Having started breakfast earlier than the pilots had, we finished first, and all returned to our own bridges. By the time Eagle took his seat, with the rest of the squadron settling into theirs in their fighters, Jane had sent me where we were going.
The system itself was live, but had no traffic in it at all, nor could the comnavsat pick up any other coms system. But then, what the Trixone used was very small, and was only picked up by ships in missile range of them.
Eagle left for his own fighter, and with the captain and AI gallery on my console to the left of Serena, and Eagle and his squadron leaders on the right, we were ready to go. I gave Leanne the nod to undock, and all thirteen ships undocked together, sliding back from the station far enough to twirl safely, and we headed towards an empty piece of space not far away where I could put yet another ship sized rift without anyone complaining about it.
For now, we wanted to leave it there, in case we needed to come back in a hurry, or we needed other ships to follow us. On this end, like the Imperator had done with the previous permanent rifts, I made the rift outline visible. On the other end, I did no such thing, so it would not be blundered into by curious civilian ships. Which thought made me change it to only allow Imperium ships back through it.
The position of where it opened at the other end was the same place where Jane said Rogue had jumped in, and been contacted by the fungus. So I was aiming for us to appear to jump in the same way, in a rapid sequence.
We formed up into line astern. I’d placed this end of the rift far enough from us that we’d reach cruising speed before we went through. I gave Leanne the nod, and we all started accelerating at the same time.
The rift passage wasn’t even noticeable, and Long Water powered out of the rift and headed towards a specific location. Woof was two seconds behind me, and he went towards a different spot. The others followed precisely in two second intervals, and by the time Jill was through, the wall formation was almost built. We let her catch up, and continued flying towards the nearest jump point.
The expected channel opened.
Thirty Six
It looked like the same bridge as the image we’d seen.
“Are you Imperium?” said a voice, with no idea where it came from.
“We are,” I answered.
“You look both young for your species, and junior in rank. Do you insult us by not sending a senior officer?”
“No insult is intended. The Imperium received a message that a species we didn’t know wished to make contact with our Imperator. Would you send your military commander, or even a senior officer, to what might be a trap?”
The voice laughed.
“You make a good point. So you then are expendable?”
“No-one in the Imperium is expendable. We respond with what seems to be the appropriate response.”
“So if we decide to test you by sending forth a legion of our ships against you?
“Bring it.”
There was a silence for a long moment, and I held my determined-but-not-bravado look.
The voice laughed again.
“Well said. As it happens, we have no fleet which can reach you. Between you and us is a legion of Trixone. Our legion is keeping them out of our space. We spar through the portal between systems, and missiles from both sides exact damage, and they will come through after us and die on our guns, and then we start sparring through the portal again.”
“As did we originally, before we understood who was attacking us.”
“We are aware. We have the Trixone well penetrated, so our intelligence network is extensive, and we know much about your Imperium and its success against the Trixone. That is what we wish to negotiate with your Imperator. We know he can seal off the portals. We do not understand how this is done, or we’d be trying to duplicate it ourselves. But we wish the opportunity to negotiate to have it done.”
Which meant they wanted to know how it was done, so they could do it themselves.
“We are here to meet you, determine if you are genuine or not, and to protect the diplomatic mission we will send for, should we consider you genuine. Meeting our Imperator is something which can be negotiated by diplomats. I’m a warrior though, so first we will determine if it’s safe to summon our diplomats.”
“Once you enter our space, it will be safe. We will guarantee it. But the frontier is currently at a high point of conflict, at least on this side of our space. You will need to either avoid the conflict, or help make it go away.”
“I’m a warrior, not a limo driver. Show me a Trixone task force and someone being attacked, and I know where my enemy is.”
“Well said, young warrior. We will send you the location of the portal. We know much about the fighting style of your larger ships, but not these small ones you came in. We would welcome your aid, but not if it puts you at risk.”
“The risk will be assessed.”
“Quite so. We will contact you again once you are in our space.”
“I look forward to it.”
The channel ended.
“Nicely done Mage Master Lieutenant,” said Eagle. “Shall we go take a look at their situation?”
“I don’t think we should launch fighters when we get there,” said Serena.
“Why?” asked Woof, before Eagle could.
“Nothing tangible. Just a feeling. They want to see what our corvettes can do. Once they do, whoever is part of that battle will see our capabilities. Keeping our fighters as a reserve no-one has seen seems prudent.”
“You think it’s a trap?” asked Eagle.
“Not necessarily here. But once in their space? It could be. We know they have other races doing their bidding, and some of them might see us as a ticket to freedom. I’d advise we keep an ace up our sleeves.”
“Good reasoning. I agree. We’ll stay in our fighters just in case though. For now, I agree showing them a senior officer is not a good idea. If we need to later, we can fake me showing up to take command. Carry on Mage Master Lieutenant.”
What a mouthful. Still, there were ranks with more words, making it even more so. And for a moment the thought of Mage Master Jig nearly made me laugh. I pulled my mind back on the job at hand, and looked at Leanne.
“We have the jump point location. It’s on a main corridor, while we’re currently off in a backwater system with nothing important in it. Take less than a minute to jump there.”
“Let’s do our thing, and pop in high up.”
“Jumping in three.”
We appeared above the Trixone side of the jump point, just as a dozen ships went through the point itself. With only one dozen left on this side, the chances are there were another three dozen already on the other side.
“Where do I put comnavsats?” I asked Leanne.
A screen popped up in three dee, and rotated so I could see where the red cross was from all angles. I connected to the local sun, concentrated, and a comnavsat appeared there. It was not quite as high off the plane of the system as we were, but well above what we thought was the Trixone sensor range. The screen shifted to the other side of the jump point, and I put another one in the same place.
It then kept shifting until I’d put a line of them across the systems we’d just jumped through, linking back up to both the line of comnavsats heading for the edge of the core, and the rift to Haven. As soon as the last one was in position, most of the navmap went live again.
The last twelve plant ships went through. On the other side there were nearly a hundred ships in a defensive formation. The Trixone were losing ships steadily, but they were taking out defenders a little faster.
“Put us on the other side,” I said to Leanne, and we moved immediately.
Already in a wall formation, all I needed to do was open my rift. But before I did, I shut down the connection to the other sun, and connected to this one instead.
The combined firepower of thirteen super-corvettes was enough. One thousand and forty torpedoes, plus our gunfire, ripped t
hrough each Trixone ship, with me taking my time and giving fire orders one by one. For those looking, we must have seemed to have a super weapon which destroyed ships with no apparent fire directed at them. Since I was putting the end of the rift almost on the hull of each ship, they simply disintegrated for the length and depth of the rift I used on each one, with the only thing left being the bow and stern, and varying sizes of debris in between. It was pretty impressive, but took longer than hosing the lines of ships with even greater firepower.
“Jump us down to a safe place we can be seen by them.”
“Confirmed.”
The jump was immediate. We appeared above the defensive position, but out of range of the local ships.
“Impressive,” said the voice.
Thirty Seven
The channel had opened again almost the moment we appeared.
A moment later, it split screen to show us another bridge, this time with what looked like a species of ant standing upright.
“Fire ants,” pinged Jill. “If they’re anything like the ones on old Earth and some of the colony planets, they’ll be quick to anger, and fight ferociously. Might even be poisonous if they make contact with our skin.”
“And bites?” pinged Woof.
The ant looked almost as tall as a Ralnor, so dwarfed him. Literally.
“Probably fatal,” pinged Jill. “Don’t get bitten.”
The next ping was a humph sound.
“So,” said the ant. “The stories of how powerful the Imperium are seem to be true, if your small ships can deal such a terminal blow to our enemies, so quickly. We had looked forward to seeing one of your larger ships in action, but now I see why you did not send one. You didn’t need to. I salute you, young warrior.”
One upper arm moved in what might have been a salute.
“It took us time to come up with the weapon we used here. And no doubt, the Trixone will adapt in time, as they always seem to. For now though, this place is secure, and it will be most of this day as we reckon it before you will see more Trixone ships.”
“We know,” said the voice. “It gives us an advantage to know what they are doing, as it gives you. But to business. We bid you welcome to our space, and invite you to the station in orbit of the marginally habitable planet in this system. We have prepared for your arrival, and a suitable chamber for diplomacy awaits us.”
“You will please follow my vessel,” said the ant. “We understand you have a faster way of moving about, but for now, we would ask you respect our wishes and use conventional movement technology while here. At least until we can reach initial agreements to do otherwise.”
“As you wish. Helm?”
“Sir?” said Serena, playing along.
“Follow the flagship please. Line astern formation.”
“Confirmed.”
The flagship was already moving, and Serena gave pinged orders to put us in our line astern formation, and to follow it. They had a reasonable speed, but we were faster, but without me suggesting it, she sped us up enough to overtake the flagship only slowly. They were of course checking out our capabilities, so no need to supply what we could do when we didn’t have to.
“Thank you,” said the voice, and the ant seemed to give a sort of nod.
Once again it occurred to me that nodding was common to every species which had a head and a neck to hold it up.
The channel closed.
Eagle appeared on the bridge moments later, and sat.
“Nicely done. They know we’re powerful, but have no idea exactly how powerful. How long to the station?” he asked Leanne.
“Bit over three hours, sir, unless they speed up.”
“That gives us some time to prepare.”
He and I moved into the ready room, leaving Serena in charge of the bridge. A butler brought us drinks as we got settled. Eagle gave me a long speculative look.
“I’m having a hard time understanding you,” he said.
“In what way, sir?”
“Call me Algy in here.”
“I’d rather call you Eagle, sir.”
He chuckled.
“Okay, if you must. You are developing into a fine leader. Your squadron will do anything you ask of them. You give sound orders in the middle of a battle, and you just conducted your first diplomatic negotiation in masterful style. And yet, there is nothing in your background to suggest any of it was even there.”
I kept my face neutral, wondering where he was going with this.
“Usually, we can see a bright youngster for what they are, because they demonstrate it in some way as they grow up. The Imperator was a huge surprise to everyone. He had no background at all, and suddenly he was out flying and out fighting experienced pilots. Then he showed up some senior people in a war by being right when they were wrong, and pulled people’s bacon out of the fire. He was quickly promoted through the ranks until he was running it. The war I mean. He was made a Duke and given systems as a reward for services rendered to sectors. When the Darkness War began, he fought it with mostly his own fleet, and when pushed back far enough, the remaining sector military leaders put him above themselves.”
Presumably he was talking about Bigglesworth and Jedburgh. Probably also Harriman as well. They all had different accents, so must have come from different sectors.
He took a breath.
“No-one knew how he did what he did, until it eventually came out he spent most of his childhood and teen years teaching himself the art of war. All he needed was the situations to bring out what he already knew how to do. Although I must admit, some help from higher beings was needed. But the thing was, had anyone known his past at the time he joined the military, we’d have seen his potential before we even started training him. Then again, he didn’t join normally either. Harriman drafted him, same as Jane did you.”
His gaze at me seemed to intensify.
“But all we see with you is a kid with fairly average magical ability, trained to be a mage from an early age, committed to being a space mage four local years ago, and who then trained to be a space police officer. None of your mages show any real leadership ability, and your home situation didn’t require it of them. This is probably because of Thorn being as powerful as he was. And that’s your only other point of interest. You are Thorn’s heir, and in so far as magical ability might be passed down the family, some consider you Thorn’s magical heir as well. But it still doesn’t explain how good a leader you’re becoming.”
He paused for a moment, as if wanting to see if I had anything to say. I didn’t.
“Those who looked at Thorn’s record say he wasn’t actually a leader. He did what was necessary himself. He let others lead, and ignored them when he felt like it. Would that be a fair assessment?”
“Pretty well. All our mages are trained to do things. And I know for a fact Thorn never wanted to be the leader of the planet, although everyone considered he was. But he was by doing, not by leading.”
“So why are you different? And especially since this has only occurred since you joined the Imperium?”
“Am I different? You taught me how to lead. To me it’s just another form of doing, and I’ve been taught to do all my life.”
“But it’s not just leading. It’s commanding. You’ve commanded battles like an admiral. You commanded your way through that meeting with an unknown species. Where is that coming from?”
“Why should it be coming from anywhere?”
“Because it does. No-one is born a commanding leader. They are always forged, somehow. But there is no sign of it in your past.”
I sighed.
“What?”
“It could have been the time line shift.”
“How so?”
“Those of us with Thorn that day all froze during the shift. Thorn was not frozen for about half of it. But I experienced the whole thing in real time. I experienced parts of my past as though I was an onlooker. I watched as planet after planet changed, such as the planets a
long your spine, and countless more. It all happened instantaneously, but when it ended, I was the only mage left standing, and I felt like I’d aged hundreds of years, even though physically I was the only person not to have aged. It could be that. I’m not a normal late teenager anymore.”
“Was a higher involved in the time line shift?”
“Not that we were aware of. But it is possible. I was changed, even if I didn’t realize it. Certainly my magic ability has increased since then, much more than I would have thought possible.”
“Did Thorn gift you with some of his ability?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
That was true enough. Kali’s sceptre was not an ability of Thorn’s, but an outside source.
“But,” I went on, “it’s not out of the bounds of possibility. Normally it would not be possible, but Thorn was Thorn, and he could have. And perhaps you should know that Thorn died well before people think he did. He vanished for a long time, and left a delay on his affairs before declaring himself dead. I knew he was dead the evening before I joined the Imperium. So if he did pass any magical ability on to me, I had it before I was drafted.”
“So you could have had your magical ability boosted, and you had an experience which aged you well out of childhood and into adulthood, before Jane discovered you?”
“It’s feasible. No-one will believe it, but it could be what you’re missing in my past.”
“Okay, I’ll accept that.”
I tried to suppress another sigh, and failed. He ignored it, and changed the subject.
Lieutenant Spacemage (Imperium Spacemage Book 3) Page 15