Into the Fire
“There is in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity. ”
---Washington Irving
“The long months are at an end.” Darshi mused as she, Mi'ah, Ru, Misha and Elena strolled with the Elf up the last stretch onto the promontory overlooking the chasm. “Across there are the Teshun Temple grounds;” she finished. The Elf couldn't grasp why Darshi was so intent on pointing out the obvious. This was just supposed to be a pleasant walk to allow her to ask any other questions.
“Yes. There's the rock garden, the temple... I can see it plainly enough. What am I missing?” the Elf probed.
Misha and Elena had been with the Elf every moment of every 'day'---there had only ever been the one eternal moment in which the Elf's final training had proceeded. Elena replied, “Missing? Likely nothing. Darshi is simply emphasizing, eloquently I might add, just how imperative it is to always know precisely where you are and what are the circumstances of your existence from moment to moment.”
A wave of comprehension swept over the Elf. “I do tend to inhabit the past or the future...”
“While the present is all there is or can ever be...” Darshi began.
Ru stressed, “We can wander in and out of Time itself, but we shall always be 'now'.”
The six women crossed the space toward the base of the gardens, but instead of arriving there, they stepped through the main view screen on the bridge of the Huntress. The Elf gasped but steadied herself at once. Ru and Misha, Elena and Mi'ah went from one 'statue' of crew to the next, glancing at what they were looking at, studying the monitors, panels and readouts; generally making themselves right at home on the ship.
Darshi curled up in the Captain's chair and purred, “I'm missing the Sheranara Triquetra, already.” She looked up into the Elf's face, “You know, I'm the Captain of my ship too!”
The Elf shrugged, “The Huntress isn't the magnificent beauty that the Triquetra is, but she's my little slice of heaven---and she's a fast girl...”
“Oh!” Darshi leapt up, “That reminds me. Yßir made me promise to have a look at your wrinkle drive if I got the chance.” She looked expectantly at the Elf. “May I?”
The Elf wasn't sure where this was going but, “Certainly! Right this way...” They vanished from the bridge, transiting to the engine room. “Best drive in the Lascorii Fleet!”
Darshi smiled pleasantly back at the Elf, then looked over the configuration and calibrations of the drive. “Would three times her present maximum velocity be something you could get used to?” and her eyes stopped on one particular set of junctions comprising the core of the drive's efficiencies. Your ship is at all-stop just now... I mean in real-time, not just inside this particular moment.”
“Three times!” the Elf repeated and stared where Darshi's eyes rested. A glimmer of recognition and far deeper understanding of the wrinkle phenomenon welled up within her. Darshi continued, “It's grandpa Alfie's contention, and he says it was his great, great-grandfather's before him, that all the technological advances invented by any people are really just reflections of what the realized individual is actually capable of performing...”
The Elf's head was nodding eagerly, she was seeing for herself, now that she had so much greater a grasp of her own abilities and potentials, just how and why the wrinkle drive worked as it did and just how Darshi's assertion that it could be increased in efficiency to a magnitude of three. She reached to the main control panel and began entering sequence after sequence. Then she smiled at Darshi, reached for the manual calibration of the main drive interface. “Like this you mean?” and she tweaked one little module on one seemingly insignificant sub system.
Darshi beamed, “Good! Yßir will be so pleased I remembered to mention it to you. And that reminds me that Mama wanted you to have this...” She went to one of the empty walls in the room and set a little cylinder there at the base of the wall and deck. “Ready!” she called aloud to someone else, not with them at the moment. The Elf glanced from Darshi to the spot on the deck where the cylinder was. Now, however there were rack upon rack of those cylinders.
The Elf ventured, “That was a Reference Potential?” Darshi grinned and nodded.
“And those are all RPs?” the Elf ventured further.
“Labeled and ready for use! Straight from the Sheranara herself! As Captain, I do have certain latitudes concerning my ship's stores and equipment. I am certain your Pim will be able cobble a few more tangle-tossers together... If she hasn't already.”
The Elf smiled, “Sure she has, but we just haven't assembled much of a library as yet. We only got the technology once Dena joined us---and only then after she finally decided to 'go native' if you catch my meaning. The Guild really had loaded her up with all sorts of nifty goodies, stuff only they apparently had full access to...”
They transited back to the bridge where the other girls were playing with the 'statues,' fixing their hair, coloring nails and generally playing dress-up with the frozen figures. The Elf had to laugh out loud at their antics.
“I'm sure Isin and Pim will shudder to their core when they realize they could truly look as good as you've made them up!” she announced between bouts of giggling. “And lovely Dena, who so wishes to be the femme fatale of all Seranim... She totally looks the part now!”
Ru and Elena put the finishing touches on Dena and strode up to the main viewer. Mi'ah and Misha did likewise. Darshi put her arms around the Elf's neck, their foreheads touching; “Sister; if at any time you need someone to bounce an idea off, or another perspective on anything at all...”
“I shall have y'all here, or MamaKat or MamaChéri as quick as I can stop the moment...” the Elf finished, “I promise. Now that I know I have family: sisters, brothers, more parents and grandparents than a girl could ever want... I shall not be a stranger!”
“Oh! Where is my head these days?” Darshi wilted. “Mama told me to tend to Mim and Yula after your training was complete, and here I am about to leave...” She stretched out her hands to the Elf, “They really needn't remain stuck in your head you know, they do have lives of their own...” Mim and Yula were suddenly sitting in their favorite places on either side of the Captain's chair as if it were just where they'd been all along.
Ru and Misha reminded her, “Your tail is not just for getting the guys to look at you; it's a vital part of your balance, and an extra hand...” The Elf had been really poor at catching on to several of her more physical training exercises over the last months, primarily because she couldn't adapt to having that tail.
Darshi grinned, kissed the Elf's cheeks and offered one last word of advice as she joined her sisters to leave.
“Remember: Our path is toward empowering people---not solving their problems for them. That goes for planets, moons, stars you name it---The struggle always to direct and create conditions; not necessarily to help, in the traditional sense. Like MamaKat always says: Only a fool doesn't take advantage of help that's available! Aloha...” and they were gone---all their 'dress-up' attempts were gone in a flash as well. The Elf heaved a sigh of relief. 'Wasn't looking forward to explaining that away...'
Senta was just finishing her sentence, “...but to have seen with our own eyes who you really are and what you are truly capable of... That is the most awesome experience of our lives!” The rest of the company on the bridge clapped loudly at her pronouncement; they were genuinely thankful to be part of the Huntress's crew.
“I still have a lot to learn...” the Elf demurred and she settled into her chair again for a well-earned rest. Her thoughts reached out to her family, 'I shall not forget!'
ChériAna's voice rang through her thoughts, “We are one together. Enjoy all!”
Dena looked over at her Captain and her eyes glistened, “Mim! Yula! Where have you two been?!”
“Avoiding mundane ship's duties no doubt,” the Elf passed off casually and stroked each of their heads. The glint in their eyes were voices in her thoughts of honor and appreciation for the opportunity to atone for their having lost her to the Naud all those years ago. 'I am the honored party amongst we three...' she acknowledged directly in kind. Their purr-roars were heart warming.
The Elf took another deep breath and wondered how she was going to explain to Reia not to punch the wrinkle drive to maximum until Elenir and Jista had reconfigured their travel models to accommodate the Huntress now being capable of two light-years a day in velocity... Or for that matter how to explain the appearance on the Huntress of the most complete RP library in this quadrant... Instead she asked, “ETA of our guests?”
“Less than twelve hours...” Isin called from the science station, “...their wrinkle signatures are just now coming within range of our sensors.”
“Very good!” the Captain smiled, “Ladies? I have a few tweaks to add to our well-laid plans...” The plan was a simple one, inspired by their recent talk of the Tahoe in part; but then with the advent of the tangle-tossers new ranges as a tool in their arsenal, they had a lot to arrange in a short amount of time. But after that, with still an hour or so before the arrival of their guests...
“Bringing the holo fleet on line now, Captain;” Pim grinned.
Ravena reminded, “We'll only have power from our ships for five hours, max, to keep 'the fleet' around; so let's get those conscripts off those vessels as quickly as we can manage.”
Song and Senta announced, “The Lorien and Lúthien have been cleared of everything inside except the bridge controls. We can certainly load up at least seventy to eighty folks apiece on them.”
Isin confidently said, “And between the empty hangar bay and our own storage bays---off-loaded temporarily---the Huntress can accommodate over two hundred with ease.” She glanced back at her monitors, “Two are entering the system now... there will be another wave of three in perhaps...” she did some mental arithmetic, “six hours at the outside.”
Ravena nodded, “Good! That'll be an hour and a half for the first and perhaps a couple hours for the second with plenty of time to recharge!”
The Elf nodded to Pim, who touched her panels. Outside the Huntress, an entire fleet of Sargassian Alliance ships, from minimally armed liners and scout ships to fully armed cruisers and fighters, sprang into existence. Pim added, “I have all the holo-generators set up for really quick attachment to their ships.” She turned to Reia, “Brilliant stroke to have them escorted to the Resha facility by themselves, essentially!”
“The big job is going to be getting those conscripts off the corvettes and onto the Huntress as quickly as possible...” the Elf sighed.
Dena grinned, “Captain, perhaps you might add a little something to your demands for their immediate surrender? I don't know maybe something like: As an act of good faith... or something to that effect?”
“Delightful!” the Elf crowed, “Everybody got that? That's the new signal to begin evacuations. Okay ladies take out the Lorien and Lúthien and lets mingle! There's no reason our guests should suspect that our three ships are the only one's they can hitch a ride on. Download to your capacity, bounce to our Gorim friends' stations around Sheranara and bounce back here for another round. Chop, chop!”
There was a brief rush from the bridge as the assigned crews headed for the hangar in obedience to their Captain.
Dena was the Elf's sole companion on the bridge. The Elf turned to her, “Dearest? Shall we flip to see who gets to stay up here and who goes to the greet our emigrants?”
Dena sucked in her breath, “I have a choice?”
“I should hope so!” The Elf added, “Or perhaps you'd like to trade off?”
Dena pushed her hand through her flaxen locks, “I'll take the first wave and we can see if the Naud are capable of taking the orders of a Seranim seriously or not...”
The Elf nodded, “Hmm, perhaps we should stack the odds in your favor...” and she rose, crossed to the Com and stood behind Dena. “Let's see if we can touch up your image just a little...” And she proceeded, with extraordinarily deft hands to recreate Dena as Ru and Elena had done a little while before. Then, as an after thought, “Dena, dearest, is it against any closely held Seranim morals or anything to be... uh... how shall I put this delicately...”
Dena spun in her chair to face her Captain, “What?”
“Taller. There I've said it and I'm sorry if it's offensive. Truly I am. I am just curious is all.”
Dena laughed aloud, “Captain! Ever since our first contact with other peoples---all of whom are at least head and shoulders taller than we are; Every Seranim has secretly wished with all their heart to be an inch or two taller. But even our best geneticists haven't broken that tough nut. It seems that trait in our genetic code is tied inextricably to certain other of our traits and those are vital to our nature, after a fashion. But thanks for asking...”
“Hmm, I'm no geneticist, but I do have resources they do not;” the Elf replied cryptically and extended a hand to Dena.
She looked at the offered hand of her Captain and asked, “Am I missing something here?” But she put her own hand into the Elf's.
“Well, step down from the Com station...” the Elf encouraged. Dena had always had to make a little hop to get in or out of any seat on the bridge. Not this time. She made to make that usual 'hop' and was shocked to her bones that her foot was already on the deck!
She stood and faced the Elf. Her face, in fact did almost come to the Elf's face! She nearly swooned, she slumped back into the chair. The Elf chuckled, “Afraid of heights?”
Dena sprang up from the chair this time, but just as suddenly a cloud of doubt shadowed her features. “Is this permanent? Or just an illusion, or a 'spell' or something...” Her voice was as timid and fragile as ever the Elf had heard her.
“If what I've been told is accurate, and I've no good reason to doubt it,” the Elf explained, “as long as you continue to see yourself as you are now, it is the way you are---should you lapse into an old image of yourself... that becomes the reality of your being. It's literally up to you.”
Dena's confidence grew as quickly as had her new stature. She bowed deeply, a new sensation from her taller perspective to be sure. “I serve the greatest Captain and friend any Seranim has ever had the grand privilege of serving. I am yours heart and soul.”
“You are most gracious. However, let's not say anything to our companions about this,” the Elf cautioned, “I will come up with a plausible explanation for you... just give me a bit of time to think about it. It wouldn't do to have everyone petitioning for a total make-over.”
Dena ran her hands over her body, thrilled to the touch of so much more of her than there had been. “If it's any help, we of Breuges have always privately held out the faint hope it might be some cosmic phenomenon that would do for us what our scientists couldn't...”
“That'll do then; after our first bounce it is;” the Elf giggled, a notion already gelling in her thoughts. “Which means I'll play hostess on this first go around. We'll save your debut for the following ones. Deal?”
Dena was ecstatic. She threw her arms around the Elf's neck and for the first time didn't have to stand on a stool and her tip-toes to do so. “Absolutely!”
The initial operation that extracted over three hundred and sixty prisoners from the two Naud ships went as quickly and as smoothly as any of them could have hoped. But it was an excruciatingly long time for Dena to remain on the bridge, not able to be seen as she was now!
They were the last of the three ships to bounce to the Gorim stations and turn over the refugees into the Alliance's emergency responders' care. The Elf came back up to the bridge after supervising the hand-off. “Okay, Dena darling, you 'toddle' on down to the engine room and reset our tossers---just as Pim directed. But with a twist: before you get down there, I'm going to set up a static wrinkle bubble so the engine room records will match my story...”
Dena looked confused, “Which is?”
“That you were caught up in the field, and activated the tossers at the same time, while whistling Goodnight Irene, of course!”
“Huh?” Dena's forehead was knitted up in utter confusion.
“Trust me on this one...” the Elf giggled. Dena sighed and left the bridge. The Elf called out to Darshi, 'This may not be exactly directing and creating conditions, per se, and I realize I'm really meddling with Dena's life...'
Darshi's thoughts returned, 'oh what a tangled web we weave...' then there was her unabashed giggling ringing in the Elf's head. 'Honestly? Where's the fun in being able to grant boons, if we never do! Enjoy!'
“Ready down here, Captain,” Dena's voice came over the com.
“Okey dokey, Dena Darling, you can bounce us back for our next haul and your big debut!”
The star field outside the main viewer shifted in the blink of an eye and they were once again sitting in the orbit of Corona Zed gamma between the Lorien and Lúthien. Dena raced across the bridge to sit at the Com as the Elf brought the bridges of the yachts up on the viewer. “Well, let's evaluate our first performance and fix any glaring goofs...” the Elf opened.
Ravena's mirth was clear as the rest of the crew's aboard the Lorien. “Actually Captain, we're not entirely sure that having a holo-fleet at our disposal is at all necessary.”
Senta's agreement from the Lúthien was quick on the heels of that, “Y'all thought so too?! I mean, as soon as the Elf's face appeared on their viewers in the hail...”
Song's voice finished, “We were certain we'd be stepping into corridors of self-urinated Naud! Of course the stench of some of their ships suggest that's a regular thing with them anyway...”
Isin summed it up, “If these next several encounters go as the first, and Pim's holo emplacements on their own ships get them all the way to Resha, then I'm ready to board as many Naud corvettes as you can find for us.”
The Elf was shaking her head, “I'm rather counting on a few of them, at least, slipping off during their wrinkle to Resha. It would be a really good thing for as many of the bands of Naud from here to Mrona know precisely who is hunting them down.”
Dena stood and stepped over to the science station behind the Elf. Eight stunned faces filled the split screen main viewer. “Captain?” Song was trying to point over the Elf's shoulder through the viewer---comical at best. “Is there something screwy with this connection? It sure looks like our Dena is about two feet taller!”
The Elf carefully swiveled in her chair to look back at Dena. Her next performance was melodramatic at best. “Oh my!” she gaped and put her hand to her mouth. “Dena! You are almost as tall as me! What has happened?!” The Elf stood and took a couple steps toward her.
Dena offered her best look of confusion. “Pardon me Captain?” She stood also and the gasps from the speakers from the other ships sounded like a hull breach or something. Without betraying a single smile between them, Dena added, “I wondered why this outfit was so ridiculously snug!”
The Elf reached out and touched Dena's shoulders with her hands, “It's really you!” and she sucked in her breath, “Did you get caught in the tosser field and the wrinkle field at the same time? The instructions the Guild sent along with those pieces of equipment specifically cautioned to avoid that encounter at all costs!”
Dena's expression was the epitome of horror. “Oh my Bottom Line! What have I done? Is this just a symptom? Am I gonna die?!”
The Elf produced a hand scanner and waved it over Dena from head to toe. She was shaking her head and Dena's voice grew more shrill. “It's real bad; isn't it!”
The Elf shook her head again and shrugged, “I can't find anything different than what your last physical showed... I mean other than you're a giant!”
At the mention of that epithet, Dena's composure cracked and a grin from ear to ear split her face. “A giant! Ooh, say that again! It's music to the ears of any Seranim!”
The faces staring on in wonder at their little performance were still riveted to the screen. The Elf turned back to them and as seriously as she could manage, “We may just have gotten lucky this time. Make absolutely sure we move the RP library and our stock of tossers to a completely separate chamber from the engine room. I don't want a repeat of this if we can avoid it. Clear?!”
Eight heads nodded back at her from the viewer; and Dena, with a far more sober exp