“Yeah. A golden opportunity has just presented itself in the Elif home system.”
Cora cracked her knuckles. “Aw, yeah. Let’s kick some ass.”
“Damn, girl. A little taste of the familiar life, and you’re practically an addict,” Sara snorted.
“I just can’t wait to see what the Raven will be capable of, now that we’re both War Mages,” Cora said defensively.
Sara just smiled to herself and jammed the throttle open.
15
The small shuttle cut through the atmosphere, rocking and shimmying as Sara pushed the acceleration hard. The ride was only bumpy for the first minute or so, just until the atmosphere began to thin, then the turbulence became less severe. As the ship rose, Sara put on more power, rocketing them out toward Xanadu Station.
The cabin quieted down until they were just listening to the hum of the gravitic drives as the shuttle fully entered open space. Then they picked up speed, once there was nothing holding them back.
“I think we may have a problem with the new War Mages.” Boon broke the relative silence through her armor’s comm.
“Why do you say that?” Cora asked, turning in her seat to look at the small woman.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. They seemed…” She trailed off, trying to think of the proper words.
“Brainwashed,” Gonders finished for her.
Boon nodded. “Yeah. They were a little too indoctrinated. Like they would do whatever they were told, as long as it was a direct order. I don’t know, maybe I’m looking at it wrong. It was just a feeling.”
“Regardless, I know what you’re saying. But the real problem is not so much them in particular, as the idea of so many of them coming directly from the UHFC,” Gonders said, surprising everyone—she was supposed to be the play-it-by-the-book Marine. “I think what made the War Mages work in the past was that there were so few of them; if fifty suddenly show up, that could scare the shit out of our allies.”
“I get the feeling the Elif don’t really trust us all that much, already. Especially after Sara stormed their embassy,” Cora said thoughtfully.
“Hey, I did what I had to. I was right, after all. That little shit-stain had sold us out,” Sara said in her own defense.
“I didn’t say you were wrong, just that it happened. The problem is that it made the Elif nervous. Now imagine if they realize there is a whole army of people as powerful as you, traipsing around the galaxy,” Cora said.
” ‘Traipsing’? I don’t traipse, thank you very much.” Sara rolled her eyes.
Cora gave a chuckle. “You get the idea. From what I’ve gathered from the core, back when humanity ruled this galaxy, there were never more than twenty War Mages active at one time; not that they didn’t want more, that was just how few there were. The UHFC has at least ten candidates working on the spellform right now. That’s a lot of power to deal with. What if some admiral decides he doesn’t like the way someone else is doing something, and he orders a War Mage to take out a space station?”
Sara cocked her head, immediately thinking about how she would take out a space station. She shivered when she realized how easy it would be for her. Compared to a warship, a space station may as well be made of paper bags.
“I see what you mean. Humanity is gaining power too fast to control it. All it takes is one War Mage saying that they’re ‘just doing their job’, and we have a whole new war on our hands. The problem is that we can’t hope to win the war we are in without a troop of War Mages leading the way,” Sara said.
“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” Gonders summed it up.
“Maybe. Maybe not. We need to find the other humans,” Cora said, seeming to change the subject.
“I agree, but what does that have to do with too many War Mages?” Sara asked, pressing a button to request a flight path to the Raven.
“Everything. There is a group of humans out there that remembers their powers, and how to balance them. At least there were a few thousand years ago, if our readings on that planet were accurate. They took the dreadnought, so there had to be someone who still knew how to channel Aether,” Cora reasoned.
“What if they scrapped the thing eons ago? That would explain why we couldn’t find it,” Sara argued.
“I don’t think so. The War Mages in charge of it would have hidden it, like they did on Earth. I think there was a war, and a group of them escaped to find a new home. If they are out there, that means they used the ship to leave, and that means they are still using Aether. If that’s the case then it stands to reason they know how to balance the power,” Cora said, reaching up to tap on her bottom lip before remembering she was still in armor, and the best she could do was tap on her faceplate.
Sara glanced over at the armored fox sitting in Cora’s lap. “Doesn’t Nyx know how they organized power back then? She is a Keeper of the Records, after all.”
Cora and Nyx turned to one another for the briefest of moments before Cora said, “Yeah. We talked about it.”
There was a long pause as Sara waited for Cora to finish, but it became apparent that she wasn’t going to without prompting.
“Aaaaaand?” Sara pressed.
“And I don’t like it. It wouldn’t work with the way Earth is now,” she said, looking out the window.
“How do you know? Maybe it would. How did they do it?” Sara wanted to know.
“Forget about it. I don’t even want to talk about it,” Cora said, still not looking at Sara when she spoke.
“Wait, does this have to do with the whole First Mage, Second Mage thing?” Boon asked, leaning forward in her restraints. Gonders pulled her back and shook her head at Boon, but it was too late.
Sara saw Cora’s head drop in defeat just a little, and knew Boon had hit on it.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” she asked. “So, what, does the ranking of War Mages mean that they get a vote or something? Or…” Sara trailed off, realization beginning to dawn.
Cora turned at her sister’s loss of words. “That’s right. It was all about rank. So in this case, you would be supreme ruler of the world, and Boon back there would be second-in-command. You wouldn’t even be above the law; you would actually be the law. You still think the old ways would work?” Cora asked almost acidly.
“Uh, yeah. So maybe we should find another way,” Sara said, swinging the shuttle around the station, and catching sight of the Raven. She brought the small ship down to the level of the docking bay, and slowly maneuvered it through the plasma shielding, setting it down between two of the larger dropships.
Boon and Gonders unstrapped and headed to the back of the shuttle to lower the ramp. Sara and Cora didn’t move until the others were halfway to the storage lockers.
Sara turned to Cora. “But what if it’s the only way?”
Cora laughed. “You think you’re qualified to lead humanity? Are you shitting me?”
Sara raised a hand in surrender. “I’m just saying, governments are always going to have corruption. Even in this new world we’ve built, there is always someone trying to play the system. The only way to make sure they can’t is to take the system away completely.”
Cora stared at her for a good three seconds before she responded, “You aren’t kidding, are you? You think the best option is for you to rule us all?”
“God, no. I just think there is something to having one person with the final say, is all. It doesn’t have to be me. Shit, I don’t want it to be me.”
“And how do you propose we pick this person? Random lottery? Vote? Have a computer do it? And what happens if their orders are ignored? Who deals out the justice then?” Cora asked, frustration plain in her voice.
Sara bit her lip. “Well, shit. When you say it like that, it kinda makes sense that a War Mage was in charge.”
Cora threw her arms up. “You think I don’t know that? If we can figure this out, what makes you think they don’t have a room full of eggheads locked away in the sub-basement of the UH
FC that hasn’t figured it out already? You think they don’t have a plan for this? I bet you anything they came up with a plan to control War Mages the second you touched down at the Elif embassy.”
Sara reached up and pressed the button to retract her helmet. Her faceplate slid up, and the helmet split open, folding in on itself and lying flat against her back. Her face was a mask of concern as she looked over to Cora. “You think they consider me a threat?”
Cora opened her own helmet, and gave her sister a thin-lipped smile. “I don’t think the UHFC considers you a threat; you’ve done too much for humanity. However, there are people in important places within the UHFC that will feel threatened, and they may try to do something about it.”
Sara harrumphed. “If they can’t control me then they’ll kill me? Are there still people like that in government?”
“The old ones remember a much different world than the one we were raised in. Back then, governments were unsupervised behemoths that did whatever they wanted. When you showed up, slinging more magic than anyone ever thought possible, they saw something from the past come to life. You represent power and influence to those that think they can control you, but then you showed them that wasn’t going to happen. You defied orders and took the law into your own hands when you confronted Prince DeSolin. I’m sure they didn’t like that.”
Sara nodded. “You’re right, as always. I never even considered how that act would change the way I was perceived. I will always do what’s right for humanity.”
Cora put a hand on Sara’s shoulder. “I know you will. That’s why, even though you make me crazy sometimes, I’ll always trust you. You would give your life for your people. I just don’t want that to be anytime soon.”
Sara nodded. “Follow the straight and narrow.”
Cora smiled. “Straight and narrow,” she agreed.
16
Sara and Cora exited the shuttle, and headed for the storage lockers to stow their armor. Boon and Gonders were already gone by the time the stepped off the shuttle’s ramp, but the cargo bay was abuzz with activity.
There was a plethora of cargo containers full of delivered supplies strewn across the deck, most of which were open, their contents being stowed in cargo lockers. The resupply was quite thorough, but considering they were heading into a battle that could potentially last for quite some time, Sara was happy to have it.
She remembered that she still had to show Cora the proper way to step out of her armor so that it stayed put in the locker. When Sara turned to head out of the bay, she nearly ran into a short woman wearing an engineer’s uniform.
“Oh, sorry, ma’am,” the woman said, taking a step back as Sara stumbled to a stop.
“It’s okay…” she looked at the woman’s name tag, “Jeffries. What can I do for you?”
“Oh, uh, actually, I have something for Captain Cora,” she said, handing a folded piece of cloth out to Cora when she turned from her locker.
“What’s this?” Cora asked, taking the white square.
“Chief Sabine wanted me to deliver this to you as soon as you were onboard. He said he had it printed up for you from plans he found on the core.”
Cora unfolded the small cloth, and revealed an entire bodysuit. It was so thin that it folded down to the size of a handkerchief.
“Are you kidding me? You can practically see right through this thing. What was wrong with my old suit?” Cora asked, holding the thin suit up to the light, and Sara could see that the garment was more translucent than not.
The woman suppressed a chuckle. “He said you would say that. He looked up plans on the core for the design. Your original suit was designed by the UHFC, but he noticed that your connection with the Aether-conducting fluid in the tank was not as strong as he thought it should be. So he decided to see if the core had anything, and this was it,” she said, pointing at the super thin garment. “It has all the bio monitors the old suit had, but the thinner material allows for more of the fluid to flow freely against your skin. He says not to worry, that it isn’t see-through.”
Sara smirked at her sister’s exasperation. Then Jeffries mumbled, “He thinks.” And Sara burst out laughing.
Cora rolled her eyes, and draped the garment over her arm, “Fine. I’ll try it, but if people stat lining up to stare at my naked body in the tank, you’d better charge money, and deposit it in my account. Let’s go. I need to get back in there,” she said, pulling on Sara’s arm.
“Uh, ma’am?” Jeffries said to Sara before Cora could drag her too far.
“Yes?” Sara asked, pulling her sleeve free and giving Cora a dirty look.
“Ma’am, I think something got mixed in logistics. We got a lot of supplies that are already topped off, but when I tried to return them to the station, they wouldn’t take them. Most of it is just MREs and other ground supplies, but they delivered an entire crate of the new warheads, and I don’t have anywhere to put them. The other supplies are just being kept in one of the empty crew quarters, but I don’t want to store the weapons in there.”
“Well, I guess having more weapons isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” Sara reasoned as she looked around the bay, trying to think of the best place to keep them. “We can’t just strap them down to the deck in a corner over there?” she asked, pointing to an empty corner in the cargo bay.
“Uh, well, we could, but I would be afraid that they would break free during battle, and then we would have warheads rolling around the deck,” Jeffries said, not wanting to piss off her captain, but also not wanting to shirk her duty.
“How about one of the dropships?” Cora suggested. “They have cargo storage that can withstand a drop through atmosphere; I would think that’ll be safe enough.”
“That’s a great idea. Put them on Dropship Three; we hardly use that one,” Sara said, pointing to the large craft closest to the doors.
Jeffries saluted. “Yes ma’am.” She ran over to a large, black crate and activated the grav lifter, then pushed the now weightless box toward the back of the dropship.
“Too many supplies… Not a bad problem to have,” Cora mused as she headed toward the doors. “You coming?”
“Yeah, I’m coming,” Sara said, tearing her eyes away from the black crate, and jogging to catch up.
Grimms and Sara stood behind the consoles surrounding Cora’s tank, and watched as Teichek and Green prepared for Cora’s return to the womb. Alister and Nyx sat at their feet, and Sara was surprised to see that the two were not nearly as familiar with each other as Alister and Silva had been from the very start.
I wonder if it has to do with Nyx’s position in pixie society. Sara snorted a laugh. Maybe it’s just because they are a cat and a dog.
Alister, Nyx, and Grimms all looked at her when she snorted, and she gave an unconvincing cough to cover it up.
“Have we received any more reports on the Teifen’s movements?” Sara asked her XO, more to fill the void of silence than really needing to know. They were waiting for Cora to change into her skin suit.
“Nothing yet, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t gotten any more news. Admiral Zett has been less than pleasant in our interactions; I think he is holding a grudge about what you did at the embassy,” Grimms said with a frown.
“Eh, fuck him. I did what needed to be done. Maybe he should be more upset that his prince is a traitor,” Sara argued, feeling a rising heat of righteous indignation in her chest.
Grimms looked over at her and raised an eyebrow—a sure sign he did not approve of her words. “I think it would be wise to keep talk of treachery to ourselves. You’ve already painted a target on our backs, no need to light it up as well,” he reminded her quietly, so Teichek and Green didn’t overhear.
“It’s me they’re pissed at, not the crew,” Sara said, feeling a flash of guilt.
“A crew and her captain are the same thing. We’re your people. We follow you. What you do impacts us,” he said, his tone softening. “I know you are still relatively new to Comma
nd, so I can give you all the slack you need. Just know that I’ve seen commanders and their men go down for less than what you’ve done. You ruffled some feathers, Captain; you can be sure that someone is upset. We just need to see if they’re going to do anything about it or not.”
“Now you sound like Cora; we had a very similar discussion not twenty minutes ago,” Sara said, running a hand through her hair.
Grimms smiled. “She’s smart. You should listen to her.”
Sara squinted over at the older man. “She is smart. She makes good choices, too.”
Sara was happy to see him turn slightly red before they were interrupted by Cora coming around the tank. She had ducked behind some of the machinery to change, seeing as there were no bathrooms in the engineering room.
Grimms’ face went from slightly red to nearly crimson, and his eyes bugged at the sight of her. Sara even let out a little gasp at how thin the material was.
Cora was covered from the neck down in the white material, but you could see every nook and cranny she had.
“Well, at least it’s not see-through?” Sara said with a shrug.
Cora spread her arms wide and looked down. The suit’s material was thinner than the finest silk, and clung to her like pantyhose. “I don’t really think it matters, do you?” she demanded with amused irritation. “It’d better be worth it, or I’m kicking Sabine’s ass when I come out again.”
Grimms’ back was ramrod straight. Sara had to give him credit for not letting his eyes wander. Not too much, anyway.
Cora smiled at his discomfort, and leaned into him and whispered. “Nothing we haven’t seen before, eh, big fella?”
Sara snorted again.
“Sorry, I’m just teasing you,” Cora said, straightening. “I do have a favor to ask you, though,” she said to Grimms.
“You name it,” he replied.
She smiled. “Can you look after Nyx? She prefers you, and it would be a big help to me. I left everything in your room to take care of her; just be sure she doesn’t leave the ship, or our connection will become too distant for me to maintain spellforms.”
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