I kept walking toward my lab. Signs of habitation surrounded me, compared to the prior sterile feeling the lair had possessed. I even passed two people I didn’t recognize, a man and a woman, who… I guess Sif had created some kind of uniform, because they were wearing jumpsuits with names and a little patch that had a picture of a sword with wings on it.

“What do you mean I am doing them all wrong? I do exactly what I have to, find the right aspect from several sources, combine them, purify them, and then activate them.”

Maggie shook her head, “That’s why yer doin’ it all wrong. That smacks of Chinese alchemy. Their stuff works, but they do it by findin’ more and more powerful substances, refinin’ ‘em to make ‘em stronger, and then finally producing something that has only one aspect. One goal. One end result. To hell with all the little stuff that gets lost along the way.”

She continued, “this works great for chi warriors. They can handle the power, and they specialize. You want to open a new Dantian or somethin’, you takes the strongest pill ya can, and blast the damned thing open. But them pills, they ain’t good for normal folks, it will poison and kill ‘em. When ya makes a healin’ potion, what exactly does it do?”

“Umm… I think it restores their health using their own reserves plus the energy of the potion. Minor cell regeneration, mostly.”

She shook her head, “Nope. It does a bunch o’ things. Restores their blood, which is an aspect. It restores their bones, helps their immune system strengthen itself, stabilizes their heart and organs, restores liver, kidneys, lungs. It gives them the energy they needs to fight off illness and pull back from the brink ‘o death. Each of them things is a separate aspect, although the ‘healing’ aspect covers them all, it does so badly. This is clinical, focused, like science… but potions are magic, not science. Them Chinese Alchemysts do what they does very well, and it works for their specialists, but for normal folks, that approach is almost useless… That’s why so many doctors think Chinese medicine is just a con. It Ain’t, but it needs a level o’ specialization that most folks outside of their circles just ain’t got.”

She shrugged. “If you is makin’ a pill for updating TGOW, that’s great. If you’s makin’ one to cleanse poison or specific illnesses, it works great. That’s how normal medicine works too. You make a drug to stop one specific symptom, and then try to minimize anything else. But potions, they ain’t so specific.”

We had reached the lab, and I opened the door. It looks like a lot of my suggestions had been put into place, and I looked forward to trying out some of my new tools. “So how would you make them?” I asked her.

“Well, first, ya need the aspect yer’s going for in general. But most potions ain’t just goin’ for that. In general, magical potions need between eight and ten parts. Ya know about some aspects being tied to perception, right?”

I nodded, “Yes. If a bunch of people are convinced that something is a wonder cure, it tends to behave in that way, and that may add an aspect.”

She nodded, “Right. Well, ye can detect aspects, but you also needs ta think of how people look at it in a way that don’t make it an aspect. For instance. If I was to make a healing potion with that vast wellspring o’ power you have, I could get amazing results from jest common household stuff. The basic components are function, form, heart, soul, strength, a water component and an earth component, plus a catalyst and a base fluid of some sort. If you were making something to clear out disease especially, you might add a fire component to help burn out the infection.”

I noticed that after I closed the door, her accent and bad English seemed to vanish. I guess her act was less important than getting the information across accurately. I had suspected it was an act, but showmanship among the magical types was probably vital to their craft.

“You also need to stop including your blood in the potions. Yes, it makes a magnificent catalyst and a decent minor sacrifice, but also, any practitioner that gets ahold of it has a sympathetic arrow pointing right back at you. Anyone that knows how could use it to do horrible magical things to you that you would be defenseless to prevent.”

I sighed. “I actually suspected that. But without that catalyst, what kind of sacrifice can I offer?”

She smiled again. “That’s where things get tricky. You are working on the image, which is actually important to the sacrifice. Have you noticed that your potions taste neutral or even fairly good?”

I nodded, “Yes, I actualy specifically started adding things with the right aspect that could make the potions taste…. Less nasty.”

She nodded, “One thing you have to remember is that the sacrifice doesn’t necessarily have to be yours. Potions often taste nasty not only so people believe it’s medicinal, but because the very unpleasantness of the taste is a sacrifice they can make to charge the potion. Your catalyst should be receptive to sacrifice, not just a big battery of energy.”

I chuckled a little and nodded, “So what other kinds of sacrifices?”

She grimaced a little, “Stop including a painkiller. Painful healing is a HUGE sacrifice. You can set it up as a separate potion if the pain would be unbearable, like horrible burns on a regen potion, but adding in pain reduction actually weakens your potion significantly because the person is not sacrificng anything. For other potions, have you noticed that witches in legend tend to charge a huge price?”

I nodded, “In the stories, up to and including human sacrifice.”

Maggie scoffed and leaned against a bench. “That’s druids. It’s damned close to black magic, but they skirt the edge by making the sacrifices voluntary. In bad times, though, some of them were known to sacrifice prisoners, babies, and captured enemies… a powerful sacrifice, but it turns your karma dark as shit.”

“The price in sacrifice of the one making the payment is a huge bonus for the potion. Magic used to be a lot weaker, and nothing short of a real loss for the user had the power to fully catalyze it. It’s a little better now, but those intrinsic artifacts you have been sacrificing? Good idea, bad implementation,” she stated.

“The potion I sniffed had a ring in it. A ring worn with love for the one who put it on him. It had the love of twenty years of marriage, the sacrifice of forsaking all others and struggling to make a life together. Then it had all the pain and heartache of his love’s fight with cancer, the loss of one of his children in a war, the wrenching sacrifice of her death in the hospital, his loyalty to her memory for the next ten years as he slowly sank into alcoholism but still faithfully wore his ring, and finally, his death, still loving her.”

“You dumped all that sacrifice into a potion to fix a broken leg that would have healed just fine on it’s own over time with the proper care. The other three ingredients didn’t have enough of a matrix to use it all, so it was almost entirely wasted. If you had made the potion right, it could have worked miracles, but as it was, the meta had enough health reserve that it took two potions like that to fix him up proper. The sacrifice from the ring was like using a nukular reactor to power a flashlight.”

Maggie sighed a little, “Normal Humans are easy to heal. They don’t have massive reserves of health and endurance to draw on. But the potion that would set a human right in a moment would barely make a dent in a guy the size of a walrus, able to bounce bullets, that can chuck a car like a hockey puck.”

Maggie gave me an eye. “The worst part is, you have been taking on all those sacrifices yourself. Each one draws from your… luck, advancement, potential, future. I bet your life has been filled with shitty unluck from the moment you made your first potion, hasn’t it?”

I nodded, “Point taken. And it’s a lot more obvious with the updated system. There is a health reserve, and a hundred points that would make a human healthy as a horse would barely make a dent in a 1200 point cap.”

She nodded, “I guess, I just know that the stronger someone is, the stronger potion they require. If a Fey asked me for a love spell, I would refuse, because with their lifespan, magic, and power it would probably take the sacrifice of several human lives, which is deep, dark black magic.”

I started looking into the ingredients Paul had helped collect. “So love spells are real? And what is black magic?”

She smiled a little, “Love spells are real enough, but not like them movies. That’s a lust potion, and a lot of those are pretty unethical, like slipping a mickey into your date’s drink. A love spell, though, manipulates fate and opportunity to make sure two kindred souls meet and have a chance to fall in love. Takes a hefty sacrifice, but some folks would consider it worth it more than Tinder, which is kind of the same thing.”

“Black Magic is not based on what the spell does, but what it costs, usually… there are exceptions, but those exceptions are usually designed to draw sacrifices that are black as hell. A fire mage can set a fireball that burns down a town, and kills thousands, but while that’s bad karma, that is not Black magic. Necromancy isn’t even necessarily black magic. Animating a skeleton or zombie is disgusting, but it’s not too different from just making a golem out of real human parts, and they are about as smart as a golem too.”

“But necromancy is a slippery slope. The urge to resurrect or call back the spirit of someone requires sacrifices that firmly put it in the realm of black magic, unless you pay them yourself. What you did for vectress wasn’t a real resurrection, she was in a displaced coma, but it skirted the line… and you paid the sacrifice yourself, but for true resurrection, a life demands a life. Black magic, and what comes back usually doesn’t have a soul.”

I nodded, and started working on more TGOW pills, as well as a few cleansing pills. “So how do you think I should make a healing potion?”

Maggie smirked, “Well, your ability to liquify things takes out a hefty chunk of sacrifice. The work and irritation of rendering things down is usually a good source of initial power. I am not going to say stop doing that, but be aware you are going to have to make up for it somewhere. But keep the pain relief separate except for a few potions for special cases.”

“Next you need function and form. Aloe is great for form, but using aspirin enhances pain relief for function. Tobacco is known to draw venom out of bites and stings, and it’s common enough for a good base function, especially if you want your healing potion to assist with poison and disease. Tobacco doesn’t have a healing aspect, but it still counts towards reinforcement.”

I nodded, “Got it.”

Maggies shook her head, “Not entirely. Remember, this is not a formula. If you had a magical healing herb I’d say use that instead. There’s also a million other things you could use that scream healing. Scientific alchemy uses formulas, but you need results that work, not results that can be crisply measured with a slide rule or whatever.”

I smiled, “Yeah, I actually got that. I am not as stuck on scientific methods as you might think. Hell, the cleansing pills used Oni essence, and I am sure that there are other things you could do besides melting a giant rampaging troll.”

Maggie nodded, “Technically, using Oni essence like that is Black Magic, but I assume you didn’t melt it with the intention of using it in a potion?”

I nodded, “I was defending myself, collected some remains, and only later did I figure out what it was useful for. So what would you use next?”

Maggie smiled a little. “Next up is heart. It’s something that makes you FEEL like you are going to heal. I’d probably use some chicken soup or something. After that, you need soul. What signifies that you are healed? It can be for you, or specific to your target, but since you are not making these for someone in particular, you might get a better impression from something you, personally, deal with to feel healed.”

I thought about it. When I was hurt, what did I do to ensure myself I was fully set? I worked out. “For me? This is going to sound stupid, but I would mix a big glass of whey powder, go for a run, and then work out until my muscles couldn’t do it anymore. It told me I was healed and also how much I’d lost from getting hurt and being laid up.”

Maggie grinned, “That is actually perfect! Not only is it a good soul, but it also has aspects of muscle, health, and fitness. Those aspects still combine well even if they are not in a function position. That’s why a lot of witches tend to have favorite recipes because they find a bunch of stuff that both resonates with the mixture, but also has self-reinforcing aspects. In the old days, there was so little magic that not doing both meant a nonfunctional potion. Now, the next factor is strength. It’s kind of a shame you used the whey powder on the soul, but for me, I would use fresh air and sunshine.”

I stood up straight, “Fresh air and sunshine? In a potion?”

Maggie laughed! “Of course. Potions don’t have to be all physical objects. For me, it takes a hefty spell to obtain a liquefied form, but you have a gift for it.”

“I could liquefy fresh air and sunshine?”

“Have you tried? Does it say under the ability that it only works on solid matter? Hell, for all I know you could liquefy concepts. For your catalyst, for example, I was going to suggest you try and liquefy a small portion of your own health, which is disgustingly high, especially with your regeneration. It adds a bit of sacrifice, cannot be traced through sympathetic magic, and you’d probably have it back in seconds or minutes.”

I nodded, “I was going to go with steroids, but I could try fresh air and sunshine, or even the concept of hard work if it works.”

She laughed, “I don’t recommend hard work. I don’t know how long it would take that to grow back, and you’d be lazy for a while. It would make a good potion, though.”

I nodded, “Okay, next… umm… alcohol? I use it as the base fluid a lot, it also makes people feel better, short-term at least.”

She nodded, “I agree. You are getting the gist of it. I do have to warn you though… liquefying concepts, if you can, can have some unusual effects. You could safely liquefy health easily, but for me, an old witch, doing it to myself would probably kill me. If you have a girlfriend and added the concept of love, she might be upset with you for treating her like an acquaintance or stranger for a few days. Adding strength will make you weaker for a while, and that sort of thing. You can also add more at this point, but you should mostly stick to reinforcement after the basic ingredients are done. A little concept goes a long way, so I’d add more of the cheaper ingredients to match.”

“I assume you plan on adding an heirloom to minimize the sacrifice for yourself and the recipient?”

I nodded, “I have them, and I can get more.”

She nodded, “Then, except for the concept catalysts, I would add a lot of other ingredients and make a bunch of potions. That Ring you sacrificed? You could have added ingredients to get two dozen sacrifice-free potions easily.”

I nodded, smirking a little to myself. Yes, she said that it was feel and art more than math and science, but in the end, I bet a great deal of the formulation could be broken down into numbers of some sort.

“So this whole draining of conceptualization… Is that normal?” I asked curiously, using that nice new cauldron to heat up the liquid that would form into a pill.

Maggie nodded, “Yep. Not liquefying it, of course, That takes special magic or a gift like yours. But being able to use magic requires that you conceptualize those concepts. You can pull from your basic concepts for special-purpose things, like emotions, intelligence, and the like, but every person also has pools of power they can draw from… Magic, Health, creativity, and Ummm… tiredness? Fatigue? Those are used regularly for magical purposes, and they regenerate quickly, based on how many features you have in them. It’s all very secretive, of course, but the first training a wizard undergoes is exercising his magic pool, pulling from it, and then learning to form from the other pools.”

I grinned at her evilly, “So if You could actually SEE representations of those pools, in numbers, would it help to train the abilities you use them for?” I think that I just realized the point of TGOW version 2. By having an actual representation of your gifts, you could exercise and expand those gifts. Add to that the actual unlocking of your potential, be it magic, chi, psychic, technological, or whatever, Max was right… The Game of War didn’t GIVE you things, it just gave you a new method of accessing them and improving them on your own. This was big and set my mind considerably at ease. Humans never valued anything that they received for free, but as Maggie said, Magic had a price, and it looked like TGOW simply gave you the ability to see that price and understand how to pay it. The classes were just a formalized recognition of the direction your gifts could expand, and I had no idea how far that expansion could go.

Muahaha! I could find a way to exercise my sorcery! Expand it intentionally instead of incidentally, and with Maggie’s methods of potion creation, I might even be able to expand my technology tree intentionally as well! Anything could be used in the right potion, and if I wanted to find a way to add a blender, some black-eyed peas, and a pair of Nikes I might be able to come up with a concept for it! My dreams of an entire hold filled with weird special-purpose potions I created to practice were stopped when Maggie nodded.

“Yes, Magic use is like a muscle. You have to use it, and train it, but if you overexert yourself, like exercise, you could hurt yourself badly, permanently, or even die. Both my magic and my fey blood have extended my life and allowed me to reach my peak in some areas, but everyone has limits. The only way to exceed those limits is with a natural-born talent, a fey blessing, artifact, or a powerful potion….”

I grinned at her and held up my newly-formulated cleansing pill, as well as an upgrade. “I know you consider yourself old, and near the end of your life, but I imagine by Fey standards you are barely a baby. Do you have the slightest interest in being a test case? Or would you rather write yourself off as done, with nothing further to offer anyone but your legacy?”

I waggled my eyebrows at her, “This cleansing Pill might not offer much, but it should set the clock back a bit. No blood and I didn’t include any concepts because I really haven’t experimented with them yet, but it appears to be powerful as hell.” I used a few more ingredients in its construction including brain coral, broccoli, and purified water, and I was much more satisfied with the result. It took a higher power rating, and I wouldn’t let a normal human take it, and it probably was not as aggressive about cleansing as the chi-focused pill had been, but it should have a pretty major effect. It would hurt, though, especially for someone Maggie’s age.

Cleansing and Rejuvenation Pill

Value:0

Aspects: Life, body, Health, Magic

Power: 20

This pill is highly sought after by cultivators and mortals alike. As a body ages, it collects more and more tainted essence, causing physical age-related damage as well as filling the body with impurities.

This pill is painful to take, but it clears almost all impurities, as well as reverting age-related damage and regenerating many traumas.

It will help clear blockages in your dantians and channels, repair blocked and tainted magical channels, and allow sorcery, Qui, or psionic essence to flow more cleanly through your body. This is a more powerful version of this pill, but unenchanted tools were used in it’s creation as well as impure and less refined essences.

Unlike other Cleansing pills, this pill does not strip out bloodlines, but it purifies them.

“This should make you feel a bit younger. I am betting you were an absolute stunner a few years back, and I certainly would not be averse to seeing you like that again. 300 is childhood for a Fey, so you could be looking at a very long and potentially profitable adolescence. Not immortality, though… Sorry, I think that’s reserved for fey and deities alone.”

Maggie nodded, “Don’t count me out yet boy. Give me the pills. I’ll do a seeing on them to make sure they won’t kill me. I still have a good century left, but I know big changes are coming… I was looking forward to dying and missing the worst of it, but it looks like I missed the cutoff, and would rather look at it with fresh eyes. If I do decide to take them, though, that chit of yours, Vectress, had better hold on tight or I might take you away from her.”

I snorted, “That depends, do you get turned on by being tied to the foot of the bed while your ass is beaten red?”

She surprised me a little when she cackled and replied, “Oh, you would be AMAZED at what an old soul like mine finds amusing, boy. You might find yourself in that position instead, and enjoying every second of it.”

Nope, nope, not going to happen. Maggie wasn’t the least bit submissive, more likely a domme, and definitely not my type. Call me an arrogant, selfish jerk if you like, but while I was happy to flirt with her, she was… Seriously old. Peeling off a few years or even a few decades wasn’t going to put her in my spank bank, especially not in front of Vectress, who I had been fantasizing about for weeks.

I hated to admit it, but weirdly I was about ten times as possessive of Lauren as I was of anyone else. Aquantis was fun, Akiko was seriously important, and Caelo was a little scary but full of potential, but Lauren was… I dunno, even if I didn’t have toughness or regeneration, and even though we hadn’t been in bed together or even on a serious date, I would throw myself in front of a bullet for her.

Hell, I had. I knew the sacrifice was going to be painful, and it was, but except for occasional longings for my wings, I didn’t regret it for a moment. She needed me, in a way that no one else did, and I think I really needed her too. A far cry for a woman I had met when she electrocuted me into unconsciousness and then kidnapped me to sell to drug dealers. I would do it again, sacrifice my regeneration or toughness or even my strength for her if I had to, and that was seriously scary.

I was not really sure what I would do if I lost my powers. Maybe become a bank robber or an influencer or try to go back to med school, but the terrifying part was, if that’s what it took to avoid losing her again, that’s what I would do. Was that what an obsession felt like?

I guess I was obsessed then, damn.

***

After Maggie assured herself that I remembered her potion lessons, I decided to spend time practicing the idea of liquefying concepts. It was important, but I had plans to make it first as well.

“Camilla?” I said aloud as I tucked the new pills into a little brown cloth baggie, with another one that contained the purification tablets, both the originals, which should work on humans and the advanced kind, which should work on anyone except humans.

The Hologram appeared. “Do you wish to end privacy mode?”

I nodded, “Yes, please. I need you to ask Sif if there’s a way we can get close to Chicago. Also, have Lauren… err...Vectress meet me at my quarters. Tell her I said that unless someone’s life is on the line, failing to proceed with all due haste is not an option. I will be there in ten minutes.”

I started cleaning everything carefully. One of the good things about the Lair’s recyclers was that I had far less concern about dropping activated potion bits down them. Obviously, I still would not just dump the vampire potions, but I checked and they still seemed to be safely stashed in the Lab’s vault. The recycler disassembled everything, filtered what was left, reclaimed what it could, and dumped the rest.

When I returned to the room, I didn’t see Lauren outside, but when I stepped into the room, I saw her standing patiently by the door, still wearing her fetching fishnets and costume, her hands clasped behind her back and her head slightly down.

I walked in and sat on the swivel chair next to the desk, which was a very nice Mahogany. “Lauren, we need to talk seriously.”

She sighed and nodded, “Yes sir. I understand. Things have changed. My needs are… not your needs anymore, and you need to be free to pursue this big new thing without distractions. I am too… needy.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “Wow, you have actually gotten worse at anticipating my reactions. I am sorry it’s been so long, but you might need a little bit of retraining. Retraining I will be happy to provide, provided we get a few things out of the way first.” I gestured toward the bed a few feet away. The Apartment was nice and large, and there were curtains that could be used to screen off the desk area into a sort of private office or bed area. There was also a large couch and several chairs in the main area, as well as a weird sort of studio kitchenette with a microwave, small oven, hot plate, and a tiny table with two chairs.

Lauren nodded and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Yes sir?”

“Okay, I know you care for your role, but I need some straight answers. You are still going to be serving as my slave for a while, but right now I need to talk to you like a person, a woman I care for a lot but don’t know as well as I would like. Open the bedroom door, figuratively, I need to talk to you like an employer, potential boyfriend, friend, and teammate.”

She nodded, “Yes, Louis. I thought, when Camilla dropped off the message, that we were going to be… ahh… having a different sort of meeting, one way or the other.”

I nodded, “Yeah, I sorta figured that, but you do know I am not a fan of real slavery, right? I have been through that myself, and I will fight tooth and nail against involuntary servitude. I am happy to have you as my pet and slave, but if it makes you unhappy you have to tell me.”

She sighed, reached up, and took off her mask. I had forgotten how lovely she was, and how young she looked without her prior goth chic makeup. “This is not involuntary. The whole thing excites me like crazy. I thought you were dead at times, and I… Kind of have a borderline personality. If I were certain of it and didn’t have to take care of Cody, I might have seriously considered just getting out of this life, if not all life. I was worried that you were going to look beyond me, consider me a limitation and a burden you didn’t need.”

I laughed, “Shit. We are both a couple of obsessed people, aren’t we? I was thinking we’d only been together a couple of weeks, never even had a real date, or slept together or anything. After what happened with Alison, I wondered if you’d sorta moved on or whatever, and was trying to figure out a polite way to ask.”

She shook her head. “No, you have protected me at every turn, and most recently, you even sacrificed, what I thought was your life to save mine. I mean, how much more can a girl ask from her master?”

I grinned, “Yeah, I am kind of obsessed. I was even thinking I’d give up my powers if I needed to keep you. You are mine, woman, and you will like it.”

She giggled, “If you gave up your powers, it would be a lot harder to imagine that you could easily overpower me. But then, I’d have to keep you around just for the eye candy. You are smaller than you were, but at the larger size you were almost too much, now you are just right… much bigger than me, and a bit terrifying, but not like gigantic.”

I nodded, “Speaking of something completely different, How close do you have to be to take us to Chicago?” I got up from the chair and flopped onto the bed next to her, wrapping my right arm around her as my weight sank the mattress so she sort of rolled into my embrace.

She rested her head, her long hair behind my shoulder, against the side of my chest, her eyes closing. “If we get really close to the coast of Rhode Island, I think I might be able to open a portal that far. If we fly, we’d be hovering over the US at the fastest route for me to open a portal, which could cause a host of problems. Right now, one of the metas was able to use my lightning to jump-start a metatech reactor to give us access to another system, but I have to recharge it occasionally and it wipes me out completely. So right now, we have defense, immersive life support, and aggression systems active. The flight would mean cutting off one of those systems, maybe two if we go stealth, and Alison says it’s only a matter of time before we have every meta on the planet gunning for us.”

I nodded, “So from a completely neutral point of view, do you want out?”

She shook her head, “Not even remotely. I want you to make one of those update pills for me and I want to be the first to try it other than you. Being a Meta has been hell, even though I have decent control because it comes with too many demands for my mind to take. Your mission, your quest, to update others? I know it means we will need to start taking the fight to the Chaos, but then we won’t be alone anymore, we will have a goal, a mission, and I need that kind of direction as much as I need you.”

She turned a little bit to look at me closely, and I tugged my own helmet off with the other hand. “I think we should get Cody someplace safe, someplace safer than here because the Lair is a gigantic target. To be honest, I think I might ask Antonia to take care of him for a while, in France… She’s dropped out for a while and said she needs to de-stress, and considering she spent basically every moment of her life since Junior high in training or working I cannot much blame her… plus, she offered.”

I sighed, “I kind of like having Cody around, but he’s way too young to understand what is going on. I asked Sif to put us on a course for Chicago, which probably means taking the scenic route because immersion is way safer than flying. Can you multi-jump with Cody?”

She nodded, “Absolutely. No one’s really looking for me in particular, and if we do go the immersion route, I won’t even need to multi-jump. France is well within my range for a day or so if we take the right route, and I suspect that Sif would be more than willing to go airborne over the middle east. Their pickup equipment is crap at best, and Proteus tends to have their people steer clear in order to avoid getting embroiled in local conflicts. Lots of Protectors are political, and getting them close to home just tempts them to get involved.”

“Camilla, did you catch that?”

Camilla appeared, still dressed in her sailor suit, “Yes, I did. Would you like me to relay the requests, and the reasons behind them, to Sif?”

I nodded, “Yep, and get her response for me.”

She nodded and looked thoughtful for a moment. “Sif said we are still far enough south that going around the horn won’t cost us more than a day. She also says she doesn’t want us to… in her words… expose our naked asses in the air until we get the power problem fixed. She also wonders when you are going to expose Vectress’ naked ass in the air, but I think that might have been a joke.”

I shrugged, “Tell her that’s cool. We don’t actually need to go that far north. If we get close to South America I can ask Vectress to multi-jump me up to Chicago. But we want to find a way to get the noncombatants out of Danger, without much way of them spilling the beans too early, and for her to pick up her crew. After This, I am going to want privacy mode again so I can take Sif’s advice.”

After a moment Camilla flickered and Sif was standing there full body hologram. “What’s with this tell her this tell her that shit?” she asked. “Just use the holocomm system. You know, giving orders through Camilla is not respectful.”

I gaped a little, “Because I didn’t know that?” I said, “I wasn’t aware that was even an option, although it makes sense. And I wasn’t giving orders, I was asking you to do things. It’s your ship.”

Sif nodded grumpily, “Don’t you forget it. But seriously, I’d much rather go around the horn than up through the med. Not too worried about passing over Morocco, it’s a neutral zone, but flying that close to Israel would be risky as hell. We need to hit Norway for me to pick up my family, which will take us within spitting distance of France. We can drop off the noncoms, the ones that aren’t filled with rage and desire to kick ass and take names, in South Africa. It won’t shut them up for long, but a lot of them are used to keeping their lips zipped. The rest can wait till we get to Norway, and while I am getting my people together You can multi-jump through Greenland, Canada, and then hit Chicago.”

I nodded, “Sounds like a plan, and it is not terribly time-sensitive. I have apparently been floating around for almost a month, so I might need some real training time before we go back into action. The clock is ticking now, but once I hit Chicago, we go into overtime.”

Sif gave me an evil look, “Oh, I definitely look forward to some training time with you. It feels like I haven’t kicked your ass in a month. It’s overdue.”

I nodded, “It’s been longer than that, but who’s counting? I need a bit of alone time for now, though.”

Sif grumbled and Camilla reappeared. “Would you like me to engage privacy now?”

I nodded and turned to Lauren.