Jack thanked his lucky stars in silence. Dee had done nothing but rant and rave all the way back to the group about the "gnome" she saw. She could have been ranting about something else less desirable. Jack tried to convince her that it might not be the wisest thing in the world to tell everybody. Dee disagreed until actually face to face with her comrades. At that point she must have decided that it was just as silly as Jack had told her it sounded.

Jack did not bring it up and respected her silence. That was with the exception of one time. As the caravan snaked it's way through the impossibly tall tree's, Jack gave the matter some thought. Being in this dark, fairy tale, looking forest only served to remind him that he was on another planet. Anything was possible. So Jack broached the subject with Lang.

Finny had become vaguely aware of what had happened between Jack and Dee up on the mountain. If she understood any English she had not let on but despite this handicap she somehow knew it. Women, unfortunately, on this planet, seemed to have that same instinct as their Earth counterparts. All Jack could figure it was good for was to drive men insane. Finny now stayed even closer to Jack. It made Jack reconsider her status a bit. Maybe she was his alien wife after all? If that were the case then why did she always walk two steps behind him? These customs were almost impossible to figure out!

When Jack approached Lang in the afternoon, several days later, Finny was right there behind him as usual. Jack was teaching himself to ignore it. He went on with his business like she was not. "Lang, essen kulibrit uh.... see... do you know see?"

The fact that it was afternoon did nothing to deter Lang from his usual, "good morning Jack. Kulibrit un see, yes see."

How did you say midget, or gnome, in alien talk? Jack wished he could tell Gary about this but, now, Dee was making him swear he wouldn't tell anybody at all. Gary would be the last the person she would want to know. Jack put his hand out. He held it about two feet off the ground, "Zeat? You know? Little person? Do you know?"

Lang looked a bit confused. He traded glances with Finny who broke out in a long-winded tirade in her own language. Jack could scarcely believe his ears. In just a few brief moments she had put out more words than Jack had ever heard her say since he met her!

Lang, looked both confused and embarrassed now. He scratched his chin and suddenly a light bulb went off behind those eyes of his. He smiled so hard he was practically beaming. He stood from where he had been resting and then began shaking Jack's hand furiously. "Good Shabhalla! Dee?"

The mention of Dee’s name only served to infuriate Finny that much more. She stormed off. Jack was supposed to feel relieved with her gone but, again, she had managed to make him feel like a heel. Once again Jack shrugged it off and went about his business. He hated when women did that!

"Shabhalla?" Jack asked the alien.

"I don't believe this," remarked Red. To him, the wildlife was only secondary to what he was standing on. This might be an alien planet but a railroad was a railroad. There were two sets of rails, ties, gravel, and a reinforced bed. Not only was it a set of tracks but a nice set at that.

"What's not to believe," asked Gina? She was far less impressed by all of it. She was busy peeling a new kind of fruit that had been given to her by some of the Zeats. She was dropping the peelings on Saiid's head. He was sitting right below her on the railroad bank and busy playing a hand held video game. He just kept knocking the peels off and ignoring her. Gina gave up on trying to get his attention, "Hey Gary, I never seen that shiner before."

Gary was trying to take a nap while lying inclined on the grassy bank. His head popped up after hearing his name. He thought about it for a minute and then realized she meant what was on a finger of his left hand. "Oh, the ring. Yeah I figured I needed my good luck charm back. I had it with my gear all along. I was afraid I was going to damage it or lose it, you know?"

Dee stopped what she was doing when she heard that. She had been about to start downloading the latest information from their satellite but, looked over to her ex husband instead. Even though no one had worn jewelry since they left she had not even noticed. "Not that ugly ring again? God I was so glad when I didn't see it on you when we left. I was hoping you had lost it finally."

"Never," said Gary proudly as if holding on to the ring was a major accomplishment. He then laid his head back down and tried to get some sleep.

"OK Pam, that's good," said Dee getting back to work. The signal was showing strong now. Pam sat back down and left the antenna array in a stable position. Dee typed in the code and hit enter. The percentage box appeared and the files began to download. It stopped before it was even half way finished. Dee looked at the error message she had and bit at her pen for a second. Then she found and took a good look at the file that was giving her machine fits.

"Holy Shit!"

Everybody's head came flying up. What could possibly be wrong now? Dee just jumped up and ran off back into the trees. Slowly, each of them began wandering over and looking at the lines of text on the screen. Saiid cleared his throat and read aloud, "Doing well. Have made new friends. No sign of Julia yet. Vitosk."

_____________________

The rickety door did not bust in like Pete would have figured. It should have come right off the hinges but did not. It did bust though. The battering ram being used by the red coats looked to be a good solid iron rod that was three times the diameter of a mans arm. The shattered splinters of wood were quickly kicked free as a horde of Red coated soldiers, with bayonets fixed, rushed into the building. Pete was actually impressed by what he saw.

The Black Shirts were obviously officers of some kind. Pete had taken notice that they commanded not only their own types of uniforms but, all others as well. He had been going with them on these raids for several days now. Each time, when they hit one of these "Slaves ‘R Us" flop houses, they did it the same way. They always used multiple doors, with three teams and a well coordinated entry to achieve maximum surprise and shock. The operation would have made the USMC proud.

For some reason the locals seemed to understand Pete's goals and intentions. Vitosk had come back from the university one night with the revelation that the reason for this was due to Lang and his letter. The alien had written of their situation in some detail. Pete could certainly think of no other reason.

He had shown the commanding officer here, Pascal, a picture he had of Julia and Joey. Pete had pointed to Julia specifically. Despite the man being awed by the photograph, he seemed to have no problem at all comprehending that she was the one they were looking for. Pascal also seemed confident he knew exactly where to start.

After one raid, Pete left Joey back at the house they were staying in. These places, that they were going in to, were full of sights that Pete wished he did not have to look at, let alone the boy. This next one proved no better than the rest. Pete walked right in behind Pascal who had followed closely behind his entry team. There was an old looking Assur inside that was screaming at the soldiers for all he was worth. The slope headed bastard made a gesture to his sword. Without even breaking his stride, Pascal raised his large caliber pistol and shot the Assur dead between the eyes. The other Assur quieted down and began to take commands after that.

Another elderly Assur was waiving papers around as Pascal walked right up to him. Was the Assur pleading, as he constantly pointed at the back of the large dark room? There was a group of Assur females in back. They were all ankle chained to a post. They said nothing at all and even acted like the raid was not going on. It was almost like they were used to this! It made Pete's stomach turn over in disgust. It was even more sickening than the Assur brains splattered on the wall behind him.

Pete walked over to the slaves. They pulled even closer together upon his approach. Their low protruding foreheads, pointed ears, and excessive hair made them look less than what Pete would have thought human. None of this shielded the pitiful expressions Pete saw in their blank stares. They were a miserable looking sight and it only served to heighten Pete's anger. He began kicking around in the straw on the floor. He stopped when he found the wider seams of a trap door in the planks.

Bayonets pried the planks clear. Pascal held a light down low into the pit beneath the floor. Being cautious was taking to long so Pete jumped down into it. Once his eyes began to adjust he saw something moving in the shadows. At first Pete could see some legs, a tattered dress, all trying to push back further into the dark corners. There were two of them here. Pete could hear muffled cries. He jumped forward, "Julia!"

Pulling both of them into the light Pete took a good look at their faces. They were both normal looking humans so he reached out in desperation and pulled each face close to him. The first one was just a young girl. Pete pulled the cloth out of her mouth so that she could speak. She poured out an unintelligible stream of words. Pete moved to the next girl and grabbed her. He pulled her into the light, "Julia!"

It was another girl about the same age as the first. Pete felt sickening cold in the pit of his stomach. He began pushing around in the dark looking to make sure he had missed no one. There was no one else to find. Pete dropped his head. If he understood his chaperone correctly then this was the last place. It seemed to be illegal for different races to own females of another. If that were true then the guy with the papers was in a lot of trouble. It was of no consequence to Pete. He didn't come here to play cop.

If there was one person on this planet that was in more trouble than the Assur meat merchant then it was Julia. After going from slave house to slave house, Pete could not get the images out of his mind. His thoughts kept putting Julia’s face on all of the women he had seen. She was alone, afraid, in the dark, and at the mercy of some bastard that could not even understand her pleas. It boiled Pete’s blood.

Pete sniffed and then jumped out of the pit. He left the two girls to the care of their "rescuers." Pete doubted that their treatment, where they were going, would be any different from here. He needed a break from all of this. He was really starting to hate this place.

Back at their room, Pete tossed his jacket on the floor as he came walking in the door. Vitosk was back early from the university today. The sun was even still up. He was sitting at the little desk next to the window and flipping through the pages of a book. Pete walked over and glanced over his shoulder. The scribbling in it was of some local variety. Pete decided that he did not care so he flopped down on his bed. "Vitosk, I never understood how it is you can feel so comfortable in a place where you don't understand a word that's spoken to you."

The Russian never looked up from his book, "you are an American Marine and you have never been to a foreign country?"

"Well," replied Pete, "after the war I did a stint at the Embassy in Germany. I was a pilot though. You know, I was on a carrier most of the time. I been in lots of ports visiting, you know, liberty and that kind of stuff."

Joey had found a rubber ball somewhere and after Vitosk had finished examining it Joey actually got it back. He was now bouncing it off the corner walls with throws that sent it right back to his lap.

"You're Russian mister Vitosk. You lived in a foreign country."

"Well it wasn't foreign to me Joey. I did live in this one place however. It was my wife’s hometown. A little village in Kazakhstan. I was the only one there that spoke Russian."

Pete looked up, "You're wife didn't speak Russian? I thought you said she was educated at Moscow University like you were?"

"Yes, that much is true. Only we were both physics students at the time. In class we used English which was all that was required for such students to learn. We both conversed in it once we were married as well."

"So what language did she speak?" asked Joey.

"Something that doesn't even have a name, only the people of her village actually speak it. Probably a holdover from whatever nomadic group they descended from. No doubt the majority perished at the hands of the Mongols, leaving only a little band to carry it on till this day. So to answer your question Peter. I have had similar experiences before."

Pete laid his head back, "so what do we do now?"

"Well," replied the Russian. "I managed to get my home grown battery to work with the acids that I acquired at the Academy. Joey here helped and I got a message to the others. It was short but next time I think I can actually generate enough power to hold a real conversation. This time I simply left them an E Mail."

"That's great," Pete's voice was blank.

Vitosk closed his book. He sat his spectacles down on the desk and turned his chair to face Pete. "Last one today?"

"Yep."

"Pete, I hate to be the one to tell you this,” Vitosk said sympathetically. “It actually pains me and despite the differences we have had, I do not wish to be the one to bring more bad news. I know what it feels like to loose someone as close as Julia was to you. You have to realize though, she is probably dead."

If she was not, from what Pete had seen over the last several days, Julia would be a lot better off that way. "So, what do we do now?"

"You and the boy need to rejoin the others. I went to the train terminal today. The rails go south over the mountains into Zeatland. It comes very close to where Lang indicated as his destination. I think I can arrange you passage on the railroad. It might take some doing however. It would appear there is a war going on somewhere, right now, and the trains are under military jurisdiction at the moment. This whole city is being used as a staging area apparently."

Pete only heard the first part, "What are you going to do? I'm not letting you stay by yourself Vitosk. That would be crazy not to mention..."

"I will be perfectly fine," said Yurgani holding up his hands. "There is quite a bit we can learn here. When I am finished. I'll come down and rejoin you by rail."

"Yeah, well what if we move Vitosk? What if something happens? Are you going to keep the radio with you? There's too much that could go wrong. I'm not going to be responsible for somebody else getting hurt, or lost."

"Peter,” Vitosk was adamant, “the responsibility is not yours. I am here not under your authority if you recall. Also, you and young Joey here can take the radio so you will be able to let the others know where you are. When I am finished, I will return to the group unharmed, I assure you."

Pete sat up in bed, "and exactly how do you plan on keeping contact?"

Reaching in the book, Vitosk removed a slip of paper with local writing on it. He handed it to Pete with the instructions, "Send me a letter. This is the address and if you get a message to me here I will get it. Once you find out where Lang has settled in at, you can get him to send me yours. We'll write the actual letters in English and that should be just as secure the radio. No one is certainly going to be able to read it."

There was no way Pete was going to be convinced that this was smart. He probed, "and exactly what's so important here? I mean what have those people told you that we didn't already know?"

"Believe me Pete," Vitosk turned back to his book, "We would be here years discussing that. I believe that it is indeed very important to our mission."

There was nothing that would change the Russians mind. Pete gave up. It was his hide and short of fighting the man there was little to stop him. Pete laid back down and closed his eyes. He tried not to let his mind ramble. Those horrible images just kept coming back.