The Summer Vacation
Chapter 8
By Rachel76m
Edited by Don Kaufman

The sun comes up from the East, casting the long shadows across the landscape from the tops of the Correllianne Mountains. Slowly the land wakes up to the dawn of a bright new morning.

The morning light show of the Ethereal Space provides its brief colorful display in the sky. Swirling and stretching like ribbons of a rainbow everywhere. The sunlight reaches the First Mark on the sundial in the castle courtyard; the color display ends and moves westward.

The light of the sun cast its bright beam of light onto Castle Correlle. Renard comes into Richard's room and sees he is still asleep. He smiles. He walks over to the curtains and pulls them apart to bring in the morning light.

“Ugh, did you have to that? My ears picked you up when you opened the door.” I turn my head toward Renard and narrow my eyes. “Okay, okay, I'm up. That light is bright enough.” I smile and chuckle at Renard's attempt of morning humor.

“Good morning, Richard. Yes it is bright. But it is better than yesterday morning.”

“That's true.” I throw the light cover off and sit up facing the window. I let the light slowly wake up the brain. Soon I get accustom to the brightness. I get up and walk over to the window where Renard is looking out.

“Yes it is a beautiful morning. I want to keep seeing it.” Then I took a deep breath, “sigh . . . ”

“Yes it is beautiful. We all want to keep seeing this beauty.”

“Well, I better go get ready.” I walk back and take off the night shirt and drape it on the bed. I open the dresser drawer and see the cleaning spell on the dresser cleaned my clothes from yesterday. I take them out and put them on the bed. I wish it was this easy on my world. I take a mint type leaf from a bowl on the dresser and put into my mouth and chew on it. I then walk to the private room within my room to take care of my body functions. I walk out and pick up the shorts and shirt on the bed and put them on. I then put on my breast and back plates and attach them. Then I put on the ranger clothes, the boots and the medallion around my neck.

Once I was done with the mint leaf, I walk to the private room and throw the used leaf into the receptacle. I walk back out and stand in front of the mirror and begin to comb my hair.

Renard comes up behind me. “Well, are you ready for another big day?” He smiles.

“Yes I am. Let's go have the morning repast.”

We walk out of my room and walk down the hallway and we are soon walking with Master Eldwin, Thaygard and Trianna.

“Good morning everybody,” smiles Master Eldwin as he greets us.

“Good morning Master,” as we all respond at the same time.

“There will be a Grand Kingdom Council tomorrow morning at Lord Dryden's Castle. Hopefully we can all come to agreement to a plan on how to stop this horror.”

“That sounds good, Master Eldwin. Hopefully the star ship does not move until then.”

“We hope so too, Richard. As soon as you write your program, we'll need to get to the other prisoners.”

“I understand.”

We all arrive in the dining room and we see King Keltan and Tierion there. But we also see two other nobles and ladies there as well. We also see the twelve commanders of Twainor. They're standing in front of the table all talking together. They turn their heads and themselves to the door when they see us come in.

“Good morning. I've invited the Lords and Ladies who hold the other prisoners so that they know what is going on as well. I also invited the twelve commanders as well.”

“That is fine Lord Keltan. We wish it no other way.”

“Richard, I would like to introduce you to the other nobles. This is King Dryden and his Queen Lorinor of the Angathorn Kingdom and Capital of Twainor.”

I bow my head slightly to both as they bow their heads slightly to me.

“This is Lady Corissa of the Antarte Kingdom. Her husband Lord Nazar could not be here this morning. He had to attend to a personal matter in his kingdom.”

I bow my head slightly to Lady Corissa as did she.

“And this is Lord Beltrane of the Evenshard Kingdom.”

I bow my head again slightly to him as did he.

“Welcome back Richard to Twainor.”

“Thank you, King Beltrane.” I bow my head to him as well.

“These are the twelve commanders of Twainor which you met yesterday.”

“Come let us partake of the morning break fast.”

We all take our seats on the long table. Master Eldwin gives Thanks to the Maker for the meal and for a new day.

Soon there are multiple conversations going around the table while we are eating. Even I am drawn into a few of them. The other nobles whom came, ask me questions of my home world and how it is like.

“So, Richard, I hear from Lords Keltan and Tierion that your world is not ready for an official invitation to join a Local Group.”

“I'm afraid it is not Lord Dryden; until we stop all hostilities and wars, it will not happen. In a way it is better to choose a common man like me instead of our diplomats for now. Time is needed to plant seeds for future generations. We have more than 150 nations with three billion people. But there are attempts to bring unity. We have a United Nations Assembly. But they have no real authority or power to effect real change in the other countries. They try to bring peace to the world, but it is difficult because of the pain that wars bring mistrust and hatred afterward. Many people and some religions still consider that Earth is still the only living planet in the Universe.”

Most of the commanders look at each other and smile and nod as if remembering a past memory.

“You have different religions on your world?”

“Yes we do. It is very complicated. The sad part is you can have one religion that says theirs is the 'true way' and the others are 'false'. Either believe in our way or die. There are others who tried to get along through no fighting at all. Some use the Maker's name to bring their version of the Creator for their own means and wealth.”

“I'm sorry to hear that.”

“Yes, but there is hope, Lord Dryden.”

“How so, Richard?”

“Well Lord Beltrane, it is coming from within on several fronts. First are the scientists and the astronomers. They're using telescopes, and other types of equipment to look into the night sky. They've discovered other star systems with other worlds, but that is all that they see right now.”

“So, the seed is planted that you're not alone, right?”

“That's right. All is needed now is contact with another star system.”

“If I remember the last time, you were here. You mentioned the magic on your world was probably removed.”

“I remember saying that. When I came back to my world, the last time I was here; I started to do some research. I read many stories; the magic was there about five thousand years ago. It was not recorded directly, but you would recognize it from the results. You would have to do a comparison of all of the stories through out the world to get a sense of it.”

“So it was like a large puzzle scattered across the ages and through out the world?”

“That’s right Lord Keltan. The wizards, magi, sorceresses and others soon became power hungry to the dark side to control people. There were very few who kept the magic true.”

“So, the Maker removed the magic?”

“That is right. Fortunately the true magic is held by at least one wizard and one sorceress. They are also blessed to have long life to make sure it does not fall into the wrong hands. I have not seen him since I was here last time.”

“Well, I see that everyone is finished eating. We'll talk some more Richard, but we must move forward now. Thaygard, Renard, Trianna and Richard are you ready to go back to the cave?”

“Yes we are Lord Dryden. Once we are done there, we'll come back here. Then we need to go to the other prisoners to see if we can safely remove the mind control implants.”

“Yes, Lords Keltan and Tierion told me of the difficulty and the success. Hopefully we can some up with a better means of releasing them. Well, let's see you off.”

We all get up and walk up a flight of stairs and down some hallways. Soon we enter into Lord Keltan's Conference Chamber. It too is similar in decor to Lord Tierion's room with the banners and tables. But it did have its own style.

“Don't worry about us, Richard. The other commanders and I will need to return to our kingdoms. We'll be back at Lord Dryden's Castle in time for the Grand Council.”

“Yes Richard, what you have provided so far is silver. Now we just need the gold lining,” said Commander Krellen.

I started to blush and stammer, “Uh . . . ah Sirs, I think you're piling it too high there. Wait until we're back. We still need to see the other captives. But thanks for that vote of confidence.”

We all laugh and chuckle. But I knew they were trying to encourage me.

The four of us gathered together and joined with Thaygard. The nobles spoke and gave us our blessings.

“Be well and keep safe,” said Lord Dryden.

“May you be successful in what you seek and need to do,” continues Lady Corissa.

“You have the blessing of all of us here on Twainor,” smiles Queen Lorinor.

“Come back swiftly with good news,” said Lord Beltrane.

“Thank you, my Lords and Ladies,” we all respond at the same time.

“See you soon by the next mark,” replies Thaygard.

Thaygard recites the transport spell and we all vanish in a blink of an eye. We soon appear at the cave entrance. We see the dragons there as before keeping watch. They notice us appearing.

“Ah, welcome Thaygard and friends. The craft is still whole within the lair.”

“Thank you, Belgaron and your clan. We're ready to go in and see what we can do to avert the possible horror.”

“Then go, do as you say.”

We bow our heads to the three dragons. We walk past them and see the craft is whole with the sealing spell still activated.

Thaygard opens the door with the sound spell and the door opens. He then creates an opening in the spell and we walk into the scout ship. Thaygard reseals the spell and closes the door.

“All right, I have my notes what I wrote last night. Let me check the tool locker again.”

I walk over to the locker and I see another small box in there. I open it up and see some more crystal cards. “I hope these are blank. It would be the perfect means to write and test the program to it.” I sit down at the commander's station and turn on the console.

The other three friends walk to the other stations to see what new information they can find. They sit down and turn on the stations and begin searching the historical records once again.

I take a card and put it on the console where the reader is located. Immediately it comes up blank. Great the card is blank. Now let's check their programming core again to see how it is created. There should be some help sections. I page through the programming core and find a section on debugging and correcting. I see, even this is a 3-d program. It states here I need to put on the stylus pen tips on my fingers. This will allow me to point where I want to put a loop or a port to a certain ship function. Then use the console to type the commands. This is great, no need for a mouse here.

I look in the box again and I see a small clear box with several metal caps that look pointed. I take them out and put them on my finger tips. I touch the cube symbol next to the reader, the 2-d display cuts out and the 3-d display appears in front of me with a cursor box flashing in the upper left hand corner facing me. I smile and laugh. “This is great, friends. I’m ready to start writing and testing the program.”

“That's great, Richard.”

“I did find that there are some worlds who hated each other. The survivors are on the star ship.”

“That's good to know, Trianna. See if there are comments made on how they handled that situation.”

“Yes, that will be important, Thaygard. Keep digging, we need to know all we can of the original crew.”

“Right,” they all respond together. The chuckle once they realized they said it together at the same time and shake their heads and smile.

I look through the programming core to see how they call the components of the Scout Ship. I see. They use a short hand notation phrase or symbol. The data ports from the ships sensors and functions were easy to find. Now I just need to incorporate that with what I want it to do.

I switch back to my blank card. I decide to write a simple program to see it I can remotely turn off and on the console only while the station is still turned on. This is great; this gives me an idea to throw in surprises with the voice command.

Wait a second, there was something from the historical records that really changed their protocols when approaching an unknown world. Yes, they had an encounter with the alien virus that almost wiped them out. They were able to add another layer of E/M with an antiviral component to the shielding to prevent any future viral outbreak from an alien planet. So, I decide to perform a sensor analysis of the planet's Ethereal Space and save it to a file. This will come in handy when they're on the star ship. Then with a combination of pointing and typing, I soon have it written in 3-d. I close the program and save it to the card. I switch to the programming core.

I page through the programming core, until I find the file. Yes, this is the file. It’s an emergency signal file. Now I should be able to send this from the commander's station to the other three stations. It should work; because this will confirm the back up connection from this station to the rest of the Scout Ship. I'll scramble my program among the signal file so it appears as a weak static signal. When it gets there it will reassemble and proceed to infiltrate their main system servers and processors through the hole that I found. Oh this going to be fun. This is giving me ideas like crazy.

I write the program and scramble it among the distress signal. I then program the destination to the three stations on board here. There I'm ready to test it. I write down on my pad of paper a couple of phrases for Thaygard to say.

“All right friends, this is a test. Since my station has been separated from yours, this program will test several things at once. Just pay attention to your consoles and tell me what happens.”

“All right, we're ready.”

“I’m sending the distress signal.”

Soon a message appears on all three screens and the lights flicker on the Scout Ship.

“Yes, we received the distress signal from you. What's next?”

“Here's the surprise. Thaygard please read what I wrote down on this piece of paper.” I hand the piece of paper to him.

“All right.” He looks at it and reads aloud what is written there. “Computer, this is Thaygard. Computer, reboot to Twainor control.”

Then all of the screens and lights flicker on the Scout Ship and resume to normal.

“All right, now what?”

“Read the next phrase, Thaygard.”

“Maker, turn off all consoles and displays.”

Then all consoles and displays throughout the ship are turned off, but you can still hear the hum of the processors.

“Read the next phrase, Thaygard.”

“Maker, turn on all consoles and displays.”

Then all consoles and displays throughout the ship turned on.

“How did you do that? This is great!”

“This is really my kind of magic. I put in another surprise. Each of you speaks to your station in your own language and turn it off and on with your voice only. Remember I programmed it for Twainor control.”

They did that and they were astonished to say the least.

“You were able to distinguish us from them. How?”

“It is the Ethereal Space, that's the key. I took a sensor analysis of your Ethereal Space and converted that to a mathematical equation here on the ship. I then inserted that math equation into the program, which I sent the distress signal to you. That file soon was reassembled and replicated throughout the scout ship. It can be turned off with another command and it will never be found. It will appear as static in the signal. The program will also sense you or anyone else because you come from this planet. It will generate the Ethereal Space inside their star ship.”

“So, you mean tell us, we can send some wizards and knights or anybody else from our world to the star ship and we can use our magic there?”

“That's right!” I gave a wide smile with some glee in the eyes.

“You're a genius!” They all cheer and hug me. “That will allow us to extend our power anywhere on the star ship in one stroke or just as fast.”

“That's about sums it up. But reaction time from them will be a key with their hand-held weapons. Other than that, you can turn off or on all on board weapons, force fields, etc. All we need to worry about then is to deal with the mind control implants.”

“That's easy, Richard. Once we're on board we can recite a sleep spell to put anybody to sleep however long we want,” as Thaygard smiles widely.

“So, that will add to the appearance of our magic multiplied.”

“But I have a question, Richard. How are we going to get on the star
ship in the first place?”

“Good question, Trianna. Tran provided the answer the other day.”

“He did? What did he say?”

“While he was on his planet's surface, a beam of light appeared on top of them and they disappeared in a flash. It is a type of transport spell that they have in the physical sense.”

“I see, by sending them a signal that the crew is still alive. It will contain your program without their knowledge and sit there until we come on board.”

“Right.”

“But this will give them pause and want to retrieve the Scout Ship and the crew. Take some of our people in the process before they completely destroy our star system.”

“That is one idea, Renard. I have a question, Thaygard. How far can a wizard go when using the transport spell?”

“He can go far as his mind will allow him. But he needs a destination in mind to confirm the end point.”

“Here is my thinking. Let's say they take about ten to fifteen people from here. One of them has to be a wizard or knight. Would that provide an anchor point for other wizards and knights to transport from the surface here to the star ship?”

“That's an excellent idea, Richard. But do you think we can get the star ship to come within the orbit of our twin moons before they start destroying our star system? The First Ones and Master Eldwin were able to detect the Scout Ship when they were behind the furthest moon.”

“It's possible, but they would need a good reason to come here first before they start destroying your star system. What are you thinking, Thaygard?”

“Well, right now we need to get the other crewmen released from the mind control implants. With their help we should be able to come up with information on our planet that would make it very tempting to save our world and the star system for their own greed.”

“I see, greed is a major motivator to disregard all other sensibilities. Well I need to finish writing the program to include the other functions of the star ship.”

They all start laughing as they go back searching through the historical records.

Hmm . . . I better add my voice to the database in the program. This is just in case I get taken as well.

After a half a mark or so, I finish the program and save it to the crystal card. I delete the test program. I then scramble the various subroutines that I created. One is the math equation for the Ethereal Space. The other subroutines are for the functions on the star ship to be under Twainor control, which is everything that the star ship needs to operate. I join those programs together to act as a single package. I then put a header control on the package so that it will go through the hole that I found. I scramble that so it appears as a weak static energy and merge it with the distress signal.

Now when it gets sent, they will receive the distress signal. But my program will now slip through and will attach onto the nearest server. From there it will self-replicate and spread throughout the star ship. The sensor subroutine will activate and add the math equation of the Ethereal Space to their catalogue so it won't flash a warning when it comes on. Then the Ethereal Space subroutine will be in 'sleep mode' waiting for us to come on board to use it.

“All right, Richard, we're done. How about you?”

“I’m almost done. I just need to put a few more commands’ in.” I quickly type them in. Now I just need to put Brin's authorization code that I found to show that it originated from Brin and to save it. I remove the card from the reader on the console and put it in my satchel. “There, I'm done. I'm ready to check the other prisoners.” For some reason I'm forgetting something about this scout ship. I will probably remember it later. Oh well.

I then press a series of symbols on the control to erase the program on the scout ship. When I do that, I see a comment from the on board computer displayed in front of me. It doesn't speak out loud for us to hear the words.

Richard Moore Protocol Program for Twainor Control erased from memory.

I then power down the scout ship again. “Good let's go.”

“Thaygard, I just had another surprise thought.”

“Yes Richard.”

“It would be nice to bring some dragons with us to help out. I think these three will be a bit upset that they can't destroy this Scout Ship right away.”

“I see what you mean. But here is another idea Renard that you just gave me. What if all of the dragons on your world are given the chance to help out in destroying the star ship when the mission is finished?”

“That's an excellent idea Richard and Wizard Thaygard. We'll definitely need to include them,” concluded by Renard.

“After searching through the historical records some more, we found some more details that will be needed to discuss with the prisoners. Hopefully they will give us some insight into what it means.”

“Well that is it for now. We'll need to discuss our findings with the others. Come let us go. We need to give some hope to our hosts here.”

We all walk out of the Scout Ship and Thaygard reseal the ship. Thaygard walks up to the dragons.

“My Lord dragons. We wished to thank you for keeping the craft safe and whole.”

“Can we destroy it now?”

“Not yet, Belgaron.”

They all look down with sad eyes and faces.

“But we have a better idea when it comes time. How would you like if all of the dragon clans on Twainor are given the opportunity to destroy a star ship?”

“You would do that for us?”

“Yes we would. Then once destroyed, the wreckage will then be sent to our sun for final destruction.”

“What of the people on board? Do we get to kill them as well?”

“They won't be on the star ship. After we deliver the people on board to other star systems, who want them. The star ship will return here and then you can destroy it.”

The other dragons look at each other and begin to smile and laugh while smoke puffs through their noses and mouths.

“We still the need the scout ship for bait to bring the star ship closer.”

“Yes, we agree to the plan. We will keep the small craft safe until it is no longer needed.”

“Thank you, Lord Belgaron. We need to go now. We will keep in touch and let you know what is happening. Take care until next time.”

We bow our heads to the dragons and they lower their heads as well.

“Be well Thaygard and friends until next time we meet.”

We all join to Thaygard, he recites the transport spell. We disappear in a blink of an eye. We begin flying toward King Keltan's castle. Their country side is just as beautiful in Tierion's kingdom. We soon arrive at the castle and we enter into Keltan's Conference Chamber. In a blink of an eye we appear in the chamber.

In the room we see our hosts who have not really left. But we get a surprise in seeing Sir Trenton in the room as well with another wizard from Thryson Kingdom. I thought he said we would see them later.

“Welcome back Thaygard and friends.”

We bow our heads to the Lords, the Ladies and to Sir Trenton.

“Sir Trenton, I thought you left with the other commanders.”

“I did, but when I reached my war room, my captain who is reviewing the historical and conquest records come across an entry that caught his attention.”

“I really did not focus on the conquest records because of the time needed to discover their weakness. What did your captain find?”

“Then you probably did not check all of the lockers, because in one of them contains their hand-held weapons and explosive arsenal.”

“You're right, Sir Trenton. We were looking for a tool box for Richard to help him out. We stopped looking in the others to get more information from the historical records.”

“What was in the entry that caught the captain's eye, Sir Trenton?”

“There's a log entry in which the scout ship had to enter into a space cloud to hide from another spacecraft that was pursuing them. When the scout ship entered into the space cloud, they discovered they were vulnerable.”

“Vulnerable? What happened?”

“First their hand-held weapons were totally discharged including their primary weapons on the ship. Their magnetic shielding generator became very weak. They had to use some of their life support system to stay alive. The only thing that saved them was their design of the craft itself as well.”

“I think I know what you are trying to say Sir Trenton. We experienced it as well on my world. We have air crafts that can fly through the air. But the problem is getting near a thunderstorm. The lightning from it is so powerful it can knock out all electrical components and cause the craft to fall out the sky. It he is a good pilot, he still has control of the craft through backup controls. That is why they designed better crafts to withstand this natural power.”

“Yes Richard, when we get our storm season, the lightning can be very bad. We discovered this attraction to the metal spires on our castles. We came to the conclusion that a strong metal wire needs to be connected on the spires and mounted on the outside walls. The other end is buried in the ground to direct its power to the ground and away from us.”

“Congratulations Sir Trenton. You did the same discovery just as we did on my world.” We smile at each other and began to laugh. The others in the room laugh as well.

“So Thaygard, can we go back to the scout ship to see if we can find this weapon’s locker?”

“Yes Richard, let's do it now so it will satisfy our commander's curiosity.”

“Thank you, Thaygard. I knew I was forgetting something in the scout ship. It was the hand-held weapons Are you ready to come with us Sir Trenton? You will see it for the first time.”

“Don't fret Richard, you have provided more than we can hope for when you arrived. You were right about them having light weapons. Yes, I would like to see the scout ship. It will confirm our suspicions about their hand-held weapons.”

This time Renard and Trianna stay behind and explain what I did and what they found in the historical records. We then agreed to interrogate the other prisoners after the noon repast. Then Sir Trenton and I approach Thaygard. We put our hands on Thaygard's shoulder and he recites the transport spell. We disappear in a blink of an eye and start flying back to the cave.

When we approach the cave, we appear quickly before the dragons.

“Welcome back so soon, Thaygard. Did you forget something in the craft?”

“In fact we did, Lord Dragons. Sir Trenton would like to see the craft itself, he said there is something in there that got his interest.”

“Then do so, go and enter in the craft.”

We walk past them and approach the scout ship. Thaygard uses the sound spell and opens the door. He then recites a spell to create a hole in the sealing spell so that we can walk in. Once we are in, he reseals the sealing spell and the door.

“They used sound to open the door? That's interesting, Thaygard.”

“I said the same thing, Sir Trenton, when I saw and heard it the first time.”

We chuckle for a few moments.

Sir Trenton looks about the scout ship. “This ship layout has just enough room for the four crew men. Let's find that weapon’s locker.”

We start opening all the lockers and cabinets again like before, but we come to several that we did not open the first time.

“Here they are, Richard. Check them out and see if they are still working.”

I take a hand-held weapon out and look at it. “There are no lights showing on this weapon.” I point to the small green and red light bulbs on the weapon.” Let me check the reserve energy packs.” I swap the packs onto the hand-held weapon, again no sign of a charge. I even take out one of the testing tools in the other locker to verify the charge. “They are all dead sir. There is no charge in these weapons.”

“That confirms our suspicions from the entry that my captain told me earlier. Our Ethereal Space discharged their hand-held weapons and their main energy weapons on board which is tied to their engines power, but the emergency power is shielded against such situations.”

“That is why their stations here are still working; it is also providing their life support to survive in the harshest conditions.”

“That is right, Thaygard. Check their explosive arsenal Richard; it should still be in working order.”

I walk back to the locker and take out one of them. It has an indicator showing the explosive is still good. “Yes the explosive arsenal is still good; they were smart to put a different type of indicator on these.” I show it to Thaygard and Sir Trenton.

“So they were not totally defenseless on the scout ship, they had other means to protect themselves. So we removed them in time before they used that explosive arsenal.”

“Yes, that is true, Thaygard.”

“Did you have success this morning in writing the program Richard?”

“I did. I have it all recorded on this crystal card.” I take it out of my satchel and handed it to him.

“It is like our crystal spheres, Thaygard.”

“Yes it is. That means their information storage is somewhat like ours but different. You have to use this console over here to read it to get the information on it and to play it back.”

He hands it back to me.

“This crystal card contains the program and several files. It is hidden in a distress signal file that I found. The file is scrambled among the signal as static. Once it is sent to the star ship. The file will reassemble and pass through a hole that I found in their security program.”

“That is excellent Richard. What commands do you have on it?”

“Once the file sits on their servers, it will start to self replicate and put copies throughout the star ship. The first command is the environment file. When I was here this morning, I remembered how important the Ethereal Space is for your world for magic to work. I did a sensor analysis of the Ethereal Space to create a mathematical equation of it. First it will put your Ethereal Space into their sensor catalogue. This will keep their sensor warnings from going on when it activates.”

“All right so far so good, Richard. I think I know where you are going with this. How are we going to get on board the ship?”

“Do you remember what Tran said yesterday, how he got on board the star ship when it came to his world?” Thaygard is smiling from to ear to ear.

Sir Trenton sees it and begins to smile as well. “He said he disappeared when a light beam appeared over him and he appeared on their ship. That is just like we do with our transport spell. So how are we going to get the star ship close to us? I would think they would stay beyond the orbits of our twin moons.”

“Sir Trenton, when we send the distress signal from here, I plan to have one of the captives here to provide a verbal confirmation and possibly a new file containing information that will make them greedy. This is to bait them to come in closer to Twainor. They need to be within or near the orbit of your twin moons. Their improved shielding will protect them while they come within the orbit of the twin moons.”

“They take one of us on board. Then what is the next step, Richard?”

“So once on board, that person will just need to say a certain phrase with their name in it. The key phrase is actually the last one.” I look to Thaygard.

“Computer, this is Thaygard. Computer, reboot to Twainor control.”

“They will realize too late because our Ethereal Space will now be generated throughout the star ship without their knowledge from within. Their improved shielding is now compromised and now you can pass through it.”

“Then their hand-held weapons will be discharged without them knowing it. Then we can use our wizards who have a great command of the transport spell, we can connect our forces with them and they can transport us in. They will be perplexed and confused like crazy when we start appearing out of nowhere.”

Sir Trenton begins to smile, “Then we can do our magic on board, we have no need for maps to know where everything is in advance. We will be invisible to them, pass through walls and floors until we get to a room that we need to be in. That is great, Richard. Is there anything else that we should know?”

“Once the star ship reboot to Twainor control, it will program all on board weapons, force fields, escape pods, and cameras to be off. You can even command to have all consoles and displays like these here to be off as well.”

“Excellent, Richard, it will provide a level fighting field, except that we can transport where we need to be. How do they move from level to level?”

“They have several methods, Sir Trenton. When you approach a certain double door, you will see a glass plate near the door. The doors open up to reveal a carriage. Once inside you speak a command, the doors close, then the carriage moves you to another floor. They also have a transport circle. You step into the circle; it then sends you to the destination like your own transport spell. They do have some open stairs but they are located in some large special gathering rooms.”

“So they figured how to transport with their machines.”

“That is right, Thaygard, but their machines don't have moving parts. Everything is done by light for power. Your Ethereal Space will not affect it. They will need to be commanded to be turned off because of their computer network.”

“Do they have a back up for moving people from floor to floor?”

“Yes, but in this case the star ship will be like your castles. What happens if you are cornered by an enemy that breaches your defenses and get inside the castle?”

“Yes, we have hidden passages for emergency exits. So this star ship will have hidden passages as well?”

“Yes, these passages provide access to certain controls in the event of what you are trying to do to them. They will try to regain control of the ship through there.”

“Thank you, Richard. I will keep that in mind when I talk with the other commanders. So your program will recognize us and not them.”

“That is right. The Ethereal Space that is generated from within will allow you to use your own language from your world because you have been living here all your life. It won't recognize any commands from those on the star ship already. That includes the ultimate solution that they might have, the self-destruction sequence.”

“Yes, if I were put into a position like that, I might order suicide to prevent being captured. They will probably use the explosives that they can set off manually. It will be a race to prevent that.”

“I don't know if you considered this, Sir Trenton. The best way to disarm them would probably be the sleep spell. Then it will give you time to sort out the people on board. You will need to keep certain groups apart. We found some worlds they conquered were enemies as well.”

“Thank you for reminding me, Thaygard, about using the sleep spell. Then it will give us time to remove the mind control implants from them safely.”

“I did create some passwords for your use only if you need to create a very secure area or need access to them. These passwords should over ride theirs if you come across them.” I take out a piece of paper in my satchel and hand it to Sir Trenton.

He looks at it and reads the words to himself. He begins to smile and laugh. “These passwords are great, Richard. I will share it with the other commanders. But what are we going to do with them once the threat is gone?”

“Well, their original worlds are no more. This is where our kings and queens will have to make a decision. We could ask some of the star systems in our Local Group if they want the refugees, or transport them to another planet that they can create their own kingdom, or even here on Twainor.”

“That is going to be a tough call, Thaygard. Yes, I will leave that decision to them.”

“Here is one more thought. There is a group of dragons out there itching to do something new.”

“Yes, I can imagine that they want to do destroy this scout ship.”

“Well how about after we deliver the people on board the star ship to where they want to be, bring it back here so that they can destroy it and then send the wreckage into your sun?” I give a broad smile and a wink at Sir Trenton.

Sir Trenton looks at Richard with an eye raised up, “If I don't know any better I say that you got a bit of mean streak in you.”

“Hmm . . . I like to think I do. But, I like to get people thinking before they act out their aggression to hurt someone.”

Sir Trenton starts to laugh, “I saw that when you tried to get us thinking about seeing that star ship as one of our sailing vessels the other day. What did you say, 'what poetic words do we have that describes the star ship'? That's really good Richard. It got me thinking as well. I like it a lot. I will need to remember that tactic when I want the Thryson Legion to think better on their feet.”

We all laugh together for a moment.

“When do you think you will send the distress signal?”

“We will probably send the message tomorrow, Thaygard. After the Grand Council meeting with everybody's approval.”

“Good, the star ship has not left the rock field around our star system. I don't know why they haven't moved in yet.”

“Well whatever the reason is, Sir Trenton, they're probably being cautious and preparing their cargo storage areas. I also checked the transmission logs here. They sent several large files to the star ship.”

“What information did it contain, Richard?

“It contains the complete inventory of the wealth of your star system and Twainor itself. The only file that was incomplete was the communication file. Apparently the Maker interrupted that part and sent the scout ship to this cave before they finished analyzing how you communicate and how the Ethereal Space behaves on Twainor.” I smile and laugh. “Then the Maker discharged their weapons as well.”

Thaygard and Sir Trenton smile and laugh.

“Yes, the Maker is looking out for us.”

“Praise the Twin Moons!!”

“Come Thaygard and Richard. When we arrive back in Lord Keltan's Conference Chamber, I will need to leave and meet with the commanders. This new information will keep us busy for a while; I need to share it with them so that we can all adjust our training schedules with this new information. They also agreed to have at lest several of us present when the other captives are interrogated at first mark after the noon repast.”

“So they want the information first hand. I don't blame them.”

“Yes, then tomorrow morning when we have the Grand Council we will present the plan to everyone present. I don't know if you realized this, you said you have no military experience, but you just gave me the outline on how to bring victory to Twainor.”

“Well, I look at it like this. I like to solve problems. But, even I realize when a problem is bigger than you expected, you always need help. This problem cannot be solved by one person.”

“Yes Richard, but you’re the catalyst so Twainor can act and bring peace to the captives on the star ship and justice to the original crew members.”

Thaygard opens the side door and creates the hole in sealing spell. We exit the ship and Thaygard closes the door and reseals the sealing spell.

We walk out of the caves and come near the dragons. “We are done here for now my Lord Dragons. We retrieved the information that we needed. We will be here tomorrow to begin the first part of taking the fight to them.”

“That’s excellent Thaygard and friends. Do you think they could bring the fight here as well?”

“Anything is possible; all of Twainor must be alert. We have our Seeing Stones trained on them every night. We will know soon how long it will take for the star ship to be here.”

“That’s very good Sir Knight. We will be alert for changes in the Ethereal Space and let you know as well.”

“That's the spirit my Lord Dragons. We need to go now. Be well and keep safe until we meet again.”

“Be well until we meet again.”

Everybody nods their heads and raises them.

Sir Trenton and I put our hands onto Thaygard's shoulder. He recites the transport spell and we disappear in a blink of an eye. We fly back to Castle Correlle across their beautiful landscape. We arrive in the Chamber and appear as once before. We see Renard and Trianna there and some guards posted, but the Royalties are not there except King Keltan and Queen Florianne. Sir Trenton's wizard is there as well.

“Was it successful my friends?”

“Yes it was, Renard. It verified our suspicions how our Ethereal Space affects their weapons. The Ethereal Space discharges their hand-held light weapons. But we need to be ready if they bring in weapons that can work. We still need to go over those conquest records and see if it mentions of any other weapons they might have.”

“The Royalty, where are they Renard?”

“They're in the Grand Dining Hall at the Grand Castle waiting for us to serve the noon repast. Do you wish to join us, Sir Trenton?”

“I wish I could. But, I really need to get this information to the other commanders as quickly as possible, and the other information that Richard and I discussed on the scout ship.”

“Yes, that is more important. See you at First Mark at Lord Dryden's Castle for the Grand Council tomorrow?”

“Yes, I will be there.” He turns around and faces the other wizard in the room, “I'm ready to see the other commanders, Braden.”

“Yes sir.”

Sir Trenton puts his hand on the wizard's shoulders. He recites the transport spell and they disappear in a blink of an eye.

“Well it's time to fly to the Grand Castle.”

“Thank you for your hospitality, King Keltan.”

“You're welcome Richard. I hear you're on a three-moon vacation before you arrived here.”

“I am, Lord Keltan. If all goes well, I might be visiting all of the kingdoms before I go back.”

“Well, then you better get some rest between each one.” He smiles at me.

“Yes I better. It might take me another three moons back on my world to wind down and relax from this adventure.”

They all laugh together.

“You just might need it, Richard. You’re welcome back here anytime.”

“Thank you, King Keltan and Queen Florianne.”

We connect to Wizard Thaygard and Renard. They recite the transport spell. Then we disappear in a blink of an eye.

“He's a most remarkable young man, my Love.”

“That he is my dear husband. Let's hope all goes well. We'll give our thanks before we go to bed tonight.”

“Yes my dear, Florianne.”

She puts her arm around King Keltan's arm. Then they leave the King's Council Chamber together. They walk down the hallway to see how their Legion is progressing in the training fields.