first. Then a simple bug shield would be easier to manage.”
A specific insect shield was really more interesting too, because it was a complex problem, at least if he wanted to do it right. People would need to be able to touch things and each other, but bugs had to be filtered. It could be done, but… yeah, millions of kinds of insects in the world. Could he make it to discriminate against biological creatures under a certain size? That… could work. He'd have test it and see. After a few moments a hand was waved in his face. Denno.
“Are you well Tor?” His voice held actually concern, but Tor laughed.
“Just working on the idea of an insect shield. Sorry, I'll focus on the topic now.”
That, it turned out, was all about that summit Burks had mentioned, which just meant a meeting that everyone was required to go to. They argued about where it should be held, who should pay for it and how to arrange travel. Tor almost offered to just go and get people himself, then realized he had an actual life to get back to now. And a wife that, even if she didn't miss him really, would expect him to be around to take care of her. Thinking of that reminded him that he should see about getting some land from Rolph to build a real house on, and maybe set up the trees and large bushes for the garden he wanted. The idea was basically like Grenwyn, except that in his mind the houses would be better looking.
They argued for hours, but the final end point was just that everyone would meet in Vagus, wherever that was, and that Burks would cover any costs. Denno should have had to do it, Tor gathered, since it was his screw- up, but his resources were cut off because of his sudden relocation. Due to the pressing nature of the problem they all agreed to meet in six months. Tor felted shocked that it would take that long, but Ancients seemed to have their own time schedules for things.
In the mean time Denno would be shuffled off to stay with the royal family of Noram. That Burks intended to dump him there without asking first seemed a little rude to Tor, but unless he wanted to keep him at school, what else could he do?
Sighing he made the offer.
The man, no matter how annoying at times, was family. Denno hadn't been arguing the whole time with him even, so it wasn't that strained between them. Denno clapped, slow and ponderously, while he thought.
“Do you have the room though? I wouldn't want to put you out.”
“Yeah. You can sleep at the foot of my bed, no problem.” He teased. Burks grinned too when Denno gave him a funny look, but explained.
“The school rules say that Tor and his wife, both students there, have to live in separate dorm rooms, but they also have a house on campus, a very nice one actually. Very low energy use, I think you'll enjoy it. No video or computer access, but that would be the same at the palace. We need to stop in there first, introductions and all that. They might want to keep you regardless. Put you to work scrubbing floors or something.”
Denno shrugged at that, a thing very like what Burks did.
“Well, wouldn't be the first time. Might even be better really. Something to do while I wait.”
Tor yawned, apologized for it, and suggested they get to it, if they weren't staying the night. It wasn't late, but it could take a few hours to get the traveling done, and he really didn't want to stay in Soam for another night. It was pretty, but he hadn't learned the language yet, and frankly Julie, while pretty herself, fantastically so, and undoubtedly one of the kinder people he'd ever met, was really starting to make him uncomfortable.
He had an odd feeling that if he stayed the night that somehow, no matter how unlikely it seemed, he'd end up having sex with her. More, that doing that would erode his ability to withstand her future advances. She might be a good person, but a few hours of talking and being nice to one another didn't prove that, did it? Leaving made good sense, at least to him.
Denno and Burks both wanted to stay. Brain washed little lap dogs that they were.
Julie hugged the others close and long, her body pressed against them tightly and tried it with him, but backed off when she couldn't make the initial contact. Smiling she nodded to him instead.
“We need a color name for you little brother. I don't think the others realize how not Green you really are yet.” This was whispered to him softly enough that Tor doubted the other men could hear.
“What's your favorite color?”
“Purple.” He didn't get the idea for a second but the woman smiled at him and bowed Noram fashion, delicate hands going to the front of her skirted thigh.
“ I guess I can work with that. Too bad you didn't pick Indigo, that's my second favorite color personally. Purple it is then. No one has that one.”
Julie White didn't add anything else but did bow to him through the clear side as he took off. Or at least it looked like it was directed towards him. It could have been to all of them or even to one of the others. After a second he realized that each man probably felt like it was for him alone and nearly laughed. His new “sister” was dangerous that way, wasn't she? The world tended to focus on her, or seem like it did.
Tor flew them back, since all he had to do was fly north until he hit the Kings river, then follow it over to the Capital. Slowly. If he came in too fast, he warned them, starting to slow a good ways off, Squire Gerald would come out and kill them all. That or his sister Gemma. Either way they'd be dead, he informed both the Ancients with a certainty that made Denno go still and Burks smile.
“Too right. We never really covered that did we Den? Two children that have control of a weapon that makes nuclear weapons look like toys. A single device that could turn the world into a snowball in hours. And Tor here has the ability to make more of them. A nearly infinite amount. Not covered in the treaty at all, either. Just something to keep in mind. An attack on Noram would be a poor plan all around right now I think.” Burks smiled, a sad looking thing, from the glimpse of it Tor caught when he looked over his shoulder.
“Tor… How long would it take you to put out another, let’s say thousand such devices as the one Gerald and Gemma guard?”
Careful to keep his focus on what he was doing, Tor thought for about ten seconds first.
“About… Ten hours.” Then he shrugged, not knowing if anyone would see it from the back and not caring overly.
“That would be insane though. One of those would be more than enough to take out an entire land in a few hours. Even just to make sure the job was done ten would be enough. A thousand would just invite someone to do something stupid. And really, I could make a different kind of weapon in a day or two that would just take out the needed targets and not hurt the innocent people. I actually already have the basic plan for that. It locates the targeted individuals and denies them air. They can't run from it either. Well, not within the field space.” Tor didn't want to undermine Burks plan or threat, but it really was a dumb idea. Who would really threaten all those people who probably didn't even know the Serges?
Burks chuckled, a slightly sinister sound.
“Indeed. I'd also point out that Tor isn't a signatory of the treaty. Oh, he's no threat to anyone that's peaceful, but remember, he risked his own life to save you in a foreign land away from all he's ever known, because you called him brother once. Think what he might do to protect the family and friends he's known for years?”
Denno sighed loudly.
“I get it already Burks, no need to beat that horse anymore, it's dead and buried already.”
With that in mind he landed, and reconfigured the craft to look like an official transport, like the one Smythe used when he didn't insist on riding around being pulled by horses. It was a nice cream color with gold scroll work on it across the doors. It looked like an elongated box, but that didn't make a difference to how it handled at all, just the size of the landing place needed.
Then he got them back in the air and crawled, coming in at no more than fifty miles per hour and hovered over the palace, descending so slowly Denno asked about it.
“That's so they know not to turn the shield on.” Tor said automatically, Burks didn't react, but his field did, and an idea surged from him that until they knew what Browns part in everything had been, they'd best not tell him everything. Tor wondered at that. They could threaten him openly with super death weapons and even mention who had them, but not about a simple shield? What else was off limits then? Bread recipes and how to make clotted cream? That last might be a real secret though. Tor still didn't know how the palace staff really did that. It was good and as far as he could see, Austra didn't have it at all.
After that Tor didn't speak, waiting for Burks to do it first, which he didn't, except to run over protocol briefly for Brown so that he'd feel comfortable in the new situation. They got out slowly, Tor changing into some nice looking, palace ready clothing that he'd used before, a black silk shirt, with velvet trousers and boots in the same
