More Introductions

Late Evening: February 26, 2190 AI

Jet was starting to get nervous as he stood outside the door of Duran Bryant later that evening. It was late enough, everyone was done with their work, but the man had been too busy to speak with all day. So the two had to wait until he was back in his own room, but that wasn't the best time to meet with the odd talking scientist. For Duran had, ummmm. . .let's just say some pretty dirty obsessions lying around there.

"Duran," he called, "Can I come in? I've got someone here who wants to meet you." He'd already warned Virginia that the man was a little odd, he had an obsession with finding the perfect woman, and one attempt to look into the girl who Werner and Leehalt both had crushes on led to him being knocked across the room by Leehalt, who already had Werner to contend with as a rival. Heck, he was desperate enough to go out with Melody for an entire week. And now, all this isolation and the lack of female companionship was taking its toll on Duran, he had subscriptions to every porno magazine ever written that were being sent to the Leyline Observatory - - he was too lazy to change the mailing address and besides, no one comes close to Yggdrasil to send the mail there. Also, now he supposedly had an imaginary girlfriend named Beatrice.

Duran came to the door. At 39, he was the third oldest member, only Pete and Elliot were older. A lean man with black hair and blue eyes, he was wearing his denim colored shorts and a white shirt. In his hands, not surprisingly, was a copy of the latest issue of "Sexy Drifters", a magazine that gave jobs to girls who were in that particular trade. The person on the cover now was a woman named Caroline, who was said to travel around to support her daughter Corrie, who was about Virginia's age. Jet rolled his eyes, didn't that man have anything resembling common sense? He didn't know who exactly was coming to the door too.

"Vell, vat have ve here? Iz zhe a friend of yourz, Jet?" asked Duran. He quickly hid his porno, since the girl was very underage. Heck, Jet shouldn't even be looking at that stuff either, but he tended to forget all about those things. It had caused a fight between himself and Elliot once, about the things that Duran had exposed his son to. That had to be about five years ago, when Duran babysat for Jet when the other six had to go on a certain day trip, and Jet had requested something to read. Duran read him an article from his magazine, one all about some really slutty women who were trying their hand at acting on stage, topless.

Virginia replied, "Hello, my name is Virginia Maxwell, and I've come here with my father for the day. But his Teleport Orb is broken, so he has to fix it before he can take me back to my Mommy." The girl gave the older man a smile, and was wondering what he was hiding. She'd seen him throw the book behind his back, but why would he want to hide a story from a child? Was it a scary story? She could take them on.

Duran looked closely, seeing how much she resembled her father. "Of courze it vould not vork, ze energy from Yggdrazil iz getting even ztronger. Ve need to increaze it a little in order to finizh ze experiment on time. You may be ztuck until zey are done." Jet glared a little, he may make her cry by saying she had to stay away from her mother for so long. But Virginia was a little trooper, she wasn't going to cry about it.

"It's ok, as long as my Daddy comes home with me," she stated, "That's why I came in the first place, I worried Daddy was going to leave and never come back. Sometimes, he's gone for days at a time and my mommy and I miss him. I don't want her to suffer any more, Mommy isn't feeling her best lately."

"Zuch a cute little girl. I vish I could find a woman with zuch good qualities. Oh vell, Beatrice isn't half bad. I can't vait until zhe comez to zee me again," Duran said, hearts in his eyes. Jet then rolled his, this was starting to get disturbing. Duran was officially off his rocker, if he thought some imaginary girl can be his lover. But since Duran was a little bit of a playboy, and living this isolated life, he wasn't surprised.

* * *

Virginia inquired, "Jet, who is Beatrice? Is she Uncle Duran's wife? Do they only see each other when she can get time to come to Yggdrasil to visit him? And what was with that book he threw into his room, why did he hide it?" She certainly was a very inquisitive girl, always wanting to know about things.

Jet gathered himself, this was one long explanation. "Beatrice isn't even a real person, Uncle Duran is just a little bit lonely so he made up a girlfriend for himself. He says he sees her at night, mostly in his dreams, but sometimes when he's awake as well. As for the book, well it's not really for a child's eyes. I am not even allowed to look at it. Duran is just way too lonely, if he needs to use those things to entertain."

"But what are 'those things'?" she asked, "I don't understand what is going on here. If he's reading a book, how can there be bad stuff in there? Mommy always said that books are a great treasure, I love to read in my free time." She gave Jet a look that made all her questions seem that much more puzzling. It was another one of her talents, the confused look that made other people give her a really plain explanation.

"Simple, the book has pictures that children shouldn't see. It's all about men and women when they are all grown up. You'll understand in a few years," a male voice behind them stated. When the two looked around, there stood a man of about forty one years, with dark brown hair and black eyes framed with small glasses. His name was Pete Inkapilia, and he was the final scientist on of the Council of Seven.

Virginia said, "Oh, it's pictures of naked girls. I was told by my mommy that you're not supposed to see a man without his clothes on until you're married, after I accidentally saw Daddy getting changed once. I didn't know that people liked to look at things like this." Jet's jaw hit the floor, he'd never seen a naked girl before, Duran had only read him the article, not shown any pictures. And the only person who'd ever walked in on someone else here was Malik, who walked in on Melody last month on accident, causing one of their infamous arguments to break out. But through it all, this young girl sounded completely innocent of all that.

Pete looked at her, and chuckled a little bit. "So, you're Werner's little girl. Elliot said you were here today, and Jet was taking care of you. You know, you look a lot like your father. Now, remember to be careful in this lab, there are some very dangerous experiments going on, and Werner will be really sad and cry if you get caught up in one. And Jet, don't try to encourage her to step out of line. I know you never do something against your father's wishes, but I don't want the fact that you're with someone to change it."

He walked away, confusing Virginia all the more. Jet explained that Pete was the serious type, a man who always put his work first. So he was often worrying about things going wrong. The boy also said that he was a Baskar, and this mission had a special meaning to him. For the Council of Seven would bring back the Filgaia they only knew in their racial memories. Virginia was excited, the memories of her own people were going to be coming to pass once more. Finally, it would be more like the Filgaia of the times before the Demon War. The girl was so happy, that she skipped all the way back to her father's quarters.

- - - -

Teefa's Last Words…

Teefa, master of foreshadowing. That's what Sky called me. Sarcastically, but it does sound like a cool nickname.