Kaji's Challenge Read online

  ‘Are they being blocked somehow? Do these people know we are telepathic?’

  ‘Who was it that talked to you last night, Kaji? On our side, or theirs?’

  ‘On the side of our Children, I think, but not one of us. That was what I felt. Someone knows we have come for them?’

  ‘I think we need to be careful.’

  ‘Always. Remember, these stupid people are not doing anything illegal, and we must not either. Unless we have to. Let us limit mind talk to when we are close together and can shield.’

  It took him three hours to get dressed for the official dinner with the help of Tari and Maru, and he began to understand why all the important people here had servants. The clothes were ridiculous, tight and confining, and left very few places to conceal weapons. There were a lot of layers of silly neck ties and things, and each had to be attached and folded in a certain way. Having his servants making rude noises and laughing at him didn’t help.

  Those two wore their standard dress tunics and could move easily, and had a lot of places to conceal weapons. He began to have more respect for the Ambassador, who put up with this nonsense on a regular basis, all so that he could keep the peace between their planet and others. He kept the vision of that man in his head as they emerged from their rooms and rode the short distance to the palace in the transportation that had been provided.

  He would rather have walked, and had a chance to look around some more, but, again, it wasn’t done. An ambassador would arrive at the palace in style.

  The driver was an unremarkable individual and not inclined to talk, which was unfortunate. He probably saw a lot, but maybe he had seen so much that he didn’t care anymore. Maru, playing the role of the friendly outgoing one, asked him if he liked his job, and the driver just stared at him. Like, not like, it didn’t seem to make a difference to him.

  They were shown into the palace and then announced into the main hall, and Kaji’s life turned upside down.

  Chapter 3.

  He tried to make the proper formal greetings, bow correctly, keep his face emotionless, but it was almost impossible. Standing against the back wall, immobile, were four of their Lost Children, and he knew in his soul that one of them was his triad lover.

  Something was wrong, though, terribly wrong. He reached out, carefully, and got nothing back from any of them. Nothing! How could this be? He felt Tari try the same thing, with the same result. What had happened? Had they been so badly hurt that they could not communicate?

  He took deep breaths and pretended to ignore them, making polite small talk while he drifted around the room being introduced to people and creatures he didn’t care about. He wanted to scream. What was happening? Each of their Children held a tray of drinks, and although he didn’t want the drink he wanted the excuse to get close to them. Other guests took drinks from the trays, so after a decent interval he made his way over and took one.

  He looked into the eyes of his third, felt his own joy and delight rising in his chest - and saw nothing but pain in the eyes meeting his. He tried to push past that, to find the connection that had to be there, had been there maybe since birth or even before, but there was nothing.

  His alien friend spoke again. ‘Do not cause them pain. It is the collars.’

  The four were each wearing silver collars, which he had taken to be part of their adornments. They each wore a blue robe, and had silver chains draping across their chests. His people had been turned into ornaments? He felt rage rising up in him, and had to choke it back down, looking away quickly before he betrayed all of them.

  His host, the small official, appeared at his side and took a glass as well, and the one beside his beloved quivered, just enough that the tray shook slightly. The small official reached out and touched one of the chains, an ugly gleam in his eyes, and Kaji felt a wave of pain from the one holding the tray. This thing was hurting one of their Children, for what? Just for not standing perfectly still? He would kill it, right now …

  ‘Stop it, you will get them hurt even more!’

  ‘Who are you???’

  Kaji took a deep breath and moved away, as though the most important being in his life meant nothing to him. He tried to clear his mind of the love for his sweet one standing there and his hatred for the small smirking official who liked to cause pain. They talked about trade and other unimportant things, and finally the official gestured back at the children and looked at him with interest.

  “It is a lovely matched set, isn’t it? Rare to find.”

  He pretended to notice them for the first time.

  “Yes, I suppose. Matched sets are going out of fashion, of course, but maybe here …”

  He saw the official struggle with pride and vanity.

  “Well, they belonged to my predecessor, so I have maintained them. Very hard to do, you know, to keep them all evenly matched in size and shape.”

  Kaji wanted to strangle him. He managed a casual drawl that the Ambassador would have been proud of. “Yes, hardly worth the trouble, these days. You wouldn’t believe the fantastic servers I have seen, sets with each one different, with glassware and drinks to match each of their skin colors, quite spectacular.”

  He pretended to be lost in thought, thinking back to these fictional sets, while he debated the possibility of strangling the small dignitary, dragging his body off behind a curtain somewhere and then pissing on it.

  “This is old-fashioned, quaint, even, but still very nice.”

  Then he changed the subject, but kept bringing the discussion back to trade, to things that they might be interested in purchasing for sale on other planets as they travelled.

  “Different customs everywhere, you know how it is. Something that is out-dated in one place can be valuable somewhere else, like some of the linens we saw in the old market here. I have a customer who collects such things, and we will do well on those, I think.”

  Finally the small official made the move Kaji had hoped he would.

  “The servers? These ones would be valuable somewhere else? We hold their contracts, of course …”

  Kaji shrugged. “Maybe. There is a planet I know of where the people are also blue, not as good a color as we are, of course, but they tend to collect blue things. Very amusing. I could make enquiries.”

  He hesitated, but thought it was worth the risk, and he had to know.

  “There are others here of this type?”

  The answer made him want to throw up.

  “Oh, yes, we keep spares in the cellar, to always have a set. We have eight altogether, but they are difficult things, very high strung. They get sick, and don’t grow, or suddenly grow and don’t match.”

  The nasty little official sounded disgusted that the Children inconvenienced him in this way.

  “We finally found these collars to control the sudden growing, and to keep them from getting agitated, and the chains to send small corrections to them, to train them, you know? They are so much easier to manage now, although we have to have one servant who does nothing but take care of these servants, if you can imagine such a thing!”

  The small official sounded pleased that he had created such an inefficient and cruel system. He obviously thought that the difficulty in taking care of them made them more valuable. Kaji thought the little man was a small evil fool. He began considering ways to kill him without endangering the Children.

  “Really, I think your clients will thank us for having worked all this out already. All they will have to do is follow the instructions.” The fool looked down his nose at Kaji, which was difficult given the difference in their heights. “Of course, I don’t mean to insinuate that all blue colored people are as stupid as these ones. No offense intended.”

  ‘Oh, none taken.” You are going to die a horrible death, small evil man …

  Kaji surveyed a set of ugly paintings on the wall, and moved up closer to admire them so the fool couldn’t see his face. “These are very good, extremely evocative. You have excellent taste, I hav
e seldom seen the like of these.”

  The little man puffed up with pride, and went on at great length about his collection of art. Then he came back to the servers.

  “I must admit I have been thinking about updating the servers. As you say, one must keep up with the times. Perhaps you would be interested in a package of all eight? Although, to be honest, I believe one is not in good health. Even with that, they would not be cheap, of course, the contracts were expensive and they have cost us a lot to keep and train to this level. And I think we should include the servant’s contract, as he knows how to take care of the dratted things.”

  ‘Yes! Yes, please, whatever it takes. Save them, please!’

  Kaji had trouble presenting a calm face.

  ‘Yes, we will. Where are you?’ But there was nothing, as though even short bursts of communication tired the strange one out. Was he another of the ones that were earth humans? Those all seemed to be able to learn telepathy, but it didn’t come naturally at first. He must be the servant that took care of the servants?

  Kaji didn’t tell the repulsive little person that he could have anything he wanted, although Kaji’s first choice would have been to rip his throat out.

  “I will think about it. Maybe we can come to some agreement. There are a few other things here we might be interested in, as well.”

  Kaji admired some truly appalling statues while pretending to think about it. He debated buying Oki one of the statues as revenge for this horrible outfit he had been forced to wear, but that would have been childish. Although they could drop the statue onto the palace from a great height, and it would probably explode quite nicely …

  After a decent interval they drifted back over to stand in front of the servers again. Kaji surveyed them, with his nose in the air, and tried not to scream, or cry. “Yes, I think it could work out well. We will take them, all eight, and the other servant.” He shook hands with the official, the deal was made and sealed, and he could breathe again.

  ‘Yes, yes, may the gods bless you, thank you …’

  “I will make arrangements to have them picked up tomorrow morning, and we will transport them directly to our ship. They will have to be quarantined, of course, so best to start that as soon as possible.” He had never told as many lies in his life as he had in the last hour.

  He thought he saw a flicker of hope in the eyes of one of their Children, but he wasn’t sure. He hoped so, hoped that those damned collars hadn’t done irreparable damage. He wished he could take the Children right now, tonight, but insisting on that when it was the middle of the night would raise too much suspicion, and they might refuse to hand them over out of spite. There could still be others on this repulsive planet, as well, and he wasn’t going to leave any behind. First thing in the morning.

  “We have one more day on your lovely planet, then we must be on our way, I think. I thank you for your help, it has been invaluable.”

  Yet another lie. He begged forgiveness of the gods, and hoped they understood that his heart was pure.

  ‘Yes, pure, but they are dying, they need to go home.’

  ‘They will be home with us, they will not die.’

  Gods, he hoped not. To find them and then lose them? He had heard of triads where two had died, and the other one had not lived very long afterwards. The triad bond was a strong one, but hopefully strong enough to bring one back from the edge of death as well as to pull one over.

  ‘They will be safe and loved.’

  Tari and Maru echoed this in his mind, as did the three of the supply team, and he thought he heard an echo of that from someone on the ship as well.

  Chapter 4.

  The two teams assembled back at their rooms, and they were all sombre. The collars were evil things, and completely unexpected. It was Maru who hit upon the answer to the collars.

  ‘There may be some bonding between those in the eight, and they would have begun to morph and grow. Whatever is in those collars stopped that, but also stopped telepathy?’

  ‘Gods, I hope it is that simple, and they will be whole when the collars come off. We have to get those collars off of them, find out what is in the damned things and learn how to protect against them. I don’t think these stupid people even realize exactly what they do.’

  ‘That nasty one knows well enough how to cause pain, and he enjoys doing it.’

  ‘Did they even make the collars, or get them from somewhere else? They don’t seem to have a lot of technology here. Caleb needs information about what the collars are and where they’re from, for his web. Any of our people near those things are in danger.’

  None of the others had found any hint of more than the eight Children on this planet. Other servants had known what they were talking about, but had never seen any other blue people, so maybe the palace had the monopoly on them? If all the ruling class were as petty and ignorant as the small official they had dealt with it was likely, but he had to be sure.

  Kaji reached out cautiously to his alien friend. Each time the link seemed to be easier, clearer. They needed to get the eight from the palace out of there, but what if there were others on the planet as well?

  ‘Friend?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Are there others, other blue ones here on the planet?’

  ‘No, I have never seen any, or heard of them. These gatsu would have bought them if there were, they like to have the special things for themselves, like spoiled children. You are the large blue ones?’

  ‘Yes, and the ones you have been taking care of are our people.’

  There was silence, and then, ‘I can come with them?’

  ‘Yes, you can come with us, if you wish. You have the choice, if you prefer you can be freed and stay here.’

  ‘I will stay with them even if I am still a slave. But with them.’

  Kaji fought back a sudden flash of rage that surprised him and startled his crew mates.

  ‘No slaves, we do not have slaves. We are in debt to you for caring for our loved ones, and you will be held in honor.’

  There was a silence, and Kaji wondered if he’d said something wrong.

  Then, ‘There is an old one here, another human, who is very ill. Can he come with us, that he not die in slavery?’

  Kaji didn’t even have to think about that. ‘Yes. Can you bring him to the doors when we pick you up in the morning? Will we need to fight to take him?’

  There was a longer silence. ‘You would do that?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I must go. This hurts …’

  They planned late into the night, but also knew they could not plan against the unexpected. The supply team returned to the ship to unload, and would return at dawn. The palace guard changed over at dawn, and things would be just getting going inside the kitchens and servants’ quarters, and it would be a busy time. They were counting on arriving into the middle of that chaos, and adding some of their own to it.

  There was a rear delivery entrance, hopefully near the cellars where their eight were being held, so that was where they would arrive to pick them up, them and the two aliens. Their large shuttle could land there, with an armed crew, and it could go smoothly or not, Kaji didn’t particularly care anymore as long as their eight were on the shuttle when it lifted off again.

  A second shuttle, loaded with warriors and armed for a full-scale attack, would hold off, close enough to offer back up, just in case there was a problem. Medical had been notified, and a hospital ward was being prepared, just in case. Also quarters on the ship for the two humans, near Medical.

  Everything that could be prepared for had been. Kaji stayed on the ground with Maru and Tari, and tried to contact his friend again, with no success. As dawn broke and the shuttle settled into the dust behind the palace Kaji banged loudly on the rear entrance, where deliveries were already being made, and put on his most urgent official face.

  “I must apologize, this is unforgivable, but we are called back to the ship and must leave now. The payments have
been made, the contracts transferred, we will pick up the eight blue servants and the other one, right away, please.”

  He was shuffled from bewildered staff member to bewildered staff member, but they were all tripping over delivery men and bad-tempered cooks who didn’t give a damn about blue servants, and the guards were all either half asleep or wishing they were, and no-one really cared as long as it wasn’t going to be their fault. They were all afraid to wake up anyone of importance, and the transfers were indeed in order, so the eight blue servants were hauled up out of the cellar where they lived and handed over to him.

  A slender figure carrying a bundle attended them, but the paperwork was in order for that one as well, and tempers were getting short all around, so no-one thought to question his burden. Kaji found himself drawn to the alien one, but shut that off for the moment. He would thank him later, and sing his praises to the heavens. Right now, getting the damned collars off was the priority.

  “The collars? How do those work, and how do they come off?”

  No-one knew how they worked, but after what seemed to be an interminable wait a staff member produced a key that opened them, and Kaji shook hands and thanked all the idiots profusely even as he was backing into the shuttle.

  “My thanks, we will call again!”

  And the door shut.

  ‘Kaji, who is this other one? Or two?’

  He turned to stare at the haggard looking human who had come with their eight, and felt like he had been hit with something large and heavy.

  ‘Beloved!’

  ‘Not sure about this beloved stuff. Just take care of our friends, please.’

  ‘Yes. Thank you, many thanks. Your old one?’

  The human gestured at his neck. ‘We need to get the collars off, quickly.’‘

  For the first time Kaji realized that both humans were also wearing the despicable collars.

  Kaji’s hands were shaking too much to work the key, but the Science Officer had steady hands and worked his way quickly down the line, releasing each of the ten from their silver-collared slavery. Karo, the Medical Officer, had remained on the ship to prepare for their arrival, but his assistant was there, and handed out sweet nutritious drinks and hugs.