The Bonding (11 page)

Jema left Janet alone and returned to her
console. When Janet came out of the wet room, Tarku had just finished his
business with Kinal and was talking with Jema. They both turned and looked at
Janet as she walked up next to them. Jema pointed to Janet and Tarku and then
to her monitor, which was displaying the planet below.

“Ko utp Tarku ul rietr hi Poltan.” (You
and Tarku are going to Poltan), she said.

Janet understood her motions and smiled.
It would be unbelievable for her to stand on another planet. In fact, she would
be the first human in history to do this, and no one on Earth would even know.
She wished that Ron and Oliver were here to experience this.

Tarku and Jema gave the same affectionate
embrace that they did before, touching cheeks as Jema put her hand on his head.
She turned to Janet and extended her hand. Janet did the same and they smiled
at each other.

“Sija, Janet Shelby,” Tarku said.

“Janet,” she replied, then pointed to
Tarku and said “Tarku,” and pointed back to herself. “Janet.”

Jema and Tarku understood that she wanted
to be called by her first name only. “Sija,
Janet
,” he said, and he
winked at Jema.

Jema waved and said, “Bazintp, Janet.”
Which was their version of good-bye, but meant ‘good health and prosperity
wherever you go.’

Janet returned her good-bye and followed
Tarku back to his ship. Tarku liked to walk fast, and with his long legs,
following him was almost a run for Janet. Tarku took his place in the captain’s
seat and Janet sat behind and to his right. Tarku touched the console and
Intrepid appeared on one of the monitors. He talked with someone on the radio,
touched the console again, and the purple beam that was holding Intrepid
disappeared. Simultaneously, another purple beam, from the space station,
focused on Intrepid and began moving it away. When it was clear, Tarku
maneuvered his ship away from the station and towards the planet. The planet appeared
on the forward monitor. Tarku pointed to it and said, “Poltan.”

Janet was sad to see Intrepid moving
away. It was her last link with the Earth, and she knew she would never see it
again. But, considering her circumstances, it was the best thing to do. Now,
she needed to learn as much as she could about Tarku. She avidly watched every
move that he made, especially with his ship. She wanted to learn how it worked.
They approached the planet and she noticed that unlike a space shuttle, which
required airflow over its wings and could sometimes have a bumpy ride, Tarku’s
ship used an anti-gravity technology and entered the planet’s atmosphere with
no turbulence at all. Near the surface, the monitor displayed a tremendous city
below. It was different from any Earth city. The buildings didn’t have the
typical square, concrete and brick appearance. Nearly all of them were either
round or had smooth shapes, with no sharp corners, and glistened like shining
pearls. Small airships were plentiful, flying between and above the buildings,
lined up orderly, as if on invisible streets. The lower class citizens, who
couldn’t afford an airship, still drove land vehicles on the city streets.

Within minutes, Tarku landed at the
equivalent of an airport. As they exited their ship, Janet noticed that all of
the employees resembled Kinal.

“Poltanians,” Tarku said.
“Zhuk sviza,” (stay close).
He motioned to Janet to stay by
his side. She nodded and followed closely. They got into a small air transport,
used as a taxi, and flew to a building about five minutes away, near the edge
of the city. Janet was mesmerized with this technology. The taxi lifted into
the air effortlessly, and with almost no sound,
then
sped across the sky at what she guessed was over three hundred miles per hour.
They landed in a docking area near the top of a building. Tarku paid the
driver, and he and Janet went inside.

Tarku was an interplanetary trader and
was here to close a business deal. His family was very wealthy and owned the
business, dealing in everything from minerals and fuels to spacecraft and
technology. They owned an entire fleet of spacecraft, used primarily for
transporting cargo to planets all over the universe. The man he was here to
meet was purchasing a spacecraft, similar to Tarku’s and manufactured on
Tarku’s planet, Zintandu.

They entered the building into a large
foyer surrounded by hallways and offices. It was a busy place with many people
coming in and out. Tarku pointed to a chair and gestured for Janet to wait
there. He was getting tired of all the sign language and was eager to learn
hers, but that would have to wait a little longer. He sensed that she was also
frustrated with the situation. He had considered leaving her on his ship while
he conducted his business, but thought that she may enjoy seeing a planet
different from hers. Knowing that her planet had not developed light-speed
vehicles, he assumed that she had never set foot on another planet, especially
an inhabited one. He pointed to himself, then to an office nearby. She
understood that he would be in there, nodded and smiled as she sat down in the
chair.

He walked across the foyer, stopped at
the door and looked back at her. She motioned that she was okay and he
disappeared into the office. She noticed a clock on the wall and was trying to
figure out what time it was. There were fourteen digits on the clock and four
hands. She figured out what three of the hands meant, but had no idea about the
fourth. She pulled back her sleeve to see her watch.

“Shit!” she said frustrated.

That was one thing she hadn’t thought
about until now. When she removed her things from Intrepid she overlooked her
watch. She thought that it would be nice to know what time and day it was back
home.

Several of the Poltanians gave her
strange looks as they walked by. She simply nodded and smiled, thinking to
herself, I’m getting so damned tired of nodding and smiling. Some smiled back
and others looked at her as though she had a disease. There seemed to be an
entirely different social atmosphere between the space station and here. No one
on the space station looked at her oddly. Perhaps they were more used to seeing
aliens than the people on the planet.

She saw some magazines sitting nearby and
picked one up. Amazingly, it resembled one from Earth. She didn’t have a clue
what it said, but the pictures were obviously advertisements. She glanced up at
the clock again and estimated that thirty minutes had passed. She was beginning
to get concerned about Tarku.

Suddenly, two men walked up beside her
and began speaking to her. They were wearing uniforms, and she assumed that
they were either the building security or the local police. She looked at them
with a blank expression, because she had no idea what they were saying. One of
them extended his left hand and began tapping on his wrist as he spoke to
Janet. She again looked at him confused and shrugged, hoping that he’d pick up
on her expressions. Instead, he kept tapping his wrist while saying the same
thing over and over, getting slower and louder, as though it would make her
understand.

“I don’t know what you’re saying,” she
said with frustration, and it seemed to make the man angry. He tapped on his
wrist again and said the same thing, even slower and louder. She extended both
hands to show him that she had nothing on either wrist.

“I’m not wearing anything on my wrists.
What the hell are you trying to tell me?” she asked, getting very frustrated
with his persistence.

Then, he totally surprised her by
motioning for her to get out of the building. She pointed to the office where
Tarku was and then pointed to
herself
and the chair.
Again, the man said something angrily and motioned for her to get out. She
shook her head and looked away, trying to ignore him. Now the other man began
to get very vocal and started tapping her on the shoulder and pointing to the
building exit. She had enough and was getting quite upset.

“Leave me alone,” she said angrily. She
gestured for them to go away and one of them pushed her on the back. That did
it! She got up and started walking towards the office where Tarku was. One of
the men ran in front of her, shouting and pointing. Then he pushed her. She
wasn’t sure what to do, and now, a small crowd was gathering. She certainly
didn’t want to start some interplanetary incident, but she didn’t want to leave
the building either. She just wanted to get to Tarku.

When he pushed her, she brushed away his
hand. “Get out of my way, you stupid fucking alien!” she fumed.

The man behind her grabbed her shoulder
and spun her around. That was the final straw. Interplanetary incident or not,
nobody was going to treat her like this. Little did they know that she had a
black belt in Tae Kwon
Do.
She planted a front kick to
his stomach, making him double over. At the same time, she took the palm of her
hand and pushed it right into his face, knocking him backwards and onto the
floor.

Something hit her from behind and she
found herself lying on top of the man she had knocked down. She rolled over and
saw the other man bending to come at her. But he stopped suddenly and was
abruptly jerked backwards with a huge, clawed hand clamped around his throat.
He was lifted completely off of his feet and slammed into a wall. It was Tarku.
He held the man, by the throat, up against the wall, with his feet dangling
over a foot off the ground. With the other hand Tarku waved a finger back and
forth in front of the man’s face and said something that sounded very angry.
The man nodded to Tarku and he opened his huge hand, dropping the Poltanian to
the floor. He got up and brushed himself off, then went over to Janet and said
something that sounded like an apology and he bowed his head. She was still
pissed off and gave him an angry look. He went over to help his partner, who
was still lying unconscious on the floor.

Tarku looked at the unconscious man, then
over to Janet and smiled. “Dalk riip, Janet.” (Very good, Janet.)
 
He made a move like he was punching
someone and gave a karate yell. “Eya!” startling the security man. Then, in a very
commanding tone, he told the crowd to go away. No one would dare argue with
him. The Poltanians were like twigs compared to Tarku, and they quickly
dissipated.

Janet was so relieved that Tarku came
back at that exact moment. He put his big arm around her and said, “Sija, jk
rils wala ez pita.” (Come, my work here is done.)

They caught another air taxi and went
back to his spaceship. On the way, both were frustrated that they couldn’t talk
about what just happened. She wanted to ask him who they were and what they
wanted, and he was interested in what they did before he got there.

Finally, they were back on the ship and
ready for takeoff. He was in the captain’s chair and she was behind and to the
right. Again, she carefully watched everything he did. One good thing was that
her fear of him selling her into slavery had passed. She was convinced that he
was her friend.

He talked with someone on the radio,
touched the console and the huge ship lifted gracefully into the sky. She
watched the monitors and the planet seemed to fall away from them. She saw the
space station coming up, and as they whizzed past it, Jema appeared on the
forward monitor. She greeted Tarku, and Janet heard Jema say her name as she
smiled and looked over at her. Janet smiled and said hello, in English. Jema
and Tarku talked for a moment. Then, Janet saw Tarku demonstrating Janet’s
karate on the security guard. He and Jema laughed and looked over at Janet. She
smiled. She was quite proud that she had kicked the alien’s ass. Tarku was also
proud of her, and she could tell by the way he was joking and smiling.

Chapter Seven

Tarku said good-bye to Jema and the front
monitor returned to a view of space. He looked back at Janet and smiled. “Tir
ra ul rietr wija, hi Zintandu.” (Now we are going home, to Zintandu.)

A map of space appeared on the monitor
and Tarku highlighted his home planet for her. The map showed a three
dimensional view of where they were and how they were going to get to Zintandu.
Tarku noticed Janet watching his every move. “Sija. Shutp fk
ja
.”
(Come. Stand by me.) He motioned to her. This time, he slowly typed, so she
could watch each move,
then
he pointed to the space
map.

“I get it. You’re showing me how to
program our course.” He was repeating what she had just seen. The map returned
to the planet, Poltan.

“Tir ko hohy wala.” (Now you touch here.)
He put her hand on the console and guided her fingers. It was interesting and
confusing at the same time. The symbols resembled a combination of
hieroglyphics and ancient Hebrew. She felt as though she had seen these before,
but couldn’t remember where.

He guided her fingers around and the map
again showed the planned route through what appeared to be several galaxies. He
motioned with his hand like they were taking off, as he smiled at her and moved
her hand to the command function. The monitor became a blur for about five
seconds and returned to a view of space racing past them. The ship had jumped
into a light speed mode. Again, they were traveling at nearly thirty thousand times
the speed of light, but Janet had no idea how fast they were going. She was
astonished at what she was experiencing. “Wow! If only my friends on Earth
could see this.”