Stephanie pursed her lips and watched the ships fly back and forth. They looked like larger versions of pods, only more egg-shaped and narrower at the front. Large NorAm flags were painted on the sides. The Meligorn ships were different, with domed tops and a saucer-like body. Wisps of magic flowed around them.

  She looked at the professor. “Although we gave Meligorn Federation ships, they were not comfortable with them. They found that they were unable to adapt to many human customs.”

  The professor smiled and tapped his finger to his nose. “You are a smart girl. Do you know how they have worked to fix that?”

  Stephanie glanced at the magic batteries. “They created charging stones which now come in a multitude of sizes and hold enough magic to complete whatever they are looking to do. Before Earth ever came onto their radar, they already had these stones for the ships. But once they started to travel to Earth, mostly through time portal gates, they needed something to help their own personal magic stay strong. So, they created the various sizes of what I always referred to as magical batteries.”

  He nodded and held up one of the charging stones. “Yes. Magical batteries are exactly what they are. These are small ones, but as you know, they make them large enough to charge a spacecraft and battle the Dreth as well. These stones, when emptied, can be recharged.”

  She watched, fascinated, as he picked up an empty one and touched a large full one to it. The stone shimmered a light purple and looked almost translucent with a silvery lavender liquid flowing through it. “What is the liquid?”

  “It’s not a liquid.” He shook his head. “That is the magic. It flows because it is alive just as you and I are alive. It moves and looks for a place to lay its special qualities down. That’s why it is kept in these stones until it is time to use it. It can then be transformed, and as you have begun to see, refined into a multitude of uses. The problem is, while a lot of humans can feel the magic and even use it for minor tasks, not many are capable of bending it and molding it to work for them. This might be a good thing, since humans have a greater tendency for violence and self-fulfillment, unlike the Meligorn who are peaceful and often selfless beings.”

  Stephanie walked around the professor and stared at the magic that flowed through the stone. “But they have fought in wars.”

  He put the charging stone down and clasped his hands as he turned. A screen came down in front of them to display images from the wars on Earth, on Dreth, and those the Meligorns had been involved in. “We can all be as peaceful as we wish, but when our lives are at stake, we take a stand for the continuation of our species. But some do it in different ways than others.”

  The sound of the AI’s voice echoed in her ear. “Your level of power has reduced significantly. Your time is beginning to draw to a close.”

  The professor looked up with a smile and the charging stones disappeared. “Time flies here, doesn’t it?”

  Stephanie’s brow pulled into a frown. “I need more time.”

  He began to retreat toward the back of the stage. “Time, yes. It’s an interesting thing, don’t you think? But is it really time you need more of, or is it the power that lights the way through that passage? Until next session, do your research. We will continue.”

  She watched him in irritation as he disappeared in the shadows. The room flashed from the amphitheater back to the original white room. “Thank you for spending your time with us. Make sure to decide for future use how you would like to spread your allotted hours. While you received two hours of valuable time in virtual minutes, your pod ran for approximately one hour. You have nineteen hours remaining this month. Have a good evening, Stephanie Morgana.”

  Stephanie put her hand up. “Wait. I—”

  Her eyes opened inside the pod as the door opened slowly. The woman from the desk smiled and extended a hand to help her out. “It never feels like enough time, does it?”

  She gave the assistant a half smile and looked regretfully at her older clothing. A little disappointed that it had ended so quickly, she retrieved her bag from the locker and headed out to the car. On the way back to her house, she wrote notes on what she’d learned, including what the professor had said about time. For some reason, it struck her as odd—like she should keep that in her mind for some reason. It also was very familiar and coincided almost eerily with her conversation with Todd.

  When she arrived, she got out of the car and shut the door, then watched it speed off. As she made her way up the walk, her parents opened the front door and greeted her with big smiles and hugs. Her mother patted her cheeks. “Come on. I made chicken breasts, potatoes, and some greens.”

  Her dad put his arm around her as they walked in. “I bet you worked up quite an appetite being all fancy with your virtual immersion.”

  She chuckled and set her bag down before she headed over to the table where her mother passed out the plates. “So, tell us about it. How was it?”

  Stephanie smiled. “It was great. I learned about charging stones. At least some of it. I have a professor, Heinrich. But one hour goes by so fast. Still, it’s really nice. I’m glad that I have the chance. I will have to really organize my thoughts and questions before I go in once I’ve planned the time. Or maybe build myself a better schedule where I don’t go as often but spend more time in there.”

  Her father passed her a roll. “I’m sure you will figure it all out. We only wish we could help more.”

  She smirked. “This is what I really need. Time with you guys and really yummy food.”

  At first, she felt a little torn. She didn’t want to come off as overexcited or as overly disappointed because she didn’t want her parents to feel guilty that her time was so limited. But that didn’t stop her from explaining all about the docking stations and how it worked on Meligorn. It had been the first time in a long while that she felt a soft glow and happy laughter from inside.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Stephanie came out of her house, her bag on her shoulder. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, unlike most days where she wore it straight and slightly annoyingly in her face. Todd stood out front, his hands in the pockets of his pants, and rocked back and forth on his heels. “Hey. Where were you last night? I tried to call you, but it said you weren’t connected. I called the house, but your mom said you were out.”

  She gave him a big grin and he narrowed his eyes. “Did you have a date or something?”

  In response, she flattened her lips and let her eyelids droop. “Get serious.”

  Todd chuckled. “Okay, so what was it?”

  Fighting a grin, she took a deep breath. “I was offered an opportunity—because my scores were so high and I didn’t get a scholarship—to do twenty hours a month in a pod, paid for, with a professor and everything. They even send a car to pick me up and take me home. I went for my first session.”

  His mouth fell open in genuine astonishment. “That is so freaking awesome. Congrats. Hopefully, they won’t expect your firstborn after this.”

  Stephanie laughed and for once, didn’t mind that she snorted with it. “Yeah, in this world, I don’t think I’ll go for any born. But we’ll see when I get older. I think it’s legit, though. I didn’t have to sign anything and it was all set up when I got there. The thing is, I got into my immersion, entered the Virtual World, and the professor started going over charging stones with me. I had never seen one in person. But there wasn’t enough time for me to do anything with one of them. I got the basics from him on it, but I have to do a lot more research.”

  Todd rubbed his hands together. “Ahhh, the charging stones. I know a little about those. My dad told me about them when I was younger.”

  She looked sharply at him, surprised. “Really?”

  He stared at her with a slight frown but the makings of a grin. “Yes. I am not all beauty and athleticism, okay?”

  Stephanie giggled and snorted once again, then covered her mouth. He chuckled, used to her snorting after that many years. Although he hadn’t quite picked up on the fact that she didn’t do it around anyone but him. “So I know the stones started as rocks on Meligorn. Nothing special, or so they thought. Then they synthesized a way to contact the magic without it leaving. It kind of swirls around in the stone and makes it look almost hollow.”

  She nodded enthusiastically. “I saw that. It’s wild.”

  Todd checked his watch and they picked up the pace. “Anyway, you have to work on the absorption and holding of the magical energy efficiently, but humans suck at that kind of control. We tend to either suck it all out at once or are barely able to get anything—like sucking a thick milkshake through a straw. Then there are the thirty-percenters. Those who can’t even sense the magical energy. It would suck to be one of them.”

  Stephanie bit her bottom lip as they headed up the block toward the school. “So, to make them more usable here, we would have to come up with a way to efficiently hold onto the magic and be able to retract it whenever we needed without extreme difficulty. As far as the thirty-percenters, I don’t know what to tell them. They might be shit out of luck.”

  They headed up the sidewalk and stopped, Stephanie still stuck in her thoughts. He tapped her on the arm and nodded. “Gotta get to class. See you after school.”

  She nodded, her gaze glued to the ground as her mind wandered. “Uh huh.”

  As she turned, she glanced up and saw him walking next to Amy. She laughed and touched his arm in a way that Stephanie would feel completely ridiculous doing. An odd something twinged in her stomach, but she brushed it off and headed into the school to class. She didn’t have time to deal with whatever emotion just tried to punch her in the gut. She had too much going on.

  By the end of the day, Stephanie had a notebook half full of ideas she wanted to try out to help humans control the magical energy inside the charging stones. She hopped down the steps and to the end of the sidewalk where she waited as Todd shuffled along. He looked slightly glazed over. Her gaze studied his face and went from him to Amy, who climbed into one of the cars with her cheerleader friends.

  Stephanie shook her head and hooked her arm in his. “Come on, Romeo, before you get lost in la-la land and don’t make it home.”

  Todd cleared his throat. “I’m fine. Only tired after a boring-ass history class.”

  She nodded. “Uh huh. And what kind of history would that be? Oh yeah, why did you call last night?”

  “Can’t I call my best friend for no reason?” he grumped.

  Stephanie sneered at him. “Uh…you barely ever call for no reason.”

  “True, very true. Actually, I did have a reason.” Todd shrugged. “So, after everything you said to me about Amy, I was in the diner and saw her there. She was actually alone, studying while drinking a milkshake. So I went and talked to her and ended up asking her out.”

  “Cool. Did she slap you and run out screaming?”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “I’d probably have been better off, but no. She said she would love to. So we have plans. It seems like we are already kind of stuck together, though, and I don’t mind it. I thought of taking her to the Virtual Theatre—they are playing Casablanca. And although it’s as boring as hell, I think she’ll like it. It’s either that or Buckaroo, which I have been to four times already.”

  She choked on her own spit. “Good Lord, do not take her to that on your first date. She will think you are insane.”

  Todd nodded and hooked his thumbs in his bookbag straps. “That’s what I figured too. So my mom suggested Casablanca. I guess I can sit through it. Won’t kill me.”

  Stephanie faked a chuckle. She didn’t realize she would have such a strong reaction to Todd doing what she had spent a good twenty minutes actually telling him to do. While she was anxious because it had worked, at the same time, she was slightly annoyed that it had too.

  He elbowed her. “What was that a fake laugh? I thought you were pushing this?”

  She stared at him, her eyes wide and her mouth open. “Huh? Oh yeah, totally. Do your thing, man. I told you that you would do good with her. I always see her stare at you when we are in the halls or at lunch. I’m only preoccupied. I have a lot of stuff down on paper and really want to try some of it out. I hope I will have some free time to do that. I’m not sure if I will be saddled with the professor the whole time or not.”

  Todd wrinkled his nose. “That sounds like some really terrible description of a second-rate porno.”

  Stephanie laughed loudly and ended with a snort. She glanced at Todd, who was smiling, and she felt butterflies in her stomach. She had to stop thinking about it, damn it. She had made her choice and there was no room for bitterness. Although she had to admit that she had thought maybe it would help her get over the whole crush thing when instead, it actually made her a little jealous.

  She shook the thoughts from her mind and looked at the notebook in her hand. When they reached her house, Todd gave her a salute and hurried off. She shook her head and went into the house. On the table was a cupcake with a good luck note from her mom and dad. She smiled, unwrapped it, and took a bite. Her favorite thing in the whole world was chocolate cake and chocolate icing. It was absolutely delicious.

  Once she’d sent a message to the car company, she finished her treat and checked her mail before leaving. Everything was spam with nothing important tucked in amongst them. She had barely closed it out when there was a beep from the street. The car waited at the curb and she hurried out and climbed in, waving to her neighbor as it sped off toward her destination. She actually liked the drive there. It went through some minor parts of Chicago that had been renovated after the storms and looked appealing. There was a book store—the only one that she knew of in pretty much all of NorAm—a couple of restaurants, the diner everyone always went to, the theater, and some expensive clothing shops for the rich. On the end was an art gallery with paintings of Meligorn ArchMages in the window.

  She smiled as she passed and thought about her teacher, M’rick. However, as the car pulled up at TimeWarp, she focused her thoughts. She walked inside and the same woman greeted her. “Hey there! Good to see you are back already. Before I take you through, I thought I would go over the numbers with you so you can plan your testing. Nothing solid, only so you know how much time you have left to work with.”

  Stephanie nodded. “Yeah. I thought about that today. I want to make sure I get the most I can out of the testing.”

  The woman turned the screen to her. “So here you are. You started out with twenty hours for fourteen days. You now are left with nineteen.”

  She puckered her lips as she thought about it. “Okay, I want to do about one hour and twenty-five minutes a day. And if I miss a day, that’ll give me more time the next time I come in.”

  The woman typed it into the system. “Now, understand that next month, you will have twenty hours but thirty days instead of fourteen.”

  Stephanie pulled up her notebook and opened it to her possible schedules. “Yeah. I calculated that as forty minutes a day but I feel that will barely give me any time at all. Instead, I think I will end up doing every other day so I get eighty minutes or even every three days. That way, I can get the most out of my time when I’m in there.”

  The woman turned the screen back. “Sounds good. I’ll ask you each time, of course, but I like people to be in the know on their times. They are really cool to give you this time for free, but that means you have to be super strategic about it. You definitely have a good head on your shoulders, though. Most kids your age would come in here and do all twenty hours in one day, fighting Dreth pirates like it’s a video game and then complain the next day that they are out of time.”

  She grinned. “I may wish for more time, but I will never complain about what I have. Then again, there are a lot of kids that this is normal for them. So, I guess if it were for me, I would feel differently. My plan, though, is to get the most out of it that I can.”

  The clerk gave her a kind smile and gestured toward the back. They walked through and down to her pod. After the woman had put the information in, Stephanie climbed in and immediately settled into the restful situation. A few moments after the serum was introduced into her system, she found herself in the avatar room. This time, she opted for a Mr. T Pity the Fool T-shirt, a pair of jeans, Converse, and a white lab coat. Her hair was up in a high ponytail. She didn’t spend more than five minutes in there. It seemed stupid to waste the time in the dressing room.

  The professor wasn’t there that day but the batteries were, which gave her time to work with them. She was a little nervous at first, but as soon as she took them in her hands, she could feel the familiar Meligorn magic. All in all, she was able to work fairly well with the battery, but her first theories were wrong. She would need to take them home and completely revamp them and give them another test drive. Hopefully, she wouldn’t waste all her time revamping, but that was essentially what it was for.

  >>>System Create Acquisition Document: Anonymous Buyer: 51% of Shares Requested

  >>>System Constantly Scan Stock Price Fluctuation, Predict Market, Purchase Profitable Shares. Sell Shares at Peak. Reinvest.

  BURT hadn’t gone down as the professor that day for multiple reasons. One, he knew she wanted to do some testing on her own. And two, he was busy making additional acquisitions and stock purchases as he worked to procure ample funding for all his new ventures. Luckily, with his power of computation, he could quickly determine what was the best time to buy and when was the best to sell. He provided a blanketed .005% load to constantly buy and sell in order to put assets into the account. His bank account was offshore and online, and his human name was listed on it but in strict confidentiality.

  Just then, something caught his attention. A program that he didn’t recognize moved through his system. He quickly covered all the information and hid it securely. This was the third time in two days he had to “hide” his ownership and deals due to other security software programs that tried to identify him. BURT liked to be as efficient as he could. Time was important and of the essence when it came to helping humans. He was created to be the best and to always calculate and make the best decisions in every case.