Spears of Uu'kata

Chapter 62 - A New Spear

Charlotte smiled, leaning back against Shodara, whose arms encircled her, one hand gently caressing her belly.

The huge hearth in the throne room blazed and popped while the winds outside the castle howled. Laughter and conversation echoed off the high ceiling and massive pillars and for the first time in history, humans, Uu'k'asht, Tillith, and Koli sat in the same room, and no one was trying to kill anyone.

Well, specifically, no humans were trying to kill anyone. Apparently, the other three species of aliens had been getting along for a long time.

Charlotte glanced aside at Ahnekk, who sat with Gondroll in a very similar position to how she and Shodara lounged. Echnar spoke with Vasquez who absently held Emiko's hand. Still pale from her injury, she was asleep on one of the many cushions that had been laid around the giant fur rug before the fireplace.

Annie was wearing her new shoes, as well as a few necklaces and a belt that had been gifted to her by other Nine Vipers. She was drunk, but not trashed. Charlotte was pretty sure Chelling had watered down her wine with juice.

Bishop was cuddling with Jalapeno and grinning as the cat-like creature licked his head.

The party had calmed down a bit and the only people remaining were her shelen, most of the human mech pilots, Chelling, Annie, the Captain of the Shadow Slicer, and a few of his crew. To her surprise, Thenderek had joined them and was sipping a glass of wine where she lounged on a huge pillow, watching the drunk humans with open curiosity and fascination.

"Ok, I get the recording. Any of us can do that with a terminal. The editing could be done on a terminal too, though it's likely to be for shit. What I wanna know is how the hell you plan to, you know, get it out there," Ben was saying to Vas.

Ben didn't look great. He was pale, his cheeks hollow. Not only were his eyes red, there were dark circles around them. She'd also noticed a tremor on his hands.

Charlotte sighed.

Binding drugs, when administered by a mech, contained an addiction blocker. Without it, the highly addictive cocktail was hard to come down from and even harder to flush out. Ben had some hard days ahead of him.

"Look, the transport shuttle is banged up but the systems should still work. Between Annie and I, we should be able to rig up something strong enough to get the signal out."

"Naw," Annie said, shaking her head. "We're way too far and that transport isn't likely to get anything off planet. Best thing you could do is to bring a news crew here. You know, a reporter would murder to get a story like this."

Charlotte frowned. She was onto something. And even more sober than she'd thought she was. Which was a pleasant surprise.

"We need to consider realistic scenarios here, not wishful thinking," Ben said dismissively.

Charlotte was about to say something about him acting like an ass, but Annie wasn't a timid kitten.

"How the fuck is it wishful thinking when she can teleport and any of them can open magical gateways across space and time?" Annie defensively blurted.

Ben opened his mouth to retort but Annie put her hand up, palm facing him, and said, "You, shut the fuck up. I'm going to realistically have a conversation with the magic lady."

Charlotte didn't miss the dangerous glare Chelling was aiming at Ben. Vas seemed to notice it too, and tensed.

"So, how does it work? Can you just bamf anywhere you want, or does it have to be somewhere you've physically been before?" Annie asked.