by Power, P. S.
For a long time, no one reacted, until a blond boy, who wasn't Kent, but looked similar, if a foot taller, spoke.
"Is that real, or... Part of training?" Then he looked at Petra, who scowled at him, and David, who looked away. He got the idea that calling Dareg a liar might not go well, but Dare got it.
"It sounds insane, I know. So, what we're going to do is go and see the Allies fleet. Now. Let me get that arranged. I'll call it in. One bit."
He pulled his focus stone handheld, and put in Hess manually, spelling it out. The device picked up almost instantly.
"Dareg? Have you need of this one?"
"I do, Hess. Can I bring a group of people to see your fleet, without scaring anyone? Just a group of fighting students, who need to know that this is all real. Um, these..." He held the device out, so everyone would be visible to the alien. There were nearly twenty of them in all.
The alien, sounding pleased, spoke in very good Standard, loud enough for them all to hear.
"We can have a meal, or host them for a time?"
Dareg shook his head.
"Not needed for these people. Some of them will be working with you, but later. This trip is just to get them used to the idea that you're all real. I just don't want anyone to be scared. So, you're on Planet Ship Seven?"
"Yes! When will you be arriving?"
"Ten minutes? Then we'll stay for ten or so, and come back here. I think this is a school day." He looked around, and Kent, who had come to stand beside him, nodded.
"That's true, um, sir?" He sounded hopeful, and Hess laughed, getting him to wince, thinking it was hostile, since it showed a lot more teeth than was normal for a living thing.
Hess sounded pleased however.
"Most of your kind can't tell if a Ysidril is male or female. That is a very good guess. I am male. We tend to be slightly smaller than the women, and have narrower faces. It's very clear to me, but the poor Forten never get it right."
Dareg bowed a bit to the alien.
"We probably won't do better. Is it all right to ask, or would that give offense?"
"Oh, asking is always welcome. About anything."
He nodded then.
"Good. We'll try to hold to the same rule with you and yours. So, we'll be there, gawk rudely for ten minutes, then be gone. I'll make the ship glow... Um... green? Your ships do that. Is that all right?"
"Perfect. I will arrange with the others, so they know not to fear the arrival. It was pleasant speaking with you, Dareg. Again, soon?"
"Yes. You can call on me at any time." As long as he wasn't being beaten, of course.
He didn't mention that however, having a sense that Hess would actually worry about him. The others too, even if he didn't know them.
They said goodbye, quickly, but politely, and Dareg set his craft up. Petra, looked around, and then waved at David.
"Can you stay in case the next class comes while we're gone?"
There was a simple nod.
"Got it. Pells and stones."
Then the Instructor yelled.
"Move! Onto the craft. Don't ask questions, this isn't a pleasure trip. Pay attention and don't speak unless spoken to. Go!" She ran into the craft, as Dareg was still making it large, setting it up. The others followed her, moving just as fast.
Dare went in last, at a jog, and climbed into the pilot's seat. Looking back, he waved at the tall thin girl, who had to be Wendra. She looked scared.
She still came up to him, and didn't speak as he gestured to the seat next to him.
"All right, I'm going to talk through this. This is the control bobble. From here we can go straight up, which is done just by pulling it. The higher you go, the faster it happens. Like this."
Then he walked her through the jump, describing how he did it. Teaching her how to do it right, from the start.
Ending near Planet Ship Seven, making the side of the craft clear, which got a response from about half the people. Then, they didn't all have shields, he realized. Taking them there without them was against the rules of space.
Still, he let them look at the vista, with people pointing rudely, and climbing up on the seats, while leaning on each other to press near, or against the side.
At nine minutes and thirty seconds, he left, taking them back to Earth rapidly, making the whole thing happen in about five minutes, not have complicated landing protocols to follow. As soon as he landed, he waved people off.
"There, tell everyone else. We can't let fear rule us. We have friends and we can fight. Some of you have handhelds?" That got a nod, from two people, ones that he didn't know by name. "Good. Get in touch with me if you need me outside of practice. I need to go and get some things now. Can I borrow... Um, Wendra? For the day?"
Petra didn't snicker at him wanting to take the girl away. She looked to be about sixteen and was fine enough, even without makeup, or disguise. Her skin was tan, and clear, and her eyes a deep blue color that was striking.
"Return her before class tomorrow?" Petra sounded very matter of fact about the whole thing, as if him stealing students was a sensible course for the day.
"Yes. Can she borrow a shield?"
Petra nodded, and jogged over to a low table picking up an amulet. On the return, working past the others who were still getting off the craft, she passed it over.
"That's space worthy. A Tim-two. So don't try flying from the Moon with it. You'll die."
Wendra nodded, still not speaking. No one had yet, other than while they pointed and exclaimed. The tall thin girl just slipped the thing over her head, and settled into the front passenger's seat.
He went over how to work the craft again, then went up about ten thousand feet, and came to a standstill, just letting go of the control bobble.
"All right, trade me places. Remember, if you let go, the whole thing will just stop. You can't hit anything up here."
"Um... Is that all right?"
It was a strange thing to say, but he nodded.
"This is my craft, so yes. Go ahead. It's fun."
She did it, nervously, and wasn't perfect by any means, but did manage to fly around, and land about twenty times, and then learned to jump, moving around the Earth, going to different cities, based on his description. He sort of lied to her, letting the tall girl think that everyone could do that kind of thing easily. Like it was the first thing everyone learned, and more simple than docking even.
For that they needed to go to the Moon however, or find a ship or space station. He didn't know anyone on one of those however, so described Harmony, and had her imagine coming into lunar orbit, a good way off.
She froze then and looked at him strangely.
"Isn't that really hard to do?"
"What? Go to Harmony? No. Not even a little bit. Now, when we get there, the landing will have to be done really carefully, but we'll do that by going very slow. That's expected. Just recall, let go and you'll freeze in place."
She did it in one jump, because that was all she'd practiced, and came in a bit closer than he would have liked, but she'd found a city. It was the other one, Second City, which got him to smile.
"Close! You'll want to come in a bit further back, next time. Also, that's the wrong city... We want, let's see... Back behind us? That way? We can just fly over. I can see you picking this one however. It's pretty isn't it?" There were glowing emerald spires, and lights all over the surface. Harmony was boring on the outside, not having a large above ground section at all.
Turning the craft, she spoke, her voice soft.
"It really is wonderful. Thank you. Um... Why did you pick me?" She was, oddly, flirting with him a bit, as if that were his intent, rather than the fact that she'd run away rather than beat him earlier. Making herself look bad, rather than harm a beaten opponent even more. That seemed kind to him. She wasn't a coward, after all. She'd fought well, when they'd gone against the others together.
"Why not you? Here, see that green glowing wall? That's for us. They'll try
to match the color of the ship you're in. Right now we're a pale green. Remember you can't go too slow, and people will only mock you for hitting things, not taking forever to get in. This isn't a race and they will scream, if you take less than twenty minutes."
She did go faster than that, and had a few false starts, needed to stop and reset several times. Then he had to walk her through how to connect with the glowing red tube that was the airlock, when it pushed against the side of the craft. She nearly dumped all the air, by mistake, but Dare slapped the side and saved it all. It would be a pain to have to make more of it.
"Careful!" He smiled at her, since she looked half panicked, which was the best thing that could happen. "If you lose air here, or do anything to cause it, you have to work to replace it all, yourself. Even if it takes months to do. No one is immune to that, either. Now, we need to get along to the magic shop here and pick some things up. This way. The ship will be safe here."
The girl nodded and moved along with him, taking his hand when they got to the end of the tunnel. It was a bit strange, but not unpleasant. She was probably a bit nervous, and wanted to cling to the one person there she knew.
They walked off into Harmony, and she gawked a bit as they did it. They were both in student brown still, and his had splotches of darker brown, from blood, and looked messy, but he cycled his so it would look nicer. She didn't, not having magical clothing. So that they'd match, he kept to the same look that she had. It was fine, and they weren't the only two in the main walkway dressed in a very similar manner.
Apparently kids on the Moon wore brown tunics and trousers to school, too. That meant they were able to blend in, for the most part. By the time they got to the magic shop they were being watched, and followed, by ten or so people holding up handhelds.
"Prince Dareg! Over here!" This came from a woman that had bright green hair, and a ring piercing her lip. She was wearing a flowing dress however, and while plump, had a nice enough figure under that.
Other than that, he knew nothing about her, and nearly scowled, but realized that she was either recording the memory of seeing him, or was sharing it with others, right then. He'd been on camera for a week straight, so realized what it could mean.
"Hello!" He waved, and smiled. That got everyone to come over, not just the one woman that had spoken. Several of them started asking questions, in loud voices that carried and probably annoyed the innocent passers-by.
"Is this your girlfriend?" This came from the same curvy lady.
That was a hard question he realized. He was holding Wendra's hand, which did look close, so he could see that as being a valid thing to ask. If he said no, then it might insult the girl however, saying she wasn't good enough. If he said yes, that would be presumptive.
So he shrugged, copying Tor.
"We only met a few hours ago. We came to see if we can get some shields and handhelds for her classmates, on Earth. It's for a work project, which might help Harmony, so it could pay off. I was just going to go and beg, inside. You probably don't want to see that."
Those words got most of the people to move closer, with a few actually barring his way, using their bodies.
Then a man, dressed in all black, pushed in, with a floating camera rig, the new magical kind, right next to him.
"Are you cheating on The Revered One of Mars?"
Dareg tilted his head, and worked out what that meant. It was implying he was dating, or having sex with, someone other than Karina. The thing there was that no one would think that, back home. So he said that.
"What? That's an Austran thing, right? We can each date whomever we like, of course. Or both date the same person. Different rules, for different places." He smiled, but didn't really mean it. Then he spun in place pulling poor Wendra around with him. "Now, clear the door, please?"
They all had shields, so pushing wouldn't work, so he tried charm instead, and winked at the ones in the way. They moved, if slowly, letting them get inside. Thankfully no one stopped them, or followed them inside.
Behind the front counter, helpfully enough, were two people. One looked to be a ten year old girl, who was restocking a small display with amulets, a thing that set on the smooth stone surface. The other one was a tall brunette woman who had on a nice black outfit that looked like silk, and had silver buttons.
His Aunt, Patricia.
"Dare! You found a friend? Good. I was worried for a bit there, spending all that time alone. What can I do for you today? I... Have you come to stay? We have a spare room you two can use." There was a singsong lit to her voice, half playing, and half curious.
"Nothing like that. We've come to try and liberate some magic. We're trying to start a group to, um..." The honest thing there was that he didn't really know the answer. So he made something up. "Really, I want to put some people in with the incoming fleet. Openly, and part time, but kids might be less threatening than adult fighters or ambassadors."
There was a pause, then a nod from Patricia.
"That's probably a good plan, if you can pull it off. I heard that Tor and Sam went in, with Sara, but not what else happened. Do you know about that? I hate being kept out of the loop."
Dare did know about that, but tilted his head, and held his hand out.
"Do you have your handheld on you?" That got her to nod, and make a face that was, he thought, considering rather than annoyed.
She pulled it out from under the counter, and slid it over.
"Need to make a call?"
"Sort of. Let me see here... I bugged Hess once today..." This time he got in touch with Leslie, since he was there when her name was put in.
She answered quickly, and didn't sound tired, which was nice to know. At least part of the fleet day overlapped with Harmony time then.
"Misdial?" She looked out at him, her sharp face questioning. Not that he understood what the query was.
"Leslie? I'm Dareg. We met the other day? You might not remember me."
"Of course I do. The pushy one!" Her voice was happy about that, so he nodded.
"That's right. I wanted to introduce you to my aunt. Patricia Baker. She'd like an update on what's going on there, and I figured that going to the top would be faster. Oh... I want to put some people with the fleet there? To observe you. Openly though. Kids. Fighters, but good people. I'm training one of them to run jump ships, so she should be ready as soon as we can get her a craft to make the trips back and forth. I have to beg Timon for that, I think, directly. Feel free to assign them various tasks, and put them in harm's way as needed. Within reason. I mean, we have to return them when their done."
"Oh? That's an idea. How many do we get?"
He counted in his head, then shrugged.
"Up to seven, in three sections. I'd also like for some of the Ysidril to come here. Possibly going to Austra? They're our people that have technology still, and that might be more comfortable for the newcomers to take. They're horribly nosey, but other than that not bad people."
"Hmmm. That will take some work on my side. We have to fear infiltration. Can you bring them in with food units? That and some of your lights, at least for them. We live in the light out here, and that's iron clad. It might be superstition, but there's a thought that being in the light protects us from the darkness. We have... Well, legends."
"I can do that. Lights, food. We can bring in water, and rock for working material. You'll want mentors for them on your side. We can do the same here, if you want to send a team? Not that you don't already have spies, but that isn't the same thing. Learning without worrying about being caught or killed has to be easier."
"A score. Right. Let me talk to this aunt of yours?"
"Here. She's fairly important, but I need to loot her magic shop, so keep her busy for at least ten minutes?"
"Agreed. Starting... Now?"
"Now." It was cute, in a way, but he had a strange feeling that Leslie was dead serious about doing her best that way.
Patricia answered the device with
a smile.
"Ha. The shop is free, and he already asked for what was needed. Leslie? This is Patricia Baker. Ancient, which is our term for long lived, not old. I'm in one of the power structures here. We kind of... Influence the rest of it, behind the scenes? So, I have need of data, and oddly enough, all my best sources are either sleeping or working and can't be disturbed..."
Dareg got a bag amulet and tapped it, then went to the largest section the store had, over by the door. Shields. Everyone on the Moon had one. Some had four or five, in case they had to hand them out. Dareg filled a pocket with them openly, since he had a ship, and then loaded thirty into the bottom of the bag. They were class two shields, from what the sign above them said. Probably in four languages, though he only understood two of them. Standard and Austran Standard, which had some spelling differences, but was understandable.
Then he picked through things, and got sundries for everyone. That didn't provide any big, or even Tiera made food units, and the nicest ones weren't available in the store. There were some that claimed to be good enough for home use, but the sign admitted weren't restaurant quality. The small girl scampered over and waved at them.
"Those are fine. Everyone wants the ones Queen Tiera makes, but these make lots of stuff, and it's good. Hundreds of meals. You can't make your own, that's all. You just hit a sigil and get the food." Her voice was high pitched, and held a strange accent, but was easily understandable.
"Thanks. I..." He was about to lie, but then decided that keeping secrets wasn't his job, unless it was mentioned to him. "I need to outfit over twenty people, maybe more, so they can live on their own, very far away. So food, water, ways to keep warm or cool, shields..."
