Torl's Journey

.....Arrival

Seala was already deep in travel sleep when they settled her into the transport bed and fastened her safety harness. Torl, too, was feeling the strong effects of the drug as he settled in and fastened the harness. The Androids were nearly finished with their loading, completely ignoring the humans who were settling in for the long trip.

Torl was dozing off to thoughts of the long road ahead. All the risks and all the potential rewards involved in getting to the free worlds. He was now risking more than just his own life on the chance that he could find them. He hoped with all his heart that Jelru’s friends were as dependable as she thought they were. It was hell not being able to use his powers to check them out. But their use was simply too dangerous.

And what of Lia? Would she really be happy that he was risking her daughter’s life to take her to her Mother? Or would she want the girl when they got there? Seala was so convinced that her Mother was a great Witch that loved her dearly. What if it weren’t true? Torl had developed some very significant feelings for this bright little girl and would probably be as crushed as she if this Lia didn’t want her to show up on the free worlds. With those thoughts, Torl too entered the world of travel sleep...

....The weight was pushing down on his chest so that he could hardly breathe. Torl felt extremely groggy, but he knew the feeling of a ship landing. Torl began to panic... this was too much pressure for a Passenger Liner...then he remembered where he was. This was not a Passenger Liner, it was a Freight ship. The Androids didn’t know or care about pressure, much less that there were two stowaways aboard. Two. That’s right, he inhaled, there were two of them, and it was Torl’s job to bring them both back to consciousness....

Torl waited until the pressure of re-entry lessened, and then he began to struggle with the harness that was holding him firmly in the travel bed. After a long and difficult struggle, one made especially difficult by the grogginess caused by the sleep drug, he finally retrieved the Wake Juice from his pocket and sipped the contents of the smaller container.

These containers had been designed for normal gravity with the individual sitting in an upright position. They were in final re-entry with gravity about two times normal and he was lying prone half asleep from the earlier drugs, so this was a very difficult task.

By the time he had succeeded in pouring most of the sickeningly sweet liquid into his mouth and swallowing it, he could hear the landing gear being rotated into position. With nothing to do but wait for the potion to take effect and the ship to land, Torl again started to consider the size of the task he had set for Seala and himself.

If he was wrong about the location of the free worlds, or if anything went wrong and they were caught, he and Seala would both wind up in a Work Camp, a Reprogramming Station, or worse, dead.

Again he hoped that Jelru’s friends were reliable. He had never before been reliant on, or responsible for, another. Now, he was and that changed things.

In his original plans, Torl had told himself that he would die rather than be captured. Now, he wasn’t sure he could do that. That type of thinking was not part of a person who was responsible for the life and wellbeing of another.

How had he let this happen? Why had he interfered when Seala was captured? No one had ever accused him of being a martyr and he had never even considered rescuing another Witch before. What had been so different about this one? Why did he now feel that he was tied to this little girl so that he could not leave her and continue with his own life?

As the ship touched down, Torl ended all this self-doubt with a final thought that it didn’t matter how or why, all that mattered was that this situation existed. Everything else had to take care of itself. He had planned well, he was well trained, and Seala was now fairly well coached. It was just a matter of following through.

The moment the ship came to a stop, Torl released the final safety harness that had kept him in place through the long trip, and climbed to his feet. Whoa! The Wake Juice had not yet completed its task. Torl stood on wobbly legs for another few minutes while his body recovered.

Then he walked gingerly across the small cabin and released Seala’s safety harness. He lifted her small body into a sitting position, sat beside her and carefully poured the potion into her mouth, massaging her throat into swallowing the liquid. When he had coaxed all the liquid down, he sat back and held her in his arms while the Juice began to take effect. In just over a minute, her eyes opened, she coughed, and smiled sleepily at Torl.

They sat up straight now, inhaling deeply to clear the remainder of cobwebs in their minds and then quickly reviewed the process of getting off the ship without being discovered. Then Torl had Seala recount, one final time, their new identities and their history.

Torl was now Lerot, a credits auditor class four, from the planet, Shanon Six. Seala was his daughter, Alaes, a quiet girl, fourteen years of age. They were on holiday, visiting some of the more prestigious of the non-tourist planets while on their way to Signa Three. Lerot had an interview for a planetary auditor’s Assistant position.

Alaes’s Mother had been a transient who worked in furniture when she was not otherwise employed doing field work or cleaning transports. She had been killed by a wealthy tourist on Shanon Six eight years ago. While she was carrying Alaes, she had indulged in some serious illicit drugs, leaving Alaes with a very poor short term memory, which could account for any slips of the tongue. Lerot had taken Alaes into his home when her Mother died and had cared for her ever since.

Since credits auditors were notoriously hard to talk to and untraceable due to their line of work, and since people tended to avoid children with handicaps, Torl felt that these identities were apt to receive the least scrutiny by anyone doing routine checks. Also, with a deceased and seemingly unworthy mother for the child, no one would question a call for living furniture at the quarters. With luck, this could just work.

They slipped in behind a large Android unloading grain pallets and followed it out of the ship and over to the Depot. Then, without saying a word, they moved in unison into a steady stream of people noisily going about their business. Fortunately, they had arrived in time to join the morning rush.

They worked their way to a land transport station and obtained a ride to the star port. Once at the port, they merged into another stream of people heading for the customs office. This was the first real test of Torl’s...Lerot’s ability to create an untraceable forgery of credentials.

When they reached the Customs Office counter, Lerot handed their papers to a clerk who scanned them into the immigration comp. In just a fraction of a minute the pass signal sounded and the clerk asked if they had anything to declare. Lerot responded with a negative. Then he was quizzed about the length of stay and the purpose for their visit. When the questions were done and the clerk was satisfied, they passed through the body scan system, picked up their papers, and proceeded on their way.

Well, so far so good. They made their way to a different land transport station and obtained a ride to the outsider’s quarters. Lerot placed the ad for living furniture class one and then registered them for room 112303. When he requested the room by number, the clerk paused for nearly a quarter of a minute making Torl...Lerot very nervous. But then they were registered and on their way.

When they reached their room, Lerot was very surprised to note that it was a three room suite. Two private sleep areas and a common living area. This must be costing them a small fortune, he thought. He sure hoped that Jelru’s friends didn’t take long getting the message and contacting them or Lerot would run out of funds before they got off this planet.

He could use the emergency funds, but that might raise some suspicion being that they had checked in on his credits account. There was no indication of a large cash credits withdrawal in the system. Well, he had included in the personality traits list that Lerot had a penchant for gambling; maybe he could go down to a casino and read a few winners at the slots to explain the arrival of the cash credits. For now though, they would just wait and see.

Lerot went to the com unit and registered the outsider’s quarters location for delivery of their luggage, then keyed up a meal for Alaes and himself. They ate in relative silence, and then laid down for a short nap, as would be normal from people who had just arrived on a transport ship.

Several hours later, their luggage arrived. Again in keeping with the habits of normal travelers, they entered the refresh unit then put on fresh clothing. After a lite meal, they went out for some sightseeing, again, as normal people do.

As they passed a noisy casino, Lerot decided to cover his bets, so to speak, and led Alaes into the establishment. In less than an hour, he had parleyed a sizable sum at the slots. Alaes, too, had won more than was normal, so Lerot decided that they had better lose some of the credits before they left in order to avoid suspicion.

Somehow, Alaes understood what he was doing and contributed some of her winnings to the illusion. When they left, no one questioned them. That seemed odd and made Lerot a little concerned that the gambling had gone too easily. As they walked back toward the outsider’s quarters, he realized that his feeling was correct. They were being followed.

Lerot took Alaes hand and began to pick up the pace. Alaes was soon trotting to keep up with him. This must have been a mistake. As they rounded a corner, two scroungy looking thugs accosted them. They were about to be robbed. To avoid conflict, Lerot handed over the credits in response to the larger thug’s demands. After all, winning the credits would allow him to deposit an equal amount without suspicion and he already had more than that available for use.

But that apparently was not all they were interested in. As soon as he had given them the money, the thugs started to verbally abuse both himself and Alaes. Again, to avoid further conflict, Lerot endured this and cautioned Alaes to do the same. Then the larger of the two thugs reached for Alaes, talking about what he intended to do to her.

Instinctively, Lerot...Torl responded with fighting techniques that these thugs had obviously never encountered before. Almost before he knew what he was doing, the two were lying unconscious on the ground and Alaes was looking at him with nothing but pure pride on her face.

Lerot took back the stolen credits and tucked them into his shirt. Then he looked sternly at Alaes hoping that she would get the message not to say anything about this to anyone. After all, he had made no provision for these abilities in his personality assessment of Lerot. Quietly, he grabbed Alaes’ hand and they walked swiftly back to their quarters.

When they were there, he deposited what turned out to be still a substantial amount of credits, into his account and listed them as gambling proceeds. Well, he had made them secure for a period of time. Now if no one had seen him handle the thugs, they might make it out of here after all.

They went quietly to their room and soon were settled in for the night. As he lay on the bed, Lerot scorned himself for not including some provision for self-defense skills. These particular skills were unusual for anyone, but it would not have been unusual for an auditor to have considerable prowess at self-defense. After all, they were rather unpopular. What an oversight. This could spell disaster if someone thought to check. After a short period of this internal lecturing, he again came to the conclusion that nothing else could be done. Then, almost like an automatic lighting system, he shut down and fell into a deep sleep.

The following morning, as they were preparing to go out for another site seeing trip, the com unit sounded. Lerot answered it automatically and was astonished by the appearance of a very beautiful and very naked woman on the view screen. She was a tall, slender woman with beautifully tanned skin. Her eyes were hazel and whoa! She was quite the buxomness blond. It took several fractions of a minute for Torl...Lerot to see beyond her physical appearance and notice that she was speaking to him.

“Sir, you placed an ad for living furniture class one?”

“Uh huh..ah...Yes. You’re a class one? Wow, I should have come here long ago.”

“Thank you, sir. Yes, I am Selina, living furniture class one. Am I acceptable?”

“Acceptable?” Lerot stammered. “Yes...Yes, you are verrry acceptable. When will you be available?”

“First thing tomorrow. Standard rates apply. If these terms are acceptable, please scan your credit plate now.”

Lerot stood there with his mouth open for a moment, then fumbled for his credit plate and scanned it at the com scanner.

“Thank you, sir. See you tomorrow .”

Then the screen was blank and Lerot stood there staring at the com unit for several more fractions of a minute. Finally, shaking away Selina’s picture from his mind he wondered if this was one of Jelru’s friends or if Selina could really be a living furniture class one. Surely one so beautiful would not be a class one. She must be one of Jelru’s friends he concluded. Jesul, these people really went to lengths to play the part.

Lerot turned, grabbed Alaes’ hand and they left. But he could not erase the image of Selina from his mind. Why would such a beautiful creature pretend to be a living furniture? And how could she bring herself to stand totally nude in front of a complete stranger, calmly discussing rates? How long until morning?

Seala...Alaes had witnessed the com exchange, too. This was what Jelru had said must be done. Now it was done. But what was wrong with Torl...Lerot, him? Ever since that com exchange he seemed a different person. And not just in name.

He was quiet; he had hardly said anything all day. Was she missing something? She’d been shocked when Lerot had first tried to give away the credits they had won fair and square at the slots, well not quite fair and square. Then he had demolished the two would be thieves when they were going to attack her. Alaes thought that this had meant that he really liked her. Now he wouldn’t even talk to her.

She was beginning to wonder if she really knew anything about this man. He couldn’t have been taken in by that obvious show of skin, could he? Was he infatuated with someone who was certainly not worthy of such an extraordinary person.

Alaes wished she had a body capable of exacting such attention from him. Maybe that was it. Maybe he really was just out of touch with reality because of that Selina. Well, she would only be around until they moved on to the next planet.

It was nearly dark when they returned to their rooms that evening. And the two of them were totally exhausted when they did. This tourist stuff took a lot out of a person. First, they had seen the massive Blue Sand Dunes of Hlrik’s Layover. Then, on the way to their next stop, the driver paused so that they could watch a giant sand slug slayed by a Llonk, obviously a great sport, and then the Llonk was killed in turn by a farmer’s laser canon.

Then they arrived at the high cliffs of the winter wars and listened to a long speech about how the dissenters were brought into the alliance in battles fought on these very cliffs. And everyone lived happily ever after.

Finally, they had been taken to the top of Mount Sinale, the highest mountain on this planet. It was apparently sixty parses high. Alaes enjoyed this particular stop most because she could see green and brown land for many, many parses in all directions. Even the star port and the entire town were visible from there.

Now, in just three days, they had seen about all Sinale Seven had to offer in the way of touristy spots. They were really beginning to feel the long awake periods and short sleep cycles.

Lerot decided they would turn in early, and if Alaes had anything to say about it, they would sleep well into the awake period tomorrow. So, they dialed up their evening meal, ate it slowly, and then slipped off into restful sleep.