“Jeehana,” said Sergeant Ron, having lost his grin. “Are you all right? You look, uh…distracted.”
“Distracted?” Jeena said, succeeding in smiling this time. “Maybe so, but I am not so distracted as to avoid greeting my friends.” She bowed at the waist. “I greet you, friend Ron, friend Charlie, friend Comstar, and friend Red Wing. I am glad to see you all again. I only wish it were under less stressful circumstances.”
Comstar returned Jeena’s bow. “The days of peace will return one day, High Priestess. Until then, we must do what needs to be done.”
“Yes,” hissed Red Wing as she spread her bat-wings. “We have much to be done.”
“Yeah,” said Sergeant Ron, getting his grin back. “That’s the big question, isn’t it? What needs to be done? You were a little light on specifics back in the library, Jeehana. I’m not one for sitting around on my rear end when things are waiting to happen. I’d appreciate it if you’d give me a destination. I’m anxious to get started.”
Jeena nodded. “As am I, but we must wait a moment longer. We have an addition for your crew before we leave. Brachia and Dren promised to have her teleported here shortly.”
“Who’s coming?” asked Sergeant Ron. “I don’t remember asking for reinforcements. I’m the captain of this bucket of bolts, and no one gets assigned to my crew un—”
A shimmering in the air to Jeena’s right gave the Defiant’s captain his answer. When the shimmering stopped, a gray-skinned, lizard-looking, four-armed Sterilian appeared.
“Stella!” said Sergeant Ron. “By golly, if I’d known you were the one coming, I’d have baked a cake or something.” He grinned. “As it is, you’ll have to make do with some rehydrated worms for supper. Until then, we’ve got things to do and places to go.”
“Welcome, Wizard Scout Stella,” Jeena said. With a sly look on her face, she turned to look up the ramp. “What do you think, Charlie? She looks very pretty today, does she not?”
Stella snorted and bared her teeth.
“Uh, yes,” hissed Charlie. The chest skin visible through his half-zipped gray utility suit turned noticeably darker. “Nice teeth. Very sharp.”
Sergeant Ron laughed and slapped Charlie on the back. “I always did say you had a way with the opposite sex, old buddy.” He gave the others a grin. “Hard to believe he’s still single.”
Jeena turned back to face Stella. “I hope my request for you to be part of the Defiant’s crew did not come at an inconvenient time.”
Stella bared her teeth again. “Not inconvenient. Killing mostly over. I bored anyway.”
“Well,” Jeena said, “I doubt you will be bored for long.”
Sergeant Ron gave the Sterilian wizard scout a grin. “That’s for sure. Now before we get started, is there anything you want to say to Charlie after his compliment?”
Stella wasn’t wearing her battle helmet. The skin around her cheeks grew a darker gray. “Uh…hello, Charlie. You have nice skin. Good bumps.”
Sergeant Ron and Jeena broke out laughing. Red Wing joined in with a loud hiss of her own.
Once the laughter died down, Jeena faced the Defiant’s captain. “We are all here now, so it is time to get started. I need you to take us to Portalis, two million years in the past.”
Sergeant Ron whistled. “Two million, huh? That’s what I call some time traveling.”
* * *
With the war between the Crosioians and the Empire over except for a few rogue commanders on each side, Sergeant Ron chose to take the Defiant to Earth in the physical dimension first. Since Earth and Portalis were sister planets, they occupied the same space in the physical and magic dimensions with only the void between dimensions separating them.
The many stars, black holes, and other obstacles in the galaxy prevented them from opening up the Crosioians’ intergalactic drive to anything near full intergalactic speed. As a result, it took the Defiant almost a day and a half to make the trek to Earth. During that time, the routine of the ship kept everyone busy. Sergeant Ron ran a tight ship, and as far as he was concerned, there was no such thing as a passenger on his ship. Everyone had something to do, even Jeena, Stella, and Red Wing.
With little to break the routine, the crew took it upon themselves to create situations that forced Charlie and Stella together. It wasn’t easy. It seemed everyone but the two Sterilians knew they were meant for each other. Eventually, their natural shyness with the opposite sex of their species wore away and they began spending more time together on their own. By the end of the second day, it was becoming more common to see the two humanoid lizards slurping worms together at the mess table or walking down the stairs with two of their four hands linked.
Jeena thought the blossoming romance was cute. They are Rick’s friends and mine too. They deserve a little happiness. I hope they take advantage of the time they have to be together while they can. At any moment, they could be separated like Rick and— No, I will not think of it. We will be back together soon. I am sure of it. We just have to get the Defiant to Portalis and do our mission.
It was the afternoon of the second day before they began their approach to Earth. The day found Jeena in the cockpit of the Defiant with Sergeant Ron. He was flying, and she was acting as navigator.
“No, you’ve plotted our course wrong,” said Sergeant Ron as he punched a series of icons on the control panel embedded in the armrest of his pilot’s chair. “You have to compensate for the intergalactic drive’s effect on the physical plane. It gets its speed by weaving the physical plane into the void just enough to slip from one point in the physical part of the galaxy to another. I’ll admit it’s a little tricky due to the skipping of points. I suppose you could think of it like drawing a course made out of dotted lines. You made the mistake of trying to plot a solid line.” He finished moving icons on his control panel and looked over at Jeena. Sporting a grin, he said, “Didn’t they teach you nothing at that fancy high priestess school of yours?”
Jeena tried to relax. Sergeant Ron was a friend, but he was a stickler when it came to his ship. The stress of learning about things she hadn’t even known existed only a few months before was almost more than she could handle. She gritted her teeth and replotted the course while taking the intergalactic-drive’s effect on the physical dimension and void into consideration. She sent the new course to the Defiant’s captain.
“How’s that?” she asked.
“Not bad,” replied Sergeant Ron after glancing at the new course. He punched a couple of icons on his armrest. Two of the numbers on the navigation screen located on the cockpit’s forward console changed slightly. “Of course, this would be a lot better.” He winked. “I think you forgot to account for a few dots.”
Before Jeena could reply, one of the four Crosioian technicians the supreme leader had assigned to the Defiant hissed from the control station for the intergalactic-drive that had been installed in the back of the cockpit. A second Crosioian standing behind the first hissed back in what Jeena knew was the bat’s form of laughter.
“All right,” said Sergeant Ron. “What’s so stinking funny? How about speaking intergalactic standard so we can all have a good laugh?”
The second Crosioian walked behind Sergeant Ron and reached a paw over his shoulder to touch two icons on the navigation panel. The numbers changed slightly. The Crosioian hissed. The translator attached to her belt crackled. “We were merely commenting, Captain, on how your adjusted course was going to take us through a supernova.” The Crosioian hissed a laugh. “We think you forgot a couple of dots yourself. The high priestess’s course would have taken longer, but the ship would have been safe. Your shorter course would have gotten us killed.”
Sergeant Ron stared at the navigation console for several seconds. To his credit, he didn’t try to make excuses; at least not too many. “Well, fine. You’re right, and I was wrong.” He glanced at the Crosioian. “We were just doing practice routes, so no harm done. And how many times do I have to tell you not to ca
ll me captain. I keep telling you I’m a sergeant. I work for a living.”
“As you say…Captain,” said the Crosioian, twitching her ears at her companion and hissing again.
The second Crosioian returned the hiss.
Jeena tried to smother a laugh of her own but failed miserably.
A loud beep from the navigator’s console prevented Sergeant Ron from making a comment of his own.
“That is the destination alarm,” Jeena said, punching the icons on the armrest of her copilot’s chair that would start the sequence for shifting out of the void, into the physical dimension. “We will be coming out of hyperspace in five, four, three, two, one.”
The recon ship shuddered, and the blacked-out windscreen of the cockpit changed to reveal Earth highlighted against a backdrop of stars.
Jeena drew in a deep breath. “Rick’s home world is almost as beautiful as Portalis.”
“It’s my home world too,” said Sergeant Ron. “And you’re right. She is beautiful. I get butterflies in my stomach every time I see her.”
A flash of light orbiting the planet caught Jeena’s attention. “That must be the UGA’s space station where the triplets are located. Are you planning on docking, Sergeant Ron?”
An image of the small, three headed-dragon her bondmate had found as an egg on one of the Dragars’ mining asteroids popped into her head. Unlike the blue, yellow, and red-headed dragon guarding the gate under New Drepdenor, the triplets had green, purple, and orange heads. The triplets were one of the rare dragon species that could create gates capable of transporting others between dimensions and times. The equally rare New Drepdenor species of three-headed dragons were the opposite in that they were able to guard dimensional gates to prevent them from being used. Just like the Tree of Light guards the gate in the cavern we call the Presence of the Lady back in Silverton, she thought.
Sergeant Ron scratched his beard. “Naw, I wasn’t planning on docking. The triplets can teleport us to our destination straight from here. Margery, have you passed on to that three-headed dragon of Rick’s the place and time Jeehana gave you?”
The cockpit’s intercom crackled. “Need you ask?” said Margery. “Of course I did. I am in contact with the space station now. The triplets say the optimum window for going back two million years in time is in fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, the station commander is requesting we hold our position. She is sending a tug out to meet us with a special delivery from the planet Storage.”
“A special delivery?” said Sergeant Ron. “From Storage, you say?” He glanced over at Jeena and winked. “By any chance did you order a pizza?”
The external speaker on Jeena’s ring crackled. “A pizza is a—”
“I know what a pizza is, Danny,” Jeena said. “You do not need to explain. Rick introduced that flat bread loaded down with cheese and meat to me weeks ago when he got hungry in the middle of the night.” She looked at Sergeant Ron. “But I did not order—”
Sergeant Ron laughed. “I swear you’re as naive as Rick when it comes to subtlety sometimes, Jeehana. I was just making a joke.”
“Oh. Yes. I see. Very funny, I’m sure.”
A blast of blue ion energy from the direction of the space station caught Jeena’s attention.
“A space tug is on an intercept course,” said Margery. “Should I notify Charlie to meet it at the docking bay?”
Hitting the autopilot icon on the pilot’s dash, Sergeant Ron said, “Yeah, you do that. Tell him I’m on my way. I’d like to see what this special delivery is in person.” He unstrapped and rose from his chair. “You coming, Jeehana?”
Jeena was unstrapped and up in two seconds flat. She followed Sergeant Ron out of the cockpit and down the steps to the dining area. The youngest of the ship’s gnomes, Kester, was sitting at the metal mess table playing a game of holo-chess with the dwarf Stovis. From the strained look on the potbellied dwarf’s face, he was losing.
As Sergeant Ron passed Kester, he reached over the young gnome’s shoulder and moved the black queen to a position near the white king. “Check and mate,” said Sergeant Ron. “I always liked this game.”
Stovis rose out of his seat and shook a fist at the Defiant’s captain. “Hey. What’d you go and do that for? Kester didn’t see that move. Now I owe him a full-course steak dinner when we get back to Trecor.”
Sergeant Ron laughed. “That’ll teach you to gamble on my ship. Now why don’t the two of you grab your weapons and follow Jeehana and me to the cargo bay. We’ve got company coming.”
Stovis’s face brightened as he picked up a two-headed axe leaning against the table. “Now you’re talking. I was getting bored beating this gnome anyway.”
“Beating me?” sputtered Kester “Why you potbellied gem-hunter. I’ve already beat you three games in a row, and you owe me more than one steak dinner, so don’t try to pactar out of it.”
Sergeant Ron wasted no more time on the squabbling pair as he beelined for the stairs leading to the lower levels of the ship. Jeena stayed hard on his heels. Fast as they were, both Kester and Stovis caught up with them just as they reached the cargo bay.
Charlie and Stella were already in the bay along with Daniel, Liz’s younger brother who helped Charlie maintain the ship. The rear ramp was down with the magnetic force field activated. A small space tug was visible against the star-studded emptiness of space. A yellow tractor beam shooting out from the rear of the tug was connected to a hover-car-sized container.
“That’s a mighty big pizza,” said Sergeant Ron. He turned to Charlie. “Do we have room for it in here?”
“We make room if important,” said Charlie.
Without waiting for instructions, Daniel put Stella, Sergeant Ron, and Jeena to work shoving containers of magic ammunition and other supplies stacked in the cargo bay over to the back hull. Although he was barely in his teens, Jeena had soon learned that the boy’s orders were law when it came to the cargo bay. To Sergeant Ron’s credit, he didn’t balk at being ordered around by the young boy. By the time the tug finished backing the towed container through the bay’s magnetic field, the center of the cargo area was clear enough to receive the special shipment.
“Do you know what it is?” Jeena asked Danny, keeping the question in her mind.
“Negative,” said Danny. “Neither Margery nor I am connected to the full tele-network. I calculate ‘the One’ is still keeping us partially isolated to reduce the odds of the rest of the computers on the tele-network being emotionally contaminated. I also calculate that is a losing battle. Rick has interacted with too many computers over the past few years. The genie is out of the bottle, as Nickelo might say.”
Resigned to wait with the others to see what was in the container, Jeena was joined by Stovis and Kester. After the newly arrived cargo was secured in place with loading straps, she walked close enough to the vehicle-sized metal box to notice a bunch of wavy black lines on one side of the container. She drew Power from her reserve and said a one-word translation spell Rick had helped her create. The wavy lines immediately came into focus, and Jeena knew their meaning.
“The box contains tele-bots,” said Jeena out loud. “It says they are a hybrid type developed by the UGA’s magi-techs in conjunction with the Conglomerate’s R&D division.” She looked at a number next to the word EACH, then turned to Sergeant Ron. “Am I reading the amount right?”
“If’n you’re seeing two billion, then you’re reading it right,” said Sergeant Ron, scratching his beard even harder than usual. “The only question is why do we need two billion tele-bots?” He pointed at two small figures in spacesuits making their way from the tug to the bay’s ramp. “I’m guessing whoever they are can tell us.”
Ten seconds later, the two figures were through the magnetic field and removing their helmets.
Jeena recognized the curly hair of the smallest of the two figures right away. “Brachia.”
Rick’s adoptive nephew grinned and waved. Unabashedly, he ran up and wrapped hi
s arms around Jeena, giving her a big hug.
After hugging him back, she took a closer look at the second figure. It was her bondmate’s adoptive niece, Dren. “What are the two of you doing here? I thought you were both staying on Storage.”
Dren didn’t give Jeena a hug, but she did give her a big smile.
Both she and her brother had become Jeena’s friends before the high priestess had even known they were related to Richard. It warmed Jeena’s heart to see the two of them again. They were the smartest people she’d ever met. She’d actually half considered adopting them once, when they’d been stranded on Portalis.
“We were on Storage,” replied Dren. “That is, we were until ‘the One’ requested that we come here with the tele-bots to give you all a hand.” She laughed. “I don’t think he, she, or it, trusts Sergeant Ron to use them correctly. They’re prototype models. Brachia and I helped the Conglomerate and UGA develop them. I think you’re going to like what they can do.”
“Yeah,” said Brachia. “Besides, Uncle Rick asked us to bring you something. Or to be more specific, he asked us to let you know that she was coming.”
That confused Jeena. “Rick did? Who is this she you are talking about? You are not exactly being specific.” She looked from Brachia to his sister and then back at the young boy. “For that matter, when did Rick tell you this? He did not say anything about sending me anything before ‘the One’ teleported him out.”
Brachia scratched his head. “Hmmm. You’re asking me when? That’s a good question. It came from the Oracle to ‘the One’ and then on to us. I suppose the concept of when is relative. For instance, do you mean when we got the message, or when Uncle Rick sent it? Uncle Rick’s fourteen thousand years in the past now. That means to correctly define the word when, we would need to correlate the answer using Rombinaries’s theory of spatial time comparison. In other words, we—”
Dren smacked her brother on top of the head with the flat of her left hand. “Too much info, little brother. I’ve warned you about that. Let me take it from here.” She turned to Jeena. “Rick sent her to us when we were still on Storage. She was on the shuttle with us but left just before we docked with the Defiant. I think she wants us to explain things a little before she comes onboard so she won’t scare anyone.”
Wizard Gigantic (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 9) Page 13
