CHAPTER FOUR

When the men returned to the house with a small arsenal Jupiter was not surprised. Suddenly she felt dizzy and when she looked up she was no longer in Stinger's house but instead she was in a beautiful room that she suddenly knew had been hers, or rather Seraphi's. She watched as Balem came into the room and she felt both love and fear as he headed strait towards her, his hands outstretched.

She dimly heard Caine's voice calling her name loudly and the memory left her brain and she was back at Stinger's but with both of them looking at her intently and fearfully. It was Caine who was rushing towards her now and put his arms around her.

Jupiter held him but found she was actually clinging to him. She was still unsteady and of course Caine unnecessarily picked her up as if she were a feather. He put her on the sofa and insisted she lay back with a pillow under her head. She let him go reluctantly but he immediately knelt beside her and she felt like she would swoon if she knew how. She was such a schoolgirl in love when it came to him.

He was gazing at her trying to figure out what was wrong. She held up her hand palm forward as if she were saying 'hold up'.

" I am fine," she told Caine and put her palm against the side of his face and she definitely wanted to swoon over the way he turned his head to kiss the palm of her hand

Caine wanted to just nibble on that warm and deliciously scented wrist. The smell was like that of a meadow filled with wildflowers. She definitely didn't seem to be hurt in a physical way but she had looked badly dazed and unfocused on the here and now.

"What happened?" he asked taking her hand and putting it in his own. "You were standing, staring straight ahead but your eyes looked as if you weren't even in the room."

"I think I had a vision, or mabye it's be more like a memory," she told him. "I was in this beautiful house and I knew it was mine, or Seraphi's actually, and I knew every nook and cranny in that house even though I have never taken a step over over that house's threshold"

She focused on Caine with her next words knowing that this was definitely going to impact her in the here and now.

"Balem came walking into the room and towards me with outstretched arms and then I heard my name being called and I recognized your voice."

"What should we do?" he asked both her and Stinger. It was Jupiter who spoke first.

"We keep going, why would we let this stop us?

"What if it keeps happening?" Caine asked her.

"I have the best bodyguard in the world you know'" she teased, "and he will not let ANYTHING happen to me.

"Damn right," Stinger said, "I would never let anything or anyone harm you."

Jupiter and Caine looked at each other and then all three of them broke out laughing. It was a moment that helped them to calm and steady themselves, even if her 'memories' kept happening it was Kiza and the director's son they had to remain focused on. They also had to figure out how to keep Caine from being tortured by whatever scent had been released to stop him from finding her.

"You know this has to be someone who knew she was not from Earth. Someone smart enough to try to keep Caine's nose from helping us to find her."

"Which means the bloody bastards know who we are and so you can guess they're already erasing any traces of their movements. We are flying blind here so I suggest we go off planet to figure out our next strategy and look for a clue as to who or what we are fighting against."

"I think I might know where to go," Jupiter told them. Caine and Stinger were looking at her questioningly.

"Might?" questioned Stinger.

"Well yeah I think if I could see a hologram or something I might be able to draw a track of where to go."

"Okay but how do we get there?" was Caine's question.

"O ye of little faith," Stinger said, "Grab everything and let's go out to the barn."

Jupiter and Caine knew not to ask questions so they followed him out the door with their gear. He strode to the barn and turned back waiting on them. Once they caught up they all entered the dim barn but all Jupiter could see was hay and equipment everywhere. Stinger strode over to a piece of equipment that looked battered and dead to her. He reached inside and suddenly everything started to change in front of her eyes. The floor they were standing on opened up and they had to jump back as a large part of the floor opened up and up came a spaceship though Stinger called it a small clipper.

Caine was shaking his head but grinning, "I should have known," he said.

"You should know me by now laddie, I would never give up my ride."

Though she was a bit stunned Jupiter quickly re-oriented herself and headed towards the ship. Stinger passed her and pressed his hand on a square that looked like clear glass. A door slid silently open and they all went aboard.

Stinger looked proud of his ship saying, "her name is Gaitha, Kiza's mother's name. She was the only woman I ever loved and she was taken too soon. Kiza was five when she was killed. They said it was a freak accident but I never quite believed them. I don't know why though, probably just the shock and grief."

He seemed to shake himself mentally and smiled at Jupiter, "she would have loved you," he told Jupiter. "She was like Kiza, she always looked at Caine's side too. It was the one reason I took the blame for him. I knew she would never have forgiven me and I don't know that I could have forgiven myself for that matter."

Jupiter gave Stinger a hug and said "I know I would have loved her, look how much I love Kiza? She is like the sister I never had."

Caine, who had been storing the armory and other essentials they had brought with them as they did not know how long they would be gone. They also needed to shake whoever was watching them or following them. That bothered him. He looked at Stinger asking "Can you shake anyone following us with this ship?"

Stinger, all business again said, "I have a cloaking device that also bounces our signature off so many objects and randomly out in space, so it will be extremely hard for them to follow or even trace us."

"Everybody checked their things for bugs right?" Caine asked Jupiter and Stinger who both nodded.

"I have things rigged so that everything returns to how it was after we leave, sort of like your garage remote," he explained for Jupiter. "We are leaving cloaked so we should be fine."

Stinger walked to the front where the control panels were and motioned Jupiter to follow him. He brought up their current location and all the maps of the universe spanning outward in 3D tracks.

Jupiter looked at these and asked if Stinger could pull up anything further? He did so and out on it's own was a planet about the size of the Earth's moon.

She pointed her finger at the planet, "There!"