Flight Of The Anasazi - Chapter 16

 Flight Of The Anasazi

By David Billiot

Copyright 2026: All rights reserved

Chapter 16: Roadside Assistance

The mission of the Anasazi IV was not classified. It was also not put out there for public consumption. It came as a surprise to people when the famous Amanda Roma started making speeches to anyone who would listen about a pilot named Mark Adakai who had left the system on his way to another star and likely needed rescue. 

Admiral Black contacted Roma to tell her that the commander in chief didn’t want this stirred up until after the election. Roma refused to be quiet. She found out that Senator Freedman was already organizing a separate rescue mission to head to the red dwarf.  She went to meet him in the capital to plead with him. 

“My crew has trained for this. They were already a search and rescue crew before being assigned to me.” 

“It’s not your crew I have a problem with.” the senator said. 

“Let me go and save him. He is two months overdue.”

“I know it.” the senator snapped at her. 

“Then let me go save him.”

“That is not my decision. They want you here.”

“I don’t care about the election. I won’t campaign. I won’t support either side.  I have trained for this.”

“You still think this is about you.”

“No. You still think this is about me. I know it is about Mark.”

“You don’t even know him.”

“He is going to run out of food. You can not wait forever.”

“I can’t send you. You need to understand that. I legally can not send you. Admiral Black can not send you. No one can order you to go. If you’re waiting for permission or an order, it’s not coming.”

“So everything I’ve done is for nothing.”

“You are, as ever, untouchable. I think the best thing you can do is get out of the way. I know Mark is alive. I’m working the problem. We sent him with enough food for twenty four people to last six months. Food is not the thing he’s going to run out of. I have faith in him.”

“Can you order Stormer?” Roma asked. 

“Admiral Black placed him under your command at your request. Only the admiral or the president can transfer him.”

“I’m the one in the way. Senator, you believe in Mark. I do too. I do. I know why you sent him.”

“I was ordered to send him to his death but he came back alive. That opened my eyes to some things. Then I saw the whole pattern repeating itself.”

“My crew can get him. My crew can bring him back safe. What do you need in order to order Stormer to go get him?”

The senator thought. He turned to reach for the alcohol in his office but then paused. He turned back to Roma. “It would be tricky. We’d have to move the pieces around the right way.”

“I want him rescued more than anyone. I don’t know if you can believe that but it’s true. Order the Roanoke to go get him. It’s the only viable plan. The Taylor’s engines aren’t up to spec. It’s the Roanoke or nothing.” 

… 

After hacking the plasma extractor the Anasazi found the planet in the habitable zone and came down for a stealth landing because the civilization on the planet had airplanes and kinetic weapons. There was no evidence of space flight yet but they were using radio.  

The Anasazi landed in an isolated area and then collected information from the probe in orbit as it made a pass every ninety minutes. An atmospheric drone using vertical propellers was sent out to get a closer look at the humans and their culture. The 3D printer produced some clothing items for Mark and Lalia that matched the style in use on the planet and then it also printed out some gold coins.  

Mark concealed his weapon under a jacket and he was ready to go out.  Lalia came out of their quarters dressed in a polkadot dress with a belt just above the larger than needed skirt. Lalia also had a bag that matched the design of the dress to carry with her. She put her phone in the bag but Mark noticed. 

“No, you have to leave the phone here.”

“But …” Lalia was going to protest.  However, she stopped herself. She took a look at something on the phone and then was managing something and then she turned the phone off. She went back into her quarters and Mark assumed she put it down. 

The clothing that the 3D printer had provided for them had integrated electronics for voice communications.  There were also cameras and other sensors so Al could monitor them. 

The mission was simple.  Trade the gold for money. Trade the money for food. Get the food back to the Anasazi. Don’t get arrested. 

The walk into town was kind of long. Lalia didn’t mind it and Mark had done PT for much longer runs but it was still a long walk.  They made it to a road at least and several hydrocarbon based four wheel automobiles drove by them. Mark lamented not being able to take the rover but it would look out of place and compromise the mission. Mark didn’t want to be tied to this planet for an extended period of time. He just wanted to restock his freezer, not announce himself as being from another planet. 

The situation on Lalia’s home planet was different from the situation Mark was in at this moment in this system. These people had weapons that could potentially damage the Anasazi if they could get a hit in. What is the best defense? To not be struck. Therefore Mark was doing the sneak in and sneak out approach. No first contact necessary. 

As the couple walked a car slowed down and the man driving asked something through the window. Of course neither Mark nor Lalia could understand him and Al had not yet fully analyzed the local language. Mark waved his hand in a gesture that he hoped would signal to the man in the car that everything was fine. Lalia played along as she came close to Mark’s side and held onto his arm like she was scared. The man seemed to apologize and then he drove on his way. 

Once in town Al directed Mark to a place that likely would accept the gold. 

The shop was a place that had second hand items for sale.  Al had determined that the business model of this place was to lend money but took items as collateral. If the money was not repaid then the shop would keep the items and sell them to recover the loss from the loan instead of sending a debt collector.  Mark and Lalia came in and first looked around at the various items as if they wished to purchase something. A staff member came up and asked a question, likely wanting to introduce himself and make a sale. 

Mark and Lalia had spent days planning the undercover mission and they had anticipated possible friction points that could lead to failure. They had developed a fake sign language to use between them. It had been Lalia’s idea because a man in her village named Boc had been deaf since childhood. Lalia only knew a little of the basic gestures the man could understand since she had only interacted with him a few times. However, she remembered it and suggested something like that to Mark and he thought it might work. 

Mark and Lalia did signs to each other but really they were speaking using not fully vocalized throat sounds, which Al then translated and whispered into the other person’s ear from a small hidden device. 

Mark and Lalia went to the glass display case where there was a transaction register. It served as the business counter of the shop.  Mark didn’t know the local value of gold so at first he asked Lalia to only take out one coin.  She went into her bag and drew it out from the set and showed it to the shop person. The man looked at it and was puzzled. He told Mark and Lalia to wait and then went behind a door covered by a fabric curtain. The man came back but now had an older man and an older woman with him. The older woman began to ask questions but Mark and Lalia did signs to each other and the woman stopped speaking. She put a hand to her head as if to wonder what to do in this situation. 

The older man put on some white gloves and handled the gold coin, which really was just a disc with no denticles on the edge nor image stamped on the face. He put a towel on a scale and then put the coin on top. He seemed impressed. The woman wrote something down and then asked for the coin. She used some cylindrical eye piece to look at it and then seemed satisfied. She wrote a number on a piece of paper and then turned it around to show Mark. 

As part of the undercover mission Mark acted as if he was not the one in charge. He deferred to Lalia as if the coins had been hers.  Lalia looked at the numbers. Of course they looked like numbers but she wasn’t sure if this number was good or bad in this economy. 

“I believe this amount in cash will be able to make the purchases.” Al explained. “However, it is significantly lower than the apparent market value of the gold. If you immediately accept it, it might look suspicious, perhaps causing them to believe you stole it.  I suggest haggling for a slightly higher number. See if you can raise the price by about ten percent.” 

Lalia turned on the wounded and desperate act.  She signed and acted like she was trying to speak but couldn’t. She acted distraught and seemed like she was going to cry. Mark stood stoically next to her as if he was just her bodyguard. The old woman was not moved but the old man looked down in shame. It was the old man who relented. He took the paper and said something to the old woman as if he was lecturing her gently. He adjusted the price up over ten percent, but not as high as twenty, though Lalia was not going to do the exact math in her head at that moment. Lalia pulled back from her act and accepted the amount. 

Cash was counted out to Lalia and she accepted it. She put it into her bag and the shop staff asked them to sign a form. After that they were free to leave. On the way out something in the shop caught Lalia’s eye. It was a bracelet. She paused. 

“Look at that. It is lovely.” she said. 

“It’s not what we came for.” Mark said. 

“But it’s so beautiful. It’s not so expensive. We can buy it.”

“Or you can have one printed on the ship.”

“It’s not the same.” she explained. “I travel these worlds with you and each one is the same as you say but that’s not true. This bracelet is only here. It was made by a person here. It is of this world.  Just because it’s the same that doesn’t mean it’s not real. These people are real and they live real lives here. And this bracelet is real and it is gorgeous.” Lalia reached for it and picked it up. She saw the price and bit her lip. 

“Are you sure?” he asked her. 

“Please.”

“At least when you take something from a planet you pay for it.” Mark said. 

Lalia bought the bracelet and wanted to wear it as they continued on the mission. The two walked on the way to a grocer but passed the window display of a dress shop.  Lalia wanted to stop and look but Mark reminded her of the mission. They needed to get food and get gone. 

The grocer had a large shop with several aisles of items. Mark was conscious of buying what they needed but also not buying more than he could carry by hand back to the ship. 

“It would be nice if we had a horse.” she told him. 

They bought a lot.  Lalia was going to have to carry two brown paper bags full and Mark himself was given a wooden crate box to fill with items to carry. The two were finished with the purchases and were going to leave but a man who worked at the store stopped them to ask something. Mark put the box down and signed.  The man thought for a moment. He shrugged but then his eyes brightened. He gestured for the two to follow him. Outside the store he gestured to a car, perhaps saying he would give them a ride. Mark and Lalia politely declined and continued on their way. 

The afternoon was turning into evening as the two walked and Lalia lamented her shoes. 

“Who designed these things? They are so stupid.”

They had gotten a ways from town but were still at least a kilometer from the spot where they should get off the road.  A car passed them and pulled over to the shoulder of the road just ahead. Four men got out of the vehicle wearing masks. It didn’t take Mark any time at all to read the situation. He had already been made suspicious by the sudden stop of the car which had had a bit of a skid to it as the hydrocarbon based rubber tires left the asphalt of the road and made contact with the dusty, dry dirt.  The car had not slowed down enough and the people in the car were in a hurry. 

Mark had already been putting his box down but as soon as he saw the masks he told Lalia to drop the food and take cover. Lalia hesitated but Mark yelled for her to hurry. She got off the road and sprinted for the trees that separated the road from farmland. 

One of the masked men shouted a command at Mark. However, as soon as Mark saw that two of the men already had pistols in their hands he was not about to negotiate. He assumed they had perhaps heard about two easy targets carrying either gold or large sums of cash and had come to enrich themselves. Mark would have gladly given the gold and cash to them since he no longer needed either. However, these men had also brought weapons and that meant Lalia was in danger. 

Before the men from the car could even get all the way to standing and walking after exiting the vehicle Mark put his feet into stance and dropped his weight for more secure footing. In his training this stance was called chambering and was used not only for firing weapons but also hand to hand combat. Mark did not intend for this encounter to have hand to hand combat, however. Mark aimed his weapon and fired. He didn’t aim for any of the men in masks. He aimed for the vehicle. The high energy round from Mark’s weapon caused the vehicle to explode.  The shockwave pushed the attackers off their feet and they were on the ground. One man had dropped his pistol but was reaching for it. Mark fired a second round to end that threat. He then shouted a command to the men to stay down. He was sure they could not understand him but he hoped they were smart enough to realize who actually had the power here. 

“Al, get the ship to us. We have hostiles. We don’t have time to get to you.”

“I can be there in a few minutes, Captain.”

“We don’t have minutes. We have seconds until someone drives by and sees this.”

“I am on the way.” 

The attackers were scared and trying to show their hands as they were on the ground.  Mark came over to take any weapons he could see. One at a time he ordered the men to get up and move so he could place them all together in a sitting position. This would allow him to control the situation, keep line of sight on all of them at the same time, and it was more difficult to get to a standing posture from sitting on the ground than from lying down. The three men complied but Mark was worried about one of the men. He was not taking his eyes off of the remains of the man Mark had obliterated. His breathing was becoming faster and faster and he was shaking. If Mark could see his face he knew what expression would be there. 

Lalia crawled back up to the road from the ditch between the shoulder of the road and the treeline. She was dirty now and legitimately scared. She had not actually made it to the trees, but instead she had dropped to the ground and frozen in place from the moment she had heard the explosion. 

The Anasazi came roaring. Al positioned the ship over the road so that the exit ramp would come down near Mark for quick extraction. This meant it had to come down and make contact with the road itself and some of the trees.  A tree snapped and the top part flew through the air before coming down to the ground. The landing gear of the ship crushed the asphalt and put an impression into it. The ramp came down and Lalia ran to the ship to hurry up the ramp just as soon as she was able. She had left the food behind. 

The robot named Bluman that Kathy had gotten partially working ambulated out with stiff legs that did not use the knee joints yet. It was wearing a newly printed marine private’s jumpsuit uniform. It came down the ramp and then stopped and looked around with a blank expression on its face. Then it momentarily smiled and then returned to the blank expression. It robotically bent over to get hold of the box and two bags of groceries. Then, step by step, it turned in place in order to aim itself back at the ship. It ambulated back up the ramp.  

Alright. Mission accomplished. Mark backed away from the men but kept his gun aimed at them.  When he got to the ramp he had to look away for just a moment and then snapped back.  The men had not moved. Mark finally took his left hand away from supporting his right hand in order to use it to guide himself up the ramp.  No sooner had he hit the controls to raise the ramp than he told Al to get them out of there. 

“I don’t care that the ramp’s still down. Go, go, go. Now.”

The ship lifted off and started to fly but not upwards.  Al kept the vehicle close to the ground as they started to fly over farmland heading towards the ocean.