Alcantaran 1: Alien Abduction (55 page)

When the ceremony was done, the driver didn't take them directly back to the space port.
 
He turned and took them downtown.
 
Thousands of Europaischens lined the streets, cheering and waving as they went by.
 
The trio,
Kota
and
Zibo
were embarrassed and didn't know what to say.

Ron quipped, "If they want a speech, I'm sure it is Tik's turn."

Gus quickly agreed and she whacked both of them.
 
They didn't have speeches that day but the driver informed them that they had another parade with speeches and such scheduled in four days.
 
He said there would be national leaders there from countries all over the planet.
 
He asked if the five star travelers could be present for the festivities and they were forced to say yes.
 
None of them wanted to alienate a whole planet by not showing up at a party given in their honor.

The driver finally got them back to the space port and they headed for their space ships.
 
Kota
asked if he and
Zibo
could talk to the trio, so they invited them into Auntie.

The trio led the two Traders to their living quarters where they would be more comfortable.
 
After a little preliminary chat,
Kota
asked, "What are you going to do with those warships and the salvage rights?"

"What do you mean, what are we going to do?" Ron asked in shock.

"We just helped wreck them.
 
How can we have any salvage rights?" Tik quickly asked.

"It doesn't make any difference what you did.
 
The Nodac-Liujians can't do anything with them.
 
That is part of the surrender terms.
 
The Charter Navy wants to make it very painful for a planet that tries galactic conquest.
 
We filed a preliminary salvage rights claim for you,"
Kota
replied.

"What would you recommend?
 
If we have the salvage rights, half belongs to you," Ron said.

"But we didn't do much…."
Kota
protested.

"Never-the-less, half is yours," Ron said adamantly.

"We couldn't take half.
 
Why don't we make it 1 share out of 4?"
Kota
said as he tried to dodge ownership.

"OK, you take the 75% share and we'll call it even," Ron said in a determined voice.

"That's not what I meant.
 
We would take the one share,"
Kota
protested.

"Nope, that won't work.
 
I guess you will have to take it all," Ron declared.

"Why don't we split it five ways and we'll take two shares?"
Kota
pleaded.

"That will work," Ron grinned in triumph.
 
"Now, what do you recommend we do?"

"We don't want to try to do any of the salvage ourselves, nor do we want to supervise the salvage.
 
All we wanted was two of the fighters and a few of the personal weapons on board.
 
We have heard some very good reports about the fighters and we'd like to have some of the personal weapons to stock our armory on the freighter.
 
We would also like to send some of them to the scientists of the Traders.
 
They study them to see if we have defenses against them and also if they are better than our weapons.
 
They also check to see if little improvements would make a big difference in performance.
 
We would really like the fighters because when the freighter is retrofitted, we lose our space ship there.
 
The fighters would be a good fit in the freighter to get around in a solar system or on a planet.
 
You should look at getting three for yourselves.
 
You might have to make some modifications to Auntie to hold them but I think you would find that they could become a valuable addition.
 
As for the salvage, the Traders have their own salvage company that would take on this job.
 
They would get the maximum value out of it and are very reasonable in their prices,"
Kota
explained.

"How much money would we have to have up front?" Gus asked.

"Nothing.
 
As a matter of fact, they would pay a deposit to you for the rights,"
Zibo
chimed in.

The trio looked at one another and they all nodded yes.
 
Ron told
Kota
, "Let's do it.
 
Maybe we could fly out tomorrow and look at one of those fighters.
 
Although; if we want to bring five of them back, it will mean two trips.
 
Is there a way to get a list of weapons aboard those ships?
 
We might want to stock a few more modern weapons in our armory."

"There will be an inventory list somewhere.
 
Our salvagers could find it for us.
 
I'm not sure how far radiation has spread through the ship.
 
We saw some of the troops that came off those warships and they had radiation burns.
 
Why don't I call the salvagers and let them check it out.
 
They can be here in two days with a survey crew and they could take possession of the ships then.
 
If the fighters are covered with radiation, they will decontaminate them and they could even fly one here.
 
If you like it, they would gladly fly the rest of them here.
 
We won't be able to take our fighters with us.
 
We'll have to ship them to where the freighter is being retrofitted,"
Kota
responded.

"What are you going to do with those two trader ships here on the ground?
 
What about that one still in orbit?"
Zibo
asked.

"I just thought the Nodac-Liujia traders would reclaim them now that they're on the ground," Tik said.

"They are covered under the same rules in the surrender.
 
The traders lose them and you were using them in space so that makes you the owners.
 
And
NO,
we do not own a share of them!"
Zibo
responded with feeling.

"We hadn't even thought about them.
 
Things have been a little busy.
 
It would be nice if we could have people from our planet start flying them but that would be way in the future.
 
Why?
 
Do you want to use them to haul your fighters home?" Ron said.

"That's not a bad idea but what I really had in mind was leasing them.
 
I have two cousins that have been looking for a space ship.
 
They have been trading with Master Traders for the last 10 years and they are ready for their own ships but haven't found any yet.
 
Buying a new one is out of their price range right now but they could afford a lease and maybe earn enough to buy a ship in the future.
 
I'm sure they could find someone else for the third ship,"
Zibo
stated.

"I don't know if they would want the one that is damaged or the one that is in orbit.
 
I don't know what it would cost to fix them.
 
I haven't seen the insides of the ships but Tik says they are disgusting.
 
Well, you saw them.
 
How long would it take to clean out the insides and make them inhabitable for non-slobs?" Ron asked.

"My cousins and their crews would take care of cleaning everything up.
 
As for repairs, do you three realize that with this salvage contract you will all probably be millionaires?"
Zibo
asked.

"We didn't realize that those warships would be worth so much.
 
What should we charge if we lease those other ships?" Ron asked.

"Typically, they would pay you a flat fee per month or per year.
 
Another way, would be to accept a percentage of their trades.
 
That's a little more risky but potentially a lot more profitable,"
Zibo
commented.

The trio met with ESP and decided to go with the percentage of trade.
 
They really didn't have anything to lose.
 
Ron said, "We'll go with the percentage of trade with the stipulation that they take a human, a Mis'stear or Sandghost as a trainee.
 
I don't know if you have a training school for basic rules but; if the Traders do, that would be part of the costs.
 
Your cousins will have to get the ship repaired and we will pay for it.
 
The same goes for the one in orbit."

Zibo
was very excited and said her cousins would be here with papers by the time the parade was over.
 
She said her cousins would pay for whatever trade goods were already on the space ships.
 
She would let her cousins know about the other ship as well.
 
Kota
sent word to the salvage company to come and investigate the five ships.
 
They replied back that they had found another crew looking for a ship and they all would be there in two days with a contract.
 
Kota
arranged for them to bring the special chip, showing the
Alliance
credits to attach to Auntie.
 
He wanted everything to be legal and to get the trio up to speed as fast as possible.
 
Later in the day, he brought over the contract to affiliate the trio with his trading company.
 
He announced that Dar Es Salaam Traders thought they could give coordinates to the trio's home planets.
 
He thought they would have it by the time the trio arrived at their next planet.
 
He said one of the Dar Es Salaam Trader ships would meet them there and they could see if the data they had on hand, matched their planets.

The news media had been trying to get interviews with the trio but they avoided them like the plague.
 
The trio had no desire to be famous on more than just this planet.
 
Little did they know that they and the Alcantaran ghosts were now tied together and stories were spreading through all the inhabited galaxies.

Ron went in the next morning to talk to Fu and to pay their parking fee.
 
Fu presented him with three small, delicate porcelain bells his wife had made.
 
They had a plastic covering that fit like a decal over the bells.
 
There was a mountain scene with delicate little flowers and trees around the bottom.
 
Ron was very interested in the plastic covering and asked about it.
 
Fu said his wife did the scenes and had a company do the plastic covers to her specs.
 
Fu said the covers could be changed with a simple process and showed Ron the other ones for the bell.
 
There were several different scenes of the country around the city.

Ron asked, "Can your wife do larger covers?
 
Could she custom make them to fit something?

Fu replied proudly, "Oh, I'm sure that would be no problem."

Ron explained, "I want some covers that would fit Dolores.
 
I want them to look like dresses that had been on an old TV character.
 
I want a solid background color with a small flower pattern all over it."

Fu called his wife and explained what Ron wanted.

She said, "That should be no problem.
 
How quickly will Ron need it?"

Ron replied, "I'd like to have it by the day of the parade, but the way things are looking, it might be another day or two."

Mrs. Fu said, "I'll get in touch with my supplier to see if they can do something that quickly and then get back to you."

Shortly after Ron went back to the space ship, Fu called on the radio, "The supplier originally said it would take six weeks but when they learned who it was for, they quickly decided they could have it done by the day after the parade."

Ron told him, "I want six of them and this is the colors for the background.
 
Just let your wife pick out the color of flower to compliment the background color."

Ron decided they needed something a little dressier for the parade.
 
He made Tik and Gus go to the sewing room to be measured.
 
Then they looked at some of the pictures of dress uniforms that Auntie had in her data banks.
 
They settled for a very simple but elegant pattern with bright, electric blue material for trousers and jackets.
 
The shirts were a wheat-colored yellow and they added a deep brown leather-like belt that would hold a holster on the right for their weapons.
 
The belt had another strap that crossed from the right hip over the left shoulder and back to the right hip.
 
On the left side was a small pouch for personal effects.
 
They put an RTG Trading logo on the right breast in bright red.
 
They settled for a light gray boot that came up about mid-calf on Ron and Gus.
 
After the other two left, Ron added an order for an apron for Delores.
 
He was completing a picture of Aunt Bea from the TV program he remembered watching.

The next morning, the salvage crew arrived.
 
They brought contracts for everyone to sign and they had the chip for Auntie.
 
They gave the trio a slip that showed a 500,000 credit deposit for each of them.
 
Zibo
's cousins also arrived in the afternoon and the trio walked through the two Nodac-Liujia trader's ships with them.
 
The cousins liked the basic ship but not the mess the Nodac-Liujians and the rescue had left.
 
The cousins told the trio they would give them a third of the profits for use of the ships.
 
The trio agreed and the cousins produced the necessary contracts.
 
They agreed to find suitable humans, Mis'stears or Sandghosts to send to the trader training and then would start them on the apprentice program.
 
As soon as the contracts were signed, they took their crews to the ships to do an inventory and to start clean up.
 
They reported it would take at least a week to clean everything and restock the ship.
 
The other crew had flown to the ship in orbit and reported they could make a temporary patch that would enable them to get to a ship yard.
 
They offered the same deal as
Zibo
's cousins.
 
The trio agreed and signed the paperwork when the crew landed the ship on Europaische.