Chapter 2
"Will you look at this? It's amazing," James breathed, staring at the array of equipment.
"It is. Amber, where do you think they keep the laser heads?" Jade asked, walking along the wall marked with parts.
"I don't know. Oh, my Goddess! They have the newest versions of the splicers!" Amber exclaimed.
Amber blinked at her little brother. "How do you know about them?"
James grinned. "I saw the diagram of it on Mom's desk. She was looking at adding the micro-replicator to it so that if you switched it one way, it was a laser and if you switched it the other, it would scan and recreate the part," he said.
"Hey, guys, I found something!" Jade's voice echoed across the equipment room.
The air crackled with excitement as James and Amber hurried over to her, their eyes filled with a mix of curiosity and thrill.
Crouched next to an obscure panel in the wall, Jade could barely be seen behind a stack of metal containers.
Her fingers delicately traced the smooth, cool surface of the metallic wall as she searched for a release mechanism.
"I saw on an old schematic of the ship that there was a smuggler's nest. I wanted to see if it was still here," she said.
Amber cocked her head. "Why would they have a smuggler's nest on a warship?"
"I read something about they had a bunch of them during the war in case they were ever captured. The warriors used to hide weapons in them. If the enemy captured them, they could get to some weapons."
Amber leaned over one of the metal boxes. "Is there anything in it?"
Jade found the release and tapped the panel lightly. She released a soft gasp of excitement when a secret compartment slid open with a quiet hiss, revealing a control device with blinking lights. "Oh. My. Stars. Is this what I think it is?"
"It looks like… Mommy's miniature cloaking mechanism," James said, eyes widening. His voice was barely a whisper.
"What's it doing there?" Amber asked.
All heads turned in unison as the smooth sound of the door to the equipment room sliding open reached their ears.
Jade's eyes widened, and she urgently motioned for her sister and brother to find a hiding spot.
She carefully stowed the small device in her jacket pocket, making sure to close the compartment securely, before joining Amber behind a rack of equipment.
The sound of footsteps approached the back room, and they instinctively held their breath as three men entered.
"I hid the device here," a lean reptilian man with two heads said.
"How long do you think we've got before they discover it is missing?" a huge gnarly-looking alien with thick scars running along one side of his face asked.
The third man let out a disdainful snort.
His face had three low ridges, which, combined with its flattened shape, gave him a distinct and memorable look.
When Jade saw that they were wearing maintenance uniforms, a frown creased her face.
They shouldn't be in this section. It wasn't the typical gray uniforms of the tech maintenance crew, but rather the eye-catching burnt-orange outfits of the refuse workers on the spaceport.
"Probably not until they go to use it and it doesn't work," the alien replied with a malicious chuckle.
When the men walked over to the stack of crates, Amber quickly tugged Jade behind a large box, hiding from their view.
Sliding between the crates, the lean, two-headed reptilian man bent down, his green scales shimmering in the dim light.
His low curse came a few seconds later, and Jade instinctively scrunched up her nose in disapproval.
"What's wrong?" the gnarly-looking alien demanded.
The reptilian man looked around with a sneer on his lips. "It's gone."
"Gone? How in the galaxy can it be gone? I thought you said you had it hidden!" the flat-faced man snarled.
"I did! I made sure I hid it where no one could find it! Hell, I even stacked the crates here. There's no way anyone could have known it was missing, much less here. It's only been a couple of hours," the reptilian snapped back.
"Spread out. Search the room. It's got to be here somewhere," the gnarly alien instructed.
Jade nervously bit her lip, feeling a slight sting as her teeth grazed against her delicate skin.
There was no way they wouldn't be discovered.
As she frantically tried to think of a plan, the door of the equipment room slid open once more, revealing a ray of hope.
The quiet of their surroundings was broken by the sound of footsteps, signaling the imminent arrival of another person.
When Jade saw it was the two security guards that had been assigned to them, a silent groan escaped her lips.
"What are you doing in here?" the first guard demanded.
The reptilian man stepped in front of his friends. "We were instructed to move these crates into the other room," he said.
The guard frowned at them before he stepped to the side and motioned for them to grab the crates. "Go ahead. This is a restricted area. You shouldn't have been allowed in here."
The second guard glanced around the room. "You haven't seen three kids running around, have you?"
The gnarly man frowned. "Kids? On a warship?"
The second guard chuckled and shook his head. "Yeah, I know. They are Lord Trelon and Lady Cara's kids. I've heard stories about how they love to get into stuff."
The first guard laughed. "Yeah, like how they built traps in the haunted house."
"Or those little creatures that still pop up every once in a while," the second guard added.
"I think they called them demented symbiots. They look demented," the first guard laughed.
Amber nudged Jade, a playful smirk on her lips and her eyes rolling in exasperation.
A giggle threatened to escape her as she watched her sister manipulate her features, mimicking one of their eccentric friends.
A sudden crash in the other room made them both jump, causing all the men to turn their heads.
"There's one! Get him," the second guard shouted.
In his dragon form, James snorted and swiftly scampered out of the equipment room.
The two guards bolted out of the room, their footsteps echoing down the hallway.
The gnarly alien and the flat-faced one began to follow, but their progress was halted when the two-headed reptile tightly grasped their arms.
"I bet the kids found the device. The guards said there are three of them. We'll spread out and search the ship," the reptile man said.
"What do we do when we find them?" the gnarly man asked.
The reptile man scowled. "Find out what they did with the device and then hide their bodies… unless you want to deal with an angry dragon-shifting dad!"
"Not me. I have a healthy aversion to dragon-fire," mumbled the flat-faced alien.
"Go. I'll go after the dragon boy. You two find the other two."
"How will we know if it's them?" the flat-faced man asked.
"They'll be short. They're kids!" the gnarly one answered.
"Oh… yeah. Kids," the flat-faced alien muttered.
Jade gestured for her sister to remain in their current spot, signaling that they should wait for a few more moments.
As she reached out to her dragon, she also formed a connection with her symbiot, Trix, feeling their presence merge with hers.
As hoverboards, Trix and her sister's symbiot, Treat, gracefully entered the room, their sleek surfaces reflecting the soft glow of the lights.
A sense of relief washed over Jade, and she motioned for Amber to join her.
"What about James? Do you think he'll be alright?" Amber whispered.
Jade looked at her sister with an expression that was a cross between disbelief and disgust. "You're talking about our brother.
James is smart. There is no way those morons will be able to catch him.
He won't have any trouble staying ahead of those guys.
He'll keep the reptile man and guards busy while we find Daddy and let him know what's going on," she said.
"Do you think the device really can make the ship disappear?" Amber asked.
Jade pulled the device out and examined it closely, noting its intricate design and sleek, metallic feel.
The markings on it caught her attention, causing her eyes to sparkle with delight.
She held it up for her sister to see, a smile spreading across her face.
Amber's lips parted, emitting a surprised hiss, and she responded with a wide grin.
"Boy, are they in for a surprise when they try to use this!" Amber breathed.
"Yeah. A really big surprise," Jade laughed as she tucked the device back into her pocket. "Come on. Let's have a little fun while we look for Mom and Dad."
Trelon hurried down the level 5 corridor, his eyes darting to the open doorways as he passed, trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening inside.
The faint hum of the elevator grew louder as he rounded the curve in the corridor.
He briefly entertained the idea of utilizing the ship's communication system to issue a general announcement for the children, but he quickly changed his mind, not wanting to draw any notice to his kids' escape.
The last thing he wanted was for Kelan to send the entire ship into Red Alert with the blaring sirens echoing through the hallways.
He dreaded the thought of enduring another round of teasing from his brothers, ribbing him about how fortunate they were that their children only engaged in occasional escapades.
Personally, he thought they had it just as bad.
Mandra's house was always filled with creatures from all over the galaxy, Creon's daughter created portals that crossed the universe, Zoran's son was always leading the others into trouble, Kelan's son was always eating something he shouldn't, and as for everyone else, well, they had to deal with Vox. That was enough.
When a group of warriors stepped out of the lift, he instinctively slowed down and watched as they stood at attention.
Their wary expressions suggested that he wore his exhaustion on his face.
With a deep breath, he stopped and addressed them, carefully choosing his words to mask the panic that was beginning to well up within him.
"Have you seen three kids? There are two girls, about this tall, and a young boy?" he asked, lifting his hand to show how tall Amber and Jade were.
Confusion darkened the three faces while a young woman grinned and nodded. "I saw them earlier in the dining hall. The boy has a huge appetite for someone so young," she commented.
"Thanks!" he replied, stepping past them into the lift.
He pressed his hand to the com attached to his collar. "Cara, they were in the dining hall."
"Someone told me they saw them a few minutes ago on the bridge," she said.
"You check there. I'll check the dining hall," he replied with a sigh. "Of course this isn't going to be easy. I hope to Goddess they haven't replicated themselves."
I sniff them out?
He chuckled and shook his head. "Not yet, my friend."
His dragon huffed and puffed with frustration at being confined.
The kids loved the thrill of playing hide and seek with his dragon.
Hearing Kelan, Trisha, and their Grandpa Paul recount their adventures, the girls, despite being teenagers, couldn't help but find it "cool.
" They were particularly intrigued by Trisha's ability to tag soldiers on Earth and her impressive feat of tracking and tagging Kelan.
He closed his eyes, trying to picture where they might go on the V'ager.
While it wasn't the largest ship in their fleet, it was a labyrinth of hiding spots.
When the lift slowed, he blinked his eyes open.
Two ensigns stood still, their eyes fixed on him as they waited for him to exit.
"Have you seen three kids?"
"No, sir. We've just come on duty," one ensign replied.
"If you see them, let them know that their mom and dad are looking for them, please," he requested.
"Yes, sir," the second ensign said.
As he continued down the long corridor, he could smell the aroma of freshly cooked food wafting from the dining hall, and it instantly made his stomach grumble in hunger.
The rumbling in his stomach served as a reminder that he hadn't had a meal since breakfast. With a nonchalant shrug, he figured he might as well satisfy his hunger in the dining hall since he was already there.
"Surely they can't get into that much mischief in the time it takes to grab a quick bite," he muttered.
His dragon's snort of laughter and the image of the damn thing rolling on the floor almost made him detour… almost. His stomach was determined to drown out the damn beast inside him. He hoped that Cara was having better luck finding the kids than he was.