Spectra's Gambit (3 page)

It had taken a full month before Doctor Hawthorne was convinced that the treatment worked and then two more months to wake, cure and rehabilitate the ruling council of Cathratinairians. The ruling council was made up of three of their elders. They were elected to their positions for life, and before their race became part of the Empire they had had absolute control over their species. Under the Empire, their power was limited by Imperial laws but was still quite broad and overarching.

I joined them at a table in the suite which had been set up for them. After the formal greetings I asked, “Before I speak, do you have any questions for me?”

“Karath has done well over these past weeks in bringing us up to date, Grandmaster. Please carry on,” said one of them.

“Very well.” I paused a moment to gather my thoughts. Unlike Karath, these Cathratinairians were still in their prime and physically very impressive. They dwarfed me in size and would easily outdo me in speed and physical strength. Any normal human would rightly be intimidated in their presence. “Doctor Hawthorne tells me you are completely clean of the virus now and that the treatment we have devised will work on your entire race.”

“Yes. We greatly appreciate you coming to our rescue with this cure,” said Tharak, who was the voice of the Cathratinairian council.

“This, however, leaves us with two problems,” I said.

“What are they?” he asked.

“First, your home world is gone. When the Empire collapsed, the Zalionian Empire claimed your world as its own and it is now a military weapon testing compound and uninhabitable. This means we need to find you a new home when we awaken the rest of your race,” I replied. I told them I had spoken with Emperor Zalith of the Zalionian Empire and he was willing to find them a new planet to live on.

“What is the second problem?” he asked.

“The virus that attacked your species was genetically engineered specifically to wipe you out,” I said.

The three of them turned to face each other and sat in silence for a few moments. Their pointed ears twitched back and forth, but there was no other indication that any communication was taking place. As I did not know what was going on, I let the silence stand. I knew little about their culture and did not want to risk insulting them.

“By whom?” he asked.

“We do not know,” I said.

“I see. Then the problem is that if they are still out there, they could produce another virus and try again,” he said.

“Yes, and as your population is now so small there is good reason to think the virus could kill all of you before we could prevent it,” I said.

“What are our options?” he asked.

“They are connected to the first problem. One option is that you could rejoin what is left of the Empire. They control a vastly overpopulated section of space around what used to be the capital planet. The Imperial Navy is still the strongest fleet in the galaxy, but it is just a shadow of what it once was,” I said.
I doubt
ed that the Emperor would be much inclined to take them in, but I was confident I could convince him if it came to that.

“How will that help?” he asked.

“You could mix in with that large population and spread yourselves out so that no one virus could ever get all of you,” I said.

“But our culture would disappear, and we would die out over time anyway,” he said.

“That is the likely outcome,” I said. “Another option is that I could provide you with a carrier and you can fly your people off to uninhabited space somewhere and attempt to regrow your population in secret.”

“That cuts us off from any help,” he said.

“Yes, which brings us to your final option. Currently only three nations are stable: the Zalionian Empire, the Old Empire, and our nation, the Wizard Kingdom. The rest of the galaxy is locked in a constant struggle for control and power. In short, in most places chaos rules.

“I control a large region of space, but my nation is sparsely populated. There are many worlds, currently unused, which have great potential for colonization. If you were willing to join us, I could give you one of those.”

“Your nation is at peace?” he asked.

“We have many enemies at our borders, but internally things function much as they did under the former Empire. The only catch is that we are constantly rooting pirates out of the uninhabited sections but they do not represent much more than a nuisance to the population centers,” I said.

“If we take you up on this offer, would we be moving into their space?” he asked.

“They will probaby feel that that is the case, but I own it all. The navy would make sure the area is clear before you move in and you would have the same protection as any other world. The pirates would not be any more of an issue for you than any other common criminals would be
,” I said.

Again we sat in silence, they looking at each other and me feeling left out.
“Kellyn, what do you think they are doing?”

“My love, they are talking,”
she sent.

“I hear nothing,”
I replied.

“They communicate at a frequency well beyond that of human ears,”
she sent.

I can fix that
, I thought to myself and began to weave a spell, but before I got far Kellyn interrupted me.

“Vydor, stop,”
she sent.
“Let them have their privacy as we do.”

“Of course; you are right, as always,”
I conceded. She was correct; it would be wrong to eavesdrop on their conversation. I just hated not knowing what was going on around me. Besides, I was sure they were discussing matters to which I could make a useful contribution.

“We would be honored to join the Wizard Kingdom,” he said after what seemed to be a yearlong silence. “As for whoever tried to kill us, we can just hope they try again and this time we will catch them.”

“Excellent,” I said. “I will ask one of my wizards to brief you on the possible planets so that you can choose one to live on. Once that is done, I will assign some engineers to work with you to help you begin to lay the foundations for your new home.”

“We will need a complete listing of all our citizens who survived in these pods so we can work out a plan to wake them in the best order possible,” he said.

“Of course,” I said. “Doctor Hawthorne will get that for you. Now, if you don’t mind, I have to see to things at home. I will visit again as matters advance.”

Before I could leave the station, Doctor Leslie called me into her office for a private conference. When I entered her office, however, she was not alone but in the company of a tall woman with yellow eyes, straight red hair and pointed features, wearing purple enchanted armor. As I entered the office, this woman dropped to one knee and bowed her head.

“Greetings, Grandmaster,” she said without lifting her head.

“Greetings. Please stand and tell me whom I have the honor of meeting,” I replied. I recognized her, but she did not know that I knew who she was. I felt it better not to reveal that I had kept an eye on her and Narcion, at least not yet.

She slowly stood and said, “Grandmaster, I am Raquel of Ravenwood, though it has been ten thousand years since that name was known.”

“Ten thousand years?” I asked.

“Yes, Grandmaster. I have spent the last ten thousand years in a sort of timeless sleep, only to be woken recently by your return,” she said.

“I see,” I said, not really understanding. “Why was this?”

“Grandmaster, as you know we, um, the wizards of old put an end to all magic ten thousand years ago. At that time my husband, myself and many others fled the certain death that would come to those of us bound too tightly to the weave. I escaped into a timeless realm where I waited for the return of the Wizards’ Council, and now I am here to once more honor my oath of loyalty to the Council,” she replied.

I examined her aura and saw that she was a powerful wizard, at least elite level. When the weave was torn most magi of her level died with it. The council of sorcerers survived by hiding in the Spirit Realm, and we were currently deploying our forces in an attempt to eliminate them before they could rise up again, but I did not know how many others had survived. There was something wrong with her aura, though; something unclear to me. I wished I could ask Spectra for her opinion, but she was currently deep in the Spirit Realm hunting for clues to the location of the sorcerer stronghold.

“I am honored to meet you, Raquel. Are there any others with you?” I asked.

“There was once, but I lost him,” she started. She took a deep breath and then continued, “He died chasing a necromancer through the Spirit Realm; one who had been trying to take over out here.” She briefly recounted the details of the fight she had had with the necromancer, and how some brave warriors out here had helped her.

“Where are these heroes now?” I asked.

“I don’t know. After tending to the body of my late husband I came here, as I had sensed your presence when I passed through previously,” she said.

“Well, come back with me, if you do not mind. I would like to hear everything you know about this necromancer, and any others who may be returning from the past. I would also like the rest of the Council to hear your report,” I said.

“Certainly, Grandmaster,” she said. “Grandmaster, I must also appeal to your mercy - ”

“I am sure we can work all that out,”
I interrupted her. “But this is not the place for that. We have a war to fight back home, and right now we need everything you can tell us about the tables and the sorcerers that are using them.”

“Yes, Grandmaster,” she said.

Over the next several months I had to turn my attention back to the battles we were fighting at home. I left the hospital in the care of Doctor Leslie, who introduced many improvements in efficiency and slowly began to turn it into a teaching hospital.

“Oh, Dusty, do we really have to go back?” Spectra asked softly.

At that moment, lounging on the beach with Spectra, I felt I had found paradise. Her silky obsidian fur was damp from our swim, and her long black tail was suggestively wrapped around my leg. I could feel her heart beat as she cuddled me in the sand. Her whiskers tickled my cheek as she breathed and her warm breath caressed me as she exhaled. There was no better place in the universe to be right then.

Here on our private beach, there was no one to bother us; just ourselves and the sound of waves gently lapping at the sand. She gently traced the outline of my scales with one of her claws as we let the sun bake us dry. “Not until morning.” Much as I hated to admit it, our all-too-brief honeymoon was coming to an end.

She sighed and tried to pull me closer. “Let’s just stay here in the sun for a while longer.”

“Sure.” We both loved the natural light of this world. The spectrum of the star was just right for warming us without being overbearing. We had slept out here on several nights of our holiday, causing me to wonder why we had wasted money on renting a private cabin.

“Do you think we will ever have children?” she asked.

“Children? I wonder if that is possible?” I could not imagine what our offspring might look like. My race was amphibious and fish-like, hers distinctly feline. I decidedly did not want to produce a freak: life was hard enough for normal people.

“Oh, I’m sure there must be a way,” she said.

“Maybe, but we are young yet. We have plenty of time to worry about that later.”

“Do we? It is not as if we have safe, cushy desk jobs, you know.”

It was a glorious honeymoon away from my rank and responsibilities as third in command of the Wizard Navy. Out here, I was just Dusty. I could frolic in the ocean, and no one was depending on me. It was just sun, waves and Spectra. There was nothing more that I could desire.

But this talk about parenthood threatened to pull me back into worrying about responsibilities and out of the blissful moment. I just wanted to stretch our time alone as far as I could. “No, not quite. We could ask Shea about it, I guess.”

As darkness fell we gathered our clothes, not bothering to put them back on, and headed up to the cabin. Neither of us walked fast, as if that would extend our honeymoon just a little bit more. Back in the cabin, we settled in by the fire and ate an intimate dinner.

As we finished our meal we set the dishes aside and reclined together to watch the fire. She was sipping on a drink but I’d had my fill. The fire cast dancing shadows,
with the occasional crack or pop of burning wood the only sound around us. In the flames I caught brief images that seemed suggestive of our past lives. Both of us came from rough backgrounds, Spectra doubly so.

“All those years in training, and I thought you merely pitied me,” I said.

“Oh, at first I did, but there was always a connection. We are kindred spirits, you and I. It just took us a while to figure it out.”

“Yeah, I guess so. But you have to admit this is better than our first honeymoon.”

She giggled. “What? You didn’t find our trip through the realm of the dead romantic enough?”

“Romantic? No, not exactly. I’ll never understand how you could’ve lived there all that time.”

Her tone was as serious as could be as she said, “Maybe we should look at securing some property there. You know, it might make a good place to raise our kids.”

“I think you might have drunk too much of that swamp juice.”

There was mischief in her eyes as she climbed on top of me, moved in close to my face, and softly said, “Hmm, maybe, or maybe not enough.”

The fireplace continually resupplied itself with wood and was a nice romantic backdrop to our activities. We did not revisit the discussion about children, nor did we get much sleep that night.

~~~

Master Shadow and Grandmaster Vydor had requested to see us as soon as we returned to active duty after our honeymoon. It was odd donning our uniforms again after all that time alone at our private beach rental. They gave a physical reality to our transition back to active duty at the end of the holiday.

When we had left active duty to take our honeymoon, we had just helped to win a war with a circle of sorcerers who were stealing the life-force of millions throughout the realm. Five of them had escaped, but we broke their connection to this realm and it was unknown if they could come back without help. The final battle left both of us on the edge of death, but it had secured a relative peace for the present.