War Mage Chronicles- Part One

by Charles R Case

  Another long pause followed, during which the anomaly passed in front of several stars, warping or blocking their light completely.

  "Uh, what am I supposed to be seeing here?" Bestin asked.

  Gerrold growled. "What do mean? Don't you see the thing warping light as it passes in front of the stars? It's right in the center of the scope."

  Another long pause. "I'm sorry, Cap, but there’s nothing there. All I see is you slowly sweeping across the starfield. There’s nothing else to see," Bestin said, confused.

  "Reggi, go up there and make sure Bestin's not just being an idiot," he said out the side of his mouth. Then over the comm, he said, "Reggi's coming up. She's already seen it, and I swear to the Ten Lords, Bestin, if you're drunk, I'll rip your nuts off."

  Now Bestin sounded defensive. "She can come and look all she wants, Cap. There's nothing on the fucking screen."

  Gerrold took a few calming breaths, trying not to lose his shit as he gave Reggi time to get to the bridge. Luckily, it was only one floor down and a quick run, even for the short-legged woman.

  "He's right, Gerrold, there's nothing on the screen. It look like normal space from here," Reggi confirmed, slightly out of breath from her run.

  "What the hell?" he said quietly to himself. Then louder, he said, "Set a course using the scope’s direction. I'll stay here and keep the object in view."

  "You got it, Cap," Bestin said.

  The Rizz began picking up speed, making it all the harder to track the anomaly, so Gerrold zoomed out a few clicks. Once he had a wider view, it became fairly easy to track.

  "Got you now," he said, staring through the scope. "Whatever you are."

  Chapter 43

  "It's been twelve hours, and the stream of ships hasn't stopped. They have to be abandoning the planet," Sara said, watching the tiny holographic line of mismatched ships warping in and making for the only habitable planet in the system. Another stream of ships was leaving at the same time.

  She and Grimms were leaning on the holo table, each with a cup of coffee in their hands. They had been observing the space surrounding the Teifen planet of Ostrik for nearly a day, when transports suddenly started showing up en masse and picking people up. From the light Aetheric scans Cora had done when they arrived, the population was estimated to be just under a hundred million.

  Sara took special note that the inhabitants of the planet were both Elif and Teifen. It seemed that the hard lines each empire had drawn were a little fuzzy this far out. She wondered if the Grand Admiral was aware that his people were living in a mixed society.

  "At the rate they're moving, it will still be another couple of days before they get everyone off-planet," Grimms said, taking a sip of his coffee.

  "It looks like they know their system is a target. I'm guessing Bok sent word," Sara said, then turned to her gunner. "Hon, what are the latest numbers on their defensive ships? Are you still having trouble getting a clear picture?"

  "Yes, ma'am. The number changes constantly as data arrives, but the latest count is just over a thousand ships. Though they're pretty spread out—I think this is more a militia, and less a navy."

  "Have we figured out if they are using cloaking technology? I don't understand how our passive sensors can be giving us false information like this." She shook her head and looked at the small, green icons spread around the system that represented combat-capable ships in the area.

  "If they are using cloak tech, it's obviously not a hundred percent effective. Though it would make it difficult to gain target locks," Hon mused. "I'm sorry, ma'am. Without doing a large scale Aetheric scan, we won't know exactly what’s out there."

  "I don't want to do that just yet. Granted, the more time that passes, the more I think this is just what it looks like—a system about to be attacked by a stronger enemy."

  Grimms took another sip of his coffee. "Is it time to make contact?"

  She frowned. "These people aren’t unaware of humanity's return to the stars. I don't want to freak them out too much. To be honest, this is a call for the brass," she said. "Mezner, contact Admiral Franklin via the core, and put it onscreen, please."

  "Aye, ma'am," Mezner said. After a few seconds, the ensign looked up from her console. "Actually, ma'am, we're getting a communication from Director Franklin over the core right now. Would you like me to have him wait while you contact his father?"

  Sara looked at Grimms and raised an eyebrow. "No, put him through."

  Director Franklin appeared onscreen, sitting in an office. He had a decidedly unsettled look about him.

  "Director Franklin, how nice to see you. What can I do for you?" she asked politely.

  "Captain, I apologize for the unscheduled call, but have you spoken with my father recently?"

  Sara cocked he head, "I was actually just about to call him. Why, did something happen?"

  Franklin began to wring his hands. "I was on a call with him, the first time I've spoken to him in real-time in months. We were chatting about the kids, nothing important, when I heard someone yelling in his office. He looked up, and the call was cut off. I haven't been able to reach him since."

  "Mezner, get the Admiral on the line," Sara said, then turned back to the director. "I'm sure he's fine. I'll contact you as soon as I hear anything."

  Director Franklin gave a nod. "Thank you, Captain. I'm hoping it's just a technical issue," he said, reaching forward to end the call. "Oh, I nearly forgot. Dr. Sloan wanted me to tell you that the bot’s composition is taking him a little longer to pin down than he anticipated, but he will send you his findings as soon as he has it figured out."

  "Thank you, director. We will be in contact soon." She ended the call and turned to Mezner. "Have you got the admiral?"

  The woman shook her head. "I can't get a connection."

  Cora spoke up at that. "The only way we wouldn’t be able to connect to the core is if the computer it’s installed in has been powered down."

  "Well, shit," Sara grumbled to herself. Aloud, she said, "Keep trying to reach him. Maybe they're, I don't know, rebooting their system, or something."

  "Aye, ma'am."

  "Captain, I'm getting an odd reading," Hon said, sending the data to the holo table. "At first, I thought it was a small meteor and sent the trajectory data to Connors for a course adjustment, which he implemented a few minutes ago, but when I checked again, the meteor was still heading right for us. So I double-checked that we were on a new course, and we are. I'm now pretty sure it’s not a meteor, ma'am. It definitely changed trajectory under its own power."

  "A ship?" Sara asked, stepping into the command ring and powering it up. Alister perked up when he heard the ring power on, and hopped down from the captain’s chair to join her.

  "I don't think so. But all I have to go on are the passive scans, and according to them, it would be about the size of a basketball. It might be a drone, but I'm not getting any kind of electronic signature," Hon related.

  Sara saw the object in question, as Hon provided a flashing icon on the holo table. Inside the viewing bubble, she turned in the direction the object was coming from and saw the same icon flashing on the bubble’s inner surface. She reached out and selected the icon to enlarge her view of it.

  "Hon, power up weapons. Cora, give me a full Aetheric scan of the system," she shouted, powering up the shields with a thought and a blast of Aether. "We have incoming."

  "Oh, shit. Oh, shit!" Bestin yelled into the comm, making Gerrold cringe from the volume.

  The Rizz went into a dive relative to the anomaly they had been tracking, and Gerrold was not able to keep it in his sights. However, the moment before Bestin began freaking out, Gerrold had seen what they were up against, as a golden wave of shielding rippled across its hull. He had to agree with Bestin's sentiment.

  "Do you have it on scans?" he asked, dropping the scope back into the pile of dirty laundry and taking the stairs two at a time down to the bridge deck.

  "I'm pretty sure the whol
e system has them on scans, Cap. That ship just lit up like a supernova. It pulsed an Aetheric blast of scans so strong, I felt the hairs on my arm stand up," Bestin said, his voice coming fast and breathy. "They’ve powered their weapons and shields. I’m powering up our main cannons now. Restin, get those shields going."

  "Already on it," Restin said, as Gerrold burst through the bridge door and slipped into his chair, between the twins.

  The Rizz was an old corvette class scout ship. It was technically a warship, but one of the lowest on the totem pole when it came to weaponry. It had two gauss cannons that fired thirty-kilo slugs, and four PDCs for point defense; that was about it. It was plenty of firepower for taking on merchant vessels or freighters, but even the shielding amplifiers were substandard.

  Where this class of corvette shone, though, was in the engines. It had the gravitic drives of a ship three times its size, and relied on maneuverability to keep itself from being blown to space dust.

  However, as soon as Gerrold saw the specs rolling in on the ship in front of them, he knew it was hopeless. Even with the stealth coating they had applied to the hull, they could only hide so much from a warship of that caliber, especially if the Aetheric scan the new ship had hit them with was as strong as Bestin said it was.

  "What the hell design is that?" Restin demanded to know, glancing at the wire frame reconstruction of the ship on their small holo table, which was situated between the three seats and the small front view screen.

  "I have no idea, but I'm not sticking around long enough to find out," Bestin said as he punched the drives to full.

  The Rizz shot off like a gauss round, accelerating at nearly fifty gs and putting some distance between them and the alien vessel.

  "Oh my god," Reggi said, leaning over Gerrold’s shoulder to study the holo projection. "I recognize that design."

  "Oh shit. They're chasing after us, Cap," Bestin said, juking the Rizz to the side, then rolling her the other way. "How the fuck are they keeping up with us? We can outrun nearly everything in production."

  "They're hailing us, sir," Restin said, looking up from his console in the controller’s seat.

  "Put it onscreen," Gerrold said, sitting forward in his chair.

  The Rizz's bridge was small, really just big enough for the controller, pilot, and the captain. So with Reggi leaning over his chair and staring at the holo table, Gerrold was feeling a little cramped.

  The small view screen flickered to a view of a rather large bridge that seemed almost too bright, with its white walls and consoles. He saw two humans standing in the center of the bridge, and three more sitting at individual stations around them. The two humans in the center were a man and a woman, and he had to admit they didn't look worried in the least.

  Always a bad sign.

  Gerrold glanced over his shoulder and saw that Reggi was staring at the screen, her face as pale as he had ever seen it.

  "My name is Sara Sonders, and I'm the captain of this vessel, the Raven. If you wouldn't mind, I would like to have a word with you, Captain..." She let the question hang like a dead fish between them.

  "Gerrold Grenolt, captain of the Rizz," he said, his mouth going dry.

  Why the hell are there humans out here? Reggi said they never left their systems unless it was something really important. Could they be out looking for her?

  "Would you mind if we stop this game of tag? I wouldn't want to wear you out," she said with a smile.

  Gerrold was fascinated by the woman's hair; it was a bright, blood red. Even Teifen with red hair never had a color quite as vibrant as that. He took it to mean she was quite gifted with Aetheric power. Most truly powerful mages had a physical tell like that.

  "Stop the ship, Bestin. We can't outrun them," Gerrold told the Elif twin mage.

  After a moment's hesitation, he pulled the throttle back, and the ship stopped accelerating.

  The woman flashed a warm smile. "Thank you so much, Captain Grenolt. First, I would like to say that we are here to help. Grand Admiral Bok asked us to see what we could do in the defense of this system..." She trailed off, looking over Gerrold's shoulder at Reggi. "Is that a human on your ship?" she asked, flabbergasted, her professional manner flying out the door.

  Reggi stood stock-still, not making any move whatsoever.

  "Uh, is that going to be a problem?" Gerrold asked, quickly trying to think of the best way out of this surreal situation.

  A small, black animal jumped up onto the woman’s shoulder as if it were a perch and stared at Reggi, its mouth open in shock.

  At the sight of the animal, Reggi sucked in a breath, and began to shake.

  "Oh god. She's a War Mage," Reggi whispered.

  Chapter 44

  "Captain Grenolt, where did you find a human willing to join your crew?" Sara asked, nodding toward the small, brown-haired woman over his shoulder. "She did join your crew willingly, correct?" she added, realizing the woman could very well be a captive.

  Alister cocked his head to the side and said, "Merp?"

  Grimms gave a grunt at Sara’s side and met her eyes for a brief moment. He mouthed, ‘Navy?’.

  Sara shrugged.

  The captain of the Rizz leaned back in his chair, still looking at the human over his shoulder. "This is Reggi," he said, indicating the woman. "We found her in the wreckage of her ship a few months ago. We offered to take her home, but she refused to tell us where her planet was."

  Reggi had been frozen, up until this point, her mouth slightly open and her eyes bugging. However, Gerrold's words seemed to shake her free, and she stepped around his chair.

  Pressing her palms together, she held her hands to her forehead, bowed at the waist, and said, "I apologize, War Mage. I should have taken my life when I had the chance. I am weak, and have shamed our people. Please spare these who took me in, they did not know any better." She bowed even lower before continuing, "If it pleases you, I will gladly throw myself from the airlock."

  "Uh, what?" Sara said, glancing at Grimms.

  "Merp!" Alister said again.

  Reggi began to stand at Sara's question, but stopped halfway and bowed again, not sure what to do, but obviously scared to do the wrong thing. "I apologize for not being clear, War Mage. What part would you like me to repeat?"

  "I heard you, I just don't understand why you would throw yourself from the airlock," Sara said to the top of Reggi's head, then rolled her eyes. "Will you stand up, so we can have a conversation?"

  Reggi visibly tensed. Stiff as a board, she slowly straightened to her full height. She kept her face down, however.

  "Look at me, Reggi," Sara urged as gently as she could. The girl began to shake, but she did look up. "That's better.” Sara gave her a little smile. “Now, tell me. Are you from Earth?"

  "Earth?" Reggi asked, then shook her head, "No, War Mage. I've not even heard of such a place."

  Sara raised both fists into the air and screamed in triumph. "What are the fucking odds?!" She turned to Grimms and slapped him about the shoulders. "You said it, but I was all, 'the odds are not in our favor' or something. Well, fuck me if I wasn't wrong." She put her arm around Grimms' shoulders and faced the viewing screen and the open-mouthed people staring at her. "Look at that, Grimms. A human not from Earth. We are actually ahead of the game for once!"

  Grimms chuckled. "Yes, ma'am. It seems our luck is strong today."

  "Excuse, me," Gerrold said, waving a hand to get Sara's attention. Reggi grabbed it and tried to stop him, her face a mask of terror. "Stop that, Reggi! Hey, Captain Sonders, can you please explain what the hell you are doing here? It's clear you have no clue who Reggi is, and you don't seem to want to attack us. You mentioned Grand Admiral Bok? How do you know him?"

  Sara tried to calm down, but she was so excited, she had to take a second. "Sorry, Captain. We have been looking for someone like Reggi for a while now, and never thought we would find her out here.

  "Bok and I made a deal recently: he would stop attacking the E
lif if I would do him a favor. So here I am," she said, spreading her arms and smiling.

  "He sent you here for what, exactly?" Gerrold asked, still not clear on what she was telling him.

  "To fight, or help, or whatever needs to be done. To be honest, I don't really care. We found a human that's not from Earth, so as far as I'm concerned, the mission has already been a success."

  Gerrold scooted forward and leaned an elbow on his knee. "I can't believe Admiral Bok actually sent someone. The governor has been ignoring the Rim for several hundred years."

  "Well, the governor is dead now," Sara said with the slightest of smirks. "But I can tell you that Admiral Bok is trying to get you what protection he can. He's currently off fighting the Galvox, so he sent us."

  "The governor’s dead? How?" Gerrold asked.

  "Uh, well. It's a pretty long story, but the ending goes something like, 'I killed him'," Sara said with a shrug.

  "You killed the governor, and now the grand admiral is asking you for help instead of hunting you down?" Gerrold asked, leaning back in his chair. "This is one hell of a story."

  "Not really. It seems to me that the governor didn’t have a lot of love flowing his way. Admiral Bok was not a fan, and I'm assuming that you and your people aren't all that broken up about it," Sara said with another shrug. "But right now, I need to speak with Reggi. I need to get in contact with her people."

  Reggi took a step back as if she were being asked to enter a burning building. "I don't understand, War Mage. What could I possibly have that you would want?"

  Sara cocked her head to the side. "Are you okay? You seem to be frightened of me. Do you think I'm going to hurt you?"

  Reggi put her hands up in a surrendering pose and took another step back. "I would never make assumptions, War Mage. I apologize."

  "Hey, it's all right. I'm here to help," Sara soothed, realizing just how terrified the girl was. She decided to take the focus off Reggi to give her a chance to calm down. "Captain, can you fill me in on what it is your people are expecting, here? I can see the planet is being evacuated, so I assume you are anticipating an attack?"