Resurgence of Ancient Darkness (31 page)

“Master Shadow, we will be jumping in a few minutes. Is the area secure?” I sent over the comm. Normally there was some blind faith needed with jumps since we lost our cloak in the process, but the Nevermore II was already at the rendezvous and could tell us if it was safe.

“It looks clear, Dusty. Come through when you are ready,” he replied.

“Navigation, jump when ready,” I ordered.

“Yes, Master,” he said.

Soon the cool azure of jump space wrapped around us. There was something inviting and friendly about jump space that made the cares of life fall away briefly as we crossed through it. It was as if we suddenly understood that none of the little stuff that bothered us mattered in the grander picture, and we were able to relax; but it was all too brief.

“Navigation, contact the Nevermore and get us docked,” I said after we reentered normal space.

Docking is one of those events in life that is extremely dangerous and complex, but so routine that you barely think about it as it happens. Time, speed, and motion in space are relative to the observer. This means that putting a smaller ship inside a larger ship requires complex mathematical equations to accomplish it safely. Our computers do almost all the work, so this dangerous maneuver becomes a push of a button, and the danger is forgotten even though it is still very real.

Once docking was complete, my command staff and I met with Master Shadow to officially debrief him on the mission, and he updated us on the plans that had come out of his recent meeting with Grandmaster Vydor. When that was done I asked him for a private talk, and we retired to his office.

“What can I do for you, Dusty?” he asked.

I was nervous about this request, but I reminded myself that, in the end, Master Shadow was a good friend and pushed myself just to come right out and say what I had come to say. “Master, Spectra and I would like to get married and have Shea perform the wedding,” I said.

“I knew this day would come, but I had hoped I would be more prepared for it,” he said.

“What do you mean, Master?” I asked.

“First, let me say: congratulations! I think you two make a wonderful couple, and as your friend I could not be more happy for you,” he said.

“Thank you, Master,” I said. He seemed uncomfortable, and I knew that to be a bad sign.

“Now, though, we have a problem. I sit here as a hypocrite to tell you this, but when the Wizard Navy was officially formed shortly after operation Show of Force, we had to codify some operating rules. One of those was that a senior officer is not allowed to have a relationship with anyone under him,” he said.

“What are you saying?” I asked.

“If you two get married, then one of you has to resign,” he said.

“I see,” I said. That simply did not seem fair, but I did not know what to say.

“Now, I will state it again: I am being a hypocrite here because I am married to Flame. However, our marriage legally predates operation Show of Force, so we are grandfathered in. Even so, if or when we ever have children, she will resign and resolve that issue,” he said.

“Still, that doesn’t seem fair to us,” I said. I hadn’t thought about kids. I wondered if that was even possible for Spectra and me.

“I could see why you would think that, but I am sure you can understand why the rule is needed,” he said.

“So now what?” I asked.
I didn’t
really understand why the rule was needed, but it was pointless to argue with the existence of a rule.

“Well, I will file a request for an exception for you, if you want me to. I am sure it would be approved, considering your service record,” he said.

“And if it’s not?” I asked. If one of us resigned, that would mean months, maybe even years apart while the other served out here.

“We will deal with that if it happens,” he said.

“Master, what would you do if it was you and Flame, instead of me and Spectra?” I asked.

“I would file the request for an exception before I worried about anything,” he said.

“I see,” I said. I knew that he would do just that. He was very much in favour of following procedure, but that didn’t make it any easier for me.

“Look, I know how hard this could make things for you, and I want you to know that I am here for you, no matter what,” he said. “I will personally see that your request for an exception is heard by the Council and do everything I can to convince them to allow it.”

“There is another problem, Master,” I said.

“That is … ?” he asked.

“Well, you know how Phoenix listed us as family so that we can make medical decisions on his behalf?” I asked.

“Yes, a practice I would rather not see repeated,” he said.

“Well, it seems that Phoenix is not the only one with extra family,” I said.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Due to a series of miscommunications, according to the official record Spectra and I are already married and have been since Operation Show of Force,” I said.

To my relief he just laughed at that. He turned to his console and brought up our service records and chuckled. “According to this, you are already grandfathered in too, but obviously we need to fix matters to reflect the truth.”

“I don’t want anyone to get into trouble over this,” I said.

“No one will. This kind of thing happens all the time. Whenever you have people entering in data, you have issues,” he said. “I’ll have the record updated to say you have been in a relationship since the date listed here for your marriage, and that you each have full medical access to the other. That is how I understand the truth to be.”

“Thanks, but if you do that, shouldn’t we be grandfathered in?” I asked.

He thought about that for a while and eventually smiled and said, “You know, I think we can do it that way. I will put on file that I am approving your marriage under the grandfather clause once we get the paperwork in order
. If you want Shea to perform the wedding, I will sign whatever paperwork is needed to make that official.”

“Thanks, Master,” I said.

I was about to leave when Shadow said, “Dusty, thank you for coming to me. You and Spectra mean a lot to me, and I would hate to lose either of you.”

“Hello, Bill,” greeted Doug as I walked into his office.

Over in the corner, looking as creepy as ever, was Starbiter. For the most part, he was silent in my presence. He just stood there and silently observed everything that happened. “Hi, Doug. I trust you and your wife are well?”

“Exceptionally. Until I came here I thought I had access to the best medical facilities in the galaxy, but after a few short years working with the wizards I feel half a century younger,” said Doug.

“That’s great to hear, because I think we will need at least another half-century of your time to get the wizards and my navy working together without fear,” I said.

He laughed. “You know, it is strange how fast prejudice and fear can build, and how long it takes to eradicate.”

“Yes. It’s a funny thing,” I said.

“What can I do for you today?” he asked.

“Recently the Shadow Fox ran a mission to eliminate a potential threat near our borders. That mission was a success, as I understand it, and I would like full access to the mission reports,” I said.

“I do not believe that that would pose a problem, but what is the reason for this sudden interest?” he asked.

“We believe we’ve found a second station just like it. I will be sending one of my smaller battle fleets to check it out,” I said.

“Outside our space again?” he asked.

“Yes. Same basic set-up, just a different sector,” I said.

“As I recall that mission, Master Dusty found the target exceptionally easy to destroy, so I do not think you will have any problems,” he said.

“True, but this time I plan to try and capture it instead of just destroying it. I hope to find out more about who is building these stations,” I said.

“Good idea,” he said as he punched something into his terminal. “According to this report, and I will send it all to your office, the station was completely empty. Master Dusty states that robotic workers were building the station and stockpiling supplies in there. Their conclusion was that it was being prepared as an advance base from which to launch an attack.”

“That is exactly my fear with this one. The fact that they are trying again makes this a more serious issue,” I said. “I would also like you to deploy a squad of wizards to come along. It should be a very routine mission, and we can see how the proposed model of one squad of wizards per battle fleet might work out.”

“Starbiter and I were just talking about that before you came in. He suggests that we try a squad of seven, which apparently is his favorite number,” said Doug.

“Oh?” I asked.

“At least, every time I ask him something involving numbers he suggests seven,” said Doug.

I suspected he was teasing Starbiter somehow, but I didn’t feel it would be wise to take part in it. “Seven works for me.”

“Yes, two to three primarily defense-focused wizards, three to four wizards from the primary offensive lines, and one or two from the concealment line is what we have found to be the best way to make up a general support team like this,” said Starbiter.

“Interesting. That’s not all that different from our fleet composition,” I said.

“Battle tactics are fairly universal,” said Doug.

“True. I guess I just assumed things would be different somehow,” I said.

“And that is why we have a problem with prejudice,” said Doug.

“Ouch,” I said with a smile. I was sure he was right, and that made the remark hit too close to home.

“Starbiter, we should put Ramsong in charge of this squad. He needs more field experience,” said Doug.

“Agreed, and I suggest we let him pick the squad,” said Starbiter.

“Bill, where is your fleet now?” asked Doug.

“Waiting to deploy,” I said.

“Send them. Starbiter can arrange a gate for them to join your fleet once they are ready,” he said.

After that, the conversation drifted off to more personal topics, and Starbiter receded back into his shell. I did not understand him at all, and as a warrior that made me concerned. Doug seemed to trust him and have his respect, so that probably meant he was fine, but that did not change the fact that he creeped me out a little every time I saw him.

Master Dougherty was sending me out as a squad leader again. I took that to be a good sign that he thought well of my performance on the last two missions, but this time he was sending me to live on a mundane capital ship. That seemed more like a punishment than a sign of good favor. Still, I had to make this work. I had to admit it was marginally better than being assigned to a trash hauler like the last time.

Master Dougherty was insistent that we take the initiative to break down the barriers between the mundanes and the magi. I was happy to leave well enough alone, but as leader on this mission, I was expected to set an example in following Master Dougherty’s orders.

“Are you ready, Ramsong?” asked the elite wizard who was serving as the gatemaster.

“Yes, Master,” I said, after a glance at my team to make sure they were.

The gatemaster opened the gate, and we walked through. We came out in the captain’s office on the capital class ship where we would be serving for the remainder of this assignment. The captain and several of his officers were standing there to greet us as we came out.

“Welcome aboard the First Strike,” said the captain. Once introductions were out of the way, his quartermaster escorted my team to their quarters, but the captain wanted to talk to me in private.

“Ramsong, please sit. Can I get you anything?” he asked.

“No, thank you,” I said. I was not really sure how to handle this meeting. He was obviously nervous around me, and I did not enjoy being there either.

He took a drink of some kind and sat across from me. “As you can imagine, we have never had wizards on board before, so I am not sure of the proper protocol.”

“We don’t know, either. This is new to us also,” I said. “For the present, my squad will report to me, and I will report to you.”

“Sure, and as far as I am concerned you are a part of my command staff,” he said. He seemed a bit relieved at my comment that I would report to him. I’m not sure what he was expecting.

“Look, captain, it is no secret that mundanes and wizards tend to have problems working together. There is plenty of blame for that on both sides. If we are to make this assignment work, we have to set an example somehow.” I was beginning to understand why it was so important to send us on this mission. It was not just about some rogue station, but about overcoming our own weaknesses.

“Yes, of course,” he said. “Before we received the message that you were gating in, we were about to have a mission briefing meeting. Would you be ready to attend if we have that now?”

“Certainly, and I have the mission reports from the Shadow Fox to share,” I said.

He called in his senior staff and made another round of introductions. “Ramsong has the mission reports from the last time they dealt with a station like our current target, and will share them with us.”

I shared with them everything we had on Master Dusty’s mission. “Other than that one internal room, there was no resistance at all.”

“The Shadow Fox was sent to destroy the last station with the hope that that would prevent any more from being built. Now that we’ve found a second one, command wants us to take over the station this time and learn who is building them,” said the captain.

“Has anyone contacted the Thelthronians?” asked the first officer.

“No, we have no contacts with them, and attempts to reach them so far have been ignored,” I said.

“Was anything learned from the debris?” asked the chief engineer.

“No, it was all standard materials with no markings of any kind,” I said.

“Someone is trying really hard to keep us in the dark,” said the captain. “Does anyone have an opinion about this?”

“Well, as I understand it, the Thelthronians hate magic of any kind and would be happy to see our kingdom eliminated, but they are not known for taking the offensive in any military action. They make their money by selling to as many different sides of a conflict as they can at the same time. I think we can eliminate them as suspects,” said the chief engineer.