Chapter 29

The crew headed for the settlement ship.

Since James stayed to help Dusty deal with the prisoners, Darla and Beanie had decided to take his and Aaron’s place on the freighter with Chris and Que. As the four mages flew back to the settlement ship, they discussed the mission.

“Well, we have captured the pirates,” Chris commented.

“No, only one group,” Darla said.

“What, there are more?” Chris asked with worry.

“Yes, I quizzed some of the colonists while you were gone, and we can’t account for all of the missing ships. Only half of them disappeared in this system. I’m sure that another group captured the other ships. Plus, two freighters went missing coming from Terra, but they never made it here.”

“So, we have to do this all over again?” Beanie put in.

“Yes, I think they were happy to let Rupert take the blame. No one has declared that they own the other planet and from what Queen Lee said, I have a feeling that Earth doesn’t know about it either. She only went looking when Rupert made it known that he was here.”

“So, they are being sneakier about their operation,” Que put in.

“I’d say they might be better organised, too,” Darla replied. “We may need to be a lot more careful in how we approach the Dos System.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Chris added. “Well, we are stuck here for at least a month or two before we can investigate. I wonder if we can find some of the old crew members amongst the survivors and have them fly the freighter and take the prisoners back to Earth for us.”

Chris’s Mad chimed before anyone got to comment, and he took the call, “Hi, Dusty, what’s up?”

He listened to her, frowned for a bit, and then grinned.

“That’s great news. We’ll get the next group organised and stay until all of the passengers are immunised. They can start stripping the ship while we ferry the last of the kids down.”

“Oh! Well, I’m sure everyone would much prefer that option, as it will be a lot less work. I think you will find that the passengers would still prefer to have some planet time before they take off again.”

“Yeah, I’ll chat with the Captain about it. Later, Dusty,” he said and then closed the call.

Looking at his companions, he said, “Queen Lee has apparently supplied Dusty with a new spell. When we come up for the last group, we are all going to do the spell. It should remove all traces of the pathogen from the ship, so we don’t have to strip it.”

“Damn, that is great. I was not looking forward to having to replicate all of their bedding and stuff,” Beanie said with relief.

He added, “As it was, I was putting it off so I could finish the stuff they needed for the community hall and shower block. I think these people are going to have a hard time getting the kids back on the ship.”

“So, do I,” Que put in.

“Personally, I think they will be far safer here,” Darla added. “I have a feeling the Farestar may need us to travel with them. I still like your idea of finding another crew for the freighter, Chris.”

“Oh, that was Dusty’s other message. We’re not going back to Earth. She is going to dump most of the prisoners off on an island, and the satellites will record the island as being unsafe for habitation due to volcanism.”

“She has released some of them, mostly the girls and some of the men who were original settlers. They will remain cuffed for their own protection,” Chris informed them.

“A good solution, and I like that she is marking the island as dangerous. I bet we will be informed if anyone goes to land on that island, knowing Dusty,” Darla said.

“Yeah, she does like to cover her bases. There is one seriously smart woman behind that pretty facade. Mind you, it is easy to get fooled that James is just her lackey. He doesn’t miss much either,” Beanie added.

“I’m just glad they are on our side,” Que put in. “Have you noticed that, of late, they seem to use a lot more magic effortlessly?”

She got nods all round.

“I have a feeling that they are far more talented than Pat despite her having more training and the same number of gems. They only need to do something once, and then they seem to be able to do that spell again without even thinking about it.”

“You’re telling me, I know we aren’t even in their dust. They left us for dead in the magical department a long time ago,” Chris said as he shook his head in wonderment.

“I suspect that Queen Lee is grooming them, especially Dusty, to rule the Tres Estrellas System and possibly even Terra in the future since she has her hands full with her two planets and looking after Earth, even if they don’t want her too,” Darla speculated.

Beanie chuckled, “That will be something to tell our kids and grandkids.” He then changed his voice to sound old, “Did you kids know that we once flew and fought beside a Queen Wizard and her consort?”