Voyage of the Dawn Rider

Chapter 7

Voyage of the Dawn Rider 5.

We were able to catch a lift back to our ship saving us the trouble of carrying everything on our backs. Not long after we returned, the commissary people showed up and assisted us in stowing all the groceries. It was getting rather late when we finally finished up getting everything squared away. Rather than wait to get into space, I asked Garet if he could brief us on our mission while we ate supper, besides air traffic had picked up, so I thought a later start would work out better. While we dined on Potsie pies Garet presented his briefing. "I'll try and keep this on target, and to the point captain," stated Garet, "Based on updated research, on Garian II, we believe the ogres were genetically modified Goks. Not only that, careful research leads us to believe that one or more race or races unknown is responsible. Furthermore, we believe there is a strong possibility that these efforts continue, our mission is to locate where this might be taking place and if possible the race responsible." Immediately, I asked a question, "Are we supposed to destroy a whole civilization by ourselves?" "No captain," said Garet, "I have been given codes to transmit over the stellar com. Shortly after we leave, a special hyperspace beacon will be launched to trail us, it is equipped with it's own cloaking mechanism to shield it from any potentially hostile forces. It is designed to pick up our coded transmissions and re-transmit them to our naval fleet utilizing wango waves. They will deal with anything we can't or feel ill prepared to handle." While I "digested" this information Elansa spoke up, Tell us more about these Goks and their mutation to ogres."

"Good question," said Garet. "While Gok and Ogre physiology are different, both their Genetic fingerprints are so close it simply cannot be a coincidence. Extensive testing has revealed that Gok DNA structure was modified with totally dissimilar genes, genes I might add are not found in any species on this planet. The fact that the Gok seem to have no "History," such as we do or the faerie. For example, you no doubt being a Faerie witch have knowledge of the Faerie folk, as well as we elves going back a thousand cycles, the Gok have no such memories, it's as if someone "stole" their past, they have no written records as well. We also have other clinical evidence as well most is of a technical nature, however when all this was presented to queen Tianna, her advisors, queen Kolee, and King Furgas, all agreed the evidence was overwhelming, hence this expedition."

Magiere then asked a question of her own, "If all this is true, what evidence do you have that leads you to believe somebody might be doing this again ?" "Another good question, Lieutenant," replied Garet. "The last war with the Ogres was a little over two hundred and fifty cycles ago, in the great scheme of things, and certainly when you're "breeding" mutants in any numbers, that's not a very long time. At this point we can only speculate, it may be that who ever is doing this has only just now realized their efforts have failed, and are now trying again. The thing that concerns our rulers and their advisors is that whoever is behind this has realized their failure, and has taken steps to create something even worse. As to this, we have evidence that there have been "abductions" on Garian II over the past few cycles. Pyrra has not escaped these trepidations either. In fact, they have accused us of kidnapping their people, Magiere, your mother has had a team of high level investigators, myself being one of them looking into this. I can assure you there have been some rather touchy dealings going on with those people, they're extremely paranoid always worrying that simply because we have the edge in technology we're taking advantage of them." Garet took a sip of wine then looked at me and matter-of-factly said, "Captain, you can now open your sealed orders, and one of the first things you will need to do is set a course for Pyrra we will be taking on one more passenger…A Doctor Morgan Dall, apparently he's their leading expert on human physiology and forensic medicine. I've dealt with him, and for a human he's quite refreshing, very open minded, simply fascinated by the Faerie folk, Elansa, and no doubt you too Nessa, be prepared to be hounded with incessant questions. Be nice, be polite, he is a good man, we felt that he may be able to supply answers to some of our questions." I looked at Elansa who was frowning, and judging from the flittering, little Nessa was agitated as well. I then asked another question, "Garet, although I'm sure my orders will say, but can you tell us where we'll be heading after we pick this guy up on Pyrra?" "Although Isseth as a nation has done considerable deep space exploration, we've only just begun to touch the outer galaxies, telemetry suggests a distant galaxy in a general line of travel from Garian II would be the best choice to start. We're talking approximately twenty light years away, that's why our hyper light drive will be so essential." Magiere then asked the last question, "About this human, can he speak elfish?" "Yes he can, princess, he speaks it very well in fact, I was quite surprised when I first met him." "One more thing Garet, if you ever call me that again, I wring your scrawny Dark Elf neck," growled Magiere. Taken aback, Garet stammered, "Y-y-ye-e-ess…Lieutenant." Up until this point Spanner had been staring at Magiere, and her anger at being called "princess" confused him. "Now let me get this straight…Er Lieutenant, your mother is the queen right?" "Correct!" "Then that makes you a princess and legal heir to the throne, correct?" Magiere paused as if she wasn't sure if she should answer that, "Possibly?" Spanner laughed, "Possibly? There's no "Possibly" about it you're the next queen of Karenta, and even though I'm from Dros Del Noch and Furgas Trueblood is my king, I've nothing but deep respect for your mother. I was very saddened when your father died, I know that he and king Furgas were very close and your father's untimely death still bothers him." Magiere looked at Spanner for a moment, then touched his arm. "Thank you Spanner, I'm deeply touched."

Taking a deep sigh, Magiere continued, "At this point whether I become queen is still open for debate, Anything could happen on this voyage, I may never return, and to be quite honest, I'm not even sure I want to be queen, none of you have any idea of what that job is doing and has done to my mother. She never wanted to be queen, Oh sure, she enjoyed the social life, the state dinners, schmoozing with other dignitaries, the occasional ribbon cuttings that sort of thing." Then looking straight at Elansa, she said, "If it hadn't been for Bivale I think the job would have made her a basket case. Queen Kolee was her "rock" she stepped in and offered her unconditional help and support, and for that, I can never thank her enough, and even though Tianna is my mother and Karenta my home and country, I would do anything for Bivale and by extension Mythal. This is my confliction however I bear it proudly. As for becoming queen…Who can say? Right now I still trying to come to grips with my inner demons, and figure out where I want to go in life, so you see dear Spanner, you ask a very complicated question, who knows, perhaps by the end of this voyage, if I'm still alive I might have a proper answer for you." Spanner seemed more confused that ever, but accepted her explanation for now. I leaned back in my chair and tried to find flaws in this whole scheme but for the time being, really couldn't. "So the whole navy will be standing by awaiting our signal to come and shatter somebody's world?" I asked. "No," replied, Garet, "Only two battle star groups, but that should be enough." I certainly hoped he was right.

We finally received clearance to leave, so with everybody settled in and ready to go, I turned to Magiere and gave the command. "If you're quite ready Lieutenant, the helm is your's, get us out of here, let's see what kind of trouble we can get into." Magiere went into action, getting us airborne in record time, setting course for Pyrra.. Just a quick note for those unfamiliar with life aboard a spacecraft. Because it's important to maintain our body "clocks" a "day" on a typical starship is broken down into a twenty-five hour period just as it is on Isseth. Morning, afternoon, evening and night, even though it's always "night" out side in space. We also follow the standard 25 hour naval clock, at times it can be rather confusing, especially to civilians, but it works. It was during our "night" period Magiere had turned in for a few hours of sleep, I was alone at the helm when I caught the fluttering of Pixie wings out of the corner of my eye. "Can't sleep either, eh Nessa ?" A tiny voice in my head replied, "We don't sleep much, really." I tapped the consol between my seat and the pilot's. ""Have a seat Nessa, I could use the company." Nessa hovered a bit more as if trying to make up her mind as to what she wanted to do, then settled down onto the consol. I watched as the tiny creature sat on a control knob making a perfect seat. Although all I had to do was to think of whatever I wanted to say to her, actually speaking seemed more natural. "You know Nessa, I've been thinking about something you could help with." "So what?" "Am I correct in understanding that Pixie's have an extraordinary sense of visual detection?" I could see her looking up at me, "We do." "Once we get into deep space, and traveling near asteroid belts, large meteors space junk and the like, enemy craft can utilize these areas to hide in, they can ambush us from places like these. Our scanners and Q band radar will always pick them up even for only a split second, but it will always catch a hidden ship. Unfortunately that ship is always moving in some degree or another. There will always be a blip, but our eyes often times can't pick up that blip fast enough. This is where you come in Nessa, I'd like you to pay very close attention to that scanner screen whenever I'm concerned about enemies lying in wait. I'll have Spanner rig up a little Bo 'suns seat in front of the screen for you so, what do you say?"

Nessa seemed to contemplate my offer, then that little "voice" in my head said. "This is real, it's on the level?" "Absolutely," I said, "being able to spot that split second blip on the screen could mean all the difference, it's a very serious responsibility I'm asking you to take on. If you accept my offer I will take your sightings with all seriousness." More silence, then, "You would actually take me seriously?" "Absolutely Nessa, you have a natural talent and skill, why shouldn't I take advantage of that?" "I'm honored," came the reply. "Don't sell yourself short Nessa," I observed, "You may be small but you have talents and skills I have a hunch we may be able to use, so just settle in and be part of the crew." Suddenly Nessa flittered up towards my face and I felt something touch my skin, she had kissed me. "Thank you," came the tiny voice. I smiled at her, "You're quite welcome.

Garet gave us a briefing on the humans, Magiere had been briefly to Pyrra once, on a diplomatic mission but said she really didn't have any time to "sightsee" Elansa and Nessa were skeptical of this race although Elansa made some comments that led me to believe she had something up her sleeve. Spanner was curious, about them because humans were reputed to be quite inventive and possessing an inherent mechanical ability, never mind the fact that as a race, they were way behind the curve. Since Pyrra had no flight capabilities other than airships propelled along by crude engines powered by various means. Tinker town was the capitol, and we were currently making our descent to a large field out side of town it being their equivalent of "Star City" Just before we popped the hatch, I reminded everyone, "Just remember to be nice, be polite, personal rancor won't be tolerated, is that understood? I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard a tiny snicker in my head.

When we stepped out there was a huge crowd to greet us it was very unsettling, "Now I know what your mother must go through every time she passes through some village." "Oh she enjoys this sort of thing," replied Magiere, "It's one of the few things she does enjoy about the job." It looked to us that some sort of uniformed authority was keeping the crowd of onlookers back, on a whim, I waved, causing a roar of approval, "Well at least they didn't want to kill us," I thought. Garet stood by in case there was any translating to be done, but then a motor vehicle drove up and two men got out. Judging from his appearance, the taller man was no doubt Dr. Dall but the younger man following him I wasn't sure of.