One morning Arr informed Tim he was going to Penal Planet #18. He took Jake's cruiser out of orbit within the hour and Tim tagged along.
They sat for a week just out of the range of the drones guns. The Henu was listless. For hours he did nothing, but sit and listen to the drone and its crew's sub-space chatter.
Tim was restless. Over the years he found that the best medicine for a hopeless problem was action and plenty of it! Get your mind off your troubles. So, when an opportunity for a job came across the system he accepted. He spent three days, all the time he had, trying to convince Arr to go with him. He couldn't just leave the kid. Jake would never have forgiven him. He owed it to Jake to look after the boy. But Arr wouldn't budge. When Tim tried to force him both, Arr and Kay-o turned on him. He finally took to his own ship and headed toward the awaiting battle by himself. That was almost three weeks ago.
Arr was sure if he heard enough of the drone and its crew's language he could learn it, but they spoke so little. Arr kept the communications system tuned into them twenty four hours a day. He recorded it all so he could play back what little he had over and over again. Finally it was someone else's death that saved Jake's life.
It was a small cruiser and it drifted into the drone's air space. Maybe it was on auto pilot and had not been programmed around the red zone. Maybe the pilot saw Jake's craft and assumed he was in a safe area. Arr didn't have a chance to warn them. It was destroyed within moments. The drone ship and its crew came to life; there was a flurry of chatter, then silence again as soon as the ship exploded. In those few moments Arr got what he needed. He went to work establishing a hook up between the drone ship's computer and Jake's. From the first day aboard the Calpernia Arr started to learn the workings of the computer. When the link was established he did a very simple thing he reprogrammed the drone and its crew to accept something as large as a pod to land on the planet's surface. He got Kay-o into the pod and filled his pocket with Red Raspberry Goo Chews. He would need Kay-o to obey him without question on this trip.
Chapter 45
The place was a disaster. The landscape was devastated. Arr had never seen anything like it. Every bush, tree and the ground itself was stripped of anything living, anything green. Arr tossed Kay-o a fist full of Goo Chews and commanded him to guard the pod. The dar-dolf settled down obediently in the pilot's seat. Arr went to search for Jake.
He found the first dead body within the hour. Within the next four hours he found a dozen more. They all appeared to have starved. He found evidence of them having eaten bark off the trees, something that looked like pine needle soup, even the leather of their boots. His hopes for Jake were fading with every step he took.
He found Jake in the sixth hour of his search. He was in a cave by a small lake. He was alive, but just barely. Jake was a skeleton of his former self. Arr had no trouble picking him up and carrying him to the landing pod. He had probably lost fifty to sixty pounds.
When Arr arrived at the pod Kay-o wasn't sure he should let Arr bring the bundle of rags he was carrying aboard until he scented Jake. Then it took all the rest of the Goo Chews to calm him down enough to get back into the pod for lift off.
Back on board the cruiser Arr reset the computer aboard the drone. He would leave no evidence that anyone ever escaped. When the GO found out about the inhabitants of the planet, if they ever did, they would think Jake died among them.
Arr set course for his home planet. Then went to see what he could do for Jake.
Chapter 46
Tim received a message from Arr apologizing for his actions at their last parting and begging him to come to the Henu planet. No reason given just coordinates. Tim figured he owed it to the kid. He made the last five years of Jake's freedom happy. Jake couldn't have had a more loyal partner. He was glad to hear that the kid obviously gave up his vigil at the penal planet and went home for some R&R. Maybe he was ready to join up with Tim. Tim decided on the way that he'd be happy to take Arr on.
Arr and Kay-o met Tim's pod when it set down beside Jake's at the lake's edge.
"Lovely little place you got here." Tim greeted warmly. "You look...."
"Jake's alive and I have him here," Arr interrupted Tim's speech just as he was going to say that the kid looked the best he'd seen him in a long time.
Tim stood rooted to the ground. Jake here? It wasn't possible.
Arr led the stunned mercenary toward the tree house. "He was really bad when I first sent for you. He's better now."
"But how?" Tim asked, almost at a loss for words for the first time in his life.
"I'll tell you later after you see him. He heard your pod. He's waiting to talk with you. Go on up. I'll gather our meal while you two are visiting."
Tim awkwardly climbed up to the tree house, his large body not built for agile climbing. Jake was lying on a pallet by the fire. If he was looking better Tim wondered what in heaven he'd looked like before. He was nothing but skin and bones. His beard was gone. The bones on his face stuck out to such a degree that he looked like a skeleton.
Jake could see the shock on Tim's face at the sight of his condition. He peered out from hollow eyes and with a mischievous grin on his face said in a hoarse voice, "I look different without my beard, huh?"
Tim sat for a half hour while he listened to Jake tell about the ordeal he went through. He attributed his salvation to three things. He was the last put on the planet and therefore the strongest, he decided if the locusts ate everything he had a right to eat them, and Arr finally came.
Jake told Tim the amazing story of Arr's breaking of the drone ship's crew's binary code and about the rescue that he thought would never come.
Arr returned a short time later with the fixings for supper. "That's enough for now," he ordered. "Get some rest before supper." The young Henu pulled the covers up over Jake's frail frame.
Jake drifted off into a restful sleep. Tim moved to the fireside and sat watching Arr prepare a stew.
"Why didn't you tell me what you were up to at the penal planet?" Tim's tone was slightly reproachful. "I feel like I deserted him."
"Don't. I didn't know if I could do it. I just knew I had to try." Arr paused, his eyes misting over. "I thought he would die the first few days. That's why I sent you the message. He kept talking in his delirium about you and his father."
When the stew was ready Arr gently woke Jake, pulled him to a sitting position up against his chest and helped Jake feed himself. The weak man made valiant efforts to hit his mouth, but his hand shook uncontrollably. Each time he'd miss Arr would wipe him off with a rag he kept close at hand. Jake saw the pained look on Tim's face. He smiled reassuringly.
"You think this is bad you should have seen me when I couldn't even swallow, drooled down my chin. That's the reason he shaved the beard off, got tired of cleaning it." Jake teased.
"That's not so and you know it," Arr reprimanded. "He had lice in it. I would have shaved his head too, but he stopped me." Arr smoothed a stray curl back off Jake's forehead and out of his eyes.
Jake may have been a shadow of the man he was, but he was in good spirits and in excellent hands. In time he'd recover to the man he once was.
Tim stayed on for about a week. He found it horribly painful to watch Jake. It reminded him of the recovery time after Taylor's death, which brought back too many painful memories. When a job came up he jumped at it and told Jake and Arr he'd be back after it was settled.
Chapter 47
Jake steadily improved. As summer turned to fall and fall to winter he regained his strength and weight. With his beard grown back, his body fleshing out again, he began to look like the old Jake.
Tim visited often and always came bearing gifts, tidbits he thought Jake would find appetizing, Goo Chews for Kay-o and usually some exotic fruit or vegetable for Arr.
On Tim's last visit in the late fall he tried to convince them to join him on a job, but Jake decided against it. It wasn't that he didn't think he was up to it. He was feeling good
by then. But, he and Arr had spent a lot of time talking. He had little strength to do anything else. Arr and Jake had become even closer through the ordeal of Jake's recovery. When someone feeds you, gives you baths because you haven't the strength to do it yourself, in short, does everything for you, it creates a bond that is beyond words to express.
Arr told Jake about Nor's stories of the snow, then about his horrible nightmares after their first battle on the ice planet. Jake wanted to do something for Arr. He would help Arr chase these particular demons away for good. They would stay until the first snow.
Last night there was a smell in the air, a crispness that you could feel. Jake said it felt like snow. They awakened to a light dusting of the white stuff. By mid-morning the flakes were as large as the palm of your hand. Jake had never seen anything so beautiful.
By mid-afternoon there was enough of an accumulation to play in it. They built a snowman with Goo Chews for eyes, nose and mouth. They made a mistake using the candies for buttons. Kay-o got a whiff of them and the snowman was knocked down and relieved of his adornments. Jake started a snowball fight. He was winning until Arr thought to put Goo Chews in his balls. Jake couldn't handle the onslaught of snow and a rampaging dar-dolf. Arr had the idea of using Kay-o as a sled dog later in the afternoon, but by then they had run out of bribery material. Instead they built a fire under the shelter of a tree to dry themselves.
In the evening the temperature dropped to such a degree that the three moved up to the warmth of the Calpernia. Their stay on the Henu planet came to a natural end with the move to the ship. When Tim arrived the next day the three were ready to accompany him on his next mission.
Chapter 48
Mother Ships are the largest known vessels in the universe. They are the brain child of a group called The Order. Their crews alone number close to four hundred. Their whole compliment could go as high as twenty five hundred. They are the heaviest armed ships in existence. They are peacekeepers. When a Mother Ship enters a solar system it usually accomplished that feat.
However, fighting is not their main function. They are research vessels. They have the best equipped labs, the finest scientists and doctors available. When they move into a solar system the planets use the ship's facilities to augment their own. Problems that have a planet bound scientist or doctor baffled for days, weeks, maybe even months, can usually be solved in a matter of hours aboard the Mother Ships. There are ten Mother Ships. Margaret O'Connor was Chief Medical Officer aboard the one named the St. Mary.
Dr. O'Connor was a remarkable woman. She was not only brilliant, but also a true humanitarian. She studied with all the top physicians in her field and left them all behind. She joined the St. Mary's crew because it was the only position that could challenge her mind. Among her other duties as Chief Medical Officer she was in charge of the study of new life forms. Her specialty was the rare and exotic.
She was a woman of just over forty years of age. Margaret liked to jokingly tell people she was born the height she was, 5' 10" in her stocking feet. She had strawberry blond hair, milk white skin and large, blue, inquiring eyes.
Her father was in the Earth Forces. Her mother dragged the family from pillar to post following him on his many assignments. It was no wonder that Margaret liked strong, forceful men.
Chapter 49
The job Tim needed their help for was a 'cake walk' as Tim put it. Not having been on a mission in over six months it was a good easy break back into working life for Jake and Arr. Tim hadn't really needed help just company. They escorted and protected an ambassador from his home planet to a meeting and back again. Jake and Arr just tagged along for the ride.
They passed the Mother Ship on the way back to the Henu planet to pick up the Calpernia. Jake thought it would be fun to show Arr the better side of space travel. Besides, Jake lost two teeth from his ordeal on Penal Planet #18. He could get new ones implanted on the St. Mary. They'd have a nice visit. Maybe pick up some useful news as well.
"You'll never get any useful information from the St. Mary. When she moves into a solar system everyone is on their best behavior." Tim snorted in disdain.
Tim had 'other fish to fry.' Now that the boys were on the mend he pointed his cruiser in the opposite direction for an Outpost that always had juicy information.
Chapter 50
The Mother Ship was impressive from the air.
"There are only ten of them in existence." Jake explained, as he placed the Calpernia in dock while waiting for clearance to bring the pod aboard the huge ship. "They each have a particular territory assigned to them. They're research and aid vessels, but don't let that fool you they have incredible fire power."
The ship dwarfed anything Arr had seen previously.
"The working part of the ship is that thick disc shaped part at the base." Jake pointed. "That contains the engines, life support systems, labs, bridge, and crew quarters."
Jake could see the base was not what was holding his friends rapt attention. It was the dome on the top of the disc that fascinated Arr.
"Isn't it incredible? It's totally impregnable even though it's translucent." Even Jake was impressed by one of these floating cities.
Under the dome Arr could make out a buzzing metropolis - a whole city visible to all the cruisers that surrounded the ship like bees around a queen.
Jake received clearance for them to board. They left Kay-o on the Calpernia, took the pod and headed down for Arr's introduction to city life.
The city was wondrous. Fountains and art work everywhere. Such a variety of beings. Jake explained that anyone could hire on to a Mother Ship the catch was that the ship was limited in living space so they were very choosey about who they accepted. You had to have something they needed.
Jake couldn't get an appointment for his teeth until the afternoon. So, they wandered the streets and had a bite to eat in a small cafe with open air seating. Most of the places Jake took Arr they always fought non-humans. He was the only accepted alien. Here every other being was an alien. He was so busy gawking that Jake had to remind him to eat before it got cold.
*****
Jake was getting a kick out of watching Arr. Those big, blue cat eyes of his were bugged out so far you could have knocked them off with a stick.
Jake figured he'd leave Arr in the Imaging Chamber while he was at the dentist. He took Arr down into the base ship and introduced him to the holograph operators. They went through the usual spiel they did for the tourists. They told Arr they could recreate, by his instructions, any place he would care to experience. They demonstrated by creating a Muldavian sunset one of the most spectacular sights in the known universe. Jake and Arr stood in a mountain vineyard overlooking a valley as the sun sank below the horizon. The sky with its strata cirrus clouds went through a riot of colors, breathtaking swirls and stripes of rainbow hues. When the demo was completed the operators asked what Arr's request would be. Arr was like a kid in a candy store. He wanted to see all the places his father spoke of, also the ones Jake told him about.
"Keep an eye on the kid for me fellas, while I'm at the dentist." Jake slipped them the required ingot of gold for their services plus an additional one for their troubles. They were used to such requests, but not such a large tip. They both smiled pleasantly.
When he picked Arr up two hours later the operators said he gave them quite a work out. He managed to see and experience fourteen different holographic scenes.
The kid was usually on the quiet side, but all during dinner and back aboard the cruiser that night he rattled on like Tim. Jake found it all very amusing. He was pleased he could finally do something for the kid after all Arr did for him in the past few months.
In the morning Arr begged for a return trip to the St. Mary. There were just a few more images he wanted to see in the Imaging Chamber and he promised Tim he would get Jake in for a full physical. Jake was dragging his feet. Arr thought a physical must be very painful because Jake didn't even act like this before they went
into a battle where they knew they would be out numbered. He wouldn't have forced the issue, but Tim thought it was very important for Jake to go. He made Arr promise he would see that he did. Arr finally struck a bargain over breakfast with Jake. He would go for a physical too, if Jake would.
*****
Jake knew the kid wouldn't give up. He'd given his word to Tim and Jake never knew Arr to lie or break a promise. Besides, he thought it might be a good idea to have a base medical graph of Arr in case he was ever badly injured. His insides might be different from humans and it could come in handy for the doctors.
Chapter 51
Margaret was sitting at her desk piled high with files when one of her physician's assistants poked his head in the door.
"I have an alien for a physical that hasn't been cataloged, doctor." The excitement could easily be detected in the young man's voice.
Ah, it was moments like these that she lived for. She hadn't seen a new species in over eleven months - almost a year. The Mother Ships all pooled their computer data so even if they were new to you they were old hat to someone else. This one would be new to everyone. She loved a challenge. Margaret jumped up from her seat, straightened her lab coat and picked up her scanner from the desk top.
The assistant opened the door to the examination room for the doctor. "No need for an auto-translator. He speaks perfect English."
"Hello." Margaret walked up to Arr and extended her hand. "My name is Dr. Margaret O'Connor. I'm Chief Medical Officer aboard the St. Mary."
Arr extended his hand, but did not immediately speak. He was wondering what he did wrong to warrant the doctor getting his superior. They were only talking. He answered all the questions to the best of his knowledge. The doctor even asked him if he could point out his planet on a space chart. He did as he was asked even though he couldn't imagine what the location of his planet had to do with what he understood as a scanning of his physical body.