The Saga of Silver Wolf - Chapter 3

Chapter Three – The Plot Thickens

         I was on the bridge and had been for several hours, it was a really dull shift. The Captain was holding us steady; he decided not to go to the co-ordinates we had retrieved from the data-corder; “What’s the point in chasing after a crew that disappeared a thousand years ago?” he had said. He was right, the crew were long gone, several generations had passed and they were dead, lets face it, who lives for a thousand years? Right?

         Like I was saying, it was boring, the scientists were doing their sciency-thing-a-ma-jig and the engineers were tinkering with do-hickies, even the cleaners had been in three times and the most excitement I got was lifting my feet for the hoover!


         When suddenly... (Dramatic wasn’t it)

         “Commander Gringor,”
         “Yes Allakor,” I asked in a bored tone.
         “Long range sensors are picking up a small ship approaching and it’s travelling at twice the speed of light!”
         “Twice the speed of light? No ship can do that; it must be a sensor glitch; run a diagnostic and send it to engineering,” I ordered.
         “I’ve run the diagnostic three times sir, twice the speed of light; it will be within communications range in...”
         “Incoming hail,” announced one of the relief communication officers, “Audio and visual.”
         “Captain Silver Wolf to the bridge,” I commanded; “On screen.”

         A large face appeared, far too close to the screen than was necessary, so close that you could see right up the nose, not pretty on a 10ft by 15ft view-screen. After a few seconds of grunting and cursing, the face pulled back and came into focus. The incoming message was coming from a man that seemed to be in his mid-fifties, He had strong features slightly covered in a brown, close cropped beard that had more than a few grey hairs showing.
         “Ah, there you are, that took a bit of doing,” he started off; “My name is Charatan, pleased to meet you Captain Silver Wolf.”

         Silver Wolf was standing next to me as we waited in docking bay one for Charatan’s craft to land. Silver Wolf was standing motionless, his eyes distant as he watched the craft make its final approach with thrusters flaring with the last adjustments. The loud clang from the ship struts meeting the decking plate roused Silver Wolf, who looked first at me then around the landing bay at the extra security personnel on standby before making his way to the new arrival.
         Charatan stepped forth from his ship and blinked his eyes a little to adjust to the brightness of the bay. Silver Wolf had ordered the docking bay to be illuminated somewhat more than was normal to disorient the occupant of the vessel. The second or two that Charatan was standing there blinking gave Silver Wolf the time to cover the docking bay and stand a few feet from Charatan who seemed surprised to see the big man get that close unnoticed.
         “Captain Silver Wolf, a pleasure to finally meet you. You are certainly bigger than I imagined, as is this vessel.”
         “Greetings Charatan, how is it that you know me?” enquired Silver Wolf
         Charatan looked around the landing bay, glanced in my direction with a curt nod and then back at Silver Wolf, “Perhaps there is somewhere more private that we may talk.” This was a statement definitely not a question, obviously Charatan was used to giving orders, and having them obeyed – a man of power? Perhaps he was somebody in command of an army.

         Silver Wolf assessed the measure of the man, he was perhaps a head shorter than the Captain and of only average build yet he carried himself with confidence and in the manner of one who was capable of taking care of himself. There were small scars upon the face and hands; the clothing was plain, non-descript and had seen better days, this man would blend into any crowd, invisible in plain sight.
         “My briefing room is secure,” Silver Wolf inclined his head in my direction “We will be unheard there.”
         Charatan got the meaning and followed Silver Wolf as he lead the way, I took fell in a few feet behind Charatan to make sure that he followed Silver Wolf and didn’t do anything suspicious. The briefing room was empty as always, solely used by the Captain and myself, non-were allowed in here without either one of us present; security was paramount in our minds.
         Silver Wolf indicated a chair and motioned for Charatan to sit and then took his own seat at the head of the table. I sat opposite Charatan and under cover of the table un-hooked the small blaster I had hidden in my right thigh pocket and aimed it under the table at our ‘guest’”.

         Charatan looked in my direction and with a wry smile said,
         “The weapon is not necessary Commander Gringor; I mean you no ill will.”
         I never moved a muscle but I did catch the glance from Silver Wolf as he looked at me; I placed the blaster upon the table, still pointed at Charatan.
         “You’re still wary eh? Very well then,” Charatan turned to Silver Wolf, “Captain, I am Charatan, the last remaining guardian of peace, the last of the old Wolves.”
         Silver Wolf raised one eyebrow “You didn’t answer my question; How do you know me?”
         “You would not believe me if I told you, so instead let me show you,” Charatan flicked his right hand and every surface in the entire room, and I mean every surface right down to the light fixings, turned a dark, dull black.

         I glanced at Silver Wolf (rather anxiously I might add) but the Captain’s eyes never left Charatan. Charatan in turn kept his eyes upon Silver Wolf, it almost seemed that I was completely redundant in the room; neither man moved nor spoke, both just sat there staring at each other.

         Charatan reached into his robe, but before he could withdraw his hand my blaster was up and aimed, I noticed that the Captain had both of his blasters not two inches from Charatans face, safeties off. Our ‘guest’ just grinned and slowly withdrew his hand to reveal a brown object about twelve centimetres in diameter and slightly elliptical in shape; he placed it upon the tabletop, all the while looking past the blasters at Silver Wolf.
         “The object I have just placed upon your table will explain more that I can,” explained Charatan “if you would be so kind...”
         Silver Wolf lowered his weapons, and I still to this day wish he hadn’t. The whole room disappeared, nothing existed, just the three of us, no table, no chairs and no floor. I could still feel them and smell the table polish, the leather of my chair, even hear it as I moved, but it was definitely not there.
         My stomach was doing somersaults and my eyes were hurting trying to find some detail that I could focus on, then the g-force started. I felt like I was hurtling at a thousand miles an hour, pressed backwards into my non-existent chair my flesh seemed to ripple with the force, yet I could move my hands easily enough and my face felt normal under the touch of my fingers. Time seemed to have stopped as we continued our non-moving journey towards what I hoped was something solid to stand on and look at and maybe a chilli-dog to settle my stomach.

         As quickly as it started, the force was gone and I lurched forwards smashing my forehead on the table, when I sat back up rubbing my forehead I found myself ‘not-sitting’ in front of a large dragon’s head. The scales were a bright shiny green, around two giant globes of red and black, you could actually see flames dancing in those eyes, but my gaze travelled even further down to the huge mouth that opened before us. The teeth were enormous they were easily as big as six foot and the forked tongue that moved in that mouth, well you could have landed a battle-cruiser on it – sideways.

         My hair and skin were pulled taut as the mouth exhaled and the first words were spoken…

         “I AM FIRST, THE ORIGINAL DRAGON AND THE DEFENDER OF ORDER – HEAR MY WORDS”

         I was nearly sucked into the mouth as it inhaled for another sentence, and I think everyone in the Galaxy could hear the words, my ears were ringing.

         “AFTER THE GODS MADE THE UNIVERSE UPON THEIR WHIM, ORDER WAS REQUIRED AND THAT PURPOSE WAS ME.”

         Another intake of breath; it was like the calm before the storm. On a side note a crate of breath-mints to table FIRST please.

         “OTHERS WERE CREATED, BUT I WAS FIRST. I MADE THE WOLVES TO ASSIST IN THE ORDER. ALL WAS HARMONY. THEN DISENTION HAPPENED, AND THE DRAGON – ‘BLACK’ WAS THE CAUSE.”

         Another intake, hold on tight.

         “A GREAT WAR WAS FOUGHT AND BLACK WAS DEFEATED. HE WAS BURNED AND SCATTERED TO THE SPACE WINDS. THE PRICE WAS TOO GREAT AND CHAOS REIGNED, ORDER WAS GONE AND I WAS BANISHED BY THE GODS FOR MY FAILURE. THE WOLVES DISBANDED AND CREATURES GOVERNED THEMSELVES IN DEPRAVITY.”

         Where are those mints?

         “IN THIS THOUSAND YEAR ANIVERSARY, ORDER HAS A CHANCE – YOU SILVER WOLF ARE THAT CHANCE.”

         I looked at Silver Wolf; the amazement of his face was obvious.

         “ORDER MUST BE RESTORED. I CANNOT RESTORE IT FROM MY PRISON. I INFLUENCED YOUR ARRIVAL A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. LISTEN TO CHARATAN HE IS MY TRUSTED. SEEK THE LYCHEN ARMOUR. SEEK THE HIDDEN ONES. RESTORE ORDER AND FREE ME!!!”

         The world returned and Silver Wolf looked at Charatan. There was an odd look upon the Captains face, the kind that you get when there is something in the back of your head trying to get your attention. He seemed to dismiss the idea as he spoke to our guest, “Interesting, tell me more.”

         “Forget all your pre-conceptions,” Charatan began “Magic exists, I am a sorcerer and you are also a sorcerer whether you choose to believe it or not. There are two types of worlds here, there are those upon which technology works and those where it does not; Magic however exists everywhere. All your childhood tales of Orcs, goblins, trolls and all other creatures belong here, some live on those worlds where technology does not work, like the planet below us now; more advanced cousins of these creatures live on the worlds where technology does work. Many of the creatures have tried and do still get along, a rare few have even become famous, unfortunately there are those that still cling to the old ways and their numbers are growing.”

         I was still numb from meeting FIRST that all this just seemed to sweep past me without even registering. Silver Wolf on the other hand seemed to grasp the idea and run with it.

         “So let me get this straight,” Silver Wolf said, “The gods created the universe and Dragons such as FIRST and BLACK to keep order.”
         “Correct,” stated Charatan.
         “The Dragons wanted help and created the Wolves, of which you are the last.”
         “Again correct,” Charatan replied.
         “Something happened and there was some dissention in the ranks, between BLACK and FIRST; this started a war and both sides lost?” Silver Wolf asked.
         “Keep going.”
         “So, you’re a thousand years old? And with no-one to keep things in check, things just went down the pan?” I asked.
         “That is correct, Gringor, on both counts,” replied Charatan.
         “Why did the Gods imprison FIRST, with BLACK defeated surely order could be restored,” I asked.
         “An excellent question Commander; if the Dragons were to fight amongst themselves, how could they keep order? The Gods found their peacekeepers to be flawed and imprisoned them all.”
         “All?” asked Silver Wolf “just how many are there?”
         “There were hundreds of Dragons Captain, the universe is vast and it’s inhabitants even more so. How many remained after the battle is known only to the Gods, not even the Dragons know their total number now.”

         There was a pause in the conversation as the information was absorbed. Silver Wolf stood and paced the floor thinking things through.
         “Where we come from there is no such thing as magic; Orcs and Goblins are stories told to children. How do you expect me to believe all that FIRST and you have said? This could all be some trickery?”
         Charatan looked at Silver Wolf for a moment, stretched forth his hand and said “Rise”.
Silver Wolf looked at Charatan with a perplexed expression which quickly gave way to one of stunned surprise; he was being lifted clean into the air and there was nothing touching him. Charatan moved his hand this way and that and Silver Wolf flew in that direction, having made his point he placed Silver Wolf back onto the floor.

         “Now do you believe me Captain?” asked Charatan.
         Silver Wolf regarded Charatan for a long moment; it looked like he had remembered something as he tapped his comm. badge, “Security team to the briefing room.”
         “Captain, I assure you, it was merely a demonstration. If I meant you harm I would have done so already.”
         Silver Wolf said nothing; he paced near the door like a caged tiger. As the security team arrived, he instructed them to watch our guest before he left the room.

         Silver Wolf made his way to his personal quarters, the image of FIRST still burned in his mind. It had seemed uncannily familiar and had been nagging at his brain until it finally hit him – his mothers’ keepsake. As he made his way along the corridor, his thoughts drifted to his mother. He had few memories of her, she had died a few years after his birth and on her deathbed she passed him a curious object and uttered the words, “I will be with you always, my little wolf.”
         The keepsake was a small green dragon and for some reason, he felt the need to check that it was safe. As he opened the door to his quarters, his eyes immediately found the dragon, secured in the small glass display box by his bed. As a child growing up, he had played with it and held it close to him when he was alone or afraid and somehow it always comforted him. It made him feel like he was being held by his mother, just as he was holding the statue close to his chest which was no bigger than the palm of his hand. The Captain reached out and picked up the glass box when the dragon suddenly moved. It was a trick of the light he was sure, but he stared at it closely as if daring it to move again. The statue moved once more and Silver Wolf dropped the box.
         The glass smashed as the box landed sending shards across the carpet and his boots. The statue remained motionless where it fell and Silver Wolf regarded it thoughtfully. He regretted the action, the only true thing he had that was his mothers could have been broken; thankfully it was not. He reached down and began to gently remove the glass from the statue. As his fingers brushed from head to tail, the mouth of the dragon opened and a beam of light shone out. Silver Wolf instinctively flinched backwards and found himself face to toe with a pair of soft suede boots. He looked up to see his mother smiling down at him, “Haven’t you grown, little one.”


         The Captain had departed rather quickly from the briefing room and I was slightly concerned that his pride was damaged by Charatans seeming control over him. The security detail could tell my wariness in front of our ‘guest’ and stood watchfully nearby, uneasy hands wrapped around blast pistols.
         “I do hope I didn’t offend the Captain with that parlour trick. I only intended to demonstrate that magic really exists. How else could he have been lifted like that?”
         Tractor beams immediately sprang to mind, although I did have a member of the crew quietly scan Charatan for any technology and palm it to me in the corridor. The fact that he didn’t suggested that our visitor had no technology on him whatsoever. This didn’t account for the brown disc-like item he had placed on the table. Why did that not register on the scans? I knew Charatan was watching me as I wrestled with the problem, the truth was, I had no idea how he had achieved it.
         Charatan sat back with a smile upon his face, “Now that you’ve thought it through Commander, will you at least have an open mind when the Captain returns?”
         “I’m not promising anything,” I replied still perplexed.



         “Mother?”
         “Yes dear,” replied Yeraina, Silver Wolfs long dead parent.
         “This is a recording with clever responses written into the sub-routines,” stated a bemused Silver Wolf, “Who wrote you? Who did this?”
         “Nobody wrote me and that really is a fascinating statement. Ask me something only I would know then.”
         “Okay, I will,” the tone was petulant as always in the face of his mother, “When I was a child, why was your flying so bad?”
         Yeraina arched her eyebrows, “What makes you think my flying was bad?”
         “I remember lots of cushions for when I would fall off the couches in your ships.”
         Yeraina laughed, “My flying wasn’t bad and the cushions were used to prop you up with. You were so dumpy as a child that you couldn’t sit up on your own and kept rolling off the couch.”
         His mother had told him that same story when he was a little boy and he had been too embarrassed to tell it to anybody else.
         “How is this possible? I was at your funeral, I mourned you.”
         “My dear sweet child, I stood beside you at my funeral, in spirit of course. I watched you laugh and cry, stood with you through the good experiences and the bad. I watched you grow and turn into a man.”
         Silver Wolf flushed slightly at this last remark.
         “Oh,” Yeraina said, “I closed my eyes for those parts.”
         Silver Wolf gave a nervous laugh, “I missed you mother. But you never explained how this is possible.”
         “Okay,” she replied, “but I must be quick. To be away from the spirit plain too long brings a great pain.” Yeraina took a breath to calm herself. She had rehearsed this speech a thousand times or more, but now that her son could see her and interact with her, all those preparations evaporated.
         “I was born in this universe that you are in now.”
         “What?” exclaimed Silver Wolf, “How?”
         “Shush child, I don’t have the time,” Yeraina berated Silver Wolf, “A great magical war was being waged all across the universe. I was known as a Wolf, hence your surname, and we helped Dragons to protect peace in the universe.”
         “Tell me something I don’t know,” responded Silver Wolf.
         “Shush. One of the Dragons, FIRST, came to me and told me that I must leave for I would be with child, and they would restore peace once again. The war was a thousand years ago; as a Wolf, you can live for a very long time. You have returned to your own Universe to restore peace. The ornament you so carelessly dropped is a magical dragon, a representation of FIRST. He pulled one of his scales from his body and fashioned it into a figure of himself. As he passed it to me, he told me to keep it with me when I died for it would allow my spirit to commune with you upon your return.”
         “Charatan never told me that.”
         “Charatan? He’s here?”
         “Yes, I thought you said you watched me every second of my life.”
         “No, I said I watched you grow. I have other things to do besides watching you wax your chest. A big strong man like you cringing at the thought of a few hairs being plucked from your skin. We women have been doing that for eons. Now back to the point, Charatan is a good man and was one of the best Wolves we had. Take me to him.”
         Before he could reply to her, Yeraina vanished and Silver Wolf stared at the little dragon on the floor.


***

         “How long have you worked for FIRST?”
         “About two hundred and thirty years before the great war, give or take a month.” replied Charatan with aplomb.
         Two hundred and thirty!” I exclaimed “and the war was over a thousand years ago? That’s impossible.”
         “Actually Gringor, the war happened exactly one thousand years ago and FIRST defeated BLACK at these very coordinates on this day one thousand years ago; and no it’s not impossible for me to live this long. You see, Dragons never die of old age and every Wolf is infused with Dragon blood, effectively tying them to their Dragon. Should their Dragon die, the dragon blood in the Wolf veins will die also and the Wolf will begin to age once more.”
         As Charatan finished his sentence the Captain returned.
         “Leave us,” he commanded. The guards left without a word as he made his way back to his chair.
         “Captain,” began Charatan, “about before...”
         The Captain held up one hand and placed a small figure of a dragon on the table with the other. It looked very similar to FIRST and I was just wondering where he could have gotten it when he ran a finger from snout to tail.
         “Hello Charatan.”
         A woman had appeared from thin air and was standing behind Charatan. She was a lovely woman of middle years, small and demure with shoulder length brown hair and a smile that made you feel immediately at ease.
         Charatans face slowly dropped as he turned around; there were already tears in his eyes, “Yeraina?”
         The woman, Yeraina, smiled as she saw the effect she was having on Charatan.
         “How? Why? I mean, is that really you Yeraina?”
         “Yes Charatan, it really is me.”
         “I looked everywhere for you, there was no trace, nobody knew anything. You just disappeared. What happened?”
         “FIRST took me far away. He said MY son,” she indicated Silver Wolf, “would restore peace.”
         “Your son?” Charatan looked between Yeraina and Silver Wolf.
         Yeraina bent and gave Charatan a kiss of the forehead “See you later, my love,” she said before she disappeared from him again.

         This was all getting a little bit complicated for me. First we come into a new universe, meet some crazy guy who can do magic, come face to teeth with a Dragon and now find that our Captains long dead mother is able to appear as a ghost.

         “Will we be able to return to our own universe?” Silver Wolf asked Charatan.
         Charatan took a long time to compose himself before speaking. “FIRST could arrange it,” he said “but he was imprisoned by the Gods and would need to be freed. This will incur the wrath of the Gods and I dare say that would be bad news for us all; least of which you and your crew Captain.”

         I was not happy with the ways things were going let me tell you. Never to go home unless we free some ancient old Dragon and then have to fight the Gods! No sir, no way no how. If I wanted to go back to our universe; it was just tough. I felt like I wanted a bowl of ice cream, a creamy Cornish ice cream draped over a hot apple pie, Mmmmmm.

         Silver Wolf looked hard at Charatan “What do you want of me?”
         “First things first Captain. In my cargo hold I have some universal translators, a small chip that embeds itself to the spinal column and translates all speech; therefore you can understand what is being said and everyone else can understand what you are saying. I suggest we start by getting your crew ready and then briefing them.”
         “Okay. Then?” Silver Wolf asked.
         “Well I think you should have your engineer take a look at my ship, our technology is very different to yours; and we should probably configure your sensors to pick up the various data channels that are being broadcast, they may provide us with some information.”

         These data channels turned out to be TV stations, and the broadcast just about anything, there were films, documentaries, history lessons, even aerobics being taught by some damned vampire! Count Dra-cool, I mean get real people, it’s a vampire!!! Ugly, pointy teeth, sucks blood – does not teach aerobics. They also had music channels, which weren’t too bad there were some interesting ‘performers’, some chick who changed colours like a chameleon when she sang, and a little goblin with two teeth protruding from his lower jaw rapping like some punk from the ‘hood; I think he called himself Muminum or something. There was one good sports programme though on the ‘Stream Xtreme’ channel, it was called the ‘Arena’ and for anyone who has seen wrestling this was definitely the next level. These guys were armed, and the blood was flowing – nice.