by Max Jager
"Well thank you for coming, hopefully we can get some more in the future."
"I'm sure you will hear about it when you get back to Ruddoria, but we took Bria and her husband back to earth. He parents absolutely refused to recognize their marriage. We picked them up at Fort Kamata. Zeb Kifire told me the king thinks raiders kidnapped them so maybe he's working up to something. Anyway both are safely back on earth. Bria sent a letter back to her folks and I gave it to Kifire to give to them but regardless of what you hear, Bria and Caedmon are fine."
"Thanks for the information," she replied, "I haven't written her in awhile so perhaps when you go back I'll have letter for you to give her. I see from the looks of all the stuff here in the cargo hold you brought quite a few supplies back."
"We certainly did, and it's going to take awhile to unload," replied Matt.
"Well let me see if I can round up Franklin and Jezang to help." Then looking at the Dyson's, she added,
"Mr. and Mrs. Dyson would you come with me and we'll see about you folks setting up in Doctor O'Donnell's old house."
"Do you think Franklin will object?" Asked Matt. Kaitlyn chuckled,
"Franklin and I have been getting along quite nicely since you've been gone. He'll just be glad to have something to do again."
After they had left Matt looked at all the piled up supplies and sighed.
"Well everyone welcome to Z'ha'dum. We probably should get the Gator out first so we can use it to haul everything up to a shed I've been thinking about using to store everything in." Along with everything else, they had a couple pop up shelters which Gabe suggested might be a good idea to put everything under for starters. With Amber, Walter and Matt moving everything to the top of the ramp, and Liam, Gabe and Gandric moving everything to the shelters they had a good system set up until Liam came running up the ramp with deep concern in his voice.
"Hey Matt you'd better get down here, there's a guy who looks like Yondu down here. He just appeared out of nowhere."
Matt, along with Amber and Walter casually descended the ramp where Liam, Gabe and Gandric standing by watching the Neistrian. Matt asked him,
"Can I help you?" The Neistrian continued to look around. Liam was right, the guy did look a lot like Yondu from Guardian's of the Galaxy only his skin tone was more of a grey/blue.
"My name is Clath Rissak, The human female said I was welcome to stay, you must be Matt Grainger."
"I am," he replied,
"And this is…"
"I know who they are," came the curt reply Matt looked at Amber who was looking very serious.
"You also want to know what I'm doing here and why I didn't leave with my friends?"
"He's obviously telepathic," thought Matt, "Well, yeah, we were over on the island and saw the sign they left saying something about finding the way back home."
"Yes, I saw that as well," replied Clath, "What were you doing over there?"
"Just looking around a little, actually the place gave me the creeps."
"You would do well to stay away from there young human there are things over there that can kill you."
"Are you telling us that place is trapped," injected Amber. Clath studied her for a moment then replied.
"'Droids, never had much use for your type. Nothing against you personally, but there it is. As I was saying, bust just stay away from Mindia…Too dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. SO! The last time I was here, you human's were working the mine now it appears that's not the case anymore. Oh well, it doesn't really matter to me. I'm just tired…Tired of all the "kloppa" I've had to deal with, tired of all the fighting and running. I'm the last one you know."
"So there were others?" Asked Amber. Clath had now seated himself on a crate.
"When we left, oh radd, I guess it's been…What? Eight, nine drings ago there were five of us. Joblarl sent us out on an exploratory mission. Bad luck right from the start. Everyone we tried to deal with either attacked us or tried to cheat us, a race of degenerates calling themselves the Sibranthi was the worst." Clath gave a little chuckle, as Matt heard a gasp from Amber and Gandric shifted nervously.
Clath noted their uneasiness, responding,
"Touched a "nerve," did we?"
"We come from Xandrus," said Gandric, "No one even mentions their name anymore."
"Well I can see why," replied Clath. "Well we gave them something to remember us by anyway. Then we had bad dealings with the Vel'Takz and their lackey's the Diyari. Finally we left this system altogether but looking back I think we would have been smart to stay. Clath gave out with a sigh.
I lost all my friends, I'm the only one left alive and only by the grace of Shisur."
Clath fell silent as if he were reflecting on something, then added.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe, unimaginable cruelty, unexplainable kindness, technology beyond belief. I've watched C-Beams glitter off the Kritorian Gate, black holes beyond description, all those moments lost in time. However I did find my lovely wife Ircisa so there's that." About this time Kaitlyn along with Mr. and Mrs. Dyson returned with the couple somewhat stunned by the Neistrian sitting on a box casually chatting with the others.
"Ahh Kaitlyn, and Mr. and Mrs. Dyson although you weren't here when I showed up earlier I know who you are."
"Clath has been telling us about his adventures," said Matt. "Apparently he's the last man standing in a team of five that went out exploring and got more than they bargained for."
"Well it wasn't as if we weren't prepared for the risks," replied Clath, 'We knew what the risks were."
"You spoke about running into other races," asked Amber, "Anything we need to worry about? Clath thought a moment then shrugged.
"There is a system…I believe it's around three or four thousand light years from here called "Dreedic-Praxie," Right now, there's a rather nasty war taking place out there with the planets Glice-Elgee and Indoc-Dror being the two main adversaries, although pretty much the rest of that solar system has been drawn into it. Assuming someone doesn't blow the whole damn system up, I don't think they will be in any condition to do any adventuring elsewhere."
"It might not be a bad idea to inform the foreign minister about that," said Amber to Kaitlyn.
"I agree," she replied. Clath then looked around,
"Hey I didn't mean to keep you from your work, here, let me help you." He then jumped right in helping to move supplies off the Nora-Lee. When the way was clear to bring down the XUV590i. Clath took an immediate interest in this vehicle sitting in it and closely looking it over. Finally, everything was unloaded, and secured with Matt noticing Clath looking pleased with himself. He then went over to the Neistrian and talk privately.
"So is there anything special you want to do in your "retirement?" Clath gave him a puzzled look.
"Who said anything about retiring, I'm just tired, once I kick back and relax for awhile and spend some time with my wife I'll be raring to go again. Liam then drifted over to see what Clath and Matt were talking about as Matt asked,
"So what type of ship do you have?" Clath shrugged and pointed over to a grove of trees with purplish colored leaves.
"C'mon, I'll show you." As they walked, Matt asked,
"Does it bother you that we humans have taken over this planet?" Clath stopped and looked down at him.
""No why should it? Place means nothing to me, we settled here mined metals to sell so we could develop the means to get home. Now it appears that effort was successful, project completed. I was born on this planet it's the only home I've ever known so you see traveling to our original home would mean nothing to me…Ship's right over here." As they approached Matt saw a craft that reminded him of a large insect. The large C-shaped winglet formed a deck-like feature with the open part towards the front. On the upper and lower parts of the "C" were three gun barrels protruding from the leading edge The body of the ship had a curved armor face-plate with a sectioned window in the center, and underneath were two wicked
looking cannon barrels. The main body resembled a large wasp with another smaller winglet mounted above it in the rear. He could see side thrusters as well as two engine nacelles in the rear. Like the Nora-Lee, there was a ramp between the landing struts.
"That's not my original ship," said Clath as they stood looking at the craft. Suddenly Matt felt the presence of someone standing behind him. Whirling around he confronted a tall woman with light grey skin cat-like yellow eyes, and small pointed ears. However, the thing that really caught his eye was the jagged black markings coming down from the top of her head ending in her long bluish colored hair. They looked almost like black lightening bolts crossing her eye sockets and ending at her jaw line. Another was like an arrow point once again coming down from the top of her head and ending in a point on the bridge of her nose. She wore gray/green cargo pants along with a black tank-top that really showed off her cleavage, something he forced himself not to stare at.
This is my wife Ircisa, Ircisa, this is Matt Grainger, and Liam Trent, the others are back over there."
"I saw them unloading the ship," she replied. Clath then snickered,
"I don't know who saved whom. Ircisa is my "Left hand," she has, uh, many talents, a dead shot and master of the blade being just two of her lesser talents," chuckled Clath. Looking at her, Matt tried hard not to think of what the others were.
"You were saying that this wasn't your ship," asked Liam.
"We captured it from the "Murocki," pirates some time ago. It came at the cost of two of my friends but I got even," said Clath in a matter-of-fact tone. "This was before I rescued Ircisa and I destroyed close to eight of their fighters in the process. See those cannons under the face plate?" Both Matt and Liam nodded.
Those are P'tev-A mass drivers, they can punch through the hull of any known ship regardless of any shields that ship might have. On the winglet are six nanoton cannons which are basically supercharged plasma cannons. In the rear is one plasma "stinger" concealed by the engines so it can't be detected. It's called a jump fighter because I can jump into hyperspace practically immediately."
"When we made our departure from Dreedic-Praxie," continued Clath, we staged it in such a way as to convince any enemies we had blown up so there is no chance of anyone following us here, and yes, we thoroughly "covered" our tracks so no one cans "sniff" out our "trail."
"Well I'm certainly no expert on spacecraft," replied Matt, "But you might want to be real careful where you go with that ship I know of no other near as powerful. If you're not careful, you're going to have a whole new bunch of enemies after that ship." Clath and Ircisa just smiled,
"not to worry my young friend, we've got it covered."
Then he thought for a moment then said.
"Something for you two to consider and I don't need an answer any time soon. I also want you guys to get to know us, you're welcome anytime up at New Town after all you're now citizens of Z'ha'dum which by the way might be undergoing a name change. Anyway roll it over in your minds decide if we merit your trust and consideration. The point I'm trying…"
"You want us to act as your security?" Matt blushed,
"Damn this guy could really read his mind,"
"Well we'll consider it," said Clath. Well if you don't mind, it's my meal time."
"We'll see you tomorrow then," replied Matt, "Later!"
As they walked back to New Town Liam said,
"I think I'm living a movie, Damn Matt I really kick myself for not coming with you earlier, this is so beyond "cool," I don't know what else to say."
Matt looked at him for a moment as they walked,
"Well for what it's worth Liam, there were times you wouldn't want to have been with me."
Chapter 106
Titan Stand Chapter 106
Kaitlyn would only wait two days until she had to get back to Ruddoria.
"I don't know where Roy and his friends went," she complained, "But I've got to leave." Do you think something's happened to them?" Asked Matt.
"No, because if it had somebody would have shown up by now. "Look, Ruddoria is much closer that running clear back to Denedra. When Roy shows up, tell him that I couldn't wait any longer. He'll just have to wait until Amber gets back, plus the ship won't be so crowded. Once I'm back, I'll contact the Loridian rep and let him know what's going on here, so hopefully a survey ship will show up. Say, are you going to be all right with that Neistrian guy?"
"Yeah, sure," replied Matt, "Clath's all right, I'll be fine, you take care we'll see you later." Jezang was also returning for business reasons but thought she could get things taken care of by the time Amber returned.
Kaitlyn was the last one aboard. Stopping to offer a final good-bye she gave Matt a big hug,
"We're going to do this Matt, we're gonna make it happen." With that she walked up the ramp. As everyone watched the Nora-Lee disappear into the heavens Matt looked at everyone announcing,
"Well everyone here's where it starts. I guess the first order of business is to finish getting these buildings fixed up then start getting something planted."
Towards late afternoon Tucker showed up.
"So where's everyone else?" Asked Matt.
"Oh they'll be along," replied the android. They have found a place where Roy and Hinald agree would make the perfect place to start a settlement, so they stopped to mark it out. All are very thrilled about the hunting north of here so I'm sure they will have stories to tell."
They showed up the next morning and not as upset about missing their ride back to Denedra as Matt thought they would be.
"Matt I know you said something about living here permanently but until we saw this place Hinald and I weren't sure. We came across a beautiful valley about four centons north of here. It sits up against some foothills with a beautiful stream that feeds out of the mountains into a clear blue lake. The hunting is incredible. Both Hinald and I want to get Kiggham to come and have a look first."
"Do you think there is a possibility that he might decide to leave the Witchfire's?"
"Kiggham?" Replied Hinald, "No, never, he'll die there, but there is a sizeable segment of our people who very well might. We're starting to get quite a few "outlanders" drifting in and the population increase is starting to affect the hunting."
"Are you saying that Queen Breca is forcing people into the mountains because of her policies?" Asked Matt.
"Not so much that," said Roy "Truth be told, it's a lot of folks who go hiking up there, like it then come to Kiggham asking if they can stay. Well "Kigg," is one of these people who can never say No," so they end up sticking around. Believe it or not Matt, we get centaurs showing up as well."
"I thought you hated them?" Asked Matt Both Roy and Hinald laughed.
"Well that's the "official" line, but some of the youngsters seem to like it up there. They make themselves useful, don't get in our way, and offer themselves as mounts if we are traveling any distance. Plus for some strange reason they just like hanging around all of us "rogue" elves. Just out of curiosity, Matt, if we were to establish a community up in those hills would you object to any Centaurs that might be interested in coming?"
"No not especially. If that place you're talking about is as far away as you say it is they might come in real handy."
"That's what we were thinking. Boy I'd sure like to show the place to you but since your ship isn't back yet…"
"Well Clath has a ship but it's basically a fighter and there's only room for three or four."
"So you're letting him stick around?" replied Roy.
"What? Don't you like him? Exclaimed Matt. Roy shrugged,
"Oh he's all right, I talked to him for a little bit. You forget, other than elves, centaurs, and a few fairies. Oh and those Uwan's that kidnapped me, I really haven't had much exposure to other races, especially guys that are all blue."
"Well I'll ask him," replied Matt. "If he says "yes," then we'll fly up there okay?"
"Yeah sure."
"Id be happy to f
ly you up there," said Clath, You haven't been in my ship yet and I always like to show it off." Matt was quite impressed with Clath's ship. He also noticed that all the controls and instrument lay-out was quite different than that of ships in this solar system. He also found that all the signs and other lettering were in a language he couldn't understand. Roy was awed as well, Hinald had no opinion one way or another, he just didn't like flying. Since there wasn't room Liam and Gabe couldn't go but they realized this wasn't anything to do with them. A trip that took four days by foot took slightly lass than two hours by air and also because Clath took a circuitous route.