Josie heard the ding in her head and opened her eyes. She frowned at the new

reminders that she had to get to work. She didn’t quite know where she wanted to

start the day.

She cleaned up and looked in her closet of lightning covered clothes. She decided that

she should change some of the lightning to other things. She pulled on Zatanna and

asked for different symbols from other heroes she liked. She smiled at the selection.

She let Zatanna go and pulled a shirt with Kirby Hero’s lion/Superman shield on it

off its hanger. She put that aside to grab underclothes and pants. She got dressed and

decided to go up to raid the kitchen before everyone else swarmed in to grab what

they wanted.

She stepped off the elevator and frowned that she was the last one at the table. She

looked over her younger sisters. They seemed less ready for the day than she was.

“How’s it going, Jo?,” asked Jack. He was in the kitchen, working the stove top.

Rolling Stones sounded from his pocket. He pulled out his phone and thumbed the

screen. “Jack’s Kitchen, if you want a singing cake, we’re ready to bake.”

Angelica made a ohh sound at that.

“Hey, Mister Warner,” said Jack. “Yeah, I got the quests. We’re having breakfast and

getting ready to start. How’s it going back in San Fran?”

He listened for a minute before letting Angelica take over the stove. She waved at

him to clear out so she could do the job better without his interference.

“I’m sure we can handle things,” said Jack. “I mean Josie has threatened the

government of Shemmaria into doing her bidding, or else.”

He nodded as he listened some more.

“All right,” said Jack. “Come ahead when you want. We’ll start working on the

quests.”

He hung up the phone and put it back into his pocket. He smiled at the assemblage.

“Mister Warner is going to be dropping by to help us out,” said Jack. “Let’s get

started. We have a lot on our plate.”

“The phone reaches back home?,” asked Josie.

“Magic,” said Jack. “Who knew?”

“I think you did,” said Josie. He was way too cheerful for her to tolerate before her

morning coffee.

“You want to deal with Kyle?,” asked Jack.

“No,” said Josie. “We’ll leave that for Mister Warner. They seem to know each

other.”

“So we’re talking to Caroline’s dad?,” said Jack.

“Let me have my coffee,” said Josie. “Then we can figure out the rest of this. We

have a little time before the world is plunged into darkness.”

“Okay,” said Jack. “Elaine? Coffee for the Queen.”

He leaned into the kitchen. He straightened up with Josie’s cup in his hand. He

crossed the room to give it to her. He checked the table, nodding at the plates and

cups.

“Let’s have breakfast,” said Jack.

The klaxon sounded for the gate upstairs.

“That’s either Caroline, or Boim,” said Jack. “I’ll check while you guys eat.”

He strode to the elevator and headed upstairs. Josie sat in her spot and sipped her

coffee. This was the best part of the day as far as she was concerned. It would be even

better if she was enjoying her coffee alone.

Jack returned with Boim Russ in tow. She nodded at the girls giving her a bleary but

fairly warm welcome. He parked her in a seat beside Josie.

“You are going to have to get your own coffee,” said Josie. “This is my precious.”

“It’s fine,” said Boim. “I received the quests. I thought I should check in with you to

see what I can do to help out.”

“The first thing we’re going to do is determine if I have to set someone on fire on the

Shemmarian side of things after giving them their warning,” said Josie. “If they aren’t

doing anything wrong, then we’ll have to figure out what is really going on. Mister

Warner is coming back. You can take his thing instead of dealing with your sister.”

“Four and I had some words at the brief trial we attended at the hospital,” said Boim.

“I think we’re on friendlier ground.”

“Let me drink my coffee, and we’ll get started trying to save the world,” said Josie.

“Do you think this is another threat from Four’s people?,” said Boim.

“We’ll see,” said Josie. “The first thing we have to do is figure out what the threat is

and how do we handle it.”

“The first thing is eat these steaks and eggs,” said Jack. He slid a plate in front of her.

“Then we start looking around for the causes.”

A plate of food slid in front of Boim. She sniffed the air.

“I do miss the food,” said Boim. “I’m not as good as cook as this.”

Jack whisked Josie’s cup away to the kitchen. He returned with another round of

coffee.

“All right, girls,” said Jack. “We are going to be out of town for a bit. Stay out of

trouble, listen to Elaine. I will call if things get bad enough that you need to know

that.”

“Beatrice?,” said Josie. She sipped at her coffee, feeling a little more alive.

“I have Caroline and will keep her close,” said the eldest.

“We might need help,” said Jack.

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“Should we ask Eric for it?,” asked Josie. “He is busy with the hospital. Maybe we

should take Case with us.”

“He does know the king,” said Jack.

“It cuts down on potential problems with Caroline while you are gone,” said Beatrice.

“I say take him.”

“All right,” said Jack. “I don’t know how long this will take, but I guess we’ll be gone

for the whole day. If you need me, call me. I will be glad to use a torpedo on whatever

problem you might have.”

“I think we can get along without that,” said Elaine. “Maybe we can do some work

around the hospital while you are doing your job.”

“Girls,” said Josie. She took a last sip of her coffee. “There might be trouble ahead.

I want you to keep an eye out, and be ready. Someone has triggered a quest to prevent

war along the northern border. We don’t know how much influence is being used and

if they can reach to Hawk Ridge. Until we do, don’t go off alone, trust no one you

don’t know, and be ready to use Sir Harp’s training. As soon as we clear this, we will

be back in the city to help you.”

“You’re stopping a war?,” said Melanie.

“We’re trying to prevent one,” said Josie. “I want you to keep an eye out. You’re

famous among the adventurers and the Watch. All anyone has to do to find you is talk

to an adventurer who didn’t know better.”

“We would be used as hostages?,” said Laura.

“Just like Caroline,” said Josie. “And I don’t want to fix that for you. Be careful,

keep an eye out, stay out of trouble. If you do get into trouble, try to find a way

to stall. I will find you.”

“I will look after them while you are gone,” said Elaine. “Beatrice, you are going

to have to be even more careful with Caroline since this will involve her parents.”

“I understand,” said Beatrice. “I will do what I can not to not let her try to go off and

fix things on her own when she should be waiting, and fixing things with Case.”

Josie nodded. That was the best they could do at the moment.

“I think we have to use the Enterprise for this,” said Jack. “Fast transport is what

she is made for.”

“I need to send some letters first,” said Josie. “You guys get ready for your practice.”

“See if you can find mention of the Bloodborn afterwards,” said Jack. “We might

need the information.”

“It’s in Mister Warner’s archive,” said Matilda. “I saw the name mentioned with

some pirate cases he was asked to stop.”

“So Matilda’s extra brain power is already paying back dividends,” said Jack. “Good

one, Matty.”

“We can use the reader for it,” said Josie. “We can use the reader, right?”

“I thought maybe we could have Matty pick out the relevant pages with her awesome

brain power,” said Jack.

“A machine will do it faster,” said Josie. “Matilda, can you and Aviras look up the

relevant things for us while I write my letters. I am going to have to let people know

what’s going on.”

“It will be easy,” said Matilda. She snatched her dragon up and plopped him on her

head as she jogged to the library.

“All right,” said Josie. “Jack, help Elaine and the girls clean up while I get this part

done. Then we can get started.”

“Send a note to Ropel about Kyle in case there is some spillover on the village,” said

Jack. “We don’t want to alarm anybody, but a single village in the middle of nowhere

might attract trouble I will have to fix with some phasers.”

“Right,” said Josie. She headed back to her room where her paper and pens were. She

would send the warning to Ropel first since he was a noncombatant and had a village

of people that could be swept up into the trouble ahead.

She wrote three other letters and sent them after that. She gathered up her bag and

poncho, throwing them on. The last thing she had to do was call Jane and let her

know.

She triggered the band and waited for Jane as she stepped out of her room and waited

on the elevator.

“It’s early, Josie,” said Jane. “What are you doing to me?”

“We’re going out of town,” said Josie. “I wanted you to be on high alert until we get

back.”

“Quests for your Society?,” asked Jane.

“Yes,” said Josie. “I’m going to have to arrange a meeting with the King, and do

some things. I just wanted you to know just in case you need help at the hospital,

and I can’t get there to do something.”

“Did you let the others know?,” asked Jane. Her voice was sharper as sleep wore

away from her brain.

“I sent a letter to Eric so he could keep an eye on the adventurers and on anything

that looked strange that needed to be handled,” said Josie. “I am going to assume

that he will tell his wife.”

“I will talk to her if I see her at the hospital,” said Jane. “I will check on your three

lambs too.”

“I had hoped to clear your yard, and then start clearing the Enterprise,” said Josie.

“Best laid plans never go as planned.”

“It will be fine,” said Jane. “The three you did clear opened a hole for more room

for the rest. Do your quests, come back to work. Massa said you took an adventurer

out.”

“It wasn’t much of an outing,” said Josie. “I’m just not ready to date. And neither is

he.”

“Use your tried and true method, Ear Ripper,” said Jane. “Threaten him into marrying

you.”

“What?,” asked Josie. She looked at the com, and grimaced at the line being dead.

Jane had hung up on her with the last word.

She gave a thought to calling Jane back and explaining things, but decided she had

more important work to do. She had to get a move on. She didn’t want Jack doing

a lot by himself.

There was no telling what kind of misery he would rain down.

She took the elevator back up to the common area. The morning’s cooking had been

cleaned up in the amount of time she had taken to write her letters and talk to Jane.

She didn’t see Jack, or Matilda. She checked the library and found them poring over

the relevant pages picked by the reader.

“Did you find anything?,” Josie asked. She couldn’t see the hologram from where she

stood.

“They’re zombie pirates,” said Jack. “We’re going to have to burn them down when

we run into them.”

“Great,” said Josie. “Any clues on where they are coming from?”

“The other continent,” said Jack.

“The archive says that Mister Warner met them at sea, and burned any boat that

crossed an arbitrary line,” said Matilda. “But he never looked for their source.”

“The Montrose went to that other continent,” said Josie. “I had too many to catch

up to here, but it could have been part of a bigger strategy.”

“I wonder what idiot thought sending people to the Night of the Living Dead was a

good idea,” said Jack. “Are we going to investigate their source?”

“I have no idea,” said Josie. “Let’s see what we can do about the North, and Kyle,

before we worry too much about where the zombie pirates are coming from. We’ll

have the Enterprise try to find the right boats so we can use phasers on them.”

“I agree with that plan,” said Jack. “If they are really like zombies, we don’t want

them biting anyone here and spreading their biting everywhere.”

“I agree with that,” said Josie. “Thank you, Matilda, and Aviras.”

“I could find these Bloodborn and burn them myself,” said Aviras.

“I want you to keep an eye on Matilda and help Beatrice protect the rest of the girls,”

said Josie. “None of the soldiers with Rustam had the Makeover. Neither did Brant.

It suggests that whatever is going on, the part of the Montrose I marked is working

with other conspiracies to ruin the country. They might have learned about the

Ducklings and our keeping hold of Caroline. That makes you targets for people who

want revenge for what I have done.”

“And there is a chance of another Todd trying to do something while we are trying

to maneuver,” said Aviras.

“Among other things,” said Josie. “I expect Shemmaria is the target of all this, and

I expect to fix things between the two countries we are going to be talking to through

their main people, or someone will know the limits of what I am willing to put up

with.”

“Let’s get started before we face the Walking Dead on our own turf,” said Jack.

“I will do what I can to protect the city, and Caroline,” said Matilda.

“And I will protect Matilda,” said Aviras.

“Get ready to do your duties,” said Josie. “When you get home, pour over the archive

for other threats that might want to take us on.”

“We can do that, Missus,” said Matilda.

“I’ll see you both when we get home,” said Josie.

“Enterprise?,” asked Jack.

“Communication acknowledged,” said the machine high overhead.

“Josie and I need to come aboard,” said Jack. “Beam us up.”

They vanished in a cloud of blue sparks.

Josie led the way off the transporter pad.

“Enterprise,” she said as she made her way to the lift to the bridge. “We have to pick

up a passenger. We’re going to have to head south to Kyle’s capitol city.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

The ship soared high above the city, heading away in streaks of air bending around

it.