Chapter 14

The couple didn’t expect to be spending the night in a comfortable bed.

However, neither complained, as the availability of washing facilities was not to be scoffed at either. “We need to fix up a better bathroom in the cave,” Bette commented as she stood under the rain like shower coming from the top of the shower cubicle.

“Ditto, I am rather partial to a good shower even if that pool is warm. Sharing my bath with flickers isn’t my idea of fun,” Gazza replied.

“Petal and Basil will probably like to have the shower too. They are very clean people and love the shower you built for them at Linda’s,” Bette replied as she slid her hands over Gazza’s skin. He turned as she got to his hips and she found something else in her hand.

Gazza moaned as she did delightful things and she soon had more of him to hold onto. When she dropped to her knees, he braced against the wall and sucked in a breath. Her warm mouth was soon doing even more delightful things to him.

“Oh fuck! Bette...” he moaned out and flexed his hips wanting more. Bette complied and several minutes later his groans turned into grunts as his body stiffened. He shuddered when she swiped his sensitive organ a couple more times with her tongue before standing and grinning at his slumped body.

“Oh no, Gazza!” she shrieked several minutes later. Gazza ignored her protest as he was happily returning the favour. He loved Bette’s noises when he licked and sucked on her. Her little shudders only spurred him on to bring her to satisfaction. He finally released her when she shrieked his name again and shuddered on his face.

Sated for the moment, they finished washing each other. They then used the air dryer before going to look for clean clothes. Asha had explained what the strange unit that resided in the corner of the plush room was for when she had sent them to the room.

Gazza was in seventh heaven when he discovered it was a replicator and recycler unit. All of his sci-fi fantasy’s rolled into one. While some designs of clothing were not to his taste, he did find some items that were close enough for walking around in the bush. They looked a lot like his fatigues but were a camel colour rather than camouflage colours.

To his surprise, Bette elected to get the female fit of the same clothes. The slight difference in her design allowed for her wings to be free but a fold in the material meant if she absorbed her wings; it would look as if she had never had them. She could release her wings from the back of the shirt with no trouble either.

They both loved the new boots and asked Asha if they could get some spare sets before they left. “Of course, make as many items as you wish to take with you. I do realise that you can’t stay but I do hope you will come and visit me often, after all, I do belong to you two now.”

“Why do you belong to us?” Bette asked perplexed as she laced up her new boots.

“I have been unclaimed for millennia. You are the first Wizards to find me, so I belong to you as does everything contained within this ship. I have already activated the security so that no others can enter but you two and who you wish to come here with you,” Asha happily informed them.

“Asha, we came in through a hole where there is a missing panel and it has a tree in it. What stops anyone else coming in the same way?” Gazza asked.

“Oh, that was removed to let my droids out to collect resources for me. Even if a stranger could come in that way, they wouldn’t be able to access anywhere past there with the new security protocols in place. I turned them off as soon as I detected you near the ship.”

“So we can remove anything from this ship for our own use,” Gazza checked.

“Yes, it all belongs to you. I believe you’d call it ‘Salvage rights’, Gazza. So everything, including me, is yours,” Asha stated frankly.

“Well we don’t have to look for new furniture, now,” Bette grinned.

“I wonder if Asha would give us such free rein if the flickers moved in.” Gazza replied.

“You are friends with the intelligent simians?” Asha asked with interest.

“Yes, they can mind-talk to us. We seemed to have been adopted into a tribe,” Gazza replied.

“And two of them have magical items,” Bette offered.

They were both surprised by Asha’s gasp. “Oh, now I understand why you want an AI assisted communicator for them,” she said excitedly. “Hum, maybe you should access the labs on Level nine. Wizard Garett liked to spend a lot of time in the one in this section. He said it was far as he could get from the others for some peace and quiet.”

“Hum, I bet he was responsible for our new items being in that treasure room too,” Bette replied.

“Quite possibly. I knew we had a full set of decad Wizard items and about two hundred lesser boxes to go with them but I didn’t know about the sextet set being onboard. I would have detected them coming onto the ship. I think you are correct Bette and he made them in this section. I don’t monitor for unworn items once people are aboard,” Asha replied.

Gazza and Bette headed out to find the lab.

“So what are we going to do with the decad boxes?” Bette asked Gazza as they stepped into the tube.

Gazza shrugged, “Keep them for our kids, I suppose. By the time that they are old enough, we can hand over the reins and bugger off. This is a big planet and I’d love to explore more of it, especially if I now have a lot of healthy years ahead of me.”

Bette hugged his arm, “I do like that idea, it has merit.”

Glad that the problem was solved, they followed the little droid to a door. “Asha any chance this little guy can talk to us?” Gazza asked looking at the droid.

“I will answer if you ask me anything?” it replied, sounding a lot like a teenage boy when it did.

They both rolled their eyes at Asha’s chuckle. “Fine, do you have a name?” Gazza tried.

“No, master, just a designation,” it replied.

“Well then, in that case, I shall call you, Possum,” Gazza declared.

“Oh Gazza, please let me name our children,” Bette cried.

The droid looked at Bette and then at Gazza. “Thank you, I like my name and I am honoured to receive such a fine name,” Possum replied.

Gazza smirked at Bette. “Well good. Okay Possum, let’s see what Wizard Garett was playing within here. After you,” he indicated.

“I’m sorry master but only a Wizard can open that door,” Possum replied.

Bette sighed and turned to the door, “Open.” The door slid back and they entered with Possum trailing behind them.

They both looked at the contents of the huge room in amazement. It was set up with several different types of furnaces for smelting metals. Different moulds were present on racks. They found one set for making rings, another for the medallions and several for different sized diadems.

Two machines were set up with several spools of wire of different thicknesses being fed into them. Gazza found them intriguing and managed to turn one on. They watched in amazement as the mesh for a vambrace was spat out when he pushed a button. Gazza looked at the settings and dialled them way down. He then turned it back on again.

While he was playing with the machine, Bette was checking out the set of draws that held an array of gems. She had no idea what they would all be worth but they were graded in size and different cuts. On another bench was an array of boxes in several sizes. She noticed they were all open waiting for whatever spells were required to be put on them.

Several boxes had a collection of items set out in front of them but she detected that they were all inert. She picked out an item and realised it was a communication pad on a short band of the mesh, not the full vambrace. It was with a medallion. The medallion was bigger than the one she’d had before and had two gems and a large Quaz crystal on it.

Also in the box was a small cylinder thinner than her little finger. It was about ten centimetres long and had a Quaz crystal in one end. She told it to open. She was surprised when it tripled in length and she waved it around.

“A wand,” she said aloud, quite delighted in it. “Redel why don’t I have a wand?” she asked her brace.

“I have no idea, mistress. If I may, try clipping it to the long side of the pad on the brace.” Bette closed it and tried to clip it in place. To her surprise, it did and then it glowed for a few seconds and then went dull again.

“It should work now mistress,” Redel replied. “You can of cause put better spells on it but it is now linked to the vambrace and you can use it as a stylus on the pad or as a wand to deliver your spells.”

“Thank you, Redel. I did like having the other wand. I like this size for smaller spells,” Bette replied quite pleased, as it felt right to have it. She found another one and took it over to Gazza who had moved to a different bench. She watched what he was doing.

He had slid a tiny replica of their brace over a long, thin, square-topped arm of an anvil. He added three gems and then placed some Quaz crystals on it from his pouch. He placed a small flat device in the centre. He was about to do a spell when she interrupted him.

“Darling, you might find this easier,” she said. She clipped the small wand onto his brace and Bluey linked it to the brace.

Gazza removed it and looked at it critically for a few moments. He waved his left hand over it and it flared brightly again. Satisfied, he put it into his left hand and then waved it over the little brace. He stared hard at the brace and then looked around the room.

Spying the boxes, he went and selected two of the smallest boxes. He also picked up two of the little wands that were in a box with a dozen other spare wands. He dropped a spell on one of the wands and it shrank by three centimetres. He dropped it and the brace into the small box he had picked. He then did the same to the second brace and wand.

“Okay, my darling, here goes nothing,” he said. He grabbed her hand and waving his new wand as he said a series of incarnations over the two small boxes.

He let go of Bette and touched the lid of one box. He grinned at her manically and then shouted as he threw his arms out to the sides, “Muh-ha-ha-har. This evil genius has harnessed the magic of the universe!”

Bette just shook her head at him and touched the other box. “Well Mister Evil Genius, you had better make some for the kids too,” she told him and then walked off to look at something else.

“Well, I was impressed,” said Possum in a dead-pan voice.

Gazza gave him a squinted-eye look and then he shrugged. “Me too,” he said off-handedly and happily went to find the items to make the new boxes for Sage and Thyme.

Bette glanced sideways at him and had to hide her chuckle.

They played in the workshop for a while.

Gazza made some new packs for his flickers. He found the workshop had a replicator unit in it and he found a nice simple backpack designed for a child. The magic boxes that he had made fit into them nicely and they still had room for a lot of other junk, once he added the ‘Dimensional storage space’ spell.

He then went and got his and Bette’s backpacks. He upgraded the dimensional space and stuffed a lot of things into them that he had the replicator spit out and other interesting items that he found in the room, while the replicator was busy with his orders.

Bette hadn’t been idle and Gazza noticed that a set of the boxes were now closed and stacked in five piles of four. He went over to see what she was doing. She smiled at him and took his hand before placing her other hand on one of the stacks. He felt the spells she was conjuring and joined her. They then did the other four stacks.

He handed her another new backpack and she kissed his cheek before sliding the boxes into it. “I think that was enough fun for today, I’m starving,” she told him.