Sara gave him a sour look. “No shit, Sherlock. Is that supposed to mean something?”
He smiled. “Everything, in fact. When we are here in this dream state, we can command the Aether any way we like. It’s just a representation of how we see ourselves. Long before I was a cat, I was this.” He waved a hand over himself. “Just will it to be, and the Aether will show you the way you want to be seen.”
She thought of the battlesuits she’d become so used to since joining up with the Navy. When she looked down, she was wearing the skin-tight, black suit. She smiled. “Well, that’s handy.”
“Really? A battlesuit? You can wear anything you like here, and you chose your work uniform?” Alister asked incredulously, shaking his head and taking another drink.
She considered that, then changed her outfit.
“Now we’re talking,” the pixie said, holding up his snifter in appreciation.
She was wearing a corn-yellow sundress, and her feet were bare. The area around her turned from the blank white of the Aetherscape to green grass and sunshine. She wiggled her toes in the grass and let out a contented sigh.
Alister smiled, taking in Sara as she basked in the light. “Sorry we haven’t made contact since we completed the summoning spell. I figured you needed some time to recuperate.”
“It’s not like we had much chance. It’s been crazy since the fleet evacuated the colony. Nothing but debriefings and reports.” She snarled, rolling her eyes. “Today was a great day, though. Right up until Boon cast the Familiar spell in public. That’s going to be all over the news feeds by morning.”
“I know. I’m glad she could do it, though. We’re going to need all the help we can get. Plus, Silva seems nice; I think she and Boon are going to be a good match,” he commented, smiling and holding up his snifter in salute. Sara materialized a beer in her hand and clinked glasses.
“Silva? That’s the ferret’s name?”
He nodded. “Yeah. We can communicate in animal form—not in full conversations, just snippets. I told her to join us tonight, if Boon is conscious enough. Now that Silva’s here, Boon should be coming out from under the spell’s influence.”
Sara nodded and then sat in silence for a minute before bringing up what she thought was going to be an important conversation. “So, about Colony 788…”
Alister slid his book onto the side table before leaning forward, putting his elbows on his knees. He rolled the brandy snifter between his hands while he spoke. “That was quite the show we put on. I thought I may have lost you at the end…” He trailed off.
She bit her lip and looked down. “Yeah, we need to talk about that. Why was I so…” She waved a hand when her words failed her.
“Crazy? Out of control? That’s what happens when a human goes too far,” he said, staring into the brown liquid.
Sara raised an eyebrow. “That can happen to any human mage?”
He shook his head, then leaned back and crossed his legs. “Only a mage with a familiar. Now that we are connected, you have access to far more Aether; if you channel too much, you become a little drunk on the power. That’s the drawback with the arrangement that humans and pixies have. There is so much power available that we can get out of control easily if we’re not careful. My teachers told me that many War Mages went down like this—throwing themselves into battle and fighting until they burned up. They used every last bit of Aether and snuffed themselves out. Not before ripping cities from the ground, mind you, but they were still dead when the dust cleared.”
“Couldn’t their familiars stop them?” she asked, leaning back on her arm and sipping at the beer.
“No. I assume you’re asking because I was able to cut you off, but we were in a special circumstance. Because the spell had not been completed properly in the beginning, there was a build-up of potential Aether; that’s why you had so much available right after we connected in the vault. But there hadn’t been time for our empathic link to form, so I was not influenced by your emotions, like I would be now. Boon and Silva won’t have the same spike in power you did since they completed the spell right away.” He let that sink in before saying, “We got lucky, Sara. We’ll have to be much more careful in the future.”
Sara let the weight of his words really reach her. She had almost destroyed her own men in her Aether-fueled rampage. If it weren’t for the pixie, she would be locked in a brig or worse right now. Not to mention crippled by her guilt.
“Good to know you have my back, Alister,” Sara said, smiling and looking him in his yellow eyes.
“That’s my job, Sara. I guess we will see how good I am at it. I heard you talking with the admirals… The Elif are no more?”
“We don't know yet, but there’s been no word from them. Their fleet bugged out of the Sol System around the time we were getting bombarded from that Teifen carrier. The core we recovered from Colony 788 is at the defense ministry now, and they’re digging through it to see what they can find. The plans on that thing are going to change the tide of this war. I just hope it’s fast enough.”
“Should be, if the old teachings are to be believed,” a young female voice said from their right.
Sara started at the strange voice, spilling some of her beer into the grass. She turned to see a woman in a white, flowing gown, with white hair that came to her waist. She was walking toward them, and at first Sara thought she was far off in the distance—due to her size—but quickly realized she was just small, like Alister.
“Silva?” Sara asked.
The tiny woman approached and extended a small hand, which Sara took between her thumb and forefinger to shake. “Yes, Silva August; a pleasure to meet you, Sara.” Silva gave a smile, and looked her up and down. “I have to say, you don't look like the War Mages in the stories. They were all serious and stern. You look, I don't know, light and airy?”
Sara had to laugh at that. “Light and airy? Like a dinner roll?”
Now it was Silva’s turn to laugh. “It sounded better in my head.” She turned to Alister, who had stood up and approached during the conversation.
Before Silva could say anything, Alister engulfed her in a bear hug. “Oh, it is so nice to see one of my own kind. We have so much to talk about,” he gushed, a smile trying to split his face in half.
“Oh, my. Well, I suppose you have been cut off for a bit.” She struggled to break free, but Alister kept hold. “Uh, it’s very nice to meet you, Alister; the real you, that is,” she said, awkwardly patting him on the back.
Sara looked around for Boon, but didn't see her anywhere. “Is Boon joining us?”
Silva finally broke free of Alister and his excitement, and smoothed her gown. “No, it’s better for the two in contract to meet alone the first time. It makes things easier. I’ll join with her after we are done talking. She could use a little more rest.”
“I can understand that. Be sure to warn her not to get out of control; there are only two of us, and we’re still trying to figure all this out. I don't want either of you getting hurt,” Sara said.
“Don’t worry. This is something pixies are taught from childhood. There hasn’t been a War Mage pairing for a long, long time, but we still learn the history of them. As I’m sure Alister told you on your first visit here,” she said, turning to Alister. He looked away, his face turning a little red. “You did warn her, didn’t you?”
“Uh, well, you see…” He started to trail off, but then blurted, “I kinda skipped that part of my schooling.”
Silva stood with her mouth open, regarding Alister like he had grown a second head. “Skipped it? Why on Earth would you skip it? It’s important to learn about your role as a War Mage.”
“Well, I mean, it had been thirty thousand years since the last War Mage…” He put his hands in his pockets and bashfully kicked a stone he’d materialized for effect. “I thought it was a waste of time.”
Silva smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. “I can’t believe this.” She turned to Sara. �
�So has he shown you the modified forms?”
“Uh, I don’t know. What are those?” Sara asked, wide-eyed at the realization that her familiar was as lazy as she was when it came to schooling.
“Oh, god. You guys are so lucky I’m here. Where to begin? Okay, there is an ebb and flow to Aether management; did he talk about that?”
Oh, man. Mrs. Dontis was right; it all comes back to Aether management. I really should have paid more attention in her class.
Sara swallowed. “No, I don't think we got to that part.”
Silva plopped down to a cross-legged position and put her face in her hands. “Okay, here’s the quick of it. There are two kinds of spells: damage and healing. Being a successful War Mage is all about balancing the two. A really creative War Mage pair can use them in conjunction to fight far longer without being overwhelmed and going berserk.”
Alister sheepishly sat at the third point of a triangle between Silva and Sara. His face was red, but he wanted to know this, he needed to know this. Sara felt a surge of emotion at how similar she and Alister were—something she had not noticed until this very moment. She reached over and gave him a supportive pat on the knee. In response, he reached down and squeezed one of her fingers with his hand and gave her an apologetic smile.
“So, are you saying I need to heal people while fighting?” Sara asked to clarify.
“You could, but that’s just one option. Remember, healing isn’t always about living things. You can ‘heal’ a torn piece of cloth by mending it. Or you can make a plant grow rapidly. It’s a general term, but basically, if you are adding or fixing something, it is considered healing; if you are taking away or destroying something, that is damage. There are neutral spells as well, like shields, that don't push you one way or the other.” Silva demonstrated by flipping her hand one way and then the other.
“That one, we’ve got down,” Sara laughed.
“What happens if she uses too much healing magic? Does she go berserk then, as well?” Alister didn’t want to sound stupid, but he needed to know the answer.
Silva repressed a frown at his lack of knowledge and answered, “Not 'berserk’. The opposite. She would fall into a coma that she would never wake from.”
“So, in theory, we could fight forever, as long as the powers balance,” Sara mused, thinking she found the loophole.
Silva shook her head. “No. The more Aether you channel, the narrower your margin for error becomes. If you balance your spells perfectly and push till the that margin is razor thin, even a small fire spell would send you into a berserker's rage, or mending a slight rip would put you into a coma. There is only so much you can do, and the closer you get to your edge, the finer the line you have to walk.”
Sara nodded. That makes a kind of sense. “Okay, something for us to work on. We need to think outside the box a little,” she said, nodding to Alister to show she felt confident they could make it work. She held up her hand. “Okay, we do need to work on this, but it’s more important that we find the dreadnought the humans landed here at the end of the war. We need cores, and the one Cora is using said that ship contains a way to build them. Do you know where it is?” she asked both Alister and Silva.
They looked at each other and shrugged. Alister said, “No, but I think I know who might.”
Silva nodded. “The Elders.”
“Pixie elders?” Sara asked.
Silva nodded, but it was Alister who answered. “At the capital. They keep records all the way back to the beginning of our time on Earth. If anyone knows where that ship is, it will be them.”
“Great! Let’s go. Where is it?” Sara asked excitedly. I wonder what a pixie city looks like. How has no one found it in all this time? It’s probably magic. I’m going with magic, she decided.
“It’s in Atlantis,” Silva said, smiling at Sara's slack-jawed expression.
12
Grimms sat in the captain’s ready room just off the bridge, sipping at a cup of hot, black coffee. They were still an hour or so away from Cora's first test, and he was taking a break from all the UHF scientists that were crawling all over his bridge. They were in everyone’s way, setting up monitors and taking readings and doing whatever else scientists did. All he knew was that his patience was running thin; he just wanted to get the test underway.
“How are you holding up, Commander?” Cora asked through the room’s speakers.
Grimms gave a grumpy smile. “Oh, just peachy, Captain. Nothing like what you must be going through, though, having them all poking and prodding at you like you’re a lab rat.”
Cora laughed. “It’s not like they’re climbing into my tank. I can ignore them most of the time. To tell you the truth, I’ve been catching up on my TV shows.”
Grimms cocked his head. “You can watch TV in there?” he asked, surprised the activity would be an option for her.
“Oh, yes. I can access pretty much anything that has to do with electronics. I have to do something to pass the time, while these scientists set up their equipment and argue over how best to gauge the tests. I only sleep for a few minutes every couple of hours, so I have a lot of down time,” she mused. “I’ve been going over the core’s data, but there is so much… I need to take breaks. The history of humanity is, well, long,” she said with a smile.
Grimms grunted his assent. “Any more info on the core design? We’re going to be dead in the water if we can't provide cores for the ships the Navy has started building from the new plans.”
“Sara and Boon are working on it. They’re done with the debriefings, and have had a little time to collect their thoughts. She said she would update me when she found something. In her classic, cryptic fashion, she said they had ‘a lead’, as if she were some detective from an old movie,” she said, the eyeroll obvious in her voice.
Grimms could feel she wanted to say more, so he stayed quiet.
Eventually, Cora continued. “I don't know what to do with her sometimes. She’s brilliant, but she’s always hiding things she thinks I’ll disapprove of, so I don't have any clue if she’s heading into danger or not.”
Grimms considered her assessment. He respected Sara as a captain, and her willingness to fight for her people made him swell with admiration, but Cora was right in some respects. Sara did play her cards a little too close to the vest for his liking. She was a captain of a warship—it was his opinion that she needed to keep her people more informed of her plans.
“I feel the same way,” he finally agreed. “Which is why I have Baxter looking out for her.” He took a sip from his mug.
“You sent Baxter to follow her? She’s not going to like that,” Cora said, a little shocked at the bold move. “Actually,” she chuckled, “she might like it just fine, if their last interaction was a clue.”
Mezner stuck her head in the ready room’s door. “Sir, they’re ready for you.”
“Thank you, Ensign. I’m on my way.” Grimms downed the rest of his coffee, almost choking on the hot liquid, before placing the mug in the coffee bar’s dish recycler. “You ready, Captain?”
“I’ve been ready since I woke up on that moon over Colony 788. Let’s get this started,” Cora said enthusiastically.
Grimms stepped out onto the bridge and made his way to the projection table between the front view screen and Sara's command ring. A holo projection of the surrounding star systems rotated slowly, with a golden icon hanging over the Sol System, indicating the Raven’s position.
Dr. Hess stepped up beside him and gave him a nod. The Elif doctor had been given a position on the assessment team due to his knowledge of ancient human ship designs and culture. He was working with Dr. Romis, his colleague—and his lover, if the rumors were to be believed—along with several human scientists that had come aboard for the tests.
“Dr. Hess, I hear you’re ready to begin?”
The tall, middle-aged Elif gave a nod, tugging at one of his ear tips. “Ready as we can be. I want to start with this new jumping ability Cora h
as been talking about.”
Grimms nodded. He wanted to try it out, as well. From what Cora had described, it was a little like warp, but without all the pesky traveling between locations. She would be able to jump instantaneously from one location to another—not for long distances, compared to the vastness of space, but it would still grant them a huge advantage in battle.
“Will we need to provide coordinates?” Grimms asked, and it took Dr. Hess a moment to realize he was talking to Cora.
“No, I don’t need to be accurate. In battle, I’ll need Sara to guide me to exact positions and headings, but for this test, I’m just going to point toward empty space,” Cora said.
“All right. Doctor, are you recording or whatever it is you are doing?” Grimms asked, turning to Dr. Hess.
“We are ready, Commander.”
“Cora. You have the conn. Take us out at your leisure,” Grimms said, zooming in the projection to show only the Sol System and their golden icon in high Earth orbit.
They had come out past the moon’s orbit, and were positioned far from any other ship, just in case. There were a few probes monitoring outside the ship to determine what impact the jump would have on the space around them.
“Three, two, one,” Cora counted down softly, her voice flat with concentration.
Grimms waited a beat, but felt nothing. He looked around the room and saw a few other baffled faces.
“Oh, by the Seven,” Dr. Hess breathed.
Grimms noticed that he was closely observing the holo display. When Grimms took a closer look himself, he saw that they were halfway across the Sol System, out around the orbit of Jupiter.
“Well, that was intense,” Cora gushed, sounding a little giddy. “I pushed it pretty hard on that one. My Aether well took a big hit, so I wouldn't recommend a jump that far if we’re going into battle. I don't think I could charge an Aether cannon for a few minutes afterward.”
Connors spoke up from the helm. “I have us at just over a billion kilometers from our starting position, sir.”
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