....ZZZZZZZZZZ

Doug raises one eye, mentally checks his juice levels and also realizes that his flight power is still active. He gets up and comments,

"I can take him there, but he's going to want to use his rig pretty soon anyway. You're not buying much time."

Assuming his goods are individually boxed Courier picks them all up with his "leverage and common sense don't matter" strength field and takes them to the Market Square, if that's not possible then he'll just take the entire rig and fly it there, drop them off, and then fly it back.

Raider looks up when Courier gets back. "Thanks very much. That helps." Raider now has grease up to his elbows and smudges on his face and a dark streak of oil in his hair from breaking down the engine into its constituent parts.

Courier's trip takes somewhat longer than might be expected... and when he comes back he's almost done eating something that's a cross between a loaf of bread and a large pretzel covered with some type of red sauce.He responds,

“No problem, I needed to break for food anyway. He’ll be OK, flying things in like that always attracts a lot of attention. And speaking of attention, a thought occurred to me. Did that thing run on gas? Those things just really burn through that stuff, right? So, does that means they're either seriously rich, or they've found a big supply?”

Buzz's stern expression softens a bit at that, but he clamps down hard on the feeling, in case his own resurge and take him over again. He's about to offer his condolences when he's pulled aside. His scowl returns though at the rude and demanding treatment he's offered.

"Listen sonny, I been alive too long to play games like keep-away, or 'Try to catch me in a lie'. This Aberrant though didn't fight us or anything, while I was gabbin' with him he decided the conversation got dead, and disappeared with it. I tried stoppin' him, usually I can be pretty persuasive, but he was havin' none of it. Then when he was leavin' I tried shuttin' him down, but he was already gone. Wasn't quick enough. We managed to get a decent look inside it, one of the boys managed to sneak in. Don't think we got anything more than a look though."

"That answer your accusations?"

At Boothe's Garage, Raider is working on the engine, taking careful notes as he peels away layers to technology. Nearby Courier has settled down to watch and Gregory lies alseep in the corner. Raider's pregress is good but he estimates another few hours at least.

*****

The forgiener, meanwhile, is bristling at Buzz's retalitory comments, "You expect us to belive that some aberrant was able to teleport the cockpit out from under your noses?! That is the most pathetic lie I have ever heard it is simply not possible for a nova to attune that much mass. You are covering up your theft with lies only a child would believe..."

Before he can cvontinue his tirade Adam enters the room, it's obvious he has been running to get here although he is not winded, nor even breathig hard.

By the quivering of his chin, the squint of his eyes, and the curling of his right hand into a wagging finger, it's apparent that Buzz has had enough.

The angry canuck soon finds that finger shaking in his face, each shake punctuated by a wave of anger and what should be shame at impugning the honor of his elder.

"Now you listen to me. I been here since before the Burn, and I ain't never had someone call me a liar to my face like you just did. 'Round here there might be some folk who'd take issue with you for that. But when I tell you here and now, that that squid armed Aberrant took that machine with him, you can accept that as the gospel truth. He did have some kinda gizmo with him though, back in my day we called 'em a remote control. Maybe that's how he did it."

"But I seem to remember a Nova named Taxi from before the Burn, and he managed to port a whole damn building! Hell, today one of the boys warped all of us and a jeep to the site! So don't you go flapping them gums about what an Aberrant can or can't do. Get me sonny?!"

Adam walks in during the middle of a tirade, catching only the tail end of the visitors' accusing Buzz of lying. "Um, hey, Buzz? These guys annoying you? Want me to ... eject them? Oh, and Raider wants you to come to his shop - some farmer on his way in picked up an engine - the craft started falling apart soon as it hit the sound barrier, says Raider, and the engine was pretty much intact. They're taking a look at it so we can reverse-engineer a better one later. Plus you might wanna listen to the flight recorder - it's in French."

The frenchman begins to appear that he is willing to back down when suddenly Adam bursts into the council chambers and and blurts out:



Just as suddenly the visitor is visibly enraged, his face turning red and visibly quivering, "HOW DARE YOU!! You sons of bitches will pay for this outrage, we demand you return all wreckage of the craft to us immediately, if not we will consider this an act of war upon Quebec!!"

With that he turns and grabs the other visitor's arm, "Come Francois, we have had enough of their so call hospitality. We shall await your response at the edge of your filthy town!"

The two leave, doors slamming behind them, the coucilman looks at Buzz and then at Adam. He appears to be wrking towards his own outburst of choice words.

Buzz's jaw nearly hits the floor at the intrusion and the predictable outburst. He stands there mute for a few seconds, then runs a hand through his wispy hair.

"Kid...your timing could have been...better." he finally manages.

Adam stares, clearly surprised, between the storming Quebecois and the councilmen. "Um, who the hell are those guys, and what's their problem?"

Buzz pauses for a minute then cracks a big smile, he just stands there a few more seconds before a thin raspy laugh comes out of him. Soon it's a loud guffaw and then side-splitting laughter. He stands there for nearly a minute, cackling like a crazy man before he finally puts a hand on Adam's shoulder.

"You...HAHA! You...needed to be there kid. Those were the real owners of that jet. I just got through tellin' 'em we didn't have it, and that one of them just lost their brother." he finally seems to be calming down, wiping a few tears from his eyes. "Let's see the council."

The two council members finally butt into the conversation, "Buzz who is this man? What the hell are we going to do about the Kabekers?"

The second scowls, "We've got ourselves in a real pickle now, I can only hope that the Kabekers don't mean to actually attack us ... god only knows if the rumors about them are true, we may have more novas but from what the travling merchants say they have some very tough fighters, apparently there is an aberrant enclave near to them in the north west."

*****

Raider and Jimmy are elbow deep in the engine guts when a loud noise rattles the shop. Courier starts laughing at their reaction and points to the corner where Gregory is snoring far more loudly than anybody would have believed.

Adam stands there in confusion, until Buzz's laughter dies down. Then he just says, "Oh. I'll, uh, be right back." He opens a Warp right under his own feet, dropping into Raider's shop in an empty corner.

"Hey, guys? We have a slight problem. The plane apparently belongs too some guys from K-Bek, and the brother of the pilot just showed up to claim it. Without knowing who it was, I, ah," he pauses to clear his throat, "accidentally let slip that we have an engine."

He looks over the current state of the engine. "You want me to help you guys and speed up the work, or would you rather I stall them, by taking them out to the crash site and back?"

Raider looks up even more grease stained than before. "I'd take Buzz with you to do the talking, but perhaps stalling them with a trip to the crash site would be good. Jimmy and I are going to need till morning to have this all back together, at which point they are welcome to take it and the flight recorder."

Doug frowns and speaks up,

"If I were them I wouldn't be impressed by an empty crash site... on the other hand, I could show them my memories of Squidward. Or maybe we could do both?"

Raider nods thoughtfully, "Yeah, if they agree to it that might not be a bad idea. It would also give us a line to K-bec if we ever need to communicate right? Or is that too far away for your thought link?"

Doug shrugs,

"I’m not sure exactly how far K-bec is, but I’ve never found a range limit for the link. I don’t get the feeling it has a limit, or at least not a close one.”

Adam glances between Doug and Raider, and shrugs. "I suppose it's worth a try. We can also try having them talk to the guy who brought in the engine - preferably after we show them the crash site. And Raider? Really, hurry - they were starting to make threats about war when I mentioned we had the engine."

(Assuming Courier follows him) Adam heads back to the Council building to try and collect Buzz to improve their chances of stalling. Then he'll head for where the K-bec men said they would be waiting, along the way mentioning to Buzz his plan to stall by having the K-bec men talk to the farmer and view the crash site. When they get there, Adam will stand back and let whoever has the best chance of convincing them speak.

Courier will indeed go with Adam.

"Now now," Buzz says, putting a hand on the council man's shoulder. "I'll be able to straighten things out. This whole thing is similar to an incident that happened in 2051, when someone received an Opnet program from another country by accident. Now that caused a small war come to think of it." Buzz pauses a minute as he tries to remember, heedless of the look on the council man's face. "We won't let that happen though, not to worry. Find out where they want to meet us and I'll gather up the boys and straighten this out. It's all a misunderstanding see? Where's Ralph? Ralph! Round up the rest of 'em."

Adam ports back to Buzz who is just finishedplacating the coucilors. The three of them leave promising to try and straighten this whole mess out.

Outside of town to the north they find the two Kabekers sitting by a hastily made campfire, considering that at least one of them is a warper they probably were not prepared for this eventuality.

Pierre looks up and sees the group approaching, he scowls momentarily before speaking, "Come no closer old man. Unless you are prepared to hand over my brother's remains and the wreckage of the ship you and your nova friends canstay right where you are."

*****

Back at the garage Raider and Jimmy labor on trying to dismantel the engine while gregory sleeps.

After a few hours, Gregory wakes from his slumber. It was a loud clang, caused by Jimmy and Raider's engine dismantling, that finally did the trick.

With bleary, teared eyes, he sits up and walks towards the two making all the racket.

"How long was I out?"

Raider smiles, and looks tired and very dirty. "Only a few hours. Not sure exactly, I've kinda lost track of time." He looks around for a tool and spies it lying on a table across the room. "Hey, hand me that wrench will ya? Thanks."

Gregory grabs the wrench and hands it to Raider. As he watches and begins fetching tools for them, he asks, "Where is everyone else?"

(To Buzz) *This might be a good time to mention to them the link's ability to share memories...*

Buzz holds up both hands and makes one of his infrequent smiles, the exception being this one is genuine.

"Come on now neighbors, let's talk about this. There were things going on that I weren't fully aware of. So, having said that, let me go over a few things in a friendlier tone."

"First, I'm sorry about your brother. God knows I done lost most of the people I ever knew and loved in my lifetime, and I shouldn't ha'been so cold about it. Your brother died, but with his efforts he probably made sure he was able to crash it in an unpopulated area, so he went out a hero both because he saved lives and tested your ship. For that we're grateful."

"But, and this is the God's honest truth, when we got to the wreckage all we managed to do was get a quick peek. I believe one of the boys managed to either record the flight recorder or retrieve it. At the time I thought they just took a recording mebbe. They didn't share the technical details with me, I'm just an old man y'know. I think they said it was in French though."

"Then that Aberrant came and we shared a few words. I tried to stop him from leaving, and the boys were even ready to jump him to stop it, but he popped away and took it with him. Not sure how I can convince you, but one of 'em has a way to link um...I don't know...to link people's minds or something. Maybe he can do that and you can see what we all saw."

"As for what the kid said back there, I had no idea. I ain't the leader 'round here or nothin'. Once we came back I got a cup of coffee and went to get a hot bath and dry clothes, and came right to the meeting where I met yas. I didn't hear about that engine until he burst in, I heard it first time when you did. Guess the engine fell out of it and landed in a farm, and yeah, we recovered it and are takin' a look at it now. I can't speak for Newborough, Hell I can't speak for anyone but m'self. But if yas will calm down with that talk about declarin' war, we can see about returnin' that engine. Huh? Whattaya say neighbor?"

The two Frenchmen listen to Buzz, and though it appears that Buzz's words of sympathy did were not well recieved (indeed by their reaction he may have been better off to not even mention it) they do seem moved by his admission of the truths of the situation.

Pierre finally speaks up, "While I still have my doubts as to the truth of your story I don't think that it is worth risking war without at least giving you the benefit of the doubt. Return to us the wreckage that you do have any we will return home with it. If you are truthful about retrieving the data recorder and the engine and return them in good faith we will be willing to trust you further. With lukc you can locate this other nova or aberrant and retrieve my brother's remains if nothing else.

"Francois and I will accompany you back to your facility and transport the wreckage you have recovered from there."

Courier speaks up,

"Buzz was only mostly right in his guess. We didn't find the engine. Someone outland found and we traded him for it. Part of that price was blood by the way. He was dealing with a dangerous, ferile aberrant that needed killing."

"If there are debts here they aren't on our side."

"As for the body, the now missing wreckage, and unnamed aberrant/nova, we were hoping you could tell us who he is. If you're willing I can show you a picture of him in my mind."

"That would let you prove the remaining wreckage is yours to at the same time. You're the second person to lay claim to this stuff. The guy before was pretty convincing too."

Buzz looks at Courier, doing his best to hide his annoyance. 'What is it about kids ruining everything I have to say?'.

"Um...yeah, so let's go check it out shall we?"

The two Frenchmen discuss between themselves before agreeing to go to the garage and pick up the wreckage that the grou has recovered. Although they seems to be going along with Buzz's suggestions they are obvisouly still somewhat wary of trusting Buzz and his comrades too far.

A short time later Adam, Courier, Buzz, and the two Frenchmen are approaching the garage. "So you will allow us to bring the wreckage of our plane back to Quebec and return in thre days time to see what further you have recovered and information regarding this aberrant and the cockpit wreckage and the remains of poor Robert?"

Buzz doesn't want to get saddled into a commitment just yet, so he wears an expression that he's considering their offer.

"Let's go see that engine. How did ya' get here?"

"And I have to ask, do ya' know anything about that Aberrant with tentacles? He knew an awful lot about that ship, and he said it was his."

Courier sends (only to Buzz)

*That offer sounds pretty one sided to me. What is it that we are getting out of this again?*

*Ain't offered anything yet. Said we were gonna see it. 'Sides, it ain't ours. I wanna find out who it does belong to though. Maybe get some more answers along the way.*

(Before, on the way to the shop)

Courier sends to Adam

*Let's walk and give Raider and James a bit more time.*

(Assuming that works) Courier sends to Raider & James

*We're on our way to the shop with the French owners. We're on foot & starting from outside the wall. You have 10 minutes or so.*

*Would you mind telling Raider and James to find some good reasons to stall giving the engine back to them? Unless they think they'll be finished before we can walk back.*

*Good idea.* (Doug forwards that as well)

Raider responds to Courier's message, "Um, I think we're looking at hours here yet before we finish disassembling and reassembling this engine. If they want it back right now with no delays they are going to need some boxes to pack the pieces in if you know what I mean. Have they offered proof yet that they actually own the engine? I mean I do believe it came from K-bec since the recorder was in French and all, but that other guy seemed pretty insistent that it belonged to him."

(Assuming that what has been discussed so far with the frenchies has been relayed to him through the link, Raider will add the following.)

"As for giving it back right now, if they threaten war or want to force us into finding squidboy for them, then they'd better be prepared to share this technology with us. I'm not doing their dirty work for them and getting nothing out of it. They can stick their threats of war where the K-becy sun don't shine."

*No proof, but the council believes them. Obviously you can do what you want, but if it was me I'd forget about trying to reassemble it and just try to learn as much as I could.*

*As for the rest, I'll let you talk to them yourself. You speak French... although they do talk to each other so you might want to not let them know that.*

(If Raider likes the idea of not telling them about speaking French, Courier will forward that to everyone else)

Raider replies, "Yeah, not letting them know I speak french sounds like a good plan. Perhaps they will reveal something useful if they talk freely in front of us. Either way, I'm not giving up the engine until I've finished with it. If they wanna declare war over a few hours wait, then they are nuts. If they expect us to do their dirty work, without some kind of pay they are idots."