be awhile yet but I'll get there, you'll see."
Slapping Liam's back, Matt heartedly replied,
"I know you will."
He then grabbed the other shuttle, and headed for Mos Eisley to see Brand. On the way, he mulled over the things Holliqua had hinted at about this so-called "job."
The over-used phrase, "Be careful what you wish for…you just might get it," kept playing through his mind.
"Congratulations on getting your license," exclaimed Brand, "I knew you could do it."
"Thanks…thanks a lot Brand" replied Matt.
"You look troubled Matt, something on your mind?"
"Yeah…yeah there is. First off, have you had he meeting you were telling me about?"
"Umm, not yet, the others
are still trying to make up their minds, but probably in three or four centons, I'll let you know, because I'm sure they are going to want to ask you a number of questions. Is that what's troubling you?"
Matt sighed,
"Brand, what do you know about the "Sistorki?" Brand looked up from his notebook giving Matt his full attention.
"What do you know of them?"
"Well hear me out and I'll tell you."
After he had finished telling Brand the whole story, Brand just sat in his chair studying Matt. It was the kind of look that was making him very uncomfortable. Matt tried guessing if his friend looked really angry or just pissed off, or just disappointed.
"So you never heard of these people before?" Said Brand in a firm tone of voice.
"No sir, these guys just came up to me and started talking, I thought I was doing a good thing by inviting them here. I suppose they are out with Masaki right now looking the whole planet over for a home." Brand merely grunted, saying nothing.
Finally, he sighed,
"There was a time I would have gone out and slaughtered the lot of them. However, I've traveled a long way, seen and done much. I suppose I can't really fault you, you didn't know."
"Why?" Exclaimed Matt, "Are these people lazy, carry disease or something?"
Brand shook his head,
"No, as far as I know, they don't and are not. Obviously, they are survivors.
I don't know Matt, maybe it is for the best that you brought them here if only for the fact they can now call themselves Endorian's. As far as using them in any operation I and my friends may develop, we'll just have to see. For now, just make sure they settle far away from here. If we decide to employ any of them, I will let you know. Until then, we will talk no more about this."
Matt came away from the meeting with the distinct feeling that he had hurt his friend terribly and that it might be a long time before their friendship was back on track. He also was discovering what a major embarrassment and shame these Sistorki were to the Golian's. The fact that Brand of all people refused to say much about them spoke volumes. If he hadn't realized it before, Matt was now just realizing how intricate and complicated these alien societies were.
Upon returning to New Coryville, he discovered that Masaki and the two Sistorki were back. They were in the community center talking to Brad Cummings and Walter Topping. As he walked in, Matt was wishing he had never seen these people; maybe he should just tell them right now the deal was off and be done with the whole thing. Everyone greeted him, with their smiles and good nature quickly dissolving the hate.
"Those guys think they have found a place Matt," said Masaki. "It's roughly three hundred miles from here along a small river. There's a large open area on one side with plenty of trees on the other. The river seems to originate from a small lake so there's probably a natural spring there." He then looked at Remden and Diff, and the excitement in their eyes.
"If you folks settle there are you going to be able to make a go of it?"
"Oh absolutely," exclaimed Diff, "We are a very resourceful lot, we've had to be."
"How about getting the rest of your people here along with all your stuff, and equipment?"
"Believe me Mr. Grainger," said Remden, "we have been preparing a long time for this time. As soon as we return to Golia we will begin making preparations."
"One thing," added Matt, "I promised you and your people a place to live and I intend to keep my word. However, since we last spoke, I've learned more about you from friends. I may have even lost a friendship over allowing you to come here." Both Remden and Diff started to offer an explanation but he shook his head.
"Don't worry, I made a promise, and I intend to keep it. All I'm asking of you people is to be good citizens, and obey our laws of which there aren't many right now, but just be good citizens. Once you folks get set up and a settlement up and running, we'll talk about electing a couple representatives to the planetary government."
"That will be fine with us," said Remden, "Thank you Matt, you have given us an opportunity which is all we've ever wanted. Diff and I will return to Golia to begin the preparations. When we return, we will arrive by transport bringing the rest of our people and everything we need."
Liam could see that his friend was troubled, and needed someone to talk to.
"Still bothered about letting those people come here?" He asked, Matt nodded.
"I think I really fucked up Liam," he replied. "I went ahead and promised them without asking anyone about them or who they were. I shouldn't have done that I should have asked everyone first."
"Hey look man," exclaimed Liam, "You didn't know, how could you? From what you told me about them, I would have done the same thing. Stop beating yourself up, what's done is done, and besides, has anyone actually told you they are bad people? You know, like murders or rapists."
"No, not really," he replied.
"Look Matt, a while back I was talking with Ilmi about something else and the subject of cloning came up. From what she said, cloning is a big thing on places like Golia and Lyskanda, and being an Lyskandan, she should know. Anyway, they have a lot of problems with criminal's creating unregistered clones. It didn't occur to me at the time but that must be what happened with these Sistorki on Golia. She also said that sometimes raiders recruit them."
"That's all we need muttered Matt, "a bunch of people with raider sympathies."
"Naw, I doubt that," replied Liam, "But if you like I can have her check them out.
"Might not be a bad idea, Holliqua said something about it as well."
"Well try not to worry so much Matt," replied Liam. "By the way, Major Morford and Mr. Falkner are on their way back, should be here sometime tomorrow."
Chapter 161
Titan Stand Chapter 161
Matt and the others got a surprise when the major and Donald Falkner returned
On the Nora-Lee, it was a very emotional reunion to say the least. Landing on the reserved pad on the edge of town where everyone retired to the community center for refreshments and to hear the story.
"We're on our way to earth," explained Bria, "We've contracted with Ifwol Skyn, and Skart Grexie whom I believe you know, they certainly know you. They should be here tomorrow or the next day."
"So how did the election go?" Asked Matt,
"I think I'll let the major, and Mr. Falkner answer that," replied Bria.
"Well it was certainly a very interesting month," replied Major Morford.
"We formed a sort of troupe, Don and I, Bria and her husband, along her advisor, and a couple assistants. Anyway, we went on "tour," stopping at ever crossroads and village with almost five days in Brookliyah alone. I think we all talked ourselves hoarse."
"Very true," confirmed Falkner, "First of all, the princess here would get up and tell everyone she was abdicating the throne, telling everyone her reasons. We would then hold a general question and answer session, then she would announce that the next king or queen would be selected by a popular election and anyone interested to show up the next day for an interview. Well anyway, we usually ended up with a modest turnout which we would sit down and interview each candidate. Well, needless to say ninety per cent were quickly eliminated."
"So what kinds of questions would you ask them?" Asked Liam.
"Well the princess and her husband asked all the questions," said Falkner.
"That's right," said Bria, "I was looking for someone who interested in Doradus, and doing good for the people. The major and Mr. Falkner knew how to set up an election; I knew the people and what sort would make a good ruler. At any rate, we were getting so few that were really interested or had the best interests of Doradus at heart. Well anyway, whenever we found someone who I thought would make a good candidate, we'd bring them along and Donald would teach them how to get up and make a proper speech." Both Falkner and Morford laughed,
"Both Don and I sent countless nights sitting up and writing stump speeches. But you know, it was not only very
instructive, but a lot of fun."
"That's right," added Caedmon, we owe much to these two; we certainly couldn't have done it without their help."
"Well long story short," said Falkner, "We finally wound up with ten candidates with one dropping out at the last minute. I'll tell you there's a lot to be said about mass media because once we had our people it was back on the road."
"That's right," added the major, "After announcing the election, we held a series of debates and "meet and greet's" all over the country introducing the candidates. I have to admit I was rather skeptical this was going to work but the people rose to the challenge with a primary that cut the field down to four people, Weddun Redbrewer, Huthek Kragbender, Orizzaela Frostborn, and Reirfiren Underpike.
