Jack looked around the room. He used Majik to put up a wall around the pit, and then

a lid over that. Hopefully, none of them had been contaminated by the zombie tree

thing. He moved off to the edge of the room to use his pad.

“What do you plan to do?,” said Aviras. He glared at the room in anticipation of a

sudden attack.

“I plan to nuke this country until everything is glass and glows in the dark for the next

five hundred years,” said Jack. “I’m trying to figure out how to do that without Elaine

and the kids suffering from after effects.”

“I don’t think the people not involved in this would think that was an acceptable

display of justice,” said Aviras. “And I know that you know this. So as with great

power comes great responsibility, what do you think the acceptable limit of your

retaliation should be. Making a land burn as if the sun had touched it is not acceptable

before you offer that again.”

“I didn’t know you were a Spider-man fan,” said Jack. He looked at the lizard on his

shoulder.

“I’m not,” said Aviras. “Normally, I would have no care what you do to the peasants

of this place, but the damage you are talking about inflicting would harm Matilda. I

am going to have to ask you to step back and consider other means.”

“Matilda is your best bud?,” said Jack. His smile came back at the thought.

“She will outgrow our friendship, but until then I have set myself the task of looking

after her,” said Aviras. “Do not mock me for that.”

“I wouldn’t,” said Jack. “Everyone needs someone sometime. So nuking them until

they glow is a bit much, eh?”

“Your Society would not thank you for it,” said Aviras.

“I don’t need their thanks,” said Jack. He grinned. “There are two kinds of people in

this world, those who say thanks, and ungrateful bastards.”

“I have heard you say variations of that phrase,” said Aviras. “Where does that come

from?”

“Grandma Lee,” said Jack. He decided he needed more reach with his pad. “It was her

favorite saying. She used it all the time. I got knocked out because of it one time.”

“Really?,” said Aviras. “I would love to hear this.”

“My older sister is named Juniper, Juniper Lee,” said Jack. He switched to Majik and

told the pad what he wanted. “There used to be this show for children called the

Adventures of Juniper Lee. I may have said some things which she totally blew out

of proportion.”

“Did she?,” said Aviras. A small flame escaped his snout.

“Yes,” said Jack. “Juni didn’t have a sense of humor then. So she’s chasing me

around the house. Grandma Lee is sitting at the kitchen table, sipping her tea while

I am using it to keep away from Juni. Grandma Lee goes ‘There are two kinds of

people in this world: really fast runners, and idiots that get clocked.’ I looked at her,

distracted. When I looked back at Juni, she was swinging and knocked me out with

the first punch.”

“What did you learn from that?,” asked Aviras.

“That I should mock Juni from a distance and be ready to run out of the house,” said

Jack. He grinned at his companion. The pad gave him a wider view of things now.

“Mark all goblin tree sites.”

The pad put pings down for all the goblin tree sites it could reach. It was only four,

but they were spread out. He had a feeling that he was looking where the Montrose’s

captives had wound up after being sent across the border.

And he couldn’t do anything for most of them now.

“No nuking?,” asked Jack. He put his thoughts in order as he looked at the sites.

“How many have lich queens in production?”

All of the sites lit up. He frowned at that and realized all the sites were in the circle

given by Elaine. They were just at the site with the closest of the lich queens waking

up and destroying the world.

“No nuking,” agreed Aviras. “We can inflict damage without collateral harm.”

“Maybe this is why Warner didn’t stay after missions,” said Jack. “Maybe he didn’t

want to be involved in the day to day. He had to take someone down, he didn’t have

to worry about people he didn’t know.”

“He killed his dragons?,” said Aviras. “I’m glad you didn’t do that.”

“I almost did,” said Jack. “But then I started talking to you and realized you’re not as

bad as you think. You’re just a glutton. Once you fix that, the rest comes along by

itself.”

“I don’t know whether to be offended, or pleased,” said Aviras. “I think I am going

to be offended.”

“Be offended to yourself,” said Jack. He thought about the circle he would need.

Could he build a lot of little circles to do what he wanted? The main problem was

what to do with any women he might have to rescue. He would need a big hospital

to move them along.

“We were talking about Star Trek the other day, weren’t we?,” said Jack. He became

Majik and started doing the calculations in his head for the rings he wanted to

generate the material he needed.

“We were using that as an example of faster than light travel by enabling a bubble of

other space to provide faster speeds, but they had a wall where they would have

problems,” said Aviras.

“A lot of the newer tech revolves around using matter as energy and the reverse,” said

Jack. “It’s close to how the magic works here with the mana floating in the air.”

“Go on,” said Aviras. He waved a paw.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“It’s how I could build the quinjet out of the Duke’s house,” said Jack. “It’s also what

I am going to do with the goblin tree labs. I just need a more selective process. The

main thing is what happens to the victims we can rehabilitate. Can we save them, or

are we perpetuating the danger by setting them up to go home?”

“So there is a danger there?,” said Aviras.

“These guys were trying to invent a weapon that spreads itself,” said Jack. “And if

one of their queens got out, they could have wiped out a portion of the humanity on

the continent before people were able to fight back and save themselves.”

“If they could do that before it was too late,” said Aviras.

“Exactly,” said Jack. “So we need to move all of these labs, prototype lich queens,

infected prisoners, and any records into safe keeping. Then we need to restore what

we need and get rid of the rest.”

“But you want to do this from a moving platform?,” said Aviras.

“Something we can build for later use if we need it, but to act as a hospital until we

are done with this situation,” said Jack.

“You are going to build a flying hospital,” said Aviras. “Is that what I am hearing

from you?”

“I think that is the way I need to go with this,” said Jack. “And I have places for the

materials to do it. It might even teach a lesson without having to say anything.”

“You are the most dangerous human I have ever met,” said Aviras.

“Jo?,” said Jack.

“Would not even think of something like this,” said Aviras. “She would be executing

soldiers left and right to clear those sites and then burn them down.”

“All right,” said Jack. “You ready for this?”

“I think so,” said Aviras.

“Enterprise go!,” said Jack.

The pit and wall disintegrated at the command. The walls of the rooms flowed into

the bridge that Jack loved so well. He went to the captain’s chair and sat down.

“Coms,” said Jack. “Open channel, Josie.”

“Jack?,” asked Josie.

“This Jack...E...Lee,” said Jack. He smiled at the pauses, then stated more rapidly,

“Captain of the Are Are Ay Ess Enterprise speaking. I have located the other goblin

tree sites and am moving to perform search and rescue operations. I am ten minutes

from launch.”

“Are you doing your Shatner impression?,” asked Josie. “What’s going on, Jack?”

“There are four more of the goblin tree sites on my pad,” said Jack. “I’m clearing

them out, and doing what I can for the victims. I am using the quinjet building

method to get me a flying hospital to get things done.”

“Are you sure about this?,” asked Josie.

“Aviras says I shouldn’t follow my first impulse, and I agreed to that,” said Jack. “He

might have saved the country from a Spectre event.”

“All right,” said Josie. “Can you handle things? The Enterprise is a big ship to have

in atmosphere.”

“It’s all computer controlled,” said Jack. “The main problem is going to be sorting the

people out after I get them onboard and in isolation. I might need more help than

Fass’s Fighters.”

“Systems online,” reported the various consoles around him one after the other.

“Do you need us to crash these other sites?,” said Josie.

“No,” said Jack. “I might need you to head back to Hawk Ridge and have the Duke

and whomever you can get to stage up some kind of area so I can put the women we

rescue. Some of them might be hurt more than what we think.”

“I want to find the person responsible first,” said Josie. “Once the word gets around,

he might try again at an accelerated pace, or worse let one of those patient zeros loose

in the world.”

“There are four more sites,” said Jack. “Hold on. Pad, send location goblin trees to

quinjet navigation system. Did you get that?”

“Powering up the quinjet,” said Jo. “Yes, I got the pings.”

“I’m going to take them apart, sort the women into tanks, and then fly home,” said

Jack. “If something shows up to try and stop me, I have phasers and photon torpedoes

ready to go.”

“I’m going to fly into Shemmaria’s capitol and find the guy behind this,” said Josie.

“If we don’t deal with the whole thing now, we’ll be back here ripping up more of the

country later.”

“Right,” said Jack. “I am going to do the plan. I’ll wait until you get back so we can

make some kind of arrangements to do something with these women.”

“Do not nuke these people from orbit, Jack,” said Josie. “Am I understood?”

“I would never do that,” said Jack. Aviras made a noise on his shoulder. “Aviras

would never allow such a thing.”

“I’ll bite his face off if he tries it,” said Aviras.

“No excuses,” said Josie. “We get together after the mission and we figure out what

to do with your Enterprise. Jack, you need to step back with the construction stuff.

This is a bit excessive.”

“A bit,” said Fass. “That thing is as big as a building.”

“I’ll use it for the Duke’s new house when we get done, or a hospital, or something,”

said Jack. “People still need to be taken care of here, right?”

“Find a spot to park it, and then we’ll hook up with you when we’re done,” said Josie.

“Can do?”

“Don’t worry,” said Jack. “I won’t do anything you wouldn’t do.”

“I have heard that lie before,” said Josie. “Josie out.”

“Enterprise, ping quinjet please,” said Jack. A small picture of the surrounding sky

showed the smaller aircraft moving away.

“Enterprise, we will have to deconstruct target buildings, add to mass, store living

organics in a buffer until we need them. Combatants should go in one buffer, victims

should go in another, and goblin tree infected in another,” said Jack. “Can we do

this?”

“I will have to assimilate mass to manufacture the needed components for such an

endeavor,” said the machine.

“If we leave combatants on the ground, that will speed things up?,” said Jack.

“Yes, Captain,” said the machine.

“Then that’s what we will do,” said Jack. “The primary mission for us to rescue the

noncombatants, and secure the infected humanoids so they can’t be used to infect

others. They will have matter implanted in them that we will have to take out so they

don’t become dangerous.”

“Mission objectives are understood,” said the machine.

“Let’s start with goblin tree site one,” said Jack. “If the combatants try to move the

infected out of the facility, we have to snatch them up and store them in a buffer until

we can separate them out from their implants.”

“The addendum is noted,” said the machine.

Jack kept his eye on the pad as the Enterprise moved into position. He noted the ping

of the ship seemed to cross the distance almost instantly. He didn’t have a view of the

ground.

“Forward screen, view of the ground,” said Jack. “Ping combatants and

noncombatants.”

Soldiers in longcoats and hats ran from the giant shadow over them. The polearms

and swords they had weren’t going to scratch armor designed to take a small meteor

hit without flinching. The layer of shielding over that was just overkill.

Small diamonds marked the women that had been infected by the seeds. He frowned

at that. Josie had said there was a cradle, or tank, being fed by the women. That would

have to be destroyed too.

“Move all of the noncombatants into a buffer as you take apart the town,” said Jack.

“There should be some kind of tank full of blood to one side of the room with hoses

attaching the victims to that tank. Just take that apart and don’t put it back together.”

“Understood,” said the machine. “Assimilating town, moving noncombatants into the

buffers for storage, goblin tree designate is dispersed.”

The buildings below the Enterprise came apart like Legos being put away piece by

piece. Jack nodded as the destruction happened because of giant rings around the

buildings as the Enterprise ate them.

The soldiers ran from the destruction.

“Move to target number two when the site is clear,” said Jack. “I expect them to start

trying to save their work by the time we get to number four.”

“I will mark all noncombatants in range,” said the machine.

“Thanks,” said Jack. “This is pretty boring, but at least we’re getting the job done.”

“What is this walking dead you were talking about?,” asked Aviras. “How does it

pertain to this?”

“Do they have zombies, animated dead, where you come from?,” asked Jack.

“No,” said Aviras. “We tend to deal in fire and lightning. Animating the dead seems

a weak trick.”

“Well then,” said Jack. “Let me tell you a story, and hopefully that will explain why

Josie would like to talk to the brains behind this.”