Chapter 5: Relatives

Raina found Zarka and DT in the dining area an hour or so later.

“Where is KJ?” she asked as she helped herself to coffee. The other two grinned at her like Cheshire cats. “What did you do to him?” she asked.

Zarka said while shaking her head slowly, “DT was very naughty.”

DT blushed at Raina’s enquiring look. “Oh?” she said.

Zarka nodded, “Yes, very, very naughty. I thought them Russians could be naughty, but DT is a bad boy. Poor KJ couldn’t decide if he was coming or going.”

DT laughed, “Oh, he did a lot of coming.”

Zarka laughed, “Yes, we both did that. It was very stimulating, thank you DT.”

Raina decided she had more than enough details and changed topics. “So how far to the next jump point Zarka?” Ben had distracted her, and she had missed the last one.

Zarka said, “About fifteen minutes. I should go double check the shield generator first, as it was fluxing a little after that last jump.”

She kissed DT’s cheek and headed to the lift. The primary controls for the ship’s engines and shields were under the Helm. Raina had found the whole ship fascinating and had been enjoying learning about how it operated.

Ben joined them for coffee. He gently kissed Raina before he sat with them. “So has Zarka given any hint as to what we are actually doing out here?”

DT answered, “Not that she has let slip. I think she is trying to work out the why, as well. Her mother seems to have left some very cryptic information. She is just following the script she was left with.”

Raina agreed with his assessment. DT and KJ often considered themselves the muscle, but Raina knew better. Her old team leader and she had worked out pretty quick if you wanted to know the lay of the land you sent DT and KJ in first.

Their boyish good looks and natural charm could get information out of a stone. Zarka had said they were ‘truth seekers’ and she believed this was true. They always came back with little bits of information that when tied together, gave you a complete picture of what was happening.

They had avoided several disasters on different missions because they always re-planned their missions on the boy’s information. It looked like in this case they would just have to wait and see what happened.

They headed into the helm and took their seats. KJ joined them and the smile he gave DT suggested that whatever he and Zarka had done to him was more than acceptable, from his perspective. Raina smiled when he sat beside DT and took his hand in his.

DT looked at her, and she smiled back, so he relaxed and left his hand in KJ’s. He suspected their relationship had a taken a turn and be honest he had no problem with it. They had connected when they first met, and that connection had only deepened over time.

Zarka had simply made them re-examine how they felt. He doubted that either of them would willing give Zarka or the other up. It may have started out as sex, but it had become more, much more.

He had found that just being with them felt amazing and so right. KJ squeezed his hand, and his soft look told him that he loved him too, making DT smile. They seemed mentally in tune with each other, and he was sure they bonded on a deeper level.

Ben flicked his eyebrow questioningly at Raina, but he said nothing. He decided that if the boys were being intimate with Zarka at the same time, then their own relationship was bound to be affected.

Zarka joined them, and they didn’t have to wait long before she initiated the jump sequence. They watched the void form and then held their breaths as the ship dropped into it. Ben felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise, and his guts swirled in a mixture of anxiety and amazement at what was happening to them.

This was the stuff of science fiction, and he wondered how he could possibly put it into a report and have his supervisors believe him. He watched in total fascination as they chased the photons of light through the void, and then they popped out the other side.

They all stared at the vista. “Oh, crap!” exclaimed Ben as he looked at the arrangement of planets spread out before them.

“Toto, we ain’t in Kansas no more,” he commented.

“Greetings, you have entered Delta Pavonis Space, please state your business?” a female voice said.

A female voice answered, “Greetings, we are visiting relatives.”

The five people on board all looked at each other and thought, ‘Relatives?’

“That’s nice. Any particular people you’re planning on visiting?” the first voice asked politely. Off air, she commed Queen Lee to say they had an exciting development and an unknown type of vessel in their space.

They waited but the second voice didn’t answer leaving them to say something. Raina said, “Hi, I’m Raina Walsh, and I’m here with my friends Ben Vella, Darren Topple, Kori Jackson and Zarka James. We have come here from Earth.”

“Are you related to Dana Walsh and her daughter Trixy?” the voice asked.

“Dana! Dana Walsh is here! How can she have a daughter, she is only three years old?” Raina asked in shock.

There was a pause from the other end. “Hum, something is hinky here. Hang on, Queen Lee wishes to come aboard,” the first voice told them.

They all gasped when a beautiful red-headed woman appeared in front of Raina and Zarka. Lee looked the five people over, “What was the date on Earth when you left please?” she asked.

Raina answered, “The fifth of May, twenty fifty-seven.”

Lee looked them all over again and then grinned. “Hate to tell you this Raina, but you’re younger than your grand-daughter. The Earth date in this time of space would be closer to the fifth of May, twenty-one hundred, if you were in that solar system.”

They all looked at each other shocked. “Bloody hell!” Ben cursed. “My cousin Kylee would be fifty-six years old. Is my dad even still alive?”

“Kylee Vella was your cousin? What was her father’s name?” Lee asked in interest.

“He was my Uncle, Paul. He stayed in America when my dad Peter went back to Australia. She was thirteen when we left Earth. She had a couple of other cousins on her mother side, but I never knew them,” Ben said.

“Her cousin Helen was my mother. Your nephew Wizard Kyle is also here. I’m sorry, but Kylee and your father are both deceased. Your half-brothers John and James however, are still on Earth with their families. The twins were born the year you disappeared.”

“I’m sorry, but in my history, you people all went missing in twenty fifty-seven. When I started investigating some of the ancestries of my wizards, my father-in-law Robert Watson mentioned that you four were on a mission in Russia and that you never came back. Apparently, it caused a stir when they got a cryptic message from you, Ben,” she said.

“I told them we were going to Mars,” Ben said trying to digest what Lee had said. The fact she was also his niece by marriage and that he had half-brothers was a little mind blowing.

Lee nodded, “Yes that is what he said. Dana has been trying to find out why you and her mother Raina disappeared, and her grandfather Storm Green. David James, the father of her daughter Trixy, also disappeared. They believed his ship blew up, but no debris was ever found.”

“Mother, is what happened to David,” said Zarka. They all looked at her. “David was trying to avoid a meteor shower and accidentally jumped back to Earth from Mars. But he ended up back in my mother’s timeline, and she tried to help him get back his. So he hasn’t turned up back up on Earth either?”

“No, I can’t find any records of any of you coming back. I wonder where David and Storm Green went then. I can’t find any records of them coming here either. I have found several planets where the Keltrians have been in this arm of the Milky Way but so far no Keltrians.”

“We believe Storm used a Transportation Ring in Mt Mulu but so far I can’t get that Ring to take me anywhere but places I know of, or have found through other Rings,” Lee told them.

Lee knew it would be easier if she could find a co-ordinates book but so far, she hadn’t to her frustration. She would keep looking. She had to get lucky eventually. She also wanted to locate some more of the Keltrians as they fascinated her.

Raina re-joined the conversation and asked, “So I have a grand-daughter called Trixy?”

Lee grinned, “Yes, she is twenty-seven, her brother Ricky is twenty-one and their sister Jackie is three. Your twin great-grandson and his sister are also three. The other great-granddaughter is a one-year-old.”

Raina was glad she was sitting down. “Bloody Hell!” she exclaimed. Ben seconded what she said. He had great-grandchildren!

Lee looked at the boys, “Topple and Jackson, huh? You guys have relatives here as well. My two bodyguards as they like to call themselves are your nephews I believe. They also have children.”

“Why are they, bodyguards?” DT had to ask.

“Here they are a special type of mage called Shields. They are what we call ‘Seekers of Truth’ and shields are effectively our Police Force. They both used to be in the Armed Forces with my husband Sean Watson,” Lee explained.

The boys turned their bling on, and Lee had to go look. DT said, “They are like us. We were Space Force and Zarka said our bling is called the same as our nephews.”

Lee looked at it carefully, “That’s interesting, it has the same design as Trixy’s and her husband James’ boxes. They found them in a very deep cavern near where they live. She is now a Lord Wizard like Sean.”

“We believe the boxes belonged to a race called the Grandteli and were owned by a Tristian and his wife Trinani, but their people didn’t make it back to the planet below we call Harmony. We believe that they were in the process of moving here but had returned home about the time of whatever the catastrophe that threatened the Keltrians, happened.”

They all looked when Zarka gasped. “Oh wow! They were the Lord and his apprentice that had been on board, my mother. My human mother Kelli was their daughter. Most of the planets you have probably found would have been seeded by them. Kelli will be sad that they didn’t end up on a planet. I hope mother didn’t try to go home before the suns blew up.”

“What was your mother?” Lee asked Zarka, intrigued.

“Oh! She is a being called Zara that was designed to operate spaceships. Her ship is massive compared to this little ship. This was one of her shuttles. Mother said that David called her a brain in a jar and that she looked like a sea sponge from Earth’s seas.”

“He called her a SAI, a self-aware artificial intelligence but part of her is biological, and part is mechanical like her data stores. She can make the data stores and David said they were like her bones.”

“David was sorrowful about never seeing his daughter Trixy, so mother borrowed his DNA and Kelli’s and added hers to make my sister Sarah and later me. Sarah was put on his ship to help him get home, but it looked like they ended up somewhere else. She put me on this ship and left me on Earth. I still don’t really know why,” Zarka finished.

“Was that her voice that said that we were here visiting relatives?” Ben asked.

“Yes, it was. Actually, if we are just visiting, where are we supposed to be going next?” Zarka wondered aloud.

“Hello, the following recorded messages will play according to the information found upon arrival. Message one-eleven, the program has detected people that we seek, are upon this planet.”

“Message one-thirteen, it is requested that Ashley Mac Janus is to join this ship. Message one-fifteen, it is requested that Payton Ahurn is invited to join this ship. Message one-twenty, when the crew are ready to move to the next stage of the mission and are aboard the craft. Request the ship to proceed with Mission Objective Three. That is all for now.”

They all looked each other. “What the hell is she playing at?” Raina said.

Zarka shrugged, “I know not. Mother told me that sometimes too much information can be a bad thing when it involves time travel and affecting the flow of destiny.”

“The flow of destiny?” Lee inquired.

“Yes, I believe when she was trying to find David she had flipped between many time periods and different planets. She didn’t give me her records at this time, or where she went but when she created me, she said it was to ensure the flow of destiny was maintained, and it was what the Goddesses wanted of her,” Zarka said.

“Well...” Lee started.

She was interrupted by two men appearing in the Helm. One was saying, “Queen Lee you...” He stopped and looked at DT. The other man also looked at the people in the helm and his eyes stopped on KJ.

Qu (Quintin Jackson) said, “Holy cow! A blast from the past huh!” He grinned at his uncle. He then looked at the others. “Let me guess, Raina, Dana’s mum and ... hum. Are you related to Kyle Vella?”

Ben grinned at him, “Apparently, and I’m also Dana’s Dad.”

“Well, it looks like a party on the Island, huh boss?” Qu said with a big grin.

Lee nodded, “Yes I believe a reunion may well be the order of the day Qu. How about you two transport your uncles and introduce them to their families, and I’ll take the other three. I suspect this ship can put itself into orbit, yes?”

Zarka said, “Yes, it is capable of that. I don’t believe it will leave this space until the appropriate people are on board.”

“Me neither,” answered Lee cryptically.

Zarka programmed the ship to align to the planet and to maintain orbit.

They all then linked to Lee and she transported them to Watson Island. Lee handed them over to her husband and her second wife, Donny. Before she left to organise the reunion she asked Donny, “Do you know a Payton Ahurn? I’m sure you have mentioned her before to me.”

Donny smiled and nodded, “Yes, she is Lady Jay Ahurn’s second daughter and apparently my sister. She is related to the Faerie clan through my mother having a dalliance with Jay, but she didn’t grow up in our community.”

“I barely know her. I believe she is visiting with the De Nars’ as she wished to get to know my mother since her mother has only recently admitted who her other parent was.”

“She is tall for a faerie and has unusual pale aqua hair. She is about twenty-seven I believe and has been studying engineering or something like that.”

“Does she have a partner?” Lee asked.

Donny shrugged, “Not that I’ve heard. Mother said she seems to be drifting as if she doesn’t know what she wants to do with herself.” Lee kissed her consort and blinked away.

Donny and Sean happily showed their visitors around their home. They were all intrigued by the Dome home and found the kids charming. When Helen, Sean and Lee’s oldest daughter saw Zarka, she took her hand and closed her eyes.

The six-year-old then looked up at her and smiled, “You are an interesting being. One of your sons will be my favourite consort.” She let go of her hand and skipped off.

Zarka looked at the others and then Sean. He replied, “Sorry, she does that. I’m sure she has the brain of a much older woman in her head.”

Zarka grinned, “I know how that feels.” She tucked that bit of information away and wondered if she was supposed to have a future event. The girl hadn’t said which son so she’d just had to wait until it happened. She liked the idea of having sons.

She looked at her DJ and KJ with speculation. She had already decided they were her boys. She did not intend to give either of them up. They too had bonded strongly, and she believed they wished to stay with her. She was sure her mother had sent them her way to be her husbands, and she now had a possible reason why.

‘Destiny indeed, mother, ‘ she thought.

To say the reunion bash was one affair the wizards of Delta Pavonis wouldn’t forget in a hurry is an understatement.

Lee’s house was packed to the rafters within an hour of the visitors arriving in it. It seemed they were related to just about every wizard from Earth somewhere in the last five or six generations.

Lee was delighted as people mentioned marriages or affairs and who was related to whom and when. She had collected information from them in the past. However, actually seeing and talking to the visitors had jogged from their memories some of the relationships they knew of and had forgotten or not thought important when Lee had first asked.

It gave Lee a massive amount of new information for her genealogy charts. Zarka had become her new best friend, as she was able to put the information of anyone pre-dating twenty fifty-seven into her database and then cross-reference it, as she talked to people.