I figured I would post this in a separate thread since I already did a story for Shadra's story prompt. This story was, originally, inspired by the fact that my Teslas are currently on a very strange jaunt to Amarillo Texas, thanks to the Post Office...though I suspect that the Teslas may have had their way with Post Office equipment and that might be part of the delay.
I stared in annoyance at the computer terminal.
"What do you mean my Teslas are five star systems over?" I growled at the package tracking system. I would normally not consider having my wyrms sent through our postal system, it was too slow for my liking, but I and my senior staff were in the middle of planning military exercises so no chance of a run to Earth for the next three months (when you are head of the fleet, planning/organizing joint exercises with a new ally, you are lucky if it only takes a few months). So I had to have my Teslas sent by post...since there wasn't the more predictable option of paying a Trade Lord convoy to pick them up. Lousy trade route schedule.
"What has your tail in a knot?" Tige asked, hearing me growling, apparently, through my office door.
"Remind me to chew the ears off the Imperial Post Master." I said. "My wyrms are apparently taking a detour."
"New wyrms?" Tige asked.
"Someone was kind enough to pick up two wyrms for me at the last convention, two Teslas." I said...and the minute the words were out of my mouth, I realized the problem.
"Two Teslas...sent through the Post." Tige said incredulously.
"Yah...think we can pry a few hours out of the week to go pick them up." I said.
"Probably not." Tige said.
"Arg...why is planning going so slowly this time?"
"Our allies." Tige said. "These Shadow Mirror guys...it is like dealing with trainees." The Eighth Ring Shadow Mirror were our new allies. Their tech wasn't quite as good as ours but they had armored their ships so heavily it really didn't matter...that wasn't the problem, things getting lost in translation was.
"Ah well, and there isn't anyone I can send?" I said, half thinking out loud.
"If you asked, I think you would find every hand in the air." Tige said. "But no, no one we can spare right now."
"Piffle."
"Moongara, there is an incoming transmission for you, via Zafira's comm line." The voice of the base commander came over the speakers in my office.
"Put it through." I said. Officially, this facility is black, ie doesn't officially exist. All our message traffic came through the trade base at Zafira, two star systems over (not in the direction of my wyrms, sadly), using a gate spell system. If you know the right door in one of the buildings at Zafira, you can get to my base.
"General, come get these pests...NOW!" Came the angry voice of what I could only assume was the base commander at Amarill'lo.
"I can't." I said. "I am very busy...trust me, I wish I could."
"Then what am I to do?" Came the angry reply. Usually I am addressed with much more respect...but something tells me the Teslas got loose and were, well, being Teslas.
"Send someone with them." I said, trying to stay calm.
"I will do that." Came the unhappy reply.
"And make sure to put them in a cage."
"They are cute." Venikar, the Eighth Ring's ambassador, said, eyeing the two newest additions to my Squirm. "What are they?"
"They are called Teslas." I said, not looking up from the pile of information he had given me.
"Can I show them to my colleagues?" He asked.
"Yes, as long as they are kept caged...or the engineers will have your hide as a throw rug." I warned. It may sound harsh but Venikar was used to Catrian turns of phrase by now though this time I wasn't exaggerating.
After discussing actual business, he picked up the cage and walked out. I hadn't been planning to have the wyrms involved in any of this mess (with the exception of Reth who had decided he absolutely had to see what was going on...from the safety of General Sula's uniform collar) but...
A few hours later...
I was touring one of the Eighth Ring starships, a massive block of a thing, nearly all armor (which would make them pretty similar to our ship building philosophy...except our ships look like curved razor blades or birds of prey compared to these things) when the lights flickered.
"What was that?" Sula asked from behind me.
"Nothing." Said our guide, the captain of the ship.
Nothing happened for another hour. I was starting to get bored, Eighth Ring ships are extremely sterile things, particularly compared to our ships, with every inch of the ship's internal hallways decorated with battle trophies (enemy guns, bits of ships, the occasional demon skull in the case of my ship), odd things we picked up while traveling the galaxy (masks, textiles, art objects, etc) and the odd bit of parade tack that someone wanted to show off outside their quarters. Then the lights flickered again and again and then died.
"Well...that's a problem." Sula said, coming up very close behind me. He is my self-appointment body guard, as well as a senior staff member and adviser, after all.
"Uh...I smell Teslas." Reth piped up from his hiding spot. Lovely...note to self, Venikar can't follow directions.
I turned to our guide. "Let me guess, this is the ship Ambassador Venikar set up his office during the planning and the exercises."
"Yes...sir." Our guide, the ship's captain, said.
"Take me to his office." I said.
Turns out, that was easier said than done. Unlike our ships that have battery powered hallway lights in case of power outage or someone turning out the lights (which happens rather frequently, to the point we decided as a crew to only turn on every fourth hallway light, my people aren't the most fond of light), Eighth Ring ships are completely black when the lights go out. After a few minutes, I reached back under the cowl on my mask and switched to thermal vision (I love military grade masks).
"You have never heard of track lighting?" Reth said. "Even Earth planes have that."
"Who..or what is that?" The captain asked.
"That is Sula's friend." I said. "You two can meet later." I saw another member of the crew feeling their way along the wall and grabbed the captain and moved him before he ran into the confused crew man. Apparently, flash lights are only carried by officers. (we don't need them, all military grade masks have thermal imaging as a standard option)
"Why did you do that?" The captain snarled.
"You were about to walk into someone." I said.
"How did you know that?"
"I have something called thermal vision on my mask." I said.
<two words General, International incident> Sula said telepathically.
<don't remind me> I shot back. <And remind me to rip Venikar a new one>
We finally made it to Venikar's office. I could see two small, warm bodies in what had to be a wall.
"Captain, please hold your flashlight here." I said, moving his arm to the point where I saw the two small warm things. He growled but kept the light on.
"Just what I thought." I said, kneeling down and reaching my arm into the maintenance shaft, which was too small for me to fit into. I pulled out one Tesla and then another. "What are you two doing?"
"This place is great." The copper Tesla said. "So much technology to play with and improve."
"What are those?" The captain nearly screamed.
"The source of the power outage." I said. I switched on the basic sensor set up on my mask and was horrified. It looked like one short in the lighting system and it would interrupt the power to all the ships internal lights. "Get an engineer in here to fix the damage." I suggested, firmly. "By the way, this is Reth, a very smart Growler wyrm." I said, pointing to Reth with my very small, personal flash light. I always forget I have it because I so rarely have to use it.
"Hello." The ship's captain said.
"Hello." Reth said very timidly.
"I can't believe that happened." Sula said after we returned to our base.
"I can. That's Eighth Ring logic for you. Put so much armor that the enemy can't possibly get through so we don't have to figure out redundancy." I said.
"I will never understand them"
"They put all their tech development into armor and other defenses so their power distribution capability is utterly lack luster...but when you see what they are up against, it makes some odd amount of sense."
"Classic mistake." Sula said.
"Well...that classic mistake here was me trusting the overly curious Venikar with these two." I said, pointing to the Teslas in their cage.
"But their ship is in need of so much improvement." The copper Tesla, who I had named Diode, said.
"Don't we know it," I said, "but you have to be careful, their ships are very easy to break." I said with a sigh. "Something we will have to fix." We were helping to upgrade the Eighth Ring's fleet so as to improve their effectiveness.
"Can we help?" The gold male Tesla, named Cathode, asked.
"You know," Sula said, "they might be able to help, they can fit better into those tiny maintenance passages better than our engineers." I looked at him in utter shock, Sula is usually the voice of reason. "Assuming they were trained, of course." He hastened to add.
"Maybe...something to think about, definitely." I said. The two Teslas looked at me, hopefully.