Connection (6 page)

“The ship said it wasn’t sure it wanted me to know where it came from – since their arrival here had been very…unwelcoming…was its words,” said LeEck.

The judge leaned forward, looked down at Skip – who needed to go to the bathroom by this time, and wasn’t sure what was going on around him. “By law,” pontificated the judge – “you have heard the case against you and evidence for your defense. How do you plead?” The judge asked and waited the allotted time period. “The law is pretty clear – if the subject decides not to plead – he is guilty. It is within my discretion to reduce the maximum sentence after the testimony of Professor LeEck so I will do so.”

The judge banged his equivalent of a gavel and said, “Guilty! Ten years. I am being super lenient young man. Court dismissed. Commandant. Where are you taking me to lunch? This was a lot trickier than you suggested. Let’s go. Bailiff. Please take the prisoner to begin his sentence. Whew. You said this was a tricky case and you were right – a talking ship…indeed.”

Robert was pretty sure these guys were the local mafia and he’d end up on the wrong end of the law no matter what he did here. He had to maintain some semblance of control or they’d run over him. He needed more information and he needed the ability to speak their language. He thought he’d made a half-ass friend with LeSlur – the guy was sure smart and tough. The government seemed aggressive and inflexible – just like on Earth. He’d have to do something to get back with his ship. At least they had given him his own room. He freshened up and tried to reach Cassandra.

“Cassandra. Can you hear me?” he spoke softly.

“Yes Robert. You must be in a higher elevation because your signal is much stronger now than even thirty minutes ago.”

“Where are you?” he asked.

“I am in the LsPlay Enforcement Center about two hundred kilometers south of your position. They tried to get inside me but I’ve kept them out for a while. I think Skip was just wounded. I’ve been monitoring all I can on any broadcast bands and tapping into the communications system, same system we are using. I don’t have enough to blackmail all the government officials here…yet. I am learning the language. It helps to remember every word and hear their educational broadcasts. Get a tutor – I will listen in and help you. The ‘criminals’ you are with would make more money from inventions you can come up with more than drugs. They seem to be quasi-criminals – remainders of some of the big money elites. By the way – your big drug is caffeine.”

“Really. Damn – I may have a hard time getting a cup of coffee now. How do you feel about the fuel compatibility? Could you move near me – a short hop?”

“Definitely Robert but I need a place to land away from government interference. Find an aerial map. Take a photo with your Dex and you can transmit it even over this system – might take a while but its doable. I will try to find Skip. I think he is going to trial or something. I will find him. He is alive.”

“Stay buttoned up and safe. Come north about two hundred kilometers if you get in a pinch. Find a landing site that is possible. Oh. Teach me the phrases for ‘I need a tutor’ and ‘to learn your language’ or something similar.”

“Okay. Here are those phrases,” Cassandra said and repeated them enough for Robert to memorize them. “I will continue to monitor you and try to decipher what is being said around you.”

“Thank you Cassandra. I would be lost without you. Bye,” Robert celebrated having the tenuous thread of connection with Earth through Cassandra. He just hoped he could keep it. Robert went out in the corridor and there was a big guy sitting by his door – obviously a guard. Robert turned to him and the man’s eyes cut down the hall to a room. He stood up and said “Pa!” He put his hand against Robert’s chest. Obviously, these people had never heard of aikido. He grabbed the man’s wrist and flipped him face down then flipped him up and over. He finally smashed him unconscious on the corridor floor. Robert walked down to the room down the hall and knocked.

LeSlur opened the door and LeSlur looked down the hall at the unconscious man on the floor. “Told them it wouldn’t work,” he said in the local language. “What is it you want so badly?”

Robert said, “I need a tutor to learn your language.” He said it in the local dialect.

LeSlur looked back at the unconscious man and decided he ought to get this fellow what he wanted.

                                                                      ****

LeSlur was pretty solicitous of my needs since I had tossed his goons.  We went to meals together regularly. I learned a bit about him – mainly listening to Cassandra say what was being said at the meals. I got a tutor assigned to me and she was tall and thin – I thought she was extremely pretty but LeSlur said she would be considered a 4 or 5 out of ten on his scale. He said she was too tall and thin with hips that were way too narrow. I thought she was sexy as hell and a full five foot six in the old standard. Her name was Twlise. We spent the first day learning “My name is Robert. Thank you. Where is X or Y. Same old Berlitz stuff – just in ‘LesMan’ or the local equivalent.

My learning took off with Twlise. I was soon talking like a two-year old. Like a six year old at the end of five days of her training. I felt I was getting physically rusty so I started practicing my martial arts patterns in the afternoons. It was pleasant most afternoons with a gentle breeze. I collected an audience pretty soon. LeSlur came out later in the week and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was practicing fighting and he laughed. He said that stuff wouldn’t work in a fight – at which point I laughed back at him.

I suggested he get a couple of his best boys and I’d mess them around a little but not hurt them. He said we ought to bet but I didn’t have anything to bet. I told him I would kiss his bare ass in front of all his men if I lost – what would he put up. He said he’d bet one of those bags of coffee I had brought. I put my hand out to seal the deal and explained in my baby LesMan how to make a deal. He wanted me to kiss his ass so he got two of the meanest guys on the planet to face me. I wiped off my mouth because I thought I might be puckering up pretty soon but that isn’t how it worked out.

These two goofballs had obviously been spending their days practicing intimidating faces in a mirror and not in a practice ring. In addition – these goobers had never worked as a team. They faced me and both came at me at the same time. I moved to the side so both couldn’t get at me at once. I sidestepped at the last minute and openhanded struck one on the side of his neck as he went past. He went down – unconscious because he never even got to put his hands forward to break his fall. He looked like one of those old Airport movies with the plane coming in for an emergency landing and not quite making it.

Mean looking guy two became a little more cautious and moved around like he was going to grapple with me. Not likely – I thrust kick just above the inside of his knee and that broke his stance. He threw his hands up for balance and I quickly jabbed the webbing of my hand into his throat. It wasn’t enough to damage his throat but his hands came back to grab there and I tossed him neatly into the bushes. It looked like I had been lucky and if you didn’t know – it looked like I didn’t do much of anything…that wasn’t the case. LeSlur got pretty angry that his men could be defeated so easily and he ordered five more of his men ‘to teach me a lesson’ according to Cassandra’s instant translation. I got serious as did those five.

One had a knife and two had ‘saps.’ I did a skipping sidekick and broke the knee joint of the guy with the knife. He dropped the knife and started squalling while holding his knee. The two with the saps came at me at the same time and I slapped them alternately with the back of my wrist against their necks – one was knocked unconscious. The second recovered a little so I locked his arm, palm up and snapped it down over my knee. The crack was highly audible and he screamed. I jumped up and did a nice showy spinning backkick to take out number four. Number five pulled a pistol out and I leveraged that out of his hands before he could think, kneeing him in the balls. That worked almost as well here as on Earth and I heard a couple of onlookers groan. I took the liberated pistol and shoved it into number five’s mouth, knocking out several teeth in the process. I turned to face LeSlur. I had one hand behind number five’s collar and the other holding the gun in the thug’s mouth. “You want live?” I asked.

LeSlur had lost his ‘angry as hell’ look and was well on his way to ‘holy shit’. I pulled the gun out of
five’s
mouth, took a look at it, stripped out its ammunition and tossed it back to ‘five’. LeSlur said we ought to go inside and talk. The five didn’t seem inclined to argue. I agreed with the customary head tilted back that I had learned indicated agreement. We went into a part of the house I had never seen. LeSlur sat down in a comfy chair and poured an amber liquid into a small glass. He indicated if I wanted one. I indicated ‘yes’, raised my glass, and said “Cheers.”

LeSlur smiled and said “Cheer.” We sat sipping the fiery spirit for a few seconds. I swirled it around in my glass and held it up to the light. I put my nose over the glass and inhaled the rich aroma. I said ‘good’ in the local dialect and LeSlur looked pleased. I found out later that he distilled and aged the liquor on this very land. LeSlur looked serious for a moment, and asked if I could answer some of his questions. He knew I couldn’t speak well but thought he could find out some information.

“Where are you from? …not from Xale?” he asked.

“No…Earth. A long way away,” I said.

“How far away?” he asked.

I certainly didn’t want to tell him the exact location but since a sphere without a direction wouldn’t help much. I pointed to the light streaming in from the back window. “What word?” I had learned the question from the tutor.

His brow furrowed and he said “Sunlight.” or its equivalent. Cassandra said it back to me about ten times ‘til I thought I had it down. I held up the brown liquor. I pointed to the liquor and asked, “How old? Name?”

He looked puzzled for a second and then said, “Eight years. Sema LeSlur.”

I pointed to the light and said, “
Sunlight,
” and held up eight fingers three times.

I’m afraid my hands momentarily distracted him and then he got the drift of my meaning.

“Earth is twenty-four lightyears from here! How long did it take you to get to LesMa?”

“Finally – someone said the name of this planet – LesMa,” Cassandra said through his subcutaneous link. “Same as the language…”

I held up two fingers and said the local equivalent for ‘
two hours
’.

LeSlur was obviously shaken and got up and came back with the bag of espresso. He gave that to me. His hand trembled a bit holding the pack – he was not one easily surprised but he was ‘shook up’. I reveled in the rich smell of the espresso. LeSlur looked like he thought I would pull out a needle and start shooting it into a vein.

I took the bag, got up, and asked “Food” or the local equivalent I had learned. LeSlur looked puzzled but a bet was a bet. He had agreed to give a bag back to me even though it was worth a huge amount locally. We got up and walked down a corridor. We turned into an enormous room that was obviously a well-stocked kitchen. I went scrounging through the drawers and cabinets as LeSlur looked on with growing interest.

I finally found an obvious teapot and filled it with water before putting it on the oven to heat. As soon as the water came to a near boil, I put a measure of the espresso into another pan with the near boiling water and waited four minutes. I then poured the mixture through the strainer to remove any coffee grounds. I took the steaming mug of coffee over to a little kitchen table nearby and sat down in a chair. LeSlur was freaked but I sure didn’t know why.

I held up the mug and said, “
Coffee
. Drink…breakfast food.” The only Earth word I used was
Coffee
.

LeSlur was aghast as Robert blew on the liquid and sipped it. LeSlur didn’t know how to ask but he did anyway. “Drinking that liquid like this doesn’t make you awake for long periods?” Then he said the word, “
Twasolo.
Does it make you want women?” Cassandra translated.

“Oh…Robert. I think he means caffeine. It must have an exaggerated aphrodisiac effect on these people. Tell him this…” Cassandra said.

Cassandra repeated the sentence several times ‘til he thought his mental repetitions would let him pronounce it properly.

I said the sentence. “Twasolo is weak drink with morning meal. Good flavor in types I brought…no other effect. I understand.” I decided to add my own sentence. “Always want women.”

Cassandra harrumphed through my communicator but I caught an amused undertone. I was amazed she was so…so lifelike.

LeSlur continued with Cassandra doing an almost instantaneous translation, “The effect is different on my people. That effect is why it is banned. There is a lot of government misinformation about Twasolo though. For us – it makes us very alert and is an aphrodisiac. It makes females very receptive to sexual advances. Nothing harmful but it does have an effect. No one gets hurt but strong doses can make a person paranoid. It is tolerated in some areas and not others. Your
coffee
is so strong with Twasolo – we don’t know what to do with it. We are having a difficult time making it weak enough to use. We will not need to get another shipment for a long time or we will need to increase our sales. Twasolo is mildly addictive.”