That was strange, Richard thought.
Concentrating on the vehicle driver even harder, Richard registered no other fluctuations. The driver’s Power readings remained steady.
I wonder if something in the DNA Center caused some kind of interference? Richard thought.
Richard had a sudden wish his battle computer was with him. He almost said something to his friends, but he held off. They were still talking and laughing several meters to his front. Richard hated to interrupt them. What would I tell them anyway?
Reforming his passive scan, Richard concentrated on the path the vehicle had taken near the DNA Center. Everything seemed perfectly normal.
I wonder, Richard thought. Is it possible to be too normal?
At another time, Richard might have let the feeling of ‘too normal’ pass. But he hesitated to do so today. The memory of feeling something too normal the night before at the airfield was still fresh in his mind.
The hell with it, Richard thought. My Power reserve’s at a hundred percent. I can spare a little.
Although Richard felt a little silly for thinking something could be too normal, he consoled himself by writing the Power usage off as training. Richard formed an active scan and wrapped it in a stealth shield. It was a technique he’d been developing since the previous summer. While he hadn’t quite perfected it, even Nickelo had admitted his modified active-scan was very difficult to detect even when someone was expecting to be scanned.
Richard delicately probed the area near the DNA Center which felt too normal. He detected nothing. Richard persisted. Something just didn’t feel right. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he knew in his heart something was wrong. Even the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end.
“Rick?” said Liz. “What is it?”
Richard realized he’d stopped walking. Liz and the others had stopped as well. They were all looking back at him curiously. Liz looked especially concerned.
Taking a couple of steps back towards Richard, Liz said again, “Rick? What is it?”
“Is that thing loaded?” Richard said as he gestured to a plasma pistol holstered on her belt.
“What?” said Liz. She frowned. “My pistol? No. Of course not.”
Richard wasn’t surprised. They were a thousand light years behind friendly lines. The military wasn’t in the habit of letting its personnel carry live ammo in non-combat areas.
“Rick,” said Jerad. “You’re starting to worry me. What’s up, buddy?”
“I’m not sure,” Richard said. “Does anyone sense anything unusual near the DNA Center? The far right corner in particular.”
Four lines of Power reached out past Richard in the direction of the DNA Center. Richard recognized the frequencies of his friends Tam, Telsa, and Jerad. The fourth set of Power was barely discernable. It was Trinity’s. Richard stored away the memory of her frequency.
She’s very good, Richard thought approvingly. I wouldn’t have noticed her active scan if I didn’t know where it would pass.
Richard looked at Trinity. Without asking questions, the wizard scout had drawn and activated her phase rod. As he watched, she snatched the battle helmet off her left hip. With a practiced maneuver, she placed the battle helmet on her head. Somewhere between her hip and her head, the battle helmet changed its flattened shape to a battle helmet in three-quarters mode. As Richard watched, the reddish glow of the battle helmet’s visor appeared in front of Trinity’s eyes. The visor was more of a force field than a physical object, but it still allowed the wearer to view the world using a variety of filters. Richard was primarily interested in one filter.
“Trinity,” Richard said. “Try a radiation filter.”
Richard noticed her filter flicker. Trinity apparently was not one to waste time asking questions. His respect for Jerad’s friend went up a notch. She was the experienced wizard scout in the group while he was just a cadet. But she wasn’t letting her ego or pride get in the way.
After an agonizing five seconds, Richard said, “Anything?”
“I’ve got nothing,” said Jerad.
“Me either,” said Tam.
“Same here,” Telsa added.
“Trinity?” Richard said hopefully. He was beginning to feel more than a little foolish.
Richard saw Trinity’s lips press together below the visor of her battle helmet. He got the feeling she was redoubling her concentration. After a few more seconds, her lips relaxed.
“Sorry, Rick,” said Trinity as she flicked her wrist and deactivated her phase rod. “I don’t sense anything unusual.”
Four lines of Power drew back as Trinity and Richard’s fellow cadets shutdown their active scans.
“What was it you thought you sensed?” said Trinity.
Richard noticed his friends were letting Trinity do the talking. Richard understood. She was a wizard scout. They were just cadets. Richard could only imagine what TAC Officer Myers would say to him if he found out about this.
“I don’t really know,” Richard admitted. “The area just felt a little strange to me.”
Trinity looked closer at Richard before replying. He had a feeling she was fighting a natural inclination to chastise a junior cadet for being too jumpy. To Richard’s relief, Trinity didn’t take the opportunity to critique him in front of his friends.
“Well,” said Trinity slowly. “It’s always best to be safe. I imagine you just sensed an energy bleed-off from the DNA Center.”
“Possibly,” Richard said. He’d almost convinced himself as much. He was beginning to wish he’d listened to his own doubts.
“That has to be it, Rick,” said Telsa. “Even if someone was using a stealth shield, we’d still see them.”
“Yeah,” agreed Tam. “It’s not like stealth shields make you invisible.”
Of all the others, only Jerad appeared disinclined to convince Richard he was mistaken.
“Trinity,” said Jerad. “Rick’s got the best active scan I’ve ever seen. Are you sure you didn’t sense anything?”
Trinity shrugged her shoulders. “I suppose I could always be wrong,” she admitted. “But all I noticed was a slight blur near the DNA Center through my battle helmet’s radiation filter. That kind of thing happens when–”
Richard didn’t give Trinity a chance to finish. His mind flashed back to a battle he’d fought during an internship mission his sophomore year. His opponents had used a spell that not only kept them under stealth but which also kept them invisible as well. They’d only shown up as a slight blur on his radiation filter.
“Notify security,” Richard yelled interrupting Trinity.
He took off at a dead run in the direction of the DNA Center. Five sets of running feet echoed behind him. His friends might be confused by his actions, but they weren’t letting him rush off on his own. Richard heard the unmistakable pop of a phase rod activating.
This can’t be right, Richard thought. That was a spell the last time. I’m in the physical dimension now. The Crosioians don’t have spell-casters.
In spite of his undeniable logic, Richard kept running for all he was worth. The three hundred meters to the DNA Center reduced rapidly.
Richard sensed a flare of energy to his front.
“Shields!” Richard yelled over his shoulder as a ball of energy headed in their direction.
Richard pulled Power from his reserve and started to form a defensive shield to his front. Before he could complete his shield, a line of Power from Tam reached past him and formed a semicircular wall between the ball of energy and him. Richard dropped his line of Power without activating his defensive shield. He trusted Tam to protect him. Defensive shields were her specialty. Since he had the smallest Power reserve of any wizard scout, Richard knew he needed to conserve every drop of Power he had.
The ball of energy was a spell. It opened up into a bolt of lightning. Part of the energy was absorbed by Tam’s defensive shield. The rest of the energy was deflected skyward.
The air
near a corner of the DNA Center shimmered. Richard saw a group of five humanoids. One was half again as tall as the others. One of the humanoids was in a full battle suit. The bat-shaped wings folded behind the creature’s back gave little doubt it was a Crosioian scout. The largest of the humanoids made Richard doubt he was seeing clearly. Even at almost three hundred meters, he recognized its distinctive form.
A troll, he thought while trying at the same time to convince himself he was mistaken.
Three streams of plasma rounds from the group of humanoids came streaking towards Richard and his friends. Richard dodged to the left and rolled on the spaceport’s asphalt pavement as one of the streams of plasma rounds whizzed an arm’s length above his head.
“Stay near me,” shouted Tam.
Tam’s defensive shield reformed into a wall which extended several meters across. From the readings on his passive scan, Richard knew Telsa and Liz were hanging close to Tam.
Good, Richard thought. Tam will take care of them.
Richard came up out of his roll into a run. Trinity passed him on his left. Jerad was hot on her heels. The Crosioian scout seemed to be concentrating her plasma fire on Trinity and Jerad. A human in a jumpsuit was firing his rifle at Richard. To Richard’s surprise, the troll was also firing a large-wattage plasma rifle at Tam, Telsa, and Liz. Although the troll’s heavy weapon was slow in firing, its high energy more than made up for its slow rate of fire. Richard sensed Tam’s defensive shield buckle a little each time one of the large plasma rounds hit.
The Crosioian scout threw down her plasma rifle and began running on a course to intercept Trinity and Jerad. As the Crosioian scout ran, a spear-shaped object appeared in her hand. An arm’s length point of glowing energy tipped the end of the spear. From previous experience, Richard knew it was the Crosioian scout’s version of a phase rod.
The human in the jumpsuit fired at Richard again. Richard was beyond the protection of Tam’s defensive shield, so he threw up a shield of his own. He slanted his defensive shield slightly as he’d been taught by the elf-priestess Shandria his freshman year. The plasma rounds ricocheted off to the left. Richard hoped the ricocheting rounds ran out of energy before they hit anything friendly. Richard dropped his defensive shield. It was too Power hungry to leave up for long.
The distance closed to a hundred meters between the two groups. Richard reached out with his mind. He reached into the human’s chest that had fired at him. He felt for his opponent’s heart. Richard wrapped the heart in Power and squeezed inward with his telekinesis. The heart stopped beating. The human dropped his plasma rifle and fell to the ground.
Distant sirens drew Richard’s attention back to the battle around him. He glimpsed Trinity and Jerad closing with the Crosioian scout. The bat-creature swung her spear at Trinity. The wizard scout caught the blow on her phase rod, but she was driven to her knees. Jerad jumped into the air and made a flying jump-kick over Trinity’s head. His foot landed squarely on the Crosioian scout’s chest. The bat-creature was driven back a couple of steps. She swung her spear at Jerad, but Trinity blocked the blow with her phase rod.
Richard ran past the Crosioian scout. He had to close the distance to the magic users. He sensed two of them. They were the unknowns. Richard feared them more than he did the Crosioian scout. While he didn’t know Trinity, he had faith she and Jerad could handle the bat creature.
The troll switched its aim. Richard got his defensive shield up just in time to block the high-energy plasma rounds. The force of the blow made him stagger. He felt his energy reserve draining quickly. Richard knew his Power reserve was too small to keep his defensive shield up for long under this kind of attack.
As if sensing Richard’s trouble, Telsa sent a blast of pure Power at the troll. The Power exploded on the troll’s chest. A fountain of blood and bone erupted from the troll’s back. The force of the blow threw the troll into the wall of the DNA Center. It bounced off the wall and lay on the ground.
Richard sensed Tam reach out with her Power. She wrapped it around the plasma rifle dropped by the human Richard had killed. The plasma rifle started flying through the air back towards Tam. At the same time, Richard sensed one of the magic users attach a link to the other. Energy transferred from the first magic user to the second.
They’re combining their Power, Richard thought. He’d seen it done before. One magic user could pull Power from another magic user and combine it with Power he pulled from his own reserve.
Things were getting too dangerous. Richard sent out the strongest emotion he could summon indicating his need for help. It was the same emotion the younger dolgars sent when they were in trouble. Richard wasn’t sure if any of the dolgars would come, but he had to try.
Richard was close enough now to hear the magic user chanting a spell. The two sets of Power combined and turned into a large ball of magical energy. Richard reached out with his mind towards the most powerful of the magic users. He started probing the magic user’s link to his Power reserve. A smaller line of energy from the second magic user reached out and knocked Richard’s probe away before he could disable the magic user’s Power link. Although Richard failed to disrupt the magic user from completing his spell, he did distract him from his intended target. Instead of sending the spell towards Tam, Telsa, and Liz, the magic user released his ball of energy at Richard. The ball of energy was much larger than the first spell. Richard recognized the intertwined lines of energy of the spell. It was one he’d helped Shandria rewrite. It was a fireball. And it was going to be a big one.
Richard didn’t waste time throwing up a defensive shield. He’d been hit by a similar fireball once before, and even encased in his battle suit, enough energy had penetrated his defensive shield to blister his back and legs with second degree burns. Richard doubted his thin cadet jumpsuit would provide him even meager protection.
Wrapping himself in Power, Richard shifted into the void between dimensions. He wasn’t sure whether the fireball’s energy would affect him in the void, but he was taking no changes. Richard used telekinesis to move a few meters underground. Although he lost visibility the moment he went underground, Richard kept track of his surroundings with his passive scan. The fireball erupted overhead in a blaze of magical energy. Unlike most fireballs, this one did not dissipate. It continued to burn.
That’s different, Richard thought.
Shifting into the void between dimensions was very Power hungry. He’d hoped to move above ground after the fireball dissipated. Richard felt his Power reserve draining rapidly. While constant practice under his battle computer’s tutelage had made him more efficient at Power usage, he knew he’d be drained of Power if he remained shifted too long.
Richard used his telekinesis to pull himself along horizontally underground until he cleared the burning area overhead. He moved upward and immediately shifted back into the physical plane the moment he cleared the surface.
Richard noted his Power reserve. Without his battle helmet, he could only guesstimate his remaining Power. He silently cursed when he realized his Power reserve was down to about half. He cursed again when he felt heat all along his backside. He’d surfaced just a little too close to the still burning fireball.
A stream of green plasma rounds shot from Richard’s right and streaked towards the magic users. The plasma rounds ricocheted off their defensive shields.
With a look to his right, Richard noticed Liz had a plasma rifle in her hands. It was the human’s plasma rifle Tam had been levitating. Liz began firing a steady stream of rounds at the magic users. The green rounds ricocheted off in all directions.
The sounds of sirens were louder. Richard saw a hover-car streaking past shuttle berth two with blue lights flashing. A stream of high-energy plasma rounds whizzed overhead from the direction of the DNA Center. One of the rounds hit the approaching hover-car squarely on its front. The front of the vehicle exploded, and the rear of the hover-car flipped into the air. The hover-car rolled across the asphalt.
“You can’t kill it that way,” Richard yelled. “It’s a troll. You have to burn it.”
Whether Liz believed Richard or not, he didn’t know. However, she stopped firing at the troll and concentrated on the two magic users instead.
Richard had no idea how many rounds Liz had remaining in her plasma rifle, but he suspected she was getting low. Throwing caution to the wind, Richard ran towards the two magic users. At the same time, he pulled half the remaining Power in his reserve and threw it against the defensive shield of the leftmost magic user who was the weaker of the two. Richard formed his Power into a point and began twisting it back and forth in a drilling motion.
As he twisted, Richard yelled over his shoulder, “Concentrate on the guy on the right.”
Liz’s line of plasma rounds moved to the magic user on the right and remained there, peppering against the magic user’s defensive shield. The plasma rounds didn’t penetrate the shield, but Liz kept firing anyway.
Richard continued to drill his Power into the defensive shield of the leftmost magic user. He heard both magic users chanting words he heard but quickly forgot.
“They’re going to cast a spell,” Richard yelled hoping Liz would hear.
Before either magic user could complete their spell, Richard’s drill broke through the defensive shield of the leftmost magic user. The hole it created was small, but it was enough. While Liz was not a wizard scout cadet, she’d been one during pre-Academy training. Richard hoped her natural affinity for Power would pay off now.
It did.
Liz shifted her line of fire to the leftmost magic user’s defensive shield seeking the hole created by Richard’s drill. Several plasma rounds found the hole and hit the magic user in the throat and chest. The magic user was knocked backwards through the air. His defensive shield dissipated. The leftmost magic user was dead.
Wizard Scout (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 3) Page 16
