Queen's Quest

Chapter 6

Chapter Six Sneaking and Peeking

We continued to watch the spacecraft as it orbited over the earth. We were rewarded with the sight of a figure emerge from the craft and tether on the boom arm now fully extended from the cargo bay area. We took a number of photographs of this person as they moved around. We weren't sure what this crewmember was attempting to do; he seemed to be looking around which prompted Fashar to speculate,

"They sent someone out to take a look around, possibly looking for us. I'm sure they realize we are out here, probably are the ones bouncing those primitive signals off of us. Since we're cloaked, they cannot see us but they know someone is watching and it's no doubt driving them crazy."

We watched the show for a little longer, then slowly moved off, back towards the Nessa. When I was sure we were far enough away, we de-cloaked, and resumed our normal speed and engine drive. Returning to the Nessa, we entered the ship from the main hanger port.

We reported to my boss who had us report to Captain Demlin.

I briefed the Captain on the spacecraft we saw, as well as the destruction of the satellite, the individual in the spacesuit, as well as the fact that no other craft approached us after destroying the satellite.

"Although I'm not comfortable with you destroying that satellite, I probably would have done something similar. Well it's obvious then; this planet has no interstellar flight capability. We've made a break-through in the language; or rather, many languages spoken on this planet, our linguists as well as code breakers have already gotten a good start on deciphering these languages. The one we're really interested in is the language spoken from that craft you encountered. Once my team has the opportunity to analyze the data and transmissions I think we'll have a good idea on what's going on…On the planet we now know is called Earth by it's inhabitants."

"I think what we're going to do Commander," continued Captain Demlin.

"I'm going to have you and your crew meet with my intelligence team to plan a strategy, once they go over everything you've brought back then we can go from there."

"Captain I meant to ask earlier, but if the Osha finds nothing in Quadrant 8 will they join us?"

"What's the matter Commander," grinned Captain Demlin,

"Feeling a little overwhelmed?"

Returning his grin, I replied,

"Uh not really Captain, "I think we're on to something here, don't ask me how I know…Call it just a dumb hunch, but I think we'll need all the help we can get."

"Relax Commander," replied Captain Demlin, Captain Giyax has orders to join us should they come up empty handed. Meanwhile, I want you to investigate the rest of the planets in this system you don't have to enter their planetary atmosphere's just do a surface and communication scan then when you return, we should be ready for something a bit more definite."

Therefore, we were off again, just barely having time to catch our breath, and re-stock our food supplies. Kicking the Inkara into hyperspace, we headed for the farthest planet intending to work our way back.

Being the farthest planet in this system the planet these earthlings apparently called Pluto was as we expected…An ice planet. Gravin and Gretchen compared it more to an oversized asteroid, one fly over was all that we needed. The work-back took almost a month but we were dealing with very large planets and great distances between them plus we wanted to be thorough. When we docked with the Nessa, again we were ready to cut loose and relax. I spoke with Captain Demlin who chuckled and told me,

"Commander, you and your crew put in a lot of work you all deserve a break, unwind cut loose. Meanwhile we'll analyze all the data send down a drone or two and figure out where to go from there, I got a team working on this right now."

My crew quickly went their own way all bent on their own form of relaxation. I spotted Gretchen and a rather handsome Lieutenant sharing a drink in the officers club on a couple of occasions, the others returned to their old crewmates and obviously were spending their time with them. As for me…Well I found myself spending quite a lot of time with the head of our civilian research team Dr. Kormei Jannoreg a distinguished fellow at the university in Bal Sera. He and I met at a symposium last year shared a drink found out we had a lot in common, the drink led to dinner then more dinner's then a weekend together…Well, you get the idea. While all this was going on the Osha showed up captain Giyax apparently finding nothing. From what I learned, later both he and his crew were a little bit jealous of us for coming up gold but hey, sometimes that's the way things work out. One "evening" over dinner, I asked Dr. Jannoreg,

"This planet known as earth is so large how, or better yet where would we start to locate any traces of our ancestors it's been so long, and just for arguments sake supposing there were remnants of our race still on this planet, how would we have any hope of finding them?"

My friend just laughed,

"Slow down there Denchy, actually it's not as hard as it sounds if there were ever any Fae on this world at any time there will still be faint traces of their magic still present we have a number of very experienced Faerie on board your own medical officer Jina is a Faerie witch she should have no problem detecting ancient magical threads, these will be strongest at structural remains, or ancient temples, in the case of old worship sites we have descriptions as well as artists concepts of what they may have looked like so one of the things our specialists are scanning now is transmissions from this planet that might offer us clues."

For the next several days, we attended meetings, briefings, and study sessions with all the "experts." The intelligence teams were extremely busy analyzing the raw data we brought back, but all that our long-range scanners were picking up from earth. I really had to admire those people, the incredible volume of information they were getting was astounding, they had already captured images of elves from a number of varied sources. The problem was that that's all we had, there wasn't any added references to go along with the images. These images convinced everybody we were now on the right track and that if there were not now elves or Faerie folk still on the planet there was at one time.

Our language experts had cracked several languages, and even discovered several similarities in several of them. This was important, once the root language had been translated, it's offshoots and progressions could be deciphered as well making the ability to learn the language that much easier. However, we would all wear small translator headsets, which instantaneously translated the language for anybody wearing one of the headsets.

We were now starting to get a very good picture of this planet, apparently a very human one, a number of separate races, even more languages, and in many ways very similar to our own planet.

Our experts from Pyrra were making considerable progress. The Nessa had on board three or four professors from the University of Pyrra who were working overtime with the data coming in. The fact that there were a great many similarities between the Pyrrian language and the one spoken in the country known as Great Britain as well as the United States.

Finally the day came my crew and I were informed to report for a final briefing before leaving for earth, the show was on and everything was a "go." Along with my regular crew, a Doctor Aelfric from the University of Pyrra, a Lieutenant Gaeril a dark elf expert on ancient Elvin and Faerie lore, and Ensign Lannor another Pyrrian. We also welcomed another Faerie Witch, a very senior grade one who as things turned out be a very fortuitous addition. Lieutenant Commander Siofra was the senior flight surgeon on the Osha replacing at the last minute another Witch who was forced to miss the voyage due to Guild commitments.

Captain Demlin gave the final briefing,

"Early this morning some of our analysts were going back through some of the images we've been receiving from earth and came across some previously overlooked photographs of a site in the country known as Great Britain. According to our analysts, the place is called Stonehenge, and it's located west of the country's capitol London. It's located at a place called the Salisbury Plain, but it is identical to a site on the shore of Lake Marl in Mythal, a site I'm sure many of you have seen before. As far as we are concerned, this clinches it there's no doubt now that this planet harbors the secrets we've been looking for. Commander Gambein you will take your ship and land in cloak mode near this Stonehenge and ascertain if there are still signs of magic left on this planet, if there are, this Stonehenge site will certainly be the place. Furthermore, should traces of magic be found Lieutenant Siofra and Lieutenant Commander Jina will attempt to upset that magic hopefully alerting someone to our presence. In a word, you will be tasked with establishing first contact with who we hope are the last remnants of Fae left on this planet in other words…Our ancestors."

Lt. Commander Siofra also spoke to Jina and I concerning what we could expect to find on the planet.

"I want to ascertain the level of magic still left on the planet; it should give us a good idea of what level of Fae may still be left if any. A very weak level would most certainly indicate very few if any Faerie folk certainly no Faerie or Pixie presence, as we need very high levels of what we call dynamic magic. Should we encounter a low level of magic, it's very possible we might encounter other Fae sub-species such as those existing in animal form elves can exist within this level, as well as succubus, blood sages, kobolds, things of that nature."

Finally, we departed everyone eager to begin their work and discover a new world. On the three-day trip, we got to know our new crewmembers and listen to their stories and what they hoped to contribute to this mission. Surprisingly, Lt. Commander Siofra and Jina spent a lot of time together talking Guild business. Commander Siofra was also very intrigued by Mynce, her story, and her incorporation into our ship's computer. For her part, Mynce seemed honored by all the attention even forgoing her usual wisecracks and snide comments whenever a request was made. Finally, we arrived over earth and after one orbit; we located Great Britain and the Salisbury Plain. We already knew these people utilized a primitive form of scanner and could no doubt pick us up so cloaking was the order of the day. Our scanner showed that nothing approached us as we slipped towards the ground. We had waited until it was dark before we headed for earth landing shortly before midnight their time well away from the stone structure these earthmen called Stonehenge.

Once the Inkara was secured and still cloaked Jina and Lt. Commander Siofra made their way out to the structure to perform rituals, and determine the level of magic here on earth. We watched on our scanner zoomed in to their location. We could see the two of them moving around then quickly heading our way. Once back aboard our ship Commander Siofra reported, "We've got big problems," she revealed.

"There is a malevolence in the magic I felt that is simply incredible, I felt the presence of a Garuda, I've only read about them and talked to older Guild members about them but before we take one of them we are definitely going to need a coven to be strong enough for it." I could tell by her expression she was dead serious and even a bit frightened, and for a witch of her ranking this had to be serious.

"What's a Garuda," I asked, "And what's a coven?" Jina looked to Siofra as if for approval to speak which the commander gave a slight nod.

"A Garuda is a very ancient and fiendish enemy of the Fae," began Jina. "They draw all their energy from anger and rage. One of the first things you learn when you start your career as a young mage is how to control your emotions, it's very easy to find yourself in a situation which causes you to loose your temper, your magic can be sooo easily mis-directed the next thing you know you've got the beginnings of a Garuda embryo…" Suddenly Mynce spoke up,

"Jina is so very right, It's what led me off on the wrong path, I can see that now, and I also believe that's what those witches I fell in with were trying to do is create something like a Garuda, I remember them talking about it but I don't think they knew quite how to really go about it."

"Mynce is right," added commander Siofra, " But what Jina and I felt was something that's had millennia to fester and grow we are going to have our hands full dealing with it and still, I'm not sure we can."

"How do you mean?" I asked.

"As I said," began the Commander, "We're going to need a coven which is seven witches joined in magic, Jina and I are two I know of four more witches between the Nessa and the Osha that makes six, we are short one."

"No you're not," spoke up Mynce as her holograph appeared before us, "What about me?"

"But you're the Inkara's AI," shot back Jina.

"No, wait;" replied Siofra, "Perhaps there is a way." She then faced Mynce's glowing image.

"This is very serious business Mynce," said Commander Siofra, "Your record hasn't been exactly stellar, from what Jina tells me you're dabbling in the black arts the fact that you tried to kill her these are things not easily washed away." There was a long silence then Mynce spoke, "These things are all true I deny none of it but I'm offering myself in the hopes that I could be forgiven and my record expunged allowing my…Uh spirit at least to be reinstated back into the Guild. Besides," she quickly added, "I've seen dark magic up close, I've been involved in it, who better to help than someone who has had experience with what you are about to fight." Commander Siofra looked at her and thought, then turning to Jina, said.

"She has a point," then addressed Mynce. "That's a very admirable offer Mynce, however you realize I would have to transfer your Qi as well as your soul to a clone which would be nothing more than a vessel to act with us, you wouldn't be able to act independently as the rest of us would, very dangerous, more than likely you could very easily be killed. The AI seemed to consider this, then replied,

"What would I receive in return for my assistance?' Commander Siofra smiled,

"Simply that your past deeds would be erased from the record, you would be reinstated, though possibly not at your old level back into the Guild. I'm sorry Mynce, it's the best I could do," replied Siofra. Mynce thought some more then replied,

"Good enough for me I'll take the chance count me in."