Tomorrow's Spacemage

by Timothy Ellis

"There is, but none of your people have access to it. Some of them did, once, but both your people decided they wanted nothing to do with magic. And so there isn’t any. Just me. Neither of you reacted in any way when I moved you, or made us somewhere to sit. You may not know it, but somewhere in your societal memory, you know magic is real."

  "Class one heresy for anyone to even think about it," said kingdom.

  "So you have Inquisitors?"

  "Yes. You know of them?"

  "Oh yes. For a peace to work, they'll need to be disbanded."

  The man laughed.

  "Good luck with that."

  "Luck is not a factor. I have a penal colony in two different time zones now. A third is not going to be a problem."

  The confidence in my voice stopped both of them cold. I let the silence hang for a minute.

  "Will you accept my assurance both your peoples come from the same ancestry?"

  "Why do we have different colour skins?" asked democracy.

  "You all started out as you are," I indicated the democracy admiral, "and the colour change comes from the light of each sun, and the conditions of each solar system. Most planets tend to varying effects on our skin, from pale to a deep brown colour. The orange comes from a system with different characteristics, but is just a different part of the spectrum. Underneath, we are all the same."

  "Can you prove that?"

  "Sure. If you want, I can bring medical people here from both civilizations, a body from each, and have them do simultaneous autopsies."

  They both shook their heads.

  "Won't be necessary," said democracy. "Although at some point, someone will probably do it, just to be sure. But I sure as hell won't be there for it."

  "Me either," echoed kingdom.

  Sixty One

  "What were your orders?" I asked.

  "Defend our space," said democracy.

  "Expand our space," said kingdom.

  "Which is why you were about to battle each other?"

  "Yes," they said together.

  "Why?"

  "Aliens have to be pushed back," they said together.

  "Why?"

  They looked at each other in confusion.

  "Now you've had the chance to talk, are you still aliens?"

  "Yes."

  No hesitation from either of them. I sighed.

  "What if I told you, there are plenty of planets for each of you to colonize, without needing to enter the other's space."

  "Is that something you can prove?" asked kingdom.

  "Possibly. If you return with me to my ship, I can show you where jump points exist, leading to new areas you haven't explored yet. You both can double your number of colonies, before you enter space owned by another species."

  "How long do we have?" asked democracy.

  "I'm not sure. But likely a couple of centuries before you make contact with real aliens."

  "So even if we reach a peace now, we'll still need to have strong fleets?"

  Democracy looked at kingdom, and they both nodded. They looked at me, and I nodded.

  "Let me give you a word of warning. There are a lot of species out there. Some are friendly, some are not. But several are empire builders, and if you attack them on sight, you will not survive."

  "The fleet?" asked kingdom.

  "The civilization."

  "They destroy civilizations?" asked democracy.

  "Only when someone pisses them off. Don't piss them off. They are so much further advanced than you are, you wouldn’t stand a chance, even if you advance quickly with new technology. My recommendation is, expand your space until you meet others, be nice, initiate trade, and don’t piss anyone off."

  "Who do we absolutely not want to piss off?"

  Democracy seemed the more concerned. I’d come prepared for this. My pad came out, and I showed them an image. It was a tiger standing upright on the bridge of a ship. The word underneath was 'Keerah'.

  "Claws and apposable thumbs?"

  Kingdom had seen more than I had. I nodded as if I'd known it.

  "From what I’ve seen, they could dispose of your fleets without losing a single ship of their own. I seriously doubt this will have changed by the time you meet them. But you will meet them sometime, since they seem to dominate the areas of space not too far away, and are slowly expanding this way."

  Democracy looked at kingdom.

  "Peace," they said together, and shook on it.

  They'd taken the first step, but I had no illusions it was more than that.

  "Can you sell it to your leaders?"

  "No," said kingdom. "I'm dead for even suggesting it."

  "Probably," said democracy.

  "I'll be back."

  Sixty Two

  I had an intense feeling of déjà vu.

  I plucked the prime minister out her office, and put her next to her admiral, leaving him to get her caught up. His first task was to explain the orange. Before that explanation was completed, the king was standing next to his admiral, having been plucked from reading reports on his throne. He reacted to the white skin in the same way the PM had to the orange. I left both pairs doing explanations. By mutual consent, each pair moved away from the table in the opposite direction.

  The inquisitors proved easy to find. Their uniforms were almost identical to their later versions, and I found them in almost the same places I had last time. They all found themselves inside a force wall, in another part of the desert, where the leaders and admirals couldn’t see them.

  One by one, I determined if they had killed or not, and most of them went to the penal colony island. Since they were all men, there was no danger of there still being people there when the next lot arrived in the future. The others started walking in the desert.

  I checked in with the girls, before going back to the table. The fleets were both sitting there, waiting for their leaders to return. I copied the database off each flagship, and suggested Lea could try and put the translation program we already had, on each, so I could copy them back. I wasn’t sure it would work, as there was a significant difference in the computer hardware between ours and theirs.

  By the time I sat down at the table again, and provided two more chairs and refreshments, the others were caught up. The four of them sat, and they all looked at me.

  "Welcome. I'm sorry for the abrupt change of venue, but now is the time, and this is the place."

  "For peace I'm told," said the king. "Why should I even consider it?"

  "Because very soon, unless you take steps now, there will be a military coup, and you will be replaced by a Grand Marshall ruling by military dictatorship."

  "And by replaced you mean…?"

  "Dead. And before you ask, your inquisitors won't care."

  "They will if I start taking steps to stay alive."

  "No longer a problem. You have none. All you need to do is disband the organization, and see to it they never reform."

  "Where are they?"

  "Some of them are over there somewhere," I pointed, "walking away from us."

  He shuddered.

  "And the others?"

  "There's an island I call my penal colony. You won't be seeing any of them again."

  "What do you want of us?" asked the PM. "I don’t know about you, but I find this heat unbearable, and I’d like to be back in my office."

  "I too find this place unbearable," said the king. "Can we not move to a more hospitable place?"

  "I've found it useful to bring people here. It tends to motivate them."

  "I can see that," muttered the democracy admiral.

  No-one contradicted him.

  "We could move to my ship if you like. It might be an idea for you to give stand down orders to your fleets."

  "You guarantee our safety?" asked the king.

  "I do."

  "Very well then."

  "Jen?" I asked her using mind speak.

  "Thorn? How's it going?"

  "It's going to you. Can you prep
are the main lounge for a conference?"

  "How many people?"

  "Four, plus me and you."

  "Me?"

  "You don’t have to."

  "I'll think about it. Give us a couple of minutes."

  "There will be a pause for a few minutes, while a suitable area is prepared."

  They weren’t happy about the delay.

  Sixty Three

  Jen was waiting in the lounge when we arrived.

  She made no attempt to bow or nod to the leaders, and this was noted by all four, although they mostly didn’t show any annoyance. They also noted the fact she was in civvies, but was wearing a gun, although they were guessing it was gun. At least, I was guessing they were guessing.

  "This is Admiral Jenna, the head of my people's military."

  Jen shot me a glance, but managed to hide her shock.

  "Your people?" asked the king.

  "Mine. We all share common ancestry, but my people live away from both of yours. Don’t bother looking for us, as we don't wish to be found."

  "And yet you would meddle in our affairs anyway?"

  The prime minister seemed miffed. The others nodded.

  "I'm not telling you my story, but let me just say, we all came from a perpetual war background, and I have no desire for it to repeat itself. There will be peace."

  "Why don't we all sit?" suggested Jen.

  The table was now balanced. Leader, admiral, leader, admiral, leader, admiral. Damn. I needed to rethink that.

  "What sort of ship is this?" the democracy admiral asked Jen.

  "Trader. We brought our smallest and least armed ship, on the basis we wanted peace, not war."

  "Size wise," I added, "it's about a third larger than your largest ships. And quite small next to my mine."

  "How many people operate this ship?" asked the kingdom admiral.

  "Three," said Jen. "Sometimes four, if we move through hostile areas. Five if Thorn is aboard."

  Mouths had fallen open. I knew their ships carried hundreds.

  I'd been looking at the flagships since getting back here, and found both ships with meals ready for their admirals. I tried copying each meal, and found it did work with food.

  "Before we get down to work," I said, "would you like to eat?"

  They nodded their assent.

  "Lea," I mind sent, "can you bring Jen and I our favourite meals please?"

  "Sure. Give me a couple of minutes."

  I looked around the table.

  "Food will be here in a couple of minutes. I'd like you to think about a few things while you eat. The decisions you make today, and implement in the next few weeks, will form the society which is present when the Keerah arrive."

  Jen gave me a sharp look, since she didn’t know who they were. I put the image I’d shown them before up on a wall screen. Jen's eyes narrowed, and she gave me a nod.

  "When they do, you need to be strong, but not aggressive. They are an empire of many species. If you go to war with them, you will lose. If you greet them as friends and potential trading partners, they will most likely leave you alone, or invite you into their empire. The Keerah themselves, are warriors!"

  I was guessing, but for now, it really didn’t matter. It was the long term which mattered.

  "Dinners are ready," said Lea, in the main kitchen. "Shall I bring them in?"

  "No need."

  I reached out for all six meals, and had them appear where I wanted them. The kingdom meals appeared in front of the democracy people, and their meals in front of the kingdom people. Jen and I received what we liked to eat best. I followed them with wine from the ship's cellar.

  There were small shock noises from all four.

  "I assume that was magic?" asked the democracy admiral. I nodded. "It appears to have gone wrong. I can see my meal in front of my opposite number."

  "And mine appears to be in front of my opposite number as well."

  "No, I've taken the liberty of giving you a taste of what the other eats. It’s quite safe. Jen and I have eaten both types of food before. The wine in front of you is also from your new friends."

  Jen and I also had the wine we preferred. I raised my glass, and the others followed.

  "Peace."

  They echoed the word, and we all sipped our wines. Four faces lit up as they tasted something new to them, and the sips turned into normal drinking amounts.

  I started eating, Jen followed, and soon there was only the sound of cutlery on plates. The main courses were followed by a selection of our desserts.

  With all expressing satisfaction with their meal, we moved to a circle of lounge chairs. I looked at the two leaders.

  "Can you see the potential for trade in just food and wine?"

  They both nodded, smiling. Even the admirals nodded.

  "Does anyone have any problems with declaring peace?"

  Four heads shook.

  "You obviously have an agenda here," said the prime minister. "Perhaps you’d like to elaborate on what you want."

  "I'd like to see both societies trading with each other, using open border policies. Your common border would need no protection, and your fleets would only need to patrol the outlier jump points where contact with other species will eventually occur, and patrols of your space to keep pirates or opportunists from thriving."

  I looked at the four of them one by one.

  "I want to see all forms of guns removed from your societies, and laws put in place to regulate them."

  "Remove them, but also regulate them?" asked the prime minister.

  "Obviously some sections of society will need them. Military and police of course, although I would prefer to see a police force which do not normally carry a gun, or if they do, they are concealed. Farmers need to be able to deal with large pests which eat crops. Ex-military should be able to keep up to date using gun clubs, where the club owns the weapons, and they never leave the club."

  "That's very restrictive," said the democratic admiral.

  "We have most of that in place now," said the king. "Our people have never been allowed access to unrestricted guns, and frankly, have never needed them."

  "Ours think they have a right to them," said the prime minister. "This change will be difficult."

  "Not really," laughed Jen. "Thorn can remove them all with a thought, and leave magic in place where any gun used out of place will simply vanish."

  All eyes turned to me. I nodded. I’d done the first already. Leaving the intent behind, powered by the local sun, wouldn’t be too difficult to do.

  "Anything else?" asked the king.

  "Slavery is to be outlawed."

  "We have none," said both the king and the prime minister.

  "Yes you do," said Jen, looking at the prime minister. "It may not be visible at the moment, but it's built into the fabric of your society, and must be eliminated, and continually looked for."

  The PM looked shocked. Her eyes turned to me.

  "One of the original kingdoms kept slaves openly. The mindset managed to infiltrate all of the kingdoms, before they were separated. It may not be visible, but it is there. If you don’t deal with it now, it will be dealt with in the future, where the cost will be much higher."

  My eyes blazed at the four of them, and they flinched.

  "I’d rather you dealt with it now."

  Sixty Four

  Our guests returned to their place of origin.

  Both fleets stood down, put some distance between each other for safety, and I turned off the reaper image, revealing to both sides what Jen's ship really looked like.

  The king and prime minister made almost simultaneous announcements of their fleets having met an alien fleet in space, and of finding they were long lost cousins. Diplomatic teams were being assembled by both to establish embassies in key places, and communications would be established formally as soon as translators became available.

  The media of both went into frenzy mode, trying to find out more. They were a
lso the first to demand use of communication channels so they could connect with their counterparts.

  The kingdom celebrated the removal of the inquisitors, and greeted the announcements of new jump points being found which should lead to new planets to colonize, with enthusiasm.

  We stayed put, monitoring what was going on with each.

  "What's this Admiral Jenna business," asked Jen eventually, when we were lounging comfortably, and only the two of us were there.

  "You don’t want to be an admiral?"

  "Not really. I did once. But that part of me died during the war. Why?"

  "My people will need a defense fleet. Even if they don’t know they have one. I intend to claim the systems which connect us to your people's space, we'll need to establish some sort of embassy in the first system, and it will need a defense fleet. The fleet will need an admiral. Want the job?"

  I could see her wanting to say no, but she thought about it instead.

  "Let me think about it. What ships would I have?"

  "Thorn's Chariot for a flagship, and the six slaved cruisers. Four more cruisers if I repair the damaged ones. And I can always build more if you want more."

  "We'd need more people."

  "Recruit them. I'll pay in gold until we get a financial system up and running. What's in storage on this ship should last more than that long. And I can always mine some more. We'll need a station as well, probably two. And people to run them. It's going to be years before any of my people are going to be able to contribute in space."

  "Stations? Where?"

  "One at the entrance to our space. Customs and immigration sort of thing. The other over our planet. We'll need some tech in place, but not down on the ground. It's up to the community to decide how fast they want to evolve. The rest of us will protect them while they do."

  "Our planet? Aren't you presuming a lot?"

  "Not really. I've been watching you girls for a long time now. You don’t have the attachments you used to. And your military is still going to want to keep bringing you back in. If you join my people, you get to form your own military how you want it."

  "You mean how you want it."

  "No. You lead it, you set it up. I'll provide whatever you need. Including an island as a ground base for R and R."