Chapter 9

Gavidon updated Caine with data coming from the locket camera and fed the audio to them so they could hear her. It sounded as if she were talking under her breath to herself; her whispering voice talking her through each step. Gaitha talked and reasoned her way through with a sharpness of focus that gave Caine, Stinger and Dragar a strong feeling of hope that Gaitha could survive this. Jupiter and Kalique were emotionally seeking any fear in Gaitha's voice but Gaitha's whispering, though low, was strong, centered. A sense of pride stole over each person on the bridge of Caine and Jupiter's clipper the Gaitha, which meant "Bridge or Gate" in Samvargotha. In so many ways Gaitha was quite literally the gate between Jupiter's and Caine's worlds.

Gavidon was trying to get the video feed up to Caine but he risked giving away the tracking beacon which might be the one slight advantage they had, along with Caine's skills as a tracker. Caine reminded the women that his daughter was highly trained in self-defense from most forms of attack and yes it might have only been in simulation with himself or Dragar, but they had challenged her, not giving an inch that might mean Gaitha's death if she weren't in the training room with them, but in a highly volatile situation. He felt she had to be over-trained. He held no illusions about her value to the un-entitled people in their universe. It wasn't luck that this was the closest they had ever come to experiencing the unthinkable.

He pressed a button on the control panel and asked Gavidon if the radio silence was broken by Mr. Night on the other ship from the ship's controls then would they be able to spot Gaitha's position.

"Yes sir if I play back their voices from the archival sound data I should be able to tell the computer to match voice to beacon frequency and we will know exactly where she is.

"Can we do it without giving ourselves or Gaitha away?"

"Yes sir," Gavidon was galvanized by the thought.

Caine didn't hesitate. "Do it!"

He finally turned to Stinger and glanced back at Jupiter and Kalique and gave them just a hint of a smile.

"Now we just have to wait,"

"Why won't the locket give away the beacon?"

Jupiter was considerably calmer now as was Lady Kalique who also looked quite abashed and Jupiter knew her guilt would be huge. She did not know at the time they met that they would become great friends, so she could not be mad at Kalique. It wasn't her fault and Jupiter would never treat Kalique as badly as Kalique could treat herself.

Stinger's eyes nictitating to yellow and back again in an instant and was preceded by him beginning to talk and illustrate on the clearboard.

"Pixilated images are somewhat compromised the smaller you try to make a device like the locket that her Ladyship is wearing. Sound and image have to travel to other parts of the universe through all manner of atmospheric disturbance, magnetic soundprints, and a host of other obstacles. You heard her Ladyship whispering but I had the volume almost to the maximum or we'd never have heard her. We could try to pinpoint her from wristwatch beacon but with the images we risk giving away any advantage we might hold because it would give away our position. The locket does however, have perfect image through not only our own galaxy, but any galaxy that is adjacent to ours on any side."

Caine shot a glance to Stinger and he gave a slight nod, a message that he was grateful for Stinger's keeping the attention of Jupiter and Kalique. He could see that they were bolstered by Stinger's words. This was the calmest Caine had seen everyone since Gaitha's ship had portaled.

Jupiter appreciated the calm she felt but she noticed Kalique's rosy cheeks and that she would not look at anyone but kept her eyes cast downward.

"I knew it was a mistake but she was so excited and I got caught up in it," she finally blurted but her eyes remained fixed downward while tears spilled down her cheeks. "I will never forgive myself for putting her in this situation!"

"Kalique," Caine's voice held a resigned attitude, "If I know my daughter and I think I know my daughter, she took advantage of your soft spot for her. I am pretty sure she put herself in this situation."

Kalique was not so sure. "I should have stayed strong."

Jupiter surprised them all by bursting out laughing at the image of Kalique trying to stay strong amidst the whirlwind that was Gaitha..

"I can see the picture of how it probably went down," she paused, still giggling slightly and turned to Kalique with the sweetest of smiles and said "Caine is right Kalique, that girl could get you to let her pull the teeth out of your head."

They all laughed but Kalique was indignant which just amused the other three more. "I would never let her do that..." Kalique stared at them all with shock on her face but then added "and besides they would grow back immediately when I took a Regenex bath!" and she started to laugh herself.

There came a not uncomfortable silence when Jupiter grabbed Kalique's hand and squeezed it, "We know that you love her every bit as much as we do so stop with the guilt, it's not useful in this situation and I want that brain of helping mine. You know much more about the galaxies than I do."