The captain and most of the crew of the Manessa Kwi, in bare feet and underwear, watched from the landing site as their ship disappeared over a mountain ridge. Kibi and Sata appeared to be in shock. Boro frowned deeply.
Rini’s face was blank, but he clutched his stomach.
“How are we going to get Manessa back?” Sata asked with a deeply worried voice.
“A-and Mati,” Rini managed to stutter out.
The captain, currently without a ship, took a slow breath, then let it out with a shaking sigh. “We’ll get our ship and pilot back. We just have to be careful how we do it, so we don’t put Mati in danger. It would be best for everyone, I think, if Mati herself found a way.”
Mati sat in the pilot’s chair, holding back tears and trying to think of ways to make the ship move as slowly as possible. She rubbed her sore arm where he had grabbed her and poked her with his big knife. He still sat at the table, gloating with a smile of self-satisfaction that reminded Mati of the high priest in front of the inn. His knife was on the table within easy reach, the knife that must have been in his leather bag the whole time before he had finally used it when he informed her, in few words, what she must do. She had selected the lowest power settings at the engineer’s station, then nudged her flight control forward the smallest possible amount. As soon as they were over the ocean, she had dropped down to eight meters so he would think they were going fast.
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Mati turned her head slowly and glanced at the little mission bracelet cabinet by the entryway, but couldn’t see any way to get to it. She tried to think of something else she could do. Things like screaming and crying came to mind easily. Constructive courses of action were harder to imagine.
Risan Gor sat in a chair at the big table, as far away from Timod Gor as possible, arms around her knees and tears on her face.
Just when Mati thought the situation could get no worse, it did. Timod Gor began to read aloud from his book.
The five members of Manessa’s crew who were stuck on the ground at the hot springs camp, once over their initial shock, took a good look at their resources.
Ilika, Kibi, and Boro wore mission bracelets. Ilika took a few minutes to teach the others how to send a universe distress call, but asked them to wait until other efforts to retrieve their ship had failed.
Rini located five towels draped on low tree branches, and Sata found Timod Gor’s half-eaten lunch, already covered with ants.
Boro set to work gathering a pile of firewood. Kibi, Rini, and Sata went scouting for wild edibles.
Ilika sat down at the campfire circle and pondered Mati’s probable situation, the resources available to her, and the chances of her applying those resources successfully against her hijacker, their guest and first passenger, Timod Gor.
Mati got her first chance to arm herself when Timod Gor paused in his reading to use the toilet. She found the mission bracelet cabinet, however, to be completely empty. Marks and cracks showed where his big knife had pried it open.
Deep despair rose up inside her, like the many times she had been unable to run from an abusive master because of her handicap. Tears were close, but she held them in and went to the galley.
When Timod Gor emerged from the toilet room, he began raving at her, knife flashing in the air.
Mati reached down inside herself for courage. “If I don’t eat, I’ll die, and if
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I die, this ship isn’t going anywhere, I promise you!”
Timod Gor relaxed, but kept a sharp eye on Mati, dashing her hopes of doing something with a kitchen knife. She got some crackers and returned to her station.
Since Boro had no other way to vent his frustration, a huge stack of firewood grew rapidly. The others returned with towels full of berries and edible greens. The warm summer weather appeared willing to stick around, at least for the day.
Ilika finished learning everything he could from his mission bracelet.
“Mati is moving northeast at little more than walking speed. It will take her weeks to get to Timod Gor’s home, but I’m sure she knows that.”
“You can just take control of the ship, can’t you?” Rini asked.
“Yes, but I’m afraid Mati would get hurt if he thought she wasn’t cooperating.”
“Can’t you talk to Mati, or have Manessa talk to her?” Boro wondered.
“Maybe . . . give her ideas for, you know, helping him jump out the hatch?”
Ilika smiled. “I’m worried that if he heard another voice, he’d get violent.
In fact, I’ve already switched Manessa to silent mode. However, I can put a written message on her screen, and I’ve been thinking about what to say.”
“Tell her we’re okay,” Kibi said. “She might be worrying.”
“Tell her . . . I love her,” Rini added with deep feeling in his voice.
Ilika smiled and nodded.
“If she could just get a mission bracelet . . .” Boro mumbled under his breath with frustration.
“He might be watching her closely. I think her best chance is to learn which doors Manessa can lock. It’s going to take me a while to explain what she needs to know.”
“We’ll go look for something more filling to eat,” Kibi announced. “You want to come, Boro, or do you think we need more firewood?”
Boro glanced at the huge pile, growled, and followed the others away from the landing site. Ilika opened his bracelet and began tapping at the little keys.
Be calm. We are safe and well. Rini loves you. Manessa is in silent mode
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to avoid making him angry.
Mati was very glad she had worked hard at her language studies. Thinking was difficult with Timod Gor reading his stupid book, but during the next half hour, Mati learned that Manessa could lock the lift to the lower deck, as well as the door to the toilet room without a bathtub, which doubled as a detention cell. Even though the ship was in silent mode, it would still accept voice commands from her.
Suddenly Timod Gor stopped reading and began searching for something.
Everything they had brought out of his rock hut was in plain sight, and his share of the gold sat in its little bag on the table. Mati frowned and felt like screaming at him, knife or no. Then she stopped herself and realized she was seeing something useful.
He searched the galley, the supply closet, the entryway, and the bridge, and in each place found nothing he wanted. But he was obviously afraid of the lift, even though he had seen it used several times. Mati smiled, remembering Ilika take their share of the gold down to the utility room.
After spending a few minutes pondering her new knowledge, she frowned.
If gold was not enough to tempt him to use the lift, then getting him onto the lower deck appeared to be impossible.
Giving up on the lift, Mati considered the detention cell. Unfortunately, as far as she could remember, he always used the other toilet room, the one with a bathtub.
Suddenly Mati had an idea. Her freedom, as strange as it seemed, hinged on getting Risan Gor to take a long bath. She thought she might be able to do it, but her plan required one other thing.
As Timod Gor began searching the entryway for the second time, she headed for the galley to get started with her plan.
As the sun set and evening descended over the forest, the other five crew members of the Manessa Kwi sat around a small fire nibbling fresh berries and roasted starchy roots.
“We saw a deer,” Boro shared, chin in his hands.
Ilika shriveled his nose. “Nothing smaller?”
“Beetles. Spiders.”
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“We’ll get Manessa back before we need protein.”
“How long are you going to give Mati before . . . doing something more drastic?” Kibi asked.
“About three more hours. Then I’ll tell her to lock herself on the lower deck while I recall the ship.”
“He might get angry and tear things up,” Sata muttered.
“Yeah. I know.”
Soon, Timod Gor gave up his search and returned to the table — and his book. Risan Gor put fingers in her ears.
Mati set three cartons of pinkfruit juice on the table. She sat down beside Risan Gor, tried to smile, and pretended to listen with interest.
Mati discovered that the man’s reading, both before and after his fruitless search, had indeed worked up a thirst. He quickly drained his juice, so she calmly went to the galley to get him another carton.
An hour later, the man had read aloud twelve pages or more, and was on his third carton of juice.
Risan Gor never budged from her chair. Instead, she turned inward, whispered secrets to her doll, and rarely looked up.
Timod Gor had become used to Mati going to and from the galley, so the pilot of the Manessa Kwi began the next phase of her plan. Every time she hobbled near the little girl’s chair, she paused and sniffed with a shriveled nose.
Half an hour and a dozen hints later, Mati sighed. Once or twice Risan Gor had looked up, but had not understood the message. Mati decided it was time to get tough.
After fetching another carton of chilled juice, Mati approached the table.
She planted her crutch much too far to the side to support her, fell forward, and caught herself with her hands on the edge of the table. In the process, she squeezed the juice carton as hard as she could, and it sprayed all over Risan Gor.
After taking a walk with the others in the evening light to gather more berries, Ilika sat down and started transmitting the final plan to Mati’s
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console.
Mati did not immediately respond, and Ilika had no way of knowing how quickly she would get back to her station.
Mati was very glad her stumble didn’t anger Timod Gor. He merely grinned, turned a few pages, and read a passage that Mati guessed had something to do with clumsy people.
Risan Gor, however, looked daggers at Mati, and dragged herself into the bathing room, sulking and muttering to her doll as she went.
Mati smiled politely at Timod Gor, got him another carton of juice, and sat down to listen to him read.
Boro
paced.
Sata started biting her fingernails.
Kibi poked at the fire.
Rini let silent tears roll down his cheeks.
Ilika wondered what he was going to do if Mati did not respond, very soon, to his last message.
A quarter hour later, Timod Gor’s juice carton was empty and Risan Gor was still in the bathing room, so Mati returned to the galley.
After finding one last carton of pinkfruit juice, she turned around, only to discover her captor was gone. Her eyes flashed to the entryway and the bridge, but he was nowhere to be seen.
A moment later, she clearly heard a powerful stream of liquid hitting the inside of a toilet. The door to the bathing room remained closed. She frowned for a second, then grinned. “MANESSA, LOCK THE DETENTION
CELL!”
Ilika was beginning to worry deeply, and dreaded the thought of recalling the ship without knowing Mati was safe. Suddenly, his bracelet chimed.
“Finally!” he gasped, opening the cover of his bracelet.
The others, huddled around the fire, looked at him.
Ilika saw words on the tiny display he had not expected. No need. Be
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right there.
Almost before he could read the words to his fellow crew members, the ship streaked into the nearly-dark sky from the northeast and quickly descended onto the landing area. The hatch opened and the ramp extended.
A moment later, Mati appeared in the open hatch, leaning on her crutch and speaking in a brave but shaking voice. “I am no longer just the pilot. I am now the jailer, too!”
Deep Learning Notes
What was Mati’s state of mind right after the hijacking?
How might the hijacking have gone differently if Mati had freaked out instead of cooperating with Timod Gor?
What was Risan Gor probably feeling during that first hour of the hijacking?
When Mati went into the galley for the first time, she was using the power she possessed as the pilot. What might have happened if she had not found the courage to use her power, or if she had tried to use too much power?
There are many ways to vent frustration. Boro did something constructive, collecting firewood. What other methods have you seen people use?
To get control of the ship, Mati used trickery and manipulation. Was it justified?