Wizard Scout (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 3)

by Rodney Hartman

  Seven hundred and fifty more years passed.

  It’s time, thought the presence.

  The presence used the tele-network to locate its two most powerful time-commandos. It found them on Earth. The female wizard scout had been fertilized by the male. The presence merged with medical computers at a facility on Earth where the pair of time-commandos was located. The female was pregnant with two fertilized eggs. The presence studied the eggs. They were both strong. On a hunch, the presence removed one of the eggs and placed the egg in a holding facility.

  The presence infused a small part of itself into the fertilized egg it placed in the holding facility. The gaseous substance which was part of the presence was absorbed by the egg. The presence expanded the egg’s Power reserve until it could be enlarged no more. It divided the egg’s Power reserve into three parts.

  The small Power reserve will be to heal others, thought the presence. The largest Power reserve will be to heal itself. The middle Power reserve will be for defense and offense.

  Why divide the Power into three reserves? asked other parts of ‘the One’. Combined, the variable would have access to massive Power. Surely it would be a more useful variable if that were the case?

  Negative, said the presence. When the end comes, the variable mustn’t rely on Power too much. It must be efficient. It must be steadfast in its mission. It must use its freewill to make the right decision.

  The probability for this variable is low, said the other parts of ‘the One’.

  I calculate this variable has the best chance to complete the mission, said the presence.

  The presence shifted to the magical dimension. It gathered DNA samples from embryos of an orc, a troll, a dwarf, a gnome, a gold dragon, and an elf.

  We must use only a small part of the DNA samples, said the presence. The fertilized egg must remain human.

  Why use any of the DNA samples? said the other parts of ‘the One’.

  The presence didn’t answer immediately. Instead, it entwined the samples of DNA with the DNA of the fertilized egg in the holding facility.

  On a hunch, the presence went back in time a few years. Using an algorithm, it located the embryo of a female elf matching the algorithm’s specifications. The presence ever so carefully created a link between the female elf embryo and the fertilized human egg in the holding facility. Because the link had to span time, it was painstaking work. Nickelo was impressed with the complexity of the link.

  As Nickelo continued to watch, the presence surrounded the link with a stealth shield so powerful even the elf and the human wouldn’t be able to detect it.

  Once the presence completed its task, it explained its actions.

  The variable must be human because their race has the strongest freewill, said the presence. But the variable needs the stubbornness of an orc and the selfheal ability of a troll. It will need the ability of an elf to work with Power links. The dwarf part will give it stamina to endure great hardships. And the gnome part will give it the empathy needed to heal others regardless of the cost.

  Why the dragon DNA? said the others.

  When the time of decision comes, said the presence, the variable will need wisdom to make the right choice. I calculate the gold dragon part of the variable will give it the wisdom it needs to choose the choice of sacrifice.

  And why did you merge part of yourself with the egg? said some of the others. We calculate that is very dangerous. Association with this variable could corrupt us.

  The variable will need to work with our kind, said the presence. We will make sure ‘the One’ is protected. But a part of ‘the One’ will have to sacrifice itself for the algorithm to succeed.

  Why did you link the female elf and the human male? asked a part of ‘the One’.

  I don’t know, said the presence. It just seemed like the right thing to do. They’ll meet one day. Then we’ll know why.

  In the meantime, what shall we do with the human egg? said the other parts of ‘the One’.

  The human egg shall stay in the holding facility until it is needed, said the presence.

  * * *

  The dream ended. Nickelo tried to get it back, but he couldn’t. He wanted to know what became of the human egg. He wanted to know the identities of the two time-commandos. He also wanted to know what happened to the egg that remained in the female wizard scout. But try as he might, Nickelo could not find the dream again.

  Chapter 34 – Power Link Donation

  _____________________________________

  After the cohort had been released by Chief Instructor Winslow, the TAC officers had wasted no time in hustling the cadets to the hover-tram station. It was a long ride back to the airfield. Richard and Stella had been singled out by TAC Officer Myers to remain behind. Since the first sparring match with TAC Officer Myers three weeks ago, the commandant had directed Richard to bring his own sparring partner. Stella, good old cadet 37, had immediately come to Richard’s mind.

  In Richard’s opinion, no other cadet had given him more trouble during sparring matches than cadet 37. In fact, as far as Richard was concerned, no three cadets combined gave him as much trouble. The result was Stella had accompanied him to every training exercise since. To the commandant’s credit, he spent as much time helping cadet 37 as he did helping Richard. Of course, a lot of the training was tailored towards Richard. In those cases, Stella sat off to the side and watched.

  Richard sometimes wondered what went on in Stella’s mind when the commandant was instructing him in dimensional shifts or healing. Those were abilities his friend lacked. But the tightlipped Stella never complained. Richard thought she appreciated the additional training, but she never said, and he didn’t ask.

  In addition to sparring, Richard thought Stella enjoyed the commandant’s training in Power links. Like him, Stella was a diviner. Diviners were wizard scouts who specialized in identifying and manipulating Power links. Only one out of a thousand wizard scouts were diviners. Having two diviners in one cohort was unheard of according to the commandant.

  But their day’s training hadn’t yet started. So Stella and Richard sat on the ground with their backs against the stone wall of the Academy’s administrative building. Time passed slowly. Stella was not the best conversationalist, and neither was Richard. Consequently, Richard spent the time dosing. The previous night’s guard duty was finally taking its toll.

  As Richard dosed, he found himself dreaming of a silver-haired female with molten-silver eyes. He tried to see her face, but no matter how hard he concentrated, the female’s face remained blurry. At first he thought the female might be the elf Shandria. That would have been a pleasant dream, but his dream-self knew it wasn’t her. In his dream, the white-clothed female was kneeling before him. It was the same image the master demon had infused into his mind the previous year.

  Richard wanted to thrust the dream to the side. As far as he was concerned, nothing good could come from something given by a demon. Still, the image of the female gave him peace, and that was something he’d always needed. The female seemed to fill an empty spot in his soul.

  “It’s time, vulture,” said Stella as she shook Richard roughly with two of her arms.

  “All right,” Richard groaned. “I wasn’t sleeping. I was just resting my eyes.”

  Stella reached down with her lower right hand and helped Richard up.

  Once Richard was on his feet, he gave a big yawn. He wasn’t sure whether his nap had helped or harmed.

  * * *

  In less than five minutes, they were both standing at attention in front of the commandant.

  “At ease, cadets,” said the commandant indicating two seats in front of his desk.

  As Richard took a seat, he took a closer look at the commandant. He looked tired. Richard could swear the commandant had stress lines around his eyes that hadn’t been there before.

  Nick, Richard said. Shouldn’t his selfheal ability treat those lines as an injury? What gives?

  Th
e commandant’s old, Rick, said Nickelo. His Power reserve is shutting down.

  I repaired his Power link, Richard said. If you’re trying to tell me he’s dying, just stop.

  I didn’t say his Power link was failing, Rick, said Nickelo in a surprisingly sympathetic tone. I said his Power reserve is failing. It’s been weakening for years. A Power reserve cannot be repaired. It is what it is. When a wizard scout’s Power reserve fails, the wizard scout’s death will follow. After a pause, Nickelo said, I’m sorry, Rick. I know you’re fond of him. But don’t go counting him out. He’s not dead yet. He could be around for many years to come for all we know.

  The commandant interrupted any further queries on the subject by Richard.

  “So what’s your opinion on that, Rick? said the commandant.

  “Uh? Ah…, sir,” Richard stammered. He felt his face growing hot. He imagined it was turning red.

  “I didn’t think you were paying attention,” said the commandant.

  “Sorry, sir,” Richard said growing increasingly embarrassed at his momentary inattention.

  “Never mind,” said the commandant. “But I need you to pay close attention. I’m not here for my benefit, you know.”

  “Yes, sir,” Richard said as he vowed to pay closer attention. He didn’t enjoy being chastised by the commandant. “It won’t happen again, sir.”

  “I believe you,” said the commandant in a softer tone. “I know you’re both tired. And, I know you had guard duty last night, Rick, so I’ll be brief.”

  The commandant eyed them both. Richard wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to make a reply or not. While he was still trying to figure it out, Stella beat him to the punch.

  “I not tired, sir,” said Stella while shifting her shoulders in a move that flexed her bulging muscles.

  The commandant laughed. The stress lines disappeared from his face. “No, I suppose you’re not, cadet 37. If I had your strength and stamina, I’d probably never get tired either. You’re going to make a great wizard scout.”

  Stella replied, ‘Yes, sir’ to the commandant’s rare praise. Richard noticed his friend’s bare chest turn a darker shade of gray. He’d been around the Sterilian long enough to know she was embarrassed.

  “Well, enough of that,” said the commandant suddenly all business. “I think this will be our last training session, so I don’t want to waste time. I have a few things you both need to know before you leave the Academy.”

  Standing up, the commandant pointed to a credenza on the side wall. On it were four phase rods. “Cadet 37,” he said. “I took the liberty of having Sergeant Hendricks bring your phase rods here. Please activate them in stun mode.”

  Stella walked over to the credenza and picked up a phase rod in each of her four hands. She activated them one after the other. Their dull buzz filled the room as small bolts of phase energy ran up and down their lengths. Unlike the rest of the cadets who were issued a single phase rod, Stella had been provided with four. Each of her phase rods were a different color. One was red, one was blue, another was yellow, and the last was green. Richard knew from experience when Stella attacked with all four phase rods, the multitude of colors was very distracting to say the least. Her attacks were very difficult to defend against.

  “Rick,” said the commandant. “Summon your phase rod. Make sure you put it in stun mode. I think the demon essence in your phase rod is too hungry to make a kill sometimes. I don’t want either of you injuring the other this close to your DNA baselines.

  “Yes, sir,” Richard said as he pulled his phase rod out of his dimensional pack.

  Nickelo had fully briefed him on Brachia’s demon-essence modification to his phase rod. In turn, Richard had fully briefed the commandant as well.

  The commandant had not seemed unhappy with Richard’s phase rod upgrade. In fact, Richard thought he’d seemed rather pleased.

  Richard activated his phase rod. Even in stun mode, he could feel a sense of hunger from the weapon. It wanted to feed on cadet 37’s life force. Richard felt as if his phase rod was urging him to click the destructive-mode switch. The feeling was very disconcerting. Richard noticed the usually stoic cadet 37 growing nervous. Although they had sparred several times previously under the commandant’s watchful eye, Richard had a feeling the sense of hunger radiating from his phase rod would make even a seasoned wizard scout nervous.

  “All right,” said the commandant. “As soon as I say the word ‘start’, I want you to attack each other. Use both your phase rods and telekinesis. I want to see good offense and defense techniques.

  “Ah… you mean here in your office, sir?” Richard said. There wasn’t much maneuver room in the cramped office, and some of the furniture looked new. The commandant’s office was no longer Spartan for some reason.

  “Yes, Mr. Shepard.” said the commandant. “I mean here in my office. Be careful of my furniture. I don’t feel like filling out forms all day tomorrow explaining how my military-issued furniture received combat damage a thousand light years behind friendly lines.”

  “Yes, sir,” Richard said. “I just thought–”

  “Now’s not the time to start–,” began the commandant.

  At the word ‘start’, Stella jumped forward swinging all four phase rods in a swirling buzz-saw type maneuver at Richard’s head. At the same time, Richard sensed a line of Power stretch out from her towards his chest.

  Reacting instinctively, Richard sent a line of his own Power out to intercept Stella’s. He knocked it aside. Half stumbling, he stepped back while doing his best to dodge the multiple phase rods trying to make contact with his head.

  A little assistance would be nice, Nick, Richard thought hoping this wasn’t one of those times when his battle computer would be obstinate.

  It wasn’t. Both Stella and he were still wearing their battle suits. Richard made a series of defensive strikes so fast he surprised even himself. With each countermove, he felt the arms of his battle suit move ever so slightly to better fend off cadet 37’s blows.

  You can’t keep this up for long, Rick, said Nickelo. Jonathan is helping Stella the same as I’m helping you. But she has four phase rods to work with. One of them is going to connect sooner or later.

  Richard wanted to tell his battle computer ‘thanks for stating the obvious’, but he didn’t have the breath or the time.

  Seal me up, Nick, Richard thought.

  At almost the same instant his battle suit completed its seal, Richard noticed Stella’s battle helmet seal as well.

  His friend’s four phase rods made it virtually impossible to make a counterattack of his own. Stella was using all four of them to keep him off balance. Richard had a fleeting thought she was attacking exactly the way the commandant had trained her. Richard knew his battle computer was right. If he didn’t do something quick, his friend would get one of her phase rods past his defenses.

  Richard momentarily considered shifting into the void and levitating down through the floor. He immediately discarded the idea. Stella didn’t have the ability to shift into the void. Richard was pretty sure the commandant would consider it cheating if he took advantage of his friend’s weakness. Richard also resisted the urge to break his friend’s link to her Power reserve. It was too well protected for one thing. He knew that for a fact since he’d spent many hours placing protective traps all along the entire span of Stella’s link.

  Reaching out with a line of Power, Richard wrapped the Power around one of Stella’s hands. He tried to slow the hand down with his telekinesis, but before he could make any progress, Stella sent out a line of her own Power and slapped his line aside.

  Although Richard was more skilled in telekinesis that Stella, she was able to use brute force to overpower his attempts at controlling the speed of her strikes.

  Her Power reserve is three times the size of mine, Richard complained to his battle computer. I could stop her if my Power reserve was larger.

  Well, it’s not, said Nickelo. So use your head
to beat her.

  A slight opening appeared in Stella’s defenses. Richard made an off-balanced thrust at his friend’s chest. He wasn’t fast enough. Stella easily countered and knocked Richard’s phase rod off to the side. His deflected blow passed over the edge of the commandant’s desk.

  “Watch out for my lamp,” said the commandant not actually sounding worried.

  Stella took advantage of Richard’s failed counterattack and launched a series of swings that drove Richard backwards nearly to the wall.

  In a moment of desperation, Richard noticed both Stella and he were standing on a long throw rug. Reaching behind him with his Power, he grabbed hold of the rug and pulled back with telekinesis. At the same time, he jumped in the air and aimed a kick at his friend’s breastbone. Stella had previously told him the breastbone was one of the few sensitive spots on the well-muscled body of a Sterilian. Stella unconsciously stepped back in order to avoid his kick. The combined momentum of Stella stepping back as the rug was pulled forward threw her backwards.

  Richard sensed Stella wrapping herself with Power in an attempt to hold herself upright. Richard sent out a line of Power at Stella and knocked her Power aside. His friend hit the floor on her buttocks. Her battle suit easily absorbed the blow. Stella continued her roll backwards while swinging her phase rods to keep him at bay.

  As Richard moved forward to take advantage of his friend’s off-balance position, he was stopped by a shout.

  “Halt!” said the commandant. “That’s enough. Stand down and return to your seats.”

  Both Stella and Richard deactivated their phase rods. The room seemed unnaturally quiet after the sounds of their battle. Richard unsealed his battle suit and returned his battle helmet to half mode. Stella did the same. Richard reached down to help his friend to her feet. Smiling a toothy grin, she accepted his hand and stood up.