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(Jenny realized someone was calling her name and was startled out of her engagement in Lizzie’s adventures. She knew that she was close to the end of the first journal and wanted to continue.
The voice came from the hallway, by the door to the gate office. It was Bob, Ignatius perched on his shoulder.
He was dressed in his usual uniform of jeans and a colorful t-shirt covered by a white lab coat.
“Just checking in on you, neighbor,” he said with a chuckle. “Didn’t mean to startle you. I’d have knocked, but that would have just been weird, coming from the gate office.” His eyes were crinkled, and he chuckled, and Ignatius chuckled with him. “Just wanted to see that you are following doctor’s orders.”
“I was reading in Lizzie’s journals. I’ve been taking my walks and eating well. Lizziebot has been waiting on me hand and foot, and no stress, I promise.” And she put her hand up in the old girl scout gesture.
“Good enough. Where are you in Lizzie’s journey? Am I in there yet?”
“Not yet. She hasn’t become a guardian yet. This journal just covers her agent training. I am guessing I won’t get to you until the third journal.”
“Any chance I could have a gander at them at some point, after you’ve finished with them?”
“Sure, Bob. I think Lizzie would have liked that. When I am done with them, I am going to have Lizziebot scan them all into the database, including a version in Lizzie’s handwriting. I’d be happy to send them all to you at that point.”
Bob sat down on the couch across from her reading chair. “How are you doing, kiddo? You’ve been through a pretty rough stretch, and I know that ‘shout’ you did at the confrontation on the Groga planet took more out of you than we could have expected.”
“Liliath warned me it might be so. Burt has been so caring and understanding, and I have a great team to back me up. I still do my nightly mental ‘visits’ to the various team members, and Liliath keeps me up to date. I have to say, having the journals to focus on while I wait for the go-ahead to go back to work is a real blessing. I haven’t had this much time to read and enjoy a good story in over a year, and it is added spice that it’s a true story about the person who set me on this journey.
“I’m beginning to realize that, as hard as it has been, no life journey is without its bumps in the road. I am learning so much that I think will make me a better gatekeeper in the long run. I only wish I had known Lizzie better before I inherited all of this.”
“I think you two would have been good friends. That being said, there are definite differences between the two of you, as I am sure you are discovering,” Bob said with a twitch of his moustache.
“You could say that. I don’t think I have even begun to scratch the surface where Lizzie is concerned.”
“Yep, she was a firecracker, that one. And such a good friend to my Cindy. Couldn’t have asked for a better neighbor, even with her being gone as much as she was. At any rate, I’m off to Mervin’s lab and then to conflab with Cornelium. As you know, we’re working on creating a better automated monitoring system for the gates of dimensions that aren’t members of the Alliance, especially gates that aren’t situated to make it easy for them to have a guardian.
“We want to create new tech to locate less obvious gateways more easily, such as those underwater or buried in caves or orbiting planets. The current tech is a lot more hit-or-miss than we’d like it to be.
“Anyway, enjoy your reading. You don’t have much more mandatory light duty, and then it’s back into the fray.”
Jenny laughed and stood to give him a parting hug. “By the way, your son dropped by the other evening to check on me as well. All he knows is that I’m recuperating from an illness, but evidently, he wants to make sure I’m okay. Is that your doing, I wonder?”
Bob chuckled again, and Ignatius’s echo came right behind it. “Ask me no secrets, and I’ll tell you no lies,” he said with a wink. And with that, he turned and entered back through the door to the gate office.
“Now where was I?” she asked Chidwi, who was napping happily next to Tidbit on the window seat. With a sigh, Jenny sat back into her chair, found her place saved by the bookmark, and began to read.)
It was good to get back to regular workouts and classes again. The constant traveling via gates never became ordinary or mundane. Each day represented new adventures.
By this time, they had visited all of the dimensions represented by her podmates, and now they were discussing cultural differences and their observations of how their relationships continued to change, the more they knew about one another. Lizzie had the feeling that this was the true point of the exercise.
She began to realize that it was hard to actively dislike someone, the more you knew about them. You might not always agree with everything they said or did, but understanding brought a certain amount of tolerance. And it was easier to understand motivations and intent when you understood their background and cultural norms.
The week following the event was quiet, every pod going about their usual training, but she noticed there was also a lot more interaction as they passed one another in the hallways and the paths surrounding the training compound.
Some beings from the other pods started gathering at their regular music breaks in the space under the trees between the pod buildings. Lizzie and Gi had developed a musical rapport that seemed to extend beyond their own personal musical skills or inclinations. Lizzie suspected that perhaps Ynni played a part in that. Regardless, every time they played, Lizzie was transported to a place of calm and meditation.
This was reflected in Lizzie’s sessions with Liliath. She hadn’t asked what had happened to the group Ynni had singled out from the crowd at the assembly, assuming that if it was any of her business Liliath would tell her. Regardless, it was all she could do to keep up with her coursework and stay on top of those mental workouts.
Liliath had begun to teach Lizzie how to “armor her mind,” as she put it. This involved Lizzie’s learning to guard herself against various attacks, much like her physical defense practice, but in this case a mental attack might affect her either mentally or physically or both. Lizzie lamented that, either way, every day she had new bruises to show; but slowly she found she could endure both mental and physical pain as she learned to discipline her mind.
Her life in the pod would never become routine, but it was definitely more comfortable as she drew closer and closer to her podmates. For the first time in her life, she really felt a part of something she could commit to, not just out of duty. She was beginning to understand why what she was doing was important.
They were nearly to the end of this term, at which point they would all be assigned Guides and would begin to go on simple assignments in a type of internship. This would mean they wouldn’t see each other as often as they would like, but the training compound and their pod building would still be their base of operations. They would see each other between assignments, but probably wouldn’t have much of a chance to all gather at once.
After a particularly hard work out with Lall one day, they cleaned up and went to the dining hall. It was nice to be able to greet some of the beings they saw along the way by name. Geln seemed to be coming out of his/their shell. He would wave and smile. He had gotten a great deal of recognition due to his art and had made quite a few friends outside the pod as a result.
As they sat at their meal, the talk was all about the coming holiday when they would go home to put things in order before moving on to their agent internship.
It seemed to Lizzie, and many of her podmates agreed, that this had been a really short time to advance to the point when they would be actively going out on assignments. They all were glad it would be in the company of a Guide and speculated about what that might be like.
They agreed that after their meal they would meet under the tree, which Geln now called “our tree,” to take a music break. The day was melting into evening, with one sun already disappearing beyond the horizon in a splash of golds and reds.
This time of day, most of the pods retreated to their various pod buildings to organize themselves for the coming day, to study and, for many of them, to just relax before bedtime.
Lizzie was glad, however, to just enjoy the music and the fellowship of her comrades. Lizzie’s mind drifted on the music into the fading light of evening, and her eyes closed as she felt it all so deeply. The voices of Gi and Ynni, the mystical mixing of the mbira and harp and the silent but somehow noticeable energy of her podmates gathered there in the peaceful conclusion to a busy day, were all part of the melody.
However, Ynni had stopped singing and Lizzie opened her eyes. She didn’t need the urgent message from Ynni about “bad ones.” Surrounding them and blocking the exit from the space between the pods were several beings of various types, and their stance and posture radiated anger and danger.
The one who appeared to be the leader was as beautiful as how Lizzie might have described an elven princess. Tall and slender, with shimmering silver hair, pointed ears, and a long, tasseled tail twitching behind her, her face was a picture of rage.
“Here we have them, the little Earthling and her podmates. They’re so sure of themselves. Earth isn’t even an Alliance member. How they let such trash into the agent program, I have no idea, but there are plans for you and all of those like you. I am Hadron of Gingil, and you are less than the meanest slave in my kingdom.
“The dragon may think you are something, but we know you are an infestation. Besides, even the Alliance doesn’t realize the value of what they hold in their hands.
“This stops here. When we are finished, the multiverse will have order. The multiverse will find its true destiny. Your puny little planet and those like you will find that things are about to change.”
As she sent this, the entire pod were on their feet, back to back, facing the encircling, menacing trainees.
“Ynni, can you send to Liliath? Can you reach that far?” Lizzie sent to Ynni.
“Ynni does not know. I will try. I will jump down behind you and turn my reflection off. If I cannot contact her from here, I will find her and tell her what is happening.”
To the group surrounding them Lizzie sent, “What is your intent? We have done you no harm. What do you want of us?”
“Want? Want? We want you to be gone from here. We will remove you if need be.”
At a signal from Mang, suddenly every pod member held a quarterstaff in their hands in defense position. They had rehearsed this move many times, each time Lall urging them to more and more speed so that now, the staves seemed to simply appear in their hands. Many of them had complained about the repetitive exercise, but now Lizzie was grateful for his insistence.
The crowd surrounding them stepped back a pace.
“We would rather not fight you, but we will not be bullied, nor will we change our allegiance. We will be agents, and neither you nor anyone else will stop us,” sent Mang calmly. “I suggest you take your complaints to Liliath or the council. If they are just, you will get satisfaction. But I have the feeling you really don’t understand the purpose of the Alliance.”
The leader of the group snorted derisively, shaking her head, her silvery hair shimmering as she did so. Lizzie wondered how such a beautiful being could be so bigoted and aggressive.
“Will you not leave then? You get this one chance to leave in peace. We do not fear your puny sticks.” Hadron invoked a sword, of all things, from her MDP.
Lizzie hoped Ynni had indeed managed to make her way unnoticed from the group to run to the admin office and that she could find Liliath quickly. She knew that Ynni could outrun her, as small as she was. How long could they stall until help arrived? They were definitely outnumbered, and some of Hadron’s companions were much larger than any of them.
For a moment no one spoke or moved, each party sizing up the other. Lizzie was sure that tactics were passing from one of Hadron’s companions to another via mindspeech.
Mang’s mind voice broke into the silence, and she knew he was only speaking to them, that the bullies surrounding them could not hear him. “Remember our two-on-two drills. Geln, you work as a trio. The rest of us will pair up with our usual defense practice partners. Tactic three on my mark.”
Lizzie and the others kept their faces placid as they received their orders, grateful now for all of Baird’s constant correction.
Hadron’s companions had all armed themselves, some with staves, but some with knives and clubs. Lall had drilled them over and over with their staves, fighting against various types of weapons, but this was a test Lizzie had never wanted to have. The group they faced wasn’t drilling. Every face was set in anger and aggression.
Hadron’s sword hands twitched a fraction of an inch toward a battle stance. Mang didn’t hesitate. “Mark!”
At once they paired up and instigated disarming attacks and were, to a certain extent, successful. Lizzie lunged at Hadron from one side, while Gi came down with her staff from the other side with a loud crack on Hadron’s sword arm, which was wide open as she tried to defend from Lizzie’s thrust.
The sword only nicked Lizzie’s staff, but Hadron dropped her sword and grabbed her wrist, which appeared to be broken. She couldn’t reach down for the sword without leaving herself wide open, and before she could extract a new weapon from her MDP, Lizzie thrust forward into her gut. She doubled over, and Gi followed up with a hard thwack on Hadron’s neck. She went down and lay still.
Lizzie felt, more than saw, the combat going on around her, as a huge troll-like creature stepped over Hadron’s body as if it was so much trash on the ground. This being had a rough pebbly face with three eyes and a mouth that stretched from one ear to the other. He opened his mouth full of pointed teeth and roared, his club raised high. Lizzie ran under his arm, pivoted, and whacked him from behind, hoping to get him to turn and get some space between them and to give Gi an opportunity to charge him from behind.
From her new vantage point, facing the battle instead of having it to her back, she saw the others, and the fleeting thought that Lall would have been proud of the fight they were putting up ran through her mind; but her attention was immediately on the troll who had whipped around. She had his full attention. She had noticed in that brief moment of observing the battle that many of Hadron’s group were already down, but that there were more of the enemy than her pod.
She knew she couldn’t expect to hold out long against a troll carrying a club when she only had a “puny stick,” but she also knew that she and Gi were quicker than he was. As if Gi had read her mind, she heard a loud crack. Gi had stationed herself behind him and had dealt him a solid blow to the back of his calves.
As he whirled to face Gi, she ducked under his club, and Lizzie followed up with a whack on his shins from behind. Now the beleaguered troll roared his displeasure and began to randomly flail his club around, hitting nothing at first, but it meant that Lizzie and Gi had to back out of the reach of the pounding weapon.
Geln had just downed their opponent, Mang had disarmed his, and it appeared the odds were shifting to the favor of the pod. Lizzie and Gi continued to circle just out of the troll’s reach. Suddenly, behind Geln, a charging being who appeared to be about the same size as the individual Geln bodies, began to swell. It had no weapon, but its fists were the size of large watermelons. As it charged, it struck one of the Geln, and he went down.
Minth, who had removed his gloves and boots for the fight, reached out to the giant creature from behind and placed both hands on him. The effect was immediate and spectacular: the creature seemed to glow for a moment, his spiky hair sparkling and crackling. Its eyes went wide, and it shrank to the size of one of the Geln and then sighed and went still.
All of this happened in what appeared at once to be an age and an instant. The fight went on, and she still had a troll to deal with.
Every person in her pod was still besieged with enemies. Although somewhere in her mind Lizzie knew only a short time had passed, it felt like the battle had been going on forever.
The troll was becoming more and more of a hazard, as it was no longer concentrating on Gi and Lizzie. He laid about himself with that huge club without caring who he hit. One of his own comrades had been struck so hard that her skull was cracked, and blood streamed down her face as she collapsed.
A high-pitched wail suddenly filled the air, along with the mental cry, “Brother, wake! You can’t be dead! We need you!” It was Geln, one of them stooping over the brother who had not roused while the other defended him stoutly and more fiercely than Lizzie would have imagined possible.
At that moment, several things happened at once. The fight became even more frenzied as her pod rallied at that pitiful cry. Lizzie, who had been temporarily stunned at the thought of one of her podmates dead, especially any of the gentle Geln, now found herself up against another club-wielding being, not as big as the troll. He leered at her, his yellow face and huge black eyes slits, and lunged at her with the club.
“Crack!” the club met her parry, once, twice, three times. At the third stroke, her staff splintered, now half its length ending at a point.
“I kill you like your friend!” her opponent sent, club raised and gloating.
“I don’t think so!” she returned and in the same instant thrust her quarterstaff that had become a lance deep into the midriff of the triumphant yellow alien. The angle of her thrust was up and in, as he was taller than she. His eyes widened, went blank, and the club dropped from his hand.
From behind her came the alarm cry of an enraged Linkling. “Ynni comes! Alert! Alert!”
Lizzie turned to see Ynni streaking across the training ground, an angry dragon flying behind her. As relief flooded her, she felt a blow to the back of her head, and all went black.
