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The next day brought with it a let up on the weather front, and the sun even tried to break through the rain clouds, but it was still decidedly cool. The firm that Ray had contacted to buy the contraband goods duly arrived, they collected their goods, and paid in the promised gold coins. One piece of luck for the group was when the firm asked Ray if he would like a cargo that should be ready for shipment within the next seven days, assuming that he had no other pressing commitments. Ray jumped at the chance, as any contraband runner would have done, after saying goodbye the Lyren merchants then left. They now had a reason for delaying the departure of the freighter from Lyre.
The morning went by slowly, and the fear that Jean felt increased with each passing minute, when lunchtime finally came and went, she could barely control her compulsion to burst into tears. She visibly jumped when their recent guests returned with some friends to take away the weapons hidden within the hold of the Jeanette. They had returned in a delivery van with the name ‘Foods for All’ written across its side, a large white vehicle that was large enough to contain many things as well as the food that it always carried. Various foods were unloaded in large crates, and when the crates had been taken into the Jeanette`s hold the food was taken out of them and the weapons were then put into the same now empty crates, and then taken back aboard their truck. Now the danger that they all faced reached maximum, for should they be discovered with the weapons they would all be at the mercy of the vile regime that ruled this planet.
Jean realised that she would have to either give up her journey across the wilds of Lyre or toughen up. If Ray and the others went without her, she knew she would live in dread of the possible failure of their mission until they returned, and suffer for ever more with a loathing of her own cowardice. If they returned without Peter, she would live with a feeling of guilt, of having left Peter to die on this horrible planet without raising a hand to try to secure his release, and that would also last for the rest of her life. Not long ago Jean, although nearly twenty, was still just a young girl protected from life by her brother, at this moment in time Jean took the second step to becoming a woman, the first step being when she decided to look for her brother. She had hoped that no one had seen her state of mind but Harry Proctor had, he had also seen her get control of herself and so he had said nothing, there was something about Jean that Harry knew would rise to any occasion that life threw at her, if she was given the chance to prove herself.
The ‘delivery of the food’ was finished and also all of the weapons and the rest of the gold were safely aboard the delivery truck, and as the deliverymen began to get aboard it, Jonas spoke to Ray.
“Be ready to leave tomorrow, about ten in the morning, what excuse will you give for not immediately leaving the space port?”
“I have arranged with the firm who took delivery of our cargo to take a cargo of their goods to the planet Apraxia. It is due to be ready for despatch in about seven days or so, we must be back here by then or Harry will have to delay our departure due to a mechanical fault. They may give us a little more time to fix the problem, if not then we will have only lost a cargo, but if we were to arrive much later after that date then the ship would begin to attract unwelcome attention.”
“This missing agent must be very important then?” Jonas asked casually. Ray would never put his trust in a Lyren that he had known for only a few hours, so he wondered if there was more behind the question, but for now, they needed the Lyren freedom movement.
“To his sister he is most important and the sister is very important to Harry and me.”
Jonas threw a perplexed glance at the person who was now Jean, and he thought that she must have some hidden quality that he had missed, for he wouldn`t risk his life and his ship for the spinster.
“I will be back tomorrow morning Captain, until then stay lucky.” Jonas then turned and left with the other members of the freedom movement. He needed to make more arrangements for their journey tomorrow.
Jean had a penchant for languages and already knew three other languages apart from English, and so ever since the trip had been planned she had been trying to learn Lyren. It was easier than she had imagined for the language was a hotchpotch of a language very similar to German, which Jean could speak fluently, with a large smattering of English and French words thrown in for good luck. Ray had asked Jean to stay silent regarding her newly discovered talent, as it might come in handy if people thought that they could speak freely in front of her without the fear of her understanding their conversation.
With the rest of the afternoon and night ahead of them, they decided on an early evening meal, and then Colonel Michaels entertained them all with recollections of the high points of his time in the space marines and of the many places he had seen. Ray and Harry had been to some of the places, but always as simple traders rather than as trouble busters, and they too told tales of their own past and also those of Ray`s parents. It was a happy evening and took everyone’s mind off the coming day and the dangers that it carried, but as the night turned late they all settled down, to what would be the last comfortable night`s sleep they would enjoy for some time, in preparation for the hardships of the coming journey.
The next morning was dry and fine but much cooler when a different delivery van from yesterday turned up; this one was supposedly from a firm that sold spare parts for starships. Two men jumped down from it, Jonas was again one of the men, and he was carrying a large suitcase and a sack.
“Captain this is Claude, my brother.” Jonas said indicating his driver who simply nodded to them all.
“You are all ready to depart?” Jonas asked.
“We are ready, how do you want to play this, do we simply get into your van, or do we employ subterfuge?”
“It is simple, Captain.” Jonas said putting the suitcase on the table in the galley and opening it. “You and the Colonel will put on these two state police uniforms along with these heavy overcoats, as it will be very cold where you are going at this time of the year. Your other two friends must put on the clothes worn by the slaves of this planet, they are in the sack, and I have some furs for them that the slaves working in the Carpathian Mountains wear. When the time is right we will all climb in through the door in the side of the van, your ship is large enough to shield us from view by the officials in the ports offices, and my van does the same from anyone who may be watching from the other side of the space port.”
“Don`t they have any sophisticated surveillance devices anywhere?” Colonel Michaels enquired.
“They do but in fifteen minutes time they will flash off for twenty seconds, during that time we will make the transfer, you should be wearing your new clothes by that time. You will hide in a false front section of the van, a similar concealed space to the one on your ship in which you concealed the weapons that you brought for us. Claude will open this when he climbs back into the van, and then with Claude and me in the front of the van we will leave the space port and take you on to your starting point.”
Jonas caught sight of a query growing in Colonel Michael`s eyes and answered the unspoken question.
“You will all have to travel in the back because only citizens of Lyre are permitted to enter or leave the space port, unless of course you are a member of the crew of a visiting ship. Claude, Carl-Josef and I are all Lyrens. As none of you will be leaving the space port as a member of the crew of this freighter we must hide you.” Jonas explained as if to a child. He then went on to tell them something about himself.
“My brother and I actually started the freedom movement; we both felt that it was wrong of our people to enslave others. We decided to do something about it; up until the time that Earth declared war upon the Lyre Federation there was a limit to what we could actually do for these people, but now we hope to overthrow the current government and give the people of the enslaved planets back their freedom. The people you will be travelling with are people who have been forcibly relocated from one of the
nearby planets, we have arranged for this particular batch to travel to the area around the Carpathian Mountains. Workers are needed there to begin cutting down the forest, and then to start to set up the new farms where they would be expected to spend the rest of their lives, if things on this planet do not improve, now time is short please finish dressing quickly.”
In just ten minutes they were all dressed in their new outfits. The state police uniforms were almost completely black and well pressed, and together with the peaked cap that completed the ensemble looked quite smart, if you are in to such things, they were also provided with starched shirts, a black tie and long leather boots. The clothes for the other two were of a much different quality, just a pair of trousers resembling jeans of a poor quality, a thin shirt, a heavy jumper. They also had a pair of what looked rather like wellington boots, a long cloth coat and finally a rather worn looking fur coat. Together they would help keep out some of the cold of the Lyren winter.
“Jonas, Ray and I have a change of underwear and socks in our backpacks, along with our washing gear which we will take with us, but if Jean and the lieutenant are going as slaves then they will need the use of your sack to take their gear with them.” Colonel Michaels said.
“Yes of course Colonel they can use the sack.” Jonas replied.
“It is almost time to go Harry, so I will say adieu now and tell you not to worry too much about us, for we will see you real soon, take care of the ship and also of yourself.” Ray said to his old friend, Jean also wanted to say goodbye.
“Don`t you worry about Ray, I will look after him Harry.” Jean said raising a small smile and then kissing Harry on the cheek.
“I`m not worried about Ray he`s old enough and ugly enough to take care of himself, and now you are all out of my hair I can give the Jeanette a bit of a clean-up.” Harry grumbled but when he looked at Jean, he winked at her and smiled. “You take care of yourself Jean, according to that Tom Parkinson, Lyre is a very dangerous place right now, and it sure isn`t New Caledonia.” Harry said gently to the young woman of whom he had come to be very fond.
Then Jonas`s timer rang its message to them with a quiet tingling bell, it was to inform them all that the four people from Earth should now climb into the nearby side of the van. When they were inside Jonas closed the door and then in turn got in to the front of the van beside Claude his brother. The four in the rear of the van were safely hidden from view, and from their claustrophobic space they heard the van start. Moments later, they felt it move away and after a brief stop at the space ports gates, they were off on their adventure.
The journey took more than an hour, so they were all relieved when their journey was over and they could get out and stretch their legs. Colonel Michaels though had been spending the time thinking certain matters over.
“Jonas as a delivery driver you hardly have the power to arrange where and when slave labour can be moved around the planet?” Colonel Michaels asked when they had climbed from the van. Ray had also been pondering over this as well.
“That is because I am not a delivery man, this firm is owned by my brother, and I occasionally help him when it suits me to do so. I am actually a member of the Lyren Government, and the movement of slave labour is my main responsibility, should I be recognised it could be embarrassing for me but not dangerous, for this eccentricity of mine is well known.”
“Why then do you need to obtain travel documents, if you are in charge of the slave labour department?” Colonel Michaels asked.
“Because although I am in charge of my own department, all travel around Lyre is regulated by the state police, and it is this department that gives out the necessary travel documents, so you see helping you is a very risky business. Now then, Ron, Ray, you will take your two compatriots around the corner where you will find a truck full of people, they will accompany you on your journey, the two drivers are members of the movement but all the others are slave labour and so they are not to be taken into your confidence. From now on, your two friends are vermin, as are the other slaves. You will travel in the staff car parked behind the truck. As I said the driver is a member of the movement, as is the driver of the truck, you would normally not drive the staff car as the state police are above such things, treat him as you do the truck driver, and that is as one treats a poor relative. Here is an envelope, it contains all of your documents plus a little about the lives that you are supposed to have lived on Lyre, memorise it as soon as you get into your vehicle and then destroy it.” Jonas said giving Ray the envelope. “Good luck on your mission, I will probably not meet up with you again, but I will always remember four brave if foolish people who came to this planet in search of a friend.”