Spectra's Gambit (18 page)

“Sounds like you have a lot to report. We are closing in on Saraphym’s location now,”
she sent.

Soon we were both back aboard the Nemesis, and with some coaching I was able to help Saraphym return to her bipedal form. Nanny fussed over me and I could not get her to leave me be until she was certain I was resting comfortably in a chair, out of the remains of my armor, into something a bit more modest, and had eaten something. In some ways, I was sure she ran the ship rather than Dusty.

“Now, what happened over there?” asked Dusty.

I started to explain, but Saraphym interrupted me. “No, Greymere. Not like that.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She knelt down in front of me, placed her hand on mine and said, “In the airlock you helped me return to this shape through visualization. I want you to try that same thing. In your mind, picture all the events from the time we boarded the station until they picked us up. Envision them as a video or book, whichever is easier.”

“Okay, but …” I began to say.

“Hush,” she interrupted. “Then look at Master Spectra and, in your mind, see yourself reaching out to her and putting those memories in her hand.”

I was lost as to what that would accomplish, but it seemed like a minor thing to do for her so I tried it. In my mind I bundled up the events I wanted to report, just as Saraphym suggested, and saw myself handing them to Spectra. To my amazement I felt her reach out to
take them, and could see her open them up to view them. I could also see her pass the book around to the others.

“What just happened?” I asked.

“You gave us a copy of your memories,” said Dusty. “We now know everything that you remember happening on the station. Since when have you been able to do this?”

“Always, I suppose,” I deduced.

“Masters,” interrupted Saraphym. “Apparently his … no, our race uses telepathy to communicate in the vacuum of space. He never tried it with us because he did not know it was the same thing.”

Spectra smiled at Saraphym. “I had guessed you two might be more compatible than it first appeared.”

Saraphym turned to me with a look of sadness on her face. “So then I must have been adopted and never knew my real parents.”

“Master Dusty, please report to the bridge,” came Jade’s voice over the intercom.

“On my way,” I replied. “Greymere, as soon as we get a chance, I will call home and get you a new set of armor, a proper set for a member of our team.”

“Thanks. If you don’t mind, I think I am going to go lie down for a while,” he said.

“Certainly. Saraphym, make sure he reaches his quarters and then get some rest yourself,” I said.

“Don’t worry about a thing,” said Nanny. “I’ll make sure they both get to their respective quarters.”

I chuckled at the way she said that. I couldn’t see Saraphym’s face, but I imagine it might have been a little crestfallen.

Once Spectra and I had reached the bridge, I asked, “Status?”

“Looks like our friends are pressing the attack on the station,” he said.

I looked over at the tactical display. The unknown ships that had launched the attack on the station while Greymere and Saraphym were still aboard had increased their number and were slowly breaking through the defenses of the station.

“Any idea yet of who they are or where they came from?” I asked.

“Nothing yet, Master. They have no identifiable markings,” he said.

“Greymere’s report indicates that they may already have boarders on the station who will be killed if they are successful in destroying it,” I said.

“Something very strange is going on here,” said Spectra.

“If the station is destroyed, we will lose whatever lead Henrick wanted us to find,” I said.

“Unless this attack was the lead,” said Spectra.

I looked again at the tactical displays. They were not even looking for us. After picking up Saraphym and Greymere we had moved out of range of the fight and reengaged our cloak. We did not know who was on the station nor who was attacking, so we had not yet interfered.

“It looks like the attackers will be successful if we do nothing,” I said.

“Agreed, but I still think we need to stay out of it,” said Spectra.

“Nemesis, can you spot the command ship for the attackers?” I asked.

“Yes, all communications channels converge on this one,” he said and outlined a ship that lay toward the back of the attacking fleet.

Listening to their conversations had not been helpful, as everything communicated related to the fight. “Jade, bring us close to that command ship.”

“Are you thinking of boarding it?”
sent Spectra privately.

“Yes,”
I replied.

“You’re the commander. Your place is here. I will go,”
she sent back.

“No. You are the only one who can gate. If I go and need help, you can use your gate to fetch me. If you go, there is no one who can get to you,”
I replied and then once we were in position said, “I am going to drop in on our friends. Spectra has command until I return.”

With that I cast Night Form and flew over to the command ship. It did not take me long to find the bridge, and I was shocked by what I saw there. It was filled with cyborgs, disgusting half-living, half-robotic creatures that had no love for anything organic.

Night Form rendered me completely invisible and completely unable to interact with the physical world. This meant I was safe from discovery, but my options for spying were limited to only what I could see and hear.

The control panels appeared to be labeled in the same language that Greymere had seen on the station, and the language they spoke also sounded the same. I could not cast any of my spells that would allow me to understand this language without breaking Night Form, so I held off.

I flew throughout the ship looking for clues, but there was nothing at all that stuck out. After a while I returned to Nemesis and said, “The best we can do is follow them after the fight and see where they go.”

“You were that successful?” asked Spectra.

“They appear to speak and write the same language as those on the station, but that’s about all I found out,” I said. “That and the fact that they are cyborgs.”

“Cyborgs? On the station they seemed like normal humans, at least everyone did that Greymere saw,” said Spectra. “I’ll place a tag on that ship …” she began but was interrupted by Nemesis, who reported, “The station is destroyed.”

“But how? They hadn’t broken through the shields yet,” I queried.

“Master,” said Kymberly. “It looks as if they activated the self-destruct mechanism and took a large section of the attacking fleet with them.”

“Stay with that command ship,” I ordered. “Spectra, can you get a tag on it?” A tag would mark the ship so that not only could she find it later but she could also use the tag as a gate point.

“I have one. If they jump we should be able to follow them and come out with them unnoticed,” she said.

“Be ready, Jade. I doubt they will stick around long with the station gone,” I said.

“Yes, Master,” he said. “Looks like they are gathering to leave now.”

“Stay with them,” I said.

It was not long until we were following them into jump space. The fleet was large enough for us to mix in as if we were another ship coming out of jump with them and we were able to engage our cloak without raising their suspicions. At least, it appeared that they did not spot us.

“So the first question is: are the cyborgs connected to the Imperial Humans? And if so, are they for or against them?” I asked.

“Assuming they are connected at all, I would think ‘against’,” said Spectra. “I imagine anyone trying to form a pure race would hate the very idea of a cyborg.”

For the rest of the day and overnight we followed them as they coasted through space to recharge their jump drives and fly past a neutron star whose gravity well was too large for the fleet’s jump drives to overcome. When I returned to the bridge after breakfast, Jade reported that the fleet would probably be able to jump again around midday.

“Stay with them through the jump,” I said and went to see how Greymere was doing. I found him in the mess hall with Saraphym, silently eating together. “Good morning. How are you feeling?”

“Much better. Nothing like a good night’s sleep and a big breakfast to help a man bounce back,” said Greymere.

“Excellent!” I said. “Saraphym, I noticed in Greymere’s memories that he asked you to record a view of their command screens. Did you get that?”

“No, Master. My armor was damaged in the firefight and I lost the recording,” she said.

“How much do you remember of it?” I asked.

“Sorry, Master, I did not focus on the screens. I was depending on the video recording,” she said.

“That’s okay,” I said.

“I got a good look at all the screens. What do you want to know?” asked Greymere.

“It’s just that I think the language used by those on the ships we are following is the same, and if I can get a good sample of the language I can translate it.”

“That should be easy enough to do with Nemesis’ help,” he said.

“Really?” I said.

He pulled out a datapad and cleared the screen, then used a stylus and began to write on the datapad. After a few minutes he said, “Nemesis, I am sure this is the star chart that was displayed on the screens there. I have labeled the systems I recognize. Can you extrapolate from this and turn my scribbles into a real map?”

“Sure, Greymere. It will just take a few minutes,” he said.

“You remember all that from just that short look?” I asked.

“Our species has near-perfect recollection. It is required if you are going to remember your way around out there,” he said, waving his hand generally toward the ceiling.

“Okay, I have it. Do you want me to update your display on the datapad?” asked Nemesis.

“Yes, that would be great,” said Greymere. “Now that we have a star chart, I will attempt to draw all the symbols that were on it. We might be able to correlate them to known entries on our star maps and start building their language.”

I watched him work in amazement. I recognized the image he was creating from the memory he had given me, but there was no way I could have reconstructed it as he did. My own race had an almost perfect memory of travels, but I had to actually travel somewhere to remember it. His memory seemed to work more like a video recorder. “Yes, some of those symbols are the same, definitely.”

“There, that is everything that was on the screen at the time the alarms went off,” he said.

“May I?” I asked, taking the pad. “This will be enough for my purposes.” I put down the datapad to free my hands and chanted, “Apokalypste glossa.”

“What is he doing?” I heard Greymere ask Saraphym.

“He is casting a spell that will teach him the language you wrote,” she said.

“Ah! This is a battle plan. It looks like our friends on the station were at war with the cyborgs, and the cyborgs just got the jump on them,” I said.

“Cyborgs?” asked Greymere.

“Yes. We found them while you were sleeping,” I said, and told him everything that had happened.

“And we are still following this fleet?” he asked.

“Yeah. It is the only lead we had until you two woke up,” I said.

“Nemesis, can you show me the cyborg fleet down here?” he asked.

“Sure, I can send it to your datapad,” he said.

“Thanks,” said Greymere. “Yes, this is a typical battle fleet; all the ships grouped tightly around the communications hub.”

“I boarded the communications hub hoping to learn something, but so far, nothing,” he said. “What do you know about them?”

“Each ship will be identical in function, as will each member of the crew. That way, if any one falls, another can always take their place. It is a hive mentality, with command functions handled by a massive computer that constitutes all their brains combined,” he said.

“Any idea why they might be in a war with whoever ran that station?” I asked.

“None, other than the fact that they see all non-cyborg life as worthless, merely
parasites to be eliminated. They hate
virtually everyone,” he said.

“I bet they’re great fun at parties,” said Spectra as she walked in.

“Whatever they are doing out here, they are not allied to the Imperial Humans. They would hate them as much as the Imperial Humans would hate the cyborgs,” said Greymere.

“Why so much hate?” asked Nemesis.

“The Imperial Humans are trying to make a ‘pure’ human race that goes back in time to what they see as the golden age of human development. The cyborgs are trying to redefine life and build a new age of machines. That puts them directly in opposition to each other,” said Greymere.

“So, what if that station was an Imperial Human outpost, and the cyborgs found out?” I asked.

“Cyborgs might want to destroy it, especially if the Imperial Humans were planning an offensive against them, as you suggest,” he said. “The problem with that idea is that the Imperial Humans do not strike me as the kind of group that would overtly attack in that way. They would be more inclined to depend on subterfuge and betrayal to carry out their purpose.”

What he said made sense, especially given that the language on the station was that of cyborgs and not Galactic Common, or even some obscure and forgotten human language. “If Henrick had not sent us here, I would not be so determined to find some clue that will help us. But he did, so I know there is something here that we need to see.”

“I agree, but this one has me stumped,” said Spectra.

“Greymere, if we board the cyborg craft is there any way to get data out of their systems without them knowing?” I asked.

“Unlikely. Assuming you could find a terminal, it wouldn’t do you much good, as they interface directly with the hive and normally don’t have much of a computer system on their craft,” he said. “It might be better to follow up on the map and let this fleet go. Does it show any other stations?”

I brought back the map on the datapad’s display. “Several, but this one appears to be friendly to them,” I said and pointed to a station off by itself on the map.