The Worlds of the Sheaf

The Bescot - Part 4

     On the bridge of the Jules Verne, Lirenna watched the image of the silver ship in the scrying mirror as it receded and shrank, and she mentally wished her husband a safe voyage and a safe return.

     Captain Strong rose from his chair and stretched, easing the tension out of his muscles. “Nothing’s going to happen for a while,” he said. “I leave the bridge in your capable hands. Make sure one of you is wearing a Helm of Farsensing at all times. I’m not expecting any more missiles so long as we wait here and do nothing, but best to be prepared, and keep an eye on the…”

     His voice broke off as he looked up at the object he’d been about to refer to. The Orb of Skydeath Detection, also known as the fishtank, fastened to the wall above the scrying mirror. The little silver fish that normally drifted around inside it were all drifting slowly towards one side of the spherical bowl. The side facing the planet they’d come to explore. The Captain swore. “Skydeath!” he cried. “Orbmaster, take us back through the portal at once!”

     Lirenna was shocked rigid, remembering Gunther Fugh, who'd been killed by skydeath and who might have received the fatal exposure in the very same chair she was occupying now, but then her training took over and her voice sounded almost normal as she spoke the words to activate the dormant Farspeaking spells. "Skydeath warning," she said slowly and calmly, her sweet, musical voice giving no indication of her fear. The way her heart was hammering in her chest. "Skydeath warning. Everyone report to the hanger deck for teleportation back to Tharia. Repeat, skydeath warning. All hands report to the hanger deck.”

     “That includes you,” said Strong, pointing to the door. “Everyone out! Get to the hanger deck!”

     Lirenna hesitated, though, thinking of Thomas. Was the felisian ship experiencing skydeath as well? They didn’t have a fishtank! Did the silver ship have its own way of detecting skydeath? “Tom!” she cried, desperately hoping the bridge’s permanent Farspeaking spells would let her speak to someone on another ship. “Tom! Can you hear me? There's skydeath in the ship! We're heading back to our own universe!”

     “Lenny!” came Thomas’s voice in her head. “Are you alright?”

     “Skydeath!” repeated the demi shae. “Get back here, right away! Teleport back to this ship! We have to go back!”

     She sensed Thomas repeating her warning to the others on the silver ship, but the Jules Verne was already moving and the view In the scrying mirror was suddenly tinged with crimson as they entered the portal.

     “No!” she cried. “We can’t leave them!”

     “There’s no time,” replied the Captain as the other members of the bridge crew hurried out, glancing anxiously back at her as they did so. “When skydeath hits, you’ve got seconds.”

     “They only need a couple of seconds…”

    “They’ll be fine. Their ship wasn’t attacked last time…”

     “You don’t know that!” She sensed the Farspeaking link breaking as they left the portal, though. She knew that teleporting had become impossible at the same moment, and she gave a cry of despair. She stared at the scrying mirror, where the silver ship was still visible through the portal, getting smaller as it sped away, and she gasped as she noticed something else. Something that had to be connected.

     The planet they’d come to explore, just a bright point of light at this distance, had become brighter and had changed colour, becoming a horrid, evil green. She only saw it for a moment, and then it disappeared, the starfield visible through the portal changing as it cycled on to another universe. They had passed through in the very nick of time!