Chapter 15

The three companions, Sara, Jessica and Michael, had arrived on what remained of Daelen’s Lavosian base, situated in a town in the country of Weslend. It was the principal seat of power and governance for the Northern continent – the Vranian Alliance.

The base was in quite a sorry state. During Daelen’s final battle with Kullos, he had pulled power from all of his bases except Earth, causing systems to overload. His Lavosian home was devastated but it was still shielded from the rest of the world.

Just clearing up the mess took up the best part of a week. During that time, Sara and Michael set about repairing the power generation systems to at least get the lights on, and the heating, too, as it was winter in Weslend and the snow had arrived.

Not having her sister’s tech skills, Jessica ventured outside with the aid of a perception filter. The filter didn’t have to work too hard on this world, because the Lavosian people had evolved along similar lines to the Chetsuans of Phitonia, only their skin tones tended to be golden rather than deep purple. Daelen always had a good stash of local currency in each world he frequented, and so Jessica took what she needed to buy food.

Before heading to the shops, she decided to call on a friend. His name was Laoghaire, Lao for short. The only person in the world who knew Jessica and her sister were aliens.

*****

Lao owned and ran a small technology store all by himself, building personal computers and doing repairs. It was a little place that served the local community, always struggling to survive in the face of competition from larger chains.

He had known them on and off for a few months, back in the day, since Lavos was the world they had visited the most when not on Earth. At first, they had just been new customers – Sara had been on the hunt for parts for whatever gadget she’d been tinkering with at the time. Jessica couldn’t remember what it was, if she ever knew in the first place. All she knew was that her sister was curious about the possibilities of combining the technology of Lavos with that of Earth and even the shadow warrior technology that Daelen had rigged up in each of his bases, although Jessica was convinced he hadn’t done it himself. Daelen had about as much technical know-how as she did: enough to use it without any clear understanding of how it worked. Not like Sara did. Over time, they became regular visitors to Lao’s shop and, eventually, his friends.

One day, when Sara took her latest project to Laoghaire, Jessica had quickly grown bored, and Lao suggested she might prefer to go for a walk in the local park. Jessica agreed that sounded much more like her cup of tea, although she then had to explain what tea was since they didn’t have it on this world.

About an hour later, she was starting to feel quite hungry, so she returned to the shop intending to go out for a meal with Sara, enjoy some local cuisine. Seeing that Sara and Laoghaire were still at it, technological parts and components strewn everywhere, Jessica gave them a long-suffering look. When they got like this, the pair of them could forget all about mundane things like food and rest.

“Come on, Sara, you must be at least a bit peckish by now!” she whined as she closed the short distance from the shop doorway.

Laoghaire looked up and gasped, “Don’t step on that!”

Jessica looked down, saw how her foot was coming down onto something that looked fragile, tried to shift her weight to avoid it, tripped and had to grab the worktop to stop herself falling. As she did so, her hand came down close to what they were working on, and despite her best efforts, her fingers touched the delicate components. There was a spark of static electricity, painful enough to cause her to bring her hand to mouth and suck the tip of her finger for a moment. A finger that she suddenly realised was her natural Chetsuan purple colour instead of Lavosian gold. Somehow, that electrical spark had shorted out her perception filter. Sarah deactivated hers, too, knowing that she and her sister suddenly had a lot of explaining to do.

Once he got over the initial shock, Lao took it rather well. Aliens were a known fact to the people of Lavos. Recent technological advances had led them to be able to detect life energy signatures from distant star systems. He’d even rigged up an amateur version himself, and there were many projects underway to try and find a way to make first contact.

“Like a proper ‘E.T. phone home’ deal,” Jessica remarked. “Only, you’re phoning E.T.”

“You’re always saying things like that,” Lao remarked. “Like you have a whole different set of pop culture references.”

“It’s a movie reference from Earth,” Sara explained. “Kind of like the vidcasts you have here.”

“Earth? Your homeworld?” Laoghaire wondered. He blinked and added, “I can’t believe I actually just used the word ‘homeworld’ for real!”

“Adopted homeworld,” Sara corrected, “but Jessica’s gone native.”

“What about your actual native world?” Seeing the look that passed between the two sisters, he realised he’d inadvertently wandered onto a sensitive subject and apologised. “Sorry, you don’t have to tell me, obviously.”

“No, love, you don’t need to apologise,” Jessica insisted, “and we don’t mind sharing, do we, sis?”

Sara shook her head. “No, though you might wish we hadn’t.”

“Tell you what, why don’t we go out and eat together?” Leo suggested. “There’s a place just down the road that have tables in private alcoves. They use sound-filtering technology to help make conversations inaudible to anyone else,” he explained. “It’s an interesting system, actually—”

Lao caught himself as Jessica yawned, pointedly.

“—Yes, well, you don’t want to know how it works, naturally. The point is, we can relax, talk about anything you want and not have to worry about anyone overhearing.”

“Sounds great, dearie, but I don’t think your fancy tech will help much if we can’t fix my perception filter.”

Sara nodded. “Given your world’s media, I don’t think our evening out will involve much privacy if we’re at the centre of a first contact situation.”

In the end, they did manage to fix the device and enjoy their meal without causing a media sensation. Since then, they’d only been back a couple of times before events on Tempestria came to a head.

*****

Reaching Lao’s Techspot, on the corner of a pair of busy streets, Jessica pushed open the door and stepped inside. Lao was dealing with a customer, so the Chetsuan pretended to browse what he had on display, keeping her back to the counter. When the other customer had left, Lao called out, “Can I help you find something, Miss?”

“That’s what I’m hoping,” she replied, still not turning around, “but I don’t reckon you’ll have it here.”

“Well, if not, I can always order something in for you,” he offered.

“Ah, if only it were that simple,” she sighed, “but you see, E.T. needs your help.”

Lao shot up out of his seat. “Jessica?”

Turning around at last with a grin, she sang, “Heya, love! Miss me?”

He ran over, swept her up in an embrace and changed the sign on the door to read ‘CLOSED’, all in one fluid movement.

“I haven’t seen you for ages. Let me look at you!” He stepped back to see her properly, and Jessica switched off her perception filter. “There you are!” he beamed. “Now, what have you been up to since I last saw you?”

“Oh, that is a long story,” she laughed. “So much has changed, and I’d be happy to tell you all about it, but I meant what I said before: I really do need your help. If you don’t have any plans…?” Lao shook his head. “In that case, once I’ve picked up a few groceries, I’d like to take you home for dinner.”

“Home?” he wondered,

Jessica nodded. “We have a place. Sort of. You’ll see.”

“We? Sara’s around, too, then?”

“Actually, love, it’s Sara, me and a friend.”

“Who’s that?” he wondered.

“He’s part of my long story, but I need to warn you – you think me and Sara are E.T., but this guy really is from out of this world…or any other.”

“Well, you can paint me interested,” Lao replied.

“It’s ‘colour me intrigued’, dear,” she corrected.

He shook his head. “Not on this world, it isn’t.”

“Well, however you want to say it, will you come?”

“Sure,” he agreed, grabbing a warm coat and opening the door as Jessica reactivated her perception filter. “Just lead the way.”

*****

Upon seeing their approach, Sara manipulated the barrier to allow Lao access. Before his battle with Kullos, Daelen had strengthened the barrier to function as a containment field. On Phitonia, Dreya had managed to bypass the technology with her magic, but otherwise, the barrier would not allow even a single atom to enter, apart from filtered air to breathe. There was no longer any need for such defences, so Sara powered down the barriers in all connected worlds to their former state. After that, the Lavosian base would once again accept invited guests just as the Earth barriers had accepted Catriona and Mandalee. The uninvited would naturally avoid the area without realising it. No-one on Lavos even noticed there was a gap in their maps and satellite imagery. The perception filter permeated everything to prevent detection.

Bringing people back to Daelen’s base – on any world – had been absolutely out of the question before. Sara had initially been against it even now, but Jessica convinced her that it was the most expedient way to do what they had to do.

Once inside, a slightly grimy Sara greeted him with a hug.

“Thanks for coming, Lao,” she offered. “Sorry about the mess.”

Lao really didn’t mind. To find himself in Daelen StormTiger’s secret base was a thrill no matter what condition it might be in.

The next thing to do was to introduce him to Ossian Miach Kaidool. The sisters were nervous about this. Sure, Lao had accepted them readily enough, but other than their colouration, they looked almost Lavosian. Michael, however, standing at seven feet, with dried, translucent skin stretched like parchment over a horned skull, looked somewhat alarming by anybody’s standards. The Chetsuans’ first sight of him had been at the Battle of the Rhynas Desert. They’d heard of him from conversations with Daelen, but there was little that could have prepared them. A photo would have helped, Sara supposed, but the only times he and Daelen were together was when they were saving Tempestria from either Kullos or Daelen’s dark clone. If it was the former, he was Fated to die in every Final Battle. In the latter case, the clone generally killed him anyway, out of spite, to aid his escape. In either situation, stopping to take a selfie had not been uppermost in their minds. But if Lao was going to work with them, he was going to have to meet Michael. Adapting a perception filter to make the demigod look Lavosian wouldn’t alter the fact that he was too large to fit through the average doorway.

Michael was in the kitchen cooking dinner, when his friends brought in Lao, who immediately screamed and ran out of the room until Jessica stopped him.

“It’s no good,” she growled, trying to look menacing. “You’re trapped! You see, when I said I wanted to bring you home for dinner, I meant you were on the menu, and we’re all going to gobble you up!”

It took Lao a moment to realise she was joking, but once he did, he burst out laughing, which helped his fear to evaporate. Even so, his heart was still pounding in his ears, as he re-entered the kitchen and tentatively accepted Michael’s offer of a handshake.

“Sorry about before, er, Michael,” he offered, nervously. “It’s…well, you’re a lot to take in.”

“Not to worry, son,” Michael assured him. “I’ve had much worse reactions in my time. Now, why don’t you sit down,” he suggested, pulling out a chair, “before you faint?”

Lao gave him a weak smile and accepted the seat.

“See, Jess?” Sara remarked with a twinkle in her eye. “I told you he’d be able to handle it.”

“Excuse me, sis!” Jessica laughed from where she was standing over to one side waiting for the kettle to boil, “but I think you’ll find it was my suggestion!”

“Don’t remember that,” Sara disputed, although her smirk suggested otherwise.

“Well, while my sister gets her memory back,” Jessica told Lao bringing over a tray with four steaming mugs. “Let me introduce you to something from our new home that’s a bit easier to swallow – a cup of tea.”

The sisters briefly explained their change of circumstances. The tea they were drinking was a blend of leaves they had picked up from Gaggleswick. Dreya’s stocks had quickly run out, now that the number of people living in her Tower had just doubled from two to four, so they’d volunteered to pick some up. It had seemed like the perfect opportunity to begin to orientate themselves with the Elvarian town and get a feel for what daily life would be like for them in their new home, their new world.

When they got back to the Black Tower, though, the grounds had attacked them and the next thing they knew, they were off on a mission on Lavos, so they’d brought the tea with them.

“Somewhere on your world, Lao,” Michael explained, “there’s terrible danger. A few weeks ago, your time, Daelen StormTiger’s great enemy, Kullos, sent a fragment of a shadow warrior device through a portal to Lavos. It must be fairly crackling with an unstable blend of magic and higher planar energy that, with all due respect to your people, you’re just not equipped to handle. We need to retrieve it and return it safely to Tempestria where it can be safely locked away.”

“This is why we need your help,” Sara told him. “Between you, me and Michael, I believe we’ve got enough technical ability to construct some kind of detector or tracking device.”

“Also,” Jessica added, “we need some ideas of where to start looking so we need your local knowledge. In general, what’s the state of play here since…” she paused, considering how to narrow down a time frame. After a moment’s thought, she got it. “Say, since Daelen last came here,” she finished.

“Good thinking, Jess,” Sara approved. “We know he came here to sort out some kind of plot against the dragons.” She remembered the note he had left for Catriona and Mandalee. “He never told us any details, but knowing him, well—”

“—Well, ‘subtle’ wasn’t really in his vocabulary, was it, loves?”

Michael chuckled. “No, my dear, it wasn’t.”

Lao certainly knew the incident in question – the whole world did.

“So, since then, have there been any major developments on your world?” Michael wondered.

“I’ll say there has!” Lao agreed. “Everyone’s talking about it: they’re calling it the Grand Relocation Plan.”