Chapter 30 I Think We Will Be Friends

Geodon found his house unchanged, no indication of intrusion during the few days he had been gone this time. He put the fabricated spoons and measuring cups and some of the fine grained lava powder on the conveyor belt, addressed to the town's store. He wondered if the powder was being intercepted and used by the group who now ran the cabinet making, but he dare not ask the store for fear of suggesting awareness that something was going on. He sent for some more non-perishable food supplies, picked up the ones that had been delivered along with the few fresh food items also delivered since his last visit here. Nansella would like some fresh food too.

Ready to leave, there was a call at the door. He paused a moment, deciding it most likely was folks there to rip him off and erase his memory of the things they took; so he left the back way and used the utility service pathways to get back on the trail out through the desert to his lava outcropping. From this direction from the town, the lava hunk jutting up through the black sand looked unchanged; the record would show that he had just taken possession of it but not the development that had been done to it. The solar blasting probably had been connected with it, however, and most likely the monitors thought that Geodon was using that as sole source of the fine grained powder he was providing the town store for making tableware items. Thus ought to not be of much interest to PE unless perhaps they wanted control over the source of fine powdered manufacturing material; but normally PE let small businesses more efficiently use their own labor to provide materials, goods and services, more efficient in the overall picture since ultimately it all went into the planetary civilization buildup and thus into PE's wealth.

Back at the hut and cavern, Geodon filled in the news and Nansella prepared a meal with some of the fresh food he had brought back. Some would have to wait until they could be outside using the solar cooker, thus a treat for later.

Packed up and Rardat filled in on its duties at the place, Geodon and Nansella headed out toward town, and directly entered the utility pathways. But they saw a group of men who seemed to be watching the town's pylon; observing them awhile indicated they were waiting for something to happen. And Geodon suspected ted that it was them that were being about to be apprehended. Nansella suggested that it was possible that they had not realized that she had also gotten most of her memory back and thus had not reconnected with Geodon; so they took the back utility maze to her house. She stayed there; Geodon left her portion of the food including all the fresh food, so she would not need to send for any for a few days, enabling her hideout a bit longer.

Heading back along the back utility paths again, he had the small Rardat verify it was in communication with the one carried by Nansella and she said nothing had changed at her place in those few minutes. The tiny Rardat then said that the means for erasing memories was now determined by the Rardat's, having probed Geodon and Nansella's deep memories; Rardat could now possibly do the same to any humans who attempted to attack it. The little Rardat then suggested that it selectively erase Geodon's memories about Nansella, the cavern, and all the parts of his lake area done since discovery of the Rardats, to protect them all. Memory of the outcropping and solar powered pulverization of material from it was to be left. Geodon would retain memory of needing to go to the lake to do some work there, traveling by pylon.

Rardat then did the memory erasures on Geodon, finishing as Geodon emerged into the mainstream walkways of the town, headed down past the town prison on the way to the pylon's base. As he neared the pylon's elevator cage, a group of men dribbled over to casually be around Geodon, although apparently ignoring him.

Geodon woke up inside an unfamiliar structure. His backpack was missing, but otherwise seemed OK. He sat up, slowly clearing his fuzzy mind. Looking around, he saw what looked like the distinctive tall thin windows of the town's prison. So, it looked like he was locked up. It was only moments before two men came in; one, Elgecko, had an odd assortment of headgear on and seemed like a walking communication machine; the other, Corlin, was more burly and carried a small crossbow, cocked and short arrow ready to be fired. Neither man looked friendly.

Elgecko, the man with the electronic gizmos, came over and put a headset on top of Geodon's head. He demanded to know where Geodon had been the past several weeks. Geodon thought he had been at home. The man said they had searched for him at his home several times but he was not there. Geodon said he might have been at his lava outcropping then to gather materials for making craft objects, that he had a small business making things to sell. The man said they knew all about that. Pausing to consider that their timing could have been such that Geodon had always been out gathering construction materials, they called in a woman, Shirezette, who was looking a bit disconcerted; she too was wired up with electronic gadgets. She was asked why had not her monitoring protocols identified the times Geodon had been away from home to go to the lava rock for craft making materials. She replied that she had checked the system and it showed that there were a lot of missing data times in the record on Geodon, but the cause was not yet apparent. She also said that PE Management had long had this man flagged, and now that he was in custody, it was better to eradicate him than to let him loose again, there would be no risk of beginnings of an insurrection tolerated. They had acquired all the new technology that Geodon had made, and would take possession of his land holdings at the nearby lava outcropping and the distant small lake site. Giving Geodon a long last look, the two who were wired up left the room, while the man with the crossbow remained, still aiming the crossbow at Geodon. He told Geodon to turn around, that he did not want to see Geodon's face.

Meanwhile, the little Rardat had been also aware of the situation and was communicating with Geodon, who was mostly mystified about the whole thing, his memories having been a erased. But Geodon was aware of danger to himself; he followed the odd impulse to take the marble out of his pocket and throw it at the guard as he was complying with the order to turn around; so he tossed the marble at the guard and finished turning around. Waiting a moment, nothing was happening, so he turned back around; the guard was just standing there, staring at the side wall, his crossbow seemingly forgotten, drooping toward the floor. Retrieving the marble and putting it back into his pocket, he went over to the window slot and looked out. This was the ground floor. The marble urged him to turn so the marble was aligned with the window; doing so, Geodon noticed a little puff of air and looked back, surprised that the area to the sides of the window had turned to sand and had fallen away. Geodon took another look at the guard who was still looking the other direction, so Geodon climbed through the window and headed toward the pylon. He noticed a woman also headed there, carrying a backpack; they both got on the transfer pod and began heading northward.

After watching the terrain below rising and falling as the transfer pod was handed off from one pylon's arms to the next, he started up a conversation with the woman, more to be polite than anything. He said Hi and his name was Geodon, and he had some property near the big lake area where this water bucket pylon line went to; had she ever been to the lake before? The woman replied "Hi Geodon, my name is Nansella, and I think we could become friends."

Copyright © 2010 J. E. D. Cline