Rowan: Yes.
Aggi: Yay! You answered this time! I’ll take that as a win.
Rowan: Are you responsible for the little house that has appeared on the shuttle platform?
Aggi: Do you like it?
Rowan: If I say no, will it disappear?
Aggi: Yes, but different ones will continue to pop up in its place until you admit to liking one.
Rowan: I do believe you are the only person who threatens people with gifts.
Aggi: It’s not a threat, it’s a promise! And it’s not a gift, it’s repayment for saving my life the other day.
Aggi: And it’s not like I bought furniture or anything. You’ll have to do that yourself.
Rowan: There was furniture in it. There is also food, and books, and a picture of an elf with dark hair and his hand in an odd position. Do you know him?
Aggi: OMG - That wasn’t me! You will have to take it up with your shuttle fixers.
Aggi: If you want, I’ll take you shopping, so you can give presents back to them and make it even.
Rowan: I would like to do so.
Aggi: Really? OMG! OK! Great! Uh, maybe over the weekend? We’re meeting up with Izzy on Friday, I’ll see what hints I can pick up of what people might like.
Rowan: You will have no trouble getting information from her. We can make plans after you do so.
Aggi: will do!
The short conversation took place over the course of two hours. I wasn't sure if he was busy, or just a slow typer, but I was relieved that he was being more cooperative. I was also curious to find out what he'd been up to, since he hadn't been there when I'd gone to set up the cabin. Mike hadn't known where he was, either. I was glad he was exploring a bit on his own, or else he'd found a better place to hide.
I assumed conversation was over for the day, but an hour after my last message, I received another message from him.
Rowan: Come to the shuttle. Milo wants to speak to you.
Aggi: Oh, yeah? Excellent, cause I wanna talk to him.
His only response was a landmark, and I clicked it immediately, delighted that he had figured that out, too.
I nearly landed on Bryce when I arrived inside the shuttle. He squawked in surprise and whipped his laptop out of the way.
“Sorry!” I stumbled toward the cockpit. "Milo, you bastard, when are you coming back so I can kick your ass?" I asked loudly. Rowan spun around in the chair, his eyes wide with alarm. He looked thinner, and positively grey. Not good.
"Good afternoon, Wil -Wycliffe, I hope you're having a pleasant day?" came Milo’s voice over the comm system. "Alpinia, I want to talk to her privately, and that is an order."
"What could you possibly say to me that you can't to him?"
"Let me know when he's gone, avin."
A funny little cough sounded behind me, and I turned around to see Bryce pointing at his laptop and giving Rowan the most significant look he could possibly make. Rowan glared at him, then at me, and finally at the comm system. "Yes, sir," he said reluctantly, and rose slowly. He had to put his hands on the door frame for balance. "You need only sit and speak. Do not push any buttons or make any changes. We will turn it off when you are finished." Then he followed Bryce out of the shuttle.
I sat down in the chair. "All right, Milo, it's just me in the shuttle. What do you want?"
“How is Alpinia? He assured me he's fine, but yesterday the man he hired to fix the shuttle told me that he was asleep when he arrived, and it took him ten minutes to rouse him. And he’s using words incorrectly."
"He’s not looking too good. Everybody’s been helping him out as best we can, though, which is more than I can say for his previous crew. Did you think he wasn’t worth the effort to come get him? 'just toss him away, he's broken anyway,' is that what you thought?"
"Wilrhyn," he gasped angrily. "You speak too harshly. It nearly came to blows over that decision. And this is the prince's companion you speak of -"
"And if that's the way you treat him, then he's way better off down here with me!"
" . . . Yes. Yes, you're right. Absolutely right. Yes."
“You're babbling. Stop it. I'm the babbler here."
"Wilrhyn -"
"Wycliffe! No, AGGI! If you can go by your first name, so can I!"
The comm crackled weirdly as he took a deep breath, let it out again, and changed tactics, in that same smarmy professional tone. "As the Lyran Portmaster of Linden, it seems to me that you should have a staff."
"Hmm, I was hoping for a tiara, but ok? Just make sure it’s big enough to hurt when I smack you with it."
"Usually we assign clerks first, but given your personality I think a guardian might be more appropriate."
"Wait, what?"
"He'll have to obey you and work with you if I transfer his position to a supervisor who can actually supervise."
"I thought you were joking when you made me a portmaster!"
"I sent the paperwork home."
"But I don't even know what a portmaster does!"
"A greeter, host, and guide for Lyran elves visiting your world. From what Alpinia has told me, you're already doing an excellent job."
"I've had exactly one visitor, he's sick now, and you want me to put him to work? What do you expect me to have him do?"
"You are the expert in all things Linden, I certainly will not presume to tell you what you need."
"I thought Elzerian wanted him to stay away from me?"
"Elzerian does not report to Elorhyn. I do, and I would much rather tell him that we lost a theoretical original harmony than tell him we lost Alpinia."
"Oh, really nice. 'No, we didn't abandon him, the Linden portmaster requested help, so we reassigned him, see? It’s Aggi’s fault!' And now you can’t be blamed for anything!"
"Oh, he is already holding me accountable, and I expect to have a very bad time of it when I return to Tanrys. But you are clearly a survivor, and I trust you to do the right thing. Take care of him. Put him to good use. Teach him what you know, he's been horribly neglectful of his cultural studies. I'll send the paperwork out in a little while."
"You’re not even going to ask him if he wants to do this?"
"He shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions in his current state. Never fear, he will do as ordered. And in case I haven’t made it clear, portmasters fall under the local ambassador’s domain. You report to me now, Lyra help me.”
I scowled at the speaker. "If this is the kind of boss you are, then yes, I'll take him, and everybody else under your command, too! I'll report it as a rescue mission!" I was on fire now, and continued to yell at him as he talked smoothly on, unruffled by my tirade.
"In time, you'll see that this is the best solution. I expect daily reports, particularly of Alpinia’s health, until it is stable, in one way or another. Elo, your range of profanity has expanded greatly! I am impressed, but unmoved. Avin, hear me. There is nothing we can change about this situation, but I do know Alpinia very well.” His voice grew lower. “He will be extremely loyal once you have established dominance. He is a little simple, and needs looking after.”
“Well that sounds like a lot of fun. If I ever see you again, Milo. I’m going to do the same to you!”
The bastard chuckled. “Avin, I look forward to it. Signing off for today.”
I continued yelling at the equipment for a few more minutes, but got no response. Annoyed, I spun around in the chair a few times, and then left the shuttle.
Mike had joined Bryce, and both were bent over the laptop, but there was no elf in sight.
“Where’d he go?”
“He TPed right out while you were swearing away at dead air. We’re looking for him now.”
“It looks like he’s learned to turn that particular feature off.” Bryce announced. “I can teleport to the places he’s gone previously and look for him if you want.”
Mike sighed. “Let’s leave him alone for a bit. That poor kid’s in way over his head.”
“Well, it seems I’m the captain now. Are you ok with that?”
“Will you let us keep working on the shuttle?” Mike asked.
“Only if you promise not to use it, or anything you create based on it, for smuggling or other illegal activities. Why are you all so interested in this? It can’t be for the money.”
Mike glared at me, but Bryce answered promptly. “Perl and ImaMess are doing it for the money, but her part’s mostly done and she’s relieved to be gone. Leo is excited about the technology and wants to use some of it in his own builds. Izzy’s mostly here because of Leo, but she’s game for piloting a space ship. Mike won’t say, but he was stationed at Area 51 for a while - “
“How did you find THAT out?” Mike gasped. “That’s classified!”
“ - And I like languages, and I’ve now got two new languages to learn, plus their programming language. Also, this means aliens are real, and there’s life on other planets. I want to go somewhere else.”
We stared at him, stunned. “You’ve got a spy,” I finally said.
“Are you the one who keeps attempting to take money out of the group account?” Mike asked sternly.
“Someone’s been stealing?”
I asked.
“No," Bryce answered. "We're not sure, it's someone's alternate account. Perl spotted it, and wrote some code for me to prevent it but make them think it’s working. Someone stole her flash drive, though. That’s why I moved everything to the dropbox account. I’ve been putting up convincing junk to distract them.”
Mike threw his hands up in the air and walked away, then came back again. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You told me to record everything. I’ve been recording everything. Why haven’t you been reading or listening to it?”
“Well, this has been eye opening! Have they done anything to compromise the shuttle?”
“No, we haven’t quite figured out how to talk to it yet. I’m working on it, and I make backups every six hours. To the new dropbox.”
I’ll deal with figuring out who’s behind this.” Mike promised. “I’ve got connections.”
“I bet you do!” I retorted. “Figure out how it works, and whether or not it’s broken, and then - and only then - will I share how to get past the ceiling. You can do what you want with the designs, but Rowan gets a percentage of any profits, because it’s technically his shuttle.”
“It sounds like it’s your shuttle now.”
“Yep, and that’s one of my conditions, along with some others I will come up with later.”
“Shall we have a lawyer draw something up?” He asked dryly.
“Great idea! I’m leaving now. Get the crew in line, Mike. I want them, if not sober, ship-shape and ready to swear loyalty to the new Captain.”
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