Alien Courage (Rise of the Empress) (39 page)

The Administrator set the controls on his mini blaster
and stood back, weapon at the ready. Torquay pushed a button on the panel and a
whirring noise came from the cylinder as the face mask and tubes feeding into
Peter were retracted. The clear cover hissed escaping gas as it flipped open.
Torquay pushed the cover up, its hinges stiff but suddenly gave way opening
fully.

The two men looked at the body starting to breath and
the face muscles began twitching. Torquay leaned down and adjusted the drug
restimulating device to half its setting. “Don’t want him fully awake,” he
muttered to the Administrator and stood back up.

The two men waited and Peter made small breathing
noises. His arms and legs twitched and then he appeared to be asleep. His mouth
opened slightly and he began lightly snoring. The Administrator scratched his
face with the muzzle of his blaster. “Is this normal?”

Torquay raised his eyebrows, “I don’t know. Normally
they wake up pretty quickly.”

“Maybe it’s the device around his neck.
Too strong?”

Torquay leaned down to adjust the device and just as
his hand touched it. Peter’s eyes opened wide staring directly at Torquay who
jumped backwards in surprise.

Peter’s eyes rolled and blinked a few times and
focused on the environment around him then went out of focus. “
Oh boy, what
a head
,” he muttered in
English
! “
Where am I
?
You
a
doctor
?” he said looking at Torquay and closed his eyes against the glare.
Torquay quickly adjusted the device around Peter’s neck and he went back to
sleep.

“What language is that? Earth I suppose.” The
Administrator said answering his own question but gathered his wits and
manipulated his arm console. “It’s American, a dialect of English. English is
made up of… wow, a great number of other Earth languages, Greek, Latin, Old
German,
Sanskrit
.
Too many to make
any sense to me.
How do we communicate?” The Administrator asked looking
at Torquay. “How did you talk to him before when he was in the T334?”

“The T334 pilot responds to thought waves and
concepts. In other words pure thought is not bound by language or thinking,
that comes later. Language comes in with the act of verbal or symbolic
communication and that’s where time is and a lot of other things come into
play.”

“That’s all very well, but how do we communicate to
him?” The Administrator asked pointing at the man in the canister.

“Yes, good question, I was hoping for residual
language skills in Johe’s brain but Peter apparently has overridden them.”
Torquay answered. “Does your arm console have a translation program for
American?”

“No just the basic data on the planet itself issued
for research or survey
work… wait
, my colleague in
Space Command would have access to that sort of data! It would take a little
time to set up such a program.”

“It would be worth it to get a basic translation. I
felt sure there would be residual memory of language. However, I am very good
with communications systems based on sound. Let’s go set up such a system,”
Torquay said and bent down and readjusted the neck device to full. Torquay
failed to notice the device had condensing moisture building up on its micro
circuitry from the temperature difference from the colder air from the space
dock penetrating the now open cylinder.

The two men rushed up the stairs to the communication
console and began working on a translation program.

“There we go,” said Toormis as he opened the pilot’s
escape hatch and crawled up into the Emperor’s vessel. “Cassy, hand me that
long red instrument with the wires hanging out.” Cassy got the instrument from
the Starfighter’s tool kit now sprawled out all over the hanger floor and
placed it in Toormis’s hand extending down through the hatch. “Won’t be long
now,” he said as lights and electronic noises started emanating from the space
ship.

“Bit tricky but luckily the Confederate Space Command
uses basically the same security system on all their craft…” his sentence was
cut short by a siren.

“What is it Toormis,” Cassy shouted into the hatch.

“This ship has two completely different security
systems. It probably means a single pilot cannot fly the ship without
confirmation security codes from another source. Pretty smart,” he shouted back
but he managed to disable the siren and the hanger fell silent. “That’s
better,” he said. “Cassy, this will take a little time before I can work out
the code.
How about something to eat and drink.”

“OK. Where is the dispenser?”

“Upstairs next to the
Communication’s Room.
You’ll find
it. It’s basically the same layout as any command base or space dock.”

“Back soon,” Cassy said and went up the stairs. She found
the food dispenser but heard voices next door and looked into the room. The
Administrator was doing something with the computer and Torquay seemed to be
talking into a microphone. She was going to say something but realised she
didn’t know these people and a fear came over her. She backed slowly away from
the open door. The movement caught Torquay’s eye and he looked up but whatever
it was, was now gone. He knew it was Cassy and stopped what he was doing.

“What do you think we can really do about getting off
this planet?” he asked the Administrator.

The Administrator looked up at him and took a deep
breath. “I don’t know. The Emperor’s ship is a way off if Toormis can bypass
its security systems but where would we go? Logic would have it we are very
valuable to whoever captures us, but how to turn that to an advantage I do not
know. One thing is certain, this base is a trap. It is only a matter of time
before those orbiting up there get annoyed. I think we should use the Emperor’s
ship and make a run for it anyway and take our chances.”

“Agreed.
To stay here is certain capture or death.
But what about this girl Cassy and Toormis.
Just how stable
are they?” Torquay asked.

“Toormis is a Starfighter pilot. They are aviators and
risking their lives is in their nature. He at least can be trusted to give an
enemy his best fight. Cassy is of noble birth and is an unknown factor but she
obviously has feelings for Toormis but just how much and if that affects
Toormis’s judgement I don’t know.”

“My concern is Peter and the affect he may have on
Cassy. It’s Johe’s body and she may become unstable with the idea her brother
is now an Earthman!” Torquay said surprising the Administrator.

“Oh! You have a good point.”

“Or Toormis either, it’s his Commander’s son. I feel
we should tell them what we are trying to do. What do you think?” Torquay
replied.

The Administrator sat back in his chair and thought
about it. “Under the circumstances they would not like being denied the truth.
I know I wouldn’t.” 

“That is true,” Torquay replied. “I think it is only
fair to give them the truth. The Administrator agreed.

They were almost finished creating a rudimentary
dictionary, converting Confederate to American and American to Confederate.

Toormis needed the major programs of his modified
combat computer in his Starfighter so he could gain access to the controls of
the Emperor’s ship. He had gone to his Starfighter and was under the control
console in the cockpit dismantling it. He thought he heard something and half
sat up then he heard a thud following by Cassy screaming, “JOHE!”

Toormis jumped up quickly and hit his head on the
canopy release handle and swore. He scrambled out of the cockpit and with one
smooth practiced motion slid down the ladder without using the rungs. Drawing
his blaster he ran for the transport ship where the noise had come from. He
skidded to a halt and saw Cassy bending over what she thought was Johe.

The device around Peter’s neck had shorted out and Peter
had woken up and somehow gotten out of the canister and made it to the loading
ramp of the transport ship before he fell. He had rolled half way the down the
ramp and fell off onto his back on the floor of the hanger.

Cassy was passing by with food when she saw him roll
off the ramp. She dropped the food, screamed his name and ran to his side, “Are
you alright Johe? Johe?” she said as she leaned over him shaking his shoulders.

Toormis holstered his blaster and knelt beside Cassy
and Johe. “Where in the stars did he come from? Wow, that was some landing he
made. Heard it from way over there,” he said pointing. “Is he OK?”

“I don’t know. Ah, his eyes are opening,” Cassy said
relieved.

Peter looked up at this pretty blonde girl kneeling
over him. He immediately noticed this menacing looking guy beside her in really
strange coveralls and a comical type belt he had on. “
Are you my nurse?”
he
said looking back at Cassy.

Cassy and Toormis’s heads snapped backwards in
surprise. They both looked at each other, and then back to Peter. “What?!” they
both said together.

Peter heard the strangest word he had ever heard and
sat up. Cassy and Toormis moved back quickly. Peter looked down at himself,
closed his eyes and shook his head and opened his eyes again. “
What in the
hell is going here?”
he said.

“Johe,
it’s
Cassy. Your
sister, it’s all right, it’s all right,” she said moving toward him with her
arms stretched out. Peter panicked and backed away quickly and went under the
ramp. He crawled out the other side and ran to the wall breathing heavily. He
turned and with both arms spread against the wall behind him he looked at the
scene in front of him. Space ships! Smooth grey concrete floor and walls with
broad yellow and black lines. Spinning lights and crates stacked neatly. Now
the girl and the strange looking guy were following him. He saw their mouths
working and heard noises but couldn’t understand a thing they were saying but
it somehow sounded strangely familiar.

He went to move but saw the athletic looking guy make
a move to cut him off. Suddenly he noticed his own body. He brought his hands
to his face. These are not my fingers, he thought and realised he didn’t even
feel his body. He could feel the material of the coveralls he was wearing and
the felt the coolness of the temperature and knew he was standing but there was
no pain. His left leg felt fine. “
Oh my,
” he said and slid down the wall
and sat on the floor. “
I must be dreaming. I must be!”

Cassy knelt slowly beside him and tried to comfort
him, but the more she spoke the more he went a grey colour. Peter looked at the
tall guy standing beside the girl and noticed his belt had what looked like a
bulky pistol but it looked more like a ray gun from the comic books. Toormis
saw him looking at the blaster and drew it out of the holster and set the
controls to safe, showing Peter openly. Toormis leaned even closer to show him
it was on safe and Peter tried to get away. Cassy grabbed his arm and held him
speaking this strange language but it was soothing.

“What in the stars is wrong with Johe? Has he lost his
mind?” Toormis said bewildered.

“That’s not Johe,” Torquay said quietly walking up
from behind them with the Administrator a short distance behind, who had his
blaster set on stun behind his back.

Cassy turned her head but kept a hold of Peter’s arm.
Toormis half turned to Torquay, “I know what Johe looks like and so does Cassy.
She’s his sister!” Peter looked up in almost complete shock seeing these very
strange people talking and not understanding a single word of it. He looked at
his legs and just knew they were not his, he felt like he was going to be sick.

“That’s why the Administrator and I are here. Johe has
not come back from a training mission. Somehow an Earthman named Peter got
mixed up with the pilot transfer system they use to transport pilots to and
from their T334s or wherever they go for training. We don’t know how it
occurred but what you see is Johe’s body being ‘borrowed’ by a lost soldier
from Earth.”

Cassy let Peter’s arm go and sat back speechless.