Richard didn’t mind the additional training in the medium and heavy cats. He knew he might need it in the future. But the training regimen confused him. He’d been told he was supposed to be training the Trecorians. Instead, he was the one being trained. However, Richard didn’t complain. He assumed the cat training was just make-work. He’d already done the duke’s primary mission. He’d healed the duke’s children. Richard took it for granted when the Defiant arrived in a few weeks, the duke would release him from his assignment and send him packing for home. In the meantime, life wasn’t too bad. At least ‘the One’ hadn’t sent him on any more clandestine missions.
At 0600 on the morning of the fifth day, Richard found himself inside a Leviathan training simulator with Tia. The simulator was just two cat-pilot chairs in the middle of a small room embedded with holographic equipment and force-beam generators. Once Tia and Richard strapped themselves into their seats and plugged in their armor, the techs flipped a switch. The walls of the room disappeared to be replaced by the inside of a Leviathan cockpit.
Richard glanced out the cockpit window at an alien scene. They were at an undisclosed mining camp located on some twenty kilometer-wide asteroid. Except for a couple of airlock doors in a wall to the cat’s right, Richard saw only bare rock.
“What now?” Richard said into the microphone of his cat-pilot helmet. He was wearing the 147th’s standard-blue, cat-pilot armor. Richard would have preferred his battle suit instead, but it was what it was.
“Don’t ask me, Rick,” said Tia sounding very serious. “You’re the pilot. I’m just the copilot. It was made very clear to me I was to take my orders from you.”
“Hmm,” Richard said. “Who’d you piss off to get stuck with me this early in the morning?”
“Nobody,” said Tia. “I volunteered. I was curious what a wizard scout could do. We don’t interact with your kind much out here fighting pirates. Terrie’s the only wizard scout I’ve ever met until you.”
“Volunteered, huh?” Richard laughed. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you never to volunteer in the military? I thought that was a required class in basic training.”
“Not on Trecor,” said Tia apparently missing his attempt at humor.
Richard swept his eyes over the large amount of computer readouts, levers, and flashing lights on the Leviathan’s control console. It was a little overwhelming without Nickelo there to help him make sense of everything. Richard concentrated on moving the Leviathan’s six legs in order to advance forward.
“So, how come you’re in a cat simulator with me?” Richard asked more to make conversation than anything else. “I thought you were a fighter pilot.”
“I am,” said Tia. “But we’re required to cross-train. I can pilot a cat, but I’m much better in fighters. By the way, it looks like you’re drifting to the left. I think you’re overcompensating on the right-side hydraulics.”
Richard tried to lessen the pressure on the Leviathan’s right-side legs, but the hydraulic pressure on leg number five continued to climb. The cat drifted even further left.
“It’s not responding correctly,” Richard said. “The number five hydraulics is acting screwy.”
At that moment, a red light on the console began flashing accompanied by the sound of an alarm in Richard’s helmet.
“We’ve got a fire in number five hydraulics,” said Tia. “Master circuit breaker out. Activate number-five fire suppressor. Recycle hydraulic switch. Master circuit breaker in.”
With each statement, Richard saw Tia’s hands do the appropriate action of the emergency procedure. The flashing light went out, and the alarm bell ended. Richard noticed the hydraulic pressure on the number five leg return to normal.
“That was good, Cadet Bistoria,” said the voice of Master Sergeant Stover over the intercom. “But we’re here to train Shepard, not you. I’m well aware you know your emergency procedures. Let him handle it next time.”
“Yes, sergeant,” said Tia as she looked at Richard and gave a shrug. “It’s all yours, Rick.”
The remainder of the training scenario didn’t go well. Richard had tried to memorize a few of the Leviathan’s emergency procedures, but the sheer number of them overwhelmed his overworked mind. Plus, while he was above average in intelligence, he didn’t think fast. He preferred doing things where he could just react.
By the end of the day, Richard had gone from bad to worse. After six hours in simulators with three different copilots, Master Sergeant Stover pronounced him hopeless and advanced him to the real thing out of sheer frustration. Richard didn’t complain. He actually had fun at the cat’s live-fire gunnery ranges. He’d never had the opportunity to fire all the weapons on a Leviathan before. After only a few minutes, he was blowing targets apart left and right. However, the master sergeant wasn’t impressed.
“It’s one thing to shoot stationary targets that don’t shoot back,” said Master Sergeant Stover after Richard used a salvo-fire sequence of every weapon on the Leviathan to obliterate a target.
Richard had no doubt the sheer number of weapons on the Leviathan made it difficult to operate during active combat. Still, Richard chose to enjoy the moment. During a skirmish a few days before the battle at the Academy’s airfield, Richard had seen the firepower of a Leviathan overwhelm the defenses of two magic users. True, he’d helped a little by dimensional shifting a missile through their defensive shield, but the Leviathan’s weapons had basically disintegrated the two magic users. Richard had no doubt the large cat was a dangerous weapon in the hands of a skilled pilot.
* * *
After the day’s training ended, Richard ate a quick meal, showered, and hit the sack. In theory his body didn’t need sleep, but after the day’s training, Richard’s overworked mind needed the rest. Besides, anytime he could save Power in any of his reserves, he liked to do so. By sleeping a couple of hours, his body wouldn’t have to be healed back to baseline as much.
Richard had only been asleep an hour or so when something brought him out of his slumber. It was a disturbance in the flows of energy around him. More specific, it was a change in the flows of Power. Someone nearby was using Power. Richard became instantly alert. He immediately activated his best stealth shield.
The sound of distant laughter drifted through the door to Richard’s room. From his passive scan, Richard could tell the laughter and Power fluctuations were coming from the same general location. The Power flows didn’t seem dangerous to him. Richard let his mind drift along with the Power around him until his mind was deep in the midst of the concentrated flows of energy. He sensed the Power was coming from multiple sources. Most of the sources were small, but several sources came from medium to large Power reserves.
Lines of energy from some of the larger Power reserves appeared to be opposing each other. But even so, they didn’t appear hostile to one another. First one flow would push against the other as if attempting to gain the advantage, and then the other flow would shift position to gain the advantage and push back. Each time one of the flows of Power shifted position to gain the advantage, Richard heard a surge of laughter and cheers from down the hall.
Curious, Richard pulled on his jumpsuit and boots. After dressing, Richard went out into the hallway and followed the sound of laughter. It appeared to be coming from the mess hall. When Richard entered, he noticed all of the tables had been pushed to one side in order to clear an area in the center of the room. A crowd of about four hundred soldiers in various stages of dress were gathered around a twenty-meter long rectangle marked on the floor with white tape.
Four soldiers from the cat squadrons stood at one end of the rectangle. Four other soldiers from the fighter squadrons stood at the other end. Richard noticed Tia among the four fighter squadron soldiers. All eight of the soldiers were concentrating intently on a small red-ball rolling around on the floor of the rectangle. Richard’s passive scan picked up lines of Power from each of the eight soldiers reaching out to the ball and attempting to move it arou
nd.
Realization came to Richard. They’re playing a game. Cool.
“All right,” shouted a familiar voice from the other side of the rectangle. “I’m giving double or nothing on the cats.”
Richard looked over at Sergeant Hendricks. He was surrounded by several soldiers who were handing him slips of paper. Richard noticed the three shooting-stars insignia of the 147th’s fighter squadrons on the soldiers’ left chest pockets.
Hmm, Richard thought. I hope he’s got the credits to back up his talk.
Actually, Richard wasn’t all that concerned about Sergeant Hendricks. Unlike himself, the armorer had fit right in with the 147th. Richard could easily understand why. As far as Richard was concerned, Sergeant Hendricks was the best armorer in the Empire. Richard doubted there was a ground or ship-based weapon the armorer couldn’t repair and make better than it had been when it rolled off the assembly line. In just the few days they’d been on Trecor, Richard had seen Sergeant Hendricks find his niche as a well-respected member of the 147th.
Since Richard was wearing the comet insignia of the 147th’s cat squadrons, he wisely chose to make his way around the left side of the rectangle. There were too many shooting-star insignias for his liking on the right side of the rectangle. And the crowd on that end was getting a little uh… spirited to say the least.
As Richard made his way over towards his armorer, he monitored the flows of Power from the two teams. The four members of each team seemed to cooperate by combining their Power flows to push the ball towards a net on the opposite end of the rectangle. Every so often, one of the participants would suddenly remove their Power from their teammates and try to hit the ball from a different angle in an attempt to gain control. Whenever the other team didn’t react fast enough, the ball went shooting towards the opposite goal. That normally seemed to cause the four opposing team members to separate their Power flows and set up defensive positions as they tried to slow or stop the ball’s advance. Richard could tell the defensive team normally had an advantage. From what he could tell, it was very difficult for the offensive team to advance and score.
As Richard watched, one of the flows of Power from the shooting-stars’ team separated and hit the ball from the right side. Richard traced the flow back to Tia. As the cat team separated into four defensive lines of Power, Tia moved the ball in a zigzag motion to keep the ball out of the cat team’s clutches. When two Power flows from the cat team appeared to have Tia trapped, she suddenly switched the direction of the ball back towards her own goal. One of her fighter teammates was waiting and intercepted the ball. From the precision of the hit and catch, Richard could tell the maneuver had been practiced many times. The fighter team knocked the ball from one teammate to another until they suddenly combined their Power into a single flow and forced the ball down the court. One cat pilot formed a defensive position with her Power in an attempt to stop the ball, but the combined strength of the four fighter-squadrons’ soldiers overwhelmed the cat-soldier’s defenses. The ball shot into the net before the other cat pilots could react.
The right side of the rectangle erupted in cheers. Several soldiers with comet insignias unfortunate enough to be standing nearby suddenly had glasses of some foamy liquid dumped over their heads by the members of the shooting-star squadrons. Richard thanked his lucky stars for having the sense to be on the left side of the rectangle instead of the right.
By the time Richard made it to Sergeant Hendricks, a crowd of shooting-star soldiers had been paid their winnings and were walking back towards their side of the rectangle.
“I see you’ve found yourself a home,” Richard told Sergeant Hendricks. “I’m surprised you have any credits left.”
“Hey, Rick,” said Sergeant Hendricks with an infectious grin. “It’s easy come, easy go. Our cat squadrons aren’t doing too hot today, but that’s okay. We pretty much cleaned out the shooting-star squadrons’ bank accounts two days ago. They’re just earning some of their credits back.”
“I don’t remember hearing any of this noise two days ago,” Richard said gesturing towards the enthusiastic crowd on the fighter squadrons’ side of the rectangle.
“Oh, there’s an actual bongo field a kilometer south of here,” explained Sergeant Hendricks. “But it’s raining outside today, so we moved the game into the mess hall. These Trecorians take their bongo seriously.”
“Bongo?” Richard said. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“Well, you’ll hear about it if you stay here long enough,” said Sergeant Hendricks. “Our cat squadron happens to be the reigning regimental champs.”
Smiling, Richard pointed at the cheering shooting-star soldiers. “I guess someone forgot to tell them.”
“Uh, yeah,” said Sergeant Hendricks returning the smile. “We were doing great until that little wildcat over there showed up. She’s very aggressive.”
Following the finger Sergeant Hendricks was using to point out the fighter soldier in question, Richard wasn’t surprised to see it led to Tia.
“You mean, Tia?” Richard asked. “She’s Liz’s sister. That alone would tell me she’s probably pretty good at whatever she does. They both share the same Power reserve, and it’s a pretty sizeable affair.”
“Commodore Bistos’ sister?” said Sergeant Hendricks. “Heck, if I’d known that, I wouldn’t have been offering no double or nothing bet.” With a grin and a wink of his eye, he added, “I think I’ve been hoodwinked.”
“Live and learn, buddy,” Richard said. “Live and learn.”
“Tell me about it,” said Sergeant Hendricks.
Richard noticed his armorer’s brow wrinkle as if he was in deep thought.
Suddenly, the soldiers on the fighter squadron’s end of the rectangle began chanting, “Fighters! Fighters! Fighters!”
A response of “Cats! Cats! Cats!” came from the opposite end of the rectangle.
“Hey, Rick,” said Sergeant Hendricks with a devious smile. “You’re a member of one of our regiment’s cat squadrons now. How about giving us a hand?”
“Uh, no thanks,” Richard said hurriedly. “I’m quite happy watching. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair. I’m a wizard scout in case you’ve forgotten.”
“Yeah, I know,” said Sergeant Hendricks. “That’s the beauty of it. Trecorians don’t seem to be as impressed with wizard scouts as a lot of the other parts of the galaxy. I think it’s high time they learned some respect. Besides, I need to earn some of our cat squadrons’ credits back.”
Richard shook his head ‘no’, but Sergeant Hendricks ignored him and pulled his arm until they were both standing in the middle of the rectangle.
“I have a challenge if there are any fighters brave enough to take it!” shouted Sergeant Hendricks. He had to repeat his yell several times until the raucous crowd quieted enough for him to be heard.
“One lone cat pilot against four of your best,” yelled Sergeant Hendricks. “We’ll give four-to-one odds.”
That got the attention of everyone in the room. Richard saw a group of soldiers from the fighter squadrons talking to the team who had scored the last point. A vocal group of cat soldiers descended on Sergeant Hendricks and began questioning his sanity.
“Hey,” Richard shouted at Sergeant Hendricks. “I told you I wasn’t going to play.”
One of the shooting-star soldiers overheard Richard and yelled, “Then it’s a forfeit. Pay up cats. Your guy’s too much of a coward to play.”
“He’ll play,” said Sergeant Hendricks. “Won’t you, Rick?”
One thing Richard hated was being called a coward. It just irked him to no end. Richard gave his armorer a nod. “Fine. I’ll play.”
Several of the cat soldiers cheered. Not many, but some. More of the fighter-squadrons’ soldiers cheered. Richard had a feeling they were anticipating how they were going to spend their credits.
It took a few minutes for the crowd to settle down and for the teams to take their place. Sergeant Hendricks announced all bets were m
ade, and the game could start. Tia and her three teammates positioned themselves at the fighter end of the rectangle. Richard walked to the cat end.
The referee shouted the command to begin. Richard reached out with his mind and put kinks in the Power links of each member of the opposing team. He’d had a feeling their links to their Power reserves wouldn’t be protected, and he’d been right.
As the crowd watched, the red ball slowly rolled from the center of the rectangle towards the net of the shooting stars.
Richard noticed a strain on the faces of Tia and her teammates as they desperately tried to stop the ball. But with their Power links disabled, they were unable to summon up even a wisp of telekinesis. The red ball continued rolling slowly until it made its way into the net.
The crowd on the cat’s side of the rectangle went wild. Anyone foolish enough to be wearing a shooting-star insignia on the left side of the rectangle got a sudden drenching with glasses of foamy liquid.
Richard hazarded a glance at Tia. Her glare was hard to miss.
Hmm, Richard thought. I don’t think she likes to lose any more than her sister.
* * *
As it turned out, all bets were deemed null and void. While the referees couldn’t find any rules against disabling an opponent’s Power link, the coaches for the fighter squadrons objected on principle. And, the coaches on the cat side were kind enough to concur. Richard had a feeling the bongo regulation book would soon have an additional rule added to it.
Richard hadn’t delayed restoring the Power links for the fighter squadrons’ team. Even before the red ball had stopped rolling in the net, Richard had removed the kinks in their links.
After all, he thought. It’s just a game.
Wizard Omega (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 4) Page 28