Galactic Mage 4: Alien Arrivals (10 page)

“She can,” both Orli and Altin said at once. They looked back and forth between each other, surprised, then laughed. They looked back at him, nodding in unison, as Orli added, “Definitely.”

“So there you have it,” Master Sambua said. “Five or so months for our part, and we haven’t even seen the Prosperion masons yet for that outer wall. We sent one of those little messenger lizards they have twice in the last week, but the master mason says they’ve got to prioritize rebuilding Crown City first. He says they’ll get to us when they can.”

“Well, that’s going to be a long time,” Altin said. “Crown City was nearly half-destroyed. It will be years.”

The engineer nodded that he understood. “We’re looking for someone on Earth, but there aren’t many stonework contractors anymore.”

“I suppose we could just use someone’s barn,” Altin said. “I don’t suppose there is much difference in the end.”

“Altin, it’s going to have to serve as a base for our machines. It needs a power source. It needs a proper pressure hatch and vehicle access. We need a ship, not a barn.”

“Well, what about Roberto?” Altin said. “Didn’t Her Majesty just buy him a ship?”

“She bought him a ship?” Orli looked surprised.

“That’s what I’m asking you.”

“I haven’t talked to him in a month. What ship?”

“Do you recall when I went to Crown City two weeks ago? It was just after Kettle threw that rather large fit, insisting that I hadn’t tried hard enough to get Pernie back.”

Orli nodded, clearly remembering it well.

“Well, as I was being brought into Her Majesty’s private audience chamber, I heard her talking to the Lord Chamberlain about getting the gold together for ‘dear Roberto’s spaceship.’ I didn’t get most of it, but it seems the Queen and your friend have something in the works.”

Curiosity flitted across Orli’s face, then she nodded. “Let’s find out. Take me to Little Earth, and we’ll see if we can’t get him up on the entanglement array.”

They bade the engineer farewell—and good luck with convincing his crew to get back to work now that the fear of curses could be allayed—and in a matter of moments, they appeared in the knee-high grass of the meadow outside of the walled fortification known as Little Earth. Within the walls was a small village built by the Queen’s people to serve the people of Earth as a Prosperion base. It was a forty-acre stretch of land upon which fleet transports and other craft could land, coming and going as they pleased. The whole compound was only two measures from Crown City, near enough to be convenient for travel in between, but remote enough that the wayward effects of magic would not very often disrupt the machinery.

They strode purposefully through the grass to the gates where two Marines stood sentry outside. Wide smiles cracked the men’s somber façades as the famous couple approached.

“Lady Pewter and Sir Altin,” they said nearly in unison. Both of them, young enough to have barely sprouted beards, looked starstruck at seeing who had come.

“Well, I’m not technically a lady yet,” Orli said. “I have to be granted that title or be married to a lord.” She jerked her head in the direction of Altin standing near, and added, “And he keeps finding ways to slip out of my clutches.”

“Hey,” Altin said defensively. “You know that isn’t true.”

She relented. “I know. We do have rotten luck, though.”

Altin didn’t want to get her going on that point, or the whole afternoon might go up in flames, so he quickly redirected the conversation, sufficing himself to finding the right time to reset the ceremony as soon as possible. With Pernie being snatched away by the elves, it was difficult to find the right, well, mood at Calico Castle. Kettle was such a constant source of warmth and love in his life that he just couldn’t bring himself to do it yet, not when she was still to be found crying in the kitchens most nights. And the Queen had been adamant about there being nothing he could do in regard to getting Pernie back. The whole affair was the makings of many centuries, the product of treaties, and, worse, the blathering prophecies of both men and elves. Interference on his part would be seen as either an act of war or blasphemy, and for many, both. He was as helpless as Kettle was. And all he could do was sigh with her, and tell her that Pernie would be okay. That she’d be famous someday, and important to all the realm. Which, of course, Kettle could not care a lick about.

They passed through the gates and entered the main compound, making their way up a modest dirt lane that was not unlike many to be found in quaint old villages all across Kurr. Orli still smiled when she saw the thatched roofs, and to Orli’s ears the creaking wood of the steps was the sound of happiness.

Inside the command building they were greeted by her father’s secretary, a lean, older man with the look of a longtime military bureaucrat. He looked up, nodded politely, and indicated they should go into the office beyond.

Her father, newly made general, rose and greeted them both with a smile so wide and welcoming few sunrises boded as much warmth. “Baby girl!” he said, coming around the large wooden desk and clapping her in an iron hug. “I missed you this week.”

“We were busy finding Yellow Fire,” she said, looking a little embarrassed given that she hadn’t told him what they were up to. She hadn’t wanted him to worry.

If eyes could growl, his would have, but he let it pass, moving from her to clap Altin into another bear-trap hug. The dull thuds of his strong hand clapping Altin on the back sounded like drumbeats before he finally pushed him away. “You better be careful with my girl out there, young man.” The words were gruff, but there was love in his eyes. He and Altin had one thing in common: both would die for her. It was a bond that had been forged over the course of seeing how close they could get to proving that, time and again, and the two of them could not have been closer or held one another in higher esteem had they been of the same blood.

Altin grinned at Orli, who was radiant upon seeing them together and so fond of one another. They were all smiling as they took seats, the general behind his desk and the young lovers in chairs before it. After a few lingering pleasantries, Orli got to the crux of their visit. “I need to get in touch with Roberto,” she said at last. “Altin thinks the Queen might have bought him a spaceship. Have you heard anything like that?”

The general laughed, his silver-haired head tipping back as he did. “Oh, she did all right,” he said. “And not just any ship. I have, let me see ….” He tapped up something they couldn’t see on his computer screen, before he resumed, “I have two hundred and thirty-six messages from various cartels and trade union folks within the NTA all whining to me about it.”

Both Orli and Altin looked surprised, though Orli more so, since she knew what that implied better than the Prosperion did. “Why?” she asked. “What has he done? He can’t possibly have had that ship long enough to piss that many people off. He only got his discharge papers a month ago.”

The general laughed again, his smile wide and his eyes glinting with affection for Roberto. “You’re correct. I have no doubt that your friend will piss them all off in his own good time, but for now they’re mainly in a fuss about his exclusive deal with Her Majesty.”

“And that is?” Orli prompted when her father paused.

“She’s given him an exclusive deal on the entire Goblin Tea trade with Earth.”

“She what?” That came from both Altin and Orli at once.

“You heard me right. Her Majesty gave your boy Roberto absolute and total exclusivity on all trade of Goblin Tea from Prosperion to Earth. All of it. Period. They get it from him, or they don’t get it at all.”

Altin took a moment to think on it, then began to laugh. “Huzzah for him! That’s outstanding.”

Orli, however, did not laugh. “You can’t be serious?” she said. “Roberto? My God. Do you have any idea how obnoxious he will become?” She knew full well the qualities of Goblin Tea. There were no varieties of coffee on Earth as potent as Goblin Tea. Not even the synthetics or the genetically modified stuff. While Goblin Tea itself wasn’t magical, there was some magic in the growing of it. Or at least that’s what people said.

Both men were laughing heartily as they considered what she said, and they even more wholeheartedly agreed. “He will be impossible,” Altin said between chortles. “I couldn’t be happier for him.”

“And well deserved,” the general added. “It couldn’t have happened to a better man.”

Orli looked exasperated by the very idea of that much money and influence being handed to Roberto so quickly—sweet, loving, and courageous man that he was, her dearest friend in all the world, entirely aside. It was obvious by her frown that she still felt he was entirely too debauched to be given that kind of wealth. “Well, I hope it doesn’t ruin him,” she said. “I can only imagine how much he will abuse the power once he has it.” She tried to be stern about that, but the two men she loved so much both seemed so happy for Roberto that the infectious nature of their happiness finally pulled her in. All the same, as she sat grinning with them, she added, “He will be impossible now, you know?”

“Indeed,” said Altin, and at least on that they all agreed.

When they were done speculating on the nature of depravity possible in a man with uncountable wealth, a new spaceship, and powerful friends on two worlds, they finally got to the point of calling
the
man himself. It took the general some time to find Roberto, but soon enough his cheerful face lit up the large monitor on the wall behind the desk, and, as always, his brown cheeks rounded with effervescent natural humor.

“You’re damn right she bought me a ship,” he said to their question on that regard. “Brand new. Only the fifth one of its kind too. I got to jump the line on the waiting list. You have to see it. It’s epic. Fast and tough. They say Hostile shafts will bounce off this thing even without the shields. In fact, the plant manager told me I can park this thing at the bottom of the ocean, can sit down there for a year, and it won’t so much as creak. Not that I’m dumb enough to try. I’m going to get the codes tomorrow, and then that baby will be mine. I’m thinking of naming her the
Sweaty Boobs
because she’s all shiny curves in polished titanium. Makes me drool just looking at her.”

“Don’t you dare,” Orli said. “If you call it that, I’ll never speak to you again.”

“If I had half an NTA credit for every time you’ve threatened me with that, I could have paid for this ship without the Queen’s gold,” he said. “Plus my life would be so much quieter.”

“Well, just don’t think you’re actually going to name that ship the … the
Sweaty Boobs
. I swear, Roberto. I’ll be so mad. Nobody will respect you. Just don’t.”

He grinned back a big, wide show of teeth as raw mischief ran amok behind those glittering brown eyes.

“Well, whatever you name it,” Altin said, “we need to know if you might spare your ship for a time to help us bring back Blue Fire’s husband. I know Orli has mentioned it to you before, but we’ve got a, well, a quasi-working arrangement with Her Majesty to investigate whether it’s possible. We’ve found Yellow Fire, and we’ve also discovered that his heart seems to still be alive. Orli thinks the transplantation is going to require some fairly complicated machinery that only your people can provide.”

Roberto’s face got serious for a moment as he thought about it. One round cheek rose as he crinkled up his nose. “Why can’t you just, you know, teleport it into place?” He made his signature wriggling-fingers gesture as he said it, his standard simplification of all magic, as if some form of digital spasm was all it took.

Altin only laughed. “I wish it were so easy.”

“It’s not,” Orli jumped in. “We need a geological team. A good one. And we’re going to need room for them and their equipment once they figure out what to do. I have some ideas, but I’m not going to speculate. We’re only going to get one chance at this, and I’m not risking Yellow Fire’s life and Blue Fire’s happiness on a guess. And that’s why we need your ship.”

“When do you need me?” There wasn’t the least hesitation in his voice.

“How long until you have your crew?”

“I’ve already got them,” he said. He grin was a narrow-eyed thing, which caused Orli to shake her head, unwilling to ask about something she saw glimmering there.

“Well, since you are already there, can you see about finding us a science team?”

“I’m not exactly on tongue-kissing terms with the NTA,” Roberto said. “They gave me my bonus and my honorable discharge—which is better than I can say for Captain Asad—but they aren’t too happy about that little incident with me trying to break you out of the Fort Minot detention facilities that day.”

“So don’t get a military team. Go private. Check out some universities. That’s where most of the good ones will be anyway.”

“All right. I’ll see what I can do. How soon do you need them?”

“As soon as possible. Every day we wait is another day of agony for Blue Fire.”

“Gotcha. I’ll tell you what; I’ll meet you guys outside of Murdoc Bay in seven days. My first mate is finishing up her contract on the freighter I pilfered her from.” He grinned again, mischief openly galloping across his face. “Then I’ll see you there.”

“Murdoc Bay? Why Murdoc Bay?”

“I did mention I’ve got a business to run for the Queen, didn’t I?”