Today's Spacemage

by Timothy Ellis

  I told Jen to take us into orbit as normal, where Lea would run a check on the planet details in the database, and upload whatever the media channels were broadcasting.

  In the meantime, force wall already up, I looked in on the civilian ship above us.

  "I tell you Clyde, this has been coming for centuries."

  "What has?"

  "It’s the boogeyman story parents scare their kids with, only updated into the technological age."

  "Not following you. Our fleet is about to destroy these invaders."

  "Have you been listening to the news lately?"

  "No, why?"

  "This fleet has turned up at four other planets so far. They never fire a shot, never appear to take a hit, do an orbit, and vanish. Until they turn up at the next planet."

  "So?"

  "I think this is them. Maybe they finally invented the point to point jump drive? In any case, they're going to fly through our fleet as if it wasn’t there, make our fleet vanish, and then vanish themselves."

  "Keep talking like that, and someone is going to want to drug test you. Or put you on trial for heresy."

  "You just watch."

  "I will."

  I pulled my focus back, grinning wildly, and did exactly as the orange man had said. With just one difference. When we jumped across the system to the next jump point, I moved the civilian ship as well.

  At which time I called an end to the day, the shift changed, so we could all get a bit of relaxation, food, and sleep, and we flew at a sedate speed for the night instead of jumping again. The civilian ship, which should have turned and run back to the planet, actually followed us. The military fleet began their trip down into the system, yet again. It was quickly obvious they were still more interested in attacking into our space, than in us.

  The next day, we did it all again. The numbers of ships attacking us rose as the day went on, as did the number of civilian ships riding along to see what would happen. Warships started appearing at other jump points, and I simply added them to the main fleet, which continued to ignore us.

  The working day ended one system away from their homeworld, and we flew across the second half of the system instead of jumping, while we all made sure we were rested for the next day.

  Jumping through the next morning had more than the usual level of expectation of what we might find. And find it we did.

  "Well, that’s different," said Jen.

  Forty

  Out at the jump points, each system sun was a spot in the distance, easy to miss sometimes. They varied a bit in size, but in no way could you say they dominated space when you looked at them.

  The enemy's home system was dominated by its sun.

  I’d seen many different colour schemes now, as space kept changing how it looked as we moved across it. But within a system, space was mainly dark, until you came close to the sun, which would then blot out all else.

  The overall colour of space ahead of us, was, orange.

  "What am I seeing?" I asked.

  I didn’t get an answer, as missiles began impacting my force wall at that point. A dozen ships had been waiting for us, and they'd fired on us within a few seconds of us jumping in. They were not particularly close though, so we'd had time to be distracted first. Or I had anyway. No-one had reported the enemy ships, which was sloppy at best, but this was basically a civilian ship. And besides, it was a sight to draw the attention.

  I did the usual sight sweep around the system, mouth hanging open without me realizing it.

  The sun was gigantic. And orange. I could see it with the naked eye, but with my sight, it was put into proper perspective. There was no inner system at all, it was all sun. The outer system had three gas giants, each with its own set of moons, several of which were planet sized. Around one of these I could see a number of large stations, and yet another small fleet of warships.

  "Orange giant," said Jen, eventually answering my question.

  Everyone was staring at the view screen. It was a sight none of us had seen before.

  "We know of a few red giants," she went on. "Several of the known jump points go to them, but there's usually nothing much there."

  "Giant?"

  "Old stars which have depleted their hydrogen, swell up into these huge suns, swallowing their inner planets as they do so."

  "Orange?"

  "No idea. We'd need to ask an astrophysicist."

  "Maybe all the space dust in the system is calcium," suggested Lea.

  No-one laughed. I wouldn’t have laughed, even if I knew what she was talking about. And I suddenly didn’t have time to even think about it.

  The system protection fleet were on the move now, all coming straight at us.

  "Are they trying to ram us?" asked Sasha.

  "Looks like it," said Jess. "Thorn?"

  I sighed, and moved them all to join their main fleet. The warships around their homeworld joined them.

  And now I really didn’t understand this war at all. The fleet I'd been assembling way up out of the way, was now significantly big enough to have pushed all the way through our space, without significant opposition. And yet, they hadn't used their forces that way. It was if the mentality of both sides was border skirmish oriented, and not win at any cost. The orange fleet could easily win at any cost, but hadn't ever tried. Why?

  "Moving us to the homeworld," I said, just to prepare everyone.

  The civilians came with us, nicely up out of the way, and we popped into existence well away from their stations, in orbit above their biggest city.

  The planet below us seemed to ripple, as missiles launched from all over it. I checked the civilians I'd brought with us, and moved them sideways and up, so none of the missiles would accidently hit them if they missed my force wall. I checked around for other civilian ships in danger, and spent the next few minutes moving dozens of them as well.

  Space around us was clear by the time the first missiles started impacting my wall. But I wasn’t paying any attention to them. One of the stations was a shipyard, and I was watching six ships back out from it. Presumably these were new ships, not yet complete, but being rushed into service anyway. I let them get well clear, lined up with us, and sent them to join their fleet.

  Looking at the fleet, I saw the four damaged ones were still not moving, once again left behind. Inside I found the crews were still there, but seemingly unable to get engines going again. I pondered for a moment the wisdom of moving them to the shipyard, and they were there before I actually made up my mind. Tugs launched minutes later, and began to tow the ships in.

  Lea was back at coms, and suddenly stiffened. She looked over to me.

  "We received a data burst from the lead damaged ship. It was compressed and sent so fast, I doubt anyone else picked it up."

  "What did it say?"

  "I don’t know who you are, or what you are, but thank you."

  I nodded. Maybe they weren't so different from us after all. Perhaps the whole war mentality was just because the military were also the political?

  "Have we found the military headquarters yet?"

  "I found the palace. But there's nothing much except 'stay in your homes', and 'obey the curfew', coming out from it. Sounds like propaganda central, but nothing in the way of orders are coming from there. Still looking."

  "Fine. Let me know when you find the high brass."

  "You going to pay them a visit?" asked Jen.

  "Of course."

  Forty One

  Like we did, the military had their own huge building.

  I walked around it without anyone seeing me, for quite some time. The signs were in a different language, they talked the different language, but the conversations were much the same. Orange or not, the buildings and people seemed interchangeable. The building itself was slightly off, but construction techniques were not too far apart.

  In an empty kitchen, I tasted their food and drink. The food tasted just fine, the water tasted odd, but was still dr
inkable, and the processed drinks were perfectly drinkable. If anything, several of them had a market in our space.

  The more I thought about it, the more it seemed these aliens were nothing more than based on a group of malcontents who split off from our own ancestors, and found themselves marooned in this strange system long enough to evolve a different skin colour.

  Our ancestors. Actually no. That didn’t work. My ancestors…no. The people who were from my second life, had not reached a space travel level of tech. I'd always assumed they were descended from my birth people, but what if they weren't? What if Jen and Jess's people were the progenitors, and my second life people were an offshoot from them, who lost their space tech, and were reinventing technology at a slower rate? The Orange people could also have been an offshoot, who became marooned, but didn’t lose their technology, and stayed isolated for as long as possible, with the border being established only a few hundred years before.

  This explained Orange, but not why my second life people vanished without a trace after I left them. That conundrum aside, all three groups of people did seem to must have a common origin. And given the time it takes for skin colour drift, second life aside, even my first life people might have been an offshoot of a common race. I had no way of telling, because I’d no way of knowing how far my time jump had taken me.

  The only thing I knew for sure was my birth people were not the common ancestor. If they were, everyone would have magic, and no-one did.

  Unless we were all seeded by a higher power.

  I stopped walking abruptly, and someone banged into me, both of us going down. I cast around for an empty room, and jumped, before getting up. The person who'd walked into me freaked, and after getting up, started running back the way he'd come. But my mind, while watching where the collision occurred, wasn’t really processing it. There were other things popping in.

  No-one in my third life talked about magic or higher beings, but observing them didn’t faze them at all. But the guy I'd just banged into had freaked out and run. Such talk was commonplace where I grew up. But in my second life, everyone considered it entertainment, and didn’t give it any more credence than that. If anything, it was a joke, and not something to be taken seriously.

  I found it a lot easier to believe a higher power might have been the common thread, seeding all three from the same origins, and they spent thousands of years diverging. I still didn't have any real explanation for my second life civilization, first of all existing, and second for vanishing. Unless my people died out, the planet was reseeded much later, and I had no idea what the hell I was thinking. I also didn’t want to go there, because if my people died out, maybe it was because I killed them. I shook the line of thought off. Madness lurked down there.

  I brought my mind back to the here and now.

  I needed to stop walking around invisibly, and start doing it openly. I looked around for the records section, and jumped into an empty storeroom. Still invisible, I walked the section, stood behind some of those tapping away at computers, until I finally found someone in the judicial database. As records flew by, I copied one, inserted my own name and image, and duplicated it into the military judicial system as well. The rank names were not the same, but I was now both a civilian and military Inquisitor.

  I cast around for an office belonging to a military officer, who was also an Inquisitor, and jumped to it. It was empty, but the small bathroom off it, had a closet with spare uniforms.

  A bathroom seemed to be a bathroom. Everything was different, but recognizable all the same. After turning off the invisibility, I copied one of the uniforms, changed into it, sent my Colonel uniform to my stateroom bed, and changed my skin colour. The face in the mirror was a bit of a shock, but it was still me.

  With the area around the office empty, I left through the door, and wandered the halls looking like I knew exactly where I was going. People backed away from me as I came near them, never making eye contact. No-one even attempted to talk to me. More than a few were afraid to even be in the same room as me.

  The one thing I didn’t find were flag officers. The Admirals and Generals were not here.

  Finally, I asked someone who looked like a receptionist for one.

  "They're all at the palace, Inquisitor. The Grand Marshal requested their attendance, and they met early to formulate responses."

  "Responses to what?"

  "Inquisitor, I beg you. Please don’t ask me."

  Her hand went to her mouth, her skin turned a pale orange colour, and her terror was obvious.

  I frowned at her, and she went paler again. I realized I’d crossed a line, asking a subordinate to rat out her boss.

  "No matter. I'll find out when I find them."

  "Yes Inquisitor."

  She bowed to me, and stayed that way, until well after I’d left.

  Just how troubled I was must have showed on my face, because everyone I passed froze and went silent, when they saw me coming.

  These people were terrified of their Inquisitors.

  Maybe what they needed, was a Judge.

  Forty Two

  "THORN!"

  The ward I'd left on the bridge rattled my brain, as Jen yelled for me. I found an empty room to leave from, and jumped back.

  "Bloody hell!" screeched Lea.

  Jen and Jess started laughing. Sasha was holding her grin in. But Tasha lost it completely.

  I changed my skin colour back to normal, which seemed to steady them. I moved to my stateroom, changed, and moved back. Finally, I took my seat with as much dignity as I could manage.

  Jen was pointing at the HUD. I’d been away a long time, the day had gone past, and the enemy fleet was approaching.

  "Did they stop firing missiles at us from the planet?"

  "No," answered Jen. "They slowed down a while ago though. Must be running out, and trying to conserve some for when the fleet arrives."

  "How's your wall?" asked Jess.

  "Fine. Thanks for asking."

  She grinned. It was fine. Even with only a partial awareness of it while on the ground, it was holding without degrading at all. In fact, if anything, it felt more powerful than before. Could be the larger sun was providing more power than normal. Not that it mattered at all. Power wasn’t a problem anymore.

  "Plan?" asked Jen.

  "We're doing it."

  "Staying right here?" asked Sasha. "Doing nothing?"

  "Yep."

  "Was there a reason you brought us?" asked Lea.

  I caught Tasha's eye, she waggled her eyebrows at me, and Lea caught it.

  "Someone has to run the ship."

  I knew immediately I should have thought of something better to say. Lea opened her mouth to have a serious go at me, but Jen shut her down.

  "Get a grip Lea. This was always the way it was going to work. Thorn wants to avoid casualties if at all possible. We're here to end a war, not obliterate the enemy."

  "Obliteration works for me," muttered Sasha.

  Jen ignored her.

  "By plan, I was asking if we were staying right here, and let them test Thorn's force wall, or if Thorn was going to throw them around again, or something different."

  Her eyes went to me.

  "Test the wall. At least to start with. I'm done moving them around. If they really want to be suicidal, this time I'll let them."

  "What happened to no casualties?" asked Lea.

  "I'd still prefer it, but I think they're all more terrified of their leaders here, than they are of dying. So we might not be able to stop the dying part. And I really am done with keeping them away. If they haven’t got the message by now, they never will."

  "Are you going down to talk to the leaders?" asked Tasha.

  "Yes. I’d only just located them when you called me back. I know they have a meeting with their grand marshal shortly, and I intend to be there when they do."

  I put the high officer's meeting up on a screen, so I could watch it normally. They were bickering over
what to tell their grand marshal, or more importantly, what not to tell him. They all wore sidearm holsters, but not sidearms, and were seated around a large oblong table, with only the seat at the head of it empty.

  "All men," said Lea, looking at them.

  "You noticed that did you?"

  "Hard to miss."

  "It's actually worse. This appears to be a completely male dominated society. What few women are in crews, don’t lead anyone."

  "Don’t say it Lea," said Jen. "Let's concentrate on staying alive here."

  Lea closed her mouth again, and I could see the frustration eating at her. But Jen was right. This wasn’t the time. Jen had to be as annoyed about it as Lea was, but she had a handle on her emotions now.

  The enemy fleet, and I no longer thought of them as an alien fleet, just an enemy, closed in around us, making a sphere of ships with us in the middle. Ordinarily, any fleet being surrounded like this was going to be toast.

  "Are they going to ask for our surrender?" asked Sasha.

  I brought up the sound in the meeting below.

  "We cannot ask for their surrender."

  "Why not?"

  Four stripes stared down two stars.

  "It would be heresy to do so."

  "Shouldn’t we be finding out something about them, after all this time at war?"

  "That is heresy. Mind your words, or the next thing is we'll have an Inquisitor walking through that door."

  "How would one know?"

  "You seriously think every word in this room is not being monitored?"

  "I thought our ranks were accorded the privilege of not being monitored."

  "You thought wrong. The only privilege we have is more latitude in what we can say before the hammer falls on us."

  This seemed to bother the lesser ranks quite a lot, while the older more senior men just looked resigned.

  Further discussion was interrupted. A man dressed in full dress uniform, covered with insignia and medals, walked in through thrown open doors. The officers rose as one, and bowed towards him.