Spectra's Gambit (30 page)

“I will make a note of that,” said Curetes.

“What of Spectra’s team?” asked Henrick.

“They are still traveling under cloak, but we found Greymere,” said Curetes.

“Oh?” asked Henrick.

“He is running an unknown mission in the Spirit Realm,” said Curetes.

“Now, that is very interesting. Keep a tail on him and let me know what he is doing,” said Henrick.

“Already done,” said Curetes.

“And if he gets in trouble, send some help his way,” said Henrick.

Curetes smiled. There was something in that smile that was more frightening than comforting. “Of course; that is what any good neighbor would do. So far, though, he has held his own very well. I think we may have underestimated him.”

Henrick walked up to a makeshift table made out of stone pieces from the castle. “Ah, here we are.”

Curetes looked around and asked, “Where?”

“This is Narcion’s funeral pyre,” said Henrick.

“Ah,” said Curetes.

“You are wondering why that matters,” said Henrick. “Narcion left behind a woman, and that woman holds a key to knowledge that I want.”

“But how does this table help?” asked Curetes.

“They were lovers,” said Henrick. “She is bound to come back here to visit this site from time to time.”

“I see; so you want me to have this place watched?” asked Curetes.

“Yes. When she returns, let me know right away,” said Henrick.

“Quitting time, Chrimson! See you tomorrow,” said my crew chief.

It had been weeks since I’d found my way to this station and there still was no sign of Dusty’s team. To pass the time, I took a job as a mechanic in the main maintenance bay for the station. The pay was not great, but it kept me close to one of the busiest docking arms and gave me access to the port operations log, which told me exactly who came and went every day.

This station was my best bet for finding them, but once again another day had gone by without any recorded arrival of a ship matching their class or designation. The information I had read told me they traveled covertly at all times, so I kept my search parameters as wide as was reasonable, but still nothing. No ship approaching their specifications had docked with the station.

I sighed and headed to the pub for dinner with the rest of the low-income workers. It was not so bad working as a mechanic; at least I was making enough money to support myself, and I was even learning more about the proper way to fix things. If I stayed here much longer, I might actually earn a real certification for a change.

The pub was more like a restaurant and perfect for a low-life like myself. They did not have a huge menu but they did have real, organic meat, which was hard to find anywhere. Almost everywhere that served ‘meat’ produced a synthetically-grown, chemical mash that most species could not tell apart from meat; Zalionians could, however. This made the pub a local favorite of Zalionians and a fairly rough place to dine. My large size and filthy clothes marked me as someone whom it would be foolish to tackle, so I never had a problem, but I had seen many a smaller Zalionian run out of the joint. Humans and other small races wisely steered clear of the place.

I took a seat at the bar and the waitress brought me my regular meal without needing to be asked. She gave me the same smile every time, a smile that said, “You’re too good for this place; do something with your life.” Some nights she would sit and talk for a while, but tonight it was too busy. The smile would be all I got that night. She was becoming a good friend, or at least a great tablemate.

I was ripping into my meat, savoring the juices and blood, when I overhead some men rudely evaluating a female’s suitability as a mate and making obscene comments about her appearance. I wondered who might be the object of their attentions, and when I looked I was shocked to see Kymberly, the white dwarf Zalionian who traveled with Dusty. She looked more beautiful than her picture, and even smaller than I had guessed. I could see how she had drawn attention. Except for her small stature and the color of her scales, she had the look of a model; she even had the perfect walk, down to the sweeping tail.

She seemed to be completely ignoring the men and took a seat at a small table. I watched as covertly as I could while she ordered a meal and began to eat. She continued to be completely oblivious to the young Zalionians who were harassing her. This indifference seemed to spur them on, and one of them got up to approach her.

I had seen enough and walked over to intercept him. “It’s time you sat down and shut that foul mouth of yours.”

“Oh, yeah? Who is going to – ” he jeered, but my right hook across his jaw shut him up and he fell to the floor.

I looked at his friends who stood there, shocked. “Pick up this garbage, and be gone.”

The rest of the crowd had gone quiet around me, and the two young male Zalionians grabbed their buddy and dragged him out. Kymberly walked over to me and said, “Hey, thanks for that.”

I felt my facial scales lift a little in embarrassment as she looked up at me. “Ah, it was nothing; just some kids out to prove themselves.”

“Yeah. It’s not the first time I have been ogled,” she said. “Join me for a drink?”

“Sure, that’d be great,” I said. I could not believe my luck; she had made contact with me. For the second time on this mission I had done something right. It was a virtual streak of success.

I gathered up what was left of my meal and joined her. She was much smaller than I was, but you would not have known that by the amount of food she was putting away. Her close-fitting body armor was of a far better quality than anything I could ever afford. It fit so well that it must have been custom-molded to her form.

She was a white-scaled dwarf, and therefore I would not normally have spoken to her. Her kind was not well liked, and most Zalionians would have ignored her. Sadly, she would probably have been completely invisible to me had I not been looking for her specifically as part of my mission. I sat there in silence, not sure what to say to her.

“So, tell me about yourself,” she said, breaking the ice.

“Not much to tell,” I said.

“Sure there is. Let’s start easy. Do you have a job?” she asked.

“Of course. I work down in the bays as a mechanic,” I said.

“I thought so, because of your uniform.” She had a nice smile, filled with razor-sharp teeth that ripped through the flesh of her meal. I watched her long, forked tongue slowly clean some meat juice from her teeth, and then she said. “Have you got a family?”

“Nah, I’m more of a drifter,” I said.

She delicately ran her tongue around her mouth and said, “Too bad. You seem like a nice guy.”

We talked for a while, which consisted mostly of her asking questions about me, while I enjoyed the view and the company. I don’t know how long we sat there, as I was lost in her eyes, but eventually the bar started to close around us.

“Well, I guess we should go,” I said.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’ll have to find a hatch to jump out.”

“Funny. I’ll walk you home. Which way?” I asked.

“Oh, I was serious,” she said, sounding a bit hurt. “My ship is stuck in a parking orbit because we can’t get permission to dock.”

“Ah,” I said. “Then what are you going to do?”

“I was supposed to come on board and see if I could find a way to expedite the process, but I slipped in here to grab some real meat for a change and then we got so caught up in talking that I forgot about it,” she said. “Now I don’t know what I’m going to do!”

I smiled. She was in luck; I could help her with this! “Come on,” I said as I took her arm. “I bet Jerry is just going on shift. Let’s see what we can do about this.”

She allowed me to pull her close while we walked. It didn’t take long to get to the command center for the docking operations. Once there I found Jerry and said, “Hey, man, got a minute?”

“Sure, what’s up?” he asked.

“Well, this young lady’s ship is stuck in a parking orbit waiting to dock. Can you see what’s causing the delay?” I asked.

He looked at her, then smiled and winked at me. “For you, sure. Which ship?”

“Oh, it’s the Nemesis,” she said and then rattled off the official designation.

“Ah, yes, here it is,” he said. “It is classified as unidentified, and background checks have turned up empty, so command will probably reject its request to dock.”

“Oh, but we are ambassadors from across the galaxy,” started Kymberly.

He chuckled and started to say something but she cut him off.

“No, seriously we are. I am Seventh Rank Battle Wizard Kymberly of the Wizard Kingdom, and on board that craft is Second Rank Battle Wizard Dusty and Second Rank Battle Wizard Spectra. I would not make them angry, if I were you.” Her sweet, innocent-sounding voice was gone and she was now speaking with force and authority. I knew what she said was true as I had studied her file, but the sudden switch in tone and demeanor caught me just as much off-guard as it did Jerry.

Jerry hesitated. “You’re serious?”

“Completely,” she said and pulled out her ID. “Scan it against the Imperial database.”

He took the ID and stuck it in the reader and then swallowed hard. “I am sorry, ma’am, for the confusion and delay. I will clear a port immediately.”

“Thank you,” she said.

While he did that, I asked, “If you had that ID, why didn’t you identify yourself on approach to the station?”

“Stupid bureaucracy! We couldn’t reach anyone to show it to,” she said. She looked over at Jerry and said, “Master Spectra was ready to get a bit more forceful, but I convinced them to let me try first.”

“Why do I get the feeling that if a Second Rank Battle Wizard decides to get more forceful, things would go badly for this station?” I said, following her lead and making sure Jerry could hear us.

“You can’t possibly imagine what Master Spectra could do,” she said. I was sure she was not bluffing when she said that.

A look of dread washed over Jerry’s face. “Well, uh, I am very sorry you had this delay. I will give you the communications codes so that you can bypass the bureaucracy in future,” he said.

“Relax,” I said to Jerry, fearing that he was going to have a heart attack. Sweat was beading up across his brow and he kept running his hands down the sides of his pants. “I am sure we all understand this was just a minor misunderstanding.” I was hoping I was right. Based on what I’d read of their powers, it would be a nightmare to have them upset with us.

“Of course,” said Kymberly. “I’m just glad I was able to find some people to actually talk to here. Those communication codes will be very handy.”

“Okay, I have given them top priority in the queue and logged your ship’s designation correctly in our local database. They will be docking soon in LIB-71. Again, please express my deepest and most sincere apologies to your superiors,” said Jerry. He handed back her ID and a datapad with the proper communication codes and procedures on it.

“I will, thanks,” said Kymberly.

“Come on,” I said. “I’ll take you there.”

“Thank you,” said Kymberly, who slipped back under my arm and returned to her earlier sweet demeanor.

I looked back at Jerry as we walked out, and he was taking a deep drink from a flask which I was sure he was not supposed to have with him at work. I wondered how he would handle reporting this one to his superiors, since he had come very close to having a major incident on his shift. I thought if he spun it right, he would look like a hero.

“It will take some time to get there. It’s up in the fancier section of the station,” I said. “I don’t get up there much, since those that dock there usually have their own crew to do repairs.”

“Oh, actually we didn’t bring a mechanic,” she said.

“Really? Why not?” I asked.

“Our ship is … well … special,” she said.

“Special? How so?” I asked.

“It would be easier to show you, if you like,” she said.

“Show me? Bring me on board?” I asked.

“It is the least I can do after the great evening you showed me, and getting me to the right person to fix our docking issue,” she said.

“Oh, that was nothing,” I said. “Besides, I am just an ordinary mechanic, nothing special.”

She wrapped her arm around my waist and gave a little squeeze. “Tonight, you’re my knight in shining armor.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, but it sure felt good to hear. I was certainly not likely to turn down a tour of the ship when I’d been sent to find a way to join its crew. Everything seemed to be going perfectly, and I was happy with that. Kymberly was the nicest girl I had ever met, and she was taking me home with her.

The walk took quite a while, especially since her shorter legs required me to walk slower than I normally would have. She seemed to be taking her time, in no rush to get back. I didn’t mind that at all, as I knew that once I had boarded her ship I would have an uphill battle to convince her superiors to allow me to stay. I still had no idea how to do that, but I didn’t care right then; I was just happy to walk.

As we got closer to the dock where Nemesis was, she said, “Would you mind taking a look at the engines once we are aboard?”

“Why?” I asked.

“The ship is reporting a problem in one of them. If you can’t do it, that’s okay. We can call home for help,” she said.

“Oh, no need for that,” I said. “I would love to look at them for you.”

“Thanks,” she said sweetly. “It’s so nice to find a real man who cares.”

I felt a million times bigger as we boarded her craft. She introduced me to the rest of the crew, and I did my best not to sound like a buffoon.

“Chrimson, welcome aboard,” said Master Dusty. “Nemesis tells us that several of the ion injectors are clogged. I’m sure we could get them clean, but I’d much rather have a professional handle them.”

“Oh, I can do that for you,” I said. I was relieved to hear it was something normal and easy to handle. Given that Nemesis was a war ship from far away, I was unsure what I was getting into.

“Great. How long will you need?” he asked.

“I’d have to see the engine room to be sure, but normally it takes a few days to a week to do the job properly.” I was stretching the truth a bit, but I was hoping to be on board and still working when they had to launch, whenever that would be.