Spectra's Gambit

by Vincent Trigili

  Nothing exciting was happening, and I was considering changing our location when another human walked in and said, “Jashier, sir, the station has deployed a second wave and now matches our numbers.”

  “That is not possible,” responded Jashier. “That first wave should have emptied the station completely.”

  The man who had entered touched the display, and it changed to show the position of the fleet and all the defenders. “It is all Class Four tech, sir.”

  When the Empire had fallen, there had been a general regression in the level of technology. The attackers’ fleet was mainly what had become known as Class Three tech, which was one generation of technology removed from the Empire, which was arbitrarily labeled Class Four. Some of the more remote areas had fallen to Class Two or even Class One. A full battle fleet of Class Four tech had not been seen since shortly after the Great War.

  “That is not possible!” roared Jashier. “How could they have anticipated our movements and assembled this much firepower in time?”

  I watched on the screen as the attacking fleet was beaten back. The defenders’ craft were superior to the attackers’ and had the support of the station. The attackers would be wise to turn tail and retreat now.

  “Shall we retreat?” asked the man.

  “No! We will destroy them yet. Deploy the penetration troops and take that station down from the inside. Then move the fleet out of range of the station’s weapons array. Concentrate our attacks on their lines of communication.”

  “Yes, sir,” said the man.

  “We’d best get that datapad and get off this ship,” I sent.

  “You don’t think they can win?” she asked.

  “Whoever that Jashier is, he is a fool. He is outgunned and outmaneuvered. A wise leader would retreat to fight another day. Instead, he will lead these men to their death.”

  We made haste back to where the datapad was hidden and retrieved it. From there we slipped off into space, ditching the uniforms in the exhaust tunnel where they would be destroyed by the extreme heat. As we flew away from the command vessel, the battle raged all around us. The energies flying about were almost intoxicating just to look at.

  A quick look at Saraphym reminded me that she was not yet ready for this level of temptation. I guided her out of the battle to a safer place where we could watch the fight play out. The battle was heavily one-sided, and I suspected that there was still at least one more wave of defenders to launch.

  “I don’t get it. He is savvy enough to get cyborgs and humans to work together and command two battle fleets, but too stupid to see he has lost this battle,” I sent.

  “Unless he never intended to win,” she sent back.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “My father taught me to ask unlikely questions when trying to figure out the motives of others. What if Jashier never intended to win this battle?” she asked.

  “Okay, that is a reasonable question; but then why fight it? What is his goal?” I asked.

  “I haven’t worked that out. Who is hurt most by a loss here?” she asked.

  “I would guess the cyborgs, since they make up the majority of the attacking force,” I sent. “Maybe that is his game: he is a double agent for the defenders?”

  “If so, that is one heck of a score for the defenders,” she sent.

  “Yeah, unbelievably good, but there is no doubt that he appears to want to lose this fight in the biggest way possible,” I sent.

  “What was his comment about a penetration team?” she asked.

  “I expect he means that he is sending some of the cyborg troops to board the station and try to take it over, or destroy it from the inside, while he draws the fight out here,” I sent.

  “So he thinks he can win that way, then?” she asked.

  “If so, he’s wrong. It will be just as much of a failure as his initial attack. You make a move like that after you force the station to launch most of its troops to defend, not while the station is still fully staffed and operational,” I sent back.

  We watched the fight take place below us. The plan was to link back up with the Nemesis a full day after we had left it. That should give them plenty of time to complete their missions and get out. It also had the nice side-effect of leaving me and Saraphym alone out here for a good long while.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  “How is it going, Chrimson?” asked Kymberly.

  “Looks like it’s done,” I sent and disconnected the datapad from the terminal. “Now we just have to get off the station before someone notices us.”

  “You mean like them?” asked Jade.

  “Hey! You there! What are you doing?” asked one of the station’s crewmen.

  “Nothing, sir,” I said. “Just routine checks.”

  “Guards!” he yelled and men came running.

  “I don’t think he believed me,” I sent.

  “Run, Chrimson!” sent Kymberly as the station guards moved in on our position.

  We were trapped in a tight junction. There was no way we could all get away, and it looked like Kymberly was going to sacrifice herself so that I could get away with the datapad.

  “Take this!” I tossed her the datapad and charged away from them, straight at the front line of the human guards. My massive body hit their line and sent them flying back out of the way.

  “Head to an airlock and jump out. We will hone in on your armor and pick you up,” sent Kymberly as she and Jade took advantage of the distraction I made to run in a different direction.

  I ducked my head and continued to run at full force down the hall as more guards appeared. It occurred to me that this was probably not the best plan, but it was the only one I could think of.

  Human voices cried out for me to halt, and blaster fire began to erupt around me. Amazingly, they seemed to be rather poor shots, as I had not been hit. It wasn’t long before my luck ran out and there was a sudden sharp pain in my leg as my armor absorbed a direct hit. I lost my balance and flew into the wall snout-first. As I tried to get back up I felt another blast hit me square in the back, slamming me back down, and my world faded from red to black.

  When I finally came to again, I was lying on the floor of a human-sized cell. My head was spinning, and my left leg did not want to work anymore. I tried to sit up, but I felt too lightheaded to move more than absolutely necessary.

  Focus, Chrimson! You need to keep your head about you! I thought to myself. Kymberly had instructed me to cooperate fully if I were ever captured, and not to worry; she promised that they would come to rescue me. I took a few deep breaths and lay there trying to determine how badly I was hurt.

  Eventually I was able to slide over to a wall and used it to prop myself up so that I could look around. My leg was a bloody mess, but the rest of me looked uninjured. Any attempt to move my leg sent a sharp spike of pain through my body and threatened to black me out again.

  “Chrimson, are you rational yet?” came Master Spectra’s voice in my head.

  “Master?” I sent back.

  “We have been waiting for you to wake up for a couple of hours now. We are nearby and will break you out soon,” she sent.

  “Thanks, Master, but I don’t think I can walk or move much at all,” I sent.

  “Now that you are awake, we can fix that. First, I want to deliver a message to these folk. Can you speak?” she asked.

  “I have not tried, Master,” I sent.

  “Get the guard’s attention and tell him I will be there in one hour to get you. Advise him that if he cooperates, we will let him live,” she sent.

  “Master, that seems unwise. He will just call for help,” I sent.

  “Which is exactly what I want him to do. They need to know that we are not to be messed with, and that it is not acceptable to throw one of us into prison, especially without proper medical care,” she sent. “We will make an example of this prison block right under the cameras so that eve
ryone will know we mean business.”

  I inched myself higher until I was sitting up properly and then called out, “Hey, you!” as loud as I could. I was relieved to find that both my voice and my hearing were working.

  I could see a guard sitting with his back to me at a desk, but he did not move. I yelled again but he still ignored me. I reached out with my power and removed the blaster from the holster at his side. It took a little effort, as I had to work the holster’s safety catch at the same time as pulling the gun out in the proper orientation, but this was one skill in which my former teachers had trained me. They wanted me to be able to disarm any target quickly.

  Once the blaster was free, I used my power to slam it into the force-field wall that sealed my cell. There was a loud crack, accompanied by a shower of sparks that seemed to go everywhere at once. The guard jumped out of his seat and turned to face me, his hand going to his empty holster.

  “I doubt if that gun will work anymore; sorry about that. Maybe next time you will look when you’re called,” I said.

  He came over to the wall and asked, “Why should I listen to a lizard scum like you?”

  “Because I have a message for you. In about an hour, Master Spectra will be here to take me home. If you want to live, you will stay out of the way.”

  “Right; she is just going to waltz into this maximum-security prison and walk out with you in tow? Not likely.”

  “Suit yourself. Honestly, I would prefer if she turned you into a zombie; then you might at least serve some use.”

  “You talk big for a cripple,” he said.

  It was a strain on what was left of my energy, but I reached out and picked up his chair with my telekinesis and tossed it into the force field right next to him. He sprang back as a shower of sparks rained down on him. “I could do the same to you at any time, but Master Spectra wants to give you a chance to live. It’s up to you what you do with it.” I was bluffing. I could barely keep my eyes open. The stress of lifting a man’s weight in my current condition would definitely be beyond me.

  He looked over at the chair, which was only a burnt, mangled remnant of what it once had been, then seized his comm. and called for reinforcements.

  “Well done,” sent Master Spectra.

  Thanks to the transparency of telepathic communication I knew she’d found my little demonstration humorous. “Thanks, Master, but I don’t have much strength left.”

  “You won’t need it. Just stay awake and I will handle the rest,” she sent.

  Men started to pour into the room, all wearing heavy armor. They quickly fanned out around my cell and one of them, I assume the commander, walked up to the force field and said: “Any more games and I will kill you where you sit. As long as your people think you’re alive, it does not matter if you actually are.”

  “You have ten minutes. I suggest you call your family and tell them goodbye,” I said. I did not know what Spectra had in mind, but one thing was sure: she had no need to bluff.

  He laughed. “Tell this Spectra there is no need to wait. We are ready to kill her now.”

  “Suit yourself.” I said again. I was too weak to come up with a better comeback.

  The lights in the room dimmed and I heard Master Spectra say, “Surrender or die.”

  “Show yourself or the lizard dies!” called out the man by my cell.

  “Have it your way,” said Master Spectra, and ghosts of some kind came out of the floor. The men tried to shoot at them, but their weapons fired harmlessly through the spirits and they started to take casualties from friendly fire.

  “Hold your fire!” called out their commander, but it was no use. The men flew into a panic as the ghosts flew around the room, passing through the men but staying clear of the commander. Blaster fire was erupting in all directions as the men frantically tried to kill what could not be harmed.

  “Here, Chrimson, drink,” said Spectra as she appeared in the cell. She gave me something to drink, and in my weakness I drank it without even looking at it.

  I felt warmth and strength return to my body. My mind cleared, and my leg even felt a little less painful.

  Master Spectra turned to look at the carnage outside the cell and waved her paw in a cutting motion. Suddenly all the ghosts were gone. Most of the men that had been in the room were dead and those few remaining ran out the door, leaving only the commander standing there as Jade physically restrained him.

  “Tell your superiors that this is not acceptable treatment of prisoners. Next time something like this happens, everyone dies. Jade, throw him out and let’s go before I really lose my temper,” she said.

  Jade lifted the human commander and literally threw him out the door, and then deactivated the force field that sealed my cell. Master Spectra cast a gate, and Jade helped me through back to the Nemesis.

  On board the Nemesis, Nanny came over to treat my wounds and gave me another one of those strange drinks that felt like it was rebuilding me from the inside out.

  “Sorry, Master,” I said to Master Spectra.

  “For what?” she asked.

  “I failed in my mission,” I said.

  “No, you did not. Kymberly made it off safely with the datapad, thanks to your distraction. You saved the mission,” she said.

  “What?” I asked. “Did I really?”

  “Yes. Now, get some rest and follow Nanny’s instructions. We can debrief after we pick up Greymere and Saraphym,” she said and then left me with Nanny.

  “Did she say I saved the mission?” I asked.

  “Of course, dear. Your leg on the other hand, you did not save quite as well,” she said. “It will be a while before you can walk again. Priestess Shea’s potions are a great emergency cure, but something like this will require time and proper treatment.”

  “Yeah, I suppose even this armor has its limits,” I said. I was still wearing the armor, but it was in very bad shape. It was obvious now that not all their shots had missed, as I had originally thought they had. The armor had done what it could to keep me alive, but it could only do so much.

  “Indeed. Well, you will be happy to know that Kymberly is up on the bridge flying us away from that awful station. I am sure she will be down later to see you. Until then, rest.” I did not want to rest; I wanted to get back to work. As Nanny said that, however, I started to feel sleepy and by the time she had stopped talking I was completely out.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  I called Spectra, Nanny, Greymere and Kymberly into my office for a private meeting. It was time for the next play in my wife’s gambit, and I needed each of them on board if it were to be successful.

  “Okay, Dusty, we’re all ready,” said Spectra.

  “Everyone, thanks for coming,” I said. “First of all, I want to tell you what we’ve discovered in the data that we collected from the station. The short version is that this is bigger than we could have imagined. The data points to a collection of designer viruses which, if unleashed, could wipe out most of the non-human population of the galaxy.”

  Greymere asked, “Surely that is not possible. How could they begin to distribute something like that?”

  “There is no information about a delivery method in the data we collected. That may be why they haven’t launched any of it yet,” I said. “The attack on the Cathratinairians appears to have been a test run. They made the perfect target because of their tightly-packed culture.”

  “We have to stop them!” said Kymberly.

  “Yes,” I said. “And we have a plan to do just that, but it is going to require some changes among our number.”

  Spectra said, “We have identified roughly two dozen spiritualists among the wizards whom we feel would be a good addition to our team. I plan to approach them and bring them on board this ship, which will require some changes in how we operate.”

  “I would imagine so,” said Greymere.

  “Our first action will be to promote Greymere and Kymberly
to join Spectra on my inner council,” I said.

  It was hard to tell who was more surprised, Greymere or Kymberly, but Greymere managed to speak first. “I am honored, but what do I know of leading wizards?”

  “You know far more than you think,” said Spectra. “Heck, other than myself and Dusty, I doubt if any magus in this realm has spent as much time as you have in the Spirit Realm. The spiritualists we bring on board will need that experience, if nothing else.”

  Kymberly was about to speak, but before she could I continued, “Before we go on, I want to talk about Nanny. Even with our small team here, taking care of all of us is too much to ask of her.”

  “Oh, I am fine, really,” said Nanny.

  “Now, maybe, but not when we add twenty-five more wizards like Chrimson and Jade,” said Spectra.

  She sighed. “That would be harder, but I would do it for you if you ask.”

  “Instead, Nanny, I will ask: what do you want?” I said.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  Spectra knelt in front of her. “You give so much to us, and I treasure you. I can send you home to your tribe if this will be too much for you. Do you want that?”

  There was an awkward silence, finally broken by Kymberly when she asked, “If Nanny wants to stay, maybe we can limit her responsibilities and get her some help from the new crew.”

  “What about that, Nanny?” I asked. “Maybe you can take over the mess hall, and we can rotate staff under you to help out.”

  “But what if someone gets hurt?” she objected.

  “There are two doctors among the crew we intend to call. If someone gets hurt, they can handle it,” said Spectra.

  Nanny was quiet for a long time, and we let her think. Eventually she said, “I miss my family, but you still need me, Spectra. I would like to stay, and I think I could do well running the mess hall,” said Nanny.

  “How about a vacation?” I asked.

  “What?” asked Nanny.

  “What if you went home for a week?” I asked. “We could summon you back at the end of it.”