The Gem Lords

Suddenly Mortal - Part 3

     Saturn and Strong returned to the Jules Verne where, pausing only for the routine examination to prove they were who they claimed to be, they headed straight up to the bridge.

     Karog Gunlubber, Prup Chull and Tana Antallan were already there, waiting for them, and the two newcomers took their seats and listened to the shae's report that said, more or less, that nothing had happened while they'd been away.

     Shortly afterwards the extra crew that had been waiting in the city of Tara teleported up to take their places aboard the ship of space. Eight more wizards, eight more clerics and priests, eight more officers and twenty two more Beltharan soldiers. A tripling of the ship's crew that left the Jules Verne so crowded that they seemed to have trouble breathing, although the wizards assured them that the ship's life support magics were more than capable of handling the load. They were arranged in three shifts, so that there was always a full crew on duty. Another full crew would be asleep in bunks that were now never empty, and a third full crew would be crowded almost shoulder to shoulder in what passed for the ship's recreational facilities.

     The shae folk trembled at the thought of the mass of humanity crowded into the small rooms and narrow corridors below them. They still had as much space as ever, as much space to share between eight shae folk as was occupied by seventy three humans, but now the floor vibrated with the activities of the humans below them and ghostly, distorted human voices were constantly transmitted along steel beams and bulkheads to be heard by sensitive shayen ears. The perfect illusion of their tropical forest was suddenly rendered false and transparent and the slender, frail humanoids began to shrink into themselves as they were forcibly reminded of the reality; that they were flying through space inside a tiny steel ball...

     Captain Strong knew this, and knew that their mission to the Shipbuilder world would have to be concluded as quickly as possible, before the shae folk went mad. Leaving the humanoids behind was out of the question, of course, as the shae folk would never trust humans not to spy on their magics in their absence, but neither could the mission be abandoned out of consideration for them. This was the single purpose for which the ship of space had been built, and going home now just because the shae folk couldn't handle spaceflight was equally out of the question. They would just have to take the risk, the Captain decided. Any shae who cracked under the strain could be put in Eversleep until their return to Tharia. They would just have to hope that some of them had enough mental stability to stay the course for as long as the mission lasted.

     "The ship and its crew are as ready as they will ever be," said Flinda Luell, Lirenna's room mate and the shae currently on bridge duty. "We are ready to proceed."

     "Then let's do what we came to do," said Strong, looking up at the portal clock. It showed the last few seconds ticking away before the portal opened onto the Shipbuilder universe, and he watched the image in the scrying mirror until he saw the starfield change. "Take us through.”

     Sune Shala, in the chamber above, heard the command and activated the Orb of Propulsion. The flickering tongues of flame that lit the Orb from within brightened and danced faster, with most of the activity occurring in the lower half of the great glass sphere, and the field of magical force it generated pushed the ship gently towards the transdimensional doorway.

     "Mister Mon-Morchov," said Strong, "please make the ship invisible."

     Saturn nodded and stood, crossing to the dome in the middle of the floor and kneeling before it. The strong steel shell that covered the Orb of Skydeath Protection and protected it from careless feet had a hinged flap that opened, revealing the smooth glass surface of the Orb itself, lit from within by a dull red glow. The wizard placed his hands upon it as he cast his spell.