Your Truth is Out There (Find Your Truth Book 1) Page 9

  Gsefx raised his hands slowly and tried to remain calm. As unfamiliar as he was with Irt’s society and customs, it was easy enough to recognize this creature as a foot soldier, and a rather large one at that.

  Best to be careful with these types, he thought. They’re usually trained for only one purpose and there’s no need to give it a reason to act on that training.

  A voice from outside the ship bellowed unintelligibly and the soldier stepped back. He motioned with his weapon for Gsefx to get out of the vehicle.

  Gsefx nodded his understanding and carefully exited his ship. Looking around, he saw Henree off to one side, with three soldiers detaining him. Several hundred additional soldiers filled the clearing, all with weapons pointed directly at him.

  He stood there silently, his four arms high in the air, and tried not to think about how close he had been to getting away. His vehicle was fixed and ready to go. Another ebyt or two and he would have been beyond the Irtling’s ability to catch him.

  A large soldier, who appeared to be significantly older than those around him, but dressed in the same manner, stood a short distance away. As it spoke to the others standing close by, several of them began walking toward Gsefx.

  Henree yelled something and tried in vain to break free from the soldiers holding him. One of the soldiers punched Henree in the stomach dropping him to his knees. When he looked up again, Gsefx caught his attention and shook his head from side-to-side. He knew this whole situation was his own doing and the last thing he wanted now was for his newest friend to get hurt because of his own foolishness.

  The soldiers had nearly reached him when a loud humming noise from above interrupted them. They, along with everyone else in the clearing, looked up to see another ship coming straight at them.

  His vision being much stronger than his Irtling counterparts, Gsefx recognized the vehicle coming toward them long before anyone else. It was a Klurdine Glakton, one of the finest luxury vehicles on the market. He remembered when its current operator, his former boss, Et Qilzar, first flew it to the office. Qilzar had taken great pains to show it off, without trying to look like he was showing it off, of course. As he recalled, that Glakton had created quite a stir among his coworkers.

  But what was Qilzar doing here? And who was that in the passenger seat?

  As the ship drew closer, he was shocked to see that Qilzar’s passenger was none other than his beautiful wife, Lhvunsa. The sight of her always brought joy to his heart, now even more so. Although this time, his joy was accompanied by puzzlement.

  What in the galaxy was she doing with Qilzar, here on Irt?

  Exactly what had brought his wife and his former boss to Irt together was a mystery to Gsefx, but what they were about to do was not. He planted all four of his feet solidly in the ground and braced himself.

  Chapter 29

  Romeo Alpha! Romeo Alpha!

  Having never before seen a Klurdine Glakton, General Alcorn didn’t recognize the vehicle headed his way, but like his non-terrestrial counterpart, he too knew what it was planning. It was a contingency he and his troops were supposed to be prepared for.

  “Romeo Alpha! Romeo Alpha! Move! Move!” he shouted.

  The soldiers sprang into action, but were too late. The approaching ship was moving too fast and was on top of them before they could get into position. A few of the soldiers, including the General, were able to open fire, but none were able to do anything to the incoming ship but perhaps chip its finish. Within seconds, the ship flew by, less than twenty feet over the tops of their heads, knocking everyone in the clearing to the ground. Everyone except the four-legged alien.

  Chapter 30

  He Saved My Life

  Henry raised his head to look around. The soldiers who had been holding him had been knocked several feet away and were still lying face down. He jumped to his feet, and as he did so, he noticed the General had risen as well. He glanced toward Zef’s ship and saw his friend had already gotten back inside and was firing up the engines.

  A shot rang out, ricocheting off the ship. It was Alcorn.

  “Get up! Get up!” the General screamed at his troops. “The alien’s getting away!”

  Without thinking, Henry took off across the clearing and launched himself at the man with the stars on his shoulders. The General cursed loudly as they both hit the ground hard.

  “Leave it alone!” shouted Henry, his rage overcoming his fear. “It didn’t do anything to you! It just needed to repair its ship. That’s all it wanted!”

  “Get off of me …” the General tried to shout back. But his words were lost in the din created by the ship’s departure. Louder still was the music that suddenly filled the air.

  Night is day and day is night,

  Don’t say I won’t ‘cause you know I might.

  Henry looked up, just in time to see his friend smile and wave. Then the ship, along with Zef, was gone.

  Henry was about to return the wave when he was grabbed and thrown face down into the dirt. His hands were yanked behind his back and handcuffs were placed none too gently around his wrists. A moment later he was jerked back to his feet, and was standing face-to-face with a dusty and very unhappy-looking General.

  Alcorn glared at him without saying a word, jaws flexing in an obvious effort to control his rage. After a few tense moments, in which Henry felt his fear return, the General stepped back and appeared to relax a bit. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of chewing gum.

  “Henry,” he said as he unwrapped a stick and popped it into his mouth, “do you have any idea just how much trouble you’re in?”

  “I think I have a pretty good idea.”

  “No, son, I don’t think you do. Interfering with a federal military operation, aiding in the escape of an non-terrestrial being, and an assault on a government official. There’s probably more, but those charges alone will be enough to put you behind bars for the rest of your life.”

  The General chewed his gum slowly, eyes never leaving Henry’s. Finding a confidence he never thought possible, Henry held the General’s gaze.

  “I don’t get it, son,” continued Alcorn. “You seem relatively bright; you had to know there would be consequences. What made you pull a stunt like that? Whatever possessed you to throw your life away like that? And for what? So a creature you’d never met before and couldn’t even communicate with, whose intentions you didn’t know, could escape. Thanks to you, we may never know its intentions. For all we know, it could’ve been a scout, here on a reconnaissance mission. An invasion fleet might already be on its way.”

  Henry never wavered, his earlier fear a thing of the past. He had helped Zef escape and that’s all that mattered to him now. Let them take him to prison. He was ready.

  “General Alcorn, just because you’ve chosen a military life, why would you automatically assume the alien has done the same? Couldn’t it just as easily have been an explorer on a scientific mission, or an ambassador here to establish peaceful relations? Hell, General, for all you know, it wasn’t interested in Earth at all, but was nothing more than a wayward traveler with car trouble and this planet was the closest thing to civilization it could find. How would you like to be surrounded by an army of strangers pointing weapons at you the next time you have a flat tire?”

  The General was unmoved.

  “Interesting theories, but we’ll never know now, will we? I’m still waiting on an answer as to why you defied your own countrymen to aid an alien being of unknown intentions.”

  “He saved my life,” said Henry defiantly. “It was only fair I should try and do the same for him. Isn’t that what friends do for one another?”

  The General stared at Henry for a moment, then shook his head and looked away. He spit out his gum, then motioned for his troops to take the prisoner away.

  Henry knew the General had not been bluffing. He would spend a long time in prison, perhaps even the rest of his life. Even so, he felt an inner peace he’d never felt before. A
fter all the years of pain over not being accepted by those around him, he had finally found a being who understood him. Not his language perhaps, but him, as a person. Zef had done more than foil his suicide attempt. In the ways that mattered, he had truly saved Henry’s life.

  PART TWO:

  FRIENDS & ENEMIES

  Chapter 31

  I Need to Go Back

  It didn’t take long to break out of Irt’s atmosphere, and as soon as he did, Gsefx almost turned right back around to go and rescue Henree. The only thing that stopped him was that he couldn’t be sure how long his makeshift attitude control would last, and it wouldn’t do either of them any good to go right back down and get caught again. He had just decided to go back and try anyway when his vidcon lit up with Lhvunsa’s image. All thoughts of returning to Irt’s surface immediately melted away with the appearance of his beautiful wife.

  “Gsefx, thank the Gods you’re all right!” she said. “You scared me nearly to death!”

  “I’m fine, my love. Thanks to you and … to Qilzar. Although, I’m a bit fuzzy on that part, since the last time I spoke to him …”

  “All in good time, my dear boy,” said Qilzar, sticking his head into view, “but first let’s get out of here and to a safe location, where we can discuss things more comfortably.”

  “Of course, Et Qilzar. Lead the way. I’m right behind you.”

  They made their way back to more civilized parts of the galaxy and found a refueling hub with what passed for a restaurant. After Gsefx was properly reunited with his wife, and then subsequently scolded by her, he turned to Qilzar. He was stopped by his former boss before he could ask the obvious question that was on his mind.

  “Gsefx,” said Qilzar, “I owe you an apology, a long overdue one at that. I have treated you unfairly and, well, thanks to your lovely wife, I have had a chance to not only see you in a different light, but to see myself differently as well. I am genuinely sorry for all the difficulties I have caused you.”

  Gsefx was stunned. He couldn’t think of what to say, so he stammered out the only thing that came to mind.

  “So, I’m not fired, then?”

  “Most certainly not! In fact, Et Xtlar has a new assignment …”

  Qilzar’s voice trailed off as his eyes wandered toward the back seat of Gsefx’s vehicle.

  “What is that magnificent work of art in your back seat?” he asked.

  “What?” said Gsefx, turning around. “Oh that. One of the Irtlings helped me escape. He painted it. At least I think it was him. He gave it to me as a gift.”

  Lhvunsa was now staring at the painting too. “You didn’t mention that you had made contact with any of the Irtlings individually, my dear.”

  “We haven’t really had time to tell each other’s whole stories yet, have we, my darling?”

  Gsefx watched his wife as she struggled to tear her gaze from the painting. When she was finally able to look at him, her eyes were filled with something he'd never seen in her before, something he recognized as desire, but on a scale he was completely unfamiliar with.

  “Perhaps we should do so now, and let’s not leave out any details,” she said, her eyes wandering back to the painting.

  “Yes, I agree,” said Gsefx. “But let’s get out of the parking lot and into the restaurant.”

  When neither his wife nor boss moved a muscle, he pressed a button on his shirt and the door to his vehicle closed and locked, and the windows turned completely opaque. Lhvunsa and Qilzar jumped as if they’d been slapped.

  “What did you do that for?” asked Qilzar.

  “That wasn’t necessary,” said Lhvunsa.

  “I’m afraid it was,” said Gsefx. “Now inside, both of you. This is a side of you I haven’t seen before and I’m not sure I like it.”

  “Who are you talking to, darling, him or me?” asked Lhvunsa.

  “Both of you. Now come on, let’s go.”

  Once inside and seated, they each told the other all that had happened since parting ways earlier that rotation. Gsefx told of his poorly thought out trip to Irt to pick up some music after being fired by Qilzar, for which Qilzar apologized again. He told of his malfunctioning attitude control, subsequent landing, and fortuitous meeting of Henree. He told them of the painting, purposely skipping over the fact that there were others beside the one in his back seat, and of how Henree tried to protect him when the other Irtlings tried to capture him. He finished the tale of his adventure by recounting how he used Henree’s primitive weapon to fix his broken attitude control.

  “But even then,” he continued, “I wouldn’t have escaped without your help. How in the Galaxy did you get together in the first place, and then find me?”

  “Well, you see,” said Qilzar, uncomfortably, “shortly after our, ahem, conversation, Xtlar came …”

  “I contacted him, Gsefx,” interrupted Lhvunsa, much to Qilzar’s apparent relief. “Remember those devices you invented for the vehicles a turn ago?”

  Gsefx nodded.

  “Well, I got a notification that said your vehicle had gone outside the one hundred parsec perimeter we set up when you first installed them, which made me wonder what was going on. I tried contacting you but couldn’t get a response, so I called Qilzar. He explained what had happened and suggested that since I could track you with the device, we should go look for you.”

  Qilzar gave Lhvunsa a surprised look, but Gsefx pretended not to notice. He also pretended not to notice his wife kick Qilzar gently in the shin. She was up to something, but it was on his behalf, so he wasn’t going to spoil it.

  “By the time we reached Irt,” said Lhvunsa without missing a beat, “we realized you were on the surface and in trouble, and knew we had to do something. So, we did about the only thing we could do, fly low enough and fast enough to hopefully give you enough time to escape. We were going to come around for another pass but saw that you were already lifting off, so we headed out of the atmosphere.”

  “It was fortunate the first primitive you ran into was a friendly one,” said Qilzar. “Otherwise, things might have turned out quite differently, my boy.”

  “Yes, quite differently, I’m sure,” said Gsefx. “The worst part of it is that while I escaped, I’m afraid he didn’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean his fellow Irtlings took him into custody. I’m certain they’ll imprison him, or worse, and it’s all my fault. I need to go back and help him.”

  “No, Gsefx!” said Lhvunsa, becoming uncharacteristically frantic. “You can’t!”

  Gsefx looked at his wife with concern. He knew she was right, of course, but her sudden outburst was completely unlike her.

  “Lhvunsa, are you all right?” he asked. “You don’t seem yourself.”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Just promise me you won’t go back to Irt.”

  “I won’t,” he said quietly. “I promise.”

  Lhvunsa wrapped one of her arms gently around one of his and laid her head on his shoulder.

  “Even so,” said Gsefx, “I can’t help but feel responsible. I ruined Henree’s life.”

  “I understand how you feel, Gsefx,” said Qilzar, quietly. “I once had a pet Clelchin when I was a boy. Clydon was his name. We were inseparable. We went everywhere together. One rotation we were out fooling around in an area outside of the city that was off limits. It was an abandoned construction site with lots of old equipment and such. I was climbing up an old staircase that had no wall on one side and was completely open to the air. On the way up, one of the steps broke through and I lost my balance. I surely would have fallen over the side, but Clydon grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me back over. In the process of saving me, though, Clydon lost his balance and went over the side himself. I’ve never forgiven myself, Gsefx, but there was nothing I could do. His blind affection cost him his life, even though it saved me in the process.”

  “I’m sorry, Qilzar,” said Gsefx. “That must have been devastating.”

  �
��It was, but I was just a child, only eleven turns. As I grew, I learned that lesser creatures sometime act on instinct, rather than intellect. There was nothing I could do. Just like there was nothing you could do for the Irtling.”

  “Excuse me? Qilzar, Irtlings may be primitives, but they are hardly lesser creatures.”

  “Oh, my dear boy, of course they are. Perhaps in a few thousand years, when and if they’ve evolved far enough along, they won’t be so far beneath us. But as someone who’s flown by and seen for myself, they are nothing more than wild animals. Quite dangerous ones, at that.”

  “How dare you …” said Gsefx rising from his chair, his temper exploding like a stack of Plurian gas mines. Qilzar was talking about Henree, and that was crossing the line. Lhvunsa took hold of his arm, gently pulling him back into his chair. Soft green fingers rubbed his neck, calming him in a way only she was capable. At the same time, she shook her head and softly shushed the Dremin on the other side of the table.

  “My darling,” she said, looking Gsefx in the eyes, “you saw for yourself what they were going to do to you. But even if, as a species, the Irtlings are not what you’d like them to be, we can all agree that we owe a debt of gratitude and friendship to Henree.” The last she directed toward Qilzar.

  “Quite right,” said Qilzar, catching her look. “We owe Henree a great debt for helping save your life.”

  “Yes, we do,” said Gsefx, sadly. “A debt that can’t be repaid, I’m afraid.”

  “The way to repay him is to live your life the best way you know how,” said Lhvunsa, continuing to rub his neck.

  “You talk as if he’s already dead. What if he’s not? What if he’s imprisoned somewhere, waiting for us to rescue him?”

  “Gsefx, we are not going back, and that’s final,” said Lhvunsa, the neck rub coming to an abrupt end. “None of us are going back. Not you, not me, and not Qilzar.”