Tales From The Cafeteria

Beholders of the Promised Dawn of Truth: Tales rewrite

2008-03-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

Beholders of the Promised Dawn of Truth: Tales rewrite

Chapter Ten

2007-03-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

Chapter Ten – The Plot Thickens (Finally)

Neal shook his head once more, “I’m sorry, Sigh. He’s not here; he’s gone out to the city for the day, checking over the archives in the main building.” Sigh scowled, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Jack was avoiding me.” Neal sighed, “I’m sorry, Sigh, I don’t know what to tell you, but that Jack’s taking the whole new mess we’ve gotten ourselves into very seriously and Jack being Jack, he’s going to research himself to death as much as is humanly possible before we get hit with the thing, so we’re not winging it.” “Yeah, and I understand that. It’s just that I kind of miss seeing him.” She told him with a look of resignation on her face. “Anyways, I just thought I’d check and see if he was available.” She checked her watch, “I have a class soon, so I’ll just grab a quick bite to eat in the cafeteria before it.” “Okay,” Neal stared worriedly after her, something was off about the latest addition to the Barker family and he had a niggling feeling that it had something to do with his sometimes idiot of a cousin. He’d see about mentioning it to Jack later on. For now unfortunately they had larger fish to fry. Neal grimaced at the sea reference, it hadn’t been intentional, but he had a feeling that with what they were dealing with, the evil alien penguins and all, it wouldn’t be the first such reference. Knowing most of the staff, once they were briefed in on this thing, they’d make sure of it. Sea jokes, ocean metaphors, bad puns, and the whole gamut. He shook his head as he turned back to some of the admin work he was doing. The next few days promised to be interesting, but then again they always were.

Sigh was a bit out of sorts; mostly it was because of the stress of the upcoming midterms and also the new job that she had accepted had turned out to be far more than she had ever dreamed. But even with all of the amazing wonderful things that she had seen during her short time with them already, there was always a price. In her case, it had been some of her sanity (not that she had had too much of that to begin with or that she really regretted losing any of it) and also the whole marriage things that was entangled with the whole prophecy and possible world ending thing. She finished doing some of her admin paperwork and then her cell phone rang. Apparently they were standard issue for Center personnel and she’d been told her had to accept one. Otherwise she’d have continued in her blissful cell phone free state, she actually kind of hated the stupid things. It was inexplicably irrational, she knew and she was fully aware of all the positive qualities they had, but she still hated them. Jack had had to order her to get one, and she’d only really given the number out to a few people, which was why she was quite surprised to have it ring while she was gathering up her things to leave for the day. She checked the caller id and was surprised to find that her cousin, Riordan was calling. “Hello Ri. How did you get this number?” “I have my ways, little cousin. I just called to see how you were doing since we last talked.” Riordan’s strong voice came over the line. She sighed once, then immediately regretted it. “What’s wrong?” her cousin’s voice sharpened, “Little Sigh!” There was a warning note in his voice. Finally she capitulated, “Ri, I have a problem.” “This problem wouldn’t happen to be six foot tall with sandy blond hair and blue eyes would it?” Sigh rolled her eyes, “Jack’s not exactly the problem, part of it, yes, but not the entire problem.” “Little Sigh.” “It’s a long story, see, but not one I particularly want to tell over the phone.” “Little SIGH!” Riordan almost shouted into the phone. “Yes?” “Meet me at O’Darlings. Bring Jack.” “Why? So you can gut him first?” Sigh asked archly, knowing full well the somewhat unfriendly disposition the males in her family had towards those who dared to try and ‘make nice’ with the unattached females in the family. “No,” her countered calmly, “I need you to bring him because I need to ask him something and whether or not the gutting takes place will be *entirely* up to him.” She let out a deep breath, “ I’ll be there, Ri. I can’t promise about him, Jack’s got a lot on his plate right now.” “Anything short of saving the world is unacceptable.” Riordan stated in a matter of fact tone. Sigh snorted once, “Try the universe…See you shortly.”

Sigh quickly got her things together, and after speaking quickly to Zhann left the pit. “Something’s not quite right,” Upid muttered as he watched her leave. Kriss nodded, “You might be on to something there, Upid.” She turned to her keyboard and tapped a few keys. “Looks like some family issues, do we know where Neal and Aden are?” Upid spoke up, “ Neal and Aden popped out for lunch half an hour ago.” “Did they say where?” “Nope, just some pub that Aden’s family owns.”

It was by sheer happenstance that he looked up at just the right time and saw her. He watched as she greeted a tall redheaded man and then as they took a booth in the back of the restaurant. He motioned to Aden and pointed to Sigh and the other guy. Aden’s eyes got large, “That’s her cousin Riordan…but that doesn’t make any sense, he’s supposed to be at sea!” Aden hissed in a low tone. “Something’s a bit fishy here. First, Jack disappears off the face of the planet and don’t give me that ‘studying the archives excuse.’ I called down there myself, he isn’t there,” she said as Neal shot her a disapproving look. “So first that and now this. What by St. Lalla is going on here?”

“Let’s find out,” Neal said as he surreptitiously took something from his pocket and casually placed it on the table. He fiddled with it for a second and then all of a sudden, he could hear Sigh’s and Riordan’s voices, clear as day. “Alright Little Sigh, spill. What’s going on?” “First off, Ri, I wanted you to be one of the first to know. I’ve made my decision.” Neal shot a questioning look at Aden whose eyes had gotten huge as she listened. She mouthed to him, ‘I’ll explain later.’ Rolling his eyes, he nodded and then focused on the other conversation. “You have?” Riordan’s voice was uncertain. “Yeah,” Sigh breathed, “My name’s going to be Barker, Ri.” Riordan choked on his water, “You… you… what? Explain that, Little Sigh.” “Only on the ship’s oath that you won’t breathe a word on this to *anyone* especially my mum, Ri.” Riordan sighed heavily, “You’re evil, and ye know that, don’t ya, Little Sigh? Pure evil. Alright I give my most solemn oath that I’ll never tell what ye are about to tell me to a single soul that don’t already know and excepting in cases of terrible necessity. Will that satisfy?” “It’ll do.”

Neal listened to Sigh explain in a roundabout way about the feast day and what had happened. There was a long moment of silence when she finished. “Ri, say something,” Sigh pleaded. “Oh Little Sigh,” was all that he could say before he broke out into laughter. It took him a couple moments before he was able to compose himself. “That’s hysterical, oh it fits, it does.” He wiped his eyes and smiled at her, “Ai, I never thought I’d see that day, Sigh, where you were old enough to realize that it had to be like this.” Sigh nodded, “I love both my parents and don’t want to lose either of them. Like you said, it was the only way and Jack is a good guy. But it gets better.” Riordan’s eyebrows shot up, “Oh no, the Delaphaine curse?” Sigh nodded “It strikes again and boy how it struck this time.” Back at the other table one of Neal’s eyebrows had quirked up and he and Aden had traded looks. “The Delaphaine curse?” He whispered to her. “It’s not what you think.” She whispered back.

Riordan signaled the waiter, “Hold that thought, little coz.” He said as the waiter walked up, “Mike, a double shot of wiskbaugh if you please I’ve a feeling I’m going to need it.” The waiter nodded and quickly brought his drink. “Alright Little Sigh. Hit me.”

“Not only have I chosen my name, Ri, or rather had it chosen for me in a way, but there is also a prophecy of sorts entangled in all of this. An apocalyptic sort of prophecy.”

“Oh no,” Riordan remarked, tossing back his wiskbaugh and signaling for another. “Can ye tell me what it is?”

“As far as I remember it, Spice wine or whatever it was that they gave us was pretty potent. Anyways it goes something like this, a girl of ancient name shall become Queen and she will take a King and together they shall rule our world and their son shall rule the galaxy. At least that is what I remember from it.”

“Your comment about the universe suddenly makes more sense. What are you are into, Sigh? Your mother suspects something, but she’s played this one close to her vest.”

Sigh arched an eyebrow, “From you even? That is a surprise, Ri. I figured she would at least have confided in you. After all, she is grooming you to take over the family business.” “That’s merely hearsay, cousin, but no she hasn’t confided in me. Not with this at least,” Riordan told her with an arch look.

“Interesting.”

“You’re not going to say anymore than that, are you?”

“Not at the moment, no.”

“Fine. Keep your secrets. Are you going to finish those fries?”

Neal fiddled with the device once more and then slipped it back into his pocket, “Well that was enlightening sort of.” Aden nodded, a distant look on her face, “Yes, yes it was.” “So do you have any light to shed on this, Aden?” His companion shook her head, “I....I need to think about it a while, Neal.” He nodded, “I’ll grab Sigh when she leaves; you go ahead and leave if you need to.” She gathered her things and then left. Neal paid their tab and then waited outside the pub for Sigh to come out.

After the lunch at the pub and the startling revelations that had come up, Neal was more certain than ever that he needed to have a word with his cousin. But first he wanted to speak with Sigh, this family curse sounded awfully familiar, much like the one he and his cousins all knew about. The Barker family curse was legend and it never struck in the same way twice. Oh, there were oftimes similar characteristics between stories, but never the exact same circumstances in the exact same ways. It was far too coincidental and if there was one thing that being a Barker in this sort of job taught you, was that there were no coincidences and this latest information could very well turn out to bite them in the arse when they least needed it.

Neal caught up with Sigh just as she was getting ready to go home. “I’ll drive you home if you like. I’ve got something I want to talk to you about.” Sigh nodded and followed him. They got into the car and then he dropped it on her, “ So tell me about the Delaphaine curse?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. Sigh smirked, “ So there *was* someone there watching me, I thought there was.” “Actually it was completely by accident that we happened to see you in the pub.” “We?” Sigh asked, a smile hovering around her lips. “Aden and I,” Neal growled out, “ Now answer the bloody question.”

She sighed, “Alright, pretty much it’s like this. The Delaphaine curse is mostly because of my great great great grandfather Josiah Delaphaine and how he had a Chinaman serving under him on his fleet ship, the Xerxes’ Treasure. Basically this Chinaman at the end of the voyage told my thrice great grandfather that he wished him luck in all his ventures, and that he would lead as interesting a life as was possible for a man in his position. Unfortunately as you’ve probably guessed this was a mixed blessing, because an interesting life is not necessarily a safe or pleasant one. Apparently this mixed blessing was not just restricted to my thrice great grandfather either; it has since been passed down to all of his descendants. And now it strikes again, first the prophecy and the wedding and it’s just all too much. You can trust Riordan, he won’t tell anyone; he values his own skin too much for that.” Neal nodded, “So I gathered. Where do we go from here?” Sigh turned to him, “Well we go back to my grandparents house and you wait while I throw some things into a bag and then you are going to take to wherever the frack my husband is. I need to speak with him, urgently.”

Somewhere in the Southern U.S

After having exhausted the archives on two different planets not counting this one, Jack had finally gone to the one place he knew he’d get the answers he was looking for. He’d left this place for last. For good reason too, he hadn’t been back here since…since Ruth had died. Great Gran Barker had a reputation for seeing and knowing more than was usual for a person of her age. Her little hunches were always spot on too, eerie in the way they seemed to fulfill themselves just the way she said they would. She’d told him when he’d introduced Ruth to her that they’d be happy but that it would be short lived. She never said why though and after that, he’d not darkened the door of this place since, until now. She would know what he needed to find out and if in the unlikely event that she couldn’t give him the information he needed, then she would definitely know where he could go to find it. Sighing once, he walked up the porch steps, “ Hello Gran.”

Back in Maryland

“But Darling, I had really hoped you’d be here with us for the holiday.” Lyssa Scott said as she helped Sigh pack hastily. “I know Gran, I’d hoped I could too, but something at…work has come up and it’s very important that I go. I’m sorry.” Sigh said as she grabbed some clothes out of a drawer. “Does this have anything to do with the twitchy lad downstairs?” Her grandfather, Colwyn wanted to know. Sigh smiled wryly at him, “Neal’s my ride, Grand, and he also works with me. Other than that, it’s nothing like what you might suspect.” Colwyn nodded, lips quirking up in a half smile, “Just be careful,” he told her as she finished packing and made her way downstairs. She hugged both of them while Neal put the duffel in the trunk of the SUV. Colwyn held her close for a minute and whispered something into her ear that made her chuckle before waving goodbye as she got into the SUV and took off.

“Oh Colwyn, she’s heading straight into danger, isn’t she?” Lyssa said as they stood there watching the car drive off. “I believe so, Lyss, why should our granddaughter be any different from the rest of the family?” He replied, eyes twinkling. “What was it that you said to her just as she was leaving?” she asked him. “A simple truth, love, I told her that good fighters make bad husbands.” “Oh, *Colwyn,*” Lyssa said, half despairingly. Colwyn looked as his wife of thirty years, “Don’t worry, Lyssa, she’ll be alright. She’s got her parents’ ability to land on her feet, no matter the trouble she’s in.”

Sigh waited until they were out of sight from her grandparent’s house before dissolving into almost hysterical giggles. Neal shot her a worried glance from the driver’s seat. She waved off his concern, “I’m alright, Neal, my grandfather just told me something funny, likely also significant, knowing him.” “What was it?” Neal wanted to know. She told him and then burst into giggles again. Neal furrowed his brow, he’d heard that phrase somewhere else, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember where. “So how long is it going to take us to get to where Jack is?” Neal thought for a minute, “At least sixteen hours if not more.” Sigh nodded, “Okay, well since I’m not in the remotest bit tired and I’m assuming since this is a company car, it’s not bugged by anyone but us, shall we catch each other up on where everything stands at the moment?” “I’m game.” Neal replied.

Kriss sighed; the recruiting efforts to rebuild what they had lost two years ago were coming along at a decent pace. Better than what the analysts had initially predicted for them and still well within their budget, all good factors, but she had this niggling feeling that something was not right. As part of Jack’s advisory staff, she along with the others had been warned that something was coming for them. As far she knew though, the only people who knew more than that was Neal, Upid, and Jack. She’d had her suspicions though with some of the things that Jack had asked her to look for. Pablo was often prone to muttering things when he thought no one was listening and some of the things he muttered defied all realm of human sense. Nothing new for them, the Center dealt with things that defied the realms of human sense all the time, but this was something more than just their mark one mod zero standard alien from another planet coming to visit Earth. The biggest sign of everything was that Upid had gone from bright green to a green lightly rimmed with dark purple, which in his particular species’ culture meant that he was, for lack of a better term, stressed. This did not bode well. It took a great deal for one of Upid’s race to become stressed. Upid being stressed made everyone else stressed, it was a vicious cycle of stressedness.

Back at the Barker residence in the Deep South

Jack gritted his teeth together. Nana Barker hadn’t told him a thing, save for the fact that he’d get his answers soon and that he had important business to settle before she would tell him anything.

That really should have been his first clue about what was about to happen. His second clue should have been all of his cousins and aunts and uncles had started to arrive. Bringing food with them, which was a sign that they intended to stay a while, which again made no sense unless his important business had something to do with the entire (just about) family being there to witness it. However, Jack was frustrated enough that none of this even occurred to him. At least not until the SUV pulled up.

As the doors of the SUV opened, Jack was suddenly very very aware of everything around him. From the fact, that save for a few members that were out of the state, his entire family was camped out on his great- grandmother’s front lawn to the fact that said great-grandmother was contentedly humming away in her kitchen. And also that the nine millimeter Beretta that he distinctly remembered having issued to his newest member was pointed directly at his cousin and second in command’s temple. His newest member who incidentally also happened to be his…wife, the wife that he’d disappeared on for two weeks with no word, he belatedly realized as he watched the two of them walk around the side of the SUV. He also remembered just who his wife was related to and for the first time in ages, Jack cringed. This had shot straight past awful and gone directly to horrifically bad. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw some of his other relatives tensing up as if they were preparing for a struggle. His mind whirred, trying to find a way out of this that didn’t involve anyone getting shot. Just then, his great-nana’s humming stopped, “Is that my newest great-granddaughter in law out there?”

Everything froze.

Chapter Nine

2006-11-28T19:38:00.000-08:00

Chapter Nine – And Now We Return You To Your Regularly Scheduled Plot

Jack rubbed his hand across the back of the neck. Apparently the experiment had been a success and the Jareds were now coming back along with their girlfriends and apparently each Jared now had a ‘hatchling’ that they were now responsible for. That was in addition to having also married said respective girlfriends. The whole lot along with Tim Merton and Jules Gaylor were returning today. Apparently someone (he suspected it was either Sigh or Aden or Kriss or a scary combination of all three of them) had decided that there needed to be a party celebrating not only the return of the Jareds to human form but also for their respective marriages and hatchlings. So apparently everyone had gotten up at the crack of dawn to decorate the Pit for the Jareds’ arrival. There was an excessive amount of caffeine being consumed as the triumvirate of evil (coined by Hayden in reference to the unholy trio that was his wife, Sigh, and Aden) being as none of the three were what one would call morning people. Jack himself felt more than a little grumpy, he’d woken up to a silly little note on the pillow next to him instead of her. Neal passed him a mug of still hot industrial strength coffee, “I can’t believe they all got up this early.” Jack made a non committal noise as he savored the smell of the coffee wafting up to tantalize his nostrils, “Did you make this?” He asked his cousin after taking a sip of the coffee. He felt the rush of the caffeine hit his system and suddenly he felt very very alert to everything around him. Neal shook his head, “Sigh did, she used her ‘special brew’ so I’ve heard. It’s good coffee isn’t it?” Jack could only nod yes, as he took another sip of the coffee. “ Is it always supposed to have this sort of kick to it?”

“Apparently it does. Though I have a feeling that I’m going to be risking death and dismemberment shortly,” Neal commented, “I’m more alert than I have been in years, almost bordering on hyper and I’ve only had two cups of this.” Jack froze as he processed this last statement, he took in the lightning fast movements of the girls be bopping around the Pit and he almost choked on the coffee he was drinking. “How many cups have they had?” “When I got here an hour ago, they were on their second pot of this stuff.” Neal replied. “Oh frell,” Jack groaned, “I’ll help you cut them off. They obviously don’t need anymore caffeine or sugar. This brew has nearly equal amounts of both in it. Is Upid in yet? Cause he doesn’t need to have any of …” Jack’s voice trailed off when he watched a very awake emerald green skinned alien quite literally bounce into the Pit and then start to help to put up the decorations. “I thought the same thing, but I wasn’t fast enough to keep him from drinking the coffee.” Neal explained. Down in the Pit, the sound of cackling could be heard and both Barker boys instinctively shuddered. They’d been on the receiving end of one of those types of cackles frequently when they were younger. Kriss was like every other Barker, she didn’t bother getting mad, she just got even and she was scary when she got that way. They peered over the edge of the Pit just in time to hear Kriss say, “And that was how Jack and Neal were forever banned from ever singing in the choir again. That poor little old lady never got over the applesauce and flying fish incident.” Both Jack and Neal’s faces were bright red, they should have known that Kriss would pull this on them as revenge for all of the times they’d done it to her after she and Hayden had gotten married. Just then Melba, Kelle, Patrick, and Kaida walked into the Pit and joined with the others waiting for the Jareds to arrive. Jack checked his watch; they should be arriving any minute now. They had quite the welcoming party waiting anxiously for them.

The Jareds and their respective spouses and ‘hatchlings’ walked through the wormhole ring, closely followed by Tim (Merton) and Jules. Jared Blythe spoke up first, “Everyone I’d like you to meet my wife, Ashley and our daughter, Francine.” He gestured to the tall blonde beside him and the freckle faced blonde haired two year old she was holding. Then Jared Smith spoke, “I’d like to introduce to you my wife, Felicia and our son, Davin.” He gestured to the tall redhead standing to one side of him and the small brunette boy with a shy smile hiding behind his leg. At once, all of the females figuratively melted when they saw the two kids.

Hours later, Jack had to admit that when the three members of the unholy trio decided they were going to celebrate, that they threw one heck of a party. Sigh was currently curled up next to him, entirely tired out by all of the work she and the others had thrown into organizing this impromptu party, she was also coming down off of the massive caffeine and sugar high she’d been on. He ran his fingers through her hair as she all but purred beside him. “Mmm, that feels good. Can I just stay here for today? Just stay right here, curled up next to you for the rest of the day, that would be nice.” She spoke sleepily. Jack chuckled, “I have work, sweetheart, and you have class soon if I’m not mistaken.” Sigh pouted, “I don’t want to go to class, I don’t want to move, and I’m so comfy right here.” Jack snickered, “If you don’t go to class, sweetheart, then we can’t go out later with Aden and Neal to that festival they were talking about.” Sigh lifted her head up from his shoulder, “No fair fighting dirty.” She narrowed her eyes at him. He just smiled innocently back at her. Sigh rolled her eyes and a hint of a smile appeared on her face. “Alright then I’ll be good and go to class, but first I want some coffee.” Jack shook his head, “No, four is officially your expresso or whatever the frack that brew was limit.” “Meanie,” Sigh said as she slowly stood up. Jack stood up as well, tugging her into an embrace, “You’ll knock them dead.” “I hope not, that would be an awful lot of paperwork to fill out, we could be here all night if I did that.” Sigh mumbled as she wrapped her arms around him. “Good point,” Jack laughed as he kissed her before sending her on her way.

Kelle and Patrick were laughing over the latest email Sigh had sent them:

Murphy's Laws Of Combat Operations

Military Laws

* Friendly fire - isn't.

* Recoilless rifles - aren't.

* Suppressive fires - won't.

* You are not Superman; Marines and fighter pilots take note.

* A sucking chest wound is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.

* If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.

* Try to look unimportant; the enemy may be low on ammo and not want to waste a bullet on you.

* If at first you don't succeed, call in an airstrike.

* If you are forward of your position, your artillery will fall short.

* Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than yourself.

* Never go to bed with anyone crazier than yourself.

* Never forget that your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.

* If your attack is going really well, it's an ambush.

* The enemy diversion you're ignoring is their main attack.

* The enemy invariably attacks on two occasions: when they're ready. & when you're not.

* No OPLAN ever survives initial contact.

* There is no such thing as a perfect plan.

* Five second fuzes always burn three seconds.

* There is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.

* A retreating enemy is probably just falling back and regrouping.

* The important things are always simple; the simple are always hard.

* The easy way is always mined.

* Teamwork is essential; it gives the enemy other people to shoot at.

* Don't look conspicuous; it draws fire. For this reason, it is not at all uncommon for aircraft carriers to be known as bomb magnets.

* Never draw fire; it irritates everyone around you.

* If you are short of everything but the enemy, you are in the combat zone.

* When you have secured the area, make sure the enemy knows it too.

* Incoming fire has the right of way.

* No combat ready unit has ever passed inspection.

* No inspection ready unit has ever passed combat.

* If the enemy is within range, so are you.

* The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.

* Things which must be shipped together as a set, aren't.

* Things that must work together, can't be carried to the field that way.

* Radios will fail as soon as you need fire support.

* Radar tends to fail at night and in bad weather, and especially during both.

* Anything you do can get you killed, including nothing.

* Make it too tough for the enemy to get in, and you won't be able to get out.

* Tracers work both ways.

* If you take more than your fair share of objectives, you will get more than your fair share of objectives to take.

* When both sides are convinced they're about to lose, they're both right.

* Professional soldiers are predictable; the world is full of dangerous amateurs.

* Military Intelligence is a contradiction.

* Fortify your front; you'll get your rear shot up.

* Weather ain't neutral.

* If you can't remember, the Claymore is pointed towards you.

* Air defense motto: shoot 'em down; sort 'em out on the ground.

* 'Flies high, it dies; low and slow, it'll go.

* The Cavalry doesn't always come to the rescue.

* Napalm is an area support weapon.

* Mines are equal opportunity weapons.

* B-52s are the ultimate close support weapon.

* Sniper's motto: reach out and touch someone.

* Killing for peace is like screwing for virginity.

* The one item you need is always in short supply.

* Interchangeable parts aren't.

* It's not the one with your name on it; it's the one addressed "to whom it may concern" you've got to think about.

* When in doubt, empty your magazine.

* The side with the simplest uniforms wins.

* Combat will occur on the ground between two adjoining maps.

* If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, you may have misjudged the situation.

* If two things are required to make something work, they will never be shipped together.

* Anything you do can get you shot, including nothing.

* Whenever you lose contact with the enemy, look behind you.

* The most dangerous thing in the combat zone is an officer with a map.

* The quartermaster has only two sizes, too large and too small.

* If you really need an officer in a hurry, take a nap.

* There is nothing more satisfying than having someone take a shot at you, and miss.

* If your sergeant can see you, so can the enemy.

* You'll only remember your hand grenades when the sound is too close to use them.

* Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

* Well .. It could be worse: It could be raining .. and we could be out in it.

* So he said, "Cheer up: it could be worse!" So we cheered up. And it got worse.

* The side with the simplest uniform wins...

* The spare batteries for the PRC-whatever your troops have been carrying are either nearly dead or for the wrong radio.

* The ping you heard was the antenna snapping off at 6 inches above the flexmount, while a fire mission was being called in on a battalion of hostiles who know your position.

* Why is it the CO sticks his head in your radio hooch to see if anything has come down from DIV when you are listening to the VOA broadcasting the baseball games?

* How come you are on one frequency when everyone else is on another?

* Why does your 500-watt VRC-26 (real old) not make it across 200 miles while a ham with 50 watts on the same MARS frequency can be heard from Stateside?

* Know why short RTOs have long whips on their radios? So someone can find them when they step in deep water.

* The enemy "Alway's" times his attack, to the second you drop your pant's in the Latrine!!

* The ammo you new "NOW"!! is on the "Next" airdrop!!

Murphy's Law

The Army Weather Corollaries

* Inclement weather always begins AFTER you've already done PT.

* A sudden downpour always occurs at the end of a summer field exercise--just in time coat all your equipment and camouflage with mud.

* The best beach weather always occurs when you are in the field wearing MOPP 4.

* There is no such thing as a blue sky during a company picnic.

* There is no such thing as a cloudy sky when your unit needs to infiltrate enemy territory.

* Road conditions are always red when it's time to convoy home.

* Motor pools are always 20 degrees warmer than the rest of the post during the summer and 50 degrees colder in the winter.

* Army training areas exist in a constant state of weather flux controlled by a deity with a truly cruel sense of humor--How do you think we got them so cheap?

* The peak of Mt. Everest would flood if an Army unit was told to set up on it.

* Hell really would freeze over if someone decided to conduct an exercise there.

* The Port-a-Potty Postulate states that the likelihood of a hurricane, sandstorm, tsunami, or blizzard occurring immediately over your location is directly related to how bad you need to get to the portajohns at the other side of the campsite in the middle of the night.

* The temperature always rises to 70 degrees AFTER you put on two layers of polypros, your bear suit, and all of your Gortex.

* If you whine about the weather, someone else will always whine louder.

Rules of the Rucksack

1. No matter how carefully you pack, a rucksack is always too small.

2. No matter how small, a rucksack is always too heavy.

3. No matter how heavy, a rucksack will never contain what you want.

4. No matter what you need, it's always at the bottom.

Phillip's Law:

Four-wheel-drive just means getting stuck in more inaccessible places.

Weatherwax's Postulate:

The degree to which you overreact to information will be in inverse proportion to its accuracy.

Least Credible Sentences:

1. The check is in the mail.

2. The trucks will be on the drop zone.

3. Of course I'll respect you in the morning.

4. I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.

Brintnall's Second Law:

If you receive two contradictory orders, obey them both.

Pavlu's Rules for Economy in Decision Papers:

1. Refute the last established recommendation.

2. Add yours.

3. Pass the paper on.

Oliver's Law:

Experience is something you don't get until after you need it.

Lackland's Laws:

1. Never be first.

2. Never be last.

3. Never volunteer for anything.

Rune's Rule:

If you don't care where you are, you ain't lost.

Law of Supply (also known as the Law of Gifts):

You get the most of what you need the least.

Hane's Law:

There is no limit to how bad things can get.

Both of them were rolling in laughter by the time they finished the email along with the rest of their regular cafeteria table denizens. Patrick got up to get a drink of water from the water fountain, still laughing and in his distraction, tripped over the multitude of laptop power cords and crashed to the floor, hitting the small pool of spilt water and thus electrocuting himself. The lights fizzled and dimmed for a bit and then as Patrick started to stop twitching. The blue and red lights of the local paramedic’s truck breezed into the parking lot as the paramedics came bustling in, setting up and trying to ‘revive’ Patrick. By this time of course, most of the paramedic trainees there at the college knew about Patrick’s little gift and they welcomed the practice. So they did their thing, Patrick came back to life, and they wheeled him out into the truck, where they’d take him back to the other side of campus and then buy him a Coke to replenish whatever sugars and salts he may have lost. Unfortunately today was the day that college’s marching band was having their dress rehearsal. Patrick eventually got fed up with waiting and started to get out of the truck. On his way out of the truck, he got whapped in the side of the head by the Trombone player’s slide. He trips and managed to fall directly into the path of an on coming bus. After the bus passed, he jumped up, and shouted to the stunned Paramedic’s, “I’m okay!” and then he went to turn to walk to the side walk and the promptly got mowed down by the other bus going in the opposite direction as the other gone. Buddha was there snapping pictures by the dozen and also gleefully cackling about that fact that this will make the best flipbook yet.

Meanwhile Sigh and Aden (along with Melba, Layne, Hayden, and Kriss) were laughing over the fact that Jack, Neal, and Upid were all also closet Monty Python fans as proved by their smashing rendition of Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life .

Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin - give the audience a grin
Enjoy it - it's your last chance anyhow.

So always look on the bright side of death
Just before you draw your terminal breath

Life's a piece of crap
When you look at that
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.

And always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the right side of life...
(Come on guys, cheer up!)
Always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the bright side of life...
(Worse things happen at sea, you know.)
Always look on the bright side of life...
(I mean - what have you got to lose?)
(You know, you come from nothing - you're going back to nothing.
What have you lost? Nothing!)
Always look on the right side of life...

The real kicker was when Neal’s solo came up; he decided to do the Lumberjack song, which had everyone down in the Pit rolling in hysterical laughter.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK
I sleep all night and I work all day
(He's a lumberjack and he's OK
He sleeps all night and he works all day)
I cut down trees, I eat my lunch
I go to the lavat'ry
On Wednesdays I go shopping
And have buttered scones for tea
(He cuts down trees...)
(He's a lumberjack...)
I cut down trees, I skip and jump
I love to press wild flow'rs
I put on women's clothing
And hang around in bars
(He cuts down trees...)
(He's a lumberjack...)
I cut down trees, I wear high heels
Suspenders and a bra
I wish I'd been a girlie
Just like my dear papa
(He cuts down trees...)
(He's a lumberjack...)

It was now time. The time for their attack had come. Everything was in readiness and the fleet was getting underway. Soon the planet would be theirs, the planet of the bountiful resources. Squeambo, their iron fisted penguin dictator had sounded the call of battle and their penguin armies were fired up for the fire and blood and glory of hard core war fare. They were coming and no one could stop them.

“The penguins are coming! The penguins are coming!” Pablo started screaming hysterically, “The penguins are COMING!!!” Jack and Neal traded a look and then bolted off to find Upid. “What are these penguins? And why are they coming for us?” Neal asked in a hurry. Layne spoke up, “penguin from Welsh - this word originated in Wales There are no penguins in Wales. You will search for them in vain along the region's rocky shores. They are not to be found even at the Anglesey Sea Zoo on the Welsh Isle of Anglesey, nor among the two dozen species of birds at the Welsh Mountain Zoo near Colwyn Bay. To find a penguin in its native habitat, you have to go to the other end of the earth. But the name we give the bird in English is Welsh.

Stranger still, in Welsh, pen means "head" and gwyn means "white," so penguin means "white head." But on a penguin, the head is mostly black. How did it come to this?

The solution to the mystery goes back to the late sixteenth century, when nautical adventurers from the British Isles were beginning to venture across the oceans. Among the first places they visited was Newfoundland. There they found an island crowded with gray and white birds as big as geese but unable to fly--and thus easy to catch for food. The sailors would "driue them on a planke into our ship as many as shall lade her," wrote an observer in 1578.

There must have been Welshmen among the sixteenth-century British sailors, because they called both the island and the bird pen gwyn. Why they called it "white head" we can only guess. The bird had large white spots next to its eyes, though it did not have a white head. Perhaps the island itself looked like a white head.

In any case, when English explorers ventured as far south as the Strait of Magellan later in the century, they found birds that reminded them of the ones they had encountered in Newfoundland. These southern birds also were flightless, with dark backs and white fronts, and they waddled upright on web feet. They were therefore called penguins, even though they were zoologically quite distinct from the penguins of Newfoundland.

The northern bird, which we now call the great auk, was such an easy catch that by the mid-nineteenth century it was extinct. The southern bird, living in remote places, escaped that fate. And so when we speak of penguins today, we mean only the birds of the south.

Welsh, like Scottish, Irish, and Breton, is from the Celtic branch of Indo-European. It was spoken in the British Isles long before anyone spoke English there, but as is typical of the language of a conquered people, very little of the Welsh language ever entered English. We do, however, have Welsh names like Arthur and Merlin, landscape features like combe (valley, as early as 770) and crag (1300), a stringed instrument known as the crowd (1310), a dog called a corgi (1926), the eisteddfod festival (1822), a dessert called flummery (1623), and a drink made from fermented honey called metheglin (medicinal liquor, 1533). There are about half a million speakers of Welsh in Wales nowadays, most of them also fluent in English.”

Then Kriss added, reading off from a website, “penguin, originally the common name for the now extinct great auk of the N Atlantic and now used (since the 19th cent.) for the unrelated antarctic diving birds. Penguins, which are related most closely to the albatrosses, are the most highly specialized of all birds for marine life. They swim entirely by means of their flipperlike wings, using their webbed feet as rudders. Their stiff feathers serve as insulation, and are waterproof when oiled. Since their legs are set far back on their bodies, they waddle awkwardly on land, and often travel by tobogganing on their bellies over the ice as they migrate—sometimes great distances—each fall to their nesting sites.

Underwater they can swim up to 25 mi (40.3 km) per hr as they pursue the fish, squid, and shrimp that form their diet. They do not eat while on land, subsisting on a layer of fat under the skin; this results in weight losses of up to 75 lb (33.8 kg) during the two-month incubation period. Their chief enemies are the leopard seal, killer whale, and skua gull. Penguins are highly gregarious, and a population density of half a million birds in 500 acres has been counted at a colony in Antarctica.

There are 17 species of penguins, 10 of which are considered endangered or threatened. The largest penguins, the emperor and the king (3–4 ft/91.5–122 cm in height), incubate their eggs between their feet in a fold of skin. The smaller jackass penguins, Spheniscus demersus, are named for their braying cry, and crested penguins are distinguished by yellow plumes on either side of the head. Smallest of all is the little blue penguin, Eudyptula minor, of New Zealand and Australia.

Penguins are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae.”

Then Melba chimed in, “Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are an order of aquatic, flightless birds living in the Southern Hemisphere.

Species and habitats

The number of penguin species has been and still is a matter of debate. The numbers of penguin species listed in the literature vary between 16 and 19 species. Some sources consider the White-Flippered Penguin a separate Eudyptula species, although today it is generally considered a subspecies of the Little Penguin (e.g. Williams, 1995; Davis & Renner, 2003). Similarly, it is still unclear whether the Royal Penguin is merely a colour morph of the Macaroni penguin. Also possibly eligible to be treated as a separate species is the Northern population of Rockhopper penguins (Davis & Renner, 2003). Although all penguin species are native to the southern hemisphere, they are not, contrary to popular belief, found only in cold climates, such as Antarctica. In fact, only a few species of penguin actually live so far south. Three species live in the tropics; one lives as far north as the Galápagos Islands (the Galápagos Penguin) and will occasionally cross the equator while feeding.

The largest living species is the Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri): adults average about 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) tall and weigh 35 kg (75 lb) or more. The smallest penguin species is the Little Blue Penguin (also known as the Fairy Penguin), which stands around 40 cm tall (16 in) and weighs 1 kg (2.2 lb). Generally larger penguins retain heat better, and thus inhabit colder regions, while smaller penguins are found in temperate or even tropical climates (see also Bergmann's Rule). Some prehistoric species attained enormous sizes, becoming as high as an adult human; see below for more.

Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid, and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater. They spend half of their life on land and half in the oceans.

When mothers lose a chick, they sometimes attempt to steal another mother's chick, usually unsuccessfully as other females in the vicinity assist the defending mother in keeping her chick.

Penguins seem to have no fear of humans, and have approached groups of explorers without hesitation.

Evolution

The evolutionary history of penguins is poorly understood, as penguin fossils are rare. The oldest known fossil penguin species are the Waimanu, which lived in the early Paleocene epoch of New Zealand, about 62 million years ago. While they were not as well adapted to aquatic life as modern penguins (which first emerged in the Eocene epoch 40 million years ago), Waimanu were flightless and loon-like, with short wings adapted for deep diving. These fossils prove that prehistoric penguins were already flightless and seagoing, so their origins probably reach as far back as 65 million years ago, before the extinction of the dinosaurs. Penguin ancestry beyond Waimanu is not well known, though some scientists (Mayr, 2005) think the penguin-like plotopterids (usually considered relatives of anhingas and cormorants) may actually be an early sister group of the penguins, and that penguins may have ultimately shared a common ancestor with the Pelecaniformes.

During the Late Eocene and the Early Oligocene (40-30 MYA), some lineages of gigantic penguins existed. Nordenskjoeld's Giant Penguin was the tallest, growing nearly 1.80 meters (6 feet) tall. The heaviest known species was with at least 80 kg the New Zealand Giant Penguin. Both were found on New Zealand, the former also in the Antarctic.

Palaeeudyptines
Traditionally, most extinct species of penguins, giant or small, have been placed in the paraphyletic sub-family called Palaeeudyptinae. More recently, it is becoming accepted that there were at least 2 major extinct lineages, one or two closely related ones from Patagonia and at least one other with pan-Antarctic and subantarctic distribution.

Anatomy

Penguins are superbly adapted to an aquatic life. Their wings have become flippers, useless for flight in the air. In the water, however, penguins are astonishingly agile. Within the smooth plumage a layer of air is preserved, ensuring buoyancy. The air layer also helps insulate the birds in cold waters. On land, penguins use their tails and wings to maintain balance for their upright stance.

All penguins have a white underside and a dark (mostly black) upperside. This is for camouflage. A predator looking up from below (such as an orca or a leopard seal) has difficulty distinguishing between a white penguin belly and the reflective water surface. The dark plumage on their backs camouflages them from above.

Diving penguins reach 6 to 12 km/h (3.7 to 7.5 mph), though there are reports of velocities of 27 km/h (17 mph) (which are more realistic in the case of startled flight). The small penguins do not usually dive deep; they catch their prey near the surface in dives that normally last only one or two minutes. Larger penguins can dive deep in case of need. Dives of the large Emperor Penguin have been recorded which reach a depth of 565 m (1870 ft) and last up to 20 minutes.

Penguins either waddle on their feet or slide on their bellies across the snow, a movement called "tobogganing", which allows them to conserve energy and move relatively fast at the same time.

Penguins have an excellent sense of hearing. Their eyes are adapted for underwater vision, and are their primary means of locating prey and avoiding predators; in air, conversely, they are nearsighted. Their sense of smell has not been researched so far.

They are able to drink salt water safely because their supraorbital gland filters excess salt from the bloodstream. ^[1] ^[2] ^[3] The salt is excreted in a concentrated fluid from the nasal passages.

Mating habits

Some penguins mate for life, while others for just one season. They generally raise a small brood, and the parents cooperate in caring for the clutch and for the young.”

The three males just stopped and stared at the three females. “Thank you for that, gals. That was quite informative.” Jack said with a very strange look on his face. Upid thought for a minute, “If Pablo was freaking out about it, then you better take it seriously and if he’s talking about penguins, then there’s only one race that he could possibly mean. The ZifferZitherPenguins and let me tell you, Jack, if you thought the other alien races were bad, these guys are worse. They are downright feral when they go after something and they have no conception of mercy, they never give up, and they never surrender.”

“You’re kidding me right? The evil alien menace we’ve been so worried about is penguins! Evil alien penguins!” Neal looked at Upid incredulously. Jack just nodded once grimly, “Alright then how do we prepare for the attack? What are their weak points?” Upid thought for a minute, “I will get you all of the information that my people have on them. This is not a race you want to fight if you can avoid it, but if push comes to shove, I doubt if anyone would mind you wiping them from the face of the earth.” “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Jack replied grimly, “For now let’s just try to gather as much information as we possibly can on these bungers.”

Chapter Eight

2006-11-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

Chapter Eight – The Chapter That Has Really Has Nothing To Do With The Rest Of The Novel And The Author Has No Idea Where It Came From.

It was a slow day. The rain was pouring outside and the college’s normal hustle and bustle was muted. It was the same situation down in the Pit. There weren’t any landings or departures scheduled for today, no shipments coming in, nothing at all. Kriss was alternately reading a novel and running a diagnostic of all of the Center’s computers. Hayden wasn’t in today; he and Richie were taking the day and going to go do manly bonding things, like video arcade games and funny movies at the local mall. Most of the lounge was taken up by members of the staff working on administrative stuff and or homework. Sigh was curled up in the oversize computer chair she had in front of her desk, oversize headphones on her head, jamming away as she finished up writing her next part of the massive round robin collaborative story she’d been working on with a friend.

[ Intercept Six – Maresigh Node - Story Prompt 153. Sunset

He sipped his steaming hot mug of coffee as he stood on the top of the Astronomy Tower. He’d been standing here for a while, just waiting for…something. One of the House-Elves had brought him a mug of coffee a few hours into his little vigil. He wasn’t quite sure why he was standing up here, out at this truly ungodly hour of the morning. He’d had trouble sleeping and had decided somewhere around three a.m. that it was no further use to try; he was just too keyed up. Too much had happened recently, the Dark Lord on the move, gathering his army to him. His beautiful mother had even been seduced into employing her special talents for Voldemort.

With a heritage like theirs, Voldemort couldn’t afford to have them on the fence for this coming battle. They’d always been neutral before this, their roça de Candomblé, dedicated to the worship of the loa and no other. But now it had come down to the Choice. His mother, the iaorixá of their house had taken the safe way out, chosen a half-life under the half-blood Dark Lord rather than be executed out of hand for denying him. He, he still had no idea which path he would choose. Ogun and Lemanjá give him strength, give him wisdom. He wanted his freedom; he wanted the chance to live without constantly having to guard himself from those that might destroy him on a whim. He’s heard the stories about such things from the others in his House and he’d do almost anything to avoid that fate. Blaise Zabini was not bred to be anyone’s bootlicker, any mortals’ that was. He served the Guédé and no other. His Tante and his Maman had brought him up to fear the Guédé and love them. His mother would pay for the services she performed for the Dark Lord. The Baron was a jealous fellow, he did not share easily.

He wrapped his hands around the still warm mug and let the steam from the mug warm up his face. He drained the last of the coffee as he watched the sun, Legba, come up. The bright streaks of the sky in all its glory with the reds, oranges, and pinks brightened the day as he turned to go back indoors. His mother’s gifts were useless in the daylight; the Inferi liked the sunlight about as much as they enjoyed fire. That was why he enjoyed the sunrise, he thought to himself with a small smile. He preferred the light of Legba and of Lemanjá next to that of the Baron. ]

That one had been interesting; she thought to herself, developing this fictional character’s background had required some serious research into Haitian mythology and the real practices and beliefs behind what was commonly known as voodoo. She hit the back button on her browser and reviewed all of the little and not so little prompts she had finished that day. That one had been the only fan fiction one, she thought to herself, the rest had all been original fiction.

[Intercept Seven – Maresigh Node - Dragon Sworn Prologue and First Chapter

There were once three children by the name of Steyn. Katarina was the eldest and she loved books and writing and playing soccer. Then there was Alexandra who loved animals and softball and playing games in the dark. And then there was Nico, the youngest and only boy of the three. He loved playing outside, history, and other boy things. The three children lived quite happily with their parents in their lovely little town of Woodstock. They were very happy there, but there came a time when they learned that they had to move, leaving Woodstock and all their friends behind. None of them were happy about this at all.

In order to help facilitate things with the move and everything, their eldest cousin, lately returned from her daring adventures in South America, had come up to spend some time with them, as well as help out where she was needed.

Little did they know what was about to befall them.

It had all started one day when their mother was out and the three children were bored. It was raining so they couldn’t go outside and they’d done just about everything else. They’d watched everything on TV, seen all of the films they had at home, played all the computer games they could until the storms had forced them to shut the computers down. They were quite frankly, bored out of their minds. So they told their cousin, in charge of keeping an eye on them for the day. It was she, who after a few minutes thought, came up with this marvelous idea.

Quickly the three children gathered up all the blankets and pillows and snacks they would need and settling themselves in the room above the garage, they burrowed into their blankets and snacks, listening rapturously as their cousin began to tell them this wonderful story. Princes, Princesses, a magical world fraught with dangers untold, creatures of fabulous design, and winding pathways that always would lead you to where you needed to be, if you were steadfast and true.

A world of sorcery and delights indescribable, but a world with one very serious problem; their race of guardians was dying out. The brave souls who had been blessed by the Presence and that served the Balance in all that they did, who were chosen specially at birth were slowly dying out. Hardly any more children were being born with the gifts, magic, foresight, the list went on. With this decline in the birthrates, the older magicians and sorcerers noticed a horrifying trend, with so few children being born with the gifts; the world’s magic was slowly dying out.

They needed help badly, but not even the eldest and wisest of them knew where to look for it. They beseeched the Presence to give them back their magic, to show them a sign that things would be restored to their former glory.

The Presence, being all-knowing and wise, provided them with the signs of the Dragon and the Unicorn. Soon they will come, the children of blessed fate would will restore the magic and set right the Balance. This is what the Oracles prophesied.

Years passed and the world fell under the control of a vicious tyrant. He made a sport of hunting down and killing all of the remaining guardians that he could find. For with the Balance so distorted, his true masters, the Lords of Chaos could sweep in and distort everything to their liking.

Still the people remained faithful and in small patches, they clung to the two sacred signs and their promise that one day, their saviors would come….

The story was interrupted by the return of the children’s mother, who brought groceries and movies and two old friends to play with. The sun was finally peeking out of the clouds and they were no longer bored. With promises to continue the story later on, their cousin shooed them all outside to play while she helped their mother with groceries and then dinner.

Kat, the eldest had darted back in to get her drink after they had all been sent off to play and she inadvertently saw her cousin tucking something away in one of the crawlspaces that led up into the attic. Resolving to ask about it later, she joined her siblings and the two friends and they had a merry old time in the backyard…

It was another day and Kat was bored. Their cousin was babysitting them again while their mother was out arranging for more moving whatever. Kat hadn’t really been paying attention at that point. Right now, her cousin was sitting downstairs playing a game with Alex and Nico. She hadn’t wanted to play so she’d come upstairs but now she couldn’t think of what she wanted to do. Actually that wasn’t true, Kat knew what she wanted to do; she wanted to curl up with a good book and lose herself in its pages. Herein lay her dilemma, she’d read and reread everything that there was in the house. She needed something new, something fresh, something exciting, something like the story that she had heard two days ago with the Dragon, the Unicorn, and the Balance. She remembered that she had seen her cousin tucking something away in the attic crawlspace. She opened the crawlspace door and inched her way inside, poking through some of the various things that had been stuffed or stored in there. Crawling through the entrance and over a few trunks, she thought she espied the parcel. She reached out and grabbed it and all of a sudden, she fell. As she continued to fall, she clutched the parcel to her and the last thought she had before surrendering to unconsciousness was a spark of mingled curiosity and humor. The tag on the parcel she’d grabbed read, “Kat.”

Gareth the grand vizier of Iithilii looked up in alarm, there was something not quite right. He listened intently for a moment, and then the confusion cleared from his face. The slight nagging presence he felt through the life force toward which he was bound was the sound of one of the old books of prophecy aging. Going into the old vault where the eldest tomes and books of prophecies were kept, he followed the nudge that he’d felt and it led him to the proper book. His gray-brown eyebrows raised in surprise as his hand landed on a particular book, an old leather bound book. Rich purple vellum with gold and silver designs on the front, it looked like some of the others save for one very important characteristic. This book was the only book with the Sigils of the Unicorn and the Dragon imbedded on the front of it. This book held the most ancient prophecies that the Presence had bequeathed to the Oracles who had in turn bequeathed to the Scribes and the Guardians. This copy had been salvaged from the Crystal Palace when the Agents of Chaos had overrun the palace. Caressing the beautiful cover, sighing heavily at the memory of times past, he carefully opened it up to the first page. Reading the beautiful calligraphy that had appeared on the gilt-edged pages, Gareth’s eyes grew large and wordlessly, he snapped up the book, concealing it in one of his long sleeves. Striding out of the vault, he returned to his quarters and after casting every single protective and anti-intrusive ward he could think of, he re-opened the book. Staring at the words on the page, he could hardly believe his eyes. The time has come. The first one approaches on the Greendale road. Seek her there. She is the First. To the Caves she is destined. The Waterchild comes. Gareth closed his eyes, thinking quickly, I must get to her before it is too late, but to leave in haste now would be far too conspicuous, questions would be asked and their Great Enemy alerted to this fortuitous happening. That could not happen, not until after the training was completed. Snapping his fingers, he whistled for his familiar, Zarien. A black raven glided into the room, smoothly transforming into a slender page no more than 12-13 years of age by human reckoning. “Your servant appears, milord, what is your will?” Gareth smiled slightly, “I need you to carry a message, child.” “Very good, milord, who is the illustrious recipient of such a missive, if your servant may ask?” the page said inquiringly. “Atreyu, child, this message goes to the Sidhe. Dana herself protects you, this is more urgent than anything else. Gandelphi the Sage will know the burden; Tatiana and Zadrith will also be needed. The Caves, Zarien, she must go to the Caves.” Gareth said, his eyes glimmering feverishly. “Who, Master, who is she?” Zarien asked anxiously, it had been many years since the wizard had called him by his right name. “Waterchild, Ka…ka….kat…she is the Kat. Find her, save her; the Caves will prove her worthy. Go Zarien, fly fast and free to her, I charge thee.” Zarien nodded, running to the window and transforming back into a raven just as he leapt out of the window. He had a message to deliver. ]

Kat rubbed her eyes as she sat up in the field of wildflowers? Where on earth was she? Last thing she remembered was being in the crawlspace, reaching for the parcel. The parcel! Kat looked down to see that she still had it with her. Breathing a deep sigh of relief, she opened it up and stared at the contents of it. Where on earth did her cousin get such things? She wondered to herself as she admired the gown she’d pulled out of the parcel. Digging deeper into it, she found that there were matching boots and leathers and a pendant that seemed to go along with a type of leather bound journal, she thought it might be. She remembered seeing her cousin carrying around similar ones in the time that she’d been with them. Placing all of the things back into the parcel and making sure to tie up the ends of it, so it formed a sort of satchel, she picked it up and getting to her feet, began walking towards where she thought some sort of civilization might be.

Back at the house, the cousin had gone looking for Kat, it was getting close to dinner time and she’d wanted to know what Kat would like to have for dinner. Walking into the room where she’d been staying and seeing the hatch for the crawlspace open, her heart sank. Hurriedly, she went to the crawlspace and went searching for the things she had stashed in there. Seeing that the great book was still there, she breathed a sigh of relief, but her relief did not last for long. She realized too late that she was a parcel short, Kat’s was missing, and the other ones were still there. She closed her eyes, silently asking Dana and those above and below to give her wisdom to know where to go from here. Quickly reaching for the small leather bound book she always kept by her side, she scribbled down, “She is there. Her name is Kat. She has the book with her.” Sighing as she scrambled out of the crawlspace, she went back downstairs to see Alex and Nico. The first piece in place, the rest are sure to follow soon, was her last thought, Dana be praised. ]

She finished up reviewing the last couple entries she had posted onto her writers website. Then turned around to see that some of the more musical members of their little group had cordoned off a section of the Pit all for themselves and they were tuning their instruments and laughing and discussing which piece to play first. They made quite the eclectic group, Aden with her flute, Kelle with her trombone, Tim Zerkfield and Gabriella on guitar, and Neal on his fiddle. Zhann and Alissa were there, warming up as well. They were the two best singers in the group by far. They started off with one of Sigh’s favorite ballads, Scarborough Fair.

Both

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to one who lives there,
For she once was a true love of mine.

Zhann

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Without any seam nor needlework,
And then she'll be a true love of mine.

Tell her to wash it in yonder dry well,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Which never sprung water nor rain ever fell,
And then she'll be a true love of mine.

Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Which never bore blossom since Adam was born,
And then she'll be a true love of mine.

Ask her to do me this courtesy,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And ask for a like favour from me,
And then she'll be a true love of mine.

Both

Have you been to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me from one who lives there,
For he once was a true love of mine.

Alissa

Ask him to find me an acre of land,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Between the salt water and the sea-sand,
For then he'll be a true love of mine.

Ask him to plough it with a lamb's horn,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And sow it all over with one peppercorn,
For then he'll be a true love of mine.

Ask him to reap it with a sickle of leather,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And gather it up with a rope made of heather,
For then he'll be a true love of mine.

When he has done and finished his work,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Ask him to come for his cambric shirt,
For then he'll be a true love of mine.

Both

If you say that you can't, then I shall reply,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Oh, Let me know that at least you will try,
Or you'll never be a true love of mine.

Love imposes impossible tasks,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
But none more than any heart would ask,
I must know you're a true love of mine.

That started them off with a round of various songs they all knew and enjoyed. Sigh smiled happily as she watched the musicians practice and play and in some cases, dance.

Jack smiled, whistling to himself as he straightened up his apartment a bit. Sigh was coming over again later and he wanted everything to be perfect for her. As he was straightening up the living room, he noticed a packet lying on his coffee table. Picking it up, he started to leaf through it. After reading the first two pages, he set the tray of stray coffee cups and the garbage bag full of trash down and he sat down on the couch, completely immersed in reading this story.

Prologue

“Go! Run!” yelled Cooper as the small company went sprinting for the helipad on the far side of the Nimbrathile castle ruins. As he looked up, he silently prayed that Turin and Shadow had found and were able to start one of the two helicopters on the inlet. If not then they would spend a good many days running through the dense forest that surrounded this place and then fording the immensely large river that cut this bay off from the rest of the country. As they ran the Princess Niniel fell and got her foot trapped, Cooper looked back, saw that she was frantically trying to pull free, swore and ran to help her.

As he freed her, he saw the two LeVoider brothers, Malvolion and Maximus, advancing towards them; Cooper swept the Princess into his arms and out of the corner of his eye saw the helicopter land and Myriad getting everything and everyone into the ‘copter. They had rescued a load of ancient family heirlooms that rightfully belonged to Dior and Niniel. Those would weigh the ‘copter down a bit, but he understood why they had to take them. He looked over his shoulder and saw the LeVoider brothers start after them. Niniel in his arms started softly muttering a chant or some sort of ancient incantation. He looked over his shoulder and his jaw dropped. The brothers were stopped alright; oh wait, just then Malvolion started forward, shook his head, and then snapped his fingers, then did the same for his brother. They started forward again, but it didn’t matter. They were at the helicopter; He put Niniel in first, and then hopped in himself, quickly shutting and locking the door.

“Go, Go” he shouted and they lifted off, Cooper looked down and to his horror, noticed that Mara was still on the ground and started yelling for them to go back down and get her. Shadow shook his head and pointed down to where she was, Cooper glanced down aghast and saw that the chemical mixture that Malvolion had so lovingly developed and then set loose on the grounds and in certain places of the castle( as they had already found out) was seeping closer and closer to the place where his beloved was. She apparently realized this and then took off in the direction of the thick forest, but it was too late, Malvolion had withdrawn a stun gun and he ruthlessly shot her with it. She twitched and kept on running, Malvolion fiddled with the voltage dial and shot her again, Mara kept on going, knowing that reaching the woods was her only shot at surviving this mess. Cooper, unable to tear his eyes away from the chilling scene below him, watched as finally his beloved crashed to the ground and bravely tried to drag herself away from the chemicals that would certainly eat away at her if they touched her skin. The last thing he was able to see before the copter had moved out of view of the inlet was Malvolion moving in for the kill, and then this piercing scream………

Cooper sat bolt upright in bed, panting, he hadn’t had that dream for at least 2-3 years now. Even still the memories of that particular event still haunted him. He got out of bed to change out of his sweat-soaked t-shirt and as he pulled a fresh one over his head, he noticed his hands were still shaking. Dang it, after 5 years, he thought he was over it, but deep down he knew that some part of it would always be with him. It had duly left its marks on him as it had with Turin. Cooper knew that neither one of them would ever quite be the same again. Then came a knock on his bedroom door, “Come in” he said. “Uh, Coop?” “Yes, Brady” “Are you alright?” his partner and good friend Brady Ellison asked. “No, I’m not really and I doubt I ever will be again” replied Cooper with mist in his eyes. “Would you like to talk about it?” asked Brady. “No” said Cooper “I would just like to be left alone right now.” “Ok” “Thanks for asking, Brady” “You’ll be alright?” hazarded Brady. “In time, yes” replied his friend.

Meanwhile in a small secluded beach house, Malvolion LeVoider was ruing the day that he had ever met Cooper Smith or Turin Turthalion. Had it not been for them, his plan would have succeeded. His one goal, to marry the Princess and become King of the vaunted Hidden Isle, but not only that, his greatest achievement would have been finding the lost, mystical treasure of Ancient Marelindon. “You do realize that if you hadn’t killed Turin’s wife and Cooper’s sister, then your plan probably would have succeeded. Revenge is a powerful motive and that’s what drove Coop and Turin to find you and disrupt all your plans.” “Hmmm, you know I really hadn’t considered it from that angle before” Malvolion’s voice dripped with sarcasm “Well, hurry and come, I need you here.” he said and hung up the phone. Well, he was going to try again and this time no one was going to stand in his way.

Chapter One

Ring, ring the telephone at 1213 N. Braddock Avenue jingled “I’m coming, I’m coming” yelled Brady Ellison. Noting that the call came in on one of Cooper’s private “business” lines, he picked up the phone and said “Smith and Associates Archeological division how may I direct your call?”

“Listen kid, tell Cooper to turn on the TV channel eight now!” the voice on the other side of the line replied forcefully. “His past just came back to haunt him.”

“What? Who are you? How did you get this number?”

“Just tell him alright kid? This is way over your head; don’t get mixed up with this.”

“Who are you?” Brady thundered into the phone.

“Th’ name’s Shadow, Cooper’ll know who I am. Now go kid”

At this the mysterious voice hung up and Brady after doing the same sprinted for Coop’s study.

“Coop- channel eight-hurry” were his gasped out words.

Cooper shot his associate a puzzled look and flipped to the channel, it was on a commercial break, so he asked “What’s up Brady?”

Brady answered only slightly breathlessly now “A guy called on one of your private “business” lines and told me to tell you to turn to this station. He also told me not to get involved, that this was way over my head.”

Cooper puzzled by who it could have been asked “Did he leave a name?”

“Yeah, he said that his name was Shadow and that you’d know who he was.”

“Shadow! Are you absolutely certain that he said his name was Shadow?” Cooper cried in disbelief.

“Hey! Calm down Coop! Who is this guy? What’s he to you?” Brady inquired wonderingly because he had never seen Coop this shaken before. Mad yes, absolutely furious to the point where it seemed that lasers shot out of his eyes yes, but shaken never. It had seemed to many of their other colleagues that Coop was unshakeable, that nothing ever really “got” to him. Brady was absolutely blown away at this reaction from Coop, but then he reasoned it probably had to do with whatever had happened before he had come to work with him. Shadow he’d have to remember that name.

Before Cooper had a chance to answer, the morning talk show came back from commercial. Both men turned toward the television …..

“And here with us, Mark is Lord Malvolion LeVoider, renowned chemist; Lord LeVoider was instrumental in the rescue efforts five years ago concerning the mad scientist who unwittingly blew himself and some guests up at his castle in Northern Scotland. Lord LeVoider has devoted time and money to the investigation of that terrible tragedy.” “Lord LeVoider, the fifth anniversary of that tragic incident is approaching; tell us, are you any closer to finding out what really happened up there?”

“Well, Terry, we still are trying to figure out the exact components of what Dr. McKinney used to compose the solution that exploded and ate away at two-thirds of his own castle. But we have identified two major ingredients in what we could find of the McKinney Mix (as we now call it); nitroglycerine and sulfuric acid, which when mixed together create a reaction not unlike that which happened up at the McKinney castle, five long years ago.”

After hearing this, Brady glanced over at Cooper and saw surprisingly the barely restrained loathing that was smoldering in the eyes of his companion. Something about this guy had Cooper really really ticked off. The talk show interview blared on.

“Surely, Lord LeVoider, there must have been other ingredients that added to the power, to the oomph of the solution?” “Most certainly there were, we just have not discovered them yet. In the blast, most of the solution was incinerated along with its creator and the guests. So the minute parts of what we have found of the remaining solution have revealed very little about its ingredients.”

“Wow! That’s truly amazing at what forensic science can do nowadays!” “So Lord LeVoider, what are your plans for the future?”

“Well Terry, this summer my step-brother Maximus and I …..”

“That would be Max LeXoidar, the well-known artist?”

“Yes, that’s correct; we’re planning to go an archeological dig.”

“Wow, that’ll be exciting for you and your brother.”

“Yes, we quite expect it to be, I will also be married this summer.”

“Really?” the host’s eyebrows shot up “Who is the lucky lady?”

“A wonderful lady from my hometown of Inverness, Scotland, Terry.”

“Well, Lord LeVoider, thank you for coming and congrats on your upcoming nuptials.”

“Any time, Terry”

“Back to you, Mark”

Click, the sound of the TV being turned off, Cooper swore under his breath, “I knew it, they’re going to try again, and I knew it. I told him, that blasted idiot that it would take more than that to bring a LeVoider down. Dang it! Why did I have to be right?”

“What’s up, Coop?” Brady asked concernedly.

“Whaddya mean Brady?”

“Coop, I watched you nearly lose it when that Shadow dude called, so obviously he means or meant something to you. When we watched that interview just now, I saw you go from shock to fury the minute you saw who was being interviewed and at the end there, your face was akin to something like murderous rage. Don’t get me wrong here, but you’re not the kind of guy to get this riled up over something as trivial as a TV interview. Ergo, something is up.”

The kid had a point, Cooper realized, he took a deep breath and then asked “You know how sometimes you’ll do something and it’ll come back to haunt you later?” Cooper waited for the kid to nod before going on “Well, it looks like my past just came back to bite me in the rear. With a vengeance.”

“Just like that Shadow guy said” Brady stated wonderingly, “But yeah, I know what you mean.” Cooper sighed in relief and then suddenly leaped over to the phone, “I just remembered something” he said, hitting the speed dial button that would dial T.Turthalion Agency, CEO Turin Turthalion’s private number. “Blast!” he said “I forgot that Turin’s on his fishing trip.”

“Want me to track em down?” asked Brady. “Nah, he’ll be home tomorrow” replied Cooper.

“Coop”

“What! What?” Cooper replied skittishly. “Nothing, you just seem a little tense.” Brady observed.

“No, no I’ll be fine” Cooper assured him “you just go along and do whatever, I’m fine … really.”

“Oooooook Boss, whatever you say” Brady replied in an odd tone of voice as he got up and left the room. All Cooper needed was time to think and plan.

Two days later

It was a race that he knew, thought Cooper Smith. But towards what prize are they after, head of a Royal House and ruler of the remnant of an ancient people or the fabled treasure of that ancient people? You do need one to achieve the other and that could result in either kidnapping or marrying the Princess, perhaps both. This last thought he‘d spoken aloud and as he sat, thinking this over, he heard a voice say, “Yeah and you’ll need to get there ASAP before anything undesirable happens, not to mention finding it.” “Nah that’s not a problem, Turin will know where it is” said Cooper not really thinking about what he was saying or really paying attention to the figure that had now entered the room and was diligently studying the passers-by at the bay window. “Wow, I had no idea Turin’s arm stretched out that far” commented the voice with a slight twinge of sarcasm. Cooper reverted out of his pensive state and said cautiously “His arm does stretch out pretty far.” “Well, yeah but to know the location of the Hidden Isle, I mean that’s…the voice trailed off. Cooper’s mind was reeling Marelindon? he thought wildly. Feigning innocence he said “what’s that Brady?” Brady Ellison, middleman and information snoop extraordinaire gave him a disbelieving look and replied” Oh come on Coop, it ‘s written all over your face.” Still playing the innocent, Cooper said “What is?” Brady retorted “That this whole thing from that cockamamie interview on TV, 2 days ago to the misty-eyed, kinda pensive look that I haven’t seen on you in ages, all relates back to 5 years ago and that lil adventure you had in Nimbrathile with Turin and whoever else.” Cooper was shocked where in the sam hill had Brady gotten that name? he thought. “Is it that obvious, Brady?” he asked slumping back into his chair. “Nah, not really, at least not to someone who doesn’t know you all that well, but to the rest of us who do know you fairly well, it is pretty obvious that something is bothering you. As to how I knew what exactly was bugging you, it's easy, I haven’t seen that kind of faraway look on you for at least four years and I still remember the first time I saw it on you. Which by the way , was when you came into Miro’s after your lil “trip” and I heard Miro tell Lila that for sure something had happened to you, cause you just didn’t seem like the same guy who had left here. You were kinda like a shadow of your former self. As to how I knew Turin had been with you is because he came in the day after you did, and he was wearing the same exact look on his face. After Miro saw that he swore under his breath and looked really worried. When Turin had left, Miro closed up and went into the kitchen where Lila was finishing up sweeping the kitchen and told her that whatever had happened had to have been something huge to affect both of you in the same exact way. He told her that just having seen one of you alike this was astounding, but both of you? That was almost unthinkable.” Cooper shifted in his chair uncomfortably; he had had no idea that his reaction to that whole affair, (mess was more like it, he conceded) in Nimbrathile had had such an impact on his friends. His curiosity aroused, he asked “What else did Miro say about us?” Brady replied that Miro had remarked that Turin and Cooper were generally known to be the “unshakeables” in their profession and that he hadn’t thought that anything could have had that much of an effect on them. Miro had also said that whatever it was, if it had affected them in that way, it was better off left unknown to the world. Cooper sat and mulled this over. “Anyways” Brady said after a moment of silence “If Turin does help us, you know he’ll want something in return.” Cooper shifted in his chair, “What might that be?” he asked thoughtfully, pursing his lips. Brady replied with a lazy smile “oh probably not more than bringing one or two of his people to help us.” “Us?” remarked Cooper with a lifted eyebrow. Brady rolled his eyes “yeah Coop, us, you couldn’t pry me away from this with a crowbar.” Giving his associate a disgruntled look, he told him to “Just go make the call, Brady” and then added “Better yet, if he’s in the mood for Italian/Chinese, have him meet us at Miro’s.” “Right-o boss” was Brady’s semi-amused reply. Cooper settled back into his chair, mulling over the material and other supplies that he, no they would need on this trip. His mind digressed to a pair of flashing jade green eyes… When Brady popped his head back into the den, he saw Cooper was just sitting there, staring off into space, lost in some unknown fantasy. Humph, like Coop had fantasies he thought wryly, then cleared his throat and said “hey Coop, we’re set, they’ll meet us there in half an hour.” “Kay thanks Brady, Let me just grab my jacket” Cooper responded in a dreamy sort of way. “No problem Coop, I’ll be in the Bronco” said Brady shaking his head with a bemused grin on his face. Coop never ceased to amaze or surprise him he thought chuckling to himself as he got his jacket and stepped into the garage to get the car.

Cooper shrugged his jacket on as he stepped out his front door into the chilly blast, remembering the last time he had gone off on one of these “adventures”. Yep, that’s what they were alright terrifying, hair-raising, amazing “adventures” the little voice in his head remarked wryly.

Chapter Two

Meanwhile on the hidden island of Marelindon, Princess Mara Niniel GilAndune walked out onto her verandah, letting her long black hair blow in the light sea breeze, wondering what had become of her beloved cousin, Turin and her brother Dior. Wherever they were, she wished them well, but her mind kept returning to one of the party from five years past in particular, Turin’s friend, Cooper. She likewise wished him the best of luck in his rogue bachelor life. Though there were times she had to admit, when she would have given anything to be with all of them again.

Then she heard someone cry mournfully “Your Highness” and with a sigh she replied “what is it Mithae?” “Well Madame, the Lady Illa is here to speak with you and pardon me for saying this, but you’re not ready for visitors at all,” remarked Mithae. Mara rolled her eyes and said, “It is quite alright Mithae, I appreciate your candor and no matter what Lord Bromley says it is not sacrilegious to let my hair down. I rule here not him.” “ You’d never know it from the way he struts around this place, Your Highness” the Lady Illa remarked dryly as she stepped out onto the verandah. “You may leave us now, Mithae,” said the Princess. “Yes Madame” said Mithae and promptly scurried away. The Princess wandered back out to the balcony, the Lady Illa following. “You’re thinking about him again aren’t you?” It was more a statement than a question Mara knew, but still she replied with a sigh and a wistful look in her eyes “Yes Illa I am, in fact I was thinking how it must feel to be free like he and how much I wish to be with them.” “Have no fear Milady, I have a feeling you’ll be seeing them sooner than you think” Illa remarked casually. Mara shot her a brief, questioning look, wondering if her friend knew something that she herself did not. Then her eye caught sight of a figure storming toward them and she quickly composed herself and put on her serene diplomatic face. Lady Illa did the same, for Lord Bromley was of a trying nature and she really did not want to tangle with him on matters of state anymore today. It was enough that the man had ego enough to share with the rest of the continent, she would have had him retired to one of his many estates long before now , had his advice not always been sound. With one last wistful look at the sunset, she turned and went to meet her irate island governor.

Cooper and Brady parked the car and then walked into Miro’s Italian/Chinese restaurant and were immediately spotted by Lila Hirosion, Miro’s wife. “Hey guys long time no see, I gather you’re here to see Turin?” she said nonchalantly. “On a fishing expedition are we today, Lila?” said Cooper with a smile as he greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. “Well it’d be nice to hear about something ya’ll do or are going to do that didn’t come from Miro or after the fact.” retorted Lila. “Besides I need to know the kind of danger you’re sending my Brady into.” “Danger? What danger?” said an innocent looking Cooper. “Ok ok, cut it out you two,” said Brady enveloping Lila in a bear hug. “Hey where’s Miro?” asked Brady. “Right behind you, ya big lug” said Miro as he and Brady hugged. “Here to see Turin?” asked Miro and at a nod from Cooper, led them to the other semi-private, off to the side dining room. “Cooper, Brady welcome, I believe you know the rest of my people” said Turin as he and Cooper shook hands. “We do indeed “nodded Cooper “Fly, Gil, if you’ll excuse me a minute, I need to talk to Turin in private.” As Turin shot him a questioning look, Fly replied in that cool everything’s under control tone that was her trademark, “Sure go ahead, we’ll keep Brady here with us.” As Cooper and Turin walked off a little ways away, Gil remarked, “Bet you ten to one this has to do with that shady op they pulled 5 years ago.” Fly replied sarcastically “Gee ya think”, and then on a more serious note, she added, “It seems like everything Turin does relates back to then in some way, yet he won’t tell anything about what happened. Whenever it’s brought up he either blows us off completely or gets this wistful look and won’t speak or do anything for a while.” “How does Cooper react or do you just avoid the subject all together?” Gil asked Brady. Brady answered” Well mostly we avoid the subject, but sometimes we’ll do something that couldn’t not be related to it, it's just too obvious. I also have this sneaking suspicion that both Turin and Cooper had to leave somebody behind when they left, you know somebody that they really cared for and you know how much that irks them. I'd also lay money that she was either a sweetheart or a really close family member, maybe both.” “What makes you think that?” asked Fly, her voice full of wonder.

“Cause I’ve seen that same faraway look on Cooper a time or two. Another thing has either of you ever noticed that since they came back neither one of them has gone on a date or even seemed remotely interested in the idea?” Fly thought about this for a minute and it hit her like a speeding cannonball, Brady was right. He was absolutely, positively, one hundred percent right. She said “Oh my gosh, Gil, he’s right, Brady’s right” “I’m not following,” said Gil. “Think about it Gil, when was the last time you saw Cooper or Turin for that matter with a steady girlfriend that wasn’t a cover? Someone that you knew that they really cared about.” said Fly. Gil thought about it for a minute and the sudden realization of it made his jaw drop. “Wow” he said, “Can’t say for Cooper, but the last time I saw Turin like that was just about five years ago and I seriously doubt that’s a coincidence.” “I know” said Brady, “Man; I would so love to know what possessed them to go off like that.” “Yeah, if we knew why they went then maybe we could figure out what had happened to them to make them come back so different.” “Not different, just subdued, not to mention grief-stricken, but not different” Fly remarked in a low, weird tone, her eyes focused on the wall in front of her... Noting that this was somewhat uncharacteristic for the cool, calculating Brazilian woman, Brady and Gil leaned closer, “What do you mean by that, Fly?” Brady asked gently. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Fly looked at the two guys, “I may know why Cooper and Turin left five years ago.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, first off both of you know that I’ve been with Turin since I was fifteen right?”

“Yes.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Ok, well this starts about two-maybe three years before their adventure. Turin was happier then; he laughed more than he does now. Though that had to do more with Turin’s wife, Nina.”

“Turin was married?”

“Um-hmm, Nina was about maybe seven-eight years younger than Turin, but they never paid attention to that. They were the happiest couple I’ve ever seen, I mean you could just see that they were madly, passionately in love with one another.”

“Wow, how’d they meet?”

“Nina was an investigative journalist. She and Turin met when she hired the firm to look into the subject of one of her pieces. After the first time, she always came to us if she needed info and eventually they fell for each other.”

“Anyways, like I said, Nina was an investigative reporter and one of the agreements that she and Turin made while they were engaged was that she would keep working….”

“Turin agreed to that?”

“….under the condition that if there was any dirty work to be done, that she would let Turin handle it.”

“Ahhh, that makes sense now.”

“Well, Nina was onto this hot story about this guy. A very naughty mad scientist type only he was a chemist. He was performing some very nasty experiments on human subjects and she was going to expose him.”

“Who was this guy, Fly?”

“Like I said, this guy was heavy-duty. His name was….”

“… was Malvolion LeVoider, his name was Lord Malvolion LeVoider” Brady sunk back into the booth, his eyes closed, and his hands clenched, “Fly was right when she said this guy was heavy-duty.”

Fly shot a questioning look at Brady before going on with her tale, “So she was investigating this LeVoider guy and somehow he got wind that Nina was on his tail. Bam! She disappears and none of us noticed that she was missing until a couple of days had passed and she didn’t come home.”

“Come again, Fly? Care to explain that a little more?”

“See, Gil, it was like this. Many times during the course of Nina’s work, she had to drop out of sight for a day or two. That wasn’t unusual for her, but if she had to do that then she always, and I mean always let us know, especially if she was gone for two or three days. So the first few days after Nina disappeared, no one took note because we all figured that she was following up a lead on that hot story we all knew she was on.”

“Everyone knew that Nina was working on a hot story?”

“Well, we all knew that she was working on something big, just by the way she was. I mean sometimes she just got this look in her eyes, you know? Out of all of us, only Turin really knew what she was doing and he only knew what he told him. Anyways after a couple of days passed by and Turin started to get worried, after the second week he was as near to frantic as I’ve ever seen him. Another two weeks after that and Turin, Miro, and I went to Nina’s apartment to see if there could possibly be anything there that might help us find her.”

“Wait a minute, Fly. They had separate apartments?”

“Nina kept her apartment as a sort of base of operations, kind of like a glorified office.”

“Oh ok, go on.”

“So, we head over there and walk in to find a barely twenty something infant poking around the place. Turin asks him what he’s doing there and the infant tells him that this is his sister’s apartment, he’s been waiting for her, and then he turns the question back on us and demands to know just exactly what we’re doing there. Turin is stunned because he hadn’t known that Nina had a younger brother. So we poke around and while we’re searching through her desk and papers, we come across her safe. But before we can open it, we get this call from the police.” Fly paused to take a sip of her iced tea before continuing, “The police say that they’ve found this body that somewhat matches Nina’s description and they’d like for Turin to come down to the morgue and see if he can identify the body. Turin and Nina’s brother leave for the morgue, Miro and Turin filling him in on what has happened so far. Leaving me at the apartment working on a way to open the safe. I finally get it open...and Voila, we hit paydirt! All of Nina’s notes and tapes, everything pertaining to the LeVoider case, as she called it was in there. She also had a couple of other interesting objects in there, but they were mostly sentimental mementos. At that point, the guys have come back and I knew just by looking at Turin’s face that the worst had come true and that Nina was gone. I swear guys; I’ve never seen Turin that angry or sad before. I mean he just kicked at one of the walls and put a three foot hole in it! Three days after Nina’s funeral, Turin, along with Nina’s brother took off and I didn’t see them again until five months later.”

“Wow, oh man that’s rough!”

“Yeah, that’s the kind of thing that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.”

“Hey, Fly, who was Nina’s brother?”

Fly stretched her arms and smiled, “Funny that you should ask that, Brady. I mean with working for the guy and all.”

Brady’s eyes grew to the size of teacups “Cooper! Cooper was Nina’s brother? Oh man, that explains a lot.” He closed his eyes and leaned against the back of the booth that certainly did explain a lot he thought.

Fly tilted her head, “Uh-huh, so tell us how you knew this LeVoider guy, Brady. What’s he to you?”

Gil nodded emphatically, “Yeah Brady spill.”

“Some other time guys, I don’t want to talk about it now.”

“Come on! Oh shhhh they’re coming back over.”

After they had gotten to a short distance away, out of hearing range, Turin had fiercely whispered “Ok, Coop what’s this all about?” Coop had replied, “It has to do with our little adventure five years ago.” Turin was listening intently now; Cooper continued, “I have it on reasonable authority that the LeVoider’s are at it again.” “How do you know that?” hissed Turin. “That TV interview two days ago, Malvolion hinted at that they would be coming into their own soon.” replied Cooper. Turin’s brows were knitted in concentration; he asked, “What does this have to do with us?” Cooper remarked with a bitter smile, “They’re after the Princess and through her the treasure. “ Turin shook his head, disbelieving “No way “he said, “They wouldn’t, couldn’t be stupid enough to try again.” “That’s up for debate but they’re going to try again unless you know of some other ancient treasure Malvolion has his eye on. Meaning you have to get me to Marelindon, so we can warn the Princess. “Alright” Turin said with a resigned sigh, “Tuesday ok for ya?” he asked. Cooper replied, “Yeah Tuesday’s fine. Now that that’s settled let’s go eat. I’m in the mood for fettuccini Alfredo and egg-rolls. ” “Agreed” said Turin with a hearty grin.

Chapter Three

Later that night, as Cooper lay in bed, his mind wandered to the people that had helped him and Turin 5 years ago. His mind went to Dior, that gutsy kid who turned out to be a Prince, always looking out for his sister, Niniel to Myriad and Shadow, the two mysterious people who had lured them to the prison where Dior and Niniel were being held by the LeVoiders. Ahhh the LeVoiders, Malvolion and Maximus, brothers and quite possibly two of the meanest people he ever had the misfortune to meet. Then his mind wandered to Mara, beautiful green-eyed, black-haired, bewitching Mara, who was in and out of his life so quickly. Oh man, would he love to see her again, to have a chance to sit down and talk, maybe tell her some things that he didn’t have the guts to then. But it was too late for them, for Cooper had seen her die and deep down he knew that as long as he lived he’d never be able to really love again as he had loved her. Ah well, maybe it was better this way, anyways this line of work was pretty much tailored for loners like himself he thought as he succumbed to deep slumber.

Meanwhile at a private beach house not too far from Cooper’s town house, a solitary figure was moving down the corridor and stopped in front one of the many doors in this part of the house. There came a pounding at the door and a muffled voice said “Maximus, get up, get up I say” repeatedly. Maximus sighed and rolled over, hoping that the voice would just go away. It didn’t. With a grunt, he got up and went to get his robe, calling out “Aww, just hang on a sec.” Shrugging on his robe, he opened the door and saw his diminutive half-brother, Malvolion. Bleary-eyed, he asked “It’s 2:30 in the morning, what do you want?” His brother replied indifferently” We have work to do.” Resisting the urge to just smash his half-brother’s face in, Max retorted “No way Malvolion, I’m going back to sleep, you’re the night owl. Figure it out without me.” His brother just stood there and sputtered for a minute and then retorted “You weren’t like this 5 years ago.” Max sighed heavily before he responded patiently “That’s because you had me on that messed-up turbo personality booster.”

“Well I could…”

“No, absolutely not!” thundered Maximus, making use of his bulky shape.

“I guess not then.” replied Malvolion sulkily slinking off back down to his lair. He’d been doing that a lot lately and for the thousandth time Max wondered what he had gotten himself into and why on earth he had responded to his half-brother’s insane plea. He had been perfectly happy living in his little cottage, in that quaint, out of the way little hamlet where he was simply known as an artist, painting, sculpting, he did it all. But mostly he missed the tranquility, the peace and quiet of the place. Idly he wondered if Corinna, his closest neighbor’s flowers had bloomed yet. He always used to help with the planting of them and whenever he called to chat or drop off another woodcarving or painting for her, she was his biggest fan and harshest critic he thought with a smile.

He always remembered to ask after the flowers. It always gave her such pleasure to take him outside and show him which were budding early, which were right on schedule, and which were destined to be late bloomers. as he slid back into bed, Max reflected on the fact that he really was going to have to confront those semi-unwanted feelings of his regarding her. He also had to come up with some way to let her know how he felt. Never having been particularly gifted with words, more to the point eloquent, flowery type words, Max knew that he was going to need help and advice. Just exactly from whom, he had no clue. His mind went over the people he knew that could help him; he decided that either Mara or Niniel would be his best shot. When he saw them next, he’d have to ask. That’s it, Niniel or Mara was his last conscious thought before sleep claimed him once more.

Brady, after making sure that Cooper was soundly asleep, put on his jacket and slipped out. The brisk chill air helped him focus his thoughts a little, he finally knew the reason, the real reason why Turin and Cooper had come after Malvolion and in the process helped his sister and him. His heart still broke every time he remembered what had happened on that horrible, fateful day. Cooper had had the same nightmares as he had, though both men had thought that they had finally put the nightmares to rest. Obviously, Cooper was still suffering from the aftereffects of Nimbrathile, as was Brady. He knew that Turin also suffered from what he had heard from Fly. Brady hadn’t realized that he had turned down the familiar path that lead down to Turin’s house and a short stretch of secluded beachfront until he heard a soft voice ask “Brady, is that you? What are you doing here at this hour?” The voice startled him out of his reverie and he half-turned to see Fly standing there, dressed in shorts and a sweatshirt, “I couldn’t sleep, too many things on my mind, I guess. So, not wanting to risk waking up Cooper, I decided that maybe a walk would help. I hadn’t even realized that I had gone this far until you showed up.” “Must have been some heavy stuff on your mind to make you not even pay attention to where you’re going.” Fly mused, “Want to talk about? It might make you feel better to get it off your chest.” Brady smiled dryly, “You wouldn’t mind being my own private little therapist? Hearing all of my problems and issues and indiscretions?”

“Not at all, always happy to help out a friend.”

“Where should I start…?”

“The beginning is always a good place, I’ve thought.”

“True, but this story will take a while to tell if I start there.”

“I’ve got time, besides I know this little place a little further ahead where we can sit. So go ahead and start with your story while we’re walking.”

“Are you sure you want to hear this? It borders on the unbelievable, impossible even.”

“I’m sure Brady, besides it can’t be all that bad, compared to some of the stories I’ve heard from Turin.”

“Well, it all has to do with that guy we talked about at dinner. See…”

It was still a few hours before dawn when Mara awoke. Hurriedly putting on her robe, she slipped out of her bedchamber, carefully as to not awaken her attendants or alarm the guards. She stealthily crept down the corridor till she found the passageway that she desired, she hit the fake stone that triggered the door to the secret walkway then went down into the walkway, taking care that the secret door was closed behind her. It wouldn’t do for the entire palace to know about this hidden walkway for then they would begin to look for the others, eventually finding them. She hurried down the corridor, stopping at the entrance to the book vaults. She quickly bypassed the first, second, third, fourth, fifth vaults and went directly to the seventh vault. The seventh vault was the deepest vault in the palace and it was where the oldest and most important books were kept. To even enter the vault, one had to have the permission of the Princess herself and even then you also had to get past the Keeper of the Scrolls, Master Cypher. Even Mara herself, would not go into the sixth or seventh vaults with Master Cypher’s permission. She slipped down the long winding staircase leading to the seventh vault, resolving that once she was crowned, she would move most of these ancient tapestries and other forms of art now gathering dust in the attics and cellars of the palace. She arrived at the bottom of the staircase to see a lone figure bent over an ancient manuscript, muttering to himself.

She smiled and cleared her throat waiting expectantly, after a few minutes the disheveled gray head jerked up to see just who had disturbed his research. Keen blue eyes regarded her sharply for a minute then softened as the old man remarked “Come to see me have you, apprentice mine?” Mara bowed her head in acquiescence and replied, “Yes, my Master, I have come to see if you had divulged anything about the subject we discussed last time.” The bushy gray head nodded, “I have indeed found something of interest for you, Princess. Come, come and take a look at this ancient prophecy I found in one of the books that was on one of the shelves in the back.” He got to his feet and motioned her forward, “I’ve only been able to translate a few fragments of it so far, but what I’ve got is very interesting, yes very interesting.” Mara sat down at the medium-sized desk, littered with scrolls and bits of ancient parchment. She looked at the particular parchment that her master had indicated and read, “……and there shall come a dark time when the world knows not the Dajak’mari and then……

……the end of the dark times shall be marked by the presence of the true Belak ‘tiu’ Maru……”

“Belak‘tiu’Maru? I’ve never heard that particular phrase before. What does it mean? Do you know?”

“It is a High Merian phrase dating back to ancient times. As for its meaning, I do not know exactly what it means, but roughly translated it is the true brother and sister heirs or they who are similar, yet different.”

“Twins, you mean, like my brother and I.”

“Twould appear so, Princess, but please keep reading.”

Mara turned back to the parchment, “……and on that day the two shall come together at the sacred place and there the way shall be revealed……”

“Why this is a prophecy about Nimbrathile! We already know what happened! I was there!”

“Why are you so surprised, apprentice mine? Have you learned nothing from me at all?”

“Master Cy, the combination of the old style writing, the book itself written in High Merian, and the fact that you found it on one of the back shelves means that this book is over ten thousand years old!”

“Quite so, keep reading there is more, child.”

“……one thousand, eight hundred, and twenty-five days hence……. On the eve of the day the way was shown, the Key shall be revealed to them…… be forewarned, there are those who would seek to use the Key for naught but greed…….only one who is true will be able to unlock the true power of the A’lak’mari…….

…..the one who is dead yet lives will be reunited with her true love and the Maru will take up his rightful place as King…..”

“Oh, can it be?” whispered Mara under her breath, “Will we really be reunited?”

“………the Guardians, along with the resolute one and Ne’haka…..”

“Ne’haka? He who makes his own destiny?”

“Quite so, apprentice mine- that is the exact translation of that word. Referring to the one who is outside destiny, the one who’s path Fate cannot tell. Interesting that is…read on child.”

“…Ne’haka must go with the Belak‘tiu’Maru or else the light of the A’lak’mari will be sundered into the deepest depths of the earth and all shall be lost…….”

“So if Dior and I don’t unlock this thingie along with the resolute one and Ne’haka, then the entire world is lost?”

“It would appear so child, but you have more companions on this quest of yours than just those two. Look down, there’s a bit more to the prophecy than that.”

“…..the others than shall accompany them are the cold fly, the winged archer, and he who is not who he seems. One more shall join their company, one who is reformed and wishes nothing more than a life of peace, free from the demons that haunt him…..”

“Is that all of the prophecy or is there more?”

“I do not know, child that is all that I have been able to translate so far.”

“Very well, I must be going before some one misses me. Keep working on that prophecy please, Master Cy. I’ve got a nagging feeling that it’s vitally important.”

“I hear and obey, my Princess.”

Going back the way she came through the secret passage, Mara hurried down the corridor to her bedchamber. Her head was spinning, Dior was coming! And probably Turin as well! More importantly she was going to see Cooper again! She was so caught up in the euphoria of seeing the guy who’d captured her heart five years ago that she did not even notice when she rounded the corner of the hall and walked smack dab into a brick wall. A very good-looking brick wall by the name of Lord Aron Turthalion, who happened to be a member of her Royal Council and a distant cousin. He also currently was the acting Head of House Turthalion. He gave her a somewhat surprised look, taking in her wayward slips of hair and the dust on her clothing as he helped her to her feet.

“My thanks, Lord Aron.”

“It was nothing, Princess. May one inquire as to what your royal person is doing out of bed? Does not the Princess need her beauty sleep?”

“My sleep was restless and decided to go down into the vaults in search for something to read.” Mara held one hand up to forestall what would be his next comment. “I did not wish to disturb my handmaidens; they work far harder than me and deserve a few hours respite.”

Lord Aron nodded in assent, “I can relate, Princess. I have much preferred to stay at the country estate where I was raised, but unfortunately Palace affairs have kept me here in the capital.”

Mara smiled thoughtfully, “That’s right, you were faced with the same dilemma that I was.”

“Yes, Milady, the death of my uncle’s lady wife changed him and it was as if he no longer cares for anything……”

“…….save to live out the rest of his life in peace far away from the reminders of all that he had lost.”

“Quite so, Princess, quite so and thus the burden of Head of House Turthalion landed on my shoulders.”

“Out of all the Council members, Aron, you are probably the only one that I could turn to in a pinch for assistance. Do not worry about your uncle; I have a feeling that he will be turning up in the near future.”

“You are too kind, Princess. However I could do no less, House Turthalion has stood with House Gil-Andune for ages, dating back to the Golden Years. Really, Princess, you believe so?”

“Yes, I do. If I know your uncle, then he’ll come with friends too.”

“I wish that we could talk some more, Princess, but you will be missed if you are gone any longer. However will you go riding today?”

“Yes, in the afternoon, Lord Aron.”

“May I have the honor of riding along with you, Princess?”

“You may.”

“Thank you, Milady. I will be counting the hours until then.”

“As will I, Lord Turthalion.”

Jack was dragged out of the little world the story had pulled him into when the phone rang. Sighing once, he looked wistfully at the rest of the story before picking up the phone. “Yes?” he answered the phone and then listened for a minute, “I’ll be right in, Sir. You’ll have that list on your desk by sundown.”

Chapter Seven

2006-11-27T20:26:00.000-08:00

Chapter Seven – Schemes, Prophecies, and The Stuff That Happens When You Are Celebrating a Feast Day On A Foreign Planet.

Dex looked over the daily reports, everything was proceeding according to design. Trade was going well; the preparation for the feast day was going much faster than planned. Jack was coming back and hopefully he would bring someone with him, Dex thought to himself. His son in law was a stubborn man; he’d had to be in order to survive in this family and even more importantly surviving marriage to his daughter. Ruth had gotten all of the stubborn genes in the family; he’d despaired about finding her a suitable husband until Jack had come along. But the Earth human had given back as good as he’d gotten at his and Ruth’s first meeting and Dex had known from that day that this was a man worthy of marriage to his only child. Ruth had summed it up best on their wedding day when she had told him that ‘here after all that searching was a man finally fit to be his son.’ But his lovely Ruth had been dead for four cycles now, killed in the last attack on the planet Earth. Earth was certainly a vital planet in their universe, small but extremely vital for the entire universe’s survival. Because it was only on Earth that two of the universes’ most vital resources flourished. The location of Earth was a closely guarded secret. For all of their sakes, it had to remain that way. He finished reading the daily reports and then his public affairs secretary came in to ask him if he’d be willing to entertain a petitioner at this time. He didn’t get many of these requests; most petitioners went to the Lord High Marshal or the courts for such things. He was doubly surprised when he saw one of the system’s eldest sacerdotes walk in. “Pardon me, Prime Minister, but I thought you might like to know this. This scroll has just aged and the prophecies are now in play.” The sacerdote handed him a copy of the scroll, “I thought you might like to have your own copy of them, they might be of interest to you and your family.” Dex bowed to the sacerdote, “Thank you, Elder. Is there anything I can get for you?” “Not at this moment, Prime Minister. Thank you, I shall see you at the feast day.” Dex nodded and bowed once more to the sacerdote. Dex went back to his desk, still holding the scroll. He called out to his secretary, “Be’elanna, do not let anyone interrupt unless it is an emergency, I am handling something of great importance. Could you also get me a cup of brew please? I have a feeling I will be needing it.”

Upid was sitting in the receiving room of the agency that served as part of the cover for ALIEN ARRIVAL COMMUNICATION CENTER. All of a sudden this red blur whirled into the agency. Upid had to bite back a laugh; from here she looked just like Carmen Sandiego from that old American television show. Even down to the red trenchcoat and matching red fedora. “Hey Tom,” he called out to the Operative serving as their front man or receptionist as they were more commonly called, “Let her back, will you?” The red blur turned out to be one of Sigh and Aden’s friends, Carmine, he believed her name was. “Miss Carmine, wasn’t it?” He said conversationally, “What can I do for you?” Carmine looked at him for a minute, “Are you really that color or is it just paint and you have this weird mania for painting yourself green?” “I’m really this color. Is there something else I can do for you? Maybe someone I can get for you?” He replied. “No, actually I just came to see you, surprising as that may sound. I have tickets to this party sort of thing and wondered if you’d like to go?” She told him, eying him with a slightly critical glance, “You will have to change out of that but that won’t be a problem, you’re about the same size as my roommate and he’ll happily lend you some clothes.” Upid raised an eyebrow at her, “What about the um, unusual skin pigmentation issue?” “Won’t be a problem, not where we’re going anyways.”

"Alright then, it’s a date, Miss Carmine, may I ask where in the world we'll be going?"

"Oh that's real funny..."Carmine rolled her eyes but couldn't help but laugh at his statement and her laugh rang out through the agency building as he offered her his arm and they walked out of the agency building.

After discussing things with his advisory staff, Jack had decided to go to the feast day after all and he was taking Sigh, Zhann, and Mickey Jones with him. Upid was delaying his return home until Jack and the others got back, he would man the Center along with Neal. He sent those coming with him home to pack and those staying here to get ready for the three landings that were scheduled for later today. He headed back to first his office to pack the important files that he might need, and then secondly his apartment, to drag some of his old more native clothes out of the trunk he’d shoved them in. He smirked as he heard Sigh pestering Zhann about where they were going and why and who was Mickey Jones and a thousand other questions. He pitied the short Latino archivist; Sigh really could be merciless when she got into this sort of inquisitive mood.

They met back in the Arrivals and Departures bunker in two and a half hours. It was amusing to see Sigh’s reaction to meeting Mickey. Mickey Jones was one of the people that they’d scavenged from Alien Arrival Communications Center Number One back in the city. He’d somehow survived the attack, kept from being killed or converted. He was scrawny and a bit odd, but there was no one else besides his family that Jack would have rather have had at his back. Mickey was a perfect example of the phrase, ‘appearances can be deceiving.’ Because for all of his size, he was one of the fiercest fighters Jack had ever seen. They managed to say their farewells and get underway; it took them thirty minutes to arrive at their destination. They met Dalla, one of Dex’s nieces there. “Hello Jack and friends. If you will follow me this way, we will get you settled into your domiciles, so that you may refresh yourselves before the opening festivities. You will not want to miss them.” Jack stepped forward, “Thank you, Dalla. We follow with gratitude.”

Dalla had been right; the opening festivities hadn’t been a thing to miss. The marvelous display aside, the whole thing had simply been worth it just to see the look on Sigh and Zhann’s faces. This was the part he loved about his job. The occasional visits to other planets and getting to see the wonders other species produced and lived with. This planet in this system in particular was one he truly loved. Having spent a considerable about of time here, the place had truly grown on him and he considered this a sort of second home. The pavilion they were standing in was lavishly decorated with brightly colored silk ribbons and the costumes they’d been given seemed match the bright colors fluttering in the wind. There was the standard feast spread out for all of the people in this city, large platters of some of the best edibles in the entire system just laid out on huge tables in the middle of the city’s streets. After the eating and the drinking and the initial toasts and the parade, came more food and then the traditional dancing. Zhann and Mickey had very quickly been claimed by some of the local girls as their dancing partners. His father in law with a great big smirk on his face had told him that he had had a favor to ask of him. One of the girls didn’t have a partner and would he, Jack mind terribly dancing with this girl? Jack had had a few pints of the local ale and he’d said yes, he’d be happy to do it. So he’d gotten up and out on to the dance floor and all of a sudden, Sigh came whirling into his arms. Jack knew he’d and Sigh had somehow been duped. “Oh he didn’t,” Sigh groaned, “We’re intelligent people, how did we fall for that?” Jack chuckled, “Do what I always do, blame the local ale.” They laughed as Jack led Sigh through the simple steps of the ritual dance. They were dancing all though the night. “Jack, what’s happening to us?” Sigh asked once as they paused to take a breath in between dances. “I feel so light inside. Is it the music, Jack? I didn’t have any of the ale. Maybe it’s the music.” Jack looked at her, brown hair all wild and wind tossed and the light red flush from the exertion and he couldn’t remember if he’d ever seen a more beautiful sight. “Maybe it’s not only the music,” he half whispered before leaning in.

Dex smiled happily as he watched this happen from a few feet away. It was good for Jack, this, she would be good for Jack. Time enough to see if she was the one of prophecy, if they were the couple of prophecy, and even if they turned out not to be, he still needed to brief Jack about the scroll and what he had learned from it. ‘A girl of ancient name shall be come Queen and she will take a King and together they shall rule our world and their son shall rule the galaxy.’ Nowhere in there was it stated that the Queen or her King were natives of this planet, this was something that had struck him when he had read the prophecies over again in his office that day. Jack would make a good King, even if they would have to twist his arm for him to accept the position. But in the end, Jack was a protector, it was in him. If becoming King was the only way he could protect the people he cared about, then he would do it. Then there was one of the other parts to it. ‘Once where two half souls stood, now only one remains. Once where two broken shells were strewn across the ground, now hale and hearty they stand. Separated by country, by ocean, by culture and bloodline, by age and outlook, they have found the other. Completely different backgrounds and yet a common interest was the catalyst for their whirlwind relationship. And now inseparable they stand together against the madness that is the swirling chaos that is a dying yet ever evolving society. Apart they fade into the background, unnoticed , unappreciated, overlooked at every turn. Together, a formidable pair they make, and fearlessly they make their own Destiny.

One soul in two.

United they stand firm against whatever the world can throw at them.

Born out of Chaos, thrown together by Fate, they make their own...Destiny.’

That part of the prophecy had surprised him. He had heard that before but he had not been able to place where he had heard it before until today. It was one of the old ballads, a festival song. A fairy tale of sorts, something told to children before they slept. To find that it was actually prophecy was a bit unsettling for him. The scroll had also told of an alien menace, fiercer than any other alien race in the world and how they would be gathering all of their strength to them and allying themselves with some of the other races out there to seize the planet where the source of the key was to be found. From the description of the planet, he was almost certain that they were referring to Earth. The scroll was explicit in one thing, if the defenders were not found and certain conditions were not met before the menace’s attack then all would be lost and the menace through gaining control of their planet, would gain control over the galaxy. This could not be allowed to happen. For the universe’s sake, the menace could not be allowed to gain control of the planet Earth. It had to be defended. Which is why Jack and his people were so vital, their positions in the program they were in were so very vital to the continued well being of all. They were the first and last lines of defense for their planet and the all too valuable resources that it managed to grow there. Dex shook his head, these were sobering thoughts, grim thoughts, thoughts that could wait until tomorrow. For now there was a party going on and it simply wouldn’t do for the Prime Minister to be wearing a sad face on such a day of joy, when they had such wondrous things to celebrate. Looking through the crowd, he quickly managed to let himself get swept away by the merry making crowds. Today was for birth and mirth, for singing and dancing.

Neal and Upid were kept busy running from place to place, handling this small crisis and then smoothing over this accidental sighting and hunting down one of the rabid Tribbles that had somehow gotten through the Rift and gone on a sort of rampage. That had been particularly interesting to deal with. According to Aden and Melba, Patrick had died six more times, each time more idiotic than the last. Really, the man had a talent for dying in weird and seemingly impossible ways. And then there was that Buddha character, who had the talent for showing up at just the right times to capture each death on film and then he made all the pictures he took into flipbooks. He shook his head once, Aden and Sigh certainly knew some very strange people. Ignoring the irony of him thinking that thought while doing what he did for a living, he turned to check on the other members of the team. Hayden and Kriss were in the lounge, studying over their respective reports and playing footsie under the table. Layne was working with Richie on some thing complicated and having to with quantum physics no doubt. Layne was confident that with Richie’s help, they could have wormhole technology in one maybe two years. Stable wormhole technology, she said and it just blew his mind that the key for figuring out all of that had rested in a seven year old kid, who for all intensive purposes was a normal seven year old. But then again as Sigh was oh so fond of saying and that some of the others around the base (namely Aden, Kriss, Melba, and Upid among others) had picked up saying as well, life was hysterically absurd. He had to admit she had a point with that statement. The fact that their little center existed was proof enough of it.

The four off world travelers were due back any second now. He couldn’t wait to see them, they’d only been gone for five days but a lot could happen in five days and Jack’s note had had overtones of something deep and juicy and also potentially world ending, but then again everything they found, scavenged and or discovered that was deep and juicy was also potentially world ending. The three things just seemed to go hand in hand with the others. The four came through the arrival portal, gate, whatever you cared to call it. Zhann and Mickey for some reason could not stop smiling, while both Sigh and Jack seemed to be a little bit off. Sigh was unusually quiet and Jack was in automatic captainy snippy mode, with everyone but Sigh it seemed. Something had happened on the planet between them and Neal suspected the worse. He was just itching to get one of them alone so he could ferret it out of them. He hated being left out of things, especially when judging by the still smiling faces of Zhann and Mickey (two people not exactly known for their happy outlooks on things), it had the potential to be oh so good and surely it was one frell of a story. It HAD to be because it was Jack and Barkers never did anything halfway. From some of the stories he heard from Aden, Sigh’s family weren’t exactly known for that either. So all in all, this story had to be a doozy, one worthy of being in the Barker Top Ten.

Neal traded looks with Aden who was standing next to him and they split up, Aden directing Sigh out of the Pit and likely to her house and Neal following his cousin back to his office, where he watched as Jack pulled out some of the emergency liquor he kept in the cabinet and quickly downed two shots. Sinking back into his chair, Jack threw an arm over his eyes. Neal sat down across from him and just waited. After a minute or two, Jack spoke. “There’s this prophecy that has to do with us and that is pretty much one of the lovely world ending ones unless certain things occur in certain manners. There was the feast day and the drinking and the partying and well certain other things happened and Sigh and I wound up unknowingly married to each other. Yes it’s legally binding and no we can’t get out of it. So we’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that I am a dead man and she’s going to be locked up in a tower until she’s eighty, no wait it was ninety, yeah ninety.” Neal nodded once, “Yeah, you’re in a bind there, that’s for sure. Married on an alien planet. That’s definitely making the Barker Top Ten for sure.”

Jack tried to glare at him, but gave up realizing he just didn’t have the energy for it, “It gets better. They also made me their King. Well technically they made Sigh their Queen and then she made me King, but that’s just semantics really.” “So what kind of perks come with that job, I wonder?” Neal remarked, mostly to himself. “So yeah, that’s it. Sigh and I have made plans to talk about stuff later on, when we aren’t travel lagged to discuss stuff.” Jack gestured wearily with one hand. Neal smiled inwardly, the money I would pay to see that conversation, he thought to himself as he helped his cousin back to his apartment and into bed.

He left the apartment only to run into Aden and Sigh, the latter of which just walked straight past him and into Jack’s apartment. He looked at Aden quizzically, “She couldn’t rest, couldn’t sleep, so I figured if anything would help her relax, it’d be him.” “Perfectly logical to my mind,” Neal replied, “Did she tell you anything?” Aden nodded, “I got the whole gory tale. Let’s go somewhere else and I’ll fill you in.” Neal held out his arm for her to take and they walked down to the small diner across the street from the apartment building. “Well it all started like this…” Aden started to recount what Sigh had revealed to her once they had been seated and they had ordered their food.

It was hysterical, for the first time ever; the entire staff at Alien Arrival Communications Center was absolutely silent. They’d passed the whole marriage thing off as a sort of psychic bond (which it kind of was) and left it at that. Only the ‘Insiders,’ Jack’s sort of senior staff advisory council knew the truth of what had happened at the feast day. None of them would ever admit to Jack or Sigh that this turn of events had pleased them all to no end. Aramisian weddings lasted for a year and a day unless children came from the union and then they generally had a ceremony to seal the binding for eternity. The slightly psychic bond between the two people was a by product of the special brew they made especially for this part of the feast day celebrations. If the couple in question were compatible with each other, then the psychic link would solidify. At first it would only be present when skin touched, as the weeks went by, it would grow and deepen until it was present all of the time no matter the distance. If the couple in question were compatible that is, if they weren’t then the connections would fizzle out. In those cases, the two people stayed together for their year and a day and then went their separate ways.

No one however even considered the thought of this happening to Jack and Sigh. They had far too much chemistry together to them not to work out. Everyone could see it.

Sigh woke up to the sound of Jack muttering something in his sleep. “No,” he said, starting to thrash a bit in his sleep. “You can’t have her; I won’t let you have her.” Sigh shook his shoulder, trying to get him to wake up. “Jack! Jack, you’re having a nightmare. Jack!” He shot up in bed, eyes wild as he panted heavily. He looked at her and Sigh could see the absolute relief in his eyes as he registered who she was. “It was just a dream, oh frack me, it was just a dream.” He breathed as he clutched Sigh to him; he buried his head in her shoulder still mumbling. Sigh rubbed his back, murmuring to him comfortingly. “It’s okay, Jack, it was just a dream.” He looked up at her with red rimmed eyes, “It was about you. I dreamt I lost you, Sigh. I lost you.” Sigh sucked in a breath, “I’m not going to ask how or when or where, but Jack, it was a dream. It’s not real.” “You don’t know that, Sigh. Some dreams in my family have a nasty little tendency of coming true.” “It’ll be fine, Jack. I’m not going anywhere, it was just a dream.” Jack smiled at her, “Right, fine, remind me later what the acronym stands for will you? I have other matters to attend to.” Sigh rolled her eyes and nodded once, “Then sometime today we’re going to have to discuss …things.” “Like how you showed up in my bedroom when I saw you leave with Aden last night?” Jack asked with a roguish grin on his face. Sigh flushed, “Yes well, that too.”

Neal and Aden were having a cup of badly needed coffee in the lounge of the Pit when Kriss popped her head in, “Any word from the happy couple?” Neal started to shake his head no, when he felt his cell phone buzzing. “Hang on a tic, KitKat, I’ll tell you in a minute.” He said as he dug his cell phone out of his pocket. Checking the display he saw that he’d received a text message from Jack. “It’s a text from Jack.” Scanning it quickly, he couldn’t control the smirk that suddenly appeared on his face. Snapping the cell phone shut, he looked over at Kriss, “Jack’s not going to be in today, he and Sigh are discussing things over at his apartment.” Kriss just rolled her eyes, “Yeah sure, ‘discussing things’ everyone will buy that. Perfectly legitimate excuse; no one will see that one at all.” Aden snickered, “Eventually they are going to have to face her family. And that’s one meeting that I’ll keep my distance from and gladly.” Neal nodded, “I don’t blame you. I’d do the same thing. From the brief glance I saw of her one side of the family, they’re pretty intimidating.” Aden nodded, “Yeah and you didn’t meet the other side of her family. They’re kind of like my families, which is probably why we get along so well, Sigh and I.” Neal looked at her out of the corner of his eye, “Do I want to know?”

Aden grinned at him, “No, but I’ll tell you any ways.” Kelle walked in right as she said that and grinned herself, “Are you telling family stories, Aden? Which one is this? The why my family is weird explanation or the why Sigh and I are freakishly connected one?”

“The second one actually,” Aden turned to Neal, “ See, Kelle has heard all of these before just by virtue of sitting at the same table in the cafeteria, dining hall, whatever you wish to call the place.” Neal nodded his head once, “So you and Sigh are freakishly connected? I thought you only met this past semester?” “We did. But then as we got to talking more and more about different stuff, we realized that we had actually already met once before.” Kelle started laughing as Aden continued to tell her story. Neal blinked once when Aden had finished, “So let me get this straight. You and Sigh were born on two different flights coming over from England, crossing over the Atlantic Ocean.” “Correct, because of the sensitive nature of what our parents did for a living, neither set could travel together without severe security issues and whatnot, so Sigh’s dad helped my mum deliver me and my da helped Sigh’s mum deliver her.” Neal just shook his head once, “I think I’m going to go see if I can organize some of the alien paraphernalia in Jack’s office while my brain tries to wrap itself around that concept.” He left Kelle and Aden in the lounge as he retreated to Jack’s office. What on Earth had they gotten themselves into when they’d hired these two? Both Sigh and Aden were very good at what they did and once they’d finished up college, they’d be more than qualified for doing this sort of work, but darned if they didn’t have some of the weirdest stories he’d ever heard.

Chapter Six

2006-11-26T00:30:00.000-08:00

Chapter Six – Once More, With Pirates

“Tell me why we are doing this again?” Jack’s voice came over the comm. Sigh snickered, “Because you want to stave off being kidnapped yet again by the other side of my messed up, completely dysfunctional but not, family. Believe me, my mother’s side of the family is a lot more…More than my father’s side is.” “That’s not comforting to hear, Lieutenant.” “Oh I’m sorry, sir, did you want me to lie to you instead?” “Never mind, Lieutenant.”

They turned into a parking garage near South Street in downtown Annapolis. “Now where are we going from here?” Jack asked as they got out of the car. Sigh pointed towards the waterfront, “We’re meeting everyone down at Armadillo’s. They’ve rented out the top floor of the restaurant for our little meeting. After that, if all goes well, we’ll head to a pub and that’s where the *real* fun will begin.” “Do I want to know what you mean by that?” Sigh thought about it for a minute, “Probably not. It’s likely safer for your mental and physical health if you don’t know initially.” Jack nodded, “Is she going to go over some of these?” he handed her a printout. Sigh looked at it and her eyes widened in mingled mirth and shock as she read the printed sheet:

Rules For Dating My Daughter or Niece or Cousin or Granddaughter:

Rule One:

If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a package, because you're sure not picking anything up.

Rule Two:

You do not touch my daughter or niece or cousin or granddaughter in front of me or behind my back. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter or niece or cousin or granddaughter 's body, I will remove them.

Rule Three:

I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys of your age to wear their trousers so loosely that they appear to be falling off their hips. Please don't take this as an insult, but you and all of your friends are complete idiots. Still, I want to be fair and open minded about this issue, so I propose this compromise: You may come to the door with your underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object. However, in order to ensure that your clothes do not, in fact, come off during the course of your date with my daughter or niece or cousin or Granddaughter, I will take my electric nail gun and fasten your trousers securely in place to your waist.

Rule Four:

I'm sure you've been told that in today’s world, sex without utilizing a "barrier method" of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate, when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.

Rule Five:

In order for us to get to know each other, we should talk about sports, politics, and other issues of the day. Please do not do this. The only information I require from you is an indication of when you expect to have my daughter or niece or cousin or Granddaughter safely back at my house, and the only word I need from you on this subject is "early". To ensure that this is carried out, I will be accompanying you everywhere you take my daughter or niece or cousin or Granddaughter.

Rule Six:

I have no doubt you are a popular fellow, with many opportunities to date other girls. This is fine with me as long as it is okay with my daughter or niece or cousin or Granddaughter. Otherwise, once you have gone out with my little girl or niece or cousin or Granddaughter, you will continue to date no one but her until she is finished with you. If you make her cry, I will make you cry.

Rule Seven:

As you stand in my front hallway, waiting for my daughter or niece or cousin or Granddaughter to appear, and more than an hour goes by, do not sigh and fidget. If you want to be on time for the movie, you should not be dating. My daughter or niece or cousin or Granddaughter is putting on her makeup, a process that can take longer than painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead of just standing there, why don't you do something useful, like changing the oil in my car?

Rule Eight:

The following places are not appropriate for a date with my daughter or niece or cousin or Granddaughter: Places where there are beds, sofas, or anything softer than a wooden stool. Places where there are not parents, policemen, or nuns within eyesight. Places where there is darkness. Places where there is dancing, holding hands, or happiness. Places where the ambient temperature is warm enough to induce my daughter or niece or cousin or Granddaughter to wear shorts, tank tops, midriff T-shirts, or anything other than overalls, a sweater, and a goose down parka zipped up to her throat. Movies with a strong romantic or sexual theme are to be avoided; movies which feature chain saws are okay. Hockey games are okay. Old folks homes are better.

Rule Nine:

Do not lie to me. I may appear to be a potbellied, balding, middle-aged dimwitted has-been. But on the issues relating to my daughter or niece or cousin or Granddaughter, I am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but he truth. I have a shotgun, a shovel, and five acres behind my house. Do not trifle with me.

Rule Ten:

Be afraid. Be very afraid. It takes very little for me to mistake the sound or you car in the driveway for a chopper coming in over a rice paddy outside of Hanoi. When my Agent Orange starts acting up, the voices in my head frequently tell me to clean my guns as I wait for you to bring my daughter or niece or cousin home. As soon as you pull into the driveway you should exit your car with both hands in plain sight. Speak the perimeter password, announce in a clear voice that you have brought my daughter or niece or cousin or Granddaughter home safely and early, and then return to your car- there is no need for you to come inside. The camouflaged face at the window is mine.

Sigh finished reading it and her shoulders shook with the effort of repressed laughter. “I can’t believe they sent that to you. That had to be my cousins with the help of my uncles and the tacit approval of my grandparents. This mean that they think you are a serious candidate, Jack. I’m not sure whether to laugh or spaz out on them.” Jack looked at her askance, Sigh just waved him off, “I’ll explain later, Jack. Are you ready for this?” She asked as they stood in front of Armadillo’s. “If I say no, does that mean we can run and flee back to the relative safety of the Pit?” Jack asked with a hopeful tone in his voice. “No,” this came from behind them. Sigh whirled around and launched herself at the person who had said this. “Riordan! They didn’t tell me you would be here!” she exclaimed. The tall barrel-chested redhead smiled back down at his diminutive cousin, “Me not be here? You’re having me on, right? Little Sigh; I wouldn’t miss this for all the bounty in all of the world.” He snickered once at the dirty look Sigh shot him. He caught a glance of Jack watching them with an amused look on his face. “Is this him, Little Sigh?” Sigh nodded, “ Riordan Delaphaine meet Jack Barker. Jack, this is my second cousin, Riordan, on my mother’s father’s side.” Jack blinked once before reaching to shake the other man’s hand. “Pleasure to meet you, sirrah Barker. Although you yourself may not feel that way after the night is over and done.” Riordan stated with a smile fixed firmly on his face. “Sirrah Delaphaine, today alone I have solidified trade agreements with six different planets, ran through several emergency drills with all of my staff, taken care of thirteen different landings and integrations, and also had to deal with losing more of my staff to the giant chicken business. However bad this is, it cannot possibly be worse than some of the stuff I have to put up with on a day to day basis. With that being said, can we go inside now please? I’d hate for your mother, Sigh to think we were being rude by deliberately being late.” Jack finished with a flourish, offering his arm to Sigh. One red-tinted eyebrow shot up and the grin changed from a smug one to one of respect, “Oh I like you, Jack. Here’s hoping you survive the night.”

Sigh took Jack’s arm, slightly in shock, “Well you’ve gotten one of them onto your side, Jack, and you couldn’t have picked a better one either. Riordan is one of the most respected members out of the cousins and the like. Even the elders listen to what he has to say and take his suggestions into account. Bravo.” “All I did was tell the unvarnished truth, Lieutenant.” Jack stated, grinning a bit himself. “Well just keep that in mind as you deal with the rest of this side of the family. They’ll respect you more for it.” “Thank you for the tip.”

They walked into the upstairs room and all of the loud chatter and commotion that had been present just stopped. You could have heard a pin drop, it was so silent. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of Riordan’s soft chuckling from behind them. Sigh rolled her eyes before raising her voice, “What? I can’t bring a guy to a family get together? Everyone, this is Jack.” Turning to Jack, “From the far right, this are Cousins Blair, Tara, Kenley, Norah, Jolie, Jordan, and Pete. Then there’s the Uncles, Nate, Oberon, Quentin, Theodore, and Saxton. The Aunts are in the corner over there and they are Dana, Yelena, Rowan, Kaili, and Iceni. You’ve already met Riordan and then this is my mother, Boudicca.” She gestured to the tall majestic woman standing in front of them. Her long vibrantly red hair was pulled back into a more functional braid instead of some of the more elaborate styles he’d seen around the room. Her bright green eyes seemed to pierce right through him and he had to admit that she did look like the reincarnation of the fierce Celtic Queen she’d been named for. She superciliously held out a hand to him. Jack internally smirked, but kept his facial expression carefully neutral as he took her hand and bowed over it once before releasing it. She raised an eyebrow at him before smiling and motioning to the others. Immediately the aura of the room relaxed and the air of tension dissipated. The chatter started up again and the jukebox started to play up again. Boudicca motioned to the two of them and they sat down at a smaller table. “So Mr. Barker.” She began. “Captain, Mum, Jack’s actually a Captain.” Sigh cut in. “Oh? How interesting. Captain of what, precisely?” Boudicca inquired nonchalantly. “ALIEN ARRIVAL COMMUNICATIONS CENTER, but you already knew that, didn’t you, Captain Delaphaine?” Jack calmly shot back. Boudicca hid a smile behind her frosted mug of Guinness; oh she did like this one. He had spirit and that was a thing sorely needed if one intended to deal with any of the women in this family. And he was intelligent, which made him a perfect fit for this only daughter of hers. Here was a man who would forge his own path. “Intelligent too, does his own homework. This one is a keeper, Sigh.” Boudicca stated, “I like him. He can stay.” “Thank you, Mother.” Sigh rolled her eyes.

Neal was over visiting Kriss and Hayden when they heard a couple of loud thuds from upstairs and then some loud drunken laughter. He traded looks with ‘Den and Kriss and then bolted upstairs as fast as he could go with Den not far behind him. He walked out to see Jack completely drunk out of his socks and also his pants. He heard ‘Den’s choked laughter as he took in the scene before them. Sigh had propped Jack up against a wall while she’d rifled through his pockets for his house keys and was now trying to open his door and also keep him quiet so that he wouldn’t bother the neighbors. She wasn’t doing an entirely bad job at it either. Neal caught some of what she was muttering to herself in Scottish Gaelic and had to muffle his own wild bout of laughter. He shook his head as he stepped out into her field of vision. “Do you need some help there, Sigh?” He signaled to Den that he’d take of this. The other man nodded and went back downstairs. Without even bothering to turn around, she replied, “I’d wondered how it would take you to say something. Yes, you can prop up Jack while I get this fracking door open.” Neal moved to support his boss and cousin, Neal bit back another bout of laughter as he couldn’t help but ask, “Where the heck are his pants?” Sigh shook her head once, “I have no idea about that, Neal.” She said honestly then she growled, “ But I know who you could ask to find out.” Neal shot her a questioning look, Sigh explained, “Some of my guy cousins decided that Jack needed to be initiated into the family. So they took him to the pub. Initiation by inebriation and somewhere along those lines, Jack got drunk off his socks and lost his pants. I got called in when one of the Aunts called me to come and pick him up and take him home. I would not have let him go off with them like that, but they managed to sneak out of there without me seeing. My mother was apparently complicit in distracting me during this. She admitted as much before I left. If it weren’t for the fact that I needed to bring him home, I’d have stayed there and done a little bit of cousin arse-kicking.” Neal chuckled, “He must really like you then, Sigh.” “Why do you say that, Neal?” she asked as she finally got all of the locks undone and the door swung open. “Because the last time I saw my cousin this drunk, my cousin who very rarely ever touches hard alcohol and that was before he became Captain, mind you. The last time he was this drunk, had been shortly after Ruth had just agreed to become his wife and her family had invited him out for drinks.” Sigh was quiet for a few minutes, “So she’s the one pictured with him on the mantle then.” Neal nodded, “Yeah, that’s Ruth. Did Kriss…” his voice trailed off, he couldn’t quite think of a better way to phrase what he wanted to ask. Sigh shook her head, “I know her name was Ruth and that they were married and that she’s no longer with us, but apart from that, I haven’t heard anything about her. Which leads me to believe that she died recently and from the reactions of you all and just watching some of your interactions with Jack, it wasn’t a easy death and it affected you all hard.” They laid Jack in his bed and covered him with the blankets after removing his shoes. Sigh followed Neal back to Jack’s kitchen, where he got out two mugs from the cabinet and the makings for a good cup of tea. Sigh grabbed a seat on one of the stools there near the counter. Neal smiled to himself, “It’s too late for you to drive back now, Sigh. Jack would never forgive me if I let you leave now. You can have the couch if you like.” “Okay, but only because I’m far too exhausted to bother arguing,” Sigh replied, resting her head on her hands. It had been a very long night for her. Neal went back to the laundry room for a minute and came back with a set of clean boxer shorts and a t-shirt. He gently nudged Sigh who blearily looked at him. “Here,” He handed her the clothes, “The bathroom is that way, go change out of those clothes. I’m sure they’re getting to be uncomfortable.” He pointed her towards the bathroom and then checked on the tea. By the time, Sigh had come out of the bathroom changed with her other clothes in her hands, the tea was piping hot and ready to be poured. He took her clothes and laid them on the table along with her purse and other things. Grabbing one of the mugs, he wrapped her hands around it and then sat her down at the table to savor it while he made up the couch for her. He figured he’d crash on the floor in his cousin’s bedroom, normally he’d crash on the couch if he stayed the night, but Sigh was just too exhausted to go back home after tonight. He’d seen that right off the bat. She was nodding off in her mug of tea, so he tucked her into the makeshift bed on the couch. He downed his own cup of tea as he typed in a few things and finished up a few things on his laptop before heading off to bed. Tomorrow promised to be quite interesting.

Sigh got up the next morning fairly early and changed back into her clothes before leaving. She wanted to go back to her place or barring that, Aden’s place and shower and change into fresh clothes before going back into work. She also had some classes this morning before going for some more of the Operative training. Even though she wasn’t going to be an Operative per se, Jack and Neal both had though it would be a good idea if she knew what the training was like, so she was taking a couple of crash courses in being an Operative. She was glad she had left before anyone else had gotten up, that way she avoided anything awkward, at least that’s what she told herself. She pulled into Aden’s driveway and let herself in with the spare key. Grabbing one of the sets of spare clothes that lived here, just in case (Aden had a couple of spare sets of clothing at her house too. It was just a best friend thing, she supposed.) and headed towards the shower. The shower helped to clear her head and it did feel good to change into the fresh set of clothes. She walked into the kitchen only to find her best friend sitting at the kitchen table with a hot mug of coffee in front of her and a plate full of waffles. “They’re hot, Sigh, grab a plate of them and your requisite cup of java and then come and sit.” Her friend said. “I hope I didn’t wake you,” Sigh said apologetically. “You didn’t, I was already up when you got here.” Aden replied, “The ‘rents are already gone as are the siblings. So we can sit here and enjoy a nice breakfast and chat. Because if my hunch is correct, you didn’t go home last night, did you?” Sigh shook her head, “Nope, I slept on Jack’s couch.” She fixed herself some of the breakfast laid out on the counter and then joined her friend at the table, slowly relating everything that had happened the night before.

Jack woke up with one of the worst headaches he’d ever had. He opened one eye and then immediately closed it. Opening his eye had been a bad idea. Now his head hurt even worse. An amused chuckle sounded from above him. He had no idea who it was, but they were out of a job now. “You can’t fire family and besides you would never be able to find anything without me, at least not without spending a week and a half just memorizing the complicated filing system that I’ve worked up.” Neal’s voice said smugly. Jack groaned once but deep down he knew that his cousin was right. “Stop shouting,” he moaned miserably. “You’re right, Neal this is both pathetic and hilarious to watch,” a female voice came in and Jack felt like burying his head under the pillows and blankets. It wasn’t fair for his family, much less his staff to be here in his apartment, mocking his pain. “Go away, you evil evil people.” He mumbled as he tried to burrow back into his blankets. “Oh no, you don’t,” he heard Kriss state or maybe it had been Neal, he couldn’t tell so well with his head so fuzzy. The blankets were cruelly ripped from him and he moaned loudly, covering his head with his arms, shielding his face from the sun. “Kriss, go whistle him up some coffee, while I get him dressed.” Neal ordered as he hauled Jack up with one arm and practically frog-marched him to the bathroom, where he was placed in an ice-cold shower. After much shivering and swearing later, Jack plopped himself down at the dining room table, where he hungrily dug into the breakfast Kriss had whipped up for him. Finishing up, he looked at his two cousins, “Ask already. I know you’re dying to.” Neal coughed once, “You do realize the last time you did this, you wound up married to the girl in question.” Kriss sighed, “So much for tact.” Jack smiled amusedly at his little cousin, “Poor KrissKross, surrounded by all us guys, with no tact or social graces whatsoever? How *ever* do you stand it?” “I have the patience of Job,” Kriss replied, “But you cannot deny that Neal has a point, Jack, and I for one have to say that I’m a little relieved.” Jack shot her a questioning look, “Why’s that, Kriss?” “Because since you started the process that brought Sigh in to the Center, you’ve been acting more and more like the old Jack, the Jack I grew up with. It’s kinda nice to see that guy again. We’ve missed him.”

“I see.”

“Jack, there’s something else I wanted you to take a look at…”

Somewhere there were seven goats sitting on an island. Just then Melba called and Kelle and Patrick shut off the television after seeing the beginning of this, not knowing that somehow some time this would be vital knowledge to them, vital knowledge of the life saving type. They walked out by the lake on her family’s property and joined the rest of her family for a brisk fall cookout. Little did they know that all of their familial felicity was about to end quite abruptly. Ending not just for them but for the rest of the world as well; things were about to get very, very bad for the human race.

Layne and Eileen were babysitting Richie while Hayden and Kriss were having a nice, leisurely lunch. Neal and Upid were going over things with Zhann and Gabriella along with the rest of their team of archivists and researchers over in the main ALIEN ARRIVAL COMMUNICATIONS CENTER building in Annapolis. “Why are we doing this?” one of them asked. “Because in the first place, it needed to be done and in the second, Neal has a nasty sort of little hunch.” Zhann replied and pitched lower so that the other tables couldn’t hear, he muttered to himself, “And we’ve learned to trust in those hunches from these Barker boys.” “The hard way,” Upid agreed with the short archivist, then he looked over his tome at Neal, “One of these days we’re going to have to sit and have a chat about you Barker boys and this sort of prescience you seem to have.” Neal grinned over at the emerald skinned alien, “One day.”

After having a good breakfast and a long chat, Aden and Sigh drove to school in Aden’s Camry. “I’ll see you at ten then?” “Sure, I’ll save you a seat in Zevhall’s class.” The two friends parted ways and scurried off to their first classes of the day. They met up again in Professor Zevhall’s class, held in the Humanities building’s lecture hall. “So you never finished explaining about what we had been talking about in the car,” Aden whispered as the lights dimmed and the projector screen lit up with the Power Point presentation that went along with today’s lecture. “Don’t you dare tell you’ll explain later either, Maresigh Scott. I know you too well to fall for that trick.” Sigh let out an exasperated whuff of breath, “Alright, since I know that you will give me no peace until you find out. I’m drawn to him, Aden, just like he’s drawn to me, but it all seems too fast. Almost like Fate itself is pushing us together for some reason. Like there’s this phenomenal cosmic force that wants us, that is Jack and I to be together.” Aden looked at her friend with a thoughtful look on her face, “That could very well be. Have you considered that? In that vein, have you mentioned anything of this sort to Jack yet?” “No, not yet. It’s still sort of awkward for me; us… argh see what I mean?” Sigh grumbled. Aden hid a smile behind one hand, “ You really should talk to Jack. I doubt he’ll believe it is all crazy. After all, you family has an odd precedent when it comes to romantic relationships. Your parents for one, your grandparents for another, why should you be the exception?” Sigh glared at her friend, “That’s not a reassuring thought.” “Not my job to reassure, just to point out all the viable options available.” Aden smiled cheekily at Sigh. “Training going well?”

“Yes. It’s pretty fascinating some of the stuff that they do and some of the tech they use to do it with. I’ve gotten to hone some of my lesser used skills as well as all of the other ones. It’s been quite fun. Jack and I spar frequently and he’s the only guy not related to me that hold his own. Neal isn’t bad either.”

Aden only nodded to this, which was normally a sign of her not wanting to reveal some or the other to her best friend. Sigh, barely managing to keep the smirk off of her face, played out her hunch, “You know Neal’s quite the guy.” She was not disappointed; she watched her friend’s cheeks turn a delicate shade of red. “Aha!” Sigh exulted, bouncing slightly in her seat, “I’m not the only one, am I?” Aden squirmed in her seat, “Shh, I’m trying to listen to the professor.” Sigh rolled her eyes, “Now, you’re listening to the lecture. Of course you are.”

The two friends left after their class and headed for the cafeteria. Everyone was already there, Zhann and Gaby, Carmine, Tim Zerkfield, Patrick and Kelle, Kaida, Kayta, Lindon, and of course, Buddha with his camera. They’d just finished up with lunch and Aden had pulled out her trusty deck of cards. They’d been six rounds into a fast and furious game of Spoons when the Incident happened. Upid came crashing through the front doors of the dining hall chasing after what looked to be like a small penguin brandishing a beach towel. All the commotion in the cafeteria seemed to stop as the emerald green skinned man took a flying tackle and landed on the towel brandishing penguin. Wrestling him to the ground and pinning him there, Upid stopped to take a deep breath. This was a bad move. Pablo managed to contort himself and slip out of Upid’s grasp. Sigh shared a look with Aden and they quickly moved to help out their alien friend. The three of them had managed to corral Pablo just as Neal and two of the other Operatives came rushing in. They took Upid and Pablo away, back to the relative security of the Center for the first and a stasis cage for the other. Neal hung back, wanting to talk more with Aden, but not quite sure how to go about doing that, especially with all of her friends and in many cases, coworkers staring predatorily at the two of them. Then he noticed that they had been playing cards, “Is this Spoons?” he asked Aden, completely fascinated. She nodded yes and he eagerly replied with, “Can I…that is will you…show me how to play?” Aden smirked then and sat him down next to her as she explained the game and then they began to play. A trifle slower than before, but they picked up the pace more and more, Neal noticed that the momentum of the game never seemed to stop, even with people entering the game and leaving it. He could see now why this game had had Jack so very fascinated with it and why he’d have agreed to duel with Sigh for a spoon. This game got under your skin; it infected you with its freaky weirdness, and you didn’t care because it was just so bloody entertaining.

Down in the Pit, Kriss smirked as she caught sight of Neal with some of the others up in the dining hall. The game of Spoons has ensnared one more willing convert, she thought to herself with no small amount of amusement. It was yet another quirky Barker family trait, meeting their perfect matches through the oddest means. She and Hayden had met through this MASSIVELY MULTIUSER ONLINE ROLE PLAYING GAME that they had both been members of. She had saved him, he had saved her, they had teamed up and their characters had hit it off pretty well and eventually gotten married in the game. They’d hit a rough snag during some of that where they’d gone their separate ways because of a little bit of larceny that had occurred in the game but fate had thrown them back together and the characters mended their relationship and ended up closer together than ever before. This had taken up approximately two years of normal ‘real person’ time and by the end of it, they had both decided that maybe it was time for them to meet in real life. She would forever remember that day as being one of the best days in her life. They’d met in a coffee house that they both loved, it turned out that they didn’t live far from each other; their respective apartment buildings were practically across the street from each other. After buying her a cup of peppermint mocha coffee and a cinnamon strudel muffin, he’d proposed to her that very same day with a ring and all. She’d gladly accepted, after all this may have been their first face to face meeting, but she’d known him, had talked with him and communicated back and forth with him for two whole years before this. They didn’t always just talk about the game either, there was real life stuff mixed in there too. Two weeks after that, they’d been privately married with Jack and Neal as witnesses and then a month after that, he’d sold his place and moved into hers. A year later they were both inducted into the Alien Arrival Communications Center and then six months after that, Richie had come along. And she had the MASSIVELY MULTIUSER ONLINE ROLE PLAYING GAME to thank for it all, her wonderful husband and her wonderful if insanely mischievous (and that was on the GOOD days) son. She shook her head once, focusing back on her regular work, Jack would be pissed if this wasn’t done today and she did want to be able to get out of here at a semi reasonable hour. She suddenly had the urge to see if her husband was up for a LOCAL AREA NETWORK party with their favorite Massively Multiuser Online Role Playing Game tonight. After they put Richie to bed, that was, she had no doubt that this LOCAL AREA NETWORK party would wind up with them in their bedroom. It always seemed to end that way for the two of them.

Jack was playing with a piece of alien tech that they’d picked up off an alien from the Kalien galaxy. Supposedly it was supposed to let you see certain things in your futures, not just one future, but several different futures and if you paid enough attention, you could see that it was almost always one thing that determined whether or not one future was different from another. Several things were whirling around in his mind, things that Neal and Kriss had pointed out as well as some things that he’d just been denying until now. Checking to make sure that he’d not be disturbed, he pressed the flashing button on the device and was sucked into the memory dream world.

Flash.

“Jack,” she screamed as she was dragged off to the conversion chambers, “JACK!” A searing pain hit him as he was forced to watch the love of his life converted into something like the menace that threatened them. He knew instinctively that this conversion was a one way road and that there was nothing he could to reverse it. In fact the only recourse he had available to him now was the one that he knew would destroy him inside and out. He brought his gun up and carefully aimed for what he knew was one of the weakest points of the living armor the menace sheathed their converts in. Taking a deep breath, he fired the gun non stop until his clip was empty and then he reloaded quickly and shot the thing a few more times before the gun fell to his side and he was sure she was dead. Falling to his knees beside her or rather what was left of her, he cradled her in his arms and sobbed brokenly.

Flash.

“Daddy!” The little voice exclaimed from beside him. He looked down and stared in wonder at the perfect little person that was tugging at his pants leg. She was so beautiful, the perfect blend of her mother and her father. His favorite feature of his little girl’s had to be her eyes, so serious and yet so lively like her mother’s had been. He knew that had she survived the cancer, she would have loved to see their daughter turning five today. It was almost funny, he thought to himself, that the world being in danger and the battle to defend themselves from the alien menace hadn’t been the cause of his wife’s death. She’d died shortly after the birth of their daughter from complications from birth and the cancer she’d contracted somehow. She’d lasted just long enough to leave him with their little Jaiya. He bent down to pick up his little girl and then they joined the rest of the friends and family gathered outside for the party.

Flash.

She was holding his hand tightly. There were tears streaking her dirty face and he could see her lips moving like a prayer or maybe like a plea, it seemed like she was talking to him, but he couldn’t make any of it out. So he did the only thing that came to mind, he very clearly mouthed the words, “I love you” and then he surrendered to the blackness that was encroaching on his vision. The world faded back into time and space.

Flash.

He saw them as older people, manning one last outpost of safety on a dying world. Saving as many of the people that they could, ensuring that they got to the different refugee sites that had been set up specifically for them. He watched as she refused to leave him behind and go with their children through the portals. He watched as they got the job done but they’d been separated on two different sides of the barriers that’d gone up. He saw brief periods of happiness followed by sharp peaks of sorrow and loss.

Flash.

Jack was dragged out of the memory dream world by a furious Upid. The emerald green skinned alien was shaking with anger. “Of all of the stupid, mind numbingly human things to do, you do this, Jack. I thought you had more sense than this, these devices are not to be abused or used like trifles, you KNOW that.” Upid ranted, storming back and forth. “I had to know,” Jack said quietly, “Something’s coming, Upid. Something nasty, something that may cause me to lose her again and I don’t think my heart or my mind could stand for that kind of blow a second time. It nearly killed me the first time, it would kill me the second, I know it would. Sigh’s becoming more and more important to me, Upid, but I won’t, I can’t act on it until I know for certain that it’s safe. That’s what the device showed me. The world is in danger and the newest recruit’s fate is somehow entangled in mine. Four visions, Upid, FOUR, and all of them had the same two factors.” Upid was silent for a long moment, “While I do not think that was a wise decision on your part, you are right in that we cannot overlook this new information. I will set up a small research team to look through and make plans for this happening. In general however, I recommend that we step up the training a bit. We want as much an advantage as we could possibly have.” The emerald green skinned alien sat down in the chair across from Jack’s desk, “Start from the beginning and tell me everything you saw.”

Chapter Five

2006-11-21T06:38:00.000-08:00

Chapter Five - Monkeys Were Constantly Falling Out Of Trees

Jack had fallen asleep in his living room completely surrounded by his printouts about his latest recruit. He’d been up most of the night, making phone calls overseas to various locations. Whoever her parents were or had been, they were deep inside the government. Very deep, only his Center credentials could get him into some of the files he’d accessed. Some of the conversations he’d had were truly startling, “She was called the Black Butterfly,” one of her former classmates had told him, “One of the more promising students here at the academy.” One of her teachers had said. Jack shook his head; Little Sigh had been keeping secrets from them. Attending the Siz’ou Academy was no small feat in and of itself, but to also be labeled as one of the more promising students… it just blew his mind. He was snapped out of his internal musings by the sound of someone pounding on his front door, actually it sounded more like they were a hairsbreadth from kicking it down. He opened his door to see an absolutely furious Aden. Jack blinked owlishly, “It’s Aden, right?” he asked with a slightly confused look on his face. Why was his newest recruit’s best friend trying to kick down his door at, he checked his wrist watch, seven thirty in the morning? “Where is she!?” Aden shouted at him, “She was with you last!” she pushed her way inside. Jack rubbed a hand over his face, it was far too early in the morning and he’d had far too little sleep to deal with this right now. “Hello to you too, Aden. How’s school? Classes going well?” Jack said to the empty space where Aden had just been. “No, I’m fine really. Thanks for asking, won’t you please come in?” he finished sarcastically. “Barker,” Aden was decidedly not amused, “Where. Is. She?” “Who? Maresigh? I haven’t seen her since dinner on,” he checked his watch again, “Friday night. Why? What’s happened? Is she missing?” His senses were fully alert now. Aden looked at him and then looked at the floor of his living room, still littered with papers and printouts and empty coffee cups and fast food bags. She turned back to him, half amused, “So you *did* decide to go one deeper, I’m proud of you, Barker, and not just because you’ve won me twenty dollars off of our mutual friend. You may yet be worth it all.” Jack raised one eyebrow at her, “Just stay there for one minute.” He hit the comm button on his wristband, “Kriss, I need a location on Maresigh stat.” Silence reigned for several tense minutes, “ Kriss, I need to hear those beautiful Southern vowels.” Jack said tensely, fully awake by now, “ Kriss!” “Jack, she’s not on our scope.” Kriss’ voice came back over the comm. “Explain.” “She’s not on any of our cameras, Jack. Wherever she is, she’s not in an area that CCTV can pick up. I’m sorry.” Kriss replied apologetically. He turned back to Aden, who was still staring at him pointedly, “Well, Barker?” “We don’t know,” Jack confessed, his shoulders sagging. “Excuse me?” Aden said, incredulously, “ How can you *not* know? You were the last one to see her, Jack. Where were you all last? Frack, I told her this was a bad idea.” “Listen to me, Aden. We are doing everything possible to find her and get her back. We are still trying to figure out what the frack happened between the time I dropped her off at her apartment and yesterday morning.” He walked past her into his kitchen, intending to start some coffee brewing. He had a feeling he’d be needing it very very soon.

Aden followed him into the kitchen, halting in her tracks when what he’d just told her sank in. Jack looked up from loading up the automatic coffee maker, noting the odd expression on her face, he asked, “ Aden? What is it?” Aden looked at him quizzically, “Go get your keys; I want to see where you dropped her off.”

“Why?”

“Maresigh doesn’t have an apartment, Jack. She lives with her grandparents.” Jack stared at her, “ You’re joking.”

“Nope,” Aden shook her head, then a thought occurred to her, “Did she ask you to drop her off there?”

“Yes.”

Aden chuckled once, “ Oh boy, you made a better impression than you have have initially thought, Jack.” Jack grabbed her arm, “ Do you know where she is?” He demanded with a half desperate gleam in his eyes. Aden looked at him searchingly for a long moment, “Let’s just say I have a really good hunch on where Sigh is and more importantly, who took her. But Jack?”

“Yes?” Jack replied as he started to move towards the door. Aden repressed a smirk, “First, for frack’s sake, go take a shower. Secondly, we’re going to need backup.”

Jack ignored the shower comment, “We?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Aden just met him stare for stare, “Jack, you couldn’t pry me away from this with a crane and sixteen strong men.”

Jack chuckled,” Anyone ever tell you, you have a stubborn streak ten miles wide and six miles deep?”

Aden nodded, grinning widely, “It’s the mix of Irish and Italian in me.”

Jack blinked once, for some reason that thought severely hurt his brain to even consider. “On that note, I’m going to go shower, be back in three minutes.”

Two minutes and fifty nine seconds later, he reappeared, in fresh clothes and with his hair still sopping wet. Strapping on his utility belt, he looked up at Aden, “Follow me,” he told her. Jack led her down the tunnels from the apartment building to the Pit. As soon as they got to the Pit, Jack started shouting orders. “Kriss, Neal, Hayden, with me. We also need a team of Operatives standing by as backup.” He turned to Aden and tossed her a standard issue utility belt complete with a set of knives, “Please tell me you know to use these.” Aden smiled ferally, “Yes. I’m not nearly as good with them as Sigh is, but I *do* know how to use them.” “Where we going, boss?” Kriss asked. “Got a lead on the whereabouts of our missing girl, we’re going to go check it out. People, this is Aden…Marshall?”

“Ummhmm, Sigh was right, you all are bloody hysterical. This place is hysterical.” Aden shook her head once, “We leaving yet?” Jack’s lips quirked up in a smile, “Two minutes, guys. Then I want us in the car on our way.” He pointed at Aden, “You come with me.” He led her to the weapons locker, “Can you shoot?”

“Is the Pope Catholic?” Jack looked at her oddly for a minute, “I’ll take that as a yes then?” “What!?” she exclaimed as she picked up one firearm and checked to make sure it was loaded correctly. “Oh nothing, just the nagging feeling that I’m going to be offering you a job shortly,” He said. Aden grinned, “Package deal, we told you that, Sigh and I.” Jack nodded once, amused, “Let’s go.” “To the Batmobile! Lead on, Jack, I promise to follow very closely.” Jack just led the way to the car, so focused on not bursting out into laughter he couldn’t speak. They met the others out at the car, “So is this hysterical too?” Neal couldn’t help but ask. Aden took stock of the car, “Perhaps, I‘ll let you know once I’ve seen the inside.” Jack rolled his eyes, “Pile in, guys. Kriss are we connected?” Kriss stuck her head out of the tinted side window, “Yep. Good to go, boss.” “Good.” They got into the car and once they were all securely inside, Neal hit a switch or a button inside and the insides of the car lit up. The backs of the front seat shifted to reveal a set of equipment that would make any other governmental agency sick with envy. “Wow,” Aden breathed, “Jack, Batman would be jealous.” Three-fourths of the other inhabitants of the car snorted with laughter. Jack said to Aden, “She told me Eastport and then Lockwood Court.” Aden groaned, “This keeps getting better and better.”

“What’s Lockwood Court?” Hayden asked from her left. Kriss answered for them, “Lockwood Court is the street that Jack dropped Maresigh off at. It’s in Eastport. The only properties there are residential and none of them belong to a Scott.” She reported, after hitting some keys on the keyboard in front of her and looking at the screen in front of her. Aden closed her eyes, “Try Sparrow or Delaphaine.” She told the techie, muttering to herself, “Please be Delaphaine, please be Delaphaine.” Jack almost pulled the car off the road, he knew that name from the files he’d read. “Delaphaine!?” he shouted incredulously, eyes wide as he half turned in his seat to stare at Aden in the back seat. Neal grabbed the wheel and kept them on the road as Jack was momentarily distracted. Aden shrunk back in the seat, “Jack, it’s a long story, but likely not what you’re thinking.” “You couldn’t possibly know that.” Jack countered. “Jack, considering what I do know about this, it’s not the thing that ANYONE would think, believe me.” Jack turned back and reclaimed the wheel from Neal, “Why do I have the feeling this is going to cause me even more headaches?” “Oh and we haven’t gotten past the very itty bitty tip of the iceburg yet.” Kriss cut in, “Um, no Delaphaine, but the last house is registered as belonging to a G. Sparrow.”

“Well crap.” Aden remarked.

“This is bad?” Hayden wanted to know. “Well, Jack is kinda screwed.” Aden replied.

“Oh *joy*,” came Jack’s longsuffering comment from the front seat. “Since when is Jack *not* sort of screwed, simply by virtue of what he does for a living?” Hayden asked.

“Good point,” his wife muttered. “This is *not* the issue we’re supposed to be focusing on here, guys.” Jack said irritably. The rest of the trip went silently. Aden instructed them to pull into one of the other driveways when they arrived there. “Alright, we do this by twos.” Jack stated, “ Neal, you’re with Aden, ‘Den with me, and Kriss will stay here in her armored fortress, ready to call in the cavalry should we need them. Any questions? Our primary objective is to find Sigh and get our girl out of there. Anything else is purely secondary. If you feel even remotely twitchy about things, bug out and we’ll call in the troops.” Jack ordered before they split up, “We’ll take the left, you and Aden take the right.”

Neal whispered to Aden as they stealthily made their way to the house. “So why is my cousin screwed?” “Sigh has interesting relatives,” she whispered back. Neal huffed in annoyance, “ Could you be any more vague?” Aden shot back, “If I thought about it for a minute, probably so.” They snuck up to the side of the house, crouching underneath an partially open window. They heard raised voices coming from inside and Aden risked a quick peek inside the window and could hardly hold back a smile. “What is it?” Neal hissed at her. “That’s Sigh in there arguing with one or more people.” She replied. Neal had no time to remark on the oddity of that particular phrasing before he was knocked out.

They came to tied up in what *had* to be someone’s closet and if it was, then who ever it was that owned this place, sure had a *large* amount of clothes, in every shape, model, and fashion. They all also appeared to be mostly male clothing and he wasn’t sure whether or not to be weirded out, okay with it, or just plain disturbed.

And this was also a completely ludicrous train of thought, Neal realized. Shifting around, he discovered two things. The first thing being that his hands were tied quite securely to the reinforced bar above his head, the second being that he was not alone here in this predicament. He took a wild guess, “Aden?” A small groan answered him, Neal started to get concerned, “Aden, are you alright?” “I am going to effing gut the person who knocked me upside the head.” Neal sighed once, relieved, she was fine. “We’re in a bit of an interesting position here.” He said, looking down at her. “You’re telling me. They’ve got me anchored to the floor and you to the closet rail thing. Yep, I’d say this counts as interesting, in fact it’s a bit more than merely interesting. Someone has an odd sense of humor.” She replied, “Do we know where anyone else is?”

Jack woke up in much the same position his cousin had, the thin chain holding the standard two tag set of dog tags resting on his thin cotton undershirt. Duct taped to the ceiling one day and tied up in some dark room in an aborted effort to rescue the newest recruit. This was certainly not turning out to be his best week ever. He took stock of his surroundings as much as he was able to, that is. He couldn’t see where they’d stashed ‘Den but that didn’t mean much, it could be that they had just decided to throw him in some other room. Overall, his situation was not the best it could have been nor was it the worst he’d faced. He was still trying to think up a way to Mc Gyver himself out of his bindings so he could begin to look for an exit, when the door opened and his captors walked through.

Kriss had been in the van for fifteen minutes when the proximity alarms on the sport utility vehicle started to go off. Quickly she started the shut down process, cutting all power to and from the car. She was just about to call in the troops when she heard her husband whisper through the comm., “Kit, it’s me. Let me in. Something’s gone wrong.”

She unlocked the door and Hayden crawled in, shutting and locking the door behind him. “Well. Time to call in the cavalry,” he said to her. She was just reaching for the comm. to call in the team of Operatives when a voice sounded from the comm. speakers in the car. “Please don’t. My brother is quite fond of his windows and doors.” Husband and wife just froze where they were, both blinking at the speakers. “Did that just?” Hayden asked. Kriss nodded, “It did.” “Yes, this is a real person speaking to you and asking you to not call in your ‘cavalry’ just yet. I promise that all of your people will be found, liberated, and returned unharmed. We believed you were some other group entirely at first, but the Black Butterfly convinced us that you were not a threat to us. That you had come for a different reason, one not connected with us at all.” “Well that’s good to know. How can we trust you?” Kriss replied. Amused, the voice said, “Look outside, Mrs. Adams.” Both ‘Den and Kriss looked out of the tinted windows and saw Neal walking towards the car. “That’s one of them, where are the other three?” Kriss asked. “They’ll be coming shortly, Mrs. Adams. I have your word you won’t call in the cavalry?” Kriss replied, “No cavalry, Mr. Whoever you are.”

Aden and Neal were still stuck in the closet, trying to figure out a way to undo their bindings when the door opened and they were momentarily blinded by the bright light coming through from the other room. “Oh this is *too* priceless,” Aden heard Sigh’s voice and then there was another bright flash, this one recognizable as coming from a camera. “Sigh, when I get out of here, I’m going to string you up by your fingernails.” “Later, Aden. Right now we have to defuse the potential situation brewing. We need Neal to walk out to the Pit mobile and make sure that Hayden and Kriss don’t call in the cavalry. Cause that would not make Uncle Goro’s day, he’d be mightily pissed and we don’t want him to be pissed off.” Aden nodded thoughtfully, this made sense to her. Neal’s voice cut in, “I’ll be happy to help defuse this potential situation, once you UNTIE me.” “Oh, right, that would help, wouldn’t it?” Sigh remarked as she sliced through first Neal’s and then Aden’s bindings. She nodded to one of the men standing in the room with her, “Hiroshi will take you outside, Neal. I’ll keep Aden here with me for just a minute more. There’s someone who wants to say hi to her while she’s here.” Neal nodded once and then followed Hiroshi out of the room. Aden turned to Sigh with an expectant look on her face, “Kano wants to see you, he misses hanging out with you.” “Ah, okay,” Aden replied, smiling at the thought of Sigh’s little cousin/brother. She’d babysat for him several times and he and she always had a really good time together. He was a sweet little kid. With Aden heading off to say hello to Kano, Sigh trekked back through the house to where her father was last reported to have been. She stopped in her track though when she saw her father and Jack walking towards her, both with great big smiles on their faces. That in and of itself was more than a little frightening. Though secretly she was more than a little amused by the fact that her dad not only knew who Jack was, but approved of the work that they were doing down at the Center, even before he knew that his only daughter had joined up with them. The only part that was really worrying her was that if her father knew about Jack and the Center job, then it was a good bet that her *mother* knew and that meant that she’d want to meet Jack, to size him up and see if he was worthy (by Pirate standards) for her only daughter. Which meant that if she wanted to avoid a similar event happening again in the near future, she needed to strike first, so to speak; she would have to call her mother as soon as she left here. Her father came up to her, giving her a hug, “Hello sweetheart.”

“Hi Dad, have your fun?”

Her father smiled once, “Yes, darling, now I believe it’s time for you to go.”

Sigh smiled sardonically, “Probably. Who knows what might happen to the universe if we leave it unintended for too much longer.”

Jack snorted once, “ Especially since we left Upid in charge.”

“How smart was that, Jack?” Sigh asked amusedly.

“Well normally it’s a good one. Since he went green however, your guess is as good as mine. And hey, wait a minute, how do you know Upid?” Jack asked confusedly. “Tall, black hair, emerald skin that matches his eyes?” Sigh clarified. Jack nodded once.

“Yep. Met him at Halloween.”

Jack growled, “I’m going to kill him, his scaly green hide is going on my wall. The *idiot.*”

Sigh laughed, “This I need to see. Dad, I’ll call you later. Tell the family I love them, will you?”

Her father nodded, ‘I will, sweetheart. Don’t forget to call your mother.”

“I won’t, Dad. Good bye.”

She and Jack caught up with Aden and made their way back to the van, “Well that was interesting.” Sigh remarked. Jack just gave her a look before climbing into the vehicle. Aden started laughing and Sigh shot her a dirty look before starting to laugh herself. The group drove off back to the Center.

The next day both Aden and Sigh were regaling the others at their cafeteria table with the tale of their weekend. “So what did you guys do this weekend?” They asked the others. Kelle spoke up, “Well I did some homework, some housework, some practice with my trombone.” “ I died again, it was a leafblower this time…and NO, I’m not going into any details.” Patrick said, glaring at the two girls who were trying very hard not to burst out laughing in front of him. “No need to explain, Patrick, I got pictures. Leafblower death flipbooks anyone?” Buddha smiled as he made the offer. They jumped all over the small booklets that the short East Asian handed out. Patrick scowled, “How you manage to show up at just the right time is something that I will never know.” Buddha smiled serenely, “Practice, my friend, practice.” They all laughed at this.

Back at the Center, Jack was in his office, Upid, Layne, and Kriss were still doing their geeky thing in the Pit’s technological section. Melba and her team of her scientists were still trying to solve the issue of the Jared chicken. Hayden and Eileen were organizing the latest inventory shipment of medical supplies and the like. The Operatives were over at their base, doing Operative-y things and all in all, it was a normal routine sort of day. This apparently was where they’d gone wrong. The alarms sounded and all of a sudden Neal watched as a large yellow chicken ran past him, being closely chased by half a dozen scientists. He blinked once and then continued on his way back to Jack’s office. The scientists would either sort it out or call for help and then it’d be sorted out. Just then a thought occurred to him, and he hit his comm. as he started to jog quickly down to Jack’s office. He remembered what had happened the last time the scientist had been left by themselves to clean up and it had not ended well for anyone. Speaking quickly and quietly into his comm, he ordered a small three person team of Operatives to track down the chicken and the scientists and bring them back to the Center. Reaching Jack’s office, he walked in only to find his cousin having a serious discussion with the leader of one of the alien nations they were commonly known to have had good relations with. Of course having had the daughter of the prime minister of the planet married to the up and coming leader of first the Operatives and then the Center itself was also a bonus. Both for them and for us, Neal thought to himself wryly. He hung back in the doorway until Jack had finished his conversation and then cleared his throat, announcing his presence. “Neal, what’s up?” his cousin wanted to know. “Not much, just dropping off the latest reports and the like. How’s Dex doing?” Neal asked, plopping himself down in one of the chairs in front of his cousin’s desk. “The Old Man is doing well. The planet and the family are doing well. But they miss me, so he said and they’ve invited me back for the feastday this weekend. Seems to be that they’re going to be honoring Ruth and he said it just would not be right if I wasn’t there to celebrate and honor her life with them. He also told me in no uncertain terms that I was not allowed to come by myself.” Neal nodded, “You should go. Take one of the others with you. I’ll stay here and we’ll keep an eye on things for you.” “I’ll think about it,” Jack remarked absently, checking his watch, “I’ve got to go, Neal, otherwise I’m going to be late for my spar with Sigh.” Neal shook his head once, “Jack’s got it bad, and he just doesn’t know it yet.” He set the files on the desk and then went to go check up on the chicken situation. He seemed to remember Melba having mentioned something or other about find a possible cure for it, but it have certain side effects that might turn out to be a big issue.

Jack grabbed his jacket and quickly ran from his office to the designated sparring room up in the gym. He spotted Sigh sitting on one side of the room, “Hey, sorry I’m late. Got caught up in an alien phone call with one of our allies, couldn’t be helped, came as soon as I could.” Sigh waved it off, “Jack, it’s fine. You are a busy guy with a demanding job, I’m not complaining. Besides I haven’t been waiting that long. Are you ready to do this?” Jack’s gave her a wolfish smile, “I’m always ready for a good spar.”

Sigh smiled back, her grin no less challenging that his was, “Then may the best one win.”

Far, far away in a galaxy not dissimilar to our own, they plotted and planned. The time was almost upon them, all they needed were the last few pieces and then all would be in readiness. The time for attack would come and the reign of men would fall. In the chaos, they would step into the large gap and establish their own dynasty that would last for a thousand millennia. The days of waiting and watching would be over, the days of action and blood would have come. Glory in them, the days of wrath and ruin and bloodlust of a thousand generations from a thousand suns would be sated. For they were almost ready to launch their attack, the greatest fleet of ships the universe would ever see.

They would attack and conquer and then they would have a corner on the market of the universe’s most precious commodity.

Neal just stared at Melba. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard. “So I see what you mean now when you said that the side effects would be an issue. There really isn’t any other way to turn them back?” The tall scientist shook her head, “We’ve researched it thoroughly, Neal. Either we do it this way or the Jareds stay as a chicken. We don’t even know if this will work out, because this was not the way this device is supposed to work.” Neal sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, he could feel the headache already building up right behind his sinus cavities. “ Alright, find the girlfriends, explain it all to them, and then if they’re willing, change them over and then what are we doing…cause I don’t believe that we have the facilities to handle something of this sort.” “We don’t. But the Snizzlevarden do and they’ve agreed to take the two chickens and take proper care of them until they are transformed back into their human selves. Now if worst comes to worst and this doesn’t work…then…”

“Then we’re screwed,” Neal interrupted. Melba ignored this and continued speaking, “ Then they will need to have them there for more in depth research. In that case, then one or more of us will travel there to assist the research process. That will be in addition to the two people we are sending there with the two chickens anyways.”

“Who are we sending? “ Neal wanted to know.

“Tim Merton and Jules Gaylor.” Melba replied, “One of mine and one of yours.”

Neal nodded, “Makes sense to me. Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Other than the fact that my youngest daughter’s fiancé was pecked to death by the Jared chicken before we were able to contain the situation…not really, no.”

Neal blinked, “To whubba who?”

Melba snickered, “There’s a photo flipbook of the event on the desk if you want to see it.” Neal couldn’t help himself, he walked over to the desk and picked up the small flipbook. Flipping through it, he could not hold back the waves of laughter that were threatening to overwhelm him. “Wow,” he said half in awe, half in horrified amusement, “"That's a big chicken. What a way to go to be pecked to death"

Melba nodded, “Yeah, I know. Hysterical, isn’t it?” Neal just looked at her strangely for a minute, just as he set the flipbook back down on her desk, he noticed several other flipbooks along the same themes and then he understood. Melba’s soon to be son-in-law was one of those special people that couldn’t die. He wasn’t stuck in a never ending time loop, like in the film Groundhog’s Day, but he was semi immortal. Like in the Highlander sense of Immortal, Neal thought to himself, only without the issues of The Game and all that that would entail. That was certainly interesting, especially if you considered possible long term ramifications of this mixed blessing. After all, it was one of the tenets of the known universe that everything has a price. Jack used to tell him that the fact that the price had to be paid was in itself proof that it was worth paying. But that had been the old Jack, before Ruth’s demise. He left Melba to her work and walked through the labyrinthine hallways back to the Pit. He met up with Zhann and talked to the short archivist for a moment before continuing on.

Chapter Four

2006-11-15T05:04:00.000-08:00

Chapter Four – Dinner Dates, Landings, and The Towel

“Great goggly moogly!” came the disembodied voice. “What happened now?” one of other researchers asked. “I think we solved it!”

“What did we solve?”

“I don’t know, but we solved it!”

“Okay!”

Layne shook her head and hit her earpiece, “Neal, you might want to get down here. The Jared’s think they’ve solved something.” “What did they solve?” Neal’s voice came over the comm.

“They don’t know.”

“Um. Come again?”

“They’ve solved something but they don’t know what they solved.”

“Uhhhhhh…”

“So anyways you might want to come down here and supervise.”

“On my way.”

“Q Three out.”

Layne shook her head, the two Jareds were part of the Q Section of the Center. Q standing for Question Mark, she was sure someone at the main headquarters thought that had been terribly clever of them, naming the innovative research department like that. The two operatives had been messing around with, “testing” they called it, one of the numerous alien artifacts that the Center had in their possession. They’d figured out that when Jared (Blythe) had started to hum a certain set of notes a certain way that the device started to light like a Christmas tree. Music was apparently the key for the alien device’s start up sequence. They still have no idea what the device did, but both guys were ecstatic that they’d made it at least wake up and say hello.

Neal strolled into the observation room attached to the large bunker that Q Section had appropriated for their use. “ So tell me again what happened here?”

“The two Jareds were messing about with some of the alien tech and Jared number one had been humming something and one of the devices lit up as he passed it by. So they decided that they have solved something, but as mentioned before, they don’t know what it is.” Neal pinched the bridge of his nose, “ Do I want to know what song he was humming?” Layne bit her lower lip, “Um.” Neal buried his head in his hands, “ Oh Zarquon.” He sighed heavily, “Alright tell me.” “The Chicken song.” Neal groaned out loud, “ Why me?” Just then they turned back to watch the Jareds who were still humming and laughing and in one case, dancing with joy down in the bunker. All of a sudden there was this great big flash of light and then after the light had faded, sounds of some muted clucking. Neal and Layne got to their feet and just stared down at the large chicken now inhabiting the spot where the two Jareds had previously been standing, horrified amusement plainly written on their faces. Neal whispered to Layne, “Please tell me that this sort of thing happens to Jack. That it isn’t just me.”

Layne coughed once, trying to hide her snicker, “It’s not just you, Neal. No worries about that.” Neal nodded, a trifle relieved, “Oh good. What the frell do we do now?” Layne shrugged, “ Call Melba.” “Works for me.” Layne hit her earpiece, “Melba to the Q bunker, please, we have an S.C.S. on our hands.” “S.C.S.?” Neal asked confusedly. “Spontaneous Chicken Situation,” Layne whispered back. “Ah,” Neal could hear Melba’s laughter coming over the comm.. “She’ll be right down, she said.” Layne told him. As Melba and her team came down , Layne felt a small tug at her elbow. She looked down to see Richie Adams, standing there. “Aunt Layne, I want to show you something,” the little urchin said. She nodded once, and then tapped Neal on the shoulder, “Let’s go and get a drink, while Melba and the gang do their stuff.” Neal nodded and followed the two of them up out of the Q bunker and into the lounge on the second floor. Neal plopped down onto the couch as Layne got a couple of sodas for them and a juice box for Richie. She handed one of the colas to him and he shot her a grateful smile. “Thanks Layne.”

“No problem. Now Richie what did you want to show me?” Richie ran to go get his mini chalkboard on wheels. It had been a Christmas gift from Jack and Ruth two years ago and it was still one of his favorite presents. “This, Auntie Layne, I need to know if this is right.” Layne’s eyes bugged out of her head she looked at the complex equations on the small blackboard. Neal almost choked on his soda when he saw Layne’s expression. His eyes traveled to the blackboard and then he did a double-take. Seeing that Layne was still speechless, he calmly told the small boy, “Richie, could you go get your mom for us, please?” The little boy nodded and then scampered off. Neal gently shook Layne’s shoulder. “Wha-oh hey,” she said absently, still somewhat dazed. “Do you know what this is?” She asked him. “I’m guessing that it has something to do with physics?” Neal ventured a guess. “Not just physics, my friend, *Quantum* physics, what Richie has here is a formula , a complete formula for successfully opening and then stabilizing a wormhole in the time/space continuum. Frack me, he’s seven years old and he already knows more about quantum physics than *I* do.” Neal nodded once, “And you’re doing the definitive dissertation on the subject, aren’t you? I seem to remember you saying something about it a couple days ago.”

“Yep.”

Hayden bustled in, “You wanted to see me?” Layne nodded, “Yeah, one of you at least. Look at the blackboard and tell me what you think that is?” Hayden looked at the mini blackboard, “Did Richie get a hold of one of your papers and start copying it, Layne?”

“No, this equation is entirely unknown to me. Hayden, is it possible that…”

Hayden turned to her, puzzled, “That Richie did this? I suppose but where would he have picked something like this? I mean he’s seven, Layne, they don’t exactly teach this in first grade.”

“I think he just knows it, ‘Den, and that’s more than a bit frightening if you know what I mean.”

“I know what you mean, Layne, we’ve known that Richie was smarter than is really healthy for a kid his age. It’s why we’ve had so much trouble finding a school for him, but this is above and beyond *that.*” Hayden stated, stunned. Neal patted the doctor on the shoulder, “We’ll have to talk to Jack about this when he gets back.” Hayden looked at Neal amusedly. “Jack left the Pit? Voluntarily? For a non-work reason?”

“Yep.”

“So that is why my wife is cackling….” Neal snickered, “Nah, that’s likely to be because he took our newest recruit with him.” “Really!?” Hayden’s lips curved up in an evil sort of smile. “So Jack’s obviously getting over her, that’s good to hear,” there was no need for him to state which her; they all knew who he was referring to. “That is a relief. Jack was still pretty broken up when I came on board and that was fairly recent.” Layne remarked with a pensive look on her face. Kriss walked into the room, “It was a bit frightening, I honestly thought we were going to lose him. Frack, we were *all* scared we were going to lose Jack.” Hayden nodded, “I’ve known Jack longer than anyone else here, save for Kriss and Neal here. I tell you true, the look on his face when it happened…” He cleared his throat, “I hope to God I never have to see such a thing like that again. He was broken, just completely destroyed. He had good reason too.” Neal rested his chin is his hands, “You were there, Hayden?” he asked gently. His cousin had never mentioned what had happened then, save that something had happened and people had died. It was almost as if he couldn’t physically bring himself to dwell on what had happened. Most of the information he had gotten had either come from others or from his hacking into the system to read what reports there had been on the ‘incident.’ Anything he could glean from people about what had happened would certainly help him in understanding the job and the man that ran it. “Aye, I was there. One of the researchers had triggered something which had led to the base being overrun. In an effort to contain the problem, most of the staff that could have been evacuated was evacuated and then the place was sealed top to bottom. Kriss thankfully had gotten out with the others, on specific orders from Jack, God bless him. She helped us enormously with the technical stuff from outside the center. I was on the inside, along with Jack, Ruth, and Melba. We’d finally managed to corral them into one specific area of the base, the Q bunker actually, if I remember correctly. It’d been a hard slog to get them there but once we got them in there, they were cornered. There’s only the one way in and out of that place, built specifically that way, you know. The four of us, with help from Kriss on the outside, managed to open up a wormhole or a portal so to speak, in order to send the aliens back to wherever the frell they’d come. The plan worked, but there was a point when some of the braces helping to stabilize the wormhole, portal, whatever you care to call it; well they started to buckle under the strain. Quick as a flash, Jack and Ruth saw this and both of them bolted out there. Ruth was one of the researchers that were partnered up with the Operatives. That’s how she and Jack met in the first place. They were partners and then he got promoted to being the head of the operatives and then head of the Center itself and she went on inactive status for a while, not working out in the field but instead working from one of the desks, so that she could be closer to Jack. They did everything together. Including this; she grabbed one brace, he the other. It took them a fair bit, but they managed to get it done. Melba and I were back in the observation chamber, immensely relieved that they’d succeeded in reinforcing the braces. The alien menaces were almost gone, sucked into the tiny rip we’d opened up. It was almost over when one of the aliens flew too close to Ruth, snagging part of her jumpsuit and dragging her forward. She held onto the brace but the weight of the alien plus the suction of the rip was too much for her. She didn’t go through it, it closed half a second before she got to it. Between Melba, Kriss, and I, we were able to shut it down in time. She slammed into the back wall and then crumpled to the floor. It all happened so quickly, I mean one minute we’re all in the observation chamber, the next I’m watching as Jack screams and keeps screaming as he’s running to her. Pulling her into his lap, Jack’s cradling her, telling her it’ll be alright, that I’ll fix her up fine and dandy and that they’ve got so much more to see and to do and that she can’t leave him yet. That she was fantastic and so was he and that she couldn’t do this to him. It was supposed to have been him, not her. I got there and did the best that I could, but it was too much damage and even with the alien tech, there is a limit to how much you can heal and how fast. It was… just not enough and it was really the first time I think any of us really questioned what we did, why we did it, losing Ruth above all else really hurt us badly. She knew she was dying too, tears streaming down her face as she first looked at me and then at Jack. She made him promise to go on; promise to not do anything stupid. She told him she loved him and then she was gone. It’s the only time I think I’ve ever seen Jack cry. We took care of the body, and then I brought Jack home with me. No one slept that night. I know I didn’t, eyes wide open, just lying there, holding Kriss tight. He stayed in the spare bedroom for a few weeks until he was ready to go back to their place. We helped him re-do the place and then he sold the house and moved into the apartment above ours. It was a very difficult time for all of us. We’d faced the biggest threat to us so far, saved the planet, secured our future, but in the process, we’d lost so much. The Center had to be completely rebuilt and refurbished in places, and we’d lost a very large chunk of our staff and files. We were basically faced with the task of rebuilding the organization from the ground up. We moved from our base over in Bay Hills to here, it was more secure and we all needed a change of scenery.” Hayden finished, his voice hoarse from all of the talking he’d done. Kriss leaned over, hugging him from behind with one arm as she handed him a water with the other. Hayden took a long drink of it, “Thanks sweetheart.”

Neal was stricken; this explained so much about Jack’s behavior in the past few months. He’d gotten here to see that the man he’d once thought he’d known had changed and until now he’d not really been able to grasp why. It was all so clear now, he realized that he needed to sit down and have serious talk with his cousin soon. Part of his job after all was to make sure that everyone was where they needed to be with everything they need to have and also to ensure that the man at the top, their commander was fit enough to do the job. He knew Jack was a good one for concealing his feelings down deep. Yes, Neal thought, it was almost about time for them to have a family outing. A good old fashioned pub crawl, they’d not had one of those for a while. Just him, and Jack, and Kriss, the three Barker cousins out on the town for the night, that would be perfect and it would give him what he would need to get Jack to open up a bit more to him. Just then one of the alarms started to go off. “Someone’s trying to come through.” Kriss said, having immediately recognized the sound. Neal sighed, “Here we go again then. Why can’t we ever seem to have a normal night?”

Layne replied matter of factly as they all headed for the Pit, “Because then the universe, the great macrocosm would either explode or reset itself and we’d all wind up back here doing the same exact thing or floating around in space as tiny bits of matter.”

Neal just sighed once more.

Jack and Sigh walked into the small restaurant. The Maitre’d saw Jack and smiled widely, “Monsieur Capitaine Barker! It has been ages since you have last visited us! Come, come, you shall have the best table in the house! Would you prefer to eat inside or out on the patio? The view of the waterfront is quite lovely this time of year. And Who is this *lovely* lady that you have brought with you?” Jack turned to Sigh, who shrugged once, “ We’ll dine on the patio, thank you, Louis. This is Maresigh Scott, one of my newest recruits. I thought I’d bring her here to taste some of your marvelous cuisine.” “Ah, bien, we shall surely strive to please then,” the Maitre’d led them out to one of the tables on the patio with the best view of the sparkling bay. They sat and then after ordering their drinks, Jack set his menu to the side, “Do you trust me?” Maresigh looked at him oddly for a minute, “Absolutely,” she replied staring straight into his eyes. “Fantastic!” Jack snapped up the menus and handed them to the server who had just arrived with their drinks. “Paolo, we’ll have the usual, for two that is.” Jack ordered, never breaking eye contact. Paolo grinned, “At once, Signore, at once.” Sigh raised an eyebrow, “Dare I ask?” “Just wait, you’ll love it, I’m sure.” Jack replied, “So tell me a bit about yourself, Sigh.” Sigh rested her arms on the table, “What do you want to know?” “Whatever you want to tell me,” Jack told her. Sigh shot him a calculating look, “Alright, well I’m almost twenty one and currently staying with family as I go to school,” She took a sip of her iced tea. “Where are your parents if you don’t mind me asking?” Sigh almost choked on her tea, of all the questions to ask, she thought to herself, he *would* ask the one I can’t answer, at least can’t answer without catching major grief from The Families. Grabbing her napkin, she carefully wiped her mouth, searching for anything she could say to put him off this particular topic. “My parents are um…interesting folk. They’re not really confined to one place, so much. Free spirits of a type, at least my mum is.” She rambled, before hastily taking another sip of her tea to stop herself from giving anything else away. Jack nodded, “I see,” he made a mental note to look up the information they had on her parents. Her initial reaction had piqued his curiosity now, he *had* to know. Some part of him noted that it went a bit deeper than just your normal youthful distain or embarrassment when asked about their parents. There was something else there, he could almost taste it. He changed the subject back to just random small talk, but the part of him that always came out in alien negotiations and that sort of things was already planning and mentally reviewing his plan of action for after he returned to the Pit after dropping Maresigh at her home. Paolo shortly brought out their meal, delicious appetizers of chicken bites, polenta frita, and eggplant in small dishes, as to not spoil their appetites for the main courses. The first two courses were fabulous, a lovely risotto Milanese and then a file mignon cooked to perfection with Italian herbs that soaked into the meat and just enhanced the wonderful flavor of the steaks. Caesar salads for their after dinner side dish and then they had the most wonderful tiramisu for dessert with their espressos. “Oh this has really been delightful,” Sigh enthused as she and Jack were walking back to his car, “I’ll have to remember this place. Places like this are few and far between, where the service is excellent, the food is sublime, and the prices won’t require your firstborn child to be sold into slavery.” Jack couldn’t help but laugh at her statement. Sigh looked at him nearly doubled over with laughter in the parking lot, “What? You can’t tell me that it’s not true. It’s not often you find places like this!” Jack shook his head, breathlessly he answered, “ Oh I know and I agree with you. It’s just the way you said it, so seriously, so matter of fact, just struck me as being hilariously funny.”

“This I can understand, Aden and the others tell me the same thing sometimes.”

Jack straightened up composing himself enough to be able to get into the car and start it up. “So where to?” Sigh thought for a moment, “Do you know where the Eastport Bridge is? You can drop me off on Lockwood Court.”

Jack nodded once, “Eastport it is, m’lady.”

Neal and the others gathered in the Pit, “Alright people, it’s showtime! Kriss, bring up the visuals please, it’s always nice to know who or what we’re dealing with. Are Melba and her team out of Q bunker yet? We may need her help if this turns out to be like the Milesians’ visit. ‘Den will you corral your young hellion and make sure he can’t cause havoc like he did the *last* time. Layne, are the seals secured in case whatever comes through there is not friendly? Do we know from which entrance they are coming in from? Is it the Red Box, Blue Box, the Ring, or what?” Neal shouted out various orders rapid fire, as everyone got settled into what Jack had once called, ‘battle prep mode.’ They never knew what would be coming through the various ‘doors’ but they’d learned the hard way to be prepared for anything and everything. Often times the most dangerous ones didn’t bother coming through the portals, they just beamed themselves to the planet’s surface, if they had the required technology capable for such a thing. Then it became a matter of shoot first and ask questions later, because in no way was the general public supposed to know of what went on down here or even that there *was* a base down here. Those that didn’t have the technology were usually forced to come through some of the cracks in the temporal – spacial rift that ran throughout the planet. Well, more like the scars of where the rift had been, it had actually been sealed some years ago, by a bloke and gal who had promptly disappeared after they’d accomplished it. It was one of the main reasons why this base was here of all places. The community college had been built directly over of the largest rift scars and every now and then you had just random bits and pieces of alien flotsam and jetsam come through the rift, as well as the alien themselves. They used to have bases on all of the major rift scars and in most of the larger cities too, but they were demolished in the last major alien threat. So many people had died all because of one idiot’s stupidity. It was an absolute miracle that more people hadn’t died or been converted, as the alien called their possessions of the humans they took over. Once converted, there was no going back, which made their attack all the more insidious. Kriss interrupted his internal reverie, “Neal, all cameras are up. Melba and her team along with the Jared Chicken have been safely moved out of the bunker and up into the research containment areas. She’s also standing by in case we need her. Hayden’s got Richie securely corralled up in the lounge. The Operatives are standing by in case whatever it is, is in fact unfriendly and manages to get past our initial defenses. Layne says the seals are holding well. It looks to be the Red Door that’s projecting the energy. Would you like fries with all that, sir?”

Neal grinned at her, “Yeah, please don’t forget the vanilla milkshake.” Kriss turned to stick her tongue out at Neal. Just then Jack walked in, “Now, now children, don’t make me separate you two again. It sets a bad example for our visitors. Do we know the whos, whats, wheres, whys, and wherefore out thous yet?” Kriss rolled her eyes, “Not yet. Still coming through.” She looked at her monitor, squinting for a moment, before the image finally cleared and she had to muffle a snicker. “Jack, it’s your favorite geek.”

“Upid? He’s not due until tomorrow!”

“Well, he’s here now. His skin’s green, lovely shade of emerald really, must be maturing time for him then.” Kriss stated with a smile.

Jack groaned, “Joy, that’s all we need is a Ketoyan going through his sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll phase. Please tell me that’s the end of the good news.”

Kriss grinned, “Nope, he brought his pet with him.”

“Not Pablo too.”

“Jack!” the voice came over the speakers, “You bugger, let me out of here. Call off the Operatives, let the heathen loose. It’s me, for crying out loud!”

Jack hit his earpiece, “Operatives stand down, I say again stand down, and that’s an order. This one’s a friendly.”

Jack heard the confirmation from the Operatives and then he left the Pit to go and meet Upid. He walked up to the green skinned man, bowed once in the proper Ketoyan manner, and then Upid drew him into a back-slapping hug. “Hello Jack, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?” “It has, my friend, how are you?”

Upid fell into step beside Jack as he walked back to the Pit, “You’re looking better, Jack.” “I’m still here, Upid, still here. It’s been a hard road but I’m still here.”

“That’s good, my friend. I have to admit that we were all quite worried about you, but never once did I doubt that you would come back to us, Jack,” Upid said. Jack nodded, “You weren’t the only one, my friend. Thanks for your concern though, it is appreciated. How’s the family?”

Upid grimaced, “My mother finally charmed the place to reveal any secret her children might be hiding from her. Luckily she’s always held the belief that I’m a late bloomer, so she didn’t think anything of me turning green the nanosecond I stepped through the door. However, the secret is out now. I’ve gone green, in the presence of witnesses too, more’s the pity.” Jack struggled to keep the smile off his face, “Now you’ve been outed to your family and possibly your entire planet, considering the speed with which your mother can talk, as a viable fertile male.”

Upid glared at him, “Go ahead and laugh, you earthbound idiot. Go ahead and laugh, it’ll happen to you one day, my friend, I just hope I’m there to see it happen.” Jack grinned and he walked with Upid to the Pit, where he left the alien enthusiastically talking with Kriss and the others.

After he had said goodbye to Upid and had reminded the green-skinned humanoid that Pablo and his towel had to be confined to the base at all times, Jack strolled down to his office. Sitting down at his desk, he pulled up the files they had on Maresigh. Her psych profile, detailed files on her school career, etc… the list went on. It was a very detailed, very through composite of this person; however, none of it gave him what he was looking for. After scanning through what they had on her in about fifteen minutes or so, Jack closed out of them. Leaning back in his chair, he thought for a minute. The information they had on her was pretty good and all, but that inner sense told him that something was off. There was a missing piece somewhere. He sat up straight and began to delve into the governmental archives, looking for anything that might turn up a hit. After another forty five minutes, results started to pop up and what he found there as he read blew his mind.

Chapter Three

2006-11-07T21:33:00.000-08:00

Chapter Three – Pretending To Be A Hat and Duct Tape = Universal Concept

He’d had better days.

Yep.

All was proceeding well at the Center, no big mishaps or anything of the sort, everything running as smoothly as it possibly could for an extraterrestrial research outpost. With one possible exception, their illustrious and often infamous great and glorious leader was missing in action. Jack hadn’t been seen all day. It was getting close to the time that he was supposed to meeting their new candidate and he still hadn’t popped up. Kriss looked over at Hayden, “Flip you for it.” Hayden looked over at Melba, who nodded once.

“Alright then, call it in the air.” Hayden said as he got out the odd looking octagonal titanium coin and flipped it up in the air. “Heads,” “Tails,” the two female voices called out. “Side-edge,” a male voice said. Hayden watched the coin as it landed on his desk perfectly on its side. Hayden shook his head, “Someday I will figure just exactly how it is that you do that…and then the universe will implode, no doubt.” The brunette man walking up the stairs chuckled, “It’s a family trait, Hayden, that’s the best explanation I can give. So what were we flipping for?”

“Hello Neal, we were flipping for the privilege of going to find out where in the frell your cousin has gotten off to. No one has seen him all day.” Kriss said with a smile. “And you just won,” Hayden told him, clapping him on the shoulder. Melba cut in, “And when you find him, tell him it’s still orange and it’s a go on the oxygen.” Neal sighed, “Oh joy. Thank you so much for this pleasure. I’ll go find him then.”

After making sure that his cousin really wasn’t just hiding very effectively somewhere in his office, Neal took the side tunnel to the basement of the building where his cousin lived. He let himself in, and started poking around the apartment where his cousin resided. He walked into the bedroom last and having still not found Jack, on a whim looked up. And immediately he had to quell a massive burst of laughter swelling up inside him. His cousin had for some reason, of which he was sure to find out in short order, been duct taped to the ceiling of his bedroom.

“Neal.”

“Jack.”

“I woke up like this. Don’t know how it happened.”

“I see.”

“Why are you here? Not that I’m not glad to see you, cousin, but…”

“You haven’t been at the office all day. Some people were worried. Kriss mentioned something about a tour…I didn’t know we were a tourist attraction now.”

“We’re not. The tour was taking one of our newest prospectives and showing her around.”

“Oh. It’s a she? Is she cute?” Neal inquired, carefully watching his cousin’s reaction.

Jack gritted his teeth in irritation and mumbled something. Neal was elated. Finally Jack seemed to be coming out of his funk; Neal remarked slyly, “What was that? I’m sorry I couldn’t hear you when you mumbled like that.” If glares could have killed, Neal would be mere particles by now, but Jack did clearly and concisely enunciate for him, “Yes, she is cute.” Thinking to himself, this explained why there were more people than usual in the Comm. Center when he’d gone in this morning and why Kriss, Hayden, and Melba were all trying to and failing miserably at keeping these huge ear-splitting grins off their faces. He’d have to make a point of asking them what had happened yesterday during the interview. Jack always did things a certain way when it came to hiring on new people. “Neal, I need a favor.” His cousin’s voice broke him out of his internal musings. Neal tilted his head upward again, “What is it, Cousin?”

“Do the tour for me. I’ll be there as soon as humanely possible, but I don’t want her to feel like she’d been stood up.” His cousin explained. Neal nodded his consent, concealing a smile from Jack. Jack went on, “She’ll be in the student cafeteria at 5pm, and her name is Maresiah.” Neal nodded once more, “Done deal, I’ll go call Kriss so that they can extricate you.”

After calling Kriss and the team, and then reviewing all the material they had accumulated on the candidate, Neal had to just sit back and laugh. Jack had struck gold with this one. Checking the time, he logged out of the secure network and lazily strolled to the lift.

He got to the cafeteria and his first thought upon seeing her in the flesh was that his cousin was a lucky lucky sod and that if for some reason they couldn’t hack it, he might be tempted to try his luck with her. She really was cute as a button. Walking up behind her, he tapped her on the shoulder. She whirled around, body tensed for a fight, should there be the need to. Neal approved wholeheartedly of this, especially considering the work she’d shortly find her self doing. He did wonder about her upbringing if this was one of her already ingrained instincts, but he could ask later. Right now he had other things to worry about. “Hello, my name is Neal. My cousin was unavoidably detained so he sent me in his place. I’m to show you around where you’ll be working.”

Maresish nodded, “I’m Maresiah, call me Sigh. So where are we going? I’m assuming that this place is near or perhaps under the school somewhere.”

Neal gave her a surprised smile, “Your file said you were clever, but I think they underestimated you.”

Maresiah smiled back at him, “It makes sense and I have to say I’m both impressed and more than a little amused that an Alien Arrival/Communication Center would be secreted away behind the front of a little community college.” Neal chuckled, “That’s a common sentiment around the center.” He said as he took her arm and led her to the lift. Getting in, Neal spoke up saying, “Delta S Five Authorization. Base Level.” The lift creaked before rapidly descending to the base level of the Center headquarters. “Welcome to the Center, Maresiah Scott.”

Sigh stepped out of the lift and just stared. This place was huge and somehow fit her mental image of what a comm. Center that dealt with aliens should look like. Neal stepped up next to her elbow, “Impressive, isn’t it?”

Maresaih nodded, “It is at that, Neal.” It took them twenty minutes to go around the entire place. They had just made it back to Jack’s office when all of a sudden, a small boy leapt out at them. Maresiah quickly snatched him out of the air at mid-leap. “ Well well what do we have here?” Sigh asked with a grin. “I’m Richie. You must be the new lasy. You’re prettier than they said you were. Are you going to marry my Uncle Jack?” Sigh almost tripped when heard that last question. “Who said that, Richie?” Neal asked the small boy with a repressed grin on his face. “Mommy and Daddy were talking and Mommy said that it’d be nice if Uncle Jack would pull his head out from where the sun doesn’t…” “Thank you Richie,” Neal hastily interrupted before the urchin could give something away that he was supposed to. He shot a sidelong glance at Maresiah who seemed to be more amused than anything else. Though he *did* notice that there was a faint hint on a blush there on her cheeks. “Sigh, if you will be so obliging as to let the urchin go. He’s obviously got somewhere else to be. Somewhere not here snooping around in his uncle’s desk.” Richie scowled at Neal but smiled widely at Sigh. “I’ll see you later, pretty lady.”

“Bye Richie.”

The urchin left just as Jack walked in, patches of his skin were still red from where the tape had rubbed his skin raw. “Hello again, Sigh. I hope Neal’s been taking proper care of you. I’m sorry I couldn’t have been here to give you the tour…but there was a slight mishap and I found myself stuck to the object at hand.”

“Literally,” Neal muttered under his breath. Jack gave him a slashing glare from across the room. Neal laughed inwardly, She’s all yours, Jack. She’s as smitten with you as you are with her, cousin, he thought wryly. Inclining his head toward Jack, he grabbed Sigh’s hand and bowed over it. “Good lady, it was a delight. Welcome, you are sure to be a boon to us other lowly mortals, and now I say adieu.” Neal left, leaving the other two alone in the office, neither one knowing quite what to say or do next. “Well this is a good quality long awkward pause.” Sigh finally spoke up, breaking the uneasy silence. Jack barked a laugh, “It is, isn’t it?” Both of them looked at each other once before bursting out into laughter. A few minutes later, Jack ran a hand through his hair, “Well Neal took you on the twenty cent tour. Want to meet some of the people that you’ll be working with?”

“Sure.”

Jack led Sigh out of the office and into the main comm. area. He spotted Kriss and walked over to where the snarky tech was working. “ This is Kriss Adams, Sigh, she’s …-”

“Richie’s mother, right?” Sigh interrupted.

“That’s right,” Kriss said with a fond smile, “You’ve already met my munchkin then?”

“While we were on the tour,” Sigh confirmed. Kriss swiveled in her chair, “ To my right are Tim Zerkfield, who I believe you already know and Kaida Delaine, who I think you’ve met before. These two are my apprentices of a sort. We’re the technical support. My husband, Hayden is the physician here. Eileen O’Shea is his assistant. As you’ve likely already figured out from the size of his office and the paperwork contained therein…Jack is our great and glorious leader. Neal, his cousin, is the second in command, and also incharge of making sure that the away teams get where they need to be on time, et cetera, et certera. Melba, Layne, and the Science Squad over there are the scientific experts, after them you have our archivists, Gabriella and Zhann. These are all support staff members, most of us don’t work in the field too often, though we are all required to be certified for field missions. The ones that actually do most of the fieldwork are the Operatives and they are mostly jack of all trades to put it one way. They do most if not all of the grunt work for the crew back here at the Pit.” Kriss explained to Sigh after seeing Jack’s nod to continue the introductions. She knew everyone anyways, after the death of their last second in command, Kriss had taken on the post of interim second in command while Jack got his head back together. Neal hadn’t initially wanted the post, but he’d been the most qualified for it besides Kriss herself and she’d not wanted the post in any sort of permanency. Sigh nodded, “ The Pit, I like that name, it seems to fit this place pretty well.” “Has Jack told you where you’ll be fitting in yet?” Kriss inquired, shooting a sidelong glance at the aforementioned great and glorious leader. Sigh shook her head, “No, not yet, though I suspect I’m to be one of them, the operatives, I mean.” “You could be right, but somehow knowing Jack, that’s not *just* what you’ll be. “ Kriss said with an enigmatical smile on her face. Sigh frowned at first, but then she brushed it off as just an odd quirk, what else could she be there for if not for her lesser known more unique skills. Surely that’s the reason they had come and offered her a position with them. It had to be. She shook her head once, resolving to ponder this at a later time. “Is this all the staff?” She asked with an inquisitive look on her face. “Yes,” Kriss started to say, but Jack cut her off, “All of the human staff anyways.”

“You mean to say that you have actual aliens working for you here?” Sigh remarked incredulously. “I mean to say,” Jack grinned. He was having the time of his life just watching her reactions. “We’ll take you to see some of our more interesting friends a little later. It’s getting a bit dark. Fancy going out for a bite?” Jack inquired nonchalantly. “Why not?” Sigh replied, “And while we eat, you can expound upon what you want me to do here.”

“Fair enough,” Jack conceded, offering his arm to her, “ Fair lady, your escort awaits.” Sigh took his arm and he led her over to a lesser used corner of the Pit. “Wait, aren’t we going to use the pit?” She asked him confused. Jack shook his head, “You came in the normal way, now you’ll see the scenic route.” Sigh shrieked and grabbed onto Jack as the ground beneath them began to move, parts of it detaching from the floor as it rose into the air. Jack grinned as he wrapped one arm around her securely, “Don’t worry. This is perfectly safe. We’ll pop out right in front of the bookstore.” “Right in front of the bookstore? Isn’t that a bit conspicuous?” “No one can see us until we step off of this exact spot. Now just relax and enjoy the view.” Jack chided gently, reveling in the feeling that came with holding another person tight. She fit against him like Ruth had, It felt good to be doing this – he hadn’t realized till now how much he had missed this. Maybe Kriss, Hayden, and Neal had been right after all. Maybe it *was* time for him to move on with his life. Sigh noticed how quiet he’d gotten and also how after her initial grabbing on to his waist in order not to fall, his arm hadn’t left her waist yet. She was, surprisingly okay with that. She left him to his musings and just delighted in the wonderful sights around her. Finally they reached the top and Jack, after a pause cheerfully stepped out and again offered her his arm. “This way, my lady, your chariot awaits you.” Sigh couldn’t help but giggle at him, “Thank you, good sir.”

Somewhere in the deep of space, something evil was lurking. It lurked and it watched and it plotted and planned. Soon the day would come. Soon everything would be complete…and vengeance would be theirs.

Kriss sighed as she saw her son sneaking up on Kaida and Tim. “Ritchie, what are you *doing*?” She asked him exasperatedly. “Pretending to be a hat, momma,” he answered. Kriss sighed, rolling her eyes heavenward then she turned to Hayden who had been standing right behind her, “He’s YOUR son.”

Chapter Two

2006-11-02T20:58:00.000-08:00

Chapter Two - Spoons, A Death, and Sharpie Markers

Somewhere in the universe, likely around the planet of Carnajagrazitherspoof, monkeys were constantly falling out of trees.

Back in the Cafeteria of the American Academic Community College, Jack stepped out of the lift right into the path of one of the other students, who was not happy about being bumped into by someone who hadn’t been there a second ago. He surreptitiously checked his watch which doubled as a nifty people finder as well as a few other things that his lovely new engineer trainee had mocked up for him. He casually walked over to the table where the subject in question was sitting. She was currently laughing at one of the other people there at the table, who had just stated in all seriousness, "I feel like a drunk elephant." There were several other interesting characters sitting around the table with the subject and Jack coded a request to the Tech on duty now to identify the people around the subject and then assess whether or not any of them could be of possible use to the organization.

Sigh laughed as Tim (Merton) had sat down heavily at the table and declared for the entire table to hear that he felt like a drunk elephant. After they had calmed down somewhat from that, Lindon gave Aden a significant look and sighing, she pulled out the deck of cards she always kept on her. Patrick let out a loud whoop and Lindon dashed over to the small table outside the cantina to grab the required number of spoons. Sigh couldn’t repress a grin when Aden started to mutter to herself in Gaelic as she dealt the cards for the freaky weird little card game called Spoons. With which most of the inhabitants of the Table were now madly obsessed with, to the point that it got physical sometimes. There’d been duels over spoons before, people leaping over tables and outright wrestling for them.

Jack leaned forward fascinated; he’d never seen anything like this card game before. It was fantastic. The five people had almost completely cleared their side of the table in order for nothing to get in the way of their card game. The girl to the subject’s left was dealing out the cards and then there was something to do with the cards and the spoons and it was all very fast and just *fascinating.* He watched avidly as the game proceeded until finally one of the males at the table finally lost. He drew closer to the table, trying to get a better look at this game. “Would you like to be dealt in?” the question seemingly came out of nowhere and it was a minute or two before Jack’s brain processed that it had, in fact, been directed at him. He looked over at the girl who was staring at him with a questioning look on her face. “I…um…don’t know how,” he stumbled over himself answering her. Mentally, he berated himself, well that was smooth Jack, where the frill did your charm and I don’t know *people skills* go to? The girl waved it off, “S’ok. Neither did anyone else but Sigh over here, she’s the one that introduced us to this freaky weird little card game. The rules for it are fairly simple.” She told him, matter of factly. Jack nodded and sat in the chair that one of the others had pulled up for him. Fairly simple, okay, I can do this. He thought to himself as the girl (Aden) dealt out four cards to each player and then took the rest of the deck and placed it near the person next to her. “The game works like this. You have four cards in your hand; you can only ever have four cards in your hand. You must discard a card if you intend to pick up a different one. During each round there is one player that is the designated ‘flipper.’ This person flips through the deck one card at a time as fast as they can, looking for four of a kind. The cards they don’t use are passed clockwise and then eventually discarded by the last person in the circle. After the round and the card have been reshuffled and redealt, the job of flipper goes to the next person in the line, also going clockwise. This is Rule Number One, parts a, b, c, and d. Rule Number Two concerns the spoons. There is one fewer spoon than the number of players. The spoons are placed in the centre of the circle of players and no one can touch them until Rule Number Three occurs. Rule Number Three is that once you have four of a kind in your hand , you may take one of the spoons. As soon as a spoon has been taken, all the other players are entitled to take a spoon each, even if they do not have four of a kind. Since there is one spoon fewer than the number of players, one player will be left without a spoon. This player is the loser of this deal and thus is then bestowed with a letter. These letters form the word ‘Spoons,’ once you have gotten the entire word, ‘Spoons,’ that’s it, you’ve lost the game. We’ll either start the game over or play without you. Very rarely have we ever played until someone actually got Spoons, mostly because we rarely have that sort of time, being busy and in most cases, studious college students.” Aden said this with an arch look over in Patrick’s direction. She turned back to Jack, “Think you’ve got it?” Jack nodded, this would be easy…

Or not, he reflected after the second hand. He had already received his first letter, an ‘S’ and he was getting caught up the enthusiasm that this game just sort of engendered. He was seated directly across from the subject and he had to admit that what Lindon and Patrick and Kayta had all said was true. The subject, Maresiah or Sigh as she preferred to be called, did have the mad skills when it came to this game. Her fingers flashed so quickly when she was flipping the cards and it was like she was possessed of some supernatural sense when it came to the spoons and particularly the movement thereof. He might have suspected alien technology if he hadn’t already done a scan for it when he’d stepped off the lift. Now he just wondered if she was clairvoyant to any degree. Just then, he saw the last card he’d needed and quick as a flash, he picked it up and discarded the other. Reaching for a spoon at the same that Sigh did, their hands landed on the same spoon and both of them pulled hard at it. Jack would have moved to get another spoon, had there been any left, but they’d been snatched up in a flash. So he was stuck here, holding on fiercely to his end of the spoon. Courtesy demanded he let her win, but his stubborn Celtic pride wouldn’t let him. So he held onto that spoon for all he was worth, noting with an inward smile, that she’d done the same thing. Gray eyes met brown ones and neither one bowed to the other one. Hayden had been right, one part of Jack’s brain mused, Sigh would make a *perfect* candidate for the organization. The idiot doctor would never let him live it down, but he had to admit that when in this case, Hayden had been spot on with his analysis of the subject. His internal reverie was broken when Sigh told him in a slightly steely voice, “I could stay like this for hours.”

He smiled wolfishly at her, “Same here sweetheart, same here.”

This went on for what seemed like hours upon hours, but in all actuality was only six minutes. Finally Patrick snapped, “Alright you two, if neither of you feel like ceding to the other person, there’s only one way we can go from here.” Everyone turned to look at him questioningly. “You need to have a duel.” He finished with a definitive nod.

“A duel?” Aden asked with a surpressed grin.

“A duel,” Patrick nodded again, “ A duel for the spoon.”

“With spoons,” Kayta added, “A duel for the spoon with spoons.”

Aden turned back to Sigh and the two girls had a silent conversation. Aden sighed once and then nodded, “ A duel it is. Patrick will you…”

“Get our lovely ready to haul some butt?” Patrick finished for her, “I surely will.”

Aden rolled her eyes, “Alright Kayta you have our new friend then. I don’t believe we got your name…”

“It’s Jack, my name is Jack.” Jack growled as he reluctantly relinquished the spoon to Aden, who was the referee for this little interlude they now found themselves in. They stood up and moved to the center of the cafeteria. Kayta grabbed Jack’s hands and with her ever present Sharpie marker, she drew a rune for protection on one hand and another for warrior on the other one. “There you’re about as ready as I can make you.” She clapped him on the shoulders, “Die well, Jack.” Over on the other side, Sigh was giggling as Patrick was impersonating a priest and ‘blessing’ her so she could go and kick butt as no one has ever kicked butt before. Lindon after some inspection gave spoons to both Patrick and Kayta who in turn handed them to Jack and Sigh. The two challengers took their positions and at Aden’s signal, began to duel back and forth. Jack was in his element, he’d never so much fun before in investigating a possible subject for entrance into the organization. She was good too, even if they were dueling with plastic spoons. “Fair lady, you are excellent at spoons and also apparently at swordplay…” Jack panted as he dodged out of the way of what would have been a vicious blow had it actually hit. Sigh raised an eyebrow at him, “Was there a question in there somewhere?” Jack couldn’t repress a grin at her, unfortunately it was at that exact minute that out of nowhere, a black cat came screaming though the cafeteria, tripping Jack in the process. He landed flat on his back, Sigh looking down at him with a small smile on her face. “I win.” She said. “You win,” he agreed, still looking up at her, “Is there anything you don’t do?” “Jump out of planes.” Sigh replied with an odd look on her face. She held out a hand and he grabbed it, letting her help him back to his feet. “Are you hurt anywhere?” She asked him, in a slightly stilted tone of voice. “Apart from my bum, no” Jack replied truthfully.

An agonized scream ripped through the cafeteria. Jack and Sigh turned to see Patrick writhing on the floor, a plastic spoon sticking out of his kidneys. They looked up to see the slightly guilty looks on both Aden and Kayta’s faces. Sigh looked amused, “How did we kill Patrick this time?” Jack turned to Sigh, this incredulous look on his face, “This happens often?” Sigh rolled her eyes, “You have no idea.”

Lindon spoke up, “Patrick and Kayta were mock-dueling and then Aden accidentally flicked the spoon she was pointing with behind her. It hit Patrick at just the right spot as Kayta sort of stabbed him.”

“I repeat this happens often???” Jack asked, tone bordering on the slightly weirded out side of things. Sigh turned to him, “Yes it does.”

“Random people just up and die here at campus? Why?” Jack’s mind was whirling through all of the possibilities for some thing that might cause this sort of effect on the students. Maybe one of the weird alien pathogens had escaped from their vault or some odd piece of technology... “No, just Patrick.” Sigh answered with an amused look.

Jack’s brain seemed to short out for a moment when he heard that, “Excuse me? Just Patrick?”

“What about me?” Patrick’s voice said cheerily from behind Sigh. Jack blinked, eyes trailing down to where’d he’d clearly seen mortal injuries inflicted on the man before him. He shook his head, and the Powers That Be thought the students here had no idea that there was something else besides their quaint little community college here. He looked straight at Sigh, “Want a job?”

Sigh raised an eyebrow, “What sort of job?”

Jack shrugged, “The kind that’ll take you light years away from where you thought you’d end up. It’s a demanding job, but it has its perks. Will you?”

Sigh looked apprehensive, “I want to finish school.”

Jack laughed, “We insist that you do.”

Sigh nodded, “Then yes.”

Jack smiled, “You accept?”

“I do.”

“Meet me here tomorrow at five pm and we’ll get the ball rolling.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll see you here tomorrow then, Sigh. It was a true pleasure.” Jack kissed the back of her right hand and then strolled off to the lift, resisting the urge to whistle jauntily.

“Well that was certainly interesting.” Aden remarked as her friend walked back over to the group. “I think someone made an impression.”

Sigh rolled her eyes, “Go away. You aren’t my friend anymore.”

Aden grinned, “Oooh and you like him back! This has potential.”

Maresiah mock-glared at Aden before glancing down down at her watch, “Bugger, I have to get to class.”

Aden snickered, “We’ll clean up here. Have fun in class.”

“See you later.”

Jack walked back into headquarters only to see Hayden, the resident doctor, Kriss, their technical person, as well as the rest of the science crew huddled around one of the larger surveillance monitors. They all turned to look at him as he stepped off the lift, the looks on their faces varying between outright mirth mingled with shock. He sighed heavily, “You all were watching, I take it.” It was a statement not a question. Kriss smirked at him, “Nice tattoos,” she remarked, “Those cats surely are fierce animals, aren’t they, sir?” Jack glared at her, “Don’t think I don’t know who’s responsible for that either, Kriss.” Kriss stared back, completely unafraid, “Blame the husband, sir, he’s corrupted me what good.” Jack smothered a smile as he started to make his way to his office, “I knew I was going to regret introducing the two of you.” Kriss grinned, “So you like her. Are you going to do anything about it? Would you like help? I mean I know it’s been a while since you’ve had that sort of thing, you might be rusty.” Jack halted in his tracks, “Thank you but no. I’m not looking and you know why.” He replied softly before going into his office and quietly shutting the door. Kriss sighed, feeling her husband walk up and hug her from behind. Leaning into his arms, she remarked, “I wish we could discover a cure for that. It’s hurting him so badly.” Hayden stroked her hair with one hand, “It’s going to take some time, sweetheart, you know that. It’ll just take some more time. This is all just part of the mourning process.” Kriss replied, “I know it is. He loved her with all his heart and then she went the way she did and…you’re probably right. It’ll just take a little more time. After all, the old Jack is still in there somewhere, today was proof of that.”

“Yes it was, Kit, yes it was. We can’t give up on ol’ Jack yet.”

Prologue and Chapter One

2006-11-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

Tales From The Cafeteria

It was a dark and stormy night when the penguins attacked. Well, they resemble penguins but they really weren’t what the Earth knows as class Aves, order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae. These penguins were hyper aware, approaching a human level of intelligence and they’d decided that they liked our world (in general) and our state (in particular). The entire United States Eastern Seaboard was at risk because of alien penguins deciding that they liked our sealife. Several species of krill, fish, and squid were now seriously endangered. It was up to us to save the day. To rescue our seas and bays from the evil penguins; the job was ours. We were brave, we were steadfast, we were…

College Students.

Welcome to Tales From The Cafeteria, my good friend Aden decided that this needed to be the introduction for this document which you even now hold in your hands. This is a secure document, encrypted six ways from the seventh Sunday of Bloogerth, planet ZY-468, Andromeda Galaxy. This is for level seven and three quarters security clearance and higher, if you do not have said security clearance, then in twenty seconds if you have not already put this down, you will be terminated with extreme prejudice (under terms defined in the Official Security Act). If you are still reading this after twenty seconds, we are scanning your biometric readings into our database and in point zero three seconds we will know everything there is to know about you and the squads of ninja attack squirrels will attack you no matter where you go. There is nowhere you can hide from us. All your base belong to us.

Really.

So now that we’ve gotten the formalities over with, I invite you to enjoy the rest of this document.

(Providing of course you have the level seven and three quarters or higher security clearance).

Everything here is absolutely true. Just ask Bob. He was there too.

Chapter One – Mice, Lizards, Pigeons, and Weightless Bottomless Backpacks.

[Intercept feed – Maresiah node- connected]

First Day

Subject enters school, taking care to blend in with the rest of the student body as much as possible. Nondescript clothing, unremarkable accessories for the most part, her backpack seemingly is bottomless. This researcher wonders if a M.P. * gadget has somehow been inadvertently ( or advertently) grafted into said backpack. Backpack is also apparently weightless.

*M.P. standing for Mary Poppins (of course)

Subject made contact with select members of student body and was received well. Still think we should have sent in the other operative in. Those two operative have tendencies of getting distracted by cuteness [see crew file103-Felicia] and this subject is definitely cute.

All in all, the subject looks to be a promising candidate.

End Report.

“I love your t-shirt,” a voice said. Maresiah looked up from her Sociology textbook, slightly startled. The voice spoke again, “ Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” The owner of the voice stepped out from behind her, “ It’s nice to see that someone else has fond memories of Sergeant Pepper and the Yellow Submarine.” Maresiah smiled, “Yeah, Yellow Submarine is one of my favorites Beatles’ songs. This t-shirt was a gift from my parents.” “Cool,” the owner of the voice, a slim petite girl said. “I’m Aden, Aden Marshall,” She introduced herself.

“Maresiah Scott. I’m mostly known as Sigh.”

“Pleasure to meet you. How did you get associated with this particular table in the cafeteria?” Aden asked.

“Um. I was sort of dragged over here by Carmine. She saw me writing one morning and decided that I needed to be part of her group. So I moved over to this table and got introduced all around and now eight weeks later, I am a bonafide member of this table’s sort of cafeteria sub culture.” Maresiah explained.

Aden nodded sagely, “Carmine is known for doing that. She’s picky though, you have to be extra special or really off the wall for her to drag you to the table.”

“Yes,” Sigh said with a small smile. Just then a completely random guy walked up to the table, sniffing the air around Maresiah, he looked down at her and gave her this quirky little grin, “Beavers and Ducks.” That was all he said and then after bobbing his head once, he walked away. Blinking, Sigh looked over at Aden, “Well that was completely random. I wonder what else will happen here today.” “I don’t know,” replied Lindon Turrington coming up behind Aden, “But I have a bad feeling about it.” Immediately they heard a groan from the other side of the table, “You *had* to say it, why by Zarquon’s navel, did you have to SAY IT!!” was heard from the tall bespectacled guy repeatedly banging his head on the cafeteria table in from of him. “Zerkfield, get a life. He’s not cosmically dooming us all to some horrific fate.” Patrick said sarcastically. Glaring, the man looked up at Patrick, “The space dianoga, the Trade Federation invasion, the poisonous gas, the kidnappings, Cato Nemoidia, rescuing Palpatine, Jabba’s palace, the cryptonite, what do all these events have in common?” “Someone said that one line right before they all happened.” Aden and Maresiah said in unison. “YES, EXACTLY!!” Zerkfield remarked emphatically, “So don’t you *dare* tell me that isn’t some serious karmic bad stuff attached to that phrase, cause there so is.” “Tim, Star Wars is fictional, you do know that, right?” Kelle Delaine asked cautiously. Tim rolled his eyes and gave her the slightly exasperated look that all good geeks are experts at when encountering people not quite on the same geek level as themselves. “Yes, I know that Star Wars is fictional in this dimension. *However* there are some things that *transcend* fiction, especially such exceptional works of fiction like these. The bad karma associated with that phrase is one of those things.” Kelle nodded and murmured something placating, when Tim (Zerkfield) was in the Geek zone, then it was best to just smile and nod and go along with whatever he said. Otherwise they’d be there all day listening to him going on and on about whatever the frill he was going on about today.

[Intercept feed – Maresiah node- connected]

First Day – cont.

Subject has shown herself to be capable of handling unexpected random events with a calm and rational manner. Subject also has great wealth of knowledge stored up inside her brain about various pop fictional things (especially in the areas of science fiction and fantasy). Operative number one oh six should take note because he’ll never see another female like this ever again and if he had two brain cells to rub together, he’d of proposed to the subject already. This researcher advocates the addition of the subject to the organization because the subject has shown herself uniquely qualified for this job. Someone remind me why we can’t go about these things the normal way?

End Report.

Jack Barker sighed as he finished reading the reports on their latest prospective case. It wasn’t easy doing what he did on a regular basis, but it was all he’d ever known. He’d been tapped for this project early on and all his training had been to prepare him for everything this job could throw at him. Given what his job entailed on a day to day basis, it pretty much meant that he had a bunch of semi-useless trivia wired into his brain that every so often came in handy to either save his life and/or the planet. Said trivia also got him in major trouble nine out of ten times. He’d laughed it off when his one mentor had told him that no matter what they showed him or how well he picked everything up, there was still no way they could really prepare for the job he was about to take. Simply because it was the sort of job that relied mainly on experience and how well you could BS people, things, the list went on…

He used that particular skill often, the BS-ing. It did come in handy, no matter how much he hated it. He laughed to himself as he read some of the sarcastic comments from the tech assigned to this new case. From everything he’d read and observed so far, this subject did seem like an ideal person for the job they were targeting her for. All he needed now was to meet her himself as himself and that would be the determining factor about whether or not the subject did join them or she didn’t.

“Captain!! Captain!!” The shout came from across the room. “It's still orange! It's STILL orange! Do you know what this means?!”

Jack bit back a laugh, “ No Mel, I don’t know what it means. Why don’t you fill me in on the auspicious meaning of whatever the frack it is you are working on and why the fact that it is still orange should have any bearing on my current mood.”

Melba Delaine, Chemistry nerd, student, and also one of the members of the small team of oddballs that they had here gave him an exasperated look, “Because the fact that it is still orange means that the shield is working, that the alien device liberated from that corpse last Friday can actually be calibrated to stop any manner of thing from reaching you. Liquid, solid, doesn’t matter, the shield is impervious.”

Jack looked at her with a mildly interested look on his face, “It does let in air right? And lets out the carbon dioxide so that a human wouldn’t suffocate while using it right?”

Melba sighed, “Yes we think, though we’d like your permission to run some tests on it.”

Jack nodded, “Nothing human or alien until the air question is settled. Mice are okay, lizards are okay, Pigeons too.”

Melba just shook her head at him, “Thank you sir, isn’t it time for your lunch right about now?”

Jack grinned, “Love you, dahling.” He got up from his desk and after shrugging on his coat; he got into the elevator and hit the up button, “Cafeteria, level one.”

More random Nano notes

2006-10-23T05:14:00.000-07:00

Aden and Maresiah are almost like twins - both born fifteen minutes apart on airplanes crossing over the British Isles. They meet at college and hit it off. Their third member, Carmine is one of the biggest sweethearts around once you get past the brash defensive barrier.

Other additions to the list are a snarky captain/fighter pilot who is head of the the strike team present at the community college. The college itself is known as the American Academic Community College or AACC. In more *interesting* circles, it is known as the Alien Arrival/Communication Center. We also have a college doctor and a college nurse who live to make each other's lives difficult.

Dramatis Personae

2006-10-19T17:05:00.000-07:00

The cast of characters (so far):

Maresiah Zelayne Scott
Aden O'Darling
Carmine Brady
Tim (1) Zerkfield
Tim (2) Merton
Patrick O'Grady
Kelle Delaine
Kaida Delaine
Melba Delaine
Kayta Williams
Layne Berkington
Lissa Smith
Professor Kerrigan
Jared Blythe
Lindon Turrington

More Info to be added as November gets closer and closer.

Tales From The Cafeteria

2006-10-19T10:41:00.000-07:00

The 2006 Nanowrimo project from BethanyK....

Title: Tales From The Cafeteria
Summary/Basic Plot Blurb: A look into the lives of college students...with a twist. These aren't your ordinary college students. Their small little community college may not look like much, but there are some pretty strange courses offered there, courses that you wouldn't find almost anywhere else. The unthinkable happens and guess who they call to save the day?
Setting: [Ordinary World] The small little county community college that seems so ordinary and quaint....
[Extraordniary World] The "other side" of the community college and oh yeah, outer space. The side that regularly deals with foreign/domestic alien threats, first encounters, and the proper way to make, serve, and then partake of...tea.
Main Theme: Crack...mostly how these very odd and quirky students in this seemingly ordinary college save the planet over and over...and over again.

Overall in this latest 'masterpiece' there are 5 band geeks, 2 history geeks, 4 people learning Japanese, 8 people obsessed with anime, 4 people obsessed with writing (novels, coincidenally enough), 3 computer nerds(one of which has taken a vow of silence and thinks in binary code), 2 science nerds (1 chem and 1 physics), 1 insane English/Lit Professor, and a random culinary major. Add to this the fact that half of these people are obsessed with this freaky weird card game Spoons, and the other half are all major tea drinkers and well....it gets interesting at the cafeteria table.

Plus there are random alien encounters and apocalypses....