Spectra's Gambit (5 page)

“Most?” I asked.

“Yes, the Zalionians have a different history and their DNA is sufficiently different for them to make the claim that they did not come out of this era of human bioengineering. However, their origins are just as lost to history as human origins are,” she answered.

“But what does that have to do with our question?” asked Spectra.

“Well, it provides the background for the answer I am about to give you. Since you are both transgenic humans, it should theoretically be possible to create a child, with sufficient medical help,” she said.

“Transgenic humans?” asked Spectra. I thought I heard a hint of disgust in her voice.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means we are half-breeds,” said Spectra.

“Well, not really half-breeds but something along those lines. Your race and Dusty’s grew out of the human engineering of that age gone by. For reasons I do not know, your ancestors used feline genes. The reasons for Dusty’s race
seem more obvious, as his people live on a water world. The traits they picked up from the fish kingdom would be highly useful.”

“So that means in effect that we would have a human child?” I asked.

“Yes. That would be the only compatible match between you two, if it is possible. No one has tried it that I know of. The Empire had strict laws against genetic engineering and interracial marriages, but that is long gone now,” said Shea.

“But we could not do it alone, unaided? There is no chance of some half-fish/half-cat creature?” I asked.

“Oh, no. None at all,” said Shea.

“So if we wanted a child … a human child … we would need your help?” asked Spectra. She was clearly struggling with this concept of being a transgenic human. I wondered why.

“Well, I would be honored to help you, and would strongly caution you against going to anyone outside our number, but I presume there would be others who possess the skill to attempt this,” she said.

Spectra was quiet for a long time. I did not break the silence, as I knew her well enough to know that she was trying to process this new revelation. Eventually she said, “Well, at least we know now,” and changed the topic to more mundane matters.

It took several months to get Master Shadow’s approval and assemble our preliminary spiritual corps as an official branch of the wizard military. I was surprised at how much he struggled with the decision, but in the end Spectra was right; he granted me exactly what I asked for.

Jade, Saraphym and Kymberly made up our first recruits. They reported directly to me, and Spectra was my assistant, as she wished. With regard to the military at large, we kept our rank and our positions on the command council, even though I had been willing to give that up.

“Master Dusty, are you ready?” asked the gatemaster.

The gate chamber was a large, stone room with no doors or entrances of any kind. On one wall there was a large, stone ring carved with intricate magical runes. In addition to my team several wizards were present, all wearing purple robes, marking them as elite level.

None of that stuck out like the other occupants in the room. These were three beasts lying lazily next to the stone ring. They were massive, lizard-like creatures with red scales. They must have been thirty meters long from the tip of their snout to the tip of their tail, and had massive, bat-like leather wings. Their enormous bodies and four tree-like legs spoke of great power. I was told long ago that they were here to discourage unauthorized access, which I suspected they did very well. I certainly had no desire to cross them.

I looked over my team, who all nodded. “Yes.”

The hospital was far away over on the other side of known space, but the gate would allow us to walk there as if it were across the room. The gate linked three different locations: two in this realm, and one in the weave itself. This allowed travelers to step out of this realm into the weave, and then back into this realm at a gate installed at a different location. Because of the massive amounts of energy they required, gates were usually limited to one person at a time. In theory, if one had access to an infinite amount of energy, there would be no limit to who or what could make the trip. This gate was the largest in the realm, and could handle up to four people all at once. If more than that needed to travel, they would have to go in groups with a minor delay between them.

“Then let’s do this quickly,” said the gatemaster.

He approached the gate and chanted the unlocking and activation spells. As he finished, the empty space between the gates was filled with an azure light that was comforting to look upon. We quickly moved through the gate and came out into a room deep inside Hospital Station. This room was guarded with a large number of Mark II sentries, which were the most advanced robotic defenders in the known galaxy.

Among them stood a pair of elite wizards with their staves at the ready. If some mundane force attempted to rush the gate, the sentries would make quick work of them. If instead the attack came from sorcerers, the wizards would handle it. In this case no attack came, so the wizards retreated through the gate and closed it behind themselves. With the gate closed, all danger was past, and the sentries moved back to what I assumed was their normal guard formation.

“Dusty! Spectra! It has been a while!” Doctor Leslie said with glee in her eyes. After embracing both of us, she gestured to an older man next to her and said, “This is Doctor Hawthorne, the head of the facility.”

“Pleased to meet you, Doctor,” I said and introduced my team.

“Master Dusty, it is my honor to meet you and your team. I have not been informed of the reason for your visit and would like to know,” he said.

“Well, let’s remedy that. If you can find quarters for my team, we can meet with you somewhere secure to brief you,” I said.

“Of course. I will get someone down here right away to handle that. Meanwhile, we can meet in my office.”

Once our accommodation had been attended to, the four of us sat down in his office. “Doctor Hawthorne, based on your reports we understand that the virus that almost killed off the Cathratinairians was deliberately engineered for genocide. Grandmaster Vydor has asked us to come out here and discover who created the virus and why, with as much discretion as possible.”

“That is an admirable goal, but it has been almost
a century since the virus was released. The trail will be quite cold by now.”

“We do not expect it to be easy, but if they are still out there we must stop them before they try again and succeed, without revealing that the Cathratinairians are still alive.”

“That is going to be difficult. Next week we are expecting a trade fleet to stop by with our supplies for the rest of the year. We usually have a large number of patients to treat while they are here also. They will look around and see all of your … er, our people here and start asking questions,” said Doctor Hawthorne.

“Not a problem,” said Spectra. “Tell them that the Wizard Kingdom just emerged from a major battle and has transferred its wounded here. It is normal for nations to hide their casualty counts, so it will not seem suspicious to secure the areas where the Cathratinairians are from your visitors.”

“Are you sure that will work?” asked Doctor Hawthorne.

“It's a remarkably good idea,” said Doctor Leslie. “They will be happy that they finally have proof that this station is owned by the wizards, and that conspiracy theory will keep them from discovering the real secret.”

“Exactly. Let them discover a ‘secret’ that we want them to know, and they will not think of looking for anything else,” said Spectra.

Doctor Hawthorne seemed to consider that for a while. “It might work, but these traders are used to deception. They could see right through it.”

“They might, but they won’t be able to guess what we are really doing. It will be enough of a cover to send them in the wrong direction if they go looking. They will have no reason to suspect the presence of a race that is considered to be extinct,” said Spectra.

“If we had not come, what plan did you have to handle this?” I asked.

“We hadn’t worked one out yet. It was a foregone conclusion that at some point their existence would leak out, so I wasn’t sure it was worth bothering to try to keep the secret. They are safe enough here,” said Doctor Hawthorne.

“Hardly,” said Spectra.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Doctor, do you really think that a person or group wishing to carry out an act of genocide will not simply destroy this station if they find out the Cathratinairians are here?” she asked.

He paled considerably at that remark. “But we are a hospital!”

“I’m afraid she is right,” said Doctor Leslie. “Whoever engineered this virus has already killed millions with it, including infants and nursing mothers. It’s not a stretch to assume they would attack here before the Cathratinairians are moved away.”

He was visibly shaken by that thought. Based on the records I reviewed before coming out here, the doctor had kept this station alive in this never-ending war zone by being a neutral hospital. To consider that protection now null and void must have been troubling, to say the least. “Doctor, this trade convoy, will they be selling any spacecraft? Specifically military craft?
We will need something that can safely get us around out here.”

“Oh, yes, without question. They will sell you anything you have the money for,” he said.

“Excellent. Then I guess we will spend the next week learning all we can about the tribes and consortiums that operate out here. Once the traders arrive, can you get us a meeting with a dealer?” I asked.

“Certainly. They all owe me favors,” said Doctor Hawthorne.

~~~

Over the next week the hospital staff worked hard to make the station appear as if it was now acting as a military hospital but trying not to look like one. Doctor Hawthorne assured me his staff was completely trustworthy, as they had had to play these kinds of games in the past to keep going all these decades. I hoped he was right, as an entire race depended on the success of our deception.

I was eating an evening meal with Doctor Leslie and Spectra when Doctor Hawthorne walked over and said, “I’ve got you a meeting with Captain Hernez. He is one of the most successful traders in these parts, and is well known for trading in less-than-legal goods.”

“‘Less-than-legal?’” I asked.

“The type of ship you are looking for is not legal for civilians to have, so most traders will not have access to them.”

“Ah. When does he want to meet?”

“Now.”

I looked over at Spectra, who said, “Sure, let’s go.” She sent privately,
“Be on your guard. He is not exactly a trustworthy character”
.

“I take it you know this person, then?”
I sent back.

“Yes,”
she replied.

We followed Doctor Hawthorne down to a shuttle bay and onto a shuttle. Once aboard, we made the trip over to the trader’s flagship. I could feel Spectra tensing a little as we approached, and I could only imagine the horrors she had once faced at the hands of the kind of men who
lived on ships like these.

While en route I made sure all my defensive and awareness spells were up just in case there was trouble to be had. Once the ship was safely docked, the air hatch opened to reveal a rough-looking group of armed men surrounding a badly-scarred Zalionian.

“That’s Hernez, there in the middle,”
sent Spectra in disgust.

“Do we really want to do business with this guy?”
I sent back.

“I’m afraid the good doctor is right. Hernez is our best bet for what we need,”
she sent.

“Greetings, Doctor!” he said and walked forward to shake his hand.

“Hello, Captain. These are the two buyers I mentioned to you,” he said and gestured to us.

Captain Hernez turned to us and said, “Full battle armor, completely black with no markings. No blasters, and yet you walk with the arrogance of power. You must be the wizards we heard were out this way.”

“Dusty, go ahead and tell him who we are. It will be easier for us if he has reason to fear,”
sent Spectra.

I was not sure I liked the implication of that, but complied with her wishes. “Greetings, Captain, I am Second Rank Battle Wizard Dusty, and this is my wife Second Rank Battle Wizard Spectra.” I saw recognition pass across his face as I said our names. He tried to hide it, and a mundane would not have noticed it, but I was no mundane. “Good, I see you recognize us. Now, our mutual friend Doctor Hawthorne
says you can get us what we want. Is this true?”

“There is little I can’t get,” he said.

“We need a class four tech, specifically a stealth cruiser,” said Spectra.

He turned to her and said, “That would be illegal for me to have out here …”

Spectra harshly interrupted, “Save it! We are not interested in wasting time. Show us what you’ve got, or we look elsewhere.”

He thought about it a moment, then said, “Very well. This way.”

We traveled through the ship until we reached a secured hangar. Once inside the hangar, the captain started talking about the high quality of his goods. I did not understand much of what he said, but Spectra did. She haggled with him about his various offerings for what felt like hours.

Eventually, she sprang up twenty times her height to the top of one of the massive spacecraft that surrounded us and looked around. There was a long, awkward silence after she had left us. After a while, the captain looked at me and was about to say something when Spectra lightly landed on the ground next to us.

“What about the ship in 5E?” she asked.

The captain looked at Doctor Hawthorne and hesitated. “That’s the Nemesis. It is only class-three, but still is a good fit for your needs, but I can’t sell it to you.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Let me guess: it has random system failure, engine failure and other problems you can’t ever seem to pin down?” asked Spectra.

“Yeah,” he said.

“We will take it,” said Spectra.