Rebirth

Chapter Twelve

  The Morning of March 13th

  On the far off planet of Aldebra

  Months earlier on his return to Aldebra, the captain of the Aldebran space cruiser had told his beloved leader Quasar that the mission must have failed due to an alien spy in Aldebra letting the authorities know when a ship of the Aldebran fleet had left its base to go on a mission. The space fleet of Earth, once alerted, always followed any such starship movement by activating their powerful sensors and were therefore able to ruin any chance of success that Aldebra had against them. At first, this claim had been dismissed, but when Master Agent Tirana returned to Aldebra, he too said that Earth must have a spy in their midst, for how else could the authorities on Earth have managed to find him so easily. Quasar then began to have second thoughts on the matter, for his ace spy Tirana could think of no way as to how they could have got onto the Aldebran connection so quickly. Therefore, Quasar appointed Tirana to look for the spy, and for two months he had been crossing possible names off the list of all alien residents until only one pair of names was left, Ray and Jean Connors. Two teams of four agents had been following them for a week now, but so far they were also clean, if he crossed them off the list he would be left with no suspects, and Quasar would not like that. Tirana decided to go to the stake out personally and follow whichever of them came down to the spaceport from their freighter that was still in orbit above Aldebra, supposedly waiting for a cargo. Tirana was in luck, for Ray Connors took his small shuttlecraft down to the planet almost as soon as Tirana arrived at the stake out location. Although how you can call it stake out when the spacecraft they were staking out was in orbit one hundred miles above the planet`s surface, and they were in the spaceport down on the planet`s surface, he was not sure.

  Ray Connors landed the craft on the edge of the spaceport and headed off into the town at a slow pace, he stopped at a dive of a place and went into it and ordered a cold beer, at least Aldebran beer was good, when it was cold. Tirana went in after him, sat near the door, also with a cold beer, and waited. Why come all this way for a cold beer and not talk to anyone; he could have had a cold beer up in his spacecraft, maybe he had been arguing with his wife and just wanted to get away for a while? A young Aldebran male entered the dive, ordered a beer, and then sat next to Connors. They nodded to each other and seemed to be just passing the time of day but Tirana had already photographed the man, and his small computer was steadily running through the records to find out who he was. All the educated Aldebrans were on one file or another, yes there he was. Hoy Pilaf, aged twenty-four, he worked in the space dock that was in a geostationary orbit above the spaceport. Tirana sent these details to the four men detailed to follow Connors, they would pick Pilaf up and soon find out how innocent he was. Soon Ray Connors finished his drink and left the dive and headed off to the shopping centre, here he bought a few things that he and Jean needed, and then went into a caf? an ordered a coffee, or what was the Aldebran equivalent of coffee. A woman entered, but seeing that the caf? was quite full, she approached Connors.

  "Do you mind if I sit at your table as the caf? is rather full at the moment?" She asked politely.

  "No, help yourself to a chair." Connors said smiling up at the woman and soon they were chatting, they did not appear to be talking about anything much but Tirana soon had her details on his computer. Malan Keota, aged thirty-six, she worked in the spaceport; she too would be picked up and questioned. Connors was having a busy day talking with people who worked for the planet`s space department. Soon Connors had finished his drink, and saying goodbye to Malan Keota walked away into the old town to look into the shop windows. He was looking in one window when a man stopped to look into the same window, they just seemed to be talking about the window display, but Tirana soon had his details up on his computer. Jared Singh aged 29 works in the government offices dealing with the military; he too would end up being questioned by Tirana and his associates.

  Connors drifted away and walked for a good half hour before sitting in a park, a newspaper had been left on the park bench so Connors picked it up, and inside Connors found a very small note written on rice paper by the person he was to meet next. This particular newspaper had been agreed upon as a dead letter box, if for some reason Col Pando thought that there could be a danger of being compromised by being seen with Ray Connors. It meant that he was nearby, for he would have left the newspaper only when he was sure that no one else would pick it up. Connors saw him on a park bench further along reading a second newspaper. What was written on the rice paper was very alarming. A man you spoke to in the old town was arrested after you left him, do not contact me again, and eat this note. Connors began to cough violently and in doing so, put his hand up to his mouth and swallowed the note. Connors then left the park with the newspaper under his arm, slowly strolled by Pando without acknowledging him, and then continued his walk, which eventually took him back to the spaceport and so into his small aged shuttlecraft to return to his ship waiting in orbit above the port.

  Tirana had not seen the small slip of paper, he wondered if there might be something written on the newspaper but doubted it, so he just followed Connors back to the spaceport. He decided that he would interrogate his three prisoners after he had dined, for Connors` could well be guilty of nothing more than the need to feel a planet under his feet again, and anyway he wasn`t going anywhere.