 
The Space Adventure

Of

Planet Zoltos

And

The Green Death

by

G. C. Dill

Copyright 2015

All rights reserved

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords license notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Chapter One

Paul stumbled forward bumping his head on the wooden sign outside, Times Past, a jazz bar on Royal Street in New Orleans, Earth. He reached for the wall, missed it and fell sideways onto the sidewalk in a drunken stupor. Thunder rumbled in the distance and rain fell from the night sky onto the Big Easy, its revelers and the unconscious Paul. Ed, wearing a dark green rain slicker and hat, found him and lifted him, soaked in rain and booze, and threw him onto one of his large shoulders then shuffled off through the crowds and the gentle rain. It had been around three in the morning when Ed dropped him, soaking wet, onto the filthy cot where he slept off his binges. It was now late morning and Ed was back.

"Get up," said Ed using his foot to shake the cot.

"What?" asked Paul covering his eyes from the bright lights in the laboratory.

"I said get up. Get a shower. Get to work. Gregory will be here at three."

"All right," Paul answered weakly. His head was pounding; the lights seared his eyeballs causing him to be disoriented and shaky.

Ed walked out of the lab, through the breezeway and returned to the house. Paul rolled off the cot and then held his hands against his forehead and face to protect himself from the bright sunlight of the new day as he slowly followed Ed's pathway making his way to the house for a shower. The steaming hot water beating down on him helped a little. After the shower, Paul went to the kitchen.

"Here drink this."

Ed handed Paul a blended concoction of raw potatoes, milk, and kale meant to cure hangovers. Paul closed his eyes and chugged it, then sat down.

"Is there coffee?"

Ed thumped a mug of black strong coffee down on the table.

"Do you remember what I told you?"

"Yes. Gregory is coming."

"You better get your ass in gear."

"I'll be ready."

Paul held out a hand and stared at it. It was shaking. He grabbed the coffee mug with both hands and drank the burning hot liquid down. He needed control of his hands as the formula required precise measurements. Once mixed, the formula had to sit for about an hour to cool enough to be handled safely. If he started by one he'd be all right. He glared at the clock over the stove. It was eleven in the morning already.

"Shit."

"Eat something."

Ed tossed a plate of powdered beignets on the table.

"Thanks."

At one o'clock Paul stood in front of the main counter in the laboratory wearing a filthy lab coat, gloves and a face shield. The components of the green death were all lined up on the counter in the order Paul would need them. Next to the chemical containers was an analytical balance. He stood as still as stone, eyes closed, arms crossed with gloved hands resting against his upper arms, palms down, breathing deeply.

One more, slow, deep breath then Paul opened his eyes and began. He measured the viscous liquid in milliliters with a volumetric pipette. He weighed the puff of green powder in the analytical balance to the tenth of a milligram. Then he combined both in a liter flask. He corked the flask and swirled the combined ingredients. The solution was not uniform. There were streaks of green and cloudy spots throughout. He put the flask down on the counter in front of the balance and used the striker to light the Bunsen burner located two feet to the right. He took some long tongs and grasped the vial by the neck. Sweat formed on his forehead under the face shield. This step was so dangerous Ed stood behind a seven foot high shield holding a fire extinguisher. He wouldn't be able to save Paul if the flask blew but he could save the lab.

"Are you ready?" Paul asked Ed.

"Ready," answered Ed.

Paul lifted the flask with the tongs and briefly warmed the bottom of the flask over the flame. Paul moved the flask away from the flame and gave it a swirl. He started to smile. The swirling liquid was now uniformly crystal clear and starting to glow a bright apple green color. One more moment over the flame then a vigorous swirl and now Paul carefully placed the flask into an ice bath. He ran to join Ed behind the shield. Both watched intently through the view port in the shield as a cloud of steam hissed up around the flask then subsided. Laughing, Ed put the fire extinguisher on the floor and shook Paul by the shoulders.

"You did it man."

"Yeah. Time for a drink."

Paul turned off the Bunsen burner and left the tongs on the counter, then he hung up the lab coat, tossed the gloves and face shield and followed Ed out of the lab. True to his word Gregory showed up at three o'clock.

"Where is it?" demanded Gregory in his soft scratchy voice.

Gregory Reznikov had been strangled and tortured by some business associates a few years back. They'd left him for dead. They should have been more certain of his status before leaving him because now they were all dead and he just had a rasp to his voice to show for it; a feature that made him even scarier to those who knew him.

"He's packing it up now," answered Ed.

Paul walked into the parlor of Gregory's house carrying a small wooden box.

"Ed you can take the box now. I'm going to take a walk."

Ed took the box from Paul who turned to leave. He didn't get out of the room fast enough.

"Paul? How many vials did it make?" Gregory asked.

Paul stopped walking and turned slowly to look at Gregory.

"Six."

"That's good. A good yield. Thank you Paul."

Paul wanted to get as far away from Gregory as possible but he decided he had to know who was going to die.

"Where's it going?"

"What?" Gregory coughed out the word. He was surprised that Paul had the courage to ask.

"Just curious."

"Zoltos."

Paul nodded and left the parlor. Zoltos was a newly discovered planet over thirty-seven million light years from earth in a solar system in the Sunflower galaxy. Ruby Durkson, an Earthling with great wealth, a shady past and a tremendous amount of money had received preliminary rights to colonize Zoltos by the Commonwealth of Planets, Department of Alien Census (DAC). If Zoltos turned out to be a pleasant planet and not currently inhabited, many rich Earth families would pay to leave the polluted, dreary planet Earth for a chance to live and bring up families in a clean fresh ecosystem. The next step in Durkson's plan was to have the Department of Alien Census approve the planet as void of humanoid life. After that colonization could begin.

The green death was undetectable and so far one hundred percent deadly. Gregory had sold it to the developers of three planets so far. It was illegal to remove the native population by killing it off, but the DAC would never know. Under threat of death from Gregory, Paul had altered the green death from a rodent killing formula to kill humans, then all humanoids and designed a dispenser that was fitted to unmanned drones used in aerial attacks to dispense the green death on unsuspecting planets. Following Paul's instructions the previous planet builders had filled the drones, and then launched them from space. In one incident the planet's population of humanoid life were cave dwellers who built no cities. The scans indicated a small population center north of their equator of approximately half a million people. After the drone sweep, there was no sign of humanoid life until a year had passed and one of the new colonists was searching a nearby cave where he discovered drawings on the cave walls. Who the beings once were became a marvelous mystery to the new inhabitants of that world.

In another instance, the planet builders purchased the green death from Gregory and used it on their new world without ever knowing if a humanoid population existed, they just wanted to be sure. Then there was the planet called 'New Hope'. New Hope was a desert planet made of stone and sand, bereft of the green plains and forests that make other planets so hospitable. The humanoids on New Hope were not native to the planet. They were descendants of an ancient prison population sent there to die by a now nonexistent people from a nearby solar system. When their sun went supernova, the home planet and its solar system were destroyed. The prisoners on New Hope were left to survive on their own. Many of the inmates were intelligent skilled people imprisoned for political reasons. They built walled cities to live in, and were thus protected from the elements. They also dug deep wells to bring underground water to the cities and the lands near the cities where they grew food. The cities' walls protected them from several carnivorous species of large animals. The planet builder that owned New Hope used the green death to wipe out those descendants of the original criminal population, then took teams down to shut down the water supplies to the fields. The crops dried up and the wind blew sand over the cities. In a few months the cities appeared to be ancient. The DAC scans from orbit would not detect the true status of the water supply and after the planet was approved for colonization they would simply turn the water back on, at least that was the plan. It didn't matter. The planet was never colonized as the owner of New Hope was eaten by one of the carnivorous beasts of the planet before he finished his application to DAC.

Paul continued to ponder the history of his invention and its use on his way to Miss Violet's House of Pleasures. Once inside all thoughts of death were replaced by thoughts of pleasure and relaxation. It was now the year 2145. Whoring became legal in all of the Commonwealth of Planets fifty years prior in the year 2095. Daisy Ann met Paul in the lobby at Miss Violet's at four o'clock. Her creole heritage showed in her smiling face and her voice.

"Hello Daisy Ann."

"How are you Paul? You got paid again I see."

Daisy Ann was twenty-four. She was short and when she smiled up at Paul her dimples made him smile. Daisy Ann took Paul by the hand and walked him from the lobby down the carpeted, dimly lit hallway toward her suite. Miss Violet's was built three years ago but designed to look like a whore house from the 1800's when New Orleans was wild and the buildings lit by gaslight. Daisy Ann's specialty was the bath she always gave her clients before leading them to her bed.

The bathtub sat in the middle of a fifteen by fifteen foot room. The floors and walls were tiled. Each wall was a beautiful picture of a magnolia tree in bloom. The white flowers contrasted against green leaves which then contrasted again against bright white tiles. The floor tiles were painted with a water scene resembling the Louisiana bayou. Twenty alligators partially submerged in swamp water looked toward the bathtub. The tub itself was designed like an ancient claw foot tub. But it had modern features and high above hung a twenty-four inch wide shower head. The tub was raised so that Daisy Ann could work on her clients without bending or kneeling. On one side was a set of two steps allowing the client to easily enter the tub. Daisy Ann drew the bath with hot water and two capfuls of lavender bubble solution. As the humid fragrance rose from the tub Paul stripped off his clothes.

"Come on, Honey. Step on up here."

Paul stepped up onto the platform and lowered himself into the tub. The weariness fled from his muscles as he slowly sank into the bubbles and the deliciously hot water. Daisy Ann reached for the long handled scrub brush.

"Lean forward, Honey."

Paul grabbed the sides of the tub and pulled his torso forward. Daisy Ann gently scrubbed Paul's back pulling the water up his back with the brush and let it cascade over his shoulders. She gently used the brush to massage his shoulders, upper arms and back. Paul leaned back allowing Daisy Ann to continue with the brush down his chest to his flat stomach. She deftly moved the brush to his upper thighs and down the top of his legs to his big feet. His toes wiggled and jerked under the water as Daisy Ann brushed the bottoms of his feet.

She walked to the wall and hung the scrub brush on its hook. She brought back a handful of shampoo from the dispenser on a shelf next to where the brush now hung. She worked the shampoo into Paul's short hair massaging his scalp bringing him to the edge of complete relaxation. She used a porcelain pitcher to pour warm clear water over his head to rinse out the shampoo. Paul knew what was next and he waited patiently. Daisy Ann reached for the switch and the water began to bubble and swirl rapidly over Paul's body. Then she pulled a cord and ice cold water came gushing down from the enormous shower head. The wildly swirling water disappeared down the drain and the ice cold shower came to an abrupt stop. Paul stood and Daisy Ann took a large, warm, thick towel up the steps and wrapped Paul's shivering body. The towel's warmth restored comfort. Daisy Ann patted him dry.

"Come on, Honey."

Paul rubbed his hair dry, tossed the towel and eagerly followed Daisy Ann to the bedroom directly connected to the bath. The lights were electric but designed to flicker like gaslight. There was a fire dancing in a fireplace in the wall across from the doorway. The rest of the room was filled with a round bed. The quilted surface of the bed was covered with magnolia blossom leaves. There were no sheets or blankets; this bed was not meant for sleeping.

Daisy Ann opened her blouse to reveal a scarlet bustier holding her voluptuous bosom. She dropped her skirt and stepped out of it showing a matching scarlet garter belt, stockings and frilly underpants. She gave Paul a come hither movement with her head. Paul hugged her tightly and kissed her warm inviting lips. He undid the bustier during the kiss and allowed it to fall to the floor. After unsnapping the garter belt and sliding off the stockings he lifted Daisy Ann and carried her to the bed. Daisy Ann lay there while he removed the garter belt and the panties then she accepted him into her embrace. She worked Paul's body to bring him to the cusp of delight as he enjoyed her squeezable luscious curves. After they finished Paul thanked Daisy Ann.

She watched him dress then said, "See you again next time you get paid, Honey," as he headed out of her suite.

Paul didn't want to go home to his cot in the lab. So he headed for Royal Street. The jazz band, Raindown, was playing at Times Past. Ruth was singing. Her voice was husky from drink, smoke and age. Paul loved to listen while he slowly got drunk. Tonight he was distracted by the memory of Angela and MIT. He was back in school walking the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Angela walked beside him. Funny, beautiful Angela. She was smart of course, so was he. You don't get into a school like that without a great deal of smarts. Her area of interest was physics, his was biochemistry. In his memory they were in their final year and it was the day of the accident. It was a Friday - they had weekend plans. Angela was eager to start the weekend but Paul had an experiment to complete. He was in the biochemistry laboratory when Angela came to find him. She grabbed him to give him a kiss not realizing he was holding a vial of acid.

Surprised by her embrace he spilled the contents of the vial. His leather apron protected him but she was in street clothes. The acid burned through her blouse and into her abdomen. A tear rolled down Paul's cheek as he drank some more bourbon. His memories were so clear. He could still hear Angela's screams. The memory continued. Angela was in agony. She continued screaming as she grabbed at her blouse and her abdomen getting acid on her hands. Paul remembered pushing her under the emergency shower. Angela recovered from the acid burns but she was scarred. She never forgave Paul for her disfigurement and their relationship ended.

Ruth finished her song and the band took a break. Paul's memory now shifted to the other horror that haunted him. After his graduation Paul took his new Doctorate in Philosophy (PhD) and got hired by a fantastic chemical company, CMepTb. If Paul had known that CMepTb meant 'death' in Russian he might have had second thoughts. As it was they were paying well and offering bonuses for chemical formulas that were deemed marketable. True he had to move to Siberia, but that was also a plus in that he would be far away from Massachusetts and Angela.

Siberia turned out to be cold and lonely. CMepTb gave him an apartment near the laboratory north of the city of Tyumen. The apartment was standard but Paul grew to hate it. Someone brought supplies regularly from Tyumen but Paul was not allowed to leave the laboratory compound. There was nothing to do. The few people that lived in the compound were employees of CMepTb and their families. They hated Paul. He hated them. But he had to put up with them and their condescending attitude as his contract was for eighteen months. It was better when he was in the lab working, his supervisor, Pyotr Zubakin, didn't hate Paul, he just liked vodka better.

Paul was hired to improve a rat exterminating compound that CMepTb owned. The compound killed rats very effectively but it was not kind to the environment and it was deadly for humans and other animals that accidently became exposed to it. Paul created the green death. He made it DNA specific and changed the compound so that it dissolved the rats from the inside out. When exposed the rats dissolved into a bubbling green blob that dried into a harmless powder. Paul drank more bourbon as the band returned from their break and Ruth started singing another song about love and heartbreak.

Paul remembered that Pyotr was delighted with the green death. He was preparing documents to send to CMepTb headquarters detailing Paul's work when Gregory Reznikov came into their lives. Gregory threatened Paul. In order to live, Paul had to become a murderer. Gregory wanted the formula and Paul would give it to him or die. Paul took all evidence of the formula and delivered it to Gregory. He brought Pyotr a bottle of his favorite vodka and pretended to drink with him until Pyotr passed out. Paul dragged him into the lab. It upset him terribly, and he couldn't bring himself to kill Pyotr outright. He set the laboratory on fire and ran. The fire killed Pyotr for him. Paul was now very drunk. He put his head down on the table and passed out.

This time Ed did not come to find Paul and take him home. Two men with green tinted skin entered Times Past and sat at another table in a dark corner. They ordered drinks from the waitress and sipped them as they observed the people populating the bar. No one paid any attention. Tillidians were the first alien civilization to make contact with Earth and were now living in almost every country on Earth. They came and went peaceably and many of the galaxy skippers belonged to and/or were manned by crews of Tillidians. These two Tillidians finished their drinks, then walked over to Paul and, pretending to be friends, took him away.

Chapter Two

It was summertime in the year 2070 when the Tillidians landed in the middle of the Mall in Washington D.C. next to the Washington Monument. The galaxy skipper settled onto the grass without any warning. A few tourists saw it land and stopped their wandering to take a look. Nothing seemed to be happening so in a few minutes they wandered off to be replaced by others eating ice cream cones and popcorn from the street vendors. The ship was approximately forty feet long and twenty feet at its widest part. It was oval in shape, silver and shiny on top but the underside was a utilitarian gray. The landing was quiet but it caused alarms to go off at Homeland Security and the air force was scrambled. Even with all the security forces going into action, everyone was certain it was just an advertising prank of some kind. A real space ship would have been detected by the Outer Satellite Defense Ring.

Homeland Security agents Amy Delaney, a tall woman of medium build and short brown hair, and her partner, Gerry Huff, a six foot three blond with a muscular build, flew to the ship in their glider security van. Gerry landed the vehicle and exited to approach the silver ship looking for the front door. Amy let Bark, a well-muscled German shepherd, out of the back of the van. He obediently followed Amy as she walked up to her partner.

"Well? How do we get in?"

"I don't know. There does not appear to be a door."

"Shall I call in the team?"

"Yeah, I guess so. The press will be here soon and those tourists saw us fly in. They are starting to look curious. Someone will need to do crowd control as well as help us get these boys to open up."

"Guard," Amy told Bark.

Bark sat down to guard the ship which was sitting on the Mall looking like a silver Easter egg lying on its side. The lower part of the ship was held above the grass by a skirt of claw like supports extending to the ground.

The Department of Homeland Security team arrived and set up an administrative tent a hundred feet to the right of the ship. The first thing they did was block off the area with a mild force field. The force field was called the 'yellow tape' after the actual tape police once used to tie to trees and whatnot at crime scenes in years past. The force field even displayed the image of the old tape with the words: DHS LINE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CROSS in bold black text on a bright yellow background. The force field gave a mild shock, more like a strong vibration, when first touched. If the attempt to cross was prolonged the shock became increasingly stronger and the generator poles set up to create the field would sound an alarm. DHS agents carried badges that allowed them to cross unimpeded.

"The yellow tape is secure," said Amy.

"I see Captain Drake is here," said Gerry.

"Yeah, he wants to see you."

Gerry stopped walking around the ship and headed for the command tent.

"Hey Captain. You want to see me?"

Captain George Drake was fifty years old with graying hair. He looked up at Gerry.

"Why do you do that?"

"Why do I do what?"

"You act like it is a surprise that I want an update from you when stuff like this happens."

"Stuff?"

"Just tell me what's going on Gerry? Please? Just tell me the facts, okay?"

"At one o'clock the Mall perimeter alarms went off. Amy and I were in the vicinity so we swung by to check it out. You can see what we saw. A big silver egg shaped thing parked on the grass by the Washington Monument. Some of the tourists say it actually flew here. It couldn't have flown from far because the FAA didn't track it. So we're thinking it was trucked in and then took a short hop up and onto the Mall. No truck has been found but we guess they didn't stick around. We'll need the team's help to review the security cameras for a mile radius."

"Is there a door?"

"Nope."

"No communication?"

"Nope."

"Okay, thanks. The team is setting up to detect radiation and try to get a peek inside. The air force is flying overhead. Are you guys going to hang around?"

"Might as well for a little while, if that's all right with you."

"Sure. I'll let you know if we need you for anything."

"Thanks."

Gerry returned to his partner.

"Does he want us to leave?" asked Amy.

"No. He asked if we wanted to stay."

"Will wonders never cease?"

Bark started a low growl.

"What's wrong with Bark?" asked Gerry.

"He must hear something."

Bark looked at Amy.

"What is it boy? Show me."

Bark stood and slowly moved around the ship to the right. He was hunching low to the ground. Then he lowered himself to lie on the ground and cocked his head watching carefully.

Someone in the command tent called out, "We have movement!"

Amy stood bravely next to Bark her fists on her hips and her feet apart in a defiant stance. Gerry stood to the other side of Bark with his hand on his weapon. Bark growled louder. He stood up.

"No Bark. Stay."

Bark remained standing and growled even louder. Then, as a door in the side of the ship became visible and began to open, he started barking. He clearly wanted to advance on the ship but he stayed put at Amy's command. Gerry pulled his handheld pulse gun, the Pulse22, at the same time about thirty other agents surrounded the ship and pulled theirs.

"Hey there. We are friends," said the green skinned humanoid now standing in the doorway of the ship.

Everyone that was there that day knew immediately that the first aliens had arrived on Earth. The six foot tall being standing in the doorway of his galaxy skipper was shaped generally like a human male. He had two eyes a nose and a mouth. But he was green. He had hair but it was standing on end similar to two inch long porcupine needles. He had no ears. Instead he had three bumps on his head like a crown protruding from his forehead in front of his hairline, the bumps shifted and raised and lowered slightly in a constant movement. This fellow was definitely not human.

"Come on out of there," said Gerry.

"Hey there. We are friends," repeated the alien.

"I don't think he speaks English, Gerry," said Amy. Then she told Bark, "Bark, be nice. Help the man to come here."

Bark ran to the ship and jumped into the door above the skirt of supports. He took the alien gently by the wrist and pulled on him. The alien blinked at Bark. Then he reached up to the controls inside the door and activated a slide which extended from the ship door to the ground. The alien walked down the slope of the slide with Bark tugging gently on his arm. As Bark and the alien stepped off of the slide it retracted into the ship and the door closed becoming invisible again. Bark brought the alien to Amy.

The alien smiled at Amy and repeated the only English he knew, "Hey there. We are friends."

Amy smiled. Then she pointed to the alien and then to herself. She put her arms out from her sides. Gerry secured his Pulse22 as he walked over to Amy and patted her down. Then Amy pointed to the alien again. He blinked rapidly. Then he put his arms out also. Gerry carefully patted him down for weapons. There was nothing. The suit he was wearing did not have any pockets either.

"He is clean," said Gerry.

The thirty agents surrounding Amy, Gerry, Bark and the alien stood there wondering what to do next. The alien still had his arms out. Amy placed a hand on one arm to indicate he could put his arms down. Amy smiled at him. He smiled back. Captain Drake walked through the group of agents and approached the alien to get a better look. The yellow tape started to alarm.

"Go keep those people back," said Captain Drake to the agents who then dispersed to enforce the yellow tape. "We better get you someplace more secure buddy. You two put him in your van and take him to the DHS safe-house in Maryland. Doctor Herbert will meet you there. He is finally going to have something to do. Keep me updated. Don't let anyone follow you. Got it?"

"Yes sir," Amy and Gerry answered in unison.

"Bark, be nice. Put this man in the van."

Bark grabbed the alien by the wrist again. He tugged on the alien's arm as Amy gestured with her hands for the alien to go with the dog. He seemed to understand and they got him into the van and took off. Fifteen minutes later Gerry landed the glider at the safe-house near Annapolis, Maryland. This part of Maryland had been owned by the government for a century. It was wooded and guarded. No other glider that came near would have been able to approach due to the force field in place above the property. Amy and Gerry exited the glider. Bark stayed in the glider until the alien got out. Then Amy called and Bark went to her side. Amy, with Bark following, guided the alien into the building. Gerry held the door.

Inside the receptionist, a young soldier, was staring wide eyed at the alien.

"Welcome," she managed to whisper. Then she cleared her throat, "Mhm. Hello agents Delaney and Huff. Ah, Doctor Herbert is on his way. In the meantime, do you think he needs anything?"

"The refrigerator still has water right?" asked Gerry.

"Yes."

"That should do for now."

Gerry led the way to the back side of the first floor. Amy and Bark followed. Gerry had interrogated important suspects at this location before. He led them to a comfortable room with no windows gesturing for the alien to sit.

"Have a seat. I'll get you some water."

Amy sat on an overstuffed chair. Bark lay down on the floor next to her. The alien stood for a moment then sat in the chair that Gerry was gesturing at. Gerry opened a refrigerator in the corner of the room and got three water bottles. He gave one to Amy and handed one to the alien. He opened the third and took a drink before he sat down on the sofa. Amy pulled a plastic expandable dog bowl out of her pocket and poured some water into it for Bark who licked it eagerly, and then she drank some water from the bottle. With Amy and Gerry staring at him the alien looked closely at the bottled water. He peered intently at the cap. Then mimicking the humans he twisted the cap off and looked intently at the water through the opening. He sniffed it. The bumps on his head were moving at great speed. He sat upright, sighed deeply and raised the bottle to his lips. Before he drank he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He drank the entire bottle of water, opened his eyes and allowed a shuddered breath to leave his body. His face became a darker green and his eyes teared up. His head bumps stopped moving and stood straight up. Amy thought he was going to die. Instead he opened his mouth and let out a very loud and long belch. Then he laughed.

"Well at least he didn't croak," said Gerry.

"Croak? What are you doing?" demanded Doctor Herbert as he came into the room with his military escort. Doctor Herbert was only five foot six inches, was balding and wore eyeglasses. His military escort towered over him.

"Doctor Herbert so good to see you again," said Gerry.

Theodore Herbert was a physician and research scientist. The Department of Homeland Security hired him to run the Outer Defense Division (ODD). He and his division of space experts had the duty to be prepared for alien contact. Not that there was any way to actually be prepared for the complete unknown.

"Hey there. We are friends," said the alien as he stood up and smiled at Doctor Herbert.

Doctor Herbert ignored Gerry's greeting. He was enthralled staring openmouthed at the alien.

"Oh my. He is wonderful," said Doctor Herbert. "Did you feed him anything?"

"A bottle of water. It made him laugh," said Amy.

"How are you communicating with him?"

"The dog has been helpful. That and we do something first then he imitates us."

"The dog? How does the dog help?"

"He is trained to lead people by the wrist."

"Well we need to examine him if we can. We'll use you," said Doctor Herbert to Gerry.

"Me?"

"Yes and you'll stay also with the dog."

"Right. You'll need to communicate that with Captain Drake, our boss," said Amy.

"Take care of that sergeant," said Doctor Herbert to one of the soldiers accompanying him.

"Bring him back to the examination suite," said Doctor Herbert to Amy.

Amy walked over to the alien with Bark. Gerry joined them.

"Come on," said Gerry to the alien. He started to follow Doctor Herbert and the soldiers out of the room.

The alien looked at Amy and Bark.

"Come on," said Amy. Then to Bark she said, "Be nice. Bring the man with us."

Bark reached for the alien's wrist. He allowed Bark to take his wrist and lead him after Amy. Once they were in the examination room Doctor Herbert told Amy, "You'll need to wait outside."

Amy and Bark left.

"Agent Huff I need you to take off your shirt. Then our new friend should do the same."

Gerry walked over to the alien and pointed at him then to himself. Gerry unbuttoned his shirt and removed it. Then he pointed to the alien. The alien grabbed the collar of his space suit and stretched it open until he could slide it down his body to his waist. They proceeded through the physical examination, an MRI, X-rays and blood drawing. The alien was very cooperative. Gerry was not pleased to get poked and probed. He did it because it was his duty. The alien's anatomy was very similar to human anatomy. The blood work did show a copper based blood system rather than the iron based system of humankind. Doctor Herbert now had enough information to begin the care and interrogation of the alien. He dismissed Gerry and Amy to return to their normal duties.

Doctor Herbert and the Outer Defense Division of the Department of Homeland Security spent the next year learning to communicate with the alien whose name turned out to be Geveent. Geveent's spaceship sat on the Mall the entire time surrounded by the yellow tape and a small army of DHS agents. In that time the DHS did not figure out how to get inside, however, Geveent gave them a tour once they worked out an agreement and Congress passed the necessary laws to cover interplanetary relations allowing Earth to join the Commonwealth of Planets and Earth paid their membership dues of two tons of semi-precious stones such as prehnite, quartz, fluorite, citrine, lolite, etc. Today a bronze statue of Geveent, Gerry, Amy and Bark stands on the Mall to mark the spot where Earth's first encounter with an alien species took place and Geveent's ship is in the Smithsonian Museum.

Chapter Three

Paul woke up on board a Tillidian galaxy skipper L class. The L class, though similar to Geveent's ship, was one hundred times larger and designed to hold passengers, crew and supplies for long term missions. Paul was lying on a cot attached to the wall of the room he was in. The cot was similar enough to his cot in the lab that his alcohol soaked mind allowed him to think that was where he was. Across from him in the ten by thirty foot room Paul saw in the dimness what looked like Ed sleeping on another cot. He rolled out of his cot and crept over to the sleeping form.

"Ed? Ed? Why are you sleeping in the garage?"

The form did not awake. Paul realized that there were more cots in the room all attached to the walls. In the dimness he could make out several rows of cots. Some of them were empty; some had people sleeping in them. He crawled over to another of the cots on the lower level. The occupant of that cot was facing the inside of the room. Paul stared at the sleeping figure. It wasn't human. No, it definitely had the unmistakable blue skin and wide eyebrows of an Alusian. They were a friendly alien race, but not what Paul was expecting. He crawled back over to the cot where he thought his friend Ed was sleeping.

"Ed? Where are we? Where is Royal Street? Where is the sky-y-y-y-y?" Paul started sobbing and shook 'Ed' by the shoulder. "I'm scared Ed."

The being Paul had mistaken for Ed woke up. He was huge and ugly, but he was not Ed.

"Ahhhhh. Nooooo," Paul screamed as the monstrous alien's hairy fist wrapped tightly around his neck.

"Stupid human! Shut up!"

Paul stopped screaming, partially in obedience to the Grodnarker who was choking him and partially due to the fact that he could no longer breathe. The Grodnarker tossed Paul away from himself and rolled back over in his cot to resume sleeping. After a few minutes lying on the floor, Paul stood up and quietly walked away from the Grodnarker down the length of the room to a viewer next to the door. Paul had never been in space before but he had been to the Air and Space museum and toured the replica of the original galaxy skipper. If this was the same he could adjust the controls to see outside the ship. Paul gave it a try. As he touched the panel the view changed from the view on the port side of the ship to the bow, the starboard and then the aft views. Another touch showed space above the vessel and finally below. Paul sighed as his hand dropped to his side. He stared at the viewer allowing the realization that he was in outer space sink into his now terrified brain. Survival instincts set in.

"Show me where I can eat," said Paul hopeful that the terminal would answer him and it did.

"The galley is forward on level three. Follow the lighted panels to the steplift. Ride the steplift upward to the third level then continue following the lighted panels to the galley," said the automated voice of the galaxy skipper replying in English to match the language of Paul's request.

Paul placed his hand onto the door to activate the controls. The door slipped open quietly and Paul exited the sleeping quarters to find the galley and get some breakfast. The ship seemed to be set for overnight, but Paul's stomach told him it was morning. The square shaped panels on the wall opposite the sleeping quarters were lighted with gentle pastel colors moving away from the sleeping quarters toward the bow of the ship. Paul followed at a moderate pace looking right and left listening for any sound that might indicate that he wasn't the only person awake and moving about the ship. When he got to the steplift he stepped onto the platform.

"Level three please."

The platform lifted quietly up two levels and soundlessly came to a gentle halt. Paul stepped off and looked for the lighted tiles. His attitude was improving now with every step he took. Then he caught a whiff of what could only be toast fresh from a toaster. His stomach rumbled loudly as he entered the galley. The galley was a fair size with twelve tables and seating for a hundred and twenty people if the seats were all filled. The décor was soothing with the lights set to low levels and the silver walls reflecting pale pastel lights of blue, pink and green. The Tillidians liked pastel colors and used them everywhere. Paul heard the sound of butter being scratched across the surface of toast and scanned across the empty tables until he saw Ed sitting alone at a table in the empty galley eating toast and scrambled eggs.

"Ed, where the hell are we?" asked Paul as he walked up to Ed's table and leaned both hands onto the flat surface.

"Paul, you are finally awake. Sit down and order breakfast."

Paul sat down and grabbed the menu pad. He touched the pictures of coffee, toast and scrambled eggs. A robot came rolling out of the kitchen and up to the table.

"That's my order," said Paul to the robotic server.

The robot rolled over to Paul and opened its top section. Paul reached inside and pulled the coffee carafe, coffee cup as well as the platter holding the toast and eggs out of the server and placed them on the table.

"Be careful it is hot," said a metallic voice.

Then the robotic server rolled away, presumably back to the kitchen. Paul wolfed down the food and gulped the coffee. He poured another cup.

"Want some coffee?"

"No I've got plenty," said Ed.

Paul took a sip of his second cup of coffee.

"What's going on Ed?"

"Gregory decided to leave Earth."

"Leave? As in - not coming back - leave?"

"Yeah, after you left to visit Daisy Ann, Ruby Durkson and his guys came for the green death. They were loaded up with pulse44s and pulse rifles. I thought we were dead."

"What happened?"

"Gregory gave them the box of green death. Only the box didn't really have the green death in it."

"What was in it?"

"I don't know for sure but the explosion was heard for miles."

"He blew up the house?"

"No he waited until they were on the open flyway between New Orleans and Lafayette. He was watching the box on his computer screen and activated the explosives when he thought it was clear."

"Let me guess, it wasn't as clear as he thought?"

"There was a school transport full of kids coming the other way."

"How many died?"

"Twenty."

"He deserves to go to jail. Too bad the police didn't get him."

"Worse than the police, DHS decided it was a possible hate crime against aliens. They don't know it was Gregory but he didn't want to wait around for them to figure it out."

In the years since Geveent landed on the Mall in Washington D.C. some groups had formed that did not like the Commonwealth of Planets. There had been some peaceful demonstrations then one of the Tillidians was murdered. The Tillidians did not wait for Earth to figure out who the perpetrators were. They already knew from the information recovered from the murdered Tillidian's central head bump. The Tillidians gathered up everyone from the anti-alien group that the perpetrators belonged to as well as the perpetrators. They also captured all of the family members of each of those people. They vaporized them all on worldwide television.

None of the Earth governments could muster an effective response to the Tillidian action. The Tillidians then required each Earth government to monitor for any such alien hate groups and deal with them before another incident could occur. Earth agreed. The sentence was death for anything that resembled an attack on an alien or aliens. A few of the children riding the school bus had been aliens. There would be an investigation. More than likely the men who tried to steal the green death would be held responsible but Gregory decided not to take the chance.

"Is he on board also?"

"Sure, in first class."

"Oh, of course."

"We won't see him until we get where we're going."

"How long is that?"

"We already made the galaxy skip to the Sunflower Galaxy. It should be another week before we get to Zoltos."

"What? How did he get ownership of Zoltos? Is he going to try to develop it himself?"

"He had some paperwork done showing him as a part owner and with the others dead, he claimed the whole planet. But, no, he can't develop it on his own. He has another developer on board, Missus Waddel. She's paying the DAC fees for half ownership."

Glorianna Waddel was a billionaire. For some people that isn't enough. Now she would own a planet. Paul shook his head in disgust.

"So what's to do while we wait?"

"You should start with a shower and some clean clothes," Ed wrinkled his nose indicating how strong Paul's body odor was. "They've got standard wear in all sizes."

"So I see," said Paul looking at Ed who was wearing a traditional Tillidian silver stretch suit. "You look fabulous."

"At least I don't look like a shiny pencil like your skinny self will."

"Is there a bar?"

"No bar. Not even a beer for lunch."

"Shit, for a whole week?"

"Go get that shower. Then meet me in the weight room."

"I'll get the shower. But you'll have to lift weights on your own."

"Suit yourself. The trainers are all female."

"Female what?"

"Several varieties to choose from. Come and see."

Paul had seen an Alusian earlier in the sleeping quarters. Miss Violet's had some alien females, mostly Tillidians, but he'd seen an Alusian there once. She was very human like, according to the promotional flyer. But Daisy Ann would have been upset if Paul chose someone over her so Paul had never slept with an alien. This might be his chance, if he understood Ed correctly.

"I'll think about it."

They got up to leave the galley.

"One thing," said Ed. "Watch out. There are Grodnarkers on board."

"Now you tell me," Paul said.

"Oh, also your luggage is in storage near the sleeping quarters next to the showers."

Paul turned toward the steplift as Ed walked the opposite way. Paul wondered what a female Grodnarker would look like. Probably just as mean and ugly as the males. Grodnarkers were banned from most countries on Earth. The Tillidians routinely worked with them but that was probably because the Tillidians were the only race the Grodnarkers feared. They were larger and stronger than any Tillidian but they knew that the Tillidians head bumps recorded everything they experienced and even after death, including the destruction of the head bumps, the information could be retrieved. Then the Tillidians would take revenge. Paul found the showers. The automated attendant was there and approached Paul as he entered.

"I'd like a shower," Paul said to the attendant.

"Are you human?" the attendant asked in English matching the language of Paul's request.

"Yes," replied Paul.

"What fragrance of cleansing gel would you like?"

Remembering Daisy Ann he said, "Lavender."

"Will you need a stretch suit?"

"Yes, do you have any color besides silver?"

"Yes we do. Would you like the pink, green or blue?"

As he spoke a panel on his front displayed the pastel colors the Tillidians loved.

"I'll stick with silver."

The pastels were just too feminine for Paul, though he kind of liked the green one. Ed would never let him hear the end of it.

"Please pick up your gel selection on entrance to the shower."

Paul walked past the automated attendant into the silver walls and floor of the shower area. Paul wasn't sure how to proceed or how to turn the water on. Then he heard the voice of the automated attendant overhead.

"Please disrobe and hang your clothes on one of the hooks."

Paul looked for the hooks as he disrobed. He finally noticed them on the wall and hung up the clothes.

"Please stand in a circle of your choosing and state what temperature you would like the water to be."

Paul stepped over into one of many white circles on the silver floor.

"I want the water to be eighty-two degrees Fahrenheit."

Water came spraying from all angles. "Stop," Paul took time to suds himself all over, even using the gel as shampoo. When he was ready he tossed the empty gel pack to the side near where his clothes were hanging, "Go". Water again came spraying at him from all over. He used his hands to help rinse the suds out of his hair and off of his body. He stood still enjoying the warm water. "Stop," Paul took a towel from the pile near the automated attendant near the exit and dried his body. He found a stretch suit there also.

"Is this my stretch suit?" he asked the attendant.

"Yes."

Paul pulled on the suit. It fitted him snuggly around the ankles and as he pulled it up, the suit first stretched and then shrank to cover his body. It was programmed not to fit too tightly and was actually quite comfortable. The outside of the cloth was shiny silver but the inside was soft and smooth almost like cotton.

"Do you have any socks?"

"Please step onto the pad."

There was a two foot by two foot pad on the floor in the exit room near the attendant. Paul stepped onto the pad. The attendant's front area below the color selection panel opened up again and Paul took the socks that he found there. They were made from the same shiny silver cloth as the suit and just as soft inside. He pulled them on and then stepped into his shoes. He balled up his old clothes. Then before he left he asked the attendant what time it was.

"It is eleven o'clock."

The Tillidians used a twelve hour clock where one Tillidian hour equaled two Earth hours. Tillid was the same as Earth in size and also measured their day by how long it took for Tillid to rotate once on its axis. Coincidentally it took Tillid the same amount of time to complete one rotation. But the Tillidians had divided their day into twelve equal parts. On board the galaxy skippers hour one was set to the start of daytime. The lights went dim at six. So on board ship daytime lasted twelve Earth hours followed by twelve Earth hours of 'night'. Because the Tillidians clock contained only one set of numbers it wasn't necessary to explain if the time meant morning or night. For Paul eleven o'clock meant daytime would start in two Earth hours. Paul's head was starting to pound from an impending hangover. He took his clothes and on his way back to the sleeping quarters, placed them into his stored luggage.

Inside the sleeping quarters he asked the computer: "Is there a doctor on board?"

"Yes, it is on this level. Follow the lighted panels."

The pastel lights were blinking in a cascading fashion away from the sleeping quarters. Paul followed the blinking lights in hope that the Tillidian doctors had something he could take to help him get through a week of no alcohol.

The week passed at a slow pace. Paul and Ed had no assigned duties on ship and so were left to their own devices. Ed spent most of his time 'lifting weights'. Paul was wiped out from the detoxification drugs the doctors gave him. There was one nurse that caught his eye. Her name was Helouvia and she was very attentive to Paul when he came for the drugs and to be examined daily while he took them. On the third day of the week, he dragged himself to the clinic and waited until she was free to tend to him by taking his temperature and blood pressure and asking how he was feeling. Helouvia gave him a back rub to help him relax during his examination. Paul figured this wasn't part of the routine when she climbed on top of him to massage his shoulders and used her lips on his neck. Paul didn't realize that Helouvia was not human until she took her clothes off. Then it didn't matter as the examination became mutual.

The next day Paul was very eager to arrive at the clinic for his appointment with Helouvia only to find a very ugly Grodnarker there arguing with the medical staff. As best as Paul could tell he was angry about something that had happened to his sister who worked at the clinic.

"She no come back here. Do you hear me stupid woman?" the Grodnarker growled.

"She'll need to notify us in person. We can't take your word over hers," answered the nurse in charge.

Helouvia walked into the clinic and faced down her brother.

"I told you not to come here. This is my job and whether I work here or not is not for you to decide." Her brother was taller than Helouvia and she was shaped like a human woman versus the large hefty shape of her brother and all male Grodnarkers, but he backed down.

After her brother left Helouvia apologized to the staff and everything went back to normal. Paul was waiting his turn to be seen in a state of shocked confusion. When they called his name he approached the examination room. He'd had high hopes that he and Helouvia would be together again today but that didn't seem very wise at this point. Helouvia was holding the thermometer when he entered the room. She had him sit and put it in his mouth. When it beeped she removed it and recorded the temperature as normal. She took his blood pressure which was a little high but still in normal range. She wasn't talking to Paul at all.

"Are you all right, Helouvia?"

"My brothers know about yesterday."

"I'm confused, Helouvia. Didn't yesterday go as you wanted? Did I do something wrong?"

"No. It is just a cultural difference between us. At home on my planet females of my species are allowed, well not really allowed. I mean it is normal for us to love whomever we please, as often as we please. When we joined the Commonwealth of Planets the leaders of my world made it a law that females were still allowed but only with our own kind."

"Why is that?"

"Well, it actually makes sense on our world. You see we raise our young in community. The offspring get passed around and after the age of four years or so they live in community centers, not with individual parents. People were willing to do that, until mutants started to show up."

"Mutants?"

"Yes, offspring from mixed couplings. The males were sometimes slender and pretty and the females sometimes brutish like male Grodnarkers. It was very disturbing and they were killed to remove the horror of it all."

"So mixed couplings were banned?"

"Yes. But it shouldn't really count out here in space. I've taken the sterility drugs. My brothers just disagree."

"He seemed pretty angry."

"Yes."

"What will he do?"

"Oh, he won't hurt me. But if he finds out who the male was, he and my other brothers will find and kill him."

Paul's insides started to melt.

"I'll be leaving the ship three days from now. Do you think they'll find out before then?"

"If you agree to be with me again today, I have a plan."

What else could he do?

The next morning he was in the galley when Helouvia sent him a warning. The attendant rolled up to Paul's table and apologized for disturbing him.

"I have a message for Paul Rocheport."

"Go ahead."

A video message was displayed on the attendant's chest. It was Helouvia.

"Run Paul. They found out. Run and hide like I said," she paused then continued "I love you Paul."

The screen went black. Paul jumped from his seat and ran as fast as he could, hoping they wouldn't catch him before he could get to an escape pod. The pods were along the outer edge of the galaxy skipper accessible through the outer tunnels. As he turned a corner headed for the outer tunnels he heard growling, scuffling noises coming close. Paul, panting, his chest heaving from the exertion, reached the tunnel entrance. The tunnels were alarmed, but Paul had the code from Helouvia. Ah, Helouvia, what a beauty. She was worth all the trouble descending upon him. He entered the code with shaking hands and slipped inside. Complete darkness surrounded him and a silence not normal to a bustling vessel. Knowing he didn't have long before he was discovered he put his arm out to find the tunnel wall. Feeling the smooth surface he moved forward reaching up and down the wall searching for an escape pod hatch. There was an irregularity in the wall. Paul brought his hand down sliding over the operation touch panel, causing it to light up. In the dim light he stood directly in front of the escape pod and touched the panel to open the pod. Helouvia's plan was for Paul to hide in the escape pod for the last part of the journey. Once the pod was sealed no one but an officer on the ship could open it from the outside. They would be arriving at Zoltos in twenty-four hours and Paul would be able to disembark with Gregory to safety. Paul entered the escape pod and got comfortable to wait out the time and dozed off.

Chapter Four

A swooshing sound woke Paul from his nap. He looked up just in time to see the ugly face of a laughing Grodnarker peering at him through the escape pod portal. He would be severely punished for launching the escape pod if he was discovered. Helouvia had known it was possible to launch the escape pod but had counted on the severe penalty to stop her brothers from doing it. As Paul watched the face became small, the outside of the galaxy skipper came into view. Then the pod portal cover closed shutting Paul off from the universe. Paul drifted for a week before the escape pod came close enough to be captured by the gravity of a planet. The air inside the pod became warm as the pod descended through the planet's atmosphere. The landing bubbles expanded all around the pod before impact. Paul stepped into the personnel capsule which closed around him holding him in place as the pod bounced from impact several times twirling like a child's toy until it came to a complete stop.

As designed, the pod rolled until it was nearly at a stop, then the landing cushions manipulated the pod into an upright position, and the portal cover slid open to allow the occupant to see his new surroundings. Gravity felt like Earth normal, sunlight streamed through the portal, the personnel capsule opened, but Paul didn't move. He was terrified. The sunlight coming through the portal diminished as the hours passed. No one and nothing bothered the pod. Paul's stomach growled. He reached into a pocket and pulled a nourishment bar out, removed its cover and took a nibble. Each escape pod held enough nourishment bars and water packs to keep three adult beings alive for at least a week. Much longer if the food was rationed intelligently. Paul had eaten his way through half the food supplies in the week he had been adrift. He finished the nourishment bar and tossed the wrapper onto the floor where it settled in with all the other empty water packs and wrappers. He was thirsty, but he didn't have any water packs on him. It meant he was going to have to leave the comfort of the personnel capsule. His mouth got drier as he refused to move. Finally his thirst won out, and he leaned forward lifting one leg slowly and as quietly as possible stepped out of the capsule.

He ducked to avoid the portal then approached the cabinet where the water packs were stored. His reflection on the metal cabinet door looked awful and showed he now had a full beard covering his cheeks and chin; he grabbed a water pack and closed the cabinet. He sucked the water out of the pack looking at his gaunt face, owning the fear that was behind the haunted looking eyes. Standing in front of the cabinet he glanced to his left. The console there showed the components of the atmosphere outside, the atmospheric pressure and the temperature. Everything was consistent with New Orleans in the spring time. He finished the water pack and turned to the portal. Sneaking up on it, he carefully peeked over the side of the portal to look out. The afternoon sun was low in the sky. It was a yellow sun and a blue sky. The escape pod was in a grassy plain, too large to be a meadow. In the distance the grasses and wildflowers stretched to a ridge of hills covered with trees.

Slowly moving through the fields to the left of the escape pod and a couple of hundred feet away was an herbivore of some kind. Not chunky like a cow, nor slender as a gazelle. They were traveling in a herd; the adults had antlers resembling a reindeer from earth. Their shaggy fur was gray in color similar to the grasses growing alongside the wild flowers. The animals were eating the wildflowers and leaving the gray grass alone. Immature members of the herd walked with some adults in the center of the herd in a classic form of herd preservation. The sun fell lower in the sky and the herd simply stopped for the night as some stars and a very large moon filled the night sky. Paul kept watch off and on through the night until he was tired enough to sleep. It was hard to see the figures in the grass, especially if they lay down. But the moonlight glinted off an antler here and there.

Dawn broke over Paul's new home to the sound of animals braying and in the distance more animals trumpeting. The morning sun was glinting off of a river Paul had failed to notice about midway between the pod and the range of hills. Paul needed to take care of his bodily functions and decided to see if there was a place he could do that outside the pod. He grabbed a pulse44 and hit the open button next to the pod hatch. The hatch rolled up and around the top of the pod, Paul carefully stuck his head out the opening. The fresh air was intoxicating. The herbivores had moved on toward the river so Paul thought he was alone. He climbed out of the hatch and into the knee high grasses. He walked around the pod glancing away from the river where animals were getting a morning drink. The river stretched to the left and turned so that it appeared that it might come around behind where the escape pod was sitting. Paul walked through the grass taking in the beauty of his new home. Opposite the hilly ridge and river the grassland stretched about a mile to a dense forest. Inside the dense forest some smoke rose into the sky. Not a huge amount of smoke as a forest fire would make, but a thin wispy smoke that was more like a camp fire would make. Paul decided it was time to explore.

He packed a backpack with food for three days, some monitoring equipment and a communicator that would alert him if anyone entered the pod. He slapped on his gun belt and started walking toward the forest and the possibility of intelligent life. Paul's mind had not been so clear of alcohol in a long time. It felt great to be free of the booze, the memories and Gregory. He used one of his monitoring devices, an M-scanner, to record the life forms he encountered. It allowed him to record visually what the creature looked like and its vital signs; if he could get a sample it would record the creature's DNA. So far the herbivore was the extent of his research data. He even scanned a sample of its dung. The DNA he obtained from some fur and saliva stuck to a wildflower bush the animal had been chewing on. The M-scanner did not have the DNA on file; that meant no one else had been to Paul's planet yet or if they had they had not uploaded the data on the herbivore to the Commonwealth of Planets Science Center (CPSC). As he approached the edge of the forest, Paul searched with his eyes and his M-scanner for any life forms lying in wait inside the trees. The M-scanner showed a large variety of tiny beings, some flying that must have been insects as well as a few smaller beings that read as similar to small mammals found on other planets. Nothing was detected that was larger than a cottontail rabbit or a squirrel. The M-scanner could only detect beings within forty to fifty feet and not behind anything thicker than approximately two inches; less if the barrier was denser than wood. When he held the M-scanner up it detected some life forms that the M-scanner determined were similar to birds on other planets.

There seemed to be nothing to fear as Paul ducked down and moved under the low hanging branches. To his surprise, approximately ten feet inside the trees, he came upon a well-worn path. It lay crosswise in front of him giving him his first decision point on his way to discover where the smoke was coming from. After just a moment of indecision he turned right and followed the path. He began to hear sounds in the forest that reminded him of Massachusetts. There was a repetitive knocking like a woodpecker and a variety of bird calls similar to cardinals or other small birds. Some of the bird calls were very sweetly unusual to his ears; all in all very pleasant and restful.

He found himself humming as he walked the path. An hour had passed when his M-scanner detected something it decided was in the medium-sized mammal category. There were several of these beings forty to fifty feet ahead just at the edge of the M-scanner's range. Paul stopped and adjusted the range on the M-scanner to try and determine if this new being was dangerous as in a pack of wolves or benign as a small herd of white-tailed deer. To his surprise the M-scanner indicated that this life form walked upright. Paul slowed his walk and listened intently as he neared the group, he could smell the smoke now and hear some voices speaking in a language he'd never heard before. He switched the M-scanner to the language mode; understandable enough the M-scanner did not recognize the language.

The trees were getting thinner and Paul could see a small meadow. In the center of the meadow was a campfire within a ring of stones where one of the beings was turning food over the flames. It smelled delightful and Paul's stomach growled. The beings were human in shape, but they were covered with a coat of smooth, short-haired fur. The light brown fur had randomly placed patches of white and/or black and covered the majority of their bodies. They had humanoid faces, ears, hands and feet. Paul stared open mouthed. This was the first humanoid population he'd ever encountered or heard of that was covered in fur. The skin color of other aliens varied greatly and some were very hairy like the male Grodnarkers, but none of them had fur. These beings were like deer walking upright with human faces and hands instead of hooves.

The humanoid that was cooking the meal called out in their strange language and the others approached holding what looked like bowls. It was hard to make out what the bowls were made of but it looked like clay and was even colorfully painted on the outside. The cook had a large crystal knife and a fork-like implement with short tines which he used to cut off pieces of the meat and place it in each person's bowl. There was also some sauce in a pot that each person scooped out with a long spoon-like utensil that stayed in the pot.

"Ar norite ka nors valgyti?"

A female humanoid had walked up behind Paul. He jumped and spun around, ending up sitting on the ground.

"You startled me."

"Eime su manimi." The humanoid reached down and took Paul by the hand. He stood and followed her into the camp.

She indicated for him to sit on a seat that was set up next to hers. She got him a bowl of food and gave him a set of utensils. Then she sat down next to him and started to eat from her dish. Everyone else was eating and glancing at Paul. Paul looked at the utensils she had given him. One was a crystal knife with a wrapped handle, the other was a spoon made of some kind of a shell with a sharp protrusion on the end that the others were using as a fork. Paul changed the M-scanner to detect poisons. Because the M-scanner could determine substances poisonous to humans at the molecular level he felt safe eating the food after the M-scanner cleared it. He stabbed a bit of meat in the sauce and touched it to his lips. The aroma was delightful and when Paul licked the sauce from his lips he was very pleased. He ate the whole bowl of food. The sauce contained a mushroom like thing and possibly a root like a potato and the meat was very tender.

After dinner the entire group took part in cleaning the dishes and utensils. Some threw more wood on the fire as everyone rolled out their bedding for the night. The female that invited Paul to dinner brought him an extra set of bedding. The bundle was tied up and approximately two and a half feet long and a good ten inches in diameter. As he unrolled it there was a six foot long blanket made of gray furred hide that had been worked until it was smooth and supple on the inside as well as a five inch thick stuffed bag that everyone else was laying out as a mattress. Finally there was a smaller stuffed bag that everyone was using as a pillow. He wasn't sure he wanted his head or his feet near the fire. The others were mixed in their placement of the pillow.

No one was lying down to sleep. Paul noticed some were wandering off male and female couples while others were sitting in small groups talking. He couldn't be sure, but it looked like one group was playing a card game of some sort. He couldn't tell what the cards were made from. He decided to find a place to relieve himself and walked into the trees on his side of the clearing. He took his M-scanner with him in an attempt to avoid the others. After taking care of business, he made a circle through the trees around the clearing. The concentration of life forms was increasing by the fire. To Paul it appeared that the group was re-gathering. They didn't seem to be leaving anyone on guard.

As Paul was adjusting his M-scanner to look for any larger, i.e.: possibly dangerous, life forms he heard someone singing in the clearing. His scan was clear, he set the M-scanner to alarm if anything new was detected and hung it on his belt. He returned to his spot by the fire and sat cross-legged on top of his bedding. There were three women standing together in the center of the clearing, next to the fire. They took turns singing. It was beautiful to Paul's ears even though he didn't understand a word. The others looked happy to hear the song, even laughing at some points, then clapping as they finished.

A little while later, as the others drifted off to sleep and one by one the sound of deep, easy breathing could be heard, Paul's sense of hearing became keener. Outside of the crackling fire he heard no noises from the forest around him. Confident that his M-scanner would alert him if anything larger than a rabbit came his way, he also drifted off to sleep.

In the morning the camp came to life. Paul sat on his bed roll and watched for a while. It appeared that the group was headed out. He rolled his bedding, tied it up and threw it into the pile as everyone else was doing. He noticed that most of the group had a weapon, either a bow slung over a shoulder or a spear strapped to their back. They all had hide belts tied around their waist with what appeared to Paul to be either a long knife or a short sword.

Two of the aliens led a pair of adult gray furred species Paul had seen the day before by his escape pod, that were harnessed to a two wheeled cart made of poles and animal skins, up to the pile of bedrolls. They packed the bedrolls onto the cart along with other unidentifiable bundles and strapped everything down.

The leader of the group, the female that brought Paul into their camp, was standing at the front of the group. Others gathered around and behind her, the cart following last. She started walking and the rest followed. Studying his M-scanner as he walked with the group, he realized they were leaving the forest and headed toward the river. After an hour, they halted beside the river's edge.

The M-scanner display showed the river to be half a mile wide at this point. The group stopped by a rocky cove extending fifteen to twenty feet from the water to the land. Someone started handing out dried fruit and hard biscuits for breakfast. Some of the group unstrapped their weapons and jumped into the water to bathe. The leader approached Paul.

"Jums reikia maudytis."

Using hand gestures and repeating this phrase she got Paul to come to the river's edge. She handed him what could only be a bar of soap and pushed him firmly toward the water. He pulled off the Tillidian suit and placed it with his backpack and M-scanner onto the ground. He opened the backpack and locked the pulse44 inside before walking into the chilly water. He lathered up as the leader picked up the suit and handed it to one of her people. She ignored the backpack but picked up the M-scanner turning it around in her hands to peer at it.

Intrigued by her actions, Paul paused to watch her. He was getting used to the idea that the dominant species on this planet had fur. Paul rinsed, vigorously dunking himself. He was shivering as he exited the river. The others shook off and went to sun themselves or eat their breakfast. Paul was going to need something to help him dry. The female handed him a woven cloth and pointed toward the rocks where the others were sunning themselves in the warm morning sunshine. He took his backpack, M-scanner and the cloth then shivered his way to the rocks. Finding a large rock he first rubbed himself dry then placed the cloth on the warm rock and sat down in the full sun watching the river. The leader was now in the water bathing.

The M-scanner chirped. The display was indicating an eight foot creature in the river coming down stream. It wasn't far from the cove. The other life forms in the river were scattering as the big one approached. Just then the sound of a horn blowing was heard. Paul hadn't noticed that several of the aliens were standing watching the river. They were now blowing a warning blast on their horns. Those of the group that were still in the water splashed frantically as they exited the water. They ran farther up the rocky beach as others, bows and spears drawn, ran closer to the shore. Paul stood to watch. A huge beast came swimming and crawling out of the river. It was eight feet long and three feet wide. Standing on four short legs it was incredibly fast. But its mighty jaws missed the last alien to exit the river by several inches.

The beast stopped advancing and rolled its head from side to side looking at those standing before him. He opened his long snout showing a terrible amount of sharp teeth. It was a scaled beast similar to a crocodile on earth. With its mouth open it did what no crocodile has ever done, it roared an earsplitting, terrifying, deep-throated roar. It snapped its mighty jaws closed then repeated his open mouthed roar. The aliens stood still as stone, bows and spears at the ready. It snapped its jaws closed again then turned back to the water. Using its short broad tail as a rudder, its powerful legs churning through the water, it swam slowly out about twenty feet and turned to watch the shore.

Everyone moved away from the shore, each chatting with the others as they glanced back over their shoulders. Paul designated that creature in his M-scanner as extremely dangerous. He hoped it didn't leave the water for long periods of time or travel far inland. A female came up to Paul with his silver suit and socks. She shyly handed it to him glancing up at his face, and then walked away. Paul felt the suit, it was dry and smelled like the bar soap. A definite improvement, He pulled it on, snapped his pulse44 belt around his waist, pulled on his socks and shoes and hurried after the group. He caught up with the female that brought him the suit.

"My name is Paul, Paul Rocheport. What is your name?"

She smiled and glanced sideways. Paul continued by pointing at himself and repeating, "Paul," Then pointing toward her.

"Drovus," she said.

Paul was enchanted.

"Drovus? That is a pretty name. Thank you for cleaning my suit."

He made scrubbing motions on his suit. Drovus smiled at him. Paul smiled back. He was ecstatic that one of the alien species was taking notice of him and such a pretty girl. As he was walking with Drovus he realized that the fur was not as strange as he originally thought. He began wondering if it was soft or scratchy to the touch. Maybe she would let him find out later. While they walked Paul thought he would expand on his vocabulary. Some of the furred gray beasts he'd seen the day before could be seen approaching the water up ahead.

Paul pointed to himself and said, "Paul," then pointed to Drovus and said, "Drovus," then he pointed to the gray beasts and made a face as if expecting her to fill in the blank. Drovus thought for a moment and then said, "zveris, pilka zveris."

"Pelka zverous?"

Drovus laughed gently and repeated, "pilka zveris," accenting the short 'i' sound as 'ih' for both p[ih]lka and zver[ih]s.

He asked, "that?" and pointed out into the water. Then he imitated the roar of the nasty water beast.

"Zarius!" Drovus made a scary face and said, "blogai," then she spat on the ground.

Drovus and Paul continued their conversation while the group walked along the river, bowmen walking between the group and the river's edge. The zarius stayed in the river but swam to stay abreast of the group. Paul wondered why they didn't kill the beast. They most certainly could have when it exited the river earlier. It would have made their journey a safer one. It would only take Paul a day or so in his lab to alter the formula for the green death to target this beast. It could then be wiped out. Wouldn't these people be happier without the threat of being eaten every time they took a bath? Yet, they spared its life. Maybe someday he would know enough to be able to ask them about that.

"Someday...," Paul thought, "Will I be here on this planet for the rest of my life? Or will someone come to look for me? If not for me perhaps the Tillidians will come looking for their escape pod."

He had linked the alarm on the pod door to the M-scanner. The range of the signal was around ten miles or so. He was currently approximately five miles from the pod and the M-scanner showed no attempt to open the pod door. The group was walking toward the line of hills Paul had seen in the distance from the pod, though they were still on this side of the river. They could easily cover the distance to the hills in one day's march and then he would be out of the escape pod alarm's range. Drovus sensed that Paul's attention was wandering and she walked away from him to walk with her friends. Paul turned to look in the direction of the escape pod. He could see the line of trees that was the forest, but even knowing that the escape pod was there he could not make it out with his unaided vision. At that moment he decided that he would not live in the pod waiting for rescue. Instead he would stay with these beings as long as they allowed him to stay. A moment of regret, the sounds of New Orleans, Daisy Mae's smiling face, then he turned to follow Drovus and the rest.

Chapter Five

Ed was mad as hell. Gregory jumped all over him when they arrived in orbit over Zoltos because Paul was nowhere to be found. It turned out that there was no recorded surveillance of the activity surrounding the 'accidental' launching of the escape pod. No one came forward to claim any knowledge of the incident and Gregory didn't want any of the Tillidian's anger to come his way so, he didn't report Paul missing. Ed forced a confession out of the Grodnarkers but he wasn't going to turn them in either. No one wanted to pay the Tillidian penalty. When Ed explained to Gregory that the Grodnarkers had launched Paul into space, Gregory went pale. Gregory never raised his voice, yet his words always sent chills down Ed's backbone and when he was angry with Ed, as he was at this moment, his voice froze him to his core.

"Edward, you do realize that the formula is useless without him? What are we going to do if he dies or if we never figure out where the pod landed? You had better find out what happened to him or I won't have any use for you anymore. You understand what I'm saying, don't you Edward?"

It took a bottle of Pappy 23 year Bourbon to pry the location of the escape pod from the engineering yeoman. Ed was hard pressed to give away his Bourbon, but he had to locate Paul before Gregory's temper reached its limit. After they landed on Zoltos he took Glorianna Waddel's GS2 (a small ship with room for a two manned crew) and went looking for Paul. The yeoman said the instruments indicated when the escape pod was ejected but they could only give an estimate of several planets or planetoids near that position. Ed was going to have to search them all. For the excellent Bourbon the yeoman also stole a far reaching scanner from the Tillidian's retired instrument storage that, once installed in the GS2, would allow Ed to search from orbit. He removed the device from the inventory list so no one would notice the theft of the outdated instrument. As outdated as the long range scanner was, it would still enhance Ed's hunt tremendously and the Bourbon was worth it.

Ed was at the controls on the third day when the scanner started flashing a signal on the viewer's screen. He set course and landed the GS2 right next to the escape pod. After checking the atmospheric measurements he exited the GS2 and walked through the knee high grass to the escape pod. He entered the code and the door rose. The pod was vacant. He thought, "Where are you Paul? You better be wearing your locator or when I find you I'll break you in half." He pulled out an M-scanner and adjusted the dials. No indication of Paul. He walked in a circle around the ship and pod to get the most out of the short range M-scanner. Still no Paul. He set the retrieval beacon to emit a signal to the Tillidians so they could get their escape pod back, and then hiked himself up into the GS2. He changed the longer range scanner to detect Paul's signature instead of the escape pod's signal. He set the device to run a 360 degree scan and waited. Fifteen minutes later, still no Paul.

That meant he wasn't in fifty miles of the GS2 or his locator wasn't activated. There were some hills to the north. If he was inside a cave his signal might be blocked. Ed set the controls and lifted off the ground three thousand feet or so and flew toward the hills. Just then Gregory's voice could be heard over the GS2's receiver.

"Edward... Are you out there, Edward?"

"Yes, sir."

"Edward, did you find him yet?"

"I found the escape pod, Sir."

"That is progress. I'm very happy with that news."

He didn't sound happy to Ed.

"It took the Tillidians three days to deploy the communications satellite. I think they are a little bit upset with you Edward and are taking it out on me."

"I activated the escape pod signal. They can come and get it whenever they want."

"I'll let them know that. Very good, Edward. Now there is one more thing."

"What is that, sir?"

"Glorianna Waddel, our benefactor, tells me that time is money. She wants to know when the scans of Zoltos will begin. You know she needs those scans, Edward and you are in her ship."

"Yes, sir. Please let her know it will be soon now. You might also let her know that I've procured an enhanced scanner that will shorten our search to just a couple of weeks instead of a full month."

"Edward, you never cease to surprise me. Hurry home with our boy."

"Yes, sir."

Gregory had already terminated the connection. Ed continued flying toward the hill country. He slowed the speed of the GS2 and set the computer to fly a search pattern that would cover the area from east to west in a grid. The altitude of the GS2 was too high for him to make out anything as small as a person but the detection alarm would sound if Paul's locator signal was detected. He decided to eat lunch and as he grabbed the premade food packs he turned on some German opera. Between mouthfuls of food he sang along, "Komm, o komm geschwinde, Come, oh come quickly,

Sehnsuchtsvoll gedenk' ich dir, Holde Rosalinde." Ed was such a large brutish man the sound of him singing opera was surprising to most people. But his large size gave him great lung power and he actually sounded wonderful. Lunch was cut short by the sound of the alarm. Ed slapped off the opera and sat upright in his seat.

"Finally!"

The signal was coming from a valley between two ridges of hills. Ed changed the settings on the long range scanner to detect human life signs. It was inconclusive. Ed took the controls and flew closer to the surface. He saw gray grasses mixed with a variety of colorful wildflowers just like at the escape pod site. As he approached the location of Paul's locator signal he thought he caught a glimpse of a herd of deer. He didn't see Paul but he was traveling too fast to be sure. The scanner indicated that the locator was moving away from the valley and back up into the hills and tree cover.

"Shit. You shouldn't run from me Paul," he said to no one.

Ed turned back, then landed the GS2, grabbed his M-scanner and jumped to the ground. He fiddled with the settings until he had a clear signal showing Paul was only forty feet away. He had him now. Ed tromped off in the direction of the locator signal through the high grass. He continued into the woods as he started uphill the M-scanner display showed Paul had stopped. Ed tramped along glancing around at the darkening forest and then back at the scanner. Suddenly Paul stepped out in front of him.

"Ed! I'm so glad to see you!" Paul ran toward him.

"Paul. Why'd you run up here into the hills?"

"Because I didn't know it was you. I didn't think anyone was coming for me."

"Let's get out of here. Gregory and his billionaire are anxious to get started with their world building and you need a shave."

Paul and Ed walked downhill and out of the forest. The Zoltosians watched them leave following behind and staying hidden in the trees until they saw the spaceship take off and fly away.

Drovus whispered, "Blogai!" as the ship flew away.

On board the GS2 Ed and Paul talked.

"How'd you find me, Ed? A GS2 doesn't have the power to determine one man's life signs from outer space."

"I got me a long range scanner. See? There it is. Real sweet, cost me some mighty good Bourbon."

"You switched out some of the Pappy 23 for it?"

"Yup."

"Man, I didn't know you cared!"

"I care for my own ass. Gregory was very unhappy to hear you got launched into space. You caused me a great deal of trouble, Paul."

"Sorry, Ed. You have to know I didn't do it on purpose."

"No matter now. We are back on track."

"How long will it take to get to Zoltos?"

"This is Zoltos."

"What?"

"You landed on Zoltos. I spent days looking at other places and turns out you were here all along. We'll be at Gregory's camp in a couple of hours as the base camp is in the northern hemisphere."

Ed turned on the opera and Paul sank into his thoughts.

Chapter Six

As part of their deal with Glorianna Waddel, the Tillidians put together a prefabricated complex on Zoltos. The base camp was in an open field a couple of miles west of a river, five miles south of a mountain range and more than fifty miles east of a series of lakes that emptied into one another. They chose the spot because it wasn't far from the river and it was very easy access for the coming and going of the many shuttles required to take supplies and workers to the surface. The Tillidians built offices and living space for Glorianna, her people and Gregory, Paul and Ed. They also built Paul a laboratory next to the cafeteria. The offices were on one side of the complex, the laboratory and cafeteria in the middle and most of the living quarters on the opposite side. Separate buildings were erected to house living quarters for Glorianna and Gregory. Gregory's was spacious but not as grand as Glorianna's twelve rooms with a private kitchen and dining area.

Gregory assigned duties for Paul and Ed. Paul was assigned to describe and catalog every living thing on Zoltos while Ed flew Glorianna's GS2 performing scans to determine if there was any indication of a humanoid population. Gregory assigned himself to keeping Glorianna happy and controlled so that he could use her vast resources to coordinate the marketing of life on Zoltos to the rich, adventurous people of Earth that wanted to bring their families up in such an unblemished beautiful place. The first thing he wanted to build was a resort for people to vacation at and be exposed to the wonders of planet Zoltos. But none of that could start until Glorianna was shown that there was no humanoid life on Zoltos.

Gregory was visiting Glorianna in her living quarters. She was standing in her sitting room just off of her bedroom watering her house plants.

"I need an update, Gregory," said Glorianna. "The Department of Alien Census will be coming one month from today."

"There won't be any problems with the DAC scan," said Gregory. "I promise."

"So much money, Gregory. I have people waiting, Gregory. They want to live on my planet, Gregory. My planet, Gregory. I will be Prime Signant. But that can't happen if the Department finds any single tiny village or family living in some dark and dreary cave. Even if they are just one step above a baboon," said Glorianna.

"Our scans have shown Zoltos to be a wonderful place, Glorianna. No baboons, nobody at all."

He walked up behind Glorianna and slid his hands around her waist. He put his chin on her shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. She smiled at his affection. She was too wealthy to even consider marriage but she was a passionate woman even at sixty years of age. She smiled, put the watering carafe down and turn within Gregory's grasp. He tightened his hands on her back and pressed his lips firmly against her lush and eager lips. Her breasts pushed against him through her blouse as she breathed deeply. He pulled her even more tightly against his body so that his sexually excited member pressed firmly against her soft inviting body.

She pushed him away and locked her sitting room door. Gregory followed her to the bedroom where a king sized bed with a soft mattress and Egyptian cotton sheets waited. They disrobed standing apart watching each other, and then slipped beneath the sheets. Glorianna pulled Gregory on top of her and raised her knees to allow him entry. He started slowly pushing forward and grabbed her breasts. Glorianna let a gasp escape her lips as her entire body vibrated with delight. Gregory was hammering away. After his orgasm he held his position inside until the frenzy abated and then he lay next to her spent. He glanced sideways at her. He liked his women younger but Glorianna had lots of money and her cosmetic surgeons kept her in decent shape. Still you could see that she was old. He hid his feelings of distaste because unless Glorianna became Prime Signant of Zoltos he would not become the rich and powerful Administrator of Zoltos.

"Go find out if the scans are finished yet," she told Gregory, her passion replaced by business.

He got up, dressed and left for his office to place a call to Ed in the GS2.

"Edward?" Gregory's voice crackled over the GS2's receiver.

"Yes, sir," answered Ed.

"At the risk of sounding redundant, are you done yet?"

"Yes, sir. The last grid of Zoltos is being scanned as we speak."

"Edward, are you serious? How much longer until you are finished with the last inch of Zoltos?"

"Fifteen minutes, sir."

"Well?"

"No humanoid life signs."

Gregory had a second erection.

"Finish and bring me the summary report. Glorianna has been waiting very impatiently."

"I'll be there in three hours and twelve minutes."

The scans were essentially finished and there were no humanoid life signs, they'd done it and without even needing the green death. Gregory allowed his physical excitement to deflate while he poured himself a brandy and smoked a cigar.

Chapter Seven

Ed walked into the laboratory where Paul was entering data into the computer for upload to the Commonwealth of Planets Science Center (CPSC) on Earth, Chicago, Illinois.

"Paul? Oh there you are. I need the summary report of the last scan as soon as possible. I'll be in the cafeteria."

Paul looked up from his computer screen.

"I'll get right on it."

As with all the earlier scans the first thing Paul did was erase any evidence of the Zoltosians. This task was considerably easier than it might have been because they did not build free standing structures to live in. Their cities were in the caves of the hill country. (He'd only had a glimpse of a city, Rinkti, before Ed had discovered him.) Ed would never have been able to see evidence of their existence on the surface and he would believe the altered scan report Paul delivered to him. The DAC might discover the Zoltosians but by then it would be too late for Gregory to do anything about them. With the scans altered Paul prepared the summary report. He included his own summary of the life forms he had documented on Zoltos. Part of his job since Ed had brought him back, was to drive a glider out each day and see what he could find. He took the scan to the cafeteria.

"Here it is," he said to Ed as he walked over to his table.

"Thanks. I'll just finish this cup of coffee before I go find Gregory. You didn't find anything did you?"

"Nope," said Paul as he poured himself a cup of coffee from Ed's pot.

"I think the climate here will be perfect for growing coffee," Paul continued as he sat at the table with Ed.

"Humph, coffee? That is all you can say for this place?" asked Ed.

"What's wrong with Zoltos?"

"No women."

Paul smiled and thought about Drovus and Vadovus, the leader of the group of Zoltosians that invited him to eat with them. In the very short time he'd been among them those two women had interested him, though he had not been there long enough to form any relationship.

"How long will the Tillidian ship stay in orbit, Ed?"

"They'll stay until the DAC is scheduled to come. Then they'll find someplace else to be until the planet is approved for colonization. If anything backfires they don't want to be involved."

"I don't think they'll disapprove Zoltos. It is a nice place," said Paul.

"Speaking of which, thanks for the scan report," said Ed as he stood up, took the data pad and left to find Gregory.

Paul was finishing Ed's pot of coffee when Glendral entered the cafeteria and sat at Paul's table.

"Hello, Glendral. How's your meal plan coming?"

"I've been Missus Waddel's chef for twelve years. This following her into outer space is more than should be expected of any chef."

"What does she want now?"

"She wants to know why she can't have fresh milk. Did we bring a cow along? I don't think so, and if we did? Who is going to milk the damn thing or pasteurize and homogenize the milk?" she said with a sideways movement of her chin from shoulder to shoulder to emphasize her words.

"I haven't found anything resembling a cow on Zoltos so far," said Paul.

"Nevermind the cow. Do you still have some of that fish you discovered last week?"

"Yup."

"You said it was a freshwater fish?"

"Yes, I caught it in the river half a mile from here."

"It has a flavor like a good Tuna might. It must have a high fat content." Glendral shrugged, "In any case Missus Waddel likes it."

"Is that what's for dinner tonight?"

"Yes. That and some of those pigeons you found."

"Plenty of those to be had. You go ahead and get want you want the fish are in the freezer and the pigeons are in the barn."

"Interesting guy you are Paul."

"I'm a scientist. Whether it is animal husbandry or making chemical weapons it all falls to me. But a butcher I'm not. That falls to you as chef."

"Afraid to kill what you eat?"

"I caught the fish didn't I? As for the pigeons, I eat them. But it tastes better when served already cooked with vegetables on the side."

"All part of life as I see it," said Glendral.

"The philosophy of life. Funny how all the species we've met so far all seem to have a similar philosophy. Kill to eat or not for the vegetarians, but nobody approves of killing to kill. In all the alien cultures we've met, that is considered abhorrent."

"So now you are a philosopher?"

"Yet, Glendral, in all those same cultures killing insects and rodents is approved of. Why is that?"

"I guess it depends on the threat the rats and bugs pose."

"Threat?"

"Yeah. They carry disease and sneak up on you when you least expect it and boom! You've got the plague or West Nile. Some nasty thing that could kill ya."

"You're right about that. What about bigger threats?"

"Like what?"

"Like sharks?"

"Well, as far as I'm concerned sharks make for a great soup. I don't share the environmentalist view that just because it lives a shark is worth living with. Just ask some poor surfer that got his leg chomped off."

"I haven't decided if you are right about that or not. What if there was some unknown thing sharks did that we as a world needed?"

"Hmm. I guess there could be something. But what about crocodiles?"

"What purpose do they serve?" asked Paul.

'Yeah, nasty creatures hide in the water and grab you to drown you before they swallow you up. I don't think they have a purpose. And I think if they ate people in developed countries they'd be gone. But nobody cares about those poor souls in the third world washing their clothes in a river 'cause they don't have the riches others have."

"Might makes right."

"That's how it's always been and always will be. Well I'm off to the barn to catch some pigeons."

Speaking of crocodiles, Paul had gathered enough samples of the Zoltosian roaring crocodile to create a batch of green death to rid Zoltos of the beast. He hesitated to release the chemical compound because he wasn't sure the creature didn't have some purpose. It sounded like Glendral would approve, still he had doubts. The roaring crocodile was in this northern hemisphere river near Gregory's compound just as it was in the southern hemisphere where Drovus lived. They made fishing a little challenging. But with his M-scanner he was notified in plenty of time to avoid them. Still they were a threat. After the DAC approved Zoltos for colonization Gregory would probably want the beast wiped out. He certainly wouldn't want his new colonists to be eaten and chase the other colonists away. The Commonwealth of Planets was silent on this type of planned extinction. Of course they didn't know about the green death, but there were other ways to wipeout undesirable species and it wasn't against interplanetary law to do so, as long as the species wasn't considered sentient.

Paul returned to the laboratory to work on his experimental crops. The DAC required a study to determine what foods could be grown on Zoltos before the colonization could begin. Paul was testing the soil composition and chemical composition of the rivers and lakes. A satellite had been in place for a full year prior to their arrival to record the weather patterns and seasonal changes. Taking all of that into consideration a determination would be made to colonize or not. That was the second step in world building. First the planet could have no current humanoid population, second the planet had to be proven to be able to support humanoid life and allow it to thrive. Only when the DAC was satisfied would they approve the planet for colonization and enter it into the Commonwealth of Planets thus guaranteeing that beings would line up for a chance to move there and live under the governance of Prime Signant, Glorianna Waddel, and the Administrator of Zoltos, Gregory Reznikov.

Ed was in the laboratory when Paul arrived. He was feeding some pellets to the lizards Paul was keeping in a cage.

"I like these lizards," said Ed. "You did a good job on the cage too,"

Paul had constructed the large cage with a living small tree and rocks with a foot wide stream for the lizards to drink water from. He even gave them both a sunny place to warm themselves and a cave to hide in if they were afraid. The pellets were a food supplement from Earth ingredients to supplement the occasional insect that Paul caught and gave to them live.

"They look kind of like an iguana from Earth except for that horn coming out of the top of their heads," Ed continued.

"I like them too. I think they have laid eggs."

"No! We are going to have baby lizards? Can you show me?"

"Yeah. That's why I've got the back closed off. If you go behind the partition there and look through you can see the nest. I thought I counted five or six eggs this morning."

Ed walked behind and put his face to the look through in the partition.

"She's sitting on them. How long do you think it will be?"

"I've no idea. But I'll be recording the whole thing."

Ed returned to the front of the cage.

"You certainly have an interesting job."

"You help me with a lot of it."

"Yeah, it makes this planet tolerable. What do you need me for today?"

"How long are you free for?"

"Until the DAC approves the planet I guess. I'm done with the scans. If you don't give me something to do I'll just be listening to opera and getting drunk on that moonshine you made."

"I thought you didn't like the taste compared to your bourbon."

"It doesn't measure up to the bourbon, but the bourbon is special and in short supply."

"I do have something you can help me with. I can't be gone from the lab for more than a half a day with everything that's going on here and I need someone to go bring back my insect cages."

"Why do you need to capture insects? Are you feeding them to the lizards?"

"Sometimes, but mostly I'm just looking for bugs with toxins. Part of the DAC study is to study the toxic insects to make sure the colonists will be prepared for them when they start to live here."

"Is it safe to collect the cages?"

"Yes. You don't have to touch them, just use the hook and put the cage in the back of the buggy."

"You're using the buggy to collect bugs? You are funny."

The buggy was a four wheeled low to the ground vehicle that had ample space in the back for carrying just about anything.

"Pack for overnight."

"Okay. I'll do it. I assume you have a map of where you placed the traps?"

"I'll get it for you while you pack."

Chapter Eight

Driving over the grassy terrain Ed was humming and singing along to his recorded opera music. He turned the wheel on the buggy and headed for the forest ten minutes from Gregory's camp. He checked the map and turned into the trees. There was a wide path inside the trees. For a moment he wondered where the path came from but then he saw the first trap hanging from a tree branch. He stopped the buggy under the trap, grabbed the hook and reached up to lift the trap off of the branch. With the trap hanging now on his hook, Ed twisted around in his seat and dropped the trap into the back of the buggy. He dropped the hook into the buggy as well and checked the map to see how far the next trap was located. He grabbed the steering wheel and headed down the path; a deer ran in front and was joined by three others who all took fright at the sound of Ed's buggy and stampeded down the path away from Ed.

He slowed the buggy to allow the deer to go ahead of him and watched a flight of butterflies cross the path as well. In the patchy sunlight the world under the trees was enchanting, even to a big brash man like Ed. He reached the next trap and grabbed the hook. He left the buggy and walked around a large tree and reached the trap down. He walked back to the buggy and placed the trap next to the other. He was peering closely at the trap to see the colorful insects inside when his attention was drawn away from the bugs by a noise in the forest. He straightened up and looking over his shoulder got back into the buggy. Glancing around, he reached for the life form scanner in the buggy. His touch activated the screen on which he could see a display of the area around him. There was nothing there larger than the deer that had run down the path.

Turning off the opera music, Ed started the buggy and proceeded down the path. Paul's map showed the next trap to be two miles further into the forest. Ed kept an eye on the path and one on the scanner's display. Following the map Ed turned off the main path between some trees and into a small meadow. Paul had set the trap on a pole in the middle of the meadow, but it was no longer standing. Somehow the trap had been smashed and the pole was nowhere to be found, though the ground was disturbed as if the pole had been pulled roughly from the ground. The trap still contained some insects so Ed hooked it and placed it into the back of the buggy on its side since it would no longer sit upright.

Paul's map indicated that Ed should cross the meadow to continue his trap retrieval. So he drove on. As he exited the meadow the path was no longer as established, but there was room for the buggy between the trees. Ed now had to maneuver around the trees and an occasional rocky out cropping bouncing over the increasingly uneven terrain. He was looking for a cave that the map indicated was a quarter mile ahead near a small stream. It was approaching dusk and the light in the forest was getting dim. Ed turned on the headlights of the buggy and crept along in the increasing gloom until he spotted the cave. The buggy's life form scanner indicated no life forms larger than a rabbit outside the cave and nothing inside the cave. Ed parked the buggy just inside the entrance to the cave.

The cave had a ceiling high enough for Ed to stand upright and the ground was dry. He pulled a sleeping bag out of the passenger side of the buggy and unrolled it next to the buggy inside the cave. He ate three food supplement bars for dinner, and then washed them down with water from his supplies. He crawled into the sleeping bag and before long was snoring loudly.

Shouting awoke him a few hours later. He sat up and listened. Outside the cave he could hear several voices shouting but he was unable to understand the words. He stood outside the cave entrance listening to determine where the shouting was coming from. Zeroing in on the noise he snuck around the cave entrance and climbed the bluff. A few yards up the side of the rise he reached the top. Laying down he looked over the edge. A full moon was overhead shining on a group of people surrounding one of the Zoltosian roaring crocodiles. Ed watched in amazement as the men surrounding the creature shouted and stabbed at it with what looked like old fashioned spears.

Thinking he must be hallucinating, Ed rubbed his eyes so he could get a better look. Just then one of the men ran at the beast and jumped over its open jaws, landing on its back. He brandished a very shiny spear above his head and then plunged it downward stabbing it into the base of the creature's skull. The roaring crocodile collapsed and the entire group shouted in victory. Ed wondered who these people were. And, why were they dressed in fur? From his vantage point it appeared that the men had tight fitting cloaks made of dark brown fur as if from a bear. They even had tight fitting leggings made of the fur.

He watched as the man who had killed the beast pulled his silver spear from its body. None of the others had such a spear. Their spears all appeared to be wooden. It dawned on Ed as he watched the men skin and field dress the beast that the shiny silver spear might be Paul's missing trap pole. Concern struck him. Not about the missing pole, but about the fact that Zoltos had a humanoid population capable of making weapons, even transforming a metal pole into a spear. Gregory would be very angry since Ed had already certified the planet humanoid free. How the hell could he explain this?

Ed rested until dawn struggling with how to tell Gregory about the Zoltosians. When it was light he packed up the buggy and finished his rounds to collect the rest of Paul's bug traps. He set the m-scanner in the buggy to notify him if any life form approximately the size of an adult human was detected. Each time he retrieved a trap he also looked for any signs of the humanoids he'd seen the night before. There was nothing. At the end of the run he headed back to Gregory's compound. He tapped on the M-scanner, maybe something was wrong with the thing? Or maybe somehow the Zoltosians didn't register? That would explain why his planet wide search never detected them.

Ed parked the buggy near the laboratory back entrance where there was a loading dock and a back door to the laboratory. He went looking for Paul.

"Hey, Paul," he said when he found him in the laboratory.

"You're back. Great."

"I parked the buggy out back. Hate to tell you but one of the traps was smashed when I found it."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, the one on the pole. I brought it back anyway. Except for the pole, that is. The pole was missing."

"Thanks, the pole doesn't matter. I've got more."

Ed left to get something real to eat in the cafeteria. He wasn't sure why he didn't tell Paul about the Zoltosians. Something told him maybe, Paul already knew. He ordered three hamburgers and fried sweet potatoes and considered the consequences of that possibility while he ate. He finished eating and went back to the laboratory. Paul was not there so he went out back to see if he was with the bug traps. No Paul. And – no buggy. Ed went to the communication room next to the laboratory.

"Hey Paul, Are you out there?" he asked over the satellite hookup.

"Is that you Ed?" answered Paul.

"Yes, where are you?"

"I'm headed toward the river. I'm bringing one of those roaring crocodiles back."

"Bringing it back?"

"Yes, I'm testing a dose of green death on it. I don't think the colonists will like them."

"Let me know when you get back."

"All right. Is there a problem?"

"No. Don't get eaten by that thing while you're catching it."

"No problem."

Paul parked the buggy twenty feet from the river and grabbed a box of dead pigeons from the buggy. A mother beast had been seen with two offspring near this spot by some of the Tillidians. Paul dumped the dead pigeons abut fifteen feet from the water and got back into the buggy. He turned on the M-scanner in the buggy and grabbed his pulse rifle set to the lowest setting. In just a couple of minutes the mother roaring crocodile exited the river. Paul was thrilled when the two young ones followed her out of the river. The mother beast gobbled down three of the pigeons as the youngsters watched. She nosed one of the pigeons toward each of them. They approached and after fumbling around with them for a bit, managed to eat them. The mother beast backed off from the few pigeons that were left and as the youngsters started to gobble them down she let out a loud roar. When the pigeons had been consumed the mother beast headed for the river the young following behind. Quickly Paul fired a shot at the larger of the two young. It fell down as if dead. The mother returned to nose the fallen one, but in a few minutes she gave up and returned to the river with her remaining youngster.

Paul backed the buggy up to the unconscious youngster. He threw a harness around it, pulled out the ramp from the back of the buggy securing it in place, then jumped back in the buggy and activated the controls. The harness tightened up as the young beast was pulled up the ramp and into the buggy. Paul checked the M-scanner. He was concerned that mommy might be lurking nearby. Seeing nothing on the monitor he jumped out again and stored the ramp before heading back to the laboratory with his prize. Upon arriving at the laboratory he drove to the barn where the tank was set up to receive the young roaring crocodile. The tank was seven feet high, twenty feet in diameter and made from a transparent ferrous-carbonite compound. It was extremely strong but allowed visibility of the creature or creatures living inside. This was the standard in large aquarium design since it was invented around the year 2050. The trick now was getting the beast into the aquarium. Paul had to wait until the effects of the pulse rifle wore off so it wouldn't drown.

He put the ramp back onto the buggy and using a pulley system from the top of the aquarium dragged the unconscious beast out of the buggy. There was a ramp on one side of the aquarium where the pulley system was located. The idea was to pull the beast up the ramp to the top of the aquarium wall and after it was fully conscious prod it to enter the water with a stun stick. Paul was operating the pulley remotely so he could maintain a safe distance. Slowly he used the pulley to drag the beast up to the top of the aquarium wall. He hit the buttons that unlocked the harness. Now when the beast awoke it could walk out of the harness and hopefully into the tank. Paul waited in the buggy. He was considering that the pulse rifle shot had been too much for the four foot long, two feet wide creature when it shook itself and stood up. Paul grabbed the stun stick and ran toward the tank. He didn't need it. The beast slipped over the edge down three feet into the water.

Paul ran up the ramp and closed the opening from the ramp to the pool. He didn't want the beast coming back out that way even though it was unlikely that it could jump the three feet out of the water to reach the opening. It would be fed on the other side of the pool where a shelf extended out six feet from the tank wall to give the creature a place to exit the water if and when it desired. Paul felt exhausted from the effort he put into the task of capturing a roaring crocodile. But it was necessary if he was going to be able to determine the route of entry he was going to use and the dose necessary to wipe their species off of the face of Zoltos. It was getting dark when Paul locked up the barn and headed back to close up the laboratory. He remembered that Ed wanted to see him, so after he closed up the laboratory he went looking for him.

Ed was not in the cafeteria so Paul went to his quarters and knocked on the door. Ed did not answer so Paul turned the knob. He leaned his head inside to see what he could hear. Ed's quarters were dark and silent as if either Ed was not home or he was sleeping. Paul returned to the cafeteria for some dinner, and then he went to bed tired out from his day's activities.

In the morning the barn's new aquarium had become the place to be. When Paul arrived the barn was crowded. The young roaring crocodile was entertaining everyone by swimming stealthily around the tank, back and forth watching the crowd through the tank wall.

"That one's pretty smart. I think he's counting how many of us he sees," said Glendral.

"Why would he be counting us?" asked one of the Tillidians.

"You know," replied Glendral. "He's trying to figure out if he can get to us and eat us."

"I'm sure you'd be tastier than most, Glendral," said another Tillidian.

He'd been trying to get Glendral to date him the whole trip. She just smiled and gave a small shake of her head.

"What on earth is going on?" asked Glorianna.

She entered the barn right after Paul, followed by Gregory and Ed. Glorianna pushed her way to the front.

"Ahhhh!" she screamed.

Her high pitched screams were piercing and attracted the roaring crocodile. He swam to the other side of the tank and then came full force at the wall in front of where Glorianna stood. As he hit the wall he lifted his snout and kicked off the wall sending his body upward out of the water. He cleared the top of the tank and landed on the walkway slamming into the fencing at the outer edge. Now everyone was screaming and stampeding out of the barn. Paul grabbed his stun stick and approached the tank. Ed, the only person remaining in the barn with Paul, watched from near the door open mouthed. The beast seemed to be stunned and lay still, wedged between the fencing and the lip of the narrow walkway. As Paul approached and was lifting the stun stick, the creature let out a roar that made Ed cover his ears. Paul jabbed the beast twice before it rolled off the walkway and back into the water. He turned toward Ed.

"I guess I'm going to have to keep the barn locked until this experiment is over."

"Guess so," he said.

"Sorry I missed you last night. What was it you wanted," said Paul as he walked back toward the tank to observe his specimen. The beast was swimming slowly around the tank again, seeming no worse for wear.

"Oh, nothing. I was just going to ask you about the bug traps. You certainly have lots of interesting things to do here on Zoltos."

"You want to help? I need to throw the beast some pigeons for breakfast."

"Sure, live ones?"

"If you want."

"Paul watched as Ed took a pigeon out of a cage on a shelf against the wall behind the tank. He threw the pigeon up over the wall of the tank. It flew away.

"Oh shit."

Paul chuckled and walked closer to the cages.

"You have to break their necks first."

Paul demonstrated by pulling a second pigeon out of its cage. With a quick twisting motion the bird was dead. Paul threw it up over the wall of the tank so it landed on the six foot shelf. The roaring crocodile stopped circling the tank and swam to the shelf, pausing at the edge, surfacing just enough to allow its eyes and the top of its head to be seen above the surface of the water, it waited. Paul threw a second bird to the shelf. Ed took the last bird and roughly broke its neck. He took one wing and slung the bird over the top of the tank. He gave it too much strength and the bird missed the shelf landing in the water with a splash. The roaring crocodile swam to the bird in the water, snapped it up and continued his motion up on to the shelf where the other two birds lay. With water draining off of its body the roaring crocodile opened its jaws and choked down the bird. In less than a minute, it swallowed the other two pigeons. Turning toward where Paul and Ed were standing it opened its mouth and again roared a terrifying roar. It repeated the roar, then slid back into the water and resumed slowly circling the tank.

"How many pigeons have you got?"

"A bunch, but Glendral has been cooking them up for Missus Waddel."

"You better figure out how to kill that thing before it eats all the pigeons and figures out how to come after us."

"I expect it to be gone later today."

"Good. Then what are you going to do with the tank?"

"I'll use it as a hatchery for those fish everyone likes."

Ed nodded his head. Gregory re-entered the barn.

"Gentlemen, I see the beast has calmed down."

"Sorry about Missus Waddel," said Paul. "I wasn't expecting an audience."

"She'll be all right. The doctor gave her a sedative and I tucked her in for a nap. That is an incredible beast."

To Paul and Ed's surprise Gregory walked up to the tank and placed his hand on it while he watched the beast swim slowly past him.

"It would make a wonderful prey for a paid safari hunt," continued Gregory.

Ed and Paul looked at each other.

"Well, keeping it under control might be a problem," said Paul. "Actually I caught it so I could figure out how to wipeout the species."

"You mean with the green death?"

"Yes," replied Paul.

"No, no. We don't want to do that. Did you already make the mix?"

"Yes."

"How were you going to do it? Put it in the water."

"At first that was the plan. But I have a feeling that won't work. That's why I captured one so I could confirm that."

"I see the problem. If we had found any humanoids on Zoltos (Gregory glanced at Ed) we would have used the aerosol drones."

"That would work on these creatures also, if they didn't spend so much time in the water."

"Well, like I said, we don't want to destroy the race anyway. Such a magnificent beast deserves to live."

"But, it is a very dangerous creature."

"Does a pulse rifle work on it?"

"I haven't tried it yet. On the low setting the young one here was unconscious for about an hour."

"Well you have the green death; we'll just shoot it with a syringe full. That will it work won't it?"

"I don't know. I will measure out a dose and see how it works. That armored skin might be hard to get through."

"Go ahead. Once this one is dead, we'll go on a hunt. You'll take the needle rifle and Edward and I will take the pulse rifles and we'll see just what it takes to kill these beasts. Be ready by eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

Ed and Gregory left the barn. Paul returned to the laboratory to fill a syringe with the green death which he had made specifically for the roaring crocodile. He was guessing at the dosage. He knew the dosage of green death used in rat poisoning pellets. The rats ate the pellets until the level of chemical in their blood rose to the lethal limit and the rat disappeared into a bubbling mass of green goo. It was similar when the dosage was measured for use in aerial drones. The green death was aerosolized to an almost molecular mist that hung in the air for days, unless there was a strong wind or rain. The humanoids breathed in the green death until the level of toxin in their blood stream reach lethal levels. It usually only took a breath or two.

Paul was angry and disgusted. He hated hunting for sport. As much as he wanted all the roaring crocodiles dead and gone from Zoltos, he thought it was cruel to save them just to put them into a controlled safari so their death could thrill some damned, rich jackass with no appreciation for life. But Gregory was the boss, if he wanted it done Paul would do it. He grabbed a five milliliter syringe and filled it, and then he loaded it into the needle rifle. He thought five mils would be plenty. If it didn't work, he'd prepare another dose.

He huffed a deep sigh before marching back to the barn. As he rounded the corner of the barn he came upon the mother of the beast. It heard him approach and turned with great speed. Paul stopped short, eyes wide and fear momentarily freezing him into place. The hairs on his head were standing up and as the beast took a step toward him and opened its mouth, he brought the needle rifle up and fired. Sweat was forming on his forehead as he momentarily thought he must have missed. The beast closed its mouth and reached back with its snout to where the syringe was sticking out of its left shoulder over his powerful front leg. Paul couldn't move. As the beast's snout reached the syringe to pull it out, she dissolved into the expected bubbling green goo. Paul felt like collapsing also on legs now turned to jelly.

A smaller version of the crocodile's roar came from some bushes near the barn.

"Oh, shit. The other baby," thought Paul.

He no longer had anything to protect himself except the pulse44 he always kept in his belt. He pulled it out. The youngster came out of the bushes, snapping a smaller version of the mother's snout. This one was only three feet long including the tail and like all young was actually kind of cute. Paul ran to the barn and got a dead pigeon. He returned to the baby and lured it with the meat into the barn. He threw the bird up the ramp to the tank. The baby climbed the ramp. Paul pulled the gate open and shoved a stun stick at the baby which then slid into the tank. Paul quickly secured the gate then moved back so he could see the activity inside the tank. He was sorry to see the larger of the siblings swim at the baby and in a swirling rush of twirling water; the baby was devoured by its own sibling.

"I was right," said Paul to the beast inside the tank now red with blood, "You do not deserve a place on this lovely planet."

The next morning Gregory wearing a hunter's red plaid shirt and blue jeans with a bright orange safety jacket and carrying his pulse rifle over his arm arrived at the barn. Ed was with him wearing standard Tillidian silver.

"Are we ready?" asked Gregory?

"Certainly," answered Paul. "Ed, are you going to drive?"

Ed jumped into the buggy driver's seat, Paul sat next to him cradling the needle rifle and placing the box of refills on the floor. Gregory sat in the back on a raised seat Paul had bolted into the bed of the buggy. Ed drove for the river.

"How much green death did it take to kill the creature in the tank?" asked Gregory.

"Interesting that you ask, we had a visit from the beast's mother."

"What?"

"Yes, she came to check on her child I guess. I came on her unexpectedly; she went out on the five mil dose I had prepared for the one in the tank."

"Five mils seems like an awful lot."

"It almost didn't work; she started to come at me before she dissolved."

"So what did you do with the one in the tank?" asked Ed.

"I shot him with a pulse rifle on full. Then I gave him to Glendral. She promised to butcher him to see if they are worth eating."

Ed drove over the thick grass toward the river as Paul scanned for the beast. They were passing some of the gray antelopes when Gregory told them to stop. As Paul and Ed sat wondering, Gregory took aim and fired on one of the antelopes with his phase rifle. It went down.

"Go and get it."

Paul and Ed dragged the creature to the buggy and stuffed it into the back of the buggy behind Gregory's kill chair. They continued across the grassland to the river. Once at the river's edge, Gregory scanned the water.

"Throw the antelope into the water. Then stomp around some to get the beast's attention."

Paul and Ed tossed the semi-conscious antelope into the water where it revived and tried to stand. Ed stomped around in the shallow water as Paul anxiously scanned the river for signs of the crocodiles.

"Let's go. Ed! Now! They're coming."

Ed and Paul ran for the buggy and took up positions in front of it. The antelope tried to remain standing on unstable legs. Just as it was getting strong enough to try and run from the water a very large roaring crocodile splashed from the river and attacked. The antelope was dragged to the edge of the water where it was torn apart and devoured by four roaring crocodiles. Then the crocs turned toward the buggy. Gregory fired, "whang, awhang, whang." The metallic hum of a pulse rifle on the highest setting sang out. Two of the crocs went down. Their chests were heaving labored breaths indicating that they still lived. Ed grabbed his pulse rifle and fired three shots at the two remaining crocs. His shots were not as effective as Gregory's had been. One slowed, the other turned for the river and got away. The third croc started toward Ed again, Paul fired and it vanished into green bubbling goo.

"A valuable experience," said Gregory from his seat on high. "Come on we'll be late for lunch. Glorianna doesn't like to be kept waiting."

They left the two unconscious beasts on the shore and headed for the compound.

Chapter Nine

A week later the compound was packing up. The DAC would be arriving in a few days to begin a ten day monitoring of Zoltos.

"I don't get it," said Paul. "Why are they making us leave the surface?"

"I told you I don't know," said Ed.

"This is very inconvenient," complained Paul.

Some Tillidians arrived to take some of the boxes of equipment to the ship.

Paul continued, "How am I going to stay away from the Grodnarkers? Tell me that Ed."

"Gregory said he'd take care of it."

Paul was facing a painful death if Helouvia's brothers got hold of him. He was certain of that. If they found him Gregory wouldn't be able to stop them. But Paul didn't know the plan.

They were on board the last ship leaving the surface. Paul was seated near a view port watching Zoltos grow smaller. Ed was sitting near him. That wasn't unusual in itself. Ed was frequently assigned to keep an eye on Paul, but today he was not just sitting near Paul but practically on top of him.

"Something wrong Ed?"

"No."

"You're acting like you're mad at me. Did I do something to piss you off?"

"Shut up, okay? Just shut up."

Ed lifted one eyebrow in a quick look at Paul before he sat back in his chair and tried to look someplace else. Paul turned to stare out the port and started to sweat. If Ed was nervous and upset, he should probably be terrified.

The ship docked with the Galaxy Skipper L class. The others walked through the docking rings to the larger ship. Ed stood up wiping his palms on his suit. Paul glanced up at him without moving.

"Get up."

"What's going on, Ed?"

"I said get up."

Ed grabbed Paul under his arm and pulled him to a standing position.

"Are you going to kill me, Ed?" he barely whispered.

"No. Dammit! Do as you are told for once. All right? You're in deep shit, but as of right now you are still alive." Ed whispered back.

"Okay, Ed."

"Walk. The Tillidians are going to take you to the brig. Go with them."

They walked to the docking rings. Three Tillidians holding pulse rifles watched as a fourth shoved Paul against the wall face first. He searched him them placed restraints on his wrists. He shoved him into place behind one of the guards. Paul followed the guard nervously looking right and left for any sign of the Grodnarkers. He was accompanied by the Tillidian that restrained him and followed by the other two with pulse rifles. Sweat was dripping down his neck all the way to his toes. He started having difficulty breathing when he realized that Ed was not following. He began to wonder what Gregory had told the Tillidians. They arrived at the brig where a Grodnarker was standing near the open cell. Paul panicked, broke away from the Tillidians and ran. They shot him in the back and dragged his unconscious body back to the cell and heaved him inside. He slammed against the far wall and flopped onto the floor. They closed the door and sealed it leaving him in the dark.

Several hours went by before someone flicked on the lights in the cell. Paul heard a beautiful voice say, "I'll be careful."

The mist in his mind began to clear. But the fog left him in a blaze as Helouvia lifted his chin and he saw her face.

"Ahhh!!!"

He staggered to his feet and backed up against the wall.

"Mister Rocheport? Are you all right?"

"Stay away from me. They're going to rip my arms off."

"Who? No one is going to hurt you. Come here and let me examine you. I can see a lump on your forehead from here."

"That is from the Tillidian guard. But that is nothing compared to ..."

"Mister Rocheport," Helouvia interrupted. "You are aware that these cells are watched and what you say is being heard by the guards?"

"Oh."

"No one is going to hurt you. Now come here and sit on the bed so I can make sure you don't have a concussion."

Paul finally understood. The Tillidians still didn't know who released the escape pod. Helouvia was trying to let him know that her brothers would not hurt him out of fear of the Tillidians being told that they were responsible. Paul sat on the bed and let her run her fingers over his forehead. Oh, she smelled so good! Paul sighed.

"Take this pain reliever, then lay here and rest. You'll feel better soon."

Paul swallowed the pill and lay down to rest. Helouvia smiled at him and left the cell. They locked him in.

"Lights to low dim setting please," said Paul.

He smiled, breathed in the lingering aroma of Helouvia's scent and fell asleep.

A few hours later Ed showed up at the brig to collect Paul.

"Hello, Ed."

"Gregory dropped the charges, so you are free to come with me."

"What charges were they Ed?"

"He told the Tillidians that you stole something."

Paul followed Ed out of the brig.

"Why did he do that?"

"Why do you think? To keep you alive. We didn't know what the situation was with the Grodnarkers."

"So that's all settled now?"

"Yeah."

"Where are we going?"

They were walking down the silver Tillidian halls away from the brig to where Paul had never been.

"This leads to the engine levels."

"Why are we going to the engine level, Ed? It's not safe down there."

"That's what stupid people think Paul."

"I beg your pardon but that's what everyone says."

"Paul, you are exasperating me."

"It's the fumes or something, some kind of dangerous rays that can melt your brain."

"Then how do the people work down there?"

"Maybe it isn't people. Maybe it's just machines. You know robots, cyborgs?"

They had come to some stairs leading down. Ed gave Paul a shove.

"Go on. You're making us late."

"Late? You got something going on Ed?"

They quickly descended the stairs and started hearing men's voices and laughter in the distance. They felt a scan go over them.

"Halt. Who are you?"

It was a disembodied voice garbled by the poor quality of the speaker.

"Geveent and Bark."

That was code for two men, one in the know and a visitor. A window in the door they were now standing in front of slid partially open. Ed stood forward so he could be seen.

"All right, now the dog."

Ed reached back and grabbed Paul by the arm and pulled him forward. In a moment the window slid shut and the door opened. Ed dragged Paul inside. It was dark and crowded. There was a bar over on the right and farther back in the room was a stage with dancers and a band. Ed dragged Paul up to the bar.

"Two bourbons," Ed yelled to the bar tender.

A blue Alusian with no clothing covering her three breasts handed the drinks to Ed on a tray.

"Thanks sweets."

Paul was staring at the Alusian as Ed dragged him to a table.

"She's attractive."

"She's married to the guy who runs this enterprise."

"So sorry to hear that." Paul sipped the bourbon and choked. "Tastes like it was made this morning."

"Might have been," Ed laughed.

The music changed beat and the stage cleared. There was an announcement made overhead and cheering broke out.

"What is it?" asked Paul, "The announcement didn't sound like English."

"You'll love this Paul."

A chant started, "Twilly, Twilly!"

The men in the room continued the chant as the light on stage went off and then a spotlight came on directed at the center of the stage. An eight foot creature that appeared to be some kind of land octopus came waltzing to the center of the stage. She/he was a rainbow of colors that shifted and swirled as the tentacles undulated and reached for the men in the audience. An extension of the stage carrying Twilly slowly protruded from the center of the stage down between the chairs in front of the stage. Twilly didn't have a face but from somewhere within the being a beautiful sound was emanating that sounded like a concert and singing all at the same time. Twilly turned from side to side and extended tentacles reaching to either side of the room touching the audience members sending them into euphoria, one after another. The room was filled with the sound of men screaming Twilly's name and the music from inside Twilly rising to a crescendo. One of Twilly's tentacles came at Ed who ducked. The tentacle slapped Paul on the side of his face sending him into a chemical high with the sensations of exploding colors in his mind.

Ed laughed as Paul collapsed onto the floor of the bar. In a moment or two the stage protrusion started to retract taking Twilly with it. The singing and music stopped, the men were mostly passed out on the floor. Ed dragged Paul up off the floor laughing at the smile frozen on Paul's face. He threw him over his shoulder and shuffled off to the poker game in another room.

"Who's that?" asked the bouncer at the door to the poker game.

"A friend," replied Ed, "It was his first experience with Twilly. He should be out for at least an hour."

Ed dropped Paul into an overstuffed chair in a corner of the room; he then sat down at the table. An aqua-green attendant walked up to Ed and asked, "Do you need to buy chips?"

Ed pulled a small bag of pink quartz out of the inside of his suit and gave it to her.

"That should be around five thousand Tillidian dollars."

She felt the weight of the bag and agreed, "Feels like it will be close to that."

She walked away from the table to the teller's cage approximately twenty feet from the table past the chair where Paul sat unconscious and beyond some small couches where prostitutes sat waiting for someone to pay them for favors. The teller cage had bars all the way to the ceiling and an armed guard stood watch. She handed the bag of stones under the bars to a tray with an opening in the center. The bag fell through and almost immediately five rolls of forty twenty-five dollar chips came down the front of the teller cage through a tube. The attendant took the rolls of chips back to Ed who broke a roll open and gave one chip to the attendant.

"Good luck with the game," she said and went to greet the next player.

Another human male sat next to Ed, "I see you are back from the surface."

"Sam! Good to see you man. Hope you brought some money, I feel lucky tonight."

Sam pulled out a bag of pale green stones. The attendant was seating a Ronite who gave her a bag of stones. She picked up Sam's on her way past.

"Greetings," growled the Ronite.

The Ronites were a species from a very dry planet where mining was a way of life. They lived underground and needed to protect their eyes with dark shades when they came up to the surface. This Ronite wore a pair of dark goggles that were strapped to his bald head just under two boney disc shapes above his ears extending to the back of his skull. The shape of his head and his tiny lips on his pointed chin and the closable slits that were his nose made him, like all Ronites, look a little insect like.

The final player at the poker table was a very tall thin humanoid from the planet Lesser Delta. The planet had a real name but no one could pronounce it. LD's are telepathic and have no verbal language. This particular LD had red curly hair and the nickname Red. Soon the dealer joined the table and the game began.

The first hand went smoothly without any drama or large bets; everyone was getting a feel for how the others played. The Ronite won the pot with two pair. The second hand was dealt and this time a more studied play resulted in a slower hand and a push from the LD, Red, to raise the money in the pot. Sam folded early, but Ed and the Ronite continued. The Ronite, flush with money from the first pot, raised the bet. Red and Ed both saw the Ronite's bet. Ed won with three of a kind. The four of them played for about an hour with money moving back and forth in a rather even fashion. At that point the dealer took a break. Ed took the opportunity to check on Paul. His smile had faded but he was still unconscious.

"Who is that?" asked Sam.

"He goes by Paul," replied Ed.

The attendant came by and brought drink refills. Sam swallowed a shot of unknown blue alcohol.

"Sheesh! Whoa, that stuff is awful," said Sam.

Ed sniffed his shot, and then threw it back.

"Oooooo! Yes! That hits the spot," laughed Ed.

Sam's attention was captured by one of the prostitutes come to offer her services and Ed returned to the table where the Ronite sat.

"Where did Red go?" asked Ed.

"Who knows? He just got up and walked away. Damn telepaths," said the Ronite. "I've been meaning to ask you something Edward."

"What's that?" even through the alcohol Ed's senses became alert to something about the way the Ronite asked the question but he tried to keep the suspicion out of his voice.

"Have you met any of the Zoltosians?"

"Aren't any."

"No? I've been out this way many times. I've even spent a night or two down there."

"Well, we've been here for an earth month and scanned the entire planet close up. They got some nice fish and some small birds that are edible, and one big mean sea/land creature that roars loud enough to split your eardrums, but no humanoids."

"What would it be worth to you if I said I had proof?" the Ronite whispered.

Ed was now very upset. This Ronite was obviously trying to blackmail him just days before the DAC was scheduled to arrive to certify Zoltos.

"I'm not the one in charge," replied Ed. "I can take your offer to the man that is."

"You tell him one million Tillidian dollars or the equivalent in pastel stones. Don't be too long getting back with an answer. If the DAC arrives before I hear back from you it will be too late."

Sam arrived back at the table to tell the others he was done for the night. He gathered his chips and followed an ebony beauty to the back rooms. Red returned and the three of them continued the poker game for another hour. Ed was simmering over the threat from the Ronite and lost interest in the game. Red won a couple of hands in a row causing the Ronite to accuse him of cheating.

"Damn telepath! You're reading my mind. You would not be winning if not for that!"

The dealer interrupted immediately, "Sir, you know he is not cheating. We make him wear the thought disc while he is here."

"Well then, show it to me. I think he took it off during the break."

The dealer motioned for the LD to rise and turn around. There was a silver disk stuck to the back of his head just at the neckline.

"Does that satisfy you?" asked the dealer.

At that point a large snort was heard as Paul fell out of the chair he'd been sleeping in.

"I think this game is over anyway," said Ed as he gathered his chips to leave. "Same time tomorrow?" he asked the Ronite.

The Ronite looked hard at Ed understanding the inference that Ed would have his answer about the blackmail at that time.

"Yes," he replied and the game came to an end.

Ed picked Paul up from the floor and threw him over his shoulder.

"I don't feel so good, Ed."

"Don't you dare throw up on me."

"Okay. That was fun, Ed."

"Shut up."

"Okay."

Paul continued to mumble softly as Ed carried him back to the sleeping quarters.

At breakfast the next morning Paul was ravenous.

"You're going to get sick if you don't slow down," Ed warned Paul.

"Sick? I feel great. I don't remember much of last night but I feel wonderful. Can we go back again?"

"Quiet. Don't talk about it. You understand?"

"Yes. So what is the plan for today?"

"We'll talk about it later. I have to see Gregory first."

Paul's wonderful feeling started to abate as reality set in. They had left the surface of Zoltos for some reason. It could be that Gregory wanted to release the green death on Zoltos just to be sure that the DAC scans would be clean. If that was the case, no humanoid would be safe on the surface for the three days it took to deploy the poison including, presumably, Vadovus, Drovus and their people. Paul stopped eating and pensively sipped the black coffee. He had not confirmed that the green death would be effective against furred humanoids and unlike the dose of green death used on the roaring crocodile, the green death was a generic mixture not one made for a specific species. There was always the slimmest hope that somehow they would survive. Paul was indeed starting to feel sick to his stomach.

"You were right Ed, I'm not feeling well. I'm going back to lie down."

"If we do go back again, we'll skip Twilly and go for the dancers," whispered Ed.

"Okay." Paul stood and slowly left the cafeteria. He wished he could remember who Twilly was but it didn't seem important anymore. He had a vague vision of a multicolored blob with a dozen tentacles. That didn't seem plausible so he just stopped thinking about it. Sadness was overtaking him and his mind filled with memories of the short time he'd spent with Vadovus and her people. He remembered warning Drovus about Ed telling her "Blogai" before he surrendered to him in the forest. Blogai indeed. Ed watched over Paul but he was a heartless bastard when it came to following Gregory's orders. He would not hesitate to kill Paul; though Paul liked to think he might feel some tiny amount of regret if it came down to it. Paul flopped onto his bed and allowed his sorrow to consume him.

Ed needed to tell Gregory about the Ronite's threats but he was refusing to see him until the afternoon. His morning was scheduled with Glorianna at the onboard arboretum. By the time Gregory agreed to see Ed it was one in the afternoon. Ed walked to the first class security passageway and told the guard his name. The guard turned on the body scanner and, after seeing it was clean, entered a passcode into the touch panel activating the door between the common areas of the ship and first class accommodations which opened allowing Ed to walk through.

"Remember to follow the lighted path. Failure to do so will result in immediate arrest and possible prosecution," said a recording as Ed passed by.

Gregory was waiting in a conference room in the business section of first class. Visitors from the common areas were not welcome under any circumstances in the living and recreational sections of first class.

"Edward, welcome."

Gregory sounded annoyed.

"I'm sorry to bother you sir. There is an immediate security threat we need to discuss."

Ed glanced around the conference room. It was very high class. High grade electronics covered one entire wall with images of outer space and some of current news in various galaxies including one feed from the Commonwealth of Planets main governing body at the Dome. All of the feeds were currently muted. The furniture in the conference room was so expensive looking Ed was hesitant to sit on any of the chairs so he remained standing. Gregory was seated and looked very comfortable as an attendant cyborg in the shape of a silver humanoid brought him something to drink. The cyborg remained at his side ignoring Ed entirely.

"Yes, you told me there was a security threat. What is it?"

"I was approached by someone about Zoltos. He said he has information about the animals that inhabit the planet. He claims to have spent some time on the planet at some point."

Ed was having trouble wording his information so as to keep the knowledge of the Zoltosians out of a conversation that could be heard and possibly recorded by the silver cyborg, yet get Gregory to understand that they weren't the only ones with knowledge of them.

"Which animals is this person concerned about?"

"The bears I told you about."

Gregory's eyes dropped to the table then shifted sideways to where the silver attendant stood. He looked back at Ed as he picked up his drink and took a long draught from it.

"I remember the bears," he said as he returned the glass to the tabletop. "You know Edward we can't have anyone saying he has claims to Zoltos. Why don't you try offering him a little money to forget about Zoltos? Hmmm?"

"Sure, if that's how you want it, Sir. What if he refuses?"

"Well, we have clear title. If he refuses we'll take him to court. But that could delay our plans so try the money incentive first. Then explain to him just how much it will cost him when we win. Such a big loss would no doubt ruin him; it would really mean his life wouldn't it?"

"Yes, Sir. I'll take care of it."

"Good. By the way have the drones started their final, ah, scans of Zoltos?"

"Yes, Sir, it will be two more days and we will be able to send our final report to the DAC."

"Perfect, have a pleasant day, Edward."

Ed and Gregory left the conference room headed in opposite directions. Ed understood the conversation to be an authorization to pay the Ronite a reasonable amount of money to keep him quiet or, if he proved unreasonable, the approval to kill him. Ed returned to his quarters, a small personal compartment near the general bunks where Paul slept. He pulled a case out from under the bed, pressed a button activating the retinal scan. A light flashed as he put his face near enough for the scan to read his eyes, the locks popped open as the scan recognized Ed as the rightful owner of the case. Among other things in the case, he kept single dose injectors of the green death hidden in a hard cased shell. It would come in useful in his negotiations with the Ronite, if he didn't cooperate, "poof' he would be no more. He opened the case and wrinkled his heavy brow when he realized there was only one injector left. Eventually he'd have to sock away some more but this would do for now. All of the current stock of green death had already been loaded into the drones for Zoltos. Ed felt nothing for the Zoltosians, a successful colonization meant his success as well as Gregory and Glorianna's success and he craved success and all the delights that came with it. Someday he would be in first class, for now he hoped the Ronite would argue over the money he would offer which would be considerably less than the million he wanted. Ed had taken a dislike to the man and would be delighted to make him disappear.

As it turned out Paul was still feeling depressed so instead of making an evening out of it Ed went alone. He didn't want anyone to remember seeing them together so he sat in the bar watching for the Ronite to show up. When the Ronite passed by walking toward the poker tables, Ed stood and finished his drink telling the bartender he'd see her tomorrow and walked out of the bar. He stood in the dark hallway waiting for the Ronite who, having seen Ed pay for his drinks and leave, had waited just a few minutes then followed him out. Ed saw the Ronite pause, unsure which direction to take. From the darkness Ed cleared his throat to get his attention then turned and walked slowly through the darkness toward the engine rooms. The Ronite followed.

"Where are you going Ed? You know I can see clearly in this darkness now that my eyes have adjusted."

"I just don't want anyone around to hear our conversation," said Ed. "The man I work for says one million is too much."

They stopped walking.

"That is too bad because that is what I want. With what I know your boss won't be allowed to colonize Zoltos. You told him that didn't you?"

"I told him. He won't go over one hundred thousand."

Ed was wearing infrared goggles so he could see the Ronite clearly, standing within arm's reach, in the nearly completely dark hallway.

"That is not even a reasonable offer. I need the million or close to it."

Ed already had the injector in his hand as he shrugged his shoulders and reached for the Ronite.

"What can I say? He is not a reasonable guy."

Ed's arm settled over the Ronite's shoulders. The Ronite turned his head to look at Ed and shoved him in the chest with both hands. As Ed stepped back from being shoved he nicked the Ronite's neck with the injector. The Ronite slapped his hand to his neck.

"Get away from me you ..."

The insult about to be spoken to Ed was never uttered as the Ronite dissolved inside his clothes. Ed waited a moment to be sure none of the green death was still active then he used his foot to shove the small pile of clothing into a bag he pulled from his pocket. An object fell from the clothing; it was a photograph of the Ronite when he was younger holding a baby and smiling, Ed crumpled it up and dropped it into the bag before he walked a little farther down the hallway and opened a panel on the wall. He dropped the bag into the opening and secured the panel back into place, the clothes would end up in a black hole with the rest of the garbage from the ship, leaving no trace of the Ronite.

Chapter Ten

The Tillidian commander had demanded a meeting with Gregory.

"The DAC will be here in nine hours. Normally we would have moved our ship away from any planet they were coming to scan long before now. It is causing some consternation with the Tillidian Planetary Council that you are still on board."

"We will be departing."

"Yes, but when?"

"It should be safe, I mean, in exactly ten, which is five Tillidian hours. We are loading some supplies onto the GS2 even now."

"How is that going to work? The GS2 only holds two people."

"Obviously I'll need to leave Miz Waddel, her people, and the scientist on board."

The commander gave Gregory a disgusted look.

"In exactly five hours we will launch Miz Waddel's GS2 with you on it, even if I have to throw you on board and eject the GS2 into space."

"You won't need to be involved, I'll be ready."

"Then I don't want to hear from you until the DAC is finished and has gone away. Oh, and if your scientist causes any problems while we are gone he'll spend the trip in the brig."

"Agreed."

Nine (Earth) hours later Ed was in the galley explaining things to Paul.

"You will stay here and stay out of trouble."

"How long will you be gone?"

"It isn't me that is going. I'll be on Zoltos."

"Where will I be?"

"I don't know. Wherever the Tillidians go."

"For how long?"

"Paul, you know the answer."

"I know that the DAC will spend ten days scanning Zoltos."

"Exactly."

"Ten days is a long time."

"Especially for someone who can't seem to stay out of trouble. You understand that they will lock you up if you cause them any problems, right?"

"What have I done?"

"The escape pod? The Grodnarkers? And they think you stole stuff from Gregory."

"I'll be bored while you are gone. Can I go to the engine level?"

"No! I told you not to talk about that," Ed looked over his shoulder to make certain that no one was there to overhear. "You will not be allowed in without me. If you try, you could end up dead."

"Are you sure I can't go with you?"

"The GS2 only holds two people. What do you want me to do with you Paul, shove you into a storage bin?"

"Fine."

"Promise me you won't go to the lower levels and you won't mess with Helouvia."

"I promise."

"You need to be very careful, Paul. Gregory was very displeased with you altering the scans of Zoltos."

"What do you mean, Ed?"

"I saw them, Paul. That's why we had to leave the surface of Zoltos. That's why things got all messed up with Gregory's timetable. You shouldn't have tried to protect them."

"I became friends with them Ed, before you found me. I didn't know it was Zoltos at the time. They are a wonderful species. We should not have killed them, Ed. That was wrong. If there is a God of this universe, we will be punished for that Ed."

"Go to Hell, Paul."

Ed left to board the GS2. Paul remained, drinking his coffee. He was angry at Ed and afraid of what Gregory would do to him for trying to save the Zoltosians. He'd tried to run away before. When Ed had found him and returned him to Gregory the retribution was fierce. He'd been locked into a basement root cellar with a bucket for a bathroom. He starved for three days. Then Gregory came to see him. That scratchy voice rang in his ears in his nightmares for months. Gregory had simply told him how disappointed he was in him. Then he had asked him if he wanted to die or live. He gave him two bottles of water. One of the bottles had a deadly poison in it and one was just water. When Paul had finally chosen a bottle and drank it, Gregory came back to see him, telling him how happy he was that Paul had chosen the right bottle. Paul left the storage room with Gregory. He would never forget that Gregory took the other bottle and poured it into the dog's water bowl. The dog happily lapped it from the bowl. In a matter of hours the dog died writhing in convulsions and foaming at the mouth.

Through the fear, Paul noticed that there was a Tillidian sitting at a nearby table in the Galley eating and talking to another humanoid about their work. It sounded as if they worked in a laboratory. It was surprising that they were speaking in English. Paul glanced to see who was sitting with the Tillidian. The second humanoid appeared to be a mix of more than one species. Paul couldn't decide what the mixture was. She had some strong human features but the skin tone was faintly orange in color and her ears were crinkled. She must not have been able to speak Tillidian but she and the Tillidian spoke English fairly well, though it seemed that it wasn't their native tongue, more likely the only language they both knew. The discussion was about processing cultures for Stegophla.

Paul remembered Stegophla from when he was in school as a compound of hope and disillusionment. He'd even downloaded an article which he kept about a scientist in 2060 that had discovered the fungus growing in the rain forest in Peru. It produced small amounts of a substance the scientist called restorium. Restorium supposedly cured a skin condition the scientist had contracted when he arrived in Peru. Nothing medical science had at the time (or even since) could clear up the ulcers on his arms. He claimed that one of the people he was using as a guide through the rain forest took him to a village where a medicine man made a poultice from a fungus that grew on the local trees and placed it on his ulcers curing his condition.

The fungus was a species as yet unknown to the scientific community of that time. It was given the name Stegophla but no one had been able to grow it in a laboratory even though samples were taken from the rain forest repeatedly. It grew on one type of tree and even then it could not be propagated manually from one tree to another. The hope of manufacturing restorium and the possibilities cures of other diseases, evaporated with the failure to culture Stegophla. Over time restorium became the dream of many who imagined it to be the elixir of life and their path to fame and fortune. None had made that dream happen.

When the scientists left the Galley, Paul followed them. The thought that they could possibly have cultured Stegophla was a powerful lure. If they could do it, so could he. He just needed to see what culture media they were using and any special temperature requirements. This could make him rich and free him from Gregory's hold. They entered the step-lift headed downward and only gave Paul a silent stare when he joined them. They got off on the second level; Paul continued to the first then returned immediately to the second. He caught a glimpse of the two scientists turning right at a branch in the hall. He hurried to catch up. He stopped at the branch and poked his head around the corner to see them enter a doorway about twenty feet down the hall on the left. Now he was stymied. There was no way to see what was on the other side of the door except by opening it and entering. He considered the situation and decided to return in two Tillidian hours. If the two scientists had been in the Galley for their lunch break they must be approximately half way through their shift. It was a calculated risk and not really based on any knowledge of Tillidian practices, but that was what Paul decided to do.

The hours passed, now the hallways were empty as Paul made his way to the Tillidian laboratory. He walked up to the door wondering how he could get it open as it slid silently to the left. His eyes moved searching for evidence of anyone being there. His also listened intently. Then Paul moved forward into the empty, dark laboratory. The door slid shut behind him. He stood frozen in the dark.

"Lights?" Paul said with uncertainty.

The computer turned on the lights to a soft brilliance that allowed Paul to see clearly around the laboratory.

"That's better."

The laboratory was neat as a pin. The counter to the left and the one to the right were empty and spotless. In the center of the twenty by thirty foot room was another set of clear counter tops. Paul walked forward through the passageway between the center counters and into the further reaches of the laboratory. The far wall held incubators and a modern version of an autoclave for sterilizing trash and remnants of old experiments. To the left side were refrigerator and freezer units. The right side was a wall size set of shelves with small instruments and data pads next to a computer terminal.

Paul tried to login to the computer terminal. He couldn't get past what appeared to be a request for user ID and password. He couldn't be sure since it was written in Tillidian. So he started looking at the data pads. They were all encrypted. Next he moved to the refrigerators and freezers. The units were locked. It was the same for the incubators. That left the trash. Paul knew better than to dig through laboratory waste without protection. He opened cupboards until he found some gloves to wear. He would have liked something to cover his face but he didn't see anything he could use.

Breathing shallow breaths and holding his face as far back as possible he untied a bag next to the sterilizing unit. He was fishing through the used gloves, pipets and assorted small items used in the laboratory when he finally saw something resembling a culture container. It was a small clear bottle with spherules floating in a clear liquid. Most of the spherules appeared to be negative for growth. But one or two here and there in the bottle had some dark spots showing the beginning of possible growth. The label on the bottle said Stegophla along with other unintelligible markings in Tillidian. This was the only item in the trash bag that looked like culture material. Paul took it out of the bag and pulled his glove down from his wrist over the bottle in his hand and off his fingers ending with the bottle inside the glove. He did the same with the other glove leaving the small culture bottle inside the double gloves. This he put inside his stretch suit in an inner pocket. He carefully closed the bag and washed his hands in the sink located near the sterilizer.

As he was drying his hands the laboratory door slid open and a robot entered the laboratory. Paul dropped to the floor and whispered, "Lights off". The lights in the laboratory returned to the dim setting they had been at when Paul entered. As the robot rolled toward the sterilizer, Paul scooted quietly out of the way. He watched the robot open the sterilizer, grab the trash bag and place it inside. Then Paul left the laboratory and returned to level one. Near the sleeping quarters was a storage area for personal items. Paul accessed his personal storage area and pulled a locked box out of the piled items. He opened it with the code. Inside there were several compartments. He opened one that already held the clothes he was wearing when Gregory had the Tillidians find him at Raindown and bring him on board. He stuffed the glove covered culture bottle in with his old socks and secured the container and the box.

It was late, ten o'clock Tillidian time, and Paul decided to try the engine level to see if he could get a drink. The engine levels were below the sleeping quarters in the sublevels. The secret bar was on sublevel six. Engine maintenance of the Galaxy Skipper was a hard and dirty job. On a smaller ship, like Glorianna's GS2, the owner/operator would either do the job themselves or pull into a space dock and have it done for a price. Ships like the class L that operated for long periods of time away from areas of space where the space docks were available had to continue engine maintenance during flight. It was a hard dirty job and the Tillidians didn't like to get dirty. On this GS class L the job had been contracted out to some Alusians. To make some extra income the Alusian in charge of the contract set up the secret bar and entertainment. It had to be secret because the Tillidian's main rule was no alcohol for the crew or passengers during flight. This did not include passengers flying in first class. Otherwise they found it too expensive to maintain a security force to break up the fights between crew members and the space in the brig to hold them for punishment.

The Alusian in charge of the engine maintenance was very careful about selecting new members to the secret club/bar. Anyone who broke the rules simply disappeared. They were dumped with the engine debris into the nearest black hole. It didn't take much to send the debris toward the hole and let it get pulled in, thus keeping the visible universe clean. The black holes showed no visible change in readings after the engine debris was pulled in, so scientists decided that meant, for various theoretical reasons, that it was okay to send the engine waste into the black holes. The fear of disappearing kept the members of the secret club/bar under control. Paul had no understanding of how it all worked, he just wanted a drink. He approached the sublevel where he and Ed had been scanned previously. He felt the scan go through him and stopped walking. He was waiting for the voice to ask for his identification. Nothing happened.

"Hey in there. I need a drink. I was here the other day with my friend. He had to leave the ship, please let me in."

A few minutes passed. Paul wanted a drink so badly, he just stood there waiting. Soon, a male Alusian appeared in the hallway and approached Paul.

"Come with me."

Paul followed the blue man down the hall to a door on the left. The sign outside said, "Director of Engine Maintenance".

"Whose friend did you say you were?"

"Ed, I mean, Edward Babineaux."

"He is a trustworthy fellow, but I'm not so sure about you. What do you do?"

"I'm a scientist. I do lots of things. I might even be able to help you."

"How is that?" the Alusian smiled as if the thought of Paul being any help was humorous.

"I can help you adjust the formulation of the 'Bourbon' you sell."

"Adjust the formula?"

"Yes, make it more palatable."

"We don't have time or facilities to age the drink properly, if that is what you are suggesting."

"No, I understand the limitations. But if we introduce a little smoke to the distillation process it will taste more like it had been aged. And if we add some buffering to the mix it will still give a satisfying burn to the throat without actually damaging anyone's esophagus."

The Alusian was intrigued.

"You can do all that?"

"Yes, I'm sure it will be an improvement."

"My name is Sebatt. I'll show you the still. If you can do what you say I'll give you the status of Geveent and you'll be able to come to the bar when you like."

"That's a deal, Sebatt."

"If however, you fail to improve the drink, you'll be banned. Is it still a deal, as you say?"

"Yes. Let's go."

Paul was shown the still and the current makers of the alcoholic drink served in the secret bar watched him like a hawk. When he was done the new formula started to drip from the tip of the apparatus into the collection bottle. The new formula had a slight brown tint, not as dark as real Bourbon, but more than the previous formula. They waited until the first collection bottle was full and the second bottle was put in place under the tip of the apparatus before getting some shot glasses out for the samples that would decide Paul's fate, Geveent or banned. Sebatt, his wife and the three brew masters as well as Paul each got a glass. Sebatt reached for his glass then so did the others. They tossed them back. Everyone waited for Sebatt to announce his decision.

"Not bad."

Paul smiled.

"Can you three reproduce his formula?" asked Sebatt's wife.

"No problem," replied the trio.

"It is the same strength as before? I don't want to go broke on this," said Sebatt.

The head brew master said, "Same strength. We won't lose any money due to the changes."

Sebatt looked at Paul, "Welcome to the bar, Geveent status has been granted."

Paul's smile filled his face. Tonight he would get drunk. He felt like he needed it, his sober time on Zoltos had come to an end just as the existence of his friends, the Zoltosians, at the hand of his 'friend' Ed using his invention, the green death. The only way Paul knew how to handle that reality was to drink until he was numb. Then drink some more.

The formula was a success with the patron's at the bar; which was good for Paul in that when he passed out Sebatt found him a small room and a couch to sleep it off instead of getting angry with him. Paul returned to his sleeping quarters the next morning. He was unhappy and depressed as well as having no duties to perform until if/when the DAC approved Zoltos for colonization. So he slept all day and drank all night enduring the wait for the Tillidian ship to return to Zoltos.

Meanwhile on Zoltos, Gregory was dealing with the Department of Alien Census and Ed was dealing with Gregory. It hadn't started smoothly.

"Yes, certainly we are ready for you to begin, Miss Hedfort," said Gregory to the DAC representative. "You'll find Zoltos to be a nice planet, just beware of the roaring crocodile."

"An interesting creature from what I can tell in your reports. Where is the man who submitted the reports? A Paul Rocheport, I think?"

"He isn't here right now. It was so sad, and sudden. His mother took ill back on Earth."

"Oh, I see. Well the reports are very thorough. We probably won't have to speak with him. I just like to get a feel for what the analyst thinks about each planet."

"We could probably set up a long range communication if it turns out to be necessary. But you can start without him can't you?"

"Certainly. We are all prepared to begin the scans as soon as I return to my ship. I just like to get a glimpse of the planet we'll be scanning up close before the scans begin. Scanning from outer space is just so impersonal."

"We'll be here if you need us," said Gregory waving a hand in Ed's general direction.

"Thank you for being so considerate. I'll be going now."

Gregory followed the DAC representative to the GS2 with the DAC symbol on its side. The pilot of the craft stood at attention as they approached. He looked very official in his uniform and cap. The DAC representative entered the craft, then the pilot boarded. The hatch closed and Gregory stood back to watch them take off before he returned to his office.

Ed was sitting in the same place as when Gregory and the DAC representative left.

"Damn inconvenience that Paul has become," said Gregory.

"He is the key to getting Zoltos approved for colonization," said Ed quietly.

Gregory shot him a sharp look.

"I'm aware of that!" his anger making his voice crack.

Ed did not reply. Gregory was as dangerous as any poisonous snake when he was like this, likely to strike out at anyone who happened to be nearby. Gregory was walking about his office huffing and puffing. He stopped long enough to pick up his coffee cup and realize it was empty.

"I'll make a fresh pot," said Ed as he jumped up and left the room.

Gregory called after him in his raspy voice, "Make me some kind of a sandwich too!"

Ed was thinking, "Ten days of this! Gregory spitting nails with nothing to be done but wait it out. This is all Paul's fault. He is going to pay. That is if I can keep Gregory from killing him first."

The DAC representative flew back to Gregory's headquarters that afternoon.

"Edward, she's back," said Gregory to Ed over the intercom.

They both met Miss Hedfort outside the office as she disembarked her GS2. The pilot stood by the ship as Miss Hedfort walked a few feet toward them.

"How was your trip?" asked Gregory in his most smarmy and solicitous voice as he stood in front of the woman who would decide his fate.

"It is an innocuous planet made up of fields of grass and wildflowers broken up by vast forests. The animals wander undisturbed."

"Would you like to come and have some coffee?" asked Gregory.

"No, my job here is done. I'll return when the automated scans are complete. I think you have a winner here Mister Reznikov. See you in ten days." The pilot and the DAC representative re-boarded their ship and took off.

Gregory and Ed re-entered the office.

"Did Paul leave us any product from his still?"

"Yes, I believe he did."

"Don't just stand there Edward. I need a drink."

Gregory sat down and Ed left to get some booze from the laboratory. Ten more days.

Chapter Eleven

All the anxiety, the drinking and fussing, the irritating comments were needless. As everyone hoped Zoltos was declared a new colony of the Commonwealth of Planets. Prime Signant, Glorianna Waddel and Administrator Gregory Reznikov stood before the cameras for the official presentation from the Department of Alien Census. The cameras were set up in a semicircle around the platform; many microphones were set up directly in front of the podium. The announcement was big news. The economy of the Commonwealth of Planets was dependent on economic interaction between the planets. These new planets coming on line for colonization pumped money, in one form or another, into the Commonwealth. So the President of the Commonwealth left the domed capital city and traveled to Zoltos.

The podium and platform were set up next to the buildings that housed Gregory's office. The officials were seated in chairs on the platform. Glorianna was dressed in a sunny yellow outfit with ruffles on the top and a smooth skirt down to just below her knees. Gregory wore a gray silk suit, with a brilliantly white shirt and a thin darker gray tie. The President of the Commonwealth wore a bright green, billowing top over black pants and a dark green head covering. He was from Rejinka a planet from the Bode galaxy and well known for his flamboyant fashion style. Miss Hedfort, from the DAC, sat next to the president in a plain blue jumpsuit. The audience, standing before the platform, was made up of reporters, the President's entourage, employees of the DAC, and Glorianna's aids including Glendral and her sous chefs. The official twelve piece band from the Dome was seated to the right of the platform. Ed and Paul were in the laboratory watching out a side window. There were no Tillidians in sight.

Band music started playing the anthem for the Commonwealth of Planets. Everyone stood up. There were no words to the anthem but everyone stood silently while the band played. As the music ended Miss Hedfort stepped to the podium amidst generous applause for the band.

"Thank you! Thank you! That was indeed a wonderful rendition of our beloved anthem!" said Miss Hedfort, clapping as she spoke. The applause died down and Miss Hedfort proceeded, "I am so very happy to be having this ceremony here today on this wonderful planet, Zoltos. I personally spent time here during the DAC inspection and I find it to be a pleasant refreshing place with beautiful lands and rivers and a diverse rich animal life. Those who come here to live will be, I'm sure, very happy here."

This was the same speech she gave at every new planet's certification ceremony. She continued, "And now let me introduce our most fabulous President of the Commonwealth, Andrew Jefferson." She turned and started clapping as did the audience, "President Jefferson!"

President Jefferson was tall and mildly heavyset. Typical of Rejinkans he had dark brown skin and no hair. He always wore a head covering when in the sun. When he stepped up to the podium he smiled a large grin showing a great many glistening white teeth, more than the average humanoid. His voice was very melodic and soothing. It was not surprising that everyone loved him.

"My fellow citizens of our great Commonwealth, I am so very glad to be here today bringing another planet into the fold. This will be a very special place for our citizens to grow and prosper..."

The president's speech went on for twenty minutes before he asked Glorianna and Gregory to come forward.

"To our new Prime Signant Glorianna Waddel and the Administrator of Zoltos, Mister Gregory Resnikov, I hereby grant you the certification to colonize your newly recognized planet, the planet to be known from now forward as Zoltos. May your new citizens grow and prosper and make the Commonwealth proud."

Everyone applauded as the officials shook hands and then dispersed to the cafeteria where snacks and drinks were set up. The reporters all got an interview from Glorianna and Gregory who each simply stated that colonization would begin immediately.

Paul and Ed watched everyone leave for the refreshments in the cafeteria.

"Can we go get a snack?" asked Paul.

"No. You aren't allowed near any of these fancy visitors we have here today. Why do you even bother to ask?" replied Ed.

"You're mad at me for going to the engine level bar while you were gone aren't you?"

"Will you stop? I've told you not to talk about that place."

"No one is here."

"Not that you can see. Someone might be just around the corner; you need to be more careful."

"I made the booze better."

"So you've said. Too bad I'll never find out."

"What do you mean?"

"Paul, you do realize the Tillidians are gone? Right?"

"No! I mean, I left my stuff on board."

"Whatever you left, they brought down last night. Then they took their payment from Missus Waddel and left. They won't be back."

"Where is my stuff?"

"It's in the storage area behind the cafeteria."

Paul started to leave, but Ed grabbed him with a fist.

"Get off of me. I need to see my stuff."

Ed pushed Paul to the floor.

"You're not going anywhere until the visitors leave."

Paul remained sitting on the floor quietly hating his current circumstances, again remembering the breaking point: The smell of the damp plaster walls made his nostrils burn. The cold stone floor sent chills through his naked body as he sat in a corner huddled over for warmth and protection, neither of which was forthcoming. Staring at the two bottles of water on the floor before him, he had to decide. Life or death. Stripped naked and thrown into this basement root cellar Paul had, at first, thought life was preferred. Three days after Ed threw him in here, Gregory tossed in the two bottles of water. "One," he had said, "contains pure clean water. The other has the same water plus a fast acting poison. You choose. Life or death, Paul. If you are lucky and choose the pure water, I will forgive your attempt at escape. If you are not lucky, your corpse will never be found. If you live, you will never be given this choice again. Escape is not an option for you. You are mine and if there is a next time, Ed will feed you to the alligators in the bayou." He'd stared at the water bottles for two days before he opened one of the bottles and drank the water no longer caring for life, in fact, hoping for death. But that was denied him also.

"Ed?" he said with his arms crossed across his chest and his legs sticking out. "Why did Gregory kill the dog?"

"What did you say?" asked Ed with a shocked look on his face.

"You remember the dog. I thought you liked the dog."

"I did like the damn dog! I liked the dog better than I like you! It was because of you that he killed the dog. He put something in the water bowl."

"Well yeah, he put the water from the poisoned bottle in the bowl."

"That bottle wasn't..." Ed stopped before he finished his sentence.

"Wasn't what?"

"Shut up."

"He told me one of the bottles was poisoned."

"I told you to shut up."

"The bottle wasn't poisoned? All these years I believed one was poisoned. I could have drunk either of them?"

"Forget it."

"I could have drunk either of them."

"Paul, you need to be very careful around Gregory. There isn't any dog here to die for you this time. You're never going to get off of this planet and as long as you are here there is no place you can hide."

Paul didn't respond. Gregory was going to need him for the colonization of Zoltos. This was an opportunity to better his situation, but he was going to need to keep his wits about himself – and get up off of the floor.

He stood and walked over to the seat he'd been using to watch the ceremony. He sat down and looked directly at Ed.

"You're right Ed. I've been acting like a fool. After the visitors leave we'll have a lot of work to do. Zoltos must be a success."

At breakfast the next morning Paul saw Glendral in the cafeteria and decided to see what she thought about what was going to happen next on Zoltos. He had a pounding headache and hangover, she looked very tired.

"Mind if I sit with you Glendral?" he asked quietly.

"Sure," she softly replied.

"You feel okay? You kind of look hung-over."

"That makes two of us, huh?"

"Yeah."

They both sipped cups of black coffee. Paul noticed that Glendral was wearing a suit similar to the Tillidian standard wear except that it was beige and not shiny.

"What is that you are wearing Glendral? It kind of looks like pajamas."

She rested her face in her left hand while she was holding her coffee cup in her right.

"You'll be wearing one too."

"What do you mean?"

Glendral sat up straighter and put down her cup.

"This is the new Zoltos uniform." She used her hand to draw his attention to the patch on the front left. It was an image of the planet Zoltos from space with the word "Zoltos" printed across it.

"Snazy."

"The Division of Farming is beige. It is the reason I got drunk last night."

"Because you are going to have to wear beige?"

"No, it isn't the color of the uniform that upset me. It is that Missus Waddel is bringing in someone from the outside to be the division director."

"Oh. You've been with her a long time."

"Apparently not long enough."

"Do you know the person?"

"Everybody knows her. Her name is Kala Patel. She was with the Ministry of Agriculture in India back on Earth. She's responsible for the redefinition of how agriculture was done in India back in 2082 and she's written lots of books."

Paul, like everyone on Earth, knew about the redesign of agriculture in India and how it turned an overpopulated country from bare existence to overabundance. India now grew food for their massive population and had enough to export to other countries. The competition between a personal chef and the person responsible for the agricultural revival of a nation for the Director of the Division of Farming left no other conceivable outcome.

"Do you know what other divisions there will be?"

"There is a meeting at nine o'clock. She told me when I served her dinner last night because she wanted me to know that it wasn't personal. By the way, you probably shouldn't tell too many people the uniforms look like pajamas. Missus Waddel designed them herself."

"Thanks for the heads up."

The two friends sipped their coffee in silence. Both were thinking the same thing. This planet building thing could make them or break them. For Glendral there might be other opportunities to grab a hunk of the wealth surrounding her. For Paul, the opportunities were endless; as long as he could manipulate circumstances to make sure Gregory saw him as pivotal in the future of Zoltos and forgave him his past indiscretions.

"Wow, who is that?" said Glendral breaking their silence.

A handsome man had entered the cafeteria with two women following behind him. They sat at a table and ordered breakfast.

"They are wearing official Zoltos uniforms, looks like pale blue?"

"You're right. That means they are medical."

"Medical?"

"Missus Waddel said one of the first places to be built would be a small hospital. All the colonists have to pass a physical examination and get vaccinated."

"Vaccinated? Against what?"

"I don't know Paul. That's just what she said. Then of course somebody is eventually going to need medical care. In fact just looking at this guy is pushing my pulse rate up."

"You think he is handsome?"

"Six foot tall, thick wavy hair, three feet of shoulders? Yes, Paul, he is very handsome. Great smile too."

Paul shrugged. "I'm headed to the conference room. I don't want to miss any of this."

"I'll be along in a minute."

Paul stopped in the restroom before going to the conference room. He had already dressed in his cleanest clothes and combed his hair before he left for breakfast. Now he just wanted to splash some water on his face in hopes that he could look less hung-over. Then he quickly made his way to the conference room. Gregory saw him as soon as he entered.

"Ah, Paul? Could you come here for a minute?"

"I'm here, sir."

No one else was near them. Ed was standing about twenty feet away watching.

"Paul I'm going to go out on a limb here this morning."

"How is that?"

"I'm going to make you the Director of the Division on the Environment of Zoltos."

Paul smiled, "I won't let you down, sir."

They shook hands. Before Gregory let Paul's hand go he told him, "With greater status comes greater responsibility."

"I understand Mister Reznikov," said Paul.

It was what Paul wanted. But he could hear his own words ringing in his ears. In all the time he'd known Gregory he'd never called him sir or Mister Reznikov. He hated the man but here he was shaking his hand and ready to kiss his ass, all for a future as Director of the Division on the Environment of Zoltos. He sat down to wait for the meeting to begin. Gregory walked off to meet others as they arrived. Ed sat down next to Paul.

"Happy?"

"Unbelievable. What did he make you?"

"Director of Zoltos Security. So if you misbehave I can lock you up."

"No one could do it better. What color are your uniforms going to be?"

"Black of course."

"Any idea what the Division on the Environment is going to wear?"

"Green. What else?"

Paul chuckled with Ed. Hangover or not this was turning out to be a great day.

Six weeks later Paul was looking at himself in the mirror admiring his forest green uniform. He no longer had the haggard look many chronic drinkers get; in fact his complexion was taking on a tanned glow from spending so much time out of doors. He was wearing his hair a little longer and it was taking on a wave in the front. He wouldn't be giving Doctor Heartthrob, Bill Kendricks, any competition for most handsome man on Zoltos but he was looking and feeling very healthy. He smiled at himself in the mirror, and then he left for his office near the laboratory.

Gregory had given him a staff of three scientists and one environmentalist. Paul assigned them the work of cataloging the flora and fauna of Zoltos and uploading the data to the Commonwealth of Planets Science Center (CPSC) as well as the construction of a fishery for the tasty fish prevalent in Zoltos' rivers. He was coordinating the fishery with Kala Patel, the new Director of the Division of Farming. The fishery would take months to build and then to be stocked with some starter fish. The lifecycle of this species had a short gestation time and rapid growth to adult size harvestable fish.

In the meanwhile Kala was working on her first farming project. She came to him needing to know the migratory pattern of the gray antelopes to assist in determining where to place the first fields of crops to be farmed on Zoltos. It was determined that those fields would be five miles north of the base camp. The river extended to the northeast of the base camp for many miles and she had worked with Paul to determine that the normal migration pattern of the gray antelope brought them closer to the river through that area, possibly due to the mountain range that extended toward the river from the west.

Kala decided it would be easier to start farming an area not currently popular to the herds, but that meant the water from the river would need to be transported from the river to the fields to optimize control over the watering of the fields when natural rainfall wasn't enough. It was during this project that the attack occurred.

She and her staff were standing on the shore of the river while some of the men were taking soil samples when the first roar was heard. Everyone had looked toward the sound to see four of the roaring crocodiles standing on the shore, water still dripping from their hides.

A second beast roared, and then they charged the group of workers. They grabbed one man and, in concert, began to drag him toward the water. The man was screaming in pain. His partner grabbed his pulse weapon and fired. One of the beasts fell wounded to the ground. Another turned and roared at the men as the other two pulled the victim in half. The screams stopped. The two beasts each dragged one half of the body to the river's edge, leaving blood trails behind them, as they swam into the river. The fourth beast backed away from the workers then swam away as the horrified men watched him escape.

Paul remembered when later that day Kala came to his office to talk to him about the incident.

"Mister Rocheport?"

"Good afternoon, Miss Patel. Come in."

"Do you have a moment to talk about the roaring crocodile attack this morning?"

"I read the report. You say that the beasts attacked in a group working together in the attack."

"Yes, that is certainly how it looked."

"That is not a behavior pattern that has been previously identified. Did you have anyone on lookout for the crocodiles in the river?"

Kala was upset with herself. She'd been warned, as had everyone who came to Zoltos, that the beast was dangerous both in the river and on dry land as far inland as a mile or two.

"No. I told the men to station a look out, but he left the river's edge to help with the soil samples. He is in fact the man that was killed, Harold Jackson."

"Perhaps we should talk to the Division of Security about having guards accompany groups working near the river so your workers don't have to perform double duty."

They also discussed the idea that the population of roaring crocodile needed to be controlled. Reproduction of the roaring crocodile could be restricted.

"If the reproduction can't be controlled, have you thought about removing the species from the planet?" Kala asked.

"That would be a drastic measure to take. It is always hard to know what the environmental consequences of such an action might be."

"You might think differently if you'd been there to see them rip Jackson in half."

"I'm sure it was terrible. I'm sorry you had to see that."

"I think he had family back on Earth. Who is going to notify them?"

"Perhaps someone in the Office of Commonwealth Relations? I'm sure Prime Signant, Waddel, will have to assign that duty."

"I hope she doesn't expect me to do it. This isn't how things are supposed to happen. Do you think anyone is going to want to live here with the threat of being killed by those horrible beasts a real possibility?"

"Perhaps not."

She did not know about the green death or Gregory's plan to set up a hunting preserve for the beast and Paul wasn't about to tell her about either. He was working on a delivery device that would allow him to wipeout the roaring crocodile if Gregory decided to allow him to do that.

The next day there was a meeting of all division heads to discuss Mister Jackson's killing by the roaring crocodile. Kala made an impassioned plea for the beasts to be exterminated.

"I will never be able to forget Jackson's screams. Those horrible beasts attacked in a group, leaving the water together and then rushing at us to drag him away. They stationed two of their group between him and us to keep us from attempting to save him. You must do something or no one will want to come here to live."

There wasn't anyone willing to speak on the side of the roaring crocodile.

"What sort of things can be done?" asked the Prime Signant.

"I think we should consider posting a security agent with anyone working by the river so they don't have to try and work at the same time they are scanning the river for the beast," said Paul.

"What else can be done?" demanded the Prime Signant. Glorianna was terrified that the future colonists would find out and decide Zoltos was not the home for them. "We can't have any threat to our colonists."

"I can develop a poison for the roaring crocodile." said Paul.

"Good, yes, that sounds good." said Glorianna.

"Now, Prime Signant, we do need to be careful that we don't set the environment off balance," said Gregory, the Administrator of Zoltos.

"Well of course. You can do that Mister Rocheport, can't you? It means the difference between colonizing Zoltos and not colonizing Zoltos. We all have a stake in Zoltos' success."

"I promise you Prime Signant I will figure it out."

"Quickly, Mister Rocheport, quickly." She replied.

Looking at Gregory's face Paul could tell he was upset. His lips were pressed together and his brow furrowed. Paul decided to help him out.

"If you all agree," said Paul, "I'll move some of the beasts to the smaller of the western lakes some fifty miles from here to experiment on."

"Fifty miles sounds good, but how will you keep them at the lake?" asked Kala.

"We'll have to build a preserve that will be fenced or walled off to keep the beasts from escaping." said Paul.

At the mention of the preserve Gregory's face showed some relief though he continued to look concerned over the death of the farming division employee.

He spoke up, "Yes, that is a very good idea. We can also keep a few beasts in reserve in case some catastrophic environmental disaster occurs when the rest are exterminated. You always have to keep options open."

After the meeting, Ed was in the laboratory with Paul. They stood in the lizard room away from the other scientists where they could not be overheard.

"You made some points with Gregory suggesting his preserve. Can you really make that happen?"

"It'll take some doing to get it built but somehow I think both the Prime Signant and our Administrator will push the project to the top of the list."

"I think I need a drink, care to join me?"

"Someone has set up a bar?"

"Of course, isn't that always the first business to arrive?"

"That and then prostitution."

"Who knows we might find some of both?"

"Lead the way. I assume it is legal since the head of Zoltos Security is frequenting the place?"

"It meets all the Commonwealth laws and requirements. I signed their business license personally."

They left the laboratory walking outside into the pleasant night. Ed was leading through the woods to where an Instabuild had been set up. It was about sixty feet by sixty feet and two stories high. The second story had windows but the glass in all of them was set to dark and opaque so nothing could be seen inside.

"When did this place get set up?"

"Yesterday. You know it doesn't take long when you use a standard model. It was part of the original plan so we didn't have to have a dozen meetings before it was done."

"I know I wasn't paying much attention in the beginning, but I don't remember a bar being drawn into the original plans."

"No, it was just labeled 'General Use'. It is a restaurant too, though I don't know how much of that is ready yet considering the food situation and the lack of a paying clientele."

They walked around to the front of the establishment where the name, "Charlie's" was flashing in yellow lights above the door. Muffled music could be heard from inside. Ed pulled open the door allowing Paul to enter and then followed him inside. The music was canned, but lively. There were some people at the bar to the left of the main room. There was an open space in the center and then some virtual games where a man wearing the virtual visor bent, jumped and punched as if he was dancing a weird dance to music no one else could hear. A small stage was empty at the back of the room portending live bands might play here someday. Ed and Paul approached the bar.

"What'll you have?" asked the incredibly beautiful female bartender.

"A beer," said Ed.

"Bolden or River Rock?"

"River Rock."

"And you?"

Paul couldn't keep his eyes off of the bartender. She was cover in a shimmering dress that revealed nothing but above that was an angular face with full lips and enormous eyes. Her hair stood out from her head about four inches then fell in long curls of burnished gold down her back. When she spoke her split tongue slipped in and out of her mouth between brilliant white teeth.

"You are the most beautiful person I've ever seen. What species are you?" asked Paul.

"I'm from Povear in the Orion cluster. You may call me Viper."

Viper placed Ed's beer on the bar.

"Do you have a name?" she asked.

"Paul."

Viper smiled.

"Would you like a beer also, Paul? Or would you like me to make you something special?"

"Special? Yes, that would be fine."

Ed sipped his ice cold beer and smiled at Paul's infatuation. Viper took a tall thin glass and poured some thick purple liqueur into the bottom. As she added a few other ingredients the drink began to bubble like nice champagne would and the entire drink became a crystal clear deep purple color. Viper handed it to Paul. He took a sip.

"Delicious."

"I'm glad you like it. Could I get you to put your palms onto the reader please?"

Ed and Paul each in turn placed their hands on the palm reader. Their bar bill would come out of their next paycheck. They sat on bar stools and looked around the bar as they drank. The virtual player finished his game and was taking off his visor. Behind him they could see a screen taking up the entire wall behind the empty stage had been activated. The Commonwealth Channel was playing a soccer game.

"This sure beats the engine level."

"How many times do I have to tell you not to talk about that place? You're hopeless. And you're right. This is a real honest beer. Not some fake made from dog urine."

"Is that what they used?"

They both laughed.

"How's that purple thing?"

"Strong and bubbly, I can't describe the flavor exactly but it's not sweet like some girly drink. It is kind of like good rum only darker."

"Something has been bothering me, Paul."

"What's that?"

"When is it going to be winter? We've been here four months and the weather hasn't changed at all."

"That's not true."

"It's not?"

"Nope. For the last month the temperature has been increasing slightly every day."

"What does that mean? We're having winter?"

"Sort of. Ed, Zoltos doesn't tilt back and forth like the Earth does. So the planet has very stable weather patterns. There are still storms now and then but the weather is produced because the poles are very cold and the equator is very hot and because there are still mountain ranges and oceans and Zoltos still spins. It just doesn't wobble. However, its orbit around this sun is not circular but elliptical. So there are times when the planet is closer to the sun and times when it is farther away. We are warming up ever so slightly because we are approaching the time when Zoltos is moving nearer to the sun."

"You mean we already went through winter?"

"Not really. We arrived on Zoltos approximately eight months into winter. We've been here for the last four months of winter and now the warming begins. For the next three months the speed of the orbit will increase and we'll whip around the sun and head away from the sun for another three months. Then we'll start to cool down again. It should take about six months to get to the coldest part of the orbit and another six months to head back around."

"Sounds lopsided."

"The speed of the orbit slows as we move away from the sun."

"It looks like the trees didn't lose their leaves during this orbital winter."

"Not unless they came back before we got here. The orbit of Zoltos takes eighteen months instead of twelve like on Earth. When Zoltos gets farther from the sun it might trigger the color change in the leaves. Hard to tell, until we observe it ourselves. That is one of the things my division will be studying."

"What about snow?"

"There is plenty of it in the northern latitudes. But it never melts."

"It never melts? Permanent winter? How high can it pile up?"

"The height is probably stable. Even though it doesn't melt it sublimates. Still, I don't think we'll find much life in the northern latitudes."

"You don't think it might all melt and wash us away when we get close to the sun?"

"No I don't. However, the latitudes closest to the permanent winter might experience a milder climate during the perihelion with some melting just on the edges of the near-northern latitudes."

"The perihelion? Oh, you mean when the planet is closest to the sun."

"Yes. Some of the snow might melt in the near-north region."

Their conversation lapsed as they drank another round.

"I think I'm going to check out the back room," said Ed placing his empty mug on the bar.

"Is that where the girls are?"

"Yep."

"I'll follow you."

They ambled to the back of the main room, past the stage and the soccer game, through an archway and into a gallery of beauties. Some of the images on the walls were photographs, some were display cases. The room itself was oval shaped extending to the left of the archway, thus blocking the view from outside the archway. Ed walked left to the first display case. Inside was a replica of a beautiful redhead with large breasts barely contained within a satin blue negligee. Paul stood next to Ed looking at the redhead for a moment, then he crossed the room to another display case. The female in that display case was a brunette with short hair, green eyes and freckles. Her body was shapely with a medium sized bosom, slender waist and just enough hip to draw a man's eye. Other than the mannequin's beauty, Paul was fascinated by how real she looked. He studied her face looking for signs that would make it obvious this was not a real woman. Other than the fact that she was not breathing or moving she looked like she could just open the display case and walk right out.

"What do you think?" asked Ed as he walked up behind Paul.

"Fantastic workmanship. She looks like a real person."

"Is she the one you want?"

"I haven't had a chance to look around yet."

As Paul turned to look at Ed he realized that he had a redhead on his arm. She was smiling and wearing a blue negligee under a net covering that didn't cover much. Paul was shocked by the resemblance of the real woman standing with Ed and the one in the display case.

"Well I've got mine. I'll see you tomorrow."

Ed and his entertainment walked away from Paul through the length of the room, past a desk where an automated attendant stood and through a door in the back.

Paul walked over to the display case where the redhead mannequin was located. He was amazed by the close match of the mannequin and the real woman. He moved down the room to the next display case. This beauty was tall and thin. Paul moved on. The next was not a human likeness. Again Paul looked and then moved on. Here was a blonde, then another brunette – long hair and no freckles. As he neared the desk, the automated attendant spoke.

"Are you in need of assistance, sir?"

Paul turned away from the last display case on the left side of the wall and walked past the desk to see the rest of the display cases on the right side.

"No, I'm still looking."

There were three more display cases for Paul to look at. He glanced at all three. Then he decided to try the one labeled Lavender. She was fat. Beautiful, but fat and therefore not every man's desire. Paul like chubby women and the scientist in him was interested to see if the woman would match the mannequin. Scientifically, he thought, it would be nearly impossible for a weight challenged individual to maintain a stable weight. Either the mannequin would have to be updated constantly or the two would not match.

"I'll take Lavender," said Paul.

"Yes, sir," said the attendant. "Please place you hand on the palm reader."

Paul walked to the desk and put his right hand on the reader. As the scan was finishing Lavender came into the room. She was shorter than Paul by a few inches, with a very round face. Her blubbery body was covered in a lavender colored nighty. Paul considered suffocating in her bosom.

"My name is Lavender," she said as she took Paul's arm. "What would you like me to call you?"

"Paul," he said as they walked out of the gallery and down a quiet, softly lit hallway.

Then he remembered his experiment and paused to look at all of Lavender. Even with the mannequin now out of sight the resemblance was remarkable. Lavender smiled and they resumed their walk down the hallway. Paul now realized that there were no doorways in the hallway. Lavender stopped in front of a blank wall and reached out her hand to touch the wall. When she did so an opening appeared and she led Paul inside. The opening closed behind them leaving just a blank wall from this side as well. The room was small with a mirror on the wall opposite the entrance and to the right a bed was tucked into the corner against two walls.

They undressed.

"You get cozy on the bed, I have something to show you," said Lavender.

Paul sat on the edge of the bed. Lavender began with a pirouette. It turned out she was in very good physical shape under all that weight. She lifted one arm high over her head and popped up onto her toes. Then she turned quickly popping up and down as she spun. She stopped turning and with both arms over her head she did some scissor kicks first to her left, then the right. Paul watched in amazement as she stopped and turned to face the far wall. She reached both arms overhead and slowly bent backwards until her hands reached the floor, her body stretched into an arch. At this point her breasts were pointing right and left and her female area was peeking out below her stomach. Paul was ready to go, but Lavender wasn't finished yet.

She pulled herself upright and said, "Better move further up on the bed sweetheart, here I come!"

Paul scrambled further up on the bed as Lavender walked away from the bed to the farthest wall, paused then quickly performed two back flips landing on the bed. The resultant wave action of the mattress flipped Paul into a wall almost knocking him senseless. He fell back onto the bed.

"Oh my! Are you all right?" asked Lavender as she reached for him.

Paul rubbed his forehead then turned toward Lavender and buried his face in her bosom. She stroked the back of his head and feathered the hairs on the back of his neck.

"That tickles," he said as he came up for air.

She pulled his chin toward her and planted a soft tender kiss on his lips.

"You have luscious lips," she said.

He looked into her big blue eyes and told her, "Your eyes are like stars in Orion's belt."

She smiled and her dimples showed. "You're so sweet to say so," she said before kissing him again.

This time she let the kiss linger as she massaged his lower back and his taught behind. He squeezed her tight. There was so much to cuddle and she smelled like flowers. They broke the wonderful long kiss and both moved their bodies into alignment for sex. For Paul it was an intense experience as many new relationships can be. Every feeling heightened. Every move causing goose bumps and thrills. After their climax they lay next to each other on the bed. As the sensations started to fade Paul began to remember this wasn't really a new relationship. As wonderful as she made him feel, Lavender was being paid to do so. Then there was the other thing.

"Lavender?"

"Yes?"

"What company made you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean, Lavender. Who manufactured you and the other girls?"

"We're not supposed to talk about that. Not unless we are asked directly."

Paul turned onto his side and looked at Lavender.

"I'm asking directly."

Lavender turned her head and looked into Paul's eyes.

"MechanX."

"The tractor company?"

"We are from the Companion division. It all started when George Davidson, the CEO of MechanX, needed someone to stay with his wife when she was sick. He hired Arata Daisuke from a Japanese company and asked him to come up with some improvements to the standard cyborg. That was ten years ago. Now the Companions are available anywhere on Earth to help the frail or disabled so they can stay in their homes. We are the first ones to provide sexual pleasure and the first to go into space."

"Thank you for telling me, Lavender," he said as he got up to dress.

"I hope you come back to see me again."

Paul was feeling like a fool for having feelings for a robot. But it wasn't her fault so he smiled and said, "Next time I get paid."

Paul was furious. After his mishap with Angela, he had refused to allow himself to develop feelings for a woman. Now he had stooped to having sex with a robot. She was a marvel of technology but still! Meeting Drovus had started a change in him. Gregory and Ed released the green death on her. Yet he was haunted by the irrational hope that maybe the green death wouldn't work on the Zoltosians because they were furred. He knew it didn't kill other mammals because that was how he designed it. One of the biggest differences between humans and other mammals was the fur. Bunny rabbits have fur, humans don't. But he'd never conceived of the possibility that humanoids might be furred. There it was. He was just going to have to find out.

Chapter Twelve

Work began on the roaring crocodile preserve. The plans included multiple force fields one of which was a ten mile force field around the smallest of the lakes and four hundred acres of meadow land next to the lake. It would be constructed first thus allowing the rest of the construction to continue unimpeded by migrations of gray antelopes or other beasts. The inner force fields would be around the hunting lodge and the staff buildings as well as one around the lake itself to keep the crocodiles contained.

The force field around the Staff buildings would make the buildings invisible by bending light around them. This building would house the construction workers, staff of the lodge, the grounds people and the technical experts who made all the safety features work and the biologists who cared for the crocodiles.

The crowning jewel of the preserve would be constructed last. The hunting lodge would be a prefabricated building with all modern conveniences but decorated in the style of Colorado in the eighteen hundreds i.e.: Indian blankets and stuffed animal heads on the walls. The doors would be automatic, sensing any approach and opening with silent ease, there would be holographic monitors in all the rooms to communicate with the lodge staff or display the schedule for the day. Every room would either have real window views of the encircling meadowland or holographic displays that were just as real to the human eye. The rooms would be luxurious and spacious. The public areas of the lodge would be quiet and easily accessible. The restaurant would be open twenty four hours a day and room service would be included at no extra charge. The lower levels of the lodge, accessible only to the staff, would include a huge kitchen and many store rooms, refrigerators and freezers as well as the laundry and space for spare linens, towels etc. The maintenance level would be below the kitchen level and house all the physical maintenance equipment.

Glorianna wanted nothing to do with it as she was terrified of the roaring crocodile from her first encounter at the tank, so Gregory took the opportunity to name it after himself, "The Reznikov Hunting Preserve." The whole thing had been Paul's idea and Gregory assigned him to get it built.

After the architects had determined the layout of the place and supplies arrived from Earth, the construction started. Paul left the construction to them and unbeknownst to Gregory or anyone back at the base camp he started borrowing one of the heavy duty skimmers supposedly to search out prime candidates for the breeding stock of roaring crocodiles. The skimmers couldn't go into space but they could cover thousands of miles in a day. That allowed him to reach his original landing site in Zoltos' southern hemisphere in two days. On his first trip there he'd discovered that the escape pod was no longer there in the grassy meadow. He'd also discovered that the camp in the forest near there had been abandoned. Other than that it all looked as he remembered it. He'd returned to the preserve and sat in on a meeting to keep everyone thinking he cared.

"How is the search going for the breeding stock?" asked Samuel Franks, the construction manager.

"Just fine. I'm also taking this opportunity to study some other areas of Zoltos. You won't need the animals for a while, will you?"

"No," the head biologist, Rich Stevenson, answered. "Not until the force fields and fencing are done around the lake and the locks in the lake are finished. We'll need to be sure they can be contained before bringing them in."

"How long do I have before all of that, Sam?"

"I'd say six months."

"You people can handle things here without me being onsite. I'll check in from time to time and you can contact me in the meantime if any questions come up. I can't get much done having to travel back and forth."

He was the boss – what more could they say? Paul stocked up the skimmer and took off the next day. He had six months to determine for certain what had happened to the Zoltosians.

This time he flew to the area where Ed found him and parked the skimmer under the overhang of the trees. He packed up a bag with food, water, his M-scanner; put on his gun belt and headed for the path that would lead him under the hills to the Zoltosian city, Rinkti. It took an hour before the path led him to the cave entrance. He saw and heard nothing but normal forest creatures along the way. He saw no sign of the Zoltosians. His M-scanner agreed. He entered the cave turning on a shoulder flashlight that illuminated the area in front of him approximately six to ten feet. Forty feet inside the cave he turned to the right and walked behind an outcropping of rock that hid a small tunnel at the back right side of the cave. Unless you walked up to the back wall of the cave and looked right you'd never see the tunnel. The rock floor was worn smooth from many years of Zoltosians passing through to the other side of the cave wall thirty feet through the narrow tunnel.

On exiting the tunnel it appeared that you were back in the forest. The lighting was diffuse giving the illusion of tall trees blocking out the sun. There were trees but they were not tall. They were fern like with six to eight foot trunks and slender branches of fern fronds. The ground was spongy moss over layers of old fern branches held together by strong vines and fine roots, many feet deep, covering the stone base. Gentle light came from various parts of the cavern and from the utmost heights of the cavern where tunnels through the stone of the hill had been carved in the ancient days to direct the sunlight to a large outcropping of crystal at the height of the cavern that captured the sun's rays and held them causing the crystal to glow. Some of the tunnels had been cut to direct the light to other crystal outcroppings throughout the cavern. The effect when the sun was shining brightly outside was that the cavern was brightly, though softly, illuminated.

Rinkti was built by the ancient Zoltosians of stone and emerged from the forest of fern trees to rise in levels reaching for the height of the cavern below the crystal outcropping. The levels of homes, animal stalls, storage areas, and gathering places were connected by a pathway wide enough for five or six people to walk abreast between the stone structures on each side. The top most level held the government offices and the courtyard where public meetings were held. In the current day the city was still occupied by the Zoltosians but much of Zoltosian life took part outside the cavern in the valleys between the hills where there were farms to feed the city and less sturdy buildings made of mud and grass where many Zoltosians preferred to live coming under the hills only when bad storms hit.

Paul walked the stone street passing empty homes until he came near the stables for the gray antelope. It surprised him to find them well cared for and munching on fresh wildflowers cut from the meadows.

"How are you, fella?" he asked patting the nearest animal on the shoulder.

The animal stomped one foot gave a swish of its tail and a snort, and then it resumed munching. Paul's hopes soared. He continued on the way to the courtyard. As he approached he could hear voices. A tremendous weight lifted from him as he realized the Zoltosians had indeed survived the green death. As he stepped forward into the courtyard silence fell on the gathering as all one hundred or so Zoltosians meeting there turned to look at Paul.

Vadovus, who stood at the front of the gathering, broke the silence, "Jis grizo. Drovus, paimkite ji."

Drovus stood and walked to the front of the gathering, gave one nod toward Vadovus and then took Paul by the arm and escorted him out.

The voices of the Zoltosians were heard behind them. Some of them sounded upset and rose loudly above the others. Drovus took Paul to a nearby home and poured him a cup of wine mixed with water and offered him some bread to eat. They stared at each other, unable to communicate. He sipped the drink and ate some of the bread. He got out his M-scanner and put it on the table. He played a recording of a conversation they had when he first met her. Drovus smiled at the wonder of the recording and the memory of walking with Paul and the others from the river's edge where there had been an encounter with a zarius.

"I see you remember," said Paul. Then he held up the cup and said, "cup."

Drovus answered, "Kad yra puodelio," then she repeated, "puodelio".

Paul smiled. He wanted so badly to be able to talk to her. It was so hard not being able to ask how they had survived the green death and everything else about her people. He broke off some more of the bread and ate it. Drovus reached out to indicate the bread and said, "duona". When her hand accidentally touched Paul's hand, she quickly pulled back and blushed slightly.

"You are so pretty," said Paul. "I wish you could understand me."

He rested his chin in his hand. As he gazed at her, they were interrupted by the noisy entrance of a child. He came in carrying an arm full of vegetables. Paul noticed that he was not furred to the same extent as the adult Zoltosians. His arms and legs were mostly bare and he had a cloth wrapped around his left forearm. There were some ulcers on each leg on his thighs and on his calves. He dropped the vegetables on the table causing Paul to stand up to avoid the rolling vegetables. Drovus hugged him and he hugged her back around her waist. He noticed Paul and looked up at Drovus. Paul watched as they had a conversation. They looked at Paul.

"Paul," Drovus said to the boy. Then to Paul she said, "Bernikas."

Paul understood and replied, "Hello Bernikas, nice to meet you."

He extended his hand. Bernikas looked at Paul's hand, and then he reached his hand out also. Paul gently grabbed the boy's hand and gave it a shake. The boy laughed and pulled his hand back as Paul released it. Drovus smiled then whispered something into the boy's ear. Bernikas nodded his head and walked around the table to take Paul's hand. Paul looked at Drovus. She nodded and used her hands to indicate to Paul that he should go with Bernikas. Paul was confused but, with Bernikas pulling on his hand he followed him out to the stone street. Bernikas continued pulling on Paul's hand for a bit, then he dropped Paul's hand and started to jog up the street. Paul jogged after him, then next to him, matching his pace. Bernikas stopped outside a large stone building with an arched stone opening. He looked at Paul and gestured for him to follow through the opening. Inside Paul saw a large room with stone shelves full of bound paper. Bernikas walked over to a shelf and pulled out one and handed it to Paul. Paul opened it to see a beautifully illustrated book. There was a colored drawing on each page with symbols written across the top or at the bottom. Paul was delighted. He sat at one of the stone benches near the shelves and flipped through the pages, touching the paper and wondering if it was truly a paper product or perhaps a treated animal skin of some sort. The pages were bound with stitching holding the pages together at the top left corner rather than an entire side. There was so much about this culture that he didn't know and wanted to learn. This book reminded him of a child's book with short sentences associated with each drawing. The inks or dyes used to color the drawings were vivid and cheerful. Bernikas sat next to Paul on the bench and grabbed the book from him. He opened the book to the beginning and started reading. He was animated as he read, laughing and pointing to the pictures, turning the pages quickly. He closed the pages and looked expectantly at Paul, who having understood nothing, was confused, but happy.

Paul stood and started looking through the bookshelves to see if he could perhaps find a textbook of the Zoltosian language. Bernikas put the picture book back where it had been and pulled out another one with more pages and started to read it to himself while he waited for Paul. The shelves were arranged in sets of three deep, then a space and three more with a total of twelve bookshelves divided into four sets of three. Paul found textbooks and what appeared to be a dictionary and encyclopedia. He pulled one of the books out and took it to a table to lay it out and flip through the pages. He scanned the pages one after another into his M-scanner. He knew the software in the scanner was sophisticated and if he could just get a handful of key words that he knew the meaning of in English, the translation of the Zoltosian language could be possible. It would take him hours, indeed days, perhaps weeks to scan the textbooks. Then if he could get Drovus or even Bernikas to help him understand some of the language, he could enter the known concepts or words into the scanner as well. It would be up to the software to work out the translation. He was feeling hopeful and wondered if Drovus had Bernikas bring him there for just this purpose.

Bernikas tapped on Paul's elbow, interrupting him. He motioned with his hand as if he was spooning soup to his mouth, then as if he was holding a cup and drinking.

"Dinnertime, Huh?" asked Paul. "Okay, let's eat."

Paul followed Bernikas back to his home where Drovus did indeed have dinner set out. She waved to him a welcome and ruffled her son's hair. They sat to eat the meal of soup and bread. As they were eating, Paul got up and got a pad he fiddled with the settings before he sat the pad down so Drovus and Bernikas could see the pad.

"We are eating," said Paul. "Eating, eat."

Then he wrote with a fingertip the word 'eat' on the pad. He gestured to Drovus and Benikas to see if he could get them to write their word for eat on the pad. Bernikas took the pad and looked as his mother for encouragement. She nodded her head and Bernikas drew on the pad a horizontal squiggle and a triangle. Then they continued to eat some more. Suddenly Bernikas laughed.

"Laugh," said Paul. He wrote on the pad and passed it to Bernikas.

Bernikas looked at Paul. Paul laughed "Ha Ha Ha."

Bernikas drew a curve and two upright squiggles.

Paul saved the drawings. He didn't want to overwhelm them while they were having dinner so he spooned up some more soup and swallowed it down even though his desire to dive into the translation of the Zoltosian language was growing so large in his mind and heart that he wanted to push the food aside and squeeze all the information he could out of Drovus and her son. Bernikas finished eating and grabbed the pad and drew some letters on it. He showed the pad to Paul and jumped up from his chair and ran around the room. Paul looked at him in confusion and put his hands out palms up to indicate he needed more information. Drovus looked at the pad and spoke to her son. Then Bernikas stood in front of Paul and jogged in place. Paul thought the word must have been jog or run. He drew 'run' on the pad and saved it. Then Paul stood up and jogged in place very slowly he wrote slow on the pad then jogged in place very quickly and wrote fast on the pad. Drovus took the pad, handed it to Paul then waved at both Paul and Bernikas to move out of the kitchen/dining area and further into the house.

Bernikas sat on a skin covered couch in the room. Paul placed the pad near Bernikas and sat also. The animal skin was soft and gray. It resembled the gray antelope and Paul figured that it was from animals killed to feed the Zoltosians. Bernikas looked at the pad where Paul pointed to the word fast. He moved his hand through the air in a quick arch. Then he pointed to the word slow and put his hand out again. Only this time he moved his had very slowly. As his hand slowly moved from left to right, toward Bernikas, he started to make noises to accompany the movement and both started laughing.

Bernikas pointed to the word fast and clapped his hands together rapidly. He pointed to slow and clapped his hands once; he pulled his hands apart very slowly and then moved them slowly back together. Paul nodded his head and Bernikas drew three short dashes next to fast, then three long dashes with a downward curve on the end next to slow. Paul was thrilled to have the concept understood. Drovus came to Paul and Bernikas and spoke to Bernikas. He responded unhappily but obediently handed the pad back to Paul and walked to his mother's side. Drovus and Bernikas left Paul, walked through the kitchen/dining area and started out the door.

"Wait. Where are you going?" He knew they didn't understand so he just came to them to follow them.

Drovus shook her head and placing the palm of her right hand on his chest gave him a push. He got the idea that he was not to follow. So he stood by the door and watched them walk down the stone road away from him. There were others on the road, all walking down the street. After the host of people had moved from his view, Paul crept closer. Hiding behind posts and pillars he watched as the whole of the city walked toward the outside of the cavern, to the valley between the hilltops. Finally he crept up to the opening in the hillside and peered out to see the people continue into the lush sun filled land outside the cavern of stone. As he was peering out, the walls of the opening closed leaving him inside and securing the valley from any who would enter the stone cavern from the his side. Paul decided outsiders must only be allowed in the stone city, even when he had been to Rinkti before he had not been shown the hilltop valley. He returned to the stone street and found his way back to the library. He spent hours scanning more of the dictionary and text books into the M-scanner's translation software. When he was weary he returned to Drovus' house and munched some left over soup and bread, he lied down on the couch and fell asleep.

The next morning he was awakened by horns blowing. It sounded like the same type of horns he'd heard when the roaring crocodile came upon Drovus' group while they were bathing. But this time the tune was less strident. The city was still empty and the crystals were barely glowing, Paul took the opportunity to return to his skimmer and clean up. He returned to Rinkti and to Drovus' house. No one was there yet. An hour later the horns blew again; he looked out into the street and saw the people return to their city. The cavern was sparkling as fresh sunlight filled the cavern's crystals. Drovus and Bernikas came to him bringing food for breakfast. Drovus shooed Paul and Bernikas into the back room until breakfast was ready. She put fresh tinder into the fire below the flat surface of the stove and lit the tinder with a flint stone. The tinder set the wood in the fire box alight and soon the surface was hot enough to cook the breakfast. She closed the door on the firebox to smother the flames and set the food on the table. They enjoyed the toasted bread and scrambled eggs with some fresh vegetables before Paul left for the library. The days continued for them like this until Paul could find no more textbooks to scan. Some days Bernikas accompanied Paul to the library and sometimes he stayed with Drovus. When Bernikas felt like it he used the pad to help Paul understand Zoltosian words and concepts.

Some evenings after dinner Bernikas would sit for his mother to put a paste onto his ulcers. The one on his arm had improved enough to take the cloth from it but the ulcers did not dry up or go away. Paul wondered what the ulcers were from. Bernikas allowed Paul to scan the ulcer but Paul gained nothing from the readings. Drovus and Bernikas left Paul every evening to join the rest in the hilltop valley. He started returning to the skimmer to spend the nights. He uploaded the M-scanner's data into a stronger version of the translator software on the skimmer. Once he had all the scanned pages and the key words Bernikas helped him with, he would just come to see how much progress the translator was making. Meanwhile, if Bernikas joined him in the library, Paul started having him read from the words he had scanned so the sound of the Zoltosian language could be attached to the translation. Daily he would update the translator on the M-scanner hoping that it would begin working as he was with Drovus and Bernikas.

It took two months before it happened. They were eating dinner with the M-scanner sitting to Paul's right. Bernikas said something to his mother and the M-scanner repeated the sentence in English. From then on if Paul had a question to ask, he would speak into the M-scanner and Drovus and Bernikas would wait for the translation. Sometimes the translation was awkward and Drovus would smile. Bernikas would laugh. Then they would explain as best they could just how the translation should have been. With every correction the translation software became better, more fine-tuned. Soon, Paul started to hang the M-scanner on his belt and it became common place for the three of them to be able to communicate freely.

At dinner one day soon after, Paul asked the question he'd had since the day the roaring crocodile had left the river in an attempt to attack Vadovous' group.

"Drovous, do you remember the day we met?"

"Yes, I washed your silver suit."

"I thank you for your kindness that day. Do you also remember the zarius?"

"He came out of the water after us. Why do you ask about that?"

"I was wondering, why did your people spare its life? They were well armed and could have killed it easily in defense of the group."

"Bernikas, go get the life book."

Bernikas brought a book from the living room and showed it to Paul.

"Go ahead and read it to Paul."

The book was fastened on the top left just like the books in the library. Paul held the book and looked at the illustration on the cover. It was a vivid depiction of a zarius surrounded by a ring of Zoltosian warriors with their weapons drawn. It was eerily similar to that day when Paul saw his first roaring crocodile. He opened the book. Here was a drawing of a river and a sunny day on Zoltos.

"The river is a place of life," read Bernikas.

They turned to the next page and Bernikas continued, "It brings us life - from its water to the delicious fish."

The illustration on this page showed children playing in the river and fish jumping in the river beyond them.

The next page showed a roaring crocodile and Bernikas read, "The river is also home to the zarius. The zarius is a very scary beast and can roar very loudly."

The next page showed a brown river and a dark scary looking sky.

"Once we tried to make our life safe from the zarius. The warriors found and killed as many as they could. But they are part of life and without them the rivers died."

The next page showed a group of zarius making nests from river grass.

"The zarius make nests from the river grass to lay their eggs. After the zarius were killed, the river grass choked the rivers. The fish could no longer live. The rivers were no longer the source of life and became a place of death."

The last page was an illustration of Zoltosian parents and their children near the now clean river and a zarius family nearer the water's edge.

Bernikas read the final words in the book, "Always remember children, all of life is connected. When the creatures are healthy and happy, so are we."

Paul closed the book, "Thank you, Bernikas."

Bernikas took the book and put it away.

"Does that explain the reason why the zarius must live?"

"Yes, it certainly does. Your society is wise indeed."

Their daily interaction was allowing them to get to know each other. At one point Paul's attention became focused on Bernikas' ulcers. That was when the feelings that were growing stronger between them came to an angry ending.

"May I look at that?" he asked one evening when Drovus was salving the ulcers on Bernikas' arm.

Drovus sat back and Bernikas put his arm out for Paul to examine. Bernikas' arm was only furred down to his elbow, unlike his mother and the other adults who were furred all the way down their arms and onto the backs of their hands and fingers with only their palms and the palm side of their fingers left unfurred.

"Why doesn't Bernikas have the same fur as the rest of you?"

"We are born without fur, like you are," said Drovus. "Then as we grow we change until we are as I am by the time we are full grown. Bernikas will be beautiful when he grows up."

Paul looked at the oval shaped ulcer on the boy's forearm half way between his elbow and his wrist. It was dry on the edges and softer in the middle.

"It doesn't hurt," said Bernikas. "Not unless it dries out. Then it cracks and it hurts me."

"The salve keeps it from drying out," added Drovus.

"Is this something all children get?" asked Paul.

"Since the green death," said Drovus.

Paul was startled, "What do you mean?"

A tear rolled down Drovus' cheek. "It was after the man came and took you away. Small, evil, flying creatures came to the hilltop valley where we live. They sprayed death upon the children. Those who did not die became like Bernikas, covered in wounds that will not heal."

Paul's mouth went dry as he whispered, "Why did you call it the green death?"

"Because the skin of the children turned greenish and in a few days each one disappeared before our eyes," she cried harder. "It was so horrible; there was no warning and no bodies for the grieving parents to bury. Some went insane and killed themselves. Many believe that it was you that brought the green death."

Drovus continued to cry as Bernikas hugged her to calm her. Paul was stricken to his core. It was his fault. He'd brought disaster to these peaceful people.

"I don't believe that you sent the horror upon us," said Drovus beginning to calm a little.

"I don't know how to apologize for what has happened. It was not me that released the drones upon you, but I am still responsible in that it was my people that did."

"Drones? Is that what the flying creatures are called?" asked Drovus.

"Yes, the drones carried the green death," said Paul. "Drovus," he took her hand. "I promise you this will not happen ever again."

"How can you promise that?"

"Because there is no more and I will never make it again."

Drovus pulled her hand back from Paul in a jerk and stared at him with anger and fear in her eyes.

"You made the green death? You made it?"

"Uh..."

Drovus slapped Paul across his face then took Bernikas by his hand, "We need to leave." Bernikas followed his mother out of the house, glancing back at Paul with a hurt and confused look on his sad face.

They did not return to Paul the next day. Nor did they return the following day. Paul got some paper from the skimmer and wrote Drovus a note telling her that he was going to find something to help Bernikas and all the other children like him. Then he would return. He begged her to forgive him and repeated his promised that it would never happen again. That any future children that were born would be normal and he repeated that he would find a cure for Bernikas and return. He left the note on the table where they had shared so many wonderful meals learning how to communicate with each other. Where Paul had begun to think he was part of a family and that he had a chance at happiness.

In the four months Paul had been gone, no one from the preserve had contacted him. He was not concerned. Until the construction phase of the project had progressed he would not begin bringing the roaring crocodiles to the preserve. He set the controls of the skimmer on automatic and started writing up a protocol for the propagation of the fungus Stegophla. He was a little concerned that the whole thing would be impossible, especially as he had not checked out his stolen vial since he had stuffed it into his sock. He squelched his concerns and knowing that no one else (except maybe the Tillidians) had successfully grown Stegophla, he wrote an outline using standard protocols. He left the timelines blank as he had no idea what they might be and he added culture on live trees to the culture on laboratory media as part of the protocol. The only place the fungus had been known to grow was on some trees in the Peruvian rainforest. As he was nearing Zoltos' equator he decided to set the skimmer down and take some readings of the tropical forests.

It was unbearably hot and humid outside the skimmer. He was covered in sweat immediately as he walked in the one hundred ten degree heat. Insects buzzed around his head as he walked toward the trees on the edge of the clearing where he had landed. His M-scanner in his hand, he hoped to find something similar to the Peruvian trees. He pulled a few pieces of leaves and fed them into the M-scanner as DNA samples. One or two plants were close but there were no exact DNA matches. He collected a small piece of branch from the plants with similar DNA and returned to the skimmer.

The new laboratory at the preserve was better equipped than the one at home base. He just hoped they had it ready to go when he got there. Because it was for his personal use he had placed it high on the priority list and now he needed it. He piloted the skimmer to the landing pad and disembarked.

"Director Rocheport, welcome back, do I have time to perform some maintenance on the skimmer?" asked the head mechanic.

"No, I'm not staying," said Paul.

The laboratory was shiny and new with sparkling equipment on the counters and colorful instruments here and there with bright video displays. Paul walked to the back of the long room where he tossed his back pack onto the counter, then adjusted some settings on a floor to ceiling incubator next to the counter. The readings on the panel had been 36.7 degrees centigrade but as he adjusted the settings the reading fluctuated and the numbers began to climb. Next to the temperature display was the humidity display. The numbers were climbing, passing 30% now. Paul grabbed his pack and pulled out the tree samples he'd harvested. He found some vials big enough to hold each branch and filled them part way with tap water, then placed the branches into each vial. He opened the door on the incubator and grabbed a shelf pulling it out of the incubator and tossing it onto the floor away from the incubator. Then he did the same with two more shelves. He needed enough space for the branches to stand in their vials unencumbered. Now he placed each vial/branch into the incubator. He adjusted them so they looked comfortable then whispered to them, "Stay healthy," and closed the incubator door. He needed nutrients for the plants and the stolen vial of Stegophla so he turned and ran back outside.

He called to the mechanic, "I'm headed to base camp, and I'll be back soon."

The mechanic waved to indicate he'd heard him, then stepped back to give Paul room to maneuver.

He hoped he wouldn't run into Ed while he was going through the storage for his bag. He was in a turbulent state of mind and felt like he might punch Ed. That would, no doubt, result in Ed kicking his ass and locking him up; that would interfere with the Stegophla project. Delay in culturing the fungus could not be tolerated as Paul's hope to produce restorium from the Stegophla fungus was his only chance at reconciling with Drovus. Base camp seemed deserted when he arrived. None of Ed's security personnel were even hanging around. Laziness and complacency were taking control. Another time that would have annoyed Paul but today he was glad they weren't at their posts as it made it a whole lot easier to grab what he needed and leave. The storage rooms were locked but everyone had the code, so Paul entered quickly. He found his designated space and the bag Ed had brought from Earth for him. The desire to open the bag and look at the Stegophla vial pushed to the forefront of his mind, but the desire to escape without encountering Ed won out and he just grabbed the bag and ran to the lab. He grabbed some plant food then ran back to the skimmer. The mechanic was still on the landing pad when Paul flew in.

"Can I work on it now?" he asked as Paul ran past him.

"Sure," Paul called out as he continued into the complex with his bag.

Once in the laboratory Paul suited up in a state of the art respirator and biohazard body suit that covered him from head to toe, even covering his hands in gloves attached to the arms of the suit. He let himself into the culture room through a series of three airlocks. The Stegophla probably could be handled safely under just an ordinary laminar flow hood in a lower level containment room, but this high level containment room was restricted to Paul alone. No one else had the code, so no one else could observe his actions. He set the bag under the hood and sat on a stool in front of it. He placed his arms into the hood and waited for the airflow to re-establish. His breathing was loud through the respirator as he waited. When airflow was re-established he slowly moved his arms and reached for the bag. He slowly pulled the zipper and pulled the two sides of the bag apart. Blinking he peered through the glass front of the hood separating him from the controlled space inside.

The sock had been white, well as white as any sock that had been worn repeatedly without washing it. He didn't see anything even close to white in the bag. He pulled the bag open further and pulled it closer to the glass so he could get a better look. The sock was covered in a growth of dark green fungus. Even the inside of the bag had a small amount of growth in it. Paul considered the possibilities: one, the culture vial had leaked and his dirty sock had become covered with a common fungus such as Aspergillus as any wet, dirty sock left in a dark bag might grow; two, the culture vial had leaked and his sock was covered with the fungus that no one else in the world had been able to grow. The former seemed more likely but only a look at a sample of the growth under a microscope would tell.

He slowly took a glass slide from the supply under the hood and placed it on the flat surface of the hood. He put two drops of lactophenol cotton blue on the slide, and then used a sterile scalpel to scrape a tiny bit of the fungus from the sock into the blue liquid on the slide. He mixed it a little with the corner of a coverslip and then dropped the coverslip onto the lactophenol cotton blue/fungus mixture. Hoping beyond reason he took the slide out from under the hood and walked across the room to the microscope. Centering the slide on the stage of the microscope, he sat and placed his eyes over the oculars. He pressed the focus until the microscopic structures of the fungus came sharply into view. The structures were definitely not Aspergillus. Paul was even more hopeful than before, but he needed confirmation. Desiring secrecy and fearing discovery, he did not use the computerized microscope to do the identification for him. Instead he drew a picture of what the fungal structures looked like on paper and put the microscope slide back under the hood. He zipped his bag closed and shut down the hood, then turned off the lights as he left the culture room.

Inside the airlock he stood in the sterilizer with his arms out from his sides. The sterilizing cycle ran its course. Walking to the center airlock, he removed the suit and hung it up. He took his drawing and exited the culture room through the outer airlock securing the outer door as he exited. Rich Stevenson, the preserve biologist, was coming down the hallway toward the laboratory as Paul came out and locked the door shoving his drawing into his pocket.

"Hey, Doctor Rocheport," He said, "The mechanic tells me you just got back from the base camp. Did you see anybody there?"

"No, I didn't."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. But I didn't go very far, only to the lab and back."

Paul was in a hurry to get back to his quarters with his drawing. He had an old data pad with research papers on it that included the 2060 study of Stegophla and restorium, it contained the drawings and digital images of the microscopic structures of the fungus as well as the instructions on how to collect the restorium from the fungus.

"No one has been able to raise the base camp since yesterday."

"Maybe there is something wrong with the communications."

"Maybe, how long should we wait?"

Paul realized he was in charge at the preserve site and he was going to have to tell them what to do.

"I'll tell you what; Send two skimmers with a security team in each. Have them track down Ed Babineaux and learn the situation at the base camp. I'm sure everything is fine, but tell them to be alert. I did notice that there were no security people at their posts at the base camp landing site. I thought they might have just been temporarily absent, but you never know. Contact me here at the lab as soon as you hear anything."

"You got it."

Rich hurried off as Paul continued to his quarters brushing any concerns over the base camp issue away with thoughts of where exactly he'd left the data pad. It would have been in his bag in storage, except he'd had it with him when the Tillidians returned them to Zoltos the night before the planetary certification ceremony. The door to his quarters slid open, Paul stood there momentarily glancing about the room past the rumpled bed and the clothes on the floor, to the closet, hanging open. The closet seemed correct; he stood on his toes and reached to the shelf. There it was, just tossed up there. The battery was dead.

"Damn," he said and started feeling for the charging disc. It wasn't on the shelf. He hung his head for a second, then quickly looked up and headed for the nightstand. Sitting on the side of the bed he pulled the top drawer open. There it was. He took the data pad, charging disc and a dirty sock (from the floor of his room) back to the lab.

This time he did not enter the airlocks to the high level containment room. He sat at the counter near the incubator where he'd placed the tropical plants. He dropped the charging disc into the power port on the laboratory computer. It read fully charged. That was good, now he could charge the data pad. He put the data pad on the counter and dropped the disc onto it. It started to glow a subtle blue light. That meant it would be five to ten minutes before the data pad would be charged. In the meanwhile Paul put on an apron and gloves. He only needed minimum protection from the DNA specific green death he had made for the roaring crocodile. He plugged the laboratory sink and dumped the vials in. Then he got a jar of powder out of the cupboard and sprinkled it onto the green liquid. It bubbled a little and as Paul mixed it with a wooden stick it turned gray. He pulled the plug and turned on the water washing the now harmless liquid down the drain. Then Paul took the jar of green powder that was the basic unit of all variations of the green death and washed its contents down the drain. He rinsed out the container, then put it into the autoclave and set it to run at a temperature that would denature any remaining chemical left in the jar and melt the container itself. As he turned from the autoclave he saw that the charging disc was flashing a bright yellow indicating that the data pad was fully charged. Paul pulled his drawing out and activated the data pad to find the entry he wanted. The study on Stegophla was several pages long and he swiped the surface of the data pad to find the digital pictures from so long ago. He held his drawing next to the data pad. The fungal structures matched exactly.

"Yes!"

This was his chance to heal Bernikas and the other children and maybe win the heart of Drovus, if she would forgive him. He needed some petri dishes, so he walked across the room to the MakeIt, a three dimensional printer. He logged into the computer on the side of the four foot high six foot long device and accessed the printer menu. He ordered what he needed, then crossed back to the incubator side of the room and pulled the nutrient bottles out of his bag. Moist, hot air engulfed him as he opened the incubator and added nutrients to the vials holding the tropical plants. The incubator environment needed to be stable so he worked quickly and closed the door. The printer was still working away creating the petri dishes he would need to culture the Stegophla, but they would be empty petri dishes until he had the culture media prepared to fill them. He grabbed a jar of powder from his bag and started to cook up a batch of fungal media. He had no idea what to use so he stuck with a basic cornmeal agar (CMA) plus one dirty sock. After the powder dissolved in boiling water, he tossed in the sock and let it boil for just a few minutes. He removed the sock wringing out all the liquid before dropping it in the trash. The CMA mixture had to be autoclaved to kill off any contaminating mold spores that might be in the mixture. He emptied the melted plastic container from the autoclave and set it to run for the CMA.

With the printer and autoclave running, he dressed up for the high level containment room and entered as before. The restorium had to be extracted from the existing fungus to heal the wounds of the green death, but some of it had to be used to try and grow more fungus. It was a balancing act with Paul's future happiness and the health of the Zoltosian children including Bernikas pending how it would turn out. Following the recipe from the ancient Peruvian medicine man Paul started a batch of restorium. He proceeded with the extraction protocol until it was at a stage where it had to sit overnight; he took several small pieces of the moldy sock and placed them in a small vial. Before leaving his bag under the hood, he carefully secured it. Then he took the vial of moldy sock pieces out of the containment room.

Rich Stevenson's voice came over the lab communication system.

"Doctor Rocheport?"

Paul put his vial of sock pieces on the counter, walked to the communication panel and touched the screen.

"Yes, Rich, what's happening at base camp?"

"There was apparently an attack of some kind."

"What?"

"The security teams found one of the nurses in the cafeteria dead from multiple stab wounds. Several people were hiding in the upper levels of the complex, some of the security people were with them, others left the complex to chase the attackers, who took some captives."

"Was Ed Babineaux there?"

"No, he is with the security force chasing the attackers."

"What about Gregory Reznikov and Glorianna Waddel?"

Paul was feeling sick.

"They haven't been seen. No one knows if they were taken as captives or not."

Night was falling.

"Is the force field around the preserve functional yet?"

"I'm not sure; I know they've been working on it. We'll need to talk to Sam Franks."

"Find him and let's meet at the planning center."

"Yes, sir."

Paul left the vial of moldy socks sitting on the counter and the agar cooling in the autoclave. When they met in the planning center Sam and Paul watched as Rich played back the communication log from the security teams he'd sent to the base camp. The scene in the cafeteria was gruesome the floors and walls were splattered with more blood than could have come from the unfortunate nurse whose body was in a pool of blood in the center of the room. The video continued as the team moved to the upper levels where Paul was relieved to see Glendral among those that survived by hiding on the upper floors. At that point Rich turned off the display.

"One skimmer is bringing back the survivors," he said.

"Sam, how functional is our force field?" asked Paul.

"The outer perimeter is finished and has been running for a couple of weeks. The inner field around the lodge is months away from ready. The one around the staff buildings can be ready in a few hours if I pull the workers off all the rest of the projects."

"That's good. Do that," said Paul.

"Any idea who the attackers were?" asked Sam.

"It could have been pirates of some sort," said Rich.

"Wouldn't they have used pulse weapons? The nurse was stabbed," said Sam.

"In any case, Pirates won't be stopped by the outer perimeter force fields. They'll just land inside," said Paul.

"With the invisibility force field, when it is working, we should be safe from most things," said Sam.

"I wish we could raise Ed Babineaux. Maybe he'll contact us," said Paul.

Paul went back to the lab to grab the petri dishes out of the three dimensional printer and pour the CMA before the agar solidified and Rich went to warn the other workers about the attack while Sam redirected his workers from their current tasks to finishing the force field around the staff buildings. Paul and Rich met the skimmer when it arrived with the security team and the survivors.

"Oh Paul, it was terrible. We were having breakfast when the attack began," said Glendral. "I heard some shouting and the sound of pulse weapons firing."

"Who was it, Glendral? Who attacked the compound?"

"Ed was calling them the bears. He ran into the cafeteria and shouted, 'The bears are attacking'. Only it wasn't bears, it was some kind of humanoid all covered in thick brown and black fur like a bear. Their faces and hands were human. They had swords and knives made from crystal blades and there were so many of them; too many for the security team to stop. They tried; the sound of the pulse weapons was constant. When the humanoids broke into the cafeteria those of us near the back managed to escape to the upper levels. We could see out the windows as they dragged people away. The security people were still firing but it didn't matter. When one of them got hit another would take his place as yet another would drag their comrade away. They threw their knives with deadly accuracy, finally only Ed and two others were left firing at the creatures as they dragged their own and ours away into the woods. Ed came to us and told us to stay hidden that he and the other two guys were going after the bears."

"What happened to Gregory and Glorianna?" asked Paul.

"I don't know," said Glendral.

They let Glendral and the others that were not in need of medical care, find staff quarters so they could rest, while Paul, Rich and Sam met with the preserve managers to discuss what to do next. The security manager, Leonard Heit, was holding his mobile communicator.

"The security team that took the second skimmer found the buggy Ed Babineaux and his men took to chase the intruders. They also found more blood, but no bodies. The pulse weapons were left at the vehicle. They are going to take the skimmer airborne and skim the forested area where the buggy was found and report back when they have an update."

"How are we on the force field?" Rich asked Sam.

"Almost there. Is everyone inside?" asked Sam. "I want to turn the field on as soon as it is ready."

"Everyone, except the security team and those working on the force field have been accounted for," said Judy Kent, the personnel manager at the preserve.

"Were any of the medical staff among the survivors at the base camp?" asked Paul.

Kathrine Bloom, the preserve medic replied, "Yes, Molly Crane, a nurse, and Doctor Kendricks. They are treating the survivor with a knife wound to his left leg. It might require surgery."

"There may be other survivors of the attack; I understand some of the farm division people were at the new farm area at the time. It is hard to say with no bodies left behind. Still ten survivors out of sixty-seven is not a lot of survivors," said Leo Heit. "Adding them to our total workforce here we have eighty-five. There is space here at the staff quarters for all of us and supplies, someone needs to notify Earth."

Everyone turned expectantly to Paul.

"I'll do that," said Paul. "Meanwhile we need that force field activated, Sam. Everyone else just needs to stay inside and stay calm."

There were two communications stations in the building, one at the security office and one in the laboratory. Paul returned to the lab to use the communication station. Because he wasn't sure who to contact and definitely not sure what to say, he decided to finish the Stegophla protocol first. After an hour everything that could be cultured was done, now the fungus would either grow or not. It would probably take weeks before it was known if Stegophla could be grown in the lab. Meanwhile the extraction of the restorium from the fungus growing on Paul's sock was still pending the overnight extraction. It was time to tell someone of their plight.

"Commonwealth Colony Oversight," said the humanoid with a light lavender skin color over the video screen. "How may I direct you today?"

"This is planet Zoltos," said Paul. "We've been attacked."

"What is your name?"

"Paul Rocheport, I'm the Director of the Environment on Zoltos."

"Who attacked Zoltos?"

"We're not sure who they are or where they came from but fifty-seven of our people are unaccounted for. One person is dead and we fear many of the others are as well."

"I'll patch you through to Commander Fields at Colony Defense."

The lavender visage was replaced by a gruff man with very short hair, a square shaped head and a strong chin with a scar across his cheek to his left ear.

"Commander Fields here."

"Sir there has been an attack on Zoltos. This is Paul Rocheport from Zoltos."

Commander Fields glanced down as if checking the monitor on his desk.

"Doctor Rocheport, you're listed as Director of the Environment. Where is Administrator Reznikov?"

"We have been unable to locate him or Prime Signant, Glorianna Waddel, since the attack."

"Where are your security people?"

"Ed Babineaux survived the attack and was seen with two of his men chasing after the attackers. Another team of ten security officers who were at a second site about fifty miles away from the base camp have gone to find them and assess the situation."

"We will send a security force to Zoltos, I'm afraid it will take them a week to get to you. Do you have a secure facility to defend yourself from?"

"There are approximately eighty-five of us now at the second site fifty miles west of the base camp. There is an outer force field. A second force field around the building we are hiding in is being completed and should be functioning soon. We have supplies."

"How did the attack happen?"

"The base camp was attacked by creatures with brown and black fur, according to the survivors."

"So it was an animal attack?"

"The survivors say the attack was well planned and the attackers had weapons, knives made of crystal."

"Your security people have pulse weapons, were they unable to mount a defense? Didn't any of the attackers get captured or killed?"

"The attackers dragged all the wounded and dead off into the forest including our people. There were hundreds of them."

"That does sound somewhat like a gorilla attack on Earth; they attack in a large group and just drag everyone off into the jungle. Stay inside and keep us informed of the security team's progress, Commander Fields out."

Just as Paul was staring at the communications panel wondering what was going to happen next, it came back to life.

"Anybody there? Answer please."

"I'm here, is that you Ed?"

"Yes, it's me. Paul, I'm in the forest north of the base camp. I thought I saw a skimmer go overhead."

"Yes, they are looking for you."

"For God's sake, tell them not to land. These Zoltosians are a crafty bunch. Tell them not to land, Paul."

"I'll tell them, where are you, Ed?"

"I've got Gregory and Glorianna. We're hiding in the forest. I don't think anyone else made it."

"You're wrong about that, Ed. Glendral and nine others are here at the preserve. They think there were some people at the new farm. There is a shelter there. Can you get there?"

"We'll try. Warn the others, Paul. Don't let them land."

"I will. I'll send them to the farm."

Paul activated the internal communications channel, "Leo, are you there?"

"Yes, sir."

"Ed just called in and I spoke to the Commonwealth Colony Defense. It will be a week before help arrives and I told Ed to go to the farm. He has the Prime Signant and Administrator Reznikov."

"I'll contact the skimmer and send security there to pick them up."

"This is a disaster; I hope Ed can get them to the farm."

"Doctor Rocheport, how could the pre-colonization scans have been so wrong?"

"I was there, Leo, and I never saw any hint of these creatures."

"Yes, Sir."

The skimmer landed at the farm complex to find everything progressing as normal. Kala Patel and her people had no idea that anything had happened at the base camp. In fact they were reluctant to stop work to hide inside.

"I don't understand what you are telling me," said Kala.

"The base camp was attacked and almost everyone massacred. What is not to understand?" answered the lead of the preserve security team.

"Ma'am, I think we should do as he asks," said the lead of the farm security team. "You know we only have three security people here at the farm, with these guys from the preserve that makes eleven of us to try and protect you all."

"Fine. This building is very small with no facilities for an extended stay. How long do you expect us to hide here?"

"We have word that the Prime Signant and the Administrator are headed this way. We will give them twenty-four hours then we will evacuate you and your people to the preserve site. Earth is sending an armed rescue party but it will be a week before they arrive," said the leader from the preserve security team.

Ed stopped his jog through the forest. His M-scanner showed movement in the trees but nothing definitive or close.

"Why are you slowing down?" asked Glorianna. "We need to get out of here."

"I understand that you are anxious to escape these woods, Ma'am, but I have to keep checking the M-scanner to make sure we aren't walking into a gang of bears," said Ed.

"Glorianna, please let Edward do his job. He'll get us out safely. We need to do as he says. And, could you keep your voice down? Maybe not talk at all? I really don't want to give our position away to these creatures," said Gregory.

Glorianna glared at Gregory and he felt her anger, but she stayed quiet.

"Okay, let's move, this direction," said Ed jogging to the left.

They continued through the forest for hours, eventually stopping to rest. Ed set an alarm on his M-scanner to alert them if anything like a Zoltosian came near. They had approximately a mile left before they would reach the end of the forest and the farm complex. After a few minutes, their rest was disturbed by a soft beeping noise.

"What was that?" whispered Glorianna.

"Time to go," said Ed. "Please be extra quiet. There seems to be a large amount of activity coming up behind us. I don't think they are aware of us, however, they may be targeting the farm complex and we just happen to be between them and the complex."

Gregory and Glorianna moved as quickly and quietly as they could, following Ed to the edge of the forest. They could see the main building about a hundred yards beyond the forest edge. The ground beyond the building was plowed with plants of some kind sprouting green from the brown earth. The skimmer was parked to the left of the main building on a landing pad. The ground before them was smooth and sloped gently from the forest to the farm complex. The M-scanner began beeping incessantly.

"Run, go now," yelled Ed.

As Ed, Gregory and Glorianna ran from the forest to the farm complex, a war cry rose behind them. They ran even faster, feet pounding the ground, arms swinging, terror spurring them forward. Someone opened the door to let them in and then slammed it shut behind them. They heard the sound of weapons, probably knives and hatchets, hitting the outside of the door and the terrifying shouts of voices in an unknown language mixed with horns blowing and the roars of roaring crocodiles. As the Zoltosians reached the building a deep thudding sound of fists pounding against the building was heard. The force field around the farming complex building snapped and sizzled into place slicing off the hands and forearms of the Zoltosians pounding on the building walls. Their shrieks of pain and shock joined the rest of the terrifying noise. Ed found the security station where seven security officers and Kala Patel were gathered. Ed asked for a re-cap of the situation. Gregory and Glorianna followed him to the security station.

"This situation is extremely bad," said the lead of the preserve security team.

"I agree with that assessment," said Ed looking at the man as his eyebrows rose in reaction to the statement of the obvious. "How many security members do we have here?"

"Eleven."

"Where are the others?"

"Two at the front door and two at the back."

"Good, as we were entering the building, I swear I heard those crocodiles."

"They have them in rolling pens," said the security officer waving at the video screens.

Ed stared at the video displays of the surrounding areas. There were hundreds of bear like Zoltosians on foot encircling the building and covering all the land around the farm building, trampling all the plowed land and the seedlings. Bodies of the wounded, bleeding and dying soldiers were on the ground near the building, the rest had moved back about twenty or thirty feet. With the mass of soldiers were ten large pens on wheels, each with a roaring crocodile inside being pulled by a new beast not previously seen. It was large like a hippopotamus, or rhinoceros only more gentle in nature. It was subservient to the Zoltosians who beat them with sticks to make them pull the pens.

"What the hell are those for?" Ed asked, more to himself than in expectation of an answer.

"I don't know," said the security man. "I don't think I want to find out."

The foot soldiers started to bring brush and branches and piled them up around the base of the walls of the farm building.

"What now? Are they going to try to burn us out of here?"

The branches were sparking and sizzling in the force field. Soon the piles of brush and branches caught on fire, surprising the Zoltosians. They continued to bring branches forward, but the fire started before they were ready and the supplies of brush and branches were being consumed before they could make a significant fire around the building. Their leader yelled and the foot soldiers stopped bringing the brush forward. In about an hour the brush and branches that had been placed against the building had burned down to cinders causing no damage to the building. During this time the humans inside watched the video displays and the Zoltosians sat and watched the building. A new strategy came into play. The Zoltosians brought some poles fashioned from small tree trunks, sharpened to a point on one end. They pounded them into the ground about fifty feet from the door where the Zoltosians had seen Ed, Glorianna, and Gregory enter the building. A pen with men and women from the base camp in it was rolled forward. The foot soldiers dragged the captives out of the pen, some were wounded and bloody others seemed to be in better shape. They were all tied together by their wrists. The foot soldiers dragged the people on the ends of the group to the poles and tied them by one wrist to each pole.

"I'm not liking the look of this," said Ed. "Get the pulse weapons ready."

The foot soldiers finished with the people and started toward the crocodile pens. The rest of the foot soldiers stood and began a retreat toward the forest. The main force of foot soldiers had moved back to the forest edge, those near the captives and the crocodiles moved to the crocodile pens. Ed and his men waited until the main force of the foot soldiers had moved back before turning off the force field and charging out the door. Five of the security force ran to release the people from the poles while the rest, Ed and nine other men, raised their pulse weapons to shoot either foot soldiers and/or crocodiles. They knew they didn't have much time so they aimed for the foot soldiers that were set to release the crocodiles first. Three of them went down, but seven of the beasts were released. They were tremendously fast. The security officers kept firing but the crocodiles were an overwhelming force.

The civilians inside the building grabbed for the people released from the poles and pulled them as hard as they could to get them inside and away from danger. The roars of the crocodiles were deafening. Seven of the beasts had been killed, three more were released by replacement soldiers. Everyone managed to get inside and close the door in the faces of those beasts charging at their heels. One began clawing and throwing itself against the door, when the force field snapped on it was killed instantly. That left two beasts that now turned on the Zoltosians. The Zoltosian soldiers faced down the beasts with fierce courage, dispatching them with their crystal knives. Then the Zoltosians slowly vanished into the forest dragging their dead and dying with them leaving only the bodies of the ten crocodiles on the battlefield.

"Damn, what a magnificent army," said Gregory.

"Magnificent? Are you insane? What kind of a horrible place did you talk me into buying?" screamed Glorianna.

She charged at Gregory screeching loudly. Gregory ducked out of the way and she collapsed to the floor, a blubbering shrieking mess.

"Miz Patel find someplace for Glorianna to rest. This has been a very difficult day," said Gregory.

Kala went to help Glorianna up off of the floor and took her to the nurse's station where the rest of the base camp survivors were being treated. The facility was over crowded, so after getting her a sedative, Kala took her to her personal office and helped her lay down on a small couch that was there. Glorianna took the sedative with a glass of water Kala got for her from the private lavatory adjacent to Kala's office.

"You know I'm not a hysterical woman," said Glorianna.

"I know. How did you and Mister Reznikov manage to escape the bears?" asked Kala.

"We weren't with the others at the base camp when the attack occurred. We were, ehem, together, when we heard the sound of the pulse weapons. The attack was less well organized than today, but there were so many of them. We got dressed and tried to sneak out the back of my complex and hide in my GS2."

"What happened?"

"We almost made it. There was one younger bear stationed at the GS2. He made us walk into the forest. There must have been something wrong with him."

"How do you mean?"

"He was not furred like the rest of them. His fur didn't reach all the way down his arms and legs. Plus he had horrible greenish sores covering his arms and legs where the fur should have been. He must have been in pain because he was having seizures. He finally had a terrible seizure that caused him to double over in pain and Gregory and I took that opportunity to escape."

"How did you meet up with Mister Babineaux?"

"Oh, Ed found us in the forest. He spoke to Mister Rocheport, then told us that there were people at the farm when the attack on the base camp occurred and that the rest of the security team would meet us there."

"Zoltos is turning out to be a dangerous place, if you don't mind me saying so."

"I never should have left Earth," said Glorianna as she drifted off to sleep.

Kala left the office quietly closing the door behind her.

The next morning Ed and his men stood outside near the skimmer holding their pulse weapons and watching the tree line.

"Go on board and see if she is ready to fly," Ed told the preserve security lead.

In a matter of a few minutes he returned.

"It looks good."

"Okay we have too many people to fit in one flight. You choose one of your guys and prepare for the flight. We'll stand watch and prepare the people for the first flight."

Ed returned to the building to discuss with Kala his decisions about who would be taken to the farm on the first trip.

"How many can fit at one time?" asked Kala.

"Fifteen at a time," said Ed. "We'll need to send Prime Signant Waddel and Administrator Reznikov with the first group. Have the nurse send thirteen of the most stable survivors of the base camp attack to go with them."

They loaded the first trip quickly and watched them lift off before returning to the safety of the building. Later the skimmer returned accompanied by two others from the preserve. The three skimmers took fifteen of the remaining farm division members and the last of the base camp survivors to the preserve. An hour later one skimmer returned for Kala, Ed and the rest of his security officers. No sign of the Zoltosians was seen the rest of that day.

Back at the preserve the force field around the staff building was completed and running constantly. No one was allowed outside except to receive the skimmers and those being transported. After the last skimmer arrived everyone returned to the staff building to await rescue by the ship from Colony Defense. Ed found Paul in the laboratory.

"I guess I knew I'd find you here."

"Hello Ed. Yes, I'm only useful in the lab."

"I'm sorry for the way things are turning out."

"You mean with Gregory blaming me for the failure of the green death?"

"Yeah, he stands to lose a lot. We all do."

"Who was it exactly that attacked the base camp and the farm?"

"Your friends, the bears."

"I didn't know anything about any half human half bears."

"But I saw them when you sent me out to collect your bug traps."

"What?"

"Are you trying to tell me you didn't know about the humanoids in the forest?"

Paul blinked at Ed.

"No I did not. And I did not change the formula of the green death to protect them, as Gregory claims. How could I? You and Gregory had the vials of the green death before we left Earth."

"I see."

"What does that mean? What do you see, Ed? The Colony Defense force will be here in two days and Gregory plans on using me as the scapegoat for the failure of the scans to detect these violent humanoids. He is going to tell them that I altered the scans."

"Well didn't you?"

"I swear to you Ed, those scans never detected these humanoids. I did not alter the scans to hide the fact that they existed."

That much was true; he altered the scans to protect Drovus and the Zoltosians in the southern hemisphere.

"Well, they probably won't put you in prison, or not for too long, considering that the DAC scans missed them also."

"How long do you think Gregory will wait before he tries to have me killed? You know he wants the secret of the green death to stay secret."

"I think you are safe there. He needs a live scapegoat to keep himself out of trouble with the DAC. He has already found another planet for Glorianna to buy. And he knows if the story of the green death gets out you'll be tried for the murder of Pyotr Zubakin."

"Do me a favor and leave me alone."

"Sure, just don't try anything that will upset Gregory further, okay? He could always change his mind about killing you."

Ed left the laboratory and Paul opened the incubator. None of the cornmeal agar cultures were showing any growth. He left them in the incubator. The liquid media was more promising but if it was growth it was very slight. The tropical plants on the other hand were phenomenal. They were all showing significant growth of the Stegophla. He knew time was short to process it into a second batch of restorium. The first batch was finished and had been poured into a dispenser that would keep it secure and allow it to be delivered one drop at a time with a twist of the top. He had to get the second batch done before the Colony Defense forces arrived with their army and a representative of the Department of Alien Census to arrest him and take him to the capital of the Commonwealth of Planets for his trial.

While he was in the high level containment room working on the restorium he considered the two choices before him. Gregory did not know about the restorium. It would mean instant wealth and fame. In fact it would mean unlimited wealth. That had always been the allure of conquering the culture of Stegophla. Many had tried to culture it, spending their life's fortunes only to fail miserably. Even the Tillidians, seemed to have come close, but had not yet succeeded. Paul could tell Gregory about his success. It would no doubt guarantee Paul's future as a happy and wealthy one. Or, Paul could run and hide here on Zoltos before he was arrested. He would be giving up his life as he had ever known it. He would never see another human being as long as he lived. He could try to repair his relationship with Drovus and possibly cure her son Bernikas. But there was no guarantee that restorium would heal Bernikas' ulcers, or that Drovus could ever love him now that she knew he was the creator of the green death.

Besides, how could he escape arrest? He couldn't take a skimmer; the Colony Defense army would find him in no time. And they might discover Drovus and her people. He finished the beginning steps of the restorium. Now it had to sit under the hood for eighteen hours before he could finish the formula. He undressed and left the containment room. He would eat and try to decide what to do before four o'clock the next morning when he could begin the final stages of the formula.

It had been a sleepless night, but he had no problem getting out of bed at four a.m. He worked until eight and then went for breakfast. Glendral was in the cafeteria.

"You look well, mind if I sit with you?" asked Paul.

"Paul, I thought you might be in lockup. Sure sit down."

"No need to lock me up, after all where am I going to go? Outside with the bears?"

"No, I wouldn't suggest that Paul."

"I guess it was pretty awful, huh?"

"Yes, they are vicious."

They ate their breakfast and drank their coffee.

"It wasn't my fault."

"What? The scans?"

"Yes. I did not alter the scans to hide the fact that those humanoids were here. I did not know they existed."

"They are going to arrest you though aren't they?"

"Seems so. At least they dropped the multiple murder charges that Kala Patel wanted."

"I'm really glad you are feeling better, Glendral. I think I'll go pack up before the CD gets here."

"I'm sorry for all that is happening to you, Paul, I've always considered you to be a friend."

Paul did pack up. He packed the vials of restorium and samples of the Stegophla and some food, water, clothes, his M-scanner and then he slipped into the outdoor area off the back of the lab where the roaring crocodiles were meant to be kept if need be. Though outside, he was still inside the building force field, but as soon as the Colony Defense ship arrived the force field was deactivated and Paul walked away from the building and slipped into the forest. He made sure to leave tracks that could be followed, and then he stopped at the perimeter force field. To keep the force field safe from anyone climbing a tree and jumping over it, the construction crew had cleared all growth for fifty feet on either side of the force field through the entire forest. Paul had no way to deactivate the force field from out here in the forest. He did have a plan. He reached into his bag and pulled out a device to activate a preprogrammed thirty second deactivation of the force field. He punched the button on the device to activate it and waited expectantly for the force field to disappear.

On the other side of the building, Gregory met the Colony Defense ship commander as he disembarked.

"Administrator Resnikov?" asked the commander.

"Yes, thank you for coming to our rescue, commander."

"It is an honor to serve. I am commander Tailint. This is the DAC representative, Miss Hedfort."

"Yes, we met before," said Gregory.

"And this is Mister George Davidson, CEO of MechanX."

"MechanX? Do you mean the tractor company?" asked Gregory.

"Yes. I'm here to collect my units."

"Units? I'm sorry to seem confused, but I have no idea what you are talking about."

Mister Davidson pulled a device from his pocket and moved it around looking first at the device, then up at the surrounding area. He turned and faced away from the group, who turned to see what he was doing. In the distance fifteen women could be seen crossing the open ground of the preserve. All but one of them appeared to be human and all had elaborate makeup and hairstyles, but were wearing traditional silver Tillidian suits.

"Here they come now," said Mister Davidson.

The girls surrounded him pushing the others to the side.

"Reporting for duty, sir," said a stunning red headed woman.

"What took you so long to get here?"

"Mister Davidson? Where did they come from?" interrupted Commander Tailint.

"From the colony base camp," said Mister Davidson.

"They walked from the base camp?" asked Gregory.

"Well, yes of course. Well perhaps ran or jogged is more accurate," said Mister Davidson. "They are very versatile cyborgs and quite capable of running that distance in less than twenty-four hours. But why weren't you all here before I arrived?" Mister Davidson asked.

"There was a force field blocking our way. We had to wait for it to drop before we could continue," said the redhead.

"The perimeter force field? It dropped? You mean it is off?" asked Gregory looking alarmed.

"No, it was off it is back on now," said the redhead.

"How did you disable it?" asked commander Tailint.

"We didn't," said the redhead.

"I need to see your security people immediately," said commander Tailint to Gregory.

"Well, come now girls, let's get on the space ship and make preparations for returning to Earth," said Mister Davidson.

The CEO of MechanX and his units boarded the Colony Defense ship.

Several Colony Defense soldiers stationed themselves near the ship, while the commander followed Gregory and the DAC representative into the staff building.

When Paul deactivated the perimeter force field he had no way of knowing that the MechanX companions would give him away. He continued beyond the clear cut area of the force field and into the forest beyond. Here he set up his death scene. He'd removed a pint of his own blood the night before, which he now poured on the ground and sprayed onto the surrounding tree trunks. Then he took several large rocks and wrapped them in an extra suit. He took off his shoes and in bare feet he placed the suit with the rocks into the blood and dragged it away into the forest as if he had been attacked and dragged off. He kept going until he reached a small stream about two hundred yards into the forest. He walked into the water dragging the rocks. It looked like a man wearing shoes had been viciously attacked and dragged off by a bare footed humanoid. But all trace of the trail was lost in the stream. He walked down stream for a mile before he carefully left the stream by way of a rocky area that would conceal his tracks. After another quarter of a mile walking barefoot and being careful not to leave a trail he put his shoes back on and made his way around returning from the south to a position near where he'd crossed the force field.

He hid to wait for the Colony Defense evacuation of Zoltos. They were sure to come and look for him as he was now an escaped prisoner from the Commonwealth of Planets. But he couldn't go far. He needed the skimmer to get to the southern hemisphere to return to Drovus and Bernikas so he needed to know when the evacuation was complete and the others had left the surface. His program to drop the outer force shield would let him return through the perimeter force field to steal the skimmer after the others left, but he was sure they would look for him first. He'd left enough clues to direct the search starting with a note, left on the floor of the laboratory, saying that he was not guilty of faking the planetary scans. Then he left the exit door to the outside roaring crocodile area slightly ajar. His tracks from there through the forest should have been obvious to any skilled tracker, but to make sure at the exit of the forest he broke several branches on a tree. Then he made his entrance to the forest on the other side of the clearing through a thick area of brush leaving the branches unbroken but bent in the direction leading further into the forest. He found a large boulder near where he'd crossed through the perimeter force field where he could hide. The dense rock would block the soldier's M-scanners from picking him up as long as he stayed completely hidden behind it. For now he sat behind the huge rock with his own M-scanner, hidden on top under some leaves and moss, set to automatically scan for those who would be coming to find him.

Before long his M-scanner beeped softly. He quickly reached up to grab and silence it. Holding it near his chest he pressed his back against the boulder and listened intently for sounds of men moving through the clearing. The soft footfalls paused as they deactivated the force field then resumed. They were coming close to Paul's hiding place until one called softly, "This way." Then the footfalls moved away from Paul and into the forest. Carefully Paul repositioned himself so the boulder was more directly between him and the presumed position of the soldiers. Paul's legs were tiring and starting to cramp up in the time it took for the soldiers to return. Again Paul pressed himself against the boulder hardly daring to breathe. He heard the sound of the soldiers as they moved through the clear cut area and beyond toward the Preserve. He let his legs rest out from his body as he sat beside the boulder marveling that his plan had worked. In mere moments Paul heard the soft whoosh and whomp of a spacecraft lifting off. He retrieved his bag and deactivated the perimeter force field.

The trip back to the preserve was a quiet and calculated one. It was always possible that some of the security force remained on the planet so Paul kept his pulse44 in his hand as he crept back to the staff building. He could see the staff building which meant the force field was turned off and that most likely everyone had left, but someone might still be there. He walked around the building to the landing strip near the maintenance hangar. Close observation from behind the wall of the building showed no one there to observe or stop him and Paul climbed into the skimmer to return to the southern hemisphere. Upon landing under the edge of the forest he set the controls of the skimmer to hide it from casual observation and turned off the identification beacon that would have allowed other ships to locate him. Paul was now committed to life on Zoltos but the skimmer was there in case the Zoltosians rejected him. It remained to be seen how his life on Zoltos would unfold.

The stone city of Rinkti was empty as was Drovus' home, so Paul wandered down the stone street toward the portal to the valley city outside the stone. The sun was shining so brightly it brought tears to his eyes and he paused, shading his face with his hands to allow his eyes to adjust. After a moment he lifted his eyes to look at the beauty of life on Zoltos. The hill tops rose around the edges of the valley covered with emerald green grasses and dark green trees similar to Earth's pine trees. Unlike the plain's gray grasses the valley grass was not broken by wild flowers but continued down from the hills in an unbroken carpet of green. To the back left of the valley the hills rose more sharply with a barren stone face broken by a waterfall dancing down the rock to a lake. The sound was peaceful and refreshing to Paul's weary soul. The Zoltosians lived here in the valley between the hills in harmony with nature safe from the intrusion of Gregory and Glorianna's colonization, except for the death Paul's formula had brought them. It would never happen again. All of the existing supplies were destroyed and Paul would die rather than make it again in any form. Now he felt very happy that he'd always kept one step in the process secret from Ed. Even if he'd recorded Paul, he'd never know that the green powder was not as indicated on the label. Now the powder was gone, and no one would ever know exactly what was in it.

Pain crashed into his thoughts as he was struck from behind. He saw stars and then nothing as he passed into unconsciousness. They dragged him back into the stone city and up to the top level where Vadovus was holding a council session. Many of the Zoltosians in the courtyard rose to their feet as he was dragged into the courtyard and dropped in front of Vadovus. The men who brought him in stood back as their leader stepped forward to hand Vadovus Paul's bag. A discussion took place over what to do with him. Vadovus finally made a statement and everyone stopped talking. The men that brought him before her now dragged him out of the courtyard and down the stone street to the portal and beyond to a low thatched roof building. Paul was waking up from the blow to his head. Vadovus indicated to the men holding Paul to drop him on the ground before she walked inside.

Paul sat up looking at the crowd gathering around him. In a moment Vadovus returned with Drovus. At that point some people in the crowd began to call out to Drovus for what they were calling justice.

"Drovus! This being should die. He has brought death upon us."

"He has brought death to your son."

"Our babies have died because of him."

"Tell Vadovus to have him killed!"

Drovus looked so sad.

"It is true our babies have died and my son Bernikas will join them soon. But it is against our laws to kill a stranger."

"Drovus! Please I can help," called Paul.

The M-scanner hanging from his belt translated his words. And the people stopped and turned to see what Drovus would say.

"Please let him come in to say goodbye to Bernikas," she said with great sadness.

They released Paul and as many as could followed him inside.

Sorrow and grief were evident everywhere in the thatched roof building. It was a hospital and filled with children age four to ten and their despairing parents. Each child like Bernikas, covered in green ulcers, nearing death.

"He is over here. There is not much time left," said Drovus, resigned to her child's fate.

Paul walked past twenty cots with young Zoltosians, covered in green ulcers. About two thirds of the way down the row of cots Drovus stopped and pointed to Bernikas. His ulcers were so much worse than when Paul had seen him last. Paul moved beside the cot to talk to Bernikas.

"I've brought some medicine to help you," he said.

"You should not have come," Bernikas said. "They will kill you."

Paul reached into his backpack and pulled out one of the vials of restorium.

"Hold still now."

Paul started with Bernikas' left arm which was closest to Paul. He twisted open the vial and started to drop the restorium onto the ulcerated arm. The drops bubbled and hissed as they hit Bernikas' skin. Tears rolled from his eyes as he tried to keep from screaming in pain.

"It hurts, Paul."

"I'm sorry Bernikas, but look."

Bernikas looked down at his arm through the tears to see that a small part of his arm was clear of the horrible ulcers. He smiled, and then a small seizure forced him to lie back on the cot. Drovus came to Bernikas' side to comfort him and to look more closely at what Paul was doing. Paul continued to drop the restorium onto Bernikas' arm, and then started on his left leg.

"Ahh," Bernikas called out in pain.

But it was working! Bernikas' arm was almost entirely clear and the ulcers on his leg were abating. A child in a nearby cot cried out as a seizure shook her body.

"Can you help her also?" asked Drovus.

"Yes, here," he handed another vial to Drovus. "Be very careful, this is all there is."

"Oh, and there are so many other children."

"We'll do what we can," said Paul as he gave Drovus a reassuring squeeze of her wrist as she was taking the vial of restorium. She smiled.

"Thank you for coming back, Paul."

She turned and started to treat the next child. As the drops hit the girl's arm she cried out in pain.

"It hurts!"

The girl was crying.

"Look at your arm. It is getting better," said Drovus. "I'm sorry it hurts but it will make you well."

The girl nodded and Drovus continued.

The villagers watched in awe as each child was treated and their horribly ulcerated bodies were returned to health. Those outside heard the children crying in pain and grew concerned. Soon those inside came out with wonder on their faces whispering, "The children have been healed."

Vadovus, Drovus and Paul came out together leading Bernikas and the other children. The crowd was amazed.

"How did this happen?" a woman asked.

"Here is my child Drovus. Can she be healed as well?" said another woman.

"Yes, tell everyone to bring their children. Paul, who created the green death, has created an antidote, a cure. We will wait here for the children to come."

The woman whose child was with her was brought to the hospital. They went inside and Drovus helped the child to lie down so her ulcers could be treated. Vadovus left to return to the courtyard. Every child that was ulcerated by the green death came and was treated. After the last child was released to her family an exhausted Drovus told Paul, "You must return to the stone city. Before the sun goes down. It is our law."

"I'll take him," said one of the guards from the portal who had brought Paul before Vadovus.

Paul followed the young Zoltosian with a patch of black fur on his left shoulder back to the portal to the stone city. He'd had no food since breakfast with Glendral and there was nothing at Drovus' home. He lay there listening to his stomach growl and hoping Drovus would visit him the next day. Even though the children had been healed, many of the Zoltosians followed him and his guard to the portal and watched as the portal closed sealing him out. Some of those people looked at him with suspicion and fear in their eyes. Bernikas feared for Paul's life. Drovus said it was against the Zoltosian law to kill him. He wondered if the law and the healings would be enough to save the one who had brought such terror and sadness to them.

The next morning he woke. He tried to bathe in Drovus' kitchen sink and combed his hair with his fingers. He cleaned up the kitchen and the bed where he'd slept, hoping she would not be upset with him making a mess, if she came at all. The crystal lit the stone city as the sun rose and Paul became frantic. He walked to the portal and waited for it to open. He paced back and forth, afraid of what would happen when it did. Black patch was there to meet him. They walked without talking to a small home with a thatched roof. A table was set outside and Drovus was placing food on it as Bernikas sat waiting. Drovus sat across from Bernikas, Black patch hugged Bernikas and squeezed Drovus' hand before sitting next to Bernikas. A seat next to Drovus was open and Paul sat.

"Good morning, Paul," said Drovus as she passed him a plate of food.

"Good morning," said Paul.

"This is Konkuro, Bernikas' father," said Drovus.

The two men nodded at each other, but didn't speak.

"Are you coming to the celebration?" asked Bernikas.

"What celebration is that?" asked Paul smiling at Bernikas who was happy and showing no ill effects of being so near death the day before.

"Tell him, mother."

"The Council has declared a celebration because the children have been healed," she said.

"If I'm allowed, I'll come," said Paul.

"He can come with us, can't he father?" Bernikas asked Konkuro.

"Yes," he said smiling at his son.

As they were finishing breakfast, a girl came running and calling out, "Drovus? Drovus, please come."

"What is it, Lugimas?"

"The baby is coming!"

Drovus ran after Lugimas.

"We should stay here," said Konkuro to Paul. "This will be the first baby born since the green death and if it doesn't go well, we'll need to get you out of here quickly."

Bernikas looked alarmed, "You won't let them harm Paul, will you?"

"No, Bernikas. Your mother would not want that."

"Have you been with Drovus for many years?" Paul asked Konkuro.

"The men in our society do not live with the women unless they choose us for a life cycle. Drovus chose me to be her first and she gave birth to Bernikas that life cycle. After that I returned to the unchosen."

"Unchosen?"

"Yes, the women live here and rule the Council of Rinkti, the men who are chosen live with them until the woman has a child or asks the man to leave. The unchosen men live on the other side of the lake where we farm and perfect our warrior skills."

"You are a peaceful people. Why do you practice being a warrior?"

"In the past our society was not always so peaceful, we practice looking to the future if a time comes when we would need to defend our peace. Also we join the women on foraging parties as protectors. We learn to hunt so we can provide for any women who have had children by us. I have three women to provide for, including Drovus."

Paul wasn't sure what to do or think. The living arrangements Konkuro was describing were alien to him, but seemed to work well for his people. But there didn't seem to be any place for him in this society, especially considering that he'd indirectly brought terror to them by creating the green death, but he had broken Commonwealth law to try and save them and then miraculously extracted the restorium from the Stegophla to cure Bernikas and the other children. Still the Zoltosians feared him and some of them wanted him dead. If he couldn't stay here where could he go? He'd foolishly thought Drovus could be his and found out she already had Konkuro or the choice of any man she wanted. He did still have the skimmer, his M-scanner and the Stegophla stock cultures. He could contact Gregory and sell himself back to him rather than die at the hands of these normally peaceful people. They waited hours - but Zoltosians gave birth easily and Drovus returned before noon.

"Mother, how is the baby?" asked Bernikas when he saw her returning.

"Just fine. She is perfectly fine," said Drovus. "Now we have even more to celebrate. Vadovus has declared this day the Day of Rebirth. Paul, Vadovus will pronounce the council's decision to allow you to become a citizen at the celebration. They have decided to give you a place to live here and teach you our ways, if you want to stay."

"I'm grateful."

"You have much to learn," said Konkuro. "Will he stay with the unchosen?"

"Yes," said Drovus.

"But he can come and visit?" asked Bernikas.

"Yes," said Konkuro. "In fact he can stay with my clan as I also am unchosen for this life cycle. We will both come to visit and provide for you and your mother. Perhaps we can teach him to hunt, Bernikas. If your mother thinks you are old enough."

Bernikas looked expectantly at his mother.

"We'll see," she said.
