Marq laughed and said, “So, if I call you Besh, I guess you can call me,” Marq paused to think before he finished with, “Marq.”

The terrain was rocky in places; the shrubs began to thin. The morning sun was high and warm. Marq navigated the terrain with difficulty, and Besh reached out to steady him. He said, “My wife's name was not Annes Talia. It was Heaven Langley.”

“Okay,” replied Marq. “Let the secrets roll.”

Besh said, “I met her on Pendragon, and fell in love.”

“Wait,” said Marq. “I've heard of Pendragon.”

“Way up the arm,” said Besh, stopping on a rise and pointing northeast. “See that hill? Where we're going is just on the other side.”

“About time,” said Marq. “Say. Come to think of it, we forgot to bring a shovel. I hope you buried some lunch.”

“Not to worry,” said Besh, patting Marq's shoulder in a friendly manner. “You can sit in the shade while I do the digging. And, I'll make sure you get something to eat. Just one condition.”

“No,” whined Marq. “I hate conditions.”

Besh said, smiling, “You just have to reach the tree before I do.” Besh awaited no answer; he ran down the hill without looking back.

Marq gaped. “You see,” he called after his friend. “You're always doing this.”

When Marq arrived at the Tampa tree, Besh was sitting in the shade. Marq, whistled at the size of the tree, wheezed, and fell panting to the ground beside Besh.

“Rest,” said Besh, rising to his knees.

Besh had been sitting on a smooth flat stone. He pulled it over and freed a sharp rock exposed in the packed soil. With the rock, Besh dug into the black earth. A hole grew until Besh suddenly tossed the rock aside and dug with his hands. What he pulled from the hole was a synthetic pouch. He smiled at Marq and unsealed the pouch. Falling to a seated position, Besh shook out a corduroy vest.

“My favorite vest,” said Besh.

Marq complained, “So, we walked all this way for a vest.”

“Not just any vest,” replied Besh. He laid it in his lap and unzipped a pocket inside the back of the vest. He pulled from the pocket a multicolored shoulder bag. “My favorite bag,” he said, gracing it with a special smile.

Marq whined, “Rude! I mean, Besh! Why'd you make us do all this walking?”

“For this,” answered Besh. He pulled from the bag a black oval the size of a small rock. It fit neatly in the palm of his hand. He smiled at Marq and said, “My favorite way off this world.” He tapped a stud in the oval with a finger from his opposite hand. “You're going to like this. Count to twenty.”

Marq gaped in disbelief. Besh gestured for him to count by rolling one hand in the space between them. Marq, at last, started his count. “Three, four, five,” Besh joined in and they counted together. “Six, seven, eight.”

When they reached twenty, a wind began to blow. It moved the slender Tampa leaves and tall prairie grass. Marq searched the eyes of his friend. It was no ordinary wind. Marq had been on so many transports in the last four years, he would know an energy wind in his sleep. Besh stood and extended a hand to Marq, who stood with wide eyes. He knew a transport was near, but he couldn't see it. He watched his friend don the vest, and pull the strap of the colorful bag over his head. Then, Besh held a finger poised over the oval.

“This is the part you'll like,” said Besh. He tapped the stud and turned. Before their eyes, a large black shuttle appeared. Shinning in the sun, a door slid down the side of the ship. “Come on,” said Besh.

The interior, at first dim, brightened to reveal a richly upholstered shuttle. Besh sat behind controls, tapping here and there, Marq sat behind him in the foremost of five seats. The seat arms moved to join across Marq's waist as a restraining bar and padded shoulder restraints lowered in place.

Besh called, “Jenny.”

A female voice issued from shuttle speakers. “I am ready for your command.”

Besh responded in practiced fashion, “Stealth mode. Take us home.”

Jenny said, “Adopting stealth mode. Estimated time of arrival, fifteen minutes.”

Marq said, “Wow!” His eyes were wide with delight as Besh turned in his seat to face him. “You never told me you flew. Who's Jenny?”

Besh answered, “On board Intelligent Assistant. Yeah, I learned to fly from my parents. They were both commercial pilots. That was three lifetimes ago, in my first youth.”

“Now, you've lost me,” said Marq.

“I'll tell you a little story,” said Besh grinning, “but I'll tell it in reverse, so keep up. I woke up on the hospital world of Jja Suma, in the city of Jja. That's an alien world not many people are aware of. I was thirty years old. I was in their burn center. The Jjarans had to do a total reconstruction from the DNA up. It was a process that took a year to perform. I was so badly burned, they had to put in some DNA from the Ajzurbed Fire Worm. I sit before you a new man; the Jjarans saved my life. I went in old and came out young.”

“You're right,” said Marq. “I never heard of them. How old were you?”

Besh looked into his memories while stroking his chin. “I was,” he said and paused, “about fifty-four.”

“Whoa!” said Marq. “Getting up there.”

Besh said, “But, I looked like I was in my nineties.”

“Dude!” said Marq in disbelief.

Besh said, “I had been marooned on a radioactive asteroid. Like a small planet. Someone should have told me not to drink the water. I took on an alien entity known as the pirini. I was there for seven years before they rescued me. I was there because I chased a friend through the gate to that world. He killed himself and destroyed the gate, so I couldn't get back. I was forty-seven when that happened. Before that, I was a stowaway on ships that took me up and down the arm searching for my friend.”

Marq prompted, “The one who killed himself when you found him.”

Besh scratched behind his head, embarrassed. “Yeah,” he said. “We were both prisoners on Minor's Moon. We were in our twenties. He escaped first, and I followed. That was my first gate. I met Theesana and got her back to her planet. She was a Nashtatra. Another alien. We sort of hooked up.”

Marq covered his eyes with one hand, and said, “My head's spinning.”

Besh continued to the end. “We had a son. Owain. I came here to look for him.”

Hand over his eyes, Marq recapped. “So, you lived three lives, you were possessed by one alien, and had a son with another alien.”

“Pretty much,” said Besh.

Marq looked around his hand and asked, “So, where did you meet your wife, Annes, or Heaven?”

Besh said, “I knew her when I went through the gate and got marooned for seven years. I was old and she was young. Surprisingly, she was on the ship that rescued me. I was older and she was still young. We rescued the King and Queen of Pendragon. That's when I got burned. About a year later, it was Heaven who came to Jja Suma and checked me out of the hospital. We were the same age. She traveled with me back to the Nashtatra where I underwent a procedure to restore my memories. Theesana died, then we came here to look for Owain. That's when we got drafted.”

Marq slowly shook his head. “Man,” he said. “I thought I knew you.”

Besh said, “Now you know pretty much everything about me. You know my mission; I'm here to find Owain and give Heaven the burial she deserves. If you're up for it, that's what we'll be doing.”

“No, yeah, man,” Marq said. “I'm in.”

Besh inhaled deeply, then sighed. He turned in his seat to the controls, then turned back to Marq. “Nearly there,” he said. “I think you'll like my ship. It's a Warhorse Class Starhopper. My nephew, Al, gave it to me. He's the King of Pendragon.”

The hangar on the tail end of the Wanderlust was tight; just enough room for lights and a door. Side-stepping between the shuttle and the hangar wall, Besh and Marq squeezed into the expanse of the main ship. Marq's mouth dropped wide. The colors were black, gold, and blue. Enclosed ceiling lights shone brightly, and the air was brisk without being cold. There was a quiet hum to the big vessel that immediately impressed itself on one's senses. Besh stood watching Marq gape. He listened patiently while Marq turned in a circle.

“Wow!” said Marq. “Wow!”

Besh raised his arms left and right, pointing. “To the right is the master bedroom. It stays locked. To the left is storage. Mostly empty. We can set you up to sleep in there. There's a small latrine next to it.” He turned and said, “Or, you can sleep in the lounge. There are padded couches.” With Marq in tow and wowing, Besh walked into the lounge. It was a large circular room with padded seats and couches along the walls port and starboard. In the center was a table with eight attached chairs. Besh walked into the bow of the ship where a room stretched from port to starboard, its door open and its lights on.

Besh said, “This is maintenance. Let's go upstairs.”

Marq followed Besh up metal steps. The bow of the Wanderlust was filled with a sweeping view screen that commanded three stations. Center was the pilot station, right was the weapon station, and left was communications. Each station had a padded swivel seat. Besh turned his gaping friend around and pointed aft.

With an arm around Marq's shoulders, Besh said simply, “This is dining.” He called to the ship. “Jenny, prepare two number fours, and water.”

Jenny answered, “Ready in five.”

“Come and sit,” said Besh.

Seated, Marq looked into the eyes of a man who owned a ship. “Who knew!” he said.

Besh spread his arms as a smile brightened his face. He said, “Welcome to the Wanderlust.”

Marq, in wonder, spread his hands on the smooth surface of the large oval table. Then, he lowered his face, placing his forehead on the cool plain. “All this time,” he said from there. He raised his head and studied the friend he thought he knew. He asked, “Are you someone important?”

“No,” said Besh. “Not me, but the people I know are pretty cool.”

Marq, trying to wrap his head around his friend, asked, “And, you're the uncle of a King?”

“More of a God-uncle,” answered Besh. “I'm a good friend of his father, David. He used to be the King of Pendragon.”

“So, how does someone meet a King?” asked Marq. “That's what I want to know.”

Besh sat back and locked his fingers atop the table. He answered, “He wasn't always a King. When I met David, he was a retired Judge with a broken leg. I set his leg, and so began many years of a good friendship. I went with him when he bought Pendragon and started building his castle. Then, he and Elizabeth had their son, Albert. I was called back and officially made his uncle. He was a good kid, and grew up to be a fine man.”

A bell chimed; Besh rose and walked to a dispensing slot in the wall. The cover slid up with a hermetic hiss, Besh received two chilled glasses of water and returned to the table. He placed one before his friend seated himself, and sipped appreciatively. Marq took a sip, nodding, and set the glass down.

“Judges, Kings, and castles,” said Marq. “That sounds important to me. I'm cool. Right?”

Besh nodded and smiled. “Pretty cool,” he said.

“I knew it,” said Marq. “So, I'll be someone like the others. Maybe a Judge, but actually, I think I'd make a good King. Just need a planet. Maybe, after we find your son, we can go to Pendragon. The King can adopt me; I'd make a good heir.”

Jenny said, “Dinner is served. Roast beef, gravy, potato, salad, and roll.”