Chapter 4: Mars

They finally joined the other three in the kitchen.

DT had been cooking and teaching Zarka, with a very attentive KJ helping. Raina wondered which boy was going to get lucky because she had a feeling one of, if not both were also going.

She had been as surprised as Ben when Zarka made herself known to them. She had also realised Zarka didn’t really need her to fly the ship. She was obviously capable of doing it herself, since she was apparently, also the ship.

That was an explanation, which Raina wanted in more detail. Zarka was obviously humanoid. She looked little different to any other human female except for the lack of a belly button and being bloody gorgeous. Going by the boy’s reactions to her, she was seriously ramping up their libidos.

When they sat down to eat, they got Zarka to explain how she came to be on the ship. She explained her weird DNA and how her mother or creator if you prefer, had designed her to look after the ship.

Her mother had learned how to jump through time and space, but apparently, she didn’t have as much control as she liked. She said that she left this ship in the time she did, as Earth didn’t have satellites back then.

She had told her that she would leave instructions in a time closer to when she had identified the people she was there to collect so they could find her. That she would know when they turned up.

“Why did she wish us to find this ship?” Raina asked.

Zarka shrugged, “She didn’t really explain, and I’ve searched my data banks again and again. All I know is that she wanted you to fly to Mars for some reason.”

Ben frowned. “Why Mars? There is nothing there yet. They are still organising the Moon colonisation. They will set up there before they get to Mars. We’ve only managed a visit to Mars so far.”

Zarka shrugged again, “Honestly I don’t know, she just told me to stock the ship and to take whoever managed to board me to coordinates near Mars. Oh! I was supposed to give you something.”

She waved at them to follow her and entered one of the storerooms. Raina asked, “So it wasn’t necessarily us you had to collect?”

“Nope, mum said there were several variables in play. I’ve had three false alarms. One in 1943, just after they shifted me from the cavern where mum had me land. They had a hard time working out how I got in there,” she said and then giggled.

“But whatever parameters mum set refused him entrance. So I had to wait a bit longer. The second was 1972, and he was a real honey. I wouldn’t mind him aboard, but he didn’t have what it took, apparently. The third was 2020. She also didn’t fit the bill.”

“I do like those Russians. I had a lot of fun visiting the miners over the years. I got excellent at Durak, and it kept me in funds. I’d only stay a couple of weeks to a month, scratch my itch and then head back here and sleep for a while.”

KJ asked how she could sleep for five years at a time. She explained that she had a hibernation chamber. It was Keltrian Technology and was made by the same people that made her mother and this ship. They were from clear across the galaxy and had been wandering around space looking for new planets to settle.

She opened a cupboard in the back of the room that had ten boxes in it. “Okay, since Ben is the oldest he can go first. Ben, do any of the boxes glow for you?”

He looked at them and them and pointed to one. “That one seems to be backlit,” he said.

“Well pull it out and place your hands on the top and ask it to open,” Zarka informed him.

So Ben pulled it out of its slot, wondering what this was all about. He put it on the crate behind them, placed his hands on it and said, “Open.”

They all heard it click and Ben looked at Zarka when she said, “Woo hoo! Looks like I got the right people. DT it’s your turn.”

“The right people? What’s with the box of jewellery?” Ben asked as he looked at what was in the box, perplexed.

“It’s your mage’s box silly. How can you be a magician without your bling?” Zarka replied matter of factually.

The four of them all looked at each other dumbfounded. “Magicians?” Ben said in disbelief, thinking ‘Yeah right!’

“Oh! Sorry. Yes, there really are magicians and you four are known as mages. These aren’t the best boxes, but you have to start somewhere, right?”

Raina grinned at the stupefied faces of the boys. “Yes Zarka, we have to start somewhere,” Raina replied.

DT and KJ both just shrugged and were able to select and open a box. Then Raina had her turn. “Zarka, what if they all glow?”

“Seriously? Wow! Umm, okay touch each one and pick the one that calls the loudest to you,” she tried.

So Raina touched each of the seven boxes. She came back to one on the top row and said, “I think this one. It’s like when you talked to me in my head, but I can’t really understand it, it is almost like it is singing.”

She touched the boxes on either side of the one she had pointed to again but went back to the middle one and pulled it. It opened for her, and they all looked at the contents.

Zarka checked out the items. “Interesting, DT and KJ both have the same three gems, topaz, opal and diamond and the eye symbol is on the top on their medallions. That makes them Psychic mages. They will find that they are Seekers of Truth. Mum said people who like law enforcement often have this set of gems,” she told them happily.

The boys liked this idea. Considering they were in the Armed Forces and spent most of the time as bodyguards, it felt right to them.

Zarka then looked at Ben’s bling. “Diamond, opal and topaz with the book at the top. That would make you a Lore mage. It is interesting that Nature and Psychic are next. While this combination is found with healers, yours seems to indicate that you’re more interested in the why of things.”

“I’m generally included in the team to look at the big picture of what we find, I like puzzles,” Ben offered. Zarka nodded that was a good explanation of why this box selected him.

She then looked at Raina, “Ruby, emerald, diamond and amethyst with the flaming torch at the top. That makes you an Energy mage with a strong alignment to the earth and the natural flow of energies.”

“I’m surprised there is a box with four gems. Normally apprentice wizards have four gems and mages only three. Hum, I guess that makes you a High Mage, I suspect that you are the person I was sent to find,” she said cryptically.

She then explained the items in the boxes, “The diadem is your source of power to help you learn better and retain knowledge. The medallion helps you store more energy and provides you with a limited shield. It also warns you if you are in danger by getting warm. The ring helps you to power your spells and direct them.”

She then indicated the wand, “The wand is really cool. If you tell it to open, it opens into a staff that you can use either as a walking stick or to protect yourself. But be warned, you can’t deliberately try to hurt anyone without provocation. If you do, the medallion will pulse hot, and the bling may even desert you.”

“If you say ‘wand’, it will appear, and you can get it to lengthen by degrees as well. If you push it to your side and say, disappear it does. But it is still there when you want to use it. The other items also vanish after you put them on.”

Zarka picked up one of the books, “This is your spell book. This stylus can be used to write in it and doesn’t seem to run out of ink or the book out of pages. My data banks say that if you think about what you want to achieve and open the book, it will often open at a page with a spell that will help you if it can.”

“Sometimes it flips to information to help you rethink the spell you want or to answer a question.” She grinned at them, “Well that should keep you four occupied until we get to Mars.”

Ben asked, “What sort of magician are you Zarka?”

She shook her head, “I’m not a magician silly, I’m a ship. I do have spells on things from the old wizards, but I can’t do magic myself.”

The four new mage’s all looked at each other. DT knocked fists with KJ, “Mate! We get the coolest missions. This stuff feels marv.” He looked at KJ inquiringly, “Hey mate, do you sense that the bling is happy to be with you?”

KJ grinned back at him, “Oh yeah! Hey! Let’s go down to the hold, I want to try out this wand.”

DT nodded enthusiastically. As he went to go past Zarka, he grabbed her and laid a big wet kiss on her. “Thanks, gorgeous,” he said and then winked at her. “And if you want more of that, you’re welcome to come help yourself later.”

He smacked her gently on the arse and then followed KJ who complained, “Damn DT, how come you always get first dibs?”

DT answered, “Well you never know, she might pick you first, mate. I’ve seen her looking at your arse, and that wasn’t all she was looking at.”

Zarka cracked up with Raina and Ben at the by-play from the boys. Zarka grinned at Raina, “I wonder if they like threesome’s?”

This cracked Raina up, “Bloody hell Zarka, if you suggest that to them, you had better like the consequences. That pair, are just as likely to agree.”

Zarka grinned, “I wonder if they would like some help with the finer points of how to use a wand.”

Raina replied with a wink, “Well, if it’s batons you’re interested in, I’m sure they can teach you a thing or two.”

“Bye,” she said, waved and headed out the door.

Ben wrapped his arms around Raina and nuzzled her neck. “I hope they use one of the boy’s rooms, as I reckon she is a screamer,” Ben said. He pressed his hips into Raina’s and rubbed. He said, “Feel up to a bit of screaming?”

Raina took his hand, and he followed more than willingly.

Several hours later, they all got up and assembled for what they thought of as lunch.

Zarka reported that the Russian military was gone. A fresh storm had come in, in that morning. As soon as it had blown in over the hanger, they had left.

Raina asked, “Hey Zarka, can you locate our ATC?”

“Yes, they didn’t find it. One team came close, but the snow started falling, and they headed back here, why?”

“Will it fit in the cargo hold?”

“Yes, there is more than enough room. We can pick it up for you. It is probably better to not leave it here. The Russian’s would be able to trace it back to your people if we did,” she determined.

They all agreed. It was actually about two p.m. local time, and the shadows were short. Zarka said it would be a good opportunity to leave and said to Raina that she could drive as she had promised.

Raina said, “Thanks, but I think I’ll let you drive this time. I’ll have to get the ATC, so I’ll get changed and meet you all in the helm.” So the others all headed to the helm with Zarka.

The boys had left the co-pilot seat vacant for Raina. Ben took the one to her left, and the boys made themselves comfortable in the back seats behind Zarka. Ben had noticed they both seemed very content and wondered how their session with Zarka went. DT winked at him and smirked, and Ben guessed he had his answer.

Not that he had any complaints. When he had woken after the most incredible sex that he thought a bloke could experience, he had found Raina curled up in a ball wrapped around her pillow. He realised it was how she liked to sleep. He had reached out and touched her, and she had lain very still for a moment.

She had then rolled over to snuggle up to him. He wondered if he had touched her like that four years before if things would have been different between them. He was still pissed that he had caused the misunderstanding.

He believed that his inexperience with women had been part of the problem. He always got tongue tied around a girl that he fancied. High School had been a complete washout. He had even got through basic without screwing a girl.

He knew he wasn’t a bad looking bloke and if didn’t feel desire for a girl he was fine talking to them. However, he’d grown up without a mother and sisters to train him how to deal with women he did desire.

He had only ended up with Justine because she had pursued him. It was only later he had found out she had a thing about virgin boys and got a kick out of initiating them. He did hold the record of the one bloke she had stayed with the longest.

He wondered if the fact he seemed to take a long time to come for her that kept her around. He suspected that while he had enjoyed screwing her, the fact he knew in his heart that she wasn’t the one, it had affected his performances.

After he had laid eyes on Raina, he found if he fantasised it was her that he was screwing he seemed to come faster. It probably wasn’t fair on Justine, but he couldn’t help how he felt.

Then he went and fucked it with Raina. As a result, he had a three-year-old daughter he had never met, and he hadn’t had Raina in his bed. He wondered how they were going to sort it all out.

He glanced at Raina, but she was absorbed in what Zarka was telling her about the ship. He still couldn’t believe that she wanted him. That she had let him be her first. Not being able to remember that night still pissed him off.

The lady was scary smart and sexy as hell. She could have had her pick of the blokes in their unit. He had seen how other blokes watched her and had listened for rumours, but all he had heard was that she never said yes.

He even remembered hearing someone jokes that the Ice King and the Ice Princess should get together and thaw out a bit. He grinned. Damn did they thaw out or what! He shivered at the delightful memories.

The problem was that he still didn’t know how she felt about him. She had let him back in her bed and seemed to want him there. For that matter, as much as he had desired her since he first laid eyes on her, he wasn’t sure he was the right bloke for her. She could do a lot better than him.

As much as he loved studying different cultures and why people do what they do, and live like they do, and interact with others and their surroundings, he didn’t seem to be able to see where he fit in. He could find the right girl for his mates, but not his girl.

A problem for another day, he decided. Right now, he had to get this mission finished and then he would see how things went with Raina and if she wanted to stick around with him a bit longer, he sure hoped so anyway.

Whether he was the right bloke for her or not he wanted her.

He looked up, as the roof above them creaked and groaned loudly and finally lifted up.

Zarka had started the engines, and he could barely hear them. The ship began to rise straight up, and he watched as the room shrunk below them and then the ship peeped up into the empty hanger.