When the door opened next, Andrew was surprised to see the beautiful face of Uhla smiling at him.

  “I don’t think you mean me any harm, but I will ask that you stay there in your bed and I’ll take the chair over here. Sound like a plan? While I didn’t have shooting a human in my deck for today, but plans change.” A warm smile grew on her face.

  “Deal. Don’t worry the little magic I do have is mostly sticking to things and hiding.”

  “On that subject tell me about it.”

  “My magic?”, with a nod from Uhla he continued, “Well, I can use a minor form of telekinesis, oh sorry cinetica”, He stopped with Uhla put up a hand to stop him.

  “What is sinetika or tele-kawhatsit again?

  “Cinetica is the elven name for what humans call telekinesis. It allows me to move objects, small objects, with my mind. It also allows me to bind myself to things like walls. I have another Cinetica power which allows me to bend light around me which makes me very hard to see.”

  “Those sound useful for sneaking around, not as much for hurting people, and explain why it took us so long to find you. Must be pretty good for Doc not to have spotted you.”, she said as she noticeably relaxed before continuing, “So, tell me again about the settlement you came from.”

  “I guess you could call Yuta a settlement. I mean we really haven’t been there that long and the infrastructure is rudimentary at best. The world itself is an oasis, lush greenery, and a few of the local flora and fauna are quite edible. Hell even the gravity is ever so slightly less than Earth norm.”

  “Earth norm?”

  “Oh yeah, Earth is where we humans are from originally. Well before we overpopulated the place and blamed all of our problems on each other, while simultaneously dodging any responsibility for ourselves. Except for those of us Chosen by the 19.”

  “It must be fate that you humans found us as 19 is a special number for us as well. That though can wait. So that’s earth norm?”

  “In this case it means normal earth gravity. About 9.8 meters per second squared.”

  “Wow that’s it, our race’s home planet has a gravity of 15.2 meters per second squared.”

  “Vulcanis, correct?”

  “Yes”, slight suspicion in her voice.

  “Well that explains your stature and build as a race I guess, though I’m honestly surprised with how closely our races resemble each other. It’s pretty uncanny, isn’t it?”

  “One of the great mysteries of the universe is that every alien we have come in contact with has our same configuration. Early on we thought maybe some race seeded our two galaxies as they were so close together, but then humans came along and what do you know. Two arms, two legs, and a head and from what I’ve heard your galaxy is a great distance away.”

  “Great distance away is an understatement, but that doesn’t rule out some planet seeding race. It just would mean they were more prolific and better traveled than you once thought.”

  “Maybe but far less likely that to colliding galaxies. The best reason to believe this is our DNA make up is surprisingly close to each other with some notable differences. Though my understanding, and it’s a controversial one, though I have it on good authority, is that we can even interbreed. Though the offspring don’t thrive, often dying within weeks. From what I’m told. Though the news will have you believe it’s not possible.”

  “Nice to see the media lies no matter what galaxy you’re in. I mean I have never seen elven media, so maybe they don’t lie, but with a society of worm controlled people it seems unlikely that they wouldn’t. Right?”

  Uhla let out a hardy laugh, “Oh they definitely do, I mean unless you believe that Dwarves are the descendants of elves or that we never killed one of their gods. He merely decided to go for a long walk through the cosmos never to be heard from again. It was just a random coincidence that it happened right after he got annihilated by one of our fleets.”

  “Well I guess I’ll never know until I can figure out how to integrate Ziggy into your systems.”

  Uhla’s face solidified enough to make granite jealous, “Who’s Ziggy and what makes you think we’ll allow you to use him to compromise Doc?”

  While he hadn’t seen her move it there, Andrew became very aware that her hand was resting on her gun.

  “Ziggy is my implant. I was only hoping to integrate him because while beautifully decorated, you might have noticed it’s not the biggest or most entertaining room.” concern clear in his voice.

  He was relieved when her hand left her gun, though it hadn’t strayed far.

  “We’ll have to see, from what I understand most human implants failed shortly after entering a dwarven ship or planet. I have heard they sometimes restart on a neutrally aligned planet. Though that might just be rumor as most humans have the removed as they have been proven to cause cancer. “

  “Linnie must be smiling wherever she is,” seeing Uhla about to ask, Andrew continued, “Linnie is my wife. She’s the reason I’m here actually. She was on the second ship that came into this set of galaxies,” Andrew paused trying to contain his emotions in front of this stranger, “Sorry, I just don’t know if she is still alive or not. If Biaobel is to be believed she’s likely not as she’d be like 150 plus years old.”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “I’m sorry to hear about your wife. Was she on the first ship that came though then?”

  “No, she was on the second ship.”

  Her eyes narrowed slightly as she studied Andrew, “But there has only been one human ship, two if your story about coming on a new one is to be believed.”

  “There should have been two other ships, the Hringhorni and the Orinasa. Do you not know of the Hring?”

  “I don’t really know, all I heard about around the last human ship came from the news and rumors. It wasn’t that long ago, so I know the real truth hasn’t made it out, but I would be surprised if I hadn’t heard of another ship.”

  Andrew’s heart jumped as he knew the elf had been lying, “What do you mean not that long ago? Like two years ago?”

  “Oh no it was 152 VT years ago. I only know that because it was the same exact time as the captain’s birth. I was in my fifties when that happened. The news shook both galaxies. ALIENS ARE HERE, ABLE TO USE TECHNOLOGY AND MAGIC, IS THE END NEAR? I really thought it was tabloid trash at first, but then the mainstream picked up and 50 or so years later I saw my first human.”

  “Wait you’re claiming you’re over 200 years old?”

  “Yes 204 to be exact.”

  Ziggy did you translate that into human years?

  [Affirmative. She said VT, which stands for Vulcanis Time, which is based on the prime time zone on the Dwarven home world of Vulcanis. Part of the knowledge I got from Bob was a conversion factor for both Elven and Dwarven standard years, as well as a conversion factor for Elven to human years. Each Vulcanis year is approximately 1.825 earth years.]

  While the conversation in his brain took milliseconds, it still caused there to be a somewhat pregnant pause in the conversation with Uhla.

  Realizing that a pause right after asking a person’s age might be seen as an insult, he quickly asked, “Sorry to ask but is that old for a dwarf? I mean you look like you could be in your late twenties if you were a human.”

  “No, it is considered very young by Dwarven standards. As the average lifespan of a dwarf is about 1100 years give or take, I am still quite young. A few make it to 1200 and the occasional soul to 1300, though Old Yenti Al-din made it to 1600 and change, without the aid of a utopian planet.”

  Andrew sat there almost slack jawed at the average age of dwarves.

  “Seriously 1100?”

  “Yes, that one I know for a fact.”

  “That’s impressive. Biaobel made a comment about planets that slow the aging process. So, that’s a real thing then and Dwarves have their own as well?”

  “They definitely exist, I have heard there are quite a few in Chennon…though I wouldn’t really know as outside of a few border skirmishes I have not spent any real time in this wretched galaxy. In Volundr, there are only a small number, and most are heavily controlled by a few clans and only their elites are allowed to be on them. I’ve only stepped foot on one utopian planet, Omican. I was there because of the Wambi incursion. While the anti-aging was nice and it was beautiful, it wasn’t what I’d call a utopia. No granite mountains to be seen and it is minorly aligned to magic, so all your tech gets random small glitches here and there. Worst of all, it was full of Fourier “Elites”. I doubt there is any group in the universe more into sniffing their own farts than that lot. I will say it was satisfying to watch them have to watch as us Sruthan not only soiled their planet by walking on it and breathing its air but also swallow their pride as the Sruthan came to their rescue. Those tuku still call us trash and vow to remove us should they regain the empire even after we saved them, and that’s the least of it. When they ran the nation they hunted us like dogs. So, there is no love lost between our two clans, but even with the atrocities we have suffered at their hands, at the end of the day they’re still better than elves so we came to their call. So did the captain, and his family likely as the most reason to hate the Fouriers. It was at the battle for Duihmi hill where I first met my husband and the captain. Though Amin wouldn’t really remember me for quite some time after that. When I saw him again and told the story of the one kilometer shot that saved his life.”

  “I take it your good with that thing then?” Andrew pointed at her pistol.

  “I’m decent with this, but my real skill is with Old Moses, he’s my rifle. I won him in a bet with a Zhanchu royal. He bet his gun that I couldn’t outshoot him with my father’s old rifle. Too bad for him that the best gun in the realm doesn’t make you a good shot. To say, that man could shoot would be like saying a Nizonian halimaw can fly. With Old Moses in my hand I can confidently say I’m the best shot in the realm. I have the records to prove it.” Pride clear on her face.

  “What’s a Ninzonian halimaul?”

  “Nizonian halimaw are 140 kilo mostly hairless mammalian creatures with eight legs, short flat noses, big upright ears, round bodies, and long whip like tails. They come from Nizonian the closest world to our homeworld of Vulcanis. To be clear they are about as likely to fly as a boat anchor, but they are super tasty.”

  “Interesting.”

  There was a bit of a pregnant pause as they both tried to figure out what to talk about next.

  “So, tell me about your wife.”

  “That’s a bit of a sore subject.”

  “I can respect that, but you have to respect that we don’t know you and for all we know your “wife” doesn’t exist and so that’s why you don’t want to give details.”

  “Ok, what would you like to know about Linnie?”

  “Why was she on the first ship, but not you?”

  “The second ship and it’s a long story, but basically politics.

  “That not really an answer.”

  “I was held back because there was a group of humans called the Janus initiative who had me held back on false pretenses, so that they could replace me with a saboteur. Which is likely how the ended up in your realm as it was far off from where they intended to go.”

  “So then why was she on when you got held back, why didn’t she stay with you?”

  “Because she was honor bound to go. She’s the human race’s greatest expert on our folding tech, so when I got held back she went on because if something happened, which it apparently did, she would need to be there to help them return. Unfortunately, nobody had jumping 50years into the past on their bingo cards.” Andrew said with a smile showing two could play at the verifying facts by getting them “wrong” game.

  “You left off about a 100yrs, but your point is made. What is a bingo card? “

  “It’s from a game that old people play where you get a card with a grid filled out with numbers and a presenter has a cage full of balls. Each of them has a number on them. They are spun around in the cage to help randomize it and then pulled one by one until someone wins. As the numbers on your card get called you mark them off and when you get a straight line of marked out numbers you yell bingo and get a prize.”

  “So why would someone have ‘Jumping to the past on their bingo card if it’s only numbers?”

  “It’s a human expression. It basically means nobody could have predicted. It comes from one version of the game where people fill out a bingo card with possible future actions that might happen. Which get marked off if they happen. Thus the saying ‘Nobody had that on their bingo card’”

  “So where is your wife now?”

  “As I have already said, I have no clue, but as you and that elven prick have both told me it was 152 years ago, I have to imagine she’s likely dead. Which is why I don’t want talk about her.”

  The last words coming out choked as he worked to not cry in front of this battle-hardened stranger.

  “Ahhh……….well like we said there is a chance, but either way I’m sorry for your loss. I’ll leave for now.”

  “No no, you’re welcomed to stay. Just give me a moment.”

  Uhla left 30 or 40 minutes later when she got a page from the bridge. Andrew wasn’t sure, but he felt she believed him more than when they had started.