Maiden Voyage_Star Magi Saga_Prequel

by Andrew Dobell

  ‘He’s here,’ Luxana said, looking down at the small planet below them. It was very Earth-like, apart from the shape of the continents, and the sensors showed what appeared to be a medieval society of humans. Amanda also noticed what appeared to be a long-deactivated warp gate in orbit around the planet.

  They had just arrived here following a lengthy trip through the furthest reaches of the galaxy and were seeing what the sensors could pick up.

  ‘You know, I always thought that all the planets out here would be scientifically advanced,’ Amanda said.

  ‘The galaxy is vast, and there are countless lost civilisations out there. Planets where people were stranded or abandoned. Or maybe they grew fed up with the society around them and wanted to start fresh; there are whole sectors of the galaxy with societies that are quite different to Earth or the Nexus Arcadia.’

  ‘I’m just beginning to realise that,’ she said. ‘So, have you found Kade?’ Amanda asked, looking down at the planet.

  ‘I have, it was easy,’ Lux said and worked the console. She was clearly keen to head down there as soon as she could. The ship scanned the surface for Magic and energy signatures, and within moments, found several, although one stood out. It was deep below the ocean and seemed to be within something metallic that gave off a range of electromagnetic energy signatures. Amanda sensed Lux reach out with her Magic until, moments later, she cancelled the effect and looked up at her. ‘It’s him. I’d recognise that energy signature anywhere. I’m going down there now.’

  ‘But what about Astrid?’ Amanda asked, knowing that she was following on behind them and would be here soon.

  ‘She can join us when she gets here. Are you coming?’

  Amanda shrugged and nodded. Before she could say much more, Lux worked her Magic and reached out to Amanda as well. She didn’t resist and let Lux Port them both from the ship. They appeared at the bottom of the ocean, in a bubble of air that Lux had apparently created with her Magic. They were standing on the damp rocky ground, looking out through the darkness, beyond the edge of the bubble of water, at a huge Aetheric Craft embedded in the side of a cliff.

  With her Aetheric sight, Amanda could clearly see the Aegis that surrounded the ship. It was a strong looking Magical shield, but she felt quite confident that she could get through it without much difficulty. With Lux here as well, it really wouldn’t be a big problem.

  Before she attacked the shield, Amanda worked her Crux Magic and whipped up another shield around them and the ship, encompassing it and its Aegis as well, meaning that Kade, should he be in here, would not be able to Port quickly out at the first sign of attack.

  ‘Ready?’ Lux asked, Essentia flaring all around her as she readied her attacks.

  ‘Ready,’ Amanda said, gathering more Essentia to her in the same way, before she released it in a powerful spike at the Aegis around the ship at the same time as Lux attacked with hers.

  The Aegis before them groaned under the onslaught as Amanda threw a constant stream of Magical energy at the shield, breaking it down and cracking it like an egg. Another couple of seconds and the Aegis split before disintegrating entirely.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Lux said, and her Essentia flared once more, taking Amanda with her. They appeared inside a darkened corridor on the inside of the Aetheric Craft. Everything was black metal or muted red with blue lights casting ominous shadows across the walls.

  Amanda looked around her, not really seeing an obvious way to go, and looked over to Lux. With Lux’s light blonde hair over her black outfit, and her own white stealth suit and crimson hair, they weren’t going to blend into the background.

  ‘Which way?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘No idea,’ Lux said, her face set and determined. ‘Let’s see what we can find down here,’ she added and started to make her way up the corridor. Amanda followed, peering down the side corridors as they went, looking for any hint of Kade’s presence.

  Over the years, Amanda had fought and sometimes killed too many Nomads to count. It was a strange thing to think about, really, knowing you had killed people. But Amanda knew that it was all for the greater good. The Nomads were killers on a much grander scale, and if you let them live, you knew you were endangering the lives of people, Magi and Riven alike. It was nearly always better to kill them and save the lives of their future victims in the process.

  The girls walked through several passageways, passing by side corridors and various rooms of all kinds until the passage they were in came to an end and opened up into what Amanda guessed might be the bridge of the ship. Consoles lined the walls and rose up from the floor at various points, or were arrayed around load-bearing metal girders or other bits of machinery and equipment.

  As they walked into the room, Amanda quickly saw a single figure standing at the far end of the room, working on one of the consoles. Lux saw him, too, and strode towards him.

  ‘Kade!’ she called out as she approached.

  ‘I knew you’d find me eventually,’ Kade answered without looking around.

  Lux came to a stop a short distance from the Nomad, her fists clenched and her posture tense. Amanda could almost feel the anger and hate bleeding off her.

  ‘Face me,’ Lux barked at him.

  Kade seemed to sigh before he turned around and looked at her, and then glanced at Amanda. ‘Takes two of you, does it?’

  ‘It’s called having a friend, you scum. Not that you’d understand the concept,’ Lux mocked him.

  ‘Resorting to insults now, are we?’ Kade asked.

  Lux didn’t answer. Instead, there was silence for a moment, until she lifted a hand and Essentia surged. Lux’s Magic lashed out with powerful Essentia Strikes mixed in with flashes of lightning that shot across the room and slammed into the Nomad.

  Kade’s Aegis flared in Amanda’s Aetheric sight as Lux’s Magic struck it while the force of her attacks threw him back into the console. Magical energy rushed through Kade as well as he got up off the smashed console and threw Essentia Strikes of his own back at Lux.

  Amanda worked her Magic, keen not to be left out, and sent in a barrage of attacks of her own that hammered on the Nomad’s Magical shield, making it hiss and spark as their streams of energy interacted.

  Kade put up a valiant fight, but Lux was a capable Magus, and between them, the Nomad didn’t really stand much of a chance. Under their onslaught, Kade’s Aegis eventually buckled, cracked, and then fell away, allowing the attacks that Amanda and Lux were throwing to hit him directly. Within moments, Kade dropped to the floor, his life essence fading from his smouldering corpse as the Magic the girls had used faded away. The pair of them were left standing over the body of the Nomad, looking down at him with only the loss of their friend to think about.

  ‘It often feels like such a waste, you know, killing the killer,’ Amanda mused, half to herself and not really expecting an answer from Lux.

  ‘I can’t believe he’s gone,’ Lux said, referring to Cyrac. ‘He was more than just my apprentice, you know? He was my friend.’

  ‘I know,’ Amanda said, knowing there was little she could say to alleviate her pain. So, instead, Amanda said nothing more and let the silence hang in the air between them. Glancing up at her, Lux seemed to be deep in thought, as though she was thinking something through.

  ‘I’m going to need some time,’ Lux said eventually. Amanda nodded, knowing that the loss of someone you were close to was never an easy thing to deal with. ‘I might stay here, actually.’

  ‘Sure, take all the… what? You mean, on this planet?’ Amanda asked, feeling a little surprised. She’d thought Lux would at least return with her back to Earth to grieve.

  ‘Why not? We’re far enough away from everyone else out here,’ Lux explained. Amanda nodded slightly, she wasn’t wrong.

  ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘I’ve had enough of these constant fights against the Nomads and losing people I’m close to. I need to have some time away from all
that,’ Lux continued.

  Amanda nodded. She understood. It seemed like her life had been one fight after another ever since her own Epiphany.

  ‘Tell Astrid, please?’ Lux asked.

  ‘I will,’ Amanda assured her. ‘She might be here by now, you can tell her yourself.’

  Lux shrugged. ‘Want to get out of here?’

  Amanda nodded. ‘Most definitely.’

  Lux’s Magic rushed through them once more, and suddenly they were standing back on the Arkady’s bridge, high above the planet's surface.

  ‘Thank you for coming to help me,’ Lux said with a smile.

  Amanda smiled back as she mentally checked the ship’s logs to see if she’d missed anything. ‘Any time,’ she said. ‘So, you’re going to head back down there and make a life for yourself?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘I am, yes, and you know what? It feels wonderful. It’s strange; it’s like the feeling of a huge weight being lifted from my mind. I’m finally getting away from it all to actually do some living. This world is perfect for it. There’s no Magic here, no Magi that I can see. It’s a clean break.’

  ‘I honestly hope it’s everything you need it to be,’ Amanda said. ‘But I’m going to leave a series of relays between here and Sol. I want you to be able to reach out to me if you choose to leave, or if you need Astrid or me for anything,’ she said. Moving to a nearby rack, she pulled a device off of it that glowed with Essentia in her Aetheric sight. She handed it to Lux, who eyed it curiously. To the naked eye, it looked like a suitably futuristic communications device, complete with a central button to press. ‘You can send the usual Mental Link through this, and it will get a message to me back in Sol, or just press the button and talk, either works fine.’

  In her head, the ship's core alerted her that another Aetheric Craft had just dropped out of Flux and was swiftly closing on their position. Amanda reviewed the feed that the ship was sending her and recognised Astrid’s craft as it eased into place close to the Arkady.

  ‘Astrid’s here,’ Amanda said, looking up at Lux.

  ‘I noticed,’ Lux answered, as a pulse of Essentia flared in Amanda’s mind. She opened the Link.

  ~Permission to come aboard,~ Astrid asked telepathically.

  Amanda smiled for a moment, realising she was the captain of a starship. ~Permission granted,~ she replied, mimicking Astrid’s formal tone in her mental voice as she lowered the ship’s Aegis.

  Essentia flared, and with a whip-crack of displaced air, a blue-haired woman in a black and grey stealth suit suddenly stood on the bridge, a short distance from Amanda and Lux.

  ‘Am I too late?’ she asked.

  ‘Sorry,’ Lux answered.

  ‘You only just missed out,’ Amanda joined in.

  ‘But... you got him?’ Astrid inquired.

  Lux nodded.

  ‘We did, he’s dead,’ Amanda confirmed.

  Astrid visibly relaxed and shifted into a less tense pose. ‘Well, I’m sorry to have missed the party, but, at least, the idiot got what was coming to him,’ she said, moving towards Lux and reaching out to her. ‘I’m so sorry you had this happen to you,’ she said as Lux moved and let Astrid hug her.

  ‘That’s okay, and thanks,’ Lux said.

  ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’

  ‘No,’ Lux answered her. ‘I am going to be staying here, though, for a little while, at least.’

  ‘You’re staying here? On this planet?’ Astrid asked, pulling back from Lux.

  ‘I need some time to myself, Astrid. I need to get away from the madness for a bit, you know?’

  Astrid sighed and stepped away from Lux before looking at her, her hands-on Lux’s shoulders. ‘If that’s what you want to do,’ Astrid said.

  ‘It is,’ Lux said. It sounded like she wanted to explain further, but it really wasn’t needed. Amanda understood the need to get away perfectly and guessed that Astrid did as well. She wouldn’t hold it against her, and she couldn’t see Astrid being angry about it. Instead, there was a feeling of support in the room for Lux’s choice.

  Before long, Lux had Ported down to the planet’s surface, and the first of the Link relays was in place with the ship programmed to drop the rest of them as it returned to Earth. As Amanda entered the last of the commands into the ship's core, Astrid stepped away from the main viewport and wandered up to her.

  ‘Do you think she’ll be alright?’ Astrid asked.

  ‘I think she’ll be fine,’ Amanda answered, looking up at Astrid. Cocking her head to one side, Amanda looked at the woman for a moment. ‘Will you be alright?’

  ‘Me? Oh, sure, don’t worry about me,’ Astrid said, waving her hand as if to dismiss the question. ‘Well, I’ll get out of your hair for now. I’ll swing by Earth when I get back and we can talk more then. I presume that’s where you’re going?’

  Amanda nodded. ‘I am. Okay, sure thing, that’ll be grand, I’ll see you soon,’ she said, as Astrid Ported away from Amanda’s ship, and moments later, Astrid’s craft banked away from the Arkady and warped away as it’s Flux drive flared into life, leaving Amanda alone, hovering above the planet below.

  Well, she thought, this has certainly been a slightly more eventful beginning to my exploration of the galaxy than I expected, but, when there are Nomads out there, life is never going to be dull, is it? She looked at the planet below through the viewport, knowing that Lux was down there somewhere now, looking for a place to start her new life. She wondered if she’d ever see her again.

  She lost a few minutes just staring out of the window, enjoying the view and letting her mind wander as she thought back through her visit to Axia and the Red City. Her world had grown so much these last few months. No longer was there just the Magi of Earth and the war between the Arcadians and Nomads, a war that seemed quite small by comparison to the vast interstellar empires that were out here.

  As she watched, something huge and dark shot out of the darkness, like an Aetheric Craft dropping out of Flux. It lay between her and the bright blues and greens of the planet below as her sensors beeped on the nearby consoles. As she watched, huge bat-like wings unfurled from its body, and with a beat of those massive wings, the thing rose up and turned towards the Arkady.

  Amanda’s Magically enhanced eyes could pick out the details of the thing quite easily, but her mind resisted accepting the reality of what she saw for a moment until it grew closer and there really was no misunderstanding what she was seeing.

  It was a dragon.

  A massive black dragon and it was flying in space. As she watched with her Aetheric sight, she could see the beast’s wings were disturbing the Essentia all around it in the same way that they would disturb air in an atmosphere.

  The dragon was flying through the void and using the Essentia to propel itself.

  Amanda suddenly realised her mouth was hanging open, so she closed it, swallowing her shock and blinking as the thing roared soundlessly as it approached.

  Magic flared around the beast for a moment, but Amanda wasn’t sure what the Magic was about as it faded from view.

  Snapping herself back to reality with a shake of her head, she connected her mind to the core of the ship before returning to her seat and moving the vessel away from the creature.

  The dragon was close now and as she passed by it, banking to her left, it roared once more, but this time, Magical fire rushed out at the Arkady and splashed over the ship’s Aegis, making the Arkady shudder as if it had passed through some turbulence.

  The ship's shields had taken a surprising amount of damage from the dragon’s breath, which was a little worrying, so Amanda boosted the Arkady away and was about to drop into Flux when she thought back to the planet below and Lux.

  She couldn’t warp away from here and leave the dragon behind. What if it attacked the planet? No, she needed to lead it away. The dragon seemed to be having no trouble keeping up with the ship as she fired its Pulse Drive to boost out of orbit, so Amanda eased the Displacement Drive up
and moved the Arkady a little faster. She glanced at the holographic screen beside her chair that showed a rear view of the dragon, and sure enough, as the Arkady pulled away, the dragon beat its wings, appearing to put more effort into it, and suddenly the dragon was catching up with her again.

  ‘Holy crap,’ she cursed to herself. Amanda sped the ship up as she banked it around one of the system’s ringed gas giants. The Arkady was exceeding the speed of light by several times, and still the dragon stayed on her tail, its enormous wings beating in an almost languid fashion.

  She’d seen werewolves and vampires and other creatures plenty of times before, but she’d never seen a dragon, and certainly not one that could fly in the void of space. She supposed it wasn’t terribly surprising, given the crazy things that she and the rest of the Magi population of the galaxy were capable of, but still, she couldn’t help but feel a little surprised by it.

  As they boosted out of the system entirely, Amanda hoped that now would be as safe a time as any to bring the Flux Drive online and get out of there for good. She lay in a course for a random point in the Nexus Arcadia territory of the galaxy and hoped that this would finally let her escape the dragon. The Flux Drive fired up, and the ship dropped into warp, the surrounding stars lengthening into streaks of light as if the ship were barrelling through a tunnel of blue light.

  Looking behind her, she saw no sign that the dragon was following her. She waited a few more minutes, but it seemed that she really had finally escaped it.

  She sat back in her chair and breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘Well, that was a little crazy,’ she said to herself as the ship hummed around her. She sat there for a while, thinking about this latest development and what it might mean going forward. If there were dragons out in space, what else might there be?

  She almost dared not think about it too much. She checked her course and the waypoint where she was due to drop out of Flux, making a slight adjustment to her trajectory before warping for Earth.

  She had a long trip ahead of her.