Chapter 49

“So, Tom, do you want to come and see Lorena?” Esky asked.

Tom grinned, “That is one reason I came here. Hey Lee, I also need to have a chat with you about some personal issues if you can find some time for me.”

“Well, since you are invited to my place for the Christmas bash, I’m sure we can find a quiet couple of minutes. When you’re ready, just tell your bus to take you to Watson Island. Tomorrow afternoon is fine if you want to spend some time looking around Futura after you visit with Esky.”

“Thanks, Lee, I appreciate you finding time for me,” Tom replied.

“Lord White,” Alis, called out. Seeing she had gained his attention, she smiled and continued. “We have deposited the value of the metals into your account but have some problems with the gemstones.”

Tom went over to the counter, “What sort of problems?”

“Well, they aren’t coming up on our database as coming from a planet we know.”

Tom smiled, “That is probably because they come from a planet that isn’t known by anyone but Lee and me.”

“Can I see the gems, Alis?” Lee asked with interest.

“Yes, Empress Lee,” Alis replied and disappeared into another room. She came back a minute later with a tray covered in black felt. About twenty assorted gems of various types and cuts from about 5mm diameter up to 10mm were laid out on the felt.

Lee touched each gem and frowned in concentration. “Tom, can I see your vambrace please?”

Tom told the brace to appear, and Lee touched each gem on it. “Well, that is odd. I believe both sets of gems have come from a Keltrian system, as I have felt similar resonance in gems that I know have come from that star system.”

“However, they haven’t come from the same planet. The ones on the tray come from a world I don’t know about. It is most likely a terraformed world that the Keltrians founded. I have gotten a similar feel from gems on those types of planets, like those from Harmony if Keltrian magic was used to change things.”

“Well, that’s interesting. Amy said her droids mined these gems on Dara. That is my friend Monte’s world, it has a sister planet called Tara like Utopia has Harmony.”

“Really? Darcy, a good friend of mine accidentally got sent to a planet a few years ago that he called Tara. We have only gotten to talk a couple of times because he said his world wasn’t in time synch with this world or Earth.”

“We had determined that something weird happened, when one of the Keltrian suns blew up, because of the magical portals that link the different worlds. To us, that was about seventy thousand years ago, and we don’t think that it has fixed itself yet or even know if it ever will.”

“That’s all quite probable. Bus says there a fracture in time and space that he can take advantage of. So, if you haven’t been to Dara then where did my vambrace come from?”

“Oh, I found them a few years ago on a little moon that orbits a planet called Sheldon in the Tres System. It is between Earth and Terra and in the system that Overlord Dusty now looks after.”

“A shuttle type ship had crashed on the moon, and the twelve magical boxes were in it. I get premonitions, so I hid them on Fortune not long after I found them. It was only later, when I met you the first time in my past, that I realised that they had behaved exactly as you said they would.”

“It was fun pretending that I didn’t know about you when I talked to you later on the ship. I now suspect the boxes didn’t want me to know what was or wasn’t in the boxes because of you being a paradox.”

“After all, you went back in time to Harmony and then back into the past of Earth with the brace. Yet it was on the ship for you to find in Esky’s and my future. So how did it do that?”

“I can only assume that in your future between those two points, you will have upgraded and you will be physically somewhere else in time and space so that the brace can return to that point in our past so that you can claim it when you did.”

“What?” Lee said and grinned at the bemused expressions of her audience. Time and space conundrums fascinated her, especially since she couldn’t seem to travel any other way in time but in her now. So Far, she knew of several magicians that had travelled in both directions.

Tom shook his head, “Lee, I can only say that this is one weird universe. Amy said that the wizards who installed her on Dara went to get help because the people who had stayed were sick. They were from a wheelship that passed through the system several thousand years before Monte’s ancestors turned up on the planet.”

“Well, that would explain why your vambrace was where I found it and why I don’t recognise these other gems. We have some serious collectors here, so you’d be better off if you put them up for auction.”

Tom shrugged. “Fine by me. I think I deposited enough gold to cover any expenses I have while here. And probably into the future when I visit again.” He grinned as he suspected that it would happen again.

“Artifacts from other planets do really well, here,” Esky mentioned, as Lee gave the tray back to Alis so that she could send it to the next auction.

Nena scoffed, “He has about eight, dimensional storage places filled with artifacts, food and clothing from Dara and Earth.”

Tom grinned at Nena, “Does that include any of the five accessed from the outside of the bus?”

Nena gave him an exasperated look, “Damn, I didn’t find them. Your glamour on Bus must have hidden them from me.”

“That is where the reelers and most of the big furniture is kept,” Tom explained.