My Friend is an Alien - Edlund Niklas. Страница 58

Most GNN broadcasts were aired in a sort of cobbled-together Standard that took aspects from about ten major languages in the galaxy, but the broadcast always contained a translation option for any sufficiently advanced receiving equipment. Certainly the equipment Toben had brought with him qualified, but it hadn't been set up for English, either. Toben's opinion of Keyro's apparent engineering skills went up a few notches.

Anybody would've recognized this as a newscast. It showed an individual seated at a desk, with multiple computer graphics around him/her/it/whatever accentuating the news. The individual seated behind the desk was relatively humanoid, bright yellow, with five eye stalks coming out of the top of its head. "Repeating our top stories," said the translation, giving the voice a distinctly female tone, "Botaran fugitive Pol, son of Keis, etc., has been sentenced to fifty years imprisonment. Renegade Botaran Magistrate Varek has been sentenced to life imprisonment. The bulk of his crew will undergo re-education. However, before being taken away, in his final comments, Pol stated that he had captured the notorious runaways Jahv and Keyro, sons of disbarred techno-scientist Amshat, and that they were broken free by exiled Prince Arion of Korras, and another runaway Botaran youngster named Toben. Presumably the entire group is presently residing on a world listed as off-limits by galactic treaty. Its location remains classified by authorities."

"That miserable, low-down, stinking piece of Botaran fr'zeez!" swore Arion. "Going to prison for the next five decades, but has to get his final shot in."

"And the authorities WILL be interested." said Jahv. "They won't cut his sentence, but they will want to do something about it."

"But guys — I mean — can they?" asked Davy. "Like the news said, this is an off-limits world. They'd have to break their own laws to come here!"

"Hey, look!" cried Keyro. Attention returned to the newscast. Davy could almost see Jahv and Keyro turn paler versions of their normal skin colors. There were two adult Botarans on the screen. "Is that —?" began Davy, not sure if he could ask the question.

"Our parents." said Jahv, very quietly.

The man, Amshat, spoke. "We have asked the Governing Council for special dispensation to travel to this off-limits world ourselves, and bring our children to justice personally. We will be in touch with the family of this Toben youngster, to see if they want him retrieved as well. Our children will be brought in conformity to Botaran society. We will see justice done."

"Yeah, and get your business license back, and your sense of honor." grumbled Jahv.

"Do you think they'll get permission?" asked Davy.

"Probably." said Jahv. "This is like trying to make good for your own misdeeds. By our society's standards, our parents are just as responsible for us running away as we are. If they can bring us back, it'll make them look good, and I'm sure that's all they really care about."

The newscast continued, back to the original commentator. "In a separate statement, the Royal Family of Korras stated, 'Arion's departure from this world was part of an agreement to end hostilities between ourselves and the Soluans. If they cannot keep track of him, that is not our concern. We expect the Soluans to continue to live up to the end of their agreement, which only calls for the absence of the young Prince from his homeworld. As for Arion himself, we wish him well, wherever he is."

"Looks like I'm off the hook, but what are we going to do about you guys?" asked Arion.

"Still depends on them getting permission." said Toben.

"The public statement of Amshat was recorded earlier," said the commentator, "and we have an update. The Governing Council has granted permission for Amshat and his wife, Tiri, to travel to this unnamed world in an attempt to retrieve their renegade children. We will update this story as events warrant…"

Keyro shut off the news broadcast. "Great. That means they could get here anytime!"

"It'll take them at least ten hours to prep the shuttle, five more to get here." said Jahv. "You know Dad — he does EVERYthing methodically."

"Yeah, you're right." said Keyro. "That gives us until tomorrow morning."

"To do what?" asked Davy. "Look, guys, you know where this is heading — right to that Procyon place you told us about. You don't want to go there! We beat this once, we can do it again!"

Jahv shook his head. "Our capture by Pol and trial by Varek was a completely illegal operation. This isn't. It's a different matter entirely. I don't know how we can get out of this one."

"I can't see as why they'd even want you back." said Toben. "I mean, no offense, but none of us are exactly typical Botarans. We just don't fit in."

"They don't care if we fit on or not." said Keyro grimly. "They just want us back for the sake of their own reputations."

Jahv was suddenly, inexplicably, smiling. "Toben — you just gave me an idea."

"Huh?" exlaimed Toben. "I gave YOU an idea? It doesn't generally work that way. And what was the idea?"

"An idea to get out of this entire mess." grinned Jahv. "But Davy, we'll need your help — and we'll need to talk to your parents, as well."

The group tracked down Davy's parents, who had been elsewhere in the house, and explained the entire situation, and their plan. Jahv explained that it was likely to get a little messy, and possibly even a bit offensive to some people's sensibilities, but he felt it was really their only chance, and if it worked, would solve the problem permanently.

"Anything you do can't possibly be as offensive as these people thinking it's all right to round up children and lock them away for trying to get away from such an unpleasant situation," said Mrs. Caulfield.

"Kids, I'm behind you 100 % on this," said Mr. Caulfield. "But I hope you'll excuse me if I don't participate directly."

"Not a problem, sir." said Jahv. "It'd be better if we handled this on our own as much as possible anyway."

"I just thought of something," said Davy. "What's to keep them from just — transmatting you up to their ship or whatever?"

Jahv shook his head. "Our parents are total sticklers for procedure. And there are procedures for everything, even something as extreme as this. And it includes a direct meeting with us to deliver the charges, and stuff like that. Mostly it's to gather evidence as much as anything, but they're not going to just grab us and run."

It was a long and generally sleepless night for the children. Toben, Jahv, and Keyro took shifts preparing for the next day even as they kept watching GNN for further news details along with Davy. Sure enough, right about fifteen hours after the initial announcement, it was announced that Amshat and Tiri had taken off for the "unknown world" to retrieve their children about three hours prior. It was not long after dawn. The kids figured they had about two hours to get fully prepared.

About an hour and a half later, Arion reported that he was detecting an incoming craft, visually cloaked, just having come out of hyperspace and heading for Earth orbit. Minutes later, near the Caulfield home, two adult Botarans appeared in the traditional burst of light and sound.

The male stood roughly six feet tall (not counting antennae), had well-groomed white hair, orange skin, and was wearing a silver space suit. As was the female, who was a little over five and a half feet tall, also well-groomed, and had pale blue skin, even lighter than Toben's. His name was Amshat, hers was Tiri.

"What does the Infopad say about this world again?" asked Amshat, in the static-like language native to Botarans.

His wife pulled out a small device from a pouch on her belt. "Galactilogue Planet Tok-7826-Ceta. Native name: Earth. Native scientific name: Terra. One natural satellite. Third planet in a system of nine. Two massive gas giants, two lesser gas giants, five mineral-based worlds. Earth only one with significant life. Overall rating on planet and population is 3 on the Kozik scale."