Alcantaran 1: Alien Abduction (35 page)

The boys started talking about the friends at school who they were going to tell their story to tomorrow.
 
They asked their parents if they could take the silver trinkets to school to show their friends and teachers.
 
Mrs. Fu said she would have to go to school with them if they did.
 
Gus started asking questions about the school and what subjects they taught.
 
He asked what the classrooms were like and the boys said he should come to see for himself.
 
Gus said he would if Fu could arrange it with the school authorities.
 
The boys instantly started pleading with him to set it up.
 
Fu said he would try to arrange it for the day after tomorrow.
 
Ron had to grin as he saw the reaction from the tables around them.
 
He wondered how many parents and grandparents were going to find a need to visit their family's school on that day.
 
Fu announced that tomorrow was a school day so he needed to get the boys home.
 
There were groans from their side of the table until Tik reminded them that they would be seeing them at school the in two days and at Auntie the day after that.
 
If their dad decided they hadn't behaved enough to visit Auntie, the trio would have to back him up.
 
The groans stopped immediately and the boys politely thanked them for the silver trinkets and all of the stories.

The waitress brought the check and Ron paid it, as well as a generous tip.
 
The waitress acted like she didn't know what a tip was and Fu explained that their culture didn't do that.
 
Ron took the money back but gave her a silver trinket.
 
He said his culture tried to show their appreciation for a job well done.
 
The waitress was on cloud nine with the gift.
 
Ron could see that they were going to have to make a lot more of these.
 
Small things like this didn't cost them a great deal but paid big dividends as gifts.
 
The trio arranged to meet Fu early in the morning to start touring the countryside and figuring out something to trade.
 
They told him that they had hired the driver and vehicle for the rest of the week and he could ride with them.
 
He said he would meet them at the space port.

Everyone got up to leave and Gus forgot about the low ceilings.
 
He bumped into the light fixture and the boys giggled until their father glared at them sternly.
 
The trio tried hard to suppress their grins but it was no use.
 
They chuckled and soon the boys were giggling again.
 
They went outside and the Fu family got into their vehicle and drove off.
 
The trio went to their hired vehicle and told the driver to take them back to the space port.

The trio arrived back at the space port and went through the doors to get to Auntie.
 
They walked up the stairs and stepped into the airlock.
 
Auntie had opened the airlock and they didn't have to wait.
 
The faint metal odor struck them as they stepped in the door.
 
Auntie had been changing the air inside but it still hadn't erased the older odor from long ages of sitting empty.
 
It wasn't a terrible odor but after the freshness of open air, it was hard to go back inside.

"Ugh… I was just getting used to fresh air and sunshine," Tik said.

"I know.
 
The smell of those flowers was delightful," Ron quickly agreed.
 
"It's hard to go back inside.
 
When I was on Earth, we used to camp out under the stars but I'll bet they would frown on that here at the space port."

"Too bad Auntie couldn't pull in some of this air and direct it to our sleeping quarters.
 
It'd be nice if she could vary the lighting during the day too.
 
Maybe we should add some UV lights in the places where we spend a lot of time to mimic sunshine," Gus stated.

"Oh, but I can do that.
 
I did that long ago with some of my other crews," Auntie broadcast.
 
"I just didn't realize that you wanted something like that."

"Well, for tonight pipe, the outside air into here and when we get ready for bed, dim the lights.
 
Tomorrow you can wake us to simulated sunshine," Gus ordered.

"Yeah, too bad we couldn't hire that chef from tonight to be out here in the morning to cook our breakfast.
 
You know, that it's going to be really tough to choke down our usual breakfast after that scrumptious meal we had tonight!" Ron dreamed out loud.

Both of the others agreed.
 
They sat down at the galley table to recount what they had learned that day.
 
They made a plan of what they wanted for tomorrow as well.
 
Ron brought up that the small trinkets had been such a hit that they might have to make more of them tomorrow.
 
Gus said he would set things up with Auntie right away.
 
He asked how many trinkets Ron wanted and which ones.
 
Ron said he would have to look at what they had again and they all decided to go look at them right then.
 
None of them were really sleepy and besides, it was earlier than they had normally been going to bed.

They went to the storeroom and looked the shelves over carefully.
 
They discovered ten more molds of different figures of the trinket size.
 
They picked up the ones they had used before and decided to make at least five of each of those and the new ones.
 
They laid all of the molds on a bench beside the door.
 
Auntie acknowledged that she understood and she would direct the robots tomorrow.
 
They told her to use the ingots that had zinc mixed in with the silver first and then start with the larger ingots.
 
Auntie replied that the mixed ingots would be more than enough to do the figures they wanted.

Since they weren't sleepy, they had a shooting competition.
 
They moved the miners out on the cargo deck and set the targets for only about four inches in diameter.
 
They directed Auntie to move the targets in and around the miners and other items in the cargo bay.
 
They decided to walk to the rear of the bay and back to the front as they shot at targets.
 
Auntie suggested that she make one target a deep blue and they would lose points if they hit it.
 
The trio agreed and they started their competition.
 
The competition was spirited and lively.
 
They all hit some of the blue targets at first but by the time they walked back, they didn't fire at them.
 
Tik won by two points, so she was really rubbing it in.
 
They decided they had better go to bed because they wanted to be fresh in the morning.
 
Auntie put the targets away and reminded the trio to check the charge on their weapons.
 
They were a little over half and thought that would be enough but Auntie insisted they completely recharge them.
 
They followed her advice and went to bed.

The next morning they got up and could only eat about half of what they normally did.
 
The meal last night had ruined them.
 
They rounded up some more trinkets and two more ingots of silver.
 
They were early for their appointment with Fu but they just walked around outside basking in the fresh air and sunshine.
 
It seemed they had landed in the middle of summer and the weather was pure joy for someone who had been cooped up in an unchanging climate for two or three years.

Fu arrived a few minutes before their hired vehicle.
 
He asked what they wanted to see today and the trio told him they would like to see some of the country and the business district where goods were sold.
 
They said they might spot something they might want to trade for when their permit came through.

The driver pulled up and asked where they wanted to head today.
 
Fu told him they were going to tour some of the country and then back into the city.
 
Ron saw the driver hesitate and ask Fu how far into the country.
 
The driver and Fu had a short conversation and Ron could see there was a problem.

Fu approached the trio and said, "The driver says he has a problem if we need to travel very far into the country.
 
He has used his fuel allotment and won't get another for six more days.
 
He suggested we look around the city today and he could take you into the country after he gets his fuel allotment."

"Does this have to do with the war your country is involved in right now?
 
What sort of fuel does he use?" Ron asked.

"Yes, because of the war, some items are rationed and fuel is one of them.
 
His vehicle uses fusionable material which is in very short supply." Fu answered.

"Here is where you earn your consulting fee.
 
By the way, we haven't discussed how much it should be.
 
Would 10,000 rudia be enough for the next week?" Ron asked.

The trio thought poor Fu was going to drop to the ground.
 
He looked like Ron had hit him right in the solar plexus.
 
He turned pale, his eyes widened and he was gasping for breath.

"What's the matter?
 
Isn't that enough?" Ron asked with great concern.

"No, No, that's not it.
 
I thought the little silver image you gave me last night was my fee.
 
You are offering me more than my annual salary and I couldn't take that for just a week's work," Fu gasped.

"Nonsense!
 
Just look, you've already saved us from making a mistake and spending way more than we need to.
 
The silver image was a gift and doesn't count as any part of your fee." Ron snorted.
 
"Now, a question for you, Mr. Consultant.
 
Can we get this vehicle out near our space ship?
 
Can we legally and morally give this driver some of our fuel?"

"Yes, we can get the vehicle out there.
 
We have vehicles deliver goods to space ships all the time.
 
I don't know about giving him fuel.
 
I don't know how that will affect his allotment.
 
Let me go inside to my computer to check," Fu stammered.

He rushed into the building and was gone about 10 minutes.
 
He came back outside and told Ron that the driver would keep his allotment and would actually be awarded a cash bonus for conserving fuel.
 
Ron told him to direct the driver to their space ship and they would meet them there.
 
He broadcast what was going on to the other two and they headed for Auntie.

The driver pulled up next to Auntie and they asked him to show them how he fueled his vehicle.
 
He showed them the fitting and Gus said he could make their fuel transfer system work with his vehicle.
 
Gus made the transfer, giving the driver about the same amount of fuel that he gave the robots.
 
They closed everything up and climbed into the vehicle.
 
The driver climbed in and suddenly he had the same shocked look that Fu had earlier.
 
It seems Gus had given him a six month supply of fuel.

They were ready to tour the country and Fu directed the driver.
 
He took them out to where fields of grain were growing.
 
They drove past orchards with fruit and other fields with all sorts of vegetables.
 
Fu and the driver explained some of the history of the countryside and told about the different uses for a lot of the food.
 
They saw some animals at a distance and the two Europaischens told how they were raised and used.
 
About noon they came to a small diner beside the road.
 
Gus said that his breakfast hadn't lasted and wondered if they could stop to eat.
 
At first the driver wasn't going to go in but the trio insisted, so they all went in to eat.
 
They had to have the two Europaischens explain the menu again.
 
They picked out some different dishes and loved what they were eating.
 
Gus broadcast that they were eating in town tonight.
 
He wasn't eating any more on the space ship until he had to.

After lunch they headed back into town.
 
As they were going down the road, Fu got a call on his phone.
 
He reported that he had just received word that their permit had been issued and they could trade now at any time.
 
Ron broadcast to Tik and Gus, "See, I told you it would help our cause to be nice to Fu."
 
They hadn't traveled very far when they saw a crowd of people at a farm house.
 
The trio asked the driver to slow down and they asked Fu what was going on.
 
He said that it was a sale.
 
He said some of the families had sales like this to get rid of excess equipment and to make a little money for the household.
 
He mentioned that sometimes you found real bargains at these sales.

The trio asked the driver to stop and they all climbed out.
 
As they walked up to the sale, the trio could see they were generating some excitement among the other shoppers.
 
There were rows of items under a canopy that was set in the yard.
 
Some of the items were on tables and some just stood by themselves.
 
They looked at some of the clothing lying on one of the tables but knew that none of it would fit Ron and Gus.
 
Some of it might be altered for Tik but she didn't think it would be worth the effort.
 
Ron and Gus liked the feel of the material and said they needed to get some of the material for Auntie to make clothes for them.