Thankfully, the two didn’t run into any trouble on their way to La’Grouem. Also, this time, Jiru didn’t run out of chocolate, so it would have been a win in her book regardless. Jeff was right though. The spaceport they landed in was flanked by slums on one side and what looked to be expensive condos and commercial buildings on the other. At least the slums looked better than most parts of East Dickson.
Despite the slums just beyond the wall, the spaceport itself appeared to be well-maintained. The two were greeted by a La’ik dressed in a green silk robe which disguised the frog-like figure beneath. His large eyes with their horizontal slit pupils were still unnerving to Jiru and she couldn’t help but shiver. Nevertheless, the man opened his arms wide and welcomed the two.
“Hello! Are you here to deliver goods? It has certainly been some time since I’ve seen aTrans Galactic vessel. My apologies, but before we continue, my translator has been causing me quite a few issues as of late. Please do not be alarmed if it cu--.”
The frogman looked down at the device on his waist and frowned in his displeasure.
“It’s okay, sir. Yes, we have some food imports in our hold. Don’t worry, we should only be here for as long as it takes to unload the goods and refuel,” Jiru said. At least she didn’t need a new translator like the frogman. She had gotten a rather expensive one after her first job. The one provided by Trans Galactic proved to be too unreliable.
The La’ik appeared to have given up trying to speak with them, and relegated himself to using hand gestures. Jiru understood the general gist of what he was signaling.
It seemed she and Jeff would need to unload the cargo themselves unless they paid a ‘handling fee’ to the La’ik in front of them. Now she understood why Jeff called this place a shithole.
Not wanting to pay the exorbitant fee, the two decided to do the work themselves. Besides, it wasn’t as if they hadn’t offloaded goods before. Due to this, they made relatively short work of it and were able to finish in just over an hour. They would have been able to do it more quickly, but they had to make sure they didn’t destroy any of the food or else they would suffer a reduction in their pay.
They paid for the high priced gas and left the spaceport as soon as they could. But before leaving, they did make sure to pick up a treat the La’ik are famous for: bug-flour pastries. They were surprisingly tasty if the origins of the flour could be ignored.
Jiru nodded in satisfaction at Jeff as the two ate their pastries. Things were looking good for them.
An hour later, the two were lounging around waiting for the time to pass until they made it to Gaia. Unbeknownst to them, their speed started to slowly dip.
Jeff didn’t notice it until it was too late. “Jiru, we’re about to go sub-light.”
Jiru put down her tablet and looked up at Jeff from her seat, tilting her head in confusion. “Huh? Do we know why?”
“No. I’m not sure what’s happening. Did the frog give us watered-down fuel?”
“I don’t think so. It looked pretty pure to--” The ship lurched and groaned as the thrusters shut off entirely. Alarms started blaring. “What’s going on, Jeff!”
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
The lights dimmed as the red emergency lights turned on, painting the room in an eerie crimson glow. She looked toward Jeff’s now red face.
“I don’t know, Jiru. I… I think we’re being attacked,” he said. Jeff’s face paled and became a deathly shade of white.
Jiru stumbled over to Jeff to get a look at what was happening. “By who?”
Jeff looked up at Jiru from his seat. “I only know one species with the capabilities to do what just happened to us.”
The ship lurched again as the gravity generator shut off. Everything in the room started floating up without the gravity to keep it down. Jiru yelped as she grabbed at Jeff’s seat.
“The Dar’Whaki.”
Jiru’s eyes opened wide in alarm. They were going to die.
“We have the cryochamber, right? We can just go into that and wait until help arrives,” she said. “Come on, let’s go.”
Tears started to form in Jeff’s eyes. “It won’t matter. Who’s to say they don’t just take the cryochamber with them or simply destroy it?”
Jiru swatted at Jeff with her wing. “Don’t think like that,” she snapped. “It’ll be okay.”
He stared at her and nodded, becoming more focussed on preparing the chamber. She knew this was probably futile, but she refused to lose hope.
There was another shudder and sparks started to fly out of the walls as the wiring in them was undoubtedly snapping due to the stress caused by the firing. The cryochamber was only ten or so feet away from the flight deck, which meant it would only take a few seconds to get there when it was primed, a few seconds they might not have.
“Is it ready yet?” Jiru asked.
“I need more time! They shot at the main computer, so I’m having to go through the back-up.”
Again, this was spending time they didn’t have. It was a matter of minutes until the Dar’Whaki boarded or destroyed what remained of the ship.
Finally, Jiru grinned as she heard her engineer say, “Done!” The two floated their way over to the chamber just as the other ship docked against their own with a thud. As the two shut the door to the room that contained the chamber, they could feel the creatures outside walk along the corridor. Jiru pondered over what they were using to be able to walk in the ship when there was no gravity. It was interesting to see where her mind was going while, quite literally, fleeing for her life. Rather than focusing on the chamber, she was thinking about the suits the Dar’Whaki must have been wearing.
The door to the chamber shut and Jiru and Jeff became frozen in time.
----------------------------------------
Four Days Later
Julian was lying down in his bed with some news channel in the background. He had a niece here! Well, a niece with many greats in between. Sarah told him about this earlier in the day, but he needed some time to think it over.
He knew he should contact her, but he didn’t know what he could say. “Hey! It’s me, your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great uncle. I don’t know if you ever heard about me from your family, but I was abducted by aliens and put into a cryochamber for three hundred years!”
Yeah, right.
That was a one-way ticket to losing any chance of reuniting with his family. But, was it? Julian let out a groan. Thinking about the number of greats and his family gave him a headache.
He was rubbing his forehead and didn’t notice the news channel start discussing ‘breaking news’ until he heard the all-too-familiar tune of it. Some things don’t change with time. He sat up and watched the television.
“We interrupt the weather forecast with breaking news. A cargo ship has been discovered destroyed on the spacelane from here to La’Grouem, one of the La’ik planets. Officials are saying the most likely cause was faulty fuel sold to them by the spaceport from which they came. Human leaders are looking into charges to file against the La’Grouem government. At this moment, there are no signs of the crew, but it is possible they entered their cryochamber and are floating through space. As we speak, the Space Corp has deployed troops to locate the missing crew, a Jiwa and a human. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the crew.”
“Huh.”