Chapter 11

The airship landed on time. Two rays enveloped it. It went dead as it collapsed upon the ground. The engines obviously went off.

Janna said, ‘That was rougher than we had wanted but they were preparing to fire their weapon. We had to stop that.”

Moments later, people started to come out of the air ship and, in the distance, I could see others leaving the housing. All had their hands raised in surrender.

Janna and I were assigned to meet the Britishers. Sir Archibald was there. He said, “Josh, we meet again.”

“I am Janna. I will lead you into your incarceration. We are really tired of this. Your HMSS Mary has no more air ships. Therefore, we will have to transport you to it. We are first examining the Mary to be sure it has no usable armament. That should be accomplished in a few moments. You are all in a stasis field. Your weapons will not work. We know of your treachery so are prepared. Drop your weapons. The alternative is for them to burn you as they are heated.”

Sir Archibald said, “I will not give up my weapon to a native. How are you doing all this?: Your planet lacks technology.”

Janna replied, “We found most technology too much trouble. We do control the weather but that’s all we do regularly. I will now call your HMSS Mary since we have disarmed her. The people on that ship are in a panic according to what we are hearing.”

She paused. “HMSS Mary, this is the place formerly known as Kingston. Do you copy?”

“This is HMSS Mary. Who is this?”

“I am Janna, one of the natives you were trying to subjugate. That didn’t work. We have the personnel of the Anglia and from Kingston. They are our captives. We have disarmed your ship not that you can locate anything to shoot. We are going to return your people to the cargo area marked, ‘six,’ and then will transfer you to your solar system. Do you understand?”

“We understand what you are saying but that’s impossible.”

“For you but not for us. We are, however, retaining Archibald Davis and Gerald Thomas until we’re ready to transfer you to your solar system. You may speak to Archibald is you wish.”

A voice said, “Sir Archibald, what’s happening?”

“We have surrendered. The natives have superior technology to us. They have managed to disable the Anglia and force us out. We can’t touch our arms without them burning our hands. All this is impossible but it is happening.”

“We understand, Sir. All of our weapons are inoperative. I am told that our people are in cargo hold six which was pressurized. We did not do that.”

Janna said, “Even though you Britishers are barbaric, we will not kill you gratuitously. We pressurized the area for your people. We will place these two on your bridge. Frankly, we are tired of dealing with you idiots. We are declaring this solar system off limits to you people. You will find your technology is not that good in many places in the universe. Here are your two. You will find your technology is far inferior to many other technologies in this galaxy. This is Janna signing off.”

Quietly and without any fuss, Davis and Thomas vanished as had all the others.

I was impressed. Janna said, “We will have to mount sensors to prevent the Britishers from entering without our knowledge. I don’t think they will find it very easy to return anyway. We can celebrate and return to more useful pursuits.”

Everyone met with the leadership. Timmo stood and said, “This was a quite satisfactory time. We lost no people and killed very few of the Britishers. I particularly want to thank Josh from Abide for his good work. Let us celebrate our success and return to our homes.”

We did and we did. We had to rebuild but there was plenty of wood available with only minimal clearing needed. Elena and I settled in for a good life. Janna had me retain a radio. She showed me a few functions including a call and a message receiver and recorder. She said, “Check it about once a week.”

It’s been a year and I have been reasonably diligent in checking the radio though there was never a stored message until now. I checked it and Janna’s voice came on. “The Britishers have returned with three star ships. You will be needed. Please head toward Kingston for a conference. See your local leader for details on the trip. Please acknowledge.”

I called and said, “This is Josh and I acknowledge your message. I am going to see Honso immediately.” Elena and I went to Honso.

He said, “You have heard.” I nodded. “Elena will go with you?” I nodded again. “Very well. Pack clothing for a week. When you return, I will have a portal ready.”

We returned with light packs for our clothing for a week. Honso said, “Okay. Just stand there. We did and the next thing we knew, we were in Kingston standing in front of Janna and Timmo. The transition was totally smooth.

Timmo said, “We disliked bringing you back here but you are still our best for reading the Britishers’ intentions. Many now speak British and we are capturing their radio transmissions without any problem. This time, they have three star ships, Mary, William, and Elizabeth.” He looked at me a moment. “I am presuming they are named for monarchs.”