Josie stood up. She checked the arm of her chair. They were almost over Hawk Ridge.

  She took a breath.

  It was time to send the Fighters home. She needed to do something about their

  payment so it didn’t look like a transformed monster plant in a pot. She doubted the

  guild would want that in their vault.

  “I’ll fix up your gold mushroom before we put you down on the ground,” said Josie.

  She gestured for them to load into the elevator. “If you want to keep working for us,

  that would be good. If you don’t, that will be fine too.”

  “There are two other places that I would like to strike,” said Fass. “If we take those,

  we will be able to short out the Montrose on the east side of the country.”

  “Hopefully we stopped the Shemmarians from engaging in the trade,” said Jack. He

  stood by his command chair. “If we can cut off the unofficial buyers, that might stop

  some of the trade.”

  “I will go over the source of targets again,” said Fass. “We might be able to snap up

  people on the other side of the border.”

  “We will definitely keep all this to ourselves except the possession of the gold goblin

  tree bush,” said Budd.

  “I will reshape it into something more presentable,” said Josie. She smiled slightly.

  “I doubt a gold monster will be anything but trouble.”

  “What about your percentage?,” asked Fass. Some of his people were shocked he

  would suggest something like that.

  “Keep it,” said Josie. She made a gesture at Jack. “We don’t really need it, and your

  people have done all right by us. They deserve to retire well if they want to do that.”

  “No more midnight monster hunts for me,” said the complainer. “I can do all my

  hunting in the day time.”

  “Go down to Transporter Room One,” said Josie. “I’ll get your payment. We’ll drop

  you down at the hall so you can cash out and head home.”

  “My wife will be happy to hear that,” said Fass. He smiled.

  “I would like to meet her,” said Jack. “She has to be the most baddest fighter

  anywhere.”

  “I will have to think about that,” said Fass.

  “He means no,” said Budd. The elevator door opened. The Fighters boarded. “He

  always says I will think about it, and then the answer is always no.”

  “I can show her how to make a salad,” said Jack.

  “Definitely not,” said Fass. The doors closed on his weary face.

  “Enterprise, keep us out of sight,” said Josie. “We have already given one military a

  reason to try to take you. We don’t want to do the same for the military where we

  live.”

  “Affirmative,” said the machine.

  “I will be right back to talk to you about the rest of the night,” said Josie. “Don’t do

  anything until we talk.”

  “What would I do?,” asked Jack.

  “Start trying to make a Tardis even though I told you not to,” said Josie. “I think you

  should keep your dirty hands off time travel.”

  “I am responsible enough to be able to time travel,” said Jack.

  “Opinion, Enterprise,” said Josie. She crossed her arms.

  “Captain Jack Lee will destroy reality within two days,” said the machine.

  “Really?,” asked Jack, looking up at the ceiling.

  “Maybe less if you come up with a better sounding idea and implement it without

  care,” said the machine.

  “I can’t even believe my adopted son would turn on me like this,” said Jack.

  “Machines don’t care about your feelings,” said Josie. “Don’t do anything until I talk

  to you about your therapy. Then we’ll discuss how we are going to handle things and

  get the women and Shemmarians out of the transporter buffer and get them looked at

  and sent where they need to go.”

  “The Shemmarians will be the easiest,” said Jack. “All we have to do is pull their

  implants and put them back down in the capitol.”

  “All right,” said Josie. She checked her watch. She nodded. “I’ll be back in a minute.

  Is there anything else that I need to deal with before we head home and you get ready

  for your date?”

  “You are going to have to talk to Aviras about his ice cream addiction,” said Jack.

  “Do you do this on purpose?,” said Josie. She could feel her blood pressure climb.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” said Jack. He grinned at her.

  “I can’t wait until Juni has a sitdown with you,” said Josie. She took a breath. She

  touched her watch and became Zatanna. She frowned at her partner. “Then we’ll see

  how happy you are, buddy.”

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  “I’m not scared,” said Jack.

  “We’ll see,” said Josie. She used her magic to zap down to the quinjet. She grabbed

  the mushroom and twisted it with a small application of her magic. She had a column

  of gold about four feet long by two feet. She floated it behind her to the transporter

  room.

  Josie carried the column of gold into the transporter room. She almost smiled at the

  look on their faces.

  “I smoothed things over so it would be easier for you to cash in,” said Josie. She let

  the gold drop on the transporter pad. “I can chop it up into coins, or whatever.”

  “This will be all right,” said Fass. “We’ll cash it out and split everything up.”

  “If you need any help, let me know,” said Josie. “I will help you out. I will try to keep

  Jack from making any more Enterprises. I never thought he would come up with

  something like this.”

  “It’s a marvel out of stories,” said Case. “I’m glad that it’s on our side.”

  “It was good to have you guys as back up,” said Josie. She smiled. She recognized

  Case as the lover boy from when they had met at the Hall the first day with the girls.

  “Don’t get into trouble chasing some girl.”

  “Too late,” he said with a grin. “Why do you think I am an adventurer eking out an

  existence in the back of beyond?”

  “Poor judgment,” said Josie. She waved them on the pad with their gold pole.

  “Enterprise, energize.”

  The Fighters vanished in a cloud of blue sparks. She loved that effect, but thought the

  original seemed a little better despite the cheapness of it.

  She let the persona go as she walked out of the transporter room. She had forgotten

  how much of the ship was automated. If they had drones, the ship could take care of

  itself while they worked on any future quests.

  She still had a lot of work ahead of her. She had to get cracking on some of it.

  She took the elevator back to the bridge and didn’t see Jack anywhere. She decided

  to try the Ready Room. She went in and paused as Jack and Aviras paused their

  argument over an empty bowl of ice cream.

  “No more ice cream,” said Josie. She turned her glare on them. She went to the

  visitor’s chair and sat down. “Now, we seem to have a communication problem

  between the three of us, and I suppose it is time to put some rules down so we know

  where we stand.”

  “I’m fine where I am,” said Jack. “How about you, buddy?”

  “I am also in a fine position,” said Aviras. He flew to the back of Jack’s chair in case

  he had to drop below some fast moving projectile.

  “I know that you two think you can run around and do whatever you want,” said

  Josie. She crossed her arms as she glared at them. “I thought we were supposed to be

  less showy about how we do things.”

  “There were extenuating circumstances,” said Aviras.

  “Needing a bowl of ice cream is not extenuating enough,” said Josie.

  “We did need transport and a hospital for the people we picked up,” said Jack. “And

  the Enterprise D was the best template for that. I admit that we will need a crew if we

  want to keep her in the air, but right now it was perfect for the emergency we faced

  and buys us some time to handle everything now that the emergency is over.”

  “And you were going to wreck Kas anyway,” said Josie.

  “That goes without saying,” said Jack.

  “Eric knows about nuclear weapons now,” said Josie. “We’re slowly breaking him.

  We might not be able to use his help anymore. Everyone at the Hole in the Wall and

  the Halfway House will be in danger as soon as it gets out what you built.

  Governments are going to want this.”

  “I admit the Enterprise is a big thing to have to hide, but we can hide it,” said Jack.

  “The Shemmarians won’t run around telling people that a giant silver bird threatened

  them. Their government would look crazy if they did that.”

  “And you are fine with the decisions that led to you building this ship?,” said Josie.

  “Aviras said I couldn’t turn Kas into a nuclear wasteland, so this was the second

  choice on my mind,” said Jack.

  “I’m glad one of you had some sense,” said Josie. “Let this be the last thing you build,

  Jack.”

  “I still have to build the information resource thing that we wanted,” said Jack. “And

  the Enterprise is going to need to be linked in to that so it can build its own library.”

  “Enterprise, what do you have in your memory?,” asked Josie.

  “Navigational data, weapon system operation, engineering, some medical, a small

  history of Alex Ross and his artwork,” said the machine.

  “We will try to fix you up with an encyclopedia about the local things,” said Josie.

  “Can I trust you two not to do anything like this again until we get everyone off the

  boat and back to a normal life?”

  “Aviras has been a good source of advice except for when he wants ice cream,” said

  Jack. “Then he is easily bribable.”

  “All right,” said Josie. She stood. “We’re going home. The Enterprise is going to hold

  station until we figure out what kind of base of operations we need to fix the goblin

  tree victim problem. Go on your date with Elaine, Jack. Aviras and I will cover any

  problem that shows up. Then we’ll see if your sister wants to visit.”

  “I would love to meet this legendary woman,” said the dragon.

  “We’ll see what happens,” said Josie. “More caution would be appreciated from the

  two of you. Work on that. Then we will do a reassessment.”

  “Reassessment?,” asked Aviras.

  “You two could get everyone killed with your antics,” said Josie. “You did good

  with creating and building the Enterprise to carry the load. It also makes us a target

  for every government on the continent. That means the Duke could turn us in for

  a reward any second, which puts the girls and Elaine in jeopardy. I don’t want to

  have to pull up stakes, but if I do, one of you will be hurt a lot. I’ll let the two of

  you decide which one that happens to be.”

  “As a simple dragon who lives for stories and ice cream, I will nominate Jack for any

  pain,” said Aviras. He indicated the taller human with a forepaw.”

  “As your friend, your best friend,” said Jack. “I nominate Aviras since he is really

  an enemy trying to turn us against each other in the hopes that his curse will be

  reversed.”

  “I will use eeny meeny,” said Josie. “Whomever loses gets a beating.”

  “I don’t think I like that at all,” said Aviras.

  “I would like a coin toss,” said Jack. “That is more random, and gives me a better

  chance of not taking a beating.”

  “This is the ground rule from now on which you have brought on yourself,” said

  Josie. “No more running around and doing big magic unless necessary. Anything you

  create has to vanish. No more doing things that are more risky than getting a

  sandwich out of the icebox. No more bringing people to meet the kids when they are

  part of the job.”

  “That seems like more than one rule,” said Aviras.

  “I am trying to cover edge cases because I know if I don’t Jack will build Galactus’s

  base ship,” said Josie. “I am going to say no to that before you even start thinking

  about that.”

  “If I worked on a Tardis in the Hole in the Wall, the kids could have their own space,”

  said Jack.

  “They don’t need it,” said Josie. “And I don’t want to lose one of them for years

  because they got lost trying to find their way to the bathroom. I don’t want to get lost

  going to the bathroom. Think smaller.”

  “Maybe liminal spaces,” said Jack.

  “Something less dangerous,” said Josie. “I don’t want the space to collapse and take

  the girls with them.”

  “Maybe I could dig down and set up separate rooms,” said Jack.

  “That’s better,” said Josie.

  “Maybe set up a danger room,” said Jack. He started grinning. “That would be

  awesome.”

  “For whom,” said Josie. “Kids don’t want an obstacle course to try to set them on

  fire.”

  “She’s right about that,” said Aviras. “Kids mostly want to do what they want to do.”

  “I’m the only one who wanted a danger room when I was a kid?,” said Jack.

  “Yep,” said Josie.