Josie snapped awake. She pulled on her clothes and headed out in the hall. She found

Aviras sitting in the office on the way down to get her coffee. She needed that to get

ready for the day.

He had a paw holding part of Warner’s casebook open as he read the summary of the

action taken. He looked up as she passed. He went back to reading.

Josie wanted the next few minutes to herself. She needed it to partially plan out the

day. The warning about the quests meant that she had to get things set up with Jane

immediately before they were pulled away.

She had a feeling they were about to get pulled back to Shemmaria again to deal with

Four Russ about whatever she was doing. She didn’t seem to understand that some

things weren’t meant to be played with by people.

“Miss Josie,” said Boim Russ. She stood in the kitchen door, wearing some of June’s

clothes to replace the rags she wore when they had rescued her. “I’m sorry about my

sister, but my other sisters asked for me to impose on you.”

“Which ones?,” asked Josie. She used Zatanna to make herself a cup of coffee.

“Three, Six, and Two,” said Boim.

“Not Four?,” asked Josie.

“No,” said Boim. “She cut us off. She cut me off at least. I don’t think she liked that

I refused to hurt anyone and then accepted being June’s aid.”

“Family problems,” said Josie. “Who knew? What do the other three want, and why

should I help them?”

“Three wants to find her friend, Six wants to see if you can help her employer before

he dies, and Two wants some way to keep her temple open, but she doesn’t have

control of how to do that,” said Boim.

“So they are taking Zu seriously?,” said Josie. She sipped her coffee.

“Yes,” said the guest. “And he implied that you or Jack could do something about

their situations as well as interfere in whatever Four’s government is doing. They

want that help desperately.”

“We are going to get quests on that,” said Josie. “Are you sure you want to be

involved against your sister?”

“I read the casebooks,” said Boim. “I know what they were trying to do. We need to

do something. Four will either have to stand aside, or change her mind. We can’t let

them complete anything that might endanger everyone because they want a weapon

against the rest of the governments in the world.”

“Let’s start with Six,” said Josie. “Do you know where she is?”

“She is living off the coast on the other side of Shemmaria,” said Boim. “It’s some

kind of fishing village.”

“Can she read?,” asked Josie.

“Yes,” said Boim. “We all can.”

“Go upstairs to the office and get a piece of paper and a pen for me,” said Josie. “I

want to enjoy my cup of coffee before I have to do any more moving around.”

“Can you help her?,” asked Boim.

“I don’t know,” said Josie. “I will look at her problem and see what I can do to

mitigate anything bad for her.”

“Thank you,” said Boim.

She hurried away.

Josie finished her cup, and made another one before Boim returned. She sipped the

liquid as they went to the dining room. She put the cup down and took the paper from

her guest.

“Aviras still angry?,” asked Josie. She sat down in her place at the head of the table.

“Yes,” said Boim. “But he didn’t threaten to bite my face off, so we have a truce at

the moment.”

Josie nodded. She took the ink and quill and wrote a fairly short letter. She waited for

the ink to dry before folding the paper together and writing Boim Russ on the outside.

She turned into Zatanna long enough to send the letter on its way.

She sipped her coffee as she waited. If they couldn’t save the guy’s life, she could

send Jack down to find out what happened and fix that. He wasn’t good at most

mysteries, but he had a way of looking at things that he could use to just blast through

any obstacle in his way.

And the Enterprise would allow him to take Six if he wanted to, and she was innocent

in his own mind.

A letter appeared on the table. She picked it up and read it. She nodded.

“Your sister says her boss is lingering, and she doesn’t know what’s wrong with

him,” said Josie. “If we can get to him with the Enterprise, we can use the scanners

to see if whatever he has is fixable.”

“Can you save his life?,” asked Boim.

“Don’t know,” said Josie. “We can try. Let me talk to Aviras. Then we’ll go out and

look at things.”

“We’ll go out?,” asked Boim. “What about Jack?”

“Aviras will let him know we’re doing things before we handle the rest of whatever

we have to do,” said Josie. “And we need to do this now before the quests against

Shemmaria come in. We won’t have time after that.”

“And her employer could die at any second,” said Boim. “I understand. We need to

operate faster than usual.”

“And Aviras might be able to keep Jack on track helping the Amazons,” said Josie.

“They are going to need those gates, and something to get rid of the spines growing

in them. Jack is a brain with those things.”

“I am ready,” said Boim. She stood.

“Think of it as a test run for keeping June from blowing things up in her face,” said

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Josie. She finished her cup of coffee. She could miss breakfast for once. She hoped

Aviras would take this in stride and not hold it against her.

She headed upstairs to the office. The dragon looked up from his reading. She

imagined him wearing glasses as he perused the pages.

“I am going to help Boim’s sister with her sick boss,” said Josie. “We’re probably

going to take the Enterprise. As soon as I figure out what to do, I will come back and

we can start on the things for Jane. So I need you to pass the message along and help

keep Jack on task.”

“Why must you always insist on the impossible?,” said Aviras. He made a gesture

with his front paw. “I will let him know that you went out.”

“Thank you,” said Josie. She checked the model, marking the Russ she needed to

find. “I have a feeling we are going to get a quest to do something to Shemmaria. I

think they won’t stop looking for dangerous things until there is a change in their

regime.”

“I agree,” said Aviras. “I didn’t like that Boim’s sister said to kill Matilda. I might

have done something rash if not for Jack.”

“You stopped him from blowing up a country,” said Josie. She gave the dragon a rare

smile. “It was the least he could do.”

“Would you have blown up Shemmaria if they authorized murdering Matilda?,”

asked Aviras.

“What do you think?,” asked Josie.

“I think you are more ruthless than I first thought when we met,” said the dragon.

“I’m probably even more ruthless than that,” said Josie. “Luckily for you, you don’t

have any ears for me to rip off.”

“Thankfully,” said Aviras.

“I have to go,” said Josie. “I will be back in time to help Jack with everything else.

Then we can see what these new quests are when they come in.”

“I will be here and ready to deal with things,” said Aviras.

Josie nodded. She checked the model one last time. Then she headed to her room to

get her bag and poncho. She pulled them on before heading back downstairs.

She found Boim eating a piece of bread with jam. June’s assistant hurriedly finished

the half of a sandwich when she saw her host coming down the stairs.

“Ready to go?,” Josie asked.

“Yes,” said Boim. “Six should be awake by now, but I think it is still dark where she

is. We talked about the difference in time once.”

“It comes with the movement of the sun since that works the same here as back

home,” said Josie. She triggered the button on her band to call the ship overhead.

“Enterprise?”

“Contact acknowledged,” said the machine.

“This is Josie,” she said. “Two of us to beam up. Boim Russ and I.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

Josie had been worried that the machine would transport Jack instead of Boim and

drop him on the pad while he was still asleep.

She blinked as Transporter Room One snapped into focus around her. She nodded.

Time to head up to the Bridge and get the bird moving.

“This is exactly the kind of thing Four’s people want,” said Boim. She ran her hand

along the wall as they headed to the elevator to the command deck.

“Why are they aggressive?,” said Josie. She waited for her companion to board the

elevator before demanding to go to the Bridge. “I don’t see much need for it with the

lack of transportation and communication technology.”

“Shemmaria is the youngest of the kingdoms and forged from three lesser kingdoms

joining together into one,” said Boim. “They established their borders to keep their

people in and other countries’ people out. And they have a history of trying to add

more territory to their central mass.”

“It’s something to worry about another day,” said Josie. “We are going to deal with

Six, maybe talk to the other two about their problems, then start putting the hospital

staff together. When the quests come in, we will do those. I will try to spare your

sister, but I can’t make any promises if we have to stop this book thing.”

“She lied about the goblin tree army they were trying to build,” said Boim. “We know

when we are lying to each other, even if we don’t know what the actual lie is. She was

involved somehow in the planning, or execution of the thing. She was not supposed

to be anywhere close to anything like that.”

“You think she set up everything we destroyed?,” asked Josie.

“I would not be surprised if she did, or if she was in charge of supplies to the site,”

said Boim.

“We will deal with that another day,” said Josie. She stepped on the bridge and went

to the command chair. Her bird glared at her for coming aboard without using it. “I

have a guest I couldn’t leave behind.”

Boim waved at the bird as she took the counselor’s seat. It made a cawing noise at her

before settling back down to wait to be used by its creator.

“Enterprise, we are heading to the coast northeast of here,” said Josie. “We are

looking for Miss Russ’s sister, Six. Can you find her with the scanners?”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

“This will take us to coast?,” said Boim.

“We are probably already there,” said Josie. “The Enterprise can’t go full speed this

close to the planet. It would create a storm that would whip across the surface and do

a lot of damage to the buildings below.”

“How is that possible?,” asked Boim.

“The technology is imaginary, but it is based on the ability to surround the ship with

a bubble of another universe that multiplies the speed of movement,” said Josie.

“Everything inside the bubble remains normal, but anyone on the outside would see

a streak of light if they saw it at all with the naked eye. Where we are in my world is

nowhere close to anything like that. We are still using chemical burning rockets to

leave the atmosphere.”

“Leave the atmosphere?,” said Boim. “What do you mean?”

“The countries of my world have created agencies that regularly explore outside of

our surface reach,” said Josie. “We have visited most of the planets in our system, and

sent what amounts to machines to send back images of what they are seeing outside

the system.”

“I don’t understand,” said Boim. “It sounds fanciful to me.”

“First, it was imaginary,” said Josie. “And then the responsible people made it with

a lot of brain power and man hours of work.”

“All this?,” said Boim. She waved her hands to indicate the bridge.

“Imaginary, then Jack built it from your sister’s zombie operation,” said Josie.

“Four will love to hear that,” said Boim.

The Enterprise quieted. Josie realized the hum had vanished during the talk. She

looked at the pad on the command chair’s arm. The script said the operation was over.

“Enterprise, can you show us Six’s location?,” asked Josie.

“Affirmative,” said the machine. The screen showed a cabin close to the edge of a

cliff. A path led down to a cove with a narrow strip of beach. A town stuck out of the

surrounding trees a few miles away. Another town stood further up the shore with

docks for boats to head out in the ocean.

“Do you have any way to call your sister while you are awake?,” asked Josie.

“No,” said Boim. “We will have to go down and find out what is going on ourselves.”

“Enterprise,” said Josie. She stood. She had set her course. It was time to see where

it led. “I expect Jack to call to check in at the least. Tell him that we are carrying

out a look and see. We will be back to the city as soon as possible. Remind him of

the gates for the hospital and house, and we need the machine to help with the goblin

tree victims. He and Elaine should get with Jane to organize things. Can do?”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

“We are going down, maintain station out of viewing range from the ground,” said

Josie. “I will call if we need you.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

Josie gestured for Boim to follow her down to the transporter room so they could

teleport to the ground. She had an idea of what Six’s problem was. She hoped it was

an easy fix.

They stepped on the pad, waited for the cloud of sparks to clear, started walking

to the porch of the house. Boim used the knocker on the door to let her sister know

they were there.

The other Russ opened the door. She smiled when she saw her sister, frowned at

Josie. Josie didn’t mind. A lot of people frowned at her.

“What is going on, Six,” said Boim.

“Master Karney is sick, Seven,” said Six. “Nothing I do helps him. The warning last

night from whatever that was we saw is what made me think of asking for help.”

“Show us,” said Josie. She gestured for Six to lead the way. “Maybe I can help him.”

Seven nodded. She smiled.

“Josie is a miracle worker,” said Seven. “Let us look at him.”

The other Russ led them through a house of old things, up stairs to a small hall that

led to a large bedroom. An older man lay in bed, coughing and moaning. Russ had put

a cloth on his head to cool it down from the obvious fever he suffered.

Josie thought maybe they had arrived in the nick of time as she reached for her watch.