Lieutenant Spacemage (Imperium Spacemage Book 3)

by Timothy Ellis

  “Yes, sir. But I need to check something with you first. Sir.”

  “Drop the sirs, and get on with it.”

  He sounded angry now. I really hoped it wasn’t with me. I pushed that thought aside, and looked at Jane.

  “I’ve been told that before I joined the Imperium Navy, the Trixone were only hammering on a single jump point, and while the Ralnor and Keerah were at war with each other, only a single system was really in any state of normal warfare. Is that correct?”

  “Yes. Diplomats have obtained some of the recent Ralnor and Keerah history, and the border with the Trixone has been fairly calm for a long time. Our arrival in this area of space stirred them up.”

  I nodded, as one piece of the puzzle solidified.

  “And in the original contact by Rogue with the fungus, they were told the fungus had infiltrated the Trixone communications network?”

  “Also yes.”

  “Which was stated again by the fungus when we met them.”

  “Is there a point to this?” asked Jedburgh, who was actually my commanding officer, above Jane.

  “Yes, I’m afraid so, sir. The fungus lied to us.”

  “And why would that be a problem?” asked Bigglesworth.

  “Because the situation is much worse.”

  “How?” demanded the Imperator.

  I looked at Lacey.

  “How much did you tell them about yesterday?”

  “Only that the fire ant ships were covered in fungus fuzz, as were the diplomatic ships. And what the Hidden said about the voice going silent. We all want to know what that means.”

  “It took me a while to put it together, and it nearly killed my XO in the process.”

  “That will never happen again,” said Harriman. “Regardless of what the diplomats do in the future, from now on, no first contact by navy officers will be conducted in person. We’re getting the remote hollo tech from Corona. It’ll be available in a few weeks. We’re hoping it can be adapted to our belt suits and PC’s.”

  I almost said I was glad to hear it, but it was not a junior officer’s place to say such things to a senior.

  “I did some checking after the Space Commodore and his pilots returned to Haven. The ships we destroyed were all covered heavily in fungus fuzz, which while apparently frozen, appears to still be a living creature. The inside surfaces of the debris were also covered. Not as heavily as the station I visited, but still findable if you looked hard enough. So too were the few intact bodies in the debris. They had a lot less in terms of fuzz per area of body, but they still had it, like Jig Serena and I were infected by our visit to the station.”

  “What was that about?” asked Bentley.

  “I’ll answer that in a minute, sir, but I need to tell you more first.” She nodded permission. “The ships we destroyed had left a trail of fuzz across the system from the jump point all the way to our station. I used magic to sweep the debris and the fuzz trail into the sun. The station was a little more difficult. It was being infested with fuzz from the moment the ants boarded it, especially from the fungus which boarded with them. The ants themselves were more heavily covered in the stuff, presumably so some of it could drop off and infect the station by getting into the air systems.”

  Jane was nodding, but most of them were looking alarmed.

  “I took the action I did because if we’d exposed diplomats to the fungus and fuzz on the station, they would have brought it back here without knowing.”

  “Are you sure about that?” asked Harriman.

  “Very sure, sir. The fungus had a dual game plan in operation from the word go. As in from the moment they contacted Rogue. They infected myself and Jig Serena because they thought I was in command, and they wanted something from me.”

  “What?” asked the Imperator.

  “My obedience.”

  “To who?”

  “Them.”

  “How?”

  I sighed. Crunch time as far as believability went.

  “Let me ask you a question. One we should have asked the moment we started talking to a fungus.” They waited as I paused. “You are a tiny plant, one among millions, and a very large animal comes along. How do you convince it not to eat you in the first instance, and then get it to build you ships to take you to other planets, and eventually rule an entire area of space?”

  They were all looking at me intently.

  “How?” demanded the Imperator.

  “Imagine each tiny plant frond has a neuron. Each plant is connected to all the others, so all the neurons are connected. Over time, the fungus develops first intelligence, and then when animals try to eat it, it develops a form of magic which manifests as telepathy.”

  “Shit!” said Jane.

  The Imperator looked sideways for a moment, I suspect towards the Jane sitting near him wherever he was at the moment. I was getting used to multiple versions of Jane being in different places.

  “I freely admit I didn’t see that coming. And never thought to ask the question. Finish please, Bud.”

  “So the first intelligent species which encounters them gets covered in fuzz, takes it back to their ships, and the fungus grows on the inner and outer surfaces, with the result the fungus’ telepathy starts to whisper to them, bringing them slowly under their control. They move to other planets, infest stations, and gradually take over the region of space.”

  “And then they encountered the Trixone,” said Wellington.

  “Yes. But they didn’t take control of them in the same way as the ants and other species in their space.”

  “Why not?” asked Lacey.

  “I suspect they didn’t get enough fuzz on the first Trixone ships, mainly because the military Trixone viewed them as just another food source, and destroyed the ant ships before they could make proper contact. The debris field though, would have provided the fuzz a way of getting onto Trixone ships, and by whatever means, they progressively infected their way to Trixone itself.”

  “How do you know they got to Trixone?” asked Bigglesworth.

  “I went there.”

  “And?”

  “The whole system was heavily infested. Not only fuzz floating freely in space, but every rock in the system except the once habitable planet which someone rendered uninhabitable, was covered in fuzz.”

  “So the homeworld of the Trixone was under the control of the fungus?”

  “Maybe not under control, but certainly highly influenced.”

  “Wait,” said Lacey. “Back up a minute. If Trixone was under their influence, why were they blockading the fungus jump points, and actively trying to invade their space?”

  “I can only guess at this point.”

  “Guess then,” said the Imperator.

  “We saw civilian Trixone with different flowers.”

  “They told Rogue,” interrupted Jane, “that size and flower variations occur because of the differences between planets of origin.”

  “Exactly. Now what if by random fluke, the Trixone planets local to the fungus, where their military come from, evolved a Trixone body which was poisonous to the fungus?”

  “Makes some sort of sense,” said Jedburgh. “No infestation, no influence, so they follow their normal behavior with an aggressive species on their border.”

  The rest nodded, except for the Imperator.

  I think he’d worked the rest out himself now.

  Fifty Two

  “Finish it, please Bud.”

  “We know the local Trixone were blockading the fungus in. We know the Trixone homeworld was under their influence. We can assume that over the centuries, most of the major Trixone planets have also been infected. We know the fungus lied about infiltrating Trixone communications, and are instead simply corrupting enough Trixone individuals to be double agents supplying them with all the information they need.”

  “What does this have to do with us?” asked Wellington.

  “Because the moment they got enough reports of you bea
ting them back in the three way fight with the Ralnor and Keerah, they used their influence to make the Trixone begin a massive war designed for only one purpose. To get us to come to the fungus. It might have taken centuries, but that was their plan. Rogue meeting them when they did was just a happy coincidence for them. And brought their main plan forward. Why do you think the fungus asked to meet us when they encountered Rogue?”

  No-one replied.

  “Because the Trixone were by then reporting that the Imperium was not only holding the Trixone out, but beating them consistently wherever a battle was fought. Combined with reports of us appearing from nowhere vast distances from where our planets were, they by then considered us their potential savior. When Rogue jumped into a system they actively monitored, they no longer had to figure out a way of getting in touch with us which wouldn’t give them away to the Trixone who commanded near us, and instead just needed to get control of the person who commanded the first contact squadron. Me.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Harriman.

  “Serena and I were both infected by fuzz, and through the suit, which I believe hasn’t been explained yet.” Jane nodded gravely. “Serena went into a deep sleep we couldn’t wake her from, because being a seer, the telepathy trying to control her caused a magic battle inside her, the physical body couldn’t cope with. With me, it was different, because at the time, I was running magic energy through me, so the infection never really did more than make me a little extra tired than normal. But they had two objectives as I said.”

  “Two?” asked Jedburgh. “One was infecting the diplomatic station and our diplomats. What was the other one?”

  “They wanted me to let the ant battleships through the rift to Haven.”

  Jaws fell open, but were quickly closed again, but with very concerned looks on faces.

  “So I pretended to be under their control, let them take the station after telling the AI to leave it, and waited for them to reveal their play for the rift. Once they did, I moved it, allowed them to get away from the station, and then we killed them. The station was pushed into a rift into the sun, left there for long enough to burn off all fungus and fuzz, outside and in, and then pushed through to Haven. I didn’t think there was any other way to ensure it didn’t remain a threat to us.”

  “So the game plan all along,” said the Imperator, “was to infect our home planet and stations, then all our ships, and have us destroy their local Trixone long enough for them to get out of their prison, with the intent of controlling the whole galaxy?”

  “That was my conclusion, sir.”

  “That’s horrifying,” said Bentley.

  “Indeed,” said the Imperator.

  He didn’t state the obvious that sending me instead of anyone else had been a stroke of luck.

  “You know what you have to do for the rest of today then?” he went on.

  “Yes, sir. You want me to check all the ships which went to the Trixone homeworld for fuzz, and then check every other ship which has been in the same system as them. Or in other words, check everything we have in space, and also check the planet below.”

  “Can you handle that?”

  “Yes, sir. I won’t need the rest of the squadron though.”

  He looked at Lacey.

  “Algy?”

  “Sir?”

  “Your wing and Navy Mage One can stand down for today. Another squadron or two will get their fives sometime during the day, but the rest of the day they can have off.”

  “Aye, sir. We’ll find a beach,” he added, chuckling.

  “Oh,” said Jane suddenly. “That’s not good.”

  “Finding a beach is not good?” he asked, sounding confused.

  “No. The Ralnor just lost a one hundred ship fleet.”

  “How?” asked Jedburgh.

  “The Trixone have changed tactics again. The Ralnor said they were opposed by a standard sixty ship fleet, which should have had a thousand fighters, but didn’t.”

  “How many did they have?” asked Bigglesworth.

  “Three thousand.”

  “Ouch!” exclaimed Lacey. “How the hell did they get that many fighters there?”

  “By packing them onto every size of ship they had. The battleships are now carrying three hundred instead of one. The ball game just changed.”

  “No beach then.”

  We all looked to the Imperator, who I now found was on a screen behind me as well.

  “Use a beach on Gold Coast, Algy. Take Navy Mage One with you. The Trixone can’t hit us with those sort of numbers at the moment, but we might get a call for help. Have Bud’s mages create rifts from the corvettes to the beaches, so you can get back fast if need be. But unless we get a desperate call for help, the rest of us are going to be thinking about counter tactics to that many fighters.”

  He looked at me. Which meant he was also looking at the back of my head at the same time. Or maybe he was switching screens? I couldn’t tell.

  “Bud, I need you to use your Lightning for the rest of the day. Jig Carter can be in command of your squadron until you complete your de-fuzzing operation, and Jig Serena can take Long Water.”

  “No problem, sir. Do my people need to stay on their ships?”

  “No, they can beach with the pilots if they want.”

  “They’d prefer to beach on my island, if that’s okay?”

  “I assume you have rifts set up for quick movement?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then that’s fine. Ships over Gold Coast, captains on your beach.” He looked at Lacey. “Algy, make sure everyone knows they could be recalled at any time. I doubt it will be necessary today, but if one of our allies does call for help, we’ll need to respond.”

  He looked at the back of Bentley’s head.

  “Susan, gather up all the Chaos class dreadnaughts, with the exception of those with the Claymore task force. I want them drilling for combined fire into a rift. You want to find a rhythm which allows for a constant fire pattern. The Navy Mage One AIs should be able to give you a head start on that.”

  I nodded. They could.

  “We’ll need a mage to do a rift.”

  “I just asked Syrinx to send you one of her battle rift trainees,” said Jane. “Probably going to be a short rift, but it will at least allow you to practice.”

  “Great. Maybe send them all, and let all the mages practice as well?”

  “Good idea. I’ll tell her.”

  “Thanks.”

  They both looked back at the Imperator. He was looking at the four stars.

  “We have our work specified for the day. I’m going to have to go brief the Imperium council now. This meeting is now classified secret. Nothing said here leaves this room. It won’t leave the council chamber either. You all know what to do. Let’s get to it.”

  No-one moved.

  “Oh, and Bud?”

  “Sir?”

  “Well done.”

  Fifty Three

  The team were more than happy to take a day off.

  They were surprised to find Gold Coast was the system we jumped through doing dawn patrols, going from Haven to the human spine, as we’d never stopped there before. So even though it was some forty thousand light years distance, it was basically a single jump away. Serena pinged me when they were on my beach, and so the rifts did still work at that distance.

  The rest of the day for me was pretty boring, and very repetitive. Leanne decided to come with me in the Lightning, so I left the flying to her. Of course, she controlled the ship anyway, so her avatar wasn’t necessary, but her company was appreciated. She’d also brought lunch for me, since the Lightning didn’t have any food on board, and I’d forgotten to check.

  I started with the main station, and found it fuzz free. The shipyard had a small amount, in the single bay used by BigMother, which I now found out had been at Trixone. The bay itself had a dreadnaught hull almost constructed. I checked it with magic to ensure no people were inside the bay or the
ship hull, and tried magic fire washing around the inside of the bay, and over the hull of the ship. It only took a few seconds, and after checking again, there was no fuzz.

  Nothing else in the Haven system had any fuzz at all, and it didn’t take much to burn off the little amount I found floating in space, once I tailored the flame to only occur where there was fuzz. I moved on to the Redoubt system, found the station itself clear, and almost nothing in the rest of the system.

  BigMother was next, and instead of checking, I simply flamed the ship for a few seconds, auto-flamed the system, and moved on again.

  I jumped to each of the titans in turn, and didn’t bother checking them either. A quick magic flame, auto-flame the system, and move on.

  In the end, I just visited every system BigMother and the Titans had been to after leaving Trixone, including the other two they’d destroyed and I hadn't known about until Leanne included them in the list to visit. Those systems were also highly infested, and after the second one, I got very sick of just running around chasing fuzz.

  I sat for a while, with Leanne leaving me in peace, and thought out how to do it better. While there was fuzz floating in space, ships could pick the stuff up. When those ships came into contact with stations, they could pass it over. When any being came into contact with the fuzz in any way, they carried it on.

  It had to go.

  But how to do it?

  The fungus were a life form, and it wasn’t my place to commit genocide. I probably could, but I suspected Thorn would reappear and take the sceptre back, or Kali would. Besides, it wasn’t in me to do it deliberately. Accidently was a distinct possibility though, which was why I was thinking this through so carefully.

  With the intent deliberately formed in my mind, I called the staff to my hand, connected to the devastated volcanic planet below, linked in the local sun in case it took more energy than I expected, and cast the magic.

  A sphere formed around the Lightning, and expanded so fast in all directions, it was like it just went pop. But my sight was following it, and I saw it did both the things I wanted done. It cleared the system, passed through the jump points, and started clearing the systems beyond. At the same time, the bubble formed here headed out into space, to spend however long it took to cover the entire galaxy, including all the millions of systems which didn’t have jump points. I had no idea how fuzz might get to them, but I wasn’t taking any chances.