Jack smiled at his refurbished office. He sat down in his reddish chair, and checked
his watch. The ship was taking most of the charging area, but it was charging in his
ready room. Aviras sat on his desk, plate of ice cream on hand.
“I like it,” said the dragon. “It is a little homey.”
“I know,” said Jack. “We don’t have that much decoration at the Hole in the Wall,
but I noticed the kids and Elaine had decided on the colors they want for their clothes
and bedding.”
“Jack?,” Josie said from his com band. “We need to talk face to face. Where are you?”
“I am still over the Shemmarian Capitol,” said Jack. “Hold on. I need to get back
on the bridge to take advantage of the bigger screen.”
“All right,” said Josie. “We’re in the air, heading that way. We might have a problem.
Do you think the Enterprise can carry the quinjet, or do you want to land so we
can hash this out on the ground?”
Jack stepped out on the bridge. He walked to the command chair. Aviras took
Troi’s seat with a thump. He thought that was appropriate since the dragon had made
himself his conscience and counselor.
“Enterprise?,” said Jack. “Do we have room for the quinjet in the Hangar Bay?”
“Affirmative,” said the machine.
“Ping the quinjet,” said Jack. “We might have to use the tractor beam. Do we have
one of those?”
“Affirmative,” said Enterprise. “We are above the quinjet’s ceiling.”
“Set a course to intercept, and then bring us down above the quinjet so we can get
in front and open the bay for them,” said Jack. He didn’t feel the ship moving, but the
heading and pings on the screen in his chair, and on the main screen said the
Enterprise was shifting course and running smoothly.
“Can you see us, Jo?,” asked Jack. “We are going to try to drop down and get in front
of you. At a certain point you are going to have to hover, and then the Enterprise is
going to grab you with a tractor and pull you aboard.”
“Should I cut the engines when the beam engages?,” asked Jo.
“Affirmative,” said Enterprise. “The tractor may pull your aircraft apart if you try
to back away at the wrong time.”
“All right,” said Jo. “Give me a mark when I should cut the engine. Do not drop us.”
“Affirmative,” said the machine. If it was annoyed at the implication it was a butter
fingers, it didn’t show.
“We might need a conference call, or something,” said Josie. “We’re going to need
to talk to Elaine, and Jane, about this mess.”
“The Enterprise can reach back to Hawk Ridge from here,” said Jack. “We can
call them at any time.”
“All right,” said Josie.
“There is the flying building,” said Fass over the com.
“How’s it going, Eric?,” asked Jack.
“It is not as good as we wanted,” said Fass.
“Eric would like to get home to his wife,” said Josie. “Maybe buy a house in the
country with his pay.”
“I would love to meet Mrs. Fass,” said Jack.
“I don’t think the feeling will be mutual,” said Fass. “You are a bit too eccentric.”
“But I have a recipe for lasagna that Emeril would kill for,” said Jack.
“The one where you add in the ghost reapers and Frank’s hot sauce?,” said Jo. “Keep
that to yourself.”
“Ghost reapers?,” asked Fass.
“It’s a pepper that scalds the inside of your mouth when you eat it,” said Josie.
“It’s not that bad,” said Jack. “It just adds a bit of spice.”
“Okay,” said Josie. He thought he heard her say don’t believe that in a whisper. “All
right, we’re lining up behind the Enterprise.”
“Rear view, Enterprise,” said Jack. “All right. Hit the hover jets, Josie. We’re a little
high for them, but the Enterprise is ready to catch you.”
The belly jets of the quinjet lit up as Jack watched. He nodded. The beam of the
tractor flicked on and surrounded the smaller jet. Josie cut the jets a second later. The
tractor brought the quinjet into the center of the empty bay. The jet thumped down in
the center of the launch strip.
“We don’t have any shuttles,” said Jack. The door on the hangar bay closed. “They
have to be made separately. I’m up on the bridge. Take the elevator and we’ll have
our talk.”
Jack cut the call. He looked around the bridge.
“Enterprise, block the manual controls unless I give an override,” said Jack. “I don’t
want anyone pushing a random control and firing a phaser by mistake, or cutting
the engines, or anything like that.”
“Affirmative,” said the machine.
“I approve of the caution,” said Aviras. “Now, I have to enjoy the rest of my ice
cream.”
“Eat it fast,” said Jack. “I have a feeling we will be moving after this talk. Enterprise,
take us back to our station. We might have to move fast, are we ready?”
“All systems are nominal,” said the machine. “Torpedoes are at full capacity. Energy
output is at ninety percent. We are combat ready, and able to take on any task.”
“I doubt Josie will want to hold her meeting in the Ready Room,” said Jack. “What
about the conference room. We might need to go there. Is it furnished?”
“Negative,” said the machine.
“I guess I can get a piece of scrap from the replicator and make chairs and a table for
us,” said Jack.
The Enterprise didn’t offer an opinion on that.
The elevator doors opened and the crew spilled out on the bridge. Josie took one
look around and nodded. The Fighters paused at the circular room and consoles.
“I think this is more than I signed up for,” said one of the voices at the back of the
group.
“What did you expect?,” said another. “Madame Witch is witchy, her brother had
to be the same.”
“But this,” said the original speaker, spreading his arms in the air.
“Look, guys,” said Jack, standing up. “I know this is a lot. Your society doesn’t seem
to have progressed in the sciences all that much. Even this is an extension of what
we were already trying to do where I came from. Jo, Eric, and I will talk in my office.
The Enterprise will show you the continent on the main screen. Don’t touch any
of the buttons. You could crash us. Definitely don’t sit in my chair. Enterprise, go
over the tactical stuff with the Fighters. Show them what we did, and everything.
Once we decide what we want to do, I’ll have a target for you to engage.”
“Affirmative,” said the machine. The image of Kas appeared on the screen as the
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.ship ripped it apart on launch and lifted off.
Jack gestured for Josie and Fass to enter his ready room. Fass gestured for Budd to
join them.
Jack walked around them and went to his desk. Aviras was halfway through his ice
cream on the desk.
The other three paused to look at the walls. Josie almost smiled.
Jack had placed drawings in the style of Alex Ross of Josie, Elaine, and the
Ducklings on one wall. Josie’s had her wearing a rare smile as she changed into
Shazam. Below that grouping, Eric and his fighters were in one group picture, Guin
and Linus sat and stood in the office at the Coin, Jane stood on the roof of her
mansion with arm upraised.
The other wall had a shelf full of Avengers memorabilia. Captain America’s shield,
one of Hawkeye’s arrows, a copy of Thor’s hammer, and a few other things that Josie
didn’t recognize sat on display.
“All right,” said Jack. “What can I do for you?”
“We need to go over everything again,” said Josie. She went to the memorabilia and
poked at things. “We missed something.”
“I can call Elaine and ask her if the circle moved from Kas,” said Jack. “I did have
the Enterprise pull up every goblin tree it could detect.”
“We took the source and the maker,” said Josie. “He had a baby tree stashed in his
basement that he was using as his personal zombie maker.”
“And it is ugly,” said Budd.
“Josie turned it into solid gold,” said Fass. “So it is not a threat any more.”
“I think we have holo decks onboard,” said Jack. “We can set up a conspiracy board
down there to try to hash this out. I was going to suggest the conference room, or Ten
Forward, but there isn’t any furniture onboard yet other than what I made for this
office, the bridge chairs, and whatever is down in sick bay. The spell only made the
ship and what was necessary to run the ship.”
“Are these holo decks safe?,” asked Fass.
“Unless you get locked in,” said Jack. “Enterprise, do we have holo decks and are
they operational?”
“Affirmative,” said the machine. “On station.”
“All right,” said Jack. “Give us a chance to hash things out and I’ll have a big job
for you to take care of when we’re done.”
“Affirmative,” said the machine.
“Let’s go down and look at this holo deck,” said Jack. He stood. “Enterprise, Aviras
gets only one more bowl of ice cream when he is done with this one. After that, we
will have to talk about a diet.”
“Really?,” said the dragon, looking up from his feast.
“A small bowl,” said Jack. “Stay out of trouble while we’re gone. I’ll have you back
with Matilda before too long.”
“Bah,” said Aviras. “You are evil.”
“The Army does that to you,” said Jack. He gestured for the others to precede him out
of the ready room. “Be glad I never made sergeant. Sergeants are the worse.”
“I find that hard to believe,” said Aviras. He dove into his ice cream.
“All right,” said Jack. “We’re going to ride down to Holo Deck One and set up a
presentation. We’re going to discuss plans to handle the rest of our business.”
“You have this,” said the complainer. “What do you need us for?”
“There is always a need to have boots on the ground to make sure the enemy is dead,”
said Jack. “Sure, I could bomb any city in the world to rubble in a matter of seconds
with the Enterprise. But what if I missed? Someone would have to go in and make
sure. That’s what I got you for.”
“All right,” said the complainer.
“Besides I can’t be everywhere unless I duplicated myself somehow,” said Jack. He
paused at the thought.
“Concentrate on the current problem first,” said Josie. “We still haven’t found the
Queen, and we have nullified all the trees we have located. How do we finish the
quest?”
“You’re right,” said Jack. “Madrox the Multiple Man will have to wait. It probably
won’t work like the comics, and David did give him personality issues. It’s funny
how every character he works on has mental problems.”
“So has Mike Baron,” said Josie. “Let’s keep it together until we solve our main
problem first. You still have to take Elaine to the show.”
“I am ready,” said Jack. “Is there enough room to get us all on the elevator?”
“No,” said Josie. “Which deck am I supposed to go to?”
“Deck ten,” said the machine.
“All right,” said Josie. “Half of you get on the elevator with me. We’ll go down to
ten. The other half gets on with Jack.”
The fighters split themselves up with the faster ones getting on with Josie. She looked
at them.
“I’m seriously hurt no one wants to ride with me,” said Jack as the doors closed.
“Such is the way of the witch’s brother,” said Budd. He patted Jack’s shoulder.
“It’s fine,” said Jack. The elevator doors opened again. “Let’s go. Deck ten, please.”
They stepped in and the elevator rushed them down nine decks. Josie’s part of the
crew waited in the hall for them to step out when they got there. Jack led the way
down the hall. He smiled when he found Holo Deck One. The door opened for him.
“Before we go in,” said Jack. “This room responds to us talking unless someone
enters a program. The Enterprise doesn’t have a catalogue of places yet, so the room
will look bare until we start doing what we have to do. Don’t be surprised at the
temporary things that happen while we are in there.”
“Magic?,” said Fass.
“It’s supposed to be moving images projected by the room,” said Jack. “It’s just as
much magic to me as you. Our tech guys haven’t got it down. The best they can do
is a helmet that allows you to see a strange place and gloves to interact with it, but
nothing like what the guys from Star Trek came up with for their future society.”
“Let’s show them,” said Josie. “This came after Roddenberry. He never envisioned
the advances that needed to be done to create something like this.”
“All right, guys,” said Jack. “Let’s go in and sort this out.”
The group stepped into a room where everything was black with green stripes making
every surface squares. Jack walked to the center of the room. He hoped the Enterprise
had an idea of what they wanted when they said study, or parlor.
“Enterprise,” said Jack. “Open a file. Call it Office One. Give us a wood floor, wood
paneling walls. Electric light fixtures should be okay. Do you need to know what
electric lightbulbs look like?”
“Negative,” said Enterprise.
The walls of the room and floor covered themselves with wood. A chandelier formed
from the ceiling and lit the space.
“We’re going to need something to write on and chairs for our group,” said Josie.
Plain wooden chairs sprang out of the floor. A chalkboard emerged from one of the
walls. A ledge formed to hold chalk and an eraser. Josie walked over and picked the
chalk up.
She wrote quest near the top, and then stop the lich queen under it. She turned to the
group as they tested out the chairs for sitting down.
“Enterprise, call Elaine, Jane, and Master Guin,” said Jack. “We might as well include
them in this so we can do what we need to do.”
“Channels opening,” said the machine.
“Jack?,” said Elaine.
“Hello,” said Master Guin.
“What do you want?,” asked Jane. “I’m busy.”
“Give us a visual reference, Enterprise,” said Jack. Three ghosts appeared near him.
“We’re having a meeting because we need your brain power. Josie and Fass’s
Fighters are here on my end. We’re going to need solutions to some problems so we
can fix what is going on.”
“Let’s start with what we know,” said Josie. “Then we can figure out what we
did wrong.”
“The Shemmarians were trying to build a super soldier out of the women they are
buying from Montrose,” said Jack. “The origin of the Lich Queen was at the facilities
they had set up to process those women which was located by Josie’s model.”
“It’s still a circle right now,” said Elaine. “It’s a smaller one now than the one we saw
at first. It is still in Kas.”
“All right,” said Josie. “We pulled all the goblin trees we could find. We rescued all
the women we found that were implanted with seeds from those goblin trees. We
killed some of the planners of the operation and I placed the mastermind in the future
in case we need him before we’re done if he survives the area.”
“Your birds were keeping an eye on your targets in the Shemmarian capitol city,” said
Jack. “Enterprise, how many birds were on site?”
“Eight,” said the machine from the air.
“Can you give us a model of last known locations?,” said Jack.
A model of the city appeared on a table near the group. Bird icons moved with pings
around the buildings. Some of them flocked together as if the targets were in a
meeting.
“What do you need from us, Jack?,” asked Guin.
“We have a bunch of women who still have the seeds inside of them,” said Jack. “We
need a hospital, and medical people to look after them while they recover.”
“Where could we get a hospital?,” asked Jane. “I don’t know of enough healers to
deal with anything major in the city.”
“How many women do we have in storage, Enterprise?,” said Jack.
“Eighty five,” said the machine.
“So we need eighty five beds,” said Jack. “We need at least twenty people a shift to
keep an eye on these women at a minimum. We need three shifts.”
“That’s sixty people,” said Guin. “We’ll need a place to house them.”
“What about the two warehouses we raided?,” said Josie. “I rescued another group
across the city. Can we seize one of them?”
“We can hire adventurers to do some of this,” said Fass.
“Harp should know some people who can act as nurses,” said Josie.
“His wife did say she had experience on the battlefield,” said Jack.
“We can get some of the clerics from the Temple to help maybe,” said Elaine.
“Okay, that’s a start on that problem,” said Josie. “We can’t let the King know about
this, so we’re going to have to hide some of this from the Duke. At no point can we
let the King decide it’s okay to go to war with Shemmaria when we are about to do
things to them.”
“What are you about to do to them?,” asked Guin.
“I don’t know yet,” said Josie. “Probably something unpleasant.”
“I also have some of their citizens in storage,” said Jack. “They all had goblin tree
infections.”
“That will be another draw on our resources,” said Guin.
“I had planned to pull out the seeds and throw them back,” said Jack. He looked
at the group with him. “Too harsh?”
“No,” said Josie. “but there is going to need to be some kind of explanation given to
their superiors.”
“I already announced that I was taking them for seed extractions, and then I took
them,” said Jack. “I took their trees too.”
“I am going to send someone to the bank to ask for the deed to that first warehouse,”
said Guin. “I’ll ask Linus to secure bedding.”
“I’ll let Hilda know that we need to find as many nurses as we can to help out,” said
Jane. “We’ll ask the clerics to send people to help out.”
“Jane, tell anyone you get that this could still be dangerous,” said Josie. “Even though
we’re going to pull the seeds out, there could still be problems down the road. And
we’ll have to move the group I originally sent you to keep an eye on them.”
“The girls will like that,” said Jane.