Spectra's Gambit (16 page)

“Master, they are leaking atmosphere and fuel. I’d guess they only have a few hours to live,” she said.

“How many on board?” I asked.

“I can’t quite tell. Too much interference,” said Kymberly.

“Jade, pull up close to them, say, within five or ten kilometers so I can get a better look,” said Spectra.

As we approached the vessel I asked, “Any indication that anyone spotted us?”

“No, not that I can see,” said Saraphym.

“Master Spectra, we are at five kilometers,” said Jade.

“Hold here,” she said and then softly chanted a spell. Soon a spirit formed in the room and flew out through the walls. I did not recognize the spell, which was an unnecessary reminder of just how far beyond me Spectra was in skill.

“Nothing,” said Spectra after a while.

“Nothing?” I asked.

“There is nothing alive on that ship,” she said. Her eyes were still closed and she was weaving slightly.

“Can you see the controls on the bridge?” I asked.

She sighed slightly and then opened her eyes. “No, that spell can only see living things, and I could find nothing on that ship. It is clearly bait for a trap.”

“I suggest we ignore it and move on,” said Greymere.

“Can we at least destroy it before we go?” asked Kymberly.

“If we do that, it will surely spring the trap,” said Greymere.

“But if we leave it then someone else will fall for it, for sure,” said Kymberly.

“Tactical, how many shots from our grand staves would it take?” I asked.

“With the extent of the damage, it would not take more than a couple. We could blast it and re-cloak before anyone could respond,” said Saraphym.

“If we are going to do that, I recommend you use your anti-matter missiles, as they have a much greater range. That way we can be much further from the trap when we set it off,” said Greymere.

“Our supply of missiles is limited this far from home. I’d rather not use them up on something like this. Jade, pull out to maximum range. Saraphym, once we are in position fire a full volley, using all staves. Jade, as soon as she is done, re-cloak and get us out of here.”

I hoped I was making the right choice as we pulled away from the bait ship. Somehow I needed to find a balance between Kymberly’s altruism and Greymere’s pragmatism. Tactical lit up with alarms as soon as we opened fire on the bait ship. The volley completely destroyed it, but five other warships jumped in to surround us.

“Status?” I asked.

“Our cloak is back up, the bait ship is destroyed, and they are actively searching for us,” said Saraphym.

“Jade, get us out of here,” I said.

“Yes, Master. It will be a couple of hours before we reach the jump point,” he said.

“That’s fine. Just don’t bump into anything and we should be able to fly out of this pretty easily,” I said.

I watched the tactical display as we flew away. The five craft were fast attack-class cruisers; the kind pirates used for hit-and-runs. It was likely that we could cut through them pretty easily, but it would be a risky waste of time. I knew that Master Shadow would take them out, and so would Phoenix; neither of them ever backed down from a fight, but I much preferred to slip on by and forget them.

As we flew out another craft jumped in, and this one was a pleasure yacht of some kind, light on armor and weapons.

“What are they doing out here?” I asked.

“This is a common trade route, so sometimes inexperienced pilots fly ships like that through here,” said Greymere.

“They don’t stand a chance!” said Kymberly.

I looked at Spectra who shrugged and sent,
“I guess we get that practice fight, after all
.
”

“All right. Nemesis, work on prioritizing targets. Jade, bring us around for an attack run. Kymberly, get ready on those jammers. The moment they move to attack we will have to remove their ability to aim. I doubt that yacht will survive more than one or two hits,” I said.

As we came around for our attack run the crew of the yacht must have come out of their post-jump hangover and realized the trouble they were in because they moved to align for a jump back the way they had come.

“Pirates have a lock!” called out Kymberly.

“Shut them down and attack!” I said.

I could feel Nemesis power up to full strength as we left the lower power mode of a stealth ship and accelerated to attack speed.

“Jamming successful,” said Kymberly.

“How long do they need?” I asked.

“Assuming their jump engines are charged enough, only a few minutes,” said Greyemere.

“The pirates are turning to intercept us,” said Saraphym.

“Kymberly, keep them locked. Jade, get us within grand stave range and let’s take them down in the order that Nemesis has chosen for us,” I said, then an idea occurred to me. “Jade, you take the lead from here.”

I watched as Jade flew toward the lead attacker. “Saraphym, we should only need two of the staves for each target.”

“Okay, Jade,” she said. “If you can manage to get between two, I might be able to take them both down at once.”

“I don’t think any of them are close enough, but we can try,” he said.

Jade flew Nemesis within range of the lead craft, and thanks to Kymberly’s work with the ECM, the pirates could not fight back. The lead ship was quickly destroyed.

“The yacht is jumping,” said Kymberly.

“Okay, then engage the cloak and let’s be gone,” I said. “Well done, everyone.”

“Hey, that was kind of fun,” said Nemesis.

He had been mostly quiet during the skirmish and I wondered if that was out of fear. It was so hard to judge his emotional state. We completely outmatched the pirates so it was a good test run, but I wondered how Nemesis would react the first time the ship took a hit. “What is the status on the pirates?”

“Master, they appear to be leaving,” said Saraphym.

“They know we are still here and can tell they are no match for us, so they won’t stick around,” said Greymere.

“Let them go, and let’s get back on track for the station,” I said.

We traveled for another week after the skirmish with the pirates before we finally reached the station. In that time I learned a bit more about how the wizard navy operated. Apparently there were two major divisions: regular troops, referred to as Battle Wizards, and the elite forces, referred to as the Dragon Guard. Dusty and Spectra used to lead the black ops for the Dragon Guard, but gave that up for this assignment.

“Greymere, what do you make of it?” asked Dusty, interrupting my thoughts.

We had arrived at the station, but it did not appear to be uninhabited as I had expected. “Its shields are fully operational, but it appears to be running on the lowest power configuration possible. The probability is that there is only a skeleton crew on board.”

“Any indication that they saw our approach?” asked Dusty.

“No, Master,” said Kymberly.

“I suggest we stay hidden until we know what we are up against. Saraphym and I can sneak on board and see what is happening over there,” I said. I hoped it would also give me a chance to verify that Saraphym was one of my kind.

Dusty looked at Spectra in silence for a couple of minutes. Finally he said, “Okay. Good luck, you two. Jade, get us as close as you can without revealing our presence.”

Saraphym and I headed down to the equipment lockers to make sure we had everything we needed. From there we got into the airlock and waited for the signal that Jade was in position.

“It’s weird,” she said. “I’ve always felt at home out there – even though it’s about the most hostile work environment I’ve ever been in.”

I smiled and said, “It is home.”

“Okay, you can exit when you’re ready,” said Jade over the comm.

“I’ll leave my armor on. It will be easier for us to stay together that way,” I said as I took her hand and opened the door.

“I can teleport faster than you can fly, you know,” she said.

“I believe you, but we need to stay together,” I replied, and with that we jumped out and activated our thruster packs. “Just a quick burst and then we can let inertia carry us.”

We floated toward the station in silence. I watched her as she admired the stars around us. There was something about her that drew me in. Perhaps it was merely the prospect of finding a female of my species, but I believed it to be more.

I knew that if I were right she could safely take off her helmet, and that magical armor of hers would flex to fit her even if she instinctively reverted to her native form. If I were wrong, it would be a dangerous mistake to make. In the hard vacuum of space she would have at most fifteen seconds of consciousness, which should be enough to get her helmet back on, as long as she did not panic. I was pretty sure I was right, but I was not ready to take that risk yet.

“How will we get in?” she asked as we got close to the station.

“All stations have maintenance entrances and exits that their robotic staff uses to work on the exterior of the station. The environment in those tunnels is very unfriendly to most races so they tend to overlook them when securing a station. I can almost always sneak on a station through one, even the most secure,” I said.

“Unfriendly to all life?” she asked.

“No, we will be fine. Trust me,” I said.

“But you just said …” she argued.

“I said to most, not us,” I cut her off. “Just follow me and you will see.”

She seemed to accept that and followed me as I searched for the entrance. Eventually I found one and had started to slide open the hatch when she said, “Stop. I’m reading high levels of radiation from there.”

“Yes, it is the waste product from the robotic workers,” I said. I decided that the time had come; I had to know either way. The prospect of not being alone anymore was too inviting. “It is not harmful for us.”

“My armor is reporting that it’s deadly, and too strong for it to shield me,” she said.

“Take off your helmet,” I said.

“Are you out of your mind?” she asked.

I took mine off and reached out for her mind.
“You can do this.”

“How are you using telepathy? You’re not a magus!”
she sent back.

“Is this telepathy? It is how our people talk,”
I sent back.

“Our people?”
she sent.

“Yes. Shea discovered when doing my DNA testing that you and I are the same race. That radiation in there is not dangerous to us, it’s food.”

She looked at me, then back to the entrance, and then back to me.
“Are you sure?”

“Yes,”
I sent.
“Reach into yourself; you know it is true. You’ve always felt that draw to space, which is why you came out here in the first place.”

“I came out here because you asked me,”
she sent.

“I meant your role with the Wizard Kingdom in general. You know you belong here among the stars,”
I sent.

“But what if you’re wrong?”
she sent.

“You know I am right; your very cells are crying out to you,”
I sent.
“Besides, I will be right here to save you if necessary.”

She slowly reached up and unlocked her helmet and its air rushed out. I got ready. If I was wrong I knew I would have enough time to reach over and lock her helmet back on before any damage could be done. I knew, and I assumed she knew, that a human could safely be exposed to a vacuum, as long as the exposure was brief.

For a split second panic set in on her face and she started to gag, but then she calmed down as she realized she was fine.
“But how?”

“Shea’s guess is that you adopted your bipedal form when you were very little, before you can remember, and then you were taught by everyone that you were human, so you believed it; until now.”

“So I can do the whole butterfly thing?”
she asked as she removed her helmet the rest of the way.

“Yes, but right now that form would be too big to fit in the tunnel. Power down your armor. That will extend the time it can be exposed before it’s damaged. Once on the station you will want to power it back up …”
I started but she interrupted me with a kiss. At first I started to pull back in surprise, but her hand slipped around the back of my head and through my hair to stop me. Time seemed to stop for that kiss, and for the first time in my life I tasted one of my own. There was a warm tingle that flowed through my lips and a heat rushed through my body as my mind reeled with emotions and feelings I could not understand. Everything about that moment felt right and I wanted to lose myself in it forever.

“Sorry,”
she said after letting go.

“No, please don’t be sorry,”
I sent, struggling to get my mind back in my own body. I took off my glove and gently stroked her cheek. It was softer than mine, and warmer. An unfamiliar but pleasant feeling passed through my fingers as I stroked her cheek.
So this is what a woman feels like
, I thought to myself.

With a sigh, I reluctantly turned back to the hatch.
“We need to get back to our mission
.
”

She was quiet as I finished opening the entrance, and we slipped down the tunnel into the station. Once on the station we put our helmets back on for protection and powered our armor back up.

“Now what?”
she asked.

“We take it one step at a time,”
I sent, unsure if she was referring to the kiss or the mission. Either way, one step at a time was the right answer.

We moved through the station looking for signs of life, but finding only
robotic workers who completely ignored us.

“If anyone is here, they would be near the center,” she said over our inter-suit comm.

“What makes you say that?” I asked. I completely agreed with her, but was surprised at her insight.

“Standard infiltration tactical training,” she said with a grin.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I am new to this magic thing and to combat, but I was a covert operative for my father’s business before joining the Academy,” she said.

“What kind of business was he in?” I asked.