Chapter 6: The Old Man's Story

Varna sat in her hotel room, feet on the desk, letting her mind drift. She had over the years grown comfortable with the connection she felt with whatever was shut in the coffin shaped object at the back of her ship's hold. She had asked several of the other captains, in as offhand a way as possible when they happened to meet in a bar on the frontier planets they would visit for supplies, or when they were collecting bounty payments for hunting down humans, if they had ever found anything like it before. None of them ever admitted they had. However, the last one she had spoken to, a freighter captain she had known in the army, recommended she looked up an old friend of hers who had an interest in history and human artifacts. She had told Varna that she went to him to sell things she had found on deserted human and Grojan worlds when she needed cash and no questions asked.

They had visited the central worlds to hand in their collection of human ears and collect their bounty. The rest of her crew had gone their separate ways although Petara and Catana had taken Theasa under their wing and the three of them always stuck together. Theasa had never been in the army and she had only just failed the mating ritual when the three of them found her alone working as a barmaid in a rundown Grojani bar. Varna had let her join their little group and she became the baby of the crew. They had been a crewmember short since visiting a frontier planet to get supplies and Galeia, an original member of her crew had suddenly disappeared. She had contacted Varna on her handy com the next day. The impossible had happened, she had found someone and wanted to stay. As there were no such thing as an un-bonded adult male Varna assumed she had been suffering from wishful thinking, but when she saw him hovering in the background during the call she could see the attraction. He was stunning, and at least a head taller than Galeia, which even for a Grojan was big. Varna had wished her well and they had left the planet a crewmember short.

Sisanna always went her own way. She had little in common with the others anyway, and they were happy to let her go. Varna usually returned to the ship once business planet side was concluded. It was after all her home, and the further she got from it the stronger the subconscious pull to return.

She pulled the handy com from her pocket, took a deep breath and dialed the number she had been given. The handy com buzzed a few times before it was answered gruffly in voice only mode. "Yes!"

"Hello, is that Luirlan?"

"Who wants to know?"

"My name is Varna, I was in the army with Messana, she gave me your number and told me you might be able to help me identify something I have found." The video feed came on and Varna found herself looking at an old man with bushy eyebrows and an unfashionable long drooping mustache, his hair white with age.

He glared at her. "Meet me at the junction between Luftan Street and Karr Street in the old quarter in an hour, and come alone." He hung up.

Varna blinked at her blank handy com screen as it quietly hummed with the open connection tone. She thumbed the screen to hang up the call then accessed the city map.

Her hotel was situated in the old quarter, because being a reject, Varna and those like her were not permitted in the main affluent parts of the city or the city center. It was the same on all the central world's cities; rejects were only allowed access to the rundown areas or the Grojani districts, which amounted to much the same thing.

The meeting place was within walking distance, and looking out of the grimy window the evening appeared to be pleasant, and once she had finished the meeting she could find a quiet café for dinner. Varna rose and walked out of her shabby hotel room down the narrow stairs and past the dozing receptionist. She had an almost overwhelming urge to ring the desk bell and make him jump but she thought better of it, pushed open the door and stepped into the busy street. Standing there she could have been anywhere; people in formal business clothes, some in casual dress, both expensive and poor and shabby. Vehicles as varied as the pedestrians made their way up and down the street. Everything, accompanied by noise, dust and smells assailed her senses, a typical city at the end of a working day.

She turned left, and walked along the busy street. No one took any notice of her, everyone intent on their own business, which Varna found comforting in its anonymity. On the frontier planets, women like her were regarded with fear and mistrust. For the likes of Sisanna it was justified, but Varna had found most of the younger generation normal, friendly and trustworthy. She had noticed that there were also more failures recently than there had been in Sisanna's generation and before. It was as if the authorities were tightening up on what an ideal Grojan female should be.

It took her just over three quarters of an hour to reach the meeting place. She stood on the corner with her back to a seedy looking general store so she could see the two streets and no one could come up behind her.

The early evening rush had abated by the time she had arrived and the business people were being replaced by more casually dressed people, going out for the evening Varna supposed. She watched a young couple with a pang of jealousy, hand in hand with eyes only for each other walking along the street. Even though they were lower class Grojan they were still regulated by the same rituals and laws and they had a partnership she would never have.

"Well stop woolgathering and show me your teeth." The gruff voice at her shoulder made her jump - she turned in surprise to face the old man.

"How did you... ?"

He frowned. "Show me your teeth or I'm gone!"

Varna bared her teeth and the old man seemed to relax, he smiled "Good yes, good, such a pretty little thing, such a waste."

"I beg your pardon?" Varna was not sure she liked being referred to as a pretty little thing; it would play havoc with her carefully contrived reputation.

The old man raised a bushy eyebrow and ignored her question. "Do you have a handy com?"

"Yes."

"Then turn it off."

She pulled the handy com from her pocket and turned it off as he requested then held it up for him to see.

The old man nodded. "Good, follow me, I have somewhere quiet and out of the way we can talk, do you like coffee?"

"Coffee? What's coffee?"

He clicked his tongue, turned and started down a side street. "Oh dear, doesn't know what coffee is." Varna had to hurry to keep up with him.

He turned down another street then ducked into a recessed doorway set in what looked like a block of rundown apartments and Varna almost walked right past before realizing where he had gone. She turned and ducked in the door behind him. She found herself in a small and almost empty apartment.

Luirlan indicated a couple of overstuffed lounge chairs. "Please take a seat." Varna sat on one of the chairs. "Good, good, this is one of several temporary apartments I can use for private discussions so I apologize for the lack of facilities."

"You don't live here then?" Varna asked

"No of course not my dear, I'm afraid that nowadays you can't be too careful. Now for a cup of coffee, would you like milk and sugar?"

Varna sighed. "I don't know what you are talking about, so I will leave it to you."

The old man narrowed his eyes as if sizing her up. "Humm ... I think milk and sugar as it is your first time, it's how I like it." He went through to the kitchen, removed a small tank from the back of a machine, filled it with water and then selected a small round container from a box and fitted it into the top of the machine. He put two cups underneath and pressed a button. Hot water ran into the cups. After a minute or so he removed the cups, walked back into the lounge area and handed her a cup of frothy brown liquid. He settled himself in the other chair and took a sip from his cup. He sighed. "Wonderful. Come on my dear take a sip, but be careful, it's hot." He gazed at her intently so Varna raised the cup to her lips and sipped the hot frothy liquid.

"This is delicious." She took another sip. "Why have I never heard of coffee before?"

The old man smiled. "That's because it is human."

Varna almost choked, "human?"

"Yes, wonderful isn't it?"

Varna took another sip. "Actually yes it is, where do you get it from?"

"That my dear is a secret I might tell you one day, but not today. Now, what about this artifact you have found? You must tell me everything, including where you found it."

Varna took another sip of her coffee and settled back in her chair. There was something about the old man she liked and her instinct was to trust him.

"A couple of years ago we came across a ship that had been damaged. At first we thought it had been attacked but we subsequently discovered it had exited a jump right by a stray interstellar chunk of rock. The relative velocities were so great the rock went through the ship's shields and hull like butter, causing a shock wave and explosive decompression killing the crew instantly." Varna hesitated for a moment.

The old man took a sip of his coffee. "Go on."

"Well the strange thing was the crew were human and Grojan. They were wearing the same uniform."

"Was it dark grey with a motif resembling a stylized comet on the shoulder and silver marks like this -" He drew IC in the dust on the table. "- in a square on the collar?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

The old man smiled. "Please continue."

"In the hold of this ship was the artifact. It looks like a large white coffin with an active control console on the side." She placed her coffee on a small table beside her and pulled out her handy com. "Is it all right if I turn it on to show you some pictures?"

"Yes, computer mode only not coms."

She flicked it with her finger and located the photos of the artifact. "This is it." She leant forward and handed him her handy com. "There is something else I have never mentioned to anyone else; it pulls me towards it, on almost a subconscious level." Why did I tell him that?! Ancestors I did not mean to tell him about that! She felt her face flush and she shifted uncomfortably in her chair, then reached for her coffee and took a large gulp.

Luirlan raised an eyebrow. "My dear, please don't look so concerned, I assure you your secret is safe with me." He looked down at her handy com and flicked through the photos. Varna watched his expression as he did so. He paused for a moment on one photo and turned her handy com to orientate the picture better. She noticed his expression change - for a fleeting moment a look of shock crossed his face, if she had blinked she would have missed it. What he could not hide was, his face went white and his hands shook. He took a deep breath and continued flicking through the photos. He then passed the handy com back to her. "Um ... would you like another coffee, my dear?"

She was certain he had offered her another drink to cover his shock at whatever he had seen in her photos. "Yes please." The old man got shakily to his feet and walked into the open plan kitchen. She watched as he took a deep breath and started to make another coffee for them both.

"You know what it is, don't you? And why it has an effect on me?" she asked.

"Yes." He finished making their drinks and walked back to his chair, handed the coffee to her and sat down.

"First let me tell you a story, but before I do I need to know you have an open mind. What do you think of humans?"

"They are vermin, I am a bounty hunter among other things."

Luirlan leant forward in his chair, sighed and pinned her with an unblinking stare. Varna had an uncomfortable feeling he was looking into her soul. "Spare me the propaganda, what do you really think? I can see in your eyes you are hiding something, something that frightens you."

She shifted in her seat and licked her lips. "I ... I am, or was indifferent to humans, I had more contempt for the stupid subservient bitches who succeed in the mating ritual. They are little more than chattels to their bond mates with no power or independence."

"So what has changed Varna?"

She put her cup down on the table and clasped her hands together in her lap. Ancestors! I only want to know what the artifact is. She frowned for a moment then decided to tell him of her strange experience with the human, why she could not fathom, but she had kept it a secret for so long it had been gnawing at her. He seemed harmless and she was sure he would not laugh at her. It was a secret she needed to get off her chest and she would never see the old fool again so what the heck?

She sighed. "It was late in the war and we were circling human space to come up behind them. I was part of an advanced force and we attacked a small human colony. Everything was going to plan until a human cruiser unexpectedly arrived. What should have been no more than a routine extermination turned into a hard fought battle. Unfortunately, many of the humans escaped to the cruiser while their Marines held us off. After they had evacuated the population their Marines withdrew and the cruiser got away as we had nothing there at the time that could take it on.

"I was doing a house to house search in case any had been left behind when I came to a partly destroyed dwelling..." She twisted her hands in her lap. "I'm sorry, but this is difficult for me."

"Take your time, have another sip of coffee."

She closed her eyes for a moment then leant forward and took a sip, then sat back with a sigh. "I thought I heard something as I stepped through the door and I was tensed ready to fight when this human suddenly appeared and snatched my pulse rifle from my hands. He spun me round smashing, me back against a pile of rubble, then knelt on my chest keeping me pinned down." She ran a trembling hand through her hair. "Luirlan, he was massive, and so fast I had no chance against him. I tried to grab his arms but they were like iron, I thought I was going to die. He picked up a brick and smashed it against my helmet, and he knew exactly where and how to hit it to cause molecular cohesion failure.