Resurgence of Ancient Darkness (23 page)

“No, actually that is not correct,” I said.

“No?” he asked.

“She wants you to come by tonight,” I said with a chuckle.

He bemusedly shook his head at that. “Any word on our missing hauler yet?”

We have been trying to find that ship ever since it escaped apparently carrying some kind of doomsday box which not only kills instantly, but somehow convinces people to commit suicide by freely reaching into it. “Yes, actually. We found the remains of it. It seems our friends met up with some bad company and didn’t fare well,” I said.

“What of the box?” he asked.

“Gone. The ship’s corpse has been picked clean. Nothing much is left, not even the ship’s logs,” I said.

“That leaves us with no way to track that cursed thing,” he said.

I simply nodded and then went over to his bar where I made myself a small drink. I knew I should not be drinking on duty, but occasionally I allowed myself a little something. Somehow those occasions always seemed to coincide with my visits to Doug.

“In other news, your plan worked out very well with that rebel colony,” I said.

“That is good to hear,” he said, leaning back with his own drink.

“So much so that I plan to record it as standard procedure for that type of event. We still have a few more planets to approach about rejoining the kingdom, and it will be good to have that system in place for them,” I said.

“Yes, I think you will find that way works best in most cases,” he said.

It was sometimes difficult to read him. He always kept his hand close to his chest when we talked about military matters. He was a great friend, and would talk openly about anything else, just not current military operations. “Have you debriefed your magi yet?” They had just now finally made it back. Almost all my men were lost, and several of his magi. It was a costly mission.

“Yes, but they did not seem to know very much,” he said.

“Same with my men. That leaves us with no idea who captured that station, why they did it, or any information about the box,” I said.

“True, but what concerns me more is the assault that failed. How were our people captured? What went wrong? Their second assault went almost flawlessly, but they could give us no information about the first,” he said.

“Yeah, that has been bugging me too. It seems that they had superior firepower compared to the hostiles in both the jailbreak and the second assault, so what could have happened in the first assault?” I asked.

Starbiter, who almost never talked in my presence, said, “The reasonable assumption is that whoever was on that hauler was the one who stopped the first attack, and to control that box he must have been a powerful magus.”

“What about those people you found on the trash hauler?” I asked.

“Now that is a major mess. All of them have been transferred to various hospitals and are being treated. Where we can, we are tracking down families, but we have no record of
many of them,” he said.

“Any idea why they were taken to begin with?” I asked.

“The only clue we have is that there is a comment in the captain’s log about making a collection for the harvest,” he said.

“Not much of a clue,” I said.

“No, but it does imply that there may be more ships out there like that one,” he said.

Shea came over and began examining Spectra, who was still unconscious. Spectra had not moved or spoken since I had laid her there. The computers reported that her vital functions were weak but stable. I had stayed with her through the night, but hadn’t get much sleep.

“Shea, how do you think she is?” I asked.

“Master, I believe she is going to make it. I plan to give her one more dose in a couple of hours, and after that she should recover completely,” said Shea.

“That’s great! Thanks, Shea!” I said and gave her a big hug.

Just then Rocky walked in and said, “Master Dusty, how is she?”

“Shea says she’s going to make it!” I said.

“Excellent! But Master, how about you?” he asked.

“Me? Oh, I’m fine,” I said.

“Then, Master, join me for breakfast?” he asked.

I looked back at Spectra and hesitated. I didn’t feel right leaving her side at this time. What if something happened while I was away? Would I ever forgive myself?

“
Master, you asked me to help you learn to be a leader when you made me your second-in-command, so please let me help you. You need to get back to your post; otherwise you are sending the message that you will abandon your duties whenever Spectra gets hurt,”
sent Rocky privately.

I sighed. I knew he was right, but it was so hard to leave her. “Shea, please call me the moment she wakes up. Until then, I have to make sure that table is destroyed.”

“Sure thing, Master,” said Shea.

I left and walked with Rocky towards the mess hall. On the way there, some members of my crew stopped me to make a comment about something or other. Most of the time the comments seemed merely to be an excuse to speak with me. I stopped and listened to each one patiently and tried to be encouraging to them.

We eventually made it to the mess hall and sat down for a meal. “
I guess you were right. They needed to see me for some reason,”
I sent privately to Rocky.

“
Yes, Master. They just came out of a combat mission, and you were holed up in sickbay. Leaders give strength and stability to their teams. They needed to know you were alright,
” he sent back.

“Any word yet on the table? Have we been able to verify its destruction?” I asked.

“No, Master. The debris cloud is still too dense. The planet’s weather is working against us and keeping the area covered,” he said.

“Any idea when the weather will break in our favor?” I asked.

“It could be weeks,” he said. “We don’t have enough information about this planet to know for sure.”

“We need to know it has been destroyed before we do anything else,” I said. “Do you have any suggestions?”

“Not really, Master. None of our probes could handle that weather,” he said.

“Well, then, let’s get everyone together for lunch. I want all my senior staff to brainstorm on this. Ask them to think of ideas, and we’ll see what we can come up with,” I said.

“Sure, Master, but we could just wait for the weather to clear,” he said.

“If we must, we will, but I’d rather know sooner than later,” I said.

While we were talking Phoenix walked up to the table and said, “Mind if I join you?”

“No, go right ahead,” I said.

“Thanks, man. It’s good to see you out and about,” he said.

On his plate was just a salad, and not a large serving either. “Wow, Shea is really cutting back on you,” I said.

“Nah, this is just a snack. I already ate,” he said.

“I am proud of you, Phoenix. You’re doing very well with this diet!” I said.

“Thanks. I just hope I can stick with it. I can’t stand the thought of being a mundane again,” he said.

“Master, let that be a motivation for you, then. Every time you want to cheat on your diet, remind yourself of how you felt to be without your powers,” said Rocky.

“Yeah, maybe,” he replied.

“Phoenix, have you made any more progress?” I asked.

“Actually, yes. I have pretty much regained all the basic powers. They came back almost immediately after I lifted that towel a few more times,” he said.

“That's wonderful! What about the rest of your powers?” I asked.

“I haven’t tried them yet. Shea wants me to wait a few days just to make sure I don’t overdo it. She did say that my illuminescence levels are returning to normal, so I’m on my way to a complete recovery,” he said.

“Wow, Phoenix! That’s great! I did not expect them to come back so fast!” I said.

“Yeah, Shea said the problem was that my body was too weak to produce sufficient levels of illuminescence to use my powers. I never really lost them: it was just like I was perpetually out of juice. Now that my juice is returning I should soon be back to full strength, and no towel will be safe!” he said with a grin.

“I just can’t get over how great your news is!” I said. “I can't wait to tell Spectra!”

Shea, Rocky, Phoenix, Skryth, and I met at noon to discuss the current mission status. First, Rocky briefed everyone on the current situation with the weather on the planet below. I said, “All right, everyone, I need ideas. We need to know whether or not we successfully destroyed the table.”

“Master, I could rig a probe up with extra armor to fly into the storm, but it wouldn’t last long,” said Skryth.

“How long would we get?” I asked.

“A minute, maybe two,” he said.

“Why is this storm so dangerous?” I asked. “Shouldn’t the Fox be able to fly into it with its shields up?”

“No, I wouldn’t risk it, Master,” said Rocky.

“Well, why not?” I asked.

“The storm is intense, Master; much more intense than it should be. I doubt if our shields could stand up to the beating for long,” said Rocky.

“And it isn’t just the rocks,” said Phoenix. “There is a massive build-up of static electricity that would easily fry our shields.”

“Can we bleed off the electricity with some superconductor wire anchored to the ground?” asked Skryth.

“If we had a way of getting it in there, and had many miles of it, sure,” said Rocky. “Unfortunately we have neither.”

“An armored probe could be the delivery mode,” said Skryth. “Plus I can manufacture as much wire as we need. It will just take a little time.”

“How much time?” I asked.

“A few weeks at most, Master,” he said.

“By that time the local weather might have resolved the problem for us,” said Rocky.

“Then why don’t we just wait?” asked Shea.

“Spectra’s last words to me were a plea to destroy that table before it was too late. I can't ask her for details right now, obviously. I can only trust that she knew something I didn’t. What other options do we have?” I asked.

“Well, the problem is that the storm is stable, right?” asked Phoenix. “Can we just detonate a missile in the middle of it and break it up?”

“There is far too much energy in that storm for a missile to have an impact. Any detonation would be ineffective at best, and at worst would make the storm stronger,” said Rocky.

We debated back and forth for a while, with each idea crazier than the last. Soon it was apparent that we would just have to wait it out. I was tempted to shoot a couple more waves of antimatter missiles at the table’s last known location, just to be sure.

“Wait, wait,” said Shea. “This storm is made up of – what, exactly?”

“Rock, sand, electricity and wind, mostly,” said Rocky.

“Rocky, you're a terramancer, right? Cymeion’s line is electricity, isn’t it?” said Shea.

“Yeah … ” responded Rocky.

“Well, can’t you use your magic to protect a shuttle as you fly in there? They’re your elements, right?” asked Shea.

Phoenix and Rocky looked at each other in amazement. “Of course!” they said almost at once. Then Rocky said, “Why didn’t we think of that?”

“Because you were too focused on using technology,” said Shea.

“Excellent!” I said. “What will you need?”

“We’ll need a third wizard to fly the shuttle and check the table, since we will need to focus completely on the storm,” said Rocky.

“I’ll go,” said Phoenix.

“Are you sure, Phoenix? If they fail … ” I said.

“If they fail, they’ll need my shields to buy them time to get out of there,” he interrupted.

“Master, I request that we wait at least a day so that Phoenix can be ready,” said Shea.

“Shea, with all due respect, I am ready now,” he said.

“Master, sure, maybe you are. But you like keeping your doctor happy, so wait another day,” she said with a disarming smile.

Phoenix melted in her gaze. “I guess I could,” he said.

“Okay, that seems reasonable. Tomorrow at midday you’ll launch,” I said.

“Master, with the delay I can add
on a layer of nonconductive insulation that should reduce the damage from potential lightning strikes,” said Skryth.

“What will that do to maneuverability?” asked Phoenix.

“Master, it will increase drag and friction, but I think the trade-off will be worth it,” he replied.

“No, let’s skip it then. The best survival tactic we will have in there is speed. We’ll need to get in and out fast before Rocky and Cymeion use up their strength,” said Phoenix.

“Master, I might be able to compensate for that by upgrading … ” he started to say.

“No,” I said, interrupting him. “I appreciate the thought, but the reality is that if Cymeion fails to stop the lightning then all is already
lost. They need to be rigged for as much speed and maneuverability as we can give them,” I said.

“Yes, Master. I’ll see what I can do,” said Skryth.

I was on the bridge when a call came from Shea over the comm system: “Master Dusty, please report to sickbay.”

“On my way,” I responded.

When I entered, Spectra was sitting up and sipping a cup of water. Seeing her awake brought a smile to my face and a lightness to my step.

“Spectra!” I rushed to her, ignoring the medical equipment all around her.

“Dusty!” Her furry face suddenly lit up with a smile that caused my heart to quicken.

I pulled her into my arms and held her body tightly against mine. Nothing else mattered in the whole universe right then. Spectra was alive! Her slight moan of pain reminded me that I needed to be gentle. As I eased her back I gazed into her big green eyes and asked, “How are you doing?”

“Oh, fine. A bit drained, that’
s all.” Her face betrayed how tired she really was, but she would never let on.

Shea walked over and said, “She is going to be all right. I just want to keep her a few more hours to make sure nothing unexpected happens.”

“That’s great, Shea! You’re a real hero!” She smiled, curtsied, and walked off. I assumed she wanted to give us time alone. “Spectra, what happened?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.