Over the fireplace, there was finally a painting, a large portrait of Jenny holding Tidbit on her lap. She wasn't sure how they managed that, considering she had never had the time to pose even for a photograph since taking up this amazing adventure and huge responsibility, but it looked homey and finished up the living room nicely.
They had all agreed to take a deep breath before the plunge. After all, none of them would have the leisure for what might be a very long time to spend any real time in their homes, with the exception of Lova, who would continue to host the Earth Guardian headquarters and be the go-between with the Alliance. So, for the next couple of weeks they would all be battening down the hatches in their various residences.
Tarafau had agreed to take her to his home to meet his family and get to know more about his people as part of getting her training back on track. They planned to do that in about a week.
Lizziebot came through the dining room from the kitchen. "Do you want Spaghetti or Lasagna for supper?" she asked. "I'm feeling Italian tonight."
"Either one sounds fine to me. Why don't you check with the folks out on the patio? Majority rules."
Lizziebot had taken to cooking and cleaning, although Jenny told her it was a waste of all that tech. Lizziebot then informed Jenny that she had enough to be going on with and she didn't mind. Jenny couldn't stop marveling about the hidden talents Bob had programmed into her. She almost never opened the tablet anymore. She got very used to the convenience of having Lizzie's memories, experience and sense of humor on tap and she knew, when and if everything finally settled down that Lizziebot would continue to be a great asset to her as The Gatekeeper.
Lova had told Jenny that she would continue to get more training once they had everything in hand with the Insenium and Fleist, but until then, it would still be "on-the-job" training by necessity. Strictly speaking, other than leading her team in this struggle, she wasn't doing much in her role as The Gatekeeper, but Lova had assured her that it would all come sooner than she realized.
They had all made a trip to the Dimensional Alliance Council Chamber, in the beautiful atrium, to report on the completion of stage one of the mission. Jenny had been invited with Tarafau to sit on the dais with the three Chief Counselors. After playing the recording of the debriefing at Sanglarka, Ingot opened it up for questions and comments. For a bit there was just stunned silence and then slowly different ones stood and spoke. Although, a lot of what was said was way over Jenny's head, as they referred to precedents from Alliance history and other conflicts Jenny was not aware of, she was impressed with the courtesy and respect each of them treated the various thoughts and opinions among those assembled there.
What it boiled down to was that they agreed that the three step plan was reasonable, that they would support its implementation and that they appreciated the efforts and accomplishments of Jenny's team. There were even words of encouragement for Jenny herself, which stirred her heart in ways she had never felt before.
Afterwards there had been a reception, the first official event of this sort Jenny had attended as "The Gatekeeper". She began to realize what had been meant when various team members had implied that her experience as Gatekeeper and Guardian would teach her much about the myths of earth. She recognized a Minotaur, a Gorgon (complete with veil), a Unicorn and even a group of tall slender beings with pointed ears that could be nothing more or less than Elves.
The different beings mixed not much differently than a cocktail party or ambassadorial reception on earth, conversing in groups, eating and even laughing together (Or at least Jenny hoped it was laughter. With some of them it was hard to tell.). It kind of felt like some kind of formal cosplay at a fantasy convention.
Jenny stood in a kind of reception line with Ingot, Liliath, Myla and Tarafau. Her head swam with all of the introductions and she knew she would never remember all of the names and titles. However, her title, as Gatekeeper, meant that all of those she met were respectful and interested in meeting her. They asked polite questions about Earth and wanted to know more about her story, of how she became Gatekeeper, although, she suspected most of them already knew. It wasn't exactly a state secret.
All in all, her visit at the Alliance was heady stuff, but the best part was when Ingot, Myla and Liliath had them retire to the private council room and each of them congratulated Jenny and her team on their excellent work. "We'd have never gotten even close to this far without the courage, ingenuity and persistence of the Earth Guardians their Agents and our new Gatekeeper." Liliath said.
"And we feel confident that when you are able to join forces with some of the other Guardians throughout the network that we can create a stratagem to accomplish our priorities," continued Ingot.
Myla held out his hands to her. "There is so much more in you than you have yet discovered, Jenny. I know this is very daunting. It would be, even to any of the experienced agents among us, but you have the resources to do amazing things and the will to accomplish them." He wrapped his arms and wings around her in a gentle hug.
And then they had come to her house and found all well there.
That evening they had Lasagna out on the patio and then the guys headed over to Bob's place.
Jenny and her three Guards who were now also her friends, all got ready for bed and settled in after letting Tidbit out. Now that Jenny knew what he was really doing all of those nights, it made her smile. Tarafau would visit his family and then return. His nightly forays probably explained why he got a nap in on the window seat every day, she thought, amused.
Lizziebot was repowering. She was tied in to the extremely sensitive high tech security system and would wake immediately, if there was anything to worry about, so Jenny turned out the light and went to sleep, knowing that they had a lot of work ahead, but it would wait until morning while she slept in her little house on Infinity Loop.
A small gift to our readers:
Here is a taste of the next book in the Infinity series, "Infinity on Fire". We have included Chapter One as a bonus and thank you for joining us in this dimensional adventure.
Chapter 1: Tale of the Cat
Tidbit said good-bye to the butterflies in the garden. He knew it would probably be a long time before he saw them again. So soothing to watch them flitting from blossom to blossom, but autumn was coming, and they would soon migrate to climes even farther south. He wasn't sure he would return before then.
The aromas that wafted across the garden in a gentle breeze was a mixture of sweet and bitter and spicy. The herbs Lizzie had loved so much gave off the strong scents that told his sensitive cat nose they were at the height of their potency. The majority of them were perennials, going through season after season with no need to replant and the matured plants were ever so much more aromatic than when they were newly planted in spring.
He sauntered over to the koi pond, his tail swishing lazily behind him, and dabbled one clawed foot in the water to watch the koi evade him with little urgency. They knew Tidbit and were aware that he did not consider them a food source. His orb-like amber eyes watched the lazy, almost hypnotic undulations of the fish with no desire except to watch them weave their patterns in the water. Another delight that was denied him in his home dimension.
He could hear Jenny puttering in the little kitchen just inside the open French doors talking to Lizziebot. In not long, the weather would cool to the point that those doors would be closed for a season, but for now the air was warm and the sun showed off the black-on-black stripes of his fur to great advantage, and he knew it.
His natural form wasn't at all cat-like, of course. But while in this form, he found his thoughts were definitely affected by the natural attitudes and instincts of the animal shape he took while on Earth. After years of using this disguise, his wife often told him he was sometimes more cat than man.
He wandered through the open doors, through the dining room and into the bright living room that looked out on the front garden. He leaped up onto his favorite thinkin
g place, the window seat, and curled up, apparently to take a nap. But his nap-like posture was a ruse, perfected over the years. No one noticed a sleeping cat or would be wary of one. Thus, he could observe, through slitted eyes, the comings and goings of the humans of this place. Only few realized that Tidbit was anything more than a beautiful, big, black tabby cat and that was exactly as it should be.
Jenny came into the living room and seated herself in her cushy armchair, drawing her legs up and tucking them up under her. "Good morning, old cat. Did you have a good night?"
Tidbit sent from his mind to hers, "Yes. All is well on the home front, your neighbors are well, and Bob is on his way over."
He no sooner sent this than a knock came at the door. Bob, the neighbor across the street, had a key to Jenny's place, but he never used it when he knew Jenny was home. He was kind and very polite, for a human.
Jenny got up and let him in. "Hey, you two, ready to go?" Bob was of medium height and middle aged, salt and pepper hair and a short mustache. His seemingly infinite supply of energy was evident in his big grin, as he bounced slightly on the balls of his feet. He clapped his hands with a "smack!" "Tinkering to do and lots of dastardly alien tech to learn about."
Jenny laughed. Her blue eyes twinkled. It was obvious that Bob held the same charm for Jenny as he had for Lizzie. Tidbit remembered Bob and Lizzie spending hours laughing about seeming inconsequential goings on in the neighborhood over peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cold root beer out on the patio.
"I've got my gear together, including Lizziebot, and the girls will be out shortly. They're in the gateway office." Jenny was referring to her Alliance Guards, three very different women whose sole duty was to protect Jenny from harm. As The Gatekeeper, Jenny was responsible for the entire network of dimensional portals known as gateways that linked the untold numbers of known universes. No one, looking at her or talking with her, would suspect she held such an enormous responsibility at her age, and she certainly hadn't wanted the job.
It was often that way, with Guardians, those who guarded the dozen known gates on Earth from incursion, but Jenny had ended up with her current additional post unexpectedly. Tidbit admired her courage in persisting to take responsibility for something that would ordinarily be considered beyond someone of her age and experience. On her right forearm was the detailed outline of a butterfly, but this was no tattoo. The mostly healed butterfly had been sliced into her skin as torture for information by her former best friend, Sam, otherwise known as Engoza.
Tidbit stood and stretched. It was one of the things he loved about being a cat. No being could stretch in such a satisfactory way, starting from his front paws, digging his claws in for support and then languidly extending every single muscle in his body clear to the tip of his tail.
He hopped down and followed Jenny as she went through and secured doors and closed curtains in the living and dining rooms. She didn't need to grab a backpack or luggage, as all of that was contained in her MDP (Miniature Dimensional Portal), a plastic-like wristband that contained an entire warehouse of items and equipment, courtesy of the Dimensional Alliance Council.
Bob kept up a running commentary on the state of the neighborhood as she did so. Miss Longtree was off again on a lecture tour and an appearance on a national radio talk show. Elias Mensch, the neighborhood curmudgeon and his great dane, Cinder, were about the same, although Mr. Mensch seemed to be walking awkwardly lately, more than likely due to extreme old age. The kids down the block were doing a canned food drive for the food bank again and the city was thinking about putting a stop sign at the juncture of the center of the figure-eight road they lived on.
Bob had decided to transfer Ignatius, his macaw, to Sanglarka on the next trip in, since it was obvious, he wouldn't be spending a lot of time at home. And he had added two more AI robots to Fidget's family, in addition to Lizziebot. He was working on some appropriate names for them.
Jenny listened with only an occasional, "oh" or "really?" as Bob rambled on. She seemed a little pre-occupied, which wasn't really surprising, considering the events of the past few weeks. Not only had she been kidnapped a second and third time since starting her venture as The Gatekeeper, but she had seen Tidbit tortured and killed, not realizing he wasn't actually in his cat body at the time. And now she was heading out to lead the Alliance in stage two of the plan to eliminate violent, tyrannical, evil entities from dominating the entire multiverse. She definitely had enough to be going on with.
Lyra, Nona and Mynn opened the door to the gateway office. This door wasn't generally visible unless you had a key or an Agent pass, but it opened inward to reveal a tidy, somewhat quaint looking office with bookshelves, odd sculptures, an old walnut desk and a white wicker cat bed with a big fluffy red cushion. On the opposite wall was another door which led to the infinitely long hallway of uncountable doors, known as the gateroom. These doors led to dimensions that represented billions of additional universes which were a part of the Dimensional Alliance gateway network.
They closed the door to the house behind them. Tidbit knew that anyone wandering into that hallway now would only see a blank stretch of wall if they didn't have a key or a pass. They stepped into the gateroom and opened the door that led to the Swedish gate in Sanglarka.
As they stepped through, he felt the warm tingle of his transformation and resisted the urge to stretch again. Now, as Tarafau, he stood over six and a half feet tall, his skin almost as blue black as Tidbit's fur, bulging muscles like an athlete under his colorful robe. His eyes were the same glowing amber as his cat form, and his earlobes ended at a point that Jenny had once told him would be great for an earring. He rubbed a hand over his shiny bald head, wishing he had thought to wear a hat. Here in the mountain valley of Sanglarka in Sweden, unlike sunny California, the air was already taking on a chill.
Lova and Arvid were waiting at the gate, as they often did when they knew Jenny or other visitors were coming. Lova held out both hands to Jenny and then embraced her warmly. "Let's get you all inside," Lova sent in mindspeech. "We've got hot mulled cider and a plate of Arvid's special cookies waiting in the dining room."
The lodge was, as always, warm and inviting. In the dining room, several others were already gathered. "I think we're still waiting for Burt, Gariel and a few of your compatriots, Tarafau. The rest are here and ready for our initial briefing. I expect them any time now," Lova said as they seated themselves.
Arvid brought them a tray with steaming mugs, napkins and a plate of spicy sugar cookies that were his specialty. His white hair stuck out all over his head. Tarafau loved this little man like a brother. As small as he was, only coming up to slightly above Tarafau's waist, he was one of the toughest people he knew in hand to hand and other martial arts, including fighting with the quarterstaff. Over many years, Tarafau had yet to beat him.
Arvid was not an earthling, although he much resembled one of the gnomes of legend. He was the uncle of Ingot, Chief Councilor of the Dimensional Alliance, but he had been assigned as the Guide to Lova when she had inherited responsibility of the Swedish gate. He was also the head trainer of new Guardians and The Gatekeeper.
You would never know from his attitude that he was higher in rank than any of them. He took as much delight in cooking for the team of Gate Guardians and other guests in Sanglarka as he did in handing out bruises in the workout room or acting as a liaison between the Earth Guardians and the Alliance.
"How are you, old cat?" Arvid sent to Tarafau. "Recuperated and ready for some action?"
"You know me, dwarf," retorted Tarafau. "I'm always ready."
Arvid chortled as he checked around the table to be sure everyone's mugs were full, and no one was running out of cookies. "Jenny is looking a little pale. I'll be sure to get her into the workout room and work on her breathing with Lova and the girls."
The three body guards who were assigned to Jenny were often referred to as "the girls" and they didn't mind. You would never have guessed that any a
nd all of them were as deadly as any of the Dimension Alliance Troopers or any of the foes they had yet come across.
Lova came back into the dining room, Burt, Gariel and Tarafau's three cousins in tow. They all found places at the table as Arvid distributed mugs and cookies. Once Arvid was in his place, Lova stood, smiling warmly at the assembled team members. All of the Earth Guardians were there and all of the mental conversations that Tarafau knew had been going on around him came to a halt as all gave their respectful attention to the tall woman with pale, almost transparent, short cropped hair, dressed in archaic tracker's clothing of greens, tans and browns.
"Welcome one and all to our conference of the Dimensional Alliance on Earth. First of all, I want to say how grateful I am to see every face here. We came so close to losing more than one of you in the past few months.
We have much to discuss. Yes, we were victorious in stage one of our assault on the forces of the Groga who serve the Fleistians. I would like to assume that Earth is now free of future Groga incursions, but somehow, I think this may have only been a holding action. Although we discovered the key to how they were raiding dimensions from their base on earth, the threat of further incursions remains. And we still don't know the location of the Groga and Insenium dimensions.
In the final analysis, as Guardians, we are committed to not only guard our own dimension, but the Alliance as well. The Earth is still not safe until the Alliance is secured. We will find ourselves working closely with dimensions from all over the network until this threat is conquered.
This is why we're here. This is what we are up against. And although we have the might of the Alliance with us, what lies before us, all of us, is something so vast and sinister that there are no words that can adequately describe the consequences of failure."
The House on Infinity Loop Page 39