by Frank Carey
Tayla looked and grimaced. "Ah, yes, Adrestia."
"Sounds Greek. Are there Greek elves?"
"Possibly. People move around a lot. They're a group of assassins who tried to destroy Earth."
He stopped chewing and looked at her. "Did they succeed?"
"No, but they pissed off a number of people."
"Hmmmm," he said as he got up and picked up his plate.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to check out the elves. I'm jonesin’ for a cookie."
"What?" she said as she ran after him. She looked and saw everyone in the room was watching them.
"Howdy!" he said as he walked up to the table. He noticed that every tail was curled around in a question mark shape. "Mind if I join you?"
Silently, they made room for him as Tayla watched from the other table.
"The name's Gray, Joshua Gray and I'm new here. Actually, I'm like two hundred and something years old. I hear tell that you're elves."
"Yes. One of them said. "We're from Ventos Prime, though we originally came from Earth."
"Really? You mean you and humans lived there?"
"And another race called the Dracos," a second one added.
"Damn. What happened? Why did y'all leave? You did leave, didn't you? I think I would have remembered you walking around Vegas."
They told him about the destruction of Atlantis, the great diaspora, and the settlement of Ventos Prime and a planet known as Ith. Eventually, colonists from the other table moseyed over to join them. Soon, everyone was gathered around the table, talking and singing sea shanties. He felt like he was home.
CHAPTER NINE
Tayla's comm chirped just as a Venlanten colonist was showing Joshua how she could extend her claws. "Excuse me for a moment. I've got to take this," she said as she got up and stepped outside. "Go for Tayla... Right, be there in five... Tayla out." She walked back inside and tapped Joshua on the shoulder. "We've been summoned to the Governor's residence," she whispered.
The colonists reacted with a collective "Awww!"
"Sorry, but duty calls," she said. Joshua shook hands, even hugged a few new friends, then followed Tayla out the door.
"You're a natural, you know that?" she said as they walked across the square.
"Not really. I usually avoid social situations. I honestly don't know how that happened. Nice group, though."
"Well, they seem to love you."
"What's the governor like?"
"Alex? He's the ex-leader of Adrestia. Rumor has it he has done wet-work in the past..." He stopped. "What's wrong now?"
"How the hell am I understanding what you're saying?"
She looked at him. "What languages do you know?"
"Twenty-first century American English with a smattering of geekspeak."
"A language which started dying when Earth joined the League. Somehow, you've learned how to speak Standard."
"More mysteries." They returned to their stroll. "Tayla, what was it like for you before all this?" he asked while sweeping his hand around to indicate the town.
"My sister, Nayla, and I were born and raised on the Sokuhl home world, Jacob became my brother, we all went to school, she went into the military while Jacob and I went into the merchant service. We bought a ship and hired a crew. Then we lost our shirts, that is until we met someone by the name of Harmon Aymar, the Smuggler Elf. He recruited us, along with several other crews, to work with the League Office of Security. We lucked out."
"What did you do for this Office of Security?"
"OffSec, as we call it, tries to keep the chaos under control. Smuggling is frowned upon, but weapons trafficking, drug trafficking, and the slave trade are strictly forbidden. We were tasked with stopping those endeavors. Don't get me wrong, OffSec can be an unpleasant employer, but Harm shielded us from much of that."
"This Harm seems like an interesting elf."
"He is, especially now that he's a prince and ambassador."
"Damn. Talk about a career change."
"Tell me about it."
"So why are you here?"
"That is top secret. Let's just say we needed a change of venue."
"Now that reminds me of Area 51!"
They reached the residence and knocked. The door opened and they were greeted by Alex. He stopped and stared at Joshua. "Dr. Gray, you really are alive."
"I think so," Joshua said as he took the Governor's hand.
"Please, come in. We have a lot to discuss."
Tayla and Joshua followed Alex into the living room and found Jacob and Bryntana waiting for them. Bryntana stepped back away from Joshua.
"You must forgive the deputy governor, she's superstitious. Something about the dead rising is off-putting."
"I am not superstitious!" Bryntana announced.
"Boo!" Joshua said
She jumped back, then blushed. "Sorry. No offense."
"None taken. Damn, I'm hungry. Got any brains laying around?"
Tayla giggled while Bryntana gave the young doctor one nasty, hairy eyeball.
"Yes, well, shall we get started," Alex said with a small smile.
They all sat down, and Jacob started off by telling them his concerns regarding the FTL failure, the possible Boris reentry and crash, and Joshua's resurrection.
"BORIS reentered the atmosphere and survived reentry? That's impossible. It wasn't designed to do that," Joshua explained. "No part of that unit could possible survive that much heat."
"What if it slowed?"
Joshua thought for a moment. "Yeah, maybe not the skin, but the internal working might." He tapped his teeth as he thought. "The damn tentacles!"
"What about them, Dr. Gray?" Alex prodded.
"We built the tentacles with a number of missions in mind. They are both powerful and tough. The interiors are filled with enough synthetic muscle for any one tentacle to tear a bus in half. We encased the exteriors with a woven exotic metal cover, which was both impossibly strong yet flexible. It was called adamantine, named after the material found in science fiction stories."
Bryntana handed him a pen from the governor's desk. "Adamantine alloy."
"Shit," he said as he spun it in his hand. "This pen would have cost us millions of dollars to produce."
"Mass production is a wonderful thing," Alex said. "You were saying about the tentacles?"
"Oh, sorry. Yes, one of the scenarios we were going to test after installing the brain was using the tentacles as shields. The adamantine cloth was several layers thick, so we could unroll it to form a protective shield. Considering the strength of the cloth, it's possible a heat shield could have been formed to protect the rest of the Boris unit."
"You sound like you are going to say 'But.'" Bryntana noted.
"But, I never finished the code. The mechanism was there, but there was no way for me or anyone to deploy the cloth. Unless..."
"Unless?"
"The Biocybernetics group may have installed something when they took the unit for testing. My team was responsible for everything from the neck down. BC was responsible for the neck up. Maybe they put in the routines needed for tentacle deployment."
Alex paced the room. According to my implanted memories, this planet was extensively surveyed before being chosen as a colony site. There was no mention of evidence of any previous or current civilization being found. Yet we have a large, seemingly cloaked, city appearing out of nowhere along with our good doctor. Jenna, have you picked up anything out of the ordinary?"
"Nope. Scans have been clear."
"Bryntana, did you and Commander Hardy find anything during your perusal of the sat data?"
"Nothing useful. Whatever was being used to cloak the city is truly invisible to our optical and electronic scanners."
"And Valera has the best damn sensors we could steal or buy," Tayla added. "I should know, I stole them."
Alex brought up the image of the city and the groove cut into it by what they thought was the Boris unit. "The
answer lies there, in that city. Captain, were you able to dispatch a drone for an overview?"
"Yes, but the mission went to hell. The drone dropped off the grid the moment it flew inside the city boundary."
"It was destroyed?"
"No. One of the following drones recorded its engines stopping. It glided to a stop a quarter mile inside the perimeter. I then tried a hawkbot, but it shut down as well. We've got a couple of Minotaurs rigged for scouting..."
Alex raised his hand. No, no more assets. We need living eyes on the problem. Jenna, are we looking at a dampening field?"
"Looks like it. By the way, I volunteer a mobile."
Alex looked up at Jenna's visual input with narrowed eyes. "I haven't asked for volunteers."
"With all due respect, sir, but puh-leeeze! We both know you're going to order a scouting party to head over to the city for a look-see. I figure you're too busy, so you're going to send Jacob, Tayla, Bryntana at a minimum."
"And me," Joshua reminded her."
"Sorry. And Joshua."
"I guess I need to just go fishing. Jenna is right; we need to send a team in. Jacob, Bryntana, Tayla, Joshua, Quint, and Charlie..."
"Quint and Charlie?" Joshua asked.
"Mercs of the highest caliber. They come in a matched set; one goes on a job, they both go on a job," Bryntana noted, "which is odd considering their dislike for one another."
"That's because they're married," Alex noted. Bryn stared at him in shock. "It's in their personnel files."
"And one of my mobiles," Jenna added.
"And one of Jenna's mobiles. Take a conveyance and keep in touch."
"Conveyance?"
"Car," Jenna explained. "Souped-up, nuclear-powered, six-by SUV with twin-stacks, and a rag-top. We are talking totally bitchin," Jenna translated.
"Sweeeeet! I call shotgun!" Joshua said.
The group stared at him.
"Do you two want a room and a moment?" Alex asked.
"Naw, we're cool, right BFF?" Jenna stated for the record.
"Damn straight, girlfriend," Joshua replied.
Tayla tried to look anywhere except at Joshua while the rest suppressed laughter.
"Now that you two have finished bonding, does anyone have any helpful suggestions?"
They all shook their heads.
"If there are no objections, I will put Jacob in charge. When do you plan to leave, Captain?"
"Dawn."
"Good. I suggest we call it an evening, then. It was a pleasure meeting you, Doctor."
"Likewise," he said as he shook the Governor's hand.
They all left, except for Bryntana, who sat back in her seat and watched them leave. "I knew it was only a short crush."
"What was?"
"The thing my tail had going with Jacob.
"You mean a fleeting interest, a dalliance, a passing infatuation?"
"Exactly."
Alex said nothing, opting to point at something behind her. She turned and saw her tail watching the door longingly as if its best friend had just walked out. She hung her head in her hands and wept, "Plark!"
###
Jacob led the way to the ship while Tayla continued to hold onto his arm. On the way, he used his comm to contact Quint and Charlie and arranged for the pair to meet the rest of the recon team at the ship at dawn. When he finished, he looked over at Dr. Gray and said, "I hope you don't mind, but I arranged to have an unused stateroom made up for you aboard the Valera. We'll figure out permanent quarters for you after the recon mission." He gave his sister a knowing wink, which earned him another hairy eyeball.
"Captain, why was Bryntana's tail watching you the whole time we were meeting with her and Alex?"
Neither of them noticed Tayla's eyes growing wide. "It was?" she squeaked out.
"Yes, the whole night. I ask because I am interested in possibly modeling the next set of BORIS manipulators after an elf's tail. They seem so much more... Tayla, are you all right?" Joshua asked as she began choking.
She finally stopped and looked at her brother in disbelief. "How many elves work for you?"
"I don't know what that..."
"Just answer the question."
"Two. Doc and Shelly."
"How long have you known them?"
"Years, but what..."
"And they never talked to you about elf courtship rituals?"
"What?"
She looked over at Joshua and saw him watching her intently. "Please, continue. I find this fascinating," he said
She gave him an embarrassed smile before continuing. "Elves use their tails to show when they have found their true love. The shoulder-thing is the first step in courtship..." She stopped when she saw the look of anger. "What's wrong?"
"I will not be put through that again," he said as he stormed off.
"Shit. Stella strikes again," she replied as they returned to walking.
"Who's Stella?"
"His ex-wife. Their divorce almost broke us. Thank the Creator for Prince Lucien."
A light came on. "Lucien is Harmon Aymar?"
"One and the same. He's had several of those life-altering experiences that most of us only hear of."
Tayla and Joshua walked into the Valera and found the main corridor empty. "Jenna, where's Jacob?"
"He's in the Lounge... Getting drunk. What the hell happened out there?"
"Stella happened."
"Oh."
"I should go talk to him," Tayla said as she started off to join her brother. She stopped at the touch of Joshua's hand on her shoulder.
"Let me," he said.
She frowned at him.
"He and I have something in common."
"He's right," Jenna said, having been briefed on the good doctor's background.
"I know what it's like to be abandoned."
Tayla gave a weak smile while nodding. "Thanks. I hate it when he gets so upset."
Joshua nodded and headed to the lounge, leaving Tayla to wait and worry.
CHAPTER TEN
Joshua walked into the room just as Jacob passed the halfway point in a fifth of Scotch. Saying nothing, he sat down at the end of the bar and watched the captain in silence.
"Did Tayla send you here to talk sense into me, maybe persuade me to start dating again?"
"You read all that in a single glance. Can I get a brain scan from you when this is all over? Your cognitive algorithms could earn me a Nobel Prize."
Jacob stopped and stared at him. "Huh?" he replied, too drunk to comprehend what the engineer just said.
"No, she didn't send me. I volunteered to come in here and check on you. She's worried about her brother.
"You like her, don't you?"
"Damn skippy, which I find surprising."
"Why surprising? Because she isn't human?"
"No, because until I woke up in the Computer Center, I wasn't able to 'like' anyone."
Jacob sat down, hard. "Huh?" he said while pouring another drink. Joshua walked over and took the glass from him and downed it. "Thanks. Did Tayla tell you about my past? My parents disowning me? My aunt raising me?"
"No."
"My parents were wonderful people. Smart, well educated, steeped in tradition, and totally unable to deal with a wayward fifteen year old, so they threw me away."
Jacob just stared.
"From the look on your face and your reaction to Bryntana, I'd bet Stella did as much emotional damage to you as my parents did to me. My aunt saw this and she took steps to repair that damage. Unfortunately, those steps didn't take until I died and was resurrected."
"What did she do?"
"She introduced me to Sensei."
"Sensei? Didn't he have a name?"
"Probably, though I was never told what it was. He was of Eastern descent and about a thousand years old, though he could move as if he were the love child of a cobra and the wind. He taught me how to defend from and use a hundred different weapons while showing me how to make better use of my mi
nd. The only thing he failed at teaching me was how to stop letting my parents continue to hurt me," he said as he tapped the side of his head. "Your sister did that, somehow."
With furrowed brow, Jacob corked the bottle before replacing it on the shelf. He poured two coffees instead and slid one over to Joshua. "Go on."
"Every time I met someone, I recoiled, worried they would abandon me. Auntie tried to help me, doctors tried to help me, and Sensei tried to help me, but they all failed. Though I haven't seen my parents in almost twenty years, they still found a way to hurt me. I let them hurt me. I let them rule my emotional life."
"And Tayla changed this?"
Joshua shrugged. "Yep. Maybe I'm part elf."
"Maybe I should stop letting Stella hurt me?"
Another shrug. "It's up to you. For all you know, I could be full of wild blueberries."
Jacob smirked. "Thanks. Get some sleep," he smiled as he walked out of the room.
Tayla walked in moments later, her astonishment readily apparent. "He kissed the top of my head and tousled my hair. He hasn't done that since we were kids. What the hell did you say to him?"
"I just pointed out the obvious. You know, the sky is blue, the stars are bright, you're beautiful, things that can be readily seen if one is looking at them."
She tilted her head while her eyes sparkled. "You think I'm pretty?"
"No, I think you're beautiful. Flowers are pretty. Plasma streamers in a fluorescent tube are pretty. You're definitely beautiful. Big difference."
She walked over and kissed him.
He kissed her back, then pulled away.
"What's wrong? Didn't you like it?"
"No, I loved the kiss."
"Then what's going on?"
"Who and what the hell am I?"
That got a frown out her. "You're Dr. Joshua Gray, a human from Earth..."
"Am I? Joshua Gray died over two hundred years ago in a cavern underneath the Nevada desert. I assume an autopsy was performed before his body--my body--was cremated and the ashes spread across a landscape inhabited by snakes, lizards, and an assortment of mammals. My other body is lying in a hole thirty miles from here. Yet here I am, talking to a beautiful woman who was born on a planet light-years from Earth. Go figure."
She smiled when he said "Beautiful woman," then yawned. "Forgive me, but it has been a long day."
