Author's Note: I own nothing.
10 A Crop of Issues
Rook was amused to learn that his brother had cobbled the space drive for this harvester together from farm tools, cutlery and a few spare hangers. Learning that his partner's transformation Juryrigg now very much admired the young Revonnahgander for that. But neither of them really had a chance to think about it right now. Young One was claiming that Revonnah had been invaded. He also had every faith that Jen could singlehandedly handle the invasion.
"A worldwide invasion is a big thing. We're gonna do everything we can, but right now we need to figure out exactly what we're dealing with." Jen said, it seemed to placate Young One for now as she shot a look at Rook. He wasn't sure exactly when they had gotten to the point of silent communication. But he knew from the look in her eyes exactly what she was thinking. The look in her eyes told him that she was worried for the people of Revonnah, and honestly so was he. Revonnah was a peaceful world, they didn't have many violent conflicts. There hadn't been any wars on Revonnah for centuries. There were many who still practiced the art of Revonnah Kai but Rook couldn't see what use that would be against the guns of the Incursion Empire.
But as Revonnah loomed in front of them Rook frowned. There were no ships circling the planet, no blockade indicative of an invasion. He glanced at Jen, she was frowning too, her brow furrowed in the way that meant that she was confused. He'd admit a certain amount of confusion himself. Young One wasn't one to lie, especially about something important like this. But as he landed the Harvester near the small Plumber base there was nothing. No ships in the atmosphere, no war machines, no troops on the ground. There was nothing happening out of the ordinary. Jen frowned.
"That's unusual for an invasion." She pointed out, spinning the dial on the Omnitrix. "I'm gonna do some quick recon. See if there's anyone at the Plumber base." Before she could transform Rook laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Be careful." She nodded to him and transformed into a large chameleon like alien before fading from sight entirely. Rook turned and found his brother grinning at him. It was a mischievous look that he had seen before. When he had first applied for the Plumber Academy he had to sneak out of the house to do it. Young One had caught him sneaking back in and Rook had to do his chores up until the day he told their parents that he'd applied and been accepted to keep his younger brother quiet.
"What?" He hadn't done anything odd, nothing for Young One to have that gleam of mischief in his eyes. But the gleam persisted.
"I have seen that look before Blonko, but not on your face." Rook blinked at his brother.
"I have no idea what you are talking about." He tried to insist but the fur on his face puffed slightly as he blushed. He turned away from his brother towards the small Plumber outpost. "Come, we should hurry." Young One trailed close behind him still with the mischievous gleam in his eyes.
"I am young not stupid brother. I have seen that look on the faces of couples courting around town!" Blonko bristled at his brother's words.
"I do not know what you are talking about. Now hush." Rook snuck his brother up to the Plumber base and frowned. It was silent and unlit. Young One frowned. "Agent Wat-Senn does not leave the base unattended long. This is odd." Young One nodded.
"He was with Rook Shar in the field when the attack occurred! I can show you." But before Young One could rush off Jen's transformation, Chamalien, reappeared.
"Everything seems to be business as usual." She said shaking her head transforming back into herself. "There's only one odd thing that I found, but I didn't exactly get the chance for the tour last time so I don't know if it's new or not." Rook nodded.
"Young One, show us to the site you first saw the Incursions, Jen you can point out this oddity on the way." Young One took the lead, careful as he could be about creeping around rather than racing off. Rook leaned closer to his partner. "What do you think?" Jen frowned.
"I'm not sure. By all appearances nothings happening, but I can't picture Young One lying about something this big. You know him better than I do." She looked up at him as they crept around.
"He would never lie about something like this. Small things maybe but never an emergency like this." Jen nodded.
"That's kinda what I figured. And I'll grant that it's possible that maybe they beat the Incursions, unlikely without the tech but not impossible. But there would be something. Some wreckage, anything at all. But everything's quiet." She frowned deeper as he nodded. Then she seemed to spot what she had been talking about earlier. "Hold up a second Young One." The small Revonnahgander threw his arms into the air.
"What am I holding up?" He asked and Jen held back a snort.
"Sorry Earth expression, it means wait for a second. We can see what I was talking about from here." She jerked her thumb at the edge of the plateau where the Plumber base sat. Down below was a river and on the other side of that were the Amber Ogia fields where Rook could just barely make out figures working. That relieved some of the pressure that had gathered around his heart since Young One had brought his dark pronouncement to them. But it returned when Jen drew his attention just downstream of the fields. "When did Revonnah install plumbing?" Both Revonnahganders frowned at her, but she was right. There were large pipes running from the fields and over the river. They disappeared from sight soon after, sinking into the ground.
"They were certainly not here when we were last." Rook stated like that wasn't already obvious. He looked at Young One who shook his head.
"They were not here when I left." Jen let out a long breath, wrinkling her nose the way she did when someone forced her to do math. That look was usually reserved for the times Rook found her working on her homework but after a moment she spoke.
"Young One's been gone about a day. That's about how long it would take to get to Earth and back in the Harvester." She paused letting out a breath between her teeth. "We need to find your family, but we need to not be seen doing it. The more time we're here without anyone knowing the more of an advantage we have." Rook nodded and the three of them set off again. Young One caught ahold of Jen's sleeve.
"What do you think has happened?" He looked scared but stood straight and tall, trying to be as brave as he could be. Jen shook her head.
"I don't know but we're gonna figure it out."
When they reached the field adjoining the Rook family home, they found large piles of Amber Ogia, more than there had been during the harvest festival. Rook's father, mother, and two of his three sisters were there working the field. Before Jen could stop him Young One raced out from behind their rock. Jen swore under her breath but stepped out as well, Rook following her lead.
"Father, mother, you are well!" Rook Da glanced up and frowned slightly.
"Young One, you scamp, where have you been? We've been worried sick." Both Jen and Rook paused. That had been a contraction. Then Rook Da spotted them and frowned as his gaze flickered back to Young One. "How did you manage to c-c-contact your brother?"
"He was concerned, worried something had happened. Is all well here?" Rook asked stepping up next to his little brother.
"We're fine. We're harvesting at a quite prolific rate." His voice didn't sound quite right, almost robotic. Rook frowned.
"At this time of year?" But his father didn't answer him.
"Come, it's time for dinner." With few options left to them they followed the family back to the house. But Jen exchanged a look with her partner, something wasn't right. Dinner drove that home for both of them. It was awkward and meager, despite the amount of Amber Ogia they were harvesting there was almost none on the table. Rook's mother and sisters had yet to speak, and Rook Shar was still absent, though no one but the three new arrivals seemed to notice. Jen decided to test something, it was a bit of a risk, but only if she was wrong.
"So I was thinking, Young One would make an excellent engineer. You should sign him up for classes over the Xternet." Rook Blonko looked at his partner like she had just stated an intention to run off and work for Vilgax. There was no way his father would allow an Xternet setup in the house. But he was even more shocked by his father's response.
"Is that so? Well if you think that's a good idea, I say we should." Jen kicked her partner under the table before he could express his disbelief at this pronouncement from his stalwartly traditional father. Jen nodded.
"Yeah, I could get you the names of a few Galvan teachers." That caused a bit of a reaction, Rook Da's eye twitched.
"Of course, if you think the Galvan's would make good teachers, and I use the term loosely." And it was with that one phrase that both of them knew who was behind this, though the how still eluded them. After all Dr. Psychobos was supposed to be locked up in a Galvan prison. Now they just had to work out how he'd done it and how they were going to undo it. They were separated after dinner, Young One and Rook were to sleep in Young One's room and Jen in Rook's old room. But sleep didn't come, that was probably a good thing though because as soon as the lights down the hall had gone out the door slipped open and Jen crept in.
"Something isn't right on Revonnah, we need to figure this out." Young One perked up. Having not spent as much time around Jen as Rook had he hadn't picked up their conversations.
"You believe me?" Jen nodded.
"I believe you. You know not to lie about things like this. But we need to get out of here." She jerked her thumb at the window and carefully rearranged the bedding so it looked like there were still figures in them. Young One frowned.
"How do you know to do this?" Jen grinned.
"Well my parents didn't always know about the Omnitrix. I've had to sneak out a lot over the past six years." She left it at that as they exited via the window. Rook fell into step beside her.
"You did not wear the Omnitrix that whole time." He pointed out, sounding almost amused. Jen grinned.
"No I didn't. No one has a perfect record Rook. Come on, we're gonna follow that pipeline, see where it ends up. Find the end of the pipeline and we find Psychobos and whatever he's doing with the Amber Ogia." She took the lead, the two of them careful to keep Young One between them. Bringing along an untrained child wasn't exactly a good idea but leaving him behind would have been worse.