Chapter 7: Alliances

Disclaimer: This is the rough draft of “The Terra Project”, a novel in progress. The story, characters, and events are subject to change during the editing process.

Please keep in mind that as a rough draft, the writing style and organization is expected to be poor and or lacking. As quoted by Ernest Hemingway, “The first draft of anything is shit.”

Comments and critique are greatly appreciated, though it is preferred that advanced critiquing be held off until later drafts. Anyone interested in the story or the novel project is encouraged to email me at fishbowlery@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy.

It was several hours later when Dr. Tro awoke. Her watch told her it was somewhat past noon by then. She awoke and found herself in a large tent floored with thick, soft animal furs. The light of the sun was still pushing in through the thick leather canvas, and it was stiflingly hot inside.

She looked around and located the exit and pushed the flaps apart. There were two of the wolf-people standing outside, and one of them deftly turned around and pointed a rough iron spear-tip at her face.

“Please, let me out! I mean you no harm!” she pleaded, hoping that the guard would recognize her tone or gestures, but he simply inched the spear closer to her and she backed down, closing the flap.

In front of the tent across from it, though, one of the wolves, named Aleron, paused. Something quite odd had just happened to him as he was eating his share of the meat they were roasting from their kill that day.

“[Noddeh, did you hear that?]” he asked to the wolf next to him.

Noddeh took a casual bite out of his own ration, a particularly juicy portion of flank, and then turned to Aleron and said through a mouthful, “[Heard what?]”

“[The Eurian, she said something,]” he answered.

“[She did, I heard her,] Noddeh answered. “[And?]”

“[She said,]” Aleron said slowly, “Please let me out, I mean you no harm.”

“[You have a good ear,]” Noddeh commented. “[And a good tongue, too, you sounded exactly like her.]”

Aleron blinked. “[You didn't hear me? I told you she said 'Please let me out, I mean you no harm.']”

“[Now we're guessing at what she said, are we?]” Noddeh asked. He leaned into his meal and took another chomp. “[I don't doubt that's what the first part meant, or that she'd say the other, but we have no way of knowing, now, do we?]”

Aleron stared at Noddeh in disbelief, then shifted his glance and stared at his smoked meat.

“[You gonna eat that?]” Noddeh asked.

“[All yours,]” Aleron replied as he got onto his feet. He walked over to the guards. “[Excuse me, is there any chance at all that I could visit with the prisoner?]”

“[Depends,]” the guard on the left growled quietly. “[Why would you want to in the first place?]”

“[Curiosity,]” Aleron answered. “[I just want to know about her, I guess.]”

“[She's a Eurican, she's wearing funny clothes, she was with another Eurican that we killed, they were holding witch-boxes to the herd we've been following,” the other guard barked. “[What else is there to know?]”

Aleron shrugged uneasily. “[Has she been brought rations?]”

“[No, would you like to do it?]” the guard on the left answered.

The guard on the right raised an eyebrow. “[You don't have a thing for Eurians, do you? It's against nature and all the priests say-]”

“[No, not in the least,]” Aleron protested. “[I'll go get her some intestines or something else nasty.]”

“[Oh would you kindly? Before it rots and makes a stink, nobody else will take it.]”

Aleron nodded and turned around. “[I'm only interested in studying her anyway.]” He marched off to the stake, grabbed his knife, and carved out a section of cooked entrails and headed back to the tent with them. He showed them to the guards, who seemed satisfied, and admitted him without further word.

Dr. Tro was inside sitting in the middle of the floor thinking when Aleron entered. She backed away slowly as he clambered in. After a few moments of awkward silence he held up the food that he had brought for her.

Dr. Tro's stomach turned at the sight of the offering, but her heart skipped at the gesture. “Did you bring that for me?” she asked.

Aleron looked as if he'd been struck when she said those words. She paused and then uncomfortably reached out to accept the gift.

He looked back at her, then back to the food, then back to her. Something was happening in his head and he didn't know what, he didn't know how, but he was sure it had to do something with her.

Seeing her guest's hesitation, Dr. Tro withdrew herself slightly, then muttered “Sorry.”

“Don't be,” Aleron blurted.

Dr. Tro stared at her captor in amazement.

“I must be hearing things,” she said dismissively to herself. “There's no way you could have just spoken English.”

“If you're hearing things,” Aleron said, “Then I must be as well. Saying things, too.”

Dr. Tro's eyes widened in amazement. “How... how're...”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” Aleron said.

They both paused, gawking at each other. After a few seconds Aleron held up the food again. “I, er... brought you this,” he said quickly.

Dr. Tro smiled graciously and forced herself to take the offered entrails, though inside she detested this somewhat. “You brought me a choice piece,” she said, trying to assume and compliment his generosity.

“Yes, I did, had to fight off the whole pack,” he lied.

Dr. Tro smiled embarrassedly and looked down at the food, hiding her distaste for it, and quickly set it down as soon as Aleron's gaze was averted. “That was very kind of you. You didn't have to.” She felt something else nag at her. “Why did your tribe- er, pack shoot my colleague?”

“The person you were with?” Aleron asked. “Noddeh shot the arrow, not me.”

Dr. Tro felt a horrible sink in her chest as the words clicked in her brain. “Oh god, then that really did happen.... is he okay?”

“It was a quickly-fatal hit, so we left him where he was,” Aleron said guiltily. “We saw you near the herd we'd been tracking, and some of our members suspected you of bad magic.”

Dr. Tro pulled her knees in close to her chest and let out a quiet sob.

“Look, I can get you out.... erm... what should I call you?”

“Dr. Tro,” she answered between sobs.

Aleron felt the guilt tugging at his gut. “I'm Aleron.... wait here...”

Dr. Tro tried to protest, but he had run through the opening before she could get a word out. She slumped back on the floor and let out another sob for Chase.

“He didn't even do anything to deserve... Why him and not me?”

Withing a few seconds she heard a tearing from the back end of the tent and looked to see the blade of a knife protruding into the tent. Behind the wall Aleron grunted and strained as he tore through the tough leather until he'd made a small hole and he waved at Dr. Tro to go through. She looked back to make sure the guards outside had not noticed at all and clambered through it, then followed him away from the encampment.

“Take me back to where you found us,” she said quickly. “From there I'll be able to find my ship and then-”

“You mean that big metal thing?” Aleron asked.

“Yes, that!” Dr. Tro replied. “You saw it and didn't examine it?”

“We all assumed it was bad magic and we kept away from it,” Aleron replied sheepishly. It all sounded silly in English.

“If you remember where it is, take me to it, my people will be with it and then..” she froze. They had been running only a few minutes and something seemed familiar.

“This is exactly where it was,” Aleron said quietly.

“Oh no... it's gone...” she groaned. “They must have taken off looking for me.”

Aleron looked at Dr. Tro incredulously. “That thing can fly?”

“Yes, and quite well, in fact,” Dr. Tro answered.

“A giant piece of metal can fly?” he repeated incredulously. “I thought only light things like birds and clouds could fly.”

“That's not what I'm worried about,” she said quickly. “The thing is-”

“I mean I thought that maybe if two larger birds worked together they could maybe carry a small rock-”

“That's not the point!” Dr. Tro screeched. “They're flying around and I have no idea where they are and they have no idea where I am, and...” another sickening feeling hit Dr. Tro square in the stomach. “Oh, god...”

She turned and ran in the direction that the herd had been in when they had landed. In a few seconds she cam to a familiar looking tree. The base of it was stained red and there was a shifting stain of blood on the surrounding grass and undergrowth.

“Chase, he was right here!” she screeched.

Aleron stared in amazement. He remembered seeing the Eurian right there, he even remembered as Noddeh had lazily drawn the arrow and picked him off. And now he was gone, leaving only the blood stains.

“He's gone...” Aleron said.

Dr. Tro covered and then uncovered her mouth with her hands. “Do you think he's all right?”

Aleron shook his head. “The arrow went right through his lungs.”

“How do you know his lungs were there?” she asked.

“Eurian anatomy is very similar to Aesisian,” he answered.

“Eurian?” she replied.

“Yes, you know... from Euria. I mean, you're Eurian, aren't you?”

“No, I'm from Earth,” Dr. Tro answered. She was making a mental note; anatomies being so similar made almost no sense in evolutionary terms. It would have been almost definite that Aesisian anatomy would be drastically different from Earth-human anatomy, and to hear that there was something even more similar was equally startling. She would have to investigate later.

“To the point,” Aleron said. “You don't know where your ship is and your ship doesn't know where you are. What, exactly, are we going to do to get back to your ship.”

Dr. Tro froze. “Good question-” she turned and looked up and her eyes widened in surprise.

“Still can't establish a link with Buck?” Dr. Harrow asked.

Alex shook hir head. “Nothing, he's not responding at all. He should be getting information. Maybe he's getting our link request but ignoring it for some reason?”

“Keep trying, and alternate trying to connect with Dr. Kaddix. We can't have him running his mouth on the global shout system and giving us away to the UIFF.”

He paced up and down the Lovable Dictator, then paced back up to the cockpit. “Where are we at?”

“Last know coordinates of the Aften Stjerne, when Buck transmitted that Dr. Tro had been kidnapped,” Alex answered.

Dr. Harrow nodded and then looked over the controls of the cockpit. “Is that...?”

Alex tilted hir head, then leaned over the console and looked.

“Unless I'm mistaken, that's Dr. Tro, and she seems to have made a friend,” Dr. Harrow noted.

Alex gawked in surprise. “I'm setting the ship down now.”

Buck pushed the Aften Stjerne farther and farther, sweeping low and fast in search of any sign of the alleged wolves that had taken Dr. Tro.

“You do believe me,” Chase stuttered, and then he gave another bloody cough. “That it was wolves that took her, don’t you?”

Buck nodded grimly. “I know.”

Chase nodded, thankful of Buck’s trust, but in the back of his head something didn’t add up; he expected some form of disbelief. It was like a child telling its parents about the monster under the bed to hear them tell that they’d seen it too.

“You don’t see that light flashing on the dash?” a voice asked, sounding annoyed.

Buck looked calmly up at the dashboard as Chase gave a start and began looking around in a panic. One of the buttons was lit up brightly, indicating an incoming transmission link request was being sent to him. It had been blinking like that for quite a while, but he had managed to ignore it thus far, but Zant had a point. There really seemed no sense in ignoring it further, so he reached over and flicked it, connecting the link.

“Ya no habia aceptato-“ Taco’s voice streamed in.

“Taco!” Buck exclaimed.

“Por fin!” Taco souted. “Doctor, vengase!”

There was the shuffling on the other end of the comms, and then Dr. Harrow’s voice asked, “Buck, do you read me?”

“Loud and clear,” he replied. “You’ve been connecting a direct comms link with me, it seems.”

“Yes, exactly,” Dr. Harrow answered.

“May I ask why?”

“I have good news and bad news,” Dr. Harrow answered. “The good news is that I’ve located Dr. Tro. She and a new friend of hers are safely on board my ship at this very moment. She’s ready, willing, and able to take back command of her ship next time we meet.”

Buck felt a heavy weight collapse off his chest, causing a loud sigh of relief and gratitude. “Thank God, that’s a miracle.” He paused to reflect on the good fortune when a few more gears began to click away inside his head.

“Then, wait a minute,” he began, “What are you doing in Aesis?”

“That’s the bad news, I’m afraid,” Dr. Harrow answered. “I was chased out of Astica.”

“Chased?!” Buck asked incredulously. “By who?”

“Does the name Iro Kastan mean anything to you?” Dr. Harrow asked.

“Sounds familiar, but it doesn’t ring any bells,” Buck answered tensely.

“How about the initials U I F F?”

The effect of that sentence was like a strike to Buck’s face.

“Oh… my…. God….”

Angreh was on his way back to his hut. So far it had been any other day. He and his fellow denizens of the region (his fellows and himself all resembling Lionesses of Earth, unbeknownst to them) had carried on their daily tasks and chores. Though nobody around him showed any signs of sensing it, he hadfelt something off, like the feel of an imminent storm on a cloudless day, persisting and nagging at him from the back of his skull and every nerve in his skin.

So much had it nagged at him that he had been unable to concentrate during his hunt and had come home empty-handed on a day that he would have usually managed to collect a young deer or at least a bird or small game of some sort.

“[Feeling for a storm?]” his neighbor called in her usual insightful manner, in a voice slightly higher than usual that caused Angreh to snap out of his thoughts and ruminations.

“[Something is amiss,]” he muttered in reply as he unslung his bow to be hung up when he went back in.

“[If you feel the storm but don’t see the clouds, maybe you’re just not looking hard enough,]” she called back in her typical vague, hinting manner.

She vanished back into her hut, leaving Angreh to stare bewildered at the sky above. There were only a few faint, whispy clouds in the sky above, not nearly enough for even the lightest rain. But it wasn’t precipitation that he was looking out for.

That’s when he saw it. At first it was only a faint gray outline, then it expanded and filled it darker and darker until it was a solid cobalt gray.

It was growing nearer and nearer, a great ship of metal in the sky. It was larger than anything he had ever seen before. It was descending slowly; far too slow to be in the freefall. It must have had something aout it to keep it from falling, possibly magic or maybe even something greater.

Then, with a mix of awe and horror he realized that it was headed directly towards his village.

Others around him began to realize this occurrence and the village slowly grew into an uproar as its population assembled outside. Only Angreh was still calm as he watched the monolithic beast of a ship in the sky draw closer and closer.

Finally it set down, softly, not with the expected crash.

He stepped up to it slowly as the outline of a door appeared and was flung open wide, revealing what appeared to be a party of Eurians in red and blue garnments of a very fine quality. They all stepped out of the ship one by one and descended on a ramp that had appeared until they were all walking on the rough dirt path that wove through the village.

“Greetings, citizens of Terros,” the frontmost of them boomed. Angreh noted that he was dressed even fancier than those around him. That most likely meant that he was the leader of those that had come on the ship, and that he was most likely not coming to attack or he would have sent out his underlings first and stayed back for his own safety. Instead, he must have been here for diplomacy.

Or for some other motive.

Around Angreh, his friends and neighbors were gathering, all gawking and staring at the Eurians as they stepped out of the ship and into their midst. They, like the ship, were something that had never been seen before, but it was something about them much more subtle than the hulking mass that was the ship, though equally intriguing.

Angreh chanced a glance away from the newcomers and to his familiar friends and neighbors. Most of them were babbling: speculating where they had come from, on why they were there. But all of them seemed to have been confused by the speaking of the Eurians, which threw Angreh off his course of thought, as he had understood it all quite perfectly.

“The Jack, get the Jack,” one of the Eurians in the back of the cluster whispered to one of those behind him. “They don’t know English, we have to educate them to it.” He waved his comrade away, presumably to fetch the mysterious ‘Jack’ that he had been referring to, and the leader of them continued his speech unperturbedly.

“You will all be graced to be a part of a movement that will give peace to and unite the entire surface of your world as well as Earth. You are the first that such a grand honor has been offered to, which is a great honor in and of itself that I am pleased to confer upon you all.”

Angreh looked over his shoulder. Behind him, everyone was wearing expressions of dumbfoundedness and confusion, and Angreh began to quietly wonder about the comprehension skills of his fellow villagers, though he knew that it was nothing like that that was causing the miasma that was swirling amongst them.

The situation in and of itself was quite startling. The things that the Eurians were saying seemed off in some obscure way, but he understood them and didn’t see how his fellows could be confused, at least not in the way that they were; they seemed to be more dumbfounded about the words that were being spoken than anything else.

“It is a pity,” the leader began with a expression of sadness, “That none of you can understand a single word I say. Fortuanately, Jack will remedy that in a few seconds.” He turned around and eyed the Eurian that had been sent back, who had returned hefting a large cubic object of metal.

“I can understand every word you say quite perfectly,” Angreh stated. He saw a jerk of the neck of the leader, as if he had just barely caught at the edge of hearing something that he couldn’t believe.

Angreh stepped forward and raised his hand. “I can understand you. Can you understand me?”

The leader looked up and down him slowly. “Come here,” he said as the Eurian with the cube set it down in the center of his town and whispered something to it. “Please, sir, come here.”

Angreh looked behind him. Everyone behind him was shifting their stares between him, the cube, and the leader, all sharing a unified expression of conusion and incomprehension. It was then, when he saw nobody else that he could have sent the instructions to that he stepped forward to the leader.

“That’s close enough,”

Angreh looked down and realized with a tinge of horror that he still had his bow in his hands. He dropped it quickly and faced the leader.

“How do you understand us?” the leader asked.

Angreh nearly shrugged, but averted in favor of maintaining composure. “You are speaking the language I have always spoken, which is-“ but to his horror, he realized he couldn’t find the word.

“No, I am speaking English. I severely doubt that it is the language you were brought up with,” he said.

“Then…” Angreh began as the shock hit him, “I don’t know. But I do.”

“Who are you?” the leader asked. “Are you the leader of this village?”

“I am Angreh, sir, I am just a hunter and a man of these parts.”

The leader considered this. “I am Iro Kastan, I am the leader of the U.I.F.F. We intend to graciously accept control of Terros and soon we will be able to control Earth, our former homeland, and ensure peace and prosperity of both for many ages to come.”

“Why have you come to our humble village?” Angreh asked.

“To ask for directions to your capital as well as to ask for someone to be our guide in the ways and mannerisms of the people.”

“I can do that,” Angreh said.

“Actually, we would like you to do all that and more for us. We would like you to be a General for us,” Iro said.

“A general?” Angreh replied incredulously. “Why? I have no experience leading armies?”

“You have already shown to have great potential, and we need someone of Terros with such potential amongst our leaders,” Iro said seriously. “Will you join us or not?”

Iro craned his head over and looked over Angreh’s shoulder to watch the cube as it gave a loud chirping noise, and as the noise rang out the entire village went to its knees in pain.

“I trust you will,” Iro said, bringing Angreh’s eyes back from watching.

Angreh averted his eyes and bit his tongue. “I will do it, but only if you can ensure that the people here are never hurt.”

Iro nodded. “That is why we are here, he said.”

The sun had long since slowly nestled into the sands of the horizon across from Dengris and vanished under the blanket of sand. Stars had begun toIt was then that the employees began to slowly march together towards the layer cake, each with a candle in hand. Candles ranging from tall, skinny blue ones to short, fat red ones, stubby ones in crystal glass holders, and even a lantern was present amongst the many.

Dan was marching right next to Alonso, near the front of the group. He had a conservative white, tall, skinny candle, and Alonso had one of nearly identical shape in blue.

“A little bird told me that you wanted some ships of ours,” Alonso said quietly to Dan.

“I'd like to talk to you about that, yes,” Dan said. “But first, I'd like you to talk to me about the U.I.F.F.”

Alonso sighed quietly and turned to Dan. “The U.I.F.F. is a faction very similar to TimeSpace technologies. However, their motives and goals are different.”

“What are theirs?” Dan asked, “And what, exactly, are yours?”

“Those at TimeSpace are motivated by altruism and a desire to achieve great things. The U.I.F.F., however, is different. Their goal is to enforce world peace.”

“How would creating world peace be a bad thing?” Dan asked.

“I said enforcing, not creating,” Alonso answered. “That and I'm completely unsure of their motives. I doubt they're doing it for the sake of having done good. I suspect greed for power.”

“Why are they on Terros?” Dan asked.

“I'm not entirely sure, but I have my theories,” Alonso replied.

“Such as?”

“Room for expansion, I guess, an easier vantage from which to secure their goal.”

By now the gathered mass had reached the layer cake. One by one the each placed their candle on the lowermost layer to pay their respects to Samuel and stepped back to watch as more and more little lights were added to the assembly.

“Dan, my good sir,” Alonso said slowly he stood his candle carefully next to so many others. “I'll give you a few ships. Ones to transport enough troops to stop the U.I.F.F. from accomplishing whatever it is that they are trying to do on Terros.”

Dan nodded gracefully and thankfully as he added his candle to the gathering of them. “I'll do my best to do this. Thank you for helping to ensure the safety of everyone.”

Alonso nodded. “We'll be able to launch one every month.”

“And if I offered the assistance of the greatest factories and engineers in the United States?” Dan asked. “I really don't think the situation allows for this. If Iro is half the threat you say he is we need to launch no less than a dozen ships within a month.”

Alonso pondered this. “You really are serious about this, aren't you?”

“If I wasn't I would have left by now.”

“And of the landgrab that I've been so far hoping to stave off?” Alonso asked.

“We will secure and make official the borders of the countries already there,” Dan answered.

Alonso nodded and mulled on Dan's words for a few quiet moments as they watched more and more candles being placed upon the layer cake.

“I shall talk with everyone else in the company tomorrow and we will see what there is to be offered in the way of assistance from you, and from there we will see what we can do,” Alonso said finally. “We'll build as many as we can as fast as we can, we promise you that, so long as you promise me two things.”

“Tell me what they are.”

“First, I want you to promise me that you will prevent the U.I.F.F. from achieving their goal. Secondly, do not harm Iro. Bring him back here, I wish to speak with him.”

Dan noted this. “I will do what I can,” he said. “May I ask your reason for the second request?”

“My reasons are my own,” Alonso replied. “Just know there are things higher than either TimeSpace or the U.I.F.F..”

Morning was slowly prying its way into the landscape and over Binky, and as it did the inhabitants of the nearby village all began to awake to the most unusual sight. By the time they were all awake and dressed they were all outside, gathered around the strange metal boulder that had appeared. One brave soul was even bold enough to prod at it gently with his rake.

They were all gathered, staring and quabbling, when the door opened and Dr. Kaddix poked his head out.

“Bastards are awake now,” he called back into the ship. He vanished inside, then re-emerged with the cube in his arms and casually pushed it into the air, which it tumbled through noiselessly until it bounced over the ground a few times. After it had been on the ground a few seconds, it chimed loudly and everyone nearby collapsed to the ground, except for one person.

“Amazing thing, that is,” Dr. Kaddix said to himself as he strolled out of the ship with a breakfast of a beer and a bagel in his hands. “So, all'a'ya, who's in charge here?”

The villagers all scrambled to their feet, and many of them pointed to one individual, slightly taller than all the rest of them.

“Nice to meet you,” Dr. Kaddix said through a mouthful of raisin-nut bagel and he walked over to the person being indicated. “Would you like a bite of bagel? Sip of beer? Anything?” Dr. Kaddix asked politely.

“Well... I... I'm not truly in charge, I'm more-”

“Don't worry, I'm not going to bite your head off,” Dr. Kaddix retorted. “I'm only interested in rocks. I'm told Joss gets very strong ones here for their aqueducts and such.”

The leader blinked a few times. “Yes... we here are mostly farmers, but we do oversee a quarry to the north, and the stone from there goes out to be exported to many countries.”

“Ah, then I imagine you'd have a lot of stone buildings around here,” Dr. Kaddix noted. He glanced at the nearby buildings, which were all quaint and made of wood.

“No, actually, stone is too expensive,” the leader said sheepishly.

“You can just go the hell over there and dig it out of the ground, what do you mean it's expensive?” Dr. Kaddix asked.

“It costs as much as those around are willing to pay for it,” the leader answered. “For the longest time it was of high demand in Joss while they were building their buildings that required great strength of structure. Now it is mostly bought by Chuzets, our neighbor to the northeast. They prefer to build their buildings out of stone for religious reasons. They prefer marble when they can, but they don't get it from us.”

“Marble, eh?” Dr. Kaddix asked. “Good, I'll make note of your quarry here and come back and examine it in more detail later, but marble seems like it would make a much more interesting report.”

He turned around and began to march back to his ship with Kyme and Dusty behind him wearing looks of exasperation.

“The light!” Dusty hissed into Dr. Kaddix's ear. “The light, remember?”

Dr. Kaddix froze, then wheeled around. “Oh yes, did anyone see a strange light last night?”

The village remained silent, except for the shuffling of two tiny feet as a small child walked boldly up to Dr. Kaddix.

“I did,” she said proudly. “Do you know what the light was?”

“No, do you?” Dr. Kaddix asked. He could feel his blood pressure raise slightly in response to the presence of the small being.

“I do!” she squealed in delight.

“Good, what was it?” he asked.

“I'm not telling!” she answered.

Dr. Kaddix looked around at the rest of the villagers. “Who is this?” he asked.

“That...” said the leader tensely, “is Tatty, daughter of...” he paused and looked around. Nobody moved. “The daughter of...” he said again, as if trying to coax the parents to come forward, but the crowd remained silent. “Whose child is this?” he asked loudly, but again nobody responded.

“Do you have parents here?” Kyme asked, kneeling down to speak at Tatty's height.

Tatty shook her head. She seemed to be no more than five, maybe six years old.

“Well, that's startling,” the leader said.

“You've had an orphan here the whole time and didn't know it?” Dr. Kaddix asked.

“Well, she seemed to be happy and healthy, I just assumed I just never ran into her and her parents together,” the leader said with a shrug. “I mean, things are so busy here...”

“Would you mind if she came with us?” Kyme asked.

Dr. Kaddix nearly jumped at the suggestion, then examined Tatty closely. Although her age was bound to cause a serious stress problem to him, there seemed to be something important, something hidden to her.

“Well, if she has no objections, then.... We'll all miss her, she's always been a joy to have around for the most part, but I guess if it's what she wants, we could bear the pain of parting with her.”

Kyme turned to Tatty. “What do you say, then?”

“I wanna go onto the ship!” she squealed.

“It's a ship?” the leader asked. “It looks nothing like a boat.”

“It's a ship, it flies through the air,” Dr. Kaddix said. “How did you know that?”

Tatty gave an innocent shrug. “It's called Binky, isn't it?”

“That's very good,” Dr. Kaddix said. “How did you know that?”

“Because it's written on the side,” Tatty answered, pointing to where the name had been painted in bright blue and outlined in gold.

“Jack teaches them how to read too?” Dr. Kaddix asked.

“It can teach someone to read English if they're literate and speak the language,” Dusty said. “Did you have Jack set to teach English and reading?”

“Must've,” Dr. Kaddix said. “Alright, all aboard the ship, see you all.”

As Dr. Kaddix, Dusty, Kyme, and Tatty all vanished into the ship, the leader and everyone else stared at where Tatty had pointed.

“[I can't understand that in the least,]” the leader said to himself.

Once inside and in the cockpit, Dr. Kaddix set down his beer and scarfed the last of his bagel before looking at the console. One of the lights was blinking invitingly, so he pressed it.

“Dr. Kaddix just took the invite,” Alex's voice announced.

“Hello, what's this?” he asked.

“Dr. Kaddix,” Dr. Harrow's voice streamed in, “There's something serious going on. From now on only talk on this channel, otherwise it will get intercepted.”

“By who?” Dr. Kaddix asked.

“Someone else landed here that shouldn't have,” Dr. Harrow answered. “They go under the name of the U.I.F.F.”

“Yeah?”

“We're going to be establishing contact with TimeSpace headquarters as soon as possible,” Dr. Harrow continued. “But in the meantime, these people will be looking for you and they seem to want to take over the place.”

“What do you want me to do about it?” Dr. Kaddix asked. “I just want to study rocks for fuck's sake.”

“Go ahead and spread the name of the United States to everyone you meet, and ask if they'll help us fight against them.”

“Sounds good,” Dr. Kaddix said, then he cut the comms off. He marched to the ship's computer and found an image file showing the United States flag and printed it off, then grabbed the paper and opened the door, shouting “Oh, and the United States wishes your alliance, here's what our flag looks like. See you all.”

Once the door had shut he walked back to the cockpit to see Tatty sitting in his seat, spinning around jovially.

“Little girl, do you think you could guide me to where the marble is?” Dr. Kaddix asked.

“Yup!” she chirped as Kiono stumbled up behind them.

“Morning, everyone,” he said as he yawned and stretched. “Just got up, where are we headed?” he added as he noted the ground moving out from under the ship.

“Chuzets,” Tatty chirped, then pointed to the left. “That way, Dr. Kaddix.”

“Oh, shit,” Kiono groaned as the ship began to push forward and turn. “Anywhere but there...”