Lieutenant Commander Spacemage (Imperium Spacemage Book 4)

by Timothy Ellis

  “Nerg?”

  “What you call rats. The white ones. The brown ones are a separate species called the Narg. The few we have here are saying the same thing, which for them is quite rare. When they agree, we listen.”

  “Trade in itself has its own difficulties. We use a digital currency, which is exchange rated for each Imperium member. We’d need to establish some sort of exchange currency with you before any trade could commence.”

  “I believe that has already been discussed with some of your people, and is being considered on both sides. And it also provides me with a reason for this meeting. As head controller for the station, it falls to me to ensure ships docking here have the right connections, and pay the appropriate fees. So for now, our meetings today have been about these issues, and the possibility of one of your trading ships making a visit here to ensure trading is actually possible. Can you set that up?”

  “Me? No. But I will pass on the request. It should be possible in a day or two, depending on the outcome of today.”

  “Good. I will start the process of allowing Imperium ships to dock, and see what objections arise. Before anything else, I need permission to allow you to dock, and since your military vessels are no longer docked here, any further dockings must have appropriate approval.”

  “Of course.”

  Bureaucracy was everywhere.

  “Thank you for your assistance. I will see myself out.”

  “You’re welcome. I’ll send word when I have any.”

  The flower bobbed, and it turned and walked away, although Tamsin had to open the door for it. It was still more than a little unsteady.

  “Was that plant drunk?” I asked Serena.

  She laughed, nodding.

  Thirteen

  Serena had already eaten down on the main deck.

  She led me to where I could get a late lunch, after I’d sent a message to Tollin about organizing a trader visit. On the way to where she told me some really good food was located, we went past kiosks from many different worlds. One of the kiosks was Ralnor, and it was packed. There was even a couple of Ralnor working it, and they were getting as much attention as their food was. The big cats had sent several kiosks, and while not as popular, were still attracting a lot of attention.

  The Ralnor bar was also packed, as was the Wyvern bar. Not all the bars were however. The America bar was only lightly patronized, and the Australian one wasn’t much better off. I paused near both of them, wondering why.

  “The American beer is very lightweight,” said Leanne. “And while the Australian beers have double the alcohol content, something they call Fosters isn’t being received all that well. Which is not all that surprising, since I’ve heard some of the pilots call it ‘panther’s piss’ in comparison with wyvern beer.”

  “What do the panthers think about it?” asked Serena, clearly enjoying herself.

  “As far as I know, they’ve not heard the comparison yet.”

  “Might be an idea to make sure they don’t,” I added. “Do they have their own beers?”

  “Not beer. Something different I understand. Metunga might know the differences.”

  He’d never commented about alcohol as far as I knew. And come to think of it, the last thing we needed was a drunk big cat.

  “The same bars downstairs are doing the opposite,” said Tamsin.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “The plants prefer Fosters over all the beers, the American beers next, and the Wyvern beers last.”

  “Why is that?” asked Serena, before I could.

  “Probably the same reason. Alcohol content and taste. American bourbon is really popular with everyone though, but more than a few drops really seems to affect the plants.”

  “Maybe we should be bombing them with bourbon instead of shooting them?” laughed Serena.

  I couldn’t stop myself joining in, and with the four of us chuckling, we moved on to find me some food. The place Serena took me too turned out to be something called Chinese. I vaguely recalled there was an Imperium member called China, but not realized their food was available outside their area of space. When I mentioned that, Leanne informed me the Imperator was very partial to it, and had standing invitations to quite a few of the restaurants now scattered through the Imperium stations.

  By the time I’d finished sampling the dishes, I understood why Serena had brought me here, and also why the Imperator ate it regularly. I enquired about how to get a bulk order suitable for ships, and was simply told to have my ship AI put in an order. I enquired about payment, and was told it could be arranged to be part of the normal ship allocation which the Imperium paid for, or if just for personal consumption, it could be billed individually. I left Leanne there to organize an order just for the two of us, billed to me. It wasn’t as if I was short of money or anything, and needed to be fed only by the Imperium military setup.

  Which reminded me to actually check on what the Wyvern were providing now. It turned out they did barbeque really well. Although I suspected it was the dragons which did the barbequing more often than not. All the same, the meat was different, and very tasty, so I told Leanne to go there next, and do another order with them. Technically they were not yet an Imperium member, but they had a full trading agreement in place.

  Oddly enough, the coffee kiosk was almost empty. Every single instance of human like life had its own version of coffee. But apparently no-one else in the galaxy shared the taste for it.

  But the chocolate kiosk next door was full, and had lines well out into the passageway.

  On the way back, we stopped at the wyvern bar, and tasted just about everything they had on display. Even taking sips, by the time we finished, both of us had to put the alcohol suppressor in primary mode, and needed meds to dull the pain of burnt mouths and throats. But the tastes were worth it. I had Leanne order us in a selection, not so much for general use, although a pallet of beer was on the order, but for dinner parties.

  I hadn't realized Serena was thinking about dinner parties, but technically the captain could invite anyone for dinner in the special dining room, and such times should be accompanied by appropriate lubrication. And as flagship, Judge needed to be able to entertain properly.

  We also stopped at the American bar, and tried their bourbon, but I didn’t find it to my taste. Not far along was a British bar, and they had a whole range of what they called whiskey, which also did nothing for me. But they also had a number of fine liqueurs, which I did like. I listened to a sales person with what sounded like a broken translator, which Leanne told me was in fact the Scot dialect, trying to convince a rat to buy a series of liqueurs to go with a list of cocktail recipes.

  Downstairs we found plants with so many variations and flower colours, I began wondering if Trixone was just the name for an intelligent plant, and in fact they had so many species variations they didn’t bother telling anyone about them due to the extreme complication of differentiating them. Leanne thought that was a good insight, and sent it to Jane for consideration. She then proceeded to talk about the thousands of rose species from spine systems, some going all the way back to homeworld Earth, until I told her to shut up about it.

  All in all, I think I enjoyed the afternoon on Diplomat more than I would have on the planet the rest of team had remained on. Mentioning that proved to be a bad idea as well, as Leanne mentioned it was now being called Sanctuary, and I had to shut her up again before she went on and on about what was being found there.

  When the four of us returned to Judge, Leanne informed me we had enough of the first orders on board to feed the team several times over, and so I issued invitations to dinner to them and the squadron leaders, and had Leanne coordinate with the butlers for preparation.

  I had enough time beforehand to spend some time in my ready room, where I found a whole series of emails thanking me for making rift travel possible between ships and stations, and even between locations on planets. Dreamwalker and Chaos sent separate ones,
but were both thanking me for the link between their ships, which now allowed them to ‘visit’ with each other whenever they could, without anyone knowing. Chaos was a little overenthusiastic about it, and the implications were almost blush worthy.

  A lot of the married ship captains had sent thanks, as now they could walk home for dinner when not actively on Imperium business. And some of Arthur’s people were very appreciative of their squeezes being more available now, and from memory, that included a number of colonels and admirals.

  The thing was, I had no idea why they were thanking me. Until I finally caught up, and found a message from Syrinx saying she’d taken her little band of trainee rift mages on the road, where they practiced putting in rifts where people wanted them. When people asked who to thank, they’d all been saying me. Gee, thanks.

  The last message was from Jane, saying she was thinking of setting up a new rift hub for the military, so all of the capital ships were accessible from one place. She’d let me know if they needed my help to set it up. I really hoped not. The last thing I wanted was to be roped into doing mundane magic.

  What I really needed was a good battle to make us unavailable for anything else. However, nothing was forthcoming for the moment, although the Rawtenuga were moving new fleets up into this area still, and it was only a matter of time. What I didn’t understand was why we hadn't been called home yet, as the Ralnor and Keerah were still fighting daily battles that we knew about, but with a few exceptions, they were handling them themselves.

  One thing I did find out was the Claymore Task Force now had a rift mage, and was doing our role of using a directed rift to demolish Trixone fleets with, and then taking the fighters the conventional way. What I didn’t understand was why they were doing that, and we were stuck out here.

  To my surprise, none of the pilots turned up for dinner, with one of the squadron leaders responding at the last moment they were attending a mandatory dinner on Haven instead. The rest of my ships jumped back in just before dinner time, and I met the team in the living room, and led them directly to the dining room, where Serena and a much smaller table waited, with the normal large one pushed against one wall.

  Leanne obviously needed some coaching about menus. We had wyvern barbeque with Chinese fried rice and green vegetables no-one recognized, which turned out to be from the planet below. Followed by American ice cream and Australian chocolate for dessert, and a Ralnor port actually in our coffee. Oddly, it all worked. And the coffee was in fact a great deal better tasting that way.

  Strangely, although no-one said anything, everyone had eaten everything. Even Metunga.

  Fourteen

  Our pilots didn’t come back.

  Even before going to bed, I’d been informed Eagle Wing had been reassigned. Jill and I joked about it after everyone else had gone to bed. Here we had brand new ships designed as carriers, and we no longer had anything to carry.

  I found Serena already asleep in my bed, which presumably meant it was now officially our bed. We still hadn’t talked about anything, but it looked like she’d decided we were a couple now. Just to confirm it, I found all her stuff behind the wardrobe doors, with what little I had moved to one end, making the other end hers.

  As I looked down at her sleeping, I suddenly wondered if she’d had another vision, and was moving our relationship on faster as a result. That was a scary thought. She’d never discussed her visions, and had never wanted to, so she could be keeping anything from me in that regard. On the other hand, I’m not sure I’d want to know what she saw on a regular basis. Which was probably why a lot of seers, and every oracle I’d heard of, remained single most of their lives.

  Sleep came quickly, dreams I didn’t remember, and there were not even any fighters on board when I woke up. I didn’t find out until after training and breakfast with everyone on Judge, that Eagle Wing was now assigned to the Galactica Task Force, which was now working with the Claymore force. That put the Imperator’s father in command of practically all of our active fighter pilots.

  Galactica, and her two sister ships from before the time line shift, had been reinforced with the two upgraded similar shaped, but after the time line, cousins. The five ships couldn’t launch Excaliburs, but between them they had more than enough space for Eagle Wing to park, and jump in to and out from. The same information included the two Scimitar class getting an additional newly activated squadron each, which brought them up to the limit of their accommodation, rather than parking space.

  I suspected Eagle had convinced the Imperator his fighter pilots were wasted out here, and suggested they gather them all together. Nor did I know if this was a reaction to pilots acting as troops.

  I didn’t know if they had a rift mage yet, and suspected they didn’t. But probably would have soon. I’d just have to wait for reports now, to see if it proved to be a good idea or not. It probably was. If anything, the Imperium was still figuring out how best to use fighter pilots, without treating them like cannon fodder.

  Diplomat was still here, and my squadron was ordered to remain where we were in support of what was proving to be a very valuable diplomatic and trade mission. I had authorization to seal off jump points across the entire area to keep the local cluster clear of Rawtenuga. And was warned to expect one of our civilian traders later on in the day.

  My first order of business for the day was checking in with Red Flower, who wasn’t available, but I was informed discussions about financial systems were in progress on Diplomat, and I’d be advised when Red Flower was available. I passed on the news an actual Imperium trader was expected later on in the day, although I had no details, so we’d need docking issues resolved by then.

  This all reminded me to ask Leanne how she’d paid for vegetables from the planet. She reminded me all Imperium ships had a small stash of diamonds on board to use as barter, and she’d used several of these. She pointed out the rats wanted diamonds, particularly our industrial ones, especially because they were perfect. This ran counter to everything I knew about diamond values, which wasn’t much, but it might provide a means of credit conversion in the short term, with diamonds providing a middle exchange between different currencies. Fortunately, not my problem to figure out.

  I’d just started looking at where we needed to close jump points in the local cluster, when Leanne interrupted me with an order to report to Admiral Jedburgh. So I tasked Jill with figuring out what needed doing, and if I wasn’t back when the team had a plan in place, to begin the work without me. Gitte and Haynes were perfectly capable of closing jump points, after all. And for now, protection of Diplomat didn’t need the whole squadron.

  It only took a few minutes to reach the admiral’s ready room, where I found Syrinx and Tanith waiting.

  “Here he is,” said Jedburgh, looking at Syrinx. He turned to me. “Commander, when you’re finished with mage duties, return here. I’ve new orders for you.”

  “Aye sir,” I said, feeling more than a little confused.

  Syrinx waved for me to follow her, and the three of us left.

  “What’s this about?” I asked, after we’d left Jedburgh’s titan, and were walking towards a travel car on Haven station.

  “We’ve been asked to attend a trial on the Democratic Union capital planet,” she said.

  “We’ve what?”

  Neither of them looked any happier than I was.

  “They don’t have any mages,” said Tanith. “But apparently the defense is claiming magic has been used. They wanted us as impartial observers to the description of what they claim has happened, and they wanted you as Thorn’s heir, in case they need lie detection to sort out the truth.”

  I stopped dead, and it took them a moment to realize I wasn’t with them. They stopped, turned, and waited for me. The frown on my face seemed to have a life of its own, and it caused them both to smile. I sighed, and resumed walking.

  Someone was not going to be happy about where this went, that much I was certain about.

&
nbsp; Fifteen

  Two stations later, we joined a line of people, and walked through a rift down to a planet. Syrinx led us to a spot with no people movement, opened another rift, and we stepped into a building which had ‘court house’ written all over its decoration style. The nearest doors had people going in through them, and we entered as well, and sat at the back.

  We rose with everyone else when the judge entered, and sat when bidden. I knew the drill. Thorn had dragged me along to a number of trials he’d presided over back when I was younger, and before I’d decided on space. I guess he’d wanted to find out if I was interested in being the next judge in the family. I hadn't been then, and I still wasn’t now.

  The judge looked at the three of us specifically, but did nothing to acknowledge our presence. But someone had obviously warned her we were coming, or she’d recognized us.

  I was expecting the trial itself to bore me, and be exciting for everyone else. The only two witnesses were the accused, and the accuser. So it proceeded fairly rapidly to start with, with the accuser being taken through her story of being drugged and raped. It sounded particularly horrible for her, and the jury and gallery ate it up, along with evidence not being disputed by the defense, which proved semen from the accused being found inside the accuser’s body. She was also now pregnant, and the child was confirmed to be his.

  Slam dunk for the prosecution. Or so you’d think.

  Which brought the accused to the stand. He told a story which was identical to hers, up to the point where, in her home, he’d passed out on the couch. He’d woken with a major headache the following morning, and had left without seeing the woman at all. He admitted he knew her from previous encounters, found her attractive in a sisterly kind of way, and had gone to her home without any intention of sleeping with her. He had in fact been walking her home as a gentleman would, and she’d invited him in. He had no recollection of anything between sitting on the couch, and when he’d woken on it and left.