Chapter 11

NOTE: This takes place right after the end of The Princess and the Captain, Part 3.

Jim was floating, the twins were a delight to be around, the fact that no one knew he was the father made things a lot easier for him. With the help of Mary all the traitors had been revealed and taken care of, though she didn’t need the money she accepted the position of second in command.

Feeling a little like back when they were in the war, both Willow and Jim returned to the lab. There they had managed to increase shield intensity even more, decreased the power usage on the cloak and increased the amount of power that the MTM could hold. All this was done within a month’s time shocking Mary; she could see that Jim had thrown himself into it till it was all he had.

“Hello Dickie,” Mary said, “Is Jim here yet?

“Yes, Ms. Willow, as a matter of fact, he’s been here all night. He was working on a new device he thought of yesterday. I have no specifics to it as he hasn’t asked for help.” Dickie replied almost in a monotone. Mary walked to the lab door, punching in her code. Waiting a minute, she punched it in again, but there was still nothing. Beating on the door, Mary was getting pissed. Finally activating her MTM, she went inside looking for Jim. Ah! There he was passed out on the cot in the back. “Jim, hey, wake up!” Mary yelled, jumping away. Jim almost caught her, and he woke up swinging, “Good to see you’re still as fast as you were during the war.”

“Sorry, Mary, the habit of sleeping with one eye open even with all my tech,” Jim groaned as he stretched, getting up. “Been working on something. A new idea came to me last night after we finished up with the MTM improvements. I kept thinking that it’d be easier if we had a way to be pushed through the wall and we could move over great distances. Don’t get me wrong, the MTM is probably the best when it comes to short distances. This would cover miles.” Mary could see he was extremely excited, as excited as he was when he thought up the MTM hell. He’d almost killed himself perfecting that idea.

Mary listened as he told of the idea he’d come up with the day before. It did sound like a long distance MTM, hmmmmmm interesting concept. Working all day with Willow’s help, Jim had the start of the apparatus that could cause the molecular destabilization confined in an energy beam and pushed through a solid surface. Having tested it a dozen times Jim was even more excited not wanting to leave, Mary reminded Jim that the babies would miss him if he didn’t return soon.

Plus, there was the fact that his lover was pregnant and would probably be pissed if he was gone another day. Sighing, he knew she was right. As soon as he was gone, Mary went on the comp and started looking into the families that were removed from the records in an official decree to protect them.

Having paid a great sum for the hacking program, Mary started to sift through the over two hundred families that were listed, Damnit! Did almost every other family have a Jimmy for a son? Looking at the time Mary only had an hour at the most as the imperial comp system had the best blocks and alarms, time almost gone she’d narrowed it down to four families, she knew all 4, the Doms, the Jilias, the Muklas and the Stocks.

Thinking it could be any of those four, the problem was the Stocks had been wiped out, repulsing an invasion with highly advanced tech. If she remembered right, there was only one surviving member left alive: the mother and the second wife of a baron or duke, but she couldn’t remember. It was a shame, too. She’d heard that they were really decent people for semi-nobility. Clicking off the comp, Mary decided to visit the hospital where the mother was.

Mary left an hour later, caught up in her thoughts. She didn’t see the figure creeping back into the lab. At the hospital, Mary had to wait for a chance to sneak in. It seemed that the woman was comatose and had been since the attack years ago. Slipping in, Mary was unprepared for what she found there in the bed. She had almost walked out of the room through the wall. There, lying in the bed, was an almost exact older image of her sister.

The shock shook her to her core. Was this woman related to her and her dead sister? Looking at her charts, it appeared she had suffered the attack years ago. Seeing her husband, sons, and daughter killed had caused her to retreat inside herself. It seemed she had been on the only working gun left. The others were taken out after over half the invader’s fleet was destroyed. The whole family was heroes of the empire, sighing Mary looked at the woman again, Mary had something she might be able to use, but it took time to set up, and if she were caught, even her connection with the empress might not save her, damn it, she had to know.

Heading back to the lab, Mary came across Amber walking in the garden, “Mary, have you seen Jim? I haven’t seen him since two days ago when he left for the lab.”

“I think I know where he is. He was like this years ago when he got an idea. He wouldn’t stop till it’s done; come with me.” Mary said as she took Amber’s hand and led her to the lab. As she suspected, the door to the lab was locked, and of course, Jim had the only key. Switching on her MTM, she grabbed Amber’s hand as they phased through the wall. Yup, there he was, asleep, slumped over the table; looking over everything, Mary was shocked that he’d gotten even further with it. Amber stepped up and gently whispered in Jim’s ear, “Jim, hon, you need to come to bed.”