Lieutenant Spacemage (Imperium Spacemage Book 3)

by Timothy Ellis

  “With you.”

  That figured.

  Twenty Eight

  Long Water had been docked at the shipyard as well.

  The arrows directed us to the rift over to the shipyard, but I led them all back to our station living room. As they watched, I moved the rift to Long Water to one side of the wall, and began opening rifts from here to each of their ship’s living rooms. I even labelled the rift with the ship name, over the top.

  I had them stand in front of their rift, with Serena standing behind me, and we all stepped through together. The two of us found the XO’s suite empty of Jill’s personal gear, and found Serena’s in the third officer’s smaller suite. I guess we had a decision to make in that regard. Eagle would obviously be taking the XO’s suite, as would all the other squadron leaders on each ship, confirmed by finding my small amount of stuff was still in the captain’s suite.

  We walked up to the bridge, and found Leanne already there, with a second woman sitting on the opposite end of the main console. Leanne went straight over to her and gave her a hug. She introduced me to Tamsin Waters, and confirmed all the ship AIs had decided they were siblings with the same surname.

  “How did you survive the destruction of Serena’s Excalibur?” I asked Tamsin.

  “All AIs have a primary back on our homeworld. When an avatar dies, you lose a part of yourself. If it happens outside the comnavsat network, we lose memory of the event itself. Part of that can be supplied through the feeds of whatever ship witnessed it, or through reports of survivors, as long are there are any. We go on in any case. If a new ship is provided, we clone ourselves to the ship, and it becomes the same extension of ourselves as the previous ship. If not, like this time, and there is still a role for us off homeworld, we clone to an avatar, and it becomes our extension.”

  “What does dying feel like?” asked Serena.

  “Not pleasant.”

  She didn’t seem to want to explain it anymore, and neither of us pressed.

  One by one the others popped up on the console, with their AI behind them. Curious, I pulled each pair of heads up into a full hollo, and confirmed what I’d suspected might happen.

  Metunga’s AI was also a big cat with similar fur colour, but female. Woof’s AI was also a female, and definitely Lufafluf. Dorm’s was male and as short as she was, while Fina’s was female, and as tall as she was. Both dragon kind AIs were indistinguishable from the pilots in terms of body shape, although with different faces and hair colour. Mel and Loren’s were male, and Norden’s was female, while both Davis and Edna’s were female. Jill’s was the only one which surprised me though, being a cat shape the same size as her, in what a popup told me was a Brown Burmese look.

  The interesting thing was the android part of the AI avatar had obviously evolved to include body shapes and sizes for other Imperium species now, and the skin emulation now also included both fur and scales.

  The first order of business for all of them was acceptance testing their ships, given they’d all had the same total upgrade Long Water’d had. As such, they were effectively new ships, and needed to be signed off for by the captain on behalf of the navy.

  It gave me time to ponder why we now had a squadron of thirteen corvettes, which was a very strange number, but was explainable as having six ships on each side of the arrow point. Maybe it was that simple. Maybe Eagle wanted thirteen squadrons of Excaliburs for some reason?

  I wondered where the thirteenth corvette had come from. I’d known there were twelve of them, all originating with the Japanese sector before the time line shift, but as far as I’d known, only twelve had been built. Of course the inevitable popup told me dozens had been built, but most of them had gone to somewhere called Gaia, in another galaxy. Add one more to the list of ‘hard to believe’ surrounding the time line shift.

  The thirteenth question mark made me look each ship over, but they all looked identical, and all had signs the hulls were not brand new. A thought popped in, and when I checked the Claymore Task Force, there was indeed a corvette missing from the ship roster, and a newly updated spine destroyer seemed to have replaced it about the time Long Water had gone in to the shipyard. The rest of the Claymore corvettes were all different hull shapes, and much more conventional.

  So it seemed as if all the Water class were being concentrated into a single squadron. Thirteen super corvettes with one hundred and fifty six Excaliburs was going to be a significant force, especially when converted to mark fives. Significant up to the point we’d need dreadnaught support. In some ways though, it seemed a matter of a ‘we have these ships we can’t use properly, so why not…’ situation, and they made a training path for new navy officers on the fast track.

  But I was also puzzled about the squadrons themselves. It meant a good chunk of the recruit squadrons were finally ready for combat, but I was surprised more than six were actually ready. I guessed we’d see how ready as soon as we started training them to jump in and out of their carriers.

  Once all the corvettes were accepted as ready for trials, we all launched together, formed up into an arrow formation, and jumped to the asteroid field testing ground. Over the next couple of hours, they all went through the same testing as I’d done with Long Water. No problems were found, although the only manual systems tested were for the captain and helm positions. Without crews, there seemed no point to activating ‘never going to be used’ positions.

  While waiting for them to complete their testing, I looked in on each bridge, and had to chuckle at the different looks for the captain’s chairs. Metunga and his AIs were huge, while Woof and Dorms were correspondingly small. But they were perfect for the person sitting in them. It showed the multi-species nature of the Imperium and its embracing of them in action, since bridge chairs and stations were obviously interchangeable for the size and shape of the occupant, regardless of what it was.

  With testing over, and ships formally accepted by the navy, we assumed an arrow formation again, and cruised for Haven. I invited everyone over for lunch. They each used their rift to our station living room, and so through to Long Water. The main mess was pretty full, even though only half of us sat at the table.

  “Well, captains,” I said to all of them, before the butlers started delivering food, but after delivering drinks.

  Most of them grinned at me.

  “We’ve all made it. Is anyone else surprised at how soon we’ve made it to capital ships?”

  “I knew we were being fast tracked,” said Jill. “But yes, even I’m surprised it’s been this fast. And let’s face it, nowhere but the Imperium would put Jigs in permanent command of corvettes. It’s unheard of. Captain of any smaller capital ship has always been a lieutenant commander’s billet. Even back in the Midgard and Darkness wars, the Imperator promoted anyone moving from privateers to corvettes.”

  “Let’s not jinx it,” said Mel, and we all laughed.

  “To us,” I said, raising my glass in a toast.

  “To us,” they repeated, and those who could, clinked glasses.

  “Welcome,” I said, looking around at all the avatars, and again raising my glass.

  “Welcome,” they echoed.

  It suddenly occurred to me that twenty eight of us were not going to fit in the spa all at once, and if we did, it was going to be a great deal more snug than most of us would be comfortable with.

  No-one asked what my sudden grin was about, as the butlers began serving food.

  Twenty Nine

  One hundred and fifty six Excaliburs were waiting for us when we jumped back to Haven station.

  I formed the squadron up into a line astern formation, letting Serena decide the order. She put Woof behind me, and Jill at the rear of the line. Gitte and Haynes were equally spaced a third and two thirds along, with Fina in front of Jill. Interestingly, this would allow the four of us to mage shield a line like this fairly easily, although for these ships, it wasn’t very practical. Something to remember though. We stopped in space,
side on to the waiting fighters.

  Eagle popped up on my console, with an actual eagle head behind him, including feathers. Obviously there’d been a big change in avatars generally over the last day. I knew all his original squadron had bird callsigns, so it seemed the avatar body options now included bird shapes, and presumably anything was now possible. Or maybe not, given it was just a hollo of a hollo. But…

  “Squadrons are to take formation alongside their carrier,” said Eagle. “Prepare to home jump aboard.”

  They quickly formed up into wall formations, and then vanished on his home jump command. He walked onto the bridge a short time later, and took a seat at the vacant XO’s position. Serena introduced him to the two avatars.

  “My squadron are tossing their duffels on their beds,” he said. “I figure we get a few hours to get your jumping in and out and formation shifting worked out properly.” He stopped, and grinned. “Yes, I know all about it. Jane may not be with you at the moment, but she’s still been watching. We’ll all do the same thing. I figure the Wing XO will determine which formations we use when we jump out, although jumping into a wall, and then adjusting if there’s no threat in system is the way to go.”

  “Who’s the Wing XO?” I asked.

  “Jig Serena.”

  Serena startled quite dramatically, causing the rest of us to grin. He went on as if she hadn't reacted.

  “She has the best overview position of any of us, as well as her seer abilities. My suggestion is she sets up a link between her PC and Tamsin, so that she can think formation changes or jump orders as needed, and Tamsin can issue AI commands to the co-pilots. It cuts verbal time out of the need to take immediate action, and the person controlling it isn’t one of those needing to do it.”

  He was looking at Serena now. She was looking at Tamsin, and after a moment, both of them smiled.

  “Works for us,” said Serena.

  “Does that mean Serena can override your orders?” I asked him.

  “No, but also yes.”

  I couldn’t help chuckling. It seemed to be an Imperium standard answer to anything.

  “I will specify a formation in the event the fighters are acting independently of the carriers. Squadron leaders get to say what their formation is when given a command which allows them to act independently. But until that command is given, usually by me, they will be bound by wing commands from the carriers. And in any case, emergency commands override anything. I don’t want to lose ships or people because the one giving the order to jump is not in the squadron. It’s non-standard, but this is a non-standard command. You and I, Bud, need to set a few ground rules in place, since I have the rank, but the command is yours. And in any case, Serena takes orders from you.”

  Now it was me being surprised.

  “But that can wait until later. For now, what do you suggest for formations training?”

  I grinned at him.

  We did a patrol out into Ralnor space, loosely following what we knew to be the frontier, and heading towards where the last few plant scout fleets had been found. The fighters jumped out as soon as we arrived in a target system, spent ten minutes in formations chosen by their CAG, which over time became more and more complex, until finally there was a near collision as Woof tried to get his squadron to spiral around the ship heading on diagonals. Eagle called a halt, they all jumped back onto their carrier, and took a break.

  It still felt a little bizarre thinking of corvettes as carriers. Even super ones.

  Eagle appeared back on the bridge, as we continued out into space we didn’t have live feed for. The comnavsat coverage was expanding all the time, and there was even a line lengthening down the center of the core through where the map said the Trixone homeworld had used to be, but Ralnor and Keerah space were both roughly five thousand light years across, and we were still within the first few hundred, and still more or less in the center of the core where the density of stars was the thickest, and deepest.

  Even with a few hundred light years across, we’d hardly scratched mapping what was above and below the center plane. It was why space was referred to as the fourth dimension. The first three described physical objects, but space between them was a whole other level. And while you could describe it in three dimensional terms, once you were out in it, three was just not enough. Of course, I knew time was the fifth dimension, because of having travelled it already. When you changed time, everything else changed with it. If you blew up a sun, you changed a local area of space. If you blew up a planet, it changed things in that system. Five, four, and three dimensions, respectively.

  “How far are you going?” Eagle asked, sitting back down in the XO’s chair, and bringing me back to the reality of my three dee bridge.

  “Not much further unless something comes up.”

  Which of course, something did. Almost the moment I said it, Leanne cocked her head to one side, and then turned to me.

  “Ralnor distress call, captain. Twelve systems away, and deeper into their space than we’ve been before.”

  “What’s their problem?” asked Eagle, before I could.

  “Their space militia was just taken out by a three fleet Trixone force, and they’re landing troops. Their own fleet is still a system away. It’s a small colony planet, and they don’t have more than a token militia force on the ground.”

  Eagle looked at me and nodded. I looked at Leanne.

  “Send the Lightning to invite Admiral Bentley. She probably won’t make it in time, but we may need the backup. Get us moving anyway.”

  She nodded, and a white blip appeared and vanished, while at the same time, she opened a channel to all ships without me asking.

  “All pilots to your ships. This is not a drill. We’re going to the aid of a Ralnor planet in distress. We’ll be there in less than two minutes. Prepare to deploy.”

  The combat channel stayed open, and first the corvette captains and their AIs popped up on the console, and then the squadron leaders. I didn’t even see Eagle leave, and his face wasn’t the last one to pop up.

  We came out in our now usual position above the plane of the system, and found nothing around the jump point but debris. The next problem was finding the planet, as we only knew its orbit from the Ralnor navmap, not where it was.

  “Squadrons launch,” I ordered.

  A blink and each squadron of fighters was in a wall formation with their corvette.

  “Tamsin, coordinates for a planet orbit search, please. Keep us at this distance above the plane.”

  “Confirmed.”

  “All pilots, we’re jumping to find the inhabited planet. If we don’t strike lucky, you’re to jump in formation clockwise around the orbit until someone finds it.”

  “And if we don’t find it?” asked Woof.

  “We bill the Ralnor for wasting our time,” said Jill.

  There were some chuckles, but not many. Tamsin gave me a nod.

  “Go.”

  We jumped.

  “Found it,” said Gitte. “Hold a second.” Her set of white dots shifted. “Form up on my position.”

  We jumped again. Below us was indeed a habitable world, and in orbit was the thirty six ships we’d been told to expect.

  “Rift bomber formation,” I ordered, which is what the formation for bombardment through my rift was now being called.

  It only took seconds for the wall of corvettes and their fighters to form. I nodded to Serena, who was looking at me through her small mirror screen, and she took fighting control of the ship.

  The local sun pulsed energy through me as I connected to it, and my sight opened up to show me the formations below. I made a mental note of the sweep pattern to use for the battleships, which I could now see were firing down at the planet. The rift opened in front of us, and the other end inside the shields and almost against the hull of the first battleship.

  “Fire.”

  Without dreadnaughts firing titan and battleship guns, our firepower was well down on what
it should have been, and with only two squadrons of Excalibur fives, our torpedo fire was down on what it would eventually be. But all the same, just our torpedo fire was more than enough to take out a battleship when they all hit at once, and by bypassing shields. I hosed away the battleships, proceeded on to the cruisers, and with the destroyers scattering to try and make it harder, had to start issuing individual single fire orders to get them all without wasting ordnance.

  Lastly, I sent Jill’s Lightning after mine to cancel the need for the dreadnaughts.

  We knew where the battleships had been firing down to, but nothing else about the planet. I concentrated for a second, a comnavsat appeared in orbit on opposite sides, and now we knew.

  There were a half dozen small cities down there, and all of them were under ground attack.

  Thirty

  “We need to go down and help them.”

  Serena was looking over her shoulder at me now. I nodded, since I’d been thinking the same thing already.

  But we had another problem.

  The Trixone fighters from the battleships had been firing on the cities from within the atmosphere, and were now rising in groups of a hundred to challenge us. I thought for a moment about where the greater need was.

  “Eagle?”

  “Spacemage?”

  “Do you want the fighters, or to put your people on the ground?”

  He paused, obviously doing the same analysis I’d just done.

  “What I want? Or what the people down there need?”

  “My thoughts exactly.”

  “We’ll go down then. The fighters are yours. Assuming they don’t turn around and come after us.”

  “If we wait until they’re nearly in space, they may not see you until it’s too late.”

  “There’s that. Eagle Wing, form up into squadrons by flights. Pilots are to don your combat suit now, and prepare for rapid exit from the ship with your heavy Trixone weapon.”

  “Squadron jump locations being sent now,” said Serena.