“Lokust, Chance. The dance is over, beginning to mop up here. How’re things on your end?” Lokust broke over my Comm.
“Still picking out the bad ones.” I reported. “We added ‘Mixie” to the roster at nine o’clock. A little green, but competent.”
“Copy. Can’t wait for the ‘Em and Gee’. Just letting you know we’re locking up. Let you know when we get to next Hostile.”
“Call after you unpack.” I giggled, thinking Lokust was really starting to get into the ‘covert’ messages. Then again, maybe she was just trying to confuse Sonya Serangetti.
Yeah, that seemed more plausible.
“Pegasus, Chance.”
Speak of the devil!
“Chance here.”
“Lioness, My Lady, with a situational report. Pegasus has completed sanitizing all remaining orbital craft and requests a status report.”
“It’s a full moon on the Bayou and we’re still huntin’ gators.” I reported in a lilting, accented voice.
“Excuse me?” Sonya exclaimed as I heard several people start laughing hysterically in the background.
Several minutes passed before she replied.
“Keep up the good work, Chance. Pegasus out.”
I could imagine Keats first laughing then informing Lyra’s mom of the meaning of my report. Apparently, Sam and Janet Redman understood my cryptic reference too.
“Seriously. We have to have a talk about how you do that, Honey.” Mom deadpanned with a quirky smile. “I mean…I can understand adapting The Moody Blue’s ‘Nights in White Satin’ to a fake exorcism spell, but that…that was just so out there! And just to be clear, there’s absolutely no Cajun in the Summers’ family line.”
“I can see why she did it, M’lady.” Artie admitted while giggling. “Lady Sonya needs to depart from her staunch, regimented beliefs, and understand how we do things- that nothing we do is ‘by the book’ and she needs to be less ‘administrative’.”
“Pegasus, Chance. Your comm line is still open. Suggest you release the channel.” Sonya’s voice advised before we all started laughing. There was absolutely no humor in her voice.
Chantell smiled deviously and gave me a ‘thumbs up’.
“Hey, girls? A little help over here?” Simone summoned as we turned to see at least fifty huge Hoblins advancing from our rear.
“I’ll get them.” Courtney, or ‘Mixie’ as we had dubbed her, volunteered. Pointing her wand, the brilliant blue beam shot out at our adversaries, engulfed them, and quickly dispersed.
Fifty ‘doll-sized’ Hoblins bobbled around in their place like ancient wind-up toys.
“Oops. I fouled up again! Why do things like this always happen to me?” She groaned playfully.
“Try again, honey, only this time think about restoring them and not ‘toying’ with them.” Mom suggested as she giggled.
Again her bright blue plasma engulfed the miniatures and she was rewarded with almost a hundred people lying on the deck.
“That’s better, Mixie. Just try to keep your head on straight.” Mom complimented with a wry smile.
“But it just happens! Fighting these monsters is just sooo easy. It’s like I AM toying with them!” She confessed.
“That’ll change when they start shootin’ back, kid.” Chantell warned.
“Wait…they…they shoot back? Why didn’t anyone tell me before now?”
“Because…strangely they haven’t yet.” Mom answered. “I wonder why that is?” She pondered aloud.
“Maybe because all their weapons were combined to make that.” I pointed out through a large compartment hatch that I had just opened.
Gathering at the opening, we could see a vast compartment. It’s cavernous size and the fact there was something very big buzzing and popping in its center meant this was going to be dangerous.
Blinking on my Current Sight, I observed concentric rings of Current in varying degrees of taint orbiting the strange, HUGE, centadecahedril device that made this compartment look cramped.
“By Merlin’s beard…” Chantell gasped, but didn’t finish.
“Anyone else have a clue?” I asked of my Coven sisters. “I’m thinking that IPBM only compounded our problem.” I added as I noticed and pointed out the battered, scorched payload cone laying off to the right some distance away.
“We could try blasting it.” Simone suggested as she manifested her weapon and took aim.
“Wait, Simone. Let’s look at this logically first.” I countered, holding my hand up to stop her.
“Logically? I think logic flew out the window on this one, Honey.” Mom protested. “I’ve never seen anything like this before…ever!”
“That’s exactly my point. We’ve never seen anything like this. It’s absurd! Completely over the top in the grand scheme! Logically, it shouldn’t even exist.” I said while failing to take my eyes off of the thing.
“Well it does exist, Honey.” Mom confirmed. “So what are we going to do about it?”
I thought about that question for several minutes. A whimsical idea popped into my head.
“It’s just so absurd.” I repeated. “So very over the top.”
“You said that already, Chance.” Simone reminded.
I couldn’t help smiling as a plan manifested.
“Chance? I’ve seen that devious look before. When you were little.” Mom accused. “It usually means you’re up to something suspicious. Care to share?”
“This thing is crazy absurd, right?” I asked.
“We’ve already established that, girlfriend.” Chantell said impartially.
“I think we should use something equally absurd to destroy it.” I said as I manifested a small, four-inch long, red and yellow plaid paper tube with a stiff, three-inch string hanging out one end.
“I think this should do it.” I added as I appraised my work.
“A tampon?” Simone asked innocently before turning bright red and looking around in embarrassment.
I rolled my eyes at her.
“A firecracker.” Mom said flatly and in disbelief as she momentarily stared at our blue-haired Coven sister. “You think a single ‘Lady Finger’ will take THAT out? Really?”
“Yes, but we need to get closer.” I smiled.
“Well I should hope so!” Mom scoffed then thought a moment.
“Why not throw a match at it instead?” She added sarcastically.
“That’s plan ‘B’.” I replied dryly.
“So this is just a dream. I’m actually stoned and lying somewhere on the floor in the hangar back on Kane, right?” She vamped.
“Weeeelllll…no.” I teased.
“Marvelous!” Mom responded as she raised her hands to the heavens in surrender.
“I’ll be right back.” I said as I manifested my very own straw broom and mounting it, flew off toward the massive…thing…to plant my diminutive ‘explosive’ charge.
Using my Current Sight, I carefully flew through and around the orbiting Tainted Current and looked for a place to set the ancient, tiny gunpowder ordinance. On my second lap around I found a miniscule hole through which I could see orange light escaping.
“Perfect!” I smiled evilly, slowing to hover in front of the point of light. I also informed the imprisoned Current what I intended to do.
Carefully, I inserted the firecracker and made sure it was wedged in securely.
Focusing on the tip of my wand, I caused it to start glowing and finally to burst into flame.
I quickly lit the fuse and hurried back to where my Coven sisters stood watching. I didn’t bother to turn off my Current Sight.
From here we could see the tiny flicker of the fuse burning down until finally it made a less than entertaining ‘pop’.
“And that’s why I always preferred ‘bigger’ pyrotechnics- something in the multi-kiloton variety usually.” Mom deadpanned.
“Yeah, your Fourth of July displays were always a real hoot, Hopewell.” Chantell replied halfheartedly.
After a minute, orange light began to show more and more from the widening hole.
Suddenly the whole thing began to shiver then shatter- pure Current flowing out of the ever widening cracks.
The multifaceted device crumbled into a pile of rubble with a ‘crackling’ sound and the liberated Current simply drained off below the decking somewhere. All activity, buzzing or otherwise stopped. The huge compartment was eerily silent and still.
Equipment began shutting down all around us.
“I think that’s our cue to leave.” I suggested before turning to see I was the last one to figure that out.
Stepping through the hatch, I quickly closed and secured it behind me then ran to catch up with my retreating Coven sisters.
During our race back to the hangar, equipment of all kinds continued to shut down behind us- as if chasing us.
“So what’s next Chance? A huge boulder rolls out of nowhere and tries to flatten us?” Mom griped as we turned down another passageway.
“We’ll make it. Just as long as there’s no snakes. I hate snakes.” I responded.
Chantell then Mom stopped suddenly and stared at me.
“Seriously, girlfriend, we need to talk once we get to safety!” My aunt strongly suggested.
“Less talk, more run.” I advised as I passed them, continuing my sprint for the hangar.
“And what do we do when we get there, Honey? What will all those we recovered do?” Mom inquired as she and Chantell tried to catch up.
“The hangar should be safe. I asked the Current to ‘clean up’ the base. It was pretty upset about being imprisoned in that…that containment vessel. I’m thinking the Hoblins were trying to force it to devolve into ‘Super Taint’.”
“Super Taint?” Mom gasped in disbelief. “Man, this mission just keeps getting better.”
“Not better, stranger, Lady Hope.” I corrected just as we arrived back in the hangar.
Hundreds of people had been recovered and a sizable portion was either awake or starting to awaken.
The automated door just made it closed when it’s control panel went dark. Until the systems started to reboot, there was only one way out.
And that way out lacked an atmosphere.
“Now what, M’lady?” Artie asked, as she looked about the hangar deck- at all the people we’d recovered.
 
 

 
 
“I think it’s time we end this quaint little simulation.” I said as I took a few steps forward then turned back abruptly to my sisters. “Wouldn’t you agree, ‘Courtney’?”
Silence and bewilderment found my Coven sisters as they all set their attention to ‘the new girl’.
“How long have you known, Chance?” Mixie asked as she dropped her ruse, her expression stiffening somewhat, and a playful smile appeared.
“Since I tried purifying you.” I admitted flatly.
“That long, eh. Oh well…it was fun while it lasted. What confirmed it? If I might ask.”
“Blue Knob is called ‘Blue Summit’ by us locals. Blue Knob only appeared on travel brochures put out by the Galactic Tourism Agency. They wanted a ‘country’ sounding small town to draw tourists to the mountainous recreational region without actually referring to a mountainous region.”
She tensed her lips and nodded a couple times. “Should have done more research…”
“Girlfriend? Could we possibly trouble you for some clarification?” Chantell interrupted. “I heard the word ‘simulation’ so naturally I’d like to know just WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!”
‘Courtney’ and I just stared at each other for a while- daring the other to speak first.
“Fine!” Mixie broke first raising her hands in surrender. “Yes, it was a simulation! A test to see which side you girls were on- if any side at all. I had to know where your loyalties lay, or if you were just callous mercenaries in it for the spoils.”
“So, who do you represent? What’s your affiliation?” Mom asked.
“I have no official affiliation, Hope Summers. I am independent...for the moment.” Mixie replied.
“For the moment? I take it we were being interviewed for that ‘official affiliation’?”
“In a way, Charlene Armstrong. I had heard rumor that Witch Corps had reemerged and liberated Mare De Tempest successfully, and with less collateral casualties than forecasted. Then data started trickling in about your recent humanitarian mission. Ten systems in three weeks! Very impressive! You even had time to squelch a planetary coup. I’m still waiting to receive intelligence from Eden Three.”
“I’m sure you’ll find that things there have changed; balanced out, one might say.” I commented.
“So how much of this is real and how much is simulation,” Simone demanded? “The people around us, are they real or projection?”
“They are as real as the Hoblin monster that conscripted them,” she blushed, “me, Simone Gutteman.” She answered then faced me again.
“I must commend you on your resourcefulness, Chance. Using a Magellanese IPBM to take out the base’s tainted power core was brilliant thinking. I had to try doubly hard to provide both clean atmosphere and appropriate setting for our concluding encounter. You certainly are one of the strongest Current Mages I’ve come up against in a long while. Not since I met yo-”
“So did we pass?” Artie interrupted in an annoyed, but calm tone.
‘Courtney’ smiled at our Huntress.
“I prefer to work alone, Artemis of Olympus. Though, I now view Witch Corps as a viable ally and more so, a morally sound organization that I would be honored to work with again should our paths again cross.”
“Nice to know. I don’t suppose you have a ship capable of evacuating all these people to the planet’s surface?” Mom glibbed.
“Sorry, Hope, but my craft is far from spacious. Emergency power should maintain the atmosphere until one of you conjures a new power core. So now it is time for me to move on.” She apologized then closed her eyes and began to concentrate.
After a few moments, her eyes opened back up and she stared intensely at me.
“What did you do?” She demanded in a flat voice. “How did you do it and how did you know?”
“How did I do or know what?” I asked innocently.
The woman regarded me for a moment then started to concentrate again; this time her face became flush with effort.
“Apparently my information was not as complete as I’d assumed.” She whispered to herself, but glared at me in outrage.
“You should never assume anything. If you do, you only end up making an ‘ass’ out of ‘you’ and ‘me’.” I advised and started giggling.
“We really need to have that talk with her, Hope!” Chantell stage whispered to my mother.
“You’ve made your point, Lady Chance. Please. Could you remove you’re…” She gulped as her face turned beet red. “The very formidable security spell you placed around my craft?”
A small, maybe ninety foot long, bulbous-nosed ship materialized in the far corner of the hangar. It looked very old and battered, and its hull appeared heavily carbonized. The ship’s landing struts were rusty and had definitely seen better days.
Courtney glared at me with a look that conveyed no cheerful intentions.
“Your steed, Lady Morgana.” I gestured to the rusty old hulk with an impish smile. “And you may keep the uniform and pendant for such time as when we next meet.”
She regarded me again, smiled tensely, and shook her head in defeat.
“Oh, I took the liberty of doing some repair work to her. Hope you don’t mind.”
“Did some repair work?” She repeated and looked back at her ship curiously.
“My thanks. Until we meet again, Lady Chance?” She offered a pleasant smile.
“Pleasant journeys, Lady Morgana.” I returned politely before she turned and walked away in the direction of her ship.
My sisters and I remained silent until the hatch closed on the ancient spacecraft.
“Chance? Honey, that wasn’t THE Morgana was it? I mean…that would make her…”
“That would make her way older than you three, Mom.” I laughed.
“Ah-oh! Either there’s something wrong with your repair or she forgot something important,” Simone announced as she pointed to the decrepit ship’s reopened hatch. “Either way, she’s coming in hot!”
We waited quietly while the woman, Morgana, stomped her way back to us- her heels clacking heavily on the deck.
“Why?”
Her question was short and accusing as she scanned me critically for the answer.
“Because.” I answered in kind.
“After what I did…after that ridiculous test…?”
“Yep!”
“But…?”
“Nope!”
“Thank you. Thank you, a thousand fold!” Morgana sniffed as she embraced me quickly, turned, and hurried back to her craft.
“So… what did you ‘repair’, sweetie?” Mom giggled.
“I just made a few engine mods. Nothing exotic though.” I paused with a smile.
“I may have also replaced her faulty, antiquated water reclamation system and installed a higher capacity hot water unit; upgraded her gravity generator; modernized her galley; topped off her fuel reserve… And, just a few more things that really needed attention.” I added.
“Chance to Mixie. Allow us time to clear the survivors from the hangar deck. Indulge yourself in the mean time.” I suggested as I nodded to my Coven sisters.
“Thank you again, Chance! Mother Earth’s blessing upon you and your sisters!”
“You’re quite welcome, M’lady.” I replied.
 
 
“Chance to Mixie. You are cleared for departure. Pleasant journeys.” I said clearing Morgana’s craft to depart the depressurized hangar. The Elcano base staff was recovering, but not enough to return to duty.
“And to you also, M’lady.”
The eons-old craft- Vita Mirlini- slowly exited. Once clear, Charli closed the doors and pressurized the hangar.
“Think we’ll ever see her again, Chance?” Artie asked.
“I doubt it. She’s the type that likes her privacy. Maybe in another fourteen or fifteen hundred years.” Chantell speculated.
“Who are you kidding? Chance bested her. Not a snowball’s chance in hell she’ll show her face anywhere near us again, Shan!” Mom added cynically.
“Hmmmm. I wonder if she’s found that Witch Corp tracking beacon I stowed aboard that old rust bucket yet?” I wondered out loud.
“Oh, girlfriend! That’s outrageous!” Chantell shrieked out in laughter.
 
 
“Elcano Base. Witch Corp Flight One you are cleared for departure.”
“Copy, Elcano. Good luck with the mop up.” I confirmed. “Let’s go, Hope and a Pair.” I continued as I hit the throttle and performed a perfect corkscrew out of the hangar.
“It must run in the blood.” Huntress lampooned.
“Chance, Lokust. How’s the rodeo?” I asked.
“Still chasing the critters around, Chance. We’re into the finals though.”
“Need the second string?” I laughed under my breath.
“Nah. Them little doogies is almost corralled, Chance. You all head fer the barn.”
“Copy that, Lokust. See you back at the stable. Chance, out. Witch Corp Flight One, Pegasus; requesting approach vector.”
“Pegasus Control. Witch Corps Flight One, please identify using transponder ident.” Keats voice sounded stressed and mechanical.
“Pegasus, you do know that this is a private, heavily encrypted channel, right?” I questioned.
“Pegasus Control. Witch Corps Flight One, please identify using transponder ident.” He repeated sounding more tense.
“Pegasus, have it your way.” I grumbled, toggling my transponder quickly.
“Pegasus Control. Witch Corps Flight One, please confirm identity using transponder ident.”
“Pegasus. Stow the bullshit. I’m coming aboard with or without you.”
“Pegasus Control. Witch Corps Flight One, sending coordinates now.” Keats sounded very stressed as Hope and a Pair finally received the data.
“Copy. Coordinates received, Pegasus Control. Alert Lioness we need to talk as soon as I’m aboard.” I said calmly.
“Lioness has a full schedule, Chance. Tomorrow afternoon is the earliest open appointment she has.”
“Check again, Pegasus Control.” I suggested again as I smiled devilishly.
“My mistake, Chance. It seems you’re scheduled for the rest of the next ten days with Lioness.” Keats responded humorously as in the background, Sonya Serangetti demanded to know how I corrupted her appointment book. I could also hear Samuel Redman laughing hysterically!
“Pegasus A.I has granted you docking priority, Pegasus 1. Call the ball at your convenience.”
 
 
 
 
(Author's note: The answer to the unrecognizable, completely screwed-up quote used by Chantell Denison in Chapter 7 is from Hanna-Barbarra's 1967 Classic Cartoon Series: The Fantastic Four. Ben Grimm's go to 'It's Clobberin' Time!')