I hugged Jake around the waist as
he squeezed me back.
“Great to see you,” I said, as I
pulled away.
I turned to Arr and gave him a
big hug too until Kay-o pushed is huge head between us to get his share of
attention.
“Good to be here,” Jake
responded.
I asked the guys to meet me here
so we could talk about what I was planning and see if they wanted to join in.
Since I most likely had some kind of bad mojo on my tail I decided to offer
Jake and Arr some monetary compensation for accompanying me. With them at my
back, I knew I would be as safe as anyone could be in space.
Jake was a seasoned mercenary and
Arr his relatively new partner. Jake knew everything there was about protecting
and fighting. Arr was learning, but made up for his shortcomings in battle with
the fact that he could learn any language just by listening. He was nothing
short of brilliant with linguistics and already spoke over one hundred
languages. As for Kay-o, he was the largest protect Dar-dolf I had ever seen
and had saved all our lives Ukhta a while back.
“Hope you remembered some Goo
Chews.” Arr smiled, as Kay-o nuzzled my hand.
The Dar-dolf was the size of a
small horse and had the uncanny addiction to a sickeningly sweet candy called
Red Raspberry Goo Chews. It was the way Jake and Arr kept him under control and
the way they introduced him to folks they wanted him to like. They gave you a
bag of the candy and had you toss them to the beast until he stopped growling
and recognized you were one of his favorites.
“Right here.” I pulled a handful
out of my pocket and tossed one to Kay-o. You didn’t want to get too near those
teeth. Anyway, he liked catching them mid-air and he could get more out of one
of those little chews than anyone else I had ever seen. I tossed him another.
“I laid in a supply and some chow
too.” I grinned at the beast, slipped him another chew and hugged him around
the neck running my fingers deep into his fur. “You guys hungry?”
“Starving if Moby is cooking,”
Jake grinned.
He loved Moby’s cooking and knew
mine left a bit to be desired.
“Moby has been prepping for the
last two days.” I started to lead the way to the galley.
Jake coupled his ship, the
Calpernia, to Ma-rye-a and we were in a nice quiet piece of airspace with lots
of room for Ma-rye-a and Sam to see anyone approaching in time to give us a
head’s up in order to mount a defensive. I felt pretty relaxed and ready to sit
down with friends to eat and catch up.
*****
Jake mopped up his plate with a
piece of Moby’s homemade sourdough bread. He had consumed a large steak, baked
potato, greens and a special berry sauce Moby knew Jake favored. Meanwhile, I
had fed half my huge steak to Kay-o and become his favorite person onboard my
ship…at least for the moment.
“That was delicious, Moby,” Jake
complimented.
“It really was,” Arr added.
He managed to make a good dent in
his food, but I saw him slipping treats to Kay-o too. Moby’s eyes were bigger
than all our stomachs. My chef aimed to please.
“I have berry cobbler for
dessert,” Moby offered over the speakers in the galley.
“Ugh,” I groaned. “Can we wait a
little bit?”
I was so full I felt the need to
lie down and unbutton the top button of my pants.
“That okay with you guys,” I
asked hopefully.
“Sure,” Arr agreed.
“Later with a game of CU,” Jake
suggested.
Jake loved cards and CU was his
favorite game.
“Have you gotten any better at
winning against Arr?” I asked.
Last time we played Jake
complained that Arr cheated. He didn’t really. Arr has exceptional hearing and
could actually hear Jake’s heartbeat speed up when he got excited about a
winning hand.
“He’s learning to control it.”
Arr grinned.
“Really?” I smiled at Jake. “Been
practicing deep meditation?”
You
have no idea how funny this question is unless you know Jake. With Jake what you see is what
you get, and what you get is a handsome, six foot four, fighting machine with
an intense desire to do right and protect the folks he loves. Not a deep
thinker here.
“Yeah…Right…” Jake grinned. “It
turns out breathing settles it. I just have to take the position like I am in a
fight.”
“It’s working,” Arr said.
But, I wondered if Arr was just
choosing not to listen.
“So what did you call us out for?”
Jake asked, changing the subject. He didn’t like being the center of attention
unless it involved a lovely woman and a glass of your best whiskey.
“Let’s move to the lounge. I have
something to show you.” I stood and led the way.
*****
“Whoa!” Jake said as the camera
panned up and over the length of the wing in the vid my father took on Planet
014.666.2460.
The vid came to an end. I had
told the guys about what happened to my parents over dinner. I’d caught them up
on the incidents in port with the break-in at the UOA and my ship. I told them
about the talent that had the ability to deactivate and delete Sam. Now, I
turned to the guys.
“I want to show you one more
thing.”
I picked up the box that held the
artifact my folks left me. I opened it.
“My folks picked this up where
that vid was taken. They left it to me.”
I handed the box to Jake.
“What is it?” He asked as he picked
it up.
“Ahhh!” Arr screamed. “Put it
down!” He yelled.
Jake let it drop back into its
velvet cradle.
“What?” He looked at Arr’s pained
face.
“Can you hear it?” I asked.
“Hear what?” Jake demanded.
Arr hadn’t been able to get a
word in edgewise. He held up his hand for silence.
“Yes, I can hear it,” he directed
at me, “and there is a very high pitched, ear splitting sound that emitted from
that thing,” he pointed to the artifact, “the minute you touched it.”
“All I felt was a vibration,”
Jake said apolitically. “I didn’t hear anything.” He looked at me for
confirmation.
“I only knew it gave off the
sound cause Mom and Dad told me so in their letter that came with it. I had no
idea you would be able to hear it.”
“It’s more like I felt it,” Arr
said.
“What is it?” Jake asked.
“I don’t know, but I think we
need to find out,” I said, as I took it back from Jake. “I believe that ‘it’ is
what the guys who killed my parents are after.”
If you would like to know more
about the adventure on Ukhta Check it out here Body Bags and Other Dark Places
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