“Is that all of the station?”
“It looks like there is enough mass out there to cover sixty to seventy per cent of the station. The rest might have been consumed by whatever event did this, or picked up by scavengers, Master,” said Karlith.
“Have you any idea what happened?” I asked.
“No. There was no reason for such wholesale destruction; the amount of energy needed to do this was much greater than needed to accomplish the goal of eliminating the station. The debris has already cooled off, so the attack might have been a while back,” said Stalker.
“It doesn’t make sense. That station was very valuable. Why destroy it? If they had the kind of power needed to do this, surely they could have taken it for themselves,” I said.
“Master, if we drop our cloak we can use active scans, which might give us more information,” said Karlith.
“Not yet,” I said. “Flame, start spiraling out from the center of the debris field. Maybe we will pick something up on the passive scanners.”
I sat back in my command chair and reached out again with my powers, looking. If there were any magi nearby they might sense me, but it was a risk I was willing to take. I needed to know if there was anyone hiding in the area before we dropped our cloak.
Hours passed and we found nothing. Whatever destroyed this station must have moved on already. I gave up my search and said, “Keep up the spiraling for a day or two. If nothing has appeared by then, we can risk our active scanners.”
“Sure, Shadow,” said Flame.
“Karlith, what type of vessel out here could generate enough power to do this?” I asked.
“Nothing. It would take a naval fleet at the very least. All that I would have expected to see out this way is small-time pirates, thugs, and merchants. None of them would be likely to do this, even if they could,” he said.
“Someone did, but who would want to?” I asked. I wished that Spectra was with us. Her experience would be helpful at this time.
“I’m not sure, Master. The obvious guess would be a rival trade consortium, but they would be more likely to capture the station than destroy it,” said Stalker.
“Even if they destroyed it, they would be unlikely to waste the resources needed to destroy it so completely,” said Karlith.
“Yes,” I said as I looked at the tactical display. “Someone must have been mightily angry at the station.”
“What if some disease broke out on the station? Might they destroy it to stop the spread?” asked Flame.
“It is unlikely. There are much more efficient ways to handle that,” I said.
“I guess, but maybe this one was especially nasty and the usual ways didn’t work?” persisted Flame.
“Since we lack any other explanation, that is possible; but if that was the case I would expect some kind of marker here, warning people of the potential contamination,” I said.
“Still, it’s as good as any other guess, so we should take that into account in any action we take,” said Karlith.
“Master, there might be as many as a dozen tribes and consortiums fighting for control of this space. To any one of them, capturing this hub would have been a very strategic victory. None of them would want to see it destroyed,” said Stalker.
“Do we have any contacts out here? Someone who can provide us with some information about what is happening out here?” I asked.
“No, but there is another trade hub nearby. It’s smaller and usually has very little traffic, but with this one gone it’s probably much busier now, Master,” said Stalker.
“Let us pick up some of the debris and ask engineering to try to determine what caused the destruction. Once that is done, Flame, lay in a course to the other hub. Stay cloaked, though; there is no sense in drawing attention to ourselves just yet.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Flame, I am going to the gym. I will see you at dinner,” I said.
“Sounds good, Shadow,” she said.
It would be several days before we reached the other trading hub, so I decided to check on our new training program. Spectra had convinced me to enroll all of the Dragon Guard in hand-to-hand combat training, but I still did not understand why. Phoenix’s case seemed to indicate that physical conditioning was important, but there was no reason to suspect that martial arts were a requirement beyond that of general fitness.
There were many training rooms on the Nevermore II, as the primary goal of the carrier was to train an elite army of wizards. Each of these rooms had many layers of magical shielding and physical armor to help contain stray spells. It appeared, merely by coincidence, that they were also very good at containing blaster fire. This led to the Dark Knights using them as live fire target ranges on many occasions.
I walked by the rooms, looking through the viewing windows into each, and started to notice a pattern. I found it difficult to make sense of the pattern, though; it had been many decades since I worked in intelligence, and I was out of the habit of this kind of observation. There was definitely something here, though, something just beyond my grasp.
“Ashton, please meet me at training room fifteen,” I sent. As chief medical officer on the Nevermore II, he would be trained in making sense of puzzles and might be able to help me out.
“On my way, Master Shadow,” he sent back.
Master Kellyn and Rannor were still the only two magi with access to the healing arts, so most of our ships had mundane doctors. We were fortunate that Ashton was a magus, but he had never really developed his powers beyond the most basic skills. Being a magus meant that at least he fitted in, while most of the Battle Wizard fleet had doctors who were mundanes and never really fitted in with full magi crews.
I continued to watch the magi in room fifteen while I waited. Rigal and Ferran were working on some drills with staves. They weaved back and forth around each other, looking for weaknesses, but not finding many. They were almost perfectly matched. I suspected they had trained together too often, and that was stifling their ability to improve.
I was thinking of walking into the room to talk with them when Ashton arrived and asked, “Hello, Master. What can I do for you?”
“Ashton, thank you for coming. Walk with me a bit,” I said. Then I led him on a tour of the exercise rooms, stopping at each one of them and making some minor comment. When we had completed the loop and returned to room fifteen I said, “Watch this for a moment.”
I entered the room and called out, “Hello.”
They both jumped to attention and said, “Hello, Master!”
“Relax, no titles in the ring. Suppose we vary your training a little?” I suggested as I pulled my staff out of the air. “You two versus me!” I moved with all the speed I had and swung my staff high at Ferran while snapping a back kick out towards Rigal to separate them.
Rigal spun off my kick and countered with a sweep heading for the back of my legs while Ferran turned and blocked my swing, pushing me back into Rigal’s sweep. I rolled with Ferran’s blow and flipped backwards with a double kick towards Ferran, who now found himself overcommitted and fell right into my kick.
As I landed I spun around with a clearing sweep of my staff to evaluate my opponents. Ferran had fallen out of the ring, and Rigal started to charge. I waited for him to come in, then sidestepped while redirecting his motion, sending him towards the wall.
Back and forth we went like this. I kept both of them off balance enough that they could never team up to come at me at once. After about ten minutes of this, I raised my hand to stop the fight and said, “You two are good, but you fight each other too much. Vary it and find new opponents.”
“Yes, Master,” said Rigal, who was now breathing quite heavily.
“Thank you for the match; it was fun. We must do this again sometime,” I said as I left. “Well, Ashton, do you see anything unusual?”
“Master, you mean besides a ship’s captain beating up his crew?” he asked with a
smile.
“Yes; there is something here, some pattern that I am missing. I feel that it is right in front of my face, and I cannot see it,” I said.
He looked at me a bit funny, but then it was as if something clicked in his head. “Interesting,” he said. “Master, please come with me to my office.”
Once we reached his office he said, “Here is a list of the magi we saw sparring. Can you arrange them in the order you would rate their skill at sparring?”
“Yes,” I said. It took me a few minutes to work it out, but eventually I came up with an order of which I felt reasonably confident.
“Master, I see you placed Rigal and Ferran at the top of the list,” he said.
“Yes. Those two, I think, are the best of those we saw,” I said.
“Yet you beat both of them; so if you added yourself to the list, you would be on top, right?” he asked.
“I suppose so, but it is not that I am particularly good; I just have more experience than they do,” I said.
“Okay, Master, I am going to hide this list for the moment. Please do the same exercise, but this time rate their skill with magic,” he said.
“That is a little more difficult,” I said, but I went to work. Eventually I finished the list and noticed immediately that Rigal and Ferran were on top of the list again. “I will save you the trouble of pointing it out, Doctor; yes, I would put myself on top of this list too.”
“Good, now let’s put the lists side by side and see what we have,” he said.
The lists were almost identical. There were a few out of place, but each of those were ones I had judged very close in skill and was not confident of their placement on the lists.
“Master, it’s too early to tell if there is a real connection here, but the data you just presented is very interesting, at least. If this was all I had to go on, I would say there is definitely some connection to a magus’ skill at physical combat and his skill in magic.”
“Is it their skill in combat, or is it their physical condition?” I asked.
“Master, from the data we have so far, it is impossible to tell. There are too many variables,” he said.
“Spectra insisted there was a connection of some kind between physical combat training and our success in the future. She did not know what that connection was, but she said she could sense that it was there. Is that what we are seeing here?” I asked.
“Maybe. It’s hard to tell. I will have to do more research and get back to you,” he said.
“Do your research, but please do not tell anyone about this yet. If not controlled, information like this can be very discouraging to some,” I said.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
“Shadow, this place is packed. I dare not approach any closer while cloaked,” said Flame just after we came out of jump space.
“Hold at a safe distance for now. Comm, monitor communications and see what you can learn,” I said. The space station was definitely attempting to attract the business left by the destruction of the other station. Merchants, haulers, and various other kinds of spacecraft were lined up waiting for a turn to dock and do business. “I do not want anyone to know we are here yet. Just listen in and see what you can learn from the comm traffic. Surely people will be talking about whatever happened to the other station.”
“Good idea, but with this much comm traffic we may need to put more people on it,” said Stalker.
“Put as many people on it as you need,” I said. “Also, listen for whatever the procedures are to join the line and dock.”
While we waited there, I noticed that a section of the station was under construction. It seemed that they were expanding, no doubt in response to the increased demand. Whatever the reason, it gave us a potential opening to get onto the station.
Hours passed without much of interest happening. Whatever had become of that other station, no one was talking about it. It made no sense, unless the destruction of the station was so long ago that no one thought it worthy of mention any more.
“Ferran, Rigal, please report to the bridge,” I said over the comm. “Flame, I am going over to the station to see what I can learn. While I am there, keep the Nevermore hidden.”
Stalker started to say something, but a look from me silenced him. I was not prepared to argue about whether or not a person of my rank and position should be leading missions like this.
Once Rigal and Ferran were on the bridge I said, “Ferran, Rigal, we are going to visit the trading hub. It does not appear that we will be able to get very close safely, so we will have to teleport most of the way. We should be able to find an entrance to use once we get close to the station, either through the main hangars, or via the construction site. Either way, it should be simple to get in. Once we do, we will see what we can find out without drawing attention to ourselves.”
“Shadow, I can get you a lot closer if we are careful. I just don’t want to park too close,” said Flame.
“Good. Get us as close as you safely can. That will save a lot of time,” I said.
While Flame moved the Nevermore II closer, Rigal, Ferran, and I gathered and checked our equipment to make sure we had enough fuel and air to reach the station. This would mean testing our armor to the limit. It was designed for working in the vacuum of space, not for long-distance travel. The propulsion units were built for quick bursts, so relying on them for sustained power would be risky. This meant if for some reason we could not get close enough by teleporting, we would have to travel slowly with occasional pulses from the packs to control momentum.
“Master, why not just get in line like everyone else?” asked Karlith.
I smiled at that question. I knew he hated going in covertly; he much preferred a direct approach. “We do not know enough to risk being seen yet. We must not forget that most of the consortiums and tribes out here were hurt by our securing our borders and taking over Aleeryon. With so many potential enemies flying around here, it is prudent to stay cloaked.”
“Shadow, I am as close as I can get,” said Flame.
“Then it is time. Let us go,” I said as I clicked shut my helmet. “Until we get back, use telepathic channels for conversation.”
The three of us teleported out into space, first to the exterior hull of the Nevermore then, when we had a line of sight with the space station, we teleported as far as we could go. We teleported many more times until we were close to the station. From there we used our propulsion packs to coast along the exterior, looking for a way in.
As we passed through the construction area we found where the robotic workforce was exiting and entering the station. I cloaked our group in darkness, and we slipped in behind one of the returning groups of robots.
Once on the station we found an out-of-the-way place to cancel my cloaking spell and blend in with the other travelers. I was worried that our battle armor might make us conspicuous, but the population of the station was so diverse that it did not matter. There were all ranges of clothing types; some travelers were even outfitted in much heavier gear than ours. The only constant was the lack of weapons. I assumed this meant there was a rule against them.
“Good, it seems we should be able to walk around unnoticed. Keep your eyes open and pay attention to what appears to be normal behavior. We need to try to match that,” I sent.
As we walked through the corridors we were constantly assaulted by people trying to sell us their wares, get hired for a job, or hire us. It was quite a cacophony of noise, and we could make out very little.
Several of the vendors became aggressive with those who were not buying ,and there were not enough guards to keep order. On at least three occasions we had to take a different route due to a fight blocking our path.
“This is not working. We will find a bar or something of the like and try there,” I sent.
It required some searching, but we finally found a bar with an open table where we could sit and listen to the conversations around us
. It did not take long to find out why the seat was empty, as a large Zalionian walked up to me and said gruffly, “That’s my table, buddy.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Back in his office, the old man was studying a holographic display when the steel-eyed man walked in. He stood there silently watching the old man, who made no indication that he knew the steel-eyed man was there.
Eventually the old man said, “Report.”
“We have spotted the Nevermore II,” said the steel-eyed man.
“Excellent. How long until they reach the table?” asked the old man.
“They are not going there. It appears they have sent the Shadow Fox instead,” said the steel-eyed man.
“Are you sure?” asked the old man as he stood up and looked over at the steel-eyed man.
“The last time we saw either vessel was three months ago when they went separate ways under cloak. We just saw the Nevermore II in the Quillain system. It came out of jump space alone.”
The old man turned back to his holographic display and waved his hands around it. The display changed in response to his gestures and became a three-dimensional map of the galaxy. “That is completely in the wrong direction. I was sure that Shadow would take this task upon himself,” he said.
“You sent the message to Grandmaster Vydor, though. He might have assigned the task to Phoenix or Dusty,” said the steel-eyed man.
“Which one, I wonder, and why?” asked the old man.
“Shadow Fox is Dusty’s ship,” said the steel-eyed man.
“Yes, but he lacks Phoenix’s self-confidence and would never volunteer for such a mission. Phoenix is the more powerful wizard and does better under pressure. He is the better choice between them,” said the old man.
“Granted, but why would he fly the Shadow Fox and not the Dust Dragon?” asked the steel-eyed man.
“Perhaps the damage done to it in the last fight was much greater than we thought,” said the old man.
“Maybe, but I could not imagine giving up my ship for someone else to fly,” said the steel-eyed man.
Resurgence of Ancient Darkness Page 14
