Surprise Melody Flintkote. Part Two
Copyright© 2019 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 15
“Would you, please, stay still during a mission?” asked the young lady.
She stepped out of the head as JW was just beginning to step through.
That stopped him.
“Why?”
“It’s too hard for the machinery to keep track. Oh, we know. It’s just fifteen minutes here ... but it’s days or weeks ... or even months there. The equipment is centuries old and it’s beginning to ‘forget.’” She said.
Then she started to look around.
Zoe had an idea and blocked her path back to the head. “Come see our boat,” she said.
“Oh, I couldn’t,” the girl replied. “They told me to come right back. Is that a rocker?” She was looking at Zo’s custom double-wide chair. “It looks comfortable.”
There was just a hint of longing in her voice.
Zoe gave her a little push towards the chair. “Have a seat. Try it on for size. You might like it.”
The girl, for that was what she was, not more than fifteen, said, “Oh could I? Just for a moment. I’ve been under instruction all night.” She sat ... relaxed ... and fell asleep.
“Shush,” Zo whispered. “JW. You’re not going today. Go get Mel and bring her here. Do not disturb Cyn.”
Following JW to the head, I saw an unknown girl asleep in Zo’s chair. Zoe held a silencing finger to her lips. Motioning to JW to ‘stay,’ Zo took me to the saloon.
“Who is that?” I asked.
“An emissary from Crossroads ... probably a Cassandran teen. Evidently disposable, there’s a good chance she’s an orphan,” Zoe said. Then she explained what the girl said, “The machines that run the portals are faulty. I think they don’t care if she gets lost in the woodwork.
“Let her sleep. Let me run down and have JW rock her gently so she doesn’t wake up.”
And that’s what we did.
She slept 18 hours. We had a decent quartering 15 knot breeze about a meter above the sea, the water was flat calm and stayed that way for four days. Never seen anything like it. We made 180 nautical miles before she woke up. That put us a more than halfway to Great Nicobar Island. The ‘Grand Denouement’ (the great reveal) put our passenger in a panic.
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