Chapter 16 | Mission Born: Space Twins
In chapter 15, our team of four set out on an underwater journey to meet Queen Urlanna of the Merfolk. If you too, are ready to meet Queen Urlanna, continue below. If however, you need to catch up, click on the appropriate chapter below:
Chapter 5 Twins Divided
Chapter 6 World's Apart
Chapter 7 Escape from Planet Orc
Chapter 8 Twin's Flight
Chapter 9 Docked in Space
Chapter 10 Knowledge Unbound
Chapter 11 Decisions
Chapter 12 Training
As they
entered the huge pyramid of glass, the group of traders looked up in stunned
disbelief. It was hard to imagine the
amount of stress the ocean was putting on the walls of this underwater
palace. Yet, it withstood the pressures
around it, and its grace and beauty was magnified by the engineering feat that
had led to its existence. If these were
tribal people, they were a highly sophisticated tribe. Walter had seen other signs of sophisticated
technology when one of the guards had brought his spear down a little too hard,
an aura had sprung up around the spearhead.
These people were good at hiding what they really were, and it had
probably saved their culture numerous times.
Underestimating your opponent was dangerous in any game, especially the
game of life.
“Sooo, when do we meet the Queen?” Jess piped in, breaking them out of their
stunned silence.
“Jess, why do you always do that?!” Walter was agitated.
“What?! I was just
askin’ a question. Oh, Brother o’ mine….
You like this place, eh? Probably
tryin’ ta figure out where their library is, eh?” She nudged him in the ribs and smirked.
Walter just shook his head and brought his hand up to shove
her gently away from him. Then, he
looked up sharply and asked, “You think they have a library??”
Jess chuckled and Walter could hear the rest of his
companions laughing as well. He turned a
bright beet red and shrugged his shoulders, “What?”
“It’s okay kid, we’re all impressed by this palace under the
sea. I would bet they have amazing tales
to tell….” Winterlocke turned his gaze
around the entire building and then landed his sight on the large throne
occupying the distant, angled wall of glass.
A school of large golden fish were swimming behind that glass, and they
made the throne even more magnanimous as it looked like golden ribbons were
highlighting the massive seat. As their
gaze landed on the actual throne, which was made of some kind of metal with an
aquamarine aura, they could see the Queen.
She wore somewhat simple clothes, a shirt that reflected the light with
a dazzling pearlescent display, and a dress made of similar material, but it
almost flowed along the ground like water.
She stood and walked over to the group.
Her soldiers did not react in the least, so this was ordinary conduct by
the Queen. Apparently, she did not
equate royalty with being better or more than another person. The leader of their guard announced her, “Her
Highness, Urlana Thaal!” He kneeled as
did the rest of the guards.
“Rise Sentries! I
have no need for pomp at this moment!”
She turned to the group and smiled with a hard turn of her lips. “You must be the group the Gnomes sent. I know your plan to save the Captain, but I
must ask a favor of you as well….”
“Whatever your Highness needs, we’ll do it.” Jess blurted out before she really thought
about what she was saying.
The Queen smirked and looked to Winterlocke. “Will you help me?”
Winter looked her in the eye, “Yes, but only if we can get
my brother out first. What is it you
need?”
“I want you to use our shield technology to save this city
from the Council.” She spread her arms
out behind her, to acknowledge a city they had not seen before. It was a massive glowing metropolis residing
in a valley. The palace resided on a
cliff and had a fantastic view of the city.
“I think we can do that, but I’m not sure why you would need
us….” Winterlocke gripped his chin in
one hand, feeling the stubble of his unshaven face.
“I need you to project it from your ship.” She let that set in.
“So, we will be in harm’s way of the barrage of several
ships? I can’t ask everyone to do that,
but I’ll do it myself….” He remarked
solemnly.
“NO!” It was Walter this
time.
“You can’t. I won’t
let you! You aren’t going to decide this
for me. It’s our choice!” He was almost screaming at Winterlocke.
“Kid…. I was just
sayin’…” Winter tried to finish his
sentence but had to contend with Kat now.
“I don’t think so, Old Man!
The kid is right! You don’t have
the right to kick us off the mission. So,
we’ll be coming with… and you’ll just have to be happy about it.” She slapped him in the back of the head this
time. You could tell Kat was irritated
with him.
Winterlocke smiled briefly and rubbed the back of his neck
with his right hand. “Okay, okay. I got
it; we’re doing this together, apparently.”
He turned to the Queen and saw a look of admiration in the Queen’s eyes
as she looked at each of them individually.
“Your group is far more than I expected. My people and I will owe you greatly for this. Ask for anything you need from my quartermaster, and he will supply it. Commander, put them in the suite we use for diplomatic ambassadors. Meet their every need. They are soon to be the saviors of this planet.” She turned and strode out of the throne room.
The leader of the soldiers led them to another section of the palace that was enclosed and lit in peaceful tones. The deep blue hues gave the illusion of waves on the walls and ceiling. The furniture in this room was luxurious and had curves to accentuate the idea of the sea. Walter was the first to plop himself down on one of the plush azure couches. “So, is now a good time to say I plan on finding a way to survive this, and bring you out of the fire with me? Because, I will.” He put his arms behind his head and laid back.
The rest of them took up positions on the different furniture. Winterlocke took a huge armchair, resting his head back on the pillow that was sewn into the chair. “Kid, I’ll take that promise to heart, because it’s been a long time since I have felt this good. If I ever had a family outside of the Templars, this is definitely it. I don’t want to lose any of you….”
Jess turned to them and quietly enunciated her next
statement. “We need to know how the
shield works, and what we can do to ensure our own survival as well. We need to get to work on this now. We NEED to not be sitting on our bottoms,
waiting for the fleet to just appear.”
She got up and walked over to the door, opening it, she talked to the
sentry quickly and then left with him somewhere.
“Well, I guess that’s the sign. Winter and Kat, I take my leave of you as
well. I’ll be in whatever database they
have here that I can delve into.” As
Walter left the room in the same way as his sister, Kat and Winterlocke turned
to each other and just laughed. “You
know, those two remind me of us, a long time ago.” Kat smiled warmly and looked up at
Winterlocke. “You know we have a very
slim chance of winning this one, Kat. I
don’t know if we can pull it off…. I
mean, even if they have an amazing shield technology, how can it prevent us
from dying to the explosions of such a barrage of missiles? I have never heard of this kind of tech, have
you?” Winterlocke looked tired. He looked older than she ever
remembered. “Maybe we just need to look
into it first, before we feel all glum about our possible deaths. What do you think Old Man?” She slapped him hard on the back and started
toward the door. Winterlocke got up and
walked solemnly out of the room with her.
He smiled then. Hope was the only
thing they really had beyond their little family. And Hope made everything better.
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Thank you for adding your flavor to the stew.