Homesick
Chapter Thirty-Five - Safe Conduct

“Only my Builders know how to pilot this ship,” Master Daaarrm said, his smile more patronizing than smug. “Surely, I have no choice but to bring them along.”

Poole looked on, mystified by the face on the monitor.

“Then you won’t be welcome onboard!” Sally countered, checking for Ian’s nod of support.

“We’ve seen that your Builders can cause problems with our equipment,” she added. “If you’re coming here at all, you must come alone and unarmed. I’ll want to visually inspect the interior of our shuttle before it takes off. I’ll want to make sure you’re not carrying weapons. And we consider your Builders weapons!”

“Even so, you carried weapons onto our world, did you not?”

“We needed them! You won’t! We never meant you any harm. All we want now is to settle our differences and for you to reverse whatever mind control techniques you used on Scott Anderson.”

“We never agreed to that!” Daaarrm said in surprise. “As I recall, we were negotiating 4702’s safe return here.”

“That’s not going to happen and you know it! Scott remains with us! And, if you want to foster any relationship with our planet, you’d do well to release him to us as he was.”

Daaarrm nodded slowly. “I suppose that might be a persuasive argument. But would you also admit that, if your world would like to do business with us, the return of 4702 might be a gesture of good will on your part? He has chosen our way of life, after all.”

“You and I both know that’s not true,” Sally growled. “But, getting back to the original point, whatever we’re planning to negotiate, you requested the meeting in the first place, right? If it’s going to be here, you must be prepared to trust us. That means coming unarmed.”

He thought for a moment. “Again I ask, how will I pilot the ship without my Builders?”

“We can operate the controls safely from here.”

Daaarrm muted the communication, but they could see him turning to confer with a Builder standing idle nearby.

“Incredible!” Poole said. “Is that a person?”

“We think so,” Ian said. “They bleed well enough, anyway.”

“Ian had to shoot two of them while we were down there,” Sally explained. “We didn’t see their faces, but they seem human enough, or at least organic.”

“They’re cyborgs!” Poole concluded. “Electronically enhanced humans! Or biologically-based robots, depending on the proportional balance of machine to living tissue. Fascinating!”

“Yeah, well they tried to kill us, Doctor, and they probably would have done if I hadn’t killed them first,” Ian said, turning back to his console with a pensive look that Poole made note of.

The console beeped and Daaarrm’s face turned back to them. “You understand that, if I let you pilot this ship, I’m literally putting my life in your hands. My Builders have assured me that you could kill me quite easily if you wanted to, simply by opening the door to vacuum or by not firing the appropriate rockets. You could also fire your own rockets, leaving me to float helplessly in orbit, where I would suffocate in time.”

“Yes, but we wouldn’t do that. We’re not barbarians. We wouldn’t stoop to your pathetic level. Don’t worry, Darm, you’ll be perfectly safe.”

“Excuse me,” Ian said to Sally. “Master Darm, this is Merryfield again. I’m the man who shot your Builders, remember?”

“Only too well.”

“You saw the weapon I used. At one point I was aiming it at you, correct?”

“Yes.”

“I had a clear shot. If I wanted you dead, you would be, believe me!”

Daaarrm nodded. “I suppose that logic is irrefutable, assuming your weapon was still in working order at the time.”

“It was.”

He paused again. “Very well,” he said, as if it were a great sacrifice. “I think I can agree to this, but on two conditions.”

“Here it comes,” Ian whispered.

“First, I’ll have to confer with my Builders to learn as much as I can about how to pilot this craft, just in case there’s a problem with your control. I’d hate to risk some kind of accident, assuming that’s what it would be.”

“You have until tomorrow,” Sally said.

“Sufficient.”

“And we’ll want to monitor you at all times,” Daaarrm added.

Sally looked to Ian. “Can we patch in a visual for them?”

He shrugged and turned back to the console, considering the problem.

“I don’t mean I want to see a picture of you as you are of me!” He smiled, revealing the many designs on his teeth. “I want 4702 to supervise the entire procedure up there. He’s one of our Brethren. He loves us and I know I can trust him.”

Sally’s face twisted in disgust. “You’ve got to be kidding! He’s in no condition to do that!”

“Those are my terms.”

“That may not be a problem even if you were planning something,” Poole said. “From what you told me, I’d say much of his long term memory is damaged. He might not even know what he’s looking at.”

Sally muted. “He’s beginning to remember some things,” she said to Poole. “He almost remembered what the shuttlepod is. But you’re right, I’m sure he couldn’t remember everything. Even if he did, there’d be hundreds of ways to sabotage the launch that he couldn’t monitor.”

“Then what’s it all about?” Ian asked.

She unmuted. “Darm, what do you really want with Scott Anderson?”

“The truth,” he replied with the smile Sally hated most. “4702 would never allow you to harm me. If he knows we’re coming, he’ll be sure we arrive safely. And, aside from this, it would give us a chance to greet him. I’m sure he’d be comforted by a familiar voice from home.”

Sally’s face turned red, but she refused to give him any more satisfaction than she already had. “I’m not sure we can accommodate you, Darm, but even if we do, I must insist you call him Scott Anderson. That’s his name. S-C-O-T-T A-N-D-E-R-S-O-N. Got that?”

He looked dismayed. “I’m sorry to disagree with you on this point, Captain, but he won’t answer to that name. We named him 4702. That’s who he is now. It was our first gift to him. It made him part of us forever. Would you force us to insult him by taking even that simple dignity away from him?”

“He’s got a point,” Poole said. “In his current condition, I doubt it would do us any good to make them use his real name. It would only confuse him.”

“Very well, Darm,” Sally said with a sigh. “Call him what you will. But, if you try to harm him, we’ll defend him. He’s still a member of this crew!”

“We won’t harm him,” he said, as if in surprise. “We never have.”

Again, Sally leashed her rage. “Very well then. We’ll expect you to be in that ship tomorrow at dawn.”

“That would be about 04:00 hours by your clock, I would think.” He grinned.

Both Ian and Sally started in surprise. “Yes. 04:00 hours.”

Daaarrm smiled his most triumphantly sickening grin to date and terminated the connection.

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