Torian Reclamation 2: Flash Move (26 page)

Then it was gone. Brandon’s brief, strange encounter with his old friend was over. Would he ever see him again?

“Well General,” Brandon said, “he did say you would be getting more answers today. The bright orb in the sky the other night, that came upon the station. Now we know what it was.”

They both looked at Mip7.

“Oh?” Mip7 said. “Hmm. Yes, I suppose they’re what caused it. Guess I wasn’t thinking.”

Olut6 glared at him. “I’d really let you have it, Governor, if you weren’t such a good pilot—and if I didn’t have bigger fish to fry today.”

Hol4 ate voraciously.

“Don’t you feed these guys in the agritents?” Jumper asked the Sheen who was holding the readout instrument. His partner was in the hut giving Alan more medicine. Kayla looked amused watching Hol4 gobble down biscuits.

“That’s not my assignment,” the Sheen answered. “But I would think they get all the produce they can eat.”

“Sick of produce,” Hol4 said between chews. “Want meat and bread.” Kayla laughed.

Jumper looked over the Sheen’s shoulder. “If that device of yours shows Alan’s okay, why doesn’t he want to get out of bed?”

“I didn’t say it indicates he is fully recovered—only that his readouts haven’t changed. That’s good, as far as we can tell. He seems to be in a stable condition.”

“Not recovering is not good,” Jumper said. “And he looks worse to me. There’s even less color in his face today than last night. Belle-ub promised me you would see to his recuperation today, and I don’t see that happening. Where is Belle-ub?”

“At the arena. Overseeing the games.”

Jumper looked to the western horizon. “The playoff brackets. I forgot.”

“Playoff brackets?” Kayla asked.

“Yeah. According to Belle-ub, the natives and some of the aliens are having their own games today, to determine the champion who’ll play for them in the big tournament tomorrow.” He looked at Kayla. “Even said we Earthlings could hold our own playoff if we wanted. What do you say? Think you can beat me?”

Kayla looked disgusted. “Right. As if any of us would enter that silly tournament of his. This whole place is starting to give me the creeps. Shouldn’t we be getting back to Professor Yob3 at the research lab? Where’s Brandon?”

“His last message said he’s coming here today—with the High General, not surprisingly. Belle-ub is expecting an impromptu visit from the High General. We think he’ll try to make him cancel the tournament.”

“Good,” Kayla said. “Either way, though, we leave with Brandon and go back to help at the Science Complex. Right?”

Jumper didn’t answer. Kayla grabbed his arm.

“Right?”

“It depends on Alan, Kayla. I’m not abandoning him if he can’t travel. I think Uncle Brandon will know more about healing him than these Belle Sheen do, but I don’t know what time he’ll get here. Meanwhile, I want Belle-ub to know that Alan’s not recovering like he said he would. I’m going to the arena to find him.”

“And leave me here?”

“One of us has to stay with Alan.”

“I’m going with you,” Alan’s voice said from the direction of his hut.

Jumper and Kayla spun around. He was standing in the doorway pushing off the other Sheen’s attempt to hold him.

“I’ll be all right,” Alan said. “I’m coming with you.” He took a few steps towards Jumper and Kayla, stumbling once. His skin was white as pyrus flesh.

“Glad to see you up,” Jumper said.

“I’m not,” Kayla said. “You don’t look so great. Maybe you should stay down.”

“No,” Alan said. He grabbed a couple biscuits and a pyrus fruit from the food cart next to Hol4. “Let’s go.” Then he looked around. “Where are we going?”

Jumper laughed. “I’m going to the arena in the valley to find Belle-ub, to ask him why you’re not recuperating when he assured me you would today. If I don’t manage to find a ride, it figures to be a long walk.”

“Walking sounds good.” Alan took a few more steps.

“You don’t look like you can make it,” Kayla said.

Alan gazed out over the valley. “Nothing’s ever as far as it looks.” He turned back to Kayla. “And if you can make it, I can.”

“I wasn’t planning on her coming with me, actually,” Jumper said. Kayla’s expression turned defiant.

Alan started walking. “Well, I’m going. Who’s coming along?”

Jumper looked at Kayla and shrugged. “I guess we all are. Come on, Hol4. Wrap some of that food up to go.”

“It’ll be an extremely long walk at that pace,” Kayla said watching Alan.

Alan’s pace picked up, though, as soon as they cleared the village. The rotorcraft airfield was just to the north on their right. Alien landing craft of various shapes and sizes decorated the landscape in front of them, but most were to their left. Jumper saw they had a fairly clear path to the stadium ahead, so the four of them walked. Alan wasn’t talkative, but he kept moving. After a while, some color returned to his face. Maybe he was going to get better today after all.

Hol4 kept glancing about in the sky above. Jumper wasn’t sure if it was because he was appreciating being out in the open and away from the tents, or if he was still suffering a natural paranoia from having been an escaped fugitive the last time he was out.

“Does it feel good to have your anklet off?’ Jumper asked Hol4.

Hol4 shook his head. “They removed that as soon as they brought in Lar3. He’s the one I ran with. They reassigned us to the far north. High security area. Impossible to escape from—and nowhere to go, anyway. Colder climate. Root vegetables mostly up there. I was certainly surprised this morning when the rotorcraft landed and they came for me. Said my contract has been fulfilled because of the Earth kids. Thanks for doing whatever you did.”

“You’re welcome.” But it seemed to Jumper that Hol4 wasn’t as appreciative as Jumper imagined he would be.

Kayla spoke. “They keep you as prisoners and force you to work in tents? That sounds horrible.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Jumper muttered.

“It’s not as bad as all that,” Hol4 said. “Something to do, at least, and a way to make a living. But I’m glad to be through with it.” He turned to Jumper. “Is the Earth prophet getting me that job on the space station?”

“I haven’t asked him yet,” Jumper admitted. “Our timing may not be all that perfect, with the current military situation.”

“I still can’t believe there was a war last night,” Kayla said.

Hol4 frowned. “A war? Here? Last night?”

“A space battle, yes.” Jumper pointed upward. “Above Banor, and at Cardinal-4. Could be the beginning of a war, if they can identify the attackers. Don’t they give you breaking news in the agritents?”

“No.” Hol4 chuckled. “Most of us don’t want it, either. I think we prefer rumors and hearsay. That way we can stretch them into our own stories. You should here some of the tales we twist and tell around the fires at night. Much better than real news.”

Jumper and Kayla both laughed. Alan remained quiet, but kept plodding forward.

Hol4 continued. “If I can’t get that space station job, what am I going to do? You said the mountain residents were all addicted to polwar. I’m not a player, and I have no interest in a military-type position. What else is there for me to do?”

“Stick with us for now,” Jumper said. “We’ll find something for you. I know you said you didn’t want to leave the continent unless it was to go to Cardinal-4. You’re free now. Whatever happens, that’s better than a life of forced labor in the tents, right? I mean, you did want out more than anything, didn’t you?”

“Yes, yes, of course. Again, thank you.”

“All right, then. What about the rest of the laborers? Aren’t there others like you, who wish to escape these ‘work contracts’ and regain their freedom?”

“Naturally,” Hol4 said. “It’s almost all we talk about in there, complaining about the work and wishing we could leave.”

Jumper nodded. “Good. Just wanted to make sure.”

Kayla cocked her head. “Why is that important?”

“Remember what we learned about slavery on Earth,” Jumper said. “It’s a deplorable situation. Now we’ve rescued one from it. Maybe we can help free others.”

“How?” Kayla asked.

“I have a little pull with Belle-ub. A small degree of influence, I think. He seems to respect my opinion.”

Kayla made an unladylike snorting sound. “You think he’ll let other workers go free just because you ask him? I think your head is outgrowing your brain.”

“I didn’t say that,” Jumper snapped.

“Then how?”

“Well for one thing, Miss Know-it-all, he invited me to represent the Amulen Earthlings in his new confederation. A voting seat in the council, where I can have my voice heard.”

“Did you accept?”

“No. Not yet. Told him I’d have to think about it. I want to run it by Uncle Brandon, too.”

“What about your dad?” Kayla asked.

Jumper smiled. “He’ll say yes and tell me I should do it—and be proud of me, too.”

“Let’s assume that’s true,” Kayla said. “But let me ask you this. If there’s to be an Earth colony representative, shouldn’t the Earth colony vote on who that is to be?”

Jumper stared back at her. “Why? You gonna vote for someone else?”

That shut Kayla up and they all continued moving forward in silence for a while. Jumper looked behind him at one point and estimated they were already halfway there. Alan’s statement about distances seeming farther than they actually were was turning out to be true. And he was keeping up. In fact, he had been out in front leading the entire way so far.

“I like that one,” Alan suddenly said. He pointed to a spacecraft they were passing. “It’s cool.”

Two aliens were sitting on the ground next to the ship Alan pointed to. They were playing polwar. Jumper recognized this race from the village last night. They were the ones who looked almost human except for the two chins and no ears. The two who were playing wore tan jumpsuits and might have been pilots. One of them glanced up as they walked by, but quickly looked back to the game.

The game. That’s what everyone was here for. The closer they drew to the arena, the more they would be surrounded by it. The thought of becoming completely immersed in polwar gave Jumper mixed emotions. Man, would Uncle Brandon hate this place. Kayla too, most likely. But Jumper might have the opportunity to test just how good he really was at it. That was alluring. Plus, he would be playing for a worthy cause—one Uncle Brandon would probably even support.

Alan was right about the alien shuttle. It was pretty cool. This one was a narrow-hull model, rectangular in shape, with a single, round thruster engine at the rear. The front gradually narrowed and the cockpit window was wide. A long pole-like protrusion extended from the nose. The thing looked fast and maneuverable.

“I like it, too,” Jumper said to Alan. “That’s the first thing you’ve said since we left the village. You feeling better? I was beginning to think you’d taken a vow of silence.”

“No vows,” Alan said. “Been listening. Heard everything. Walking feels good. So does listening. You keep talking. I’ll keep listening. Walking and listening. Walking and listening.”

Obviously, he wasn’t his right self yet. But his request was reasonable. If listening to others talk was therapeutic for Alan, Jumper would oblige. Only …he suddenly couldn’t think of anything else to say. Funny, talking was the easiest thing a person could do, until you purposefully focused on it. Then it became impossible.

Wait a minute; they had Kayla here. This should be easy. Jumper asked Kayla what was happening in her molecular chemistry class, the one where she didn’t like some of her classmates and thought the professor was prejudice against her. That did the trick. All Jumper had to do was nod and interject a word every now and then. She took care of the rest and that filled the better part of an hour. When the subject started to exhaust itself, he asked about her latest swimming and air gym times. And that got them the rest of the way there.

Belle-ub’s new arena was more impressive from the ground than from the air. It had a rustic appearance, like an image of one of those open-air stadiums from ancient times where warriors battled to the death in front of cheering crowds. There were modern metal-protrusions coming out of the top of it, though, some of which looked like laser conductors. Approximately one-quarter of the top level was still unfinished, but all the construction equipment had been moved away from it for the time being.

As they came close, more aliens could be seen playing polwar next to their landing crafts. The spaceships then gave way to parked cruisers of different models and sizes directly in front of the stadium, and some natives were sitting on the ground between those playing their own games.

Alan stopped in front of the stadium to look at it from the parking lot. Jumper, Kayla, and Hol4 did likewise. There was something awesome about it. Jumper thought he could feel an anxious energy in the air, as though something big was about to occur. Maybe Belle-ub wasn’t exaggerating about how historic this occasion would be—that is, if the Banorian military didn’t stop it.

“How are you going to find Belle-ub in there?” Kayla asked.

“I’ll find him,” Jumper said. “You guys want to wait out here?”