"The Shore of Dreams"
May. 20th, 2022 05:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dochermes"The Shore of Dreams"
7/21/2019
I.
Coming back into the air-conditioned living room, Timothy Limbo exhaled with relief. The lank yellow hair hung down over a forehead beaded with sweat. "The CORBY is secured and inspected, captain. Given three minutes for the impulse engines to warm up, we could take off whenever you like."
From the easy chair where she was pretending to thumb through a magazine, Lauren Sable Reilly managed a smile. "Thanks, Timothy. If Ulgor is in fact sending a strike force, we need to have all our options open."
"How's it going in there?" he asked, jerking a thumb toward the door at the other side of the room. "With your powers, you could hear everything from the next county."
"It's taking all my will power not to eavesdrop," Sable replied. "Of course, I could enhance my hearing. But I swore not to. I feel like they deserve privacy at this time."
Timothy turned toward the third person in that room. "What does our Trom Girl think?"
From the couch, Megan Salenger clicked shut the Link she had been making adjustments on with a tool fine as a hair. Now forty, she had filled out only a little from the lithe gymnast form she had always shown. Under the tousled black hair, the dark eyes remained as sharp and inquisitive as ever. "There are too many variables for me to reach any conclusions, I'm afraid. Melgarin are not much different from Humans. They are longer-lived of course, physically stronger and more durable. But Galvan is very much an exception. His body is charged with gralic force, known as the Legacy of Malberon, and he is as close to being invulnerable as an organic being can attain. This is not usually inheritable."
"I thought the Legacy just settled on a Melgar of each generation at random?" Sable gave up on the magazine and started pacing. Timothy had not seated himself and was still standing by the front door.
"So it is said," Megan replied. The Trom Girl fidgeted, something so rare for her that it alarmed her friends. She found her one foot was tapping on the floor and frowned. "Jin on the other hand is quite different from the Human norm. Her Race is so adapted to undersea life that her body has major deviations. The gill slits on the sides of her throat, the air bladder under her lungs, her third blood cell type with copper base, her vision extending into the ultra-violet... She has many natural modifications."
"But she doesn't lay eggs or anything? I mean, she has her period like any other woman, she never minded telling us about stuff like that," Timothy said.
"No. She is not that much of an alien," the Trom Girl said. "I admit I am unhappy at not having enough data to make an intelligent statement. To the best of my knowledge, this is an unprecedented situation."
Timothy came over and made himself sit down near her on the couch, perching on the edge as if ready to spring back up. "Believe me, you're not any more unsettled than I am. I didn't expect to be this worried."
"It would be a poorer world if we didn't worry about our friends." Sable had folded her arms and was standing by the wide picture window. "Did you get a look in that room?"
"No. I figured Dr Wright knows how to set up what he needs," Timothy said.
"The bed is actually a tilted hard rubber table," Sable told them. "Warm saline solution runs over Jin and out into the plumbing. She needs to be more hydrated than we do at the best of times. I helped Dr Wright set it up yesterday."
"We're so lucky to have him on hand, Sable. He's the only Blue Guide active today and he's been running his clinic and volunteering at Metro General for what, forty years?"
"He retired only two years ago," Megan added, lowering the Link she had been studying. "But he was more than glad to come out here. Between his Tel Shai healing abilities and his practical ER experience, he's the best possible doctor to have on hand. We can trust his judgement without reservation."
Timothy jumped up again. "I need to get out. I don't care if it's like an oven out there, I can't sit still."
"Stay put," Sable told him. "I don't want to order you, Tim, but you should be here and ready."
After a moment, he grumbled and went over to the old-fashioned refrigerator to get a bottle of club soda. Gulping half of it, he suppressed a belch. "How do you think Galvan is taking it?"
"The last I saw him, when he came out to use the bathroom, he seemed okay," Sable said. "Excited. Concerned. Proud. He was a tangle of emotions, but then he never was one to hide his feelings."
After seeing Timothy get a bottle of water, Megan got up and fetched one for herself. "Captain?" she asked while at the refrigerator.
"Eh? No. No, thank you. Timothy, I'm extending my senses to the south. I think I hear something. Send one of your Caspers, will you?"
"Oh, sure." He held out his open hand and a barely visible tornado of force shimmered into existence above it. It looked like a tiny dust devil that swayed and then shot across the room to squeeze out under the door. "My boy is on his way, captain."
"Stand by, Megan," Sable said, still staring out at the hazy orange sky. "We heard rumors that Ulgor had learned what was happening. Even in exile, even though she hasn't been back to her Realm in twelve years, Demrak Jin is still a member of the royal family."
"She is not in direct line to the throne," Megan objected. "I thought they had forgotten her."
"The Gelydrim of Ulgor have ideas about honor and purity that seem wrong to us." Sable shrugged. "Well, of course, they think we are decadent and shameless, so I guess it's all relative."
"My Casper sees them now," Timothy said. "I'm getting his perception. Two helicopters. Coming this way fast."
II.
Sable led her two partners outside. In the late afternoon sunlight, with their shadows stretching out behind them, they moved away from the two story house that Jeremy Bane had bought for KDF emergency use years ago. The nearest neighbor was four miles away, and they faced a stretch of New Mexico desert that was unpopulated for a hundred square miles.
"Air temperature thirty-six point six seven, that would be ninety-eight in Fahrenheit," Megan announced as she took readings on her Link. "Relative humidity is low at twenty per cent."
"I can see them now." Sable stood with her feet well apart, gazing at the horizon. "More than a mile away, closer to a mile and a half. Two Bell 206 copters, blue with white trim marked SILLWELL TOURS with proper ID numbers. They could each hold seven passengers plus the pilot, so we should prepare for a maximum of fourteen Gelydrim. I suppose the pilots are Human mercenaries, no one from Ulgor would be able to fly a chopper."
Like his teammates, Timothy Limbo was wearing the KDF field suit with its boots, snug pants and waist-length jacket. He lowered the helmet down over his head, sealing it around the high collar of the jacket and cut in the Trom power supply. "That's better. Cool and comfortable in a few seconds. Sable, Megan, you should do the same."
"In a second, Tim. I want to study these copters. They're unarmed, of course, they're civilian work vehicles and not military, but I'm looking for signs of modification. Nothing unusual." Sable put her own helmet on but left the clear visor up for the moment. "Megan, you have a lock?"
"Yes, captain," came the answer from behind her. "I have assumed control of their onboard computers."
"Reduce their speed and make them land," Sable ordered.
"Done. Their engines are slowing, rotors are now stopped. Their landing gear was lowered in time." The Trom Girl glanced up from the small flat device she had been tapping away on. "Safe landings for both craft, captain."
"Good work. Both of you. Let's go meet them, I hope this can be handled without bloodshed." The three of them started off at a good steady pace, protected from the environment in their field suits. They were all at top fitness levels and could have marched all day without trouble.
Through their helmet communications, Timothy said, "I suppose Dr Wright could reach us if there's any news?"
"Absolutely, Tim. Don't worry about that. He still has his Link set to our system," Sable said.
"I have my gravity shield disc," offered Megan, "I could fly on ahead or even carry you two if you want."
"Thanks, but we need to give the enemy time." Sable kept walking with an easy stride despite the uneven rocky terrain. The three of them were not trying to set records.
Eventually, they crested a small rise and gazed down on a loose cluster of eleven tall men in grey shark-hide suits lying on the hot dirt or barely sitting up. Long barbed spears and bone-bladed swords were close at hand but from the lassitude shown in their postures, those warriors were in no condition to even defend themselves, let alone attack.
"Sea creatures in the desert," Timothy snorted. "Talk about fish out of water."
Sable could not keep a certain grim satisfaction out of her voice. "You can see why we chose this location for Jin and Galvan."
"They are in immediate danger," Megan announced, taking readings again. "Sensors show severe dehydration, respiratory distress and elevated heartbeats. This situation will kill them soon."
"Yeah, well, they flew out here to abduct our Jin at the most important moment of her life," Timothy snapped through the helmet's system. "I can't feel too sorry for them."
As the Gelydrim saw the three strangers in black approach, they tried to rise. Only one managed to get to his feet, using his spear for support. He was a lanky man with the stiff white hair and broad flat face typical of his Race. "Surface dwellers...." he began.
"Save your strength!" Sable yelled sternly. "None of you will survive the next hour in this sun. We are knights of Tel Shai, and I tell you that Demrak Jin is under our protection."
"We... have our orders," the Gelydra tried to protest but he sank to his knees despite his best effort.
"These are my words. Hear me. We can enable your helicopters to come fetch you and return you to the sea. You will live to report to your warlords. But you must swear by Grelok to leave Jin and Galvan alone from now on."
"I cannot promise for what my lords will order.. But by Grelok's Horns, I will give them your message." The Ulgoran was only propping himself up by holding on to the upright spear. His chest visibly heaved as he struggled to breathe. His mouth gaped and the gill slits in his neck opened and closed futilely.
"Swear it again," Sable said.
"I swear it! By the Horns of Grelok and the Throne of Ulgor."
"All right. Megan, start the choppers up."
The Trom Girl tapped away so quickly at her Link that she seemed to be drumming. "Both craft at normal operations. They are lifting up. They are heading this way."
"Fine. Let them haul these men aboard and take them home. With the AC aboard ship, the Gelydrim should make it that far. Or at least to where they can drink enough water, I don't really care." Sable raised a single imperative finger. "I hold you all to your sacred oath. Better that we do not meet again. Let's go, team," she added as she turned on her heel and started back the way they had come.
III.
Without consciously deciding it, the three Tel Shai knights double-timed their return. They were almost running as they reached the house and hurried inside, lifting off their helmets and coming to a halt in the living room.
Dr Thaddeus James Wright had removed his outer gown, latex gloves and surgical mask to stand casually in dark slacks and white dress shirt. The Blue Guide was a black man in his early seventies, with both hair and short beard which had gone completely white. As he saw the three enter, he smiled wearily.
"I have good news to give you," he said. "Everyone is fine. A perfectly healthy boy, seven pounds nine ounces. Born four minutes after four. He has the traits of a Gelydra. Mother is awake and tired but in good spirits, I honestly think the father is even more exhausted."
"Oh, thank God," Timothy breathed. "I have never been so stressed out in my life."
"We have good news, too," Sable said, placing her helmet down and unzipping the front of her field suit. "The desert has convinced the Gelydrim to go away. We're safe. The new parents are safe."
"We welcome life into the world. A new arrival from the shore of dreams, as the old saying goes." Ted Wright studied the three relieved faces. In a long career, he had seen so many relatives and friends show every possible emotion but he had seldom been more pleased than with what he saw on these Tel Shai knights. "They said you could go in one at a time for a minute. Who wants to be first to say hello to little Demrak Pol?"
4/16/2020
7/21/2019
I.
Coming back into the air-conditioned living room, Timothy Limbo exhaled with relief. The lank yellow hair hung down over a forehead beaded with sweat. "The CORBY is secured and inspected, captain. Given three minutes for the impulse engines to warm up, we could take off whenever you like."
From the easy chair where she was pretending to thumb through a magazine, Lauren Sable Reilly managed a smile. "Thanks, Timothy. If Ulgor is in fact sending a strike force, we need to have all our options open."
"How's it going in there?" he asked, jerking a thumb toward the door at the other side of the room. "With your powers, you could hear everything from the next county."
"It's taking all my will power not to eavesdrop," Sable replied. "Of course, I could enhance my hearing. But I swore not to. I feel like they deserve privacy at this time."
Timothy turned toward the third person in that room. "What does our Trom Girl think?"
From the couch, Megan Salenger clicked shut the Link she had been making adjustments on with a tool fine as a hair. Now forty, she had filled out only a little from the lithe gymnast form she had always shown. Under the tousled black hair, the dark eyes remained as sharp and inquisitive as ever. "There are too many variables for me to reach any conclusions, I'm afraid. Melgarin are not much different from Humans. They are longer-lived of course, physically stronger and more durable. But Galvan is very much an exception. His body is charged with gralic force, known as the Legacy of Malberon, and he is as close to being invulnerable as an organic being can attain. This is not usually inheritable."
"I thought the Legacy just settled on a Melgar of each generation at random?" Sable gave up on the magazine and started pacing. Timothy had not seated himself and was still standing by the front door.
"So it is said," Megan replied. The Trom Girl fidgeted, something so rare for her that it alarmed her friends. She found her one foot was tapping on the floor and frowned. "Jin on the other hand is quite different from the Human norm. Her Race is so adapted to undersea life that her body has major deviations. The gill slits on the sides of her throat, the air bladder under her lungs, her third blood cell type with copper base, her vision extending into the ultra-violet... She has many natural modifications."
"But she doesn't lay eggs or anything? I mean, she has her period like any other woman, she never minded telling us about stuff like that," Timothy said.
"No. She is not that much of an alien," the Trom Girl said. "I admit I am unhappy at not having enough data to make an intelligent statement. To the best of my knowledge, this is an unprecedented situation."
Timothy came over and made himself sit down near her on the couch, perching on the edge as if ready to spring back up. "Believe me, you're not any more unsettled than I am. I didn't expect to be this worried."
"It would be a poorer world if we didn't worry about our friends." Sable had folded her arms and was standing by the wide picture window. "Did you get a look in that room?"
"No. I figured Dr Wright knows how to set up what he needs," Timothy said.
"The bed is actually a tilted hard rubber table," Sable told them. "Warm saline solution runs over Jin and out into the plumbing. She needs to be more hydrated than we do at the best of times. I helped Dr Wright set it up yesterday."
"We're so lucky to have him on hand, Sable. He's the only Blue Guide active today and he's been running his clinic and volunteering at Metro General for what, forty years?"
"He retired only two years ago," Megan added, lowering the Link she had been studying. "But he was more than glad to come out here. Between his Tel Shai healing abilities and his practical ER experience, he's the best possible doctor to have on hand. We can trust his judgement without reservation."
Timothy jumped up again. "I need to get out. I don't care if it's like an oven out there, I can't sit still."
"Stay put," Sable told him. "I don't want to order you, Tim, but you should be here and ready."
After a moment, he grumbled and went over to the old-fashioned refrigerator to get a bottle of club soda. Gulping half of it, he suppressed a belch. "How do you think Galvan is taking it?"
"The last I saw him, when he came out to use the bathroom, he seemed okay," Sable said. "Excited. Concerned. Proud. He was a tangle of emotions, but then he never was one to hide his feelings."
After seeing Timothy get a bottle of water, Megan got up and fetched one for herself. "Captain?" she asked while at the refrigerator.
"Eh? No. No, thank you. Timothy, I'm extending my senses to the south. I think I hear something. Send one of your Caspers, will you?"
"Oh, sure." He held out his open hand and a barely visible tornado of force shimmered into existence above it. It looked like a tiny dust devil that swayed and then shot across the room to squeeze out under the door. "My boy is on his way, captain."
"Stand by, Megan," Sable said, still staring out at the hazy orange sky. "We heard rumors that Ulgor had learned what was happening. Even in exile, even though she hasn't been back to her Realm in twelve years, Demrak Jin is still a member of the royal family."
"She is not in direct line to the throne," Megan objected. "I thought they had forgotten her."
"The Gelydrim of Ulgor have ideas about honor and purity that seem wrong to us." Sable shrugged. "Well, of course, they think we are decadent and shameless, so I guess it's all relative."
"My Casper sees them now," Timothy said. "I'm getting his perception. Two helicopters. Coming this way fast."
II.
Sable led her two partners outside. In the late afternoon sunlight, with their shadows stretching out behind them, they moved away from the two story house that Jeremy Bane had bought for KDF emergency use years ago. The nearest neighbor was four miles away, and they faced a stretch of New Mexico desert that was unpopulated for a hundred square miles.
"Air temperature thirty-six point six seven, that would be ninety-eight in Fahrenheit," Megan announced as she took readings on her Link. "Relative humidity is low at twenty per cent."
"I can see them now." Sable stood with her feet well apart, gazing at the horizon. "More than a mile away, closer to a mile and a half. Two Bell 206 copters, blue with white trim marked SILLWELL TOURS with proper ID numbers. They could each hold seven passengers plus the pilot, so we should prepare for a maximum of fourteen Gelydrim. I suppose the pilots are Human mercenaries, no one from Ulgor would be able to fly a chopper."
Like his teammates, Timothy Limbo was wearing the KDF field suit with its boots, snug pants and waist-length jacket. He lowered the helmet down over his head, sealing it around the high collar of the jacket and cut in the Trom power supply. "That's better. Cool and comfortable in a few seconds. Sable, Megan, you should do the same."
"In a second, Tim. I want to study these copters. They're unarmed, of course, they're civilian work vehicles and not military, but I'm looking for signs of modification. Nothing unusual." Sable put her own helmet on but left the clear visor up for the moment. "Megan, you have a lock?"
"Yes, captain," came the answer from behind her. "I have assumed control of their onboard computers."
"Reduce their speed and make them land," Sable ordered.
"Done. Their engines are slowing, rotors are now stopped. Their landing gear was lowered in time." The Trom Girl glanced up from the small flat device she had been tapping away on. "Safe landings for both craft, captain."
"Good work. Both of you. Let's go meet them, I hope this can be handled without bloodshed." The three of them started off at a good steady pace, protected from the environment in their field suits. They were all at top fitness levels and could have marched all day without trouble.
Through their helmet communications, Timothy said, "I suppose Dr Wright could reach us if there's any news?"
"Absolutely, Tim. Don't worry about that. He still has his Link set to our system," Sable said.
"I have my gravity shield disc," offered Megan, "I could fly on ahead or even carry you two if you want."
"Thanks, but we need to give the enemy time." Sable kept walking with an easy stride despite the uneven rocky terrain. The three of them were not trying to set records.
Eventually, they crested a small rise and gazed down on a loose cluster of eleven tall men in grey shark-hide suits lying on the hot dirt or barely sitting up. Long barbed spears and bone-bladed swords were close at hand but from the lassitude shown in their postures, those warriors were in no condition to even defend themselves, let alone attack.
"Sea creatures in the desert," Timothy snorted. "Talk about fish out of water."
Sable could not keep a certain grim satisfaction out of her voice. "You can see why we chose this location for Jin and Galvan."
"They are in immediate danger," Megan announced, taking readings again. "Sensors show severe dehydration, respiratory distress and elevated heartbeats. This situation will kill them soon."
"Yeah, well, they flew out here to abduct our Jin at the most important moment of her life," Timothy snapped through the helmet's system. "I can't feel too sorry for them."
As the Gelydrim saw the three strangers in black approach, they tried to rise. Only one managed to get to his feet, using his spear for support. He was a lanky man with the stiff white hair and broad flat face typical of his Race. "Surface dwellers...." he began.
"Save your strength!" Sable yelled sternly. "None of you will survive the next hour in this sun. We are knights of Tel Shai, and I tell you that Demrak Jin is under our protection."
"We... have our orders," the Gelydra tried to protest but he sank to his knees despite his best effort.
"These are my words. Hear me. We can enable your helicopters to come fetch you and return you to the sea. You will live to report to your warlords. But you must swear by Grelok to leave Jin and Galvan alone from now on."
"I cannot promise for what my lords will order.. But by Grelok's Horns, I will give them your message." The Ulgoran was only propping himself up by holding on to the upright spear. His chest visibly heaved as he struggled to breathe. His mouth gaped and the gill slits in his neck opened and closed futilely.
"Swear it again," Sable said.
"I swear it! By the Horns of Grelok and the Throne of Ulgor."
"All right. Megan, start the choppers up."
The Trom Girl tapped away so quickly at her Link that she seemed to be drumming. "Both craft at normal operations. They are lifting up. They are heading this way."
"Fine. Let them haul these men aboard and take them home. With the AC aboard ship, the Gelydrim should make it that far. Or at least to where they can drink enough water, I don't really care." Sable raised a single imperative finger. "I hold you all to your sacred oath. Better that we do not meet again. Let's go, team," she added as she turned on her heel and started back the way they had come.
III.
Without consciously deciding it, the three Tel Shai knights double-timed their return. They were almost running as they reached the house and hurried inside, lifting off their helmets and coming to a halt in the living room.
Dr Thaddeus James Wright had removed his outer gown, latex gloves and surgical mask to stand casually in dark slacks and white dress shirt. The Blue Guide was a black man in his early seventies, with both hair and short beard which had gone completely white. As he saw the three enter, he smiled wearily.
"I have good news to give you," he said. "Everyone is fine. A perfectly healthy boy, seven pounds nine ounces. Born four minutes after four. He has the traits of a Gelydra. Mother is awake and tired but in good spirits, I honestly think the father is even more exhausted."
"Oh, thank God," Timothy breathed. "I have never been so stressed out in my life."
"We have good news, too," Sable said, placing her helmet down and unzipping the front of her field suit. "The desert has convinced the Gelydrim to go away. We're safe. The new parents are safe."
"We welcome life into the world. A new arrival from the shore of dreams, as the old saying goes." Ted Wright studied the three relieved faces. In a long career, he had seen so many relatives and friends show every possible emotion but he had seldom been more pleased than with what he saw on these Tel Shai knights. "They said you could go in one at a time for a minute. Who wants to be first to say hello to little Demrak Pol?"
4/16/2020
