Free Return to Dakistee by Thomas DePrima Page A

days after departure from Nordakia."
    "That could delay our plans by up to two years."
    "Yes, yet we have no choice. If we alter course while we're being watched, the military will be on us in a minute and we'll never reach our real destination."
    "Perhaps we could lose our tail…"
    "I'm listening," Vejrezzol said.
    "If we could arrange for someone to send a distress signal, the ship following us might have to break off to go to their assistance."
    "But my entire flock is aboard this ship."
    "While making arrangements with the Gastropod's captain, I made other contacts who might be willing to perform this favor for us, for a price."
    "How much of a price?"
    "Perhaps ten thousand credits. Perhaps more."
    "Do it. I'll authorize up to twenty-five thousand credits if they can get the ghost off our backs."
    "Very good, Excellency. I'll begin working on it immediately. It may take a month or more."
    "A month or more?"
    "It will take time because a ship must get into proper position so the ship following us is the logical one to come to their aid."
    "I see. Very well, proceed."
    * * *
    "Have you seen what that witch has done now?" Dr. Manson asker her assistant.
    "Which witch, Doctor?"
    "That Carver woman. Not only did she convince the Expedition Headquarters on Anthius to give her my cylinder and make me deliver it personally, now she's gotten them to throw all our schedules out the window to concentrate on uncovering the three Regional Cultural Headquarters that hadn't been excavated yet."
    "Whatever for?"
    "She thinks they'll find an additional cylinder in each. She claims there are six, and she needs them all to open the facility the people at Loudescott uncovered."
    "Perhaps she does."
    "She's a fool if she thinks I'm going to accept that at face value. Her sister didn't need the cylinders to open the other facility and she doesn't need these. She has some other purpose in mind."
    "Perhaps she really does need the cylinders."
    "We tested the cylinder I had with every device we own and all we proved was that it was a solid piece of composite metal fashioned to be ornamental. It doesn't have any magical powers. No, there's something else going on here. I just haven't figured out what it is. But I will. And I promise I'll get even with her for embarrassing me. I'll make her the laughing stock of the archeological community if it's the last thing I ever do.
----
     

Chapter Six
    ~ June 3 rd , 2285 ~
     
     
    Admiral Jenetta Carver returned from a lengthy meeting in the Admiralty Hall at Space Command's Region Two Headquarters on Quesann and plopped tiredly into the chair behind her desk. As Military Governor of fully two thirds of Galactic Alliance Space, meetings consumed most of her days. Supreme Space Command Headquarters on Earth still hadn't named anyone to govern Region Three. This meant that responsibility for those sectors had rested on her shoulders since she defeated the Uthlaro and forced them to cede their territory to prevent them from waging a new war when they felt sufficiently recovered from their previous devastating losses.
    The monitor that covered one wall in her office was projecting a top-down, 2D map of the sectors for which she was responsible. As was the case with many galaxies, when viewed from the side at a distance, the Milky Way Galaxy looked like a child's spinning top. At the center, it was some two thousand light years from top to bottom, but the thickness fell off quickly when moving outward, so galactic maps were usually shown as a top-down, two-dimensional representation marked off in square sectors unless being projected by a holographic device.
    SC officers who commanded bases had immediate responsibility for the sectors where their base was located. Because of the GA's distance from the center of the galaxy, that responsibility extended to include all territory above and below the accepted median line drawn through the horizontal center of the galaxy. Technically, their space was composed of