The voice that had started over my ship's intercom cut off, and I looked around until I saw Gamble waving at me from one of the control stations.
"You can talk to them now over your intercom, but you have to allow them to talk. I don't think that it is very nice of the slippery Eels to try and break into my system without my permission!" Gamble said triumphantly.
I grinned at Gamble and then looked around at all the other tense faces of my wives, Beezli and Pelleta. None of them were smiling, and they all looked worried, and that wouldn't have bothered me if Beezli didn't look the most troubled.
"What do you think we should do, Beezli?" I asked her, and she was quiet for a moment.
"I really don't know, but getting on the Sky Council's bad news for us. I get that we need to stop the others, but that is going to create more problems for us in the future. I fought with them, but I was also a lot more prepared for it, and it was on my own terms," Beezli explained.
"Yes, but if the Tellariders get the Goblins, I don't know how we will stop them. There is also Trent, and our Miscreant, so we can't stop now. I will try and talk them down from this, but we are going to keep pushing forward, and we will deal with them after," I said, and Beezli nodded.
"You are the one that makes the choices; I just wish that Lexia would have been more reasonable. There is more of your mother in her than I was hoping for, and in the end, we have to deal with what we are given," Beezli said, but then Gamble spoke up.
"I am sorry, this is all my fault. If I hadn't got Will to give her the serum, then we wouldn't be in this predicament," Gamble apologized, but I shook my head.
"We knew that it was a risky plan, and I had agreed with you that it was the best option. Even knowing what I do now, I still think that it was the best plan. We have ensured that Lexia and her people did not get captured, even if they aren't thankful; that wasn't why we did it," I said to Gamble, and he nodded his head but still looked down.
"Yes, and you need to try to reason with the most unreasonable people in the world," Miku complained.
"I agree, the Sky Folk have always treated us lower land people as peasants, so I think that you will have trouble with getting them to see reason. Every year they force everyone to go up and pay homage to Hilda, or they will come and tax those that do not come by taking anything that they consider valuable," Xani explained.
"These people sound like extortionists and pirates! I really wish we had some way to deal with these people. There is nothing more that I hate than people forcing religion down others' throats! That's it, I'm going to let them have it, in a peaceful way," I said as I took a deep breath.
They outnumbered us, all of them to us one, so I couldn't just go off and call them Pirates. I really wanted to, but I needed to drag them along with me, not have the Sky Folk shoot us out of the air, so I turned on the intercom and set it to only broadcast on this level, setting push to talk.
"This is Ashia, Queen of this ship. I have done nothing wrong, and I am on my way to stop a Tellarider and one of the Fallen. What reason do you have that I should stop?" I asked and then let go of the button to talk and waited.
There was silence for a long time, but we were moving the entire time. Maybe we could keep the Sky Folk talking until we reach our target, the Goblin Mountains, but that hope was short-lived.
"Incoming ships! They are trying to surround us!" Gamble called out, and suddenly I could see a massive hexagon grid sphere that surrounded the ship. "HexShield active, the GraviBees are on the outside to provide more… BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
The ship was pushed hard to the side but stayed stable. The ships were trying to close, but I guess they didn't expect me to have a massive shield.
The ship that crashed into the shield took some minor damage. Now, the rest of the ships were trying to close on us again.
"This is Admiral Ackmoor, and you are ordered to cease moving and report to my ship. If you have any hope of us listening to you, you will come, with guards, and meet with me in person. I will not accept anything else; you could be using some kind of trick to lead us into a trap. As it stands, you have not broken any laws yet, but if you continue your actions, we will be forced to stop you and then take you into custody. Then you will have broken laws, and this will not go the way you have planned," A rough and old-sounding male voice announced over the intercom, which I had not turned on to let him speak.
I turned to Gamble, and he was shaking his head.
"I don't like this. That gives the Eels all the power, and if they decide that they don't want to help, you're screwed! If they decide after to take you prisoner, even with your guards, they will still have you," Gamble said and then started rubbing his hands over his face.
"I don't think we had much choice at this point. We just have to hope that you will be able to convince the Sky Folk to help us. They are hard people, but not completely without reason, plus you have the Boxy Bee with you!" Beezli started to joke, but Hilda exploded from her cloud.
*Poof!*
"I have no way to prove who I am, and Ackmoor is not the type to take a person's word. Also, if I say that I and Hilda, The God of this word, what do you think will happen?" Hilda asked, and I had to agree with her; they would not take someone impersonating their deity.
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