Jerran took that as a cue to telekineticallylift some chairs and bring them to us. We all sat in them, and Ilowered my hood. It seemed the Emperor wanted to talk aboutsomething but was worried about how we would take it.
“I owe you all an apology, it seems,” hestarted. He seemed really distraught. “You see, many years ago Iordered the Black Adders to be formed and all who showed promise tobe sent to Arken IV. The official reason, as you know, was todiscover and perfect a defense against their powers, but thatrapidly changed.”
He paused there, and I could feel thesurprise ripple through everyone. What could he mean? I did notdare interrupt him. I just sat in silence.
“I was warned almost half a century ago aboutthis threat, and I was told their first move would be on Arken IV.At the time my plan was simple. By packing that planet with peoplewho had what I thought to be great power, it would make our Empirelook much stronger than it was, and hopefully deter any attack. Ifthat failed, I believed the Black Adders would be able to defeatthe invasion. To that end I expanded our search for anyone withpower and made the base a permanent residence for them. It seems Igrossly underestimated the power of our new enemy, and a lot ofgood people died because of it.”
He stopped there and seemed to be waiting fora reaction. I could barely think for my surprise, but I managed tosay, “Who warned you?”
He smiled. “Mantis, of course.”
That sneaky old fool! He could have told usthat, but no; he probably enjoyed how worried we were over allthis. In fact, I would not have been surprised if he was watchingus at that moment and laughing.
“Mantis is also the one behind you, Vydor,”he said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“While the situation on Arken IV wasdeveloping, Mantis contacted me again. It was the first I had heardfrom him since his original contact, and he insisted that I assignyou to the Dragon Claw and send the fleet in.”
“So he has been behind all the oddcoincidences, then,” I said. “That ties up so many loose ends.” Irealized then that I had inadvertently stopped using the Emperor’sformal title. I was truly speaking to him as if he was one of myshipmates, not my god. Then a crushing thought rocked my world. Ifthe Emperor was not a god, who was? I did my best to put thatthought away for later. I had more important business to attend toin the present.
“I take it that he also told you of his planto make us the Council of Wizards for this realm?” I asked.
“No, that much I guessed by your show ofpower,” he said with a grin. “I must say you did very well. You hadHigh Command ready to follow you to war. Though I have to ask, whywould a wizard hit someone on the head with his staff instead ofusing a more civilized blast?”
It was my turn to grin. “Easy. He knew how tofight against bolts of energy, but had no clue about hand-to-hand,or in this case, staff-to-head combat,” I said proudly.
The Emperor laughed and said, “Mantis made awise choice.”
“Vydor, while he is in a good mood, nowwould be the time to ask for the Dark Talon,” silently promptedJerran.
“We have a favor to ask of the Empire. Weneed a vessel to operate as a mobile base,” I started. “Since weare already familiar with her, we would like to keep the DarkTalon.”
The Emperor thought about it for a momentthen said, “I appreciate the humility of your request, but thatship is far too small to support your operations acrossinterstellar space. I do see your need for a ship though, and Ihappen to have a Raven Mark II here ready for its maiden voyage. Ithink it would serve you much better.”
The Raven was a cruiser class vessel, muchlarger than the Dark Talon, and was designed to run solo missionsacross interstellar space. It was a far more powerful vessel than Ihad any right to expect, and I was thinking of humbly refusing theoffer, but then an image came to my mind. I pictured how we couldredesign the Raven to have sections dedicated to meeting our needto study and grow, and since it was equipped to grow food for itscrew we could travel great distances without support.
“A Mark II? I never heard of such a model,” Isaid. I was stalling; I needed more time to think about this. Therewas the problem, of course, that none of us had a clue how tooperate a Raven, but we had solved that before with the DarkTalon.
“Yes, this prototype is a new version of theRaven. The old design is to be retired soon, and this will replaceit throughout the fleet,” was his answer.
Over our connection I asked, “Okay, howdid you learn to fly the Dark Talon so fast? We may need that skillagain very soon.”
“I found a spell in Mantis’ library thatallows me to copy the knowledge of another. It does not copy anypersonal information or experience, just raw knowledge,” wasDarnath’s reply.
Well, that explained how the other Magi knewour technology so well. “So then all we would need is to getsome of his experts to allow us to cast that spell on them?” Iasked.
“We do not need them to be willing, butyes,” was his reply.
“No, I think Vydor is right. We reallyshould ask for permission before doing such a thing,” commentedKellyn.
I needed to say something soon before theEmperor thought we had fallen asleep. “We graciously and humblythank you for the Raven, but we are not trained on such a craft. Ifyou can find us the top ten people who are trained on it,especially all the key positions and changes, we can use our powersto learn directly from them. They must be willing to let us do it,but it is painless and noninvasive.”
The Emperor thought about that for a bit andsaid, “I think that can be arranged.”
“Thank you. Once the Raven is ready we willpark the Dark Talon in one of its bays and return it to the DragonClaw,” I said.
“What is your next move in this war?” heasked.
“Well, for the moment we are still far tooweak to take them on directly, so we will study and work onbuilding up an army to support us. While doing that we plan to huntdown the remaining four spies we know about and execute them. Thehope is that we can build up our forces before the sorcerersrecover from the blow that was dealt to them at Arken IV.”
“I would much prefer if you let us handle thespies. Just give me the list and I will see to it that it is done.Meanwhile there is still the issue of this weapon they are lookingfor, I assume?”
“Yes. Mantis’ people and we ourselves will belooking for it too, but I suspect that it will be either Mantis andhis wizards or the sorcerers who find it since we know nothingabout it.”
“It is in our best interests if we find itfirst. I will give you whatever you need to hunt it down.”
After that we wrapped up the meeting andheaded back to the Dark Talon. Once on board Kellyn had to pointout that, since we did the right thing by not forcing the Emperorto do our will, we got a much better ship and more information thanwe could have guessed possible.
I knew she was right. It was just hard to getused to doing the right thing because it is the right thing, andnot just blindly following orders. It was going to be a hardtransition to make, from just another soldier to grandmasterwizard. My rulings and decisions in this war would determine thefate of the entire realm. What standard does one use to judgedecisions by? It is easy to say just do the right thing, but whodetermines what is right? I used to think that was theresponsibility of the Emperor, since he was god.
Again I was hit with the question: if theEmperor was a fallible human just like the rest of us, who was god?What did it mean to be god? Was it just the most powerful personaround? I hoped not with all my heart, because I realized that thatmight very well be me. All through school and even in the Academywe were taught from the point of view that the Emperor was god. Infact, a lot of what we understood about how the universe worked didnot make sense if there was not a god. That would mean all of ourscience and understanding was wrong. But how could that be sinceeverything worked the way it should? Then again, this was the samescience that said magic did not exist.
Chapter Twenty-Six
It had been over a year since our firstme
eting with the Emperor and we had just finished refitting the newRaven to be our mobile headquarters. I was on board for one lastvisit to what had been our home. Today we would officially moveinto the Raven. I had decided to call it the “Nevermore” after anancient poem. It seemed fitting, as I would never again see theuniverse and the Empire in the same way.
I looked around the Dark Talon knowing thatthis would be the last time I stood on her bridge. I would missthis little ship. “We should repair all the recording systems wedisabled,” I said.
“Aye, we can work on that during the flightback to the Dragon Claw. It should not take long,” repliedLuke.
I sighed. Even though we had all been livingon the Nevermore for some time now, something about the fact thatwe would be launching the next day seemed to finalize thetransition from the Dark Talon to the Nevermore. Over the last yearso much had changed. When we came to this station we were all stillImperial soldiers at heart, doing the best we could to be the bestImperial soldiers we could be, and now we were leaving as theruling council of a new nation. The move from the Dark Talon to theNevermore seemed to symbolize that change in a way that wasdifficult for me to express.
I powered down the craft and made sure thateverything was properly stowed one last time. Soon the robotic armsof the station would be loading this vessel into the launch bay ofthe Nevermore and she would not fly again until we rendezvousedwith the Dragon Claw and her fleet. It would be good to return herto her family; there were still many Dark Knights left who wantedher back. I wondered what new impossible missions she would fly andif I would ever command her again.
“Vydor, just a reminder that you need tocontact the fleet soon,” came Kellyn’s sweet voice in myhead.
“Yes, you are right. I will go over now.Please meet me on the bridge,” I responded. I took one lastlook around, then left the Dark Talon and headed towards the liftthat would take me to the Nevermore.
This ship was much larger the Dark Talon, andmuch more intimidating to behold. Its shiny, black saucer-likeexterior with almost no external lights would normally make it hardto see in its native arena of interstellar space, but here in thebrightly-lit station its lack of color made it stand out. Most ofthe other craft here were silver and had prominent accent colorsand designs showing the pride of each crew. The bold statement madeby the lack of color on our ship made it feel almost alien, as ifit, and by implication we, did not really belong here.
As I passed the various men and woman workingon the station they all tried not to look, but failed. I knew manytales had been spread about us, and there was an uneasy sense offear in everyone around us. It did not help that most of the timewe stayed in our ship studying the books that Mantis had provided,but in the end I do not think that mattered much. We were justfreaks of nature to them, very powerful ones, but freaksnonetheless.
In a way I missed my old life, just being anormal officer with normal officer worries. These people whostopped and stared would never know the burden I carried asgrandmaster wizard. They would never know what it was like torealize that one mistake could spell the death of millions in thewar with the sorcerers. Indeed, the only one of the non-magi thatcould seem to understand was their Emperor, and he spent most ofhis time alone.
Even he could not truly understand myposition. He warned me against having any close relationships atall, as they would hinder my judgment at a crucial point, but howcould I do that when I was in constant contact with my six closestfriends via a pure and unfiltered telepathic link? The bond weshared was more than any human could understand. We were wizards,those called out of society to protect it.
Any further philosophical thoughts would haveto wait since I had finally reached the bridge of the Nevermore.Kellyn was there waiting for me and beamed a large smile as Ientered. That helped to lessen the sadness of the lonely walkthere. After a pleasant exchange of greetings we took our positionson the bridge. I sat in the captain’s chair, and as always she tookthe spot closest to it.
“Okay, Kellyn, I am ready.” Isaid.
Since we were docked in a secret location,all our communications had to be routed via the station’s systems.This meant that we had to schedule time in advance for any externalcommunications. My position gave me more leeway than most with thetimes, but in the end we all had to work within the limitations ofthe system. Eventually the call was put through and the familiarface of the captain of the Dragon Claw appeared on the screen. Ihad not spoken directly to him since we left the fleet, so I wasnot sure what to expect from him.
“Hello, Captain,” I said. Because of all theencryption and routing being done there was a slight but noticeabledelay in the conversation. It was annoying, but if you learned totake turns talking it was much less noticeable.
“Hi, Vydor. It has been too long since welast spoke.”
“Indeed it has. I hate to skip thepleasantries but we are limited in how long we can use thischannel, so I will get right to the point. I know that you arepresently heading to investigate a situation developing on theremote base Terathan XV. Based on all the reports that I haveaccess to, it sounds very similar to the situation at Arken IVbefore we arrived there. We plan to rendezvous with your fleet andjoin you in this investigation. We should be ready to launchtomorrow, and based on your last reported position it should takeus about a week to reach you.”
“A week? Then you have certainly upgradedyour ship from the Dark Talon.”
“Yes, Captain, but do not worry. We will bebringing her along to return to the Dark Knights.”
“Very well, I will hold on here and send ourexact location to you before you launch. It will be good to haveyou back for this. What route do you plan to take?”
Since jumps were dependent on missing largegravity wells, they had to be carefully routed well in advance. Atone time every trip started with a group of experts poring overmaps, trying to plot the best series of jumps to clear varioussections of space. Over time that changed and a vast database ofall known safe routes was built.
“Now, Captain, I have a full day yet to plan.What makes you think I have any idea yet what route I will take?” Isaid.
“You’re right, I should know better than toask you about planning ahead,” he said with a chuckle. “You mightwant to avoid the Batialan route, as there are reports of anuprising at the prison colony there.”
The colony that he was referring to was aplace where the absolute worst of society was kept and put intohard labor in the mines there. While this allowed many to escapethe death sentence, life in such places was fairly grim. This meantthat they felt they had nothing to lose, so every now and againthey would try to rise up and take over the colony. The Empirealways dealt with it in the same way; the military was called inand anyone who resisted them was killed. This meant the entire areawould be under a tight lockdown, and any ship traveling through itwould be delayed and probably searched. Since our ship was notImperial property or lands, I could refuse such a search, but therewas no avoiding the delays that would cause. It was best to take adifferent route.
“Thank you for that warning. I willdefinitely choose a different route.” After that we got the warningbeep from the station telling us our time was almost up. They wouldnot dare to interrupt one of my communications, but I learned longago that cooperation with the system tended to get you moregoodwill when the time came that you most needed it. “It seems ourtime is up. It will be good to be off this base and free from theselimitations, but now I must go. Thank you, Captain, and we will seeyou in a week.” With that we both signed off.
“Kellyn, I am going to tour the ship onelast time then go to dinner. Would you be available to join me insay, two hours?”
“I would love to. See you then.”
It was customary for a captain to tour theship, visiting every section before any mission. I was not sure howone did that on a ship as large as the Dragon Claw, but on theNevermore it was much more feasible.
The bridge was in the center of the ship, soI decided to take the lift to the topmost level
to start my tourthere. The top level was my favorite level. It contained ourentertainment areas, a large, observational lounge and the ship’smess hall. The observational lounge was a room of my own design. Ihad had them rip out almost all the walls on the floor and put incouches, recliners, and other comfortable seating. There wereseveral food preparation areas scattered around the deck whereanyone could make themselves a full meal or a light snack. The mainfeature of the room was the extensive view it had of the outside.The ceiling and walls were covered with high-resolution viewscreensthat were tied to external cameras, so it gave the impression ofstanding under a glass ceiling looking at the night sky. In realitywhat was behind the viewscreens were many layers of extra-thickarmor plating, but it was easy to forget that and believe you wereout there in this room. Since we were inside a space dock,presently the screens were displaying a view from outside thestation instead. So looking up I could see the blue-green ball thatwas the planet we orbited.
I briefly wondered what it was like to liveon a planet, being stuck anchored to a star with scenery that neverchanges. I thought it must be lonely and claustrophobic to betrapped like that. I much preferred the openness of space and theconstant change of travel.
Also on this level was the mostly unusedfitness and exercise room. I knew it was important to have one, andmy years of service in the Navy ingrained in me a need to use itregularly, but I seemed to be alone in this belief, and that madeit too easy to fall out of the habit. Not only did I need to forcemyself to use the equipment more often, I knew I should encouragethe others to use it too. A healthy body was important, even for aMagus.
From there I went down to the next levelwhich contained our library and research areas. The library wasfilled with all the books that Mantis had given us, which was a lotmore than should have been able to fit in the chest they came in.One of the things we had learned about him over the last year wasthat he enjoyed things that should not work, such as taking verylarge objects out of very small containers, or in this case a lotof books out of too small a box. Even with all these books, thelibrary shelves were mostly empty. I had big dreams of amassing agreat amount of knowledge to store there, and used most of thatlevel for the library. Throughout the library I had a mix of littleprivate reading nooks and large tables to accommodate groupresearch. Most of our time lately had been spent in there studyingall that we had, and trying out as much as we could.
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