Chapter 10

The liner landed late the next night, and two women stepped off, heading for the king’s palace. Unknown to them, eyes were closely following them, curious as to where the man that was usually with them was. Knocking at the palace door, it was slowly opened, a mousey-looking man peeking out and then rushing out to hug Nissie.

“I heard you were coming back here; you should have called; I’d have had rooms ready for you and your master; by the way, where is Mr. Mark?” he said.

“He is still on the ship; he was quarantined; some type of fever was all we were told; Sam and I had instructions to come here and prepare for when Mr. Mark was released,” Nissie replied.

“Does he need a doctor? We have several of the best now, plus the new med bots we added a month ago.” The man said.

“No, father, he doesn’t; they have some of the best on board the ship. We were assured by Mr. Mark and the liner company that Mr. Mark should be released in 1 to 2 days.” Nissie replied, a little depressed that Mark wasn’t there with them. Nissie and Sam bade the man good night and went to a room that was prepared for them. Sighing, Sam and Nissie entered the room and placed all the devices that Mark had told them to, activating them. They both got ready for bed, hoping that Mark would contact them soon.

Two miles away, an angry man was punching the wall. Where was that asshole? Quarantined? There was no way that Mark could get that sick with no warning. Looking over at the couple on the floor near the corner of the room, Tantka was red-faced. Damn that ass! Leave it to a true amateur like him to get sick and die! It wasn’t fair; Mark was his to kill. Damn it! Grabbing a scanner, Tantka started to scan the whole area where the ship was. A few minutes later, his scanner started beeping; looking at the readings three times, he started to curse. Son of a bitch, they were supposed to meet so he could kill Mark after, of course, he signed the papers.

Tantka had to admit that this com that Mark had made was extremely advanced; after studying it for almost a week, Tantka had gotten ideas for a few things himself. Ha! Let him come up with this new tech and ideas he had; Mark would never be able to beat his tech now. Laying down, Tantka was more confident than he’d ever been. With an evil smile, he fell asleep. A few minutes later, there was a shimmering near the couple; Arthur Doraland looked up and nodded; just as suddenly, the simmering was gone, and another wrist com was outside the shield. Deactivating his, Arthur reached out and grabbed it, activating it as fast as possible. Within seconds, an alarm went off, and Tantka jumped up and looked over his equipment.

Satisfied, Tantka laid back down, falling asleep immediately. Arthur smiled, adjusting the newcomer; this ought to be interesting as he watched the readouts on the com expand. On board the liner, Mark took a break from working on his new machine; smiling, he thought that everything was proceeding according to schedule. Looking down at the screen, he sighed. This new program was the most complicated he’d ever written. Hell, it was even more complicated than the eradicator virus since no one on the council knew of it, and Mark was sure that they wouldn’t try to stop him. The problem was if he didn’t cover all the bases in the code, it could spell disaster for everything living on the planet. For almost two weeks now, he’d been writing and rewriting the program. He had the first half set up perfectly, and the distribution of it was set, but the second half still had way too many glitches.

Deleting the first three lines, he once again tried to smooth out the problems he was encountering. Damn it! He was always good at the code, but each time he ran the second half, something turned wrong, and the outcome was a 99% death rate on the planet. Sitting back, he thought back to the almost same problem he’d had with the eradicator virus.

I thought he remembered that he’d been talking to Nissie about most of the city being wide open, and that’s it!

Turning back, he started typing with a vengeance 2 hours later; he was testing it, and 3/4 of the way through, there had been no glitches; smiling, Mark knew he was finally on the right track.

The next morning Tantka awoke and started working on a stronger shield as he had diagnosed from the com that he’s taken from the fat boy’s mother, damn what a simple bitch! After he deactivated the shield they had around them, Tantka was thinking about killing the fat boy’s father and using his mother over and over. He’d record it so he could torture fat boy with it over and over for years. Stepping over to the couple, Tantka held up a scanner to take readings. He adjusted another machine nearby. With an evil laugh, Tantka started the machine laughing. Old man, soon she’ll be mine to use again and again, plus you, you old bastard, will be able to watch while I take her, then I’ll kill you and put you out of MY misery.

After 15 minutes, Tantka’s look of glee turned to a snarl; adjusting the machine for the third time, nothing was working; what the hell? Looking at the readings, son of a bitch! Tantka stomped to another machine. Damn it! That fucking fart boy had built an oscillating circuit into the wrist com. There was no way he could deactivate it!

Growling, Tantka pulled a plasma gun and fired at the shield; the plasma charge hit it and just bounced off, eating a hole in the floor. Mouth agape, Tantka was looking at the readings; wait a minute! The energy readings were different from what he’d gotten when he first cornered the couple, and they’d activated the com.

“Hey asshole,” Tantka yelled at Arthur Doraland, “You aren’t tech savvy. How the fuck did you make the com oscillate and change the energy signature?”

“I have a name, you lame ass!” Arthur yelled back at him, “You should know that my wife and I are very important dignitaries. We will be missed.”

“Important, My ass! I checked your records you aren’t that important; I am sure that fart boy will miss you, but no one else. If anyone makes a move on me here, this whole building is rigged to vaporize, so don’t think anyone is coming,” Tantka spit back at him.

Sighing, Arthur knew that the king would be worried and probably had troops mobilized to free them. Arthur just hoped that Mark had a plan to get them out, though this newcomer was amazing, with twice the output, twice the shield strength, and a complete toxin and gas filter. Even with all the reports he had on new tech, he’d never seen anything this powerful.

The next day, Mark walked off the line with a smile on his face. He’d tested and retested all night long; he’d projected everything he could think of at it, then run through the comp and came up with a few almost impossible.

Hailing a speeder, Mark made his way to the palace to see the king; he had a bit of unfinished business with him.

Walking in, Mark touched a device on his belt to make sure that they wouldn’t be interrupted. Walking in, Mark told everyone to leave. He had to talk to the king alone; several guards made a move toward Mark and were almost frozen to the spot.

“Now then, when I release you, I suggest you leave, or we’ll have you removed unconscious, understand?” Mark snapped, and most of the men tried to nod yes; the few who didn’t receive a scowl from Mark immediately consented.

The room cleared, and Mark advanced on the king, touching the device again. The room was isolated and escape-proof.

“I assume you know why I am here? Besides the fact that a homicidal maniac is lost on your planet who wishes my death.” Mark said between clenched teeth.

The king nodded, “I have the funds to pay you. Though it will bankrupt the treasury, I can now pay you.”

Mark nodded, glad that, for once, the king was taking this seriously, “OK, I have evaluated the services that Nissie has provided to me; I have taken into account what was owed and what she has done. I’d say that you owe me 15,000 less than before. It won’t bankrupt you, but I have watched, and your profits have started increasing with each export. I think you’ll be ok.”

The king brought out his credit comp, and Mark brought out the contract that the king had made with him. After the credits had been transferred, Mark wrote the contract complete and then entered it as official. “Nissie is no longer my slave. I have released her as of now, but you must also be in her presence,” Mark was hoping he didn’t have to force the king’s hand to get Nissie released. Calling Nissie, she and Sam entered with Mark reactivating his device; they drew nearer, and Nissie had a look of concern on her face.

“Mr. Mark? May I ask what’s going on?” she asked, confused more than she’d been in a long time.

“The king and I have finally completed our contract; you are no longer a slave; you’re free now,” Mark said happily, though he wasn’t sure how she was going to take it.

“What!?” Nissie screamed, “No!!!! I want to be yours, NO!!!!!!!!!”

Mark was a little shocked and reached for Nissie as she slipped from consciousness toward the floor.

Gently laying her on the floor, Mark quickly pulled a med scanner from his pack; scanning her, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she was not ill. What the hell was going on? Now, Mark was actually starting to feel stupid. Sam looked over at Mark and saw a look of total confusion.

“Please tell me you know why she passed out,” Sam said incredulously at her brother. She couldn’t believe he was as smart as he was, he didn’t know!

“No, Sam, I don’t,” he replied, surprised at his sister.

“Here I thought you were smart!” she smirked at him, “you really don’t know?” Mark just shook his head no, “she loves you!” she exclaimed.

A little stunned, Mark stared at Nissie. “she loves me? Why? I’m nothing special.”

“Ok, you are an idiot after all; to her, you are everything, geez!” she said, exasperated.

Mark just nodded, really for once unsure what to do.

“Damn it, Mark! She loves you. She wants to be near you; since she’s no longer your slave, she won’t be required to stay with you. Therefore, she now will feel that you won’t want her near, or even want her,” Sam stated, staring at Mark as if he was crazy.

Mark slowly blinked after Sam’s tirade; damn, he just wanted Nissie to be free again, then he could ask her to stay with him as had been his plan the whole time. Nissie moaned and sat up, “Please, Mr. Mark, I don’t want to leave; I want to be your assistant. Please let me stay.”

Mark looked at her and suddenly realized that he wouldn’t be able to stand being without her. “I have no plans to send you away, but now that you’re free, I can’t make you stay either. I ... would be pleased to keep you on as an assistant, with a reasonable salary, of course.”

Nissie’s mouth dropped open. He wanted her to stay with him. She thought that he didn’t want her near, only tolerating it because he had to. “So, do you wish to stay? You are, as I said, free, so you can do what you want.”

Nissie’s eyes were wide with surprise. He had freed her so she could stay with him on her own accord! Throwing her arms around Mark’s neck, she shouted, “Yes! I want to stay forever with you!”

Mark was smiling a huge smile. Thank god she’d said yes!

Thanking the king, Mark ran checks on all the systems that he’d repaired months ago; finding nothing really wrong, he sat down with Nissie and Sam. “OK, I’ve already got the plan in the works. I realize that you two don’t really know what’s going on, but I want you 2 to go on like usual.”

“Mark, you know we can help. Why leave us in the dark?” Nissie asked.

“In case Tantka gets to you, you won’t know anything no matter what he does to you; I want you 2 to keep these with you at all times,” Mark handed them both new wrist comps, not unlike the new ones that Mark’s father had received just a few days ago. Mark and the women got up to leave. Mark suggested that they stay in the palace so that they’d be safer. They were both about to decline when Nissie remembered the last time Mark and Tantka had gone at each other, whispering to Sam, her eyes getting wide. They both agreed.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Mark left instructions with both women and then left the palace to start part 2 of the plan. Walking to an older building, Mark called all his probes and drones to start surveillance, setting up on the first floor. Mark watched while the drones closed in on the building he knew Tantka was in. Within a mile of the building, Tantka’s defenses took out every one of them, but all that was wasn’t cloaked. Mark smiled, same old predictable Tantka; moving his second wave of drones in, he stopped them short, seeing that Tantka had an upgraded shield array. Hmmmmmmmm, it appeared to have the same signature as his comp shields, so the little ass was trying to be smart for once; this new set of events was a surprise to Mark. For once, just once since this had started, it appeared that Tantka was using his brains.

Scanning the building, Mark found the source of the shield; typing a new command, Mark sighed. He knew it’d take an hour till it took effect. Tantka left 20 minutes later. Mark wasn’t sure where he was headed but couldn’t make a move till his folks were safe. Finally deactivating the shields, Mark had the drones activate the cloak in the new com Mark’s father had. Moving in, the drones soon had his parents free and on the ground outside the building he was in. His mother and father walked in while he was searching for Tantka. “Good work, son; you have any sign of him?” his father asked.