Chapter 31

Edited by Steve

Tim sat in the lounge and asked, “DarkIce, how many new guests did we pick up?”

“Well.” DarkIce sat opposite Tim and counted the new individuals in his head. “We could have about 35; some of the people who left could come back if that’s agreeable to you?”

“Why would they leave in the first place?”

They need to see whether there are family members who will take them. Six of them are between sixteen and twenty-two years old and still live at home; their parents didn’t make it.”

“They can return with the rotation of the troops. That will be every two weeks. The King will allow that.”

“Sarha, could you have Freyaka come to the lounge?” Asked Tim.

“Tim, I have to get back to the office, with all these new people, I’ll have to find them jobs.” DarkIce got up from his chair and turned to walk to the lift.

Sarha appeared in the lounge next to Tim, “Tim, Freyaka said she would be here as soon as possible. She and Tammy were at the lake laying on the beach.”

Tim sat there and enjoyed another cup of Java. At the same time, he thought about what to do with Freyaka. ‘She did help with Gorhard and did try to let them know where he was. But she works for a group of spies and now knows about this ship.’

“Sarha, how far into your system did Freyaka get?”

Sarha reappeared next to Tim. “She is good, but she did get about twenty-five percent into the system. Is there a question about my system you need to ask?”

Tim just sat there for another minute, deep in thought. “Has she tried to excess your system or asked questions about you and how you work?”

“No,” she said, “she needed to relax a little first, the near-death experience and Gorhard was a bit too much, all in the span of forty-eight hours. Life is too valuable just to throw it away.”

“Well, she seems to have a logical head on her. Let’s see how she feels today?”

Freyaka walked into the lounge for the first time, looked around. She saw Tim was sitting to her left, she saw the chairs. “Tim, If I could, may I sit on the footstool. It seems my tail does not like chairs.” She said this with a smile so as not to hurt Tim’s feelings.”

Tim got up, moved the footstool from in front of him, off to his right side, and sat it so that her tail was not in the walkway. “Will that be, OK?”

“Yes, thank you very much ... Now, what did you need from me?”

“First, we do a check on everyone we recover ... or save ... or set free, however you want to put it. It seems that you are not on any system with an ID.”

Freyaka sat there with no expression on her face. “Tim, I am sorry, as the Commander told you, I am on leave from the Universal Security Unit. I cannot tell you about it, but you must understand it because I believe you want this ship kept secret. Am I not, right?”

“Yes.”

Freyaka sat there and looked Tim in the eyes, “You have a lot of equipment here that would make a warlord very powerful if they knew about it.”

“That is why we check each individual to see what kind of person they are. Then there was you! How are we to feel about you?”

“I need your help! I wanted to leave my job and enjoy the outside world. But to leave the business, that cannot be done, at least alive.”

Tim looked into Freyaka’s eyes and saw fear and knew she was telling the truth. “So, how do you want us to help?”

“When I came on the other ship, I had a bodyguard, and her name is Jaici. She was to be with me at all-time. If I could have died while trying to catch Gorhard, it would solve all my problems.”

“If we did that for you, what would you do then ... Where would you go?”

“I only solve one problem at a time. If I could, I would like to stay on this ship. It seems to be a very happy ship, from the volunteers I have talked to.”

“If you stay on this ship, you will need a job, what do you think you could do for the ship?”

“Tim, I could do the same thing I did for the company.”

“And what was that?” Tim asked; he was now interested to hear this part.

“I was their number one hacker.”

“And they just let you leave, no questions?”

“They didn’t just let me leave, Jaici was to escort me to a special place, and I could stay there for two weeks and be brought back.”

“What would happen if you did not want to go back?”

“She was to kill me.”

Tim had a funny look, but he knew she was telling the truth. He knew that in his military time some units had the same rules. “So, if we bring you aboard and tell Jaici that you were killed. She will believe us?”

“Don’t tell her directly, let her hear it from others, like the soldiers or volunteers.”

“Sarha, could you check and see if Commander Anden-Aipas is available. If so, could she please come to the lounge?”

“While we wait for the Commander, would you like something to drink or eat? Sorry I should have asked sooner.”

“No, Tammy and I ate at the lake, which is a beautiful place. She has told me about some of the rooms and activities you have on this ship.”

Tim and Freyaka sat there and talked about the ship and other things while waiting for the Commander. The Commander showed up about ten minutes later. “Tim, you needed to talk to me?”

“Yes, Commander, we need your help? It seems that Freyaka needs to die.”

The Commander looked at Freyaka, and she understood what was said, “Do you have a bad health problem, or is it more serious than that?”

Tim smiled at the Commander, “She needed to die when we had a gunfight with Gorhard.”

“So, it’s that serious, well, we will have to send her body off of this ship. We wouldn’t want anything to happen.”

Freyaka looked at the Commander, “Thank you.”

“Tim, who would this young lady be?” Asked the Commander.

“This is Areyaka, she just came aboard, she will be our new computer hacker.”

“Tim, sorry to hear about the death of Freyaka; I’ll let my soldiers know and for them to tell the volunteers. That way, you will not be bothered with questions.”

“Thank you for your help.” Said Freyaka or now Areyaka. “Tim, if I could, I’d like to return to my unit and rest.”

“Thank you both for your help,” Tim said; he got up to see them both to the lounge doorway. Then he returned to his seat and thought about what was next.

Tim walked around deck four and talked to the individuals, just hoping to meet Jaici. He was close to one of the food dispensers, where several people were standing around. A female walked up to him, “Sir, are you the Captain?”

“Yes, may I help you?” Tim asked; Tim noticed that she was a short person about four feet, six inches, but she showed a straightforward look of Command power.

“If you could, Sir, I have lost a friend within this ship. She was to meet me here about an hour ago.” As she talked to Tim, she kept looking around, like she was still looking for her friend.

“May I ask your name first? Does your friend have a name? Maybe our ship’s AI will know where she is.” Tim now believes he has found the right person.

“Yes, my name is Jaici, and her name is Freyaka, we work together.”

“Sarha, do we have an individual on board with the name of Freyaka?” Tim asked. Knowing that they did, and this was the right individual, so now starts the story to end Freyaka’s life.

Sarha appears next to Tim, and she stated, “Tim, I have checked my database, I have no record of an individual with that name on this ship at this time.”

Tim turned towards the young lady, “Sorry, Miss, can you give us a description of this friend?”

“Well, she’s about five feet two inches tall, her skin is medium green, and she has a tail that is around three feet long.”

“Tim, that sounds like the girl that was involved with that Mr. Gorhard this morning.”

“What are you talking about? She was not to speak to anyone.” Said Jaici. Her face was now starting to look angry.

“Why wasn’t she supposed to speak to anybody?” Tim now had a mysterious look, just wondering what she would come up with.

Jaici quickly changed her facial expression, “she is a little naïve to the ways of the world.”

“Tim, that description matches the individual with Mr. Gorhard.”

“OK, where is she now?”

“Jaici, there is a problem, it seems that your friend was with a mass murderer.” It’s all of Tim’s skill to keep from smiling, but he now has that serious look.

“Is she OK?” Now Jaici has a serious look, she wanted to know, and she wanted to know, now.

“Jaici, we are sorry, your friend was killed in a firefight this morning between the soldiers and Mr. Gorhard. She was caught in the crossfire.” Said Tim.

“Then I’ll take her body back with me to be buried in her hometown.”

“That will be impossible now.” Said Sarha.

“And why is that?”

“Because we have already cremated her body since we had no name in our database, we did not know there was anyone to notify.” Said Sarha.

Tim stood there waiting for Jaici to say something, but nothing came of it. She just turned and walked away.

“Thank you, Sarha, and I did not think you were allowed to tell a lie.”

“Tim, I did not tell a lie, I said, ‘I have no record of an individual with that name on this ship at this time.’ If you remember, Freyaka changed her name this morning to Areyaka. So, at the time she asked the question, Freyaka was not in my database.”

“Again, thank you,” Tim replied.

“Tim, I began the transfer, the first to leave were the two prisoners, who are now in the hands of the kings. I will start with half the soldiers, while the other half will follow, after the liberated people have gone through two at a time, leaving only the 25 soldiers that are with me. We’ll have them here for the next couple of weeks. This can take a couple of hours to complete.” Said the Commander.

“Commander, once everything is transferred, I would like your troops to move to deck two if that is, OK?” said Tim.

“I would much prefer that the troops stay away from your people, that way, they will be better able to do their job.”

“As you wish. Your soldiers will have access to deck five. Is there anything else you need from me?” Asked Tim.

“I will let you know when all is done.” Said the Commander as she turned and walked out of the lounge and towards the lift.

DarkIce sat behind his desk and took notes while both individuals explained why they wanted to stay. It seems that their village was raided, and everyone was brought aboard the other ship. There are only twenty-eight of them left. To go back with only that many, they all would die. If they could stay here and start their village all over, they would leave once the tribe reached one hundred members.

“What did your tribe do to stay alive?” DarkIce asked as he put the pencil down and looked at both of them.

“The tribe consisted of hunters and farmers. Some that are left made the tools and weapons. But since we have to start again, we are happy to do what needs to be done. Each of us is going to learn to do different things in order to survive.”

Our Captain told me, anyone who has asked to stay will not be turned away, provided each, and every one of you complies with the rules. So, your group will be given new quarters here on deck two.”

DarkIce stood and escorted them to the door, “My secretary will have the name of the person to see about your new rooms and where to report for work.” Has he opened the door for them to leave? “Thank you for joining us.”

DarkIce turned to look at his secretary, “give me five minutes and then send the next ones in.”

Madlyn stood at her computer, where she checked out the new data that had just came through. She had a surprised look, and she called, “Jeanne, come look at this.”

Jeanne got up from her desk and walked over to Madlyn, “What’s so important?”

“It’s some new data from the research teams. They came across new medical information and think we will be very interested in it, and it will be translated in about ten minutes.”

“I hope it’s something we could use on the ones from the last ship. Some of those people were in bad shape.” Jeanne stood next to Madlyn with a clipboard in her hands, studying it. Take this one, “Mr. Jones, about forty-two years old, about one hundred and thirty pounds. He’s having a bad time with his breathing. He’s been in that new diagnostic bed for a day now. It is repairing any physical damage and removal of any disease-causing organisms. Hopely it will help the drama that he and the others have gone through in the last few days.”

“Well, with that new bed there, it helped out a lot of people. The ones that came in wounded or near death. It made a difference in their life. Hopefully, this subsequent discovery will be just as helpful.”

Madlyn looked towards Jeanne, “How are the two soldiers doing?”

“They will be back to work tomorrow. Boy, I am glad Tim said for Sarha and the engineers to make six of those beds. It would be something to have only one bed like that and have three individuals that needed it, all at the same time.”

“With Tim, being retired Military, he knows about the need for better health. So, if it comes down to it, he will have more, and better devices made.”

At that moment, a student nurse came running in, “Doctor, the man in bed one, ... he’s up!”

Madlyn and Jeanne looked at each other and made their way to the door. The nursing student moved to the side to allow them to pass. As they entered the medical unit the man was in, they saw that the man was up and dancing around the room. They both just stood there looking amazed that this man was feeling that good.

He turned and saw the Doctor, “Thank you, Doctor, I have not felt this good in the last twenty years. You are a miracle worker.” He kept right on dancing. He danced over to the Doctor, grabbed her, placed his arms around her waist, bending her over backward, and kissed her. Then straighten her back up and danced away.

Madlyn was surprised at what had just happened, just stood there. Jeanne looked at Madlyn and saw a smile on her face, the first one in a long time.

“If this is what happens when a patient comes out from those beds, we had better practice our kissing and, of course, the backbend in the dance.” Jeanne just looked at Madlyn. Who was still smiling?