Titan Stand

by Max Jager

  "Umm, actually I just got back from there Rekton; in fact Aengus here is from earth as well." The Golian studied him for a moment then with a frown, said,

  " I wasn't aware your planet had fairy folk living there?" Matt then looked at Fergus,

  "Tell him the story Fergus."

  While the leprechaun gave Rekton the abridged version, the Golian nodded in approval. He then ordered what appeared to be a pint of what he called "Tiso," which like all table orders, arrived by a tiny drone-like craft. By now, Matt had become rather blasé about the strange technology all around him. Still, it sure beat some poor waitress trying to make her way through all these tables.

  When the bottle as well as what appeared to be a shot glass. Rekton poured himself a drink and swigged it down in one gulp. By now, Aengus was quite curious about the beverage which the Golian promptly poured a tiny bit into his cup. The leprechaun also swigged the offering down, then furrowed his brow.

  "Japers! If this isn't Jameson's then I'm an ape's arse!"

  Rekton grinned,

  "Liked that did we?"

  Shaking his head and grinning like a Cheshire cat, all the leprechaun could say was,

  "Bloody quare!"

  Chapter 57

  Titan Stand Chapter 57

  Aengus continued to rave about the liquor, so Fergus ordered two one for each of them.

  "I had no idea," exclaimed the leprechaun,

  "Sometimes I'll start me day off with a little nip, so you say it is identical to this "Jameson's?"

  "Aengus laughed,

  "I dearly wish I had me "little green man" with me I'd show you. It's Irish whisky, and if you're a true son of Ereland, it's the only whiskey. Kind sir, where is this…tiso distilled?" Rekton shrugged,

  "On Golia, and I believe Skye-Eda." Aengus held up his glass and announced,

  "Well here's a toast to a most excellent libation."

  After the leprechaun had settled down, Rekton turned his attention back to Matt.

  "So you say that you have just come from your home world?"

  "Yeah, replied Matt, "We went with Slavek Slykhor and his sister. We also took a couple representatives of Denedra Fergus, here being one of them, and king Valsung's daughter is still there. The Slykhor's wanted to see earth and had a ship, so we went." The Golian thought a moment then nodded in approval.

  "Would you be interested in returning?"

  "Yeah, but not right away," replied Matt, "We're getting ready to go to Golia, then on to Ruddoria to meet Slavek's father."

  "Isn't he their foreign minister?" commented Rekton,

  "Yeah," replied Matt, "His wife is the ambassador to Golia." Rekton took a sip of tiso, thought a moment then exclaimed.

  "Well here's the deal, I've got several, shall we say "investors" who are quite interested in visiting this planet earth, and quite frankly we could use a good guide. Now this position would be well compensated are you interested?"

  "Oh absolutely," replied Matt, "But right now, I've got several commitments to deal with. However once we're finished on Ruddoria, my schedule will be free."

  "You say you're going on to Golia?" said Rekton,

  "Yeah, right after we drop Aengus here and one other off on Denedra, why?"

  Rekton took out a small device much like a small iPhone. Holding it up for Matt to see, he said,

  "Copy this code into your comm device there, as soon as you get to Golia call me, we'll set up a meeting, you'll get to meet everyone, as well as answer their questions." Matt thought a moment then said,

  "This is all on the up and up, isn't it?"

  "Yes of course," replied Rekton, "Why wouldn't it?"

  "Well you told me you've been there before, and it sounds like your friends have a lot of money, where exactly would I fit in?" Rekton grinned,

  "I thought that was quite obvious, we need a guide. Yes I have been there before but what I didn't tell you was that I almost got killed, I was being shot at!"

  "Shot at?" Exclaimed Matt, "By whom?" Rekton shrugged,

  "Beats me, we returned fire then got right out of there. That's why your knowledge would certainly come in handy; you can show us the places not to land." Matt chuckled,

  "Well there way too many places where you will get a most unfriendly welcome. Honestly, and I hate to admit it, but overall earth is not a very friendly place. However, depending what your friends want to trade there, I might be able to steer you to the right places."

  "Most excellent," replied Rekton. "One more thing, what would you suggest we use in trade as payment?" Matt shrugged,

  "Gold, cut diamonds, platinum, that kind of thing. While we were there we traded several blue diamonds got a damn good price on them as well."

  "Well I'm unfamiliar with this "platinum" perhaps it's called something else around here, but gold and cut diamonds are certainly no problem."

  "Well unless you can counterfeit American dollars gold is probably your best bet." As he got up to leave Rekton said,

  "I certainly hope you can make the meeting, I think this venture might prove to be quite lucrative." No sooner had Rekton left, than Kaitlyn and the Slykhor's showed up. Slavek was in favor of locating a larger table but Matt said,

  "Take this one, we were just leaving we'll see you back at the ship."

  The hostel at Fort Kamata was full up as usual, so like a lot of others it meant sleeping out in the spacecraft. Matt and Kaitlyn sat together and quietly talked about what their future plans were looking like.

  "I promised Slavek we would go to his planet and meet his parents," said Matt.

  "I was with Tiag when she talked to her mom, seems pretty cool to me I want to change my hair to green and get it cut like Tiag's mom has it very cool looking."

  "Tired of red eh?" snickered Matt. Kaitlyn feigned a punch at him exclaiming,

  It's my damn hair! I'll do it anyway I want."

  "Calm down, calm down all right? I'm just teasing, you've had red hair of one shade or another as long as I can remember, but you do what you want OK? He then detailed Rekton's plan to travel to earth,

  "Well I'm hoping I can tag along with Amber and catch up on my flight training, you do what you want. By the way, what exactly does this Rekton guy want to do back on earth?" Matt shrugged,

  "Trade with people I guess, like I told you, I'll find out more in the meeting." Kaitlyn sat for a moment putting her head down, then looking at Matt.

  "You know Matt you're a pretty cool guy, especially the way you handled things when we were back on earth. I had you read all wrong ya know, and what you told Patricia about the reasons you asked me to go with you."

  "Well it's all true Kaitlyn," he replied,

  "I looked around, talked to people, and honestly out of all the girls I had ever spoken to, you were the only one I thought wouldn't freak out."

  Kaitlyn sighed,

  "Well…For better or worse this is my life now. Almost like a second chance really, and one I have no intention of blowing. You know Matt, there might come a time when we might go our own ways, you won't try and stop me or anything like that will you?" Matt smiled and shook his head.

  "Not in a million years Kaitlyn, if you can latch onto something good, go for it, I know I certainly intend to." With that, Kaitlyn came over to him and gently kissed him on the lips.

  "Thanks!"

  The next morning he and Slavek checked the arrival board and found that KA2086 or the Nora-Lee had landed a half hour ago, and was sitting on pad 8.

  Even though Amber and Gandric were androids, it was a tearful and warm reunion. Matt had started to forget what the Nora-Lee had looked like, but the gear he had left on board was still in his locker as well as Kaitlyn's AR.

  "I know you guys are busy," said Matt, but I want you to meet some friends of ours we're parked just down the way." As they walked towards the Ruddorian ship, Gandric told how the Purifier project was coming along.

  "We've already shuttled a small group of technical experts from Xandrus out to Ussen
Ommo, Drok is there right now getting proper housing set up as well as surveying the areas where the purifiers will go to work." Matt noticed Gandric seemed to be unusually pleased with himself.

  "The good news is that we've even got another partner in on the project. They live out in the Zan-Argo system, and heard about what we're trying to do on Ussen Ommo. The upshot is that they developed similar equipment a long time ago and are in preparation to ship some of it to Ussen Ommo."

  "So how's the construction on the purifiers coming?" Asked Kaitlyn.

  "Well there have been a couple small set-backs in regards to building them out in space, but the Loridian company sent a team of special techs to Xandrus to help get things straightened out. Right now the delay might be around twenty centons."

  "That's really good to hear," replied Matt, "There's the ship right over there."

  The meeting was pleasant and friendly, Amber and Gandric spoke at length of the project that was putting the androids of Xandrus back to work. At one point, Amber took Matt aside to confess.

  "I hope you will forgive me for sidetracking our original plan Matt, sometimes when I think about it I feel bad." He cut her off in mid sentence.

  "There's nothing to feel bad about Amber, in fact you should be happy about giving everyone on Xandrus hope. There will be plenty of time for our adventure to continue. You and Gandric keep working on your project, stay in touch, and we'll get back together again."

  "Thank you," she replied, "It's just that sometimes I worry."

  "Don't Amber, this is your's and Gandric's time, make the most of it."

  During the conversation, Kaitlyn asked Amber if she could join them once she and Matt had visited Ruddoria.

  "It's not like Matt and I don't get along, but if you don't mind I'd just like to hang with you and Gandric for awhile."

  Looking to Matt Amber asked,

  "We thought our travels might become boring and repetitive for you but if you have no objections we would welcome Kaitlyn along." Matt shrugged,

  "It's fine with me, we're not married. Both of us have agreed that we have different goals so if Kaitlyn wants to go with you guys fine with me."

  The time finally came for the androids to leave when Matt approached Gandric with an item he had almost forgotten about.

  "I think I showed these to you before Kaitlyn and I found them on a dead body when we were on Xandrus could you possibly investigate further as to what they are?" Handing Gandric the plastic card with strange writing on it, the device he thought might be a gun of some kind, and the coins the android promised to find out what they were all about.

  After Amber and Gandric had left, Slavek began to discuss their next move.

  "Well I suppose we should drop our guests off on Denedra don't you think?"

  A very "antsy" Fergus and Aengus couldn't agree more, and poor Zinnia really didn't know what to think. In many ways she was just as baffled by her new surroundings and experiences as any earthman. Now the journey was almost over and like the leprechaun's that was all she could think of.

  Before leaving Slavek checked with the Loridian office for any dispatches as well as anything else of importance going to Denedra. He was told that the Selantrian contractors had taken anything destined for the planet two centons ago.

  With nothing left to do but leave, Tiag set course for Denedra but her mind was on home, and the journey that would take them there.

  The trip took roughly two days or cycles as there are no days in space. The new shuttle was sitting off to one side in the large stone courtyard designated as Denedra's landing field. It was like a large semi-flattened "M&M" with a small glassed in front. Slavek made a remark about it with Matt telling him it was made on Xandrus with its counterpart no doubt on Doradus. Stepping off the ship Matt announced,

  "Rides over, end of the line." Fergus appeared to be overjoyed at making it back home in one piece, jumping up and down, causing two centaurs to trot over.

  "Fergy! Is that you?" Exclaimed one.

  "Euto is that you?" replied the leprechaun.

  "Yeah, why are you acting the idiot, you woke us up." The other centaur was Euby who Matt vaguely recognized.

  "How many are you?" He asked, "They only sent the two of us to take you into town, now how's this gonna work?" Matt went up to the half-man half-horse dressed in a tan frock coat white shirt and cravat.

  "So what's the deal? He asked.

  "Well it looks like somebody's gonna have to walk, whose it gonna be?"

  Matt shrugged indifference,

  "Slavek, you and your sister ride, Fergus, you and Aengus can ride as well you too Zinnia." This only brought on a raucous debate as the leprechaun's had no intention of hanging on the back of a centaur, Zinnia wasn't so sure either. In the end, Euto rode off to see about a wagon or carriage. While they waited Euby filled Fergus in on the news of Denedra. Kaitlyn and Zinnia soon joined in on the conversation as most of the goings-on involved the fairy folk involving some she knew.

  Meanwhile, both Aengus and Zinnia were getting their first look at the home of the Tuath De.´

  "You have no humans here?" He asked Fergus.

  "Other than Matt and Kaitlyn, none, Denedra, and Doradus, which you will be able to see when the sun goes down, are entirely populated with the Tuatha De´Danann."

  "Well I can certainly see the vegetation around here is vastly different, and this stout fellow impersonating a horse certainly indicates I'm not in Kansas anymore."

  "Are you making fun of me little man?" growled Euby.

  "Absolutely not my good man," replied Aengus, I find it very interesting that there are no centaur's back on earth, but ancient mythology mentions them on numerous occasions."

  "Perhaps some went to earth with your people," said Fergus. Shaking his head, Aengus replied.

  "Ancient Greek and Roman mythology predates the time of arrival of the Tuath De.´ Perhaps some of these ancient tomes you told me of contain a clue of some sort."

  Finally Euto returned with another centaur pulling a small four seat wagon. Matt noticed that compared to wagons he'd seen in the local museum and in movies it seemed rather small but he also noted that it had steel wheels with what looked like thin rubber tires. Looking it over, he asked Euto why the wagon was so small.

  "Cause we have to pull it, now are you going to get on or what?" After everybody was seated and the luggage secured Euto and the other centaur who was introduced as Zyndon started off. As they were rolling along it suddenly occurred to him that these centaurs probably designed the wagon themselves, no way were these guys going to pull some big freight wagon. The more he thought about it the more curious he became about the matter making it a point to study any other wagons and carts he saw.

  Along the way both Aengus and Zinnia kept remarking on everything they saw around them a new world but yet it wasn't. At one point Aengus remarked,

  "Bucko the lushness of everything certainly reminds me of home but it's a crying shame Ereland never became this."

  Chapter 58

  Titan Stand Chapter 58

  Once again everybody was escorted to the guest cottages, Matt and Slavek sharing one while Kaitlyn and Tiag were housed in the one next to them. Aengus and Zinnia were taken directly to the palace, while Fergus just disappeared. Everyone pretty much knew what to expect, it was just a matter of waiting for the maids and butlers to show up with their evening wear. Not long after he and Slavek had washed up a loud knock came at the door. Opening it Matt saw a stern faced dwarf glaring at him.

  "My name is Lungdil Karaxe the foreign minister of Doradus, mind if I come in?"

  "No not at all sir," said Matt, I've got a letter here from Bria for her parents." This admission caught the dwarf off guard but he quickly recovered.

  "It's come to my attention that the king's daughter did not accompany you back from this earth planet?"

  "No," he replied. "This letter will explain everything, but Bria has apparently found true love back on earth. Don't worry, she i
sn't planning on staying there, but she and Tansy had a chance to study some of the old books they have and couldn't pass up the opportunity." Obviously the foreign minister didn't like hearing this and continued to probe.

  "You say she's fallen for someone what is his name?"

  "Caedmon of Gayn," replied Matt, "Seems like a nice guy, and I gathered he's involved with their ruling body or whatever you want to call it. Go talk to Aengus if you want to know more."