Chapter Five

Hanging Out

Sky was all smiles; she was going to be the most important person on this mission. Nine years old and already doing so much with her life. As she walks to the woman ’s, barracks, she drew up the plans for the new ship modelled after Little Tooth. She briefly paused to ask the ladies for tea in her quarters. “I’m having tea in my quarters. I would love to have you join me. There will be some biscuits too for snacks. The tea is very good, and the biscuits taste amazing. If you want, we could have the tea in the mess so the men could join us. I was going to use the time to make up some tomes for the upcoming mission.” She turned around and walked back to see what their answers were going to be.

Courtney thought the tea was a good idea and having a relaxing cup would be wonderful. I think it would be a good idea to have tea with everyone in the mess hall. Mind you I would prefer a good cup of fresh coffee more the shi*.” She just caught the word before it escaped. “The stuff we have is old and gone mouldy, we just never got a chance to throw it out and get some new stuff.” Heather gave her a dirty look.

“Don’t mind her; she normally a sweet thing. It’s just that for two weeks she hasn’t a good cup of java. It will only get more noticeable anytime you mention tea or coffee.” Heather said while snaking her hand into Courtney’s.

“That’s a good thing you didn’t throw it out. Every time I cast a healing spell everything goes to like it was supposed to be. So, your coffee will taste like it was just roasted. You might have to grind the coffee again after each healing spell. But you shouldn’t have anything go bad too quickly, and the healing spell is used quite frequently since I got here. If you think about it the spell, it fixes just as much as it heals. Is there such a thing as a fixing spell”? Sky asked no one in particular.

All the ladies gave it a thought, and it was Jane who the one who answered. “I think there is a fixing spell, but from the looks of it your do-it-all healing spell does a better job.”

“I was told not to show that spell because it’s as good as or better than the guilds special. So please don’t tell the guilds about my magic spells that they use to make money. I don’t want any trouble from people thinking I’m taking money away from them.” Sky had a pleading look in her eyes.

“None of us will turn you into any guild. You’re just helping out people with your magic; you’re not out to steal guilds business.” Jane came up to Sky and took her hand. “You’re one of the most selfless people we know plus you’re pretty cool with your magic.” She gave Sky a wink.

Courtney was keen on getting a fresh cup of coffee. “If you say the coffee will be like freshly roasted beans. I’ve got to get some beans and my coffee kit, and I’ll meet you in the mess hall. I’ll go crazy if I don’t get a cup of coffee soon.”

“I’ve got to get the biscuits from my house in the cargo bay too so that we can go together. I’ve got to pass by my quarters to get the blank tomes and tea; we’ll use the cups in the mess today.” Sky said walking towards the cargo bay.

Courtney walked ahead then started to run. “Race you to the cargo bay.” She used magic to increase her speed and dashed ahead.

Sky’s image faded from sight, and Courtney turned, not seeing Sky run past her. When Courtney entered the cargo bay, she saw Sky at their ships ramp waiting for her. She had two bags of biscuits and a big smile. “Can you teleport or something I didn’t even feel the air pressure when you passed me? I’m one of the fastest women in the special units.” Courtney said still running.

Sky smile grew. “I’m not in any special unit so your still one of the fastest. But I’m the fastest, then mommy, and then its daddy. So, you’re at most fourth fastest now; but I won’t tell anyone. If you want another race, we could race in the practice room. In there, our strength would almost be even. Then you’re running technique could mean the difference of winning and losing.” She walked into the ship behind Courtney, and the interior was cramped feeling. The room the coffee was in didn’t have beds but fabric sleeping tubes — kind of like a hammock that was around your body.

Courtney noticed Sky was behind her. “I going to take you up on that offer to see just how fast you are.” She Sniffled the air near the disposal unit and opened a new tin of coffee. The sigh she gave out was of profound enjoyment. She passed the open tin for Sky to take a sniff.

Who did so without hesitation and thought it smelt nice? “Mmm smells good. Mommy told me it stunts your growth.” Sky said looking up to Courtney. “Looking up at you so tall, mommy was telling me another little lie”?

Sky took the can and replaced the lid and put it in her jacket pocket that stretched to fit it, and then the cookies followed. “I can put anything else in my pocket you want. It makes carrying things much easier and leaves your hands free.” Courtney smiled and handed her the coffee kit. Once that was placed in her pocket they ran towards the exit. On her way off the scout ship she habitually scanned the onboard database, there were a few new spells Sky never saw yet. Two were offensive spells, and one was a stealth spell. Without much thought, she tweaked the stealth spell and left the other alone. Once off the ship, she decided to try the new stealth spell.

Courtney turned to address Sky who wasn’t there. “I guess she needed the lady’s room or something and was too shy to say so. I can’t believe that little thing can do so much and not gloat about it more. If I had her magical power, I would own planets or be the queen in the magical arena.” Sky couldn’t believe the fact Courtney talked to herself so much.

Courtney’s ship new AI notified her by in code on her wrist MAD. That the stealth spell was accessed and modified, she turned two address Sky about her snooping and found her gone. Most likely still there just in cloaked it the new spell. This little girl was very impressive, had she not known of the spells access and her ability to mask her spell casting. She would have fallen for the trick and thought Sky ran ahead of them.

Courtney wondered how good the new spell worked so on her wrist tablet she accessed the ships scanners to check the room or other life signs of any type there was nothing there. There was no sign of her when she ran the scan. All but her gut feeling told her she was alone and on Todd’s team, you always went with your guts. She decided to play along and walked towards the exit of the cargo bay. She was still in astonishment of its size. Before she left the bay, she looked over her shoulder wondering if the girl was ahead or behind her. “I guess she did leave without saying anything. I have to let Fred know how rude his little ensign can be.” Courtney hid the smile with her hand.

Sky wondered how Courtney knew she was there in the room still. She was masked even the sensors on the ship couldn’t pick her up. She laughed when Courtney said out loud that she must have gone to the lady’s room and was too shy to mention it. It’s when Courtney pondered out loud about telling Fred how rude she was, being a little girl she had to do something to save her honour. She quickly weaved around her and ran ahead around the first corner. To where Fred was making his way the mess hall for tea or coffee and the biscuits Sky was sharing with everyone.

Sky dropped the stealth spell and appeared behind him. Startled he whirled around to confront whoever managed to sneak up on him without setting off the spell he cast to prevent just that.

With his fist, up and one on his tablet ready for a spell, he saw her. “Sky how did you sneak up on me like that? I didn’t think you were that quiet before.”

Sky looked over her shoulder and made a motion to keep it down. “I was trying out a stealth spell that I got from the scout ship, and Courtney said I was rude to leave without telling her. Now she’s. Sky went silent and then started talking again about tea and coffee. So, Fred Sir, do you prefer coffee or tea? Oh, here’s Courtney, she prefers coffee over tea, and since getting here, her coffee is fresh again. Sorry, I ran ahead. I guess you didn’t see me as I waved when I left.” Sky was smiling and gave Fred a wink, who just shook his head.

Courtney also winked at Fred. “Sky, I wondered where you ran off. I was going to offer you a tour of the ship, but you left in such a hurry I didn’t even see you leave. I think that’s rude of you to do so. Don’t you think so Captain Fred Sir”?

Fred just laughed. “I don’t know what you two are up to, but leave me out of it. Sky you should stay out of other ships databases until you’ve asked for permission. It’s not polite to snoop around in someone else’s computer.” He admonished her no longer smiling.

“I didn’t intend to snoop I just asked Swan if she was up to date. She told me all were updated, but these three and she showed them to me. I upgraded the nonlethal spell because the others were for killing the enemy. When you kill someone, dead is dead you can’t get any deader once you kill a person. I wasn’t going to shows you the spell till I asked Mr. Todd if I can upload it on our database. I wasn’t trying to snoop around, not really, I was curious and wanted to look. I had full access, so I only looked for a couple of seconds. Please don’t think I snoop through everything. I’ve never gone into anyone’s data or private documents.” Sky looked like she was about to burst into tears. “I’m not a bad person, am I? I’m sorry for snooping, and I’ll try not to let it happen again. Please don’t get mad at me.” Sky had a single tear punctuating her plea.

Courtney was going to tease the little girl, not send her to tears. “Fred Sir, now that I heard Sky explanation, I see no reason to think what she did was wrong as in how she came across our ships private data of spells. We should explain why some people have private spells and incantations they keep for themselves.”

Fred looked from Sky to Courtney. “Think that a good thing to talk over at tea and coffee — sorry Sky for jumping on your behaviour before I heard the whole story. For now, let’s get to the mess, and we’ll see what kind of tea and coffee you two have. I hope you brought some of those biscuits”? He put his hand on Sky’s tiny shoulder and squeezed her. She could sense the hand and feel the warmth there but felt nothing else no pressure.

Sky wiped the single tear off her cheek. “I’ll run ahead and grab the blank tomes and meet up in a mess.” She looked in the direction of the mess and smiled. “Mommy and Daddy are already preparing food for when I start building the ship. Mr. Todd is good with a knife and so Miss. Jane. Joe and Heather are helping set the tables, so if you don’t want to help walk slowly. Mommy has a way to make people help her when she wants, whether you wanted to or not. Daddy told me a few times she wears the pants more than he does. I don’t get it; she almost always wears a skirt or dress.” She gave the two-acquisitive looks for any insight they might provide. “I’ll meet you guy’s in the mess.” Before they could respond, her image faded.

“How does she do that? How can you leave an after image that fades away slowly like that? Is it some magic or something else”? Courtney looked to Fred to see if he had any answers as they started to the mess.

“Sorry not a clue, her parents can do it too when they want. It might be a racial thing. You can always ask if you want to know, but don’t be surprised at ‘hum, what do you mean after image’”? Fred said and chuckling to himself. Courtney just let it go and decided to ask another time.

Once they approached the mess hall, there was the smell of brewing coffee and tea. To Fred there was a mouth-watering smell of the freshly baked biscuits, Courtney would soon appreciate.

Sky was sitting at a table with a large stack of blank tomes. She was showing Jane and Heather what she wanted them to do. “So, after I fill the tomes under my fingers place them in separate piles by the type of magic they have. I can fill them pretty quickly so this shouldn’t take too long if you can keep up.”

Jane placed her hand on Sky’s to gentle get her attention. “Why don’t you fill all ten tomes with the same magic so we can easily stack them in their pile a little faster? Then you can fill the next ten with different magic and so on.” Sky smiled and nodded her head

“I think that would be a little faster if I use the same amount of magic it shouldn’t make much of a difference. Okay, we’ll try the first hundred like that and see how fast it goes.” Sky like the idea and knew it would make it faster. She just liked the idea of using equal magic from the start, so none of the magic affinities felt left out.

Heather picked up a blank tome. “Sky I would like to try and make one of your gold tomes to see how fast I could fill one of them up? I’ve made a few tomes, and they fill pretty quickly too black, and after that, they take a little pressure to fill them to each new colour.” Sky reached over without saying a word and just touched the blank tome. Not knowing how Sky does her magic without any visible spell circle she set about filling the tome. She placed her first two fingers from each hand as she was taught and let her magic flow into the tome. It quickly changed to black, slow to orange-red took a lot more force and concentration after what seemed like an hour it changed to red. She focused harder and tried to force more magic into the tome it was slow going. Only five minutes passed since she started her water element well was depleted a third of the way, yet she pressed on.

Sky placed a hand ever so carefully on her shoulder and whispered. “Relax and open up to your desires and feeling. You can force the magic into the tome, but it’s easier just to let it flow with your intent. You want to fill the tome open yourself to the desire to fill it and let the magic flow out through your fingers.

Heather was tick off on this girl who never went to any magic school, never took any real classes in magic. Here she is telling her how magic should flow out of you with your heart, with feelings no less. She tried it so that she could say it didn’t work with feeling or your desires as the little girl put it. She felt the hand lift from her shoulder but felt a relaxing sensation moving through her body from where her hand was. She relaxed the pressure she was forcing into the tome, and it stopped flowing out. She was about to turn and tell Sky it wasn’t working. A disembodied voice told her to use the desire to fill the tome. She opened her mind and her desire to channel her magic, to pour freely into the tome with her intent. What happened next was a feeling she rarely felt when using magic. It was a rush of euphoria as her magic flow into the tome. Her magic was rushing into the tome at an almost alarming rate startling her. She felt the onset of magic burn; it never made it passed the tickling sensation. Her magic well was almost depleted when the tome changes to gold. It was well past its original level after leaving the practice room with Sky.

This little girl, a girl with no formal magic education was teaching her how magic worked. Magic was taught never to use emotion during a magic cast. Here was a girl telling and proving to her what she was taught was false. Heather started to wonder what else the magic guild kept back from the masses of magic users.

Sky interrupted her thoughts with the announcement of the tea and coffee were ready. On the centre of the table was a plate stacked high with biscuits that had a wonderful smell to them. Fred, Todd, and Courtney had a coffee. Rocssanna, William, Jane, Heather, Sky, and Joe had tea. Courtney let out a loud sigh of relief after taking her first sip of fresh coffee in what to her was forever. Her body is visibly relaxed as some tension left her body. Fred and Todd had a similar reaction just more subdued. They all tried a biscuit and found them to be better than they smelled. Sky did something strange she had a second cup she held her biscuit over, and water dripped out of it.

Jane who was sitting next to Sky had to ask. “Why are you taking the water out of your biscuits? They’re perfect; doing that will make them as hard as concrete.”

She smiled “That’s the point, to me now they’re just as soft as they are to you. Don’t you notice everything is mushy that you eat after the physical changes? If you do find everything too soft, try taking out some of the water from inside. Try it you might just like eating something with a little substance.” Sky hoped she would at least give it a shot.

She picked up another biscuit and held it over the cup as Sky did. Then she realized she didn’t know the spell she had used. “What was the spell you used to draw out the water”? Almost everyone looked at Sky to see how she answered.

“I used no spell, just my affinity to water. Water should be like a part of you; think of where you want it to go. Feel for the water inside the biscuit and draw it out with your thoughts. Once you sense the water move it like your arm or leg, think of the water as an extension of your body. I can feel the water in everything if I make a little effort. That is part of how I can see anyone on the ship is the water in your bodies. I use a little more than that, but you can get the general shape of a person that way. I use all of the affinities to get the full picture, plus I use a little of my imagination to fill in the blanks.”

The room fell silent as they contemplated what she just revealed about something they all thought of asking her. I wasn’t a spell or a special gift. It was her using her gifts to an extent no one thought of using or cared to share with anyone else. Fred leaned over to address her. “You mean that’s your secret to looking through walls and across space? You use no magic, just your awareness of your elemental affinities. Is there another trick to it”?

Sky laughed; it was as a cheerful sound. “I have no secrets of my own. I carry secrets of others, but what I know I share freely. You should ask or need for me to show or tell you anything if it’s mine to give. As for any tricks to the use of far sight, I guess you could call it. I think the distance goes by the volume of magic in your wells. You don’t use the magic, but somehow the more you have the further you can feel with it. It’s not always exact in the awareness of everything you see. It helps if you have some connection with what you are looking for over a great distance. A communication signal works, it can allow your awareness to be projected there also. Kind of like what I did with Fleet Commander Mark Douglaston. It might take you a long time to be able to do it the way I do it.” She watched each person’s reaction to seeing if they took offence at her calling them essentially slow at least compared to her. “Why don’t you try it and I’ll see if I can help you focus and teach you if you want. I can do it as I did with throwing the rocks.” She said to Fred and knew almost everyone was going to try. Well, maybe not her parents they had an awareness of their own.

Jane was the first one to ask. “Sky, the way you do something so easily is almost scary. You’ve done things that most people only dream of or told that it was a gift that you could not learn.” Jane pondered how to put it in kind words. “It still might just be a gift only you have and can’t teach others.

“We won ‘t knows unless you try it and fail. If you fail, try again, and I’ll help just like I did with you throwing the rocks. Are you in Miss Jane mam”? Jane just nodded to Sky too excited to speak. “Okay if try to reach out to the moisture in the biscuit and I’ll guild you if need be.”

Sky reached out with her senses to find what she could feel coming from Jane. Sky sensed her reaching out to the biscuit, and she followed it back into Janes mind. It wasn’t very efficient, so she went about cleaning up her thought processes. She could tell it was working by looking through Janes' eyes. The images of the biscuits were clearer when using sight and her affinity to water. Before she pulled her awareness out of Jane, she watched a few drops of water leave the biscuit. Now that she wasn’t feeling the effects of magic burn, she could follow Jane’s mind reaching out of everyone who was also trying to affect one of their affinities. All at once after Jane, she helped them focus their minds and improve their thought processes. To Sky, it was like rewiring a large city and all its buildings, no problem for her.

Jane was mesmerized at the new clarity of her thoughts. Things Sky said just seemed to make even more sense. She now not only felt the water around her but the air in the room and the electrical systems in the ship and everyone’s body but Sky’s. She wasn’t there in any sense but visual. When she reached for Sky with any type elemental probe, it just went passed as if she wasn’t there. She tried to see how far her awareness went and it didn’t go much further than the ship.

Out of all the people she helped, Fred and Todd needed the least help, and Joe was not far behind. Heather and Courtney had quite a few crossed wires and stray thoughts. After fixing some of the wires, the rest almost continued fixing themselves. It was probably due to a poor diet when they were young and the environment, they grew up.

Everyone seemed to be thankful but Todd. “Just what did you do in my mind? Were you poking around in my memories while you were in there”? Todd said as glare at the tiny girl’ “I never gave you permission to go into my head and poke around. I was fine the way I was now I even have more to deal with. How can I turn the awareness off now, it’s just too much”? Todd closed his eyes and covered the sides of his head.

Everyone looked from Todd to Sky and back. Sky lost her smile got up and walked to Todd. Being very gentle she stroked his back sending a calming feeling. “You’re curious of everything around you, and your mind just doesn’t have the ability just yet to process everything it will come in time. I barely touched your thought processes, and I never entered anything but your elemental awareness. I just helped you focus and start a better connection to your conscious and your sub-conscious. You were almost there anyway. You and Mr. Fred were the closest to achieving it on your own I might have saved a little time maybe thirty or forty years.

Mr. Joe, Miss Jane, Miss Courtney and Miss Heather would not have reached enlightenment in their lifetime. They just lacked the proper dietary and mental stability growing up. You could see more like a youth because you only had to look after yourself in your formative years. I only know this by reading your profiles and doing a background check. I wanted to see if any of you would like me as a friend. So, I found out all about you, so I know what to talk about.” Sky noticed everyone look at her in shock she could feel their awareness reaching for her like second nature now that they could do it. She wasn’t there as far as anything but sight. She had to do it to keep the aliens from finding her so easily.

“I guess none of you want to be my friend anymore. I’ll move into other quarters and keep to myself from now on.” Sky wiped the tears that came streaming down her face. “For being so smart, I make a lot of mistakes. I’m sorry, enjoy sharing the tea and biscuits. I’ll fill the tomes after I move out my stuff and take a shower.”

Sky ran towards the exit of the mess hall and almost ran into her mother. “Where do you think, you’re going young lady”? Rocssanna turned Sky around to look at everyone. “Todd is the only one remotely upset with you. Everyone else seems to be in shock of what you could do for them. There is also the fact they can’t sense you in any other way but visually. Your body is a void to their other new senses. You don’t have to be sorry for wanting to know about a person. It may have been a little creepy if it took years to look for the information, but to you, it was like opening a book in your library. You just looked under a name and everything that is public knowledge you know about in seconds. I see the tears in your eyes when you received the crew's service history, and you did the background check. The tears weren’t just for the captured magic users were they”? Sky shook her head no.

“I thought I had a difficult life growing up. I realized having parents who love you unconditionally is something I took for granted. I might not have had friends, but I never had to worry where or if my next meal was coming? I didn’t have to worry about saying anything wrong to you or daddy to beating me. I didn’t have to steal anything my whole life to keep living.” Sky’s face was still full of tears when she hugged her mommy for support and turned to address the onlookers. “I don’t pity you, I feel humbled to what you went through and still came out amazing people. I wanted to be your friend more than anything after seeing what strong character you all have. You only took things you needed when nothing else was possible and made amends when you could. Can you fault a person seeing if you had a bleeding nose when there is a little blood there? Or fault a person knowing what you ate if some were on your shirt. To me, information is the same way, I look, and it’s all before me at a glance now. The data on the planet where I lived was isolated from off planet, and the processors had a slow interface. Try asking a toaster about quantum physics and see how fast you get a reply. Until now I’ve never had the access as I do. It never occurred to that I could access something others would consider private in data files, not of their own. I never accessed any of your private files or files that were deemed top-secret or even hidden.”

One by one the ladies got up starting with Jane. They walked to Sky and wiped away the tears still running down her face, then giving her a quick hug.

Jane took Sky’s porcelain smooth face that felt firm not soft. “We don’t know how you do the things you do. It just surprises us that you make things look so easy when you do them. I’m not upset that you considered our past and I’m happy you didn’t look beyond the public files. We’re not going to fault you if the information comes to you that easily. You’ve helped us so much already, and you promised to do more still. You have nothing to be sorry for really; it’s refreshing to see someone with so much power be so humble and care what others think. I think when you finally get to a school to study magic, I think you will do most of the teaching. You’re showing us a way of looking at our gifts that have been kept from us or lost in time. You have new ways of doing things that might have something to do with having all five gifts and whatever race you are.” The last part was more directed to Rocssanna.

Courtney and Heather both said that they agreed with what Jane said and hugged her each. “So, wipe up those tears because the teas fine without being watered down anymore and don’t worry about Todd over there. He’s just a little overprotective of us when he doesn’t need to be. I think he’s a little jealous you might take over the role of the protector from him.” Heather put in.

Sky wiped her tears on her mommy’s sleeve and then dried it after realizing what she had done. “Sorry mommy” she squeaked out. She gave all the ladies an ever so gentle hug back. “Thanks for being so understanding. I love to share and to help, until meeting Mr. Fred and Joe I could do little of both.”

She walked to Todd I’m sorry for meddling with your thought processes. I could undo what I have done, but your memories would change them back on their own because you were so close to doing it on your own. I can help you with getting used to the extra sensory input. You’ve had to train so hard your entire life, let me help you without so much effort. You did so much on your own let someone help you as you helped others. Don’t let my age, size, or beauty get in the way of learning. It’s all in the heart when you’re helping people. You have to have a warm and tender heart. When it’s time to attack is when you try and not use emotions of any kind. You should not like or dislike killing just the reason you must do to it. You can help most people if found early enough, There’re some who take advantage from an early age and just can’t be helped thankfully they are rare. You can help others and have helped others in your past find a better way. You helped people in life; let me help you in magic and understanding.” She smiled up at him even sitting he was taller. “If you think about that I might be five or more different beings in one could be the reason I can think faster than most. Please don’t ask what or how; that’s is not my story to tell.”