Right in the thick of things...

Allan

One of our fellow adventures, B'Elanna, has taken up the task for this next part. She gives it and it is interesting to say the least! For the sake of brevity, however, I shall constrain myself with just highlight points in my retelling.

For that Queen Helia she basically confirmed suspicions that our group does indeed work for a higher power. However, she stonewalls any further attempts at inquiries from that wretched woman (who indeed is now looking wretched from having yet AGAIN driven home the enormity of her crimes against her own daughter - who the "bawdy girl" Astra had now been proved to be) by her simply stating that she and her whole world are not yet ready for more. That and she says something about not wanting to further infringe upon some kind of mandate called the Prime Directive.

Not exactly sure what that directive is, but that term had been mentioned in passing in regards to my world (England in particular) over "weapons of mass destruction" . . .

. . . .

While I am not exactly "happy" with the idea that my nation should fall into the same category of restriction as Helia's kingdom (it is almost insulting, like being viewed as a child!) I cannot say that I do not understand the logic. Honestly, some of the weaponry mentioned in passing by a saddened Inquirer, retelling of the early years of the war she'd been born into (the "Enemy/Alliance" war) was . . . . chilling.

. . .

Human death tolls in the billions! That on the opening DAY!!

God help us . . .

I can see how (if Inquirer and her friends had been so foolish as to provide the knowledge and materials) some foolish chap in High Command or whatever deciding (while not totally understanding the consequences) some kind of all out "nuclear strike" on an enemy nation to utterly destroy them for all time, and that poisonous "fallout" . . . .

Comes back to haunt everyone like some dire curse.

No, cannot say that I can really fault this Prime Directive. Putting weaponry aside, the fact of the matter is that B'Elanna is right, Helia is not ready for much more than what she's seen and heard.

Honestly, it might in the long run be too much for her but that . . . is not our problem to handle. We cannot handle it for her.

She has much to deal with when (and IF) she gets back in time before the curse from on High (as it were) upon her takes effect.

Perhaps she shall manage to make peace with her now estranged daughter (the real one she almost consigned to being a street prostitute forevermore) and continue to rule (now hopefully wiser for all her follies).

Maybe she shall advocate her throne (turning it over to her daughter) and live out the rest of her days in a nunnery (or the Amazonian version of a monastery), seeking to redeem herself through prayer and meditation.

Maybe she'll just mentally collapse.

We cannot intervene without getting so entangled into affairs not of our making (and our business), God help us. We cannot.

Not any more than we already have committed ourselves to, helping find Helia's home plane (or whatever). That and trying to do what we can for the transformed.

Sigh, we'd been SO bloody close the last time at fixing the transformed knight and princess' problem with that Crystlallic until those bloody elves and spiders showed!

Well, nothing for it now. Hopefully this Dr. Vincent and "Parsely's" former teacher can do something about it once we get them home, but that's for the future. Have to FIND their home reality before we get them there, right? Right!

On another note, Inquirer's family (odd family but still fitting) tells that after getting the "mothballed" analytical equipment back online, tests had proven that Queen Helia, Dr. Vincent and friends . . . Uh, well let us just say that it is confirmed that Princess Astra and Queen Helia ARE from the same reality instead of something else. Like perhaps Astra the unicorn lass being Helia's true daughter and Princess Astra (the "bawdy girl") being an off reality visitor being a possible example of what could have gone wrong.

We'd gone off with "tricorder" readings of some kind of arcane means of telling one body's "quantum signature" from another, but that had been a general (imprecise) method. The equipment back here was more accurate, but would have taken too long to be of use for Queen Helia if my friends had stayed behind to drag it out and set it up. We'd gone off searching while letting Inquirer's family take care of THOSE details.

Hm, speaking of details . . .

Ah, but I see you are curious about that false Princess Astra? The one who we had imprisoned on the realization of her being a "ringer" for the real (but transformed) one?

Well, we learn that she WAS (past tense) an agent of the Dragon of the Northern (by Aqualarian reckoning) Caverns. She would have arranged some kind of fatal accident for Queen Helia and the dragon rule the Amazons through her but that plan was pretty put to paid by us, thank YOU!

It could have still come to pass even WITH Dr. Vincent having tried to intervene upon the real Princess Astra's case, but our interference did that foul plot in and good!

Oh, but the bad part of this is that was ALL that could be gotten before the false princess managed to SOMEHOW kill herself. A fast acting poison in a false tooth of all things! Oh, it was magically disguised to look like a regular tooth (good enough to fool even this high caliber of interrogator's, Inquirer's parents), but it worked.

Well, it appears that some people will have to do what they can do look out for backup assasins and hte like once back home. Again, however, that is their problem. We cannot get so involved else we'll soon be doing EVERYTHING over their for the natives (and I bloody well don't want to be doing that for them).

They aren't children, you know!

"Some time in the near future I would just enjoy hearing how that TV interview that one fascist TV reporter managed to land with my brother, Roland, over on Crichton's world," Inquirer mutters to herself. "Bet you ten credits he'll rip him a new asshole."

"No bet," Elrondir chuckles softly, rolling his eyes.

What kind of reporter is a "TV" reporter? What is a TV?

What's a fascist?

. . .

And while we're at it, who is this Crichton chap?

. . .

No, no! I'll ask those questions well later at an appropriate time! Do believe that maybe later would be a good time for that and one question I have YET to ask Inquirer about back when Professor James Moriarty, who'd been taken into custody, called Inquirer.

I had been able to determine that the term that Moriarty used was supposed to be deragatory. Even know from the repartee of verbal barbs she'd thrown back at him (something about learning some "fancy words" from the world of psychoanalysis). It got rather heated from Moriarty's side, Inquirer just smiled and remained calm throughout.

. . . .

Some of the terms she used must be very specialized (by alienists I take, since Sigmund Freud was mentioned) because I had no difficulty in quickly losing ALL ability to follow the puns and jibs she threw out. However, I will tell you that I DO know that Inquirer has a VERY sharp tongue and acid wit if Moriaty’s reactions were any clue.

Still, the only time I have ever heard a similar word to the insult that the professor threw out was in Greek/Roman mythology studies back in college. You might have heard of the city of Lebos? The one were it was populated only by women and having something to do with that one god of alcohol?

. . . .

Why should Inquirer be a native of that ancient Greek city and why would she be considered "smelly"? I mean, I do admit that at first I’d been taken aback (if not perhaps as much as my love had been) when Inquirer started walking about in trousers vice the "more proper" dress that Victorian women wear of my era. Still, considering what I’d seen down in Africa . . . trousers on a women are nothing to be disturbed over!

It isn’t like Inquirer . . .

Wait, was THAT what Moriarty was trying to do? Call her some kind of . . .

Hm, maybe I want t to be a bit careful on just HOW I ask about this matter when/if I ever get a chance to ask. She might not respond too well or I might just might make myself look rather foolish, putting my foot into something I’d not like!

(Author's Note: certain words over time have changed and grown since the 19th century. In this case, the term that Allan is musing about has only been recently coined in the medical field and is not in wide use abroad).

. . .

Or maybe I should just take it up and look it up online for that term: lesbian. I’m sure it is some kind of term right now maybe just in medical journals . . . er . . . back home on my world anyway. Should be easy enough, with the "voice interface" from that "PDA" toy they’d given me to look at awhile ago...

Let’s just drop it for now. It is not getting me anywhere, really.

"Now where to?" I ask the Doctor as he comes back from the other room, the Key now recharged.

Of course, we leave the unicorns behind (will have to do something about them later). Maybe find them some kind of herd (unicorns have herds right?) to make a home for them her on Terra Prime.

I do not believe we shall be returning to the place we’d just left. Rather . . . hostile neighbors right now and all that, you must understand. Maybe something later can be arranged IF we must go back (like a quick means of getting the blazed out of there before we get mauled by spiders and Dark Elves).

Yes, but that’s later . . . maybe.

Moments later, the group appears NOT in the twin area they’d just left from the unicorn’s reality. Rather, still, it IS familiar to some.

"Don’t even THINK about going up that damn rope," Fertal calls out to an rather familiar looking elfin couple before them (with their backs to the Doctor’s group).

This is right at the same time that, without even warning, Inquirer and friends (those who have them) draw weapons. They'd just LEFT a situation with Dark Elves, and here they are AGAIN!!

Bloody!!

Tursil gets hit, multiple times, with various stunning weapons (phasor and plasma based energy weapons). While not pleasant, getting hit with Heavy Stun from a phasor, it is like getting hit (HARD) from the "Military" grade plasma weaponry that Inquirer’s packing.

Like getting hit by a baseball bat, really....

They (the Champions) just might be jumping to deadly conclusions, but gut instinct (something that one shouldn't ignore if one wishes to live a successful life in this lineo f work), says something bad here...

Without asking, the one named Inquirer then . . . Sweeps out and grabs the still stunned mirror images of "her" Fertal and Arizza.

Swift and agile as elfin kind can be, the body that Inquirer has is MUCH more. Taxpayers got their money’s worth where Avatar units are concerned (like the one that Inquirer inherited so long ago upon Terra Prime upon becoming a Golem).

Greased lightning would perhaps come nearest to it, but only scratch the surface. She doesn’t like showing off like this. Can make people nervous seeing her like this.

However . . . that one elf they'd just bushwacked has the same "stench" of evil (some kind of Champion sense?) as the last batch they'd run into.

Her moving like this, the one named Inquirer, might make normal humans nervous, but . . .

However this is an emergency, she's sure!!

Ignoring the still stunned scantily clad girl's gaping (Where had the dragons come from and where had Sigin, Mina, and Allan gone to, for God's sake?!, they think to themselves), she runs and mounts one dragon . . .

"Take OFF!!" she shouts, wanting to get the Hell out of Dodge....

Inquirer does not know how much time it will take before any other watching Dark Elves react to this fracas. However, whatever response they shall eventually give cannot be good for her friends health, especially considering that she and her friends had come between them and their latest prey!

Still, as Inquirer lifts higher and higher into the night sky all the while still firmly holding the indignant rescued elves (one under each shoulder), she cannot help but feel there is something . . . oddly familiar with these two.

Oh, not to say that it isn't like they do NOT look "her" Artizza and Fertal. They're mirror images and she's willing to bet good money that each is sporting names JUST like "her" proto-Dark Elfin friends!

No, it is something different.

Putting that odd feeling aside (and shifting her grip to make sure the elves don't go anywhere that they shouldn't), she looks over at her fellow fliers. It seems that while the other dragons had been able to be boarded and take off readily enough, they'd had to go and snatch the reluctant bawdy girls (one per dragon).

Quiet a sight (and earful) seeing a scantily clad (shouting mad) girl being carried in each forepaw/hand of a dragon. Make for awkward landings if nothing else. Doable, but awkward.

Sigh, looks like a LOT of explanations shall have to be given once they landed, somewhere relatively safe.

THEN maybe figure out what to do next, which might take SOME doing since there IS the fact that they'd just basically snatched out some recruits from the Army of Evil (maybe a recruiting drive by yet another demon/fairy girl brat for a shadow war just like what "her" Artizza and Fertal had barely avoided). . . . But just for now they'll take one crisis at a time, okay?

For the bawdy girls (who they'd been informed of some of the group being other than human, but not in what fashion) AND for the elfin couple in her grasp!

Still . . .

1. Who, I may add have an odd . . . (non-evil but still odd) scent to them.... Almost like a Champion but . . . . it's like an odd/ancient version of the "Champion sense" thing . . ..

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree