"Montbarts, we need..."
Cooper ended the transmission.
Shaltia glared at him. "I hate him as much as anyone, but are you going to just leave him here with Gorlich."
"I am," Cooper said. "Have the Skoleans gone after the shuttle?"
"Just now," Alura said.
"Fire up the wormhole generator, and go."
Alura was moving away from the Burnside when a green blast fired from the front. Space appeared to rip apart and a hole appeared. Alura moved forward toward the wormhole.
"Ready to test this out?" he asked Shaltia.
Her eyes were locked on the wormhole. "What the fuck? We are just doing this?"
Cooper gave her a thumbs up. "Alura, says it should be safe."
As they neared the wormhole, the Skolean ship erupted in an explosion. Shaltia turned to Cooper. He had a smile on his face. "Matrix blaster on overload."
The sensation as the ship passed into the wormhole was like moving through water. Every action seemed slowed. To Cooper, it reminded him of being so drunk that the entire world slowed down while the brain was still firing in rapid succession.
Shaltia said, "Sensors are going crazy. Reading temporal and spatial distortions." Her voice sounded as if it had been sped up.
Stars reappeared. The ship felt like it was back to normal, and the wormhole collapsed behind them.
"Woohoo," Cooper hollered. "We did it!"
"How long was I asleep?" Shaltia asked.
Cooper shrugged. "I don't know exactly. Alura?"
"Twenty-nine hours, thirty-seven minutes."
"Where are we?" Shaltia asked.
Alura responded, "We are fifty-six light years from the Tria System."
"How far did we just travel?"
"Seven-hundred million four-hundred thousand five-hundred and sixteen light years."
"Fucking awesome," Cooper said.
The Other Side
"What about Learra?" Shaltia asked in the galley as she made a sandwich.
"We try and find her home," Cooper responded.
"How do we do that?"
Shrugging, Cooper said, "I don't have a clue. I've asked Alura to run a search on any primitive planets with a continent of Valdan."
"What have you found Alura?"
"I have been unable to locate the planet with the search criteria that Cooper gave me. Most primitive worlds are ignored and allowed to develop at their own pace. There are hundreds of those level worlds. Only a handful have had any anthropological studies done on them. Of those, I find no mention of a continent of Valdan."
Cooper sighed, "I guess until then, she is just with us."
"You know that when we do find her home, she may know too much to go back to it."
"What?" Cooper exclaimed. "We can't stop her."
"No, I mean, she comes from a primitive time. She has already seen so much, not to mention her abilities. She might find being home more difficult than she thinks."
"That goes for a lot of us," Cooper commented. "I certainly don't want to go home again. It'd be hell."
Shaltia took a bite of her sandwich. Chewing, she said, "I don't know. I loved home."
"The problem may be moot. We have to find her home."
"What do we do until then?"
"She's going to need to refine her skills too," Cooper said. "Otherwise, it's business as usual. We look for her home. We make money."
"I hate that Brute had to die." Shaltia's tone dropped with a hint of sadness.
"Farkak was an idiot."
"So, you loaded the stasis tube with the matrix blaster," she asked.
"Yep. Figured the only way that we could detach and lower shields was if they were fighting over something other than us."
"Makes sense."
"Didn't matter who got the shuttle. The other would assume everything was destroyed. Mostly to protect Learra. I didn't want Schwarz coming after her."
"Cooper, you are a softie."
"Heart of gold, I always say."
"Did you aim for the Tria System?" she asked.
"Shal, I'm just glad we weren't killed," Cooper said. "Alura said that the device should work. I just bet my hand that it would."
"I'm guessing we aren't heading back to the Nove System?"
"I think that if we stay on this side of the galaxy for a bit, then maybe Schwarz will forget about Learra. It would take him five years to get to us once he gets his engines up and running."
"What's the plan then?"
Cooper said, "We sell the stuff from the Burnside. After that, we track down everything we can about Tyma Gribel. Perhaps we can find Learra's home."
"Where are we?" a voice questioned from the door.
Shaltia greeted Learra with a smile. "We are a long way from where we started."
"You think you can take me home though?"
"I don't know," Cooper said. "We are going to try. However, it might be awhile. It may be never, but we will try."
"How did you sleep?" Shaltia asked.
"Considering I was asleep for eighteen months, I was really tired."
"Would you like something to eat?"
"Yes, please," Learra said, and Cooper moved over to let her sit down.
"Do you like eggs?" Shaltia asked. Learra nodded.
Shaltia pulled the eggs from the cooler. "If we are in the Tria System, we might as well check it out."
Cooper nodded.
"Alura, plot a course to the nearest inhabited planet."
"Yes, Captain Shaltia," the computer said, "I have plotted a course to the third planet of the Tria System as you requested."
"She's not the captain," Cooper said in exasperation.
Alura's Bind_Book One Page 14
