by Reiter
“Shit! Didn’t see that coming!”
“Too damn busy listening to the sound of your own voice!” Jocasta huffed as she jumped up, clicked her heels together, and landed on the woman’s chest. She could hear bones break and she felt the chest cavity give. “How’s that for commitment?!” she spat before taking back her cane.
“No way was that skank really me,” Jocasta whispered, walking away from the body. “She talked too damn much! Now… where the hell am I?” Jocasta asked as she looked around. Aside from the mound of dirt she was standing on, all she could see were stars. In the very far distance, she could see the buckboard pulling away from her. “Where am I?!”
“Screwed, if you thought that pussy-tap was going to finish me off!” Jocasta started to turn, swinging her cane. As soon as she heard a boot grind against the dirt, she stopped her feint and spun in the opposite direction, squatting low and extending her right leg. She swept the feet of her twin out from under her. Just after the copy’s back met with the ground, Jocasta clubbed it across the temple with her cane. Jocasta paused for a moment and clubbed the copy a second, third, and fourth time.
“I think that should just about do it, for the moment.” At the sound of the voice, Jocasta looked up to see an old yellow-skinned man approaching her with his hands up, signaling surrender. “Perhaps a moment is all you are going to need.”
“Nugar?!” she exclaimed, placing the voice but not the body. “What happened to you?”
Looking down on himself, Nugar laughed in realization. “Oh, yes, it completely slipped my mind to assume my Terran disguise. Surely Dungias has told you of the Vinthur.”
“He’s mentioned them a time or two.”
“This is what they look like,” Nugar explained. “I assumed you had enough to deal with during your training. Seeing another alien would have only made things worse.”
“Right, because getting beat downs from the same race makes it hurt not so much,” Jocasta pointed out.
“Good point, child.”
“Are you part of this dream?”
“First, this is not a dream. It is a vision, granted to you by the Stars. The woman in the tent has lifted your consciousness to the Celestial Chorus, and they are speaking to you, telling you what they see in your life… in your many lives.
“Second, I am not a part of the things to come,” Nugar explained. “I am here because I felt you here. I sensed strong stirrings from both you and Dungi.”
“Yeah, well things have been pretty lively since we touched down on Gulmurr. But relative to this ride, it’s pretty lame. Can the Chorus change its tune?! This is some pretty wonky stuff, Nugie!”
“Well, the language is not easily received by your mind,” Nugar stated. “It is, after all, the first time you have heard it. Some very important things are being said here… by them... and by you!”
“So I’m down… among the stars… for all eternity… as saying ‘pretty wonky stuff’?!” Jocasta sighed in frustration, looking around and walking to the edge of the mound. She looked down into what first appeared to be mirrored glass, but the loose dirt kicked up by her walking struck the surface and created ripples, letting her know that it was water she was gazing at. “Wonderful,” she muttered.
“Jocasta, what do you expect?” Nugar asked, sounding a bit frustrated himself.
“Help me!” she shouted.
“That would be cheating!”
Jocasta turned away from the water with a twisted frown on her face. “Nugar, take a good look. I’m a cheater! If the teacher doesn’t want me to cheat, they better not take their eyes off of me! And where you see a cheater, I see someone who’s challenging the reason for the rules. How fair is it that I have to decipher what the freakin’ stars are telling me right off the bat?! You’d figure if they wanted to make sure their message was getting through loud and clear…” Jocasta looked at Nugar and started to point at him. “They’d send a translator!”
Nugar stood there for a moment, rubbing his chin. “Sleep!” he said and Jocasta whipped around to see her twin fall to the ground fast asleep.
“Wow, that bitch can take an ass-whoopin’!”
“Yes, it would seem that someone went and set quite an example for her,” Nugar commented as he concluded his deliberations. “Very well, you have made a very fine and strong point. That, plus the fact I believe if Dungi were here, he would have answered your inquiry already... I suppose that makes my decision a very easy one to make.
“Right then!” Nugar started, taking a step toward Jocasta and pointing at the stars with his left hand. “The first thing you should know is the scope the Stars believe your life can touch. That is demonstrated by the environment in which you find yourself.”
“Nugar, we’re in the middle of space here. I can see…” Jocasta looked around and her eyes quickly found each of the twelve boundary markers separating the Outer Rim from the Middle Rim and the same that separated the Middle Rim from the Inner Rim. Her view, however, extended well beyond that. “I can see the entire Rims!”
“That you can,” Nugar agreed. “And be sure to check over your right shoulder… there, in the distance.”
“What is that?”
“That would be the two systems which comprise your Z’s homeworld,” Nugar stated.
“Something I’m going to do is going to affect all of this?!”
“The Stars believe you have the potential to do so, yes,” Nugar answered as he looked around. He would have to commune with this ‘old witch’ of a woman. Her touch with the Stars was unique and quite alluring. He had her essence and could find her again, if he were pressed to do so. That was the sort of thing a Traveler did. “And let me make one thing perfectly clear...
“Sleep, damn you!” Nugar commanded and Jocasta could feel a surge of energy coming off the man as it struck the head and chest of her duplicate. This time she was blown back and knocked out. “Where was I?”
“You were about to make something clear,” Jocasta replied.
“I suppose I was,” Nugar agreed. “Everyone has the potential to affect everything in their world. The Stars, however, are guided by likelihood and circumstance. Some dockworker in the Terran Triangle has the potential to reach out this far, but a few things, that not even the Stars can see, would have to happen first.” Nugar folded his arms and smiled at the stars. “Your chances, it seems, are not so remote.”
“This is all kinds of crazy!” Jocasta spoke softly, as if she were afraid the stars in her vision might hear her.
“My dear, you are beginning to take shape on many levels; the physical being only one of them. But that is all we have time for here and now. We’ve thrown a sizeable pebble into the pond, and the ripples are beginning to reach those whose eyes you do not need upon you right now.”
“So when do I get my answers?!”
“Have my so-called student teach you of the Stars,” Nugar said as he began to fade.
“Wonderful!” she muttered.
“Return to this place and we will trek it together.”
“I certainly don’t want to do this alone!” Jocasta said softly, turning back away from the shores and running into her First Mate.
“That is good to hear, Captain,” Dungias said and Jocasta’s eyes opened to see that her First Mate had a hold of her hand. She quickly turned around in time to see Nulaki entering the tent that was at least forty meters away in the distance. “Did you enjoy your vision, Captain?”
“Wasn’t that kind of trip, Z,” she replied. “The good news is that it didn’t rattle me. Not too much anyway. Are we all set to hit the trail?”
“As soon as the woman is done with us,” Dungias replied. “Or do you wish to–”
Jocasta waved her hand, dismissing his question, as she walked toward the caballions. They were well-rested and Jocasta thought her time would be best-served picking one to ride. She smiled when the only white one moved to greet her.
Nulaki was second into the tent. After he emerged, look
ing as if he was sleep-walking, each of her crew entered the strange woman’s tent. It was only then that Jocasta realized that she had not gotten the woman’s name. She smiled and giggled, knowing it was unlikely she was going to get it.
One by one, their names were called out by Dungias. After each one was summoned, Jocasta called out their pirate name. Dugger managed to keep his own handle, but he had to be escorted into the tent. Pristacia actually managed a smile when she heard the name Princess. Llaz was surprised but pleased to hear the Captain simply repeat his name after Dungias called him to the tent.
“So, why do I get to keep my name?” he asked as he made his way to the tent.
“Because the others need a name to be cool,” Jocasta answered him directly, showing him that she had considered the inquiry before he had been given a chance to make it. “… you don’t. And keep it that way!”
“Aye-aye, Captain!” Like the others, he entered the tent with a youthful face… unlike all the rest, he left the tent in the very same fashion.
“What gives, man?” Olkin asked. “She didn’t say anything… or do anything… to weird you out?”
“I’m following orders, Cupid. Relax!” Llaz answered. Jocasta laughed as she turned away and put her hand over her mouth.
It was unclear whether Thomasine was happy or not. The weight of what she had been told was too great for her to react to the shortening of her name to just Thom. She walked, without saying anything to anyone, and made preparations for her journey back to Oasis City. She left without saying a word.
Adleon was the last to go before Dungias, though Jocasta did not say anything after his name was called. That answered many unspoken questions. The young Gallant took the longest, as well as being the only one who made noises that everyone else could hear. Those gathered outside the tent heard everything from singing, to crying, to cackling, to cursing the woman. Having had their own encounter with a new definition of weird, no one said anything, and Dungias was called into the tent to carry the young man out.
When it was at last time for Dungias to enter, he turned to his Captain and said he would catch up. He had changed into gray robes and sandals, his things were folded and stacked near his chosen mount. Giving no argument, Jocasta gave the signal for everyone to get ready to move out.
“I know it’s rolling around in your heads,” Jocasta spoke to her group as she mounted her caballion. Nulaki stood with a gaped mouth as he had been about to warn her that the white male was one of the two the thief believed had not yet been broken. While still looking quite spirited, the mount moved only in the direction Jocasta guided him. “Or should I say, it’s rolling around in mine. But I think the woman set up a tent for a reason. You want to volunteer what was said or experienced, that’s your business. But no one will levy inquiries. That’s off limits and out of bounds. Not even a clever hint will be tolerated. Am I understood?”
“Yes sir,” the lot of them barked in response.
“I appreciate that, Captain,” the woman said and everyone turned to see the strange woman, still devastatingly handsome of form, standing on the sand. “This is the way you wish to go… for now. When I said ‘this changes things’, I meant… well, let’s just say I added something to your jacket pocket. It can only be used once, so make sure you mean to use it.”
“What is it?”
“Something that goes along with that passion of yours,” the woman replied. “Something that goes along with it perfectly. When you feel least like yourself and know you have to be more than yourself, drink it and hold on! But for now, off you go. Your Conadier will know when to turn to take the direction he requires. It’s a good thing you have more mounts. You’re going to need them, and the wagon.
“Can’t help with the rations though,” the woman added as she smiled. “That’s not my thing.” Jocasta chuckled as she watched the woman pull the hood up over her head and turn.
“Is she going to leave her tent?” Pristacia asked.
“What tent?” Jocasta countered without looking back. She gently kicked her mount and started forward. “I’ve got point with Cupid.” Hearing his name, Olkin ran to a mount and started off after Jocasta.
“How did she know?” Pristacia whispered as she looked back to see that the tent was gone and only a kneeling Dungias remained.
“There’s no telling what that woman had to show the Captain,” Mel said as he took to the wagon. There was no sense in him using his chair when both buckboards were available. “As if she wasn’t spooky enough already!”
“Which ‘she’ do you mean?!” Silnee asked, getting to her mount.
Smoke rolled off his shoulders and back as he took his time standing up. Nothing remained of the clothes he had worn inside the tent, but his skin was clean, almost glistening in the sun. Alpha had chosen to render itself invisible. It did not care to share its current format with the others. Once again, time had been twisted and stretched for Dungias to where it was inconsistent.
“Are you ready, Master?” Alpha inquired. Now that it had been taken apart and reassembled, certain improvements had been made. Speech with Z’Gunok Tel Dungias was one such upgrade.
“Yes, Alpha, I am ready.” Dungias stood up and started to make his way to the second buckboard. “How are you… feeling?”
“Thank you for asking, Master. I am… Alpha.”
It is the presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of man is tested.
James Russell Lowell
(Rims Time: XII-4201.30)
For four days the group traveled southeast, though more easterly than southerly. On the second day they found a watering source; on the third they found food. Olkin and Dungias had proven to be commendable hunters; they had gathered enough game to last the group a week. On the fifth day they lost a caballion to sandskrat; very fast-moving and cunning predators that flourished in the deserts on the planet Gulmurr. They were also fair game, so the loss was not too great. On the seventh day, they came to hardened ground and a trail a blind man could have found. They could see the passing of several heavy carts pulled by hooved creatures, and plenty of men walking. It was either an army, a caravan, or Slavers. The party could have taken a different route but Jocasta looked to Nulaki who said nothing as he asked the Traveler to follow the trail. After tracking it for hours, the party had taken advantage of an incline that led to an overlook. There they had discovered the tracks had been made by a combination of all three options.
“Do you think the sand witch sent–”
“The what?” Jocasta interrupted Silnee. “Did you say what I thought you said?”
“That’s what we’re calling her, the Sand Witch.”
“Now say that title really fast, Tolip,” Jocasta requested.
“Sandwitch,” Silnee said, finally hearing herself. As her face fell blank, Mel and Olkin started cackling. Jocasta herself had to look away to keep from laughing in the woman’s face. But she was quick to compose herself and then look back at Silnee.
“Tolip, try Desert Witch from now on, okay?” Silnee nodded and slapped Olkin’s shoulder as Annsura let out a snort. “You were saying?”
“Oh yeah. I was wondering if the Desert Witch sent us out here to save those slaves.”
“Well if so, it sucks to have her ambition,” Jocasta said as she started to ease back from the hilltop that was the group’s viewing perch. “Being weirded out by that woman doesn’t make me her errand girl.”
“There are two immediate arguments to the contrary, Captain.” Dungias said softly and Jocasta’s chin fell to her chest.
“I didn’t even get a meter this time,” she sighed. Taking a deep breath, Jocasta returned to her place. “All right, Z. I’m all ears.”
“Well, the first is that Nulaki has said nothing about changing course,” Dungias explained, “but the second is more along your lines of solid reasoning.”
“That being?”
“I’ve marked the coordinates and relayed them to all goggles.” Everyon
e looked at the northernmost point of the encampment and spied an unattended cart, nearly over-flowing with collected materials. Everyone looked. Ephaliun, confused as to what the First Mate was talking about, looked at Nulaki who quickly shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m just as much in the dark on this one as you, kid,” Nulaki said. “But I gotta tell you, I am so loving these teachable moments!”
“Aah, damn!” Jocasta said in disgust after looking at the designated area.
“So those two just live in their own private world, don’t they?” Olkin asked. “And we’re just allowed to ride along for the fun of it?”
“Quit trying to act like you’re complaining,” Mel snapped. “The coordinates read to that catch cart. All kinds of stuff in there, but the cart has solid panels and Z didn’t give any view alteration instructions. The Captain didn’t change from telescopic either, so whatever it is must be in view already.” Jocasta stopped for a moment, looked at Mel and then up to Dungias who was waiting patiently for the one called Tank to work it out.
“But there’s nothing but weapons belts,” Pristacia claimed. “I can see a backpack… even a shoulder bag.”
“It’s the symbols,” Annsura stated. “I don’t know what it means, but I’m pretty sure they see something on one of those belt buckles.”
“One of them is an officer’s belt,” Llaz stated. “An IA Officer’s issue, I think. But it looks like it’s been charred up a bit.”
“That’s called blackening,” Jocasta said, after seeing the look of approval on Dungias’ face. “Mercs do it… but pirates are better known for it. Anyone who’s tangled with an IA Combat Officer and come out the other side with their gear is either really good, really lucky, or a combination of the two; the sort of combo that might turn out to be a boon to our ranks.” Jocasta sighed, looking at her First Mate. “And I did say we needed more crew, didn’t I?”
