Escaping Relativity
Chapter 16

Whatever had Charlie afraid of small spaces had a really tight hold on her. Xander had never seen anyone react so violently to something like that.

Fortunately, Lennie broke it down for her and she set her mind to it. Xander had seen this woman do amazing things in the last few hours; more than he’d seen most women do in their entire life cycles, so he was certain she could do this. They were just going to have to keep her focused.

Lennie opened the grate, it swung out like a door to a hidden room, three by three square, he sent up a quick prayer that it would be big enough for The Time Keeper to handle.

Lennie dove in first, then somehow in his lankiness, was able to turn around, sticking his hand out to Charlie. Xander waited for what seemed like forever until Charlie bent down, and grabbed the young boy’s hand. As soon as she disappeared, Xander hurriedly got inside, closing the vent grate behind him. Looking closely, he’d seen where Lennie had made a little makeshift latch to keep the door closed behind them.

They must have been gone longer on the JUMP than Xander had realized.

“Hey, Lennie, how quiet do we have to be, and how long is this trip? It might help Charlie out to know how soon we’ll be at the ship.”

“Well, the ventilation system is insulated, but we don’t want to push it, soft voices, or bed-time voice, is what Rolara calls it, will work. As far as how long, well that depends on if we want come out inside of your ship bay or if we want to come out in the bays in general then find your bay,” Lennie answered, sincerely.

“Inside the bay is more secure,” Charlie answered, startling Xander.

“Inside the bay will take us an extra ten minutes, so we’ll be in here for thirty minutes,” Lennie answered.

Charlie stopped. She just stopped.

Damn it!

Xander touched her calf just over the top of her boot. A touch so light a lesser trained person would never feel it, but he knew she would feel it, and knew she would know it was him.

“Lennie, tell us about Rolara on our way to the ship,” Xander said. It was a moment of inspired fear, and a whole lot of prayer.

They couldn’t stop before they got started. He refused.

“Rolara is about twenty three winter cycles, she has my same color hair, only hers is girly. It’s long and bouncy. I make fun of her for it, but really, she’s very pretty.”

Lennie paused in his story, and Charlie began moving again.

Xander would keep Lennie talking the entire time if necessary.

“Rolara has had every man on our planet ask her to mate with them, but she believes in good and strong character. She won’t mate with any of them, she says they aren’t good enough for us,” Lennie said.

Charlie was listening intently, Xander could tell because she faltered almost imperceptively at the same time he had. It was there, in the “us”, which told the true story of The Wizard’s sister. She would not leave her little brother, and now Lennie would not leave her. It made Xander feel like an even bigger screw up for letting his own brother be held against his will.

“Rolara can grow anything. We have the best garden in all the universe!” Lennie said, excitement filled his voice, and it bounced back to them for half of a second. All three of them stilled and held their breath. He could see Lennie’s face turning bright red in the rays of iridescent light which filtered in through the generously spaced grates.

After a short moment, Charlie spoke up, “go on, Lennie, tell me more,” and they continued to crawl through the air shafts.

“She’s a great hunter too. She taught me to hunt three winter cycles ago, and we use the meat to eat or store up and the furs we don’t use for ourselves, we sell at the market. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s really a great life. We don’t have any real expenses since we live off of our land the way we do, so most of our money is saved up or put toward my schooling. I take all my classes through THESIS, The Highter Educom System of Intergalactic Studies. I’ve almost taken them all, and now I’ve moved into the highest forms of com-art. I specialize in hacking, and it makes Rolara all kinds of upset because she says its illegal and that I will get in trouble and get arrested and taken away from her. But I keep telling her that just one job will pay for her to have anything she ever wanted. Then she gets upset and says she already has everything she ever wanted. Of course I think that’s just Rolara saying things. Who ever heard of a girl who didn’t want more of something...anything? Nobody, that’s who, because it isn’t true. If we had enough money, then maybe she wouldn’t worry so much about me, but she said she always had and she always would.”

Lennie had talked the entire way to Bay 4A, right where the Velociraptor was. He opened the grate, and Xander was surprised to see that Charlie didn’t knock The Wizard over to get out, even though Lennie was being as quick as possible. Yet, she moved slow and methodical, not changing her pace, continuing to listen to Lennie as he spoke even after he got out of the enclosure.

It didn’t take Xander long before he climbed out himself, securing the vent behind him. The wonder on Lennie’s face was a joy to see; the Velociraptor was a beautiful specimen. It could carry a full crew of twelve easily, but was able to be handled and piloted by one person just fine. There were four spacious rooms and a captains quarters which was on the top, bi-level deck. But the best selling feature of this beaut; she was fast. There hadn’t been a ship made before or after her which was faster, and in his line of work, speed was the bottom line.

Turning from the adoring awe in Lennie’s eyes, he wanted to see the same look in Charlie’s; but there was no joy in her eyes. Tears streaked down her face. Her methodology of making it through the tunnel had not come without cost to her. She had simply done what was needed to take care of two people whom she did not know, and owed nothing to. As a matter of fact, she had even been jerked out of her world, time, and space, and still committed herself to them, when they should be trying their damnedest to protect and take care of her.

She must have been unaware of the tears because she turned and smiled at him as though nothing were wrong. Be damned if he would embarrass or make her uncomfortable by saying anything now.

Turning to Lennie who was now walking underneath the ship, Xander said, “Lennie, why don’t you set up in command, we’ll need you to get the bay doors open and make sure they can’t bring us back in.”

He touched the panel on the outside of the ship and the steps fell out and into place. If it was possible, Lennie’s eyes lit up a little bit more.

Making sure to keep his eyes averted, Xander checked the landing gear and moved the blocks. Finally, Xander found his voice around the knot in his throat, and spoke to Charlie, “there’s a lav if you need it, we’ve all got metal dust all over us; and I’m pretty sure you want to get in there before the guys do.”

A few minutes later he heard her steps as she climbed the stairs into the ship. What in the hell was he going to do? Could he still give her to Sojo? No...yes...! Xander shook his head and kicked at nothing; whatever he was going to do, he only had a few days to do it.

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