Chapter 150: Earth Squad, Assemble!
Location: Magicon Empire; Magicon System; Benson Moon
The holidays start rather disappointingly as everyone around me leaves. Alina decides to go home to her parents for the first time after that engagement disaster, Lucy takes a passenger liner to meet up with her twin Brother Jack, and Lydia goes on vacation with Olivia. They are quickly followed by Nick, who starts working at his grandmother’s coffee shop again, and Tim, who was invited to visit his family. However, he obviously just goes home to his own family, the Silvanis.
Before I know it, I’m all alone, so there’s only one logical consequence. I’m going home too! But before that, I have one more thing to do, and that is saying goodbye to my great-grandparents. I’ve already said bye to Chris and Aria, though I’ll probably see her on Earth.
Anyway, I arrive in my usual jump room on Benson Moon and hop into the nearby disguise chamber to turn back into my real self. Come to think of it, I can actually stay that way for the next two months until the next college year and therefore the Earth Adventure begins, yay!
Five minutes later, I open the door and am almost immediately tackled by Vic’s vicious hug. “Hi Sara! Are you excited yet? Because I am! I can’t wait. Just two more months and we’ll write history.”
“Gah, let me breathe, let me breathe, Vic!” I struggle out of her very tight hug and smile at her. “Of course I’m excited! Who wouldn’t be?”
“Haha, true,” she replies. “So what are you doing here?”
“Can’t I just want to visit my favorite cousin?” I wink at her and she smiles. “But seriously, I’m here to say goodbye to Grandma Amelia and Grandpa John… Everyone’s gone already, and so I decided to head home too.”
Vic sighs. “Right, holidays… I forgot about them. Students have it so good. Anyway, both of them are currently in meetings, but if you stay for lunch, I can arrange for them to join us.”
I snort loudly. “Yeah, yeah, you are the poorest person there is… Not that everyone would kill for your job. But lunch sounds great.”
She nods and turns around. I follow her. “True enough, true enough.”
We walk down the hallway in silence until we arrive at a big window with a nice view. It’s spectacular! The moon’s surface combined with the blue-green planet of Terra, a bit further away. I glance at Vic and think for a moment.
“Hey Vic, don’t you have days off too?”
She nods. “Sure, why you’re asking?”
“Well, why don’t you take them now and come with me?”
She turns to look at me. A big smile is on her face. “Huh, that’s a good idea. I’ll ask Amelia during lunch. Thanks for offering, Sara!”
We stay at the window for a while and chat idly until it’s time for lunch. The food is amazing as always, but the company is even better. In the end, I say goodbye to my great-grandparents, and Vic is allowed to go on vacation with me. When we’re about to leave, the two of them both wink at me, and Grandpa John says. “See you soon!” Right when my Teleportation spell takes us away.
That can only mean that they will do an introduction speech or something when the Earth Adventure begins. Now I’m looking even more forward to it!
Location: Magicon Empire; Valterion Duchy; Valterion System; Nua; Alburgh; Valterion Mansion
“So that’s my room,” I invite Vic through the door and show her my rather plain-looking bedroom. I mean, I never really decorated it, and the few things that have been there are now on the .
She takes it in stride and doesn’t call me out on it. “Cool, not that I expected anything else after getting to know you over the past year,” she chuckles. “But let’s head back to the living room…”
“Sure,” I reply and offer my arm. When we arrive, we sit down on the sofa and start discussing plans. My parents are both out for work, so we have the house for ourselves. Adrian is supposed to drop in sometime in the next few weeks, but you’ll never know with the military.
Anyway, we take the first day here on Nua slow and just go out into the city for dinner. The good thing is that I don’t have to disguise myself here… Here in the heart of the Valterion Duchy, there are so many offshoots of the Valterion family that having my hair color doesn’t stand out at all. Not that it stands out too much on Terra either, but people tend to look closer, especially when attending an elite college, hence Sara Green looks different.
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Over the next few days, I show the city to Vic and we meet with Ronja a few times. After that, my parents return for the weekend and we spend it together. They are a bit surprised that Vic is here, but welcome her anyway.
Then, during the following weeks, the two of us travel across the planet and go on a big sightseeing trip. Nua has so much to offer, and we could have easily spent another month here and still not seen everything. I mean, there’s a whole continent that’s uninhabited… Endless expanses of untouched nature!
But everything comes to an end, and before I know it, almost two months have passed, and it’s time for Vic and me to get ready for our departure. We spend the last week of my holidays ordering food and other things to stock up the cargo bays. I also have a few workers from VHI coming over to convert two of the empty workrooms on deck 03. They put in wardrobes and desks, and most importantly, a few bunk beds to expand the number of people that can live aboard the starship.
I should have more than enough living space inside the original cabins on deck 01, but who knows if I need to accommodate unexpected visitors. And I mean the rooms are empty anyway, so why not prepare them just in case?
Then the fateful day arrives, and Vic and I get ready to leave. Mom and Dad see me off with tears in their eyes, and I hug them both. Adrian, who just arrived yesterday, stands to the side together with Kira. They are the next recipients of my crushing hugs. The last one to receive a hug is Ronja, then I enter the yacht and take us up to the Time to meet the rest of the team!
Location: Magicon Empire; Valterion Duchy; Legredo System;
The wormhole flashes and disgorges our ship after I cancel the Wormhole Navigation spell. Vic stands next to me, and we take in the new star system we’ve just entered. It’s got binary stars with a few planets circling them. Nothing too impressive, but that’s not why we’re here anyway.
No, we’re here in the Legredo System because it’s roughly the middle point between the Magicon System, the Valterion System, and the Cintman System, therefore cutting most of our travels as short as possible. Only Lisa has to travel a bit more, but she said it’s no problem at all.
I fire up the sensors to check if anyone has already arrived while flying the ship a bit further away from the wormhole. The results come back a few minutes later, and it looks like we’re the first ones to arrive here, so Vic and I walk back down to the living room to kill some time.
“There’s some activity at the wormhole… Looks like a Peacekeeper ship. They’re heading straight for us. I can hail them if you want, or do you prefer to do it yourself?”
That has to be Maja! “You can make the call, just confirm if it’s Maja and ask them to line up our ship. I’m gonna finish here with Vic.”
“Gotcha… It’s them, Maja says hi, and that they’re here in 30 minutes.”
“Perfect, thanks, Clara!” I turn my focus back on Vic and confirm that the post-it sticker is still in place by touching my forehead. It’s a silly game, but it’s fun nonetheless.
“So tell me, Vic, am I under a hundred years old?”
“Yes!”
“Am I a Mage?”
“Yeah.”
“Am I part of our Earth team?”
Vic grins viciously. “No, my turn now!”
Damnit! I glance at the post-it on her forehead, reading Sara Valterion. At least I’m pretty sure that she’s not going to guess that.
Our game is interrupted when a slight shudder goes through the and Clara informs us that the docking process has finished. I’m about to teleport us down to the airlock to greet Maja when Vic’s arm holds me back.
“What is it?” I ask her, feeling a little bit annoyed.
She points at my head and then continues to pull a strand of hair into my vision. It’s still red, shoot! “Oh! Thanks, Vic.”
So instead of teleporting down, I teleport us up to the disguise chamber and activate it. Five minutes later, it’s done, and we move down to the airlock. Once it’s open, Maja, Simon, Thomas, and Shay are already waiting there. Ellie’s not here, probably on bridge duty or something.
I grab them all in a group hug, and as it’s only them, I also introduce them to Vic as soon as they enter my ship. “Guys, this is Victoria, she’s my cousin, and Vic, those are my friends, Maja, Simon, Thomas, and Shay.”
I continue to tell them that Vic is here in an official function to keep us in line during our time on Earth.
After that, Maja replies with something unexpected. “Okay… I think it would be best not to introduce you to my crew yet, Vic. It’s probably better to let them think that you arrived last and then introduce your official role as soon as everyone is here. Even better, we should rent a big hangar bay at one of the nearby space stations. That way, we can address our whole group in person because we don’t have a big enough space on one of our ships. Then you just have to teleport Vic over there and she can join us during our greetings as if it was planned that way all along.”
Both Vic and I look at each other. That’s a great idea! She certainly agrees as she speaks up. “That’s perfect, Maja, thanks for suggesting. That also solves the issue of explaining why I’m already here to your own crew, Sara.”
I nod. “True, let’s do it that way then. Can you book us a slot, Maja?”
She holds up a finger. “Sure… And done. Hangar 02 on Viceroy Station. It’s the closest one here and was rather cheap. I’ve sent Clara a route. Meet you there?”
That was fast! “Okay, see you guys later, I guess.”
Two hours later, I get a ping that Lisa’s ship has entered the star system. I ask Clara to send her a message with our meeting place at the station, as we’re almost there ourselves. No need to rendezvous in open space before that. Minutes later, I receive Lisa’s acknowledgement.
Our docking goes smoothly, and Maja’s crew starts populating the hangar of the space station. Vic and I stay aboard the for a little while longer until Tim’s rental shuttle arrives through the wormhole. He offered to pick up Nick, Alina, Dave, and the archaeologists on Terra, which I gladly accepted. I also send him our position and then exit the
Clara keeps an eye out for when Jack will finally arrive while I mingle with Maja and her crew.
It takes until the next morning for everyone to be here. It’s crazy, our small flotilla now consists of five starships of varying sizes. Well, four if I subtract Nick’s rental ship, but still. Also, with the full Peacekeeper crew, we’re well over a hundred people in total. This is literally insane! Who would have thought that all that Earth stuff turns out so big? And we’re only one of I don't even know how many teams participating.
I send Maja, my crew, Jack, Lisa, and Dave a message to assemble everyone in our rented hangar right after breakfast, then I mentally prepare myself. Time to address the whole group and hype them up for our upcoming adventure!
