Strange Land (The Young Ancients Book 15) (30 page)

It took about two minutes before he picked up though, and when he did, the younger Ancient seemed out of breath and looked to be covered in sweat, from what she could make out, in the image.

"Sara! Is everything all right?"

"So far. I just heard that part of things have been settled there? How's the air situation?" Really what she wanted to know was if her ship were still being used as emergency housing.

It took a while to get around to that, but the kid finally smiled at her.

"The Pain Maiden is ready for you, yes. I think we can find someone to bring it to you? If that works? I know that it would be good if Ambassador Roget was with you. He's been fretting over you going off without him the whole time. Very politely, but... Well, I think he's concerned about you." The tone didn't imply anything at all. Given that she still felt a bit awkward about the man herself, she was willing to leave it at that. Terry didn't try to push it, either.

Instead he just shook his head, and spoke to someone off screen. When he turned back he grinned.

"That works then! Princess Karina offered to show Squire Gemma how to pilot the craft. They'll all be to you in... Call it two hours?" There seemed to be a discussion going on, and some laughter, which had Terry revising that statement almost instantly. "Or fifteen minutes. It seems like things are going to move faster than I thought. Can you get a docking bay ready?"

That part was addressed to her, personally. Not that she knew how to do that on a space station directly. She could guess however. It was just about making a docking port, and matching the ship that came. Projecting a tube, and then letting air into it at the right time, most likely.

"I can try. I'll go set that up. Docking is near the bottom of the station! It will glow... Um, green, I think, to signal where to go. I should check into that now." She started walking toward the two small dots that were coming toward her, with Timon following along beside her, even as she spoke.

You didn't just cut the line with a Prince, a Princess and whoever else was standing there. It would be vastly rude.

Luckily, Karina laughed and leaned over Terry's shoulder playfully. Her red hair was as curly as ever, but glinted more, to Sara's eyes. Her freckles were nearly gone, and her tan skin was as flawless all of the immortals. Nearly perfect, even without makeup. Unlike Sara, Karina had been made a lot prettier when Tim made those changes to her. Almost enough to make it hard to recognize her, based on who she used to be. Not totally, however.

"Meet us there. I want to talk to you, before you run off to Earth. We need to make plans. You know, Mars things." It was said with the air of a person that didn't seem very concerned about anything, and who was being very casual about it all.

"Sounds good. See you then." Sara didn't break the line, but Karina vanished from the screen, leaving only Terrance. She heard Kolb in the background, as well as two or three others shuffling as they practiced fighting. That explained the heavy breathing and moisture at least.

"Right. You need to get back to your practice, I bet. Thanks for the help, Terry. Oh... Not to be a pain, but has anyone been keeping tabs on Kristine?" She nearly called the girl
Kurt
, but managed not to make that kind of slip. The truth was though that the whole situation kept falling out of her head practically. Like it didn't really matter, anymore.

Terry however, seemed to be more on top of things than she was in that regard.

"She's doing well, and seems less angry. Four told me that the lowered sex drive is helping. Not that she hasn't been going out and using her new body. It just isn't that much fun for her. Ma is having her over each night, for lessons in how to be a proper young lady. It would be funny, if it weren't such a dark thing. Tiera told the Afrak women the whole story, but only one of them is waiting for Kurt to come back. That's Mara. Her real name is a bit longer than that, but she's
really
nice. Truly, we should send them both along with you, but I don't think we have time. Have you told your mother yet? I know that might be hard for you. I can do it, if you need?"

There was no sense that he wanted to, but also no doubt that he would, if it was asked of him. Even though it wasn't his problem in any way. All
he'd
done was try to make things better for everyone involved.

"Not a problem, thank you, Prince Terrance. I haven't done it yet, but I imagine the chance will come up shortly."

She was ready to go on, but Kolb bellowed at Terry to stop chatting with the pretty girl and get his butt back to practice. Sara laughed, but also winked.

"We'll talk later."

"Later!" The boy vanished, the white and rather glossy device in her hand showing a slight iridescence that she'd never noticed before. Then, her eyes, and mind, were both different now.

She kept moving, even while placing the com back in her pocket, on the right hand side. She had the small bag of things, which was far from tiny, on the left. True, there were other jump ships in there, but she sort of wanted hers. Besides, those all belonged to other people, didn't they?

When she got to Alice and Gerent, she stopped for a moment, then made Gerent bend over to give her a hug by waving her hands at him.

"I can't talk. I have to go and meet up with some people. I'll be in the Capital in a few days, I think. We should try to meet up if you have time?" Without pausing, she hugged Alice too. "I mean, if you aren't going to be here for a month? That sounds like a plan too. Really, a very good one."

Alice slapped her on the left arm, hard enough to rock her. Without her shield turning on. That caused Sara to blink. She had it, and could feel that it was working, but something the other woman had on her kept shields from triggering when she hit people? Sara had to focus for a bit to get the idea, but it was there. She had a device on her that did it. How it worked was hard to tell.

Alice spoke, her accent a bit thicker this time than it had been.

"My little friend is not so small now, is he? I think, perhaps, I will keep him this time. After all, he isn't married yet. That's within the rules of your land, is it not, Sara?"

She let her eyebrows go up, and fought a smile, but then nodded.

"That... Is actually
almost
traditional. Stealing another's betrothed for yourself, I mean. Though I really think that you'd both be better off not angering Petra. She's sweet, but not a person to play games with. Just be lovers. She'll be fine with that."

It was part of the rules, after all. You
had
to be fine with whatever relationships your lovers, wife or husband had. Friends, family or otherwise. Doing less than that could lead to problems, and did, naturally. Most people tried at least, and Petra was good that way.

Gerent looked at them both and made a very funny face. One designed to get them to chuckle, if nothing else. It worked on Alice, who took his arm, even as he spoke. He was bigger than she remembered him being. Almost the same size as Alphonse was now. So pushing eight feet tall. Skinny too, since people weren't meant to grow that fast.

"Ah, if only Alice
really
felt that way for me. It's good to see my friend though."

Sara noticed that the Ancient was fine with that, but she rolled her eyes. Gerent, it seemed, was still suffering from low self-esteem. A life of being a midget street player could probably do that to a person. Plus the troubles that he'd had. There was a lot of abuse in his past.

"Gerent... If you aren't Alice's lover, it's because you don't want to be. Which is
stupid
. A woman doesn't ask you to visit with her on a remote holiday like this just to tease you with how you're only friends." Unless she was wrong, but Alice just slapped her arm again. It didn't hurt, but it was odd, her shield not turning on like that.

Just to check it, she turned it on, focusing on the amulet around her neck. It seemed to be working fine that way. So the device Alice had simply didn't let the automatic portion of things work? That both made sense and was probably tricky to pull off. Really, she had to wonder who did the work. Without pause, she turned it back off, so that the woman wouldn't know that she could get around her trick, if it came up again later.

From slightly behind her, Tim chuckled.

"That's pretty clear, Gerent. I can get you two a house here. Some of the people are a little rural in their thinking, but they won't run you out of town, I don't think. Not being as tall as you are. Come on, let's get to that. Keep in touch, Sara?" It was clear that she was supposed to go on then, but she spun and gave him a warm hug, then passed one out to everyone else.

"I will. Thanks. I have to run now. There's a ship due any moment."

It took her about five minutes to get to the bottom of the station and set things up, even if the slow walk had taken hours. A big part of that was knowing where she was headed, true, but the other part was just that her raw speed was incredible now. It wasn't hard to do either, which amazed her. She was damp when she stopped, however, and that had to be taken care of before anyone got there, or it would be embarrassing. She changed her clothing a few times, which helped. She didn't really cool down all that fast however, so when the large craft, a full sized jump ship got there, looking purple and black through the window she'd made in the side of the station for viewing purposes, She had to do it again, before extending the coupling tube.

It took longer to do that than the trip in had, she knew. It always did. You needed to be careful though, or else you could miss, push things in awkward directions and make people work ten times harder than they needed to. Interestingly, the station itself did a lot of the work for her, finding the ship with the tube and when they met, doing the complex interlocking maneuver itself. She hadn't really been ready for it, but it was good to know, given that the plan was for her to live on one of the things shortly.

It didn't take long for the three people she expected to walk down the ramp in the tube. The bottom of the red cylinder was flat inside, so that it wouldn't be a problem to walk on. The first ones had been round, Sara knew. Which didn't make it impossible to use, but this
had
to be easier.

Sara watched them getting closer, using her new focusing trick to see them coming. Gemma looked happy enough, in a slightly proud way, and Karina did too.

Roget looked a bit stern, however, which was normal for him, but a bit out of character at the same time, given there were no other Tellerand people around for him to try and impress.

Karina didn't run, but looked stately in the black ship's uniform she wore. It had gray piping along the edges. There was a set of buttons on the front, but it had been left half undone, making a gray triangle on her chest. Gemma was in something similar, but in purple and gold, since those were the Royal colors of Noram. That was a bit off, since the Princess of Noram should have been the one wearing that. Unless there was a reason not to.

Sara smiled at them, and waved happily when they closed with her.

"Princess Karina. Or is that Queen Karina of Mars? If so, are those our colors?" They weren't horrible, after all. They lacked a bit of spark, but that could be overrated at times.

She shook her head.

"No, this is just what I felt like putting on this morning. I haven't proclaimed myself queen though. As the Ancient of that new world, I think leadership positions should be separate from that job. Are you planning to be the Queen of the Martian Circle?" There was no weight to the words, thankfully. It could be embarrassing if she had been and the Princess was going to not take that kind of power for herself, and Sara was.

Luckily that hadn't been her idea at all.

"Not really. I was figuring that I'd just set things up, and oversee it after a while from a distance. We can change that if need be, but the space stations are temporary at best. They'll need to be rebuilt every twenty years or so, I think. It's hard to be the supreme ruler of something that won't be around in fifty years, isn't it?"

They'd all come, but the plan was for her to go with them, immediately. She was worried about putting the tube away properly, but Karina assured her they could do that from inside her ship. That was another thing that Tim had designed into the magic. That way one person could set up the stations, and then leave, if they had to.

Karina kept speaking, her voice mellow and relaxed.

"The Pain Maiden is in the hold. We made her smaller, obviously, but she still has air, water and a few tons of material for making things with. Let's chat first though, before you go? I don't want to bother anyone, but..." The Princess looked at Gemma, who picked up on the idea that she wanted to get Sara alone, and then Roget, who didn't seem to pick up on it at all. The short man looked nearly surly in fact, when Gemma started to leave.

Karina held her face still, but there was a wave of frustration coming off her that Sara could
smell
. That was another surprise, but it didn't seem that bad yet.

Sara decided to just address things directly.

"Ambassador? I need to have a meeting with Ancient Karina. We could find you some refreshments? Or perhaps a place to pray?" That one was the real signal to him. Praying, or even suggesting that, meant she was bringing the All High into things. It was a bit manipulative, but the man still had to go along with it. That, or look like he lacked piety.

He nodded to her.

"Very well. Will you be joining me, later?"

Sara felt a flash of annoyance, but smiled smoothly. Trying not to be a bitch, she brushed her new hair out of her face.

"That would be good. We might need to do that on Earth, later. If so it won't take long to set up. Squire Gemma, could you entertain the Ambassador? Locate a place for him to say his devotions. On the Pain Maiden? We'll meet up in about half an hour, unless more time is needed?"

She glanced at Princess, who gave a small bow.

"That will do. I mainly want to set up a direct line of communications, and some other things. Visits and what not."