Chapter Three
Sorry about the cliffhanger, I couldn't help myself. ^_^;
All the usual disclaimers apply.
"Good Morning, Planet Earth!"
Jedi Knight Ce'it Ki Oshanna sat bolt upright in bed, panting. He wiped at the cold sweat that covered his brow. "What a dream," he mumbled softly.
He swung his lanky legs over the side of the bed, resting his head in his hands. "Something tells me that I won't be sleeping anymore tonight." He gazed forlornly at the alarm clock. Three am was written on it In bright red letters.
Beep, beep-beep, beep.
He sighed, picking up the sleek communications device that Donnye had given him. He palmed the thing, scowling at it. A small hologram of K'Payr flickered into being.
"Ce'it, contact the Xavier Institute. We are being invaded."
He was fully awake, his attention focused firmly on the hologram. "By who?"
"The Rylaxian Trade League."
"But we are nowhere near their space," he protested.
"We are now." The hologram flickered and vanished.
Logan was up late, as usual, prowling the sleeping Institute. He could barely hear the wind slapping branches against one of the outside walls. The mansion was full of nighttime sounds, a slowly dripping faucet, wind through a drafty crack, someone snoring softly.
He scowled as someone knocked on the door. The wind picked up, adding soft spatters of rain, matching his darkened mood.
"This had better be important." He pulled the door open to reveal a soaked Ce'it, holding his coat at his throat as the winds snapped around him. Logan did not invite him in. "What is it?"
"We are being invaded."
"Prove it."
Ce'it pulled a small black box from his pocket, thumbing the side. A flickering Plainsrunner Itex, dark orange fur striped with red and black hair pulled back at the nape of her neck, came into being.
She began her briefing as Xavier rolled into the room. "The Rylax have conquered Itexian space three aarms from here. For now, they are not advancing."
"How did this happen?" She was not surprised at the Professer's sudden appearance.
"We are hoping it was not an traitor, but the attacks on our outposts were too fast, too precise."
"What of us?" Logan growled.
"We will do what we can to protect you, but our defenses are not yet complete. The good news is, is that they will want as many people alive as possible. The bad news is because they value slaves." Xavier motioned for Ce'it to come in out of the rain, and Logan closed the door behind him. He looked up as a muffled "bamf" emanated from the kitchen. The Itex continued to speak as Logan walked into the kitchen.
"First, they will disable your satellites, but so far they have yet to reach your outtermost one."
Xavier breathed a sigh of relief. Then he sobered. "How long is an aarm?"
"You know how long a lightyear is, correct?" At his nod, she continued. "Speed is determined by power falloff thresholds. Power useage peaks at the speed of light, then tapers off to the next threshold, and then raises to the next peak, then tapers off, and keeps going next until you need infinite power to progress. This speed is known as Warp 10. We have the technology to travel faster than that. After that, the speed is linear, Warp 11 is twice Warp 10, Warp 12 is three times Warp 10, and so on until you reach Warp fifty, more than fast enough for your molecules to split apart. An aarm is how far you travel in one day at Transwarp 1.5."
Xavier let to a low whistle. "So, these invaders are 3 days away."
"Roughly, distance is not accurate with aarms, but when one is capable of going so fast," she splayed her hands out, "they do not need to be."
Low voices came from the kitchen. "Time for bed, kid."
"But, Logan, I am still hungry." Ce'it smiled at Kurt's protest.
A blue furry head peeked around the corner into the main room. "Hallo," he said around a mouthful of food. "Vas you doin' here, Ce'it?"
"Go to bed, Kurt." Ce'it sighed sadly.
Kurt shrugged, and with a flash of imploding air and a rush of brimstone, he was gone.
Xavier folded his hands in front of his face and stared over his fingers at Ce'it. The flickering hologram looked calmly at them both. "We are dealing with two very advanced races, one on our side and one not. How do you expect us to deal with this?"
Ce'it placed the hologram on the coffee table, peeling off his sodden coat. "K'Payr wants a meeting with all of you as soon as possible."
Logan sighed. "Field trip for all of the students here, Prof?"
Xavier nodded, "Ms. Darkholme must be convinced that there is no other choice."
Ce'it smiled, holding up his wrist. "Leave that to me."
"You wished to see me?" Ms. Darkholme crossed her arms in front of her chest, leaning against the side of her desk. Her eyes narrowed.
Ce'it knew she had her suspicions about him; spending so much time with the X-Men and Kurt in particular. He smiled inwardly. "The children that reside at the Xavier Institute are going on a long-term field trip, I am to be their chaperone. You already know who I have chosen as my substitute."
She nodded, her expression dark. "And you know my answer. You, and the children, will stay here." She turned to her window, scowling out of it at the happily chirping birds beyond.
Ce'it fingered his watch, turning the hologram off and waiting for her to turn around. "Are you still here?" she hissed.
"I am because no is not an option."
Anger flared from her, carried to him on waves of the Force. This was not a woman who liked to be disobeyed. She spun, her mouth open as she started to speak.
Ce'it smiled innocently at her, his tail swishing behind. A thought, a very powerful and surprised thought, screamed from her mind. He could be Kurt's father!
The Jedi smiled, it was not often when one made Principle Darkhome speechless. He shocked her even more when he spoke. "I am not Kurt's father, in fact," he leaned closer to her, "I'm not even Human. Given that information, how can you refuse the field trip?"
He had to give her credit, she composed herself quickly, pacing around him. "And where are you going? Mars?"
Ce'it shrugged, "I doubt we will be leaving Earth, but something tells me we might have to."
She opened her mouth to argue, but stopped short at his sad, pained expression. Ce'it continued to speak, "That is a last resort, but something very bad is happening, and we are doing whatever in our power to stop it. I know you have access to other mutants," he held up a hand, silencing her, "Don't ask me how. Keep your eyes on the stars, Principle Darkhome."
"Is this an invasion?" Suspicion and anger flowed from her.
He nodded sadly. "Yes, but not from us. We only wanted a communications monitoring station, we have no interest in doing anything with the native population."
"Why are you telling me this?"
He pointed to her, gazing out from under dark blue bangs. "You are a very powerful woman, you have contacts that even you don't know about. All I ask is that you grant the field trip for the Xavier students and…" he looked away, his voice stern, "If we need help protecting this planet, you will set aside your hate and work with us."
"You or Xavier?" she spat.
"Both." He fingered the watch, turning his hologram back on.
"How do I know you are telling the truth?"
He shrugged, "You don't." Sighing, he continued, "I'm not expecting an answer concerning your support, but I am for granting the field trip. They are still students, and this still needs to be legal."
"What about their studies?" she argued, stalling him.
He shrugged, "Donnye will tutor them."
"Donnye? And who is that?"
"A fifteen hundred year old Shapechanger Ambassador. I think he will be able to answer any questions they may have." He turned the doorknob, stepping out of her office before she could respond.
"Permission granted," she whispered.
Traddess was in chaos. The teens were involved as much as they could be, and the Itex demonstrated an amazing level of trust. Corridors previously barred to them were opened, information displayed in both English and geometric Itexian.
Kurt was among those drafted first. His power of teleportation made is easier to travel from place to place without leaving a tell-tale energy signature. Kitty soon followed, phasing Itexian hands through Machine Intelligence and ship hulls to perform quick repairs and modifications. She soon became a favorite of the MI, the first Human with the ability to tickle them.
Jean, Rouge, Scott, and Logan held down the fort at the mansion, holding up appearances that they were leaving on a very long term trip. Xavier oversaw the work the students performed, Ororo and Evan at his side.
Kurt bamfed into the main room, plopping down on the couch smelling of sweat, grease, brimstone, and something else. Xavier wrinkled his nose. The Rylax were now one aarm away. "Za last MI lifted off a few seconds ago, Ce'it iz on his vay back vith Keety."
"You sound exhausted."
Kurt yawned, and his belly growled. Evan had been running support for them when they arrived home, and he already had a plate of food for Kurt. Kurt accepted the food with a grin, then proceeded inhale it.
"I have never teleported so much, I am so tired," he complained between bites.
"Like, save some for me," an equally tired Kitty sat next to him, stealing some of his food.
Ce'it leaned against the doorframe. "Get some rest, all of you. Tomorrow, the Rylax will be here. Let's hope they never make it to Earth."
The group nodded. Xavier spoke up first, "What if they do?"
Ce'it grinned slightly. "Donnye just finished the modifications to your plane. And Scott," he waved a hand, motioning toward the nonpresent youth, "is being trained on how to use it, and through him, Jean as well."
Xavier nodded grimly, folding his hands in front of him. "Then I suggest we all go to bed, tomorrow promises to be a very busy day."
Skimmer screamed through the fabric of space, far beyond the reach of the light of the Earth's sun. Faint starlight glistened on her glossy hide. She reveled in this, soaring through the element of her people, the energy of the stars powering her. It flowed through her veins like blood, pumping through her heart. A machine, hidden deep within her, a power converter, warmed her soul.
Qua'Xia to any other species was magic, bits of energy released by living things. The Force was one such energy.
To her people, Qua'Xia was something else. Energy was her life, her blood, her food, her air. She knew everything about it, including how to control it. But, controlling and using are two very different things. She could not control Qua'Xia, none of her people could. The wavelength was wrong, almost erratic. To her, Qua'Xia was a form of energy, then when converted into something she could control, released less energy that what was used to convert it. To her people, Qua'Xia meant useless.
She did not need it to grow, to reproduce, but the flesh and blood that supported her people did. Without it, the spark of life that heralded so many a baby would never be. The encouragement of a cell to divide and grow strong would not exist. Qua'Xia was life to those she loved and loved her back.
Donny was one such person, and currently he coordinated their efforts along with those of forty other MI and ships. He had been her partner for well over four centuries, and she hoped he would be for far longer.
"How long?"
"Three minutes," her voice was soft and husky, a smooth version of her preferred gender. Technically, MI were asexual, though it still took two to make another. Skimmer just preferred being female.
Donnye clipped something in the Itexian tongue, a barrage of commands. The language was compressed, formed from the remnants of the root language, lost three thousand years ago in The Great Massacre. The Itex were almost completely wiped out, but they had gained the secret or transdimensional travel.
She could feel the massive energy wake of the Rylaxian armada as it approached. Ships screamed out of Beyond, flickers of yellow then black. Sleek black ships, similar in size and color to the Itexian vessels but whose design was sharper, more angular, feral, glided into view.
Skimmer dropped her shields. Her hull was made of a special metal that absorbed energy, and to power her weapons, she must first be hit. This was her space, and she was determined to defend it.
The Rylax say her offensive posture and paused, not expecting to discover forty Itexian ships ready for battle.
Until backup arrived.
Heh, sorry about the cliffhanger, I couldn't help myself. ^_^;
BUT, good news, I've already started writing Chapter Four "And all Hell Breaks Loose"