Veranda Incognita, Home of the Waverlys

[Craines]

The shuttle was silent. Everyone had fallen asleep, including Julius and Pops. Even Jessica had dozed off in her seat. It was eerie, being in a shuttle approaching light speed, but the occupants of the craft did not mind. Indeed, they did not know at all.

Fiona stirred from her slumber, her eyes blinking hurriedly in dim LED light. She staggered to her feet, and walked over to the controls. Her Rheinlandic wasn't as good as her aunt's, but...

"Huh." That was all she said as she looked at the panel. As they gained velocity, they were moving towards their predetermined destination. It was huge... even from this distance it was able to be sensed by the fine tools on board the ship. She knew what it was, and she knew there would be some annoying questions that would be asked, but she was too weary and heart sore to care. She would be perfectly content on smacking whomever asked the first one.

"May I ask what the Ambassador is doing?" chimed a little voice. Fiona hand had already struck out, and she drew it back, nursing it. She had just hit the shell of the floating robot, deSicev, and had received an unfavorable shock from its shielding. "May I remind the Ambassador that this model's shielding is superior to most planets?" Fiona sighed, and then began to slap deSicev again, but decided against it. The pain in her fingers was already enough to deal with.

"Yes, you miserable sphere of English accent and manners, you most certainly can ask both things. Or remind. Whatever. I am trying to figure out how to reprogram the course, and I already know that I can't touch you. That stupid shield of yours is hypersensitive..."

"May I remind the Ambassador that course was programmed by Doctor Artificer, and that tampering with it would undoubtedly cause the system to inject a large quantity of nerve agent into the hull of the shuttle craft, debilitating all passengers therein?"

Fiona stared at the little sphere. "How do you...what did you...deSicev, did you hack into the shuttle's computer?"

The ballbot looked around, the cybernetic features of its LED face looking sheepishly. "Of course not! But may I remind the Ambassador that..." Fiona stood up, and kicked the ball. She collapsed again, now rocking back and forth, nursing her foot. Even in the shoe she wore, the electric shock had given her immense pain. "If you use the the sentence 'May I remind the Ambassador' again, I'll bring you to the Factory on Honshu, activate the Van Allen electromagnet, and erase that fragile memory core of yours! Do I make myself clear?!"

"That's the old girl I love... good to hear your tenacity is back, darlin'," an old voice said. Turning in her chair, Fiona faced Reggie, who was already walking. Julius, Rick and Jay were waking up, too. Fiona blushed.

"I didn't mean to wake you all up... it's just, well, this damned ball keeps getting on my nerves." She looked at deSicev. She began to laugh. "Decisive... deSicev... heh. Well, Artifice *must* have had a sense of humour when he made you... I wonder what correlation between you and your namesake could be?"

"I can answer that!" the only other female said. "He is named deSicev because he will play an integral part in destroying the Ska Jaktar... I mean, this object we're heading for."

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