The Search for Cleo Read online

“Aye, aye, sir,” she replied before pressing a number of buttons on the console in front of her. “It worked! She never went back in time and the future just got twenty-two more seconds!”

  “Perfect,” the traveler said with a smile.

  “Indeed, it is,” Morgan agreed, grabbing Azure as he did so.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Kissing you,” he said, leaning into her.

  He was stopped by her upraised hand.

  “We did enough of that just last night,” she explained. “I don't want Rob punching you in the face again.”

  “He won't!”

  “I might,” Robert chuckled.

  “We just finished another job!” Morgan exclaimed. “We should celebrate.”

  “We should,” the traveler agreed. “Which means date night.”

  “Does it?!” the young man asked excitedly.

  “It does,” Robert assured him. “I think we could use a little relaxation.”

  “I couldn't agree more!”

  “For some reason,” the traveler continued, “I didn't find the last date night very relaxing.”

  “I couldn't agree more!”

  “Where are we going, Rob?” Cleo asked, trying – as usual – to sound completely uninterested.

  “The Lichtenstein Luau?” he suggested. “We didn't make it the last time because of The Great Slapping.”

  “I suppose that's true,” Azure said nonchalantly. “All things considered, Cleo, we might as well go.”

  “I guess so,” Cleo replied. “Are we going to need new dresses?”

  “All three of you,” Robert said with a smile.

  “Which means going to the island,” Azure observed.

  “Which means taking precautions,” the traveler added.

  “What kind of precautions?” the green maiden asked, slightly raising one eyebrow.

  “I'll show you,” he winked before turning to make his way off the bridge.

  Minutes later, he returned bearing several items. The first of these, was a tray with four drinks on it. He offered one of these to each of the girls and one to Morgan.

  “Thanks,” the young man said, “but, I wasn't really thirsty.”

  “You're welcome,” Robert replied, “but, I don't really care. Take this.”

  He handed Morgan what appeared to be a small pill.

  “A micro-transponder?” he asked, before swallowing it.

  “A micro-transponder plus, plus,” Robert replied. “It'll not only let the ship track you, it also keeps tabs on all your vitals.”

  “Why did I need to take one?” Morgan asked as the ladies were all taking theirs.

  “Because you're going with them,” the traveler said, handing Morgan a gun belt.

  “What is this?”

  “A three-fifty-seven magnum.”

  “Hot dog!”

  “I had thought you'd recognize one,” Robert mused.

  “I've never had a real one this close to me.”

  “Just be careful with it.”

  “Why is he going with us?” Cleo asked. “And, why is he carrying a gun?”

  “You're all carrying guns,” the traveler asserted, placing a much smaller firearm in his fiancée's hand. “And, he's going with you to keep you safe.”

  “We fight better than he does,” the green maiden asserted.

  “I don't,” Celeste replied, shaking her head.

  “You two do,” Robert agreed, pointing at Cleo and Azure with his index fingers. “However, I feel that Morgan might be better at 'diving on hand-grenades' than any of the three of you.”

  “Should I put on a red shirt?” Morgan asked.

  “I think not,” the traveler answered, shaking his head. “The idea is for you all to come back safe and sound.”

  “You think we'll be in danger?” Azure asked.

  “No,” Robert replied. “If I thought that, I wouldn't let you go. It's simply a matter of always expecting the unexpected. The last time you three went to the island alone, you all ended up kidnapped. I don't want that happening again.”

  “How could Morgan prevent that, exactly?” Cleo asked.

  “Several ways,” the traveler said with a smile. “First, if any of the four of you end up getting too far apart, the ship is going to fire off an alarm to let us know.”

  “So,” Azure interjected, “he just has to stay close to us?”

  “That ain't going be a problem,” the young man assured her with a wink.

  “Second,” Robert continued, “I don't think it's likely that you're going to let him into the changing rooms with you.”

  “Not even to save his life,” Cleo assured him.

  “That's not true,” Azure un-assured him.

  “I suppose you're right,” the green maiden admitted. “If it would save his life, we'd let him in. He'd just have to keep his eyes closed and stand perfectly still.”

  “Last time,” Robert said, ignoring the girl's silly chatter, “you were captured when no one else could see you. Morgan is going to stay out in the open the entire time.”

  “What if I have to go to the bathroom?” he asked.

  “Just hold it.”

  “They might take hours.”

  “It will help you build up your self-control.”

  “We won't be in the changing rooms the whole time, Morgan,” Celeste pointed out.

  “We also don't need to go into them at the same time,” Cleo pointed out. “So, there's really no need for him to go.”

  “I want him to,” both Robert and Azure said at the same moment.

  “Everything else aside,” the traveler added, “he's another pair of eyes. Plus, we're not going to need him here for the next few hours. What's going to need security during that time is you girls; not this ship.”

  “That is really nice somehow,” Celeste observed with a contented sigh.

  “What is, baby?” Vox asked.

  “Being over a hundred years old and still being one of the girls,” she explained.

  “There are certainly some benefits to it,” he replied with a knowing smile.

  “Mister Harker,” Robert said as he handed a gun to Azure and Celeste respectively, “escort these ladies off the ship. They're distracting other members of the crew and we have work to do.”

  “Aye, aye, sir,” Morgan replied with a lazy salute.

  He then rose to his feet and offered Azure his hand. As soon as she had taken it, he led his female companions from the chamber. Mere minutes later, they were in a future space cab headed toward a rather posh grocery store. It turned out that, before they went shopping for dresses, Celeste wanted to do some shopping for food. She told Morgan that he had done a good job of stocking the kitchen (which he reminded her was the galley) for an amateur, but that it was missing a number of essential items. She spent just over an hour collecting these.

  To Morgan, however, it seemed to take two or three days. Whereas the time had flown by when he had been shopping for groceries, he found following around behind Celeste extremely boring. Especially as none of the three girls wanted to talk about anything other than food and what they might want to pick up in order to cook this or that.

  Finally, it hit him to simply fall a short distance behind them and watch them shop. Robert had been right: you should never underestimate the power of the 'rear view'. Due to his deep respect for the ladies – as well as his growing self-control – he confined his 'view' to Azure. Fortunately, she had more than enough in that department to completely occupy his mind. In fact, by the time they finished checking out, he was a little disappointed that it hadn't taken them longer.

  That sense of disappointment didn't last long, however. Just minutes after they arrived at The Apparelial Palace (which they decided to go back to because – as Cleo put it – lightning never strikes in the same place twice) he was downright overjoyed. Each of the three young ladies began trying on dress after dress, only to step from the changing rooms to model them for him to get a 'm
an's opinion'.

  Both Cleo and Celeste looked like works of art in everything they slipped into. Morgan found himself sincerely regretting the fact that he couldn't paint. He very nearly came to a firm decision to spend part of his essentially immortal life trying to learn that art before the ladies had finished.

  Azure, on the other hand, looked like far more than art to him. Morgan found himself sincerely regretting the fact that they weren't married and that this wasn't their honeymoon. He very nearly came to a firm decision to propose to her before they left the shop. If he hadn't been sure that she'd say 'no', he would have.

  As all pleasures in life are, however, this one was finally brought to an end. Celeste selected a dress of white, Cleo chose one of black, and – as the dresses of the other two matched their hair – Azure picked one one of purple – which, of course, matched hers. The blue maiden told Morgan that she was a little disappointed that he had seen her in it before dinner. He assured her that he could very happily spend weeks seeing her in it.

  Before they called it a day, the ladies insisted on Morgan buying a new suit (as well as ordering one for Vox and Robert). As Ramón had all their measurements already, it was to his shop that they headed. He seemed overjoyed to see Cleo and Morgan again – as well as to meet Azure and Celeste – and asked how the uniforms had been serving them. Morgan assured him that he believed Ramón was a wizard and that the clothes he crafted were made of magic. Ramón was obviously pleased with this praise.

  To Morgan's utter amazement, the girls seemed to find him modeling clothes as entertaining as he had found them doing the same thing. It took them over two hours to pick out his suit, shirt, tie, etc, etc, etc. By the time they were done, they had just enough time to go to Vox and Celeste's house to change before they needed to head for The Lichtenstein Luau. As soon as they were dressed, they made their way to the restaurant.

  Vox was waiting for them there, dressed in his new suit. Doc was there, as well, attired in one of his better tunics.

  “Where's Rob?” Cleo asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

  “He's going to be about twenty minutes late,” Vox replied.

  “He assured us,” Doc interjected, “that he wouldn't be more than that.”

  “He also told us what he wanted us to order for him,” Vox continued, “and that we should go ahead in without him.”

  Although Cleo clearly wasn't pleased about this, she went along with it without complaint. In less than three minutes, they were seated at the finest table in the place and had menus in their hands.

  “So, Morgan,” Vox said with a wide smile, “what do you think you're going to order?”

  “I don't know,” the young man said, shaking his head. “I don't know how to read German, so I don't know what a lot of this stuff is.”

  “Why not order something familiar?” Doc asked with a smile of his own.

  “Does anything look familiar, Morgan?” Vox added.

  “Who knows,” the young man shrugged. “I'm sure some of it is, but we probably don't call it the same thing in English... Or in Common, for that matter.”

  “What about schnitzel?” Vox asked, his smile getting even wider.

  “Or Baumkuchen?” Doc suggested. “I'm sure you've heard of Baumkuchen.”

  “Baumkuchen is more of a dessert thing, Doc,” Morgan asserted, glancing over the top of his menu. “Schnitzel sounds alright, but I'm not in the mood for deep fried meat tonight.”

  This statement caused Morgan's male companions to shoot each other a glace.

  “The thing is,” the young man continued, “Rob lies all the time. Just after he told me that that planet was named schnitzel, I looked it up. I figured it had to be some kind of food, I just didn't know what kind. Anyway, the point is that I finally realized that he's right. The name of a planet doesn't mean anything. Where a planet is and when it is are the only things that matter to us. I mean; Brother's real name is Baklarrmanfusllas. Personally, I’d just rather just call him 'Brother'. It's a lot easier to remember.

  “Still, I think it's funny that he doesn't know that I know. So, be sure not to tell Rob about it.”

  “Be sure not to tell Rob about what?” Robert asked, having stepped up behind the young man at that moment.

  “How much these suits cost,” Morgan lied.

  “I’m not worried about that,” the traveler said with a smile.

  “I'm sure...” the young man chuckled.

  “I never said it was counterfeit,” Robert pointed out.

  “That wasn't twenty minutes,” Cleo observed with a coy smile.

  “You want me to leave and come back?”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head, “but, I do want to know why you were late.”

  “You're not even going to believe what happened!” he said excitedly, taking a seat beside his lady love. “You see...”

  “Robert,” Doc interrupted. “As you're doing your best to stop lying to Cleo, this seems like a perfect opportunity to tell her the truth. After all, it's completely innocuous.”

  “You know, Doc,” Morgan said. “Everything you say just about makes you sound like a genius.”

  “Thank you, Morgan,” Doc nodded.

  “So,” Cleo said, raising one eyebrow, “what is the truth?”

  “It's... embarrassing...” Robert asserted.

  “Well...” she said playfully, “what is it?”

  “Vox and I installed a scanner above the main hatch,” the traveler said, “as well as above the loading platform. Every time anyone passes under them, they get their brains scanned. If they're a clone, it sets off a silent alarm.”

  “The same is true if anyone passes under them wearing a stealth belt,” Vox added. “Even if they've got me and Rob's special little modifications.”

  “So you were late because of work?” the green maiden asked, shaking her head.

  “Not exactly...” Robert replied.

  “Rob got the clever idea of rigging up some more paint bombs,” Vox chuckled. “If Doctor Sturm walks through either of those doors, not only will it fire off an alarm, it will coat him in jackass gray. At least, that was the plan.”

  “What went wrong?” she asked, with a smile.

  “I made a mistake,” Robert shrugged.

  “As he was putting the second one up,” Vox laughed, “it went off right in his face.”

  “I wish I had been there!” Morgan exclaimed. “I would pay to see that!”

  “You're in luck,” Doc smiled. “They installed cameras before the scanners. It should have been caught from several angles.”

  “I know what we're doing before we go to bed tonight!” Cleo laughed.

  “Sorry, Doc,” Robert said, shaking his head. “I checked before I left the ship, and it seems like the cameras missed it. Vox and I are going to have to take another look at them.”

  “I'm sure...” Cleo replied.

  “Are we eating, or what?” the traveler asked.

  They were. Shortly after this conversation, their meal arrived – which was delicious. After dinner, as had become the custom, the couples headed for the dance floor. As there were also a few apparently single Baguettian ladies in the crowd, Doc also got in on the dancing. (Doc was more than willing to dance with any lady. However, being seven feet tall made it difficult to find partners that were anywhere near his height.)

  Hours later, they made their way back to the ship, quite contented with the night's entertainment. To Morgan's sheer delight, he and Robert were each allowed to kiss their respective ladies as they said 'goodnight'. He was somewhat disappointed by the fact that Robert didn't lose his head so that he would get to shoot him with a tranq-gun. However, he understood that you can't have everything, and decided to be content with what he had.

  The following morning, Morgan got up early, hoping to find Robert alone on the bridge – which he did.

  “So...” the young man said, sliding down into his seat, “did you do it yet?”

  “Did I do
what yet?” the traveler asked.

  “Modify Cleo's program.”

  “It hasn't been back on for forty-eight hours yet.”

  “It didn't fire off any events yesterday,” Morgan pointed out. “We've got to get it back to working.”

  “It is working,” Robert pointed out. “In fact, it's really working. I think it's actually helping us learn to control ourselves.”

  “Good for you,” Morgan replied. “But, we need to kick it back into high gear. It'll be like taking night classes for you.”

  “I don't think that's how it works.”

  “The only way we're going to know is if we try it.”

  “Morgan” Robert said quite seriously, “if we change it now, we're going to get caught. We're going to have to give it at least a week.”

  “Uhhh,” the young man groaned. “Alright, I guess. But, once we do modify it again, we've got to test it immediately again.”

  “Agreed.”

  “What are we planning to do to keep us so busy during the week that we don't notice it passing?”

  “Handle some jobs,” Robert said, pushing buttons on the console in front of him. “What else?”

  “What is the next job?”

  “I don't know yet, but I will soon.”

  Seconds later, the image of Brother appeared on the comm. Just minutes after this, they had the details on their next job in hand. Fortunately, it was rather nearby. They would be able to get there in about two-and-a-half hours. Of course, that didn't give them much time to get whatever they might need ready.

  Robert informed Morgan that he wanted to get as many jobs as possible done during the week because they were absolutely going to take another day off after that, and they’d positively do another date night. Morgan asked if there were anything he could do to help. Robert asked him to go make sure that swag-mad pirates hadn't just popped into existence in the cargo bay. Even though Morgan knew that there weren't any pirates there, he went to check anyway. The way he figured it, Robert probably wanted a few minutes of quiet so he could work. As it happened; he was right.

  Chapter 2: Love at First Sight

  “Surprise!” Morgan exclaimed, slipping down into his normal seat.

  “You found some pirates?” Robert asked, not looking up from the monitor that currently held his attention.