Spectra's Gambit

by Vincent Trigili

  “Nanny, they would like to meet Nemesis,” I said, rescuing Spectra from what I knew she felt to be an awkward moment.

  “Of course! After you left, I found a common room on this vessel. It’s not fitting for present company, but I cleaned it up the best I could” After that she was gone.

  “I guess we should head to the common room?” I asked.

  Spectra chuckled. “Yes.”

  Once on board I could feel Nemesis watching us, but he did not come out at all. We gathered around a table in some comfortable chairs and talked with Nanny for a brief while.

  “I think we will have to call Nemesis in. He is watching, but playing shy,” sent Spectra over our private telepathic network.

  “Go for it,” sent Master Kellyn.

  “Nemesis, please join us. Perhaps you could use the viewing screen,” suggested Spectra.

  There was silence for a while, and then a voice over the comm. system said, “Hi.”

  Master Kellyn replied, “Nemesis, I am Master Kellyn. I am honored to finally meet you.”

  “Master Kellyn? Is this the one you told me about, Master Spectra?” asked Nemesis.

  “Yes, and Shea is here, too,” said Spectra.

  “Do you mind if I scan you and add you to my memory so I can recognize you next time?” asked Nemesis.

  “Go ahead,” said Master Kellyn.

  They talked for a while with both Shea and Master Kellyn asking questions from time to time and Nanny occasionally piping in to help Nemesis out. He did not seem to have any knowledge of anything before he came onto this ship.

  “Okay, I have seen enough for now. Let’s retire back to the station for now,” sent Master Kellyn.

  “Nemesis, we have to go for a while. We will be back, and Nanny will stay with you, okay?” said Spectra.

  “Please hurry back,” said Nemesis.

  “Oh, he’ll be fine. You kids run off and take care of whatever it is you need to and I will see if I can find something passable for dinner later,” said Nanny.

  “Sounds like we have dinner plans,” I said with a chuckle.

  Spectra just shook her head and we disembarked. Once in a secure conference room on the station Spectra said, “Master Kellyn, what do you think?” Her tone was a bit nervous. I was sure no one else could tell, but I had grown good at reading her over the years. What I couldn’t tell was why she was nervous.

  “Well, Spectra, I agree with your original report. Nemesis is bound to that ship, making it alive in a way. I am not sure where he came from or how he became bound.”

  “Masters, he is, or rather was, a Shapeless,” said Shea.

  “A Shapeless?” I asked.

  “Yes, raw spirit energy that has never been bound. They float around until they can find something to bind with. Usually it's a statue or other inanimate object. Once they do that, they take on the characteristics of that object and usually wreak havoc until they are destroyed,” said Shea.

  “Destroyed?” said Spectra.

  “Yes. Typically they develop a hatred of all life of any kind and go on a rampage, but Nemesis is different in that regard. I don’t understand why,” said Shea.

  “But we can’t just destroy him!” said Spectra.

  “No, we can’t,” said Master Kellyn.

  “Oh, no, I am not suggesting we should. I just don’t understand how all this happened. He seems to have not only bonded with the ship, but also with you two,” said Shea.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Master, at this point you and Master Spectra are effectively his parents,” said Shea. “At least he sees you that way. He is picking up on your personality traits.”

  “What do you suggest we do?” asked Master Kellyn.

  “Master, we do not really have much choice. We either set him free to find his own way, or we have Spectra and Dusty raise him as their child,” said Shea.

  “We can’t send him away!” said Spectra.

  “Then it is settled. We will keep him for now and see where this goes. I suggest you move your team onto Nemesis full-time and train him up as one of our own. I will send a team of our best engineers out to see what we can do about upgrading him to something more in line with our technology,” said Master Kellyn. “Maybe in a week or two, to give you time to work with him some more before the refitting.”

  “Will it hurt him?” I asked.

  “It might,” said Shea. “But we can turn him off, or isolate systems as we work on them. It’s not very different from treating a living person. I will be on hand to make sure it is as gentle as possible.”

  “I will make your quarters on the ship private before I leave so you will have some time alone without him,” said Master Kellyn. “Meanwhile, do not forget your mission. An entire race is depending on you.”

  Chapter Eight

  The next morning we had breakfast with our team on the station to brief them on Nemesis before we all moved onto the ship. When I had brought everyone up to date, Jade asked, “So, Master Dusty, if I understand you right, we are basically to treat this spirit as we would a brand new student?”

  “Yes, I guess that will work,” I said. “Mainly, the key is to make sure it ends up being a good spirit, otherwise we could have a very serious problem on our hands.”

  “In a couple of weeks, once we have established a good rapport with Nemesis, engineers from home will use the new gate to bring out tools and equipment and upgrade Nemesis’ hardware to something more like what we’re used to dealing with,” said Spectra.

  The way she said that produced a random thought in my head. “You know, magic seems to be getting weaker as it stabilizes.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Spectra.

  “Well, take gating, for example: it used to take only one gate to transport across great distances, and now it requires two fixed gates. Or teleportation: advanced journeymen wizards like Flame and Master Shadow used to be able to teleport without clear line-of-sight, but now even they need it,” I said.

  “Since the sealing of the weave and the destruction of the tables, the laws of reality are settling back down and order is being restored,” she said. “Magic is improving.”

  “Improving?” I asked.

  “I was talking with Mantis about this before we left on our honeymoon. He pointed out that we were extraordinarily lucky not to have more magical accidents than we did. For a period there when the weave was healing, there was an element of chaos in all magic,” she said.

  “Sure, we’ve all heard the tales of spells going wild, though I have never seen any first-hand, but how does that explain the fact it’s getting weaker?” I asked.

  “Well, it is not getting weaker. It is stabilizing and in a sense becoming stronger, or at least safer. Take teleportation, for example. When a magus teleports they are essentially converted to energy, beamed a set distance, and then converted back into a magus. In a chaotic system, you could randomly bounce around and, with enough skill, end up in the right place. In a stable system you travel in a line and don’t have to worry about materializing in a wall,” she said.

  “If that was such a danger, why did we not hear about it more often?” I asked.

  “We did, but mostly in the early days, before the Academy was opened. By the time you and I were climbing the ranks in the Academy magic had stabilized quite a lot, and we were taught the tools we needed in order to reduce the chances of tapping into that chaos effect. The combination of both helped reduce the odds of error,” she said.

  “I suppose so. I wonder how many more changes we will face when all is said and done?” asked Jade.

  “No one knows, but I think all the dramatic ones are behind us,” said Spectra.

  “Still, it seems like it would give a magus an advantage if they could still somehow tap that element of chaos,” mused Jade.

  “There is only one thing more hated among wizards than spiritual magic, and that is chaos magic. Even the sorcer
ers shun it,” said Spectra.

  “Chaos magic?” asked Jade.

  “Yes. It is exceedingly rare, even more rare than spellweaving, but occasionally a magus is born with the ability to introduce error and instability into reality. They can deliberately do things like the ricochet teleport, but it is by far the most dangerous of all the arts. Of those born with this skill, almost none live long enough to make much of it. So in a sense all magi during the early days of magic worked chaos magic, but without knowing or understanding it,” said Spectra.

  The look on Jade’s face made me suspect he was thinking about trying chaos magic himself, so I decided I had better get us back on course. “Now, we must not lose sight of why we are out here. An entire race of people depends on us staying focused on our core mission. While we need to train Nemesis, we cannot make that our only focus.”

  “Also, while we are out here, we are free from any restriction on learning spiritual magic. I want us to prove to the others that we can use our powers without turning into necromancers. Dusty and I will teach you the spiritualist spell line, and I want you to do your best to focus all your study time on that spell line. We will save the Cathratinairians and prove ourselves at the same time,” said Spectra.

  “Why does anyone want to kill them off anyway?” asked Kymberly.

  “That’s a great question, but right now no one knows the answer. I think we will have to figure that out if we are to have a chance to find and stop them,” said Spectra.

  “Let’s move this conversation onto the Nemesis,” I said. I wanted Nemesis to hear us working to save a race. I felt it would be a good example of how we band together to help each other.

  “Great idea,” said Spectra.

  After cleaning up from breakfast we all walked down to the hangar where Nemesis was parked. Nanny met us as we approached and said, “Oh! You brought some more of your friends by! How wonderful!”

  “Nanny, this is our team. We will all be living on board now,” said Spectra and introduced everyone.

  “Living on board? Then you won’t need me to watch over Nemesis anymore?” Nanny asked with sadness in her voice.

  “Oh, no, please stay! We would be glad to have your help with him,” said Spectra.

  Nanny brightened back up and said, “Well then, let’s get everyone on board and find quarters!”

  I chuckled as Nanny took over the situation. She got everyone on board and did the introductions to Nemesis flawlessly. She was unquestionably a great help, which left me wondering. “Spectra, where has she been all these years?” I sent to Spectra privately.

  “Who? Nanny?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I sent.

  “Well, I am not sure. I think in the Spirit Realm. To be honest, I don’t remember much about her coming or going from my life, but she contacted me a few weeks ago. She wanted to know how I was doing and all that. I think she was getting nostalgic. So when we met up with Nemesis and I realized he would need someone to take care of him, I summoned her,” she sent back.

  “She is great, and I think she will be a big help to us. How long can she stay?” I asked.

  “Until I dismiss her,” sent Spectra.

  “Do we need to pay her anything?” I asked.

  “No, silly,” sent Spectra. “She is a summoned creature.”

  “That seems unfair. Can we not pay her with something?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I never gave it any thought before. I will do some research and get back to you on that,” she sent.

  We spent the next two weeks poring over all the historical documents that still existed regarding the virus and the Cathratinairians. We extensively interviewed every member of the race who was currently awake and consulted with Shea, who moved to the station to help monitor Nemesis’ development and prepare for his upgrades. It seemed that since the outbreak of the virus not much work had been done over the decades to find the source. With all the remaining Cathratinairians in suspended animation, there was no concern over the virus spreading, and the collapse of the Empire had slowed, and even partly reversed, the advancement of medical knowledge, so the patients were just left to wait.

  We were in our daily morning meeting recapping what we knew so far about the virus when Spectra suddenly called out, “Lice!”

  “What?” I asked.

  “That’s it! Don’t you see … oh, no! We have to talk with Doctor Leslie right away!” she said.

  “Well, okay, but …” I began.

  “No time! Let’s meet them in Doctor Hawthorne’s office!” she said as she grabbed my arm and rushed us off the ship.

  “Jade, Kymberly, Saraphym: take the morning off,” I sent. “We will call you if anything comes up.”

  While we ran, I sent a telepathic message to Doctor Leslie asking her to get Doctor Hawthorne and meet us in his office. Once we all arrived, Spectra pulled up some historical reports and said, “This is the model you gave us for the spread of infection based on historical accounts.”

  “Yes, and it should be fairly accurate, as record-keeping at that time was excellent,” said Doctor Hawthorne.

  “True, but it is limited to reports of symptoms, correct?” asked Spectra.

  “Yes,” he answered.

  “You told us that you believe the virus had a long dormant period before symptoms set in, right?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he answered.

  “So, this model actually starts at some point after the infection has already begun spreading through the race,” said Spectra.

  “Correct, but we have no knowledge of the delivery mechanism, so that is the best we can do,” said Doctor Hawthorne.

  “Lice!” said Spectra.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “Unlike most races the Cathratinairians are completely covered in fur, and therefore have to deal with an annoying parasitic bug which we call lice. My race has the same problem; these tiny little blood-sucking creatures burrow deep in your fur and breed. What if infected lice were introduced into all the major population centers on their planet? The Cathratinairians are notoriously tribal; that is, they packed themselves tightly into a few cities where lice was a constant problem,” she answered.

  “You might be on to something,” said Doctor Leslie. “Let me put a random distribution of infected lice into the computer and see what it would take to create a spread like that which occured.”

  While she worked on that I asked, “But why the rush over here?”

  “Because the Cathratinairians may be carrying infected lice, or more likely lice eggs, on them and that might cause a new outbreak of the virus,” said Doctor Hawthorne.

  “Exactly!” said Spectra. “We might be waking them up and curing them just so that they can be re-infected later.”

  “So, the bad guys infect some lice and insert it into the population centers, and the lice infect the Cathratinairians, but would that mean the lice would be killed off, too?” I asked.

  “No, they are carriers only. The virus would not infect them,” said Spectra.

  “Ingenious, really. While the virus definitely could spread through the air, having an additional infection vector of lice gives them more options. If the infection slowed down for some reason, they could introduce more lice or other carriers to help it along, especially since the virus would not be a danger for any non-Cathratinairian that might be transporting the infected creatures,” said Doctor Hawthorne.

  “It works,” said Doctor Leslie.

  “What?” I asked.

  “If I use a multi-year dormancy and put infected lice in every city, the predicted spread pattern loosely matches what the historical reports say we saw,” said Doctor Leslie. “It is a far better match than aerosol alone.”

  “Then if you will excuse me, I’d better get someone checking all the Cathratinairians for lice, and testing it for infection,” said Doctor Hawthorne.

  “Wait; start with me,” said Spectra. “Since I am c
overed in similar fur, and I have spent time with them, it’s possible I might have picked up some lice.”

  “Good idea, but we will have to check everyone on the station. Lice travels in human hair, too,” said Doctor Leslie as she ran her fingers through her long, full head of hair.

  “But so many people have come and gone. If the lice are carrying it, then it could be out there already,” I said.

  “Yes, which means we need to redouble our efforts at a vaccine; but before we panic, let’s see if we have a problem or not,” said Doctor Hawthorne.

  Chapter Nine

  Far from where Spectra, Dusty and the others were beginning lice inspections, an older gentleman dressed in the clothes of a successful businessman was seated at a desk working on a computer terminal. The office was an ultramodern affair with view ports scattered on various walls, showing different idyllic scenes that could not all be from the same planet. The entire office had the feel of being perfectly planned out. Every piece of furniture, every plant and light seemed to be placed in precisely the best spot.

  The old man sat there completely focused on his work, but then for no apparent reason he stood and made a gesture in the air, which caused all the view ports to turn off. “Enter,” he said.

  A rather plain-looking human with steel-grey eyes entered through the doorway and stood before him in silence.

  “Speak,” said the old man.

  “Henrick, it has come to our attention that Spectra has left the Wizard Kingdom,” said the steely-eyed man.

  “Finally!” said Henrick. “Where has she gone?”

  “Clear across the galaxy, it seems. Our spy did not know why, but Spectra, Dusty and some others have been seen in the Phareon System,” said the steely-eyed man.

  “Phareon? That must be at least a hundred thousand light years from home for them. What are they doing?”

  “They recently purchased a stealth cruiser from a local merchant and are staying at a neutral hospital station. The locals have believed the hospital to be a wizard outpost for some time now, but this seems to confirm it,” he said.

  Henrick walked over to his view port and clasped his hands behind his back. For a long time he was still while the steel-eyed man waited. Time seemed to stand still as neither of them moved at all. Finally Henrick broke the silence. “After all this time I had almost given up hope that she would work out.”