Back in Time Ch. 13

She shook her head, "I'm sorry. I just got carried away. Must be from the shock and all this stress from the recent days!"

He nodded. "Thank you for sharing this with me. I appreciate how you feel, like me, the pain of being helpless to change the status quo and feel anger for being so."

She was starting to like this guy despite his many faults. 'A mind so similar to my own...'

"But I don't think that the experiment of democracy you are running now will succeed for long. Sooner or later you will have war similar to what we have with the Vorlakians..." added Lugnar, and for a long moment Isabel stared at him, wondering if mind reading wasn't part of his talents too.

Hasdiel carefully touched her shoulder and she realized she had completely forgotten about him while making her little speech.

He headed to the cave, and she and Lugnar followed him. The entrance to the cave was now free and she could see the glistening surface of the scout ship under the sun's rays. The ship was surprisingly clean after all these years and when they approached the lights turned on.

Isabel was impressed, 'just imagine what will happen with the battery of your car after not driving it for three years...'

The ship looked like something straight from Star Wars. Isabel felt almost mesmerized by the silver surface. Hasdiel touched the polished metal and a hatch opened revealing a ramp and the cargo chamber of the ship. She could see six seats in two rows before the lit front window panel.

Hasdiel climbed up and they followed him.

He opened another hidden space just by touching it and began giving each of them a package. "These are the spare uniforms." He looked apologetically at her. "We don't have proper clothes for a Lady."

"It's okay. I'll wear those," Isabel assured him and then realized that Lugnar had discarded his leather pants and was standing naked next to her.

'Oh my!' she thought, feasting her eyes on the Darian Lord. She knew that she was blushing when she moved her eyes from the remarkable naked male form and headed for the outside. And she knew that Lugnar was smirking, but if she stayed here a minute longer she would jump him.

When she was outside in the lit cave Isabel composed herself. After several deep breaths she stripped off her Healer's garments and boots and carefully untied the leather bands of her necklace. Then she unfolded the package Hasdiel had given her and saw that it consisted of a pair of boots and something that resembled a long-sleeved black jumpsuit. There were no undergarments. She sniffed the cloth and it smelled clean so she put on the jumpsuit and pulled it up, finding the zipper and then putting on the boots. The leather, or whatever they were made from, adjusted around her leg.

"Nano particles in this material?' she wondered. The jumpsuit also adjusted along the curves of her body, and she was surprised when something like a bra cups formed under her breasts and raised them. 'I think I love Darian clothes!'

She finger-combed her hair and folded her leather garments and jewels in the package which wrapped automatically around them, and finally calmed down, she returned back to the ship.

Hasdiel and Lugnar were both dressed in the new black uniforms, and for a moment they looked very similar to the soldiers she had seen in the night when her mates were captured. Only the mirror helmets were missing but Isabel suspected that they were somewhere around.

Lugnar gave her an approving look and Isabel could practically feel his lust, but she clung firmly to her carefully built cool demeanor. He was on the co-pilot seat while Hasdiel was wearing something that must have been the pilot's helmet. He nodded to her, "The ship is ready to fly, my Lady Isabel."

She sat on the seat behind Lugnar and the safety belt automatically appeared around her body. She was getting used to this wonderful technology.

"Then Hasdiel, fly straight to the south mines!"

The ship lifted off the ground in a fluid move; she couldn't even hear the engine. Then they flew out of the cave and in a blink of an eye they were above the forest they had walked days across.

Lugnar entered a series of codes in something that looked like a crystal ball. Isabel knew what he was doing just because the hologram above the ball was showing constantly changing symbols, but also because she could sense his mind.

The hologram showed how the satellite accepted their flight and then showed the course to their destination. Isabel could recognize anywhere the continental outlines of South Africa.

What next caught her attention was the symbol she knew from Hasdiel as number fifteen. 'We will be there after fifteen hours?' she wondered, but she doubted that this ship was like the airplanes she knew. It was much faster, and looking through the front panel she realized that they had just crossed the Alps or the Ice Mountains she knew, and she could see in the distance the sparks of the Mediterranean Sea.

'More like fifteen minutes!'

She leaned back on the seat and tried to focus on her task at hand. They had just passed through a very important step in their plan.

'Bren, Merk, I am coming!'