Chapter 22: War Preparation

~~ Delta - Aug/02 - (Earth - Feb/2095) ~~

Saturday morning Lee contacted the other wizards and told them they were needed for a quick meeting.

Andre’ had split a small section of the diner off into a couple of function rooms for small parties of twenty to thirty people. Lee contacted him, and he told her that the Blue Conference Room was theirs. So, she passed the information onto the other wizards, and they all meet in the Blue Room.

Andre’ came in and placed several more trays on the table. He made sure the tea, hot chocolate and coffee were set up to his satisfaction. The dishes were filled with small sandwiches, cakes, biscuits pikelets and scones perfect for morning tea.

Kim nearly took ten years of his life, when she appeared in front of him when he turned to go out of the door. Andre’ waved a finger at her, “Little lady you nearly gave me a heart attack. Get Lady Lee to teach you how to scope the area, before you land.”

Kim looked at Andre’ contritely and said, “Sorry, Cheffy, I can’t have you dying on me, Tyson would kill me.”

Andre’ laughed. He had met Tyson’s appetite on several occasions now. He was amazed at what that boy put away. He was sure he had grown three centimetres since he had been here. He was actually taller than Kim was now. He patted Kim’s arm and headed out to organise feeding others.

“Kim, do you need some assistance?” Lee asked.

“Nope, I was just turning up for the meeting. Justin will be here in a minute. He was putting away his tools,” she happily told them as she joined the table and helped herself, to the plate of cream-filled cupcakes.

Lee looked at her. “How did you know of this meeting?” she asked.

“You used the general com to the other wizards, so I came. Why have I done something wrong?” she asked as she looked at the shocked faces.

Just then, Justin appeared inside the doors, “Sorry, I’m a bit late, I was at work.” He told the group as he walked over to join Kim and helped himself to the tray picking the same type of cake as Kim.

“Did you hear me call the other wizards too?” Lee asked.

“Sure did. You used the same frequency as we were using on Clarksville, so I assumed I was included,” he said. He looked at the others. “Sorry did we jump the gun and turn up uninvited after all?”

Lee looked at Allan, and he shrugged and grinned back at her. He couldn’t help it if his kids were terrific. Lee laughed as she had to agree. They were terrific people, and she had a lot of time for both of them. “Well, since you are here, I see no reason not to include you. By the way, Kim, how far have you gotten?”

Kim grinned, “Clarksville and back.” There were gasps around the table. Justin grabbed her and rubbed his knuckles across the top of her head.

He was probably the only one other than his father and Jim, who could do this, as Kim was very tall. “Only because I came and got you back after the first time. But you are getting better.”

“Why did you not call me when she got stuck?” Lee asked Justin.

Justin looked at her in surprise, “Gary has had me popping back and forth for nearly two weeks. I’ve been searching out some good gem deposits for him and Nick. We hit an awesome deposit of Emeralds in the hills behind the compound we built.”

“We have been clearing the overburden at the mine entrance to start digging. We plan to dig under in select locations and not open cut. Since I can direct the men in the right direction and not have then digging willy-nilly. That way we stick to your rules,” he happily told them.

“Hum,” said Lee. “I have a feeling you may not be a Rookies for long. Do you have any trouble with energy levels?”

Justin thought about her question. “Not really, I found as long as my crystals are charged and I’m near some other power source, I can just borrow some power from it to help me jump. It’s gotten easier each time I do it.” Then he grinned, “Although Gary might have to wait for his linger to recharge before he can get home.”

They all had to laugh. For many in the room, they had just learnt something new, which would assist them all.

Lee just shook her head, surprised that she hadn’t consciously thought of doing the same when she knew she could borrow energy from the crystals. She guessed that she had been doing it on an unconscious level for some time.

‘Kids!’ she thought. Well, she had told them they might not be able to teleport, but she hadn’t told them they couldn’t. So obviously, they had to try and even succeed.

“Well sit down everyone, and I’ll tell you what the meeting is about,” Lee said. She went on to explain about the Navigator that had been on the Firefly and that she had suspected he was some sort of wizard. She now believed he was her predecessor, Lord Wizard Jahn.

She, however, believed that he didn’t have his full powers anymore since she wore the bling. She did believe that he had gotten access to a mage box. He possibly had it hidden on Earth as a backup. Apparently, the old wizards had not been very trusting and liked to hide their possessions.

She had since learnt that Wizard Rah had also liked to hide things, and Jahn was looking for items, to help increase his powers. She could only guess that he either wanted his old bling back or was hoping to find a box that was better than what he had.

She then told her audience that she suspected Rah had either built new boxes or found other boxes. Helen believed her box was in the cavern Jahn was trying to get into. So, they needed to go find out what he was up too. Also, they had to find out if the Giants needed or wanted their assistance.

This started a lot of excited babble as the Genteli discussed the existence of Giants.

“Wow,” said Aeron. “There are stories of their being Giants on Rah when my ancestors were there. Some of the Genteli was even supposed to have stayed. It’s one of the reasons we believe there are fewer families in our city and why we didn’t develop to the same sizes as the other communities did.”

“I’ve also heard stores that very tall Genteli traders visit the towns in the southern regions, mostly for minerals and grains. They could easily have come across from Rahia. I wonder why they never travelled further up the coast?”

Lee thought about this. From the Satellite, she had a close view of the people, and she believed they had interbred. “Do you know if Genteli and giants can breed?” she asked for confirmation.

The Genteli present shrugged. Aeron said, “In my readings, I have been led to believe the Giants like the Pixs are cousin races. We have only successfully bred with Pix, so it is possible. The Prols are supposed to be the Burgis’ ancestor race. Interestingly the Pix are the one race that can and do cross-breed with all the races until you humans turned up.”

Lee nodded also believing it was a fact from what she had seen and learnt, “Rah may have put a compulsion spell on the Giants but not the Genteli because they came later.”

Aeron said, “Then it’s possible the descendants that still had more Genteli blood than Giant could travel further, but would still be compelled to return. Interestingly, as close as the island is for some reason, my people don’t go near the island.”

They all agreed this was possible. The talked about the logistics of what Lee wanted to do. Lee wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to just drop in on the village unannounced.

Lee popped up a map on the conference screen. “I think if we from Jahnville blink in and pick a spot to the north of the main village say here and get the camp and protections set up and then you guys can pop in when we give the all-clear.”

“Hey Sean, do you think Qu, DT, Abe and Gary would like to do a little reckon work with you, me, Kyle and Tony tomorrow?”

All four of his old army buddies were Shields. She would have suggested the girls, but they were all pregnant. Sean laughed, and Tony grinned, “I’ll probably have to pick myself up off the ground when they rush me.”

Lee nodded, “I think Zak, Xavier, Carther, Mary and April may like to come as well.”

Aeron, Allan and Uren grinned. Aeron and Carther got on a lot better these days, and he was a good soldier. Mary and April, who had initially been assigned to the transporter from the Ulysses Warship, were now both living at his compound. They were also married to Carther.

Aeron wasn’t sure how he managed to score both girls, but he knew he and Carther, were the envy of many of the males. It was rare for a Genteli man to have two wives at the same time in their past as it normally went the other way.

Though he had noted more Genteli and Pix marriages since Zan had decreed, it was unlawful to stop them from marrying. Many of the Pix women who had been long-time bed slaves were exchanging their status to wife and perfectly happy to do so.

Uren had no problem having her husband Xavier, being included. And Allan was happy to have his husband Zan as well. The new group were all shields as well.

Sean suddenly sat up and then grinned, “Karri and the dads want to come too.”

“Shit, I forgot they were coming today. We will have to go get them,” Lee said.

Sean shook his head, “Nope, already here. Karri bought them all. Apparently, they too got your message about a meeting. So, since they were packed, they came anyway.”

“Clever girl,” Lee said. Aeron had also suddenly perked up. A few seconds later, the five new arrivals appeared in the room.