Queen's Quest

Chapter 9

Chapter Nine One Happy Family

As I was coming back from the head the man called Dayson stopped me and tried to explain.

"Please don't be so hard on Brie, she's new at this, the dark Fae have been trying to recruit her to their side she's confused." I grinned and replied,

"I see, confused eh, so what's her story?"

"She has only recently discovered that she is a succubus, see, she has this bad habit of killing her human lovers, she's been on the run since for almost ten years, I'm a cop and I work for the light Fae, we're not actually sure she isn't part of the dark side, so for now we're simply watching her."

"I see," I replied, "Don't you people think you need to get past this "light, dark " thing, I mean seriously. Look, we came here to try and figure out where our race got it's start, and why as well as where they left for the stars and Isseth. You people are just screwing things up with this faction dreck I'm afraid you're not going to get a very warm reception when we dock with the Nessa, and certainly not when you all go into the hearing that's sure to happen once we return to Isseth." Dayson studied me for a moment then frowned,

"You know I was like the humans, always wondering if there was "life" out here in space…I just never figured it would be Fae." I chuckled,

"Well get used to it, by the way, what sort of Fae are you?" He looked at me for a moment then replied,

"A shape shifter, a wolf to be precise, why, got something against us as well?" I shrugged, Whatever, doesn't really matter to me, you seem more level headed than the rest, I think we'll be talking again."

I knew that eventually I'd need to speak with "The Morrigan," so I decided to deal with that bit of unpleasantness now rather than later. I found her sitting with her fellow Dark Fae scowling when she saw me approach.

"We need to talk," I announced, "Alone!" Her pals got up and moved to the other side of the room.

"Still pissed off that we kicked your pet?" She immediately launched into me snarling and hissing,

"I'm "The Morrigan " don't you presume to be friendly with me, you come to earth filled with self-righteousness preaching we should do this or that, how would you presume to know one damn thing about us?" I smiled and quietly replied,

"I know that your sweet ass is going to end up in the Cantard in real short order if you continue to have that attitude, you talk to Queen Maguire or Kolee that way they'll smack you down so hard you'll have to look up to see bottom. You're in desperate need of an attitude adjustment like right now girlie, you are going to be dealing with the adults now, so you had better suck it up and play nice." She must have thought about it for a moment as she suddenly changed her approach and put on the old "Miss innocent" face.

"What's your queen like?" she coyly asked,

"Maguire?" I replied, "Popular, she's a tech like me, what's not to like?"

""A tech, what's that?"

"Like her mother, she's a fighter pilot by trade, that's why when you lay out your case before her you state the facts clearly, and without any embellishment, she hates that, try it and she'll slap you down right away. Her husband Keith is human, very witty fun to be around very smart, and before you get any ideas very devoted to his queen, trying anything with him will get you dead faster than anything I can think of, he'll probably kill you himself. She didn't want the job at first but her mother abdicated so she had no choice, but now she seems to be enjoying it."

"How about this Witches Guild, what can I expect from them?"

"You will have to talk to Commander Siofra about that, she is a senior member, that business with the Garuda certainly won't help your cause." The woman was beginning to wear thin on me so I excused myself and walked away.

Later, as I was eating my supper, the human friend of Brie's sat down next to me giving me an infectious smile.

"What's going to happen with Brie?" she asked.

"I have no idea," I replied, I believe the thinking is that she's supposed to be neutral or without any opinion in all of this, sort of split the vote between the light and dark, but that's for other's to decide, I'm just hauling her back to the Nessa as with the rest of you."

"Is that a real pixie?"

"What, you mean Ensign Fashar?"

"Yeah, is that his name? why won't he talk to me?" I looked at this girl in total disbelief, were all earth humans this stupid? I finished my Drowma and sighed,

"Ensign Fashar as well as the other pixie's are very real, they don't speak but communicate through telepathy, when you were trying to speak with him did you hear any voices in your head?"

"Yeah…I think. But I thought I was going crazy, are you telling me that was him talking to me?"

"More than likely, come on let's go find out." We found Ensign Fashar "chatting" with Ensign Zoxie and Lieutenant Sabora. Everybody stood at attention when they saw me.

"At ease everybody." I then looked at Fashar and thought,

"Ensign, this young lady has been trying to speak with you, do you think she can understand you?" Ensign Fashar smiled and replied,

"Rocks respond better than she can, I've tried to speak as slow as I can but she's obviously not capable of even the slightest bit of telepathy, I'd rather she didn't bother me, besides I'm back on duty at the top of the hour so have her bother someone else."

As politely as I could I informed her that she obviously didn't have the skill to pick up "pixie talk."

"I'm cool with that," she replied, "I love those ears, all you guys are just so cool, pixies, faeries, man it's so neat, just like in the books."

"Books?" I replied with sudden interest

"Yeah," she responded, lots of books and pictures of elves and faeries, J.R.R. Tolkien writes about them, Lord of the Rings Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, all that stuff, you never heard of them?" I studied her and thought to myself,

"For a girl as pretty as she was how incredibly dense she was, Ensign Fashar was right."

Later, Jina told me that Brie approached her asking about the Witches Guild, as well as Malcanthet, she was afraid the queen of the succubus would kill her for some unspecified reason, Commander told me that she did her best to reassure her but wasn't so sure she was believed.

"I told her that I knew Malcanthet and that if Brie was up front with her she might help her. But what I didn't tell her was that it all depends on how "Mal" is feeling at the moment. Last I heard things were pretty dull in the succubus community lately, they make a lot of money hiring out for parties and such, Of course Heaven Light is their time. I don't really know I guess she will find out."

Everyone was asleep when we docked with the Nessa, I called for a squad of marines for security purposes and admittedly intimidation purposes, these guys didn't fool around, when you have people clad all in black and full combat gear holding weapons on you and eyes glaring at you from under helmets you tend to behave. As for the crew of the Inkara ,we were more than happy to dispose of our troublesome "cargo." So it was with great delight that I turned up the volume on the ships comm and announced.

"Attention, attention, all personnel, we have docked with the Nessa, please form up at the exit way with all your belongings. Stay together, follow the marines, do not stray and stay to one side of the passageway!" Lieutenant Geardot grinned at me as did Ensign Fashar, "What a pain in the ass," flashed in my head. Lieutenant Geardot, Commander Tormish and I had to report to the flight chief so we didn't accompany our guests when they were taken to see the captain and the intelligence team, but the lieutenant of the guard later told me they moved them right but being very professional about it. The main reason I did it this way was to avoid anyone of them catching a glimpse of the Nessa and Osha together, lest they get ideas, when dealing with people like this you could never be too sure.

Before captain's Demlin and Giyax began the general inquiry I spoke with them giving a rundown as to what they could expect so when the inquiry turned into a general shouting match bruised ego's hurt feelings incriminations and general lying, they were more than prepared. The presence of armed marines in the room helped greatly. Our "guests" were convinced that they were being kidnapped, and continued to argue the point until the captain threatened everyone with time in the brig. Gradually the story came out and the truth revealed. The Fae still on earth were holding an uneasy truce in an age-old war. The Dark Fae hated humans and wanted to kill or enslave them. The Light Fae were content to "go along to get along," they had no love loss for humans either but considered them on a case by case basis, but all lived under the noses of the human race preferring to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. I had to give "The Morrigan" credit, she and her fellow Dark Fae laid out their case point by point answering all questions asked of them to the questioners complete satisfaction. Even the Faerie Queen as well as "The Nain Rouge" had to admit she was accurate about many things.

Commander Siofra and the other Witches then presented their report about the state of magic found on earth as well as the fight with the Garuda. "The Morrigan" tried on several occasions to refute the charges with Captain Demlin having to order her to shut up or face charges, things got pretty tense a couple of times. As far as any knowledge about our ancestors we learned that the Fae first appeared in what they referred to as the Scandinavian countries locating on a large island north of what was now Great Britain, but at some point in the long lost past it disappeared for some reason, the survivors then settled in the British Isles as well as a country called Ireland. When asked if there were any Fae residing in other continents they didn't really know,

"It's quite possible," replied "The Nain Rouge," "Though anything is possible." Even though the inquiry produced some workable information everyone knew we were heading home with our unhappy guests on board.