Wizard Defender (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 8)

by Rodney Hartman

  * * *

  Trinity stepped out of the command tent long enough to look up in the sky. Dozens of trails of ion energy announced the imminent arrival of a fleet of troopships and their fighter escorts. She looked back at the general and his staff. “That doesn’t look good.”

  “Are they ours?” asked the general.

  “I’m not— Hold on,” Trinity said. “I’ve got a message coming in now.”

  A stream of encrypted data came over her heads-up display. Jennifer decoded it at nanosecond speed. It took Trinity a tad longer to read the message, but when she did, her heart sank. She read the message again, saying the words out loud for all to hear.

  “It’s from Admiral Bistos. She says, ‘Plan failed. Crosioian troopships are approaching Estos. May the Creator be with you. You’re on your own now.’”

  No one around the command tent said anything. They all knew what the message meant. They were all going to die.

  Flicking the safety on her M12 to the off position, Trinity nodded at the general. “Get your soldiers ready, Sir. The first ships will be landing in five minutes.”

  “What are we going to do,” asked a colonel standing two paces behind the general. “Only a few of our soldiers still have weapons.”

  Trinity had grown to like the tough old bird over the past two days.

  The old man looked up at the approaching troopships and shouted in a voice loud enough for everyone within a hundred meters to hear. “Those are Crosioians. We’re soldiers of the Empire. We’re going to fight! Use rocks if you have to, but we’ll go down fighting.”

  Trinity nodded. Yes, she thought. We’ll fight. What else can we do?

  * * *

  The leftmost of three halo-pads on the Defiant’s mess table flickered as the holographic image of Brachia above it shouted, “Access is complete, Uncle Rick. I’m in.”

  Richard wasted no time. Using his ring as a conduit, he traversed the distance between Matthew and him. From his nephew’s ring, he went on to the gem in Tia’s ring. Using the technique he’d been shown by Charlie years before on how to analyze equipment for malfunctions, Richard let his mind flow through the hull of the jammer ship and into its security system. He became a part of the system. He sensed Nickelo’s mind traveling with him.

  “Look at that spot in the security program there,” said Nickelo indicating a source of Dragar magic as sure as if he was pointing at it. “That’s the key to their security system. I’d stake your life on it. Take it out, and the entire ship’s security network will fail.”

  Ever since he’d been a young boy, Richard had been adept at defeating security systems. He drew on the something that had existed deep within him as far back as he could remember. Using that something, he twisted the jammer ship’s main security program back on itself. The entire network of the warship opened up to him. With his mind operating at nanosecond speed, Richard spotted the program controlling the ship’s jammer. The program was composed of magic as was the jammer itself. Moving his mind inside the jammer, he sensed the presence of demonic evil. He didn’t care. A single demon was the least of his worries. Drawing Power from the globes of energy dangling from the roof of the cavern known as the Presence of the Lady, he combined the Power of the Tree of Light with the magic inside Jeena. Once mixed, he sent the combination of Power and magic through his ring and into the demon inside the ship’s jammer system. As soon as he touched the demon, Richard became hopeful. It was a normal demon, not a major one like Cancontus or the Dalinfaust.

  Taken by surprise, the demon flickered out of existence at the first touch of the powerful onslaught of magic and Power mixture. Richard sensed the jamming in the tele-network cease, but the jammer’s connections remained intact.

  “I’ve got access to the tele-network,” shouted Sergeant Ron from the Defiant’s cockpit. “If anybody’s got anything to say to stop this war, they’d better say it now.”

  Richard punched the control icon on the second halo-pad on the mess table. He noticed the supreme leader doing the same to the third. As an image of Liz appeared above the second pad, an image of a Crosioian admiral appeared above the pad nearest the supreme leader. When Richard heard the supreme leader hissing at her admiral, he turned his attention to Liz.

  “We’ve got long-range communications with the Crosioians,” Richard said. “I need you to order your ships to cease fire. The Crosioians’ supreme leader will be doing the same with her ships.”

  Liz shook her head. “The main battle has already begun. We’ve already lost dozens of frontline ships. There’s no way to stop the fighting now. It’s too late.”

  “You’ve got to do it,” Richard said.

  “I can’t!” snapped Liz. She glanced at something out of Richard’s sight. “The Destiny and everybody on board are going to be radioactive dust in about fifteen seconds. Your plan failed, Rick.” A glint resembling light reflecting off water appeared in her eyes. “My plan failed. I’m sorry.”

  Richard heard a loud hiss from the supreme leader and glanced in her direction.

  The bat’s wings were folded tightly to her side. “She’s right,” said the supreme leader. “It’s too late. All of our fleets are engaged. The killing can’t be stopped now. No one can stop it.”

  * * *

  As the first of the four fighters drew close, Tia pulled Power from her reserve and reached out with her mind for the lead pilot. When she made contact, she twisted hard with telekinesis. The point fighter swerved to the left, crashing into the Dragar’s wingman. Before Tia could do anything else, the two other Dragar ships flying a thousand meters behind the lead fighters exploded in a light bright enough to activate the filter on her flight helmet. When the light faded and the filter cleared, she saw one of the Empire’s Octarian fighter-bombers flying through the Dragars’ wreckage.

  An emotion of “I’m here!” came through Tia’s ring.

  Hope swelled in her chest. “Matthew!” She intuitively sent the name as emotion-speak through her ring.

  Something registering as a large energy source flared on Tia’s passive scan. She didn’t need to see the source of the energy to know what it was. It’s one of the dreadnaughts guarding the jammer ship, Tia thought. It’s heading right for Matt’s ship!

  Turning her head, Tia saw long trails of ion gas coming out the tail end of a Crosioian dreadnaught. Dozens of short and medium-range anti-ship plasma and phase weapons were traversing to line up on Matthew’s fighter-bomber. Tia wanted to go to him, to be with him in their last seconds of existence.

  “Don’t get sidetracked,” said Richard in emotion-speak through Tia’s ring. “Stay where you are, and make sure you keep that ring in contact with the jammer ship. I’ve got a plan. Trust me.”

  Tia held her breath and pressed her gloved hand more firmly against the side of the jammer ship.

  Trust is all I can do, she thought. Then she waited.

  Chapter 61 – One and Only Plan

  ____________________

  Shifting his consciousness back to the Defiant, Richard felt his mind go back to nanosecond speed. He tried concentrating on Jeena. His bondmate was standing next to him near the ship’s mess table. Everyone, including Jeena, was frozen in time.

  “Nick, I’ve got to talk to Jeena, and there’s no time to do it the normal way.”

  An image of the ongoing battle occurring throughout the entire Criterion star system flashed into Richard’s mind. He sensed a fleet of a thousand Crosioian dreadnaughts and heavy cruisers on the verge of driving through the Conglomerate’s line. Another fleet of Crosioian ships were striking deep into the main Empire fleet. Hundreds of thousands of beams of plasma and phase energy were licking out at ships on both sides as desperate men and bats tried their best to kill each other before they themselves were killed. The Destiny, the flagship of the Empire fleet, floated in space surrounded by a line of destroyers and light cruisers. A score of Crosioian suicide bombers armed with hundred megaton armor-piercing nukes were under the cover of d
emon-assisted stealth shields. The bombers were well inside the Destiny’s picket line of destroyers.

  The Destiny’s doomed, Richard thought. He sensed his friend Liz standing on the battle-tested dreadnaught’s bridge in the midst of giving commands in an attempt to save as many of her soldiers and sailors as she could before she was killed. He had no doubt his friend knew the battle was hopeless, barring a miracle.

  “Nick, I said I need to talk to Jeena!” Richard snapped. “Tell me you’ve got an idea.”

  “Your elf isn’t a wizard scout,” said Nickelo. “She can’t think at nanosecond speed. She’s got Danny in her ring, but they communicate in normal time. You might be able to, uh…”

  “To what?” Richard asked, feeling way beyond desperate. Every nanosecond of delay meant lives lost.

  No words came from Nickelo, only a memory. It was the memory of Richard as a fertilized egg, an embryo. Once again, he saw splices of DNA from orc, troll, dwarf, gnome, dragon, and elf merge with his DNA along with a piece of ‘the One.’ The scene shifted to Portalis in the magic dimension. A piece of him was placed in the embryo of a female elf; an embryo full of Power with a connection to the Tree of Light; an embryo who would one day be a silver-haired elf high priestess with molten-silver eyes. A piece of DNA from the future high priestess was placed in him, linking them forever.

  Needing no further explanation, Richard reached into himself and found the part of Jeena that had been with him since the day of his birth. He felt her love, courage, strength, and loyalty. He spoke to the completeness that was her.

  “I need your help, Jeena.”

  “I am here, my bondmate,” replied Jeena using thoughts coming at nanosecond speed from the part of him that was in her.

  Richard thought he knew the answer to his next question, but he had to be sure. Too many lives were at stake to make a mistake now. “I saw the videos from the Defiant where you told ‘the One’ you would bring the entire tele-network down around his head and destroy every computer if he didn’t help you find me. Were you serious? Could you have actually done that?”

  A feeling of embarrassment came from his bondmate. “Maybe, uh, I don’t know. To me, computer networks are like the roots of trees in a forest. Tree roots run deep into the earth around them, intermingling with each other until the entire forest is like one living being. I am a priestess of the Lady of the Tree. As such, I am blessed with the ability to manipulate the Power of the Lady and maintain the forests of silver elm trees. I think your tele-network is like the roots of the silver elms, and computers are like the trees themselves.” A feeling of determination and increasing confidence came from Jeena. “Yes, I believe I could have brought down the entire tele-network.” A flash of anger came from Jeena. “And I will if ‘the One’ ever tries to take you from me again. Is that what you want me to do? Do you want me to bring down the tele-network now?”

  That was definitely not what Richard wanted. He needed the tele-network. He sent an image to his bondmate of what he hoped to do.

  An emotion of confidence came from her. “So this is your plan?” she asked.

  “Yes. It’s my one-and-only plan. Will you help?”

  No words came from Jeena. Her magic mixed with his Power along with energy from the Staff of the Lady of the Tree. Richard funneled the magic from Jeena’s ring to his and on to the green-gemmed ring worn by Tia. Then he led Jeena’s mind into the Dragar ship and into the jammer that was already touching every computer in the Crosioian fleets. Without hesitation, Jeena expanded the jammer’s touch from the ‘roots’ of the Crosioians’ part of the tele-network to that of the Empire, Trecorian, UGA, and every other computer operating in the Criterion star system. Once Jeena had every root connected, Richard took over.

  Drawing on the part of himself that was a piece of ‘the One,’ Richard circumvented the security programs in every computer on every ship, missile, fighter, power-armor, and weapon regardless of which side they were on. He expanded his reach to include battle computers, fighting-computers, and every other gas-based life form in the Criterion system. Many of the gas-based life forms struggled against him, but they were creatures of logic. Jeena and he were creatures of freewill. Pure logic was no match for the combined freewill of an elf high priestess and a human wizard scout.

  Then Richard did what he needed to do.

  Chapter 62 – It Stops Now

  ____________________

  “Five seconds to impact,” said the Destiny’s science officer from his position on the bridge near the strategic map.

  Considering the circumstances, Liz thought the lieutenant sounded amazingly calm given the fact a dozen hundred-megaton nuclear warheads were about to slam into the hull of their ship. Liz took a final look at the strategic map and stopped giving commands. There was nothing left to do. She thought of her husband battling with the Trecor fleet near Tardis. She took a final look at the overwhelming number of orange, red, and blue dots on the strategic map that surrounded the Trecor fleets near Tardis. It was obvious her husband would be joining her in death in the near future. Liz gave a tightlipped smile as the shadow of impending death loomed before her, savoring her final breath.

  It’s been a good run, she thought. She glanced at the bridge crew still at their stations doing their duty in their final seconds of life. They’ve all given it their best shot. They deserved a better commander.

  Suddenly the lights on the bridge went out.

  “Help!” shouted multiple voices.

  Liz felt pressure against her waist from the safety harness of her command chair as her body attempted to float toward the ceiling. The lights came back on, revealing that every crewman not buckled in was floating in midair and flailing their arms in a vain attempt to find handholds. She noticed Lieutenant Beady standing locked in place at his duty station. Glancing at his feet, she nodded approvingly. Magnetic boots. Smart.

  The lieutenant looked up from his computer console, in the direction of Captain Bhami’s command chair. “Sir, all offensive and defensive systems are off line. Only life support and non-combat related computer systems appear to be functioning. Uh…”

  “Spit it out, Lieutenant,” snapped Captain Bhami. “Uh doesn’t tell me much.”

  The lieutenant’s cheeks turned pink. “Sir, all ships appear to be dead in space. Nothing’s moving on either side. All incoming and outgoing missiles are adrift as well. I don’t understand it.”

  Neither did Liz.

  * * *

  The demon glanced around at the Crosioian life forms on the bridge of the command dreadnaught. It loathed all living creatures, bat or otherwise, but nevertheless continued to maintain the stealth shield around the ship to keep it hidden from the Empire warships. The demon sensed the demons on other Crosioian ships doing the same. They had all been instructed by Cancontus, and Cancontus did not brook disobedience.

  The lights on the bridge went out. The demon heard hisses of surprise from the crew as they began floating off the deck. The lights came back on. The demon noticed movement out the corner of its eyes as automated phase weapons mounted on the bridge’s walls swiveled to point at a single target—they all pointed at him. The demon sensed surprise from his comrades scattered throughout the Crosioian fleets as other automated weapons systems did the same. The demon barely registered the concentration of phase rounds as the phase energy and solid slugs tore holes through its avatar.

  As the demon’s soul was ripped back to the demonic plane, it had time for only a single thought. I hate living creatures.

  * * *

  Richard’s mind returned to the Defiant. He no longer thought at nanosecond speed, but it didn’t matter. Jeena and he had done what needed to be done. The killing had stopped. Nickelo was in contact with Danny and Margery. They in turn were connected to every battle and fighting-computer in the galaxy. Between them, they were even now making sure every computer on both sides that was involved in the battle was doing only what was needed to prevent additional deaths. Even the Em
pire’s central computer, the Crosioians’ master computer, and the Trecorians’ primary computer were now aligned with Richard’s plan to avert additional killing of valuable resources.

  A flash of silver drew Richard’s attention.

  Jeena stared at him with her molten-silver eyes and smiled. “I knew you could do it,” she said. Her smile grew wider. “I had faith.”

  Richard returned his bondmate’s smile. “We did it, but it’s not quite over yet.” He turned his attention to the supreme leader standing on the other side of the mess table. She was flanked by Red Wing and Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds. Thinking a thought to activate the halo-pad in the center of the Defiant’s mess table, Richard brought up the hologram of War-King Bistoria. The big Trecorian looked surprised. Richard didn’t give the war-king time to ask questions. Gathering his thoughts, he sent Jeena and his image to every hologram, every computer screen, and every display device connected to the tele-network in the Criterion star system. He included the Empire’s Imperial High Command and Council along with the Crosioians’ tribal council.

  “I am Wizard Scout Richard Shepard. This is High Priestess Jeehanathoraxen. The killing stops. It stops now. Despite what we have been told, we are not enemies. The real enemies of the Empire and Trecor are not the Crosioians. It is the demons. The real enemies of the Crosioians are not the Empire and her allies. It is the demons. A major demon called Zenthra started this war between our species. When he fell, his brother, Cancontus, took his place. Even they have been used by one stronger than them. A master demon has been manipulating us all.” Richard pointed at Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds. “The master demon tricked your daughter into a trap. He arranged for her and me to battle, but he stacked the deck. The master demon gave me dolgar allies, spirit-wolves. Between us, your daughter didn’t stand a chance. Will killing me bring your daughter back?”

  Richard pointed at Red Wing. “Will it bring back your mother?”