Lieutenant Spacemage (Imperium Spacemage Book 3)

by Timothy Ellis

  “So how do you think we should proceed when we reach the station?”

  “Someone has to go talk to them. So at least one ship has to dock. I guess that’s Long Water docking, and me doing the talking.”

  “How many will you take with you?”

  “Leanne?”

  “Bud?” came through room coms.

  “Do we have combat droids on board?”

  “How many do you want?”

  “Honour guard of six? Human look, marine outfit, standard sidearms, sergeant in charge?”

  “No problem. You want me operating them?”

  “Yes please.”

  “Do you want them to carry a pulse rifle hidden on their backs?”

  “I’m not familiar with a pulse rifle.”

  “Old tech now, but designed for punching holes in big things. If you want the biggest hole, you need a meson blaster, but it’s a bigger weapon. Both can be hidden on the back of combat droids. The meson though, needs a combat suit, or a tripod if you’re not in one. And an external power source. Combat droids can use them, but not for as long as a combat suit can.”

  “Will a pulse rifle take out one of those ants?” asked Eagle.

  “Hard to tell. They could be tough, and their carapace could be a natural stun pulse absorber, or reflector.”

  “Give the sergeant a meson. If we need more than pulse rifles, I’ll rift us out.”

  “Confirmed.”

  “Take Serena with you,” said Eagle.

  “Why?”

  “In case she senses or sees anything. And, I understand you have the same arrangement as the Imperator does. You two are supposed to go everywhere together.”

  “We’re not as advanced in our relationship as the Imperator is, but that’s what Jane told us, yes. Okay, I’ll take her as well, since they have seen both of us. Jill can hold the rest of the squadron off the station and watch for threats out there.”

  “And we’ll be monitoring you,” said Leanne. “If I control the droids, I’ll get the feed from each one, and send it on to Eagle and the squadron captains.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” said Eagle. “Can you open a rift back to Haven for me? I’ve been told to check in personally before we go any further.”

  “Step this way,” I told him.

  I led him around to the new living room, where he stopped dead in the doorway.

  “This wasn’t here yesterday. Was it?”

  “No. The standard ship doesn’t need it, but the squadron needs a place for the captains to meet, and where we did is now fighter pilot territory. So I had Leanne do some fast upgrades. It means the extra office space on this level is gone, so if you want a desk you’ll need to use either your small office in your suite, or my ready room. Serena now has a desk in the corner of her living room. The captains all had breakfast here this morning, and all the ships are connected here through Haven.”

  I pointed to the rift which went through to our living room on Haven station.

  “That one will take you to Haven station. When you want to come back, you go back to the same room, and back through the same rift.”

  “So technically you don’t need any accommodation at all on this ship, since you could sleep on Haven every night.”

  “Yes, but that doesn’t work in an emergency.”

  “True. So you could set this up for every squadron or fleet we have?”

  “Sure. But Syrinx can as well. We’re also thinking of linking up our running tracks into one long one, but there are a few difficulties to solve doing that.”

  He looked at me in surprise.

  “Oh, kay. I’ll pass all this on. I think Chaos and Dreamwalker will want their two ships joined like this, although I’m not sure that’s a good idea, knowing Grace as I do. You amaze me, Bud. You keep coming out with major innovations which benefit everyone. But then, I think that’s partly what Jane saw in you, and has nurtured. She really is frustrated she can’t find a second one of you.”

  I chuckled.

  “I’m not aware of any cloning magic.”

  He laughed.

  “And we don’t want to go there. I’ll be back before you need to dock. And I wouldn’t be surprised if this space gets used for diplomats during the day from now on.”

  I kept my groan in, he stepped through the rift, and I went back to the bridge.

  Thirty Eight

  Docking took longer than expected.

  While airlocks seemed to be universal in nature, if built out of different materials and with different means of opening and closing them, the attachments which held ships to them all seemed to have very little commonality. Leanne had to send a repair droid out to build a new set of docking clamps. Our airlocks could adjust to the size of others, but nothing else did.

  Normally we’d also adapt the station connections for air, water, and waste removal, but for now at least, the ship was staying on its own systems.

  Eagle had brought back David Tollin himself, plus a dozen people skilled in alien negotiations. They were now camped out in the new larger conference room behind the bridge. It was still only Serena and me going in, but we’d both have a number of people in our ears through the use of marine combat coms.

  The six very convincingly human looking combat droids were already in the airlock, and I was going to move Serena and I to join them, so we didn’t need to open our inner airlock at all.

  It wasn’t a matter of paranoia. Although the moment the airlocks opened normally, you’d be vulnerable to whatever was in the air which rushed in. And vulnerable to whatever troops rushed in as well. So not opening the inner door, meant nothing was getting into the ship. At least not in a hurry.

  Leanne had omitted the AI part of what should have been their full insignia. For now, we had no idea if the fungus knew about AIs. Or for that matter, mages.

  There had been some debate about going in armed. But they had seen I was wearing a sidearm while we talked, and they hadn't suggested or ordered me not to wear it on station, and they might feel me not wearing it was suspicious. It was also possible that by wearing them, they would judge us as an acceptable known risk, and two guns on a station where everyone might be wearing one, was not going to be much of a threat.

  For now, magic was not on the discussion list, and doing any was only a last resort. For once, the Imperium had no idea what to expect, and cautious was the word of the day.

  We’d had lunch with Eagle and Tollin in my small dining room, and worked out what was allowable for me to say and do while on the station.

  Now while waiting for the docking clamps to be completed and connect, Serena and I were waiting on the bridge in full dress uniforms, with ribbons, not medals. When the faint clunks finally sounded, I moved us to the airlock, next to the six marines.

  “Airlocks matched,” said Leanne, through the nearest female looking droid. “Station outer lock opening. Inner lock opening. The air is clear of toxins, but I’m not sure you’re going to like the conditions in there very much. Opening our airlock door, now.”

  It slid aside, and we got our first view of the interior. The air was heavy with humidity, and the temperature was much hotter than we were used to. Our suits adjusted to keep our bodies from overheating immediately, and even our uncovered faces didn’t start to sweat. But I was very glad we weren’t wearing normal clothes, as we’d have been soaked in sweat very quickly.

  But there was something bothering me immediately, and I put an arm on Serena’s to stop her moving out of the airlock yet. There were several dozen armed ant warriors present, although not in threatening poses. One was standing forward of the others, and seeing us, it barked a command which wasn’t translated, and all but six of them formed up into a formation, and did the ant equivalent of march out.

  Beside the front ant, which had different markings on it from the others, and was probably an admiral or a general, was a small cart like object. Four wheels held up a flatbed, on which was fungus. The front of it seemed to have sever
al small speakers built in. There were two push pull arms on the other side, and behind it were two lizards.

  “Very large geckos,” said someone in my ear.

  They were about Woof’s size, where the ants were considerably taller than I was. It made the cart quite small, and the question of the moment was why it wasn’t bigger, and pulled around by ants? But that wasn’t what was bothering me.

  There was magic active in here. I could feel it, although not identify where.

  “Greetings,” said the speakers on the front of the cart.

  The voice was higher in tone than the voice we’d heard from their ship.

  And now I knew where the magic was. It was coming from the fungus. Which explained a lot. How does a ridiculously small plant talk to other species, and be understood without any technology. Well, telepathy, but that was just a form of magic.

  “Don’t say anything,” I pinged Serena, knowing Leanne would also get it and tell the others. “Don’t even sub-vocalize. The fungus have magic, and I don’t yet know what kind, or how extensively they use it. They may be able to magically hear anything said. We’ll have to hope they can’t read minds.”

  “They can’t,” she pinged back. “That much I’m sure of.”

  “Thanks.”

  I stepped out from our airlock, hands held out to my sides away from my sidearm, palms facing forward. The ant stayed where it was, but matched the same hands gesture with four of its. Serena followed, stopping slightly behind me on my left. The droids followed, forming a line behind both of us.

  “Greetings,” I echoed. “Thank you for inviting us here.”

  “Thank you for coming. If you will follow us, we’ll proceed to somewhere more comfortable for those of your stature. Your warriors may accompany us, but our warriors will follow them. I hope you understand.”

  “We do. And we appreciate the courtesy.”

  The absence of body language was going to be an issue, I could already tell.

  Thirty Nine

  “Those are civilian Trixone.”

  There was no dirt on the floor, but I’d spotted walking plants as soon as we left the dock. They were mainly smaller than the Trixone we knew about, and the flowers were totally different.

  “Jane says Rogue encountered some,” went on Leanne in my ear, “but you were not briefed on them because she wasn’t expecting them to be here, and it hasn’t been announced yet by the Imperium. The Imperator has only just been briefed on them. They’re not hostile apparently, and mainly interested in trade.”

  I said nothing, and kept walking after our host. A corollary to ‘no plan survives the enemy’ is ‘no briefing ever tells you everything you need to know’.

  The room we entered was large, substantially covered in fungus, and had a wide variety of creatures in varying sizes, from half the height of a Lufafluf, to a head taller than a dragon human form. In fact, if we’d used a combat suit instead of a combat droid, even a larger human form would have fit right in here.

  Creatures I could identify included both brown and white rats taller than I was, several variations of lizards, several sizes of beetles, Trixone with more than a dozen flower variations, the fire ants, a much smaller black ant, and something I couldn’t identify, but which Leanne identified as an armadillo. They were all upright, and where we had hands, so they had something along the same lines. All except the plants, which seemed to have specialized branch ends in lieu of hands.

  One of the diplomats was speculating there must be areas of the station where the plants lived, which had the expected dirt floors for them. He was probably right, and if I knew Jane, at least one of the AIs was already trying to hack the station computers to find out more about our hosts, and everyone else who lived here.

  The middle of the room was one large polished flat topped rock, which made a very impressive conference table. The ant who’d followed us waved us to two stools, and sat down on a different version itself. Others took their places, leaving us with a large gap on each side of us.

  “Welcome,” said the voice, coming from somewhere other than the cart now, but now sounding different, deeper somehow.

  There was definitely magic happening in this room.

  “Could be the more fungus in one place, the deeper the voice gets,” said a voice I’d not heard before.

  “Bud,” said Tollin. “We’ve been joined by some people studying the Trixone as a species. They’ll let you know anything they come up with which might be important.”

  I didn’t respond, and they were not expecting me to.

  “We gather today to meet members of the Imperium, who we have tried to study from afar, as they’ve rapidly become more successful at repelling the warrior caste Trixone than we have. Our message through the independent privateer Rogue was received faster than anticipated, and so the Imperium has answered ahead of schedule. All is good.”

  “Jane and the Imperator are watching now,” said Leanne. “She says the Rogue crew passed themselves off as a privateer, having stolen the ship from us. This was apparently accepted at face value. For now, don’t disabuse them of the notion.”

  “What kind of creature are you and your Imperium?” asked a particularly large beetle.

  “Dung,” said someone.

  There were chuckles coming through the coms at this, and I kept my face straight. Serena though had to get a grip on her smile.

  “Dung beetle equivalent,” said the same person a few seconds later.

  “We are called Human,” I said, “although across the Imperium, we come in many sizes and skin colours. From our struggles with the Trixone, we’ve met other species, many of them variations on the humanoid form, and some more like yourselves. If you know of the Keerah, they are what we call big cats, and some of their cousins joined the Imperium. We know of other species, some of whom are now trading partners. And we currently ally with the Ralnor, who, with the Keerah, dominate the other two thirds of the core galaxy between them.”

  “Both are doing badly, we hear,” said a plant with a yellow flower.

  “Both were caught off guard fighting us, when the Trixone launched their invasions of all our space. It’s taken them some time to move fleets into positions to blunt the offensives, but they are both doing much better now. The Keerah are a warrior species themselves. The Ralnor not so much, but they fight in space quite effectively.”

  “And humans?” asked a lizard. “How do you fight?”

  “How we need to.”

  There were a number of sounds which I assumed were laughter.

  “That is to say,” I went on, “we prefer to trade rather than fight. But when we fight, we have only one focus.”

  “And what is that?” asked the fire ant.

  “The only battle which matters, is the last one. And that is the one we win.”

  I’d been told to get that mentioned if I could. I wasn’t sure why, but I think it was to get them thinking they shouldn’t anger us.

  “Do you always win it?” asked a snake I’d thought was a lizard.

  “Always. It might take some time. It might cost some defeats. It might involve giving up territory. But in the end, we win.”

  “Isn’t that a bit arrogant?” asked the fungus.

  “Just a statement of fact. We are slow to anger, slow to militarize, but any who attack us, regret it in the end.”

  I’d been told to say that as well. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea, at least not with the fire ants. I didn’t even think it was accurate given how fast people tended to lose their tempers, but again, this was about diplomacy, not reality.

  “And how do you view those who are the enemy of your enemy?” asked the ant.

  “The enemy of our enemy is our friend. At least until proved otherwise. I gather this is not true of ant kind?”

  I’d been told to ask. Rogue had destroyed an ant ship on their way here, sufficiently far away to hopefully not be the same sort of ants. But we needed to know how they viewed us.

  The fi
re ant chuckled. Which was a very weird sound.

  “The enemy of our enemy is our enemy,” it said. “At least until proved otherwise.”

  “Privateer Rogue destroyed both an ant ship and Trixone fighters after being fired on by both,” said the fungus. “You destroyed an entire Trixone legion at our behest. I think we can consider you both balanced in your responses, and not our enemy.”

  There were noises which I assumed were agreement. The translator was doing a great job, but not everything was being translated for me.

  “I’m in,” said Tamsin.

  Maybe we’d get an upgrade for the translator in due course after all.

  Forty

  The first meeting went for several hours.

  But it was me who finally ended it by asking the wrong question. As the meeting had gone on, I’d started getting messages from my PC about hacking attempts. I’d sent the messages to Leanne, and she’d assured me I was in no danger of actually being hacked. But it did give us an idea of what the fungus were actually like, and how they’d really gained control of this area of space.

  Finally, I’d become so sick of the constant messages popping up, I pinged Eagle asking if I could reveal we knew they were trying. He approved.

  “I wish you’d stop doing that.”

  “Doing what?” asked the fire ant.

  “Attempting to hack my computer system.”

  There was a total silence suddenly.

  “You do not look like you have a computer system with you,” said the fungus. “Why would we be trying to hack what we cannot see?”

  “I don’t need to see speakers on a cart to know the sound I hear from you is not coming from them. This room has a lot of electronics which is not in plain view. What we see is not what is there. Most of you wear clothes, as we do. Clothes can conceal almost anything made small enough. We will concede that we have computers small enough to conceal on our persons. We know you have them somewhere close by, because we can detect their attempts to break into ours.”