I put a rift in front of the shield, sized so nothing could get past it, and carefully placed the other end where I wanted it. Our end of the rift started moving towards the fungus ships, and they disappeared into it. I let the rift continue all the way back to the jump point, before repositioning it on our side of the remains of the ant ships, which included escape pods.
I hesitated for just a moment, getting a grim look from Eagle, and a worried one from Serena, and then the rift moved across the entire debris field, sending everything to join the ships. When I was sure I’d not left even one single piece of fungus in space, I ended the rift.
The boarding pods had now attached to the station, and what sensors still worked over there showed they’d carved holes in the hull to get in. The carefully constructed interior for diplomacy had been dismantled and ripped apart. There were four airlocks, and I removed both sets of doors on all four, at the same time.
Explosive decompression threw many bodies out into space.
The station vanished, as I drew enough energy to take it in my magic grasp, and jump it after the ships. I grabbed the bodies as well, and gathered up all the plant matter I could magically see, and sent those after the station.
The station returned, now looking red hot, and without any internal cams working. Leanne launched a drone, and we shortly after had a view inside. Most of it was red hot slag. The boarding pods were now little more than melted patches over the holes they’d made.
“Remind me never to piss you off,” said Eagle, now wearing his stars again.
Forty Nine
“Bud,” said Jill. “Please tell me you didn’t do what I think you just did.”
“He did,” said Serena, not looking happy, but also not showing why she was unhappy.
Given she’d been the most affected by the fungus, I’d expected her to be happier, but what I’d just done was a bit extreme.
“What?” asked Loren.
“Everything was dumped in the sun,” said Woof, who sounded like he approved.
“Including the beings on those ships?” asked a squadron leader.
“Including the troops on the station?” asked another one.
“Even the escape pods,” said Haynes.
All eyes were now on me.
“Yes,” I said, feeling calm and quite happy with the outcome.
A few of the pilots looked horrified, but the team seemed okay about it.
“YES!” said Metunga, doing a fist pump.
“A bit late, hey?” asked Edna.
“Just adding emphasis. They almost killed one of us. There has to be consequences.”
“There was,” said Gitte.
I looked at Eagle, but he had the look of someone communicating in his head, probably with his pilots.
“Now what?” asked Woof.
“We seal them in,” I said.
“Let’s do it,” said Haynes. “Three groups?”
“Yes. Same as before. Tamsin will give you jump positions, and we’ll seal them in three jump points at a time.”
Doing just that didn’t take very long. Jump, close the jump point both ways, and jump on to the next. Lastly I went to the jump point where we were holding the Trixone out, and put it back to normal from the Trixone side. We were in their sensor range, but well away from them.
Leanne opened a channel to the lead ship.
“Trixone commander, be aware the jump point in front of you works again, and the jump point where you were heading for doesn’t. Fungus space has been severed from the rest of the galaxy.”
“We do not speak to our food.”
The channel ended.
But the interesting thing was, the plant fleet turned away from the jump point and set off across the system. So they’d obviously listened, and just as obviously didn’t feel the need to test what I’d said. After they’d left, a trader successfully jumped through.
We all met back where we started from, and I sent everyone back to Haven. I figured taking the rest of the day off was appropriate after a battle, and if we were needed for anything, we’d get orders. Eagle at first wanted to stay, but he needed to check in with his superiors and Tollin anyway, and there was no point in his pilots staying on board. They didn’t need to be told twice, and were gone before their commander.
It left Serena, Leanne, and Tamsin still on the bridge. I cast my eyes around them.
“This doesn’t leave this ship, please.”
“What doesn’t?” asked Tamsin.
“What I’m about to do. I’m going to do some magic, and I don’t want anyone knowing about it.”
“Why not?”
“Because no-one knows his full power,” said Serena, “and for now, they mustn’t know. Jane suspects, but Bud doesn’t want her to know either, if it can be helped.”
“How powerful are you?” Tamsin asked me.
“I don’t actually know yet. Not up to Thorn’s level, but more than I’ve shown so far. Is there a problem?”
“No. Just curious. We may be Jane’s daughters, but our first allegiance is to you two.”
“Thanks.”
“No need to thank us,” said Leanne. “We’re your crew, you treat us as you do any other being, and we like both of you.”
There were grins all round.
“I have the ship,” I said, formally.
“Captain’s ship,” said Leanne.
The first thing I did was move us back into the system with our now derelict station. I reached out with my magic, and pushed it into the rift, where it vanished to the Haven side. It was now the shipyard’s problem.
I drew more energy from the local sun, called my staff forth, and cast magic. A shield raced away from us in all directions. A very carefully crafted shield, designed to destroy everything in the system smaller than Long Water. My magic sight followed the shield towards the jump point, noting every small thing which vaporized, among which was enough fungus fuzz to show me this needed doing.
“Holy shit,” exclaimed Tamsin.
“What?” asked Serena.
“The mass of the asteroid belt in this system just dropped significantly.”
And so it had. All the dust, pebble sized rocks, and rocks up to the size of the ship, were all gone. It was a significant mass of dirt and rock which had been removed in seconds.
I said nothing, but jumped us into the next few systems one by one, doing the same thing, although in one of them I found a trader ship, and had to check it was big enough to survive. In the system where the Trixone had been blockading, there was a lot more fungus fuzz, and more asteroids in extra rings.
“That was interesting,” said Leanne.
“What was?” asked Serena.
“The jump points both moved.”
“So the mass of the system has something to do with the placement of the points?” asked Tamsin.
“Apparently.”
I continued to say nothing, jumping us into adjacent systems to double check for fuzz, and then to the systems where the Trixone were still blockading. All of them were clear.
“Where next?” asked Serena.
I closed the rift to Haven, and started to open a new one, and stopped. Instead, I brought up the navmap on a screen only I could see, and selected a very specific system. Then I jumped us there.
“Whoa!” exclaimed Leanne. “How did we move so far? This is Trixone!”
I’d jumped us thousands of light years in an instant, and now I knew I could. Only Thorn had been able to do that. The only thing I needed to try now to confirm I had his power, was do the same sort of jump without a ship.
“Yeah. Just experimenting.”
“Some experiment,” said Tamsin, looking awed.
“Why are we here?” asked Serena.
“Just checking on a hunch.”
I set off the same shield wave as before, only this time for anything about a quarter of the size of the ship.
As I’d wondered, the system was littered with fuzz, and all the larger ro
cks had significant amounts. It confirmed something I’d had at the back of my mind for a while now, and told me we had a bigger problem than we thought.
“And?” asked Leanne.
“I hate it when hunches are right.”
“Right, how?”
“My worry for now. We’re going home.”
I concentrated, now using the local sun for energy, and stopped again.
“New hunch?” asked Serena, grinning at the look on my face.
“Yeah. Wait while I try something.”
I let go of the sun, and instead connected to the heat being generated by the volcanically unstable planet the Imperium had created when they slagged the Trixone homeworld. Now I opened a rift to Haven, coming out at the same spot the previous rift had.
“That was odd,” said Leanne.
“What was?” asked Serena.
“The Trixone homeworld just cooled dramatically.”
I jumped us into orbit.
“And again. That’s weird. A number of the volcanos stopped erupting, and the overall temperature of the planet went down ten degrees in two steps, a large one, and a small one.”
The three of them looked at me. I grinned.
“Using the planet as an energy source?” suggested Serena.
“I thought I’d try it. Seems to work.”
“So if you wanted to put a planet into an ice age,” said Tamsin, “you could do it just by jumping the ship a long distance while connected to the planet?”
“Probably.”
“Wouldn’t that kill anyone on the planet?”
“Most likely.”
“You see why we need to keep this secret?” asked Serena.
Both AIs nodded. It was scary stuff. I released my connection to the planet.
I had the power to destroy a world, or even just depopulate one.
My appreciation for who Thorn had been, rose dramatically. The family had known he was the most powerful mage ever.
But no-one knew how much power he’d actually commanded.
Now I did.
Very, very, sobering.
Fifty
It was lunch time before we arrived back in Haven.
I closed the rift behind us, let go of the Trixone sun, and let the staff vanish to wherever it lived when I wasn’t using it. There was still what I was drawing from the dark sun, and feeling tired, I increased it a bit. I told the others to meet us over my island, and once we were all there, they walked from their ships to mine, and then through a new rift doorway down to a tree on the beach. To ensure no-one mixed up the two trees with rifts, I used a bit of magic to put a destination on both tree trunks.
With everyone on the beach, there was a rapid strip off, and then a lot of splashing. Lunch was in the outdoor eating area, and Hubaisha and a butler turned up to feed us. The AIs settled around us, but didn’t bother eating.
I felt some of the tension easing out of me. Although the worry was growing that I knew, or at least suspected, something important, which others were not going to believe again. I wasn’t sure I wanted to take that risk.
Fortunately, about mid-afternoon, we were called back to our ships, collected our pilots, and I opened a rift direct to a system in Ralnor space where we took out another scout fleet on course for a planet the Ralnor considered important, and they were unable to get a fleet to in time. After, we sealed up the newly found incursion corridor, and were sent to another system, in Trixone space this time.
Why was not obvious at first. Eagle bounded onto the bridge, and took his seat.
“Jane wants us to investigate an anomaly she spotted while we were taking down the scout fleet. Leanne?”
Leanne nodded, and we jumped in-system. Almost immediately we were challenged.
“Ships approaching. Identify yourselves, or be fired upon.”
No visual, but it sounded like a plant to me. I looked at Eagle, he grinned at me, and mimed being mute.
“Imperium Navy Squadron doing reconnaissance of this system. We didn’t expect to find anyone here.”
“Imperium? You’re a long way from home.”
“Everything is relative.”
“Indeed. We’ve received reports that some Imperium ships solved a centuries old problem in our space a short time ago.”
“We heard that too.”
“If you meet those responsible, pass on our deepest thanks.”
“I will. If I may ask, for what are you thankful?”
“The voice is gone.”
Eagle startled quite dramatically. Fortunately, they couldn’t see him.
I kept my own reaction hidden. Somehow, in wiping systems clean of everything small, I’d disrupted the ability of the fungus to communicate out of their space. Maybe without realizing it, I’d destroyed a whole chunk of the Trixone communications network the fungus relied on. Bonus!
“The voice?”
“Yes. The one the warrior sub-species listen to. Or did. Maybe they will come to their senses now.”
“We can all hope that. May I ask who you are?”
“We are the hidden. Or you could call us ‘those who hide’.”
“From the Trixone?”
“From everyone. We trade with a few select and trusted ships, and only those not infected by the voice.”
“How extensive is this infection?”
“Most of Trixone space.” Eagle sighed. “Although pockets have managed to hold them out, as the Trixone themselves managed to hold the voice trapped in their own space.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“We know. Even among Trixone, the voice’s affect varies. We do not know why. It seems odd that those so close to the source of the voice should resist more than those far away, but the galaxy should give thanks this is so. Now we give thanks to the Imperium.”
“I will pass this on to my superiors. Do your people have a name?”
“We are the hidden. We will remain that way, until convinced it is safe to no longer be.”
“Well, when you choose to come out of hiding, the Imperium will be delighted to talk to you about trade. In the meantime though, you might want to check your environment for detectable things.”
“Why?”
“We came here because an anomaly was spotted by the first of our ships to enter this system. We couldn’t detect what it was, only that there was one. Whatever it was, you should find it and fix it.”
“Thank you for your information. We will do so. How do we communicate with you in future, should we decide to?”
“Send a message in the normal way, and we will receive it. Address it to the Imperium Council. Someone will respond.”
“Will you now depart without looking further for us?”
“Certainly, if that is your wish.”
“It is.”
“Then we depart in peace, and hope for future contact with you.”
“Go in peace, Imperium.”
The channel closed.
Tamsin had us all pointed back out-system already. Eagle was giving me a piercing look, and nodded towards the ready room.
“Found them,” said Leanne, before I got myself unbuckled.
“Where?” asked Serena.
“A very large asteroid. There is a very faint leakage of a technological nature. They probably made a tech advance recently, and forgot to check if it was detectable.”
“Or our sensors are better than theirs,” said Norden.
“That to.”
Eagle hadn't stopped like I had, and was already standing in the doorway. He beckoned me to follow him, and after I was in the room, he closed the door. He didn’t bother sitting.
“How much of that did you understand?”
“All of it.”
“Well I didn’t. Spill it.”
I hesitated.
“Actually sir, if you think it needs to be said, it probably should be said to everyone who needs to hear it at the same time.”
“And that would be?”
“The
Imperator and David Tollin, the four stars, Jane if she hasn’t already guessed, and maybe Admiral Bentley as well.”
He gave me a long hard look, and I stood there and waited for him.
“Is there any urgency?”
“No.”
“Fine. I’ll ask for a meeting. I’ll let you know when and where.”
“What should we do in the meantime?”
“Back to Haven. We’ve had two battles today, even if minor ones, so the evening should be ours.”
“No problem, sir. Do you want to leave before the jump?”
“No, we’ll wait until we’re docked. You better spend this evening working out how you’re going to explain what you think needs to be said.”
“That I will.”
Not.
We returned to the bridge, I opened a rift home, and shortly after, we were docked. The pilots left through the cargo bays, which were then topped up. My team walked through to Long Water again, and we went back to my beach.
That night, Serena wanted to play for the first time in a while, but I was just too tired. We slept in my bedroom in the house. In spite of my feeling of doom approaching, I slept the night right through without remembering any dreams. In the morning, I was the one wanting to play.
Fortunately, so did Serena.
Fifty One
Four men and three women were waiting for me.
Three of the men wore four stars. Bigglesworth, Jedburgh, and Harriman. One of the women wore four stars, one wore three, and one two. I didn’t know the four star, but a popup told me this was General Wellington. The other two were Bentley and Jane. They were sitting in a row on one side of the meeting room table.
The last man was Lacey, Eagle, and he was sitting in the middle of the other side of the table, with a single empty seat next to him.
All eyes went to me as I came in, and was waved by Lacey to the empty chair. I sat, and waited for someone to start.
A screen behind them lit up, and the Imperator looked down at me, over his senior officer’s heads.
“You have something to tell us I believe, Mage Master.”
He looked as stern as the rest of them did. I almost missed the fact he’d left my rank off, and was addressing me as a senior mage, not one of his officers. I think my body temperature dropped a degree with that realization, and I had to fight to stop myself from shivering.
Lieutenant Spacemage (Imperium Spacemage Book 3) Page 20
