Escaping Relativity
Chapter 18

Charlie actually blushed. She’d been caught kissing a boy like some horny teenager. Oh well; at least the kid was polite enough to pretend he hadn’t seen anything, whether he had or not. She stood slowly rubbing the top and bottom of her lips feeling the tingle of his mouth as though it were still on hers. Then she moved to one of the chairs farther behind them. The deck, or command, of this ship looked like it was something out of a movie. it was a large half moon with desks and chairs every so many feet apart. Every chair had its own...nothing. Charlie looked harder at the tabletop in front of her, and as she moved over the desk, a screen shot up. It was transparent in nature, but the things on it looked solid enough to be touched. It was a star map of some kind. Reaching up she wanted to try to move one of the planets.

“Woah, woah, Charlie. Um, don’t touch that. You’re in the navigation seat. Every time you touch a planet, you’ll change our course, we’re already set for a specific destination, and you have a crazy look in your eye, so I figured I should stop you,” Xander said, standing next to his Captain’s Chair.

“I was wondering what would happen if I moved one of the planets to another place,” Charlie mused.

“Well, normally, nothing, they move right back, but you being a Time Keeper, I wouldn’t want us to find out. Not yet,” Xander said, his voice betraying his face. The idea intrigued him.

“Wait, if the navigation is set already, where are we going?” Lennie piped up.

“To Sojo, to get my brother,” Xander said, his voice wary this time, like he was uncertain.

“But you have four terms, or three and a half left. We don’t know how much longer Rolara has, and you promised you would help me.”

“Yes, I did, but we have a better chance of getting her back if we have Brick too. You don’t know the ability he has. We could go up against those slavers just the three of us, but I can’t guarantee that we’ll live. If we have Brick, I’d guarantee anything,” Xander said, the impassioned plea for his brother plain for Charlie to see, but she had been trained to see such things.

“Hey, guys, wait...what if you use me?”

“What?” Both of them turning to look at her.

“I know I’ve got to get cleaned up some, but what if you use me? We can pull up to wherever they park next, and if they’re anything like the scumbag sex traffickers we have on Earth, they won’t waste time questioning their lucky day at getting a hold of me. I’ll find her, and you bust in while I’m busting out, or I may even get the chance to bust out, with her, by myself.” Charlie watched their thoughts chase across their faces like movies on fast-forward.

Their expressions went from confusion to anger to thoughtful to considering, and when she thought they were going to yell at her and continue in their own argument, Xander just looked at her.

“What happens if you get in and can’t get out?” Lennie asked, fear registering in his young voice.

Walking toward him, she bent down on one knee, moving the floppy red hair off of his forehead, Charlie began to talk to the boy he was as the man he wanted to be.

“Well, first off, I have to tell you, that where I come from I’m very well trained, and specialize in getting key and important people back from the ones who took them. It’s a calling very close to my heart. I cannot only keep her safe, I can and will kill anyone who tries to take her. Do you understand what I’m telling you?” she asked.

When he nodded his head and looked at the ground, Charlie lifted up his head with the side of her hand.

“Look me in the eyes, get past their crazy color, and tell me what you see. Do you believe me when I tell you that I will do anything to save her?” Lennie looked up at her, staring hard into Charlie’s strange eyes, and slowly he nodded again, apparently finding what he’d missed the first time.

“Besides, won’t you two be listening to every word, and come save me and Rolara if something goes wrong?”

A huge smile broke out over Lennie’s face and his features changed him in an instant. He threw his arms around Charlie’s neck, Charlie feeling a tear move from his face to hers. Then just as quickly, he pushed away from her, sniffling softly and yelled back at them as he walked into the back of the large craft, “I’ll go get everything ready. We’ll need to reprogram your listening devices, and make sure everything is working properly.”

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