Chapter 29
Quin tried Rokai multiple times and got no response. He didn’t want to make the fact that Ba Re’ had helped Mirilla before they knew she was safe common knowledge by relaying the information he’d been given to just anyone, so simply calling the ship was out of the question. He didn’t even want Bart to know that Ba Re’ had had a way to track Mirilla all this time. Regardless of the whats and whys, Ba Re’ was still his oldest friend, and he loved him. As far as he was concerned, no one but he and Ba Re’ would ever know Ba Re’ was responsible for helping her get off the planet.
Thinking on it for only a second or two longer, he made a decision and contacted the ship. As soon as he recognized the voice answering his com, he pressed the button for vidcom. His image flashed onto the screen of the Communications Master on the Command Deck aboard Command Warship 1. He resisted the urge to smile when the male on the other end of his vidcom realized who was on his screen and began trying to get out of his chair to properly salute.
Quin simply held a finger up in front of his lips and shook his head.
Vennie looked around to be sure that no one noticed him accepting the communication, then he went through the necessary processes to move the vidcom from the main communication system to his personal mobile communicator. He managed to get out of his chair and squelched across the floor to the doors that granted entrance to the command deck.
He made a show of grumbling, which he usually did, so that no one would suspect anything as he left the command deck. He squelched along until he reached the lift and stepped onto it. The moment the doors slid closed he pressed the speaker. “Missy, please stop the lift and stop listening or recording any verbal communication on this lift until I step off of it.”
“Yes, Vennie.”
He lifted the hand still holding his personal communicator and tapped it to wake it up.
“I’m ready, Sire. I am alone in the lift. I’ve ordered Missy to stop all monitoring and recording. What is it that I can do for you?”
“I need to speak with Gaishon. Privately. And I need all traces of this vidcom to disappear.”
“Of course, Sire. I will go to him right now. Should I give him a message, or do you wish to do so yourself?”
“I’ll speak to him myself.”
“Give me a few moments to get there, Sire. I don’t move quite as quickly as some do,” Vennie said.
Vennie spoke to Missy again. “Please take me to the residence deck, Missy.”
“Of course,” Missy responded at once.
“You weren’t supposed to be listening,” Vennie grumbled.
“I always listen. I simply don’t record, unless it’s necessary,” Missy said.
Quin managed to refrain from laughing at Missy’s response.
A few moments later he heard Missy’s voice again. “Communications Officer Vennie, you’ve arrived on the residence deck.”
“Thank you, Missy.”
“You are welcome, Communications Officer Vennie. And please convey my congratulations and well wishes to our Sirena, Sire.”
Quin did laugh then. “Thank you, Missy. I will convey your wishes to her.”
“May I also add that I’ve been working on a way to move me into the palace?”
“Really?” Quin asked. “And how could we do that without rewiring the entire place? You do realize that we could fit several warships inside it. It would be a great undertaking since the walls of the palace are stone. ”
“I’ve almost got it all worked out, Sire. It can be done.”
“Then forward me your proposal. I would be remiss if I didn’t state how very much, my Vivi misses you and your ability to anticipate her needs.”
“Happily,” Missy said. “And I will erase all traces of you contacting this ship this night from my memory banks.”
“Thank you, Missy,” both Quin and Vennie said.
Vennie squelched his way down the corridor until he reached a particular door, then reached out and ran his hand over the sensor. He repeated the action two or three times before the door finally slid open and Gaishon stood there. “What’s wrong, Vennie?”
Vennie looked down one side of the corridor, then the other. “May I enter?”
Gaishon’s brows bunched up over his eyes as he considered Vennie. “I suppose. If it’s important.”
“It is of the utmost importance.”
Gaishon looked over his shoulder. “Be sure that you are covered, my love. We have a visitor.”
The rustling of bed covers could be heard, and Gaishon remained focused on whoever he was watching until he was satisfied she was covered. Then he turned back to Vennie. “Please,” he said, stepping back and gesturing for Vennie to enter.
Vennie made his way inside Gaishon’s quarters, but just far enough for the door to close behind him. Then he held out his communicator to him.
Gaishon hesitated for only a moment before he took it from Vennie, then looked down at it as he held it in his hand. His eyes rounded when he saw Quin’s face watching him. “Sire!”
“Can you reach Rokai?”
“I, I mean, he’s got his communicator.”
“Gaishon, listen to me carefully.”
“Of course, Sire.”
“Can you contact Rokai through his ship without anyone else becoming aware of it?”
Gaishon nodded hesitantly. “I can. ”
“Good. This is what I need you to do.”
“I’m listening,” Gaishon said.
“Sire, we are not alone,” Vennie said quickly.
“My mate is here, Sire. Other than that, we are alone,” Gaishon hurriedly assured him.
“You are mated?” Quin asked.
“Yes, Sire,” Gaishon said proudly.
“Many happinesses upon you.”
“This will never be spoken of. It is to be done and forgotten.”
“I give you my word, Sire,” Gaishon said.
“Very well, I’m trusting you because Rokai does.”
“I am aware.”
“Track Ba Re’s credit band. Contact Rokai and give him the location along with this message, ‘this is where Mirilla is’.”
“This is where Mirilla is,” Gaishon repeated.
“Correct.”
“Right away, Sire.”
“Missy!” Quin said.
“I am listening, Sire.”
“As soon as Gaishon finishes his assignment, remove all record of it from your memory banks.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“And remove all record of this conversation from your memory banks as well,” Quin ordered.
“Yes, Sire.”
“I’m counting on you, Gaishon.”
“I will not fail, Sire. It may be difficult to find him, but I can do it.”
“Thank you. And, again, many happinesses.”
Gaishon handed Vennie his communicator and Vennie left Gaishon’s quarters. As soon as they were alone, Gaishon started rushing around pulling things out of storage crates. Looking for something.
“You said Sire. Was that actually our Sire? ”
Gaishon turned to look at the pretty, pale gray female lying in their bed, clutching the blankets and sheets to her chin. “Yes. Didn’t I tell you that Rokai is his brother?”
“Yes, but I didn’t realize that you knew him as well. Are we in trouble? Will we be in trouble?” she asked worriedly.
“No, not at all. He simply knows that Rokai and I have many secrets from our past and if anyone can contact him, I can.”
“Why wouldn’t he answer his brother, especially if he’s Sire?”
“Rokai is on a special mission. He’s most likely cloaked the ship so that it cannot be seen, and has left all traces of communication on it. But I can find him.” He lifted a small hand-held device out of the bottom of a box and held it triumphantly in the air. Then he turned to his brand new mate. “Grielle, I need to see to this.”
“Alright.”
“I know that it’s not what you expected when I brought you here from Quari. And I know it’s interrupting the three weeks of bonding required by our people to complete the pairing. But this is so very important to Rokai and to our Sire. I know he wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.”
“It’s alright. I understand. I’ll be waiting right here.”
Gaishon walked over to her and gently cupped her cheek, looking down at her lovingly. “I won’t be long. Thank you. I love you, and I’m so glad you joined me here.”
“I am, too. Be careful.”
“I’ll be safe. I’m not leaving the ship. Just our quarters. I’ll return as quickly as I can.”
~~~
Gaishon stepped out into the corridor and was surprised to find Vennie waiting for him.
“I thought that you might need a private place to do whatever it is that you need to do,” Vennie said .
“Is it possible to gain access to the navigations offices? If I could use their systems, it might be completed more quickly.”
“What is that you have to do?” Vennie asked.
“I need to access their tracking soft ware.”
Vennie nodded, then squelched off down the corridor with Gaishon walking restlessly at his side. He liked the male, most aboard ship did, especially since he was a personal friend of the Sirena’s, but when you were in a hurry, he was not the person you wanted at your side.
To his credit, though, Vennie remained with him throughout the entire process. Vennie never spoke a word as he watched Gaishon plug the device he carried with him into the mainframe computer system in the navigations office. He watched silently as Gaishon hacked into the personnel files and accessed Ba Re’s records, then copied the information from Ba Re’s pay records, copy it to his own device, then begin a search using the navigations office computers. Just a few moments later his device chimed and a pinpoint both on his device and the navigations computer began to flash.
“There’s the band,” Gaishon said, marking it and tagging it as ‘Ba Re’ band - Mirilla’. He saved the information then exited that particular screen on his device and began scrolling through several more before he stopped and began to key in a particular code. The view on the screen started rapidly moving through the mapped areas of the multiverse, until it settled on one particular vector. The two dimensional image on the screen was really nothing more than a map. He watched as the screen focused more and more taking him to one particular point on the ground. A bright red arrow appeared. “And there’s the ship, and hopefully Rokai.”
He typed some more codes into the device and waited while the information cleared his device.
“What did you do with it?” Vennie asked.
“I uploaded it all to our ship. When Rokai returns to it, he’ll know there’s information waiting for him.”
“How do you know he’ll return to the ship?” Vennie asked .
“That’s what I’m about to take care of.” Gaishon cleared all screens on his device, then began typing in a long series of coded sequences. Finally, the screen, though still blank, began to glow a soft, light green. “Here goes,” Gaishon said. He pressed several character and numerical combinations together. When the soft green light began to flash he nodded.
“Okay. He’s got the information,” Gaishon said.
“What did you just do?” Vennie asked.
“What Sire Zha Quin asked me to do.”
“No, I’m amazed. I mean, literally, what did you just do. What is that? What does it do?”
“This device used to be the only thing Rokai and I needed to do all that we did. That and a stupid sense of courage.”
“What does it do?”
“Imagine a parasite attaching itself to any living creature. This is an electronic parasite. It becomes part of its host. We command it to whatever we need it to do, in this case track a credit band. It pinpoints its location. Then I located the ship using the navigational computers. Uploaded the location of the band to the ship’s hard drive.”
“How did you get into the hard drive from here?” Vennie asked.
Gaishon lifted the device he was holding.
“But you spoke to no one, and if Rokai is away from the ship, how will he know there’s a message?”
“We are both tagged. If either of us goes missing, the other can find them so they can free them.”
“Break them out of prison,” Vennie said, knowing exactly what kind of life Rokai and Gaishon led before joining the ship and its crew.
“If necessary. I activated his tag.”
Vennie looked at him, obviously confused. “The signal I sent his tag will heat it up. It will feel like he’s been stung. He’ll know it’s me, and I’m trying to get him a message.”
“I have been involved with the design of computer mainframes and communications devices all my life. It is the specialty of my people. I have never seen, nor even dreamed of such capabilities, much less in such a small device.”
“We did. And we built it.”
“Who designed its inner workings?” Vennie asked.
“Rokai. Rokai is the most intelligent person I’ve ever met in my entire life. There is no one even close to his level of intelligence.”
“Rokai?!”
“Without a doubt,” Gaishon said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a brand new mate waiting on me.”
“Of course,” Vennie said, still pondering the information he’d just been witness to. “Many happinesses,” he mumbled as he sat down at the navigations computer and began pecking away at the keys. He typed for several minutes before Missy finally spoke. “Communications Officer Vennie.”
“Yes, Missy,” he answered.
“There is no trace of anything that’s transpired this night.”
Vennie sat back and let his hands fall away from the keyboard. He sighed. “Of course.”
“Have a good night, Communications Officer Vennie.”
~~~
Rokai was standing in a bar in a space port frequented only by those who dared to sell their goods on the very edges of the multiverse. He stood there as comfortably as he ever did, easily slipping back into the persona he’d once perfected. A handful of males of very questionable quality that he hadn’t seen in years eagerly surrounded him, laughing and sharing stories of where they each had been and been doing when they’d heard the news that he’d been killed.
“And you believed it?” Rokai demanded. “I am not that easy to kill.”
“I thought for sure that the Consortium had finally caught up to you,” one said. “And they’re on some kind of a rampage again! The chairman himself is leading this one. Come barging in with his teams, shoving everyone around only to go rushing out again and not take anyone with him!”
“Yes, we thought your charmed life had come to an end!” another said laughing.
“No, not me. I’m just as charmed as always.”
“I have to admit though, I wondered when I heard of the pleasure room filled with headless bodies of the males, yet all the females were missing, if you’d been involved in that one,” one of the drunkest added.
Rokai smiled coldly and lifted another shot to toast the mention of what he considered the greatest service he’d ever performed for the public at large.
“Ahhh! It was you!” he said, hanging onto the bar as he, too, lifted a shot to his lips. “To the good old days!”
“To the good old days,” Rokai echoed, and truly meant it. He’d grown a bit nostalgic communing with his old friends. Even if they were criminals, and had questionable morals, they had been his friends. “Is the female the chairman’s looking for a human?”
“No, she’s Cruestaci. A beauty, too, if you ask me. Don’t know what the situation is, but I can promise you that even if we did know something, we’re not telling him!”
“Do you know anything? Are there any whispers of where she might be?” Rokai asked.
“No, none at all. Why are you helping the Consortium?” the male asked, horrified.
“No. I’m looking to help the female. Whatever they’re looking for her for, I’m hoping to snatch her out of their way.”
“You might know it’s a female that lured the great Rokai out of retirement,” another said laughing.
“Do you know what I want to know?” the first one asked.
“You know I won’t tell you, whatever it is,” Rokai said, shaking his head enough to send his multitude of braids rattling all the way down his back.
“But it’s not incriminating! Gaishon! Gaishon was a friend, too. What happened to Gaishon? Did the Consortium get him? ”
Rokai shook his head more gently this time. He thought about being evasive, then simply decided that Gaishon deserved to round out his own reputation with something of a reward. “Believe it or not gentlemen, Gaishon has found his one and only and is busily building the family we all wish we had.”
“No! He’s allowed himself to be caught?!” one of the males drunkenly spewed, his face wearing a look of dismay.
Rokai smiled. “I don’t think he could have fought it no matter what he did. She’s kind and loving and adores every single thing he does. She’s as smart and pretty as you please. He did well.”
“To Gaishon!” one of them called out, raising his glass in the air.
“To Gaishon! May we all be so lucky!” Rokai said, smiling secretively as he thought of his Rosie and just how lucky he was himself.
A sudden burning pain surged just under the skin at the outer edge of his ribs on his left side. He hissed a little and curled his body to the side to try to alleviate the pain that felt like he’d been stabbed with a white hot poker.
“What is it then?” one of his friends asked.
“If I’d known I’d live this long, I’d have been kinder to my body. The scars and breaks remind me just about every day of some adventure I’d have been better served to avoid.”
“Are you saying you’re old, Rokai?!” the male asked, as they all laughed boisterously.
“Old indeed. So old in fact, that I’m going to call it a night,” Rokai said.
“But we’ve just begun!” one of them objected.
“Look at the dust out there,” Rokai said. “It’s got a glow. That means the lights are being turned up. It’s morning again. We’ve drunk through the whole night.”
“You don’t have the stamina you used to,” one said.
“I’ll not even argue about that. What’s stamina? I don’t know!” Rokai said, causing them all to laugh again.
“I shall see you again soon. Remember me fondly, yes?” he asked, staggering away from the bar .
“There is no other way to remember you!”
“I’m very glad that you live, Rokai!” another called.
“Hey, listen,” said the drunkest of them all, “if I see the girl you’re searching for, I’ll track you down.”
“That’d be appreciated. I hear she might be in trouble, and she was always a favorite of mine.”
“Then why didn’t I hear of her?” another asked.
“I said she was a favorite of mine! Why would I share her with the likes of you?” Rokai retorted.
They all laughed again, as he stumbled out of the bar, giving the impression to all who might be watching that he was fully drunk. After quickly taking stock of the street he was on, and those hanging around it trying to look uninterested, he straightened his stooped body and made eye contact with a few of them before starting down the street, his demeanor indicating he was on a mission and had no intention of being interrupted. He snarled again as the burn from the implant he’d allowed to be placed inside his body years ago reminded him once again that it was there.
The only male with the courage to consider intercepting him quickly fell behind and changed direction when Rokai snarled.
Rokai glanced over his shoulder quickly and felt a little disappointment. It had been a long time since he’d been involved in a true battle to the death. The implant surged again. “Gods damnit, Gaishon! I’m coming!” he growled out as he made his way clear of the shanty town and toward the area near the rusted reservoir where he’d left his ship cloaked and waiting.