Spectra's Gambit

by Vincent Trigili

  “It would be foolish for them to release the viruses. I do not see a reason to worry, but if anything does happen, we can contain it safely in sickbay,” said Shea.

  “The most important part of this mission is that database, so we make no overt moves until Greymere secures the data,” I said. “Greymere, I want you and Saraphym to go over now and get that data. Nemesis, keep a watch on our region; monitor all communications, and let us know if anyone comes in. We still have Jashier, whoever he is, out there to worry about.”

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  After leaving the meeting with Master Dusty, I called Saraphym and arranged to meet her at the airlock.

  “Oh, Greymere! Did you hear Master Dusty’s announcement?” asked Saraphym as I arrived.

  I chuckled. “You know, you are supposed to refer to me as ‘master’, now.”

  “Sure, but did you hear?” She was practically dancing while trying to pull on her armor.

  “Yes, it was broadcast to the entire ship, all at once,” I said.

  She dropped the parts of her armor she had not yet put on and ran over to embrace me, then started to try to dance with me. I let her continue to bounce for a few moments, then gripped both of her shoulders and restrained her. “Yes, it is very exciting, but we have a mission to accomplish and no idea how much time we have to do it in. An entire race is depending on us. I need you to focus.”

  “Of course!” She danced back to her armor and resumed her attempt to put it on. Eventually she succeeded and looked my way. “Wait a minute! How come you have dark green armor?”

  “It’s all that is available right now. Trade with Korshalemia has more or less ended, so a local made this set. It is not as nice as yours but it will do. Now, if you’re ready, we need to move out.”

  She bowed deeply with a grandiose flourish. “Yes, Master.”

  I smiled, shook my head and guided her towards the airlock. “Okay, it’s time to be serious.”

  We flew through space and entered the station through the exhaust port as usual. “Okay, we’ll stick to the maintenance shafts as much as we can. We’re looking for exposed cabling that I can tap into. As long as we are not seen, this should be an easy in-and-out mission.”

  “Yeah, right. Like that’s possible,” she sent.

  I didn’t have a good comeback for that, so I just led her through the corridors until we found what we were looking for: an unimportant equipment storeroom with enough room for us to comfortably hide and access through a wall panel to the cabling. I opened the maintenance panel, connected the datapad and started my attack scripts. “This will take a couple of hours.”

  “So do we go hide somewhere?” she asked.

  “Not this time,” I sent. “We will stay right here. If we are discovered, we will grab what we have and run. This data is too important to risk not getting what we can.”

  We talked about nothing much for a while, then she asked, “Why do you think they changed their minds?”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “The Wizards’ Council,” she sent.

  “Oh, you mean about the spiritual corps?” I replied.

  “Yes. I mean, the whole time we were in the Academy we were told over and over that spiritualist powers were evil and never to use them. Now it appears that a complete reversal of that position has taken place.”

  “I am new to this Kingdom, so I don’t know if I can answer that,” I sent.

  “Not even a guess?” she asked.

  “Well, I suspect that Grandmaster Vydor was never really against it and that there were other factors at play,” I sent.

  “Maybe. So, now that you’re a big, important boss, what happens next?” she asked.

  “Next?” I asked.

  “After this mission, what is to become of us?” she asked.

  “I assume we will be given a new assignment –” Before I could continue, the station’s alarms began to sound.

  “Did you trip something?” she asked.

  “No, that’s the general battle alarm. They only sound that when under attack,” I sent to her, and then I tried to reach Dusty. “Master, what’s going on out there? The station just went on high alert.”

  “Jashier’s fleet is approaching,” he sent. “It looks like they have just jumped to a rally point and are grouping to attack.”

  “How is that possible? They should have been crushed at the last station,” I sent.

  “No idea, but this fleet is even larger than the one he had the last time we saw him,” he sent. “It seems we were correct in thinking that we would be racing him to take this station.”

  “We need more time to get this database,” I sent.

  “Keep working, but be ready to pull out rapidly if the situation deteriorates,” he sent.

  “Master, going by their last attack, they will send in boarders shortly after their approach. That will complicate things, but it might give us the distraction we need in order to escape.” With the station on high alert, moving around undetected would be much harder, but they would have much bigger things to worry about than a couple of extra people running around.

  “If something happens, just escape into space and we will track you down later. We will stay cloaked inside the station’s shields as long as we can,” he sent.

  “Understood, Master,” I sent back.

  “So what is our plan?” Saraphym sent to me.

  “To survive, and hopefully bring this data with us. For the moment, we continue to sit tight,” I sent.

  I was regretting my decision to have the datapad compress and then encrypt the information that we were stealing, as it made the theft take much longer. As we waited, our position became less and less safe due to all the troops running around nearby. Our hiding place should be completely ignored during an attack, but when it came time to move out we could be in trouble.

  The datapad flashed a message stating it was complete. I unhooked it and slipped it into the deepest pocket inside my armor. Then I connected a second datapad that I had brought for just this purpose.

  “Do we still need to download more?” Saraphym asked.

  I resealed the hatch that was covering the connections and jammed the locking mechanism. “No, this one is Plan B. It will sleep for a little while, and when it wakes up it will send a program that will propagate itself through their database and destroy any data it can find.”

  “Good idea, but why the delay?” she asked.

  “Because, unlike copying data, this will definitely set off alarms and I want to be long gone when that happens,” I sent. “Now we just need to get off the station with this data.”

  We slipped back into the hall as the alarm changed from that of station alert to intruder alert. “Great,” I groaned.

  “What do we do now?” she asked.

  “I doubt if that alarm is because of us, but even if it is our plan is the same: find the closest exit and jump into space,” I sent.

  We slowly moved through the station, avoiding the patrols as much as we could, but soon we were trapped. There was a team of defenders being pushed back, but the intruders were in front of us and reinforcements were coming up behind us.

  “Quick, this way!” sent Saraphym as she leaped up onto the ceiling and nestled into a corner behind a joist. “They will be blindly running to help. They won’t look up.”

  I leapt up to another nook and hoped that she was right. The joist would block the view of the troops running towards us. So long as they did not look up or back, we should be fine.

  “Trust me. I hid a lot in places like this. When men are in a rush, they get tunnel vision,” she sent.

  We did not have the opportunity to test her plan, as the defenders were falling back quickly and soon neared our position. We could see the attackers. They were a type of robotic warrior I had not seen before. I carefully studied the scene so I could research them later.

  “We are trapped,” she sent.

&nbs
p; “Yes, those robots will detect us as they push the defenders past. Take the datapad and teleport beyond the fight. Get off the station and meet me outside. I will create a distraction.” I tossed her the datapad and dropped down behind the defenders, then in the Imperial tongue I called out, “Cover me!” and jumped over their position.

  “What? Who?” asked one of the men as Saraphym teleported away.

  I walked toward the robots, absorbing their blaster fire and gathering power. It was still agonizing to draw the power into my bipedal form, but it was becoming easier to push through the pain. My blind, fearless approach appeared to confuse their internal computers and they froze up briefly. With a great yell, I thrust my hands forward and poured most of the power I had absorbed back into them. Having learned from my prior attempts the dangers of overexpending myself, I kept some in reserve. The resulting explosion cut through their numbers and broke a hole in their line.

  I saw Saraphym a little way down the corridor looking back. “RUN!” I ordered telepathically, then took off my helmet to show my human features and walked back towards the defenders.

  “You’d better make it out, or I‘ll never forgive you!” she sent back.

  She was above all a good soldier, and I knew she would follow my orders.

  “Who are you?” demanded the men whose lives I’d just saved.

  Before I could answer, one of the men pointed behind me and said, “They are coming back!”

  “What?” I yelled and turned to see. Much to my horror, the robots were rebuilding themselves.

  “Quick! Pulse grenades!” one of the men called out. “That should shortcircuit them!”

  They tossed several of the grenades, which sent strong pulses of electricity through the robots, but after only a brief pause they resumed rebuilding themselves.

  I clicked my helmet back into place and then ordered, “Toss me a blaster!” To my surprise, one of them did just that without questioning the logic of giving a weapon to an unknown party during an attack. I pulled out the power pack and drained all its energy. Then I picked the robot that looked most complete and focused my power on what I hoped to be its core processing unit.

  The unit grew white-hot under my attack and eventually melted. That stopped one, but the others continued to rebuild.

  “Focus your fire on their brains!” I called out and fell back behind their line. They were too busy working to destroy the remainder of the robots to notice I had slipped away from them.

  “Okay, I am in space. Where are you?” sent Saraphym.

  “Running. I will be out there as soon as I can. Get that datapad to Nemesis,” I sent.

  “What about you?” she asked.

  “I will be along shortly, but there is a new development I must research first. If you make it back to Nemesis before I get off the station, ask Master Spectra to contact me, as I’m likely to need a gate.”

  “I won’t let you down!” she sent.

  There. Saving me gave her a solid reason to get to Nemesis. That, along with her military training, should be enough to get her home safely. I needed to find out more about this attacker.

  I bounced from fight to fight, stepping in to help and then fading away. I had no idea what they were thinking about me, but since all the invaders were robots and I appeared human, they did not question me too much. The more I studied the attackers, the more concerned I grew. I had to get this information back to Master Dusty but, more importantly, I had to find a way to destroy the station. The defenders were losing badly.

  “Master Dusty, can you read me?” I sent, but got no reply. He must be out of my range. I joined up with another line of defenders as they fired into a group of the self-repairing robots with much heavier weapons than I had seen them use before. These weapons were blasting right through the robots until the attackers started ripping off pieces of the wall and reinforcing their armor with it.

  The station is lost, I thought to myself. The ring! I remembered, and used the communications ring that Master Dusty had given me in the Spirit Realm. “Master Dusty?”

  “Greymere! Are you okay?” he sent.

  “Yes, but we need to destroy this station as fast as possible. The attackers are pushing the defenders back toward the core and it won’t be long before the station is theirs,” I sent.

  “The antimatter bombs are in place. We just need to get you off. Can you get to a place where Spectra can safely open a gate?” he asked.

  “Give me a few minutes,” I sent.

  I wished I could teleport like Saraphym, as that would make getting past the attackers so much easier. I fell back into the section of the station that had not yet seen combat and found a secure room. There Master Spectra and Master Dusty were able to get in and gate me off the station to sickbay on the Nemesis, where a quick scan by the doctor pronounced me clean of any contamination.

  “I thought I had to go to the Spirit Realm?” I objected.

  “Saraphym was clean when we picked her up so we were confident the viruses had not been released, just as Shea predicted. If they had been, we could have contained them in here. Now let’s get to the bridge and get out of here,” said Master Dusty.

  On the bridge, I noticed that the tactical display showed that the fleet itself was not attacking the station; instead, they were sitting just outside the station’s weapon’s range. “We were right. They wanted to take the station for themselves.”

  “Yes,” said Master Dusty. “Detonate the antimatter warheads.”

  I watched as the station in front of us silently exploded. It was quickly obvious that Master Dusty had overestimated the amount of antimatter needed, but I couldn’t blame him. That station contained the capability of wiping out all nonhuman life in the entire realm.

  “Okay, we are finished here. Head for home and I’ll report in,” said Master Dusty.

  “Then we got what we needed, Master?” I asked.

  “Yes,” said Master Dusty. “Shea tells me that the data you collected will make it possible to manufacture a treatment and cure for all the viruses. We have already transmitted a copy to both Alpha Academy and Hospital Station.”

  I looked over at Saraphym at her station on the bridge, and smiled. For the first time that I could remember, I was actually looking forward to settling into a new life.

  Epilogue

  “Hello, Grandmaster,” said Dusty as I entered the conference room.

  Seated around the table were Henrick, Shadow, Dusty and two empty chairs which would shortly be occupied.

  “Hello, everyone. I hope it is unnecessary to stress that I want this to be a peaceful meeting, so try to control your tempers no matter what he does,” I said. I knew that what I was about to do was risky, but it needed to be done. Tempers were already on edge between all of the parties involved, but we had to have this meeting if we were to resolve anything. I hoped earnestly that there was still time to save the treaty, although my instinct told me it was already lost.

  A gate opened which Mantis and Grandmaster Korshalem came through. Before I could utter a word he stormed over to me, pointed at Dusty and said, “How dare you bring a filthy necromancer to these proceedings!”

  Shadow jumped to his feet and said, “You will not insult my brother with your lies!”

  Grandmaster Korshalem turned toward Shadow, but before he could speak Mantis stepped between them and said, “Gentlemen, please.”

  Grandmaster Korshalem was still fuming, but either from fear or respect for Mantis he moved and sat in the seat provided for him at the table.

  “Very well. Since you have brought a necromancer into these halls, it is obvious you have broken the treaty; unless, of course, you plan to turn him over to me?” said Grandmaster Korshalem.

  I had moved behind Shadow and placed my hand on his shoulder to push him back down into his chair and restrain him from jumping to Dusty’s defense again. Dusty said nothing, merely slumping down in his chair in defeat. This was not a go
od way to start off the talks.

  “Grandmaster Korshalem, you can read magical auras. Tell me the truth: is Dusty a necromancer or a wizard?” I asked.

  “What difference does it make what his aura says today? He will be one soon,” said Grandmaster Korshalem.

  “Then you admit he is not currently a necromancer?” I asked.

  “Not yet, but ’tis easy to see where he is going,” said Grandmaster Korshalem.

  “I am grandmaster of this realm, not you,” I said. “We both know that you are bluffing. You cannot see where he is going, but I can. I foresee that he will become a great wizard, which means our treaty stands.”

  Grandmaster Korshalem thrust his finger towards Henrick. “Why is he here, then? He is not much better than a necromancer!”

  Henrick smiled and said, “I was invited by Grandmaster Vydor.”

  “You have a treaty with him also, or do you so quickly forget?” I asked. During the last war, the three of us had agreed to a non-aggression pact so that we could handle a much deadlier mutual enemy.

  “This is preposterous!” he yelled. “I will not negotiate with the likes of him!”

  If I did not cut off that conversation, I feared that Henrick would play Grandmaster Korshalem like a fiddle, and I was not sure I would like the song. “I have shown there are no necromancers among our number. Henrick has honored the non-aggression pact. This means no term of either treaty has been broken by any party other than yourself. You have closed trade with your realm in direct violation of the terms of our treaty. I request you to honor your word and reopen trade at once.”

  “You hide behind grammatical details of the treaty and completely ignore the spirit of it,” said Grandmaster Korshalem. “You have violated the heart of the agreement, and it is you who must make concessions to restore it. I want Dusty, Spectra and all their pet necromancers turned over to us at once.”