Authors: Lt. Cmdr. Will Keith and Warrior A. Persephone


   "That's done with; now what?"
   It was the second day of their stay at the Sumner base.  The previous
day's questionings had gone well, and Will was duly impressed with the
analytic ability shown by Warrior Persephone in matters tactical.  Her
adept questioning and fund of intuition had dissected the opposing
strategies minutely.  While much information had been gained, it was
unfortunate that neither her considerable talents in that area nor his own
minor stock thereof had proven to be much use in determining a cause for
the retreat.
   Will looked out over the burned area.  A lone farmer walked that flat,
black space, occasionally picking up a sample of the ashy remains to
examine.  Flitting through the background of Will's thoughts were sympathy
for the farmers and their families who would have to work through this
hardship - insurance paid money, but farmland cost big - curiosity as to
what the man was attempting to determine, and rehearsal of several
procedures for the hours ahead.  At the center of his cogitation, though,
was the black strip itself.  The retreating forces had provided an arrow
pointing straight down their path, and he felt its pull like a magnet.
   He turned back to the base, and spoke his reply as he thought it.
"First things first.  We should head out to the spongin camp and see if
there's anything there; then we should probably do at least an s-band
check to see if anything paranatural was involved other than standard
battle sor-"
   "Hold it a sec.  S-band?"
   "Slightly more in-depth than a quick sensing.  It'll only take a few
minutes.  And once we've covered that..."  He tilted his head in the
direction of the burn.
   Pers' smile was... anticipatory.  Then she sobered.  "Remember, the
camp is about fifty miles that way."  Her glance covered the plain to the
northwest; not a road in sight.  "You'll never get your cycle there,
unless it's a mecha."
   Will thought a moment.  "It is, but... this might be a good time to try
it out.  After all, it's a reconnaissance and infiltration mission, so
we're probably not likely to need heavy armor."  He started heading back
to his cycle.
   Persephone hesitated a moment, then followed.  *Zaph?  Did you catch a
clue I missed?*
   The dragon snorted lightly.  *Nope.  He speaks in his own language.
Probably a result of spending more time in solitude than around others.*
   "Will?  What are you going to try?"
   "My first real piece of R&D."  He opened the right cargo space on the
cycle and pulled out a garment that looked like nothing much more than a
black, sleeveless, thick jacket.  This he proceeded to put on, calling for
a tech from the base as he continued to dig for items.  "It's a mecha, but
it's forcefield-based instead of armor-based."  He pulled out several
clear crystals, settled them in a pocket, and lifted a staff from a
special horizontal socket on the left side just as the tech arrived.
   "Yes, sir?"
   "I'm going to be leaving my cycle here, probably for several days.
Y'all have a place to store it?"
   "Yes sir."
   "Good.  Oh..."  He leaned over and keyed in a set of commands.  "It's
usable by anyone with Captain Adam's voice-confirmed ID, just in case you
need it."
   "That's very thoughtful of you, sir."
   "No problem."  Will looked at Pers.  "Sorry, but this system doesn't
have DE idents on file."
   "Don't worry about it."
   Zaph thought, *He leaves his mecha behind and just puts it at
discretion of the base commander?  I thought humans were more attached to
their fighting tools than that.*  Pers felt a quick exchange between Zaph
and Kit.  *Hm.  Apparently his surface thoughts were that resources
shouldn't just sit around in case there's need.*
   *Logic and altruism.  Don't you love it when they work together?*
   Zaph responded preoccupiedly, *It's wonderful.*  Something was nagging
the dragon as she replayed the past few minutes - *Y'ALL?*
   Pers chuckled.  *Maybe he picked it up from talking to all these guys.*
   Will, checking several readiness displays for the Blaze, caught the
tail of the exchange between Kit and Zaph.  *What was that about?*
   *The dragon wanted to know why you would leave your cycle unattended.
I gave her your logical reason for it.*  As Will was about to reply, Pers
chuckled.  "What's funny?"
   "Y'all."
   "What about us?"
   Pers laughed in earnest.  "No, I mean 'y'all.'  It's a strange word."
   "Nothing strange about it.  In fact, I used it deliberately instead of
'you'.  It's a contraction of 'you all,' and it's more exact when you want
to use a plural second person.  I personally find it strange that the rest
of the English-speaking world didn't quickly adopt this versatile
conjugation."  He cocked his head.  "Being raised in Texas probably
helped, mind you."  He finished the pre-use check.  "Stand back a few
yards, this can take people by surprise when it turns on."
   Pers stood back.  Will momentarily adopted a "ready" stance with the
staff, then quickly tossed it whirling into the air.  He said the single
word "Activate," then jumped sharply to grab the staff as light in
oranges, blues, and greens appeared to pour from the staff into an
invisible mold around him.  By the time he landed, his left hand held his
staff at back-ready and he was surrounded by washes of color in shades
varying across the spectrum in the shape of unadorned mecha armor.
   His audience noted, "Apparently it works."
   "So far."  He was, in fact, pleased that something hadn't gone wrong in
the first actual field use of the equipment.  *Illogical,* he chided
himself.  *The laboratory is not fundamentally different from field use,
save for psychological factors and unanticipated types of attacks.*
   Kit assured him, *Actually, it's quite normal to be pleased in such a
case...*  The advantages of telepathic taunting were being put to
experienced use, however, as his innocent tone still managed to convey
associations of "successful male-primate courtship display of prowess."
Will reddened and hoped the HUD hid it.
   "What about you?"
      "Let's head out to the field."  Pers waved a hand in a random
direction.  "That way."
   "O.K."  As they trudged over to the indicated area, behind a low
rise, Will asked, "What's this way?"
   "I need a place to shapeshift."
   "You can't do it here?"
   It was Pers' turn to redden.  "No."
   "Oh."  Pace, pace... "How come?"
   They were behind the rise.  "Turn around, I don't want to embarrass
either of us."
   "Huh?"
   "I need to Change."
   Pause...  "Yeah?"
   "Think about it.  Zaph is a lot bigger than I am... and since I
would rather like having some clothes left when I shift back...."
   "Oh.  Ah!  I understand."  Will turned.
   Pers quickly shed her clothes and slipped them into her
everpresent cloth pouch.  Then, grinning wildly, she felt Zaphyre's mind
move into synch with her own for this moment, human strings and dragon winds
sounding in a single harmonious chord.  She released her hold and Zaph
took over.  A bright, blue light enveloped her body and began to expand
as if the human was raising her head and throwing her arms wide.   But
instead of stopping at the end of her reach, it kept growing - widening,
lengthening, moving outward in all directions, until the light faded and
in its place stood a magnificent blue dragon.

   Zaphyre spoke.  "You can turn back around, William."
   Will turned.  The deep resonance of the dragon's voice held overtones
on overtones, deep fundamentals sounding with somehow ladylike chimes in
the high registers.  The image matched the voice.  Massive, with
undeniable strength implicit in the flowing muscles, the dragon
nevertheless conjured up images of light, crystalline atmosphere, and as
she stretched her wings she moved with grace suitable to a puff of wind.
"You are... awe-inspiring," he whispered.
   The head tilted, and one large eye fixed him.  "One might easily say
the same of such a delicately constructed, yet resilient being as Homo
sapiens.  In fact, this one does."
   Will bowed.  The gesture felt natural in Zaphyre's presence.  "You
honor me, Zaphyre.  Shall we go?"
   "Yes."
   "A favor - the cruising speed of this unit is probably best over open
land at about 70 to 80 miles per hour."
   "I understand.  Remain in contact with me through Kit, and I will guide
you to the smoothest places."
   "Thank you."  The dragon took off, powerful wings beating quickly to
gain height, their wind buffeting Will below as he set off down the hill.
   For the first half an hour, they made good time, Zaphyre soaring above,
often circling, while Will traveled down the main burn path in the long
loping strides of mecha-aided running.  After that point, Will had to make
way through the grassland off to the side, sometimes encountering brush or
other obstacles that had to be negotiated, but for the most part the Great
Plains aided him with flat, wide open spaces.
   After about an hour of travel Will stood in the center of what had been
the spongin camp, Blaze deactivated.  Zaphyre landed behind a building and
a few moments later out walked Persephone composedly tucking a few loose
strands of hair back into place.  Will wondered how girls did that, and
absentmindedly brushed some of his own off his ears.
   Pers walked up, looking around.  "Empty as Hubbard's cupboard."
   "Look again.  These are temporary buildings.  They're made to be torn
down and hauled away on so much as a few hour's notice.  And yet they're
still here.  Your conclusion?"
   "That they had less than a few hour's notice, O Socratic teacher."
   "Excellent.  We may make an Aristotle of you yet."
   "Give me Homer any day."
   "I'll give you crystal instead."  He followed word with action, handing
her two of the clear crystals he'd taken from the storage compartment.  A
similar one lay on his hand, all three being prisms about 5 cm in length
with a base of an equilateral triangle 1 cm on a side.  Imperfections in
the crystals caught the light at odd angles.  "Set yours on end north of
the camp - the first to the northwest, the second to create an equilateral
triangle with the one I place."
   "Got it."  The two broke, placing the crystals as instructed.
   Will stood at the center of the large triangle and raised his hands to
chest height, facing inward.  Framed between them a point of light shined,
then expanded into a sphere a few inches across.  It slowly rotated for a
long moment, then silently exploded.  Within the boundaries of a volume
similar to the shape of the prisms, cornered at the crystals they had
placed, shades of light resolved with varying intensities, colors, and
shapes.  Will began walking around, looking at some of them, passing
through several.  His eye caught Pers standing outside.  "Come on in;
unless you kick the crystals there's nothing you'll do to disturb it."
   Persephone came in, looking around at the figures as she closed in on
him.  Zaph said, *Oh, this is what he meant by an s-band scan.  We could
have done this.  Well, we could at least have sensed it.  See that over
there?  Can you tell what it is?*
   "Mmm... basic elemental spell, I think."
   "No, actually it's quite a neat little organizing device..."  Will
looked up.  "Oh, that.  Yeah, someone started a campfire there."  He
continued his scrutiny of the small, complex working being displayed next
to one of the buildings.  "Hmm..."  He reached in a hand, slowly feeling
his way through several twists and turns, when the thing fell apart,
startling him.  "Rats.  We'll get no information from that today."  He
took another look around, and said, "Well, it all looks pretty standard.
I don't think this will do any... wait a minute."  He moved to the north
center of camp, looking intently at what seemed to be nothing but
background color.  "Do you see that, Pers?"
   She looked again, even trying to enhance it with dragon perception, but
failed to notice anything.  "Sorry.  This is your field, not mine."
   He kept looking.  "There it is again."  A muttered word or two, and a
line appeared against the backdrop.  He stroked it, and it brightened.
"Oh, this is clever.  This is very, very sneaky."
   "What?"
   "This was a communication.  Whoever sent this message was using a very
primitive form for spell-users, but the actual method of delivery was
genius.  For all most people could tell, this message was barely more than
a modulation of background radiation.  The information package is so small
that you hardly notice it, and the cryptology is good enough that applying
decrypt methods wouldn't work to do anything."  Will straightened.  "The
recipient got nothing but a text message.  Usually magic sends images and
sounds, just because we can do so easily.  It's not that much greater an
effort to send thoughts or other complex things.  But this is so small, so
low-energy, it's practically unnoticeable and completely indecipherable.
Whoever sent this wanted something done fast and really on the sly."
   "And so they set fire to their trail?  Doesn't make sense."
   "Good point....  I wonder though."  He turned to Persephone.  Pers,
what's Zaphyre's flight ceiling?"
   "Huh?  Oh, I have no idea.  I wouldn't say more than 30,000 feet.  How
come?"
   "I'd like to triangulate this line and the burn path.  Just from dead
reckoning, I don't think that burn may be as straight an arrow as we'd
have liked."
   "O.K., hang on."  Pers went back around the building and prepared
to change again.  *Zaph?  Are you ready for another one?*
   The dragon smirked. *Always.  I am beginning to feel a bit like
we're on a trampoline though with all this flipping back and forth.*  Her
tone became unhappy.  *Those huge burned areas.  Black... and some of
them still warm.  They're hideously easy to get an updraft over.*
Wordlessly, Persephone gave comfort.
   They launched.  Zaph avoided updrafts over the burn and instead
took a long, slow path over fields that were still golden.  As she circled,
some of the unhappiness melted away from the sheer feeling of flight in the
vast quiet, from the carressing warmth of the sun on her wings.  Eventually
they had reached a height from which a large expanse of land was visible.
Zaph reached out to Will.
   Silence.  *Eh?  Oh, right.*  She recentered on Kit.  *Kit, you receiving?*
   *Clearly, Zaphyre.*  He beckoned to Will in the subtle body language of
mental presences.  *Now what, Will?*
   *Tell her to give us an image of the burned areas on the ground, as far
north and west as she can see.*
   *Right.*
   Zaphyre was seriously disturbed by this request.  *But WHY?*
   *Relax, Zaph,* Pers sent.  *I think I know what he's doing.*
   *Not what asking this is doing to /me/, he doesn't.  Isn't he at all
troubled by the sight of... that?*
   *He probably just sees it as forensic evidence, Zaph.  That's a good
thing, he can analyze better that way.  Please?*  Zaph heaved a mental
sigh and tilted her head to take in the burned area below, moving her
viewpoint as she circled.
   On the ground, Will received the image through Kit.  *Good.  Now,
orient the map...*  He looked down the line of the transmission, turning
the image in his mind until the buildings he saw in Zaphyre's view
corresponded to their placement in front of him.  Finally, he extended the
line out indefinitely.  *Yes.  Take a look at this, guys.*  The line which
presumably had come directly from the spongies' destination did intersect
the burn path, but that path continued on - that is, it continued on a
short ways and stopped.  The fires had there been allowed to run freely.
Of the spongin themselves there was no evidence actually on the track, and
the wide grasslands had hidden their trail well.  *My guess is they're
headed for the source of this signal.  The burn track was more than just
pointless destruction, it was an attempt to throw us off.*  Relief welled
up at the possibility that the fields of ash he had been passing by all
day had had a purpose.
   *On the other hand,* Zaphyre broadcast, *if they were in such a hurry
why leave any track at all?  Heading along the burn, they could have just
left behind something to remember them by.*
   *Three possibilities as I see it,* Pers sent out.  *They're heading
along the burn, they're heading along the line, or they're heading in
another direction entirely.  Since we have no way of selecting any other
direction, we'll stipulate burn or line.*  She considered as Zaph began to
glide down.  *We can't be sure the communication came from their final
destination.  On the other hand, letting the fires burn freely further
down the way means either they went that way or didn't want to bother
directing the burn as they went another way.*  Tactical experience kicked
into high gear and reduced the problem to one question.  *We need to
consider whether it's probable they would deliberately attempt to mislead
us.*  By the time Zaphyre had landed, Pers' decision was made.
   *It's unlikely that the type of encryption Will described would be
necessary unless not only the information but the source was to be
hidden.  Even moving quickly, at least minimal measures to throw someone
off the track would be wanted.  Fire would keep back trackers, destroy
signs of passage, keep enemy forces busy afterwards, and if directed right
could mislead pursuit.  It's ideal for their purposes.  I think Will's
right.*
   "The only weakness in the chain of thought I can see is that there's no
B'harnese bases in the area," Zaphyre said verbally.  "I don't know where
they could be going they would want to keep secret."
   *Maybe it's just a random rendezvous point they don't want us finding
out about,* Kit offered.
   "Either way, they've got nearly a day's lead on us."  Will looked up to
judge the angle of the sun.  "Captain Adams said they had more foot than
mecha, so that'll be the limiting factor in their speed.  We might be able
to catch up by sunset or shortly thereafter.  You want to start now?"
   Quoth Zaphyre, "Better now than when they've got an even bigger lead,
or might even be there."
   "Then let's go."  Will turned along the line and performed the small
internal magic that would let him know where an extension of that line lay
until he no longer wished to, and started off.  Behind him, Zaphyre took
off, a blue Apollo rising into the day sky.

TBC...