Dying Embers 3

Dying Embers 3

    “We need to do this Miss Love,” O’Berine insisted as he followed her down the narrow, so called historic, hall to the photocopier. “For Drake’s sake if for no other reason. You yourself have said his behavior concerns you. If it is the result of his exposure to Bard’s energy during the fight I might be able to quantify the effect.”
    “You have run quite enough tests Doctor,” the woman stated dryly as she began rustling through the colored printer paper. “How long will it take you to analyze the data you have now?”
    The doctor huffed and shrugged his wide shoulders at the remark. One rough hand came up to brush back his ginger hair and he opened his mouth to renew the attack when the faint ringing of Love’s office landline sounded. The woman slipped lightly back to her desk and snatched up the receiver.
    “Ecology Desk, Elkhorn National Park,” she chirped brightly into the mouthpiece.
    The man watched her face brighten then crease with concern. She wave at him to close he office door and he obliged, stepping forward as the hit the speaker button.

#

    “It’s a perfectly safe mission Sis,” Drake was saying into the base phone as he scrambled to get his specially made set of BDUs ready. The cumbersome scrambler that had been tacked onto the base of the cordless always made it a bit awkward to handle the drab grey device. “No Ceas, no Cult, no Songmaster. It would be a real help to Thomas. I probably won’t even have to do anything. Just stand around and look official until Thomas can get a retrieval team to collect the debris.”
    Love ground her teeth quietly as she stared out the window of her office at the rising Oregon sun. She had managed to catch a few hours of sleep last night but it had hardly been enough. She noticed O’Beirne looking at her with that clinical concern on his face that had put off so many of his patient and she forced a weak smile. The problem here was Drake, not her, the boy was simply growing up she reminded herself; and mothers had gone through this since time immemorial, many recently with both wars in the Middle East, and even if she was only his sister Drake was her responsibility. She had been looking forward to spending some of her time off with her oldest brother. They had things that needed to be addressed, things that had been left unspoken since the rouge Ceannairian had kidnapped her. She was about to give a reluctant approval when a large freckled hand dropped to her shoulder.
    Love glanced up at O’Beirne with a sense of slight trepidation as Drake pressed his case on the other end of the line. The man had that sparkle in his eye that boded mischief. However when he began scribbling on a scrap of note paper a wide grin spread across his friends face.
    “Yes.”
    “I mean it’s… wait, what?” Drake stuttered, caught off guard by the woman’s sudden capitulation.
    “Yes, you can go,” Amadahy clarified reaching for her bug-out bag under the desk, “under one condition.”

#

    “Both of you?” Thomas blinked in surprise at them across the screen.
    “Yes,” the biologist stated firmly. “If this mission is as safe as you make it out to be then it should be fine if I come along. I have more than enough accrued leave to make it happen.”
    “Ms. Love it’s just a matter of getting you the proper clearance,” Thomas protested. “This is the Russians we’re dealing with. It is not easy to bluff…” the officer trailed off when he saw the determination in her eyes.
    He shot a murderous glare at the tall Irish man behind her who was smiling with angelic innocence. This in no way sounded like an idea the straight-laced, book following Love would come up with. The twice court-martialed ex-army doctor however…
     “I have higher clearance when it comes to any matter related to our friends than you do. Other than the planning of a direct military action,” Love stated flatly drawing his attention back to the present.
    “We don’t plan military actions,” the officer snapped.
    “Of course. Then I have perfectly acceptable clearance levels.”
    “A currier will meet you in Anchorage with the proper documents,” he sighed rubbing his forehead, “along with the mission briefing. Thomas out.”
    “All right, let’s get this show in the road!” Drake called out cheerfully, slapping O’Beirne on his broad back and striding over to the controls for the portal generator.
    Part of him was a little disappointed to have his sister along on what was supposed to be his first solo mission. But a much larger part of him than he was willing to admit was vastly relieved. Bard or Sever had always accompanied him before, had been there to catch his mistakes, to protect him when the Songmaster or the Cult had shown up intent on capture and who knows what else. Granted his big sister didn’t have the raw power that either of those warriors did but then again there was less chance of the kind of trouble he had encountered before on this mission. They also wouldn’t be running into the Franklin clan given that they were avoiding the roads so he didn’t have to worry about that, but still it was a comfort to have the woman who had raised him for the the majority of his memory there.
    “Now you just hold up a minute Drake,” Biologist Love said firmly.
    Drake stopped entering the coordinates and looked at his sister nervously, comforting from the perspective that there was very little in the world scarier than her when she got in one of her moods.
    “What exactly is the weather in Anchorage right now?”
    The young man stopped and glanced down at his the cotton cameos he wore, understanding dawning on his face. He pulled up the weather channel and glanced over the forecast.
    “Cloudy, and in the low twenties,” he said.
    The woman went to the maroon Subaru and pulled out two heavy coats, gloves, hats, and thick socks. They bundled up and Drake leapt up to the control panel.
    He called out to his sister to confirm the position of the three furthest focal crystals and noted the flashes carefully when they came. The six heptagonal shards began their impossible dance in the air moving along the set x,y,z coordinates. When they paused, the light generators sent out an intense beam that struck each unit and began refracting through the fractal network of the seven sided crystal lattice. The beams escaped on a precise trajectory and struck the next in the series even as they energized the main target.
     A spider web-like lattice began to become visible as the wasted red light radiated out from the support crystals. Finally the seventh and center crystal manifested and the heart of the hanger suddenly erupted in a wash of red light that swirled around until it collapsed into a rapidly spinning sphere. The transport portal looked for all the world like a dying star laced through with swirling violet energy. Bole had assured Drake that the sight was even more beautiful for the Larians who could perceive far beyond the narrow band of light the humans saw, but the young man could not imagine how it could even if. The light stretched on far out of the wavelengths visible to humans.
    Brother and sister approached the baseball sized orb and one tendril licked out to touch them. Drake flashed an excited grin at Ama and she returned it. It never did get old. The portal swelled and encompassed them in its corona. The world turned red and the sensation of being both pulled in and anchored to the spot threw the youth’s mind into spirals. Then the light pulsed and let them go.

#
   
    “That is always beautiful,” the small, nearly reverent, voice drew the attention of the retired army doctor and he grinned down at the bright blue eye in the chubby face.
    “Aye it is Em,” O’Beirne stated cheerfully. “Now let’s get you home to your babysitter –“
    “Caretaker,” the little blond boy interjected whit a huff. “I am not a baby any more Doctor.”  
    Aonghus rolled his eyes and gave the child a generally friendly shove towards the maroon Subaru. Despite his best attempts to convince the woman that it was safe she utterly refused to let the boys near his Harley sidecar. The slim bright eyed Donny was sitting lightly in the wagon already buckled. The man wrestled the older boy in and they pulled out of the hanger leaving the Larian medic alone with his equipment.
    “Buckle that belt now,” Aonghus ordered crisply when he heard the tale-tale click.
    Emerald huffed and sat sulkily back in his seat.
    “You know we thought you be good for her,” the boy muttered fiercely.
    “Em!” Donny squealed in horror.
    The man glanced at them in the review mirror as they rolled along the old logging road. The darker boy was desperately trying to silence the larger without unbuckling and not managing very well.
    “Say what now?” the man inquired in amusement.
  “We all thought that Ama would like you enough to go for you after you saved Drake,” the blond clarified, dodging a tossed library book. “But now I figure that she just isn’t ever going to get a man. Which is too bad, cuz her whole department agrees that she could relax better if she just had a boyfriend or-“
    “Emerald Waters!” O’Beirne snapped out, admittedly fighting back a chuckle. “What is said around the break room is not to be repeated.”
    “But it’s true!” the boy protested.
    “You cousin is a perfectly brilliant, healthy, fulfilled woman,” the man continued briskly. “She certainly doesn’t need anything from me, and neither of us is looking for a relationship.”
    “That is too bad,” Donny murmured regretfully.
    O’Beirne was about to snap at the smaller cousin but the little voice actually sounded sincere and he closed his mouth and settled for rolling his eyes. As if he had the time… The man was quite grateful when he caught sight of the aged Hispanic woman sitting in the stiff backed chair.