The Wishing Stone (8 page)

“What is it?” Adam asked.

“The southernmost compound on Amacron Thirty-seven—its force field is shut down. Not only that, there are three life forms heading away from the compound, heading into the deep desert.”

“It must be the girls!” Adam exclaimed.

“I thought there were only two of them,” Fur said.

“They make friends fast,” Watch said. “At least Cindy does.”

Something else on the control panel caught Fur's eye. But rather than try to ascertain what it was with his instruments, he leaned back and stared up at the window on the ceiling of the control room. Adam and Watch did the same just in time to see a fleet of warships materialize in normal space. Clearly the ships had just completed a jump through hyperspace. They were gray in color, long and sleek, with red fins and smoldering weapons ports.

“The Kasters,” Fur said softly, stunned. “They must have followed us here from Tallas Four.”

“They could trace us through hyperspace?” Watch asked.

Fur shook his head. “No. But they didn't have
to. They figured we were coming here because we were trying to erase records related to Amacron Thirty-seven.”

“Do we have to surrender?” Adam asked.

Fur was grim. “The Kasters do not take prisoners in a situation like this.”

“Then we must try to jump into hyperspace again,” Watch said.

“No,” Adam said. “We have to get the girls first.”

“If we land, we will be completely helpless,” Fur said. “They will destroy us at their leisure. I agree with Watch. We must try to escape.” Fur started to push the button that would launch them into hyperspace. But Adam stopped him by putting a hand on his arm.

“The girls have knocked out the Amacron Thirty-seven force field when you said that was impossible,” Adam said. “They are out in the desert, fighting for their lives, for freedom. How can we just abandon them when they have fought so hard and we are so close to them?”

Watch spoke up. “Adam has a point. Even I would feel guilty leaving them at this point.”

Fur studied his instruments. “They are not alone in the desert. A force of robots is now
following them.” He looked at them. “If we land we will have enemies on all sides.”

Adam didn't hesitate. “Land. We either save them or we all die together.”

Watch patted Fur on the back and tried to reassure the trader. “We're all from Spooksville. We have an excellent track record in hopeless situations.”

Fur sighed. “I don't.”

H
ironee saw the
Fruitfly
first. They were trudging around a massive sand dune when the ship appeared in the sky above them, burning with the flames of reentry, heading straight for them like a meteor shot from a cannon.

“Look!” Hironee shouted.

Sally and Cindy almost fell over when they saw the ship.

“Is it a Raster vessel?” Sally asked, fully expecting the answer to be yes.

Hironee squinted. “No, I don't think so. It looks more like a trader ship.”

Sally looked at Cindy. “It could be Adam and Watch.”

Cindy nodded anxiously. “Hope so.”

But then abruptly all hope faded because the fleet of Raster warships—chasing the trader vessel—became visible at the same time Teeh and his robots rounded the sand dune behind the girls. The Raster warships had torpedo tubes on both sides that glowed a wicked red. Teeh had a small fleet of powerful ground vehicles that resembled open-air tanks. Both Raster groups seemed to be ready to take aim, yet perhaps Teeh, seeing the ships overhead, warned his robots off. The slimy boss probably didn't want to get blasted with the humans. Overhead the ships suddenly veered off. Yet they didn't fly away, but rather, began to swoop in at a low altitude.

In the meantime the trader ship landed.

Adam and Watch and a ghost character with a bald head and a cigar jumped out. The girls ran to the boys and embraced them.

“Are we glad to see you!” Cindy exclaimed, giving Adam a big hug.

“We're happy to see you, too!” Adam said, hugging her back.

“I was the one who disabled the Kaster force field,” Sally said quickly.

“I was the one who blew up part of the Kaster house,” Fur said, watching both the approaching land army and the hovering warships. “But it looks like we both managed to anger the wrong people.”

“And who may I ask are you?” Sally asked suspiciously.

Fur bowed. “I am Fur and I am here to rescue you.” He glanced at Watch. “This must be the unusual one.”

“I knew you would spot her immediately,” Watch said.

“I will have you know that it was I who said you were on your way here to rescue us,” Sally said. “While Cindy here was ready to bury you, as usual, I might add.”

Fur gestured to the approaching armored car, which carried several robots and the grand master of slobberers himself—Kaster boss, Teeh. His snout looked swollen and sore. He held a black laser rifle in his two stubby arms.

“I think we might all be buried in a few minutes,” Fur said.

Teeh parked a few feet away and his group of robots immediately jumped from the armored vehicle and surrounded the other five. Mean-looking lasers were pointed at their heads. Teeh also approached. Although he carried a weapon, his free hand kept moving to his bruised snout. He went straight to Sally and glared at her.

“I am going to peel you alive!” he swore. “I will swallow your flesh before your very eyes! You will die with your own screams in your ears!”

Sally spoke sweetly. “Did the Treeboards hurt your nose, Mr. Teeh?”

Teeh growled. “There are no Treeboards!”

“Of course there are,” Watch said. “All boards come from trees.”

“I know that!” Teeh said. “Do I look stupid or something? I—”

“You do look stupid,” Cindy interrupted, surprising them all. She just shrugged when they stared at her. “He looks like a stupid crocodile from a dirty swamp. What can I say?”

Teeh was not amused. “You will pay for that!”

Sally snorted. “I told you, we're through paying. If you're going to kill us, kill us now and get it over with. We're not afraid to die.”

“I would like to mention that Sally does not speak for all of us,” Watch said.

“I would like to second that,” Fur said.

Just then one of the Kaster warships settled to the ground behind the
Fruitfly.
The vessel was massive, powerful; it cast a steaming shadow over the entire area. An official-looking Kaster captain with a host of lizard guards approached, making a mess of the sand dune with their swishing tails. The captain clearly outranked Teeh, who quickly bowed to the commander of the warship.

“Captain Thorath,” Teeh said. “A pleasure. What brings you to Amacron Thirty-seven?”

Captain Thorath pointed a scaly finger at Fur. “This trader invaded Tallas Four and tried to wipe out several debt records from our computer files. I am here to arrest him and bring him back to Tallas Four for immediate trial and execution.”

“At least you get a trial,” Watch said to Fur.

“I may have trouble finding an impartial jury, though,” Fur said.

“What about these other two humans?” Teeh asked Captain Thorath, pointing to Adam and Watch. Captain Thorath did not answer immediately. He seemed to be caught off guard by the question. He studied Adam and Watch, seemingly
trying to figure out a problem that was bothering him.

“Which one of you is Adam?” he asked finally.

“I am,” Adam said.

“Tell him what a slob he is,” Sally said in his ear. “Don't let him intimidate you.”

“Shh,” Adam cautioned.

Captain Thorath stepped closer to Adam. The commander appeared to be still puzzled over what to do next, what to say. “You made an unusual wish with one of our stones,” he said finally.

“I wished for galactic peace,” Adam said.

“You did?” Fur said with interest.

“Yes,” Adam said sadly. He gestured to the warships and the armed robots that continued to point at them with their weapons. “But it doesn't look like my wish will be granted anytime soon.”

“But it must be granted,” Fur said with excitement in his tone.

Captain Thorath quickly held up a scaly hand. “We need not go into that right now,” he said.

Fur stepped forward. “But you know the rules, Commander. The whole galaxy knows them.” Fur turned back to Adam. “Tell me, was your wish on the same order as the others?”

“This is nonsense,” Teeh interrupted, speaking to the warship commander. “Let's kill them all now and eat their skins.”

“His wish was on the same order,” Sally said to Fur. “The Collector stated that fact.”

Fur smiled and turned to Captain Thorath. “Then you cannot collect on any of their wishes. Not until every wish on the order has been granted. Those are your own rules written by your own senate.”

“We don't grant the wishes until the debts have been paid off,” Teeh said bitterly.

Fur shook his head. “Your commander knows better. You grant the wishes, then collect the debts, then give the stuff back when the debts have been paid off.” He added with bitterness, “Of course you never really have to give anything back. All your slaves die before they have a chance to collect.”

“As well they should,” Teeh said. “Do we look like we're stupid? We—”

“Shut up, Teeh,” Captain Thorath told the slave boss. He spoke to the gang. “It is true what your trader friend says. We cannot legally collect on your debts until all the wishes on the same
order have been granted. But, Adam, because your wish is so unusual, we doubt if we will ever be able to grant it.” He paused. “For that reason we would prefer you make another wish. Something simple, easy to make in a factory.”

“But if I do that then we will all end up as slaves,” Adam said.

Captain Thorath sighed. “I was afraid you'd say that.” He spread his hands. “Then what should we do? I am open to suggestions.”

Fur spoke to the gang. “Don't do anything. Let the wish for galactic peace remain. Then the Kasters will be obligated to fulfill it before they can come after you again. And that wish will never be granted, especially by the Kasters. They are always at war with somebody.”

“But we can't let these humans go!” Teeh broke in. “This one here electrocuted my snout!”

“Good for her,” Captain Thorath muttered, thinking, his gaze far away. Finally he turned back to the gang. “Very well, a rule is a rule, and we shouldn't be breaking our own if we expect others to listen to them.” He drew in a deep breath. “You are not obligated to pay your debts until all the wishes on your order have been fulfilled.”

“Which in practice means you won't have to ever pay them,” Fur said.

“Do we get to keep the things we wished for?” Sally asked.

Captain Thorath hesitated. “Yes.”

Sally squealed with delight. “I knew what I was doing all along! I'm rich!”

But Captain Thorath pointed at Fur and Hironee. “But this trader is coming back to Tallas Four with me, to be tried and executed. And, Teeh, you can do what you wish with this disobedient slave.”

“I will eat her flesh in front of her eyes!” Teeh exclaimed.

Hironee cowered. “No.”

“Get over the flesh thing already,” Sally muttered. She put her arm around Hironee's shoulders and spoke to the commander. “You can't hurt our friend. We won't let you.”

Fur looked anxiously around. “Why isn't anyone hugging me?”

Teeh gloated at Sally. “We can do whatever we want with both of them.”

Adam took another step forward. “Wait a second. Captain Thorath, between the four of us we
wished for some pretty expensive items. We got money, force fields, a new telescope, new outfits. These things must have cost the Kasters a pretty penny.”

Captain Thorath studied him. “What is your point, young man?”

“What if we give you back all these things?” Adam said. “And in exchange you let Hironee and Fur go?”

Sally took her arm off Hironee. “Don't give the money back,” Sally whispered to Adam.

“I really like that telescope,” Watch said.

“Your proposition is an interesting one,” Captain Thorath said. “A dead trader is of little use to us, and I am sure Teeh here has plenty of slaves to eat.” He paused. “I will accept your offer to return the goods, as long as you can all agree on the offer.”

“I agree,” Fur said.

“You don't count,” Sally snapped at him. “I say we return everything except the money and Hironee gets to go free with us.”

“But Fur is our friend,” Adam protested.

“Well . . . we haven't known him all that long,” Watch added.

Adam held up his hands. “Wait a second! How can we have galactic peace if we can't even have peace among ourselves? We're all friends here. We have to stick together like friends should. We either return everything and all go free or else remain here and labor away until the end of our lives.” He paused for effect. “What's it going to be?”

Watch shrugged. “I already have a pretty good telescope at home.”

“I say we give all the stuff back,” Cindy said.

Sally hesitated. “I suppose I'll get rich anyway, either as a famous actress or a best-selling novelist.”

Adam smiled and offered his hand to Captain Thorath. “It's a deal.”

Captain Thorath shook Adam's hand and nodded. “You continue to think big, Adam. The galaxy needs more people like you.”

Hironee turned to Sally. “I get to return to Zanath?”

Sally hugged her. “Yeah, and your ticket's costing me a couple of million. But don't let that bother you. I just mention it in passing.”

Fur beamed and puffed on his cigar. “I can take you back to Zanath. Heck, I can take the rest of
you back to Earth.” He turned toward his spaceship, and the rest of them followed. “I've got to see this famous Spooksville. It sounds like a happening place.”