Bubba And the Aliens
Octavia

Octavia

“Octavia is in the Erpaga system,” Arlo informed Janet. “Somewhere way back in ancient history there was an Erpaga planet. It was destroyed by a collision with one of its own moons after an asteroid struck the moon and changed its course.

“There was already an outpost on the Octavian moon when the collision occurred. There was only limited travel between Erpaga and the outpost. They were not far beyond where we are with planning our trips to Mars. They were able to build ships and evacuate four percent of the population before the moon crashed into the surface and turned it into so much space debris and asteroids.”

“Why didn’t the other races step in and help?” Janet questioned.

Arlo continued. “This was way back in history before they had contact with the galactic empire. Additionally, the technology for space jumping had not been developed yet. Basically, no one else knew they were there. The planet was the eighth one, hence the name Octavia, and the outpost was on the eighth moon. It was originally dubbed the Octavia Outpost or double O, but after the disaster struck their home planet, it got shortened to Octavia.

“I read all of this in the ship’s archives as we were approaching. I was going over some of the details with Hello. It was a sad story in many ways and made me think of how perilous life is on our own planet. A similar disaster would wipe out our entire race and we would be nothing more than a blip in cosmic history.”

“How many people died?” Janet asked with empathy.

“About five billion is what they estimated,” Arlo replied. “No exact count was given. Many of the people retained the name Erpagans for several generations. The children born at the outpost had been branded Octavians. Eventually, it won out. The Erpagan race still lives, but it just has a different name now.”

“Kind of neat, and sad, at the same time,” Janet commented. “Now, this is where Jack fought the Minotaur-like thing right?”

I nodded my head and stood up to pace while I talked. “I went to see Bipodecus on the way to Octavia. He had been very withdrawn since we left Herpe. With the travel time cruising in and out of the solar systems, to make sure we were at appropriate jump points, it had been about two days since we had left Herpe. In all that time, he had not left his room. I was the only one to have spoken to him.

“Our conversation after leaving the Herpe system had been limited to my asking questions and his nodding or shaking his head. Even when I had asked him about the run to Octavia, he had initially only nodded agreement. His comment about repaying his government was an afterthought as I was leaving.

“I wanted to know if he knew anything about Octavia which would be helpful to us. I asked if there was anything we could do to help him. It was then he told me about his moral dilemma. If it was Arlo or Bubba facing this kind of problem, I would have probably made some joke and laughed it off.”

“What about Dingo?” Janet wondered.

“Dingo has no ethics or morals with regard to women,” Bubba said, matter of fact. It was not a judgment. It was what we had experienced with him.

“It took me a couple of hours to drag it out of him,” I added. “The actions he had taken on Herpe were against most of the things he proclaimed he believed. This was causing him to question his personal convictions, and all the things he taught his students through the years.

“Even though the Lakanicans are much like what we think of as Druids in appearance, they are more like monks in teaching and philosophy. They teach balance in life, inner peace, and seek harmony with their surroundings. However, it is mostly a mental exercise among like-minded individuals. Very few of them ever face actual temptation.”

“Sounds like an excellent pursuit,” Janet judged.

“Not if you like women and booze,” Dingo quipped. He raised his bottle in salute and finished off his beer.

“What was his resolution?” Janet queried.

“He had not found one at the time,” I replied. “He did not have information on the Octavians. We knew they were scientists and military when the tragedy happened. The society of the outpost tended towards regimented rules, safety precautions, and the development of defense systems to try and prevent the decimation of what remained of the race.

“Over the thousands of years of their history, they developed the moon as a safe and suitable habitat. Then they returned to exploring space to replace other planets or moons they could set up new outpost on. They have sixteen planets in their federation now across four solar systems.”

“Nothing like it could happen without galactic approval now,” Arlo cut in. “For the last few thousand years, when new habitable planets are found, the council considers several factors before deciding which race or species is allowed to develop it, if there is not a sentient race already in place.”

“Well, what about Earth and Mars?” Janet inquired.

“Nobody cares about Mars or much of the corners of our galaxy,” Arlo responded. “As far as I could tell, when looking into it, there is no great desire to live in our part of the universe. We are one of the fringe galaxies. I have no idea how it works and don’t desire to, but space jumps use fuel. Vast amounts of it, and even though they are way beyond nuclear power, it still costs money. The further you jump, the more energy it takes. We are just too far out right now for anyone to bother much with unless they are already in the neighborhood like the Quinanots or the occasional visitor from Opini or some other interested party. We are being monitored and influenced by the Galactic government. But they are sticking to the noninterference conditions as long as we don’t threaten any other race.”

“Threaten them how?” Janet asked with surprise. “Once we begin full interaction with alien races, don’t you think all the petty wars and differences on earth would be forgotten?” She questioned.

“No way,” Bubba answered. We all turned to him because he usually does not follow politics, local or global.

“We’ve been trying to broker peace in the Mideast for basically forever. Whenever someone dies off, or gets killed, there is always someone else ready to pick up the swords, guns, or whatever, and keep fighting. Unless we get to the one world order thing, every government on the planet will be trying to cut their own deals with aliens and making alliances to rule the world, just like Herpe.”

“It’s an extremely cynical view Bubba,” Janet chastised.

“Don’t mean it’s wrong,” Bubba stated. “They can’t figure out how to have peace on Earth. They are already fighting over the stars and other planets. Imagine how pissed they are going to be when the Galactic Council steps in and tells them to quit acting like four-year-olds.”

“On a galactic level, diplomacy works,” Janet stated. It was another area where we differed greatly on how to handle situations at times.

“Sometimes,” Arlo answered. “Every once in a while, a planet gets a little big for their britches, so to speak. The Galactic Council will step in and have the military slap them around a little bit until they remember their place in the universe.”

“Then you have the ones like the Elvi, evil little bastards,” Bubba edited. “They put on a good show, but bend the rules as much as possible, or outright break them, and then plead ignorance, or beg for pity when they get caught.” Bubba intoned. “It is far easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.”

We were all a bit shocked by Bubba’s lucid grasp of Galactic politics and realities.

“Did you learn that on Elva,” Janet asked.

“No, while I was enlisted in the Army in Germany,” Bubba replied. “See, me and a few buddies were in this little bar…”

“Not now Bubba,” I said gently.

He looked at me for a moment and nodded his head.

“Octavia,” I corrected course, “did not have the same turmoil as many other planets as they struggled for a single government. They were set up for it from the beginning. The scientist and the military experts were able to govern cooperatively for the survival of the race. As the population grew and the outposts were established, those who questioned the rules and authority of its system were shipped off to Lemming Six. It was a planet for the crazies and the anarchist pretty much.

“Octavia set up a space station on Lemming Six and severely limited who was allowed off the planet. So, it remains today, except the Lemmings are oft allowed to travel to other planets, just not as representatives of Octavia.”

“Are they suicidal,” Janet asked and patted the couch next to her. I returned to my seat.

“No, they are just the opposite,” Arlo offered. “Lemmings, on earth, are known for their tendency to follow without question, so if the lead lemming runs off a cliff and into the sea, so does the rest of the group. That is not true by the way. People from Lemming Six are fiercely independent souls who scoff at the imposed rules of Octavia and the fifteen other planets in the group.”

I took the ball. “What I was trying to get to is, the destruction of Erpaga, and the setbacks from it, led to a type of tribal rule on Octavia. They have a tribal chief for each of the eight continents on Octavia and they switch the title of who is first among equals every five years. Every group gets equal representation.”

“It seems very civilized and equitable,” Janet assumed with superiority.

“But they are just a puppet government, kind of like royalty in England,” I explained. “They do politics, make decrees and such, but it is still the scientists and military running everything.

“I told you all that, so I could tell you this. We were to make the delivery of the weapons to the current chief in a formal ceremony on the planet. It was a lot of pageantry. Some discussions of future orders and what the Khelids could offer was to take place. There was a Khelid representative with us who was an android. He was fashioned to look similar to us and to give video demonstrations of what was in their catalog. We didn’t have to worry about any of it. What we were told to do, was to be the face of the Khelids. Octavians are humanoid, and they, like Bubba, still have a large group of the populace who doesn’t care for quote, unquote, bugs.”

“Don’t be casting dispersions,” Bubba defended. I was surprised, not by his admission of disliking bugs, but because he knew what dispersions meant, and had used it correctly in a sentence.

“Anyway,” I continued, “we had to dress in ceremonial clothing and attend a formal party. The ship’s computer gave us information on the proper protocols. The android was able to further refine the specifics of how things were to be done and exactly how we should conduct ourselves.

“The Herpes looked so similar to us no one would have been able to tell a difference. Now, nothing against Bubba, but he does not fit in well at formal gatherings.”

“It’s completely true,” Bubba stated, taking no offense.

“We had learned what Dingo had done on Herpe from a reluctant Bipodecus, if not the effects of it, so we kind of ruled him out of diplomatic meetings too.”

“I only did what’s natural to a man. I took advantage of the situation I was in.” Dingo defended.

I ignored him and kept going. “Arlo and Hello agreed to attend, along with Kristin and Daryl. I would go along as the official representative of the group. I would be attended by the Android and be a public face for any media. The original deal with the Khelids was done in secret, and off the planet. The military was afraid the populace would freak out if they knew they were dealing with space bugs. So, we, just like the Tribal Chief, were really nothing but puppets. We were a show to distract people while the Android and the military leaders had the real meetings.

“Those were all to be taken care of behind closed doors on the first couple of days. We were set to arrive during the changing of power from one continent to another. They were transitioning the first among equals of the Tribal Chiefs. It was a week-long celebration of the accomplishments of the old Chief, and the vision of the new one.”

“But it was all lies you said.” Janet commented.

“No, not lies really,” I corrected. “The Chiefs are puppets for the scientist and military. They are still seen as vital to controlling the people. They are told what to say, and advised how to proceed on any matter, by military and scientific appointees. They give the appearance of autonomy and free will. The Octavians seem satisfied with it.”

“And if they don’t,” Janet said forcefully.

“Then they get a one-way ticket to Lemming Six,” Arlo responded.

“Of course, Sven and the twins wanted to see their first alien world,” I related. “George, Michael, and Bob were interested in visiting. They were granted permission to do so, but not in the continental capital. They were taken to a villa on one of the seas. They had access to anything they could ask for. Dingo and Bubba went along with this group, which left Bipodecus alone on the ship to respond to any communications and contemplate his morals and ethics.”

“The villa was where we figured out Elsa was bat-shit crazy,” Dingo proclaimed.

“And how did that happen?” Janet questioned.

“Well, everything, I mean everything” Dingo stressed, “was available at the villa. It included alcohol, drugs, and escorts, ahem, to entertain you whenever you wished. In the beginning, this was not a problem.”

“But” Janet prompted.

“But Ella and Elsa had seen the dark side of it on Herpe,” Bubba stated. “Even though everything was available, they didn’t think the men and women provided for whimsy were any different than the strippers and hookers on Herpe, even if paid better.

“When we first arrived, it was what I imagine what one of them all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean are like. As Dingo said, everything was provided. We had the finest food and alcohol available, and the water was as clear as glass.

“I asked about doing some fishing if possible. They had many of the same things you would expect on any vacation. The first night we had an excellent dinner and spent some time in our rooms settling in. There were a few other guests at the villa, and they wanted to hear stories about our space travels and home planet.

“We talked about Palladia and listened while they told us about Octavia.” Janet glanced at me when he said Palladia, but I shook my head and looked at Bubba. It satisfied her for the moment.

“The Herpes mostly hung in a group. They talked a little about their lives, but never mentioned they were from Herpe, letting the Octavians assume they were also from our planet.”

“Yeah, there were no problems the first night,” Dingo jumped in. “We had our dinner and a few drinks then retired to our rooms to rest. We did not know what everything included detailed at the time. One of the ladies at the dinner knocked on my door a little later and explained it to me. She was also a guest. She wanted someone who had a choice about what she offered.”

“And you partook,” Janet demanded.

“Yes, I partook,” Dingo admitted. “It’s an insult to a woman if you refuse when she offers herself to you. I did the gentlemanly thing, I accepted.”

“So, your friends are worried about saving the princess and you were worried about how many women you could bed.” Janet accused.

“I wasn’t worried about it at all. I wasn’t wasting any opportunities either.” Dingo replied.

Janet shook her head and shot Dingo a disgusted look.

“It’s Dingo,” I said by way of explanation. I nodded towards him, and he continued.

“The next day the Herpes went into town with some of the other guests to do some sightseeing and shopping. It’s when we noticed the eight-legged cats. Arlo later told me they had seen them around the palace and the city too.

“Sven and the twins did not have any galactic, or Octavian currency or credit, but the others had enough to get them through a few days. We had not been paid for the delivery of the weapons yet.”

“How does money work?” Janet wanted to know.

“Well,” Arlo began, “the Khelids had provided us with galactic identification cards after we told them what happened on Darfo Seven. Crap, I should have thought of it earlier!” He pulled his wallet out and handed a card over to Janet. They were made of a metal alloy and had the information embedded inside.

“These are real, or as real as can be since earthlings are not supposed to be interfered with. The Khelids created identification cards for Palladia. It has humanoid inhabitants who are dedicated to scientific exploration. They are a race of explorers who seek out inhabitable planets. They study them for signs of life, intelligent or otherwise. They are very adaptable and nonintrusive observers in most cases. They’re much more accepted throughout the planets than earthlings. They did the same thing for the Herpes when we picked up the weapons shipment.”

Janet was looking at the card. It was flat metal, about three millimeters thick, and a little larger than a driver’s license. The top and bottom appeared iridescent. They twinkled under the light from the overhead bulbs. However, there were no visible markings on it to identify Arlo.

“How were the Khelids able to make the fakes?” Janet asked as she flipped the card around, looking at the reflections.

“The Khelids supply the cards to the galactic government,” Arlo stated. “All the planets use them. These are not fake. They are not completely accurate either.” I pulled mine out of my wallet and held it up for her to look at but did not hand it to her. I did not want to get it mixed up with Arlo’s.

“We did not need them when we were taken to Pilifin or Lakanica,” Arlo continued. “Nor Elva when we went with the emissary because we did not go through spaceport screenings. At Bipodecus’ urging, we got them from the Khelids. Planet hopping is not impossible without them, but on the major planets, you have to have one. There are banks on the space stations, and you can convert the galactic currency to local on prepaid cards or whatever they use planet-side. There are glitches, delays, and exchange rates change daily between planets and the galactic standard. Just because you have credit, or currency in a bank on one planet does not mean you can access it from another easily. Some worlds use galactic credits, some use the cards, and others prefer hard currency to skirt galactic taxes.”

“Taxes,” she repeated.

“Well, yeah,” Arlo responded. “It takes vast amounts of money to maintain a galactic government and military. Once a planet, or federation of planets, joins the galactic group, they are encouraged to give up their own military besides basic self-defense.”

“It helps to prevent skirmishes and such between planets,” I added. “Local differences are settled within the galactic council, but as slow as the government moves, it might take years to decades, so some infighting is ignored as long as it isn’t too disruptive.” I put my card back in my wallet and pointed to Arlo’s. “Galactic credits, travel documents, spaceport privileges and whether or not you are banned from a particular planet are all on the card. It also means they can track you, at least down to a particular planet. Add in orbital scans for DNA markers and species and they have a fairly accurate way to replace the average person.”

“So, the galactic police could be searching for you now?” She inquired.

“We aren’t wanted by the galactic government,” Dingo exclaimed. “Why the hell would they bother with a bunch of piss-ant earthlings? And there are no space police. Its full gung-ho military action if they want to come after you.”

Arlo and I exchanged a look, which Janet caught.

“I’m not so sure about the absence of some type of policing unit,” Arlo said. “But Dingo is right for the most part. We have not done anything to draw their attention we are aware of. Galileo and the Herpes did talk about having to avoid the attention of what we would consider a police force though,” he added.

“You are banned from five planets?” Janet reminded us.

“Well, yeah,” I admitted, “but it is a relatively small number when you consider the size of the universe. And not all of us are banned from every planet.”

“We were all banned from Pilifino,” Bubba said. “Jack and I can’t go back to Darfo Seven, even after we went through their brain scrambling machine. I guess we aren’t banned from Herpe, but we aren’t supposed to go there. And, well, we aren’t sure what our reception would be on Lakanica either.”

“One of you said you saved their princess.” Janet stated.

“Yeah,” Bubba nodded as he spoke, “But there is more to the story, long after Octavia.”

“What about Octavia?” she inquired. “Can you go to Octavia?”

I shook my head and looked around the room. “We can’t go back to Octavia,” I said with a sigh, “which is kind of sad. It really was a wonderful place. Even though Arlo sat around the whole time giggling and pointing at the cats.”

“Octopussies,” he said and giggled.

“Well, what happened?” Janet turned back to me. I gestured towards Dingo.

“The Herpes went off into town with some of the locals. Bubba and I found a boat and inquired about fishing. The equipment was different than what we were used to, we adjusted. We had a good day out on the water drinking, fishing, and just relaxing. A couple of the other guests went with us. I got a great buzz going out on the water.”

“It was almost like none of the other stuff had happened,” Bubba commented. “They had some really amazing fish, kind of like yellow fin tuna. It was a good day! They served our fish for dinner that night. The cats were all over the place, wandering in and out of the dining room. People were feeding them bits of our catch.”

“It was a damn good day!” Dingo echoed. “At dinner, a few guests had been added and few removed. I guess there were about twenty people or so. One of the women asked what our romantic connections were and how we were paired up. None of us had gotten far with things, although I had seen Bob and Ella exchanging looks. Not knowing what the preferences were on Octavia, I declared myself single. I expressed I had an interest in the opposite sex. The girl from the previous night had departed, so I was quite ready to avail myself of a new partner.”

“Yes, apparently, he was quite vocal about his past exploits, including his recent engagement on the planet of Herpe,” Arlo condemned.

“It was the Herpederpetitus,” Dingo defended.

“We did not know it yet,” Arlo continued calmly, “but it had fully bloomed in Dingo somewhere in the last few hours. While he was fishing and drinking the alcohol loosened his inhibitions. The disease magnified it tenfold. He talked about his previous night’s encounter at the beginning, as Bubba related it to us.”

“The Herpes sat in silence” Bubba stated, “as Dingo recounted our tale of being abducted from the earth. I tried to stop him.

“It didn’t matter. No one believed he was an earthling. There are stories about earthlings of course, but they are greatly exaggerated. He talked about women he had slept with all around the world while he was in the Navy. He spent some time lamenting his breakup with Chloe in Australia. I noticed a slow rage burning in Elsa’s eyes as he spoke of his past conquest, with disregard for how he had treated or affected them. Apparently, someone had treated her the same way at some point. Everyone let him speak, up to the point where he said we were looking for Herpes. Some of the guests gasped loudly at the mention of the name and another laughed, saying there were no such things as Herpes either.

“I was watching Elsa more closely. I could see the anger building up in her. She remained silent while Dingo talked about the women he had held and abandoned. She turned bright red as the talk turned to Herpes. Before Dingo could say anything else, she leaped over the table and struck him with two quick blows to each side of his head. She knocked him out!”

“I was drunk!” Dingo proclaimed.

“Yes, you were,” Bubba agreed. “Everyone was stunned by the sudden turn of violence. Elsa was quickly restrained. She had not stopped hitting him when he passed out. We demanded a reason for her actions. She explained, that although she had never been to Herpe, a blatant lie, as a Palladian, she knew about them, and about a rare disease they carried. She said she believed Dingo had this disease. She knocked him out to prevent him from spreading it to us.

“George and Michael carried Dingo to his room and watched over him. Elsa wove a tale of treachery and lies. Everyone at the table was aghast. Bob and Ella added a few words here and there to support her story. They were protecting their planet by creating horror stories about its inhabitants.”

I was wondering if Bubba talked more fluently and coherently when he was half drunk himself. I had never heard him use the word aghast before. He had used it correctly, again. Maybe it had something to do with the treatment on Darfo Seven. Did the reprogramming stop him from using words incorrectly? He still managed to put them into the wrong place sometimes. I had not noticed it earlier. I was well into my fourth or fifth beer. Still, we had been talking for four hours. I did not feel the slightest buzz. I abandoned my train of thought and tuned back into Bubba.

“Between the four of them,” Bubba explained, “Sven, Bob, Ella, and Elsa convinced the Octavians and other guests around the table Herpe was real, even if hidden from the rest of the galaxy. Dingo’s actions over the course of dinner led them to believe he had encountered a Herpe somewhere. They claimed it was extremely unlikely he had been to the planet since no one knew where it was.

“I didn’t know what they were lying about and what the truth was, except where I had been involved. Quite frankly, it scared the crap out of me. I’ve seen Dingo wasted on more than one occasion. He does tend to get talky sometimes, going on about past glories and such, but I had to agree this was different than normal for him.

“I excused myself from the table and started to my room to lie down. My perfect day had ended when I found out about the disease. Sven knocked on my door a few minutes later and explained the disease and its effects on me. I hadn’t noticed on the ship, but the Herpes were always very careful to ensure we did not share common items in the galley or such.”

“Wait, you said earlier it was by direct or...”

“Secondary contact,” Arlo finished for her. “Like a flu bug. If you have the flu and kiss Jack, he is likely to get the flu. If Jack sneezes while we are on the way to the golf course, I might get the flu. But, If Jack sneezes onto his hands, and then picks my ball up out of the cup and hands it back to me, the virus was on the ball and is now on my hands. I grab a beer, take a drink, wipe my mouth with my hand and now I have your flu.

“Dingo got Herpederpetitus from the hooker on Herpe and brought it back to the ship. Since we ate together and sat at the same monitor to look at archives or happened to touch common equipment or utensils in some way, we all got it. Bipodecus had it. He was isolated in his room. It would be another couple of days before the rest of us began showing signs.”

“However, the fracas at the villa had been reported to Arlo by Bubba and to the local authorities by guests of the villa,” Dingo lamented.

“Well, what Sven told me had me worried,” Bubba explained. “Besides which, we were supposed to be on a kind of mini-vacation. Having some communicable disease had me freaked out. I don’t like big bugs. I sure don’t like little ones you can’t see that might kill you.”

“Arlo informed me of what was going on,” I told Janet. “We held a quick pow-wow in my room at the palace. We informed the attaché assigned to us we thought it best if the majority of our group returned to the ship. He agreed. Since I was the one working with the android, and we had seen no indication I was infected, I was asked to stay for the last couple of days. I could not recall any direct contact with Dingo and thought I might not have the infection.”

“When we arrived back to the spacecraft,” Arlo picked up, “Bipodecus was still sequestered in his room. I went to speak to him. It was soon abundantly clear he also had a full-blown case of Herpederpetitus.

“He was chanting naked in his room with Lakanican symbols painted all over the walls. He had been taxing the ship’s computer with odd requests for some magic potion he wanted to concoct, then screaming and arguing with it when it could not provide all the things, he claimed he needed. The ship replayed recordings of some of his rants.”

“How did Hello handle all of this?” Janet queried.

“With aplomb,” Arlo answered. “I admit it was more of a lust thing than love for us. We were kind of wrapped up in each other without regard for anyone else too much. She was a little upset I had spent our time in the capital drinking and pointing and giggling at the cats instead of interacting with the Octavians. I figured it would pass. We were able to establish part of the behavior was early onset of the Herpederpetitus. We were not at an important junction of our mission as far as the princess was concerned. I did not think it mattered too much. She said she would go with us to Elva to help with our cover story.

“Since Dingo was the only one showing effects from the Herpederpetitus, we took him to the medical bay. The computer was able to come up with a cocktail which would kill the virus within hours instead of it taking the usual two-week run to die out.”

“Two weeks doesn’t seem terrible,” Janet suggested.

I looked at Janet for a moment before speaking. “On occasion, I have made choices most idiots would not make on a bad day.” There was a chorus of agreement. It was a little bit stronger than I would have liked from my friends. “Consider two weeks of choices when your mental abilities are down, and your anxiety and paranoia are amplified. A lot of people make life-altering choices while they have Herpederpetitus. It can take years to recover from the consequences of those choices. Suicide rates of people infected are in the mid-thirties if what George and the rest of the Herpes told us is true.”

“And there was really no reason for them to lie about it,” Arlo opined.

“Just think of what a weekend in Vegas can do,” Dingo suggested. “Two weeks of a drunken stupor could affect people for the rest of their lives.”

“Especially if they kill themselves,” Bubba said bluntly.

We all turned to stare at him for a moment. He caught us looking. “What?” He asked innocently.

“So, speaking of stupid decisions,” I said, moving the conversation back to the storyline, “I seemed unaffected. I stayed on Octavia with the Android. There was a message waiting on the ship. The Khelids had finished their work on the Janet’s Lair. We could go pick it up.

“George was interested in piloting the new ship. The Lakanican ship was older and slower for inter-system travel. They went to pick it up and give George a bit of time to familiarize himself with it. They would fly it back to Octavia and make sure there were no issues. By the time they got back all the negotiations and ordering with the android would be done and we could enjoy the grand finally of the celebration.”

“It seems smart, I guess. No need for everyone to hang around the spaceport waiting for the android to wrap things up.” Janet concurred.

“Except, I had been infected with the Herpederpetitus virus,” I admitted. “George and Bob came down in a shuttle and gave me the cocktail the ship had come up with. I took it as a precaution, then they headed back up and everyone headed for Khelid. The ship’s medical computer was also able to make a serum for the Herpes to take to kill the virus in them so they would no longer be carriers either.”

“The Janet’s Lair is actually impressive as hell,” Bubba commented. “I mean, it was neat and clean, and everything was brand new. The cabins were a little bigger, and they had been designed as cabins, not converted from storage holds or something.”

Janet arched an eyebrow and turned back to me. She searched my face for several seconds. She looked at the other members of my golf group. She closed her eyes for a few moments and shook her head several times while muttering or whispering to herself. I could not decide which. Finally, she opened her eyes, smiled briefly, and reached out for my hand. She wrapped her fingers into mine and looked down to where my shortened pinky rested on the back of her hand.

“You all aren’t making this up are you,” she asked seriously. I shook my head. “Unless it is some mass hallucination type thing, and even if it is, you all think it was real.”

All of us agreed.

“My God!” Janet said quietly. “If the ship is real, where did you say it was?”

“The space station on Sesterisia,” I answered softly, watching her eyes to see what the realization was doing to her. “Or it will be in a few weeks,” I added.

“Right, right,” she replied, “Because you did some illegal time travel thing.”

“Uh-huh,” I answered intelligently.

She looked down at my hand again. I wiggled my fingers.

“As I was saying, you do things when you have Herpederpetitus which have long-lasting effects. On Friday night there was a huge feast as part of the celebration. There were all kinds of roasted animals and special dishes. Everyone was having a grand old time. Many of the people were blitzed out of their minds on local booze and drugs.

“I was sitting next to the new Chief. He was telling me about his three wives and how special each of them was to him, where they had met, how they had courted and flirted and that kind of thing, going over his history and how he became chief.”

“What happened to his first two wives,” Janet asked, being a woman and wanting details a man would never consider.

“Nothing,” I said. “He was still married to all three of them. They all have separate houses and seem to get along quite well. They were seated around the table with us.”

“Well, I don’t think anyone should be married to more than one person at a time,” Janet chided.

I gave her a look. “You are against most conservative values, against most rules which determine what right and wrong are and believe in infinite shades of gray between black and white. You think all religion is mindless brainwashing. Why in the world would you think it’s wrong for one person to be married to three others?”

She started to speak but stopped short. She was caught in a typical liberal dilemma. What she claimed to be the best thing for society; she did not necessarily want to apply to herself. If you are a liberal sort and the statement offends you, suck it up and deal with it. I’m not telling you how to live your life, do not tell me how to live mine. I was not telling Janet how to live hers.

“Whatever,” she said after a moment. “You were saying?”

“Somewhere in all of it, he asked me why I had not taken advantage of the women in the palace, or a variety of the other pleasures, seeing as to how both men and women were available for my asking. Arlo and Hello had each other, as did Dylan and Kristin. I had been propositioned politely by both sexes over a couple of days and nights on the planet. I gently refused all advances.

“The Chief had his oldest daughter from his second wife brought out. She was just shy of twenty-one. He was extremely proud of her. She was five foot five or so and easily tipped the scales at four hundred and fifty. She had a face that would stop a clock and was dressed in a lavish costume. It looked as if it might have been designed by a four-year-old. Additionally, she wore makeup which was trying to do something I just did not get. Maybe it was the mind cleansing thing from Darfo Seven, but whatever it was supposed to enhance, it did not make up for her heredity.

“Anyway, the Chief asked me what I thought. I am blaming my answer on the treatment on Darfo Seven, the high-quality booze I had consumed, and the Herpederpetitus.”

“What did you say?” Janet asked. She knew I could be quite blunt with my answers at times.

I tried to hang my head in shame. I could not keep the grin off my face and let out a bit of laughter too. “I told him she was quite possibly one of the ugliest women I had ever seen. He was going to have to pay someone a heck of a lot of money for them to take her off his hands. I reasoned it would probably be worth it in what he would save trying to feed her himself.”

“You did not!” she exclaimed.

“Oh, yes he did,” Arlo corrected. “As it happened, there were media everywhere. Within hours the faux pas was on every station on the planet. It was considered a personal affront to the new Chief, and a stain on the reputation of both the Khelids and the Palladians.

“As a courtesy to the Khelids, and in an attempt to get a better deal on weapons, the Octavians sent a copy of the event along with the announcement Jack would be on trial in the arena on Sunday afternoon. They wanted to know where to send his effects and if we wanted his body.”

“It doesn’t sound like a trial,” Janet accused.

“Their trial system for offenses punishable by death is to stand in the arena and fight against the Kelvekians. The truth will prevail, so anyone who is not guilty will defeat the Kelvekians and be justified.”

“Had it ever happened?” Janet queried.

“No,” Bubba answered, “it hadn’t ever happened. It was a slaughterhouse, like back when the Romans had people fighting lions and gladiators. It was supposed to be a good show and allow prisoners a chance at justice during the closing hours of the celebration.”

“I met Danny Boy in the cells by the arena on Saturday morning,” I stated. “I don’t really know how to explain it, but we just looked at each other and something clicked. I knew he was an earthling. I asked him how he ended up on Octavia. He related the story of his abduction and eventual escape from a lab on Anshiki. Some resistance group didn’t agree with the tests the lab was running on the abducted aliens and broke in to help him and his friends escape.

“One of them was killed in the melee and they were all separated to make it harder for the scientist and government to replace them. Danny Boy never saw the other two guys again. He stayed on Anshiki with his rescuers for about three months. They got him off the planet and to Obujutte Thirteen. It is a resort world full of planetary vacationers. There are a lot of transients and a wide variety of species. He was able to replace work and began searching for a way to get back home.”

“But you left him on Sesterisia?” Janet inquired.

“Well not intentionally,” I defended.

“And there is a problem with your timeline.”

“How so,” I asked.

“If it was a week-long celebration and everyone left but you after two days, what happened during the two days before Friday at the feast?”

“Ah, I see the problem,” I replied. “We got there on Wednesday. It was Friday morning, well, actually around lunch when everyone else headed back to Khelid. My incident was Friday night. Octavia is a big solar system. It is about eight hours cruise out time before you can make a jump. Khelid cruise in time is around four hours. The news of my predicament got to the crew about the same time they pulled into the spaceport for Khelid.”

Janet looked at me suspiciously for a moment then shook her head briefly. “Okay, whatever. I’ve got another question though. How do messages get through space? If light and radio waves can only travel at the speed of light, it would take years for a message sent from Octavia to reach the ship at Khelid unless they were close to each other. Even when they talk about our missions to Mars; they talk about lag times between communications.”

“I can field this one,” Arlo offered. “I had the same question. Messages are broadcast from planets and ships, and all other planets and ships rebroadcast them throughout known space. When the correct ship or station receives the broadcast, it sends out a cancellation code to the original broadcast point saying the message has been received.

“All this happens somewhere in the background while you are in real space transit or docked at a station. When a ship makes a space jump, the computer keeps broadcasting the message in whatever new galaxy or solar system it is in. It is all on a different frequency than audio or video communication. For direct link communication, you are limited to the speed of light.”

“Doesn’t it eat up huge amounts of memory,” I asked.

Arlo shook his head. “The message packets for things like it are so small, on a Galactic scale, that they don’t really matter. We tend to think of memory in gigabytes or terabytes, but what they have is vastly superior to anything we have developed on earth.

“The funny thing is our scientist have picked up these ship-to-ship messages and have no explanation for it. They think it is background noise from the big bang, but it is just background noise.”

“Then how did the universe start?” Janet demanded.

“In the beginning God,” Arlo answered. “All the religions on all the planets attribute the beginning of time to a supernatural being of some sort. They all believe if the universe has a beginning, it will have an end. There is some other plane of consciousness they will ascend to while all non-believers will be destroyed or have to relive this life until they get it right.”

“I don’t believe it,” Janet replied flatly.

“No one says you have to,” I said calmly. “If you don’t believe it is your choice; like most of the religions here on earth. There are a few in space which take over an entire world and then want to convert people violently, or at the point of death, but they are few and far between and historically don’t last exceptionally long when faced with the realities of the universe.”

“But doesn’t space travel negate there being a God?” I mean other planets which have been around longer than ours must have proven evolution long ago.”

Arlo shook his head a little sadly. “I talked to Bipodecus about it on our way to Herpe. Hello and I were having a meal with him. Realize their religion is more eastern mysticism than western theology. He laughed when I explained the theory of evolution to him. He thought it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.”

“Then what does everyone else believe, who doesn’t hold to some religious explanation of things?” Janet was a strong believer in evolution, so I knew this was beyond acceptance for her.

“They can’t explain it,” Dingo spoke up surprising us all. “They just don’t believe. Even the scientist on places like Palladia and Octavia don’t have explanations for everything. The universe is just too big and there is way too much stuff in it.

“Life developing on one little blue, green planet in some far-off corner of the galaxy is not all that exceptional when there are thousands of planets in thousands of galaxies in explored space. There may be thousands of other planets in some other part of the universe yet to be discovered, with thousands of planets doing the same things we are here without either of us ever knowing about the others. What most of them agree on, however, is it all works too well on too many planets, to have just happened randomly.

“Its pompous jerks who go on television and claim to know everything there is to know about how things work who muck it all up and confuse people. They don’t know,” he said finishing his rant. “They don’t know nothing!” He turned up his beer bottle and drained it.

We exchanged glances around the room for a moment. I finally found Janet’s eyes searching mine again. “Danny Boy had gone to Octavia trying to replace a route back to earth. He had been gone for seven years and was starting to get more than a little homesick. Traveling takes money, and being an abduction escapee, he did not have piles of it. So, he was trying to work his way back to earth, but most of the people he encountered did not believe there was a planet called earth. They think it is a myth. The archives he was able to access on different planets gave general data.”

“What do you mean?′

“I think Douglas Adams probably summed it up best in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy when he dubbed it ‘Mostly Harmless’. If it did exist, there were no coordinates to it or suggestions on how to get here, just warnings to stay away from the primitive and hostile species on the planet if you ended up here by accident. Of course, several species know where it is because of the exiles they have sent here. They don’t necessarily want to visit, and the information is classified. I think the Galactic government may be keeping the coordinates secret to prevent interference.”

“So, why was Danny Boy on trial,” Janet queried, finally bringing us back to the main story.

“He was picked up on a ship which was transporting illegal items to Octavia,” I answered. “Some things on some planets are not allowed on other planets. Think biodiversity and invasive species of plants, animals, and etcetera. Therefore, certain things are not allowed to be removed from some planets because they are afraid of the damage they would do on other planets if they were accidentally released. This applies to bugs, viruses, animals, plants, and whatever. Introduce something which has no natural predators, and it can take over an entire world, or destroy it. Like, say, Herpederpetitus on Octavia.” This got me a cold look from Dingo.

“So, what were they transporting?”

“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug of my shoulders. “Danny boy did not know anything about what they were doing. He was working his way across the universe trying to get back to our little corner of it and return to earth. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had an identity card he had picked up somewhere. It said he was Ozkerian, but he could do no magic, so the authorities on Octavia had charged him with identity theft and accessory to illegal transport.”

“What about the rest of the guys on the ship? Wait, did you say magic?” Janet changed direction.

“Yes, on some worlds there are people who can do magic. Not sleight of hand, but real magic. We never met any of them until the thing with Arlo. We will get to it later. Of course, you know the story about the Wizard of Oz.”

“Right, but his was really a smoke screen in the story,” Janet answered, unamused. “What about the guys on the ship?” She repeated.

“They bugged out in little shuttles and space jumped in unauthorized areas when the galactic military approached their vessel. I don’t know why they didn’t just jump in the big ship. Danny Boy said they were low on fuel and would have to replenish their stores before continuing. He was left on the ship because he wasn’t really part of the crew, just a working stiff.

“The ship and its cargo were captured. The military dealt with them but turned Danny over to the Octavians for trial. We covered all of this briefly in the morning. We were fed a lunch which was far from the fare I had eaten the night before in the palace. I had a few lingering effects from the Herpederpetitus, but it was mostly gone by then.

“After lunch, we were taken to the arena, given crude mock weapons and a short training session. Basically, we were told to put on a good show and die in a graphic and violent way at the hands of our judges. After our evening meal, we were shown videos of past trials in the arenas. We got our first look at the Kelvekians.”

“What were you guys doing while Jack was locked up?” Janet asked facing the other three.

“We were trying to get back to Octavia,” Bubba said with some contempt. “The Khelids assured us the new ship would cut our travel time inside the solar systems by about a third. George was getting familiar with the controls. He said he would need five or six hours to do it. He was trying to teach Sven how to fly at the same time. Jack had been acting as copilot and trainee, but he was on Octavia.

“I wanted to jump back on the ship with Bipodecus and return. George said it would be faster with the new ship. The Khelids were doing what they could through messaging. I figured diplomacy would get Jack killed. I tried to get Bipodecus to take us back on his ship, but he agreed with George.”

“While we were watching the videos,” I jumped in, “Danny Boy and I began talking about the strategy of how we might survive. Everyone in the videos was running around the arena without thought or any plan. They were being cut down one by one. Even two against one did not seem to make much difference. If you try running away, they just kill whoever is fighting. They track the stragglers down later. These things stand about nine foot tall and are trained to fight, so they are muscular. All that muscle slows them down a little on reaction time, but eventually, they wear you out with stamina and strength.

“The swords and maces they carried gave them a reach advantage too since we were going to be given short swords. It would make it hard to get inside their reach. It would do us no good to stand toe to toe with them and trade blows.

“One of the other prisoners was listening quietly as we talked strategy and searched for weaknesses. I was thinking back to my days in crowd control tactics and limited hand to hand combat. Danny Boy and I were planning on trying to survive by dealing a death of a thousand cuts instead of trying to kill them with anything head on. We figured a combined attack would be better than single combat.”

“Where did you do crowd control and hand to hand combat. You never told me about any of it?”

“Standard military training,” I answered. I lied, hoping it would suffice.

“Did the guy listening have any input?” Janet asked.

“He came over to us after the videos were finished and listened to us talk for a while. I finally asked him what his plan was. He didn’t have one. He was an Octavian who had killed a guy his wife was having an affair with. He was ready to accept his fate for the murder. Danny Boy and I were talking about bar fights, fighting in confined spaces, and different tactics you could use. The arena was mostly open space. There were a few rocks spread around, nothing big enough to keep the Kelvekians from reaching you though.

“Our big question was how many of them would be in the arena with us. The third guy was from Octavia but had no military or combat style training. He told us there were usually four Kelvekians in the arena with anywhere from a dozen to twenty prisoners. There were eighteen in our group. We were looking at four and a half to one when it came to fighting. Since most planets don’t have warriors, we were still vastly outnumbered.

“One good thing, as far as we could tell, we would not be restricted by chains or manacles. The victims in the videos had not been. Most of them had cowered in fear, run around in avoidance while others fought, and then died later, or had taken their chances in an initial onslaught and been taken down quickly.

“Danny Boy and I asked the Octavian if he wanted to help us and possibly survive, which would justify his righteous anger at his wife’s infidelity. He agreed. We needed to recruit two more guys to our cause. We began searching the group to replace what each man’s crime was and if they had any fighting experience.

“We found one guy who had been infantry in the galactic military. He was old, hard-nosed, and rough. We had dismissed him at first. He was an alcoholic and was a repeat offender beyond his chance for redemption. He looked to be in his mid-sixties. We found out it was just middle aged for his lifespan. His name was Fritzgereal, so we called him Fritz. We found a guy who was the equivalent of a space pirate! His name was Gilfoy. He had been captured on a ship in a situation similar to Danny Boy, unable to escape with the rest of the crew.

“After speaking to him for a few minutes I thought we had a real chance at surviving.”

“Why?” Janet queried.

“He was from Herpe. Just like I had recognized Danny Boy was human, I had been around the Herpes long enough I knew he was one. He was sitting alone in a corner of the room. He had not spoken to anyone. I asked him if he had ever been to Yahamiki, where the twins were, or Zelkfinst which was where we picked Sven up.

“He gave me a hard stare for a few moments, and then asked where I knew the names from. I told him I had been there in the last couple of weeks to help friends pick up relatives.”

“How did all of you understand each other,” Janet asked. “I know you had the translator things, but what about the others?”

“Well, Danny Boy had gotten them on Obujutte, because he had to understand everyone’s questions and request at the resort. Gilfoy, the Herpe, had been in the special forces of the galactic military when he was in government service. The military gives them to everyone who serves, so Fritz had them too. The Octavians and several other planets give it to their kids in their first sets of shots before school. It helps improve their understanding of things somehow.”

I began to realize Janet really was actually considering our story to be true, which it was, but her believing me was kind of cool.

“Weren’t the guards listening to you?” She asked.

“Not really,” I answered. “They figured it didn’t matter what we talked about because we were all going to die the next day anyway.”

“Which almost happened,” Bubba said, still mad they had not listened to him when he wanted to leave Khelid.

“Almost doesn’t count,” Arlo countered.

“Well, what did happen,” Janet wondered.

“We were met in the arena by four Kelvekians. After opening ceremonies and preliminary sportscast stuff, we were given the signal to fight. Our group of five confronted one Kelvekian while the others ran around or engaged the other three. We used our advantage of five men to his four arms and dispatched him quickly. Gilfoy and Fritz both thrust swords into his side while Danny Boy and I fought him from the front. The Octavian was between us. He was not much use in the fight, but he was a distraction.”

“How so?” Janet asked.

“Because the Kelvekians were slow compared to us. Even though they trained to fight two or three people at a time, they were confused by five. The one we killed first let out a horrendous bellow as he fell and died. It got the attention of the other three.”

“We picked up the video signal on our way towards the planet,” Dingo said. “We were still ten to fifteen minutes away. Our plan was to swoop in over the arena and pull Jack out. It was like watching the super bowl with a huge bet on the line.”

“You guys bet on this thing?” Janet asked, misunderstanding.

“No honey,” I responded. “My life was on the line, and they had no control over the situation.”

“I was trying to get Bipodecus, or one of the Herpes, to transport Jack to the ship from space,” Arlo stated. “They began explaining to me why it wouldn’t work. I told them to save it for later. We went back to watching the screen. George told us we could not just drop in and snatch Jack from the arena either. The military, the Octavian military, was monitoring the trial and had ships stationed around the arena. We could do a high-risk run and try to grab Jack, but the speed of the ship and his movement on the arena floor would make all of it close to impossible.”

“Of course, I didn’t know about any of it at the time,” I took over. “Five of our original eighteen had been killed by the three other Kelvekians. Everyone in the arena had stopped for a moment as the Kelvekian fell. The condemned on the floor saw what we had done and formed two groups basically. Another group of five faced one Kelvekian. The other three ran as a group to get as far away from the fighting as possible.”

“They didn’t fight,” Janet wondered.

“Opportunist,” Bubba answered. “If the two groups could kill the remaining three Kelvekians, they would also survive.”

“It doesn’t seem fair!” Janet exclaimed.

“Life never is,” I answered. “We charged towards a second Kelvekian. I dropped my short sword and grabbed one of the Kelvekians longer broad swords. It helped defend against the longer reach the Kelvekians had. Danny Boy did the same.

“We knew our strength was in numbers. We attacked simultaneously when we were within reach of the second creature. Of the other two remaining, one was fighting the other group of five. The third was chasing the remaining three stragglers.

“Danny Boy dropped to one knee under a powerful swing from the Kelvekian’s lower right arm and flipped his sword up in an arc. It cut the arm off at the elbow. With a scream of rage from the Kelvekian, the upper arm sliced off the Octavians head at about the same time. I saw the third Kelvekian abandon chasing the threesome. It was running towards us at full speed swinging two swords and two maces. I yelled at Gilfoy. He saw the new threat. He swept his arm in a beautiful jab which punctured the abdomen of the Kelvekian we were fighting. It stumbled but did not fall. Fritz began to fight even harder as he saw the wounds pouring out blood.

“Danny Boy and I turned to face the rushing Kelvekian. We realized he was coming too fast. He would not be able to stop before tumbling into the entire group. I heard a scream behind me. I did not turn. The Kelvekian had run a sword through Fritz. Fritz managed to do the same and punctured the beast upper chest in his final moment.

“The ruptured heart shot blood across my back as I exchanged a glance with Danny Boy. We had thought about trying to take the legs out of one of the Kelvekians when we believed it would just be the two of us. When he was fifteen feet away, we started charging towards him. His speed was so great he could not slow down. We dropped and rolled from opposite sides. The Kelvekian was too slow to react as we sliced into the flesh of his lower legs. He toppled forward onto the body of the Octavian, Fritz, and the dead Kelvekian.”

“Watching the video was amazing,” Arlo commented. “The crowd had seen Kelvekians wounded before, but no one had ever killed one. Now two lay dead on the floor of the arena. Another was badly wounded. The crowd sat in stunned silence. No one knew how to react. It was especially true when the cameras swept to take in the faces of the Tribal Chief and his advisors, both military and scientific. They sat motionless, unable to understand what was happening before them.”

“It’s barbaric,” Janet stated. “Nothing but brute force and the strongest winning in the end.”

“We have a copy of the video on the ship,” Dingo offered. “I think it’s pretty damn impressive.”

“But it was just sanctioned murder,” Janet claimed.

“I don’t see it that way,” I answered gently. “We were defending ourselves as best we could. We were not the strongest on the field of battle by far. I jumped on the Kelvekians back as soon as I could roll over and tried to stab him. The long sword I had now worked to my disadvantage. He knocked it away with one of his arms. I fell forward where he could not reach me and attempted to put him in a chokehold.”

“Not your finest moment,” Bubba said, shaking his head.

“Why not?” Janet inquired.

“They have a bull’s head! There was no way my two hundred pounds was going to crush the windpipe of the beast. He ripped one of my arms away and turned his head to snap at my other hand. I held it up, showing her the missing pinky end to enforce the gravity of the fight. He had broken one of his arms in the fall. It hung useless, but he was using one to drag me off his back and two others to try and push up to his knees.

“As soon as he threw me free, Danny Boy caved his skull in with a mace he had picked up. Gilfoy drove a sword through him. I rolled up onto one knee and looked for Gilfoy and Fritz. I saw where Fritz had fallen with the Kelvekian. I had no time to mourn his loss. Gilfoy was standing just to the left of Danny Boy. Neither of them was looking towards me. They were both watching the last Kelvekian. He had killed the five who were fighting him. He was bruised and bloodied. I could not tell if it was his blood or that of his victims. He dropped one mace he carried and picked up another sword.

“He approached us warily. His eyes were red with hate and rage for what we had done to the other Kelvekians. I did not know how much of the battle he had witnessed as he fought the other slain defendants. As a group, we backed away a little from the bodies on the ground before us. We stood there for almost a minute, catching our breath, and waiting. No one wanted to make the first move. My left hand throbbed and poured blood where I had been bitten. Danny Boy and Gilfoy both had cuts and bruises on their bodies. They were covered in blood too. I did not know the extent of their injuries.

“It was surreal watching it,” Dingo claimed. “The crowd and all of us on the ship were holding a collective breath, waiting for the final.”

I took a long pull of beer and sat the empty bottle down on the coffee table. “I wondered if the Kelvekian could withdraw. If he laid down his weapons, I would do the same. We were all worn out. The Kelvekian was trained for this, and only for this. He let out a primal scream and came charging towards us. He leaped over the bodies between us and landed in a swirl of steel.

“The initial onslaught was furious as he tried to beat us down with pure strength. Three of us against him and his four swords. I knew one of us would fall quickly unable to guard against an extra thrust or slash. We heard a high-pitched scream! The Kelvekian spun away from us. One of the three who had run from the fight had stabbed him in the back. The Kelvekian roared from the pain and cut the man down. His anger gave us the time to stab and cut with our own swords. I was still on the right of our trio. I swung my sword deep into his side where it stuck in the bone. Danny Boy thrust his in just below where mine protruded. Gilfoy cut deep where our kidney would be from the left.

“The beast toppled forward onto the ground. He was not dead, but there was no fight left in him. We heard the crowd chanting to finish him. I did not pick up another weapon. Danny Boy and Gilfoy stood beside me. We turned to face the Tribal Chief. Blood poured down my face from where I had only partially blocked an overhand blow.”

“The scar above your eye,” Janet said as she nodded. She hated violence of any kind. I wondered what the story did to her feelings about me. It would be days before she processed all of her emotions. “What did they do then?”

“It was unprecedented,” I answered. “Initially, no one knew what to do. A military general somewhere finally took action and sent soldiers in. Some type of handler or trainer rushed out to the dying Kelvekian. They had weapons trained on us, but we posed no threat. The two people who had done nothing but run were brought to the center of the arena in front of us. Someone pulled out a pistol like weapon and shot both of them in turn.”

“Why?” Janet asked in shock. “They survived.”

“They didn’t fight,” Bubba answered. “There was no justice in their living.”

Janet was stunned by the words.

“We waited while everyone looked at the Tribal Chief,” I said. “His advisers whispered to him frantically. Finally, he stood and looked down at the three of us. He picked up a microphone and announced we had been found innocent of the crimes for which we were charged. We were escorted out of the arena by the soldiers.”

“They set you free?” Janet was surprised.

“Not exactly,” I replied. “We were sent directly to the space station, and then treated for our injuries. We were banned from every planet in the Octavian Federation, including Lemming Six. In addition to the embarrassment we had caused the Tribal Chief, they were starting to get reports of strange behavior from some of the people at the villa, and a few in the capital itself.”

“You’re going to blame me, just like they did, aren’t you,” Dingo accused from across the room.

“Well, you did introduce the Herpederpe virus to Octavia,” Arlo stated flatly. It wasn’t an accusation. It was just another fact.

“Well, once they got the cure from you, they could inoculate their people against it,” Janet offered.

“We didn’t give them the damn cure,” Bubba said a bit too loudly. “They tried to kill Jack and kicked us off the planet. Why in the hell should we help them?”

Janet just looked at me. She could not comprehend why we would not offer them the cure. I saw her assess and discard arguments behind her eyes.

“The General wanted to kill us all,” I said. “We were lucky all they did was ban us from the system. They surrounded the three of us with soldiers and got us off the planet. As soon as we cleared the medical facility on the space station, they escorted us to the ship and told us to leave. Gilfoy came along with us. He said he thought we might be fun to be around.”

“Where did you go?”

“We went back to Khelid. Bipodecus was going back to Lakanica with his ship. He wanted to update their king on our progress and talk to his elders about what he had done. He felt he could no longer serve us or them with honor after what had happened on Herpe and Octavia. He internalized everything. He saw the killing of the beasts in the arena as blood on his own hands.”

Arlo shook his head and spoke sadly. “Bubba, Hello and I spent most of the trip from Octavia to Khelid trying to convince him he was not responsible for any of our actions. Dingo was going to be Dingo, whether Bipodecus was with him or not. He wouldn’t listen to any of it. He was going to ask the king and his council to appoint someone else to be our contact.”