THE PRIZE: BOOK TWO - RETRIBUTION (41 page)

“Ecologically minded lot down there.” Jack observed. “I don’t see much pollution.” That brought up the question of breathing compatibility.

Ellis used the sensor systems to confirm the planet had an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere, finding it within acceptable margins. The oxygen content was higher, not unexpected on a planet with that much forest. The trace elements were slightly different than that of Earth but nothing to worry about. She did note that the background radiation was a lot lower than Earth’s, suggesting they didn’t use any fission material on the surface. It also suggested several other unimportant things such as no testing of nuclear weapons and the like or large deposits of uranium. They passed over two large oceans, dropping lower and lower, slowing even more as a coastline came into view. Their flight path skirted the edge of a large city and the Nav systems sounded a warning. The squares were coming to an end and a flashing circle after the last one designated their landing coordinates.

“That must be their capital.” Ellis commented.

“How so?’ Gwen asked.

“All the other cities we’ve seen were laid out in a grid pattern. This one has a lot of narrow streets near the center. That tells me this is an old city, maybe the first major city on this planet.”

“Good point.”

“It could also be that the Sethian’s came from somewhere else and colonized this system not too long ago, say a few hundred years.”

“Why do you say that?”

Ellis shrugged. “Too well organized for it not to be. Once they’d established their main landing and built their first city, they gradually spread out across the planet and system. The government would have wanted to make any new city as organized as possible.”

“Right. Therefore a grid system to make getting about easier. That help us?” Gwen asked.

“It might. Since they seem to be well organized I expect we’ll be greeted by some sort of immigration and custom officials.” She smiled. “That means landing taxes or something similar.”

“Jeez. How’re we going to pay for that?”

“We have imperial credits, some gold, silver and a few jewels. Hopefully that’ll be enough.”

Jack rotated the main thrusters mounted on the stubby wings on the center line of the ship and brought her down as gentle as thistledown with barely a thump. The muted thunder of the main thrusters slowly died away and they felt the ship settle onto her landing jacks. She was right, and as predicted, the moment they were down and the thrusters had cooled sufficiently, they saw a ground car come speeding towards them. Ellis met the three Sethians, two males and a female at the rear ramp as it thudded to the scarred duracrete. Fresh air waffled into the stuffy interior and for a moment, Ellis took a deep breath. After all this time cooped up in the ship, she hadn’t realized just how bad the air smelled. Airing the ship out would be high on her list of priorities, as was replacing the CO2 scrubbers.

“Are you the Captain?” The leading male asked as he walked up the ramp.

“Yes, Captain Ellis.” She answered in low Tellurian.

“Good. We’ll need to inspect your ship’s papers and collect the landing fee. Anyone sick or in need of medical attention?”

“No.”

“Good. This is Doctor Yull. She will be examining all your crew to make sure you’re not carrying anything contagious.”

“I understand, and normal procedure for a strange ship visiting your lovely world.”

“Thank you. Some don’t appreciate being examined. By the way, what species are you?” That was the hot button question and for a moment, she thought of lying.

“All of us are human.”

“Forgive me, but I don’t think any of us are familiar with your species.”

“That’s alright, most aren’t. My crew will be as helpful as possible. Now, how much is the landing tax, and what currency would you accept?”

“Humm, that’s a good question. What do you have?”

“Tellurian gold credits, some gold, silver…”

“The Tellurian credits will do, but I’m not sure of the exchange rate at the moment. I’ll check and let you know. Do you have any cargo, or drugs to dispose of?” Ellis led them up to the mess as they talked, passing several of the crew.

“Drugs?”

“Yes. We do get a few - shall we say independent pharmaceutical suppliers passing through and they do trade some for needed supplies.” It was a nice way of saying drug smugglers.

“We do have some. Are there any on a proscribed list?”

“No not really. If a citizen wants to use drugs and is not a threat to the population, we let nature take its course.”

“Oh. In what way?”

“They are usually dead within a short period and are thus no longer a concern to anyone.” Ellis refrained from commenting on that. Each planet had their own way of dealing with drugs.

“No drug dealers I take it?”

“No. You can purchase any number of drugs at the market, so there’s no real profit in dealing drugs. Any people dealing drugs to under aged citizens are immediately executed.” Ellis smiled slightly hearing that. It was an elegant solution as well as a deterrent to would be drug dealers. Arriving at the mess, Ellis introduced Gerry, Jack, Gwen and Martin Sealer before sitting down at the table and acting as a translator for the rest.

“I hope I’m not being impolite by asking, but I am assuming you are female, and they are male?” Doctor Yull asked, pointing to the men.

“That is correct. Do you know what Kaf is?”

“Yes, indeed. Its rather a delicacy here.”

“Good, you might like to try a similar drink from my planet. It’s called coffee.” Gwen passed over the pot and several mugs as Ellis translated. “Some like it black, others with sugar, another product from home, or with some um... cream we call it.” She poured, and after the Doctor had tested it and announced it safe to drink, the three of them tried it black, with poor results. Ellis offered sugar, which they then added to some degree, the same with the canned cream. That went over much better.

“Would anyone like to try tea?” Gerry asked holding the pot up. The Doctor put her hand up and Gerry poured a cup for her. She took a long sip after testing it and the effect was astonishing. The doctor seemed to freeze in place for a moment and her face took on an expression that Ellis could only describe as bliss.

“Doctor? Are you alright?” The leader asked. The Doctor looked at him for a moment, her face changing color. “Doctor please. This isn’t the time or place… I mean.. Oh my…” He muttered as the doctor reached for him. “I think the Doctor needs to lay down for a few moment. Do you have a cabin…”

“Yes. Please follow me.” Ellis suppressed a grin as the leader picked the Doctor up and carried her quickly from the mess. “Maybe you should stay with her.” Ellis doubted he could pry her off him with a crow bar.

“I must apologize for the Doctor’s behavior. It’s so unlike her to display such…”

“Think nothing of it. I have the feeling that whatever was in our tea had that effect on her.”

“Yes, your tea. That has to be it. I wonder, could I get a small amount… for testing you understand.”

“I understand, but there is the question of landing fees…” She let the question hang in the air.

“Yes, the landing fee. I’m sure Inspector Tragg could make some allowances and wave the usual fee in exchange for some tea.”

“Of course, but you understand that this is a very expensive commodity where we come from. In fact it’s worth its weight in gold.”

“I can understand that…what would you consider an adequate amount?” Ellis took the packet of tea and shook a small amount into a clean cup. It only amounted to about an ounce and cost about a tenth of a credit on Earth.

“This is really more than I can afford, but for the sake of this transaction I am willing to part with a little.” The look in his eyes said it was more than enough. He pulled a small plastic bag out of his utility pouch and carefully poured the tea into it, being careful not to spill a single speck.

“I would suggest you only use a very small amount and just a little boiling water to extract the essence.”

“Yes - yes, I’ll keep that in mind… while I’m testing it of course.”

“Of course.” In all it took most of the afternoon before the Doctor and Inspector Tragg reemerged to join them. There was a whispered, heated conversation between the two males while the Doctor sat at the table with a dreamy, blissful look on her face as best Ellis could describe it. Any further inspection of the ship, cargo and personnel was forgotten, and the three departed with two additional plastic bags of tea, for rigorous testing, as they put it.

“You want to tell us just what the hell happened?” Gerry demanded the moment their three guests departed in their ground car. Ellis let out a laugh.

“It would seem that our ordinary tea is like a super aphrodisiac to these people. Inspector Tragg just had his ashes hauled by the good Doctor like he’s never had before in his life.”

“Good god! Talk about Viagra. That’s why you were so stingy giving that stuff out.”

“You bet. I wouldn’t be surprised if we suddenly had people offering us a fortune for even a small amount. By the way, how much tea and coffee do we have?” They all looked at one another.

“I suppose we could round up about ten pounds of each from everyone.” Gwen answered at last.

“Good, that’s a start. I’m wondering what else we have that might be just as good.”

“The coffee didn’t seem to do too much for them.” Jack put in.

“What if I made some drip coffee and gave it out straight?” Gwen asked.

“We’ll have to try it on a few people and see. I’d say let’s get a few other earthly delights out of cryo-stasis and see what effect they’ll have.”

“On who?”

“Unless I miss my guess, we’ll soon have a string of traders marching in here.” Ellis was right, and even before they could go ashore to see the sights, ground cars started pulling up at the foot of the ramp. As a precaution, Ellis stationed two of the engineering crew as guards at the top with instructions not to let more than one group aboard at a time.

“They’d probably try to bribe you to get aboard. Don’t let them. We are too much at risk as it is and I don’t want us overwhelmed with strangers wandering about the ship.

“Yeah, I know what you mean, Major. We don’t have much experience dealing with aliens. The Captain did all of that.”

“Don’t forget, to them you are the aliens.” They both looked at her in surprise.

“Hadn’t thought of it that way, Major, but I guess you’re right.” She handed each of them a stubby flechette rifle in the hope they’d be a sufficient deterrent to stop anyone trying to force their way aboard.

The meet and greet went on for most of the day and into the night with more and more ground cars turning up. One of the biggest headaches was figuring out a medium of exchange, and it wasn’t until the Doctor returned that Ellis could get a handle on things. What she needed to know mostly was how much such things as H3, liquid oxygen, consumables, such as water and food as well as replacement or reconditioned CO2 scrubbers cost here. Taking the Doctor off to the side she had a quiet word with her, and much to her surprise the good Doctor was more than willing to give her all the information she needed for just a small amount of tea. Imperial credits weren’t much use here, but gold, platinum, silver, and rare earth metals were. Much to everyone’s delight, some of the more mundane items such as oranges, apples, and Earth spices went over very well. Even the concentrated liquid coffee was a hit, and she was soon bargaining away, using the time honored method of playing one trader off against another, thereby driving up the offers. By the prices some were willing to pay for even a small amount of tea, it wasn’t long before she had enough to pay for a full service of the ship, including repainting her. That occurred after one of the teenage girls named Tracey had gone outside and looked at the ship. For a while, she just sat on a couch in the mess listening to the strange alien languages while the negotiations went on drawing on a pad. During a break Ellis, wandered over to chat with her and saw what she was drawing.

“My lord, is that how you see this ship?” She laughed. The courier ships had a drop nosed appearance with the two main thrusters located at the end of the stubby wings at the center of the ship. The flight deck was located in such a way, that by adding some dark lines it looked like the head of a hawk, or eagle.

“To me, she looks like a bird with the way the nose drops down.”

“What if you extended the bird appearance all the way along the hull.”

“Oh, you mean like this.” Trace quickly sketched in some lines, making the ship look even more like a bird of prey.

“Yes, that’s it.” Ellis looked Pensive for a moment. “I wonder if…”

“What?” Trace asked looking up.

“I wonder how much it would cost to get the ship repainted like that. It would be a great disguise.” Tracy grinned.

“Let me finish the drawing and maybe you could show it to someone.” Ellis did, to the good Doctor.

“Oh my, what a wonderful drawing. We don’t have any avian creatures here that look like that. Is it one from your home planet?”

“Yes, it is. How much would it cost to get this ship painted like that, and how long?”

“Can I have the art work so I can go and check?”

“By all means. I’ll get you a hard copy.” As Ellis returned with the copies, a commotion broke out in the mess and she rushed in with her weapon drawn only to find one of the male Sethians flat on his back on the deck.

“What the hell happened?” She demanded, thinking that someone might have clobbered him for some reason. The Doctor rushed in and immediately went to check him out.

“I don’t know, Ma’am. This guy dipped his finger into the sugar bowl for a taste. The next second he was on his feet doing some sort of dance. He spun around a couple of times and then hit the deck.”

“Oh Christ! I hope we haven’t poisoned one of them - Doctor?” The Doctor looked up, smiling.

“Nothing to worry about. This male is just dead drunk. What did he sample?” Ellis held out the bowl of brown sugar, and taking out her sampling unit she carefully placed a few crystals inside.

“My goodness! If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I would never have believed you could make pure spirit into a crystal. It’s a good thing he didn’t ingest more than a small amount of that, or he’d be dead from spirit poisoning.”