14

Yugo watched as the small transport descended to the lit landing pad.  It had taken months to get back to Toria.  The humans had other business to conduct in the area, so Yugo and Slska had becoming unwitting passengers on the humans patrol route.  It was better than the alternative.  After a week of trying to choke down human food, the pair had finally managed to get themselves on board a Torian trader on its way back from one of the Human worlds.  The trader was slow.  They had been on board for weeks before a newly commissioned Surfer had been sent to pick up the pair.

They were now nearly home.  The transport descended the final few feet and landed with a simple bump.  A minute later, one of the crew opened the door and the pair breathed in the first fresh air they’d had in months.  Yugo climbed to the ladder leading down and smiled at the simple pleasure.

At the bottom of the ladder stood the General and a small honor guard.  As Yugo descended, the entire guard came to attention.  The General just smiled as the pair came to stand in front of him.

“Captain, Lieutenant.  Congratulations. And welcome home.”

The pair answered in unison.  “Thank you sir.”

“Lieutenant, I need a few words with the Captain here, will you excuse us?”

“Yes Sir.”

As Slska walked off towards the main building, the General dismissed the honor guard, who mingled in with the Lieutenant as she walked towards the ship hangar.  He watched for a few moments before turning back to the Yugo.

 “So Captain, miss the ocean while you were gone?”

Somehow, the question didn’t seem as odd as he might have once found it.  “Well, of course.”

“Good, let’s take a drive.”

The pair stepped into a nearby jeep, and the General drove them towards the ocean several miles away. 

There was no conversation on the journey, for which Yugo was thankful.  It was nice to just sit and enjoy the night sky from a different perspective for a bit.  The General stopped on a beach, far enough away that no lights interrupted a view of the sky, the moon, or the ocean.  The crash of the oceans and the smell of the sea were heavy in the air.  The call of a seagull could be heard now and then.  The General stepped out and began walking, “Come on Captain, let’s have a little talk.”  Yugo hurried to catch him and matched his slow stride as they meandered down the shoreline.

Out of sight of the jeep, and well out of earshot, the General stopped and looked up at the stars.  “Tell me what you see out there Yugo.”

Yugo looked up to where the General looked. He didn’t see anything special.   “Stars.”

“It’s the universe Yugo, the entire blasted universe.”  The General was silent for a few minutes contemplating.  “The techies like to think they have everything figured out.  The universe has laws that can be easily manipulated.  Gravity, heat, light, speed, sound, blah, blah, blah.  They all have properties that the techies can test, theorize about, and ultimately bend in order to get the universe to do what they want it to do.  Yeah, they think they have it all figured out.”  The General stopped and looked up at the stars.  “But the universe holds a few surprises for those looking beyond the normal.”  Yugo stopped and looked at the General, his curiosity on what more there was to the story.  “There are certain people in the universe Yugo that the universe favors for whatever reason.  I don’t know why and try not to think too much about it.  I simply know it exists.  The standard laws of the universe simply don’t seem to apply the same to these people as they do for the rest of the universe.”

“Alright General, I’ll play along, what is it?”

The General shrugged.  “I have no idea what it’s called Yugo.  We simply call it Luck.”

“Luck.”  Yugo simply gave him a blank stare.

The General smiled slightly at the irritation.  “How much do you know about your great-great grandfather Yugo?”

Yugo paused, “Only what my father has told me, not that much really.”

“Let me guess, you think your great-great grandfather is the hero of Hellforge right?”

Doubt slowly crossed Yugo’s face, “He is, isn’t he?”

“Oh, he is that.  But he’s much, much more.  Here, sit.”

Yugo and the General sat in the sand as the General continued.  “Your great, great grandfather is the first person we’ve been able to undeniably link to having Luck.  Don’t get me wrong, this sounds silly.  I was no different from you when they explained it to me, but hear me out before you make a judgment.

Your great-great grandfather was one of the last generations of Torians to be under the rule of the Apes.  Do you know how many times they tried to kill him?  And not just kill him, but EXECUTE him?”

The General didn’t pause to wait for an answer, looking up into the night sky.  “Six.  They tried to kill him SIX times.  They tried killing him by execution, the weapon backfired killing his executioner.  They tried gassing him, the mechanism didn’t work, and ended up gassing the executing chambers.  They tossed him into a pit of poisonous snakes.  Turned out, he was immune to snake bites – which in and of itself was pretty cool.  The final time, they tried tossing him into a pit of acid.  They had him tied up and were preparing to toss him into this pit, and you know what happened?”  Yugo waited as the General caught Yugo’s eyes.

“There was an earthquake.  An EARTHQUAKE of all things.  The earthquake collapsed the building killing everyone inside, except, of course, for your ancestor.  It’s rumored he managed to find a crawlspace out of the rubble.  The earthquake knocked out power to half the continent for a couple of months.  At that point, someone figured he was cursed, and they simply allowed him to live.  They tossed him into the Hellfire colony where they figured he couldn’t cause any more trouble.”

Yugo just shook his head, disbelieving.

“You already know about the Hellforge incident, but let me ask you this.  You have any idea how your ancestor died?”

Yugo responded cautiously, not exactly liking the direction the conversation was going, “My father either didn’t tell me, or didn’t know, I’m not sure which.”

“It was our Independence day, the last day of our occupation.  The last of the millions of the Apes were leaving our world.  Your great-great grandparents came to watch from a beautiful overlook.  One of the apes, irritated at leaving, thought to leave one last impression on the Torians before he left, and took aim at your great-great grandmother.  Your ancestor jumped in front of the Drengin and took the shot full in the gut. 

The force of the shot sent him and the weapon sprawling off the overhang and into the crags over three hundred feet below.”  The General paused to make sure he had Yugo’s attention.  “Now, I don’t know how it happened, but as soon as he hit, an electromagnetic pulse spiraled out from the weapon.  It fried every electronic device in the radius of the blast – that’s every datapad, every computer, every clock, every weapon.  If it had something electric in it, this blast shredded it.  We’ve never seen anything like it, and haven’t been able to reproduce it, not that we haven’t tried.  As far as we can tell, the radius was three miles.  That’s three miles north, south, east, west, and most importantly for the purpose of this story, three miles up.”  The General paused to allow the implications to sink in before continuing. 

“As far as we can tell, the blast caught fifteen Drengin transports in the blast, each holding anywhere between three to four hundred thousand Drengin.  The Drengin who fired the blast ended up bleeding out from wounds in his ears and nose, but not before he watched four to six MILLION Drengin fall anywhere from two to three miles out of the sky.  One of the transports landed directly on the transport the offending Drengin was supposed to pilot.   “THAT is the power of Luck.”

Yugo sat for a few minutes thinking.  The General allowed him to stew before breaking the silence.

“Why are you here today Captain?”

The question confused Yugo, “Well, uh, I-“

“I’ve read the reports from your ex-Commander.  You have any idea how many tests you’ve passed in order for us to be sure?”

“Tests?”

“I could go on and on and on Yugo.  You can’t ignore it.  Let’s look back at your history shall we?  On your first mission on the Dreamer, why weren’t you in your quarters when the asteroid hit the Dreamer?” 

“Well, I was-“

“How did you manage to avoid getting electrocuted when three quarters of the bridge crew was electrocuted and died during that surveying incident?”

“I was talking to-“

“Did you know your Commander was the one that sent me the name of Russom?  That was the last true test.  The Drengin attack and survival was simply further confirmation.  I could go on and on.  You have it.   You have Luck.  For whatever reason, the universe wants to keep you alive as best it can.  You CAN die, but it looks as if the universe itself will extort a very high price on whoever makes the attempt, or succeeds.  Your great-great grandfather cost the six million Drengin lives for his death.  Think about that for a second Yugo – six MILLION.  I don’t have a plausible explanation for it, but there you have it.”

“Your ancestor didn’t know about it.  We do.  We know it works mostly in life or death situations, that you can’t exactly use it to win at games of chance for instance.  We are PRETTY sure it is passed down just like any other inherited trait.  We haven’t seen it in your grandfather or father, but we believe that’s more out of a less risky lifestyle than say, you and your ancestors.”

Yugo paused, a little overwhelmed.  “How many people have this…thing?”

“Hard to say.  Any time we find an inkling of it, we watch carefully.  Anybody we even SUSPECT having it, I bring on board.  We are probably watching half a dozen right now.  But none of them show as innate ability as you.  It’s simply amazing watching what you can do.”  The General chuckled as he recalled some of the reports.

There was a short silence before Yugo spoke up.

“So, General, uh…what now?”

“That Captain, is nothing you need to worry about today.  Come on.  We have to get cleaned up for a party, we don’t want to keep Her Grace waiting.”  The General smiled at Yugo’s astonishment and helped him out of the sand.  There would be time enough for problems tomorrow.