In the ten to fifteen minutes it took Lucien and Firebrand to make it from the Voyager to the Exchange, Bernie and Frack had managed to give at least a thumbnail explanation of what has been happening in the almost two years since the Event. Naturally, the stubborn jackass, no, DONKEY, put up a lot of arguments about how all she had heard was a pile of bullcrap and ‘how about you tell me some of God’s own truth for once?’
Bernie recognized the signs of R. Lee Ermey about to come through Frack, whose wings were raised and his ears were as red as his coat. Then Lucien and Firebrand came bustling in, lighting their way with their horns as they made their way to the furniture and bedding area. “Hail, hail, the doctor’s heah! Now, tell me what you’ve done heah, you featherbrain! Make it quick, cause the patient’s hurting!” Lucien said as he moved in, shoving Frack aside with his glow. “Step aside, young lady,” he said to Bernie as he got down next to Jenny. “Now, what’s youah name and what in Queen Marie’s Hell’s Bells did you do to yourself?” he asked as his glow surrounded the donkey.
Jenny, about ready to launch a savage verbal attack at Frack, was caught completely off-guard by Lucien’s bedside manner, as well as the red glow coming from his horn and around her, plus the pacification and painkiller spells the doctor was laying on her while scanning her. “Master Sergeant Jenny MacLaine, instructor, CGSC,” she said dully as the spells took effect.
“The Staff College, eh? Well, ah’m Colonel Lucien Macombe, Medical Corps, Louisianne Air National Guard, retired. Now, just how did yuh manage to break you leg lakh you did?” Lucien said to Jenny before turning to Firebrand. “Number-three healing potion and the general-purpose antibiotic potion, Firebrand,” he said to the red unicorn next to him, who dug out the requested potions out of her saddlebag.
“Just what are you two doing? What’s that red light coming from your… horns?” Jenny asked, feeling more stuporous by the minute.
“Film at six on Six, young lady. Raht now, ah’m doin’ all ah can to make sure you can get back up on all four hooves without having your left leg collapse on you like my great-grandbaby’s toy telescope. Now, this is going to hurt fo’ a few seconds,” Lucien told his patient as he quickly rebroke the leg and set it properly.
Jenny let out a yelp. The motion DID hurt, but it was not as bad as it could have been and was fading fast. “Thank you, sir,” she whispered before falling asleep.
“You’se welcome, young lady,” Lucien said as he got to work. “Firebrand, first the roll of gauze. I’ll put the antibiotic and half the healing potion on it, then put it on her. Follow that up with an injection of the rest of the healing potion, then the splint.”
His own saddlebag opened and a hypodermic syringe came out, with needle. Swiftly unwrapping it, he filled it with the healing potion, then set it aside as he took the roll of gauze from Firebrand, coated it liberally with the two potions, then wrapped Jenny’s left foreleg from knee to ankle before injecting the healing potion at the site of the break. “Nahce thing about bein’ a unicorn is that ah don’t need X-rays to look inside. Still workin’ on gettin’ good blood chemistry readings,” he commented as he worked.
“I’m going to ask Horny and your captain if you can stay for a couple of extra days, to teach us unicorns some medical spells we can use. Learning from a book is one thing. Learning from someone who knows what they are doing and can answer questions is something else, and you know what you are doing, Doctor,” Firebrand said as she watched Lucien work.
“Thank you for saying so, Firebrand. Ah’ll be happy to, once we get our asses out of the lahn of fire,” Lucien muttered as he wrapped and splinted the broken leg. “Has anyone thought of how we can get our patient out of the fire and into the fryin’ pan?”
“I have not been twiddling my primaries while you’ve been working, Lucien,” Frack said, coming back to the furniture area with a large garden cart that had two large garden chaise lounge pads, pulling it carefully with one leash tied to the handle, clipped to another one which was looped around his neck. “Now to see if we can come up with a better harness.”
“I’ll handle that, Frack,” Firebrand offered. “Have the others check the path back. Make sure it’s clear.”
“Will do,” Frack said, slipping out of the leash. “Let’s leave the unicorns to their work,” he said to Bernie.
“Plans like a sound to me, love,” Bernie replied as they made their way through the store to the exit.
Together, Lucien and Firebrand lifted Jenny onto the padded lawn cart. “I’ll start getting her to the Voyager; you look around here and see if there’s anything she might consider personal. She’s more likely to trust a doctor and an officer more than me,” Firebrand said as she took the wagon’s handle in her glow and started pulling it to the exit.
“Ah can do that,” Lucien said, looking around the bed area.
3 April 2017, 1400 hours, The Mississippi Voyager, Missouri River.
Jenny woke to the scent of a decent meal in the same room as she was, with coffee. Her eyes opened to reveal a small cabin, walls painted white, a small porthole letting in some light while a light in the ceiling provided more. On a small table near her bed, on a tray, she found a bowl of porridge, scrambled eggs, two biscuits with butter, a mug of coffee and some sugar and creamer packets. The door was just closing, Jenny getting a glimpse of a black cat’s tail disappearing out the door.
Jenny looked at her left foreleg, which was bandaged and splinted neatly, but no cast on the broken bone. It ached, but the pain she had been living with since the day she stumbled and broke the leg was gone. Slowly, anticipating pain that didn’t arrive, she sat up and sniffed at the waiting meal. She was hungry, to be sure, having subsisted on oatmeal, beef jerky and water since she woke up as a mule. Carefully, she reached out with her right forehoof, took a spoon in her grip, and tasted the porridge.
The next thing she knew, the plate, bowl and mug were empty, while she was not, for the first time in a long time. She sat on her bed, wondering who, what and where, when the door opened and Colonel Macomb entered, followed by someone else, who looked like someone split a bird and a horse apart and stuck the back end of the horse onto the front end of the bird. “How yuh feelin, Master Sergeant?” the Colonel asked.
“A lot better than I have since I woke up like this. Where am I and what’s going on?” Jenny asked.
“You’re aboard the riverboat Mississippi Voyager, out of New Orleans, Louisianne. Today is the 3rd of April, Two Thousand Seventeen. We are on our way to Kansas City, where a colony of Returnees are. More about that later. I’m the ship’s captain, Howard Crane, a longtime Mississippi river tug captain before everything fell apart,” Howard told the stunned donkey.
“I remember being told that magic has returned to the world, but in a way that is toxic to humans. Some benevolent aliens took the entire population of the planet, changed them into magic-tolerant forms, then shoved them into the timestream, to come back from the day it happened to ten thousand years from now. I’m finding it easier to believe, Captain. I’m Master Sergeant Jenny McLaine, formerly an instructor at CGSC. Whatinhell would turn me into a mule?” she asked plaintively.
Lucien reached out with his red glow and stroked Jenny’s ears gently. “The same forces that turned me into a unicorn and the captain into a hippogriff. Ah have to admit, you is the first donkey ah have seen. How’s your leg?” he asked in his best ‘concerned old doctor voice’.
“Much better. Stumbled in a hole I didn’t see. I had hell’s own time trying to patch it up with one hoof. I’m just glad I had raided the commissary once, and had a stash set up so I wouldn’t have to go far,” Jenny explained, her ears twitching some.
“We noticed that and brought that cart along with us,” Lucien told the mule. “Ah also looked about an’ found a few things ah thought you would want.” His glow opened a drawer in a table next to the bed, removing a large macrame purse.
Jenny’s eyes lit up and her ears swiveled when she saw the purse. “Thank you for saving that!” she squealed happily. “It’s what I got out of my barracks room before I moved to the Exchange! Lots of irreplaceable mementoes!”
“Glad ah did the raht thing then, Miz Jenny. You do have a nahce smile. I’m happy to see it. Now, we’ll be in Kansas City in under an hour. A pony colony is already there, an’ they say they will be tickled pink if you would join them. You’ll fahnd plenty to do theah, fo’ shure,” Lucien told the mule.
“Why did you come for me?” Jenny asked.
Captain Crane handled that question. “Deities came back when the magic did, Master Sergeant. Raven, the deity who watches over the group of Sioux who live here, made a request we go save you, because in a little more than three hours, a meteor will be impacting between Topeka and Lawrence, coming in from the southwest. Leavenworth will be in the line of fire for the debris spray. Even though you are not a Sioux, he told us you were there and asked us to get you.
“We aboard the Mississippi Voyager are from the Kingdom of Louisianne, down south of here. We just happened to be in the neighborhood when Raven called, so we were asked to come get you, our riverboat being equipped with everything we could use to get you, including a doctor.”
“A very good doctor,” Jenny said in affirmation. “It does not hurt much at all now. Can I go out and watch the meteor fall?”
“Of course you can, Miz Jenny,” Lucien told her. “Just let me help you up and out on deck, then back here to bed. Tomorrow will be soon enough to get you to the colony, an’ by then, you should be able to walk on that leg again, CAREFULLY,” he stressed. “Two more days an’ you should be raht as rain.”
“Three days to heal a broken leg? How can you do that?” Jenny asked, startled.
“Healing spells and healing potions, Miz Jenny,” Howard told her. “Kansas City has set themselves up to be the main potion brewing center in the American continents. Other places can make potions, but Kaycee has the highest concentrations of the best plants to make potions of all sorts. Healing, antibiotic, strength, antitoxins, you name it, they can make it.”
“Now, ah’m shuah you have lots of questions. Until impact tahm, we will let Firebrand, Morgan and Chop-in here to tell you about the colony, okay?”
“Of course, Colonel,” Jenny said. “Stay in bed until then, right?”
“That’s raht. Let that leg heal, an’ it will serve you well fo’ a long tahm to come. Now, pardon us, and we’ll get your new friends in heah,” Lucien said gently before heading out with the Captain. Firebrand, Morgan and Chopin entered and gathered around Jenny, the Q and A session starting as Lucien quietly shut the door.
3 April 2017, 1830 hours, Kaw Point Park, Kansas City, Kansas.
The Mississippi Voyager sat at anchor, bow pointing west, waiting for the rock to drop. Everyone aboard were sitting at tables in the forward Lounge, except the Third Officer, who was on the bridge ready to take some navigation fixes on the fireball, and Aaron Tereshkov, who was on engine watch. The visitors were aboard, deciding to overnight on the boat, what with the high risk of silicon hail starting in a few minutes. Phone contact with the Kaycee colony had arranged for the overnight stay, plus they will be taking observations of the rock fall, to help determine just where the impact was. Raven had said they could use the meteor to make good weapons, so it would help to know where to look, right?
Frack was on the phone at the bow of the boat, talking with his brother Frick, who was on-air at WSU radio, carrying the coverage of the meteor impact live, at a god-awful hour in Rotterdam, but who cares? Meteor impacts don’t happen every day, and the chance to cover one is rare enough to make the loss of sleep worth it. Plus, the two brothers don’t get to talk often.
“T minus ten minutes, bro. Don’t think you’re seeing anything yet, right?” Frick said from his studio.
“Just the sun in the west. Won’t even be twilight at impact, but I’m sure we’ll have plenty to see. Bernie’s right next to me with three cameras mounted and rolling. We’ll send the videos later on,” Frack replied from his post on the Voyager’s bow. He just winked at his wife, who winked back saucily before checking the aim of each camera.
Back in the Lounge area, several tables were pushed together so everyone could chat with each other. “You said you know how to forge metal, right, Jenny?” Roscoe asked.
“That I do!” she affirmed. “Great stress reliever, beating on metal after a hard day of trying to pound some sense into many of the pig-headed idiots the Army sent to CGSC. I know I’m not the best, but give me a good set of tools and I can work.” Jenny then looked at Lucien, who was giving her a dangerous look. “Only when you say it’s safe for me to do so, Colonel!”
“Got that raht,” Lucien grumbled. “Ah ain’t even gonna let yuh put your hoof down fo’ at least the next day! When ah fix a body, ah done fix it RAHT!”
“No doubt about that, Lucien. That’s why I requested you,” Howard said from his place at the table.
“Thank you for saying so, Captain,” Lucien replied graciously.
“Think you can teach me how to forge metal?” Roscoe asked the mule.
“I can certainly try, Roscoe. We’ll need to find the proper tools, both hand and machine. It’s also going to take a lot of patience to learn. I’ve been bashing metal since I was a little girl. My father and grandfather taught me how, and like I said, it’s an excellent stress reliever. Just picture the person you most want to pound the snot out of is in the metal you’re working, and watch him, her or it change into something YOU want. Maybe, after the rocks settle, we can go back to Leavenworth and see if we can get my tools,” Jenny told the diamond dog.
“Would not be a bad idea,” Silverwing said. “If for nothing more than a damage check. Next week should be soon enough.”
“Two minutes to impact!” Harry said over the ship’s PA system. Everyone looked to the west, peering between the cargo containers on deck. They were not disappointed.
A brilliant flash, like that of the biggest lightning bolt anyone had ever seen, lit up the western horizon. The flash was followed by a cloud of something arcing off to the right, as well as a mushroom cloud. “Was that a nuke?” Morgan asked.
“Nope. Not no how,” Lucien said. “It’s just a mark of a large energy release. Set off enough force in one place at one tahm, and you will get a mushroom cloud, Morgan. Doesn’t have to be a nuclear device that does the job.”
“Thank you, Colonel Macombe,” the young thestral replied.
“A brilliant flash, like a thousand thousand lightning bolts rose up over the western horizon, being chased by what looks like a wave heading off to the north. Must be debris kicked up by the impact. Now I’m seeing a mushroom cloud rising from the impact site. It’s lit up both by the sun and some sort of lightning inside. I have to say it’s an impressive sight. You getting all this, love?” Frack asked while reporting the sight to Frick.
“All recorders are working, love. Should be a couple of minutes more before any sort of shock wave reaches us,” Bernie replied while watching the sight.
“Nobody’s sure what sort of shock wave you will feel from forty miles out, bro. I’m just glad you’re not in the line of fire,” Frick said from his radio room.
“Believe me, I’m glad too. The water surface here in the Kansas River is a little disturbed, ripples just appearing in the water. Must be the ground shock,” Frack described.
“Seiche waves. I’ve heard about them, but have not seen any,” Frick said. “Any other disturbances, bro?”
“Not that I have noticed. Then again, it takes time for just about anything to traverse forty miles distance, be it thunder or seismic shock. The mushroom cloud is still rising and spreading, easily four miles tall and going up. There’s an odd beauty in the destruction that we know is happening over there,” Frack reported.
Bernie’s ears swiveled as she picked up something. “Sonic waves approaching, love. Hang on!” she cautioned before balling her ears up and ducking behind a cargo container.
Frack felt the incoming wave more than hearing it. “Here it comes!” he shouted into the phone before a loud cracking noise was heard, followed by a lower-pitched rumble. “Waaahooo!”
Frick hurriedly dialed down the volume on that incoming line. “You still there, bro?” he asked when the rumble subsided.
“I’m still here, bro! That was bigger and better than the biggest Fourth of July blow-off I’ve ever been to! The mushroom cloud is still growing, yet getting thinner, the sun shining through a couple of spots. The debris cloud is moving off to my right, and I cannot detect anything coming my way, except maybe some dust.
“For everyone just tuning in, this is WSU Radio and Captain Frick bringing you all coverage of a meteor strike that has just happened between Topeka and Lawrence, Kansas. My brother Frack is aboard the Mississippi Voyager, providing us with live minute by minute coverage of the impact and the after effects. We will run to the top of the hour, then switch back to our regular overnight programming.”
HPI Headquarters, somewhere in the United States.
“We got a fix on the impact point?” one technician asked another as he turned the volume down on the shortwave.
“Yes, sir. Thirty-nine point one degrees north, ninety-five point four west, in the vicinity of Thompsonville, Kansas. Thaumic meters spiked at impact, now backing down towards normal. Spike has not bottomed yet. Monitoring,” the second technician reported as she pushed her blonde hair back away from her face. She needed a haircut, she knew, but the barber was booked for several more days before she could get her hair done.
“The big shots are going to want to send a team out to try to recover some meteor pieces. What is the magic field like in outer space? Here’s one way to find out,” the first tech noticed.
“You could suggest to them to wait a month or two before going out to look. There’s a dammed lake a couple of miles away, and how much do you want to bet the dam broke and the crater is full of hot water?” she asked.
“Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to gather data for the big shots,” he grumbled. Almost two years underground has some of the HPI lower echelons on edge. The higher echelons have noticed, but how much could you do when stepping outside without heavy thaumic shielding would turn a person into a crispy critter in seconds?
A subway station in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Nebulous Nimbus dialed down the volume on the radio. “Thinking about going out and snagging a piece or two of meteoric iron, boss?” he asked his superior.
Vladimir thought, smoke curling up from a nostril. “Yes, but not right away. I’m not even going to call on the two idiots in Saint Louis. I would not trust them to bring me meteoric iron. I don’t think either of them would recognize meteoric iron if a piece of it bashed their brains out!” he snorted.
“Want Genghis to organize an expedition?” Neb asked.
“Yes, but we’re going to have to make sure we avoid the two settlements. That means walking or teleporting. Gonna take some time before the team gets there, so summon Genghis and have him get started. I want a good-sized chunk of that metal!” Vladimir said in a forceful grumble.
“On it, boss.”