A Warrior's Return (21 page)

He looked away from Eva to the burning
Saratoga. What was he going to do now?

His father’s hand came to rest on his
shoulder and he glanced to the side at him and saw understanding
reflected back at him in the depths of his father’s eyes.

“Don’t despair. It’s times like these that
God’s glory and provision are manifested like never before, only
believe and keep doing what you know to do.”

Talaric nodded, but his jaw tensed with the
emotion that he was keeping bottled up inside.

“Sparky what can be done? Can we salvage
anything?”

Sparky pulled his glasses off to clean them,
as he shook his head no. Putting his glasses back on he turned to
look at the abandoned chopper that showed signs of gunfire on
it.

“Maybe with this one.”

He started rolling up his sleeves, as he
approached the shot up chopper.

Titus finally had to look away from the sad
scene of Eva crumpled over on her knees in the sand. He walked out
into the desert a little needing some space. Folding his big hands
with his back to the others he looked out over the desert not
really seeing it.

“Oh dear Lord, this old life just ain’t fair
sometimes. If you could please help Miss Eva. She needs you now oh
Lord. Poor girls broken. I hope Miss Eleanor be with you now Lord.
She sure was a good one!”

He stopped not really knowing what was left
to say. He started to turn back to the others, when something
ruffled in a sudden breeze, which was unusual for the middle of the
day. It was a book.

“What you trying to tell me good Lord?”

Walking to the book he picked it up. Sand
spilled out of it. It was one of Eleanor’s books, ‘Jules Vern’s
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.

Opening the cover he found that a crude
hollow had been made by cutting out the center of the pages. The
hollow had been filled with wet sand. His brow furrowed deeply in
concentrated thought.

He turned to bellow at Sparky, “Get over
here little man!”

Sparky soon arrived accompanied by most of
the others.

Titus handed him the book, “Miss Eleanor
never treat a book like that excepting she had a reason to!”

Sparky looked at the book curiously, “Twenty
Thousand Leagues under the Sea?”

He picked up some of the wet sand, “Wet
sand? Everyone spread out and look for anything unusual, especially
more books!” Sparky said excitedly.

Everyone spread out and soon three more
books were found. They were all classical tales of Pirates and
treasure; all three were filled with dry sand.

“What does it mean?” Sparky muttered out
aloud.

“Well even I knows what it means!” Titus
said matter-of-factly.

Sparky looked over the brim of his glasses
at the big man, “Well then, would you mind enlightening the rest of
us!” He said testily.

“Well Sir, the way I sees it, is the first
book plays off the book title, only instead of water something is
buried under the sand, which is in place of the water.”

“We got that!” Interjected Sparky
heatedly.

Titus held up a hand forestalling him from
continuing, “Hear me out little man, all in good time. These other
three books are pirate books about treasurer and the such. Their
filled with dry sand and we haven’t found any more than just those
three. These books is a map for something. There’s treasure buried
under the sand and as everybody knows ……”

Sparky cut in excitedly, “X marks the spot!
Each of you men go to where the four books were found!” Sparky
said.

As individuals found their positions Sparky
aligned himself up between the four men.

“Search this area around me!” He said
indicating the space around him.

Moments later Ellanara called out, “Over
here!

As one everyone rushed over to her. She
indicated a black hose laying on the surface that disappeared down
into the sand.

Titus started to reach for it, but both
Ellanara and Sparky screamed, “No!”

They both sank to their knees and started
scooping sand away as fast as they could and out behind them.
Talaric joined in and within moments their fingers struck a wooden
crate that the hose disappeared into. Lifting the crate revealed a
scared looking Rafael.

“Rafael!” I screamed pulling him up into my
arms.

“Oh God! Thank you God!” I said, as I pulled
back to look him over to make sure that he was okay.

“Are you okay Rafael?” I asked worriedly, as
I rejoiced at the feel of him in my arms.

Shocked at the sight of the burning plane
behind me he continued to stare at the flames, but he nodded
yes.

“Where’s Eleanor, Rafael?” I asked.

He looked around for her and then back to me
his little face having an awful expression of fear on it, “I don’t
know! We were playing a game. I thought she’d forgotten about
me!”

I hugged him close again, “No she didn’t
forget about you Rafael! She saved you! God bless her, she saved
you!”

Sparky pulled a case up out of the sand that
lay next to the old crate. Opening it he pulled out his personal
laptop.

Initializing it his screen popped up that
showed an ever changing topography map that had a green flashing
icon moving on it.

“She’s still alive Talaric! She must’ve
tagged herself with a tracking chip. They’re taking her north. It
looks like somewhere in central Europe.” Sparky said softly.

Talaric looked at the green dot for a
moment, “We’re going after her!” He said in a tone that indicated
that he would tolerate no other consensus of opinion.

“Yes, yes we are, as well as after what they
took.”

Sparky looked at the burning Saratoga and
then back to the green blinking dot, “This has all been my fault!”
He finished.

Talaric spoke up, “You couldn’t have known
this was going to happen Sparky!”

But Sparky shook his head solemnly, “The
crystals, in my study of them I detected and energy frequency
signal emanating from them. They must have tracked the signal to
the Saratoga. Not only do they now have the crystals, but the
crystals themselves I believe to be the essential components of the
bar-Seth’s main drive. It’s possible that the signal I noticed
could be backtracked to the bar-Seth itself, which could be the
source of the signal! We have to go! I only wish I’d realized the
significance of the signal earlier and shielded it somehow!”

Ellanara reached out and touched Sparky’s
arm, as he continued to stare dejectedly at the computer
screen.

“I need your help with this flying
contraption. Once we are up and running we can go about fixing the
situation. Will you help me, please?”

“Yes, we must fix it, we must!”

They both headed off towards the chopper. I
carried Rafael toward the shade offered by a nearby sand dune not
letting go of him for even a moment.

It had grown dark and Sparky and Ellanara
were still working on the chopper. Talaric stared at where Eva
still held a sleeping Rafael in her arms.

He felt his mother’s presence and turned to
her. She was as beautiful as ever and as perceptive too. She took
his hands holding them for a moment.

“Got yourself a girl and a family didn’t
we.” She said softly studying him.

He looked away towards Eva, “I thought I
had.”

“And you still do!” His mother said firmly
shaking his hands a little to get his attention back to her.
Talaric spoke his thoughts.

“I get the feeling that she doesn’t like me
right now. I can see why she would feel like that, but I had no
other choice.”

Krista was silent for a moment and then
spoke her tone, softly assuring in its confidence.

“Talaric relationships are complex to say
the least. It’s very much possible to be angry even perhaps hate in
a way, someone you love and are committed to in a relationship. No
matter how loving or cherishing a relationship between any one man
or woman may be there are bound to be circumstances that seek to
draw them apart. Your father and I haven’t always gotten along
smoothly with each other. We’ve had our share of fights, cold
silences, and personal dislikes of each other in amidst the joys of
our marriage. What sets a good relationship apart from one that’s
not is the underlying love that has to be there in order for a
relationship to not only survive adversity, but to also thrive in
the midst of it. That deep shared love is what will help both of
you work past your differences. To forgive or ask forgiveness, if
need be and even to change as a person. Communication is key to
working through the harder times together; however it usually has
to be started by one of you before it becomes a team activity.”

“That sounds hard.” Talaric intoned
softly.

“It can be very hard, but the question you
have to ask yourself is, is she worth it? Is your relationship
worth enough to risk being hurt further?”

Krista pressed gently on her son’s back and
he did the rest by stepping out toward where Eva sat with Rafael in
her arms.

I looked up to see Talaric walking towards
me in the gloom of the evening. He came to a stop directly in front
of me and I looked upward.

“I’m sorry that my actions of holding you
back caused you to suffer in the anxiousness you had to reach your
son, but I’d do it all over again, because you could have been
killed if I’d let you go down there along with the rest of us.”

“I know. Thank you. I was mad at you, but
I’ll get over it.” I finished softly looking back down at Rafael
still sleeping in my arms.

My arms hurt from holding him, but I wasn’t
ready to let him go yet. I had been lonely ever since he had fallen
asleep tormented by my thoughts and actions.

“Would you care to sit down for a while?” I
asked almost too softly to be heard.

Quick as a cat he was sitting beside me in
the sand and I knew relief inside.

“Could I hold him for a while?”

Surprised at his offer I let go of Rafael,
as Talaric basically pulled him from me over onto his lap. Somewhat
relieved feeling I couldn’t hold back the tiredness from the days
actions or the heavy emotions of it and I leaned against Talaric’s
side and let my head fall over against his big shoulder. The
fingers of one of his hands found and intertwined with mine.

“I love him too.” Talaric said softly.

“I know you do.”

There was something I had been going to tell
him.

“I want to come with you to help rescue
Eleanor.”

I could feel that he wanted to say no to me,
but instead I heard him mutter, “Okay.”, but it came very
grudgingly out of him. I closed my eyes glad to have my warrior
back by my side.

Sparky pushed his glasses back up from where
they had slipped down onto his nose, “Well it is good to see that
at least something has been fixed this night.”

Ellanara followed his gaze to where Talaric
and Eva were sitting together. She was happy for her big brother.
He had never had much time for her back on their world, but he had
changed while here on Earth.

She was looking forward to interacting with
this new side of her brother. He was more like father now and that
was a very good thing in her book. She directed her attention back
to the scattered pieces of what remained of the navigational
equipment.

They had cannibalized it and most of the
backup safety systems to provide what they needed to fix the
damaged chopper. Sparky observed as she made the last few minor
adjustments to the jury rigged patch job.

“You never really needed my help did you my
dear? You were just graciously trying to give me a purpose to
distract me from my grave error of judgment.”

Ellanara shrugged slightly, “You’ve been a
lot of help Sparky, but yes I did manipulate the situation a
little.”

She worked quietly for a moment, “We all
make mistakes Sparky. You and I are a lot alike in that we don’t
usually make mistakes in the realm of our interest, which is our
work. So when we do mess up, which is inevitable at some point, we
feel like the world is lost and everything has been a pointless
waste of time. It’s an emotional response that’s aggravated by how
much we hate to be wrong about anything much less at fault for
anything. We’re slightly immature in this area of our natures
Sparky. Unlike my father or even Talaric, who when faced with this
type of situation choose to doggedly press on, we on the other hand
choose to dwell in our mistake and flounder about in self pity,
with the repercussions of wasting our thought and imagination in
the process.”

She glanced up to see if Sparky was being
made angry by her words, but he wasn’t. He was smiling and nodding
his head along with her words.

“Yes, yes, I’ve had this lesson before, but
never from one so young and astute as you.”

Ellanara smiled, “I have a good teacher.
She’s showed me my weaknesses and how best to deal with them, but
it still isn’t easy.” Ellanara finished with an emphatic shake of
her head.

Sparky studied her curiously, “Just what is
it you do on your world my dear?”

She stopped working and looked up, “I
suppose you could say that I’m preparing in advance for the
surprises and circumstances of the future.” She smiled
mysteriously.

He would have asked more, but she cut him
off, “How about we try this thing out?”

I was jarred awake by the firing of the
engines coming to life. It was all quick paced then. We packed into
the helicopter with barely enough room to spare. Titus with his
great bulk squeezed into the copilot’s chair, while Sparky kneeled
between him and Ellanara, who was going to fly the chopper.

Three of Roric’s men sat across from me,
with Katie stretched out across their laps. She looked very happy
with her seating arrangement and I had to shake my head at her
obvious satisfaction. I sat on top of Talaric’s lap while Roric’s
fourth man sat beside us holding Rafael. Krista sat on top of Roric
on the other side; it was tight, but manageable.