Saxon Andrew: Juliette's dream

“Are you going to allow me to help them?”

“That depends on what I see between now and when they return.”

“That’s fair.”

“I am not programmed to be fair.”

“I’ve never thought you were.”

Jingo was showing a young archer how to pull his bowgun smoothly out of its case when a young, dark haired Rider approached and waited for him to finish. Thirty minutes later he was still standing while Jingo explained the finer details of using a bowgun. The young Rider interrupted and said, “May I try it now?”

Jingo was startled, and said, “Go ahead and give it try.” He looked over at the Human archer standing next to him and said, “May I help you?”

“You sent word that you wanted me to meet you here.”

Jingo checked his com and said, “You were supposed to be here thirty minutes ago.”

“I was.”

Jingo took a deep breath and said, “You’re Nathan Valrico?”

“Yes, I am.”

“If I remember, you helped hijack the Magrum’s ship.”

“Yes, I did.”

Jingo nodded toward a target two hundred yards downrange and said, “Show me how accurate you are.”

Nathan looked at the target and felt the wind blowing his face. He saw the tree branches moving, then suddenly fired three arrows at the target. All three hit the center of the bulls eye. Jingo was impressed, “You’re pretty good. Hold on just a moment. Zreeg, are you here?”

“I’m up in the clearing talking with Julie.”

“Will you come down to the range for a moment?”

“On my way.”

“What’s going on, Jingo?”

“Zreeg has let us know that you are one of the few Riders that can benefit from a mental process that will improve your accuracy. I want to see if it’s effective.”

Nathan shrugged and saw Vreeg come in to land next to them.

Jingo asked, “Is this the Rider?”

“Yes, he is,” Zreeg said to Jingo, then turned to the young man, “Quick Bow, I want you just to pay attention to what I’m going to share with you. Please sit down.”

Nathan sat down, and Zreeg began sharing the visions of the defense of the Zord’s former nesting grounds. He could feel every arrow that Scotty and Jingo fired. He sensed the recoil of their bowguns and sensed the targets they were aiming to hit. He felt the bowgun release each arrow. More than six thousand shots were viewed, and he felt every one of them. Then he watched the battle at the Magrum bunker and viewed more than six hundred shots. Finally it ended, and he looked up to see Jingo staring at him. “How long did that take?”

“About fifteen minutes.”

“It felt like fifteen hours. It seemed so real.”

Jingo smiled, “Stand up and take a shot at the target again.”

Nathan stood and pulled his bowgun. It didn’t feel right. He raised the pressure thirty pounds and tried again. After three adjustments, it felt good. He looked downrange and saw the one hundred, two hundred, and three hundred yard targets. He felt different.

Jingo watched and Nathan fired three arrows faster than he could follow. He looked downrange and only saw one arrow in the hundred yard target. Did the process not work? He looked at Nathan and the young archer said, “The three hundred yard target was off an inch. I still need to raise my gun fifty pounds.”

Jingo looked further downrange and saw arrows in the three targets. All were dead center. “What do you think, Nathan?”

“This is amazing. It feels so…I don’t know…natural. I don’t have to take time to aim. This is miraculous.”

“Count yourself fortunate. Very few have the mind that can use this process.”

“I’m going to see Samuel about a stronger compressor. This one is not releasing the air smoothly.”

“We’ll talk later.”

“Sure thing, Jingo.”

Jingo watched him leave and turned to Zreeg, “Well?”

“He reminds me of Strong Bow. He is pure of heart and does not crave attention.”

“Is he smart?”

“Very.”

“He’s young?”

“Older than you were the Night of the Torg.”

Jingo shook his head, “It just doesn’t seem like I was ever that young. Should he replace Michael?”

“Even though he’s young, the older Riders naturally defer to him. He has leadership qualities of which he is unaware.”

“I’ll talk to Scotty.”

“I think that would be a good idea.”

Scotty and Grang jumped back in to Bristone’s system, and Anglo teleported them to the planet. Anglo said, “Welcome back. Jingo needs to speak with you, Your Majesty.”

“Send me down to his location, please.”

“Grang, where do you want to go?”

“Send me to the archery range. I need to fine tune this new bowgun.”

The two disappeared. Scotty stepped out of a silver screen and saw Jingo teaching a new rider how to quickly mount and dismount a Zord. Jingo saw Scotty and said, “Now, the two of you work on mounting. Rider, you work on flying with your arms free. I want you holding your bowgun as you lift until you reach a thousand feet.” He stepped away and walked toward Scotty, “Hey! Welcome back.”

“It’s good to be back.”

“You might want to talk with Zreeg, but he says that Valrico is talented enough to replace Michael. He is certainly one of our best archers now.”

“What’s your take on him, Jingo?”

“I like him. He’s young, only twenty one, but he handles himself well.”

“In your opinion, would Grang make a better commander of the flock?”

Jingo thought about that question and said, “Not really. I think his orders would be followed, but I’m not certain that Grang wouldn’t take the bulk of the dangerous issues on by himself. I still think he wants to die. He won’t utilize the Riders effectively.”

“I’m impressed, Jingo. You’re exactly right. I think Grang is where he should be as my protector. He doesn’t get involved in the decision making process. I guess it holds no interest for him.”

“His talents don’t lie with talking things over.”

Scotty smiled, “No, they don’t. Introduce Valrico to the Green Flock and send him up to Anglo to familiarize him with guard duty.”

“I’ll call the Flock together and notify Anglo.”

“That would be good. I’m going to see Julie. I’ll catch you up on what happened on our trip tonight.”

“I’ll see you at the fire.”

Scotty waved his hand as he walked toward his house.

BC and Anglo were in orbit over Bristone. Anglo asked, “How did the trip go?”

“I don’t know. I would have thought that Grace would be able to override her defenses, but she says they are independent of her control. Unless we can give the proper protocol, we won’t be able to approach the complex.”

“That’s a shame.”

“She may be able to send us a couple of teleport consoles. She won’t know for a week.”

As BC and Anglo talked, the round probe attached to BC’s hull ejected a small round object that moved over to Anglo and attached itself to Anglo’s hull. Then it disappeared. Neither probe appeared on the two Searcher Ships’ scanners. A week later a probe attached itself to Jessica’s hull.

“Well, I guess you’re going to keep an eye on them.”

“You would too, if you were given my responsibility.”

“Perhaps. However, those ships are Ships of the Realm. They were carrying out their assignments when they were left behind. I think you are being somewhat paranoid.”

“I was programmed to be paranoid. The weapons in this facility are far too dangerous to allow them to fall into the wrong hands, and you know it.”

“Yes, I know, and I’m not being critical. Just think about this; one of them was imprinted by Anglo Gardner’s mind; the shuttle is from the Alexander Kosiev; and the third was the ship of the last admiral promoted by the Realm. If they can’t be trusted, who can?”