In the end, we agreed that I’d meet with the government agents after I’d proven where I’d been. I didn’t want them trying to lock me up or something and deciding not to let me show them. Call me paranoid, but I wanted to be sure.
After getting off of the phone, Aurora and I said goodbyes and I teleported us away. Then I took precautions to hide our magical auras before altering our appearances. Now that I knew it existed, I wasn’t going to let a magic detecting satellite sniff us out.
Then I teleported us again – I had prepared a lot of teleportation magic while I was in the restroom – and we arrived in another city I had visited once when I was younger. We were invisible, so no one would see us arrive.
The first thing I did was fabricating some fake IDs, then we stopped by a Walmart to get some prepaid cards to use to rent a hotel room. Truthfully, I could have just conjured the magical mansion again, but I couldn’t get wifi in there and still had work to do.
We got a modest hotel room with a decent view, pretending to be newlyweds on our way to Vegas for our honeymoon who were staying at the hotel because our car had broken down and was in the shop for a day or three. Sure, it wasn’t the best room, but it was free of bedbugs and they gave us a free pint of ice cream as congratulations on our wedding. So, that was nice.
While Aurora studied as much as she could about Earth, I put Juiz to work preparing a video for upload while I did some more research on what had happened while I was gone. If there was a wizard at fault, I needed to find him. Not only had he screwed up the world, but his efforts had likely been what had forced me to reveal my magic to the damn government. And that annoyed me.
He would rue the day he annoyed me. RUE, I say!
I contacted the gamer board and asked them to keep an eye out for patterns that suggested that one or a small number of people was behind everything, and to compile as much information as possible. I hinted that I was working with the government to set things right, but that I didn’t entirely trust them either.
Once that was done, it was time to make my announcement.
The video Juiz was making was full of images from my memories. They came in flashes, but they were real. Nonetheless, anyone who saw them would assume they were CGI. Because no one could have seen the things I had seen. No one could have traveled the stars upon the back of a shantak, none could have seen stars the way I had.
Then Juiz added the voiceover, recording my words carefully and precisely to be played alongside a quiet and profound melody.
“When I was young, I looked upon the stars and wondered. With great fascination, I studied great thinkers, I pored through science fiction and science fact, to learn more about our place in the universe. But it was a television show where I first heard and understood. The molecules that make up our bodies are the same as those that make up our planet, that make up everything, and these molecules were forged within the hearts of stars.
“We are made of star stuff. We are the stars’ children, the universe made manifest, trying to understand itself. And until this day, we were indeed mere children. But the time comes when children grow up. A time when parents look in awe at their children and realize that they have grown, and see that not only are they adults, but have, in the same way as their parents, created children as well.
“We are children of the stars, but so too, shall we be parents.” Juiz switched the video, replacing it with my memory of crafting Voltron’s heart. “The time of childhood is over. Now, in our hands, we hold the dawn of a new era.” The image displayed the micro fusion reactor as it powered on, as a star was born in my own two hands.
“Praise the sun.”
Juiz then hacked into my old Youtube channel – which had been locked but preserved after my disappearance – and posted the video.
It took less than an hour before the media firestorm hit, thanks to the gamers making the video go viral. Not only were people shocked to learn that I was still alive, but they were excited to speculate about what I had seemed to suggest, that I had solved fusion.
By the time we decided to go to bed, it was literally all anyone on the web seemed to be talking about. The changes wrought by my other technological revelations – none so world changing as the batteries, but all impressive – had prepared everyone for this in a way I wouldn’t have suspected possible. They knew that if I said it was possible, it had to be so.
I had done what I’d set out to do. I had inspired hope. But I knew that if there was someone behind the madness in the world, this might set back his plans. He would have to make a move, and soon. But I was counting on that. I just needed to find him, and then we could end this, once and for all.
The next day, I checked in with Molly – teleportation and a burner phone in use to prevent my location from being found – and she confirmed that they had secured several space suits. She also told me that several government agencies not in on the whole magic thing were running around like chickens with their heads cut off at the revelation that not only was I still alive, but that I had promised the world fusion technology.
We set up a plan to do the big reveal the following day. I even gave them the coordinates for the meetup as a sign of good faith. I could always scry the location before teleporting in, and I’d already put in a few cameras so I could watch out for shenanigans.
I spent the afternoon in secretly meeting with the boards of energy companies via the internet – it’s amazed me just how quickly I could gain the ears of those at the top – so I could explain to them that they had two choices at this point. Either get on the fusion bandwagon, or get left in the dust. Some were hesitant, but most were willing to listen. They knew that the allure of the sexy new technology and a few well placed ads would kill coal plants on a national level. But that wasn’t to say coal was finished as an industry. I had a few ideas for it that didn’t involve burning it for power.
After my meetings, I headed to Golarion to secure some more mithral, which I would need to craft the first small scale fusion reactor, which would be capable of powering a city once it was up and operational. It was going to cost an arm and a leg, even at the discount that Queen Velandhrathal offered me, but that wouldn’t be a big deal for the Lord of Xin’Shalast.
Speaking of which, things were going well there. My council reported that the Azatas I’d hired had cleared out sixty percent of the city’s dangerous areas and crews had already begun setting up proper homes in several safe districts. So that was nice.
Back on Earth, I secured a location – okay, so it was a barn, but it had what I needed, seclusion, privacy, space and a modicum of security. Once there, I conjured my magical workshop and began work on the parts for the reactor. Once done, they would be able to be transported easily via portable hole and assembled just about anywhere in a few hours. And it wouldn’t take me all that long to craft them, maybe a couple days of work.
The next morning, after a well-earned rest, Aurora and I set out to meet the team of soon to be astronauts, as well as a team from NASA who would be doing final checks on the suits before we left. In fact, they were already checking out two of the four people when we arrived.
“I should warn you, that if you’re planning on going anywhere in the depths, that these aren’t rated to a very high pressure,” one of the NASA crew was telling the leader of the team.
“I don’t know where we’re going,” the dark skinned man replied. “You’ll have to ask him,” he said, pointing at me.
“I want it to be a surprise,” I said. “Suffice it to say that high pressure won’t be an issue. As long as they’re okay for low pressure or vacuum, they’ll be fine.”
“We didn’t bring you a suit,” the lead said. “Are you not going with us?”
“Oh, I am, but I have other options that don’t require a suit. Did they give you an encrypted transmitter like I asked?”
“Yes. It’s pretty long ranged, too.”
“We can boost it if it’s not sufficient. It’s the encryption that’s important. Don’t want anyone intercepting what we say.”
“What are we going to say?”
I flashed a trollish grin. “Telling you would be a huge spoiler. Now, everyone finish suiting up and let’s get going.”
My second arrival upon the moon didn’t involve flying in on a shantak. Instead, we just appeared there after I cast my spell. I’m not sure if it was cooler getting to see the sights as we flew in or if the fact that I could now go whenever I wanted for the hell of it was the cooler part.
I held out a folding shovel. “Underneath the space blanket over there is a camera. Assuming it was protected enough from radiation by the regolith and blanket, it has pictures from my first trip here,” I said over the radio.
“W-We’re on the moon!” one of the people managed to stammer.
I sighed exaggeratedly. “Alright, fine. I’ll give you a few moments to process all of this.” While waiting, I activated the long range transmitter. “This is Major Tom to Ground Control. Do you read me?”
A few seconds later came the reply. “We read you, uh, ‘Major Tom’. What’s your status?”
“Everything’s green and nominal. Retrieving package. Have you triangulated the location of our signal yet?”
“We’re doing that now… uh holy shit, that can’t be right. I need to speak with Colonel Jepsen.”
“The colonel has gone a bit catatonic at the sights. Would you like to speak with the second in command? I think she’s the one digging the hole at the moment.”
“Um, patch her through.”
“This is Captain Gomez.”
“Captain, confirm location.”
“We seem to be on the moon, sir. We’re at the site of one of the lunar landings and are currently retrieving a package allegedly placed here in twenty fourteen.”
“Placed by who?”
“Um, ‘Major Tom’, sir.”
“Understood. Quarantine team is standing by to receive the package. Excellent work, Captain.”
“Thank you, sir. Sir, may I ask a question?”
“Go ahead, Captain.”
“Sir, why haven’t we sent anyone to the moon in decades?”
“That’s above my pay grade, Captain.”
“Understood. I’ll have to write a letter to the next president, letting him know just how beautiful it is up here, sir.”
The voice on the other end laughed. “You do that, Captain.”
After the camera was retrieved, I let them play a bit. Because when you’re on the moon, sometimes you just have to enjoy it. After about an hour, we teleported back, but not before getting a few new pictures to commemorate the whole thing using my cell phone.
A team indeed met us and we were immediately ushered to a tent remove our outer layer of clothing as per quarantine policy. I wasn’t going to do that, so I got them to agree to let me keep my clothes – there’s a lot of magic in them, okay? – but only after I cleaned them up with magic.
After that, I had a meeting with those in charge of dealing with magic threats. Apparently my little field trip to the moon had convinced them at least enough to talk with me. The man in charge was definitely more dubious about me, but the other man seemed pretty hopeful. So that younger man, John Sinclair, was assigned as my liaison with the department.
I saw good things in his future. He had a go-getting attitude, and he still had his sense of humor, which I’ve heard is rare in government.
By the end of the meeting, we had set up a tentative working relationship. I would be allowed to go about my business so long as I had my department liaison and another agent with me while meeting with anyone important. And they would unfreeze my bank accounts, giving me access to world-moving levels of wealth.
In exchange, I would use my skills and resources to help them uncover and locate the person or people behind the mass destabilization of world order. I also offered to help advance the US military by at least half a century in order to give it the ability to reassert order once the interference of the hidden mage was ended.
Of course, that latter wasn’t for free. I would need a lot of mithral to make all the Fairy Steel and mithracite I would need, and it would be a lot of work. But if I could deliver what I’d promised, the military was definitely interested and was willing to pay a fair price. Especially in the new Night Witch strategic fighter/bomber Juiz and I had designed.
A plane that could travel anywhere on the planet in less than an hour, had inertial dampening and ran on a much cheaper fuel than current jet fuel definitely had its advantages. And that’s before you added in the weapons based in part on alien technology and an array of powered wand crystals that could fire an infinite stream of ultra-precise force bolts.
And, of course, I would still be working on converting much of the planet to fusion power. So I had signed myself up for an intense workload. I knew I’d be working my butt off in the following weeks, and maybe months. But I also knew that the world would be a much better place by the time our child was born.
So it would all be worth it. But first, I had a wizard to find.
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