Meanwhile, back in the Master's TARDIS.....Part 14

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 8245

"How about we start with Astra first, eh?" Seeker smiles in a comforting smile as Astra jumps at mention of her name. "Rank may not have much privileges here, but at least we can let the warrior princess go first, right?"

Astra, elfin ears twitching a little in consternation at the words of this strange elf, just sighs and decides to humor him. Lord knows that the whole situation has gone to luney since she had been freed from the grasp of that horrible....lecherous wyrm/mage. But God help her, if she didn't get a straight answer from these other elves she was ready to kick their butts up to around where their pointy ears were!

She decides to start from the beginning of her ordeal....in order to at least tell Fred some more about herself. Her heart flutters a little bit faster at the last part about Fred. As strange as it seems, Astra felt that somehow her heart was beginning to be snared by this brave young man....and for the life of her she couldn't understand WHY! He seemed to be a man of deep honor...but like all the mysterious dwellers of Alaria....Astra found Fred to be a mystery.

Astra felt her heart flutter more in excitement at the thought of plumbing those depths.

She sighs, acknowledging that her heart seemed to have decided the matter for her. Hearts were like that, and rarely listened to their more logical....rational partner....the mind.

If this budding relationship did blossom into something serious, then if she ever DID regain her God given form (not that the thought of her being an elf for the rest of her existence really bother her....she thought, surprised at her feelings) then there really would be no real big political scandal. After all, Frederigo D'Honaire was the son of one of the great dukes of the kingdom of Alaria,or he wouldn't be Lord Fred. Certainly he'd certainly be a fine match for her if he could become a companion in arms, and in life, of her! And there seemed to be some real hope for the young man...since he hadn't done anything to hint at the rumored conciets of other Alarian nobles...who seemed to hold all woman as something less that equals.

Astra was succumbing to the nature of her now elfin body. Elven hearts were....wiser....than their human counterparts....and knew a good "catch" when they sense them. This tended to lead to what humans felt was flighty behavior on the elves part, but in all the elves had better romantic realtionship by FAR than the average, mundane human being.

As far as this budding relationship between the elves Astra and Fred, Seven of Nine said it best in regards to them trying to resist this. Resistence is futile.

Just another insight into the minds and hearts of the nonhuman minds and hearts of Terra....

Anyway, her mother, the Queen and ruler of Aqualaria, had done much to bring equality to the males of her land.......perhaps the same was happening hin Alaria....and they were becoming enlightened?

Astra shakes her head to focus...and begins to tell her tale.

"I'm not going to tell the life history of me, but I'll just begin from where I had been captured by the vile dragon Vellus," she begins, noticing that Seeker seems to react slightly as if he recognized the name.

Yep, sounds like a Mirror of Astra, Seeker thought to herself, nodding slightly, causing his mane of coppery hair to shift a bit to where he needed to brush it out of his way. He made a mental note to at least make a headband in order to keep it out of his eyes (his equipment seemed bereft of scissors....if not some of the other equipment that he was used too).

He brushes his hair out of his eyes, and Astra continues.

"For some reason, my mother had gotten the idea in her head that an arranged marriage between me and a Duke by the name of Zular, a man I've never met, to improve the rather strained relations between my country and Alaria," Astra said, with a bit of anger in her voice. "Now, I have nothing against this Zular, but I'd be hung if I was going to be forced into a marriage like that."

"Well, even if it did happen," Fred said. "You wouldn't have an ogre for a husband. I happen to know and like Zular. A real man of honor and courage.......and a real brain inside his head! Fact is, I owe him my life when he came up with an antidote for a slow poison that some enemy to the House D'Honair slipped in my food!"

"But I'm glad that the marriage didn't happen....for else I'd be heartbroken right now," Fred mutters softly to himself, heartfelt. All eyes turn to him and smile, and Fred feels like dying! He'd said it softly enough that human ears wouldn't have heard or understood that....but the others AREN'T human!

Astra, feeling something warm rush through her heart, gave Fred a fond pat on his hand (sending a jolt of pleasure through both) and the returned to her tale.

"So....as a service of equal importance to Aqualaria to substitute for the arranged marriage I went off to slay the Dragon of the North Cavern," Astra finishes up, silently cursing the Greek philosophy duty to state. "The lore books I had read on this vile dragon were erroneous and I was capture....and used as bait for other adventurers."

"And to make you a more....effective bait Vellus stripped you naked," Fred sighed. "And quiet an effective one, frankly. Vellus almost got the drop on me!"

Seeker makes a mental note that, sometime in the future, to find out just how many Earth phrases and concepts seemed to be floating around such a remote Mirror world.

"But you killed it...and that should have been the end," Astra sighs. "Vellus' mentor banished us via magic into the desert... We survived to find a mage tower of the....er...eccentric Mage cum Scientist Dr. Vincent. He magically whisked us inside his tower, only to have disaster befall Lord Fred when the magic creation known as Bobo injured Fred terribly."

"Aye, that purple toaster headed ape did indeed," Fred muttered darkly. "And that mad mage healed me...HAH!.......by turning me into a freak with scissors for hands! Only when I and Astra begged did that idiot try to turn me back."

"And then disaster struck when I sneezed at an important point," Astra said, puzzled. "Funny, there wasn't anything around that should have made me do that. Say what you will of Vincent....that was the cleanest mage laboratory that I've ever seen!"

"Actually my brother Charles' lab was better than than Vincent....but I see your point." Fred put in, wondering if he would ever get to see his sometimes zany....but brilliant brother again!

"Perhaps you were allergic to Bobo?" Torres conjectures. If all that had happened to hadn't happened, then she'd have thought Astra and Fred mad for the tale they were telling.

As it was, it just made her head spin a bit.

"I ended up in the dark caverns of the dragon again and was able to find my way to freedom," Astra says. "I had thought of using the magical ear ring that Vincent had given me to call forth Pronklezilch, a friend of Vincent. But I'd had a funny feeling about Vincent, about how stable he was. I didn't want to risk calling forth another mage to somebody who I had grave doubts about."

"Birds of a feather flocking together, huh?" Seeker put in. "You figured that since Vincent was a little mentally unstable that the same might be for his friends?"

"Right," Astra said. "Nice turn of the phrase, by the way. I've never heard it, but it fits!"

"Er....thanks," Seeker said. That phrase was hundreds of years old back Home.......but never had been born apparently back where Astra was born.

"I went through a passageway with demons carved on it and then swam through an underground river and came to the beach of the river. Fred soon found me, and we then made our way out to try to find our way to civilization when we ran into the fell forest of Xythryx. We were entrapped by a giant spider's web and knowing the deadly nature of those monsters, we had to call upon Pronklezilch...else we'd be a spider's dinner!"

"But the damn mage turned out to be not only mad....but...horny," Fred ground out. "He appeared, found us in danger, but wouldn't have lifted a finger to help unless Astra did some sexual favors for him. She tricked him into freeing us....and killing the giant spider that was approaching....and that REALLY got the mage angered. He used the ancient Atlantian Crystal Staff on us....and transformed us into elves! And since....by some strange sense of...alieness to this land around us....we've been teleported to some other world! Meaning, I and Astra are now elves forevermore."

Elves have a connection to the land around them....and can tell things instinctively about it that a human is blind to. Fred's senses are telling him that Terra Prime isn't His Tera!

"Is that so bad?" Astra says softly. "We don't age...and we could be together forevermore.......forever young and in love?"

"I'd....like that very much," Fred said softly....fully surrendering to the demands on his elven heart. They kiss softly and tenderly for a few minutes until a soft cough by Torres breaks the moment.

Torres smiles an understanding smile as the two lovebirds blink in surprise and embarrassment. From what she saw led her to believe that

They were still learning the ins and outs....the demands of their new bodies.

Torres, having been gifted with something of an almost instinctive data base of the new body she'd been reincarnated in, didn't begrudge them the display they just had. It was all very much part and parcel of being an elf.

"Ah....I think I'll....go next," Fred said, flustered and still seeing fireworks from kissing the heavenly lips of lovely Astra.

And so Fred did.

"Like my sweet Astra.......I won't go into my entire life biography....short as it would be," Fred said humbly. "I am the fifth son of Duke D'Honair....second in step to the throne in case something would befall the King and Heir. This means I have the title of Lord, and all the social privileges...and obligations....that come with it. But, being the fifth son means there is little chance of me having anything in the way of inheritance when.......my father dies. Thus, I find that unless I wanted to live off the gratuity of my family....I'd need to somehow make a Name for myself. Do something that would secure a future for myself....and any future offspring I hoped to have with whoever I gave my heart to........"

Fred pauses and smiles coyly at Astra, who smiles back.

"So I became a Dragon Slayer for the Great Kingdom. It was an honorable profession, and VERY needed....frankly. High turnover rate and all that." Fred coughed. "I had always been under the impression that the lot of them were fools who failed to plan properly...and thus had basically planned to fail! Dragons are dangerous, cunning creatures...and not easy meat by a long shot! I'd heard rumors of there being good dragons....even met a few in my travels! However, there seemed to be a glut of evil dragons on the grounds.......must have been fashionable for them or something...and so that's were I came in.......well prepared beforehand!

"I spent inordinate amounts of time and effort combing the Archives of the Dragonslayers on the targeted dragons I was quested to slay. At first, it earned me no little condescending nicknames....let me tell you! However, after I came back from my eighth dragon kill......twice the average successful missions completed with the slayer alive.......those names disappeared. I was making a good name for myself...and by the twentieth one....the one with what turned out to be Dragon Vellus, I had gained enough of a favor by the King to be granted a fief of land with peasants. In other words, I was within reach of gaining a secure future. I could actually think about doing something ELSE with my life....and perhaps begin to look for my other half....except I found her in chains and nothing else while hunting for the dragon. Things turned out much differently than expected....but....I have Astra...and she has me.......

"So....we all know now what happened after that. After Astra sneezed, I awoke on the banks of the river that I'd soon find her. I had been restored to my normal self, thankfully. I also found the equipment that had been laid in a corner - perhaps the myth of a warriors equipment knowing it's master is true - and as for the rest......"

Fred smiled.

"We're here," he finishes. "Now, I believe it's your turn?"

The golden haired elfin lady turned and looked at the coppery maned elfin man, who give a half smile and shrug.

"Ladies first?" Seeker smiled, causing Torres' elfin heart to beat a little faster in delight.

Torres, very much a product of the 24th century, found this small display of chivalry on Seeker's part delightful. She smiles a dazzling smile and nods affirmative.

She turns to the other elves and beings to speak.

"Okay......I have to warn you two that what I'm about to tell you about myself will sound insane....but it's the truth," Torres beings.

"After all that has happened today to us that would take some doing," Fred quipped. Astra nodded in agreement.

"Well the day is just begun....but anyway here it is," Torres says. "I wasn't born an elf. Rather, I was....er....made as something else before this." She gestures with her hands at her curvious, beautiful body.

"Oh, did that mad mage get you also?" Astra said, feeling a sudden kinship with this other female elf.

"No, that didn't happen," Torres said, looking at a loss to say this without sounding like she was crazy.

She sighed, for she couldn't think of anyway to do it diplomatically.

Dream Prop or no, she was still more of an Engineer and much less of a diplomat. In other words, she would have to do this by her usual......no frills approach.

"I was created in an alchemical bath by a vile mage by the name of Tesla," Torres says abruptly. "I was a creation that he termed as a Dream Prop, which is what I'm told is some type of magical golem. I gained sentience, and for a while I thought I was....something other than what I was......"

"TESLA OF ATLANTIS?!" both elves squeak in shock (yes squeak).

Eyes look into the deep purple orbs that this elfin lass has, and see that this is not a joke (and what a poor joke it'd be if it was)! As for being a golem, both Astra and Fred were familiar with the stories of how certain settlements of those of the Jewish faith had created vaguely humanoid creations to serve and protect them from those who'd harm them (and considering the hatred that some - who both Allaria and Aqualaria found to be just a step above pond scum - such creations were a good idea).

The woman that stood before them hardly looked like something related to the animated pieces of clay. She hardly acted like something supposed originated from such as those....either. A golem was powerful. It was strong. It wasn't much in the way of....personality, however.

Then again, there had been other rumors of a sentient golems...supposedly found and befriended by Queen Alicia of Ethiopia, were true, also. It was rumored that the golems were so life like in appearance that one could not tell from looking alone. Behavior, of course, was a different matter....since they weren't human. However, they were hardly the magical automation like their Jewish counterparts.

But if the other golems were....active long enough......then what? Fred thinks to himself....and had a feeling that something special might occur.

Something like a thing becoming a person in it's own right?

Looking into the pure pools of color that were B'Elanna's eyes put to rest any doubts about the validly of her claim.

"Okkkayyy," Fred says finally, a little spooked. "You're a golem that came to life....sort to speak. I take it from the way this story seems to be going that you were going to turn on that evil bastard? And more to the point......"

"How in God did Tesla survive all these years?!" Astra put in....aghast at all this. "He killed himself when he destroyed his nation in his rage."

"First, let me tell you what I know....through the magical virtue of having been created by him," Torres says softly. "All creations by him have a working knowledge of the life of him. It's something of a mental conceit on his part....as well as a signature of his workmanship. So, through that, I know that he had faked his death, and moved himself to the a private resort he'd made for himself called Nod. Now, Nod had a few shortcomings in that while he could produce some items with although....it didn't have the right......whatever......to be usable in as far as keeping him alive and magically going. But the dark mage was familiar with the fell practice of necromancy and....he changed himself into a vampire....that is after he killed all the other versions of himself."

Two pairs of eyes blink at that, not certain if they had heard that correctly. Other versions of himself?! That made no sense!

At least not yet, that is...

"God have mercy," Fred whispered hoarsely. Brave though he was....Tesla was WAY out of his league!

"Thus he was able to extend his life indefinitely....but in the process of becoming a vampire....he had locked himself to the land of Nod so he could never leave it," Torres sighed. "Vampires needing the dirt of the homeland where they were converted and all that. But, though bound, he could use the nature of Nod to his advantage, and he soon went back to old habits of Empire and conquest. He tortured the dreams of those he wanted to use as puppets for conquest and......he did it quiet well for a LONG time. Soon, his greed turned his eyes back to the world that had spawned him......the place we'll just call Terra Prime for the sake of argument."

"Why should this world be Prime?" Astra asked with a touch of pique. "Why not call my Tera Prime?"

Fred looked like he wanted to ask the same thing.

"First, because this is their world and it's a courtesy gesture if nothing else," Torres said, slightly annoyed. "Also, for another thing...."

Torres told of what Seeker had told her of what had happened to the Terra that he had been on. Doing that...and getting the other elves to believe was a bit of a heroic effort, but she managed (painful as it was......and she was half amazed a herself for not losing her patience).

Then again, she felt sorry for them when the idea of weapons of mass destruction translated to....as far a body counts go. They looked rather green around the gill.

"So the Enemy is on par with the Atlantians on that front," Fred said quietly.

"As well as the Military," Astra threw in. "But from what B'Elanna has said...and from what my intuition is telling me......the Military is by far better in their morals than the Enemy and the Atlantians....who strike me as being rather....evil."

Seeker mentally sighed in relief. On the last world, it had been an uphill battle to get the locals to trust the Military (or the Golems as the locals called the Military....for the Cybernetic Avatar that the Military used to make their presence felt down on that world). I would have been much easier for the humans of the Military meet the natives in the literal flesh....to allay fears. But that had courted death with the mysterious Phage.

"As it was," B'Elanna continued. "Tesla could not reach out in the usual way. Something about it being against the Rules. Don't ask....I can't tell you anything about what that's about because I don't know anything more than what I've told you. However, he had hatched a plan to circumnavigate around the limitations set upon him.

"He couldn't well reach Terra Prime via his normal method but he could and did attempt to do it via accessing realms with little to no magic within," Torres said.

"How...could a civilization of any worth survive without a bit of magic?" Astra wondered aloud.

"Probably....through the use of science," Fred speculated with a distant, thoughtful look. "It's not as effective as magic is in healing and other things....but it's by far more affordable to the masses....and I always had a feeling that we haven't even begun to see it's full potential..."

Fred and Astra started to argue about the merits of science when Torres interrupted.

"That's exactly how Tesla planned on doing it," Torres said, almost smiling when she sees Astra blink in surprise...and then nod. "Tesla might not understand science as he understood magic....but he could control those who had science...so it made little to no difference! "I was fashioned after on of the crew members of a science powered ship called the Voyager, a ship capable of travel between the stars......if you can accept that. Anyway, I was to help, along with my brother and sister Dream Props, torture the dreams of one human called Kathryn Janeway, the ship's captain. Only, something went wrong in the planning, and our....er....play got canceled. We were all called in to get reprocessed into component parts for reuse on another....better plan of attack. But......"

"But something happened and you gained you own mind?" Astra guessed, and smiled a little when the golden haired elf nodded affirmative.

"I came to myself...wondering where everyone else was," Torress continued. "See, though I had gained free will and all that....I was under the illusion that I actually was the person I was fashioned to resemble......but that didn't last long after Seeker rescued me from a lackey Telsa had sent to eliminate the annoying Dream Prop that had dared to defy his will..."

She smiled and hugged the coppery maned male elf, who looked a bit....disconcerted still at the adore Torres seemed to have for him. He then smiled a half dreamy smile and gave her a quick peck on the check. The two smiled at each other for a few seconds and then Torres made a valiant effort to bring herself back to the task at hand.

"Seeker saved my life, and told me of himself and the Military he was part of. At first I didn't....fully appreciate the noble being he was but I soon was more than enlightened when he risked his own existence in an attempt to free me again from Tesla...who'd managed to magically locate me and whisk me into his clutches.

"And I owe him so much for what he tried to do and what he did to keep me sane when I found out the truth about my artificial origins." She finished, bowing her head slightly while closing her eyes....silently crying in joy at what Seeker had done and tried to do for her.

Torres then coughed and blushed at that display.

"And now my turn." Seeker says after comforting Torres.

"See....we were re-incarnated as elves after our little run in with Tesla," Seeker sighs, then pausing in a little bit of surprise when he sees the calm acceptance by the two other elves.

Both Fred and Astra weren't surprised that something like that happened to Seeker and Torres. Going against one as powerful as Tesla was generally considered to be not conducive to a long...happy life. As for the mater of reincarnation, both had heard things about it.....but like most people they just knew that the reality of it was just another point to ask about when they ACTUALLY got to go see who their actual creator was (Terans knew empirically that there was an afterlife...but nobody had been able to track down the burning question of....Which religion was correct!

They put that aside as Seeker speaks again.

"I must say you two seem to be taking this all very well," Seeker says. "Then again, from the knowledge I gained in becoming an elf tells me that elves in general have a knack at ferreting out the difference between falsehoods and reality. Better connection with reality and all that."

"Oh, is that's what's happening?" Fred asks, suddenly curious. "How come that's happening, since we weren't elves before all this. I'd think that you'd have to be born an elf to have the mystical senses of one. I might wear an elfin body, but I'd think that that would hardly be enough."

"Well, the way I figure it from what you and Astra told me that it's of a similar nature as something a strange humanoid bear mage told me," Seeker said. "See, he said that those who's Matrix....some type of magical interface between a person's soul and the physical realm....and something like the template that shapes a person's form to what he has..... Anyway, if you'd change the Matrix by altering it....say by inducing a lycanthropy shard into the mix....the Matrix would change. Since the Matrix is something of an interface between the physical world and the metaphysical world....the signals one gets through it would change. You'd even get new senses out of the deal....such as you and Astra are getting now. He also said that trying to resist the demands was a bad idea....risking insanity and such."

"Well, I don't find anything about this to be too objectionable," Fred muttered. "In fact, I rather like some aspects of it, so I'm not adverse to keeping my sanity."

"But what I'm curious about those lycanthropy shards," Fred puts in, puzzled. "I only know of the legend of lycanthropy....."

So Fred tells what he knows about his worlds version of lycanthropy. It was the curse of the Ergot mushroom (as what was told in episode 3099). The tales said that the mushrooms were brought to his homeland by gypsies, who ate them habitually. Eventually, local folk took to eating them, and a terrible fact was discovered. There was a curious taint to the Ergot, that the gypsies were apparently immune to. When eaten, it infected one with a disease of the blood, a curse. It transformed them into strange wolflike reflections of themselves when the moon was full. Savage, bestial things, that killed, yet walked on two legs.

Astra, having never heard this tale, look on with some interest (and an eerie feeling of....oddness about it all). She shakes it off, for Seeker was telling how, in this other world the Dark Mage Tesla had concocted a magical curse in an attempt to keep his subjects in line. The threat had been ignored, and the mage released it on his enemies. It proved to have been too contagious, so in a fit of anger he destroyed Atlantis like a spoiled child would destroy his toys.

"All in all an interesting diversion, but lets get down to it," Seeker said, clapping his in resolve before returning to the topic. "Short and sweet, I was a construct similar to a golem, but I was science based as opposed to magic based. Now, to be honest, I worked with an organization that I had grave doubts about in the first few months into my Awakening...that's where I changed from a mere automation into a real person, folks.....I found that the partners that the Military worked with in concert to save humanity from the Enemy to be greedy....vile and generally not a nice group of folks. The Company, these partners, are like a huge Merchant House, so powerful that they control governments.....economies....everything. They have made my world something of a living hell all in the name of profit.....and the Military want them to change their tune....actually do some good for the masses....even to the point of open combat if needed. Fine and well, if we weren't fighting a war with an opponent that made redressing the issue of Home impossible to resolve properly. I'd wanted to not see the bloodshed that a military solution would bring about, so when I was approached by a faction within the Company who seemed to share the same ideals that I liked, I almost did the stupid thing and joined in conspiracy against the Military....but I got my head out of my ass and saw them for the blighters that they were. "Then, after I let them rot....I came to the conclusion that terrible though the military solution to this problem would be....it was the only way. The Company is too entrenched and only force will get them out."

"Thus throwing out evil men, huh?" Astra said softly. "Sounds like you had a crisis of faith....and at such an early age (that said in a half joking voice)."

"Yep," Seeker sighed. "And since you know what happened to this other Terra when I told you about those weapons of mass destruction...and how we nuked that Terra so the Enemy couldn't use it let me tell you what happened next. We drop the super atomic, and not only vaporize Terra....but something leapt out and ensnared me...dumping my ship....the body my mind resided in.....in the middle of Nod...wondering where the heck I was. I couldn't jump out....and sensors told me that trying to go to warp....the ship's top speed....would be disastrous....collapse the whole reality around me."

"Did....that kill Tesla?" Astra asked, suddenly seeing a faint hope. Seeker's and Torres' nod nearly made her heart leap out of her chest in joy....as well as it did Fred.

Frankly, Tesla was a living (actually undead) nightmare. A bogeyman that mothers use to keep naughty children in line with....telling to be good or Tesla would get them. The fact that Tesla was dead (for it was a well known fact that one could divine the status of a magic item's creator....and that is what Torres had been).....

And for what has been happening elsewhere?

(Author's Note: A Rule is the personification of the underworking workings of a universe. 179 is one of a special class of Rules that had human feeling and initiative added in order to handle strange and unusual situations....such as what has been happening on Terra Prime! This class of Rule also serves several other functions: as messanger for the Powers That Be, general fix it men, and a few other things to take up the slack for the Other

  1. ...Departments (Good and Evil) when they get swamped, and a few other things (but they are NOT gods). Just thought you'd like to know.)

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