Jack sat in the ready room at the top of the Hangar. He had a bottle of conjured soda

and some donuts that he had put together on a plate. He leaned in his chair so that it

rested against the wall.

The gate alarm sounded. He smiled quietly. Beatrice walked by. He waved at her but

she didn’t see him. He watched as she went to the elevator to go downstairs.

He went back to munching on his donuts and waiting. He was glad that Bea had made

it home without problem. That meant Caroline and Emily were in the guest rooms on

the other side of the gate.

The carnival had been fun for a walkaround, but he really wanted one with a ferris

wheel, or a roller coaster. He wondered how hard it would be to build one of those

things.

He thought it should be easy enough after all the things he had built. The Enterprise

was one of the more complicated things in existence. What was a roller coaster

compared to that?

The roof opened. He leaned forward in his chair. He smiled as Josie came down the

steps in her red and gold dress. She pushed her short hair back from her face as she

descended down to the quinjet bay.

Aviras rode on her shoulder, glowing a gentle blue in the bay lights. He had his wings

tucked down against his back.

She closed the roof door and passed the ready room on the way to the elevator. She

didn’t see Jack either.

“Do you want a donut?,” he asked. He grinned as she jumped. She turned with an

angry face as he held up the plate of pastries. The dragon on her shoulder stifled a

burst of flame.

“What are you doing?,” asked Josie. She entered the ready room. She didn’t bother

with the spare chair. She loomed over the table.

“Eating donuts,” said Jack. “Want one?”

“I guess,” said Josie. She took one of the pastries and chewed on it.

“Everyone is tucked in bed,” said Jack. “Bea got home just a few minutes ago. I saw

her heading downstairs.”

“So you just happened to be midnight snacking where I would have to pass instead

of in the general quarters which I would have skirted around to get to my room,” said

Josie. “What do you want?”

“To eat donuts with my adopted sister,” said Jack. He grinned at her expression.

“What?,” said Josie.

“What?,” said Aviras in a slightly higher tone of voice. “Could you break me off

some pieces to chew on.”

“According to Angelica, we’re siblings under the law,” said Jack. He quickly tore a

donut into pieces and put it on a napkin for Aviras. “Who knew, sis?”

“Wait,” said Josie. She held up a hand. “How does Angelica know anything like

that?”

“Apparently she asked Matilda to do the research,” said Jack. “So we’re siblings, and

the Ducklings are considered my cousins.”

“You’re messing with me,” said Josie.

“And Elaine will be your in-law when we get married,” said Jack. “Would you like

some soda to go with your donut?”

“I don’t think I want familial ties with you,” said Josie. “I don’t want to inherit your

dementia.”

“How did your date go?,” asked Jack. He munched on one of the donuts. He sipped

his soda between chews.

“The dinner was fine, but we had to split up for the play,” said Josie. “Bea and

Caroline were trying to get some time alone without chaperones.”

“I was not happy with the subject matter of the play,” said Aviras. “Markus said there

are multiple stories about what happened, and no one knows what the truth is any

more.”

“You like him?,” asked Jack.

“He seemed steady enough,” said the dragon. He swallowed one of the pieces of

sugar bread in front of him.

“But he doesn’t want to date,” said Josie.

“Doesn’t want to date women, or you specifically?,” asked Jack.

“He doesn’t want to date women in general,” said Josie. “He is willing to give me a

tryout period. I thought we might do some traveling. I don’t know right now.”

“And I thought Case was impulsive,” said Jack. “What kind of traveling are we

talking about here?”

“We haven’t worked that out yet,” said Josie. “I thought we might get a boat and do

some sailing, or something. Right now, I have to get the goblin tree victims on their

feet, and sorted. That means I am going to have to go by the Exchange to check on

that other building we want.”

“My girl is growing up,” said Jack. “I can’t wait for the wedding.”

“No wedding,” said Josie. “We aren’t even along to having our first kiss yet.”

“That is true,” said Aviras. “But Markus did agree to see another show and have

dinner.”

“Are you going to do that?,” asked Jack.

“I don’t know,” said Josie. “It’s been a long time since I have been on the scene. I

don’t think I would make a good girlfriend.”

“I think you are overthinking things,” said Jack. He smiled. He frowned at the last

donut. He split it into thirds, kept one part, tore up a part for Aviras, and passed the

plate to Josie for her to grab the last part. “You could be a great girlfriend. You could

take your guy to places he has never been, do things that are for adults only, and

change his life for the better. You’re just scared.”

“Really?,” said Josie. She squinted at him as she picked up the last donut piece and

chewed it.

“It’s okay to be scared,” said Jack. “I don’t remember the last time you talked about

a boyfriend, or doing something for yourself, or just coming home naked. I think this

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Markus could be someone to change things around for you.”

“I’m good,” said Josie. She wiped her hands together. She leaned over and grabbed

both sides of his face with her sticky fingers. She rested her forehead against his.

“Thank you for being concerned, but I have a handle on things. I don’t want to chase

a guy around, and I don’t need one to be happy. I will see you in the morning, and

we’ll talk about what we want to do with the Shemmarians on the Enterprise.”

“I think we’re going to have quests soon,” said Jack. He leaned into the headbutt.

“Then we’ll really be working.”

“That’s fine,” said Josie. “That’s what I want.”

“What is the meaning of the head contact?,” asked Aviras as he worked his way

through the donut pieces in front of him.

“I’m asserting my dominance,” said Josie. “I’m going to bed. Stay out of trouble.

Don’t get Aviras into trouble.”

“I would never get my best bud into trouble,” said Jack. He grinned at her.

“We both know better than that,” said Josie. She straightened. “Don’t set anything on

fire before the sun comes up if you please.”

“Did you know that Nitro works like your Human Bomb?,” asked Jack.

“Not until you said it,” said Josie. “And I don’t want to hear about what you did while

I was on my date.”

She quoted date in the air with her fingers.

“Have a good night’s sleep,” said Jack. He leaned back in his chair. “Aviras and I will

work on how we can improve the quinjet, and stuff like that until I get tired.”

“Avoiding another call from the Society?,” Josie said.

“Naw,” said Jack. “I have a lot of things in my head. I thought about setting up a base

on the moon. The girls would probably hate it since there is nothing there for them.”

“It might be something we can do as an extension of this,” said Josie. “After all, the

League has had a satellite and a moon base for years.”

“I know,” said Jack. “The Inhumans had that place near the Watcher’s outpost for

years too. That’s where the Jean Grey Phoenix killed herself the first time before she

came back as part of X-Factor.”

“Keep a secret base on the moon as a card up your sleeve in case we have to leave

Hawk Ridge,” said Josie. “The people aren’t going to keep being unaware of us if we

keep rocking the boat.”

“I know,” said Jack. “Maybe we can install a cannon to shoot things here from there.”

“I think the Society prefers a hands on approach to exterminating targets from space,”

said Josie. “You know, to keep the collateral damage down.”

“One beam from a particle thrower is worth a million words,” said Jack.

“And that is why you keep getting asked to tone things down,” said Josie. “Good

night.”

“Good night, Jo-jo,” said Jack.

He leaned back in his chair as she walked away. The dragon squinted at him with his

sapphire eyes.

“Are you really thinking about a base on the moon?,” asked Aviras.

“Yep,” said Jack. He picked up a napkin and started rubbing the sides of his face.

“It’s on my list.”

“You have a list?,” asked Aviras.

“Doesn’t everyone?,” asked Jack.

“I don’t think so,” said Aviras. He made a gesture with a forepaw. “At least not about

living space on the moon.”

“I figure that Josie and I, mostly me,” said Jack. “Will help this planet out of this

stasis that it is in. When we do, space travel and exploration will follow. I want to be

ahead of the game.”

“It will be a long walk from horses to flying ships, and an even longer walk from that

to travel between planets,” said Aviras.

“Right now,” said Jack. “The people here don’t even have the ability to build gliders

to fly. I want to change that.”

“I think you should leave well enough alone,” said Aviras. “People will advance at

their own rate. Your task as I see it is to protect them as they do so.”

“I want my kids to be the first commanders of Star Command,” said Jack. “I want

them to give Buzz Lightyear a run for his money.”

“I think you have to have children before they can be experts in something like space

travel and community building,” said Aviras.

“Don’t rain on my parade,” said Jack. “How did the date go?”

“I don’t think I should talk to you about that,” said Aviras. “Josie doesn’t want you

harassing her to get married and have a thousand kids when she has so much to do

with her responsibilities and the Ducklings.”

“Does this Markus have a chance in hell?,” asked Jack.

“I think the fact that he is calm and ready is a good sign of a good companion,” said

Aviras. “He might be a good restraint on Josie’s temper, just as Elaine is a good

restraint on you.”

“Elaine is fairly good for me,” said Jack. “I don’t have a good history with women,

but maybe this one piece of luck is just what I needed.”

“Leave Josie alone about Markus, and let her make up her own mind,” said Aviras.

“Do better than her mother.”

“I guess you’re right about that,” said Jack. “It’s hard sometimes. I really like to do

things.”

“Concentrate on birthing your own thousand children,” said Aviras.

“I did, but Elaine said I had to spread the trying out instead of trying to do it all in one

night,” said Jack.

Aviras opened his mouth to say something. He paused to consider. Then he picked

up one of the last pieces of pastry in front of him and chewed on that instead.

When he was done, he said, “What are your ideas for a moon base? I assume magic

is involved.”

“I want to do something like the Inhumans and create a livable space where people

can build their own homes in the border,” said Jack. “Maybe we can set up some kind

of launcher to shoot people to the outer planets.”

“And there are other planets above the sky?,” said Aviras.

“Yep,” said Jack. “I visited one of the moons already, and took a spot check on the

system while I was up there. The Enterprise had time to take scans while I was doing

my business.”

“So travel to other planets is feasible,” said Aviras.

“Yep,” said Jack. “But we don’t know how big the universe is here. I didn’t take the

time to have the Enterprise take pictures of everything. We might have to deal with

chtonic entities like Hellboy once we are actively roaming out there.”

“I can see where that would be bad,” said Aviras.

“And Star Trek itself was full of super powers posing as gods to destroy the

universe,” said Jack. “That might also be something our proto-Federation might have

to deal with once we have more than one Enterprise out there looking around.”

“So Star Trek is full of dangers?,” asked Aviras.

“Yeah,” said Jack. “And most of them control energy and matter to do what they

want. Doctor Who is the same way with less explanations.”

“And you want to uplift the humans here to fight the gods there?,” said Aviras.

“I wouldn’t say that,” said Jack, grinning. “I want the humans here to defend

themselves from all comers.”

“I can see where your Society might have a problem with this,” said Aviras.

“They’re not the boss of me,” declared Jack.

“They literally are your boss,” said Aviras. “You are just a bad employee.”

“All right,” said Jack. “That’s a low blow but fair.”

“We’re getting away from the point of this conversation,” said Aviras. “You are

proposing an insane scheme to send people who have never seen a flying craft into

space to face unknown dangers without any of the necessary skills. Maybe you should

work on teaching them how to do things without just summoning the extra

infrastructure.”

“You are taking the fun out of this,” said Jack.

“You are being lazy,” said Aviras. “Shall we start with the basic premise? We want

people to leave this planet and move out into the solar system, and then the galaxy

beyond. What do they need to do that without magic doing most of the work for them

since most people can’t seem to work spells here.”

“We are going to need to improve the metal working skills of blacksmiths, introduce

an alchemical process to make fuel, build ways to make life support systems to keep

the crew alive as they go about their day,” said Jack.

“There are probably thousands of other things that we would have to build to make

your dream come to life,” said Aviras. “But this seems to be a good start for you.”

“Just building computers would be huge,” said Jack. “I mean they do a lot of the

calculations in real spacecraft to come home after being out beyond the sky.”

“I saw how the Enterprise worked,” said Aviras.

“The Enterprise is towards the middle of things,” said Jack. “The startup would have

to be smaller and possibly unable to fly under its own power in an atmosphere.”

“Really?,” asked Aviras. He flapped his wings as he settled in to listen to his human

cohort.

“Sure,” said Jack. “A writer named Jules Verne came up with an idea that was

thought about and discarded and then reconsidered and made to work by later

engineers, chemists, and physicists. Basically, you build a big enough cannon and

shoot at the moon with a single use rocket.”

“You are joking,” said Aviras.

“Nope,” said Jack. “All of Earth’s space conquest comes from a book where the main

character built a big gun and fired himself in a shell at the moon and actually hit it.

Don’t ask me how he got back to Earth. I don’t remember.”

“The humans on your Earth are insane,” said Aviras.