After a quick trip back to Tharia's universe to restock with provisions and teleport copies of the felisian maps back to Tharia, the Jules Verne set out once more, this time to begin their search for the Shipbuilders in earnest.
They were now experienced and proficient in the handling of the ship and navigating the immensities of empty space, and after their visit to the felisian homeworld they had a good idea of what they could expect in the universes they would be visiting. They would always emerge in the vicinity of a bright star, it seemed. That star would almost always have planets circling it, and those planets would almost all be empty and barren.
At first they would be visiting worlds that the felisians had visited before them, to check the accuracy of their reports and investigate the ruins of dead civilisations that sounded as though they might be the one they were looking for, but if none of them panned out they would sooner or later have to visit universes that the felisians had never explored. The search for living worlds among all the dead ones would be a long, slow process and they were all resigned to a mission that was likely to stretch on for years ahead. Almost everyone except Saturn and Captain Strong were expecting their tours of duty to end without their having found anything of importance, therefore, leaving the ship to continue its mission with a new crew. Only the old wizard and the Captain were dead set on staying with the ship for as long as it took. The rest of their lives if necessary.
"Saturn's not going to like seeing you leave," Tassley told Thomas as the two of them mixed spell components in the ship's laboratory. "Not so long as you're the only one who can sense Rossemian magic."
"He'll just have to get used to it," replied Thomas without looking up. "I'm not leaving Derry without a father. He'll be okay for a couple of years, back home with his grandfather. Dalron won't want me getting in the way of his shayen education in any case, but I don't want him forgetting all about me. I'll stay with the ship for a couple of years, but then I'm off home. Back to Haven."
He realised he was getting quite homesick for that little cottage, their home for the twenty best years of his life. The wanderlust, the insatiable curiosity that had slowly driven him to distraction, cooped up in that small valley while the whole wide world lay unexplored outside, had now largely been satisfied and he was feeling ready to settle back to the comfortable home life again.
Lirenna, having read this in his mind, was delighted, the only sadness being that they would have to leave their dwelling tree behind. If Thomas was successful in his attempts to recreate Tak's vivomancy spells, though, and they were able to breed a gall wasp that could survive in a cold climate, then they could grow their own dwelling tree back in Haven! Thomas would never live to see it, of course, as it took the wasp larvae almost a hundred years to create a tree large enough to begin hollowing out, but Lirenna and Derrin would have it to remember him by.
"I've already told Saturn," continued Thomas, "and I've told him I'm willing to come back aboard if they find anything they think might be to do with the Shipbuilders. To lend my magic sense to the mission. It would only be for a few weeks at a time, though. Once I go home, I won't be leaving on any more long adventures. No more trips to the Southern Continent, or back in time to old Agglemon. I'm not as young as I used to be. My adventuring days will soon be behind me."
"What about when Derry goes back to the University?" asked Tassley. "Will you go back with him?"
There was an undercurrent to her question that Thomas recognised and that made him smile fondly. She still hadn't quite having given up the idea of getting him into bed. From the gossip that circulated around the University, Thomas was pretty sure that very few people had managed to resist her as long as he had. It wasn't just a pleasant bit of bedroom exercise she wanted any more. It had become personal.
Thomas had caught her looking searchingly into mirrors just recently, as if searching her face for lines around her eyes and grey threads lurking amongst her blonde locks. Also, she seemed to be growing reluctant to cast high level spells, probably because of the ageing affect they were known to have. Thomas suspected that she was feeling the need to prove to herself that she was still as beautiful as she'd ever been, and was consequently flirting with the men like never before, risking the wrath of Saturn if he found out. It was Thomas who was the acid test, though. If she could lure him into her bed where she'd always failed before, and with his beautiful wife to add to the challenge, then she'd know.
That would be the reason she was wearing her lab coat loose, therefore, with a scandalously revealing dress underneath, and why she kept leaning forward to give him the best view she could of her plunging neckline.
Thomas tried to give no sign of noticing, though, and merely shrugged in reply to her question. "Now that the interference affecting long range magic is dissipating, I might be able to teleport directly between Lexandria and Haven before long. We'll be able to pop over to visit him now and again. I don't know. Some project might take my interest, or I might need to learn some new spell, something like that, but I don't really think I'll be spending any great length of time in the University. Not even when I retire. I'll probably retire in Haven."
Tassley nodded, looking disappointed. "I'll probably be going home before long too," she said. "I never had any intention of spending the rest of her life in the University. I'd probably have gone home already if the Rossem project hadn't come along." She glanced around at the small and cramped laboratory. "This has all been fascinating, a great adventure, but I'm a city wizard. I miss all the friends I had back there. I want to see them again."
She leaned closer to him, allowing the alluring scent of her perfume to wash over him. Some loose strands of hair fell across her eyes in a way that Thomas would have found incredibly arousing if Lirenna hadn't spoiled him for all other women. He had no doubt that it was a deliberate, well practised move on her part.
"Have you ever thought of marrying?" he asked, looking up at her. "Settling down, raising a family of your own?"
She shook her head and grinned, recognising the question for what it was. He was telling her that he wasn't going to sleep with her, so stop wasting your efforts. "Not my kind of life," she said. "Dirty, smelly kids. Some oaf of a man who thinks he owns me. No, I like my life just the way it is. I suppose if I met the right man, but he'd have to be something special. Really special."
"Really special people do exist," pointed out Thomas. "I married one."
"Maybe," conceded the girl, "but I haven't met one yet. Who knows. Maybe one day, mm?"
Thomas chuckled, and the two of them looked at each other, sharing a moment of pleasant friendship. An intimacy that many married couples had never been lucky enough to enjoy. Then they returned to their work, stirring their mixing bowls with renewed energy.
☆☆☆
"Elder Clordus," said Captain Strong, bowing politely. "Welcome aboard the Jules Verne."
The felisian elder bowed in return. "I am pleased to be here," he said. "My presence is a token of the genuine and heartfelt remorse we feel for the harm we have done you, and of the new spirit of peace and co-operation we will build between us."
"There's no need to keep apologising for the past," said Strong, however. "The information you've given us will more than make up for the time you've cost us. We are in your debt."
The elder bowed again, the pleasure and relief clear to see on his sagging, grey face. Clordus was the newest addition to the ship's crew, his high position in felisian society a measure of their desperation to assure the Tharians of their honest desire to atone for the sabotage incidents. The Tharians, however, were equally eager to reassure the felisians that they were holding no bad feelings, as it served nobody any good to hold a grudge, and the freely given co-operation of the felisians could be extremely useful to them. Clordus had been made a full and equal member of the bridge crew, therefore, replacing Haskar, who had been returned to his homeworld along with the younger, female saboteur.
"This ship you have created is truly remarkable," said Clordus, gazing around in wonder. "It is a tribute to your race, and even more so considering the opposition we presented. Our agents have sent back long and detailed reports of your world and your various nations and kingdoms, but we still managed to underestimate you. You are remarkable people, Captain."
"Very kind of you to say so," replied Strong, but he was thinking agents. He still calls them agents, not spies. And if there should be more trouble between us, you can bet they won't underestimate us again. "May I interest you in a tour?" he asked. "This is a small ship, but we find we still need some help at first finding where everything is."
"I would enjoy that very much."
Strong nodded, and led the way inwards along the corridor, towards the lounge and bar.
"Which world will we be going to first?" asked the felisian elder some time later as they climbed the steps up from the hanger deck, the tour completed. "We understand that you want to visit worlds that we have visited before you, no doubt to ensure that our information is correct. We take no offence over that, I assure you."
"We are confident that you have no desire to deceive us," replied Strong, smiling pleasantly. "However, some of the worlds you explored had features that interest us. The ruins of ancient civilisations that you didn't explore, having no interest in them. Any of those civilisations might be the one we're looking for. We want to rule them out before going further abroad. Tell me, is there anything your survey teams noticed about those worlds that isn't in the reports? Perhaps something thought too trivial to mention?"
"Not that I know of. I could contact the individuals who visited those worlds and put the question to them. Perhaps you could tell me which worlds, in particular, you're interested in."
"I'll do so. We've decided to adopt your system of notation for locating and identifying worlds. It's logical and easy to understand, and avoids any need to translate.”
The felisians had designated Tharia’s universe as Universe Zero, because it was the hub of the sheaf of universes accessible through the portal. The felisian universe was Universe One, and the others were numbered in the order in which the portal opened into them, all the way up to Universe 493. Planets in those universes were then numbered according to their distance from the local star. The planet Veglia, therefore, was planet one dash two.
Saturn was already there when they reached the bridge, as were Tana Antallan and Prup Chull, but the chair reserved for one of the ship's priests was still empty. Strong knew that Timothy Birch was supposed to be on bridge duty at the moment, Daleen Verdantia, the cleric of Ramthara, having just returned to her quarters. Strong was annoyed at both of them. Birch for being late and Verdentia for not having waited for him, but no sooner had he taken his seat than the young cleric of Caroli, the youngest member of the bridge crew, appeared in the doorway, looking ashamed and out of breath.
"Sorry," he panted. "I was meditating. Taking the opportunity while we're still in our own universe to commune with Caroli, and I lost track of time." He plopped himself in his own seat, glancing between Strong and Saturn anxiously, but neither wanted to reprimand him in front of the felisian. The dressing down would wait until later, therefore, and they limited themselves to hard glares for the time being, making the young cleric wilt nervously.
"We’re waiting for Universe Eighty One to cycle in,” said Saturn, indicating the scrying mirror that was filled with the ghostly red glow of the transdimensional portal. "I'm assuming there have been no changes of plan and that that remains our current destination."
"It does," replied Strong, listening hard for any trace of sarcasm or contempt in the wizard's voice. He heard none, though, and wondered whether that meant he'd resigned himself to a completely subservient role in the mission. He laughed inwardly. That'll be the day! If he's not fighting me now, it's because he wants to go to the same world I do. He agrees with me that it's the logical next step.
“How much longer?” he asked.
“Any moment now,” replied the wizard. “It’s the next universe to cycle in. There, there it is now.” In the scrying mirror the starfield visible through the portal had just changed, as fast as a blink. “We have just under twelve minutes until the next universe cycles in.”
“Then let’s not waste any time,” said the Captain. "Orbmaster, take us in."
In the orb room above them, the shae on duty gave the necessary commands to the Orb of Propulsion, and the portal began to grow in the scrying mirror. At least this should be an easy, uneventful visit, the Captain thought gratefully. Nothing but some old ruins to explore. It'll be a holiday.
He relaxed in his chair and allowed his mind to drift back to his wife, waiting for him back in Tara with their three children. It had been a long time since he'd last seen them. He had some shore leave coming. If there were no problems on eighty one dash five maybe he could pop home for a few days. Leave the ship to make do without him for a while. He smiled with pleasure at the thought.