Chapter 20
The Interview
Scott's thoughts returned to the present as he entered the subway. He needed his concentration on what he was doing, especially when he was riding one of Jacque’s little vehicles. As he approached, the unobtrusive craft, he was already running the turns and rolls over in his mind, they could be so tricky if one wasn’t prepared.
The lighting throughout the tunnel was excellent. The tunnel was lit by several light ropes imbedded in the material that made up the walls, roof and floor of the passageway and these light strips ran the full length of all tunnels. These light ropes were imbedded so as not to impair driving, in case your vehicle needed to go up the wall for a turn or you lost control and your vehicle strayed and went up the wall errantly.
This time the trip was very short with only two major turns, left then right, with plenty of time to stop. Scott arrived at the private bar entrance just in time to see Jacque bound up the steps that lead to his private bar viewing booth. The booth was located just off the office and had a uninhibited one way view of the bar and table areas.
The bartender was on his way to the back office area as Scott entered from the tunnels. Scott joined Jacque at his private booth and sat while keeping his eyes on the few patrons who had taken up seats around some of the tables in the lounge area of the bar.
Watching this bartender approach caused Scott to think that all Jacque's bartenders were the same species, all of Rustonian decent. It would be hard for him to tell which establishment he was in by the bartender as they all looked alike. This one named Bob, had poured a glass of the universally famous Merlot, grown and bottled here on Plaintiff. The Merlot wasn’t chilled, but it was fresh from the wine cellar which made the wine much cooler than the temperature in the bar. Small droplets of moisture had collected on the lower portion of the rounded glass causing small insignificant trickles down the glass. The flow continued unseen down the stem and onto the round bar coaster. The coaster soaked up the moisture to prevent leaving a ring on the highly polished expensive wood table.
Scott thanked Bob and lifted the glass and took a sip while the bar coaster clung to the bottom of the glass. He rose turned from the booth and moved closer to the one way glass for a better look at the bar patrons. Scott took another sip of wine then as he lowered the glass, the coaster decided it was time to free itself. He knew this would happen but he never knew when, so he stayed prepared. He released his hold on the glass and snapped the coaster out of the air before it had fallen no more than three inches.
It was a game he played that tested his reflexes. He only used his right hand to hold the glass and grab the coaster. Once the coaster came loose and started to fall, he would release the glass, grab the coaster, place the coaster on top of the glass and then catch the glass again before it fell more than four or five inches. The idea was to do this without spilling any of the contents from the glass.
He had perfected this after cases of broken glasses and lots of spilled water, not wine. His practice had paid off this time and he completed the action without losing the glass or spilling any of the drink.
There was an ultimate reason for this practice and reflex test. Unbeknown to Colby, it was to keep in shape for the quick draw of his antique side arm which he wore only when on this particular planet. It was a weapon used in, what was called, the old west on the planet earth during the early 1800s’. This particular piece had been updated with the addition of a larger size projection tube and bullet chamber. It now held the equivalent to a magnum 44 size lead pellet, smokeless black powder and brass casings with percussion caps for its ignition.
The weapon used expanding gas, from the quick burning black powder, to drive the lead pellet down the tube of the weapon. The gas expanded so fast that when the pellet left the metal tube it caused a loud report, more like a small explosion. The metal tube, or barrel, had spiraling grooves inside it to cause the lead pellet to spin. This spin prevented the lead pellet from knuckle balling, floating up or down or side to side, as it traveled to its target thereby increasing the accuracy of the projectile.
This weapon was a true antique and completely different from everyday phasers used throughout the galaxies. Those modern phasers weapons were almost silent emitting a whispering high voltage sound that sounded similar to water, under high pressure, squirting from a hose nozzle. The gun's sound was a very loud ear bursting explosion. Scott assumed that this loud report would be disarming and unexpected, maybe even alarming or distracting enough to allow him a moment to escape from danger.
Scott reseated and they sat for a moment and, while Scott finished his wine, he and Jacque discussed some interrogating strategies. Nothing clear cut came to mind so they decided to simply wing it.
“Well,” Jacque said. “Let us go and see if we can’t engage this individual in a conversation about Coordinators.”
Jacque and he split up and came into the bar from different directions. Scott came in from the front, as if off the street while Jacque came from the direction of his private booth. They entered about two minutes apart. As Scott entered, he saw that Jacque had taken up a position at the end of the bar. From his perch Jacque could see everyone in the entire bar.
A couple of heads turned as Scott entered the bar but no appreciable attention was given to him. The bartender, this particular Rustonian was called Joe, acknowledged his presence by pulling a cold mug from the micro freezer and filled it with Scott's favorite brand of beer. Well, it might as well be his favorite, it was the only beer available on this little planet. The monopoly and brewery were owned by a little friend of his. You can guess who.
As Joe set my beer down he asked. “Hey Scott, how is your day going?”
“Lousy.”Scott replied. “I’ve got to get off this planet. I’m just sick and tired of going from bar to bar. I’ve got to find a berth on a ship out of here. I got to get back into the vacuum of space. I’m losing my hard earned space legs on the unmoving surface of this dust ball.” Scott looked and swept his hand around indicating the bar area and asked. “Do you know if any of these patrons or if one of their ships is headed toward the Baltic Sector? I think that’s a place I would like to see. I hear they’ve got two super nice space ports there that cater to old and young space dogs."
“Oh man, you don’t want to go the Martinez.” Joe said as he shook his head.
“And why not? I’m not afraid of any old space port aliens or situations.”Scott asked.
“It’s not the aliens that will bother you.” Joe said quietly so only Scott would hear. “It’s the current activities that frighten most people.”
Following Joe’s lead, he quietly asked. “What is it, a few murders, rapes, robberies?”
“Worse than that. It’s full scale conflict between two of the planets in that sector.” Joe paused and nodded his head, turned his eyes and tipped one of his antennas toward one of the bar’s patrons. “Well that is what Keogg said.”
Scott looked in the direction Joe was pointing and saw a large Senueian seated at one of the many tables that were randomly arranged throughout the bar.
Scott picked up his beer mug and walked over to the table where Keogg sat. As he arrived he asked. “Who’s Keogg?”
“Who wants to know?” Asked a Trioped Zipploydd who was in the process of vacuuming up some of his drink with one of his intake tubes.
Scott took his time replying because of the way the zipploydd spoke. Their way of speaking was unusually hard to understand. It wasn’t an alien language, it’s just that when a zipploydd spoke, each word was repeated by a second oval flap covered mouth. The repeated words were muffled and followed so closely to the first that it sounded like a dull but loud echo that almost covered the next word. It took a moment to decipher. To understand his talking, you had to mentally tune out the echo. Scott had almost forgotten this but he quickly did the mental work necessary and understood the zipploydd’s comments.
“I do, Scott Standard, ex Nav/Comm Officer, SPTPS
Calsin, out of the Stailing Sector.” Scott stated while displaying the international sign of greeting. “And, who are you?”
“Diealeauge,” The Zipploydd echoed, “Ship’s Stores, AFCD Climate, Celloid Sector. He is Keogg.” Diealeauge said indicating the Senueian across the table. One eye stayed locked on me as one moved to indicate Keogg while most of his attention had returned to the vacuuming of his chilled libation.
Keogg grunted his acknowledgement and raised his glass in greeting. “Keogg, Ships First Officer, same ship as my talkative friend. What can I do for you?”
“Joe, the bartender, tells me there is a full scale war going on in the Baltic Sector.” Scott said as if amazed at that situation.
“And you have some problem with that?” Keogg asked with some malice.
“Well, I just find it a little hard to believe since I know for a fact that the Coordinators have completely eliminated war.” This had been true for some time now but Scott wasn’t sure about the present due to the attacks. He, hopefully, replied with convictions anyway.
They all three laughed at my statement.
“The only thing the Coordinators eliminated was themselves.” Keogg actually guffawed as he completed this statement. This caused some spittle to trickle down his chins and mix with the foam left there by the beer. Keogg ran his furry arm across his mouth removing all traces of the foam mixture.
Scott had to restrain himself from saying something stupid. “What makes that so funny, are you some type of war monger or do you just have a hatred for Coordinators?”
The coaster, that had temporally adhered to the bottom of his glass, picked this time to come loose and start to drop. Scott automatically released his glass and snapped the coaster from the air, placed in on top of his glass then caught the glass before it had fallen no more than four inches. Using only the one hand during the trick, not a drop of the contents was spilled.
I don’t think that Keogg was sure of what he had seen. I think the only thing that registered was the fact that the hand movement was incredibly fast. This was the first time Scott noticed that they were aware of the sidearm he was wearing. Scott thought it caused his next comments to be a little less gruff and maybe just possibly contain a little respect.
“No, in answer to both of your questions.” He explained with a dismissing wave of his hand. “It just struck me as funny, you know, them trying to eliminate war and them the only thing eliminated. I don’t have anything against Coordinators, but I know I did want to attack some of them a while back, why, I don’t know. Now it seems, since we went through the Baltic Sector again, I, ah, we” Keogg said as he included his friends, “lost that feeling.”
Before Scott could ask his next question, Keogg asked. “Hey, what was that thing you did, that hand movement thing with the coaster and glass? That was impressive.”
“Just a way to keep my gun hand in shape.” Scott said hoping he understood.
“Do you know what caused you to want to attack the Coordinators and do you know why you lost that feeling of wanting to attack them?” Scott asked.
“Again the answer to these two questions is no. Why are you so curious and interested in this? Are you a Coordinator or something?” Diealeauge, finished with his drink, idly asked but not really interested in the answer.
“Actually, I had the same feelings you had and I’m just trying to find out the reason for it.” Scott lied straight faced. “My desire has also left me so I would like to find out why. Could you stand for a few more questions that may shed some light on this for all of us?” Scott asked this question as he located and pulled up a chair facing the Senueian and his friends.