Chapter 11

The Secretary of Defense was on the line ten minutes after they made it inside, demanding answers in his pronounced Creole accent. The call was put on speaker-phone in the conference room. “What jus’ happen? I was tol’ you’d only be running tests tonight, and now I got complaints about insane weather an’ four seriously injured officers.”

Stardancer fielded the first barrage. “Things went a little faster than we’d planned, sir. During the tests, we discovered that there were already some folks watching the Pentagon, and one of them tried to piggyback on Katlynn's magic to set fire to the building. We didn’t really have time to ask permission to change the schedule.”

“Commander Sterling here, sir. May I ask what sort of injuries were reported?”

“I been tol’ that it appears to be severe electric shock, Commander,” the Secretary replied. “It appears tha’ spell o’ yours affected a few people badly as it went up.”

“Then I’d suggest you have them arrested, sir. Or at least watched closely. That’s exactly the effect I got when I touched the wards during the tests. If it bit them that way when the real one went up? Those are the people it was designed to guard against.”

The Secretary sighed. “Tha’s wha’ I was afraid of. One of ‘em was the flag lieutenan’ for the Chief of Naval Operations. Everythin’s workin’ the way it’s supposed to, then?”

“Seems to be so far, sir.” replied Stardancer. “The warding won’t be perfect. It's set to catch everything I could think of, but it won’t be everything possible. And… it won’t catch someone like Pollard. It’s set against people who intend to act against the United States. It won’t work against people who think that providing classified information to, say, Israel will help us. Nor will it affect someone who just blabs randomly and shouldn't have a clearance.”

The SecDef chuckled at that. “So we don’ assume it’s perfect and forget about our other security measures, then? I understan’, Ms. Stardancer. Don’ worry. I’m not goin’ to get stuck on stupid.” He paused. “It’s two in the mornin’, and I’m undoubtedly goin’ t’ have t’ talk t’ Congress again tomorrow. Carry on, Commander, Ms. Stardancer. Bravo Zulu.”

The circuit went dead, and the witch looked at the two officers. “I hope Bravo Zulu is a good thing?”

Lowe nodded. “It is. We’ve got a good Chief now, fortunately. Flexible mind.” She settled back in her chair, and glanced back at her bodyguard briefly before staring at the human. “What was all that about during the casting? It felt like we were all mudged together into one brain.”

Stardancer nodded. “The barriers go down, at least. Acting in concert like that to do a major incantation, minds... come together. And the three of you did marvelously well at it, too. It wasn’t something I would have tried if we hadn’t had that emergency, but I think it worked out better than the group I’d intended to use.” She looked appraisingly at the wolves. “You two, especially. None of my colleagues have anything like the power you used to anchor the spell.”

Lowe’s ears swiveled forward, while Whitford just looked embarrassed. “How can that be? We’ve neither of us trained in...” She waved her hand vaguely. “... in sorcery, or whatever it is.”

The witch shook her head. “You didn’t need to be. I was the one directing the spell, with Tad for a backup; he, and the three of you, provided the necessary anchors to the forces being invoked. It’s hard to explain - I don’t understand it all myself yet, really, but I think that you were better matches for the Elements than my fellow magicians would have been – and not knowing the spells meant you didn’t joggle my elbow while I was putting it together. Tad works well with me; most of the others...” She chuckled. “Let’s say that the old legends about jealous wizards appear to have some basis in fact. At any rate, the feelings you two have for each other, as well as your basic strength of will, provided a superb anchor. It’s going to take quite a lot of power for anyone to break through the wards.”

Sterling nodded. “So what happens now? Do we all have to stay here to maintain the spell? And what happens if one of us is killed?”

Stardancer shook her head. “I don’t think so. We located an almost complete book of spells and instructions that survived from the previous cycle, and we’ve been experimenting on the fly. But if we’ve interpreted it correctly, the spell will remain intact until it is either battered down by brute force or until all of us are dead. And long before then, I should have other spells supplementing this one.”

The bat stirred at that. “Previous cycle?”

Stardancer nodded. “This has happened before. Whatever fuels magic - call it ‘mana’, I guess, that’s more or less traditional - appears in cycles. The Mayans had that part right. The end of their calendar is not the end of the world, but the beginning of a new one. The fact that it happened on midnight of New Year’s in the current calendar rather than the 2012 solstice indicates that it’s not completely regular, I suspect. Maybe it ties into the dominant belief systems somehow.”

“So how long do these cycles last?”

“Millennia, at least. We’re still working on that part. There was a warning, too - that there are powerful entities who wait out the drought between cycles until the magic returns. The fall of Atlantis was caused by their struggles once upon a time.”

Sterling snorted. “Atlantis? That’s ridic...” She stopped in the middle of the word, and glanced down at her wings and clawed feet. “Um. Right. So how do we stop them from doing something like that this time?”

Stardancer sighed, her eyes haunted. “I wish I knew. By the Goddess, I wish I knew.”

* * * *

6 Feb 2013 (AP) Dateline: Basra. Elements of the US and Iraqi armies crossed the Iraq and Kuwaiti borders into Saudi Arabia early this morning in response to King Bandar al-Sultan’s plea for assistance against the rebel elements that have destabilized his country. Military spokesmen refused to comment on rumors of actions between the USS Nimitz carrier battle group and sea monsters in the Persian Gulf.

* * * *

Fox News crawler: Wholesale oil prices reached $260 per barrel in heavy trading, and retail prices for regular unleaded gasoline reached $8.00 per gallon in some markets as supply disruption from the Persian Gulf fields began to affect refinery production.President Boehner orders the EPA and State Department to approve construction of the Keystone Pipeline immediately.

* * * *

Christopher Sterling sighed as he worked through his history assignment. After the confusion of the night when he’d been thrown out by his father, he’d hardly had a chance even to see his sister, let alone talk to her. The wolf-lady had gotten him into the schooling program at the base, made sure he had a room, and then pretty much left him on his own. She’d been right about his being a Changeling, though. His first day there, a doctor had given him a physical and then sent him down to the barracks swimming pool. As soon as he’d dived in, he’d changed. That had been three weeks ago, now, and he was getting the hang of it – he could be seal or human as he chose, or even hold a half-and-half form. He found human more comfortable on land, though, and seal more efficient in the water, so he rarely used the mixed form.

He smiled, looking forward to the afternoon’s schedule – or lack thereof. Mornings he went to tutoring sessions and worked on keeping up with his school assignments; afternoons, he worked for the Navy, patrolling the waters off Norfolk when they didn’t have a project where he was needed to assist divers. This afternoon there wasn’t anything scheduled, so he was planning to explore a spot where a sunken wreck was marked on the charts. He was startled out of his reverie by a knock at the door. “Who is it?”

“It’s Chief Samuels, son. Mind if I come in?”

Chris grinned to himself and took a quick glance around the room to make sure nothing was out of place. The Chief was in charge of his training program, and the burly African-American had already become a closer mentor than his father ever had been; just as strict, but fairer. Though he was obviously hoping that Chris would join the Navy, he didn’t assume that Chris had no useful input to the decision. Henry Sterling had had his children’s futures all mapped out before they got to grade school; Karen and he had both decided they had other ideas. “Door’s open, Chief. Come on in.”

Chief Theodore Samuels (DC, DIVER) had been assigned to the Fleet Diving School as an instructor when the Special Talent Group had requested someone to work with Chris. He’d been unenthusiastic at first. Adding the responsibility for an untrained youngster who just happened to have a special ability didn't do his workload any favors, but he’d quickly come to like the boy. “You’ll be turning eighteen in a week, Chris. Have you been thinking about what I said? You could pass the GED tests right now and get started on boot camp by March.”

Chris squirmed a bit under the Chief’s scrutiny. “I know, but... it’s not the same. I could have passed the GED a year ago, but I wanted to take some more science courses. I’d hate to leave them half-finished now.”

Samuels nodded. “That’s a good attitude, Chris, but you’ll get everything you might pass up and more if you go through an engineering or damage control rating school. And to be honest, once you’ve got experience, no one will ever care about your high school record again, good or bad.” He smiled. “I’ve got an ulterior motive in pushing you on this, though. The Navy’s going to be running a special unit through training starting in mid-March. C’mon down to the docks with me, I’ve got some folks for you to meet.”

The drive to the dock where the divers practiced and Chris usually set off on his patrols was quiet. The boy’s questions were greeted with evasive comments, and he finally gave up. The dock was apparently deserted when they arrived, unusual for the time of day. “Where is everyone, Chief?”

Samuels pointed into the water. “Down there. Some folks I think you’ll be interested in meeting.”

The dock stood about ten feet above the water even at high tide, a concrete slab on reinforced pilings. Chris peered over the edge. Nothing. “What’s supposed to be here?”

Samuels waved him on. “Just go in. You’ll see."

The boy shrugged and stepped into the dive shack, where he traded his clothing for a belt and short kilt – the best compromise between modesty as a human and convenience in his selkie form. He came back out to see the Chief leaning over the edge and talking to someone. “He’ll be here in a minute. The boy’s still a bit shy about some things...” He stopped and glanced back. “Right on schedule. Jump in, Chris, they’re waiting for you.”

This time, there were a dozen heads in the water – some human, some not. “You mean I’m not the only one?”

This question was greeted with a round of laughter from below and a chuckle from Samuels. “Of course not. You’re not even the only one thinking about joining the Navy. How do you think we figured out that swim-kilt for you so quickly? Now go on down and introduce yourself.”

There were eleven Changelings waiting in the water. Six of them - four female and two male - were half-human and half-fish, traditional merfolk. The rest were selkies, though the pod made a rather unusual gathering of seal species. Chris shifted to his half-way form as he entered the water, looking at them all and trying not to stare at the mermaids. “They never told me there were others. Where have you all been hiding?”

A big selkie, whose own hybrid form hinted that her seal form was a Steller’s sea lion, replied. “We’ve been down at Little Creek, practicing with the Navy’s old-style SEAL teams. Tomorrow we’re going to do an infiltration scenario up here, see if they can stop us. Chief Samuels asked if we could give you the recruiting pitch while we were here. I’m Connie, by the way.”

“Chris.”

The rest introduced themselves as well. Anya was a ribbon seal, Boris was a harbor seal, and Zoe was a harp seal, the same type as Chris. The merfolk introduced themselves as Tillie, Marie, Wilma, Grace, Dex and Lawrence. “Not Larry. So, the other reason Chief Samuels asked you to come down here – you’re supposed to give us the underwater half of the base tour, since you’ve been doing it for the past month or so. Lead on, MacDuff.”

Connie rolled her eyes. “It’s ‘lay on’, not ‘lead on’. If you don’t stop misquoting the Bard, fishbutt, I’m going to bite you.” She turned back to Chris. “So where are the good places to sneak out? Or in?”

Chris just grinned. "Follow me, and I'll show you!" He blurred into full seal form and led the way out into the bay.

* * * *

Creya woke slowly from his long hibernation. He’d fed well before going to sleep, so his eternal hunger was not as urgent as it often was on awakening. The seas were strangely noisy this time – instead of the calls of pods of whales, there were pings and thumps, unnaturally regular. He moved slowly toward the nearest source, idly feeding on fish as he went. He had been human once, but he’d given that up long ago. He rarely changed back to his original form any more, preferring to sleep away the times without magic than live through them as a human, even an immortal one.