Recovering from time-commando missions was always a little surreal for Richard. Transitioning from a time in the past and another dimension to the current time in the physical dimension was a challenge no matter how often he did it.
“I don’t remember what we were doing when we left,” Richard said. “A little help would be nice, Nick.”
“I’m on it, buddy. Margery’s uploading your memory backup as we speak. As soon as it’s ready, I’ll use it to refresh the appropriate areas of your mind. Just give me a few seconds. In the meantime, see what you can figure out by listening to those around you.”
“Who are you trying to kid, Storis,” said one of the gnomes. “Rick wasn’t gone five seconds before you started chowing down on his supper.”
The others sitting at the table laughed.
Margery is the Defiant’s primary computer. She was the battle computer for my father, the commandant before he was killed. Richard’s memory started coming back faster. Storis is known for his appetite, and he’s not above stealing something off someone else’s plate when they aren’t looking.
“Don’t let them fool you, Rick,” said Storis as he continued chewing on a large chunk of Richard’s steak. “I waited a good eight to ten seconds before I confiscated your food.”
Richard asked, “How long was I gone?”
“Only about thirty seconds this time,” said Tia. “That’s the only reason you’ve still got half of your steak left.”
Tia was the teenage daughter of Duke Bistoria, the leader of the Trecorian Alliance. She’d been assigned to the Defiant as one of the ship’s fighter pilots at Richard’s request. He’d seen her fight, and she was good. Of course, she was the sister of his friend Liz who was the best pilot he’d ever seen, so that was to be expected.
The elf spoke next.
“How long were you on your mission, wizard scout?”
Richard remembered the elf’s name was Comstar. Large parts of his mission in the spiritual dimension were already beginning to fade, but he recollected enough to answer. “About eighteen months. I was in the spiritual dimension. They have some kind of eternal war with those dimension-shifting cats I told you about.”
“Interesting,” said Comstar. He touched the tips of his fingers together in front of his face. “I wonder why ‘the One’ sent you there. From what you’ve told me, he usually has a purpose in mind when sending you on missions. The dolgars were already your allies. What did he hope to accomplish?”
Most of the others at the table had already resumed eating. Since ‘the One’ tended to send Richard on a mission every two or three weeks, having him pop out and back was no longer the novelty it had once been.
I guess they think eating’s more important than listening to my story. At the thought of food, Richard’s stomach growled, reminding him that he was a little hungry. Unfortunately, one look at the half-gnawed steak on his plate quenched his appetite. He liked dwarves, but their eating habits weren’t exactly genteel by any means.
“No kidding?” laughed Nickelo. “I may be a computer, but even I know dwarves aren’t ready for high-society events.”
“Damn it, Nick. Stop reading my thoughts.”
“Then stop thinking in your shared space.”
Richard pushed his plate back to Storis. “Be my guest. I’m not all that hungry come to think of it.”
“Liar,” said Nickelo making no attempt to hide a laugh. “You’re always hungry.”
Before Richard could even finish moving his plate, the dwarf stuck a fork in the steak and shoved it into his mouth, bone and all. He began chewing happily away.
With a look at the elf, Storis said, “You make good steak, Comstar.”
Comstar nodded his head in recognition of the compliment but didn’t smile. As Richard remembered it, Comstar rarely smiled. However, the elf did like to cook.
So do I, Richard thought. I seem to remember the two of us alternating cooking meals every other day for the crew. Noticing Comstar looking at him expectantly jolted another memory. “Oh, you asked about my mission. Well, I’m not sure what I was supposed to accomplish, to be honest. I was told to help the dolgars, but from what I could make out, they’ve been fighting their war with those dimension-shifting cats for several hundred thousand years. I doubt having me help them for a year and a half was all that useful.”
“Hmm,” said Comstar. “It sounds like he gave you a pretty vague mission.”
“Well, ‘the One’ is never much on specifics,” Richard said doing his best to let his disgust for ‘the One’ creep into his voice.
“No, he’s not,” said Matthew, one of the two human teenagers. “But from what you’ve told me, he’s usually more direct than that. What’d you have to do to get him to send you back?”
Richard concentrated on the teenager. He’s the son of Diane Deloris, the current empress of the Intergalactic Empire. His grandfather is Sergeant Ron, the co-owner and captain of the Defiant. The boy’s a pretty good fighter pilot, considering his age.
Grabbing a wheat roll out of a bowl on the table, Richard took a bite. “Uh…” Richard continued to chew on the wheat roll, stalling for time. It wasn’t easy to figure out a way to verbally communicate what he’d been through the last eighteen months. “Well, the dolgars and I broke out of a trap, which had a strange shield made out of titanium dust.”
Matthew didn’t look all that impressed at his revelation.
“Oh, and I fought a demon named Cancontus. He was trying to capture me so he could torture me for the next gazillion years or something. I’m not sure why. Once we took him out of action, ‘the One’ sent me back here.”
This time Matthew did look impressed. In fact, Richard assumed everyone at the table must have been impressed because even Storis stopped eating long enough to listen.
Tia leaned forward wide-eyed, saying, “Well, don’t stop there. What kind of demon was it? Did you kill it? I want to hear the gory details.”
“Bloodthirsty critter, isn’t she?” laughed Nickelo. “I calculate a ninety-four percent probability that—”
The alarm bells built into the bulkhead of the Defiant began clanging, accompanied by the flashing of red strobe lights.
“Battle stations,” said the voice of Sergeant Ron over the intercom. “Prepare for hyper-jump in two minutes. Security personnel, prepare to repel boarders.”
Even before Sergeant Ron finished speaking, everyone at the table jumped up and headed for their assigned battle stations. While Sergeant Ron ran a loose ship in many ways, he didn’t play around when it came to security. After dozens of unannounced battle drills over the last six months, everyone in the crew knew where they were supposed to be. They wasted no time getting there now.
That is, everyone wasted no time except Richard. Sergeant Ron had assigned him as a floater. As the Defiant’s captain put it, “I can’t depend on you being here, Rick. ‘The One’ is liable to have you off on one of his missions when I need you the most. I can’t have one of the ship’s fighting positions unmanned if’n you aren’t here.”
“You know, Sergeant Ron has a point,” said Nickelo. “Besides, you’re a wizard scout. You’re too valuable to be tied down to one specific battle station.”
Richard wasn’t been sure if his battle computer was telling the truth or whether he was just trying to spare his feelings. Regardless, he decided not to argue the point. The end result was that he didn’t have a specific place to go during the call to battle stations.
Since he was already wearing his battle suit, Richard headed for a set of stairs across from the galley. He hit the first of the stairs leading to the control room at a run. “What’s going on, Nick? After eighteen months, I don’t even remember what we were doing before I got teleported out.”
“Sorry,” replied Nickelo. “Margery just sent your backup data to me. I’ll use it to refresh your memory now.”
As he climbed the stairs, Richard sensed a stream of data entering his shared space. As the gaps in his m
emory were filled, he became aware of their current mission. Their six-month stint of temporary duty with the Trecorian Alliance was over. The Defiant was returning him to Risors to take up his duties with the Empire’s military again. In between one of their hyper-jumps, they’d received an encrypted communication from the Intergalactic High Council to rendezvous with a civilian transport and pick up a high-level Empire diplomat. According to the orders they’d been given, the diplomat would give them additional instructions once contact was made.
“Hmm,” Richard told his battle computer. “Now I remember what we were doing. I remember I didn’t like our orders before we left on our mission for ‘the One.’ As it turns out, I don’t like them any better now.”
“Ah, yes,” said Nickelo. “I do seem to remember you letting everyone within earshot know your dissatisfaction when we got the orders. You can get quite vocal sometimes, you know?”
Just before Richard reached the top of the stairs, the door to the control room slid open. Two padded chairs, one on the left and one on the right, faced an instrument panel with flashing lights. The two seats were empty. Two other chairs at the front of the small control room were the pilot and copilot positions. The left seat, the pilot’s position, was occupied by a wiry, grey-haired man. He was moving his hands rapidly across a control panel. The man was Sergeant Ron.
“I don’t care what standard protocol says,” said Sergeant Ron. “We’re making our hyper-jump the moment we get to Alpha X-ray five. That’s an order!”
“As you say,” replied a disembodied voice. “You’re the Defiant’s captain. I’m just a subservient battle computer.”
Richard recognized the voice as belonging to Margery.
“That’s more like it,” said Sergeant Ron. “Now, turn off that dang-blamed alarm. If’n the crew doesn’t know to go to battle stations by now, they ain’t ever going to figure it out.”
The alarm stopped.
“Rick,” said Margery in the sudden silence. “See if you can talk some sense into this old fool. He’s trying to jump the ship a quarter of a light year before we get to the optimum jump point in the dimensional fold. That’s outside minimum safety limits. It’s never been tried before.”
“Don’t believe everything a computer tells you, Rick,” said Sergeant Ron as he turned around in his seat with a wild-eyed grin on his face. “It’s been tried. It’s just never been done successfully.”
Richard used his passive scan to make a sweep around the Defiant. Normally, his passive scan was limited to sensing life forms a couple of kilometers away. Areas teeming with life tended to overwhelm a passive scan with information at extended ranges. Outer space was a different matter though. With almost no life to detect, Richard found he could sense another starship at ranges approaching a quarter of a light year. However, he sensed nothing now. The area around them was void of life.
“All right, Sergeant Ron,” Richard said trying to be tactful. He’d learned long ago the cantankerous co-owner of the Defiant had to be handled carefully or he was liable to do something crazy just out of spite. “So no one’s done it successfully. Why do you think we’d be the first? And why should we even try?”
Sergeant Ron spun in his seat and punched a highlighted area on a computer screen. A holographic image of a miniature older woman in a ship captain’s uniform appeared above the holograph platform between the pilot and copilot’s seats.
“This is Captain Jeekers of the space liner Starlight,” said the hologram. “We’re under attack by pirates. Our starboard engine’s been disabled. The pirates are maneuvering to board. We’re an unarmed, civilian Empire ship. We need immediate assistance. Please respond. They’re maneuvering to board us.”
“The Starlight?” Richard said. “Isn’t that the ship we’re supposed to rendezvous with?”
“Exactly,” said Sergeant Ron as if he’d just scored a point. “You can bet it’s not a coincidence they’re being attacked. I’ve always thought there was more to this whole assignment than we’re being told. It smacks too much of my daughter’s behind-the-scenes political maneuverings.”
Since Sergeant Ron’s estranged daughter was the empress, Richard had to agree with his friend’s assessment of the situation. He’d met the empress a couple of times before. While she’d presented a facade of oily politeness during their meetings, he’d come to understand almost everything she did or said had a hidden agenda. If their current mission originated from her, Richard wasn’t sure he wanted any part of it.
“Well, then,” Richard said, “I’d say that’s all the more reason not to make a hazardous hyper-jump. Why take the risk?”
“Why?” said Sergeant Ron with a shake of his head as if he was disappointed in the Defiant’s co-owner. “I know I can be heartless sometimes, but even I’m not callous enough to leave an unarmed civilian star-liner with two thousand souls on board to the tender mercies of pirates. I don’t think you’re that heartless either.”
“Fine,” Richard said. “We can’t leave them to pirates. So what are we doing and how can I help?”
“I knew you’d come around to my way of thinking,” said Sergeant Ron with an approving smile. “The pirates are probably on board the Starlight by now. Even at max hyper-speed, we can’t waste the time necessary to get to the optimum jump point. What I need you to do is get down to the engine room lickety-split and help Bright Wing out. This hyper-jump’s going to be tricky.”
“What about after we jump?”
“We’ll just have to wait and see. We’ll do whatever we need to do when we get there.”
“Understood,” Richard said trying not to grin. “I’ll let you know when we’re ready.”
“Don’t bother,” said Sergeant Ron sounding very serious. “I’m making the jump regardless. If you’re not ready when I do, then we’re all dead. How’s that for motivation?”
Richard dashed from the control room and jumped down the stairs to the dining area of the ship. He passed through the galley to a larger set of stairs leading down and jumped to the metal deck below. He didn’t take time to grab the handrail. Even in non-activated mode, his battle suit’s built-in assistors easily absorbed the shock of landing.
The lower deck was noisy and teeming with activity. Richard noticed the Defiant’s armorer, Sergeant Hendricks, and Wizard Scout Terrie Shatstot issuing combat armor and weapons to several members of the crew. Some of the dwarves in the security detachment were already suited up.
Richard turned and made his way toward the back of the vessel. I’d forgotten how big this ship is. It’s only designed for a crew of twenty-two, but it’s larger than most military recon ships.
“And it’s a good thing it is,” said Nickelo. “Otherwise, it would never have accommodated all the extra equipment and weapons Sergeant Ron and Sergeant Hendricks stuck onboard.”
Richard picked up the pace to another stairway leading down. The level below consisted primarily of the cargo bay stacked to the ceiling with containers bearing symbols of a black dragon with a red stripe. Richard sensed Power emanating from most of the containers. They were filled with salvaged energy globes and spell-shells.
Richard thought back to the mission when the Defiant fought the destroyer from the magical dimension. He’d been shown where the Dragars got their energy. The reptilian-looking creatures used a combination dimensional gate and time bubble to steal dragon eggs from a planet that served as a hatching ground. In his vision, he’d felt and seen his surroundings from the perspective of one of the unborn dragons. He’d sensed the innocent dragons’ fear as the Dragar priests took them to the top of some unholy pyramid and sucked their life force out as a sacrifice.
To his dismay, he’d also discovered that not only was the Power from the sacrificed dragons used to create the Dragars’ energy spheres, but some of the bleed-off energy had also been the source of the DNA gas vent on Velos. The technicians from the Intergalactic Wizard Scout Academy had unknowingly acquired the residual life force of millions of sacrificed dr
agons over the years to make the refined DNA gas used to create wizard scouts. To Richard’s horror, he’d been faced with the fact that his extended life and self-heal ability had come at the cost of helpless innocents.
Richard forced the thoughts of DNA gas and sacrificed dragons to the side. He had more immediate concerns.
As he headed toward the ladder leading down to the main-engine room, Richard saw Tia and Matthew give each other a hug before separating to crawl into opposite tunnels leading to the Defiant’s wing pods. During the previous overhaul on Velos, Sergeant Ron had connived the Deloris Armaments Corporation into attaching two Zip fighters to the ship’s wings along with an access tube so they could be manned during flight. One of the Zip fighters, or zippers as they were often called, had been destroyed during a battle. It was replaced with a magic-based counterpart off a captured destroyer from the magical dimension.
As Richard slid down the long ladder, he used his passive scan to monitor Matthew crawling toward the zipper and Tia toward the magic-based fighter.
“It’s called a dragon-fighter,” said Nickelo in their shared space.
“I know what it’s called,” Richard said. “Now stop reading my mind.”
By this time, Richard was standing on the metal floor of the engine room. The noise of the Defiant’s hyper-drive was overwhelming.
“Suppressors,” Richard said using his command voice.
“Compliance.”
The battle helmet changed shape to three-quarters mode. Once the sides of the helmet were over Richard’s ears, built-in noise suppressors filtered out the engine noise to a dull roar while still allowing him to hear less intense sounds such as people speaking.
“You late,” came a mechanical sound from a translator. “We jump in twelve.”
Richard looked to his right and saw a large Sterilian standing near a young boy. Richard recognized the Sterilian as the Defiant’s mechanic, Charlie. The boy standing next to Charlie was dressed in a greasy-gray mechanic’s jumpsuit. The boy was Tia’s brother, Daniel. Although the boy was only twelve years old, he still pulled his weight as a member of the crew. The strange pair was standing on the opposite side of a large control panel from Richard. All four of Charlie’s arms were moving rapidly across the computer screens.
Wizard Rebellion (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 5) Page 7
