"Sounds like a good system, but how do you ever get a decision?"
"You will find the races in space much fairer and determined to do the best for everyone than Earth's primitive councils and governments," stated Mark and that put Andrew Forster, once the most powerful man on Earth, firmly in his place.
The ship was finally approaching Peskini with Jimmy at the controls. Dr. Hendricks had gone to wash up and Julianna sat with a still prone Milk. Jason walked over and sat across Milk from her.
"How is he?" he asked looking down at the unconscious Indian.
Julianna looked up at him and swept away hair stuck to her forehead with sweat. "Much better, the Doc did a good job. I'm glad we found him."
"Same here, we can't lose the big guy."
She looked at him looking at Milk. "You really have changed, haven't you?"
"I don't know, I can't really remember who I was before I was Jason. I mean I remember things, but not fully who I was. It's just not in me anymore," he looked up at her, "to be that kind of person, to be? you know."
"A bastard?" asked Milk groggily.
"You're awake. How do you feel?" asked a pleased Julianna.
"Like I was stomped by a Krillona Ectophat," that is to say like he was stomped by a beast twice the size of an elephant with tusks in really unusual places.
"Worse than when Ruth Postlethwaite took you back to her place?" Jason asked.
"Not quite," Milk managed a weak grin.
"Yeah, though she may have been bigger than an Ectophat."
"Hey, she had a lovely personality."
Jason looked over at Julianna.
"He walked funny for a week," he grinned.
"You can talk, remember Amy Hansen?"
"Anyway," Jason said quickly, "you shouldn't talk, you should rest."
"Ha! Face that could scare a Mungrovian Scplab," Milk wheezed.
"Yes, yes, rest now," he turned to Julianna. "Delusional, probably the pain."
"Of course," Julianna replied a smile playing on her lips.
"We're nearing atmosphere," Jimmy called back and Jason got up to join him, but Milk grabbed his hand.
"Where's the Doc? I want to thank him."
"Yeah, we all do, Milk, we all do," he looked down at his friend looking up at him and they both grinned.
"They're entering Peskini atmosphere," the Laikan monitoring the tracker told.
"Peskini?" asked Trillo more to himself. "What would they want on Peskini?"
"Perhaps this is where they hid whatever it is we're trying to retrieve," one assassin suggested.
"First," pointed out Trillo in dangerous calm, "don't talk about things you know nothing about and second, the time for retrieval is over, I want Chase Darkstaar and I want him very, very dead."
Parked in the space port Jason ordered them to gather up their meagre belongings. As they did so Jason went over to Dr. Hendricks.
"Is Milk going to be able to make it, it's a fair way out of the city."
"Does he have any other option?" the Doctor asked quite rightly.
"No, he doesn't."
"Then he will have to make it. I for one have not forgotten about the tracking device, have you?"
"No I haven't," he gave the Doc's shoulder a squeeze and went to find Julianna.
***
Milk was up and moving slowly. Jimmy, having nothing with him, helped Milk pack.
"So Jason tell you the story?"
"Yes, mon, 'tis hard to believe."
"Yeah. Look, I'm sorry you've got dragged into this," Milk said as he leaned against the doorjamb.
"Ahh, life was getting a bit dull anyway," he flashed a smile at Milk as he closed the bag and shouldered it.
"So you ready for one last adventure?" Milk asked wryly.
"Adventures in space? 'Tis what we are all about, brudder," he replied with a wink.
***
Jason found Julianna finishing packing in her small room.
"Julianna," she spun around.
"Oh, sorry, a bit jumpy I guess."
"I think we all are," Jason returned. "Listen, keep on your guard, if you're right then Laikans will be following us."
"You think I'm right?"
"Yeah, I do, and we need to protect Milk. Once we get to the Vulcan things will be better. More in control."
"Then let's get this on," she said with strength she wasn't sure she had. Jason turned to leave. "Jason," he turned, "who's going to protect me?"
"I am, I got you all into this, I'll get you out again."
"And if you're busy protecting us, who's going to protect you?"
He flashed her a grin.
"Chase Darkstaar."
***
Peskini was, to be sure, an odd planet. Half of it was desert, the other half water dotted with tropical islands. This lead to two distinct peoples, the desert folk and the islanders. The islanders grew fruit and vegetables while the desert nomads herded longgots.
The longgot is a bit like a cow, but with big ears that protrude straight up and look a lot like umbrellas. It also has a long snout that reaches to the ground. This snout is used to hoover up sand, from which the longgot extracts the small animals that live in the desert. The sand is then mostly excreted, but some gets stuck and gradually forms pearls in the longgots stomach that it then also excretes. The nomads trade longgot meat and pearls with the islanders for fruit and vegetables. The islanders then trade the pearls for electronics and luxuries.
The space port was in the City of Newd in the desert on the edge of the sea. It was a city that had grown up around the space port and really only served tourists who were either off to the islands or to one of the desert hotels and casinos.
In a diner near the space port they ate fine longgot burgers (the meat really is delicious). Milk ate a healthy meal and though still weak, seemed much better to all of them. Honestly he really was ace at hiding the pain.
As Hendricks and Jimmy came out here fairly often they knew where to hire a vehicle to take them out into the desert and to the ruins.
While they walked, Jason, who hadn't been on holiday in a long time remembered how much he hated tourists, the whole city was bustling with rude, loudly clothed tourists from seemingly every race in the galaxy. On their way to the vehicle rental they stopped at a street vendor and bought hats and sunglasses and Hendricks said hello to a few people he knew.
"Hello, Doc, Robert, back again so soon," said the Petruthsian who ran the vehicle rental. "Must have found something mighty interesting out at the ruins to come back again, what? A month later? Bet it's treasure, I do! I do, I do."
"Good morrow, Bletch. No treasure, I'm afraid, just bringing my friends to see the ruins," Dr. Hendricks small talked.
"Well, nice to meet you all, I'd shake hands, but I don't have any, do I?" he guffawed to himself, "Welcome to Peskini, first time? I say, is your friend alright? He looks mighty pale."
"He's fine, just a bit of travel sickness," replied the Doctor.
"Oh, yes, happens to the best of us, doesn't it? Well, not me, I haven't been out travelling for years. That's the thing about working on a tourist planet, everyone's on holiday, but you! Personally I'd love to go and see the Chonce fish of Cannae, or maybe visit the Aurora Borealis spa on Earth, put a few more years on my life. But then that would be a few more years renting cars wouldn't it?"
"I'm sorry," Julianna put in as the Petruthsian took a breath, "but our friend is quite ill, can we get a vehicle?"
"Yes, of course, same as usual, Doc?"
"That would be fine."
The Petruthsian led them out of the little office and past assorted vehicles to a large tracked vehicle. It had high suspension over the two tracks either side and was basically a big cigar shape. This Jimmy explained helped it to roll and right itself if it tumbled down a sand dune.
With the money sorted and the Petruthsian still talking about holidays and putting two children through university the motley crew drove off.
"Hmm, guess they don't have children, well I wouldn't mind children with that woman. Now, Bletch, don't even think such things, what would happen if the missus found you thinking such things? Nothing good, nothing good," he said to himself as he slithered back to the office.
***
Trillo sat in the very same diner, in the very same seat that Jason had occupied not so long ago. He had radioed ahead and had a Cantorvial watch the space port and follow Chase and the rest. It was with this Cantorvial, Resker, that Trillo now sat.
"Into the desert you say? Well how is that worth my money? It covers damn well half the planet," Trillo said gritting his pointy teeth.
"Watch your language, you're not talking to one of your doggy henchmen," rasped the behooded Resker.
"And you'll not get paid unless I get some information that shows you actually earned it; didn't just take a fifty-fifty."
"Their direction suggests either the Ruins of Rarbar or the Sandstorm Casino. The Petruthsian who rented them a sandcruiser seemed to know the Laikan quite well, he will know where exactly they went," a Ventrwistian coffee went into the darkness of the hood and Trillo could hear, but not see Resker slurp it down.
It wasn't long before one of Trillo's assassins was hanging Bletch upside down.
"Now tell me where they went," Trillo ordered holding a pair of large wire cutters.
"Well, how should I know?" a terrified Bletch pleaded. "They just rented a sandcruiser, I guess the desert."
"You want to be a funny slug?"
"I'm not a slug," he still managed to find some indignation.
"I'm going to cut off a tentacle now," Trillo pointed out in that dangerous calm of his and lifted the wire cutters.
"No! No! OK, OK, they went to the Ruins of Rarbar, the Doc was just taking his friends to see it. Lovely people, the woman was mighty attractive I can tell you, though don't tell my wife I said that," Bletch burbled. The henchman dropped him to the floor.
The same kind of theorising could explain the rise of the Laikans, but that is where similarities end. Whilst the Albertines welcomed the UTN and quickly were regarded as the great philosophers and fashion designers of the Universe, the Laikans were a much more feral race and chaffed at the collar of the UTN's rules and regulations. Eventually they started the First Laikan War with a few other races.
The war was short and the Laikans were pushed back to the edge of the Universe where they promptly conquered most of the surrounding galaxies before peace was negotiated.
The problem was that most of the Universe was peace loving and the Laikans weren't really and no one wanted to have to deal with them. They were also the best miners and excavators in the Universe and so in the peace agreement it was decided that the Laikans could keep the conquered galaxies if they rejoined the Universal Trading Network as miners.
And although many Laikans became very wealthy from the mining, they felt that however much they prospered, the UTN prospered more off the back of their hard and dangerous work. They also didn't like being stuck at the edge of the Universe, a place they felt they had been forced into.
From: A Brief Guide to the Universe for Earthens
THE WILD ROVER
The ruins were impressive, tumbled down from centuries of standing; there were stone hewn arches and two magnificent pyramids. Stone houses still tried to stand, or parts of them, numerous more foundations had been uncovered. There was an obelisk that had broken in half; half still pointing to the heavens, half lying on the ground defeated by age and gravity.
The area was large, what must have been a once important city and it was filled with tourists who were a constant annoyance to the archaeologists who still worked there. Said archaeologists recognised Dr. Hendricks as he used to be the site leader, but had given it over to others while he wrote books about the ruined city. He had, indeed, left his masterpiece, a work of many years, back at his office when he had joined Jason's group.
Despite the urgency of their mission, Hendricks was compelled by the site leaders to come and look at what had been uncovered. He couldn't help it, he became contagiously involved with their enthusiasm and the rest were dragged around the site after him. All except Milk who sat in the shadow of a stepped pyramid.
It was, to be honest, a welcome relief to the group, a distraction and they got caught up in the discovery of what appeared to be a major meeting hall. It had no walls; the roof seemed to be held up with columns, many of which lay broken and scattered while the roof itself was yet to be discovered. Many of the junior archaeologists wanted Dr. Hendrick's views on this.
"Perhaps it was stolen," suggested Jason.
"No, no, it would have been too big and heavy to be stolen, dear boy," pointed out Hendricks.
"Could it have been blasted?" asked Jimmy.
"No, this civilisation died long before lasers," Hendricks schooled. "Come look at this."
They jumped in a jeep, Milk totally forgotten, and sped across the sands to a nearby rock formation. It was a good twenty metres high at its peak and was abundant with caves.
"This is a rare example of harder rock on this planet, it has eroded slower than what is around it. We can only guess at its height at the time of this civilisation, but believe it would still have been like this, a rock outcropping at the time people lived here," Hendricks explained after they were out of the jeep. "But come and look at this."
They walked into one of the lower caves and Hendricks took a light off of one of the archaeologists and shined it across the walls. There they could all see paintings of trees, plants, animals and people hunting.
"You see," Dr. Hendricks breathed, "this was once a fertile land, no one yet knows why it became desert."
"How old are these paintings?" asked Julianna in awe.
"Millions of years. Interestingly, Jason, they predate such drawings on Earth, but there is still great argument about the true age of Humans. It remains one of the great Universal archaeological conundrums as to how old the Human species is."
"I have seen paintings like this on Earth, maybe I sought them out because of the paintings here."
"Yes, when I met you, you had a great interest in history and archaeology, but I don't think you remember our first meeting, do you?"
"No," replied Jason looking at the floor, "sorry, Doc."
"It's not a problem. But wonder in this marvel, that like Earth's Sahara once this desert was a lush green paradise. It makes me wonder."
"Sorry, Doc, but I be wondering where Milk is," interupted Jimmy,
"Oh, shabbus," exclaimed Jason, "where is he? He must be back at the site."
"Come on, we need to get back to him," said Julianna, horrified that she had left him wounded and weak.
Then the radios that they had brought from the ship squawked.
"This is Milk, over. I'm at the base of the small pyramid. Trillo and friends have just arrived," there was a long pause, "didn't think I'd go to Fiddler's Green in a place like this. Funny, I kind of miss Earth."
They ran headlong to the jeep and Chase shoved the archaeologist driver out into the sand. He hit the gas and whipped across the flat, took the first dune in low gear and as he was about to hit the top shoved it into a higher gear and the jeep flew over the crest and hit the second dune where Chase whacked it back down into second and took the dune, at the top he flew into a higher gear down the dune and onto the flat that held the ruins.
Julianna, in the back, pulled her gun and stood up. She held the roll bar and took aim at the Laikans approaching Milk. Her shot went high due to a bump in the sand and the Laikans turned to the jeep whipping towards them. Jimmy, in the passenger seat pulled one of Chase's guns out from its holster and fired wildly. But now the Laikans on level ground fired back and hit the engine. Smoke billowed out.
"Jump," shouted Chase and they did before he pulled a sharp turn that flipped the jeep. It rolled and came to a stop on its side and everyone ran and took
cover behind it.
The Laikans were in the open and they ran away from Milk to the low walls of a recently excavated foundation. Between our heroes and the Laikans were a number of trenches where a collection of archaeologists and tourists hid.
"Cover Jimmy and me to the trench and then we'll cover you. We've got to get to Milk," Chase commanded.
"OK," brought back Julianna.
"Don't hit the ruins," pleaded Dr. Hendricks.
"Well that goes without saying," replied Chase. "You ready Jimmy?"
"I always had yo' back, mon."
Chase took a chance to look at his friend and all that he had lost for five years. Then Julianna opened fire and they ran to the next trench.
"Hi, there," Chase flashed a grin at the terrified people cowering. One Tarancort woman managed a smile before Chase and Jimmy came up over the trench in a barrage of laser fire.
Julianna and Hendricks darted to the trench, Julianna's gun blasting away.
"Are you okay," Chase asked her.
"I'm okay now," she replied with an unplanned smile. He grinned back at her.
"Enough for now, don't you think?" asked Hendricks.
Chase turned to him.
"Dunno what you're talking about. Where we going?"
"Behind the pyramid there's a door in the sand," Hendricks told Chase.
"Julianna get the Doc to the door, we'll hold off the Laikans and get Milk."
"Really, mon, and how?" asked Jimmy not liking the odds of that.
"Natural flair and ability, my friend, natural flair and ability."
"Oh no," Jimmy simply stated.
"Go," commanded Chase and he and Jimmy started firing.
Julianna and Hendricks ran for it as Chase hit one of the Laikans and Jimmy took another one down.
"Run, dammit, RUN," Chase screamed at Milk.
Milk, knowing that it was now or nothing, got up and ran, shooting at the Laikans himself. As he crossed open ground laser fire came his way and he tumbled into the trench.
"Keep firing," yelled Chase to Jimmy.
"Not stopping," came back a yelled answer.
Milk lay against the trench as women screamed. He was bleeding.
"You're bleeding. Are you hit?" Chase shouted at him.
"Don't shout at me," returned Milk. "I'm not shot, it's my old wound."
They all ducked into the cover of the trench.
"Shabbus," swore Chase. "We have to get him to the ship."
"Then I'll cover you."