Voyage of the Dawn Rider

Chapter 8

Voyage of the Dawn Rider 6.

Magiere, Dr. Leah and I stood near the entrance to the ramp as the man I assumed to be Dr. Dall trudged up the incline carrying a suitcase, as well as what appeared to be a leather bag of some kind, he also wore a sort of backpack weighing himself down. The younger man continued to approach lugging everything but the kitchen sink, as Dr. Leah greeted the human, I stepped forward to block the other man. "Oh I'm sorry captain," said Dr. Dall as he saw me attempt to stop the man following him. "That's my son Keith he'll be accompanying me on this voyage." "I'm sorry Dr.," I said, " I wasn't aware there were to be any others beside yourself." His son then spoke up in a irritated tone of voice," "I'm sorry sir, my father suffered a stroke a couple months ago and has been feeling under the weather, I'm here as his assistant, as you can tell I speak fluent elvish, I'm familiar with all my fathers work and besides I'm a crack shot but I'll tell you more later." Dr. Leah was helping Dr. Dall with his luggage, I turned to his son and said, "You say your father recently suffered a stroke, then why is he being forced to carry all that baggage?" Dr. Dall must have heard me as he cheerfully spoke up, "It's all right captain, I insisted, Keith persists in "babying" me but I feel fine, I've always carried my own weight." I shook my head, "But doctor, I wasn't prepared for another passenger, the food rations were set for only six, your son is going to get mighty hungry, not to mention the sleeping arrangements, there's only single beds in each cabin." "Not to worry captain," said Keith, just a sec." With that he dashed down the ramp and as I closely watched grabbed two bags as what obviously was a soldier helped him throw a military style backpack on, he also shouldered what could be a gun case as he galloped up the ramp. I had to hand it to this kid he was a regular packhorse. As he approached me for the second time, Magiere stepped in front of him. Apparently he hadn't noticed her the first time, however this time she stood right in front of him "I believe the captain said there was only room for six young man," in a very sultry voice. Since we elves don't blush I can only assume that his face turning a bright red meant that he must have had his fly open or something. I've heard that there are some men who pay gorgeous prostitutes to do to them what I witnessed Magiere do to this kid. He just stood there red as a running light, both feet in his mouth stammering like an i***t. "OK Maggie, turn it off," I thought she was certainly getting her money's worth with this behavior.

I couldn't bear to witness anymore so I intervened, "All right Lieutenant, we've wasted enough time, let's get out of here." Magiere smirked at me with a sly little grin as she turned and swayed her hips back to the bridge. Spanner brought up the ramp, and closed the air tight doors. I waited patiently as Dr. Dall's son slowly regained his composure. In the meantime his father returned, coming to his defense, "I'm afraid captain I must have my son with me, in case something happens to me, this is too important to risk to just one man, Keith is a second Lieutenant in our glorious army, he's a sniper, so is used to hardship." Apparently his son was still recovering from the devastating attack Magiere launched on him, "That I am," he squeaked. "Listen son," I said, "this is a rather compact ship, the cabins are quite…Small, so unless you're planning on sleeping in the "head" you're going to be out of luck." It was then Spanner came to the rescue, "Captain, there's a place back near the engine room he can rack in, come on son, I'll show you to you're "new home."

I headed up to the bridge to check on Magiere, and receive our "guests," Sitting down in my chair, I grinned at Magiere and said, "You're a cruel and wicked woman, Lieutenant, I've a good mind to tell your mother." She shrugged, and said, "Sorry Captain it's my nature, I couldn't help myself." I started to say something when we heard a loud yelp down towards the head. "Now what?" I said out loud. It was obvious the voice was the Dall boy. I now heard excited chatter between Keith, his father and Elansa. I sighed, and said to no one in particular, "I'll be back. When I reached the head, I noticed Nessa fluttering near the ceiling again a very red-faced young man pointing at her Elansa grim faced, leaning against the bulkhead, her arms crossed, and dear old dad simply staring up at Nessa. "What's the problem here," I asked. This time young Dall had found his voice, "I was sitting on the pot when I looked over and …That! Was sitting on the sink just looking at me." It was all I could do to keep from bursting out in laughter. "So what's the problem son," I asked, "Have you never seen a Pixie before, or just not used to having a good looking woman watch as you do your business, by the way that's Nessa, Nessa, this is Keith Dall, the doctor's son, now you two play nice, I've got a ship to run." I chuckled to myself as I returned to the bridge. "What was that all about," asked Magiere. I continued to chuckle, "Nessa just upstaged you, she was in the head admiring Keith's manhood." Maguire burst into laughter as we focused our attention on going into hyper drive. Observing Magiere, I saw a determined young woman, she appeared to know her business. "Well, princess," I thought, "So far so good, you've got my vote." We reached energization with no problems, "disappearing" into hyperspace for a long ride to our first stop. Once things had settled down, I called for a general meeting mainly to introduce the humans to my crew, and vice versa, plus go over any details Dr. Dall might want to add. Soon everybody was on the bridge, Nessa was lounging in the little chair Spanner had fixed up for her so she could watch the scanner screen in comfort. "Dr. Dall I'd like you to meet my crew, I believe you've already met my first officer Magiere Starle, who , if you didn't know already is queen Tianna's daughter." Dr. Dall graciously took her hand and gently kissed it "Should I address you as princess or Lieutenant?" "Lieutenant will do, Doctor," replied Magiere. I then continued, This is Spanner Valsung my chief engineer, and Elansa, who is here representing queen Kolee, who is queen of the Faerie folk. Oh and up there is Nessa our "favorite" Pixie, Nessa can't speak, but communicates strictly through telepathy. Doctor Dall greeted them all saying, "To you and all your crew captain, I wish to say how much a thrill it is to actually meet not only you and the Lieutenant here, but the chief, and especially the lovely and gracious Elansa, Oh and you too Nessa! The doctor's face suddenly lit up, "Oh my! I believe she just "spoke" to me," the doctor tipped his hat to Nessa, "You're quite welcome young lady." Keith Dall then stepped up, "I'm sorry sir, we seem to have gotten off to a bad start, I apologize to you as well Lieutenant, I-I-I'm not used to seeing such incredibly beautiful women in uniform, as you may or may not be aware, no females serve in our armed forces, I-I-I'm just not used to being around them that's all." Then looking up at Nessa he said, "I'd like to be friends with you too, I've never seen a Pixie before, much less a faerie, I feel very honored, we've all heard stories about you and even pictures, but to actually meet you in person…Well, it's quite an honor."

He then turned to Spanner, "Sir, I realize we don't have anything remotely approaching a craft such as this, and I couldn't even begin to understand it's operation, but should you require any help in whatever you may require I would be most honored to assist you, I'm very mechanically inclined, I really am, so feel free to put me to the "test." "Thank you son, you're most kind," growled Spanner, "See me down in engineering later, I may just take you up on your offer." I then asked Keith, "Did Spanner find a place for you to bunk?" "Yes sir," "It's where an extra cabin usually goes when they build the civilian version of this ship captain," added Spanner, "At least there's a ventilation duct in there, but that's about it." "That's all right captain," added Keith, "I brought my sleeping bag as well as a sleeping mat, don't worry I'll be fine. Captain?" "Yes?" "Are we really traveling at light speed?" I nodded, "Well over it in fact, probably around four times that, currently we're in hyperspace." "Wow! Absolutely incredible," said Keith shaking his head. Seeing an opportunity, I asked him, "Am I correct in assuming you're a crack shot, and was that a sniper rifle you brought on board?" He smiled and nodded, "I am, and it was, care to see it?" "Most certainly, and if you would Chief, please go get the Ping."

Both men returned with their respective rifles which were laid out on a small table. When Keith saw the Ping, his eyes lit up I allowed him to pick it up, "Those sights automatically adjust and correct hold the sight on your target for a few seconds, and the scope automatically corrects for elevation and windage, as well as actual distance it takes a lot if guess work out of everything, but it allows for fast shots, it's a 7.7 diameter cartridge, when you hit someone, they go down, even Ogres drop with one round, but the recoil takes a little getting used to." Dr. Dall's son looked like a child with a new toy, as he studied it, looked through the optic sight, and worked the action. It had a magazine that contained eight rounds. "It's also got a hair trigger that can be adjusted," I added. Looking at him I thought I detected a bit of shame, for when he opened up the case he brought, he could only show me a bolt action rifle with a simple looking telescopic sight. "We've just developed a new gun powder on Pyrra," said Keith, "this rifle is chambered in what we call 7.62 caliber, I can hit a target at over 900 meters with this." It certainly looked like a very well made rifle, solid walnut stock, the weapons appearance was first rate. Once we had gotten all that out of the way, Keith Dall said, "Sir, you mentioned earlier about being the odd man out in regards to the ships rations and all, however I'm not entirely without resources, one of those bags you saw me lugging contains rations for one man for close to four months, I also plan to forage as I go, my accommodations while Spartan, are adequate, do not judge a book by it's cover, I've been specially trained to operate on my own and live off the land if necessary. I think…I think both of us are in for a few surprises in regards to each's expectations and perhaps, shall we say, preconceived notions of the other."

If I understood him right, doctor Dall's son was letting us all know he was tough as nails, and not to worry, well, on that account we'd have to see, I certainly wasn't going to have time to "baby-sit" and I was pretty sure Magiere wasn't interested in that job either. "Well son, I'm going to take you at your word, from what little I really know about our mission we could really be jumping into a pool of s**t, none of us might come back, the mission is everything, if what my queen as well as others believe, our civilizations survival might just depend on how successful we are, the stakes are high on this one, there will be room for few if any mistakes." "Understood sir, I won't let you down." "Just out of curiosity lieutenant, mind letting me see one of those rations you brought?" "Absolutely sir," replied Dall. "Excuse me, I'll retrieve one." He left to return to his room. While he was gone, I turned to his father, "Doctor, I'm still not clear as to why you're part of this expedition." "I'll be happy to show you the evidence once I get everything unpacked, captain, but we have found evidence, rather strong evidence rather, that indicates Pyrra not only has been but as recently as five years ago has been visited by beings unknown for the purpose of kidnapping our citizens for purposes we can only speculate on. Naturally at first, it was believed that you, and by that I mean people from Isseth were taking our people. Unfortunately many still believe this, however, those in authority know this not to be the case." Opening up his leather briefcase, he removed a file folder and laid a drawing on the table. "That captain is an artists rendition of a witness's description of a being they saw outside their home late at night. The witness was awakened by their dogs barking. Upon investigation, they saw strange lights in the nearby woods, three of these creatures were actually seen, but only one came close enough for the witness to get a good look. It also must be mentioned that the witness's dogs were taken but that no other contact was made."

I looked upon the picture of a slim bodied creature with very large eyes as well as a head. It appeared to be earless as well as having hardly any nose. It didn't appear to have any hair on it's head, and looked to be wearing some sort of one piece jumpsuit, the hands were undefined. "How tall is this thing supposed to be I asked. "Roughly around 106 centimeters tall captain," replied the doctor.