Manny Eavesdropping
This is an entry in Manny Merrill’s continuing journal of his time marooned on an alien space-station.
His first journal entries can be found in “Aliens & Gingerbread” which is available as part of the anthology “Winter Wonder” or as a stand-alone short story (in the format of your choice) when you become a paying subscriber. “Aliens & Gingerbread” occurs in the “Dremiks” universe.
Previous installments can be found here:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
I froze. Teriwiyn ko’ Khanaa’s bulging eyes tracked back and forth across the ceiling. The Kigvan males flanking her tensed and looked up. Captain Hill and Commander O’Connell looked at the Kigvans, then up at the ceiling. Cali tilted her head to the side like a curious cat.
Jon, though, didn’t look up. Well, not unless you count rolling his eyes. I heard him sigh loudly. He didn’t say a word out loud, but I could almost hear him saying “You had one job, kid.”
The NAK jumped down beside me in the little basket of tangled branches. The branches creaked and I started to get really nervous about the Kigvan trees just dropping me the four meters to the floor. I was afraid to move and afraid to stay where I was.
The NAK started chattering in rapid-fire clicks and chirps. The branches moved again, but they were moving closer, closing the gaps. The Kigvan males moved back to their guard positions. Only Captain Hill and Ambassador Teriwyn remained looking upward.
“What is that, Ambassador?”
“It is a keev’tnure’nuh-grun’nay’t’fuh. They are the keepers of the glade.” She tilted her chin down to speak to the captain.
I let out the breath I’d been holding. I turned my head, very slowly, to look at the weird, eyeless, winged, alien perched beside me.
Boy, am I glad I’ve been feeding this creepy alien the almond meal bars that all of us hate so much!
“My apologies for the interruption,” Ambassador Teriwyn said. “Please continue, Mistress Cali.”
Mistress? Ugh. I hope that is some bizarre translation error, I thought. I almost snickered, but thankfully I kept quiet. Pretty sure NAKs don’t snicker, so there’s no way my little alien friend could cover for me again.
“It’s just Cali, Ambassador,” Cali said. She sounded almost bored, like she’d really like to just get back to her kitchen. She sat with a straight back and her chin held high, on the bench we’d lugged into the room. There she was, surrounded by high-ranking ISA officers and the Kigvan Ambassador, acting like it was her throne room they were meeting in. Never mind that she was wearing the same clothes she’d been wearing when she woke up on that lander two months ago. (We’ve washed our clothes since then, of course, but we have to do it in one of the Kigvan showers and cover ourselves with a blanket while the clothes dry.) Her long, dark red hair is held back with bits of Dremikian vine and thin wire that Barnes and I traded for. She should look frazzled and in desperate need of rescue.
Instead, she’s calmly sitting there telling them…
Oh crap! I was supposed to be listening, not hero-worshiping. What was she telling them?
“After Captain Vwicki’s ship found us, they brought us aboard and then transported us here. We were told it was on their route and also the closest port in this sector,” Cali said.
“It is the only port in this sector,” Teriwyn clarified.
“The Kigvans and the Dremikians—they have a separate ring on this station—have been generous hosts. All of our needs have been met.”
Captain Hill leaned forward on his bench. “But how did you end up in that area of space? That is so far off the planned route to Dremiks that it didn’t even show on our charts.”
Cali shrugged. “I was unconscious, Captain.” She turned slightly to look directly at the Hudon’s captain. “And, the cook is not consulted on jump routes.”
I couldn’t see his face, so I cannot say for certain, but I’m betting the captain didn’t like that answer.
Commander O’Connell spoke next. “Master Sergeant? You were the head of the Magellan’s Marine detail. Did Captain Pecora share a reason for the course change? A security measure, perhaps?”
“No, ma’am,” Jon answered. That’s Jon. Why provide detail when a quick response might make the annoying questioner go away? (Yes, he’s used this tactic on me more than a few times.)
“We were sick, all five of us, in sick-bay. This was a week or more before the lander,” Cali clarified. “I have no idea what was going on during that time.”
“The nature of your illness?”
“A bacterial contagion,” Sergeant Barnes said. This was the first time he’d spoken. “Cali came down with it first, then the Master Sergeant, then Orlov, me, and the kid, Manny.”
Captain Hill turned his head and said to Commander O’Connell, “Decontamination procedures?”
She shook her head. “Not in any manual I’ve read, sir.”
Captain Hill faced my crewmates once more. “There were no notes left for you? No instructions?
“No, sir,” Jon said. “We’ve stripped that lander down to the frame, sir. We’ve analyzed every computer on board. We even scanned our personal med-chips to see if Dr. Bynum had left instructions in our personal medical files. There is nothing, sir.”
“Perhaps your ship’s systems and officers will have better luck, captain.” This was Ambassador Teriwyn speaking.
I think Captain Hill said something back to her, but I couldn’t hear him clearly.
“I was rather hoping you’d have answers for us, Captain,” Cali said. “You’ve had no communication with the Magellan?”
“Not since late October. We were, uh,” Commander O’Connell stopped and looked at her captain. He nodded. “We had our own communications black out. That’s when we went to meet Kigvans.”
“Ah,” Cali said. She made it sound like they’d just answered the Universe’s greatest mystery.
Before I could give away my position by screaming in frustration, Barnes filled in the blanks for me. “Oh. The Kigvans met you first, ma’am. That’s why when they saw Cali they started freaking out.”
“Kigvans do not freak out, Sergeant,” Ambassador Teriwyn snapped.
All of the humans in the room—mine and the Hudson’s officers—reacted with skeptical expressions or noises. Commander O’Connell looked right at the towering Kigvan female and said, “You kind of do, Ambassador.”
I bit my tongue to keep from laughing. Don’t get me wrong, Cali takes zero crap from anyone, human or alien, but I don’t think even she has dared to sass a Kigvan. Commander O’Connell, apparently, doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut.
She also, apparently, gets a pass from the Kigvans. Even as I saw Captain Hill reach over and lay a hand on the commander’s arm, Teriwyn crossed her arms over her chest and bowed at the waist.
“Pardon me, sir, but your sensor arrays on your trip here picked up nothing?” Jon asked.
Captain Hill shook his head. He sounded sad when he answered. “Unfortunately, no. We, and our honored Kigvan escorts,” he nodded at the Ambassador, “have been sending out long range probes and leaving behind signal buoys hoping to pick up some trace of the Magellan. Those efforts have proven fruitless.”
“May I ask, sir, why you have Kigvan escorts? What has happened?”
Captain Hill and Commander O’Connell looked at each other.
Oh ho, here’s something important, I thought. Their bodies tensed up. The Kigvan male honor guard must have picked up on it too, because they moved closer to the Ambassador.
“We are racing home to tell the ISA, and Earth’s governments, about the Valtoza. They are a hostile alien race who have directly attacked our ship.
I remember I bit my thumb to keep from gasping. Another alien race? Wait, what does he mean “attacked”?
It’s a good thing I kept that thumb in my mouth, because Captain Hill added another shock.
“And, because we’re hunting a fugitive. Vice Chancellor Ryan Hill is wanted for murder. He escaped on a Valtozan ship.”
Yeah, I’m pretty sure my thumb is going to permanently bear my teeth marks.
Well that’s a fine place to leave us!