Envoy to Earth (29 page)

"Prince Gerent! It's so
lovely of you to invite me on this outing. I know that it might be
inconvenient, my bringing guards with us, but father insisted. Mother as well.
I hope you aren't offended?"

He looked at the Princess first,
and understood that she was taking the guards along for some other reason, not
just for self-protection. There could be anything in those bags too. Weapons or
some kind of illicit substance that Gerent didn't have the sophistication to
know about. The only saving grace there was that he really doubted that these
people would have anything too dangerous with them. Still, could he risk taking
them along if they meant harm? They
shouldn't
, but how was he supposed
to deal with this.

Looking at the very lovely girl
in front of him, who reminded him, perhaps a bit perversely, of Tor for some
reason, he managed a small bow.

"I'm not offended, but I
can't allow them to go with us without having their luggage checked first.
Also, you might tell me what the real situation is? I'm not trying to be rude,
but..." He sounded that way. Cold and haughty, as if he were telling a
Princess that she'd better dance to his tune, in her own Kingdom.

She seemed to take it that way
too, and gave him a look that seemed to spell out the fact that she was not at
all pleased with him acting that way. Even if he was taking her back and forth
to see her daughter.

The guards however just placed
their bags on the floor near his feet. The one that didn't have anything with
him, who was an older man and seemed to be in charge, waved at the things with
his whole hand. That one was George the Royal Guard. Their leader, Gerent
thought.

"Please feel free to look
through them. It's mainly clothing, a few weapons, but only those designed to
defend our charges, and some personal items. Hobbies and things like that. The
King simply suggested that we ask you if it would be possible to take these
people with us, since they have duties at your destination." There was no
sidelong look at Veronica, but the girl glared at the man as if he were
speaking out of turn.

Then she crossed her eyes, in a
very unflattering manner and rolled them to the ceiling briefly. It looked
funny, rather than quite as upset as she'd seemed even moments before, but she
didn't say anything, even after her face went back to its normal, very
controlled, expression.

Looking around Gerent saw Dorgal,
just getting up from the table, and waved him over. After all, he was the First
Mate, so that made sense. A high enough rank that no one would be too insulted
by him being the one to paw through their things.

Before he got there, he explained
the idea, just so no one would be upset by it.

"Our First Mate. He'll do
the actual bag searches, being familiar with magic. Dorgal, these people are
moving to Harmony, for their jobs. Could you make certain they don't have
anything they aren't supposed to with them? I'm sure it's fine, but we should
have some kind of test in place before we just let people go with us, shouldn't
we? Really, we need to be testing everyone, since the traffic coming and going
is about to pick up a lot." He tugged out a Truth amulet, as a joke, since
they did that to anyone visiting the King all the time, but Princess Veronica
took it first, and tapped it on, letting herself be surrounded by a glowing
nimbus of white, that had two even foot wide strips of yellow running up and
down in the thing, connecting over her head in an arc. It made for a very
lovely scene, until she spoke.

"This is annoying." She
said it as an offhand comment, but the thing didn't turn black, not even a
little, meaning that she really meant it. "I plan no harm to anyone in
either your crew or on the Moon, to the best of my conscious knowledge."

She had the amulet in her hand
and shrugged, "do you need more than that? I don't think I can swear
loyalty to a foreign power. Not even to get what I want."

He thought for a bit and looked
down and away, then back before it seemed too shy or strange.

"Not needed. We just can't
be seen to be bringing in criminals. There are laws on Harmony. If you cause
the loss of air, or do any damage, you have to repair that yourself. Even Queen
Tiera has to follow that one. Also, no hurting people, but that's pretty much
the same everywhere. Are you willing to do that?"

She made a face, and then shook
her head a little, but her words were more positive than that.

"As long as it isn't a trick
somehow that I can't see right now, then, yes."

They passed the thing around, and
everyone took a turn saying the same basic things. When that was done Dorgal
did the same, which started everyone doing it. He went last, but no one failed,
since it wasn't a hard test really. You just had to agree to follow the basic
rules. It wasn't like they were too complicated, or anyone felt they were
really unfair.

After that, Dorgal did the
honors, over in the corner of the room, away from prying eyes as far as the
bags went. It didn't take long and when he returned, he just nodded a few times
and looked at Gerent.

"All clear. Some weapons,
but only things needed for their jobs like they told you. Nothing that will
foul the air or harm anyone, I don't think. They'll need new shields however.
They have Tor-class sevens, but everyone going into space needs at least a
Tim-class one." It sounded very certain and official when he said the
words. It was also a real point, so Erid, who was eavesdropping without shame,
just standing behind Gerent, ran off and got some. He had his bag, a floating
chest, with him, and inside had most of the amulets they had left, not having
given them out yet. Not all of them, but enough to make him a very wealthy man,
if he decided to take off.

He was, however, a High Servant.
They might not all have the very best of reputations, but as far as Gerent had
heard none of them were thieves. Liars either. A bit lazy for their order,
perhaps, but this man wasn't even that. He was a good person to trust with
things like that.

"Thank you, High Servant
Erid. Can you check all the others and make sure they have the correct shields
for the work needed? I don't think Crewman Misha will, or my... mother, Bonita.
I'm not certain where they are."

That it turned out, was outside,
setting up for loading, like he'd asked Bonita to do.

She might not have been the
prettiest woman in the world, but she was efficient enough to make up for it.
Kind too. Her dour and sad looks were at least hidden away that day, as she
handed out pats and hugs, gently moving everyone to the correct places. Gerent
jogged out, past the end of the lawn and set the ship up, making sure it was
big enough to have crew quarters, and three levels, but not so huge that anyone
would be frightened by it in the city.

It was done in the same way that
Alice had them do the Space Fleet vessels, meaning it had eight sides. Six
edges, a top and a bottom. There were windows for each room around the outer
edges, and with a tiny bit of focus as he touched the side, the whole thing
turned a deep green. After a second he added a sky blue stripe and one of Moon
silver to it. He didn't actually know if they had national colors, but it
wasn't really his personal ship. He tried to make it seem official for that
reason. No one seemed to mind at least.

He also changed his clothing to match,
making his garish festival outfit into a subdued green suit, with a single blue
armband around the left bicep. On his chest he formed a little silver badge,
that was just the Moon. Nothing more fancy than that. It looked right though,
he thought. If a bit too primitive for the situation.

Then he addressed everyone else
as he made a hatch near where he stood. The side of the green vessel flowed out
of the way like water. Very well trained and highly colored liquid that jumped
to his mental command.

"We have a few moments of
loading, and then we'll be under way. Guests for the day, if you'll follow me?
Harmony people, if you'll set up in the back? This won't take long." He
barely knew what he meant, but Dorgal got everyone moving, along with Bonita. Misha
stayed with Erid, so that meant they both ran into the rather big vessel first.

Ambassador Eto walked over to
him, her face a bit confused.

"Excuses. May I be explained
to? I fear that I am not understanding this." She smiled a bit, and
waited.

"You're in the right place
for now. Just stay with me? Really, we need the Princess and her... friends, as
well." He tried to wave to Veronica, but she didn't notice him for a
while. It was embarrassing, but finally one of the Guards, a tall woman that
had raven black hair and high cheekbones, jogged over.

"Prince Gerent. Did you need
me?" Her voice was smooth and her skin a nice tan that reminded him of
Petra, just a little. He smiled, and then spoke out loud, without thinking
about it.

"We're going to load all of
you onto the bridge soon. The cases that we need to load..." He pointed as
they all disappeared into the back, which was about an eighth of a mile from
where they stood. "Are in place, so it's time to go. I need to get with
some people and let them know the plan. Should I contact my fiancé, do you
think? That's a new thing, and I've never done that before, or even had a real
girlfriend." It was a real question, and he didn't know the honest answer.
Was he supposed to be that close to Petra or not? He didn't want to pester her,
but on the other hand, they should keep in touch, shouldn't they? If they
could.

The guard nodded at him, her face
serious.

"That would be a good idea.
People respond to knowing what's going on better than not. You should get with
the King too, if possible."

"And I promised Queen Tiera
that I'd do that for her before we left. Good idea. Um, can you all come this
way? We'll just go to the bridge." He waved and got more people than he'd
been thinking he would.

Three more, to be exact. One of
them was a rather regular looking common woman, except that she had a cross
made out of wood around her neck, on string. She looked to be about twenty-five
or so, and wore only plain clothing, without any adornment or makeup. Next to
her was a rather mean looking short man that had a Vagusian cast to his face,
who moved in to stand directly behind Eto. He kept watching the Royal Guard
closely, as if expecting the much larger people to try and attack. There was
also a rather unusually dark woman that seemed to be from Afrak. She looked
familiar at least, from the other day. Kimi. The one that was planning to woo
Erid.

"Are you all coming with us,
as part of the crew? Or..." Gerent looked at the man from Vagus, standing
behind the Ambassador. "Or are you her guard? If so we need to get you
some weapons..." Gerent had some, but not to pass out. The honest truth
was that on the ship, or where they were going, the things were nearly useless
anyway. The only thing that was truly dangerous was the little wand he had from
Tiera, since it could turn off shields.

The man just stared at him and
spoke in a dead sounding voice.

"Crew." It was clear
what he meant, but he also didn't move out from behind the small young lady
from his land, either. She didn't look back at him, or speak at all.

"That works. Welcome aboard
then, everyone. We'll have to introduce ourselves later. For now, if you'll come
with me?"

There were nearly fifteen people
on the bridge when he got there, and as promised Gerent reached out to his boss
and little sister first. She answered instantly, picking up as if she'd been
waiting for him.

"We're coming in a few
minutes. I'm going to make a few more-"

She smiled.

"Excellent idea. I'll be
here when you land. See you soon."

She might have let him explain a
little more, he felt, but didn't let it get to him. After all, he was used to
Tim doing things like that all the time. Tiera was close to as intelligent, as
far as Gerent could tell. Not that he knew that for certain. Smarter than he
was, but most of the world fit that description, didn't they? The idea left him
thinking that some kind of lessons would be in order soon, if he could manage
it.

The call to Petra was longer, but
not too much since she was actively teaching a class at the time. The clash and
grunt of bodies at war came from the yard behind her as she smiled at him.

"I wasn't expecting to hear
from you this soon!"

"Well..." He nearly
froze, but a long arm reached out and pushed him gently on the shoulder. It
belonged to the nice guard that had mentioned he should stay in touch. It was
enough to spur him into motion, which was the point, he didn't doubt. "I'm
headed to Harmony right now. I'll be back here, in the Capital this evening. If
you aren't busy, we can get together soon?" He nearly started into a long,
and he hoped, very polite speech about how she didn't have to and he'd
understand, but she just nodded.

"Um... Well, would it be too
soon if we got together tomorrow evening? I have class during the day, but an
off day after that." She sounded a bit unsure for some reason.

"That sounds good."
They chatted for a few minutes and then he had to call King Richard, who really
seemed to want to talk at length. Luckily it wasn't about his daughter, or
anything they needed to be discussing in front of a bunch of people on his
bridge.

With a smile and a friendly wink
that would probably have most people watching thinking he was setting up a date
with the King, Gerent stopped him from going on.

"Can we meet up tomorrow
morning?" He was readying a lie when the man stopped talking and then
waved to someone to his right. After a moment there was a murmur, and the red
headed King spoke gently.

"Would Luncheon work? I have
some early meetings, I'm sure we could rearrange things if needed?"