Who Was That Boogeyman I Saw You With Last Night, Charlie Boone? - 4. Chapter 4

"Seattle wasn't really much of a town when I was born," Shannon told them, titling his head back as if looking back into time. "The hills had yet to be graded, and the place was often muddy, dirty, and loud. But the forests around the town seemed endless then, and the lumber business drove the economy. Lumber mills were everywhere along the waterfront. Located on Puget Sound like it was, the town was a perfect center for shipping. Railroads started to arrive, the shipping business grew with the timber business, and it got to be that there were more strangers around than people you knew. Working in a lumber mill was the most common job in town."

"Sounds rustic," Charlie said, smiling.

"Oh, it was. You can't imagine now what it was like to live in that period, just 150 years ago. The sort of technology we enjoy today simply didn't exist. Building a town was a fairly slow process, accomplished purely by manual labor. Seattle grew fairly rapidly by the standards of that day, though." He sighed. "And then, when I was just about to turn 16, a fire took out 29 city blocks in the heart of town. Most of the buildings were built of wood then, and they burned fast and completely. It was a devastating blow, and the town would have been in real trouble had it not been for Jacob Furth, the head of the bank. He managed to organize loans from back east to rebuild, and only a few years after the big fire, the population had doubled."

"It actually sounds kind of pleasant, save for the fire," Adrian said. "The woods, the ocean, and all that."

Shannon laughed. "I guess many people look back at small town life of that era as some sort of idyll." He shook his head then. "It wasn't. Law and order at that time often resulted in some poor slob dangling from a rope before anyone even knew the facts. Sewer connections for new buildings weren't mandated until I was an adult, and if you lived down on the mudflats, the tide was just as likely to bring sewage back in as take it out. The town had a smell to it that really wasn't very pleasant. And everyone worked, and worked hard, and then went home at the end of the day to places with no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and a wood stove for heat. Winters were, well, cold. Seattle was a tough town, and life was hard, even for those at the top."

Rick sighed. "Wow. Sounds like a place I'd want to leave."

Shannon nodded. "I did. I was working at the sawmill one July day in 1897 when my friend Sam Blackett came up to me with a copy of the The Seattle-Post Intelligencer. In it was a story about how the steamship Portland had arrived from St. Michael in Alaska carrying over a ton of gold found in the newly discovered gold fields there. People were striking it rich up north, it seemed."

"The Klondike gold rush?" Charlie guessed.

"Among others. Klondike, Yukon, Nome. Well, people starting walking out of saw mills all over town to head north to Dyea or Skagway, where they'd get a raft and float down the Yukon River to the Klondike gold fields, or travel up the trails to the Yukon gold fields. Sam Blackett said he was going, and that I should go, too."

"You went." Kippy guessed..

"Yes. My father told me I was crazy to give up what I had and blow my meager savings on some wild dream, but I was 22, and certain I had all the answers." Shannon grinned. "Besides, working in a sawmill was tough and dangerous work. If I was going to do something risky, why not go big? Adventure and riches called! I said goodbye to my family, and Sam and I got passage on the steamer Lawrence for Dyea. From there we went up the Chilkoot Trail to the Yukon gold fields."

"And became fabulously wealthy," Dick said, looking like he couldn't help himself.

Browbeat and Casper both hooted with glee, but Ragal waved a hand at them and silence descended on the room once again.

Shannon seemed unperturbed. He shook his head, and made a derisive sound. "I know, I know. We heard stories now and then how some lucky bastard struck it rich somewhere, but the people that made all the real money there were the storekeepers and suppliers that kept all the miners fed, clothed, and tooled up for the hunt. Sam and I found a little gold -- everyone found a little gold. Usually just enough to buy new supplies to go back to looking for more gold. It didn't take me long to see where this was going. There were just too many people looking in the same places I was, and that big strike everyone dreamed about was becoming more elusive by the day." The older man shrugged his shoulders. "So, Sam and I split up. He wanted to keep after gold, and I wanted to find work, so that I could eventually get home again, face my family, and tell them I'd learned my lesson."

Dick sighed. "Part of the growing process, I guess. You weren't alone in that, by any means. What did they say when you saw them again?"

"Nothing." Shannon squeezed his eyes shut a moment. "I never saw them again. I never did go home."

Ragal looked over at Charlie a moment before leaning towards Shannon. "I'm guessing it was at this point that your story becomes relevant to our quest?"

Shannon's eyes popped open, and he smiled. "Oh, definitely." He nodded, as if putting away that first part of his life." I'd timed my split with Sam at a point where we each had found a little gold. I didn't want to leave him when he was penniless, and I needed some money to travel with as far as the coast. There, I took what gold I had left to the assay office in Dyea and sold it, which gave me enough pocket money to live while I found some employment."

"You got a job?" Adrian asked.

"Well...more or less. See, it was at that point that I met Kha'jaq'tii." The name was smoothly said, without the slightest of pauses. Shannon smiled. "But I just called him Khaj."

Charlie took a breath. "A Tlingit?" he guessed.

"Yes. I was eating at one of the chowpots in Dyea" -- Shannon frowned at their uncertain looks -- " that's basically a few rows of tables next to the street outside a kitchen, where miners and others passing through could get a hot bowl of stew for cheap. I was eating there, and Khaj came and sat down next to me with his own bowl. We started talking almost immediately. He seemed to draw me out, and I soon found myself telling him my story."

Charlie and Ragal exchanged a glance. "Skwish, you think?" Charlie asked.

"Possibly. Or probably." Ragal smiled at Shannon. "Please continue."

The other man laughed. "Hell, I didn't know anything about the locals then. But I seemed to connect right away with Khaj. As you guessed, we shared that same sense of intuition -- skwish, as you call it -- and I knew right away that Khaj represented something important. I wanted to know what that was."

Dick raised a hand for attention then. "You'd had no contact with the local peoples before then?"

"Just in passing. But I hadn't really gotten to know any of them. Khaj was something totally new for me. I sensed in him the very life of adventure I had come north seeking in the first place."

Charlie smiled at Dick. "See? I had a feeling the Tlingit figured in this more than we originally thought."

"It would seem so," the older man agreed. "This keeps coming back to these people."

"Sure," Shannon said then. "Dyea was located within the Lingít Aaní, which is 'the land of the Tlingit'. That 'T' at the front of the name of these people you see in print is an Anglo addition. The locals use a bit of a breath blown off the sides of their tongues to preface their people's name, but Lingit is closer to what they intend. And as I found out later, the Chilkoot Trail I'd used to get to the Yukon gold fields was a Tlingit trail, broken by them as part of their fur-trading business with the fur companies that had dominated that land before the miners arrived. Khaj was a sort of messenger, he said, carrying news around the Lingít Aaní." Shannon's smile returned, perhaps carrying with it some old sense of wonder. " He was just so...so different from anyone I had ever met before. And he seemed interested in what I wanted to do next. He asked me if I wanted to work with him, transporting news and supplies 'between places'. The job didn't pay much, but he said he would cover costs, so there would be no expenses for me, either. I just felt I should do this...and so I accepted."

Rick shook his head. "Had to be some string attached."

"There was. I felt that, even then. I knew there was more to this deal than Khaj was telling me. But I didn't care. I wanted to go with him, and be a part of whatever it was he was doing."

"You sensed you should go," Kippy said, nodding. "Your skwish told you."

"Exactly. I was never so sure that I wanted to be a part of something as I was with this. And as I got to know Khaj, and more about him, the more mysterious and wonderful he seemed to me." Shannon leaned forward to look around at them. "Khaj's name -- his full name, Kha'jaq'tii -- I came to learn later, translated as killed in battle."

Silence greeted that revelation.

"You're not saying he was dead, are you?" Adrian finally asked.

"No. Maybe deathless would be a better word. You see, Khaj wasn't just a man, like me. He was teamed up with some sort of what he called a spirit companion - some kind of immaterial being that aided and added to his own powers."

"Skwish entity!" Charlie said, placing a hand over his own medallion containing Castor.

"Had to be," Max agreed. He eyed Shannon. "This spirit thing gave him extra powers?"

"Right. Khaj could travel in time, all on his own. And he had sensed the same latent ability in me. But he could do some other things -- extraordinary things -- that stemmed from his spirit companion."

Kippy whistled softly. "Ah. So the places he traveled to weren't just within his people's domain. He also went places--"

"--in time, yes," Shannon finished. "Time, and space. I didn't know it at first, but I had just joined the time rangers, and life was about to get very interesting."

"Who were these time rangers?" Kippy asked, his curiosity evident in his eyes.

Shannon gave his head a quick, almost amazed shake at the memory. "It took me some time to really get a feel for what Khaj and his group were doing. I mean, the idea of time travel was wholly new to me. So, when Khaj told me he sensed the ability in me, I was certain he was wrong. He was just as adamant that he was not. He began by taking me places in time, so I could get the feel of traveling. It was" --Shannon laughed -- "an eye-opening experience."

Max smiled at that. "It's exciting. But it's also something you have to be careful with."

"I know. Khaj was quite clear on that subject, too. He had used his powers to travel widely on his own. Somehow, in those travels, he discovered the poppers, and what they were doing to some worlds. He saw that their movement seemed to be towards our location in space, and he came back to Earth and started looking for help to fight them."

"Other time travelers?" Rick asked.

"Exactly. But he didn't find many. It's a rare talent to begin with, and he said he found some that seemed to have an undeveloped ability for it, but couldn't be trusted to use it. But he said he sensed in me the sort of person that would honor time, and not abuse it. Otherwise, he would have taken his bowl of stew to another table to eat." Shannon firmed his jaw, and nodded. "He was right. And what I just did to try to avoid you people by skipping back a couple of hours was unethical, and I'd be ashamed if Khaj knew."

Max waved a hand in dismissal. "It worked out. I can feel that you really are unhappy with yourself for doing it. Let's just move on, huh?"

Shannon smiled. "Yeah."

"The time rangers?" Kippy prodded again.

"Oh, right. They were just people, Kip. People who had the ability to move in time and space."

"Moving in space suggests teleporting," Max said quietly.

Shannon smiled. "I guess it does."

"You can teleport?" Rick asked.

"Not me," Shannon admitted. "Khaj could. We worked in teams, with one that could teleport, and one that could travel in time. Khaj could actually do both, but we teamed up, anyway."

"You speak in a past tense." Rick suggested "Are these time rangers still around?

Shannon seemed to consider that. "Well, I'm still here. And if you mean are the others still alive, I would guess that some of them are. That was the reason I wrote and published Invaders From Limbo, with that very specific cover art. I felt that if any of the others saw it, they might contact me."

"Did anyone?" Kippy asked.

"No."

Kippy pouted at that, and leaned up harder against Charlie.

"It's possible they just missed it," Charlie speculated. "Not everyone reads that sort of stuff."

"Most of them were interested in anything interesting and unusual," Shannon countered. "But it really was a shot in the dark on my part. The group was disbanded long ago, and it was never a very large group to begin with. I never even knew every member."

"Why?" Robin asked. "Why did you stop doing what you were doing?"

Shannon sighed. "Khaj made the decision to cease our operations, and he was the guiding light behind the project. He had...we had, an encounter with a strange alien on one mission. After that, Khaj said we were done operating. We had known about the probability discriminators before that time, but not exactly what they did. Khaj said he knew their purpose then, and that the probability discriminators would safeguard our world far better than we could. So, that was the end of it."

"You ended your operations, just like that?" Kippy asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Yes. Khaj had the final say in everything we did. We all respected that. After we stopped going after the poppers, everyone wanted to get back to living. To do things at home again. The years passed, and we fell out of contact. Not everyone seemed to age slowly like I did. Some died." Shannon shrugged. "All we wanted was for our world to be safeguarded. Once Khaj was certain the probability discriminators were doing that, the need for us to operate became moot. He said we were risking drawing more attention to Earth, rather than keeping it safe."

Adrian shook his head. "Why does our planet need safeguarding?"

Shannon rubbed at his jaw. "I'm not sure I can easily explain it."

"Just try," Ragal said gently. "We understand big words."

Their host laughed at that. "Okay. Earth, you see, is a sort of a nexus in the flow of probability in this universe. There are many such places, many such worlds, where events that transpire there have a much larger impact on the flow of events in the galaxy than other places do. Where probability plays a larger part in how the future will be."

"Why?" Charlie asked, trying to understand.

"Something about each of these worlds is pivotal to how the future will organize itself. In the case of Earth, Khaj and his group always felt it was because our world had produced some people who could travel in time." A look of surprise, and then wonder, covered Shannon's face. "But this world has produced you people, too." He smiled at Ragal, Casper, and then Browbeat. "Well, most of you, anyway." He nodded at Max. "I'm assuming there are more of you with these sorts of powers?"

"Tons," the elf admitted, smiling.

Shannon nodded. "Then it seems our world may be even more important that I originally thought." He leaned forward. "You see...there has long been a struggle in the past about what the present would look like. Two races, both who originated far in the past, have been struggling over what now is going to be like."

The room was quiet a moment.

"One of these races are these blue guys?" Rick finally asked.

"Yes. The poppers. They would seem to want the future of this galaxy to be more favorable to their sort of life. They're...manipulators, interferers, tamperers." Shannon nodded. "They seem to thrive on chaos, in fact."

Ragal leaned forward. "And the other race?"

"Wanted a form of order that allowed the intelligent species of the galaxy to determine their own fates. They seemed to be the good guys, to us." Shannon shrugged. "I have no idea what they were called."

"You never met them?" Ragal asked.

"We just saw the one of them that one time -- that was the alien I mentioned before, the one that caused Khaj to end our missions against the poppers." He shook his head. "It was a long way in the past, too, farther back than we'd ever been before that time."

Adrian took in a sharp breath then, and leaned forward intently. "Can you describe this alien?"

Kippy turned to his friend. "You sense something about these other aliens?"

Adrian held up a hand. "Wait. Mr. Shannon?"

The time ranger blinked, and then looked thoughtful. "Khaj and I were deep into the past on that mission. Four hundred-thousand years. We'd gone to a place called Farge, somewhere out in the galaxy." His jawline tightened. "We were tracing a popper operation there that had links to our own time, and to this part of the galaxy. We felt they were searching for something, and that that something could have been our Earth."

"But why?" Kippy asked, shaking his head. "Why would aliens care about us?"

"This battle between the poppers and these others -- it was like a game of chess. One race would make a move, and then the other would move to counter it. Back and forth, over and over, throughout time. The goal of the game for the poppers was simple: to thwart their own inevitable and natural extinction at the hands of time, and to arrive in a future where they still existed. That future being our own present. The goal of these others was to counter the desire of the poppers to outlive their natural racial lifetime, to counter their influence over other peoples, and to come to a point in the future, meaning our present, where the many peoples that inhabited the galaxy had an unfettered say in their own lives, without being subjected to the poppers deadly manipulations. And the only way this could happen, it seems, is if the poppers were basically forced to die out naturally long before this present arrived."

Dick raised a hand. "Isn't that where we are now, sort of?"

"Actually, yes." Shannon nodded. "The poppers do not exist in this time, and have not been doing well in the past, mostly because this other race has shielded worlds like ours where the probability that we would play an important part in future events was much greater than worlds where this was not true."

A light came on inside Charlie's mind. "Shielded? You mean, as with the probability discriminators?"

"That's exactly what I mean," Shannon agreed. "This race that has opposed the poppers has placed these devices on worlds they apparently thought would become very important to their victory in future times."

Adrian waved a hand urgently. "Please. You said you saw one of these other aliens once?"

Kippy took a deep breath of surprise then, too, and clamped a hand on Charlie's arm. "Tell us what they looked like, Mr. Shannon."

Shannon's features tightened at the insistence in Kip's voice. "Well...I saw this other alien just that one time, but...it was as if this being meant for us to see him. Khaj and I had just learned about the existence of the probability discriminators on so many other worlds -- that they had a much wider purpose than we had ever understood." He frowned, and closed his eyes. "The alien was tall - taller than your friend Ragal here. Tall, and thin. A biped, with long arms and long legs. The alien's face was striking. Narrow at the bottom, like a 'V', with a large domed head above. Tall, pointed ears, like maybe the devil himself would have." Shannon opened his eyes. "But it was this alien's eyes I remember best. They were big and round, with no eyebrows or lashes. Brown eyes, with a depth of intelligence and understanding that" --Shannon gasped -- "that still takes my breath away to visualize. I knew in that instant that these were the good guys, and that we were helping them against the poppers."

Adrian licked his lips carefully. "He was dressed all in white, smooth stuff, that blended right into his shoes?"

Shannon looked shocked. "You've seen...you know of these aliens?"

By then, even Charlie was staring at his friends in amazement. Could it really be...?

Adrian nodded slowly. "Yes. They call themselves the Madracorn."

The creators of Engris!

 

* * * * * * *

 

The market of Al'Roost pulsed with activity before them, the illumination of the shops and stalls creating a giant dome of light beneath the dark skies of Engris. Because they were in no-time, they had felt it safe to take a moment to show Rip Shannon around the ancient plaza that was the center of the city and home to the market itself. Charlie had to give credit to the man: he had allowed his look of astonishment to quickly be replaced with one of fascination. Most people, when encountering Engris for the first time, wore that look of astonishment for days or even weeks before the bustling crowds composed of peoples from the five empires of space became familiar to them. Even after all these years of visiting the place, Charlie had never lost his sense of wonder about it all. Engris was a powerful legend in known space, and Charlie had found the place deserving of every bit of the awe that had been heaped upon it.

Shannon, despite his earlier declaration that he had been away from this stuff for too long, seemed right at home within the first hour, as if he had whiled away his time on many occasions hobnobbing with alien peoples. Kippy kept tossing delighted smiles at Charlie, as if Shannon's adoption as part of their group was a done deal. Charlie had reservations about that; what Shannon might want for his own future could be vastly different than what they wanted for theirs.

But he did have to admit that it seemed as if Shannon was enjoying himself immensely. They had just about finished a turn about the bustling market when the man stopped in his tracks, and his face lit up in delight.

"Pastrani!" he said, tilting his head at a group of three tall and rangy aliens that looked as if their ancestors might have once shared an island home with the Komodo Dragon.

Rick laughed. "Sounds like an Italian sandwich!"

Shannon laughed and smiled at him, and then raised a finger to his lip. "Shh! Be quiet and learn something."

As the three came abreast of them, Shannon raised a hand to them in salute. "Ana'tigua!"

The three stopped immediately, obviously startled to be greeted in what Charlie presumed to be their own tongue. Charlie and the others each wore one of the tiny blobs in their ears that translated the myriad of tongues in use here, and so knew that Shannon had offered the aliens an honored greeting.

The tallest alien bent down to examine Shannon with teardrop-shaped green eyes, and then a deep voice issued forth from the mouth full of sharp teeth. "Ana'tigua. Who calls?"

Shannon bobbed his head. "Shannon, amara taq akt'a Moliko." Shannon, a friend to Moliko.

The three looked thunderstruck, and immediately bowed their heads. "You do us an honor, Shannon Moliko'taq."

Shannon bowed his head again. "It is always an honor to cross paths with the Pastrani. The oath of friendship runs deep."

The three aliens nodded. "The oath of friendship runs deep," the tall one agreed. "Will you be at Engris for long? We would invite you to visit our vessel, named Califal, which rests even now at the port. Much history has passed since Moliko."

Shannon looked over at Charlie, who nodded. "Perhaps not right now, but we can certainly return later. The no time of this place makes it easy to get together with people."

Shannon relayed that to the Pastrani, and also said that he would indeed be honored to visit them at their vessel when his business was concluded. There was more bowing, farewells were exchanged, and then the tree aliens moved off, talking excitedly among themselves.

Kippy stared after them, and then turned to Shannon. "Friends of yours?"

The man laughed. "Absolutely. Khaj and I ran a little mission once against some popper interference on their world, with the assistance of some local power-users. That mission has become a bit of an...an oft-told tale, I guess."

"It happened in the past?" Rick asked.

"Yes. It would have to be many centuries for them now, at least."

"They didn't seem surprised by the length of time that's passed," Adrian wondered.

Ragal chuckled. "Even without the element of time travel, the races of the five empires are used to the longevity that anyone that lives on Engris seems to enjoy."

Kippy smiled at Shannon. "You'll tell us about it sometime, I hope."

"I will. " Shannon looked around the marketplace once more, and then grinned at Kippy. "I'm sure you people have some pretty darn good stories to tell that I'll enjoy just as much."

Browbeat, perched upon Kip's shoulder, tittered happily. "I can't wait!"

Robin, standing by Charlie, offered his own smile. "Actually, this little joining of forces promises some grand Halloween tales for all."

"I have come to appreciate the holiday," Ragal admitted, nodding.

"It's deliciously creepy," Casper agreed, rubbing his hands together happily.

Rick cleared his throat. "Speaking of creepy, shouldn't we teleport to the interior of Engris and try to fine Eseffa and Jorli?"

Charlie sighed. "I guess we should get down to business. Mr. Shannon, you can visit your Pastrani friends after we're through here, if you like."

The older man held up a hand then, and looked around at his new friends. "One thing first. Please, all of you -- call me Rip. This Mister Shannon stuff is making me feel like my father!"

"Okay, Rip!" Browbeat said, happily.

The time ranger smiled, but then leaned closer to Charlie. "I've always been convinced that your Madracorn showed himself to us deliberately four hundred-thousand years ago, and wondered why. It as been clear to me for a long time that Khaj obviously got more out of that meeting than I did. But now that act has brought this entire meeting into being. I'm thinking at this point it was one purpose of that encounter."

Charlie had come to the same conclusion himself. The idea of operating across such time spans was astonishing and intimidating, but Charlie had already learned that the creators of Engris hadn't done things small. And that for them, time seemed simply another tool to be used as needed.

"I have to agree."

"I do, too," Robin said. He laughed. "This looks like it's going to be quite an interesting mission."

Max put a hand on Charlie's arm. "I'm sensing that space below the surface we visited with Eseffa and Jorli before. It's still there."

Casper looked surprised by that. "You think it might have gone away?"

The elf laughed. "You never know, with these Madracorn guys!" He turned to Charlie. "Shall we?"

"Yes. Let's!"

Everyone circled around Max and placed a hand on him. Ragal bent down and hoisted Casper up into his arms, and he and Browbeat - still perched on Kippy's shoulder - traded grins of delight at the fun they were having.

 

* * * * * * *

 

They materialized within the vast machine hall beneath the surface of Engris, and the group dissolved as everyone turned to take in their surroundings.

At first, no one said a word. The chamber dwarfed them, the dark stone ceiling at least fifty feet above their heads, and the far walls so distant as to show only by the sparkling light that rebounded from them. That light was supplied by hundreds of tall, crystalline structures, no two the same, that seemed to grow from the floor at random intervals all about the great chamber. It was the way they pulsed with lights of all colors, yet in a decidedly purposeful fashion, that suggested they were machines of some sort. The room hummed with a deep, smooth sound, that spoke of power and organization of some kind, and Charlie imagined these machines running just as they were now for the last half-million years of time.

"This place always impresses me," Rick said, sighing. "I can just feel all the stuff happening here."

"I've never seen machines like this before," Rip said. He squinted at Rick. "They are machines, I'm assuming."

"Not like we know, but yes, they're machines."

"They run Engris," Casper informed. "Or, this is just one station that runs Engris. I feel there are more."

"There are," Ragal agreed. He turned then, and frowned at the polished stone floor nearby. "I do believe...I sense our hosts coming near."

Kippy nodded. "Definitely."

Charlie sensed it, too, a peculiar sort of stretching inside his head, as if he was feeling something that was flowing upwards through the matter that comprised the floor beneath their feet.

"Wait for it," Robin said softly. "Right...now!"

Twenty feet away from their group, the stone floor bubbled upward in a circle an easy thirty feet across. As the bubble rose it parted at the center, and the sides retracted back to the floor, leaving a clean circle of darkness there that was geometrically perfect. Immediately, a mist started to rise from the new hole, split, and formed two tall columns of light that had tiny sparkles of energy winking about inside them. At the same time, they began to hear what sounded like a crowd of people around them, all whispering at once, but in a language that none of them could understand. Yet there was no one there, just the two misty columns, now coming closer to them across the floor. These two columns of light looked just like Billy and Will when they first appeared in the spirit domes, except that these two were at least twice the height. Even as he watched, they moved away from the new hole in the floor, and settled down close to them.

"This reminds me of the probability discriminator!" Kippy whispered excitedly.

"It does," Adrian agreed. "We should have recognized the association then!"

Now that Charlie was re-experiencing the arrival of the two aliens, he could feel the similarities of that process to their experience with the probability discriminator in the misty Alaskan woods. It was not really the same thing at all; but its feeling should have at least rung a bell of recognition with them, that the level of technology was similar to something they had experienced before. Madracorn technology.

The two columns of light grew opaque, and slowly formed into Eseffa and Jorli.

At least, that's who Charlie assumed they were. The Madracorn they had met all looked very much alike to Charlie's eyes, though he had learned that there were some subtle differences that the aliens easily recognized in each other.

"You brought everyone along!" the first alien said in delight, and Charlie knew for certain then that it was Eseffa.

"You got it just right!" The second alien, now plainly Jorli, joined in.

Eseffa turned to Jorli. "We knew they would."

"Well, we hoped. Time can be so confounding at times!"

The two aliens chuckled to each other, and then turned their smiles on Charlie and their group. "Welcome to Engris, all of you. Welcome, Ripley Shannon!"

Rip leaned back a little, but seemed unable not to smile. "Have we met?"

Eseffa raised a hand. "Not personally. But you did encounter one of our kind once before. You and your friend Khaj, that is, and his charming immaterial companion."

"That meeting served a twofold purpose," Jorli continued. "To suggest to Kha'jaq'tii that it was in Earth's own interest to discontinue his operations at that time; and secondly, so that you, Ripley Shannon, would be able to give Charlie and his friends in the now the clues that would lead you back here to meet with us." Jorli exuded a satisfied air. "It was necessary in order to bring all of you together at this point in time."

"You have been fighting the Leeperi all these millennia?" Ragal asked, stepping forward. He glanced at Rip then. "The poppers. I mean?"

The two Madracorn smiled at each other. "Properly, they are the Hotra, just as we are the Madracorn," Eseffa informed them. "But I doubt they would care at all what you called them."

"But you are in a war with them," Ragal persisted.

"Not even a war," Eseffa said then. "There have been no giant space fleets battling it out, no weapons of mass destruction being employed -- at least, not by us or them." He turned to Jorli. "A difference of opinion is more like it, wouldn't you say?"

"Oh, indeed. The only harm being caused is by the Hotra--"

"The poppers," Eseffa corrected, smiling.

Jorli chuckled. "Yes.The only harm being caused is by the poppers to the many races they attempt to manipulate in order to change their future. Despite the fact that we have denied them critical worlds where the elements of their defeat have long been being born."

Rip waved a hand. "But the poppers don't exist in these times. They have already become extinct."

Both tall aliens laughed. "Their extinction in the present has not caused them to accept it in the past," Jorli said. "They continue to try to arrange a future where they live on into these present times."

"And that would not be good," Eseffa added. "Not good at all."

Jorli made a motion of agreement. "They do not get along well with other peoples. To have them alive now would be detrimental to the freedom that this galaxy enjoys today."

Charlie frowned at that statement. "I think there are races alive today that would challenge that idea of freedom a little. Races that live within the Moth Hegemony, for instance."

Eseffa and Jorli both laughed. "The Moth are benevolent benefactors in comparison to the poppers," Eseffa said. "The Moth take a percentage from the worlds within their realm, but otherwise leave them be. And they protect all of them from aggression by the others. Despite the griping within the Moth realm, the quality of life is quite good. It is the same with the Brautigan Empire, also perceived as somewhat dictatorial. Life could always be better, but for now, peace reigns supreme within the Five Empires in existence today."

"The poppers would unravel all of that, for their own gain, were they to exist now," Jorli explained.

Rip shook his head at that. "But...neither the poppers nor your own kind exist today, am I right?"

"That's correct," Eseffa agreed. He smiled at Jorli, and then turned to look at Charlie. "We're--"

"Ghosts," Charlie supplied, smiling.

"Yes, that was the word. I'd misplaced it. Thank you, Charlie."

"Ghosts," Shannon repeated, giving a little shake of his head. "But if neither your kind nor the poppers exist now, isn't that proof that nothing will change that?"

"Not to the poppers," Jorli said. "You must remember that, though they only still exist in the past, they have the ability to project into their future. To our now. That is what we must counter. Certain events, changed in their future and your past, would allow them to live on past the date of their rightful extinction. That cannot be allowed to happen, for the safety of the present."

"You placed the probability discriminators on our Earth?" Shannon asked.

"Yes. They were placed there long ago, specifically to counter the probable arrival of the poppers to Earth, because it was discerned that your world would one day produce both Max's kind, and Charlie's kind -- your own kind -- who would both be part of the eventual defeat of the poppers."

Rip looked curiously at Max. "You're really not human like me?"

"I'm an elf," Max reminded. He patted Rip's arm. "But relax. We all came from the same ancestors. We're all human beings."

"And all targets of the poppers," Eseffa added.

"They seem to have found our world," Charlie supplied. "What about that?"

Both Madracorn looked amused. "They know of it, and they can get close enough to it to inspect it, but they can neither wholly arrive at it, nor effect change to it. As with all the worlds protected by the probability discriminators. At this point in time, they cannot cause harm to your world or your kind."

"But that could change?" Adrian asked.

"Yes, there is that possibility. The poppers are unable to defeat the probability discriminators with the technology at their disposal at the point in the past from which their latest forays into the future originate. What must not be allowed is for them to live beyond their natural extinction point, where they will then have time to learn to counter these devices. Your world would not be the only one in danger were that to happen."

"They seem to be attracted to your discriminator devices," Robin suggested. "At least the one in Alaska I'm told."

"That's entirely correct," Jorli agreed. "They are drawn to it, but cannot get close to it." He chuckled. "It must make them quite annoyed."

Kippy raised a hand. "You never told us any of this before."

The two Madracorn smiled. "It wasn't the proper time, Kip," Jorli explained.

Eseffa pointed at Max. "Tell him, Max. Things can only happen in their proper times."

Max nodded. "That's true, fellas. There's no predestination, but there are proper times where events merge in order for things to happen. In the course of normal time, these convergences happen naturally. Foreknowledge can be a dangerous thing. If applied too early, it can cause serious problems."

"Exactly." Eseffa held up his hands. "The time to bring you into this is now."

Rick made an incredulous sound. "But what do you expect us to do?"

Eseffa and Jorli looked delighted. "Why, what you do best!" Eseffa said. "Fix things!"

"Fix what?" Kippy asked. "We don't even know what's wrong that might need fixing!"

"Give us a clue!" Browbeat called.

Jorli pointed at Charlie, but then opened his hand and let it sweep around so that the motion encompassed the entire group. "No one can tell you what to do, friends. This is something you will figure out on your own, and follow to its conclusion."

Eseffa leaned forward. "I believe you told us before that your new enterprise was called Third Planet Inquiries?"

Charlie nodded, but had no idea where the alien was going with this.

"Then inquire!" Eseffa finished, smiling. "We have acted to bring you here together, as a group. Our part is done. Yours -- is just beginning."

Dick looked at Charlie, his eyes wide. "Where do we even start with something like this?"

Casper twisted in Ragal's arms, and grinned up at him. "At the beginning, right?"

Ragal blinked in surprise at that, but then managed a grin of his own. "I do believe you have something there, my friend."

Kippy turned to Charlie. "This all started when we visited Alaska."

Rick nodded. "Will Whitesaw. The probability discriminator. Maybe start there?"

Eseffa and Jorli both looked pleased. "We knew you would form a plan quickly. We wish you the best with it."

Charlie's eyebrows went up at that. "You don't know if we'll be successful?"

"You are not working alone," Jorli told them. "Others, from worlds across the spiral arm, and in many places in time, are working with you. There is room built into the plan for the failure of even many of these groups. At this point, we cannot be certain which groups will accomplish their parts, or which ones...will not."

Robin raised a hand. "What's the price to us for failure? What can we expect from these poppers if we don't get the best of them?"

The two alien's smiles faded, and a certain solemnity entered their expressions. "I would advise you not to let that happen," Eseffa said..

"They're power users," Adrian reminded quietly.

"And, so are you," Jorli replied. "And very capable ones, at that."

"Can these poppers all travel in time?" Max asked. "Even among my kind, it's a fairly scarce talent."

"No. Not all poppers can travel in time, anymore than can all of your own people. But the talent is less scarce among them than it is among your kind. You will be facing the enemy in numbers. And...some poppers have other talents, as well."

"What kind of talents?" Rick asked.

"Some you may know, others you don't," Eseffa replied vaguely. "I'm sorry, that's all we can tell you now."

"Just great," Ricky said. But then he smiled. "More targets for us to aim at, is the way I look at it!"

Everyone laughed, but Charlie could feel the strain in it. He looked around at the others. "No one has to do this that doesn't want to do it. Dick? You came along to help us with Native American legends. Not to face up to alien enemies."

The older man smiled. "Are you kidding? Shadow would never forgive me! Besides, I'm a Vet. Might as well use that armed forces training for something good, don't you think?"

Charlie laid a hand on the man's sleeve. "Good. Because my feeling is that we are all needed in this." Charlie looked around at the others. "Anyone else?"

"I'm going!" Browbeat said. "I'm not missing the fun!"

"Me, either," Casper agreed, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

"I think we're all going," Robin said quietly. "The safety of our planet may be at stake."

Rip Shannon sighed. "I'm in. Retirement was getting boring, anyway!"

There was a chorus of agreement. Eseffa and Jorli traded a glance, and then the two aliens smiled. "We have a good feeling about this," Eseffa told them.

Kippy sighed. "Is that anything like a premonition that we'll be victorious?"

The Madracorn's expression became neutral. "I'm afraid not. So far, it's just a good feeling."

Charlie nodded. "Then we'll take that." He turned to Robin. "Alaska?"

"Seems a good place to start to me."

"Kip? Adrian?"

Those two nodded. "Feels right to me," Adrian said.

"Me, too," Kippy agreed. He moved closer to Charlie and leaned up against his shoulder. "I think we need to talk to Will Whitesaw again."

Somehow, that felt right to Charlie, too. He smiled at Ragal. "Opinion?"

"We'll need to dress warmly," the tall alien said with a smile.

Charlie grinned, and finally turned to Max, and put a hand on the elf's shoulder. "Okay with you?"

"Okay with me. You're doing just fine, Charlie."

Charlie sighed, and waved everyone closer. "I'll drive, if you guys don't mind."

They gave a last wave to Eseffa and Jorli, who watched them with expressions that looked encouraging, but conveyed nothing else.

"We'll go back to the villa first," Charlie advised his friends, "and dress in something suitable for the trip. All that junk we've bought at the market and have stashed in the closets there may finally come in handy!"

Kippy squeezed his arm. "And then?"

Charlie smiled. "And then we'll just mosey on up north a ways, and see if we can find a little gold!"

 

* * * * * * *

 

"How do I look?" Rick asked, patting his clothing into place.

"You want my true opinion?" Adrian asked, grinning wolfishly at his boyfriend.

Rick's cheeks colored lightly, but his eyes said he loved the attention. "I mean, do I look like I'm ready for battle?"

Charlie and the others laughed at that. The clothing they had selected had mostly been made for them personally in the marketplace, and was designed to be worn in every sort of daily activity from business to dining to leisure. By human standards the outfits were fairly inconspicuous, being gray with back trim; but the quality of the clothing was obvious, and even presented as upscale. The boots that went with the suits were black, and were tolerant of different foot sizes, meaning they would accommodate themselves to the feet placed within them, at least to a reasonable extent. They were extremely light and comfortable, and Charlie had always felt that wearing them was like walking around in his socks at home.

Because Ragal and Casper lived in the villa, they had the best selection of clothing; but all the guys had bought similar outfits at one time or another. The material looked like a modern cotton weave back on Earth, but was vastly superior in its ability to protect the wearer. For one thing, the material was fireproof, and could deflect enough energy to protect the wearer from most handheld energy weapons. The material literally breathed, and allowed the body to cool excellently in hot conditions, while also having the ability to close up tight and retain warmth at temperatures even colder than could be found in the Antarctic back on Earth.

The best thing was that the clothing was also somewhat size-tolerant, meaning that outfits made for Rick and Charlie, the two tallest of the boys, also would fit themselves to Dick, Robin, and Rip without a problem, while outfits made for Kip or Adrian fit Max with just a little self-correction. Likewise the boots, giving the eight humans a uniform appearance that made them feel like they were part of something special. Ragal and Casper had similar clothing, sized and proportioned to fit them.

Browbeat decided to change his normal blue-and-golden-yellow-banded body to one of light gray with black bands, leaving his eyes their usual golden color, which gave him the slightly sinister appearance of a military drone. But after viewing himself in the mirror, he was delighted by his appearance, feeling he fit right in with his friends.

"Am I ready, or what?" he asked them, buzzing around the room happily.

Robin had looked himself over in the mirror, too, and faced Charlie with a smile now. "Give us some tubas, trumpets, and drums, and we'd look like a marching band!"

They all smiled at that. Charlie bent back into the closet and came out with a handful of gray baseball-type hats, and began tossing them around to the other humans. "Don't forget your headgear." Casper and Ragal had their own, already in place.

Robin caught his and shook it open, and placed it on his head at a jaunty angle. "Now I just need my baton!"

But he'd hardly finished speaking when the cap squirmed around on his head and leveled itself out, so that the brim protected his eyes. Robin flinched, and went rigid. "What the hell?"

Everyone laughed at that.

"Relax," Rick told him. "That hat knows what's best for you."

Robin's eyes looked up at the brim. "It's alive!"

"It's protection," Kippy clarified. "That hat can change its form to protect you from weapons, give you air to breathe when there isn't any, and protect you from radiation of all types."

"Does it do windows?" Robin asked with a smile, his humor returning.

"Not without a good tip," Kippy said flatly, with an air suggesting the joke was over.

Robin gave a faint sigh. "Kip, you better be careful, or you'll grow up to be a stick in the mud."

Rick grinned widely, seeming to find that funny, bringing forth a glare from Kip. But Charlie's boyfriend seemed to consider it, and then smiled. "I'm sorry. I'm just a little nervous."

"Aren't we all," Robin returned kindly.

Kippy smiled, and turned to Charlie. "Are we ready?"

"I sure am!" Browbeat called, zipping around the room again while humming happily to himself. "I'm ready to kick some blue butt!"

"You let him watch too many action videos," Ragal told Rick, with a twinkle in his eyes.

Rick shrugged. "He's an addict. It's not my fault."

"It's fun!" browbeat responded, swooping in to a landing on Kip's shoulder. "We didn't have anything like that on my planet!"

"This is real life now, sweetheart," Kip admonished, turning his head to smile at the flyer. "Remember that the bad guys can kick back!"

"I will. Besides, I'm shielded, remember?"

Robin pointed at him. "That hasn't been tested against any decent weaponry yet, and we prefer not to have that happen."

Browbeat sighed. "Okay. I'll be careful."

Casper reached up, and Kip leaned down a little so that the little alien was able to pat Browbeat's head. "You'd better be careful!"

The flyer's mood sobered. "I said I would. You, too!"

"Good advice for us all," Ragal decided. He looked around the villa's great room one more time. "I think we have everything, and are as ready as we can be."

Charlie turned to Rip Shannon, who had been listening to the back and forth without comment. "How about you?"

The man lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "I guess I'm ready. I'm a little out of practice, but old habits tend to return quickly."

"We're going to rely on you for your knowledge of the poppers."

"I"ll do the best that I can. But no one really knows them well. I'll be guessing less than you will, but not by much."

Charlie smiled, and turned to Dick Sternman. "You look good in uniform. Everything okay?"

The man nodded, but then leaned closer. "We aren't armed."

Charlie frowned at that. "We're relying on our skwish in this."

"I see that. But, considering the stakes, wouldn't at least a small pistol for each of us be a good idea?"

"Man has a point," Robin said. "Every little bit helps."

Kippy shook his head. "If we start shooting, they're going to shoot back."

"What if they shoot first?" Rick asked.

Charlie turned to Max. "What do you think?"

The elf winced. "I don't like guns. But...Dick may be right."

Charlie was surprised. "Oh. Well...what do you suggest?"

Max sighed. "That we go by that Friskan's weapon shop in the market before we go. A small sidearm for each of us, just something to add to our defense."

Charlie shook his head in amazement. "I'm a little surprised, actually."

Max smiled, a bit sadly, Charlie thought. "We're protecting Earth, remember?'

That point hit home. "Yeah." Charlie turned to the others. "We'll go by that arms place in the market before we go back home. But anyone that doesn't want to be armed, will not be required to be."

"Dick's right," Adrian said softly. "The stakes might be pretty high,

Kip seemed to fight with himself internally for a moment; but then sighed. "Yeah. Let's go. I'll drive."

He teleported them to the Friskan's arms shop. By then, Dick's argument had had time to seep in and be accepted. In the end, everyone but Browbeat left the arms dealer wearing a small but potent sidearm.

They'd been thinking of this as just another adventure. But the revelations by the Madracorn of what was at risk had been made clear. The present, and the future that followed.

Dress for the occasion, Charlie finally told himself. After all, they might be going off to war. And the Earth was the prize!