The Alienbutt Saga, Book 1. War of the Coffee Bean. Part 47.

CHAPTER 20
An Unexpected Visitor.

INTERSTELLAR NEWS CHANNEL 9 NEWS FLASH

As the war drags on and sanctions on travel continue to affect the trade within the Federation, shortages of non-essential items are becoming critical. Professor Squegal Quinch, head of economics at the Rorcthope planet university has warned that the entire infrastructure of the Federation could collapse within months unless normal trading was resumed. In response, General Jee ordered his execution for high treason. Riots that ensued at the university were put down with a targeted nuclear strike. General Jee has now ordered a rounding up of all academics and students to weed out dissident elements.

Wickede sat staring at the sky, waiting. Every evening at this time, a huge flock of large orange birds would fly over, heading for the great lake in the valley below. In the six months since Alienbutt had arrived, the two had sat every evening and watched the spectacle. Finally Alienbutt trudged up the hill to sit next to his friend.
“You’re late, Piestoff, almost missed them.”
“I’m sure they wouldn’t care, as I’ve sat and watched them every evening for months.”
“You have no appreciation of natural beauty, Piestoff. Look around you it’s a stunning planet we're on.”
Alienbutt looked around at the hills and rolling grasslands that surrounded them, with thick forests covering the valley floors down to the great lakes that seemed to be all around.
“Too many hills to walk up and the trees get in the way,” said Alienbutt dismissing the subject.
“Well, you could have stayed in camp each evening and watched Kirk’s film show.”
“Frank says we’re ready to go first thing in the morning as long as her Majesty doesn’t change her mind again,” continued Alienbutt, ignoring Wickede’s last comment. They would have been back home weeks ago, but their host, who had helped Wickede out before Alienbutt's arrival, had kept postponing their departure date with one excuse after another and Wickede insisted it would be rude to depart without her leave.
They had ended up in a different dimension Alienbutt had been informed on his arrival. Here, a giant frog type species lived in this part of space. They were a peaceful species and couldn’t understand this concept of war, but one of the Queen’s daughters was fascinated by the lives of Wickede and his companions. She had already convinced her mother to delay them, postponing their departure to hear more stories of their strange lives.
The flock of birds flew over, thousands of the giant creatures all heading to the lakes for the evening. Despite what Alienbutt said to Wickede, he loved to watch this daily flight, fascinated by the fact that they never flew into each other, but always hoping that if he watched often enough he would see that collision. As the last of the birds finished flying over, Wickede stood up and took a final look around as the shadows began to lengthen.
“Frank is sure he has a way to sort out the coffee addiction problem when we get back. I didn’t understand a word of what he said though,” said Alienbutt as he too stood up.
“I never know what he’s on about, Piestoff, but I trust that he’s right in what he says.”
The cure for coffee was so simple. It wasn’t a matter of finding some agent to remove the addictive quality of the bean but just a matter of putting back something the Coffee Houses had removed through genetic manipulation. Caffeine was that magic element that occurred naturally in the plant, a natural stimulant, but somehow the producers had discovered if they decaffeinated the plant and bean then you had the most addictive drug ever seen in space. Frank had a theory that the reason that production had dropped was the plant trying to repair itself. The genetically modified plant was reverting to its natural state and producing the caffeine again, so the Coffee Houses were destroying all caffeine infected crops.

The two walked down the hill back to the compound which had been their base. Alienbutt’s repaired ship sat on the launch pad. It had suffered extensive electrical damage in the F.T.L. jump, and Frank had spent over two months rebuilding the flight computer, and then to Alienbutt’s disgust he then repaired the robot Kirk. Off to one side stood three strange-looking sphere-like ships of the frog people, floating just above the ground. Frank was fascinated by the organic quality and technology that the frogs used and had studied it extensively, with plans to try and duplicate their science when they returned home.
As they entered the compound, Frank came running out of the building where they stayed. He saw Wickede and Alienbutt and ran over to them.
“A ship just appeared. All the readings from that sector of space say it’s from our dimension.” He stopped before them, looking excited, but confused by the ship’s appearance.
“It has the F.T.L. Drive? But how did they get the fuel to make the jump?” asked Wickede, confused, walking towards the building to look at the sensor reports. Frank shrugged at Alienbutt and then followed after Wickede.
“It’s heading this way so we should know within the hour,” he shouted to Wickede as the Ick leader entered the building.

To be continued.
thanks for reading, all images are mine.