JORR (Jim Able: Offworld Book 7)

  Jim Able: Offworld

  Episode Seven

  JORR

  Ed Charlton

  Copyright

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  Jim Able: Offworld, Jorr

  © 2021 Ed Charlton

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN 978-1-935751-56-4

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  JORR

  ***

  Previously

  Jim and Tella have been commissioned by the galaxy’s gourmet spaceship manufacturers, the Praestans Rapax, to investigate a potential interplanetary war.

  Tella, alone, has gone to the planet Tanna Jorr, the potential victim of an attack by the forces of its neighbor, Tanna Gul.

  Jim and a Rapaxan monk, Tamric, have traveled to Tanna Gul. After their flier crashes in a storm, they have been captured and taken by road to a nearby base. Jim has learned how to insult a Gul from guards who have been smoking Lak-weed. Using this knowledge, he uses an obscene gesture to provoke another driver into ramming their vehicle.

  ***

  The noise of the collision had all four canids shaking their heads to flap their ears. The shock sent Jim sliding across the bench, and Tamric slid hard into the bony elbow and shoulder next to him.

  The crash sheets crumpled and twisted round each other, locking the speeding vehicles together. After a few seconds, the noises of grinding metal and squealing tires rose to a deafening height. Then silence reigned, and the world spun around them.

  Chapter One

  Jim was basking in the warm glow that infuses all things. The metal of the vehicle glowed only fractionally less than the bodies that hung from their belts around him. He was unhurt—of course he was unhurt—how could he be otherwise? He danced under the bodies and brushed the door aside. The mud was deep and brown, aglow with the same warmth, and as welcome as all things. Tamric was there beside him. Good old Tamric! He will be a fine partner. He is passing the test.

  A flare lit up the sky. It was beautiful. Tamric seemed not to realize how beautiful it was. He appeared to be interested only in being welcomed by more mud, more and more mud. Then there was water, thick black glowing water. Again, Tamric did not want to wait and enjoy it. He kept pulling Jim along by his muddy sleeves.

  Then there was the boat. It was beautiful. Jim could not see it all, now that the flares had dimmed. It lay half turned as if waking and stretching to rise out of the mud. It had green flakes of paint that shimmered as Jim held his face up to the boat. But, again, Tamric did not want to see. He wanted only to be inside the boat.

  Jim agreed. Tamric was all right, so Jim agreed.

  ***

  He lay in the dark of the boat, content that all things glowed, content that he was unhurt, content that he and Tamric would be a good team.

  After a few hours of drifting in and out of sleep, Jim began to reevaluate. Of course all things did not glow. Of course he was hurt. He could hear Tamric praying quietly. One out of three was as much as he could hope for.

  His legs ached like he had been running for hours. His back hurt when he tried to sit up. He could feel bruises and strains all over. His head was brewing the worst hangover since the day after Liz Curacao fired him.

  He remembered how desperate he had felt then. His career was over—years of training, years of experience in space, all thrown away. And now, here he was on his first mission for the EIA, lying injured, a hunted fugitive, making a complete mess of it. This desperation seemed more intense than any.

  “Jim?”

  “Tamric.”

  “How do you feel?”

  “Don’t ask.”

  “Can you move?”

  “My back seems not to think so.”

  “Take this.”

  Tamric’s hand appeared over Jim’s head and placed a small capsule against his lips. Jim swallowed it.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “A muscle calmer. It should help.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Let the medicament take effect. Then see if you can get up.”

  Jim waited. “What time is it?” he asked.

  “Sunset.”

  “Same day or different?”

  “The same. This morning we sheltered under a rock. Tonight we shelter in a ruined boat.”

  “Life is full of surprises.” Jim winced as he pushed his unusually heavy body into a sitting position. “So far, so good.”

  “Take this now.” Tamric offered him another capsule.

  “What’s this one?”

  “A stimulant, diuretic, and antinarcotic.”

  “You sure?”

  “Take it. It will cleanse your system of the drug.”

  “You weren’t affected at all?”

  Tamric shrugged.

  Jim felt there was some disapproval not being stated. “There’s no way I could have known the effect secondary inhalation would have on me.”

  “I know. You don’t have the benefit of the mental disciplines I have learned. We are lucky to have survived. The others, I believe, are all dead.”

  Jim wondered briefly why he seemed to care less than Tamric did. He rubbed at the burning between his collarbone and shoulder, where the Gul had scratched him, and remembered why. He wiped his throat several times with the back of his hand.

  “Do we have our backpacks?”

  “Yes. They were against the back door. It was not easy maneuvering you and them through the mud.”

  “Why did no one come after us?”

  “I’m not sure. I think their first concern was to rescue their colleagues. The vehicles were sinking fast. They were already nearly under by the time the others arrived. They may decide that we sank into the mud ourselves. I think we would have if we had been strapped in.”

  Jim’s eyes widened. “This is the first break we’ve had.”

  “Then we must make the most of it and be sure to attract no attention tonight.”

  “Agreed,” said Jim. “But I’m worried about how clean this mud is. Do you have a bio-scan?”

  “I have sampled the water and the mud. There are a variety of spores that all seem dormant. There are three active species of bacteria; none looks harmful.”

  “Three? I’d have thought this mud would be swarming with them.”

  “Three.”

  “This world is in real trouble, isn’t it?”

  “Their quest to borrow Tanna Jorr is timely. Life here is compromised.”

  Jim stripped off his flight suit to examine the wound by his shoulder. Tamric gave him a small cleansing cloth to remove the dried blood.

  “Hmm,” said Jim. “It’s been open to the local bugs. I could be in trouble here.”

  “Keep still,” said Tamric as he held the bio-scan against one of the parallel cuts. “Perhaps we spoke too soon. The Gul’s claws may have a healthier population of bacteria than the mud. Of course, some of these bacteria could be your own. We didn’t decontaminate ourselves before we abandoned the flier. We will have brought our own populations with us.”

  “Wait till we start defecating along the trail. You and I could be fathering whole new evolutionary branches over the next few days.”

  “Here’s the antimicrobial gel. Rub it in well. You’ll scar, but hopefully not die.”

  “Thanks.”

  Jim applied the gel and winced, guessing that Tamric was, by nature, an optimist.

  Chapter Two

  It was the first time Ajeer had seen him in a rage. She had heard about his rages often. It was terrifying; it racked h
er body with electric discomfort. She knew she could not move. She had to stay still and calm. He needed her, and this was her duty. Now, when all the others had fled the room and the furniture had stopped rolling, this was her moment.

  Into the awful silence she said, “The spirit is close. Call on the spirit now.”

  Instead, the Raeff uttered the kind of profanity heard only in the army barracks.

  She gritted her teeth and tried again. “Into this place the spirit moves; do not let it pass by without acknowledgment.”

  He swung round to her and grabbed the back of her neck, his claws extended. “For my whole life I have heard a voice saying such things. But that voice was old and wise. You are a pretty girl pretending to be what you are not.”

  It was her turn to feel anger. She growled and bared her teeth. “Never forget that I am a Luminant! You know of only your own life. I know of every Raeff that has gone before! I speak with the voice of tradition. I may be young, Loff, but I have years of study and devotion to my credit. It’s about time you acknowledged that!”

  He blinked in surprise and released his grip.

  She put a single claw to his chest. “I may be here to comfort and assist you, but never think that I’m some kind of ornament! If I tell you that the spirit is here and you should be listening, you do it!”

  He laughed but did not move. He looked into her eyes and drank in the seriousness and ferocity he saw there. “You would have been a wonderful challenge as a wife!”

  He brushed aside her arm and walked away.

  “So why does the spirit speak to me but not to those who work for me? Why does the spirit not guide those fools who let that craft burn? Why does the spirit not guide my troops away from stupidity? Illuminate that for me!”

  “You know the answer.”

  She waited as she had been trained to do.

  He sighed. “Yes...I suppose I do. I have been chosen; they have not.”

  “Indeed, you must not judge them by the same standard. They try, but they do not see things as you do.”

  “What do you think I should do?”

  She was elated at his tone. This was the first time he had asked her, as an equal, perhaps as a friend, for her thoughts.

  “Did they say the aliens were dead?”

  “They can’t get the cars out of the mud without heavy equipment. That will take time to arrive.”

  “Do you fear that they live?”

  “Fear?” He glared at her again, but it passed quickly. “No, it’s not a matter of fear. No alien spies can interfere at this stage.”

  “Then move on.”

  He nodded, and she breathed more easily.

  Chapter Three

  As soon as dawn came and there was enough light to see by, Jim unpacked his gear. He brought out a helmet and the collection of infrared sights he had thrown into the backpack as an afterthought. He was glad he had insisted on Tamric’s superiors loading weapons in the flier; he regretted that almost all of them had been destroyed.

  He worked for almost an hour, taping the sights to the sides of the helmet and wiring them into the display inputs.

  Tamric watched in silence. Jim put the helmet on and switched on two of the four sights. The view through the visor was not clear. He could see the glowing blob of Tamric and the vague haze of the sunlight coming through the holes in the boat, but almost no detail.

  “If I may guess...” began Tamric, “your work is less successful than you hoped.”

  “I...you’re right. These systems aren’t really compatible. It was a long shot.”

  Jim took off the helmet and shrugged.

  Tamric was shaking his head. “Jim, you are the experienced agent. I am a junior monk with much to learn. I was proud to be entrusted with this mission. I was also overwhelmed by the importance of it. Watching you just now has given me an insight into how Daum Robertus has been training me—preparing me—for this. Indeed, I see more clearly now the depths of the teachings of the Praestans Rapax.”

  “Wait a minute. You’ve been watching me all this while just to tell me how much I suck? Is that it?”

  Tamric laughed and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. But we agreed that your method was unsuccessful.”

  Jim narrowed his eyes at the monk. “You’ve got a better idea?” He tossed the helmet over to him.

  Tamric sat cross-legged with the helmet in front of him, but he did not touch it.

  “For us, it is of prime importance to do all things well. All our methods, all our teachings, are held up to that one test: does this enable me to do something well or better than before? It is who we are. It is what we do.”

  He paused to stare at the helmet, perhaps avoiding Jim’s annoyed glare. “In any task, it is of first importance to meditate upon the purpose. Without a true understanding of that, there can be no sure progress, no sure achievement. In this case, the purpose is simple: to see clearly through the gloom of Tanna Gul. Are we agreed on our purpose?”

  Tamric looked up from the helmet to Jim.

  Jim heard a formality in the question that brought to mind a church service, or a part of one, from his youth. He and his parents had stood and answered questions, posed in the same expansive way: “Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty...”

  “Sure,” Jim sighed, noting Tamric’s brief flicker of disappointment at Jim’s attitude.

  The monk began to speak but stopped and sighed. He looked at Jim for a moment and said, “For us, the way we ask, the way we answer, are part of the solution to any problem. Our hope is in ensuring quality. This is our way.”

  Jim saw how Tamric struggled to convey in a few words what he had been absorbing over months and years of learning.

  “I’m sorry,” Jim said softly. “Please go on.”

  Tamric returned his gaze to the helmet. “With our purpose clear, we meditate upon the resources to achieve that purpose. This is the long search. This is the deep search. The simple is a construct of many complexities. The complex is a construct of multiple simplicities. It is in this search that we find our answers. It is from the searching that we come to know our true questions. This search can never be hurried; it can never be bypassed. In this search we live the greater part of our lives.”

  To Jim’s discomfort, Tamric was silent for many minutes. He sat gazing at the helmet, the tape, and the sights. Jim could not be sure if Tamric’s eyes were open or shut. He waited, patiently, for the monk to finish his meditation. For the first time, Jim wondered what that really involved, but he got no clue from watching.

  “In the sight,” Tamric resumed, “we have the optical sensor. This feeds the digital converter. The digital converter feeds the signal-scrubber software. The signal scrubber feeds the image enhancer. The image enhancer feeds the frequency transformer. The frequency transformer feeds the optical output buffers. From there, the signal is converted to the output display or to the external link that you employed.”

  Tamric seemed not to need any reply from Jim, so Jim held his breath and watched.

  “Each of these is a resource for us. Each of these is both a complex entity and a simple entity. The visor...this, too, is both a simple unit and a complex one. The optical input accepts digital input from multiple sources. It, too, has signal-scrubber software, an image enhancer, and a frequency transformer. It has its own optical output buffers. The visor has the place of our hopes—an optical display.”

  Tamric paused before saying, “These are our resources. The matrix of the simple and the complex is woven with the strand of our solution. The path of that thread is our path. These resources are our resources. The solution is our solution.”

  Jim felt the strong urge to answer “Amen.”

  Tamric sat up straight and said to Jim, “Now, I see this as a Tonnara Load. It is a situation where our resources are too many, and thei
r use confuses us and weighs us down. I will make a suggestion. I know you are familiar with how this is done: I suggest, and you find the faults with the suggestion.”

  “Sure, I can do that!” Jim smiled.

  “I suggest we attach the optical sensors and the digital converters from the sights directly to the helmet’s input. This will bypass all the unnecessary resources.”

  “How are you going to do that? These things are sealed units. Like you said, they’re simple. You can’t just cut them apart.”

  Tamric frowned. “They were assembled. Each part was manufactured separately. Each unit can be disassembled.”

  “In a workshop, maybe. Look around. These are not ideal conditions.”

  “Is that your only objection? Is the solution itself acceptable?”

  “In theory, yeah, it might work.”

  “Let us follow this thread to prove its worth as our path.”

  Tamric reached into his pack and brought out a device the like of which Jim had never seen. It was white and silver, about eight inches long, and multifaceted.

  “What is that?” he asked.

  “A workshop.” Tamric smiled.

  He extended a blade from one end of the device and cut Jim’s tape off one of the sights. He folded the blade and pulled down a hook from the other end. With one quick motion he had cut through the body of the sight and was laying out its electronic entrails. He stared at the wires and modules for a moment. “I must risk a light. Please bring me a thermal blanket, Jim.”

  Jim delved into his backpack and pulled out the thin roll of the blanket. He handed it to Tamric, who unfurled it over the helmet and then disappeared beneath.

  Jim waited. He waited until he was sure Tamric had passed out under the blanket. Each time he thought to speak, he heard a small sound or saw a slight motion. Tamric said nothing all the while.

  When Tamric emerged, his face was flushed but happy.

  “Here, I have followed the thread of our path. Now you must perform a test to prove its worth.” He handed Jim the helmet.

  Had Jim been able to see himself, turning the helmet in his hands and examining Tamric’s work, he would have seen the same expression Tamric had worn while meditating.