CHAPTER FOUR

“Charlie, and Mr. Chambers, had quite a history. They had been rivals for eons. Charlie had been granted one wish by a sorcerer on a distant planet in the La Magie system. Lore does not tell who granted this wish, or how Charlie managed to receive it, Charlie, being the swindler that she was, managed to get two wishes out of the deal, The first was she was to be immortal, and the second was to be given the technology, to track down Mr., Chambers.

Confident she now had what she needed to defeat Chambers; she went about formulating a plan. Having been Granted immortality, she was in no big rush. She had spent many years planning to get rid of him, but now she wanted to take his time and soak in the victory. She also wanted to make sure his defeat was on such a grand scale that her name would be talked about and feared forever,

As she made her plans and gather different pieces, she would at times get distracted by her newly acquire power and go off on a few other “disrupted” adventures. In a small way, she was hoping to draw Mr. Chambers out of hiding.

She was dumbfounded at how instantaneously everything she disrupted, was miraculously restored. She only managed to get a glimpse of a trail that might lead  to her target.

“I have no idea where that ‘Magic Man’ acquired the technology to undo all my chaos, but I intend to put an end to his heroics and him!” She grumbled.

She glanced at the time,

“How long before those other ships arrive?” She growled.

“The Captain just signaled us. They have run into a Sleeving storm that has slowed their progress down considerably. He will update us when they have cleared the storm.”

Charlie slammed her fist down on the arm of her chair.

“You tell that Captain that I do not care what kind of damage they will take by speeding through that storm, it will be nothing compared to the damage I will do to their ships if they are late!” Charlie snarled,

She went over and poured herself a drink.

“You may have bought a bit of time, my clever enemy, but it will only prolong your misery,” she mumbled.

She flipped a switch to change the communication channel.

“Wally! Have you anything to report yet?!”

“We are in range for me to run some test. My research shows that…”

“I did not want or need a science lesson, I want facts!” Charlie shouted.

Wally jumped out of his chair because of the tone and volume of Charlie’s voice. It took him a few seconds to gather his thoughts.

“All the data that I can gather will be sent directly to both your computer and the ship’s computer. The ship’s computer can then decipher what it needs to arm and aim it’s weapons system.” Wally answered, hoping that would be enough.

There was a long pause, but Charlie finally replied,

“Good, the sooner the better.”

When Wally was sure the communication channel was off, he felt relieved.

“Okay, let me see what needs to be done next.”

Wally continued to mutter to himself as he started running his test. The room that he was operating in was too small for him. He was a Repoid. A rare species that was a cross between a humanoid and a dragon. He was mostly humanoid, but extremely large, and had a three-foot tail. The other part of the problem was Charlie’s obsession with finding Chambers, caused him to keep adding equipment that he felt Wally needed to do his job. Wally might have been able to start his test earlier, but he had to move some of the unnecessary equipment into a storage area so he could get to the ones that were needed. He checked the time.

“It will be another hour before I can get the strongest signal, I sure hope this works, I am sure Charlie will not allow me much more time.” Wally mumbled, as he finished a few tweaks to his program. 

The Captain and her first mate Rita were busy with what would be their next course of action in line with Charlie’s plan. Most of those that made up the crew were Kline. This species for eons had extremely little contact with any other species. Their planet had everything more resources than all of their closets neighboring planets combined. The technology that they developed surpassed all others. Afraid that other species might try to steal and or otherwise misuse what they had developed, the Kline built an impregnable defense system. After a time however, many became curious of what might be out in space that could further in rich their lives. The ruling order of the day ordered ships to be built that could reach far into deep space. Many things were indeed learned from some others they encountered. Charlie’s species was one that fascinated the Kline. She too had been a member of a highly intelligent species that once occupied many planets. When a member of the Kline had first contact with her, she was on the planet Duron. She was trying to hire a fleet of ships to take on a mission that she would not give the details on.

“Captain, our fleet has been rendered unable to move," came a call from the bridge,

The Captain and first mate rushed to the bridge. After every diagnostic that could think of was run, they still had no clue what was going on.

“I want three things to be done in this order:

1)    Make sure that Charlie does find out about our current situation.

2)    Do an immediate lockdown of all those robotic warriors that Charlie has in our storage bays, and

3)    I want a meeting of all senior officers in my planning room in five minutes.”

The Captain left the bridge for the planning room. Five minutes later the discussions began. Several offered on ideas on what might have cause the fleet to have stopped, but the first officer Rita, explain that she and the Captain had already ruled out most of the suggestions they made. After an extended period of silence, the youngest officer asked for permission to speak.

“I don’t see why not, no one else seems to have any answers,” the Captain said.

“I know this will sound most illogical, however seeing as we cannot seem to come up with a logical answer…”

“Will you just get on with it?” the Captain stated,

“Yes, well I have been looking into the background of why Charlie is after this Mr. Chambers. It seems that this Mr. Chambers is infamous in ancient earth folk lore.”

“Folk lore?” The Captain asked.

“Yes Sir, Human folk lore speaks of a time before the most primitive of technology, by human standards was developed. These tails (as humans call them) speak of many different creatures that can use a phenomenon called magic.”

“Captain, I have heard that through out human history, anything that humans were not able to explain scientifically or otherwise, they labeled as magic.” Rita inserted.

“That sounds typical of a lot of species,” The Captain said off handedly.

“Yes Sir, which is why Charlie is so interested in discovering what the source is of this Mr. Chambers ‘magic.’”

“Are you asserting that this Mr. Chambers is using a ‘magic’ to freeze our fleet out here in space?” The Captain asked.

“Sir, I am sure that there is a logical scientific answer in every situation, I will just need more time to study what sort of ‘magic spell’ was used, and how to overcome it.” The young officer replied.

The Captain rose to his feet.

“I do not want to have to explain to Charlie, that the one he has hired us to take him to, has placed a ‘spell’ on this ship! I need everyone to keep digging and find some answers! Dismissed!”

Wally busily worked at his station trying to get a fix on the readings he had gotten when they were out further in space. For an instant, one of his pieces of equipment recorded a spike.

“Yes, finally…No, no, that is not long enough,” he mumbled as he did everything, he could lengthen the recording time.

“I can not pin point the origan with that short of a signal!”

Wally slumped in his chair.

“Charlie will demand an exact location. Okay, calm down.” Wally told himself.

“Okay Mr. Chambers, just give me a few more signals, and a little bit longer of a send time, and maybe my family and I will live to see another day.”

Wally continued to mumble as he tried to even further fine tune his instruments. He also started to analyze the information that his program had kicked out.

“Something about this looks familiar,”

He began to dig deeper and piece together other random bits that his program had rejected.

“This has to be some kind of technology that I have never seen before. This is why the program is rejecting it. It considers it illogical; it doesn’t fit any of the set parameters, thus it rejects it.”

He was about to study it a little further when he heard the sound of his observation computer kick on.

“Oh, please be long enough this time,” he mumbled as he rushed over to it.

The signal was indeed longer this time, but it did not yield any more information about his, the signals location.

“I am so dead! Charlie will never believe that Chamber’s technology is beyond anything any of us have. No, she will say it is I and my equipment that has failed her for the last time.”

He sat there in self pity for a bit. He did, however, notice that the computer had again reject some of the data it collected.

“Captain, is the rest of the fleet on there way yet? Have you heard anything at all from them?” Charlie yelled across the communication channel.

The Captain thought a moment before he answered. The last thing he needed was Charlie asking about their status.

“We have heard nothing, all attempts to reach them have failed. It could be if they are in a situation of having engine problems, it could be effecting their communications as well,” the Captain replied.

“Do not make excuses for those idiots! Include in your next message, one from me that say, ‘If you are not here in two days, I will cancel all your payments!”' Charlie said in an angry tone and shut down her communication.

Charlie threw several nearby objects against the wall, and let out a scream,

“You just wait Mr. Chambers; I will get even with you if it is the last thing I do!”

She poured herself a drink and opened her communication channel.

“Wally, what kind of progress have you made?”

Wally knew he had to choose his words carefully. He swallowed deeply.

“Moving the ship in closer has helped, yet there is still a lot of interference I am having to try to compensate for.”

He paused slightly to see if he would be allowed to continue. When no screams came across, he proceeded.

“The signal is still only .00006 mill-sec. long. Thus, I am…”

“EXCUSES! Everyone is full of them! Three days Wally, three days, then you will slowly start to be family-less, you got that?!”

Charlie slammed off her device.

Wally went into full panic mode. He knew three days was not going to be enough time.

“Charlie is no scientist, yet she was no fool either. If I cannot make enough real progress in those three days, I am going to have to figure out a way to fool her that I am.” 

He continued to mumble as he tried to get back to work.