The Old Mine

Chapter 10: Crystal Tech

      Recke sat down and clicked on the cube. Ocea came on full of smiles "Hi Recke... he's not done screaming at Easton."

    "What... and none of you are recording it for me." Recke laughed

     "Cute..." she giggled "you're cute. Anyway, I have good news, I have been permanently added to your team." She did her best impression of Brick making Recke laugh.

    "What happened to Easton's team."

     "He he... one guess, anyway I'm your emergency back up, and..." she smiled, happier than she had been in a long time "I am next in line to be allowed to breed." Her smile broadened "that is after they verify the current candidates are actually pregnant."

    "Congratulations," he smiled "have you decided who?"

    "Yeah I've got my eye on Brett." She winked. "Of course Easton is pissed about that too but..."

    "With the issues he is having plus his attitude problem and his tendency to react with jealousy and greed I would recommend staying away from him for now." Recke smiled

     She raised her eyebrows and shrugged "He's a little busy with all the retraining that he's now having to take, so he is really not an option."

      "I suggest you ask your parents, remember they would like to betroth one of their kids and your siblings have rejected that..." he laughed as she clearly understood.

     "And by doing so I gain favor... they have clout, I like how you think."

     "May I interrupt?" Brick came into view "hello, Recke."

    "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go talk to my parents." Ocea left, closing the door right behind her... they were alone now.

     "A couple of things first son... one that was amazing that you got her to do that, the happier her parents are with us the better it is for me... you will be getting a bonus for that. And second... I owe you an apology. I have been tough on you... sometimes cruel." He took a deep breath "clearly your way of doing things is worth acknowledging... for you to not figure it out but succeed anyway says there is something to your theory of listening to your instincts. It's our belief that you need to be protected and learned from, not retrained."

    "Glad to see those annoying classes will end but I would like to keep being taught by Cal's father, her family has taken me in, told me to call them mom and dad."

    "I'll make sure the paperwork is done for that...and about Cal..." he got serious "please keep her alive." A tear slowly revealed itself from the corner of his left eye "she's all I have left."

    "I must admit, my stubbornness to keep her alive comes from a more selfish reason." Recke closed his eyes and tried the quick meditations he had been taught by her father to calm himself "I'm either coming back with her or dying with her."

     "Understood," he took a shaky breath and wrote something down on a notepad beside him "about her history, from what we can determine my son did indeed father her... they were trapped back in time, at least two hundred years prior to when you are. They rigged something together that could send one person ahead, the two of them sent her ahead then tried to evade their attackers by moving over to the doorway mine."

    "So she's right, she is the LU-1" Recke was shaking "shit, this means..."

    "I know, but she can't travel just yet, she is not strong enough." He took a breath as he flipped through a report "I have information I'm sending you about the mine, something about it needs to be discovered or tended to before you send it ahead. That is Midnight and Tahk's task, yours is to not leave her side."