Wizard Rebellion (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 5)

by Rodney Hartman

  Jeena felt herself losing control of her temper. She hadn’t come all this way to be stopped now.

  “Calm down,” said Danny’s voice through her headband. “He’s right. We’ve got to think this through a little before we act.”

  The alarm sirens that had constantly been wailing suddenly stopped.

  “Life forms come,” said Stella. “Be here soon I think.”

  Jeena let her mind gather in the sensations of Power around her. She sensed scores of life forms heading their way. They appeared well organized.

  “We’ve lost the element of surprise,” said Danny. “I calculate we have about one minute before we’ll be under attack. I’d give you the odds of our survival, but even I have trouble calculating percentages when they get too small.”

  Whether the battle computer was serious or joking, Jeena didn’t know. What she did know was that they were in serious trouble.

  Pop!

  The noise behind them startled Jeena. She spun around with her staff raised in a defensive position ready to do battle. When she saw the source of the noise, Jeena lowered her staff. A two-meter-long silver dragon was hovering in what little air remained in the corridor.

  “You should have left while you had the chance,” Jeena said.

  “I don’t leave my friends,” said Bright Wing speaking out loud. “Furry bats will be here soon. I will help you.”

  Jeena had a thought. “Can you teleport into the vault and get the bottles of DNA gas and bring them to us?”

  The dragon looked thoughtful for a second before replying. “I’m young again. I can only teleport myself. I can get into vault, but I can’t teleport anything else out.”

  Jonathan spoke up again. “I calculate if the dragon got inside and secured the bottles, Jeehana could rip off the doors. She could rip out a couple of walls as well. That should also knock out any automated weapons systems still functioning.”

  “Bright Wing?” Jeena asked.

  Without asking questions, the dragon shimmered and disappeared. A few seconds later, Jeena sensed the dragon’s emotion-speak in her mind.

  “Secured.”

  “Hold on,” Jeena told Stella.

  Jeena felt the wizard scout increase the Power around them to secure them in place. As soon as she did, Jeena took several strands of energy from the black hole and attached them to the vault’s doors and two of its walls. When she released her grip on the strands, the doors and half of the vault’s walls were ripped through the deck. The air in the vault rushed out the new holes along with a myriad of other loose items stored there. When the dust and debris settled, Jeena saw Bright Wing holding onto a support beam with her tail. The dragon clutched a clear case in her front paws. Inside the case were bottles filled with a swirling red gas.

  “The Crosioians will be here in twenty seconds,” said Jonathan.

  “Bright Wing,” Jeena ordered. “To me.”

  The dragon let go with her tail and levitated the thirty meters to Jeena.

  “Hold onto me,” Jeena ordered. She felt Stella grab her shoulder and Bright Wing wrap her tail around her arm.

  “Five seconds,” warned Jonathan.

  Jeena touched the runes on her staff in the order Dren had shown her. She felt her body tingle as the world around her shifted in and out of focus. Jeena suddenly remembered the remaining strands of the black hole’s energy were still in her grasp. She quickly attached them to several points on the space station and let go. Then everything went black.

  Chapter 64 – Equipment Request

  ____________________

  The wizard scouts infiltrated the spaceport using the weak spot Thomas and Janice had located months earlier. Once everyone was assembled, Telsa closed the hole she’d drilled through the spaceport’s defensive shield. Although Richard knew the Dragars would be aware of their presence in a few seconds, he figured the expenditure of Power was worth it if it bought them a few more seconds of non-discovery.

  Richard took a moment to look around. At least two scores of the black starships were berthed around the spaceport. He was only concerned with three of those starships.

  In a section isolated from the others, three starships hovered above their berths. Richard identified them as a recon ship, a destroyer, and a massive black dreadnaught. All three starships were hovering several meters above the ground.

  “How can that dreadnaught be here?” Richard asked his battle computer. “If we tried that with one of our Empire dreadnaughts, the entire lower half of the ship would be crushed.”

  “Well,” said Nickelo, “I guess magic does have its advantages. I calculate they’re using some type of levitation spell. It must be a very good spell, that’s all I’ve got to say.”

  Richard nodded his head. He could sense the energy of the Mountain’s Heart from inside the ship.

  “Well, no use dillydallying around,” said Tam. “What better way to start our morning than slugging it out with a dreadnaught when we’ve only got a few small-arms weapons.”

  Chancee laughed. She eyed Tam’s M12 as she held up her bow. “Wanna trade?”

  “Uh, not hardly,” Tam said returning the ranger’s laugh.

  “We won’t be using hand weapons,” Richard said as he removed his dimensional pack. Turning to Jerad, he said, “Have your battle computer feed Nickelo the specs for the equipment you require. We need to hurry. I think all three of those starships are getting ready to leave.”

  A series of high-pitched whines from the direction of the destroyer seemed to confirm Richard’s analysis.

  Richard had Nickelo put the equipment list Jerad made up onto his heads-up display, then sent the specs for the items to his dimensional pack.

  “I hope this works,” Richard said.

  “You and me both, brother,” said Nickelo. “You and me both.”

  Chapter 65 – Request Approved

  ____________________

  The octopod sat in his control chair while monitoring the availability of the equipment in his assigned warehouse. All indicators registered one hundred percent availability. The indicators always registered one hundred percent, but the octopod went through the motions of filling out the shift change report anyway.

  The octopod had worked at the heavy-weapons warehouse ever since it opened. In all that time, the warehouse had never received an approved equipment request.

  Still, he thought, one could come at any moment. We always have to be ready. You never know.

  In spite of his silent words, the octopod couldn’t help but feel a little sad in both of his hearts. He’d be retiring soon. His brother-in-law worked in one of the small-arms warehouses. They were always getting requests; a fact which his brother-in-law reveled in telling him any time they met. On those occasions, the octopod would tell his wife’s brother that the heavy weapons were being saved for something really important. His brother-in-law always laughed at his words.

  Lost in his thoughts, the octopod didn’t see a flashing light on the control console right away. When it finally drew his attention, he sat up in his seat and stared at the computer display. REQUEST APPROVED was flashing in bright red.

  The octopod touched the readout unit with one of his tentacles. A stream of specifications began scrolling across the screen. When he realized the extent of the specifications, the octopod temporarily froze. His training from the past two-score and ten years quickly kicked in. When it did, he slapped a red button on his command chair with one of his tentacles.

  “Attention all personnel,” said the octopod doing his best to keep the excitement out of his voice. “This is not a drill. Emergency request has been received and approved for two Leviathans, two Long Cats, and a Warcat. Armaments’ list is being sent to appropriate stations. Authorization for requisitioning neutron bombs out of security vault is approved. An additional K12 man-portable launcher with anti-armor rockets is also requested from the small-arms warehouse. Let’s hustle, everyone. Time is of the essence.”

  The three hundre
d and twenty-seven workers composed of more than a dozen races jumped to obey the orders of their warehouse supervisor. This was the day they had lived for. Nothing was going to stop them from completing their equipment requests.

  Chapter 66 – The Dome

  ____________________

  “Use telekinesis to free the pack,” Richard suggested to Tam when part of his dimensional pack got hung up on one of the Long Cat’s rocket pods.

  Jerad and Trinity were already guiding their two Leviathans across the spaceport’s tarmac, firing missiles and plasma beams as they went.

  Telsa was just climbing into her Long Cat when Tam finally got her rocket pod free from the dimensional pack. The ex-mercenary wasted no time jumping into the pilot’s seat of her cat. A half a dozen heartbeats later, Tam was running in the direction taken by the Leviathans. Telsa followed close on her heels in the second Long Cat. The booms of the females’ 200mm phase cannons soon echoed in the morning air.

  Richard summoned his dimensional pack to him and pulled out another canister of missiles for the K12. He placed them at General Fenmar’s feet. The dwarf was busy traversing the missile launcher toward the far side of the spaceport.

  “Don’t worry about aiming,” Richard said. “Just keep away from the dome and those three ships.”

  “That’ll be easy enough,” laughed Fenmar. “You forgot to show me how to aim.”

  Richard wasn’t concerned. The dwarf had picked up the concept of the missiles easily enough. Plus, Nickelo had assigned several logic threads to handle the finer points of aiming. Turning away from the general, Richard gave some final instructions to Emerald and Chancee.

  “When Janice and Thomas get here with the bottles of DNA gas, I want you to have them bring fifteen of the bottles to me. I’ll be at the dome. The two of you need to get the other fourteen bottles to Jerad. He’ll get them into the destroyer somehow and destroy the gem.

  Richard didn’t wait for a reply. He just threw his dimensional pack over his shoulder and levitated up and into his Warcat. He was soon running across the tarmac in the direction of the dome at the spaceport’s center. He already knew what he’d find inside; the Dragars’ temple.

  When he got about halfway to the dome, a series of large explosions erupted on the far side of the spaceport.

  “I calculate Trinity and Jerad have activated their neutron bombs,” said Nickelo.

  “Ya think?” Richard snapped. “I figured that one out even without a nanosecond brain.”

  “Geesh, Rick,” said Nickelo feigning hurt. “You don’t have to be so touchy. I was just trying to help.”

  Richard hadn’t meant to snap, but he was nervous. He’d always been an ‘act first, think later’ kind of guy, but this whole thing was turning into one big, unorganized cluster. There were too many moving parts.

  “The odds anything I’ve planned is going to work is probably nil,” Richard said.

  “Actually,” laughed Nickelo, “I think it’s less than nil, but cheer up. Maybe you’ll get lucky.”

  “Yeah, right,” Richard replied. “When a computer starts advising me to rely on luck, that’s when I really start worrying.”

  The remaining distance to the Dragars’ dome passed quickly. The Warcat was fast. While Richard passed a lot of Dragars, Thargs, and various slaves along the way, they were all apparently so confused that none tried to stop him. He didn’t even have to fire his weapons.

  When Richard reached the dome, he was in luck. The main doors were closed, but someone had already blown a hole in the wall next to the doors. Since the hole was large enough for the Warcat, Richard ducked inside. He was greeted by absolute chaos. Fires and explosions were erupting all around. A line of destruction seemed to go from the hole in the wall directly toward the Dragar’s pyramid.

  Richard spied a couple of humanoid figures near the top of the pyramid engaged in combat with a score of Dragar spellcasters. A blue beam of magic from one of the two humanoids struck the Dragars’ shield. Their shield buckled but continued to hold.

  Something silver fluttering in the air behind the two humanoids drew Richard’s attention. The silver object looked familiar. Then recognition came to Richard.

  “What the…?” Richard thought. “How’d Bright Wing get here?”

  “Rick,” said Nickelo. “I’m in contact with Jonathan. He says Stella is there with Bright Wing. They’re with an elf. They’ve got fifteen bottles of DNA gas, but they can’t get to the opening at the top of the pyramid. The Dragar priests are too strong.”

  Shifting the Warcat into high gear, Richard began running toward the pyramid. What Thargs tried to stop him, Nickelo made short work of with a few diligent blasts from the Warcat’s 20mm plasma rifles. Richard let his battle computer handle the Warcat while he concentrated on the flows of energy around him.

  The entire floor of the dome was covered with thousands of worktables. Clear tubes filled with a red gas ran from the top of the pyramid to lines and sublines until every worktable under the dome had a line.

  Richard merged his mind with the red gas flowing to a nearby worktable. He felt the fear and sensed the screams of the unborn dragons that had been sacrificed to produce the gas. It wasn’t the refined DNA gas used to create wizard scouts, but it was close enough for Richard to instinctively know how to manipulate the energy in the gas. He twisted the red gas back upon itself and forced it to flow back toward the pyramid from which it had come. As the gas passed other sublines, he drew the energy of their gas as well and propelled it toward the pyramid. By the time the energy reached the top of the pyramid, it was a huge ball of pulsating red magic.

  The Dragar priests must have sensed the approach of the magic because several of them turned to face it. They formed a shield. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t nearly powerful enough. The red magic ripped the Dragars’ shield to pieces. At the same time, a blue beam of magic from one of the two humanoids hit the Dragar priests. The priests disappeared in an eruption of red and blue magic.

  “Stella says thanks,” said Nickelo. “She says the way’s clear now. The elf and she can get the bottles of DNA gas into the pyramid. You need to do whatever you need to do.”

  Richard assumed the elf with Stella was Comstar. He knew the old elf was just as competent as Stella. He had faith the two of them could do whatever needed to be done with the DNA gas.

  At that moment, something touched Richard’s mind. He recognized the touch. It was Bright Wing.

  “Brother,” said the dragon using emotion-speak. “We must save the others. They’re helpless. They’ll be destroyed if we don’t save them.”

  An image of tens of thousands of dragon eggs on the conveyor belts snaking through the worktables came to Richard’s mind. The task of saving all the dragon eggs was daunting.

  “Come,” said Bright Wing. “You must help me.”

  With that, the silver dragon touched Richard’s mind with a species memory.

  Richard became one of millions—no, billions of dragons who’d once inhabited the galaxy. They spread their magic far and wide. During their travels, the dragons took other species along to populate habitable planets. Over hundreds of thousands of years, populations of dwarf, elf, gnome, orc, and other races of Portalis made contact with the populations of Dragar, Thargs, and other species in the galaxies. Empires rose and fell. Wars erupted, and whole species were wiped out of existence. Even the mighty dragons were pushed to the brink of extinction.

  The wisest of dragons were assembled. They chose a line of dragons to be their saviors. These special dragons were instilled with the ability to travel through time and space. With the help of the special dragons, a hot, bubbling mass of mud near a yellow star was chosen to be the dragon’s hope for the future. For tens of thousands of years, the special dragons transported their brethren through time to lay their eggs in the hot mud. Over the years, billions of fertilized eggs lay hidden in the mud. Richard knew they would stay there until they were needed.

  As the star coole
d, so did the planet. As it did, the mud cooled as well and formed a soft rock. One day a starship landed on the planet. The Dragars onboard used slaves to mine the dragon eggs. They brought the eggs by the millions back to Portalis and sacrificed them there using the Power of a blue gem.

  The Mountain’s Heart, Richard thought.

  Through the species memory, Richard saw something else. While the Dragars used some of the gas from the sacrificed dragon eggs to create batteries for their ships and weapons, some of the gas they purposely allowed to seep through a crack to the physical dimension. The gas leaked out of the crack and slowly began changing the dynamics of the physical galaxy. As years passed, magic began to work alongside physics.

  More species memory flowed across Richard’s mind. Most were too alien to comprehend. Others were of no use to him. He hastily discarded those and moved onto the next memory. Finally, a memory came to Richard that fit his need. He drew his mind back from the flow of memories.

  When he was fully back in the here and now, Richard spoke to Bright Wing. “Come to me. I have a task for you. The lives of your unborn brothers depend on you.”

  Chapter 67 – Final Mission

  ____________________

  Janice Deluth picked up her half of the fourteen bottles of DNA gas. Her husband held the other seven. When they’d arrived at the Oracle’s, they’d only found the fourteen bottles. The Oracle had told them Wizard Scout Stella and an elf had already departed with the other fifteen. The Oracle had told her husband and her that they needed to get to the black destroyer and destroy the Mountain’s Heart before it was taken off planet.

  So it was that Janice now found herself hiding among a stack of crates a hundred meters from the black destroyer. She could sense the energy from the blue gem inside the ship. Unfortunately, they couldn’t gain entry. The way was blocked by several hundred four-armed Thargs and a score of Dragar magic users.