STOWAWAY TO THE STARS

Karen’s heart somersaulted at Larry’s comment. She could only see two or three of the familiar black uniforms among the crowds milling around the spaceport entrance. Surely that couldn’t be a sign of trouble.

“Are you sure?”

“No, but I dare not take the risk. Tostensti will be awake by now. They are probably already looking for us. They will have a picture of you from the vid call you made, and with your good looks you really stand out. Even your clothes are still the same. We will have to try something else.”

Karen gave a big sigh. “Oh Larry, will this nightmare never end?”

He squeezed her hand. “Don’t worry, I will work something out. With our new identities we will be fine once we get off Drazen.”

They stayed on the bus for two more stops, which took them to a busy commercial area. Larry said, “This will do. We’ll grab the cases and get off here.”

Once off the bus, Larry hailed a taxi and told the driver to take them to the nearest car hire centre.

“I dare not risk taking a commercial flight away from Drazen now,” said Larry as the taxi pulled away. “All spaceports will have security that are likely to pick you up from your picture. Even if we got you some face molding as well, it’s only effective for routine computer surveillance, not when the police are looking out for us.”

Their predicament was getting worse by the minute. “What on earth can we do, then?”

“The only other escape route is my ship. That’s why we need to hire another car, to get back to Tanil field.”

“Even if we escape from Drazen, won’t the Ziloni be looking for us wherever we go?”

“I don’t think so. This time we have our false IDs, so on another planet we should be safe from Ziloni agents, and I don’t think our recent brush with the police will be serious enough to justify an interstellar search for us.”

Before they could discuss any more, the taxi arrived at a car hire centre.

Larry glanced at Karen. “Do you mind looking after the cases while I go in to hire another car?”

He was at it again. Leaving her by herself while he ran the show.

As he walked into the centre she muttered, “Why not. I know I’m just the stowaway you have to drag along till you can dump me back home.”

She instantly regretted the words when he looked round and she saw the hurt look on his face. Damn, she’d forgotten about the earpiece transmitting her words to him.

He shook his head and turned back to go inside. She heard his reply on her own earpiece. “I would never think that way about you.”

This time he had hired a bigger car, one with a computer operated homing system that could find its own way back when they were finished with it. They started the long drive back to Tanil field.

“How will you get to the ship?” asked Karen. “Won’t they be watching the field as well?”

“I’m certain they will. I had to leave the ship in my own name and they’ll have found out who I am from the Ziloni agents. We won’t be able to get too close, but it’s an IEP ship – it has a sophisticated remote control system.”

Karen spent the whole of the drive back to Tanil field looking round for signs of trouble. What a contrast with how exhilarated she had been on arrival, when they thought that their troubles were over. But the journey passed uneventfully, and two hours later they were approaching the landing field.

“Do you think there will be road blocks again?” asked Karen.

Larry shook his head. “I doubt it. This isn’t like Zilon, where they were desperate to stop us. I expect that they’ll just have a few men stationed in case we try to get back to the ship.”

He turned into a quiet side road not far from the spaceport and continued until they came to an open field. There he stopped, turned the car round, unloaded the luggage and carried it a little way into the field. Karen idly prodded at a tuft of grass with her toe. It was quiet and peaceful here, away from the built up areas. Birds were singing in the distance and the sun was shining, but unlike Zilon it was pleasantly cool, typical weather for late afternoon in spring. It would be so pleasant to forget about Ziloni secret agents and police hunts and just sit there on the strange, silky grass, enjoying the evening sunshine.

She brought her attention back to their problems as Larry returned to the car and set the homing device, but left the car door open.

“As soon as the door is shut it will be away,” he said to Karen. “I don’t want to send it off until I’m sure we have the ship, otherwise we’ll be stranded.”

He pulled his remote control from his pocket. “Right, let’s see if we can get our ship back. I hope they haven’t put any restraints on it.”

Karen’s heart flipped and she stared at him in alarm. “Christ, Larry, why do you always wait till the last minute to tell me it could all go wrong?”

“Sorry. There was no point in both of us worrying about it beforehand. Cross your fingers. Here goes.”

He set the remote control to lift the ship and they looked out into the distance for it to appear.

“Are you sure we are looking in the right direction?” asked Karen.

Larry nodded and increased the setting on the remote to maximum. A faint twang sounded in the distance, and a moment later they saw the ship shooting skyward. Larry quickly got it under control and guided it toward them. As it approached they saw cables hanging from the ship.

He said, “Thank the saints for land-bound policemen who have no idea of the lifting power of these ships. I hope those cables haven’t scratched the paintwork.”

Karen gave a nervous laugh. Larry concentrated on landing the ship as close as possible. As soon as it was down, settling on the landing legs that had never been retracted, he picked up the cases, hurried to the door, unlocked it and threw the cases on board.

They heard sirens, faintly at first in the distance, but approaching fast. “Can you shut the car door so that it can go,” Larry called to Karen. “I need to get these cables off so they don’t flap around.”

She raced back to the car and slammed the door. Despite knowing what was coming, she jumped as it shot back down the narrow road. By the time she got back to the ship, Larry had the cables clear and they scrambled on board. Larry sealed the door and hurried to the controls.

Karen settled herself into the right-hand seat and watched as Larry’s hands flew across the control console. She was beginning to understand the take-off process now. The cabin lights came on and she felt the slight jerk as the gravity compensator kicked in. ,They lifted clear of the ground, and she was ready when he pitched the ship up to the vertical. She managed to resist the urge to hang on to something.

Through the canopy they could see several of the bright red police cars approaching fast along the little side road, but they shrank out of sight as Larry accelerated upward hard. The noise of the airflow rose rapidly to a high-pitched whistle, changing abruptly as they went supersonic. Karen heard the change and looked over at Larry.

“Are we breaking the speed limit again?”

Larry nodded. “One more offence to add to our list of crimes. Hmm, looks like we might be getting company.”

He pointed to the viewscreen where a trace had just appeared.

Karen groaned. “Are we in deep trouble again?”

Larry gave her an encouraging smile. “No, I don’t think so. It looks as if someone has commandeered a spaceship from Tanil field to follow us. I doubt if it’s even armed with attack missiles, and I’m certain they wouldn’t open fire even if they could, for what is little more than a misdemeanor. So there’s not much they can do.”

The radio burst into life.

“This is the Drazen police in pursuit of spaceship IEP zero zero eight. You have made an illegal ascent from an unauthorized site. You are also in breach of speed limit rules. Cease your climb immediately and return at once to Tanil field.”

“I think we might as well try a little bluff, just in case they have missiles,” said Larry.

He thumbed his own transmit pad. “This is IEP zero zero eight. Please be advised we are official Galactic Council agents on an urgent mission. We apologize for infringing the rules of space travel but this was unavoidable. We expect full assistance in completing this mission.”

The reply came back immediately. “We have no notification of any Union agent activity. IEP zero zero eight is recorded as registered to a Laren’hi Rasilii who is currently on the Union wanted list.”

Larry replied, “We are aware of the status of this ship, but we had no choice in the matter. Please register any complaint with the Galactic Council. In the meantime do not impede this operation.”

The sky gradually turned black and the noise faded to silence. Larry selected a new setting from the database of the hyperspace unit, rolled the ship onto a new heading and pushed his stick all the way forward. The pursuing ship slowly fell behind, and it made no further radio broadcast.

“Do you think they believed you?” asked Karen.

“I doubt it, but it gave them something extra to worry about. I expect that they’ll just tail us out to the boundary.”

The rest of the race to the hyperspace boundary was uneventful, though Karen’s stress level was maintained until the hyperspace console light went blue and Larry made a random jump.

Karen looked at Larry and pleaded, “Please tell me we really are safe now.”

“Yes, for the moment. The only real risk left is getting through security on Central itself. We have false IDs and I’ll fake our ident again the way I did when we first approached Zilon.”

“You mean we are going to Central in your spaceship now?”

“Good heavens no. That would be much too risky. The place we’re going to is Nepentar, because it’s a major Associate Member Planet that has direct flights to Central. It’s the second stop I was planning to make from Drazen on our commercial flights, but I can go there direct now we’re in my ship. It’ll be handier after all this is over, too, when I can take you home, if we only have one flight to make to get back to this ship.”

“That sounds really good. I had given up the idea of ever seeing home again.”

Larry smiled at her, before turning his attention back to the control panel. It did not take him long to set up a fake ident.

“There’s one potential problem this time with having a fake ident. It won’t match the registration marking on the ship. It didn’t matter on Zilon where we weren’t making a regular landing.”

“Is there anything we can do about it? I don’t fancy going outside to paint on a different registration.”

Larry looked at her sharply. He hadn’t cottoned on to her sense of humor yet. Though why she was cracking jokes she wasn’t sure. They seemed to be beset by endless problems.

“I’m not changing it much, and we’ll have to rely on the fact that people don’t pay much attention to such things. Have you ever paid attention to the registration mark on your airliner when you’ve made a flight?”

“Well yes, you do sort of notice where it says something like KLM in huge letters.”

“That’s the airline name you’re talking about. The registration is something like F-ABCD. The same as little airplanes have.”

“Oh, I see. No, I can’t say I have ever noticed that.”

“Well, here’s hoping no one at the spaceport does either. We’ll find out soon. I’m ready to jump now.”

They came out of the jump pointed directly at Nepentar. It looked a lot like Drazen, though less blue and with a greater proportion of land mass. Karen had wondered if the approach would lose its dramatic impact with familiarity, but it was every bit as exhilarating as before, and she was relaxing again now that Larry had assured her that they were safe.

They landed at a small provincial spaceport that accepted private craft. This time everything was straightforward. No one commented on the fact that their registration mark was wrong. They gave their new IDs their first thorough test at the check-in without any problems. For the second time Larry organized long term parking for his ship, and then they took a shuttle flight to the main spaceport.

Larry went to the booking office and bought two tickets for the flight to Central and two bedrooms in the spaceport hotel for a sleepover. It could not be called spending the night since it was actually broad daylight on Nepentar, but spaceport hotels were geared up for travelers needing to sleep at any time of the local day.

Before sleeping, they stopped for an evening meal in the hotel dining room. It was a delicious meal, as good as the one they had enjoyed on Drazen, but it had been a long and stressful day and Karen was weary and unable to fully appreciate it.

As soon as they had finished they went up to their rooms. It was the first time Karen had slept in a proper bed since leaving Earth, and what a bed it was. The sheets were softer and smoother than the finest silk she had experienced back on Earth, and the mattress was firm yet molded itself somehow to her body so that it was incredibly comfortable.

As she lay luxuriating in the experience it occurred to her with something of a shock that it was the first time since she had met Larry that she had slept separately from him. This thought brought back feelings she was trying to deny, but she knew she would never be able to shake them off. Despite the comfort, she suddenly felt miserable and she buried her head in the pillow. Then tiredness took over and she was asleep.

****

When she awoke she was fully refreshed, and able to take in her surroundings properly. The room was large and airy, the décor was in a muted pastel color and on the floor was something that was not a carpet but was soft and warm on her bare feet. The furniture was the same three-legged style that she had first seen in Larry’s Hideaway cave. She had once commented about this to Larry, but he had replied, “It’s for stability. Three points define a plane.” As if that explained anything.

The shower was in stark contrast to the primitive affair she had become used to on Larry’s ship. Not a cubicle but a small tiled room, the water came from an array of jets all around the wall, up to shoulder height, plus a small overhead spray for her face and hair. The water started off soapy, at a comfortable temperature without any initial cold burst. It became a clear rinse, and finally it was not water at all but something else that ran off her body leaving it practically dry, before gentle jets of warm air finished the drying process. She couldn’t resist singing as she enjoyed the breeze massaging her body.

The nice new clothes that she had been so pleased with the previous day had suffered badly from the encounters with the Ziloni agents, but she vaguely recalled Larry telling her that the room had a laundry system. It must be the little cabinet in the corner of the bedroom. She hung her clothes in it and set it going. A few minutes later her outfit emerged like new again. She dressed quickly, feeling on top of the world from the pampering she had enjoyed. Once again her naturally high spirits had made a rapid recovery from the traumas of the day before.

She hummed to herself again as she admired herself in the mirror. A bit racy maybe, and she would have been reluctant to wear the outfit on Earth, but being on an alien planet somehow made her feel a bit reckless. The way she didn’t mind going topless on a holiday beach. She had made a visible impact on Larry when she had first worn it. Could she generate a spark of interest from him again?

She jumped as her earpiece sprang to life, and a few moments later she heard Larry’s voice asking if she was ready. She had forgotten it was there and had left it on all night. Larry must have turned his off, and had just activated it again.

She happily made her way back to the hotel dining room, where Larry was waiting for her. His admiring look showed that at least he wasn’t completely impervious to her charms.

They sat down to another meal that as far as Karen was concerned was breakfast, again a magnificent spread with an impressive choice of cold meats, cereals and various items that were a cross between porridge, rice pudding and yogurt. This time she was able to do it justice. Fortified at last with a sound night’s sleep followed by a good meal, they were ready for the final, critical leg of their journey, the flight to Greti, the capital city of Central.

****

As Karen got up to leave the table, Larry waved her to sit down again.

“Before we go, let’s run through what our plans are for our flight. Assuming that our IDs work, the danger is that I might be recognized. My details will be in all the main databases on Central, such as the one at the spaceport. There’ll be computer-controlled cameras monitoring everyone’s facial bone structure. Hopefully the moulds I’ve got should confuse them, but I’d like to make it difficult for them to get good readings by keeping my head down.”

He fingered the molding, resisting the temptation to scratch the itchy material. “Also there’ll be voice recognition microphones, so I don’t want to speak at all unless absolutely necessary. And while I think of it, we need to switch off our comm. earpieces. On Central they could be picked up and my voice recognized.”

“What about Ziloni agents? Could there be any hunting for us again?”

He looked round the room before replying. The room was emptying, and no one was within earshot. “Yes. I’m trusting that our false IDs will mean that they’re not expecting us, but like you said these moulds don’t change my appearance that much to human eyes. Keeping my head down will help avoid detection by the Ziloni as well, but we need to watch for men who look out of place.”

He wrinkled his nose. “There’s not much doubt they will be men, the Ziloni have shown themselves to be pretty chauvinistic.”

“You mentioned about keeping your head down. What were you getting at?”

“Ah, yes. That ties in with our cover story. If you don’t mind, I’d like to pretend that we’re a newlywed couple on honeymoon. It’s the first time we’ve left Drazen and I hardly speak Universal at all, so you have to do all the speaking. That will also explain your accent.”

She leaned forward and raised her eyebrows. “Oh, do I have an accent? I assumed that the language translator would have taught me the correct accent.”

Larry laughed. “You shouldn’t be surprised. You said I have an accent when I speak English, didn’t you? Actually you have a cute accent.”

He twirled his napkin round his fingers, then wiped his lips and folded it up. “Anyway, if you need to talk to me, either speak slowly and clearly in Universal or, if you want to talk confidentially, switch to English. On Central it’s even less likely that anyone will realize English isn’t a local Drazen language. If I have to talk, I’ll only speak English. The voice recognition software should find it more difficult to identify my voice speaking an unfamiliar language. But you handle all the talking if possible.”

“Is that what you meant by keeping your head down? I thought you meant it more literally.”

“You’re right, I did. To make it difficult for the cameras and any Ziloni agents, whenever I think we’re likely to be under scrutiny I’ll hide my face in yours, kissing your lips or neck or something, which is why I need the honeymoon scenario. We’ll also have to do that a little bit at this end, otherwise someone might think it odd if they’ve been watching us. Are you all right with that?”

He looked into her eyes as she nodded. He could kid himself that she showed enthusiasm for the idea. Certainly there was no sign of reluctance.

She was wearing the outfit from yesterday but she must have worked out how to use the laundry system in her room because it was looking immaculate again. The effect was still stunning, with the top modestly cut but fitting her like a second skin, thanks to its gentle molecular attraction, so that her breasts were outlined as clearly as if she were naked.

She seemed oblivious to the effect it was bound to have on any red-blooded male, but Larry was acutely aware of the instinctive surge of interest in his own body. Their chances of going unnoticed were nil, but maybe with all eyes on her the attention might be drawn away from him. They would soon find out.

He pulled himself together. There was something else he needed to tell her.

“One more thing. The security systems on Central are more sophisticated than they tend to use on Associate planets. There is a chance that my deactivated ID may not stand up to their scrutiny. If I am detected, my only chance will be to make a run for it. It’s not that I want to desert you, but if I stay I’ll only end up in jail anyway.”

“Hmm, doesn’t sound as if I have a choice. So no, I shan’t blame you for running, but I can’t imagine how I’ll cope without you.”

He took hold of her hand. At least she didn’t flinch away.

“After all that you’ve done, I’m sure you will be fine. You will get a load of hassle, but your ID should hold up. Just maintain that you had a whirlwind romance, you never realized who I was, and in the end they will have to let you go. Use the number I’ve given you to contact my brother-in-law, Ket, and give him the spare data pin you are carrying. Do you remember his number?”

She stared straight into his eyes with disconcerting directness. “It was 111 589 722 651, wasn’t it?”

He squeezed her hand and released it.

“Perfect. That’s everything, then. We’re ready to go. Don’t forget to have your coat handy on the flight. It’s still late winter in Greti.”

****

They booked out of the hotel and made the short walk across the spaceport to join the check-in for their flight. Twice Larry kissed Karen as they stood in the queue. She responded with enthusiasm, thinking that she should make the most of this opportunity. She wished that Larry’s passion could have been real, rather than an act for the benefit of the other passengers, but it still felt good. It reminded her again of the night she had spent in his bed and how unlikely it was that that would ever happen again. Last night had been so frustrating, laying in that paradise of a bed that she would gladly have swapped to be back in his bunk.

The check-in queue was short, and they travelled down a short moving walkway to the spaceliner entrance. As they moved along Karen had a good view of the ship through the windows. It was rather like a giant version of Larry’s ship, with steering vanes half-way along the fuselage looking like ridiculously small wings, and the vanes and fin at the rear similar to the tailplane of a jet airliner. It was about the size of a medium sized Earth jet but much closer to the ground, having no need for a large undercarriage. It was much more cigar shaped than the football shape of Larry’s ship, still mainly white but with more and larger markings that she now knew to be Universal script.

Once she was on board, Karen found that some things never change. There were overhead lockers on the spaceliner, although the seats had lightweight spacesuits underneath instead of life jackets. They would probably be about as useless as the life jackets on an airliner in case of an emergency. The seats were cramped and the windows were even smaller than the airliners she was used to. She commented on this to Larry.

“You’re right about spaceliners being uncomfortable. I wouldn’t know about Earth airliners, I never got to ride on one. At least our flights only last about half an hour, no matter how far the trip.”

After the exhilarating views she’d had on the flights in Larry’s ship, the restricted view through the window was boring. She passed a little time imagining some crazy pilot flying a small ship right on their tail, threatening to shoot them down if the captain did not obey orders.

Eventually she heard the high pitched whistle of the subsonic descent through the atmosphere of Central. From what she could see out of the viewport, the final landing stage was considerably more sedate than Larry’s cavalier approaches.

After the landing came the critical phase. Other things that never changed were the chaos of baggage reclaim and the expanse of corridors in the spaceport. As they made their way through them Larry was surreptitiously watching for possible camera sites or agents. Every time he saw either he hid his face by kissing her neck or ear, which she found very distracting. Twice they saw men who might possibly be agents, but the men were looking bored and disinterested. One eyed her up and down lasciviously, while the other paid no attention to them. Larry kept his face hidden from them and they passed both men without incident.

At the end of a particularly long corridor they approached the final, crucial desk that Karen thought of as immigration control. It wasn’t really, of course. Travel in the Union was unrestricted. It was simply the final security check. Larry leant toward her again and she looked forward to a final kiss on her neck. Instead he whispered in her ear in English.

“We are nearly out, but this is where my fake ID may be detected. If I have to run, switch on your comm. earpiece as soon as I am gone. I will try to contact you when I am able.”

She stiffened at this alarming prospect, but whispered, “Okay”.

Then they were at the desk. Karen dragged her mind back to her role. She explained to the official that she and Larry were on a short honeymoon visit, that he didn’t speak much Universal and it was his first time off Drazen.

She offered her little finger to the ID reader and passed through successfully. Then Larry switched into his standard distraction routine, offering his wrong finger to the reader.

“No, no, honey,” said Karen, speaking slowly as he had told her. “It’s you’re little finger they want.”

She felt the tension in his arm round her waist, as he proffered the false ID. And with good reason, although at first only a faint buzzer gave any inkling of a problem. But the way the official stiffened at the sound must have warned Larry that the false ID had been spotted. After that everything seemed to Karen to play out in slow motion.

Larry vaulted the desk, thrust the security official to one side, vaulted another desk and sprinted for the exit, weaving as he went. The official recovered rapidly and long before Larry reached the door he pulled a stun gun from its holster. At the same time, she spotted a man who had been lounging on a bench near the exit, apparently asleep, suddenly jerk into wakefulness and leap to his feet. He could be a Ziloni agent.

Karen acted impulsively. If Larry didn’t get away, and with Ziloni agents alerted to their presence, she didn’t give much for their chances. She dropped the case and coat that she had been carrying and followed Larry’s route across the first desk, her long legs once again making the jump easy. She grabbed the gun arm of the security man, and just managed to maintain the presence of mind to keep up her pretence, crying, “Don’t you dare shoot my poor Lazar.”

For three or four seconds she grappled with the official, then she felt a sharp prick in her side, and the next instant everything went black.