Sabine nodded, “I went and checked the equipment myself. The manual we have said it was a surge protection system, of all things. In reality it’s a nanobot printer and delivery system. It can send millions of tiny bots to anywhere on the ship in a matter of minutes that will begin repairing damage on the microscopic scale.
“I told you on your initial tour that it was as if the manual had been written after the fact. Well, it looks like the Elif had the plans to print these ships, but not the actual specs. If the humans had given the plans to them, or they were stolen that could make sense.”
“I still don’t like it,” Grimms said, a grimace on his face, “but I agree with Cora. If we lose Sara…” he trailed off rubbing at his face with both hands. He took a deep breath to center himself and turned to the tank, “Cora, if we plug this in and it kills you, I will never be able to live with myself.”
“If we don’t and Sara and the Marines all die because of our inaction, I won’t be much better. This is a risk, but we have the plans right there in front of Chief Sabine. I trust that if something does go wrong he can figure out how to fix it. Teichek and Caroline are monitoring my vitals and know what to do if I’m in trouble,” Cora said, her voice soft but determined.
Shit. She’s right.
“Ok. Plug it in, Sabine,” Grimms said, relenting.
Sabine grabbed the black pouch with the core in it from the table beside the monitor. He walked over to the tank, and taking a look at Cora, knelt down to the box attached to the base. Placing his thumb on the scanner he frowned when nothing happened.
“What’s wrong?” Cora asked, when Sabine placed his thumb on the scanner a second time and hummed in aggravation.
“It won’t open. The plans said to scan your thumb or finger then place the core in its socket, but it won’t open. I can see it scanning me, so that part works,” he said, leaning to the side of the box and making sure the little door had room to swing.
“Shit. I was afraid of this.” Cora said.
“Afraid of what?” Grimms asked.
“I think a twin needs to open and install it. Sara said the ancient Humans used Aetheric potential as a kind of security measure. I think I’m the only one on the ship who can do it,” Cora said, frustration clear in her voice.
Teichek stood up from his monitor and shook his head, “Cora, if we take you off line right now there could be any number of problems. The worst being that the last reactor could shut down, and that could take hours to get back up and running. The process to extract you from the tank is hours long, and even then, it will be a while to get you back on your feet. Your body is essentially in a coma. We can wake you safely, but anyone coming out of a coma takes a while to regain full functionality. It would be faster to just wait for the repairs to be completed by the crew.”
“I think I may have a solution,” Grimms said, pulling up the crew roster on his tablet. He found the entry he was looking for and read the file quickly, confirming he remembered correctly. Opening a comm channel he said, “Boon, I need you down in engineering as soon as you can get here.”
There were a few seconds before Boon replied, “I’m sorry, Commander, did you say engineering?”
“Affirmative. Double time, Boon.”
“Aye, Sir,” she said, her normally girlish voice rising a half octave.
Sabine cocked his head to the side, “Boon?”
“Ensign Boon. Isn’t she Sara’s cabin girl?” Cora asked.
Grimms gave them both a smile, “She does serve as Sara’s cabin girl, though she is also in training to be a helmsman.”
Sabine looked to Teichek and Caroline, who both shrugged. “Why did you have her come to engineering?” he asked.
Before Grimms could answer the doors to the main corridor opened with a hiss, and Boon came jogging in. Her blond hair was pulled back in a messy bun, which she was trying to smooth down after her run through the corridor. Her small frame made the helmet collar seem overly large as it rose and fell while she caught her breath.
She snapped a salute, and after taking a gulping breath said, “Sir. I got here as fast as I could.”
Grimms returned the salute and held out a hand for Sabine to hand him the core. “I appreciate the effort, Boon. I noticed in your personnel file that you had an identical twin sister who died at an early age. Is that right?”
Boon froze, her breath catching at the mention of her sister. She recovered after a beat, but her voice was more somber, “Yes, Sir.”
Grimms felt bad for abruptly bringing up the raw memory, “I apologize for the bluntness of the question, but it is important. I understand that you have not taken the Mages certification. Is that because you don’t have the ability to cast, or was that a personal choice?”
She had gotten her breathing under control, but her cheeks were still flushed from the exertion of the run. Grimms suspected that his question would have had the same effect on her complexion.
She made an uncomfortable face, “It’s a little of both, Sir. I can cast some spellforms, but I was never trained for proper Mage work at the academy.”
Grimms nodded and motioned for her to come join them at Cora’s tank. She stepped forward, looking up at the still form floating; Cora’s serene face and red hair splayed out in all directions a sharp reminder that this ship had a living heart. Boon’s jaw dropped open for a second till she caught herself and snapped it closed.
“Boon, I need you to try something. We need you to install this sphere into that box,” Grimms said, holding the core with the pouch and exposing the silvery surface to view, while indicating the box on Cora’s tank with the other hand.
Before he could warn her of the potentially nasty shock that may knock her unconscious, she plucked the sphere from his hand. “Where does it go?” she asked, looking at the box as the others gasped at her sudden movement.
She looked around at the shocked faces, “What did I do?” she asked, hunching her shoulders in anticipation of something bad. “Should I not be touching this?” she asked, obviously trying to decide if she should drop the core or keep holding it, and which would be worse for her career.
Cora came to her rescue, “No, Boon. You’re fine. It was just surprising when it didn’t react to your touch, is all.”
“Oh,” Boon said, looking towards the ceiling speaker, “Uh, should it have?”
“Evidently not,” Cora said, a smile in her voice.
Sabine indicated the box at the base of the tank, “You will need to scan your thumb here in the pad to get the door open,” he said, indicating the small square of smooth glass on the boxes’ top.
She gave them all a plastic smile of fake confidence and leaned over to awkwardly push her thumb to the scanner. After a second, there was a click and the side of the box swung open revealing a half sphere indention the exact size of the core. She slipped the core into place and jumped a little when it was pulled into the socket as if magnetized.
“Is that it?” she asked
Sabine leaned over her shoulder and saw that it was not spinning, unlike the core they had attached to the monitor. He frowned, “I think it needs to be pushed in deeper, or something.”
She gave the core a push. The whole socket slid in a centimeter, like a large silver button. A distinct click was heard as she released it. A hum began to quietly build, causing everyone to cock their heads as if trying to determine if the sound were real or imagined. Boon, squatting beside the box, leaned in close to the core, and said, “It’s spinning.”
Sabine scrambled to one of the engineering consoles and began reading the script that was scrolling down the screen. “It’s booting up.”
“How do you feel, Cora?” Grimms asked.
There was no reply.
Grimms looked over to Caroline whose eyes went wide as she turned to her own console. “Oh, no. Teichek, are you getting this?” Caroline asked her partner.
He began going over his own readings. “Yeah. Is this from the core, or is it scheduled?”
“It’s not on the schedule. I’m guessing it’s the core,” Caroline said, her voice panicky.
Boon backed away from the tank, her hands clasped to her breasts, “Did I do something?”
“What’s happening,” Grimms asked, ignoring the small ensign’s question.
“She’s in a REM cycle,” Caroline answered. “The core put her to sleep, and we don’t know why.”
“For how long?” Grimms asked, glancing at Cora floating in the bluish solution.
It was Sabine who answered, “I think until the ship is repaired. The nano repair bots are being printed by the thousands.” He said. His head shot up and he quickly switched his comms on, “Jenkins! Get you and your team out of the reactors. Now!”
There was a moment’s hesitation, then the reactor to the right became a flurry of activity as the repair team began spilling out of the access hatch.
“Get that hatch closed, Jenkins,” Sabine yelled across the room.
In answer, Jenkins slammed the door closed after the last of her team tumbled out, and twisted the handle to the locked position. She gave Sabine a thumbs up while clutching at her chest with the other hand, obviously having chest pains of fright at his sudden orders.
“Sorry, Commander. The auto repair system is about to flood all the damaged areas of the ship and I didn’t want my people stuck in the middle of a million tiny repair bots. The system may have thought they were foreign objects and tried to get rid of them a piece at a time.”
Grimms waved away the apology, “Why is Cora asleep?”
“It’s part of the boot sequence. I think she is going to be out till the core can get the ship up and running.” He said, running a hand through his hair. “We’re stuck on this moon till it’s done.”
“How long will that be?” Grimms asked, dreading that he already knew the answer. Why did I agree to this?
“I have no idea, Sir.”
38
Sara awoke to the dark gray canvas of a tent blotting out the sky. Her armor was open and standing next to the cot she was laying on; a thin blanket pulled up to her armpits. She reached up to wipe at the sweat on her forehead and groaned as a headache sprang to life. Trying to sit up she fell back, lightheadedness making the room swim. The groans and light snoring of a great many people created a hum of background noise. Even further in the background she could hear the occasional crack of distant rifle fire and the thudding of larger weapons still waging war while she had been sleeping.
An Elif woman knelt beside her, putting a hand to her chest and keeping her down. “Don't try to get up right away,” she said in a singsong voice. Her features were slim and angled, like most of her kind. She smiled, reaching down to Sara’s side, and began petting something.
Sara twisted her shoulders and neck till she saw Alister curled in a ball beside her on the cot. She felt a chill as she remembered the skeleton of the cat down in the vault, and suddenly felt guilty for trying something so reckless. She hadn’t even considered what her death would mean for Alister. To be fair, she didn't think she was going to have to spend that much Aether, but that was no excuse. She knew in her soul that the two of them were connected for life. She had known it the moment she had seen him perched on the counter in her and Cora’s old apartment. A moment that seemed forever ago.
The Elif woman pet his sleeping form with gentle, long fingers. He stirred, and in a sudden motion, stretched all four paws, arching his back and yawning mightily. He smacked his lips a few times and looked around, blurry-eyed. He saw that Sara was awake and bounced up, ignoring the woman’s petting, and jumped on Sara's chest.
“Merp,” he said, licking her nose.
She gave a chuckle and reached up to pet his head, “I’m all right, ya little furball. How long have I been out?” she asked the woman.
“The soldiers carried you in about two hours ago. They left as soon as they got you out of your armor. Between what I saw from here and what I heard from them, it’s a wonder you didn't kill yourself with that bit of magic,” she said, checking her readings on the medical scanner she waved over Sara.
“Two hours?” Sara said, sitting up and regretting it immediately. Fighting through the nausea, she stayed up by pure will.
“Careful, now. Your Aether must have been used to the edge. If someone had told me one mage could do all the damage you did in one blast I would have said they were a liar. But here you are,” she said, her eyes wide and her head shaking slightly in disbelief. “I healed your body to the best of my abilities, but I’m running a little low on Aether myself,” she said, indicating the room full of soldiers laying on cots. “My healing spell was a little weak. You will be sore for a while, but nothing is damaged. Your headache will last till your Aether well begins to fill.”
“I was hurt?” Sara asked, not remembering being hit.
The Mage doctor smiled, “Nothing serious. Mostly nasty bruises and a sprained finger. The sprain probably happened when the troops carried you back.”
Sara rubbed at her face to clear her blurred vision. The knot was coming back, and she rubbed at her neck before it could take hold. Alister leapt to the floor and sat tall, watching her with big yellow eyes.
“How is the battle going?” she asked.
“I wouldn't know. I’ve been here in the medical tent the whole time. The number of our troopers coming in has gone down a little, but I’m running out of room pretty quickly. You will have to talk to the sergeant. He said to let you know he would be in the command tent when you woke.”
“Thank you, uh…I’m sorry, what was your name?” Sara said, swinging her legs off the cot.
“Dr. Lister. I was the colony’s medical doctor before all this,” she said, standing and helping Sara to her feet.
“Thank you, Dr. Lister.”
The woman gave a nod and headed over to another patient in one of the many cots. Sara turned to the exit and made her way out.
Outside, the late afternoon light gave everything a burnt orange cast, and she squinted at the low sun, gauging there was maybe an hour or two before sunset. Night fighting was more difficult, but the Aetheric armor gave them rather good night vision, so it wouldn't stop the battle, by any means.
She walked to the command tent, using the opportunity to stretch her tight legs. The distant sound of battle was there, but less chaotic than it had been earlier in the day. Several troops stopped and snapped smart salutes as she passed. She gave return salutes and wondered what all the formality was about.
Sara entered a world of chaos once she ducked into the command tent. Baxter was at the map, leaning in with Gonders and a few others. Gonders spotted her first and stopped mid-sentence, snapping a salute. The others saw and immediately understood. Turning as one, they snapped salutes themselves—even the people at consoles stood and saluted.
She was taken aback at the treatment but gave them all a salute in return. “As you were.”
The room returned to its former chaos. Baxter stepped in close, grabbing her by the shoulders. “Sara, I can't believe you did that. That was amazing…” He stopped. Realizing he had overstepped his bounds, he quickly dropped his hands from her shoulders and took a half step back. “Sorry, Captain. What you did was amazing. It may have just saved us,” he finished, a little more stiffly than was natural for him.
Sara gave him a bright smile. “It’s fine, Sergeant. How many of them did I get?”
His grim smile shined white in the darkened room. “At least four thousand of the bastards went up in the explosion. They have less than twenty tanks remaining, and their heavy armored division is down to a few dozen. It was a masterful strike, Ma’am. I didn't even know a mage could do that.”
Sara looked down at Alister sitting beside her, lazily cleaning a paw. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure we could pull it off. This little guy is both a miracle and a curse.”
Baxter looked down at Alister, who looked right back at him, daring him to say anything.
“So, it’s true. He’
s a familiar?”
Sara realized he was the first person to know the exact nature of her and Alister's relationship besides Dr. Hess. Alister had been such an integral part of her time on the ship that she had forgotten the crew thought he was just a pet. Though her asking Alister for spells had to have clued in a lot of them.
Her face reddened. “I just realized the crew must have thought I was mad, bringing a cat down here.”
Baxter smiled. “No one ever said ‘mad’. Eccentric, maybe, but not mad. After what you pulled off today, though, they won’t say anything ever again.”
Sara pulled her hair back from her face and blew out a breath. “As long as there is an ‘after today,’ they can say whatever they want. Have you heard from Grimms?”
Baxter led her to the map as he talked. “Nothing so far. We did see that the Aetheric link went down, but laser comms were established a few minutes later. They said the core was running a diagnostic and we would need to communicate the slow way till everything was back online.”
Sara nodded, worry for her sister shoving her fatigue to the side. “How goes the war, Sergeant Major? Are we winning yet?”
“Well, we’re not losing. Not after that stunt you pulled. We think they don't know how to proceed.” He began pointing out spots on the map, “At first they pressed us hard after your attack, but soon they realized we had taken the time they used to organize under their dome to harden our defenses. They were losing large numbers, and began to fall back half an hour ago. They seem to be retreating all the way back to the wall. This makes no sense; they not only are not advancing, but they are also giving up ground they already have won.”
Baxter’s face went white.
“What is it?” Sara said, scanning the map for what he had seen to cause such a reaction.
Genesis: War Mage: Book One (War Mage Chronicles 1) Page 23
