Gareth and th Lost Island (33 page)

“What’s with the fog?” Izzy asked, after she grabbed
Teesh’s collar to keep her from running towards the front door.

“That is a level 6, personal domicile null-entropy
field. Runes carved into the stone foundation register the presence
of the owners. If they are gone for more than a month, the house
seals itself up until they return,” DAR-C explained. “If Gareth is
who we think he is, the field should collapse when he touches his
hand to the door,” she stated.

Gareth let go of Izzy’s hand, and cautiously
approached the front door. He slowly reached out his right hand,
and touched the front door. Like a pebble being dropped in a pond,
ripples spread out from his hand to encompass the entire house,
causing the gray fog to fade away into nothingness. Gareth slid his
hand down the door, and turned the handle. The door opened easily,
and he held it open for his friends. He kept the door open for the
Automatons, but they waited on the walkway that led to the front
door.

“Thank you, Gareth, but we have an errand to take
care of. It shouldn’t take too long, and we’ll just let ourselves
in when we are finished,” RENE 7 stated.

“Alright, I’ll see you in bit then,” Gareth said. He
steeled himself for whatever he might find, and stepped across the
threshold.

Inside the home, the walls had wood paneling on the
bottom half, with red and white striped wallpaper on the top half.
A simple wooden table stood near the door with a strange looking
contraption that Gareth assumed was a place to put one’s hat and
coat. Izzy stood just inside the entryway waiting for him.

Izzy held Gareth’s hand for an hour as he walked
from room to room, trying to memorize every detail. “So how does it
feel to be back here?” she finally asked when they reached a room
on the second floor that was obviously a nursery.

Gareth shrugged his shoulders. “Strange. I keep
thinking that I should feel some sort of attachment to the place,
but I don’t. Nothing seems familiar,” he replied.

“Gareth! Come back to the study, I found something!”
Tralnis yelled from down the hall. Gareth and Izzy joined Tralnis,
Henry, and Teesh in the study. The Dwarf was holding a large book,
which he put down on a coffee table. With a smile, Tralnis opened
the book, and flipped to a certain page. “I recognize the scamp in
this picture,” he said happily.

Gareth leaned forward, and smiled despite himself.
The book was full of pictures of what he assumed where his family
members. The picture Tralnis pointed out showed Gareth around three
years old being held in his mother’s arms, while his father looked
on fondly.

Teesh pointed to the toddler’s hair in the picture.
“Wow! Nice hair, Gareth. It looks liked you licked a charged
Aetherium tube,” she teased him. Gareth read the note below the
picture, and broke out laughing. “What?!” Teesh demanded.

“Well, according to the caption here, that’s exactly
what happened. I got into some of my father’s equipment, and
decided I wanted to see what a charged Aetherium tube tasted like.
They said my hair didn’t go back to normal for a week,” he
chuckled.

Tralnis folded his arms, and looked up at Gareth.
“Licking charged Aetherium tubes, huh? You know that explains a
lot,” he teased. Henry nodded in playful agreement.

Izzy playfully hit Tralnis in the arm. “Prat,” she
muttered.

A metallic rapping on the door frame drew everyone’s
attention. DAR-C 254 was floating in the hallway. She was holding a
pair of shiny, brown, knee high boots in one hand and a garment bag
in the other. She had used her third hand to knock and announce
herself. RENE 7 was standing a few feet behind her. “Gareth, RENE 7
and I thought that since you will be the Captain for the new ship,
you should dress appropriately. We had the fabrication units whip
up a dress uniform in the style of the Royal Mascalian Air Navy,”
she told him.

“You mean Central was being serious about me being
the Captain?” Gareth asked, slightly confused by the idea.

RENE 7 nodded her brushed brass head. “I don’t fully
understand it either, but Central said the ship will only bring
itself online if it has a Mascalian Captain. It was a failsafe
device in case we lost the Wizards Wars, which I suppose we did,”
she explained.

“Elizabeth is not going to like this one bit,”
Gareth muttered, fearing slightly for his future safety.

“We’ll deal with Lizard Breath later… as a team,”
Izzy promised. She kissed him on the cheek, and then moved her
mouth to his ear. “Shoo, go put the clothes on. I’ve always had a
thing for guys in uniform,” she whispered, as she gently shoved him
towards the bedroom they had just left. DAR-C 254 floated behind
him, eager to show off their handiwork. Izzy started to follow
them, but RENE 7 stepped in her way, and wagged her finger at Izzy.
“Can’t blame a girl for wanting to get a peek,” Izzy muttered as
she turned around to go wait in the study.

A few minutes later, Gareth returned to appreciative
murmurs from the folks in the study. Izzy let out a low whistle of
approval. Gareth was wearing black trousers with white piping down
the side. The bottoms of the trousers were tucked into the knee
high boots. His jacket was of the same black cloth as his trousers
with white piping that led down his arms from his shoulders to his
wrists. Stiff, white epaulets rested on his shoulder, showing four
black star shapes in a diamond pattern. The jacket had a high,
banded collar with a strange symbol embroidered on the right side.
A row of buttons that ran diagonally from his left shoulder to
right hip kept the jacket closed. The top two buttons were open,
showing a crisp white shirt underneath. His Void Rod sat in a
holster made specifically for it. The rod was slung low, with the
end of the holster tied around his thigh to keep it in place.

Tralnis pointed at Gareth’s epaulets, and then at
the symbol on his collar. “Aren’t you just the right proper officer
now. What do those fancy decorations mean?” he inquired.

RENE 7 pointed to the epaulets first. “The four
black stars on a field of white denote the Captain of the Mascalian
flagship. Regular Captains only receive three stars. Your new ship
is the flagship of the Royal Mascalian Air Navy,” she stated.

“It’s the only ship in the Air Navy,” DAR-C 254
pointed out.

“Thus its status as the flagship,” RENE 7
insisted.

“Fine, fine, my son’s a Senior Captain. What does
the fancy symbol on his neck mean?” Tralnis asked.

Gareth unconsciously let his fingers brush against
the symbol on his collar. “From what the Automatons tell me, it’s
sort of like a Mascalian court of arms. It designates me as Head of
the House of Mintel,” he said, his voice cracking slightly.

Izzy reached over and squeezed Gareth’s hand. “And I
can’t think of a better person to wear that emblem,” she told
him.

“We should make our way to the dry docks. The others
will be awaiting you,” DAR-C 254 suggested. She and RENE 7 had
conveniently forgotten to mention that last person to wear both the
Head of House emblem and the Four Black Stars was Gareth’s
grandfather, the last King of Mascal.

“Gareth, I know Elizabeth will try to argue that you
shouldn’t be Captain. Just so you know, if she somehow wins over
the rest of the crew, you’re still keeping that uniform,” Izzy told
him firmly, with a hungry look in her eyes. She was torn between
wanting to stare at Gareth in his handsome new uniform, and ripping
it off to get at the man underneath it.

Izzy’s musing were cut short when a small spider like
robot scrambled into the room. It had a large, rotating mechanical
eye in the center of its back. The spider like robot crawled up
onto the couch, and waved two of its eight legs around to make sure
everyone was paying attention to it. A red crystal on the top of
its head flashed in a seemingly random pattern. “That’s not good,”
RENE 7 muttered, after the mechanical spider stopped flashing.

“What’s not good?” Gareth inquired.

“This little fellow is part of a network of
surveillance Automatons we have stationed around the island. It
seems as though the pirates that destroyed your Leyship are still
in the area. Eyebot 7685 said he saw a small, two man dirigible
cross the storm boundary, and then turn around once it saw the
island,” RENE 7 explained. “Gareth, we need to get you to the dry
docks as soon as possible,” she urged. “The experimental airship is
the only air defense we have. The pirates would soon learn the
range of our land based weapons, and simply fly higher. They could
bombard the island from the air with impunity if we don’t launch
the ship soon!” she explained.

Gareth nodded his head in understanding. “Right, to
the dry docks it is,” he agreed.

As everyone filed out of the house on their way to
the air transport, RENE 7 grabbed Gareth’s arm to have him stay
behind for just a moment. “Gareth, I know it seems like a trivial
thing, and rather odd coming from a mechanical, but the Mascalians
had a superstition about flying a ship that hasn’t been named yet.
As Captain, it’s your right to name the ship before her maiden
voyage,” she told him. Gareth smiled at her, and leaned over to
whisper what he wanted the ship named. RENE 7 nodded, and passed
along the information to the Eyebot who scuttled out of the house
to relay the information to the dry docks.

The loading ramp had barely touched the ground
before Gareth was out of the transport, and jogging his way down
the path to the dry docks.  The other passengers quickly
followed him, with RENE 7 bringing up the rear since her joints had
not been designed for running.  DAR-C 254 nearly flew into
Gareth’s back when he stopped suddenly.  Blocking his way into
the naval complex was the huge Automaton Kevin along with Pilot,
Sheldon, and a new and improved Elizabeth Morgana.

Gone was Elizabeth’s old brass mechanical arm with
its three fingered hand.  In its place, was an almost human
looking arm made of smooth, gray metal.  The only thing that
really showed it was mechanical were the metal wheels on the
outsides of her elbow and wrist.  The new hand had the usual
human arrangement of four fingers and a thumb.  Elizabeth’s
face had also been dramatically updated by the Mascalian
Automatons.  A flexible mesh of the same gray metal that made
up her arm covered all of her burn scars.  Her glass eye had
been replaced by a glowing, red crystal lens similar to the one
Kevin had on his tri-lens contraption.

“Let’s get on board the ship so Gareth can turn it
on, and then hand it over to me as the real Captain,” Elizabeth
ordered.

Gareth squared his shoulders and took a step towards
Elizabeth. “No, that’s not how this is going work,” he warned
her.

Elizabeth rolled her good eye at him.  “Look at
him, kid gets dressed up like some sort of soldier, and he suddenly
thinks he’s captain material,” she scoffed.  “You got your
chance to play dress up, and now it’s time for the grownups to get
some work done,” she chided him.

DAR-C 254 leaned forward menacingly, and started to
fly towards Elizabeth.  Gareth stopped the robot by sticking
out his arm to block her way.  “I’ll handle this, DAR-C,” he
whispered out of the corner of his mouth.  Gareth put his arm
down, and took another step forward, invading Elizabeth’s personal
space. “Elizabeth Morgana, that ship in there is part of the Royal
Mascalian Air Navy.  As senior officer in the Air Navy, I am
taking command of her to defend the Island of Mascal.  If you
interfere with that, I will have Kevin take you into custody until
such time as we return from the battle.  Now step aside!” he
proclaimed, his voice taking on a new air of command. He didn’t
bother to tell her he was the
only
officer of the Mascalian
Air Navy at the time.

Elizabeth sneered at him, as she took one small step
to the side.  “Have fun trying to fly that ship without a
crew,” she said with a sneer.  Elizabeth was confident that if
forced to choose, her crew would stand by her side.

Izzy threw her sister a disgusted look before she
stormed up to Gareth, and gave him a formal military style salute.
 “Isadora Morgana, reporting for duty as Engineer,
Captain!
” she stated, emphasizing the last word as she
glared at her sister.

Tralnis rushed over to stand next to Izzy.  He
also saluted Gareth.  “Doctor Tralnis Granitestaff, reporting
for duty as Ship’s Surgeon, Captain,” he said, with a tremendous
amount of pride for his son in his voice.

Henry walked over, and put his hand on first his own
chest and then Gareth’s in an ancient Chim ritual.  After
hooting and snarling softly, Henry dropped his hand, and stood next
to Izzy and Tralnis.  “Thank you, Chef.  I’m honored to
have you as a crewmember,” Gareth said solemnly.

Unlike Izzy, Pilot gave Elizabeth an apologetic
look.  “I hope that someday you will forgive me, former
Captain of the Glorious Dawn, but I have seen the ship we are
discussing.  I would be a fool not to seize this opportunity,”
he told her before turning away from his previous Captain to swear
his services to his new one.  “I am a son of the people of
Roehus.  I wish to serve as the pilot for the unnamed ship
awaiting us in dry dock,” Pilot said, giving a snappy salute.

Elizabeth looked at the last two biologicals with
dwindling hope.  Teesh reinforced this by snorting in laughter
at Elizabeth.  “Yeah, right,” she said sarcastically before
striding over to stand next to Gareth.  “Do you have a place
on board for me?” she asked him.

Gareth knelt on one knee to get his head even with
Teesh’s.  “We would be lost without you,” he assured her.
 Teesh replied by hugging Gareth.  When she released her
hold on the man she thought of as her honorary big brother, Teesh
stepped back, and took hold of Izzy’s hand.

Sheldon’s left eyestalk pivoted to look at
Elizabeth.  “We’ve always thought you were kind of a bitch,
so… um… no,” it told her before Sheldon walked over to join the
crowd around Gareth.