Rise of Shadows (5 page)

Spectra looked at me for a while, lost in her thoughts, but gave no indication about what those thoughts might be. She then looked over at Shadow who was the perfect picture of patience, lowered her head and said, “I do not know my history. I am an orphan.”

Instinctively I reached out to her and said, “I’m sorry.” I could tell this was a tender spot for her.

“That must have made for a rough childhood. Where did you grow up then?” asked Shadow.

“Here and there. Anywhere I could hide long enough to sleep was home,” she said.

A chill passed through me as I realized she could have been one of the many poor I typically ignored as I traveled through the space hubs.

She told us about how she jumped from ship to ship traveling the hubs. She would trade work for passage, doing the foul jobs that no one wanted to do. I wondered if she had been beaten or abused along the way. I wondered if that is what she expected of the others here, or even me. If true, that would explain her coldness. When she had finished, she looked around the room for a moment, then slipped back into her silent, emotionless shell.

“Spectra, I am sorry for your past, but it does make you uniquely qualified for our mission,” said Shadow.

“Mast…err…How so?” she asked.

“Because I highly doubt there is another single person in the whole of Alpha Academy who knows all the shipping routes, customs, captains, and the like as well as you,” said Shadow.

“Grandmaster Vydor is often fond of saying that the bad things that happen to us in life turn out to be for the good, and I can’t help but think this is a perfect example of his teaching,” said Flame.

“Spectra, I have seen enough in you, along with Dusty’s recommendation, to know I would be happy to have you join our team. In fact, I would like you to take the science station,” said Shadow.

Spectra’s eyes went impossibly wide as she sharply inhaled. Her emotionless shell was shattered by Shadow’s comment, and I could tell that she did not know what to say. She looked at me, then back to Shadow and finally asked, “Really?”

“Yes, that is, if you want it,” Shadow said.

“Science officer? You mean on the bridge?” she asked. Her emotionless shell cracked again, and there was a look of excitement on her furry face.

“Yes, exactly,” Shadow said with a smile.

I realized then she might have been thinking that if she was on this ship she would be forced to do the horrible jobs she had done previously. The prospect stage at the Academy would have set her up nicely for that assumption. “Spectra, you are a wizard, and we are your family now,” I said.

She looked at me for a while and then said, “Yes! I would love to!”

“Excellent, then please join us for breakfast tomorrow,” said Shadow.

They gave her the same kind of armor that I was wearing, and then with some parting words Spectra and I headed back to the Academy.

“Thank you, Dusty,” she said to me as we approached the split in the corridor where we would part ways, each one to our own rooms.

“For what?” I asked.

“For recommending me,” she said.

“Oh, well, it was nothing,” I said.

“It means more to me than you know,” she said and headed to her room.

I watched her disappear down the dark hall and wondered what I had gotten myself into.

“Welcome aboard, Shadow,” greeted Flame as I climbed aboard the Dust Dragon.

It had taken over two years to train my crew on the new Black Conure prototype. I was very pleased with how well everyone worked as a team in the simulations we ran, but I was a little wary of taking a green crew out on such a dangerous mission.

The Dust Dragon was the most advanced ship in active duty. She was a major upgrade of the previous model known simply as the Conure. She was very heavily armored and fitted with magical shielding that was modeled after the shields that sorcerers on Terathan XV used to protect themselves. Her swooped teardrop frame design allowed her to operate in both space and atmospheric environments. She boasted four long-ranged antimatter missile bays and six of the experimental grand stave cannons. These cannons worked very much like a wizard’s staff, but on a much grander scale. They had a relatively short range of twenty-five kilometers, but each of them had many times the destructive power of standard pulsar cannons that the mundane ships used.

The Dust Dragon boasted a complete hydroponic garden to supply all the food her crew would need on extended missions, a full machine shop for manufacturing anything we might need en route, and crew space for twenty-five people. With sufficient access to raw materials, she could stay in deep space indefinitely.

While the Dust Dragon was not a stealth vessel per se, her small electronic footprint and flat black skin made her almost impossible to detect as she traveled through space, a far cry from the bright silver of the former Imperial Navy. Her cargo hold was fairly limited compared to other ships of her size because the space was used to allow a larger hydroponic area and a larger machine shop.

As launch time approached, I moved into my seat in the center of the bridge. My crew was busy with their preflight checklists, and I knew a crowd was gathering outside to see this launch. As I worked through my own preflight list, I could not help but wonder what new adventures we would face. I looked again at my crew and wondered if I would be a good enough captain to get them all back home safely.

Phoenix was at the engineering station. When I offered him this mission, he responded with great enthusiasm. This mission was a childhood dream come true for him. Phoenix grew up in a spaceport and always dreamed of working on a spaceship, but his father had forced him into politics instead.

Seated next to him at the tactical station was Dusty. Flame and I had tutored him for quite some time, and we got to know him well through that. He, like Phoenix, had very little experience in space, but in general that was true for all the apprentices that I’d had to choose from. He had great power and would make a fine wizard someday, but he seemed to learn so much slower than other students. It was not for lack of trying; he was one of the hardest-working people I have ever known. He was just a slow learner.

Seated next to him was Spectra. She was a bit of a strange character, but her knowledge of the trade routes, traditions, and protocols out there would be a major benefit to the mission. She would manage the commutations, science station, and the sensor arrays for us.

Taking the final seat was Flame. I was actually worried about taking her on this mission, but there was no way around it. She was too emotionally attached to the mission; she was waging a personal vendetta, to see the pirates pay for interfering with her homeworld. Her fire-like aggressive personality fueled this vendetta to a degree that really worried me. I had to have several talks with her about taking foolish risks during the simulation training. She had requested the tactical position but, thankfully, I had already promised it to Dusty. Instead I asked her to take navigation.

Each of them called out that they were ready for launch. I knew the crowd was waiting so I contacted the hangar control and received clearance for takeoff. Above our heads, the ceiling of the hangar would be opening like a massive clamshell, and on the main viewing screen in front of me I could see sunlight pouring in, banishing any last shadows that dared to stay.

I took one last look at the school through the viewing screen and, for a moment, I thought I saw that old man smiling and waving at me from the hiking trails. I must have been mistaken. There is no way I could have picked him out at this distance, and he has been gone ever since Operation Foolish Hero. Still, I was sure he was there and, more particularly, I could tell he was happy. I wondered what he was happy about. Was he happy for me in my new role, or happy I was leaving?

“Flame, take us up,” I ordered. Launches like this were largely automated. The navigator simply told the computer what orbital destination he or she wanted, and the computers did the rest. Soon, powerful thrusters from the underbelly of the ship pushed us up, quickly clearing the hangar. Once we were a safe distance from the ground, the computer cut off the lifting thrusters and used the main propulsion engines to begin a spiraling flight path to orbit. I switched the main viewer to show the planet shrinking away underneath us, and in a strange way I felt like I was back in my element. It was as if this captain’s chair was my destiny.

Once we were in orbit I said, “Spectra, bring up the latest naval reports and show me all the recent hotspots of pirate activity. Then overlay the trade routes on the report.” I watched as the data flowed on to the main screen and saw what looked like a perfect first target for us. “Looks like the Gama Five route is our best choice.” It was one of the longer routes because it had several large gravity wells that forced ships to exit from jump space. A brown dwarf star about one quarter of the way to the Aleeryon’s main trading hub created the first forced exit. Any ship traveling that route would be forced to exit jump space shortly before that star and unable to jump again for at least six to eight hours of flight time in normal space. In other words, it was the perfect place for pirates to set up an ambush.

“Flame, lay in the course and exit us as close to that star as you can pull off. I want to come around the back side of it relative to the normal path. It is likely that the pirates, if any, that are currently operating in this area will use the gravitational shadow of that star to set up an ambush, and I want to turn the tables on them,” I said.

As we traveled towards our jump point I said, “Flame, Dusty, Spectra, Phoenix, we have run through countless simulations, and you have all done well in them, but this will be much different. The pirates will be highly experienced and able to think for themselves, unlike a computer running a premade script. They will be able to adapt on the fly to our tactics and respond in ways no computer could predict. Any time we come across a fight I do not think we can easily win, we will just sneak away. Operation Show of Force can only be a success if we win all of our fights; any loss will make it that much harder for those that come after us. Remember, our first goal is to make it to the primary trading hub while deliberately luring out pirates to eliminate along the route. By the time we link up with the navy we should have a solid reputation that will help things go smoother.”

Each of them looked nervous but committed. I knew they would not back down, but I did not know how they would react under real combat situations. I would have to be extra cautious and ease them into this. “Flame, how long till we jump?”

“About an hour,” she said.

“Remember your training. You are wizards, and this first battle is with mere mundanes. Do not forget, stabilize your aura and you should be able to exit jump space with no post-jump hangover,” I said.

The next hour seemed to take years to pass. I was anxious to get started on our mission, but looking over the route caused me a bit of concern. I knew we would have to fight through several obvious trap points before we reached the outer limits of the Aleeryon Navy’s reach. With a seasoned crew, it would be tough enough, but I did not have a seasoned crew.

There were no pirate-free routes between Alpha Academy and Aleeryon. The Aleeryon Navy had retreated to defend the populated systems in their region and lacked the numbers to hold the trade routes open. They had contacted Alpha Academy several times asking for help, but we just did not have a navy to send.

The pirates had been getting stronger and stronger in the area. It was really just a matter of time before they came gunning for one of the populated systems. They would not be likely be stupid enough to try to attack Alpha Academy, but there were several other systems in the area with much weaker defenses and much more desirable resources.

As we approached our jump point, I reviewed the history of attacks in this area. The historical reports of the first hotspot we would hit showed that the pirates favored fast-attack light and medium cruisers. When we exited jump space we would look like easy pickings to them, but we should be able to easily overpower them. It would be a great confidence-building fight for my crew. Things would get tougher as we got closer to our destination. The pirates in those regions would have much greater firepower, as they would be used to fighting the advanced forces of the Aleeryon Navy’s patrols.

Elsewhere in an ancient-looking office, a magus sat behind a large wooden desk that looked almost as if it had been grown in place. The room was softly lit by glowing orbs of light on the walls. A death-like silence filled the room as the magus studied a small bowl of viscous liquid on his desk. He wore thick, heavy robes that were so black they were nearly impossible to see, even in the best of lighting. It was as if all the light in the room fell into them and could not escape. His hood was an extremely deep red, so dark that without the contrast of the robes you might not have been able to tell it was anything other than black.

While he stared into the small pool, another magus entered the room. This one was dressed almost identically to the one sitting at the desk except for his hood, which was a deep blue. As he approached the desk, the red-hooded magus spoke a soft command word, and the small pool that he had been studying sank into the desk. It did not fall through any discernible opening, but seemed rather to merge with the desk and be completely absorbed.

“Greetings, Thazure,” said the red-hooded magus.

“Greetings. I see they have launched at last,” responded Thazure.

“Yes, they are finally moving back within our reach,” said the red-hooded magus.

“About time, we have been ready for them for years now,” said Thazure.

“Yes, but this is a game of patience, and not one you play well, old friend,” said the red-hooded magus.

“Indeed,” said Thazure.

“They will fight some of the mundanes before we can reach them. I foresee at least three, maybe four conflicts before we can get to them,” said the red-hooded magus.