The Empire: Called back to Earth

Jazzlyn and Izek were showing Aisha and David how to ride a bicycle when Doug and Zenobia arrived for breakfast at Raquel’s place.

Doug saw Major and Maria at their ground vehicle getting some bags out and waved at them.

Aisha hollered, “Uncle Doug, look at me,” and came flying toward him on the bicycle almost running him over.

“Whoa there young lady,” Doug said, catching the bicycle by the handlebars. “I believe you need a little more practice.”

“What do you have in the boxes?” Aisha inquired of Zenobia.

“These are maple cakes from my home world of Maple World,” Zenobia replied. “We’ll have some for breakfast.”

“Do you want me to help you carry them?” Aisha asked.

“No, you continue practicing riding your bicycle,” Zenobia answered. “I can carry these.

Another ground vehicle pulled up and Doug saw that it was being driven by Ryan’s sister Pamela. The other occupants were Captain Jacoby and Sergeant Mihalie. “Good morning Doug, Madam Ambassador,” Captain Jacoby and Sergeant Mihalie said, greeting Doug and Zenobia, after they exited the ground vehicle.

Zenobia excused herself and continued into the house. And Pamela, after waving at Doug and greeting Zenobia, accompanied her inside.

“Captain, Sergeant,” Doug said, shaking hands with them. “How have you been doing?”

It had been awhile since Doug had seen Captain Jacoby and Sergeant Mihalie and they spent some time catching up. Captain Jacoby asked Doug about his trip to Earth. And Doug told Captain Jacoby and Sergeant Mihalie about the trip to Earth and answered his questions about conditions on Earth.

Captain Jacoby, Sergeant Mihalie and Doug entered the house and walked to the inside patio and were greeted by Ricardo, who was preparing breakfast. “We’re having steak, fowl eggs, home fries and homemade biscuits,” Ricardo told them. “Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes. Help yourself to the coffee.”

“This is good coffee, Ricardo,” Captain Jacoby said, after pouring himself a cup of coffee and taking a sip. “What kind is it?”

“It’s Kopi Luwak,” Ricardo replied. “And it is the rarest gourmet coffee in the Galaxy.”

“Yes, I now recall you telling me about this coffee. Refresh my memory,” Captain Jacoby requested.

“Doug is the coffee expert,” Ricardo said. “Doug, explain Kopi Luwak coffee to Captain Jacoby.”

“Kopi Luwak are Robusta or Arabica coffee beans which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Indonesian Civet (Indonesian was a country on Earth and Civet is an animal -- family of Viverridae.) The world of Brasillia is the major coffee producing world today. And Ambassador Ricardo Urbina of Brasillia told me that they had brought the Civet from Earth,” Doug explained.

“’Kopi’ is an Indonesian word for coffee and ’Luwak’ was the local name of this animal which eats the raw red coffee ‘cherries’ as part of its usual diet. This animal eats a mixed diet of insects, small mammals and fruits along with the softer outer part of the coffee cherry but do not digest the inner beans, instead excreting them still covered in some inner layers of the cherry,” Doug further explained. “The beans are then gathered -- which come through the ‘animal stage’ fairly intact. It is believed that enzymes in the stomach of the Civet add to the coffee’s flavor through fermentation of some type.”

Major and Maria entered, carrying some bags. “We stopped at the country farmer’s place and picked up some fowl eggs, corn meal and flour,” Maria said as she put the fowl eggs in the refrigerator and the corn meal and flour in the cabinet. “Ma -- the farmer’s wife -- said the fowl eggs were from range chicken fowl, whatever they are.”

After finishing storing the items, Maria got a cup of coffee and asked Ricardo, after taking a sip, “Is this coffee made from coffee beans that animal sh…, I mean, that passed through that animal?”

Laughing, Ricardo said, “Yes. It’s Kopi Luwak. I thought that you liked Kopi Luwak coffee, Maria.”

“I do, it… I don’t know, just gives me the heebie-jeebies when I think about the coffee beans passing through some animal’s digestive track and them being excreted before making coffee from them,” Maria replied.

Raquel, Gilbert and Garland exited from Raquel’s home office and entered the patio area. Raquel saw Captain Jacoby and said, “Good morning Captain Jacoby. Please meet Gilbert Faber. Gilbert is the newest Director.”

Gilbert shook hands with Captain Jacoby and Sergeant Mihalie and said, “Nice to meet you.”

“I explained to Gilbert about the request from the Koobiville Security Chief,” Raquel said. “I’ll let you two discuss the details.”

“As I understand the situation, from what Raquel told me, one group is alleging that this city official (He was a city councilman, Captain Jacoby injected.) committed suicide and another group is alleging he was murdered,” Gilbert said.

“That is my understanding of the situation, too,” Captain Jacoby said. “The doctor who performed the autopsy is saying that it ‘appears’ he committed suicide.”

“That it ‘appears’ he committed suicide, not that he ‘did’ committee suicide,” Gilbert inquired.

Captain Jacoby handed Gilbert the official report he had received from the Security Chief in Koobiville and said, “The official security report states that it ‘appears’ he committed suicide.”

Gilbert accepted the official security report and read it and then asked, “Don’t they have an crime scene investigation unit in Koobiville? And this report only list the autopsy. Not any details about the crime scene.”

“To answer your first question,” Captain Jacoby responded, “No, they do not have a CSI unit. Koobiville is not that large. As for the crime scene, that will be the first thing I will want to see. Hopefully they have not cleaned up the crime scene but I expect they have.”

“As I see this, Captain, you have a lose-lose situation on your hands. If you declare his death a suicide, you offend those advocating it was murder. And vice-versa if you declare it a murder,” Gilbert elaborated.

“That is why I will want to see the official crime scene report and the crime scene itself,” Captain Jacoby replied.

“My take on the situation, after Raquel explained it to me, that this is political in nature. One group that contacted you contending it was suicide and the other group that contacted GEBI contending it was murder,” Gilbert declared.

“I am not familiar with the local political scene in Koobiville,” Captain Jacoby replied. “But it does appear so.”

“Anyway, Raquel informed me that Garland worked for you before going to work for the GEBI. I am sending him to accompany you and explained to him that you will be in charge of the investigation,” Gilbert told Captain Jacoby. “When do you have to be in Koobiville?”

“Trenton Security has a fleet of air ships at the Trenton Spaceport. We’ll go directly there when we leave here,” Captain Jacoby said.

“Breakfast is ready,” Ricardo called out. “Come and get it!” Then said to Karen, “Karen, please go out and round up those kids and tell them it is time for breakfast.”

During breakfast, Raquel asked Doug, “You started to tell me about Captain Collins calling you about those stolen rifle blasters but I got called away. Did you get the matter of those stolen rifle blasters taken care of?”

“Captain Collins called me just before landing on the world of Waco. I then called that security chief on the world of Waco and explained the situation. They met Ol’ Charlie and opened the crates he had previously told us about and, of course, found the two crates containing the 7mm rifle blasters. They took pictures (it was actually a video) and sent me a copy. In turn, I sent a copy of the video to Colonel Wang, security chief on the world of China. Colonel Wang told me that they had had their suspicions about Sòng’s Import-Export business for some time but no actually proof of any illegal activities. Colonel Wang called me later and told me that they had raided the Sòng’s Import-Export business and found -- among other stolen items -- more of the 7mm rifle blasters. Sòng’s Import-Export business, according to Colonel Wang, has been permanently shut down.”

“And Doug gave me copies of all the information and I contacted that security officer, Lieutenant Owego, on the world of Zebulon. Also Mr. Mocyunas, the information officer or Vice President of Information with the Windfire Corporation and gave him copies. And told them how to contact the security people on the worlds of Waco and China,” Major explained. “They can work out the details about recovering the 7mm rifle blasters security on the worlds of Waco and China found.”

“So we got the matter of the stolen rifle blasters resolved,” Raquel stated.

“Well…” Doug said.

“Oh no, please don’t tell me there are more stolen blasters out there,” Raquel exclaimed.

“I’m sure there are other companies than Windfire Corporation that manufactures blasters,” Doug replied.

“I found fifteen or twenty corporations that manufactures blasters when I was searching for the corporation that produced those Doug recovered,” Karen spoke up and said.

They ate in silence a few minutes and then Gilbert said to Doug, “Doug, Raquel was telling me you brought that woman we meet back on Earth in that old Mexico City here. I forgot her name.”

“You’re referring to Lisa Ramirez, her sons Ramón and Miguel and sister Jacinta,” Doug relied.

“Yes, that was the woman I was referring to,” Gilbert acknowledged.

“Actually Issie made all the travel arrangements. Thank her. But, yeah, we brought her here. We, more like Issie, relocated her and her family in Mooresville. And she opened her fancy restaurant -- Mi Casa. She and her sons ran afoul of the new narco-drug kingpin. That narco-drug kingpin sent a hit team that raided her old restaurant there in Mexico City. She and her family just barely escaped,” Doug told Gilbert.

“Have you spoken to her after she relocated here?” Raquel asked.

“I called her a few times. More like she called me. She keeps inviting me to come and have dinner at her restaurant,” Doug replied. Than added, “One day, when we don’t have problems to deal with, we should all drive to Mooresville and visit her.”

“Where is Mooresville?” Gilbert asked.

“It’s something like a couple of hundred kilometers west of here,” Issie told Gilbert. Then said to Doug, “When are you going. I would like to meet her. She sounded like an interesting lady when I spoke with her vie the vistaview unit.”

“Can I go, too, Uncle Doug?” Aisha asked.

“You will have to ask your Aunt Maria, sweetie,” Doug told her.