“That’s a question your mother should answer.”
Davell stood beside her, his fingers locked with hers. “And you’ll have plenty of time to do that once we get back to Quantum.”
She looked up at him and smiled. “How did you know?”
“Because I’m an intelligence officer. It’s my job to know.”
“Your mother and your daughter will be here shortly. I’m having them arrested and delivered to me. The freighter will ferry you to Quantum.”
“What will happen to you?” Suzy asked.
Mausebar, her father, shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve accomplished my goals.”
Epilogue
One month later
Zara was thriving. Aboard Quantum, she got top-notch medical care. Her cheeks were rosy and she was learning how to dance.
“Want to spend the night with Grammy?” Suzy asked.
Her mother had found work as a nanny to several of the children aboard and Zara was trying to get used to sharing her.
“Yes, I’d like to show her my new dance.”
“I’m sure she’d love that.”
Davell tousled the child’s blonde hair. “You’re a chip off the old block.”
Later that night, in bed in her pod, Davell snuggled close and wrapped his arm around her.
“I have to leave the next time we dock.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Neither do I, but we have to. We only have three or four more days together.”
Suzy was sleepy and warm and she wanted to drift off to sleep imagining it was going to be just like this forever.
“I have an idea,” Davell whispered in her ear.
“You always have an idea.”
“Not that kind of idea. Another kind.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Now.”
“Okay, okay. What’s your idea?”
“Marry me. Dance two or three months and then come join me in the Octopus Galaxy for a couple of months.”
“Are you proposing?”
“It sure sounds like it.”
“We can give it a try.”
“Are you accepting?”
“It sure sounds like it.”
THE END
The Adventure Continues at…
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About Blaire Edens
Blaire Edens lives in the mountains of North Carolina. She grew up on a farm that’s been in her family since 1790. Of Scottish descent, her most famous ancestor, John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch and Guardian of Scotland, was murdered by Robert the Bruce on the altar of the Greyfriars Church at Dumfries.
She has a degree in Horticulture from Clemson University. She’s held a myriad of jobs including television reporter, GPS map creator, and personal assistant to a fellow who was rich enough to pay someone to pick up the dry cleaning. When she’s not plotting, she’s busy knitting, running, or listening to the Blues.
Blaire loves iced tea with mint, hand-stitched quilts, and yarn stores. She refuses to eat anything that mixes chocolate and peanut butter or apple and cinnamon. She’s generally nice to her mother, tries to remember not to smack her bubble gum, and only speeds when no one’s looking. She’s the award-winning author of Wild About Rachel, The Witch of Roan Mountain, and The Fairy Bargain.
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Star Searchers
Diana Rivis
Sabrina found that she and Dayor made a great team in more ways than one.
Earth born Special Agent Sabrina Hawthorne of the Inter-Galactic Alliance was thrilled! She was finally going to be working an assignment with her brother. Instead, she found herself in another galaxy of the multiverse partnered with his stick-in-the-mud friend, Dayor Keitos, of the planet Malli.
They’d tracked the traitors to LS Quantum, a multiverse class resort and entertainment complex in space. They needed to find them to locate the portal linking their two planets. Dayor was with her through every step of the investigation, but when their lives were threatened, Sabrina found they made a great team in more ways than one.
One
Sabrina was furious. About half way from her apartment to the jump-port, the ground transport she’d grabbed started making wheezing noises and the robo-driver had to reboot it five different times in route. It had been ridiculous and meant she was running late. She despised being late.
The heels of her boots tapped as she strode through the building. Sabrina cleared security and placed her travel bags on a compact hover glide. She deftly wove her way through groupings of strategically placed potted plants and around passengers, some human and some not, who were either waiting in line at their gates, checking the transport status boards, or just standing around. The scents of coffee, cinnamon puffs and veggie rolls coming from the roving auto-vendor carts made her mouth water. She was starving.
She paused briefly to tap a series of symbols on the com-unit at her wrist. It beeped to let her know her communication had gone through and then she heard her mother’s voice.
“Hi, honey. “
“Hey, mom. I’m almost to my ship and I’m running late, so I can only talk for a sec. I just wanted to touch base with you guys before I left. Thanks again for taking care of Buffy while I’m gone.”
“No problem. She’s our little grand-kitty, after all. And I promise not to let your father give her too many kitty treats this time.”
Sabrina grinned at the smile she heard in her mother’s voice and then glanced down as she felt her wrist unit pulse.
“Thanks. Oops. Gotta go, Mom. I have another call coming through. Maybe it’s from Dev. “
“Okay, Sabrina. Tell your brother we love and miss him. Stay in touch when you can and be safe. Love you.”
“Love you guys, too. Bye.”
Sabrina clicked off and then linked into the new communication. She frowned at the sound of the computer-generated voice as it recited its message.
Crap. No, I do not want to check in for a last minute secure holo update from my supervisor. I don’t have time.
She made her way to one of the large holo conference booths designated for Inter-Galactic Alliance staff. Stashing her bags in the corner, she sat at the small table in front of the holo platform and engaged the controls.
“Hawthorne, Sabrina, Agent #1636. Commence ocular read.”
Sabrina sensed rather than felt the reader as it scanned the retinas of both her eyes to confirm her identity. She heard the familiar beep that told her the scan was complete and entered the sync code that had been provided within the message.
She watched the image of her supervisor, John Randall, visually solidify on the holo platform. He was in his office at the Alliance’s main building in Manhattan.
“I know your ship is scheduled to leave shortly, Sabrina, so I’ll keep this brief. We just received information from Caliva’s intel group that changes the focus of our joint investigation to a new location. It will now be on LS Quantum, one of the space resort and entertainment complexes within the Delphi sector. You’ll be heading there shortly after your arrival.
The assignment has been upgraded to a Level Five. In addition, there’s been a staffing change and you’re not going to like it. Dev will be remaining on Caliva. In his place, the Couros royal family has assigned one of their own people. Sorry about the switch, Sabrina, I know you were looking forward to partnering with him.”
Sabrina quickly plastered a neutral look on her face to hide her disappointment.
Damn it.
She’d been thrilled that she’d finally been given the opportunity to work with her older brother on an assignment. It was something she’d been longing to do since she’d followed in his footsteps and earned her Special Agent status within the Inter-Galactic Alliance. “If I may ask, why the staffing change?”
“The change wasn’t initiated by us. I
t came down to me as a request of the royal family. There was an attempted kidnapping of the princess, Marrette Couros, and her daughter sometime yesterday. The whole place is on high alert. They’ll fill you in when you get there.”
Sabrina slowly nodded her head and gave him a small, rueful smile that covered both her curiosity and her angry disappointment. “That would definitely create a problem for my brother. He and the princess have grown very close. Any word on who’s going to replace him on this assignment?”
“Yes. Security Leader Dayor Keitos. Do you know him?”
“I’ve spoken with him a number of times, but only briefly. As a close friend of the royal family, he was at Kendra…Special Agent Voray’s wedding. He was responsible for all the security for the event, so he didn’t have time for much else. He appears to be very competent and is held in high regard in Caliva.”
“So, I’ve heard. Unless something changes, Special Agent Voray and the prince are still on the team, so there will be four of you. I’ve uploaded some additional data to your assignment info pack. You’ll want to review it before you arrive on Malli. It should answer some of your questions regarding the new location. It also contains a full dossier on the Security Leader, of course. That will be all. Good luck.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
Sabrina watched his image as he reached forward within the holo, pressed the button to disengage and immediately disappeared.
Damn it to hell and back. I wish Dev had given me a heads-up on this.
Sabrina grabbed her bags from the corner, shoved them back on the hover glide, exited the booth and raced to the jump gate. She was relieved to see the space-jump crew was still prepping for the flight. She’d have considered it a major black mark on her pristine reputation, if they’d had to wait for her.
The technological breakthroughs that had made it possible to jump from one parallel universe to another had also dramatically reduced the amount of time needed to travel through space. A ship could get from Earth to any of the many space-line jump stations in hours, rather than weeks. Less travel time meant less fuel and fewer supplies. The result had been smaller and more maneuverable spacecraft.
This ship was large for an Alliance jumper in that it could carry as many as a dozen Earth-sized humanoid passengers. At its front was the dual helm needed for an inter-universe jump. The mid-section was for passengers and their baggage. The back of the ship housed a galley and a privacy-sanitation area.
Sabrina greeted the Alliance pilots, who she’d flown with before. She nodded and smiled at the three passengers who were already seated. Based on their navy-blue jump suits, they were all from the Science Division.
Nice. Just as predicted, it’s a pretty empty flight; room for me to spread out a little.
She thought about the planet, Malli, where she was headed. It would be Sabrina’s second visit. Her first trip had been the year before when she and her family had attended the wedding of her close friend Kendra Voray to His Highness, Valon Couros, third in line to the Calivan throne. It had been a whirlwind week and there hadn’t been time to do much of anything except focus on the wedding preparations.
Kendra and Sabrina’s brother, Dev, were long time partners in the Psi Section of the Alliance’s Security Division. Over time, they’d also become close friends and Kendra had become like a member of their family. She’d even spent most holidays and special occasions with Sabrina’s large and raucous clan. Dev and Kendra had gone to Caliva on assignment. Kendra and Valon had met and, as they say, the rest was history.
Sabrina headed to the galley to find something to eat before lift-off. She grabbed a couple of the pro-veggie bars and nutri-drinks that were the standard refreshments available on a jump-craft. She found a small pack of sweetened soy nuts and snapped it up as well. It wasn’t chocolate, but it would have to do.
She smiled as she remembered that both she and Kendra shared chocolate cravings after a phase jump. Fortunately, that was the only side effect of jumping the two of them had in common. Kendra also always ended up with a horrific headache.
Just as she returned to her seat, the flight crew announced they’d be taking off shortly. She strapped herself in. Trained as a pilot, herself, she was familiar with the various stages of a flight of this kind. First, they’d fly the short distance to the jump-station where their pilots would work with a crew to open and then move through the portal. They’d exit the portal in an area that was close to their destination. From there, it would only be about a five-hour space flight to the planet.
The lead pilot began the countdown for their departure, “Twenty…Nineteen…Eighteen…”
Sabrina tilted her seat back for take-off and prepared for the sensation of blasting up and out of the Earth’s atmosphere. She loved to fly and gripped the armrests in anticipation.
“Three...Two…One…Lift-off.”
The acceleration punch felt very much like the first big drop of a rollercoaster. After a few seconds, it transitioned into a steady vibration and a feeling of pressure that eased the farther away from Earth they traveled. The experience was jarring, but was nothing like the dizzying jolts that had been felt during a blast-off in the early days of space travel that she’d read about. The trip through the portal, by comparison, would be almost effortless.
Once free of the Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft slowed and steadied out. Sabrina shifted her seat back to its upright position, synced her wrist com unit to the seating area’s display screen and activated its privacy mode. She wanted to review the info pack one more time and to familiarize herself with the dossier on Security Leader Dayor Keitos.
Since the seating area next to her was vacant, she swung that unit’s tray-work area combo around so she could use it to stash her nutri-drinks and snacks until she wanted them. She activated the mini holo platform and pulled up the new reports that had been added to her Assignment Pack. Two of them had been sent from Caliva’s security team to the Alliance.
The first report was a summary of the attempt to kidnap Princess Marrette and her daughter, Astria. It had occurred as the princess, a renowned artist throughout several universes, and her young daughter had been leaving the opening of a new wing of an art museum in one of Caliva’s major cities.
Marrette, a widow, was second in line to the Calivan throne. Six-year-old Astria was the only grandchild within the royal family. Neither of them had been physically harmed, but one of their body guards had been killed and another had been badly injured defending them. There had been no intel of a threat to the royal family. A full security investigation had immediately been launched.
Pondering that information, Sabrina peeled back the wrapper on one of the pro-veggie bars and took a few sips from one of her nutri-drinks. She grimaced at the fake lemony flavor.
The Calivan security people are considered excellent. I wonder how this one got past them. Dev must be out of his mind with worry. He cares deeply about the princess and her daughter.
Sabrina noticed a light pressure at the back of her head and felt her heart rate speed up, which meant they were about to navigate through the portal. She looked toward the front of the ship at the helm station. She heard the pilots exchange information with the jump station crew and watched their wall screens as the line strands of the two universes meshed together. They entered the portal and then shifted.
The head-pressure eased and Sabrina’s heart rate dropped back to normal. The entire process had taken less than a half hour. She glanced at the viewport on her left and saw the constellations of Delphi, home of the planet Malli.
Sabrina gave herself a few minutes to take in the view and then refocused on the second report. It contained summaries of the two attempts on Kendra and Dev’s lives shortly after their arrival on Malli. It also included updated intel on the two incidents.
To be accepted into the Alliance Security Division’s Psi Department, agents must have at least one form of psychic ability. Kendra’s psi-talent was psychometry, the ability to get images of
an object’s origins and history just by touching it. Like Sabrina, Dev was slightly pre-cog, but was primarily an amplifier, meaning he can dramatically increase the power levels of several different types of psychic talents, Kendra’s being one of them.
Dev and Kendra had gone to Caliva to perform a psychometry reading on an ancient artifact from Malli that had mysteriously been found on Earth hundreds of years before inter-universe space travel had even been invented. Kendra’s psi-read of the object would have revealed the existence of a portal linking Malli and Earth. Someone or some group had wanted that information to remain a secret and determined the best way to accomplish that was to kill Kendra and Dev before they could get to the relic.
The first attempt on their lives had allegedly been made by Arton Venteg, a trusted and longtime member of Caliva’s security force. He had planted a bomb in their quarters in the palace just before he and his wife had disappeared.
The second attempt had allegedly been coordinated by Annato Louvos, a member of another of the royal families of Malli. That incident included launching a small missile at an air transport ship Kendra and Dev had been on. Prince Valon and Security Leader Dayor had also been aboard at the time. Like the Ventegs, Louvos had disappeared as well.
The psi-read on the relic had eventually been done and had revealed the existence of a portal between Earth and Malli. The revelation had sent shock waves throughout both planets. The locations of the entrance points on both Earth and Malli were still a mystery. The motive for wanting to keep this information a secret from the multiverse was also still unknown.
The bodies of Arton Venteg and his wife had just been found aboard the space resort and entertainment complex, LS Quantum. Holo records had shown the two of them meeting with a group of men numerous times. One of those men had been positively identified as Annato Louvos. This was huge because it was the first piece of evidence that directly tied Louvos to the Ventegs.
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