Tomorrow's Spacemage

by Timothy Ellis

  "I wouldn’t worry about that for a while."

  The battle mage shot me a look.

  "What did you do?"

  The others looked surprised.

  "I've been there already. I sent them all home, and buried those who were already dead."

  "Home?"

  "Wherever that is."

  "That will be interesting," said the moving mage. "The king is going to go nuts when his army comes home without his orders." He laughed. "But so is the other side as well."

  "You have a lot to teach us, Master Thorn," said the battle mage. He paused for a moment. "What did they call you in the future?"

  "My friends called me a Spacemage. The government call me Judge Thorn."

  "Spacemage?" asked the basics master.

  "Mage in space. This might be hard to believe, but in the future, people travel between planets in big metal boxes."

  A different ward chime rattled my head.

  "We need to move," said the battle mage. "His majesty has begun looking for us."

  "I think I can solve that problem. I know just where he won't be looking."

  I moved all of us to the bridge of the ship.

  Sixteen

  The five of them reacted in shock, as they looked around the bridge.

  I wasn’t sure what caused it the most. Being somewhere they had absolutely no reference point for, much as I'd gone through when I woke up after the time jump. Being able to see the planet below out the view screens. Or seeing only women in the chairs. Said women were surprised to see a group of men join them, but kept silent, presumably realizing the shock factor at work here, and knowing me, they also assumed I hadn't prepared them for the jump.

  I drew the mages' attention to the view.

  "That’s our planet below us. We're in orbit directly above the village."

  The battle mage was the first to recover, and he moved to the nearest vantage point, and looked down with interest.

  "It's round!" he exclaimed.

  "Yes," I chuckled.

  "Why aren't we falling?"

  The others joined him.

  "We're so high up, what causes you to fall doesn’t work here."

  The movement mage looked at me.

  "You understand these things?"

  "Yes. This sort of thing is taught to children where I was, and where the ship's crew come from. But also no, in so far as I can't explain how this ship works. I had two years learning what all kids knew of what they call 'science', but I'm still learning about the advanced stuff."

  The girls were standing by now, the look on Jen's face suggesting introductions were in order. I noticed they were all wearing sidearms now. I also noticed the mages didn’t notice, since there was no corresponding thing in their world. They had no idea the girls could kill them before they could react. Even with their personal defenses, as formidable as they were on the ground.

  "Mages, some introductions are in order."

  The others tore themselves away from the view, and looked towards me.

  "This is Jenna, who is owner and captain of the ship."

  "What's a ship?"

  The question was an obvious one, and came from the basics master.

  "I told you people traveled in metal boxes in the future. The box is called a ship. I brought one back with me."

  I wrapped a bubble around us, and jumped us well above the ship. The basics master shrieked, and the others were obviously unprepared to be standing in space.

  "We're safe here for about ten minutes. If you look down, you can see the whole ship. It's a lot larger than you might think, standing inside it."

  "Why ten minutes?" asked the battle mage.

  "The air runs out around then, and it starts getting cold."

  "Now you're just showing off, young Thorn."

  "I haven't even begun to show off yet master."

  "Take us back please," said the movement master.

  I moved us back where we were.

  "How many can you move like that Thorn?" asked the healing master.

  "I'm not sure. Several hundred so far, but I was angry at the time"

  "Don't make him angry," added Tasha.

  "Why? What did he do?"

  The battle mage was smiling in anticipation.

  "There's an island where the mountain is now an active volcano."

  Both the movement and creation mages choked. The basics and healing mages looked blank. The battle mage was grinning.

  "I always suspected you had real power in you."

  "You have no idea," said Tasha.

  "This is Tasha, weapons officer for the ship, and my girlfriend."

  She nodded to them, and as one, the five of them bowed their heads in slightly more than a nod. Certainly there was respect there.

  "This is Jessica, who maintains the machinery of the ship."

  Standard nods this time.

  "And Leanne, who controls the cargo, and does other things you wouldn’t understand."

  More nods.

  "All four are ex-military. Jenna held a rank equivalent to a senior captain, if not an actual unit commander. Tasha was also an officer."

  "Women are warriors in your time?" asked a surprised basics mage.

  "Women are equal in all ways," said Jess, "in our time. The art of war is taught to anyone who wants to learn, and those good at it, advance in rank."

  "But you can fight men?" the basics mage, who was the oldest of them, continued.

  I felt the need to head this off.

  "All four are combat trained, and should they be pitted against one of our military masters, the masters would lose very quickly. Training techniques in the future are different to now. Size and strength are no longer determinants of victory in a contest."

  I decided mentioning their weapons was not yet wise.

  "We may need a demonstration of that, young Thorn," said the battle mage, smiling at his colleagues reactions. "But let me complete your introductions."

  He quickly introduced all five of them by name, which I didn’t remember ever hearing before, and promptly forgot. I’d always called them just 'master'. And being a lowly student, knowing, let alone using, their names, wasn’t appropriate.

  Introductions over, and with the mages starting to get a grip on things they still didn’t understand, I suggested we move into the main living room. They all made comments about how comfortable the chairs were, and actually looked like they were starting to feel comfortable.

  Bottles of water appeared next to each of us, and I demonstrated by undoing the cap, and drinking. They each followed my lead, and were surprised to find water of a much higher quality than they were used to.

  I debated giving them beer to try as well, but decided not to.

  "Well young Thorn," said the battle mage, "You better tell us what happened to you after you jumped away."

  "Before I do, what happened when I did? No first, did you know what was going to happen?"

  "We never know. At best, we know only what our part of the ceremony will bring. Such things are not discussed outside the groupings, and we're not allowed to discuss specifics even with each other. So while we each knew you were talented with magic, we had no reason to expect you to go the distance of all yes. Of course, when it came down to the last one, being mine, I knew exactly what was coming, but by then, there was nothing I could do."

  "I know. To have openly helped me would have brought the king down on you, and anyone around you at the time. It was pretty obvious as I stood there being attacked for no obvious reason. Why no warning though?"

  "The mayor told you. It's only happened once before, and he became our king. And he was from a village a fair distance away."

  "I was sure you'd get at least a few military no's," said the basics mage. "You were not really up to standard with the blade, your archery was basic at best, and although a sound tactician, I expected your fighting prowess, or lack of it, would not measure up for several of the military masters. But you didn’t get
the no's I expected, probably because those masters are desperately trying to recruit to keep up with the king's demands for troops. So in a way, the king set this up, and no-one saw it coming."

  "What did he do after I jumped?"

  "Declared you dead," said the healing master. "He was certain your shield collapsed, and the combined attack magic vaporized you."

  "But his two minions weren't so sure," added the creating master. "Hence one of them keeping tabs on us."

  "Penal colony or desert?" asked Tasha.

  "Penal," I said.

  The mages were looking at Tasha.

  "Thorn has judged a lot of people. Those who've done bad, end up at a place we call his penal colony. Those who've killed are dropped into the middle of a desert, where no-one survives."

  "One did," I added quickly. "He was obviously some sort of survival expert, as he walked out the full five days, found water, and then food. He'll live the rest of his life alone though, as no-one else has made it that far."

  "Judged?" asked the moving master.

  "Judge Thorn," said Jen. "No-one can lie to him, and he's judge, jury, and executioner when he finds the guilty. He's been a force for change in our society."

  "I don’t doubt it," said the battle mage, turning back to me. "What are your intentions here?"

  "Survival of our people."

  "Do you seek to lead us?" asked the basics mage.

  "He already turned down being king of our people," said Tasha. "No-one could have stopped him had he wanted to. Our Prime Minister tested him by offering being king to him, and instead, he fixed our political situation, and went home."

  "I'm glad you turned out so well," the battle mage told me. "We had our concerns about parts of your character."

  The girls grinned, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

  My smile turned sheepish.

  Seventeen

  "So what threat do our people face, other than losing the current war?"

  I looked at the battle mage, serious faced again.

  "I'm not sure. The push into the future, coupled with the sheer amount of power I was drawing on, and being thrown at me, sent me into the far future. I don't know why, or how. But everything there is…"

  I floundered for a word for a moment.

  "Bigger?" suggested Jen.

  "Bigger. Think of it in these terms. This ship is larger than any building you know, including the castle." I’d only seen it from a distance. "And it's not by any means the largest ship. Weapons have no correlation to what you know. An arrow kills a single person. The same concept in the future is called a missile, and it can kill a ship full of hundreds of people." Their faces were blank. "Some weapons can kill anywhere from thousands at once, to millions."

  "What is that to do with our people?"

  "Where do things go when you vanish them?"

  "You know this. Each mage has a place. You find out where…"

  He stopped, realizing I'd never found out.

  "Yes. I know mine was up in the hills well away from the village, a place I found when we took our first overnight experience early in training."

  "How do you know?"

  "In the future, it's not there anymore."

  "The place?"

  "The hills."

  The battle mage looked troubled, but the others still had blank faces.

  "You're saying the hills themselves are gone, and not the way hills erode over time?"

  "Yes. You know what a siege engine rock does when it hits something?"

  He nodded.

  "Upscale that by a million times."

  He couldn’t. I could see it on his face.

  "Okay, try this. One missile from the future could completely destroy the castle, right down to the first layer of stones. And not leaving all that much rubble either."

  This shook all of them. I looked each of them in the eyes.

  "I vanished hundreds of them."

  "When?" croaked the healing mage.

  "Starting in about two years, two weeks' time. Assuming, and it’s a leap of faith, the passing of time there corresponds to the passing of time here. We'll find out if we're still here when the first one arrives."

  "How will we know?" asked the basics mage.

  "There will an explosion the likes of which has never been seen here." They had no idea what an explosion was. "Have you skryed a volcano erupting?" He nodded, and so did the moving mage. "So, the ground will shake enough to knock everyone off their feet, and a huge plume of rock and dust will blast out so high, it will be seen by just about everyone on this continent. Quickly followed by more. It might be falsely called a volcanic eruption, and while not on that scale, the devastation to the area will be as bad. But that isn’t the real problem."

  "It's not?" asked the creation mage, looking shaky.

  "No. The amount of missing hills area indicates at least one of what I vanished was a nuke."

  "What's a nuke?" asked the moving mage, quickly.

  "A nuke is powerful enough to level an area of hills, but at the same time, destroy the castle and all dwellings nearby, and every village within a few hours walk. Perhaps even a day's walk."

  "And you sent one of these things back here?" asked the healing mage.

  "I don't know for sure. All that remains in the future is the outline stones of where the castle and village were, and I needed to dig a long way to find them, as if what wasn’t completely destroyed, was also covered over by the dirt displaced from the hills."

  The mages looked at each other, and I could see none of them could really grasp what I’d been saying.

  "Thorn is worried he sent a number of them back here," added Jen.

  "Such level of destruction is surely impossible," stated the basics master.

  "Now," said Tasha. "But we had thousands of years to develop warfare. How long ago was the siege engine invented?"

  "About two generations," answered the battle mage. "There were none when I did my choosing."

  "Precisely. Each generation adds something to the last. Take that far enough into the future, and something which breaks a few stones on a wall, becomes something which removes the wall, and everything behind it, completely."

  "Why are people still alive in the future?" asked the healing mage. "With such weapons, why wasn’t everything destroyed before it got to you?"

  "It’s a good question," I said, "and one we don’t have an answer for. A lot of the early history is lost. By the time such things were common place, there was a war with another group of planets in progress, so wars were made outwards, like now, instead of within the core group. Wars of expansion rather than civil wars. Both groups seem to have developed at a similar rate, and so were relatively evenly matched when they first met. And most of the warfare occurred in space, not on planets."

  The battle mage cleared his throat, and all eyes fixed on him.

  "This is all very well, but what's the plan, young Thorn?"

  "I'm making it up as I go along."

  There was a deep chime at the back my mind.

  Eighteen

  "Whose ward was that?"

  "Mine," said the battle mage. "You heard that?"

  "Yes. Also the ones before it."

  "That’s amazing. I've never heard of anyone being able to detect someone else's ward going off. We'll discuss it later. We need to move again."

  "What was the ward?"

  "Your family. Soldiers are approaching your house."

  I immediately cast my sight down to the inside of my house. The family were still where I’d seen them before. Outside however, twenty soldiers and a mage were forming a circle around it.

  I had a moment, and I used it to think.

  "Wait," I said to the mages. "I've got this."

  My sight moved to my island. It was bigger than I knew it, higher, and supporting a tropical forest. The area behind the dunes on the equivalent of the beach I'd had my house in the future, was a flat meadow. Off to one side, a small stream flowed out
into the ocean. Perfect.

  A copy of my parent's house appeared there. A quick check back at the actual house, showed the soldiers were about to storm in the doors. By the time they did so, my family were on the island instead. I left a note pinned to the inside of the front door.

  'Don't Panic. You're safe. I'll be there soon to explain. Thorn.'

  My parents felt something change, and were immediately on their feet. My Dad saw the note on the door, and walked over. He touched it, but instead of pulling it off like I thought, he pulled the door open, and walked out. And stopped dead.

  "Shit!"

  "What's wrong?" asked Tasha.

  "I forgot they can't read what I wrote for them."

  "Who can't?"

  "My parents."

  "What did you do?"

  "Copied the house to my island, and moved them there. They felt the shift, but don't know where they are."

  "Why can't you go down to them?"

  "This'll only be the start. The mage's families will be next."

  Their eyes met each other's, and they shuffled uncertainly.

  "Okay. Go do what you have to do. But put me down there first, so I can talk to them."

  I closed my eyes for a moment, to block out everything, while I put translation magic into place for my family, their house, and the mages. I should have done it first.

  "I'll go as well," said Lea.

  I thought for a moment longer.

  "I'll put you down by the stream nearby. You should be able to see the house from there, but they won't get the shock of you appearing out of nowhere."

  "Food and water?"

  "The stream should be fine to drink. You won't need food before I get there."

  "Weapons?" asked Tasha.

  "Yes. I haven’t checked what lives there now."

  They moved to stand together. I nodded to them, and jumped them down. I checked they were fine, and left them to it. The way they were dressed was going to be a shock, but I trusted both of them to say the right things.

  Five more wards chimed at the back of my mind. The mages looked at me.

  "I can move your families to be with mine, or I can move those threatening them to my penal colony. Or both."