Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) (20 page)

"Everything
on the menu is fresh. Or at least was before the big attack a few months back.
I think I heard that they managed to keep things going, but it has to be hard.
So many died. I was already here, being one of the Instructors for my section.
It's part of the duty for us all to take working rotations however, since
things are so new. That way we can keep current on things, and suggest useful
changes. I start a new shuttle pilot section in a few weeks. Have you considered
joining up? When you finish school, I mean?"

She
tilted her head a fraction, so she could look over at him, and then decided to
just tell him the truth. He could be a spy, but if so, he'd already know all
about her, wouldn't he?

"I'm
a Countess. Countess Baker? It's kind of a built in job, I'm afraid. I wouldn't
mind the work, but right now Alice has me building some new food units for her.
They should be used on the moon too, if I get it right. If not... Well, I guess
I try again, you know? It's too useful to give up on. I already had to start
over once today."

The
man looked at her, as if she were joking with him, but he lived in Noram, so
got that no one lied about being a Noble. Not unless dying was on their
schedule.

"Well,
that's a good line of work, if you can get it. Baker... Are you related to
Timon, or The Tor? You look about right, if taller." He didn't seem to be
implying anything about it at least. Tor was a famous adult actor there, after
all. Not on purpose, but Austra really didn't seem to care about that part of
things. Really, only Tor did.

"My
brothers. Some of them. There are a lot of us, so it isn't as fancy as all
that, to be honest. Do you like this line of work?" That seemed a polite
enough question and the man looked at her instead of the ship they were closing
in on, if only for a moment.

"I'm
happy to be helping the war effort. I'm too old for the water navy anymore, but
they took me when I signed up, not caring, as long as I was willing to do the
work. When everything happened, the attacks, we were nearly ready for them. I
was in on the rescue. Working on the Morning Star at the time. We pulled nearly
eighty thousand people out of the way, just in time. It wasn't enough."
That bit sounded very sad.

Because
it was.

"I'm
sorry for your loss. If it makes you feel any better, I've personally killed
fifteen of the clones that did that. It isn't all of them by any means, but
we're working on it. We aren't going to let them win. Not even if all the
Revered Ones in the world have to die to do it."

The
man looked away, his attention going to the orange colored craft in front of
them, which had slowed so they could catch up easily and in a controlled
fashion. It took a long time to dock, and when it happened, the man looked at
her.

"Now,
this shouldn't take long. I'll unload and be ready to return in about two
hours? You can nap in here, if you wish?"

She
smiled and on impulse gave the older man a solid hug. A familial one, like he
was her grandpa in truth.

"I'll
get myself back, probably on the next orbit. Right now I need to get to the
bridge. That should be fun, explaining that some random girl needs to use their
communications gear. It has to be done though." She used the side door,
one that she formed with a thought and was on her way before the fellow could
give her any problems about it. Then, jogging, she worked her way around. First
to the stairs, then down to the bottom front section of the thing, nearly a
quarter of a mile away. Things matched that way at least, all the ships using
the same internal layout, more or less. That way crews from one could transfer
to another without any problems.

She
didn't really know how to manage things at first, but when she got onto the
deck, a plan came clear to her, almost instantly. The man in the Captains Chair
was even taller than she was, and looked slightly familiar. A Noram noble it
was clear, if not one she personally knew yet. Except...

He'd
been there when the Capital had been attacked by the Morris forces. In the
crowd of military fliers.

She
decided to simply use that, if she had to, and walked up to him, still dressed
like a school girl, all in plain and heavy brown.

He
looked at her and seemed mildly annoyed.

"Yes?
Is there a problem in the kitchen again? I really wish we had some more common
girls for that. You noble brats are making a hash of it, aren't you?" He
sounded snooty, but it was unique hearing a giant wishing for more commoners.
Worth putting up with the bit of annoyance behind the words even.

"Sorry,
I just came from the surface. Countess Baker? If you missed it, that's where
County Morris
use
to be. I need to use your secured Austran
communications link? I have important news." She waited for the fight to
take place, for him to demand she prove herself, or something like that, but he
just looked at her for a bit.

"Oh.
Well, as long as you aren't the one burning my supper
every
single
night, I can deal. Over there. Do you need help using them, Countess?" The
last bit even came out sounding relatively polite.

"Nope,
I can manage, I think. I've done it before at least."

It
took nearly ten minutes to get someone useful though, since Brown was off doing
something actually important, not waiting for her to message him. The Prime
Minister came to the device though, which was kind of him. They hadn't even met
before.

"I
got word earlier, from our man on the inside of the Others, that an attack was
planned for Austra in twelve days. Using mechanical devices and dragons.
Possibly other things too. I didn't get a lot more than that, but there are
some two hundred dragons possibly incoming. Expect missiles and explosives.
Probably lasers too. We had all of that when they attacked Callwood a few days
ago at least. A lot fewer in number though."

There
was a soft sound, like an exhalation. It was frustrated though, not angry.

"Well,
thank you for the information, Countess. I'm not certain I know what a dragon
is however? Some kind of attack craft?"

She
blinked, because it was probably going to sound insane, wasn't it.

"Um...
Oh, I know, have you seen the dimensional play my brother Tor made? Where he
was fighting against the Larval?"

"I
have, yes." The voice sounded polite so far at least.

"Great!
The dragons are, well, made like that. They're solid seeming and real...
Dragons. As in the
mythical
beasts? They're larger than houses though,
call it half the size of one of your apartment complexes there? They're hard to
destroy too, being made of virtual particles. Don't let the look fool you,
they're dangerous. Controlled remotely by human agents. Clones in this case. We
have some weapons that will help you with that. I can get you some. We don't
know where they'll be coming in. I... Are you willing to send troops up into
space? We can drop them in on them from orbit. We have some units from Noram to
do that, but you have that air defense system there. We'll have to work around
that."

"Wait,
so real dragons?"

"Well,
they look like that. Think robots? That might be closer." She was proud to
have remembered the term, but didn't know if the man would know it at all. He
seemed to however.

"Drones...
All right. Thank you for the warning, and whatever aid you can provide. I'll
inform the Revered One."

"Ah,
thank you! Please tell him that Tiera says hello? I'll send those weapons to
him. I probably will have to come in and show you how to use them. I'm... So
busy. Call it four days?"

"I'll
try to clear my schedule. See you then, miss. I mean Countess Baker."

"See
you then, Prime Minister Foley."

Then
the connection broke and Tiera reset the device for the next use. It was
important not to let its power supply run down. They had a limited amount of
that, and had to be recharged in that land. It was inefficient, but she wasn't
going to change it that night. As it was she needed to work out when they were
coming back around the planet over Noram.

The
Captain looked at his schedule and then tapped the paper it was on twice.

"We
should be back around to the Western edge in fifteen minutes. Do you have a
transport?"

She
shook her head.

"I
was just going to jump. It's night, but that shouldn't be too bad, If I can
find a point to orient on at all. I have to get back to school, hence the
attractive attire. Lairdgren."

"Oh?
Good school I hear. Now, are you really going to try a nighttime space drop?
That's insane you know. No one does that. Even the Elite forces don't do that.
I haven't done it at all. We have ships for that."

She
let her nose wrinkle cutely and smiled at the man. He had a mustache, but
looked rugged enough to be attractive, without seeming brutal.

"May
I have your name?" She'd been pretty rude, she understood, in not asking.
She was probably supposed to know already.

"Jose
Peterson. Captain of the Midlist, and Countier Second, Peterson."

That
was who he looked like. His brother, the Count. She nearly pointed that out,
but then decided it would be rude. She hated it when people brought up her
family after all. As if she didn't count in her own right?

Instead
she bowed, which wasn't the Space Fleet custom, meaning some of the others on
board snickered at her a bit, but all of them, regardless of what land they
hailed from, tried to hide it. The Captain stood and bowed back, not going as
low as she did. They were on his ship after all and in space. There he would
have probably bowed only slightly deeper for King Richard.

"We
should get together sometime? If we ever have a chance?"

The
man was easily pushing thirty, but he nodded, seeming to mean it.

"That
would be most welcome, Countess Baker. Provided you survive your trip back to
Earth, I mean?"

She
winked, making it playful. "Hey, I've done this before.
Twice
. Once
in the dark. I'll be fine. Let's stay in touch? We know people in common, I
believe?"

They
chatted about that for a while, and it turned out they really did. His fleet
Admiral, her boyfriend Gerent,
and
Smythe of Westend, though Jose only
knew him in passing, he assured her. He was a good man though. Everyone knew
that.

When
it was almost time for Noram to come around she walked to the correct wall and
got it ready for her to leave. Someone would have to fix it when she left, but
no one mentioned it that she heard. This time, going alone, even in the dark,
the trip was a lot more boring. She fell toward the Earth, but slowed herself
so that she was only traveling about a thousand miles per hour for most of it,
then, about ten thousand feet up she killed her speed almost totally. She was
in the right region, she thought, but it was cloudy and she had to go lower to
see the land, which nearly didn't work.

That
meant she had to search for the school, and until daylight she didn't have any
luck at all. It was a bit embarrassing, because she got to the practice area
late. On the good side, everyone else was standing around, waiting for her, and
it was clear they were all just getting there, too. Late, since it was a lot
closer to seven than not, she thought.

"Sorry
everyone. I went into space. Now, let's start with some running? We'll do that
every day from now on." She had Guide, Sam, Ali and Sheri there. No one
else came at all. For all she knew they weren't even asked. She didn't needle
Sheri on that though.

They
didn't run far. Only two very slow laps around the school.

Then
she lined them all up at the pells, as Kolb moved in, looking at them all closely.
He didn't comment really, just letting her set things up. When Karen finally
got there, about an hour later, she seemed refreshed, but didn't look the same
way as the day before, wearing her new face. That got Kolb to question her, but
Tiera just waved first, before he said more than "Who-"

"It's
Karen. This is how she really looks now. She's also throwing off pheromones, so
be careful that way. Nothing as intense as Julie White, but keep it in mind
everyone." Then she had to explain what that really meant. The four
hogging the pells just nodded, as if it made sense.

No
one spoke however.

After
a while Sheri stopped and set her stick down. It was on purpose, but a mistake.
Tiera was on her in a flash and smacked her gently on the behind with her own
weapon, which was a real wooden practice sword.

Karen
yelled at her!

"Pick
it up! It's a trap! She'll start really beating you if you let your weapons
drop!"

She
smacked Sheri a second time, and then a third, getting harder each time. On the
fourth her shield kicked in, but the girl didn't wait for Tiera to turn it off,
just scrambling for the stick, which she rather clumsily tried to defend
herself with. It was adorably cute.

When
Sam lost his, ten minutes later, it was Kolb that did the beating and it was a
lot harder. So much so that the boy ended up running away in fright. Karen
caught him by the front gate and made him go back, but the weapons instructor
merely bowed to the boy.