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Tarafau paced back and forth on the long balcony of the Sanglarka lodge overlooking the valley and looking beyond to the snow and ice-covered mountains in the distance. He had always thought this a peaceful place, but he knew no peace at this time.
Jenny was gone. Burt was dead. Yes, the rebellion had begun and the Inseni on the planet seemed to be well subdued. Yes, the secret science lab with its wizards had been successfully sabotaged by the Mookookie and many of their current projects were in ruins, to the perverse delight of the scientists who Emperor Peril had called wizards. Yes, the slaves and Groga and Mookookie were busily setting the planet to rights, cornering and sequestering the captured Inseni, those who had capitulated quickly, which was actually most of them but at what cost?
It was true that no Alliance troops had been involved in the fighting. They had reserved those for battles to come, if needed, but their role was yet to be determined. Jenny and Burt’s instincts had been good. The Inseni on the planet had been little more than “front men” for a much larger plan. All of this time the Alliance had been so convinced they had found the true enemy, and it had all been smoke and mirrors.
Elizabeth had returned from the chaos of the Insenium revolution brimming with self-loathing. She hadn’t protected Jenny. She hadn’t protected Burt. She hadn’t even been following orders at the time she had helped Jenny set all of this up. No one had known about their little side plan. Jenny’s bodyguards were furious, both with themselves and, to be frank, with Jenny.
Everyone had thought they had impressed on the young Gatekeeper the absolute necessity for her to be kept safe. They thought she had understood how important it was for her to be held in safety while they implemented the war strategies they had so carefully planned out.
It had been nearly a week now with no mental contact from Jenny. There had been no choice but to contact the alternate Gatekeeper, Anela, and bring her to the Sanglarka headquarters. For now, she was staying in Jenny’s suite in the lodge, guarded by the three bodyguards, Lyra, Nona and Mynn, who were now taking turns sleeping on a cot in the bedroom.
Interestingly enough, Anela’s key was not activated as the official Gatekeeper key. They had tested that and were both relieved and frustrated. Relieved, because it probably meant Jenny was alive somewhere, if possibly not well and still in potential danger. Frustrated, because there were certain things Anela would be unable to do without the authority of being the official Gatekeeper.
They would continue to intermittently test the key, but Anela said she would probably know if the Gatekeeper key activated and named her the official Gatekeeper.
Tarafau had tried to reassure Elizabeth that, although he was not pleased she had not confided in him, he did understand. Jenny had something about her that made others want to do as she said. It wasn’t a conscious thing on her part, and he was convinced she was unaware she even did this.
Elizabeth had confessed she hadn’t known the full extent of Jenny’s plan, but had acceded to her requests for transport to the little thicket on the far side of the Inseni palace. She was now beside herself. He had sent her home, not in disgrace, but to the loving ministrations of her mother. She would return in a few days.
In the meantime, the rest of the team was still reeling from the loss of Burt on top of the disappearance of Jenny. Of course, they lost team members from time to time, due to injury or accident. In addition, the entire earth council was still trying to recover from the loss of Ingot and the disabling of Myla. Liliath was at Alliance headquarters, reorganizing and bringing her new team up to speed on what was going on with the mission to prevent the Insenium from plunging the multiverse into war on a scale that none of them could fully comprehend.
Liliath was competent and would be a great leader, but the timing of the disaster at Alliance headquarters was particularly bad with the new information that now disrupted everything. Not that they hadn’t put plans into place in case there was more to this than Emperor Peril and his apparent schemes, but now they had a new force to reckon with. This creature Gall, who was evidently also Inseni, but not of the same race as Peril and his people, was truly the element that had been missing from their plans.
Gall appeared to be the true power behind Peril’s throne. How they would get more information, Tarafau had no idea. But for now, they were all focusing on trying to figure out what had actually happened on Peril’s planet. Tarafau was soon to meet with some of the Daringi who had participated in aiding the revolutionaries, and he needed to have his head on straight, as Lizzie would have said.
New agents were being prepared to move forward with Burt’s mission as soon as they could be briefed and placed in key places. They had taken advantage of the scientist’s lab planet to launch their nearly imperceptible but powerful communications satellites that would allow communications within the Inseni dimension via the Dimensional Alliance communications network.
They had placed a temporary gate to link the Alliance gate network to the portal in space just off of the scientist’s planet. However, it was unclear how long that resource would continue to be available. There were no planetary defenses, and Tarafau was unsure how much Gall valued the tech these scientists had come up with for Peril. He wasn’t even sure if Gall knew about the card that Bob and the Alliance scientists had been so concerned about.
It was so frustrating! There was so much he didn’t know. Part of him wanted to slam his fist into something, anything, to express his anger and frustration, but the part of him he had so long disciplined to the contrary kept him from expressing himself that way. As a young man his temper had been fiery and quick. It had taken a long time before he realized how little expressing that anger had helped him and how much it hurt those around him as well as his chances to have a happy life.
When he had first met Amenia, he had been attempting to master that side of himself. She wouldn’t allow him to court her, after he had expressed that desire, until he got it well in hand. It seemed to take forever, but the incentive of a lifetime with Amenia had been the one thing that could keep him on track.
He couldn’t think of Amenia and not smile. She was truly the light of his existence and after hundreds of Earth years he couldn’t imagine his life without her. Her patience, kindness and brilliance never ceased to delight him.
He brought his thoughts back to the issue at hand. He WOULD find Jenny and would find her safe and undamaged. He only hoped it would be soon. Unless he was mistaken, there would be no easy fix to this newest challenge and none of them would be safe until they had defeated the inimical forces of this new face of the Insenium.
He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he actually jumped slightly when Arvid planted himself in front of him. “Earth to the big old cat!” he sent gruffly. “Is there anyone in there?” he asked pointing to his head. “I’m not sure that there is. Your people have arrived. Lova is setting them up in the dining room, which is convenient, since lunch is nearly ready. You’d better get in there. They’re a pretty morose bunch, from the look of them.”
Tarafau entered the room wondering what his people would have for him. Their instructions had been to not participate in the battle except to defend their lives. The agreement with the slaves and Groga who had wanted to rise up against their masters was that they wished to fight their own battle, rather than be “rescued” by outside forces.
Only the Daringi warriors who had agreed to those terms had been sent. Their only job was to help the Groga and slaves participating in the uprising get from one dome to another, waiting in reserve until called upon. Jenny, Burt, and Elizabeth had done a tremendous job in coordinating all of that in the short time they had been given.
The Mookookie simply rode along with agreeable slaves or Groga as part of their clothing or equipment. All in all, it had been timed very well and had been going as planned, with fewer casualties than one would expect in such a revolt, mainly due to the element of surprise. Then, Gall had appeared and with him, troops that none of them had expected.
They still had no idea how he had done that, as he hadn’t appeared to have used the portal in the Inseni palace. The Alliance strategic and logistics teams had planned so carefully with the information they had been given. The victory should have been cleanly decided based on what they thought they had known.
However, although they had won the day by the time Gall had abruptly withdrawn his troops on his departure, it would be a long time before things were normal again, if they ever were.
He stood before his own troops now, who had not yet taken their seats, standing at attention to honor their commander. He felt himself a sham. The intel he had provided for his men had been faulty. As a result, they had lost eighteen of his valiant warriors out of the two hundred he had sent. Two hundred of his Daringi, when given the proper coordinates, could move thousands of troops in a matter of minutes, assuming those troops were well organized and prepared for their journey.
To the naked eye, the process would have looked like an army melting away row after row only seconds apart and appearing in those same ranks on the other side of the journey equally as rapidly. To many it would have seemed a lot like magic at work.
Desminda had been the commander of the operation and their part had gone well, notwithstanding the unexpected appearance of Gall and his troops.
“Be seated, my friends. Thank you for your prompt response. You may not have heard. The conflict had more casualties than you may realize. The Gatekeeper, Jenny Japhet, is missing and Burt Scout, our operative for the Insenium mission, has been killed.
One of the missions we will soon undertake is the rescue of The Gatekeeper as soon as we know where she is. In the meantime, I need your report of the most recent mission. Please be candid about your experience. Any small detail or nuance could be important. Arvid has a lunch prepared for us and we can be free to talk as we eat. Lova has activated the screen to allow us to keep track of everything you say so we can use this report for future strategy sessions.
As soon as we are finished, you may return to your homes and families on standby until we are ready to use your gifts again.”
Tarafau noted both concern and relief on the faces before them. With the exception of Desminda, they all looked so very young. He couldn’t ever remember being that young. He was betting Desminda felt the same.
Tarafau let them take turns around the table, Lova and Desminda adding questions and repeating certain points that seemed particularly relevant. He watched the tension go out of each one of them as they finished their own report.
As a result, they knew a number of new things about this new addition to the Inseni threat.
All of the reports of those who witnessed the appearance of Gall and his subsequent murder of Burt agreed that it was clear that Emperor Peril was emperor in name only. There were none of Gall’s troops in the square or in the capital city, for that matter, but gangs of them had been seen in nearly every other dome, apparently randomly slaughtering slaves and Groga alike, hauling them from their homes, men, women, and children. The status of their victims seemed to be entirely random, chosen for sport.
The women were not ravaged and there was no plunder evident. Gall’s troops were all male and all huge, like their master with a single large eye in the middle of their forehead. They wore no armor, but scarlet uniforms similar to earth battle uniforms, but with no apparent rank or other adornment. The word “gangs” was repeated more than once during the reports, as the soldiers didn’t appear to have a command structure. They weren’t even congenial with their own people. More than once, arguments had broken out for no reason anyone could fathom, and more than once the argument escalated to the violent death of one or another of the combatants.
They appeared to be brutes, delighting in only one thing, killing and destruction. In one dome they had burned every home in the little town, sparing the mercantile and other businesses on the town square.
The destruction was all so random that, try as they might, the Daringi troops could see no pattern. It was like every gang had their own agenda. Then, with no apparent signal any of Desminda’s troops could discern, they simply marched out of town and disappeared outside of the dome.
There were no threats given, no ultimatums, and no reason for the sudden attack. Some of them had been killed by the villagers who had the courage to try, and the gangs had left the bodies of their fellows as if they were so much garbage.
Once they had continued around the table with their reports, each adding to the information, the young man who had begun, Lanari, stood again, to Tarafau’s surprise. “Sir, there is one more thing, an aftermath, so to speak, that you must know about...” He hesitated, shifting from foot to foot, like a little boy caught in childish mischief.
“Understand we didn’t realize it until things had calmed down and we had been ordered home. Remember the little folk, native to the Inseni world? Well, we had also been transporting them to allow them to participate in the revolt, mostly on our clothing. Jenny had given them an order to multiply. They followed that command admirably, so much that there was no keeping track of all of them. They are friendly, at least to everyone who is not Inseni, but there is a problem.”
He looked at his fellows, as if for encouragement. It became obvious to Tarafau that he had been “elected” to bear this news. This didn’t bode well. They had possibly drawn lots and he had lost. Tarafau nodded in what he hoped was an understanding way and waited.
“You see, the Mookookie really like Jenny. They think she is some kind of angel or something. She told them to multiply and never actually told them they needed to stop. Of course, they have their entire planet to spread out into now, with no fear of being hunted.
The people of that world, the slaves who have decided to remain and the Groga, who are still there, look on them as little heroes. They have taken to leaving out food for them and even taking some of them as pets when they can be present as new Mookookie are budded. So, that is a good thing, right?”
“The point of your report, Lanari?” Tarafau said, puzzled by this long drawn out explanation that didn’t seem to have anything to do with why they were here.
“Well sir, some of our people accidentally bonded with some of the little creatures and...”
“WHAT? You know they bond for life? Like Linklings? Were you not briefed on this?”
”Actually, no sir. We were only told to transport them, sir, and to treat them kindly. But there is a problem. You see, we ended up bringing many of them with us when we went home before we realized the...um...multiplication problem. They won’t stop multiplying until Jenny herself tells them to do so. Their cycle is a few weeks apart, so we have a little time, but the thing is they multiply up to twelve at once. We have presented this, uh, difficulty to the council and they are considering it, but we really need Jenny...Um...We REALLY need Jenny to help us with this.”
“You’re telling me they are on our home world and multiplying?” Tarafau said, a little more forcefully than he intended.
“Yes, sir. We didn’t know. We didn’t understand.” The young man sat, his head hung low, and his compatriots mostly sat looking at their hands folded before them on the table. Tarafau was admittedly shaken by this.
One more reason Jenny must be located alive and safe and quickly he thought. Not that they weren’t all frantic to find her already. It was no use to berate the young man or to rant about this new complication. For now, he would have to stay focused. Losing Jenny was only one big issue among dozens of big issues that were necessary to address.
“Another incentive to find her and as quickly as possible,” Tarafau sent. “In the meantime, we can’t let this distract us. As of this moment, every warrior who has volunteered for this mission is effectively on standby. Be ready. Thank you for your reports. Enjoy the amazing meal Arvid has prepared for us and then report home. You have done well. I am proud to lead such brave and diligent warriors in this mission. Desminda, do you have anything to add?”
“Only this. We’ve stirred up a nest of zap-stingers here. I doubt Gall has any desire for any kind of alliance or negotiations. As I perched on a rooftop in my bird-form that day, I could feel waves of evil intent wafting from Gall like the waves of the sea in a storm. There is no doubt as to the danger he represents, and it is unlikely there can be any peaceful resolution. My warriors and our people are committed to seeing Gall eliminated and his people either pacified or removed in a way that they cannot ever threaten the multiverse again.”
Tarafau nodded in agreement. The flame that had been lit in the last few days was now a bonfire, and it would engulf the multiverse if they didn’t hold firm to their resolve. Like the Daringi, troops and resources all over the multiverse were being put on alert and readied for the assault in whatever forms it may take. The Dimensional Alliance that had always been an advocate of peace and freedom was about to be tested to its limits.
