Chapter Eleven

It Had Been Quite Plain To Hare That The Others Knew Nothing About Spectacles

       Crys would have been having second thoughts if not for what her mother always told her father, “You made your bed, now go sleep on the couch.” Mom and Dad. What dear, wise folks.

       Harry tapped out the code on the keypad outside of the airlock. As it cycled through he said, “Ten bucks says Al is asleep in front of the video screens.”

       “You’re on, Hairy One,” she answered. She wondered what the girl thought of their banter. She also wondered how she could ever have thought the gypsies were good, carefree folk. She had seen some nasty cultures in the Middle East. Well, nasty by her Western standards anyway. But she believed that any culture that whole-heartedly supported the bullying and mistreatment of one of their own that she had seen tonight was basically rotten to the chocolaty nougat center. And it wouldn’t take too many bites to reveal it to the world. Hmmm. She needed to revise the way she thought of “the world” now. If she kept thinking in terms of a one planet society, no matter how fragmented that society was, it would soon come back to bite her on the attitude.

       The girl interrupted her ruminations. “Your friend,” she started, and then fell silent.

       “What about Al?” she asked.

       The gypsy girl seemed reluctant to continue. Crys took her rather roughly by the arm. “What?” Then she quickly let her go, suddenly ashamed the she so easily resorted to intimidation of someone weaker than her. “I’m sorry,” she said in a low voice.

       The girl first looked surprised and then grateful for the apology. She smiled shyly, but the smile vanished as she began again, “Your friend is … hobbled. He is awake, but he is asleep. It is the deed of the bi-lacior romaleor Romano. The bad Gypsy men. The Paguba Tshorav is a raiding party made up of two gypsies who come only to steal.” The inner door slid open. “They did this thing to your friend.”

       They shed their helmets as they ran to the rec room. Al was there, standing and staring wide-eyed at nothing at all. Crys was there first. She took him by his shoulders and shook him. “Al! Al, can you hear me?”

       Then Harry was there, and they took him by his arms and led him to a chair. He sat easily, and Harry knelt beside him. He took Al’s face gently in one hand and turned him so he was looking straight into his eyes. “Al. Come on, Junior. This isn’t funny.”

       “It will do you no good,” they heard in their minds. The nameless girl was standing in the doorway. “He has been hobbled. They wanted your music makers, and they wanted no interference. This is why they held the Patshiv. Not to honor you, but to distract you.”

       Crys turned to her. “How do you know all of this?” But the girl went quiet. Crys wanted to shake her, but she checked her impulse. She knew she was violent by nature, and she relied on her self-discipline to remain calm. She stood and walked over to the girl. There was a time to be mush hearted and a time for intimidation. She knew which this was. She got right into the girl’s space and put her nose two inches from the other’s. “How do you know all of this?” she repeated.

       The girl didn’t hold her stare. She looked down. “It is because I am a chovexani. They thought that they had beaten down my mind’s strength by forcing me to drink lexani, and I let them think that it worked. But my quiness never lessened even a whit!” She spit this last out.

       Crys gave her space back by stepping back a foot. “I understood very little of what you just said, but never mind for now. Can you help him?”

       The girl shrank away. She looked genuinely frightened. Harry stood and said, “Please, you have to at least try.” He started toward the girls, but Crys shook her head. He stopped, and his shoulders slumped. “Please,” he said again.

       She looked up and appeared to gain some resolve. “I will try.” She crossed the room and kneeled in front of the asleep/awake man. She took his hands and closed her eyes. She sent to them, “It is not as bad as I feared. They must have been in a hurry. If they’d had more time, his mind would have sucked mine right down inside of his. He is not crippled.” Then she went silent. Minutes passed, and sweat appeared at her temples and on her lip. She began to shake. Al stirred once and then blinked his eyes. She collapsed, unconscious.

       “Hey, what are you guys doing here,” Al said, confused. “And who is she?”

       Harry laughed at Al as Crys bent to and lifted the gypsy girl easily in her arms. “Show off,” Harry said to her, but he was grateful that she was the one playing nurse. Harry still felt uncomfortable around her, especially after all of that talk about witches and mind strength.

       Crys took her to one of the sleeping rooms, and Harry filled Al in on the little that he’d been able to figure out. “And so I assume that you just let them right in”. He stood suddenly and said, remembering, “She said that they came for the music makers.”

       “The sand!” Al said anxiously. He stood too, showing no ill effects of his ordeal. They went to the control room to see for sure what they already knew. The alien sand was gone. “What about the predator?” Al asked.

       “I doubt that they got that. They didn’t even know that it existed, but let’s go check it out anyway,” Harry said. They headed for the cargo hold on the other side of the ship. The sealed and shielded case was still there, quiet for the time being.

       “You know, Junior, I’m starting to get an idea of how we can get our little alien friends back.” Harry looked thoughtful, but he wouldn’t say anymore, even with Al berating him, till he thought it all the way through.

       Crys met them in the control room with the young girl in tow. “She’s fine,” she told them. Harry made them all sit down while he told them of his plan.

       Crys whistled. “I don’t know, Boss. We’d be counting on an awful lot of unknowns going our way. I’m willing to give it a shot, though. I’m itching to give those goddamn Rompien a little grief anyway. How about you, Merri-girl?”

       The girl looked a little uncomfortable at being asked for her opinion, and the boys both said in unison, “Merri-girl?”

       “Well, Merri, anyway. Short for ‘Esmeralda.’ It’s her name now.”

       Merri beamed at having her new name. The boys liked it too. “Ok,” Harry said. “Merri it is!”

       Al looked at her. She was very pretty and looked to be seventeen or eighteen. She had wavy black hair that flowed down her back and reflected the overhead lights. “Are you game?” he asked her.

       She looked at them each, one by one. “Thank you for taking me into your family. Crys has convinced me that you are repulsed at the thought of owning a girl, so I am very happy to be your friend. I will do it!” With that last she looked at Crys and there were tears in both of the girls’ eyes. She wiped a tear from her face, looked at the floor and said, without looking up, “There are things I must say before … we go. These things you must know.”

       Harry looked concerned, but Al said, “We don’t care about her past.” He looked at Merri. “Aren’t we your family now?” He really liked her.

       “Let her talk, Al,” Crys said gently as she put her hand on Al’s arm.

       “I must tell you why I am called chovexani.” She still wouldn’t meet their eyes. I was born with a gift, and an armaya – a curse. My mother nearly bled to death when I came into the world. I was marked from that time on. They saw my crippled foot, and they knew it then. But they didn’t know how deep the armaya ran. I have the deep power. I can go into a man or woman’s mind. I can go deep!” She paused and looked up to see their reaction. Al now looked a little uncomfortable, but Crys and Harry weren’t reacting at all on the outside. She went on, “I was strong when I was a little girl. Then, I did not know how it terrified my family and the other people around me. As I grew older, I became even stronger still, but I started knowing how if affected them. I could not help but know. They were all so open, and they were all so petty and selfish. Their fear of me made them do things. To me. They would beat me and lock me away. In the dark. Then Kaja found the lexani. It is an herb that is supposed to make me deaf in my mind. I could see in their thoughts that they would kill me if they thought that the lexani didn’t quell my strength. So I had to play deaf and dumb. They wouldn’t speak with their voices to me, but they would beat me if I didn’t do what they wanted. I learned how to make them believe.” She stopped and closed her eyes. When she opened the again, she looked at Crys, and Crys could see anger and hate in them.

       “You don’t need to go on,” Al said. He had come to a decision about her. He trusted her. He had no idea why, or even if the trust was real or implanted, but he trusted her.

       Her mind was silent for another minute. Then, “They kept me as a Montshimo on their records, but they never paid me for my washing and cleaning their dirt.”

       Harry interrupted her, “Montshimo?”

       She smiled without humor. “A paid servant. The only payment was they let me live as long as I drank the lexani tea every morning. I wanted to leave, and I tried. But they were afraid that if other people knew of my quiness, they would hate the Rompien even more than they already did, so they always chained me in my room when we were at dock. It is very difficult for them to earn enough to feed the kumpania. That is why they steal, and they are not ashamed. But I was always ashamed.”

       Crys’ face softened. “I understand, Merri. But just how strong is your … quiness? Will you help us without killing, unless you have no choice?”

       “Yes,’ she answered. “I will help, and I will not kill unless I must.” She smiled at Crys, and then at Al and Harry. “Even knowing all of this, you still want me as your … friend?”

       The three Earth folk looked at each other. Crys looked back a t Merri and said, Yes, we want you as our friend.” She smiled at her.

       Harry was now rearranging his plans. “How strong are you? We need to know.”

       Merri sighed. She had to tell them. She was going to be honest with her family now, for the first time in her adult life. “I can reach out to them from here. Even from this distance, I might even be able to influence one or two.”

       Al whistled. “Will you give us your word to not peek at our minds? We are a very private sort of folks, Like Crys told Kaja.”

       “I give you my word.”

       “Then this is what we will do.” And Harry laid out his revised plans, and Crys’ smile got wider and wider.

       “We made a good choice for our Captain,” she said to Al. Al grinned back and nodded.

       They broke up their meeting and went about their tasks.

       Al got a jar with a tight-sealing lid, and he and Harry carefully filled the jar with the black, predatory sand. Al said, “This stuff still gives me the creeps.” Harry agreed.

       Crys outfitted them with enough guns and low explosives to fit a small raiding party. Merri said, “We will bring justice to them at last.”

       Crys stopped her and said firmly, “There will be absolutely no revenge. Do you understand me, Merri?” Merri, looking innocent, nodded her head. “I mean it,” Crys warned.

       “We must hurry. They are preparing to leave.”

       They did hurry, and then they were ready. And what a fine raiding party they were, too. As they left the airlock and headed for the Verdon, Harry wondered where the hell Woof had gotten to.

       They only had three EVA suits, so Al stayed behind. He was at the controls, listening in and waiting for his signal. Merri had manipulated a tiny area of their brains, she said, to give them protection from what had happened to Al two hours before. Neither Al, nor any of the trio was too happy about having their brains mucked around with, but I was better than taking the chance of being “hobbled,” as Merri put it.

       Merri’s first job was to keep their approach quiet mentally. Her second was to find someone on the inside of the Verdon and get them to cycle the air lock. She assured them this would be easy. And it would be, for her.

       Crys took point, so she was the first one in. The one who Merri got to open the lock was a young shav named Milosh. She had known him all of her life, but she wasn’t in the least sorry to see Crys’ knife go deep into his heart. He had been like most of the rest of her kumpania.

       They left their suits under a wrinkled up pile of suits and other clothes that were just inside the airlock. The gypsies certainly weren’t neat freaks.

       Merri had drawn a sketch of the route they would take to get to the common room. She told them that was where they would most likely take the alien sand. She said this was the best place for Kaja to display her booty. She did her best to mentally convince any gypsies in their path to be else where before they passed through.

       They were very lucky most of the way in. But ten minutes later their luck changed. Two Rompien men, who had obviously been drinking stumbled around the corner and right into the last person in band of raiders. Harry had never killed a person before, but he didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on the M-16 twice. The blasts echoed through the halls. “We’re in for it now,” he said. “Double time it, Folks.”

       Merri sent, “They’ve signaled an alarm.” Then with a hint of panic, “They’re going to release the beng!”

       They all came to a stop right before the doorway to the huge common room. Harry was out of breath. Crys had barely broken a sweat. She said to Merri, “What is a beng?” She didn’t sound too worried, but inside she was shaking. She was always afraid before the action started when she was on an operation, but this was something that she had never admitted to anyone, even herself. She always told herself that she just got butterflies akin to stage fright. The ever increasing fear had really been the reason she’d gotten out of the Special Forces.

       Merri thought, “It is a hunting animal. It has very large claws on all four feet and both hands, but you really want to watch out for its teeth. The teeth are much larger than its claws.” It weighs probably close to a hundred fifty pounds, and it is very, very fast, and always angry.”

       “Lovely,” Crys said. “How many people are in this room?”

       “I think forty or fifty.”

       “Ok, Merri, you stay out of sight. I’ll take the left; Harry, you go right. On three, two, one.” And they sprang through the door, and Harry went two feet to the right and went down in a crouch, covering the room with his M-16. Crys went left but stayed upright. Crys shouted, “The first person who moves, dies.”

       The room was large with a twenty foot ceiling. It looked to be at least the size of a large ballroom. The people were gathered mostly at the far side, they were drinking and laughing. They laughing stopped at Crys’ words. They all looked toward the invaders, and no one moved. Until Kaja shoved her way through and stomped toward the duo. When she was about ten feet away, Crys motioned with the black barrel of her shotgun, and Kaja stopped.

       “What do you think you are doing” she nearly spat at their minds.

       “You know goddamned well what we’re doing here. We’ve come to take our property back.”

       “We don’t have your sand.”

       Harry said dryly, “Who said anything about sand?”

       Kaja didn’t skip a beat, “Get out now, and we will let you live.”

       "Do you deny that you stole the sand?” Harry demanded.

       “We took nothing.”

       Crys nodded to Harry. Harry reached behind him and unhooked the pouch that held the jar of black sand. He unscrewed the lid and poured the contents out onto the floor. It immediately started moving toward the crowd, who had been taking all of this in. Kaja’s eyes widened, and she reflexively stepped back. “What kind of witchcraft is this?” she said loudly.

       “Have you ever seen a hungry bloodhound? No? Too bad. Step back further. Now! And all of you people too! I will shoot anyone who interferes,” Crys ordered. Harry’s barrel poked holes in the air in their general direction. The crowd made no noise at all now. It really creeped Harry out. Kaja kept backing up as the sand approached. The crowd started to move toward them, so Harry showed them what he meant. He fired a short, controlled burst over their head. It had a very satisfying effect on the group of gypsies. They scattered.

       “Stop!” Crys yelled. And they stopped. The oily black sand burst into a cacophony of ugly noise, and from somewhere behind the crowd, a frightened concerto erupted in answer. Harry smiled at Crys, and she grinned back. Kaja look horrified. She was just about to say something when they heard Merri scream.

       “I’ve got this, Crys, go see what’s happening,” Harry said.

       She nodded, turned on her heel and sprinted for the doorway. Before she got there, Merri stumbled into the room and tried crawling away from the door. ***

       A huge, hairless, dog-bear beast charged into the room after her. Then, when Harry looked back at it too, all hell broke loose. Kaja turned and ran toward a door on her right. The crowd charged Harry, splitting into two groups to avoid the black sand, and the beng screamed, showing its gigantic gnarled teeth. Merri had understated the animal’s teeth, if anything. Its scream was a horrible, child in pain sound. It wrenched at their psyche and made them want to scream too. Crys sobbed, “Oh my God,” as she brought up her shotgun and blasted at the beast. It screamed again as a hole ripped into its side. Its eyes grew wide and rolled back into its head as it changed direction and ran for Crys.

       Harry turned back to the crowd and saw them coming. He pulled a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin and tossed it at the crowd on his left, the same side where Kaja was still running toward the door. It was a high concussion, low shrapnel type grenade. It exploded three seconds after it left his hand. The concussion knocked him down but didn’t hurt him. The same couldn’t be said of the half of the crowd on the receiving end. Twenty people were knocked several yards back and down. Only six of them, including Kaja, stirred. Two tried to stand but fell back down. The other half of the crowd slowed but didn’t stop. The first one to reach Harry jumped on him and wrestled him for the gun. Then the others were there.

       The beng crossed the thirty feet to Crys faster than she believed possible. She was momentarily stunned. As the beast leaped, she pumped another round into the chamber and pulled the trigger and then jumped and rolled to her left. The beng “wuffed” as it belly-flopped onto the hard floor. Lying on her back, she pumped three more rounds into it and then looked around to take stock.

       Merri was still down, and she was sobbing. Harry was in real trouble though. “Merri, we’ve got to help Harry,” she shouted above the noise.

       Merri looked at her and then at Harry. She stopped sobbing and looked like she was becoming angry. Very angry. Crys was up and running toward the crowd that was on Harry.

       Suddenly, a keening sound came low from the gypsies. They stopped pounding Harry and started crawling and rolling away from him. The keening grew louder and louder till it became a collective wail from the crowd. One of them screamed and then all was silent except for the sounds of the two species of alien sand. The whole scene was eerie and creepy. No one was moving except Kaja, who was sobbing and hiccoughing sickeningly. She was sitting with her back up against the door she had been trying to exit through.

       Harry sat up, blinking the blood out of his eyes. He wiped his face with his hand and looked questioningly at Crys.

       Crys turned and looked at Merri. She was also crying, but softly. Crys said to Harry, “Are you ok, Hairy One?”

       Harry nodded, “It looks like I’m doing better than these good folks, here.”

       Crys stood and walked to where Merri was sitting. “Are you ….” She didn’t really know what to say. “Did you do this?”

       Merri nodded her head. “I hated them, but I didn’t mean to kill them. I just wanted them to stop, but I was so scared, and everything happed so fast. I panicked.” Another tear fell from her cheek.

       Crys reached out and wiped its trail from her face. “It’s ok, Merri. You did what you had to. They were evil and vicious people.”

       “But they weren’t! Not really. It was they who were just doing what they had to do to live. They could have killed me at anytime during my life, but they didn’t. The Rompien code says that they should have killed me when I was born. We … they aren’t like other people. They shouldn’t be judged by anyone else’s standards. Do you understand what I am trying to say?” She wiped another tear away. “I hated them, but I should not have killed them.” Then she looked over at Kaja. Kaja hadn’t moved. Her eyes were now closed, but she was still breathing. “What are you going to do to her?”

       Crys looked at Kaja too. What a pitiful waste. “We will do nothing to her, or any of the other Rompien on this ship. You said they had finished repairing the drive, so we will let them go to wherever they want. I think they have learned a great deal, today.”

       Merri nodded. “At least they will be more careful who they steal from.” She offered a small smile.

       Crys returned it and said, “Let’s go help our grenade lobbing buddy over there.” They both climbed to their feet and went to where Harry still sat, dazed. “Come on, Bud. Let’s go get our colorful friends and make like a tree.”

       Harry looked puzzled. “Why would we want to bark?”

       Crys chuffed him on the arm and then pulled him up. “You’re getting a lot better at your comebacks, my hairy friend.”

       He grinned, and they went in search of their sandy musicians.

       They found the aliens in room behind a large curtain off of the far corner wall. The black sand had made itself into a thin ramp and a small section had detached itself from the main group and was inspecting the glass case that held the colored sand for a way in.

       A far away look came over Merri, and then she said, “Al says he can’t find Woof.”

       Harry was immediately concerned. “You don’t think they would have taken Woof, do you Merri? I mean, there’s no way that they could even catch him if I know that cat, and I do know him by now!”

       Merri, too looked concerned. “We have been having a rodent problem. They might have taken him. A cat that doesn’t mind space can be a real prize. And if they catch the cat off guard, they can often influence them. But cats are harder than most animals.”

       “Let’s ask Kaja,” Crys said. She was pissed. “If they hurt one little hair on him, they’ll have even more problems than they do right now. If they think that beng was badass, they don’t know what badass can really be!”

       Harry began sweeping the black sand up and putting it back into the jar. “I’ve got this here. I don’t think I want to see Crys go into beng mode.”

       “I got yer botta beng right here,” she said and left grinning, with Merri in tow.

       Kaja wasn’t there when they returned. “Where is that bitch,” Crys spat.

       “I can show you, but they will be coming here soon. We should take the captain with us.”

       Crys smiled to herself at Merri’s use of the term “captain.” “Ok, let’s help him. Will we pass close to the airlock on our way to find Kaja?”

       “No, but I know where we can put your pets,” Merri sent.

       “Let’s do it then, Merri-Girl!”

       They stashed the two containers of sand in Merri’s old room. Harry was looking at exotic paintings of strange, ethereal landscapes, odd, and sometimes grotesque animals and scenes of beautiful planets as seen from an orbit around them. The colors were haunting and in some places, created an atmosphere of terror or beauteous wonder. There were many paintings stacked against the wall in the corners of the room. None of them had frames. “You painted these, Merri?” he asked.

       Merri blushed and nodded. “No one was supposed to see them. I painted them for me and have always been too embarrassed to show them to anyone.” She was blushing even harder now.

       “It’s a crime to leave them here,” he said. “But there’s no way could take them.” He sighed.

       “You could take one,” she hesitantly sent. “You could cut it off of the stretching frame and roll it up. I would like to do that, if we have time. There is one in particular that I would like to have with me.” She reached for one that showed a heavy forest with trees that measured their diameters in tens of yards, and heights that stretched out of view. There were streamers of sunlight forcing their way through the dark overtones of heavy patience showing many different forms of life hiding in the dark recesses of the under brush. One such beam caught the form a small girl with a crutch wandering the forest who was almost to a path that sliced through the trees like a knife slicing black from white. On one side of the path were multi-colored birds, warm and fuzzy little animals all playing and having fun. On the other side was, well, it was the other side. Merri took this one off of the wall and flipped a knife open from her back pocket. “This is the one. It has the most meaning for me.”

       Harry was in awe of her talent. He took the one that had caught his eye when he first entered the room, and they put them next to the case that held the terrarium. Then they went out the door and down the darkened corridor. Merri sent, “We are very close to Kaja’s rooms now. Walk as quietly as you can.”

       But the need to be quiet was moot, as there were the sounds of things breaking, and the shouting of curses out loud coming from a room just around the next corner. Crys and Harry looked alarmed, but Merri was stifling a smile. “It sounds like your Woof is getting the better of Kaja.”

       They started to run to the door when they heard a low, deep bass growl from behind. Harry and the gypsy girl froze, but Crys spun around to face another, much, much larger beng. It was old and grizzled, and spittle was drooling past the mangling twisted daggers that served as teeth. Its eyes were yellow and red saucer-sized orbs dripping pus from the corners. It had oozing sores on its body that looked like it had been scratching. And it wasn’t happy. Harry turned slowly, and Merri turned but didn’t look at it.

       Crys shivered from revulsion. It leaped with no warning, snarling as it came in. Crys leaned back, put both hands on the beast, and shoved with all of her strength in the direction it was already traveling. It flew on past her and the other two, hit the floor and kept sliding for several more feet. That was all the time they needed. Crys and Harry both unslung their weapons and opened fire. Harry’s M-16 put ten holes in it in less than a second, and Crys did her damnedest to plug those holes with bigger holes from her twelve gauge. The monster didn’t die at once. It didn’t get up because its spine was shattered in several places, but it did start lowing like a wounded cow. The sound was both pitiful and horrible. Crys walked over and blew its brain out with one more blast. She then did something that surprised both Harry and herself. She bent down, pulled her knife from her boot, and cut one of the saber teeth out of its jaw. She made quick work of it, but when she walked back toward the other two, Harry backed up very slightly. It wasn’t much, but it spoke volumes. She said to his face without flinching, “We’ll talk about it later.”

       Harry attempted a weak grin and nodded. The tension eased a bit. Then the sound of a woman in distress came from Kaja’s room. Harry was still jumpy and he and Merri jerked. Harry immediately blushed for the first time that Crys had ever seen. She grinned back at him and they walked the ten feet to Kaja’s door, and Crys opened it. The first thing they saw was Kaja cowering in a corner. She was spitting out curses out loud in her native tongue. Then they saw the cause of her distress. Woof was lying on the bed like a sphinx. His tail was twitching madly, but that was the only movement he was making. Kaja was a bloody mess. It was all her own blood. She sent to them, “Get that monster out of here! Take anything else you want, but just go!”

       This brought chuckles from Harry and Crys. Merri sent, “I thought I would feel pity for you. I used to hate you, but now you just disgust me.” She spat at Kaja, and Kaja did nothing and said nothing.

       Woof didn’t take his eyes off of the old woman. His only acknowledgement of the trio was that one ear that cocked around to point at them. “Come here, Woof,” Harry said.

       Woof hesitated, then looked at him and said, “R-ralph?” Then he got up and jumped into Harry’s waiting arms.

       “Where is the case they used to transport him,” Harry demanded.

       Kaja spit. Harry acted like he might toss Woof to her and she grimaced. “In the closet. Go!”

       Merri retrieved it and they left the old gypsy to her misery. They met very few others on their way back through the ship. They stopped at Merri’s room and got the rest of their traveling companions and the paintings and started to leave. Merri looked a little embarrassed. “Do you think Al might want one?”

       Harry chuckled and said, “I’m quite sure that Junior would love one. He was a professor of Cultural Anthropology at ASU back on Earth. I believe he would really appreciate this one.” He pointed to a painting of what looked like a gathering of creatures that looked liked small airplane wings. They were gathered around and in a small crater filled with water. Some of the creatures were in the water; others looked like they were skating on the surface. “They look pretty social.”

       “They were very social, but they had no technology to speak of. And they had no concept of money either, so we didn’t stay long. We had gone to a lonely little planet that was actually outside of the galaxy. It had just been declared against the law by the Council, so Kaja thought there must be money to be made by going there. It was a long trip out, and very difficult to find, too, because this planet, it had no sun.” She saw the looks on their faces and mistook its meaning. “Yes, it was all by itself out there. It is self heated by thousands of water volcanoes all over the planet. Lots of life there, but no money.”

       Harry and Crys were too stunned to say anything at all. They just shook their heads. Merri wanted to know what they meant, but they told her they would talk about it later. Crys did ask “You were actually there?”

       “Yes, about six months ago.”

       Merri cut the painting from the stretcher and put it and some cloths and personal things into a duffle type bag. Then they headed for the airlock. Woof wasn’t too happy about riding in the transport case, but, much to their amazement he went in without much of a fuss. Harry remarked, “He must really miss his Kitty Crunchies.”

       Crys said, “Yeah, I wonder when the last time he ate was? Poor little guy.”

       “That ‘poor little guy’ just made hamburger from a grown gypsy. I really didn’t know he had it in him,” Harry said.

       Crys grinned, “He has a few more surprises for you yet, Hairy One.”

       Merri piped in, “I love the way to talk to each other. There are no hidden insults, double meanings or anything like that in any of what you say to each other. The gypsies don’t even trust each other, except when they must. And they never pass up an opportunity to insult someone. I am loving being free of them more and more!”

       They met very few other people on their way, and those that they saw ran from them. Word gets around fast in a ship full of telepathic space gypsies. They were almost to the airlock when they felt a rumbling through their feet from the floor. Merri sent, “They have started the engines. We must hurry, but we should have enough time. It always takes a while for them to warm up to the operating range.”

       Crys said dryly, “They better not leave with us still on board unless they want more of the same.”

       Merri nodded. “That too.”

       They made it to the airlock without further incident.

       They looked undisturbed, but Crys insisted on doing a manual inspection on every suit after they were donned and pressurized. The suits were fine, so they headed out the door. They had left a trail of breadcrumbs in the form of several lengths of rope tied together and attached to a lanyard just outside of the Klatuu’s airlock. That turned out to be their greatest piece of luck so far, because almost the instant they were out the outer door of the Verdon, the gypsy ship took off at what must have been full thrust. “’With my last breath, I spit at thee,’ eh Kaja?” Harry said, more to himself than anything.

       Crys responded, “For spite's sake, I curse thee …”

       “Ok, now I’m really impressed! There’s no way that you are a Trekkie!”

       Crys smiled enigmatically. "I guess that Woof isn’t the only one who has some surprises left!” All three were hooked to the rope and they slowly worked their way back to the Klatuu.

       Al met them at the airlock and helped them in with their prizes. When they were all settled in the rec room, Harry asked Merri to show Al what she had brought him. She shyly but proudly brought out the rolled up painting and spread it on the table. Crys and Harry were about to burst with excitement, and Al and Merri had no idea why. Al gushed about the painting and started explaining what he believed was the ritualistic behavior they were exhibiting, pointing here and there on the canvas.

       Finally Harry could stand it no more. “Al, do you know what planet this is?”

       Al thought they had mistaken his explanations for fact. “No, no. What I’m saying is that it just looks like they are acting this way. I’m really just guessing.”

       “No, that’s not what Harry meant, Tiger,” Crys said, exasperated. “Do you have any idea what planet this is?”

       “No, should I?”

       Crys threw up her hands. “It’s only the planet where we think Charlie is! Remember Charlie? That guy who started this whole thing?”

       Al’s eyes got huge. Then he looked at Merri, who looked puzzled. “Who is this Charlie?” she asked innocently.

       The trio erupted into good natured laughter. Crys put her arms around the mystified Merri and gave her a hug. “Charlie is Al’s brother. He’s been missing for a few months, and that lonely planet is where we think he is!” Then to Al, “She’s been there, Tiger. She has stood on the planet’s surface. These are the beings who live there!”

       Al’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding?”

       “Not a bit, Junior,” Harry said.

       “So what are we waiting for?”

       Crys said tiredly, “We’re waiting for about twelve hours. I need a long soak in a hot tub, and then many hours of unbroken sleep. I think Woof is about done in too. We’ll fill you in on our adventures in the ‘morning,’ Al.”

       Al looked like that was anything but ok, but he said, “Ok.”