STOWAWAY TO THE STARS

Karen had yet to see a Union style police officer, but she had no doubt who these two men were. Their bright red car had no need of flashing lights on top, because as it drove up the car itself was flashing somehow, although it stopped when the car halted. The men wore black, tight fitting uniforms that, like so much Union fabric, stretched readily as they moved. They were equipped with stun guns, and other equipment that she did not recognize.

She rushed out from her hiding place to meet them.

“Hurry please,” she begged. “He is in there” – she pointed to number twenty seven – “and I’m sure they are doing something to him.”

The officers looked at her closely and she felt uncomfortable under their gaze. Had she done enough to look convincing as a rape victim? But then the taller officer nodded and they marched up to the house with Karen close behind, and hammered on the door. It was opened by the agent who earlier had searched her rather intimately.

“That is him,” screamed Karen. “He is one of the men who raped me and took my husband.”

“Don’t worry, ma’am,” said the tall officer. “We’ll soon have your husband safe if he’s inside.” He turned to the Ziloni agent.

“This lady has made a serious complaint about the occupants of this house. We need to come in and checked around.”

“I’m sorry, that won’t be possible,” said Groper. “I’ve never seen this little tramp in my life, and we have diplomatic immunity.”

Karen felt an icy chill. If they had diplomatic immunity she was screwed – and she’d shown her hand by coming back.

The tall officer reacted sharply to Groper’s refusal.

“That seems like an admission of guilt to me. You know we can soon get an over-ride clearance, and when we do we’ll rip this residence apart.”

That sounded better. Diplomatic immunity clearly wasn’t the same magic wand in the Union that it was on Earth. Even so, she didn’t know how long the clearance would take. Meantime, goodness knows what they would do to Larry. As if he could read her mind, she heard him call again over her earpiece. “Karen, tell the cops I am upstairs, second door on the right.”

She was way out on a limb already. It was too late to get cold feet. She thrust past the officers and Groper, catching them all off guard, and raced up the stairs. Please God, let the police follow me and not leave me at the mercy of the Ziloni agents.

Her long legs carried her two steps at a time to the top, and she burst into the upstairs room where Larry was being held. Behind her she heard rapid footsteps pounding up the stairs, and shouts of protest from Groper.

She took in the scene that met her eyes in horror – Larry, stark naked, handcuffed to the chair, and a heavily built man with a goatee beard, who she had not seen previously, coming toward her, drawing his stun pistol as he came.

She screamed at the top of her voice, “Here he is! I told you so!” and launched herself at Goatee. She grabbed his wrist with one hand and the pistol with her other hand, twisting it away from her.

Karen wasn’t sure how she managed to hold him off. He was a big man, she was an untrained woman – he should have demolished her in seconds. Fortunately she was fit, she was fast, and her previous experiences with Larry had taught her the things to look out for. But most of all, she just had to stop this guy from shooting anyone. She was desperate, and too busy to feel any fear.

She clung like a leech to his wrist, spinning round to keep him off balance as he attempted to aim blows at her with his free hand, ducking as much as possible. She used her arms and shoulders to deflect his attack and collected an array of bruises in the process. He kept trying to kick her, but Karen swung on the end of his arm like a pendulum and he was too busy keeping on his feet to use them effectively as weapons.

He finally managed to shake her loose just as the two police officers burst into the room. They stopped short on seeing the scene in front of them. This gave Goatee time to get off the first shot, and one of the officers dropped unconscious to the floor. But the second officer whipped his pistol out and fired before Goatee could shoot a second time.

****

Constrained in his chair, Larry had been forced to watch the drama unfolding in front of him as a passive, frustrated spectator. Now one of the police officers and the agent in the room were both down. He shouted to the remaining officer. “Shut the door and lock it quickly. There are more of them, and they probably have laser weapons as well.”

The police officer reacted with commendable speed, slamming and locking the door in the face of Number Two, who was running up the stairs and trying to draw his concealed weapon at the same time. The officer pressed his ear to activate his earpiece radio.

“Tostensti to base, I need armed backup fast. Twenty seven, Crastenton Terrace. I’m trapped and under fire. I have an officer down.”

Karen seemed to have recovered from her struggle with Number Three. She found keys to the handcuffs in his pocket, with which she set Larry free.

“Quick,” he said. “Help me move that cabinet across the door.”

He staggered across to the heavy metal cabinet in the corner of the room, cursing his clumsiness as the circulation slowly returned to his limbs.

Tostensti rushed over to assist, and together the three of them dragged it into position. As they maneuvered it, they could see that the door was starting to smolder, solid though it was it was. They must have some seriously heavy laser weapons out there.

“Who the hell are you?” asked Tostensti. “This is no domestic incident.”

“You’re right. We’re Union secret service agents,” lied Larry. “Those guys outside are Ziloni agents. They caught us unarmed. I got captured and my colleague here tried the quickest thing she could think of to get assistance. Things were not looking too good for me before you arrived.”

Tostensti nodded and made another call on his radio.

“Tostensti again. My attackers are Ziloni secret service agents. Tell backup to expect heavy armed resistance and to use great care. But get them here quickly. I can’t hold out for long.”

Larry retrieved the two stun pistols dropped by Number Three and the other officer, and passed one to Karen. Tostensti watched him suspiciously, so Larry tried to reassure him.

“That door may not hold. We need to fight them off if it doesn’t.”

The metal cabinet jerked as the lock of the door burned away and the attackers tried to open it.

“Quick, we need to brace this cabinet,” said Larry. He leaned against the cabinet, which was jerking repeatedly. Tostensti and Karen added their weight to the cabinet, as it heated up from the laser fire now penetrating the door. Please don’t use mini-grenades on the door, Larry prayed inwardly. They must have them, but with luck they’d be too reluctant to make that much noise. The three of them wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer anyway, he thought grimly.

Outside, the wail of sirens signaled the merciful arrival of backup. Shortly afterward, through the ruined door, they heard shouting and the distinctive sound of laser bursts hitting metal and plastic. The cabinet stopped jerking.

“I think we’re safe now,” said Tostensti, relaxing.

“You’re right,” replied Larry. “I’m sorry about this.” He raised his stun pistol and shot the officer before he could react.

Karen’s eyes grew wide. “Larry, what have you done? He saved our lives.”

“We need to get away. He’ll be okay now that help is here. He’ll only be out for an hour or so.”

He hurried over to the table, scattered with their possessions, and grabbed up his data pin, printouts and clothes.

“We’ll need the cases later. Can you fill them quickly while I get dressed?”

Karen looked down at his nakedness. She put her hand to her mouth and looked away, before nodding.

A few moments later Larry was clothed, if untidy, and the cases were packed. He scooped up the stun pistol, his money, keys, remote control and other items from the table, moved across to the window and surveyed the scene outside.

The window opened onto a garden at the rear of the house. That wasn’t surprising, they wouldn’t have wanted an interrogation room overlooking the street. Other gardens adjoined it to form an enclosed interior area. Most of the gardens were neatly laid out, except the one at the rear of the house where Karen had taken shelter. A high wall bounded each one. Luckily, because the whole area was enclosed, no police officers had yet appeared, though Larry was prepared to stun them if they did.

Surveying the houses opposite, He spotted one with an open window. That would be their escape route.

He dropped the two cases out of the window and turned to Karen.

“It’s quite a way down. We must be careful not to twist or break an ankle, or anything. Swing over the ledge and lower yourself to arms length, that way you’ll have less distance to drop. As you jump, push yourself out a little way. I’ll go first and help break your fall.”

He went over the edge, hung for a moment and dropped, rolling to one side as he landed. He sprang back to his feet in time to position himself under Karen. She fell against his chest and he rolled backward with her.

As they lay there winded, he was suddenly aware of her body, warm and vibrant in his arms. Their eyes locked briefly, but he remembered the urgency of their situation and the moment was gone. They scrambled to their feet and Larry gathered up their cases. Although the walls between them and the garden of the house he had chosen were over two meters high, Karen’s athleticism gave her no problem in getting over them with a hand from Larry. She caught the cases as Larry threw them to her, then he sprang up, caught his fingers on the top and levered himself up and over.

As they climbed through the window of the neighboring house Larry drew his stun pistol, ready to use it on anyone who saw them, but luckily for any occupants, Larry and Karen passed through the house undetected. As they reached the front door, Larry tucked the pistol back under his tunic top and said, “Act casually. We need to look as if we’re off for a holiday with our luggage.”

A police car was parked a little way down the road, and two more careered into view as they closed the door. One screeched to a halt beside them. An officer leapt out and held up a hand to stop them.

“We have a major incident in a house in the next street,” he said. “Have you seen or heard anything?”

“Good heavens,” said Larry. “No, we haven’t. Mind you, we’re in a hurry, we haven’t been paying attention to anything happening outside.”

“We’re about to close off the area, but I can let you through if I can check your IDs.”

Larry nodded, fighting down his concern. Their false IDs were going to get tested sooner than he’d expected.

The officer produced a hand-held scanner and studied the results of their scans. His eyebrows raised and he looked at Karen thoughtfully.

“How long have you known this man?” he asked. That wasn’t the question that Larry had been fearing – it sounded as if the guy was just confused by their lack of apparent relationship.

“Excuse me, officer,” he interrupted. “You’re a man of the world. Does this have any bearing on your incident?”

The officer shook his head. “Sure, it’s no concern of mine. I won’t hold you up any more. Have a nice day.” He gave a little snicker as he turned away.

Larry tried to suppress his sigh of relief, as he took Karen’s arm and strode away as quickly as he dared.

“Where’s the car?” he whispered.

Karen led the way back to where she had parked. She passed the key to Larry. “You had better drive again.”

As they drove away, Larry looked over at her. “Karen, I want to thank you so much. You have just saved my life, not to mention a very unpleasant piece of torture first. That was a performance out of this world. You are an amazing woman.”

For a moment tears appeared in Karen’s eyes, before her face clouded and she shook her head.

“Please get me out of here. I thought things were getting better, then this happened.”

That wasn’t the response he had hoped for, but maybe she was upset by the whole incident, and it was a reaction to the stress she had suffered.

“We just need to get to the spaceport. We still have plenty of time to catch our flight. We’ll be using public transport, though. I need to lose this hire car as soon as I can.”

Another thought struck him. “By the way, how did you manage to drive the car when they let you go? You’ve never touched the controls before.”

She looked at him in irritation. “Larry, just because I am a primitive it does not make me stupid. I had been watching what you did and it’s not difficult, is it?”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have under-estimated you. I can only say thank you again.”

This time, she rewarded him with a dazzling smile.

As soon as Larry judged they were far enough away from Crastenton Terrace, he parked in a quiet side street, and carefully noted the street name. He’d notify the hire company where it was from the spaceport, just before they were ready to depart. He wanted nothing more to do with the car. Now that his name was linked to it, any other Ziloni agents still free would probably be aware of it.

He wondered about Karen’s spare data pin, but decided not to mention it. Somehow, after her recent initiative in rescuing him, he no longer felt fully in charge. He retrieved their luggage from the car, and they walked away without a backward glance at the vehicle that had landed them in so much trouble.

****

Karen stared about her as they walked back to the main road. She expected Ziloni agents to spring out from every house. That was ridiculous, how many agents could they have on one planet? The chance of passing one of their houses was negligible, but somehow that thought did nothing to dispel her fears.

They hadn’t walked far down the main road when Larry stopped at a large, transparent cabin. So this was what a public transport stop looked like on Drazen. Before long Karen saw her first alien bus. It was the first vehicle she had seen with four wheels since leaving Earth.

When she commented about it Larry explained. “It’s a trade-off of stability versus efficiency. Buses keep stopping and it saves having to put down stabilizing legs each time. The extra drag of four wheels and lack of tilting when going round corners doesn’t matter in a slow moving bus.”

They climbed aboard and Larry registered his presence on the bus by inserting his ID finger in a machine by the door. Karen took her cue from him and did the same. Although she was still struggling with Universal script, she could decipher the simple instruction over the machine: “PAY ON EXIT”. Larry squeezed their cases into the tiny luggage compartment by the door and led her to a pair of seats near the back.

Karen looked around curiously. It struck her that inside it was not so different from an Earth bus; the aisle has to be up the middle, it is the only practical arrangement. The bus had several other passengers in a wide variety of garments. Some would not have looked out of place on Earth if you didn’t examine the fabric too closely. But others struck her as outlandish, such as a few of the men wearing what could only be described as skirts – and nothing like the kilts that Scottish men sometimes wore. They were also far more friendly than she was used to. One young man, apparently oblivious to Larry’s presence, tried to hit on her as she passed him. She had to resort again to speaking English to get away from him.

They had boarded the first bus that came along because of the need to make a rapid getaway. They made two changes before they reached their destination, which was the local spaceport. When the third bus stopped at the spaceport they got up to leave, but Larry suddenly pushed Karen back into an empty seat and sat down again beside her.

“What’s up?” She peered out of the window. “Surely it can’t be more Ziloni agents?”

Larry shook his head. “No, but I have a bad feeling. There are too many cops about.”