Dragon Wave

by Valerie Emerson

  “Well if you came in here looking for an argument, I’m glad I could oblige.” She was rewarded with another short burst of laughter. She smiled as she stood and stretched.

  “I was hoping you’d make me feel better.”

  “Next time let me know that from the get-go.” She leaned in to ruffle his hair. “Don’t worry, Jack. Whether this is a good idea or not, we’re going to win this. It’s about time things swing in our favor.”

  “I really hope so,” he agreed.

  ***

  By the time Julia left Jack in the commune chamber, he’d cheered up and gone to stretch his virtual legs in the Astral Plane. Julia, on the other hand, started to feel antsy. She decided to head for the bridge to see what was going on.

  Captain McNuggen had transferred to Vaughan in time for this mission. The former captain had been promoted and moved to another assignment. Julia couldn’t blame Barbara for wanting a piece of this mission; revenge was a powerful motivator. She knew that herself.

  She was glad to have a Mystic-friendly captain too. The ships were too small for animosity, too few people for bad feelings or prejudice. Julia had responded to the rare situation by befriending most of the bridge crew. It wasn’t the same as being in the captain’s chair, yet the nostalgia was nice just the same.

  When she stepped onto the bridge, Ensign Taryn flashed her a nervous smile then turned back to the Helm station.

  McNuggen stood over Ensign Valentino at Comms. She was frowning. Julia didn’t like it when her friend frowned. It usually meant trouble. She reminded herself to address Barbara by her rank while on the bridge, then moved closer, hoping for a look at Valentino’s screen.

  “How far?” the captain asked.

  Valentino, already pale by nature, currently had a complexion best described as ghostly. He shook his head. “We could be there in two hours if we diverted course now, captain.”

  Barbara glared at the screen. Julia shivered as she remembered the bad old days, when her friend held Mystics in contempt. This expression was a lot more hostile, but the flavor was the same.

  “Can I intrude, captain? What’s going on?”

  Barbara looked surprised. She hadn’t noticed Julia’s arrival on the bridge, and that wasn’t normal.

  “We’ve intercepted a distress signal,” Barbara said.

  Julia raised her eyebrows. That was why their beloved captain was spitting nails? She peered at the Comms screen again. Relatively speaking, they were close to the source of the signal. Odds were no one else could respond in time.

  “The signal is alien in origin. It will take us off our assigned path.” Barbara moved to give Julia a better look. She traced a line on the stellar map from Vaughan to a blinking dot that approximated the source of the beacon.

  “The Presley Nebula is here, Mike.” Valentino pointed out the obstacles, and the captain stepped back. Valentino visibly relaxed.

  Barbara scowled. “We have an eleven-second stretch that we’ve identified as the galactic SOS code. Everything else is garbled.”

  “Gee, that doesn’t sound like a trap,” Julia observed, a sarcastic edge to her voice.

  “You see our problem,” McNuggen said.

  Julia nodded. They were supposed to be taking the offensive, not waltzing into a trap. Yet unless they could prove it was a trap, they were honor-bound to help.

  “Taryn, update our heading to follow the distress signal…but don’t go directly through the nebula. Keep your eyes peeled.” Barbara went to her station and sat. Thunderclouds still hovered around her eyes. “Ronasuli, gather your team and stand by in the commune. I want the four of you to tell us what’s in front of us—pull the curtain aside, as it may be—and show me if we’re in for a rescue or a fight.”

  “Understood.”

  ***

  In the material plane, Vaughan soared above asteroids that ranged in size from softballs to the Earth’s moon. The warship had to dodge the occasional space rock when it escaped the field, but their sensors gave them enough warning. That was an everyday threat, and one the bridge crew had dealt with a hundred times. They were far more concerned with those they were out to rescue.

  In the Astral Plane, Julia and the Evolved stood on the ship’s hull, alert for trouble. Julia’s senses stretched ahead, seeking the source of the beacon.

  “I’m not feeling great about these rocks,” Jack muttered to Dante.

  “We’ll be fine. Taryn isn’t going to steer us into an asteroid, I promise,” Dante answered. “We could put money on it, you know.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Either you get money or you don’t have to pay out. Very clever,” Jack mock-complained. He still sounded off-center to Julia, but she didn’t say anything. Maybe this mission would let him burn off some aggression.

  “I thought it was.”

  There was a long pause, and she began to worry that Jack was going to lose his temper. Then he chuckled, and as weak as the sound was, Julia knew he’d be all right.

  “Yeah, sure. Just take your scams elsewhere,” he parried.

  Julia tuned them out and stretched her senses even further. Her Mystic abilities told her about the makeup of the asteroids, but she brushed the information aside. She was looking for the unique composite of alloys and fabricated materials that could only be a spaceship.

  A curious pressure brushed against her will, pushing against her seeking mind. She countered gently, confirming her presence. It was alien, but for a moment their contact was mild. She wanted to show that she meant them no harm. They were safe with her. It gave way at her push, soft as a down pillow. She smiled. That’s right. I won’t hurt you.

  It lunged so quickly that she missed the transition from confusion to aggression. Icy tendrils whipped her mind, lashing themselves around her sense of self. Something in its façade gave way, and she could sense the abyssal hunger that lurked beneath its surface.

  “Oh.”

  The word escaped Julia’s lips in a burst of air. It sounded like she’d been punched in the gut. It felt much worse. Her knees buckled. Dante grabbed her arm to help her stay upright. Coraolis was there a breath later, but she’d already ripped away from the grasping mind.

  “What was that?” Coraolis asked.

  She grabbed his shoulder hard enough to leave a handprint if they’d been in the flesh. His expression changed the moment their eyes met, and his concerned smile drained away.

  “A Wyrm.” She pulled all the way into herself, keeping her mind away from the things before them. “It’s tearing their ship apart.”

  She didn’t need to read her friends to know their reaction. Not long ago, it had taken dozens of Mystics to fight off the Wyrm swarm at Cavey. They’d had support from dragons and, even then, she’d almost died.

  Julia didn’t remember much of the fight. Most of her memories of that battle were disjointed. She did remember one thing, and that was their overwhelming hunger. If they were after living people…

  “Don’t they only exist in the Astral Plane? What could they do to a ship?” Coraolis wondered.

  “It must have found a way through. Cor, let Barbara know. Dante, we’ll take point. Jack, I need you to stay with Vaughan. I don’t want to leave the ship unguarded if there are more of those things.” She rattled off the instructions, forgetting for the moment that Coraolis and Dante were senior to her, and even Jack technically outranked her.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Jack snapped off a salute and vanished from sight. Coraolis curled his hands into fists, then released them again. He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t argue.

  “Be careful,” he told them.

  “We will.”

  Julia stepped off Vaughan’s hull and darted forward, homing in on the Wyrm’s presence, Dante at her side. As they traveled, they drifted apart. It would be too easy to target them with one attack if they stuck together.

  Soon, they found it. Something had torn a messy hole in reality, with strips of solid ether waving around the edges. The curve
of a ship’s belly showed through the opening against a backdrop of a field of stars. A strip of the hull had been peeled away.

  They drew closer for a better look at the ship and the threat. A Wyrm screamed by the hole and dove at the ship. It tore another strip of hull away like paper.

  “How do we fight it if it’s over there? Can we go through from here?”

  The moment the words left her lips, she was wracked with dismay and panic. If her dragon chose to speak, it would be screaming in her ear. As it was, her heart nearly stopped.

  “Okay, I get it! It’s a bad idea,” she snapped, pushing back. Her dragon persisted for a moment, driving its point home, then stopped. She sent a wave of irritation in its direction. “What if we close the rift?”

  “I need to be physically inside the rift to do that. If you and the others distract the Wyrm, I’ll take a spacewalk.”

  ***

  Julia stood at Captain McNuggen’s side as Vaughan drew near the ship in distress. She gripped the back of the captain’s chair as the viewscreen switched from a tactical display of the area to a live image of the damaged ship and the attacking Wyrm.

  Wyrms had been a terrible sight in the Astral Plane. In the physical world, it was a nightmare come to life. Black scales covered its sinuous body, and its ragged wings had more in common with a spider’s web than anything meant to fly.

  It made a leisurely circuit around the ship, jaws agape in a reptilian grin before it dipped closer to rip away another shred of the ship.

  “It’s playing with them.” Julia narrowed her eyes at the beast. She could sense its malicious glee, even without actively using her powers.

  “Shuttle One is away,” Valentino announced.

  Julia felt a flutter of worry. Dante and Jack were on that shuttle. She dismissed any thoughts of them, though, and focused on her own role. She moved to the empty jump seat and strapped herself in.

  “Wait. That’s a Pirr vessel,” McNuggen breathed.

  “Are you sure?” Julia asked.

  “I’m sure. I recognize the design, but I don’t see any weapons. It must be a civilian ship.”

  “Or they have a weapon design we don’t recognize,” Valentino said.

  “Do I turn us around, captain?” Taryn was already reaching for the controls but stopped short of taking action.

  The bridge crew fell silent, the only sound was from their workstations. Julia’s attention snapped to the captain. Barbara seemed hypnotized by the viewscreen, where the Wyrm was taking another lap around the Pirr vessel.

  “Continue with our mission.” Barbara’s voice was flat. “Escher, lock on the Wyrm and fire on my order. Taryn, I want to pass by that ship so close the Pirr could shave their chins on our hull. We draw them off, and we keep it away from that hole.”

  Everyone responded with an ‘aye,’ but Julia could tell the weight on their shoulders. She felt the same. They had to deal with the Wyrm before it did more damage. They had to seal the hole into the Astral Plane.

  Her feelings about the Pirr weren’t so clear-cut. Vaughan had been on its way to start a war with the Pirr, after all. As much as she disapproved of that plan, she believed the Wyrms were the greater enemy. Julia was glad the decision to help the Pirr wasn’t hers to make.

  ***

  Dante held very still as Technician Wyss went over his EVA suit, double-checking the seals. The HUD lit up when Dante lifted his chin. It showed his oxygen supply and his vitals, which included a heart rate that was a lot higher than normal. He tried to calm himself, and his oxygen went down a tick.

  Anyone who flew with Earth Fleet had to have a basic knowledge of EVA suits, just to meet basic safety regulations. He’d been trained on how to get into a spacesuit quickly enough to survive. He’d passed his EVA practical exam with flying colors, but that had been with his trainers close by, ready to save his ass if something went wrong.

  This was his first spacewalk where he didn’t have that safety net, not to mention the Wyrm hanging around outside.

  He was completely on his own.

  Wyss pronounced him ready, and Dante took one last look at Jack. His friend was deep in a trance, hiding them all from detection. They’d already wished each other luck, so he walked into the airlock and cycled it closed.

  Outside the shuttle, he was bathed in a rancid orange light mottled with neon blue that spilled from the rift. This close, he could sense the difference between this rift and the one he’d made at Cavey. The one he’d made had been a surgical cut. Whatever made this hole was to his ritual what a claw hammer was to a scalpel.

  He peered into the gap as he gathered himself, trying for a glimpse of Coraolis. Plan B was to lure the Wyrm into the Astral Plane with Cor’s lightning and fight it there. Dante couldn’t see him. Maybe that was for the best. He saluted the hole anyway, figuring Cor could see him, and pushed off from the shuttle’s hull. He was surrounded in blazing orange and blue light that closed around him as he left the physical world behind.

  ***

  Vaughan wove through the asteroid field at high speed, keeping ahead of the Wyrm through luck and Taryn’s quick reflexes as much as anything Julia could do. She kept her eyes squeezed shut, focusing on the ravenous thing threatening to bite them in half.

  Triumph. It reared back, ready to attack. Julia gathered her strength and shoved with her mind. The Wyrm flinched. As planned, a rogue asteroid slammed into its side. They gained another ship length, and Julia slumped into her seat. She had five minutes, tops, before she’d have to do that again.

  “Shuttle One reports, Mystic First Class Dante is away,” Valentino announced, and the room erupted in cheers.

  Julia smiled tiredly, but she wasn’t ready to celebrate. Plan B was looking less feasible every moment. Her strength waned, and Jack would be exhausted from cloaking the shuttle. She didn’t know where Dante would come out when the rift was sealed. That left Coraolis. As strong as he was, she wasn’t sure he could take on a Wyrm by himself.

  “Come on, Dante,” she whispered. “We’re counting on you.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Khiann sat in her quarters, her ears quivering as she watched the captured human transmission for the third time. A motley collection of gunships swept low over a field, crisscrossing it with lasers and blowing the shelters into a thousand flaming pieces. Humans sprinted for nearby woods with small ones in their arms.

  The video ended there, but she could draw her own conclusions. She ignored the well-coifed human talking into the camera. They were blaming the Pirr; she wasn’t surprised. The problem was that Khiann recognized the pirate fleet, and she blamed the Pirr as well.

  They’d made a liar of her. She hissed under her breath. They’d murdered civilians with no strategic value. It hadn’t been done on her order, but those pirates were entirely under her government’s command. She’d been handed a script. She’d read it, as the face of the Pirr, and hadn’t questioned it.

  She paused the recording and switched back to the message from the High Commander. He looked earnest enough, but there was such glee in his eyes, he might as well have been dancing.

  “Message received, Commander Khiann. You spoke well and from the heart. None here question your integrity.” He bowed his head slightly. “If the pirates went a step further than their orders, their only crime is enthusiasm for our cause. If they were given an order to do so, which I did not give them, they executed their orders with admirable efficiency.”

  She glared at his smug expression.

  “If you challenge the honesty of your superiors, that would be a conversation best had here on Hoi. I look forward to your next report.”

  There was a crack as her grip tensed. The screen shattered, and the device died in her hands, broken pieces jabbing into her palms. She flung it aside and started to pluck out the broken pieces, snarling at every sting and bead of blood.

  He was too far away for her to give the answer he deserved. She knew what he’d say if she protested. Humans were without honor
and, therefore, she didn’t need to treat them with such. She looked at the wreckage of her screen.

  She disagreed.

  ***

  Khiann stood on the command deck, working on her strategies while her crew flew the ship to the border. There were reports of activity they needed to address. If the humans thought to cross Hoi’s borders, she would teach them better, and she would do it by following her code of honor.

  “Commander Xoa, I have a distress signal from the science vessel Blessed Discovery, no flag. An encrypted message accompanies the signal.” Communications Officer Yelx twisted in his seat to look at her. “Will you take it here or in your quarters?”

  Khiann masked her surprise. Any Pirr message should have a designation and be coded appropriately. Only an emergency would excuse the lack of encryption, especially this close to the border. That told her they were desperate for assistance and didn’t care about where it came from. They risked much by marrying that unmasked signal to an encrypted message, but that was a concern for the homeworld.

  “Play it,” she ordered.

  A holographic screen appeared above Yelx’s station. The image was distorted, but the person on the screen was still identifiable as Pirr. The communication officer’s hands flew over the controls, bringing the image and sound into tolerance.

  The Pirr stepped back, revealing the midnight blue robes of a scientist. Blood stained his chest, and one arm hung uselessly at his side.

  “I am Uil Ixar of Blessed Discovery. Two hours ago, we executed our mission. The experiment was a failure. The command deck has been destroyed, many of my people are trapped in their quarters or dead…” He squared his shoulders; the only sign of the pain he was in was a twitch of his left ear. “The charge breached the Astral Plane. The secondary charge had no effect once inserted through the breach. We were preparing another trial when…a Wyrm passed through…”

  He was cut off by a metallic screech. He paled visibly. When he spoke again, his words nearly stumbled over themselves in the haste to get out: “It is tearing our ship apart, piece by piece. Project Resurgence is a failure. I request assistance for my crew and staff. The Wyrm is vicious! Mindless! Once it has finished with us, it will be drawn to more civilized worlds. Our coordinates are linked to the distress call.”