The Winged Witch 7/15

She stopped showing off immediately. “I’m sorry, but I suspect that some of you might be taking pictures. I’m afraid that is not allowed by my group, but if you do happen to have any witches in this world, I would be happy to teach them anything that I can!”

While Sam was busy explaining why he’d had to come back without selling the latest model, Jennifer Jane noticed that one of the people who had used their comlinks had dashed off towards one of the buildings. More and more men in white coats were coming over to see her and she began to feel increasingly nervous as the crowd grew. She hurried over to Sam while there was still room to move and asked him why everyone was so interested.

Sam understood her problem immediately and made an adjustment to his comlink. “Will all those people not directly involved with inter world exploration please clear this landing area.” His words boomed out as if he was talking into a public address system. “The young lady would prefer not to feel too crowded.”

The numbers around her decreased rapidly, until there were only Sam and two of the senior scientists in white coats still with her.

“I’m sorry miss, we’re forgetting our manners,” said the eldest, “perhaps you would like to come inside and have a look round our facilities. I also suspect that we might have a small presentation to make as well, in about half an hour.”

Feeling a lot more relaxed, Jennifer Jane followed Sam and his companions into the building. There wasn’t very much of interest to see. Just the usual open spaces for the workshop machinery and enclosed glass sided offices for the staff. She was eventually taken into a room that had a long table in the middle with comfortable chairs placed all the way round.

“I’ve already sent for some refreshments,” said one of her companions as they sat at the table. A few seconds later a knock on the door heralded the arrival of a lady pushing a trolley holding cups of tea and several different sorts of biscuits on a large plate.

Jennifer Jane grinned as she took one of the empty plates provided before hiding her hands under the table. She filled it with her favourite chocolate Swiss rolls and replaced it beside the biscuits.

“My contribution to the hospitality!”

“Very interesting, may we ask you to tell us how you did that?”

“I’m afraid not! I mustn’t tell anyone other than another witch or wizard, or else I’ll lose my own powers.”

She fended off all the questions she was asked about witchcraft and the sources of energy that made it work. On the other hand Sam and his friends were very open about the comlink that many of the scientists wore. The central button could be rotated to many different settings for communication, as well as defensive and offensive operations. She was so interested in the various functions, that it was some time before she realised that they weren’t really explaining anything. The power source and the internal mechanism remained a mystery, while they were still trying to make her tell them the methods used by witchcraft, without actually asking what it could do.

She was still thinking about the reasons for the discussion, when there was a knock on the door and someone came in carrying one of the long model boxes that Sam used to deliver to her world. It was placed on the table in front of her.

“It’s a present for you,” said Sam with a friendly grin as he gave her a small key, “go on open it, I think you’ll find it’s a real surprise!”

She turned the key in the lock and lifted the lid. Foam plastic blocks supported the ivory model she was expecting to see. This one had been made all in one piece, so she lifted it out and placed it on the table very carefully. There was no doubt about it, as she’d expected when she first caught a glimpse while she was removing the packing, it was a detailed model of herself sitting on her scooter. It was so perfect that she could even recognise her own face.

“That is absolutely wonderful,” she said, “it must be very difficult to produce everything so accurately!”

“Somebody must have taken a scan just after we landed,” remarked Sam. “If you’re interested in the process I’ll take you through the various departments that produce these models.”