by F. E. Arliss
Daer could see that her Tatulan, who was called by the name Orlar, was quite curious to see for himself what they were describing. Via the translation pad, he relayed to the surface that he would take Daer to surveil the underwater area they believed was involved. He ordered, as far as Daer could tell, the surface group be flown by the landmass station. Queen Altum Juls agreed.
Daer tried to explain that she didn’t have sufficient air in her breather left, but the Elder simply folded her gracefully into his chest and created a large air bubble around her head using the six- inch-long slits on his throat that appeared to function as gills. He then turned and jetted through the water as though he was sailing on air. It was marvelous!
Daer laughed with joy and she felt Orlar squeeze her gently in return. As they neared the coordinates for the algae lab, Orlar slowed and began to use a series of gnarled coral embankments to shield his movements. All variety of strange creatures slid in and out of the multitude of crevasses and holes that proliferated in the coral’s mass of showy colors and shapes. Daer was so entranced that Orlar had to gently redirect her eyes as they approached their target. Slowly rounding the end of one large mass of fan-like coral, Orlar let them settle gently to the bottom and they stood together staring at the green slime that they could see growing in long tubes that hung from a central hub.
Catwalks emanated from the hub. From each catwalk a series of tubes dangled on cables that could be retracted or lowered at will. Orlar translated to her that while there was nothing noxious about the algae, it was not compatible with its surroundings and would eventually kill some of the more tender life forms in the coral reefs. It must be eradicated to preserve the balance on Mirage .
Daer sent that message to Blue and then, stealthily, she and Orlar retreated to the rendezvous point. Once again, Daer enjoyed the swim back and Orlar did some spectacular spins and flips that had her giggling with glee.
This time, Orlar agreed to surface. As his fellow Elders pulled him onto the floating ramp of the hovercraft to meet Queen Altum Juls, Digger helped Daer out of the water. She was limp with happiness and simply slid to the floor in his arms grinning idiotically. She was unaware that the following few minutes were consumed with discussing her positive impact on Orlar and her enjoyment of the water.
The Tatulans were a non-warring people and the evidence of abuses that they’d now witnessed with their own eyes had shaken them to the core. Something had to be done.
Slowly Queen Altum Juls laid out her plan. To the Tatulans what she proposed seemed impossible in its execution. Sasha Kelty assured them it was indeed within the great Queen’s grasp. They retreated hastily to the water to discuss it, suddenly terrified and tremendously worried.
Daer rested happily against Digger’s chest, the strain of the situation completely oblivious to her. She was still in a coma of wonder from her sojourn with Orlar. It was only when Queen Altum Juls and Sasha knelt in front of her that she became aware of the silence.
“What’s up?” she asked, sitting up abruptly and almost removing Digger’s chin with her skull.
“The Tatulans are scared and want reassurance that when I remove the lab, algae, and prisoner habitat from their planet, they and their world will receive no harm,” Queen Altum Juls stated calmly. “They would like you to stay here with them while it is done. Underwater, with Orlar.”
“She will not be used as a hostage,” Digger exclaimed angrily, scowling at the Queen.
Daer patted his arm, “I don’t mind. I love it down there. I’m sure all will be well. If this earns their trust, I am all good with it. You should come too!” she exclaimed, tugging on Digger’s arm. “It is so unbelievably beautiful.” Daer aimed excited eyes at her lover’s grumpy expression. “Oh, come on! It will be fantastic!” she begged.
“Fine. I go if you go,” he said firmly, continuing to glare at Queen Altum Juls. “You better deliver, my Queen,” he added grumpily, then added dryly, “Not that I doubt your powers.”
Queen Altum Juls simply stood up and belly laughed. “You two are so good for us near-immortals. Nothing puts you off from saying what you think. It is delightfully refreshing.”
Orlar and another Tatulan surfaced. Daer, minus breather and flippers, simply slipped into the water alongside them. Quickly, she had Blue translate to them that Digger was her love interest and that he would be happy to accompany them to see the wonders she had spoken of. Clearly, this was a relief and a pleasure to the two Tatulans. Orlar seemed to turn a deeper shade of pale green in happiness. Reassured, Digger slipped into the water too and was instantly buoyed up by his swim partner, Darser, who it turned out, was Orlar’s wife. The two sets of Tatulans and Earthers slid below the surface and were gone.
Queen Altum Juls stood in the middle of the platform for the next fifteen minutes and searched out every bit of Evelson Corporation corruption that infected the planet of Mirage. With a few waves of her long pale hands, she removed it all. It was done.
When Daer and Digger were returned to the hovercraft’s ramp, they were both delighted at the opportunity they’d been given. Even Digger enthusiastically thanked Darser several times.
A flurry of translations flew back and forth between Queen Atlum Juls, Sasha Kelty and the Tatulan Elders. It seemed that Daer had not needed Orlar’s attempt to generate an air bubble for her to breathe in. She had been oblivious to the fact that she was generating her own small bubbles in the water. Not even Digger had noticed. He’d simply thought the smaller bubbles she was exhaling had been of Orlar’s doing.
Once settled into a position to actually listen to Sasha and Queen Altum Juls, they gently broke the news to her. “Whaaaat?” Daer asked slowly. Digger caught on first.
“I wondered why your air bubbles were smaller than the one Darser and I had around us,” he said hesitantly. “Wow, babe, no wonder you’re a first class swimmer. This ability probably saved your life during that explosion on Gateca!” Hugging her close, he added, “Thank God for that Idolum learning helmet thingy. I’m assuming that’s what saved her life?” Digger sent that question winging towards Queen Altum Juls. “This is her Idolum power, isn’t it?”
The tall Queen simply nodded. “I believe so. The gift manifested itself after her experience with the helmet onboard the Centurion. She’s a water child. That is her gift.”
Daer had sat silently till now taking it all in. “So you’re telling me that I can breathe underwater?”
“Yes,” the Queen said easily, as though a human breathing underwater was no big deal.
“Oh, my God!” Daer shrieked and then startled them all by leaping in a graceful backwards arc into the sea. A few seconds later she broke water in an enormous upward pirouette that splashed them all with sea water. Digger started laughing.
Then suddenly all of them were hugging each other and laughing together, Tatulan and human, Idolum and Renegade, in a happy expression of joy. It was good to see an Idolum gift that gave such complete satisfaction to its recipient, Queen Altum Juls thought cheerfully. She and Princess Arc Exousia Quirke had been a bit more reticent about how their gifts made them feel.
Later when Daer had flipped back onto the pontoon after a couple of wildly enthusiastic rounds of jumps and spins with Orlar and Darser, she asked, “Does this mean I’m an Idolum? Or just an Idolum-compatible human?”
“I believe this means that the helmet gave you a few Idolum genes to enhance your learning experience on the Centurion. So you’re a bit Idolum, though still mainly human,” the Queen explained. “That helmet can be a sneaky piece of work,” she added, glaring at a studiously innocent-looking General Monsav.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Idolum Extension
When the Talio landed on Renegar, it was to a huge party already in motion. The crew was met with music, food, and a lot of patting and hugging. General Apollo was still there, to no one’s surprise, and the Princess seemed less antagonistic towards him. Occasionally she even smiled at him. Sasha’s grandmother, Dolore
s, was looking quite smug.
As was Princess Arc Exousia’s father, Ewan Quirke, who had arrived aboard another Clyde. That one, however, was clearly visible and sat near the front of the huge cavern where a flower-crowned Viking, Dag Hammarskjold, the Clyde’s First Mate, was painting a strange hippo-like creature’s toenails a glowingly-neon shade of orange. Blue shrieked with joy and ran towards them, his synthetic body almost royal blue in his excitement.
Over the next few hours everyone talked excitedly and celebrated wildly. They’d done well. And more than that, they’d discovered a world full of kind beings and great resources. They’d made an ally world. It was monumental.
The following morning, Moira and Tally Quirke approached the towering figure of General Apollo as he stood chatting with his mother, Queen Altum Juls. Moira Quirke indicated an empty space at her side and Tally did likewise. The General lifted one eyebrow, then exhaled, “Ahhhh, you’ve decided to opt for the Idolum forms for your husband and son, I take it?”
A hush fell over the breakfast area where every ear was straining towards this momentous conversation.
“Yes! We’d like to get ourselves back in a body if we can. It gets old just ogling my wife and not bein’ able to hug that good lookin’ bit a woman,” came Dermott Quirke’s raspy voice. “Can ya’ do it or not, General?”
“I can,” the General entoned dryly. “You will however, be an Idolum warrior in appearance. You must accept that,” he added gravely.
“Yeah, yeah, me an’ General Monsav have had a good chin-wag about that and Tate and me are all good,” Dermott Quirke said firmly. “We’re gonna’ file our teeth down straight though,” he added with a chuckle. “Those shark jaws a’ yours are sure enough off-puttin’,” he added.
General Apollo and his mother both laughed. “I do like my husband, General Freux’s smile,” the Queen added with a wink. “It’s a good choice for you,” she grinned and hugged Moira Quirke. “Tate will be quite the lady bait with one of those killer Idolum smiles,” she said smiling at the young man’s vague outline.
“Let’s get it done,” Tally begged, “I want to hug my brother and dad.”
“Very well. We leave for Geboren today,” the General said. “Ready the Lance and load the Clyde.3 in the cargo bay,” he barked at one of his nearby Lieutenants. “Come, let us go.” With that, the crew of the Clyde.3, General Apollo and his mother, Queen Altum Juls, prepared to depart. After a round of well wishing and hugs, they were gone.
Three weeks later, they returned. Daer and Digger, along with Blue, Sasha, Caja, Princess Arc Exousia, Dag, Ewan Quirke, and the rest of the Alliance members stood just inside the cavern’s sheltering shade and waited with baited breath for the Clyde.3 to settle. The Clyde.3 had returned alone, leaving the Queen and General Apollo to return to their nests.
When the dust swirled in a wild eddy and finally started to settle, the ramp opened enough to see the inside of the cargo hauler’s bay. Four people stood there. Two tall Idolum warriors with long white hair each stood next to a short human woman. Slowly the group walked down the ramp and approached the cavern.
Daer, unable to contain herself, winked at Dag and Blue and together they started a series of crescendoing cat-calls. Whistles rang through the cavern and all four of the Quirkes of the Clyde.3 broke into laughter. It certainly broke the ice and there were demands for descriptions of the process and of course, a modeling of the newly filed teeth.
Tate Quirke seemed quite vain about his long hair and perfect teeth. Tally wasn’t going to let him off easy about that. She wanted to know if the Bollywood smile came with the ability to dance better. Sasha cranked up the music so they could all see. Dag and Blue urged him on and with his newly elongated body, it was a bit of a learning curve, over which, his sister laughed long and hard.
Dermott Quirke and his wife retreated quickly to the privacy of the Clyde. They had some catching up to do, the no longer grizzled Commander said with a quick pat to his wife’s bottom. Moira turned a bright tomato-red, but clasped the tall warrior’s hand and dragged him off after her.
The following days were filled with plans for the future and discussions about what was best for each family and the Alliance.
Life-changing arrangements began to be made. Daer and Digger would return to Mirage. They would be joined by a colony of Idolum who had no home world. General Sauvage was their leader and their nest would use the plains at the base of the mountains for their habitat. Their warriors would be the watchful arm of the Alliance to protect the planet.
Digger would set up a mining expedition to see what minerals were available to the Tatulans as an Intergalactic currency. He would be joined by Voc, the mine troll, and Alfie Woodard. Voc, being permanently stunted after his isolation and lack of nutrients on Gem 8, felt that his diminished size would be a disadvantage and maybe even a cause for abuse if he returned to his own kind. Plus, well...Digger would need his help with the mines.
Alfie Woodard wanted to start his own transport company on Mirage and would round up a couple of his hover-cab pals to join him. Mostly they would haul freight from the Clyde.3 that would now be using Mirage as a home base and be attached to General Sauvage’s nest as their liaison for haulage to the known worlds.
Blue was even now registering Mirage in the Intergalactic Databases, complete with registered Officials. Digger would be the Governor and Daer the Assistant Governor of Mirage.
Digger would eventually invite his friend, Randy Orsman, and his fiance, Penni Pippen, to join them. Randy, as an engineer, would be in charge of the mining colony. Penni would develop new cuisines from the planet’s resources.
Daer would soon be joined by Liv Braut, who would help her develop a security force that they could integrate with the Idolum nest.
Life would turn out to be very, very good on Mirage.
Even poor little Jeffrey, the Tadswam from Tadsgate, would be allowed to bring his colony and kinsmen here. The habitat that the Evelsons had been making had been left standing by Queen Altum Juls. This time Sasha made him swear on his kinsmen’s lives not to betray her. Both of them had joy shining in their eyes when it was done.
Mirage was a whole new world. Daer couldn’t wait to get in the water and explore all the new wonders and species she never imagined she’d see. All of them had many adventures awaiting them on this new and unknown world.
The End
For Sasha Kelty’s story go to Amazon at
Renegade Redhead
by F.E. Arliss
Link: http://a.co/9Q8rRy2
For Queen Altum Juls’ story go to Amazon at
Alien Queen
by F.E. Arliss
Link: http://a.co/5tqpUDI
For Princess Arc Exousia Quirke’s story go to
The Chronicles of Clyde: Unaffiliated
by F.E. Arliss
Link: http://a.co/bSLti4S
