Gaia used a spell to make all of us invisible. Not just visibly, but to a bunch of different extra senses as well. She may not have had much to do with her technology-controlling power in the old days, but she had learned a hell of a lot about magic. Of course she had, being Morgan le Fay, a fact that still made me blink a few times inwardly whenever I remembered that fact. Was it weird that that tripped me up when I spent so much time around other mythological figures?


    Either way, there was actually a lot I wanted to ask her about when it came to that stuff, but I’d never had the chance to get into much of it back at Crossroads. It never really felt right.


    But hey, maybe I could find a way to talk to her about it back in this time period once we managed to save Millersby from these pirates. And if I could do so without alerting her about who I was or what was going to happen in the future, bonus. Which, of course, just made me think that maybe I could ask her something that would help us save her in the future. But that was still something that was basically impossible to predict. How could I talk to her about anything big like that without screwing up and saying too much?


    Thankfully, I didn’t have much time to dwell on that. In the old days, I would’ve had to physically run past and through all those panicking pirates. Which, even running flat out would’ve taken awhile if we didn’t want to crash into anyone while we were invisible. Especially the way they were acting like headless chickens, stampeding in every direction (it was like someone had spent the past several minutes intentionally terrifying them with a bunch of ghosts and zombies or something). Yeah, it would’ve been a mess to get through all that. But now, I simply focused on a clear spot just to the side of where a large group of the pirates were struggling to pour through a hatch on what remained of the ship, and transported all four of us there.


    I’d warned Gaia about what I was going to do, of course. And yet, she still gave a soft gasp of surprise, looking around once we were there. There was a faint shimmering aura around her body, as well as Cerberus’s, Percy’s, and my own when I looked down. An effect of the spell she was using. We could see each other, but no one else could. And no one else would hear as she spoke wonderingly, “You are quite the accomplished sorcerer, Jacob. I detected no use of any magic at all. You gave no gesture and spoke no word. It is… quite impressive.” She was looking at me like she was appraising me all over again with new information. It was an expression that made me blush a bit. Of course I wanted to impress Gaia. She was both the headmistress (or she had been) and the mother of one of my girlfriends. And hell, she was just a really impressive person in general. The fact that she was amazed by something I could do felt incredible. It was all I could do to keep the dopey smile off my face. There was so much I wanted to say to her, to ask her, to– focus, Flick. Figure out what to say to Gaia later. And definitely don’t think about how cool it was that she thought I was an incredible teleporter.


    Yeah, definitely had to stop myself from grinning like an idiot. Instead, I pivoted back toward the nearby ship. “You think that’s some cool magic, check this out. Abracadabra.” With that, I pointed at the seemingly blank wall as it slid aside, revealing a small emergency ramp that led up into a side corridor.


    Gaia was taken aback at first. “How did–” Then she realized. “Your ghosts.”


    That time I really did grin. “They found the nearest entrance for us, yeah. Come on, before someone over there notices. We’ve gotta get up there. The rest of my buddies out there will keep their attention for as long as they can, but they’re gonna realize it’s a distraction eventually. We should hurry up.” Even as I said that, Percy and Cerberus were going up the ramp, the girl calling over her shoulder to let us know it was clear.


    So, Gaia and I joined them quickly, and I gave a nod of thanks to the ghost hovering there (it was Kehchul, the fancily-dressed goblin with the Tricorn hat) who had opened the way for us. He gave me a tip of that hat, then flew out to join his companions in causing a ruckus. I had already told all of them to scatter and vanish the second any real threat presented itself, like that Laein chick getting back up or an army’s-worth of ghost-fire weapons appearing. Part of me thought I should have ended that threat immediately, but it was the same old song. I wasn’t sure how important she was to the timeline, so I couldn’t kill her.


    Besides, she hadn’t actually done anything bad enough to deserve it, as far as I knew.


    This small, out-of-the-way area we were in was actually a maintenance corridor. There was a tall, thin robot of some kind with long extendo-arms doing repair work nearby, but it wasn’t paying any attention to us. At least, it wasn’t until Gaia looked that way. Then the thing retracted its eight-foot-long arms back to a reasonable length and turned to face us, clearly waiting for further instructions.


    “Have your… companions located the missing man?” Gaia asked, once she had full control over the robot. “This automaton is… not particularly knowledgeable on that subject.” She immediately interpreted my expression. “And no, I have not used that ability to extract information from your three-headed canine companion there.” Her head nodded toward Cerberus, who gave a quick, eager smile with all three heads. “I have no desire to change the timeline. You–” She paused pointedly, collecting her thoughts for a second before quickly managing, “Whenever you come from, it is a time in which I have… not fallen back to old habits, a time when you see me as someone to admire and look up to. Yet I clearly have not completely forgotten the person I used to be, because you knew of that person. That time is… something I am looking forward to. I would prefer not to change it, even accidentally, by learning too much. Whatever dangers may lie ahead, your belief that I am a better person when it comes is more than worthwhile. I will respect your privacy, Jacob, and that of your sister and automaton friend.” With that, she gestured. “Now, about those ghosts?”


    Shaking off the reaction her words were inspiring in me, I answered. “They’ve been looking, but there’s an area toward the bottom of what’s left of this place that they can’t get into. Maybe that wrist thing can control the shield. We’ll just have to get closer and find out.”


    Even as I said that, Gaia was looking around with an expression of wonder and amazement that she couldn’t quite contain. There really wasn’t anything that special about this corridor. It looked like any of a number of such places I’d seen on other ships and space stations. Especially at the Fusion school. But then, this Gaia hadn’t been on all those things. And she wasn’t just seeing this stuff the way I would. She was feeling it with her power. In fact, this might just be the first time she had experienced this level of her technopathy and felt what it was really capable of. Yeah, no wonder she was overwhelmed. I would’ve been too.


    “Oh,” she announced with realization, “there are records on this vessel, and mechanical eyes. I can see us.” Her hand rose to point toward a camera that had emerged from the wall.


    “Can they see us?” I asked quickly before realizing, “Wait, no. We’re still invisible, right?” My hand had moved to pull my staff out just in case, but I hesitated. If it was at all possible, I didn’t want to let her see that particular weapon. It was too distinctive when you added in the Necromancy thing. If it came down to a fight, I was going to have to deal with it another way.


    Fortunately, Gaia shook her head. “We are still invisible, yes. And even if that were not the case, I have removed their access to all of their mechanical eyes so they would not realize which was the problem. And I have located their prison. You’re right, it’s behind the central lower forcefield, but I have disabled that as well. We should hurry. They have guards within who are attempting to call for instructions, but I have rerouted those calls for the time being. It would be best to arrive before they decide to act on their own initiative and kill the prisoners.”


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    “Right,” I agreed, already starting to walk before giving a double-take. “Wait, prisoners? As in plural? They have more than just Millersby?”


    “So it would seem,” came the response as Gaia moved alongside me, with Percy and Cerberus bringing up the rear. “They have no mechanical eyes within the cells themselves, which seems an oversight for the one group within this ship which one would think should be watched continuously. Perhaps we should submit a complaint.” She offered me a faint, mischievous smile.


    Snorting despite myself, I nodded. “Sure, yeah maybe we should. We’ll file it with their HR department.” Belatedly, as she gave me a blank look, I amended, “Their human resources department– eh, the people in charge of their employee relations.”


    “It’s important to have a good HR department!” Percy piped up. “My old ship… did not. We had some problems that probably could have been avoided. Oh, a nice therapist would’ve been good too.” She gave me a quick wink as I glanced back that way. “I have been talking with the school principal about the importance of such things.”


    Abigail, I knew. She was talking about Abigail, but was being circumspect to avoid giving Gaia more info she shouldn’t have. Percy really was smarter than people tended to give her credit for.


    We made our way through the narrow corridor and into a wider room full of crates of supplies and tools. About half of them had already been opened and poured through haphazardly, reminding me that all of our jokes aside, these pirates didn’t actually own this ship. They were using this crashed portion of it as a base while digging things up, and had clearly taken over all its systems, even to the point of using its own brig for their prisoners (seriously, who else did they have locked up in there?), but it didn’t belong to them. Depending on how much time they had to really explore the place, they might be as lost as us. Or even more lost given I had ghosts scouting the place and Gaia had her power. Come to think of it, we probably had a better handle on where everything was than they did. We definitely had a better handle on where they were, considering Gaia could use the ship’s systems to keep track of all of them. She took us on a route toward the prison area that avoided any encounters. I was pretty sure we’d be okay if it did come to a fight, but it would slow us down, and the entire point was to get out of this as smoothly and quickly as possible.


    Well, at least until we saved Millersby and the rest of these prisoners. After that, I kind of wanted to ask these people how they had any connection to the Pale Ship. Especially about where that sash had come from.


    But, for the moment, we just made our way through these corridors as quickly as possible. Most of the pirates were toward the entrances onto the ship. The main entrances, that was. They were too far away for me to hear, but not for Cerberus. The robot dog started quietly transmitting the sound of the voices he was able to pick up, allowing us to hear them through the speakers in his mouths. It sounded like the pirates who had been inside of the ship were more of the command crew, or at least higher up in rank, and they weren’t happy about the ones outside breaking and retreating in the face of my undead army. Meanwhile, the ones who had been outside doing all the work were pissed off about being left there for so long. It was sparking a whole conflict right there at the boarding ramp.


    The pirate officers kept insisting that they were working on adjusting what remained of this ship’s weapons to do some actual damage to ghosts, and that they had called their own ship back with their leader for reinforcements. Both of which convinced me to make this even quicker. Fortunately, the prison was just ahead of us as we moved out of even Cerberus’s hearing range, the arguments fading down to nothing.


    Finally, we reached the shield. Even as we approached it, however, Gaia held up the wrist control unit and the shield flickered before disappearing silently. She offered me a faint smile, which I returned easily. This felt… right, going on a mission alongside Gaia to save what turned out to be a bunch of innocent people from pirates. Whatever else was going on, this was the right thing to do.


    And then we were right outside the prison entrance. Two confused and angry pirates stood there, pistols drawn and pointed at the doorway. Not our doorway. They were pointed into the prison area. One of the men, a bear-like figure with a long prehensile tail, shouted a demand to know which of the prisoners was responsible for what was happening outside. It sounded like they were starting to think that if they just shot everyone in there, the situation would resolve itself.


    Before I could say anything, Gaia undid the invisibility spell and spoke aloud. “Ahem, in the interest of fairness, I shall give you two chances to surrender.”


    As soon as they heard her voice, the two pirates spun, aimed, and pulled their triggers. Nothing happened, of course. She had already taken control of their weapons. “That,” Gaia announced flatly, “was one chance. You have one more. I suggest you not waste it.”


    As though intentionally punctuating her words, Cerberus moved forward past us with all three of his heads focused intently on the two pirates. He growled dangerously, the sound making it abundantly clear which choice he preferred they make.


    Percy, for her part, spoke brightly. “Don’t worry, boy, we’ll find someone you can eat.”


    That was enough for these pirates. They tossed down their weapons and dropped to their knees. Gaia touched one of her rings, and a wave of light green energy lashed out toward them. As soon as they were struck by it, the men collapsed into a couple of unconscious heaps, snoring heavily.


    Seeing my confused look as she lowered her hand, Gaia replied, “A decently powerful sleep spell, but easily resisted when one is ready to fight as they were. Mentally surrendering was enough for the spell to work properly.”


    That, of course, just reminded me of all the things I desperately wanted to ask. One of which was how long she had been connected to Crossroads, if it was even called that right now. I knew from her aura flaring up she was a Boscher, but not for how long or what powers she had already picked up. She clearly wasn’t accustomed to using them, considering she had relied solely on her technopathy and magic so far. Or was that just because actually having this many targets for her technopathy was something new so she was embracing it while she could?


    Yeah, all of that stuff I probably shouldn’t get into. Fortunately, I was distracted from it as I moved to the doorway the pirates had been pointing their weapons through and got my first real look at the prisoners, who were all huddled together in the corner of what turned out to be a simple ten by fifteen cell with a single toilet and not much else.


    Millersby was there, to my immense relief. He was a short man with goat-like features and a long tongue that I knew could lash out with blinding speed to about three feet in length, and stun people if he hit their skin with it. But mostly it was used for stunning small prey back when his people had been more primitive. Less so now, but it was still useful at times. Not that he was exactly the type to fight with it.


    A quick headcount revealed about seven other prisoners, none of whom I recognized. They weren’t people from the village, that was for sure. I knew all of those people. So who the hell were these ones? One thing that stood out was that they were all Native American, and looked human. They also looked very lost and afraid.


    Millersby was looking at me with just as apprehensive and confused of a look as the others, of course. He had no idea who I was under this disguise. Which was good, since one of the last things I needed was for him to blurt out my real name in front of Gaia.


    To that end, I turned to look over my shoulder at the woman in question. “Sorry, could you give us a second?”


    She seemed to realize at least part of what was going on, and gave a simple nod. “Of course, I’ll secure our exit.” With that, she stepped back out the way we had come.


    Okay, now I just had to let Millersby know not to expose my real identity, and find out who these other people were so we could get–


    The next thing I knew, my stomach was turning over, feeling queasy. My vision went white, and I was suddenly standing somewhere else. This wasn’t as smooth as when I teleported, it made me feel like throwing up. I staggered, taking a quick look around. I was on the docking bay of the ship. No, wait, not that ship. I was on another one. That much was obvious when I glanced to one side past several smaller one-person starfighters, to a massive open doorway leading out to open space. It was shielded by a forcefield, but I could see the Earth far below. I had been teleported up to another spaceship.


    Oh, and I wasn’t alone. I was surrounded by what had to be thirty heavily armed and armored guys, all pointing their weapons my way. At the head of them, right in front of me, was an Akheilosan, the same species I had inherited my shark-control power from. A very familiar Akheilosan.


    “Well,” Fahsteth, the man who would one day almost kill Avalon as a child, announced, “what have we got here?”