00053

“C'mon, get out the way!" yelled the man on the forklift. He wanted to transport the pallet with the large container of fuel ore rocks through the open cargo doors of the freighter rocket. The rocket rested on its belly.

Nina McCleer and the others ignored the forklift operator. They kept chanting, "Where are our loved ones? Where are our loved ones?" They continued to stand in front of the open hatch, blocking the way.

“How do I know where they are?” scowled the operator. “Now move, I got a job to do!”

Kelli O’Mally looked to the forklift driver. She walked over and gave the irritated man a flyer. Kelli and the rest of the protestors started to hand out more flyers to the curious people who continued to come over to see what was going on. Most of the arriving onlookers were tourists from Earth, who had been checking in with customs or who had been in the rocketport lounge.

The rocketport guard Security Agents gathered around the protesting group and tried to keep back the tourists, or else, if they could not keep back the tourists, then they tried to keep the tourists from accepting flyers. But the protestors defied the rocketport Security Agents. They did not stop handing out the papers. They forced their way past the guards. Since there were not very many rocketport guards to begin with, the trouble-makers were hard to actually keep in check, unless the Security Agents used violence. So far, with a crowd of people all around them, the guards refrained from any such thing, at least until they got the official word that it would be okay.

As for the citizens of the World of Hope, they soon realized it was wisest for them to disperse and move on.

The forklift driver checked over the flyer. "Eh?! 'Our missing loved ones-' A list of a bunch of losers, probably, these names ya got on here! And you don't know if they became miners or not, like your paper insinuates- Anyway, you won't be protesting long now, 'cause here come more of the Security Agents, and they're bringing in some equipment! Riot-bustin’ equipment! Haha, now you'll get outta my way!" He tossed aside the flyer.

Brother Mordecai took the bullhorn from Nina McCleer. He shouted to the onlookers, "Why is the government attacking us? We want to be able to have freedom of religion, to be able to worship in peace, our way. We don't need the approval of some bureaucrat or some religion board to pray the way we want to! So why take away our people??”

Security Agents moved in with a water cannon, directed by the Security Leader, now on the scene. As they readied it, one of the agents shouted back to Mordecai, "Maybe it's because you guys are drug dealing!"

"Yeah!" shouted the forklift driver in agreement. "Or because yer getting in the way of a guy trying to do his job!"

More Security Agents arrived from the nearby farms. Sec. Ldr. Clyden positioned the Agents where he wanted them. He spoke on his cell to Gov. Bright. "Yes, Gov. Xavier, we will of course be as gentle as we can be with our misguided citizens." He put back his communications device and gave the order for the cannon operator to blast the protestors.

The powerful wide stream of cold water was aimed at the center of the unauthorized gathering, and it scattered the protestors immediately. A few screamed involuntarily because of the force of the water and the chilling temperature. The remaining flyers were dropped, now soaking wet.

Some of the curious tourists, still watching the scene unfold, were hit with some of the spray. They immediately took flight. The drenched forklift driver hollered at the Agents to watch where they were “aiming that thing.”

From a safe distance, the news crew continued to broadcast. The reporter announced a play-by-play of what had just happened. "Look at them scurry now for cover, folks- Oh, oh, it looks like Security Leader Clyden and his Security Agents are going after them! This can't be good for the dissidents!"

Better late than never, Osmo Martin finally showed up to do his part to keep law and order. He had parked Sheila's truck on one of the further lots, and he had raced on foot across the landing and blast-off fields to get here where the protestors were making a stand.

According to the plan of the protestors, when more Security Agents arrived, the protestors would suddenly split up, fleeing in many different, pre-planned directions to evade capture. Some emergency contingency routes had even been worked into their plans. And so, now they scattered. The Agents would have to split up as well, to chase the lot of them.

Albert Zoeniga and Jane Ashton headed toward Abyss Gorge, just outside of the rocketport, and the bridge.

The gorge stretched for a mile, widening as it went, along the northeastern perimeter of the port. A narrow roadway crossed over the chasm, via the dinky bridge, to the large farms outside of Sparkle City. The bridge was the only way across the gorge for the entire length of the gaping crevasse. The Agents wouldn't be able to swarm over that narrow bridge, chasing anybody- instead they could only travel two-by-two, or in a small, narrow vehicle, in pursuit upon that tight path. If Albert Zoeniga and Jane Ashton made it to the bridge, and then could get to the other side of the bridge, there would be so many places to hide in the wilderness bordering the farms before the remaining Security Agents who were left on that side still guarding the farm labor could reach them.

Below, far below, flowed a rocky brook which started in the wilds outside the city. Flowed? More like it trickled- toward the Sea of Fun. A very rocky brook.

Now when the Security Agents had seen the gang of protestors splinter and escape, going two dozen different ways, each Agent had to chose a target and give chase. Osmo Martin saw a pair of troublers heading for the Abyss Gorge. Since Osmo Martin had gotten there to the rocketport later than many of the others, he hadn’t yet joined himself to the gathered Agents. Osmo Martin realized he was one of the closest to those two charging for the gorge. Naturally, it only made sense that those two should be his target, and good luck to them, trying to escape him! Osmo Martin didn't realize whom it was that he chased.

Meanwhile, Albert Zoeniga slowed down so that Jane Ashton could keep up with him, although Jane herself also ran swiftly- but not as swiftly as Albert. She told Albert, "Good, we're almost at the bridge- but I see a guard following us, and he's pretty fast-"

The fleeing couple clattered noisily across the cheaply made bridge. Jane and Albert hopped over a pool of some kind of fluid in the middle of the spanning structure’s path. Probably it came from a container of oil to be used in farm machinery, or maybe it was some fluid meant for fertilizer, and which somehow had spilled while in transit on the bridge. Maybe a barrel had fallen off a truck? Whatever it actually was, unsurprisingly it had not been cleaned up on the neglected bridge, and they made sure not to fall into it.

Albert Zoeniga glanced back over his shoulder to see how close the Security Agent was behind them. Closer than Albert expected, and close enough to see his face.

“I don't believe it!"

At the same moment that Albert Zoeniga recognized their pursuer, the pursuer also recognized whom he pursued- "Albert! Jane!"

Albert Zoeniga and Jane continued their robust pace. As they ran, Jane Ashton called back, "Are you going to arrest us now, Osmo? Has it come to this?”

Albert Zoeniga laughed lamely, "No, Hon, he must catch us first!"

"Why are you guys putting me in this awkward position?" Osmo Martin wanted to know, gaining on them. However, unlike Albert and Jane, he didn't clear the puddle as he leaped across it. He slipped in the goo and twisted his ankle, falling on his back in the middle of the mess, and his skewed momentum carried him toward the side if the pathway, where the "protective" barrier of flimsy chicken wire supposedly guarded anyone from falling over the edge of the bridge. With little maintenance on this road which the public seldom used, the mesh had become very rusty, which weakened it past the point of safety. No way could it stop Osmo Martin’s careening body, at his speed, and Osmo couldn't stop himself, covered in that slippery goo.

“Yiiiiii!” he sputtered before he slid through the barrier and off the side of the bridge. He managed to catch a quick glimpse of the rocks in the stream beneath his airborne body as he twisted about, trying to catch onto something.

His friends, still running as fast as they could away from him, heard his cry of distress and turned to see what had happened. They saw Osmo clinging tenaciously onto the chicken wire fence. It had broken free from several of its mounting posts and it hung over the edge of the bridge, high above the rocky brook. Osmo Martin struggled to keep a grip, but since his his hands and body were covered in the slick, slippery fluid, he had to dig his fingers into the mesh as hard as he could, to keep from slipping away.

The rusty chicken wire strained under the weight of dangling Osmo, as it alone supported him over the rocks. He swayed in the air, and the sounds of the chicken wire popping free from the remaining posts to which it had been fastened, one by one, gave Osmo Martin serious concerns about seeing another day after today.

"Osmo, hang on!" shouted Albert Zoeniga. He told Jane, "You go on ahead, keep running, I'll catch up-" He turned back and zoomed over  to rescue Osmo before his boyhood chum fell to the bottom of the gorge. Jane Ashton trotted right behind Albert, obviously with no intention of getting away without him.

Osmo Martin groaned, "Um, since you're in the neighborhood, can you give me a hand?”

“Why are you with these people who are trying to crush our house church for no good reason, Osmo?" Jane demanded, while Albert found a place to flatten his body down on the bridge without being in the puddle of the slippery fluid.

Albert reached down his hand to Osmo while he asked Jane to sit on his legs so that Osmo's weight wouldn't pull the lighter Albert- along with Osmo- down to the rocks below. "I guess it's good you don't listen sometimes, Jane. Now you can help me get Osmo back up here.”

Osmo Martin wiped off as best he could some of the ooze from his hand onto Albert’s cuff, trying to make his own hand less slippery. He took Albert's offered hand. As he did, Osmo Martin inquired, still hanging in space, "How is it you two have let yourselves fall in with such bad company? With drug dealers?"

"What? You really believe that lie? No, we aren't the bad ones! Did you hear our list that we read, of all the missing people?" asked Albert Zoeniga. "That's what our protest was all about, to call attention to these kidnappings. Our church isn't selling drugs! You're on the Security Team. Ask around about those missing people, what happened to them, and why they were taken!"

Albert Zoeniga hoisted Osmo back up onto the bridge. Osmo Martin sat, holding his twisted ankle and breathing heavy from running and from the excitement of almost meeting his Maker. The neophyte Security Agent looked up at Albert and Jane. He said, "I barely have time these days even for a shower, I'm so busy-”

Jane Ashton grunted, "Well, make the time. Learn what is really going on. The Governor isn't as wonderful as you think."

Osmo Martin smiled to Albert. "Thanks, pal. I'll tell you what I think- If there really are no drugs involved, I doubt that Gov. Bright knows that. Then it is probably Security Leader Clyden behind the fake charges- if fake they are! But I still can't believe Gov. Bright's judgment could be so bad, inf that were so, and that he’d have Clyden on his team, if Clyden is really doing that! Sheila's Uncle is an honorable man, who does whatever he can to keep the World of Hope running smoothly and its people happy, as well as it can be done.”

“Whatever," grumbled Jane Ashton. "I hope you wake up and smell the coffee one day!"

Albert Zoeniga said, "Better put some ice on that ankle. We have to go, Osmo." With that, Albert and Jane resumed their escaping.

Osmo hobbled to his feet, his ankle hurting. This time he made sure to avoid the puddle. He simply walked around it, now that he was in no hurry, ignoring his fleeing friends.

It took him awhile to get back and join the other agents, limping like he did. He overheard Sec. Ldr. Clyden speak to Gov. Bright over his cell phone, about how all of the protestors got away. And he heard Gov. Bright's loud answer, even though Sec. Ldr. Clyden didn’t have the communications device on Speaker Mode. The words were not distinct- he could not hear the Governor's answer so well from where he stood- but the tone and the shouting certainly were clear. Gov. Bright must be very angry with his Security Leader. In all the time Osmo Martin had been on this planet, he had never heard the Governor shout at anyone that way before.

(c) drk 2012