"Lt. Inquirer," Probe says from a grill on his base unit while looking
at her from a periscope looking device rising from his base unit. "A moment
of your time, if you would be so kind."
"Here, sir!" Inquirer says loudly, snapping to attention and saluting.
Ye gods, she's quick! Synizn thinks as he shakes his head in
amazement.
"At ease, Lt." Probe says with a kind voice. "I'm here only to ask a
favor of you and the mages. Seems that an exact replica of this worlds
Castle D'Honaire has shown up within walking distance from the nuked out
ruins of the old one. I and a few D'Honaires were hoping to either use
the shuttlecraft or a Crystallic to teleport there."
"Ah, well....that's....understandable," Synizn manages while the other
Freds and Astras look surprised at recent turn of events. All knew that
it was possible, but none had really expected their (or an analog of) home
to be teleported here. "But I'm a touch nervous about overusing the Crystallics."
"As am I, sir." Probe said. "However, considering the now wild and lawless
conditions in the general area, I'd shudder to think what else might just
'pop' out and harass the castle's inhabitants while we used regular means
to get there. Horseback is fine for regular things on Terra, I suppose,
but I'd rather take the express way if I could instead of the scenic route....if
you catch my drift."
"I...think I do," Synizn concedes, after puzzling out Probe's odd turn
of phrasing. "I take it that you're 'asking' instead of just having Inquirer
take up a Crystallic?....."
"Hey, not only is it polite, it doesn't estrange the mages," Probe explains.
"Sure, I guess she could do something despicable like that if I ordered
it, if she didn't inform me I'd just given her an illegal order, but....in
the long run it would make the relationship between the governments of
Terra and the Alliance nearly impossible to be on positive terms."
"Probe, as for the shuttlecraft I think that moving it is just out of
the question," Inquirer said. "The bio-comp is hardly something easily
removed, and it STILL hasn't found the key....though I think it's closing
in on something. And besides which.....this cavern it's in doesn't have
an exit large enough for it to depart by conventional means."
"And that would mean we'd have to use more Crystallics, mages' fatigue,
and such, teleporting the ship out rather than by teleporting our party
directly" Probe says, stating what he'd already figured out even before
this conversation. "Even IF we were willing to risk the ship and what she
held!"
"As such, Sir, I'll go and get in contact with Malachi Dronocis right
away," Lt. Inquirer says as she goes off to talk with the Regent.
******************************************************
Moments later, a small party appears magically just out of visual sight
of the castle, hidden by the trees.
The group consists of several people, none of them outside the small
group that had been outside of the room that Probe had left his Avatar
body behind (in Wallants).
Fred 1 looks at his father, and then at the Castle, feeling a wave of
hope and longing (for he had never expected to even see a copy of his Home
ever since arriving here).
"I'm sorry that my brother and Para-Astra couldn't be here," Fred 1
whispers, with a knot in his throat. "I never knew how beautiful she was
until now."
Yes, but if this IS the castle from your world....having two
images of the same person..... Probe thinks to himself. At least
we had, for the time being, restored Duke Dredrick's face back to it's
old lines.
"Aye, she is at that," Dredrick sighs. "Mayhap the gods will smile upon
us and it will actually BE home! Home, and not some mirror of it."
Probe (who had been elected to come along since he was so....formidable....just
in case things prove to be....sticky) nods and straightens his weapon harness.
-
 "Well, folks," Probe says
in a light voice. "Time to pay our respects to the folks inside."
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