Wizard Omega (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 4)

by Rodney Hartman

  Help us, said a voice. Only it wasn’t a voice. It was more of a feeling.

  The words reminded Richard of the way the dolgars communicated through emotions. He wondered if what he was sensing were really words, or whether he was possibly misinterpreting his own emotions.

  What? Richard said startled. Was that you, Nick?

  Was what me? asked Nickelo. Your heartrate and blood pressure are going up. What’s wrong?

  As soon as Richard heard the voice, he’d reflexively pulled his mind back behind his shield. Very carefully, he let his mind move back through the opening he’d made towards the green sphere.

  Who are you? Richard asked trying to send the thought as an emotion. He felt foolish doing so. The sphere was only an object.

  It’s not a living thing. Is it? Richard wondered.

  You can hear us? said a voice. Help us, said the voice once again.

  This time the emotions were distinct and crisp. Richard could tell they were most definitely not coming from within himself.

  What’s going on, Rick? said Nickelo. Talk to me.

  Can’t you hear them? Richard said. They’re asking for help.

  Hear who? asked Nickelo.

  Richard thought his battle computer’s voice was taking on a definite tone of concern.

  A light came on in Richard’s mind. His battle computer had trouble with emotions. When Nickelo needed to communicate with the dolgars, Richard had to interpret for his battle computer. Richard did so now as well by doing his best to turn the voice’s emotions into words which he sent into his shared space.

  Help you? Richard said. Help you how? And, who are you?

  They enslaved us, said the voice. They murder others of our kind. Please, help us.

  Who are you? Richard asked again.

  A brief image of a golden-winged reptile flashed into Richard’s mind. He’d only seen a dragon once before in his life, but he recognized the distinct form. He reacted instinctively. The last time he’d encountered a dragon, it had nearly killed him.

  You’re a dragon, Richard said as he began pulling his mind back.

  No, don’t go, pleaded the voice. You’re the first to contact us in more years than we care to remember.

  If the words had been spoken in a physical voice, Richard would have ignored the entity. But the words weren’t spoken. They were sent as pure emotions. Richard felt a mixture of fear and hopelessness in the words. Whoever or whatever was speaking was desperate beyond anything Richard had ever experienced himself.

  A bit reluctantly, Richard kept his mind in contact with the green sphere. At the same time, he prepared himself to pull his mind back and close off the hole in his shield at the first sign of treachery.

  One of your kind tried to kill me, Richard said remaining vigilant. Why should I help you?

  It was not us, said the voice of the dragon which apparently was also the green sphere.

  At the emotion for the word ‘us’, Richard sensed an image of a golden dragon with three heads. One head was green, one was purple, and the other head was orange.

  No, it wasn’t you, Richard admitted. But how can I help? Why should I help?

  The voice of the dragon didn’t answer at once. Richard sensed a flood of emotions as if the dragon was having difficulty finding an answer.

  Finally, an emotion came to Richard. He interpreted the emotion as ‘Because you are one of us’.

  The words were accompanied by a flood of images. Richard felt his mind being drawn towards the green sphere. He heard a warning shout from Nickelo, but try as he might there was nothing Richard could do. He was inexorably drawn towards the desperation which was the dragon.

  Something inside Richard responded to the dragon’s plight. He sensed three spheres. The spheres were the three anomalies. Each of the spheres was a part of the dragon. The three entities were separate living beings, but at the same time, they were one lifeform. Memories flooded into Richard’s mind. He was an egg. He was captured. As the egg, he was placed in a container with other eggs. He sensed lifeforms inside the other eggs. The lifeforms in the eggs were his kind. They were dragons, but yet they were not exactly his kind. The container in which he was placed was sealed. An unknown amount of time passed.

  An image of a city flashed into Richard’s mind. The city was alien. The city was on a planet in the magical dimension. The planet seemed familiar to Richard. It was Portalus. However, he didn’t recognize the city. Richard saw starships with insignias of a black dragon emblazoned on their hulls. The dragon insignias had red stripes down their sides.

  The city’s spaceport was busy. A starship landed. Richard sensed magic coming from the starship. The memory forcing itself into Richard’s mind showed huge, furry, four-armed humanoids unloading dozens of large containers full of dragon eggs. A convoy of vehicles pulled up. The vehicles seemed to be using magical energy the same way Empire vehicles used the energy in isotopic batteries. The containers of eggs were loaded onto the vehicles.

  The vehicles took off at a high speed. They were joined by several armored vehicles full of the large, hairy, four-armed humanoids. The convoy soon approached a domed-shaped building several hundred meters high.

  Richard sensed residual energy being released from the building. He grew excited when he recognized the energy frequency. The same energy had flowed out of the DNA gas vent at the Academy’s spaceport on Velos.

  Nick, are you seeing this? Richard asked in his shared space.

  I see it, said Nickelo. Traces of DNA gas are coming from that building.

  This is it, Richard said excitedly. It’s another source of DNA gas. If we can harness it, the Academy can be started up again. The Empire can train more wizard scouts.

  I don’t know, Rick, said Nickelo dubiously. Something about the energy coming from the dome seems strange.

  But that’s DNA gas, Richard said barely able to control his excitement. We need to find the location of this building on Portalus. If we can get to it, we may be able to get all the DNA gas the Empire will ever need. We just need to acquire it here at its source.

  Rick, I–

  I’m telling you this is it, Richard said doing his best to ignore his battle computer’s less than enthusiastic response.

  Richard was on a roll. The possibilities for the new source of DNA gas seemed endless. The Commandant’s legacy at the Academy would continue. For the first time in over a year, Richard felt as if his father hadn’t died in vain. If he could only get access to this seemingly abundant source of DNA gas, then all would be well.

  Maybe the Empire won’t even have to fight for it, Richard reasoned. Maybe we can buy it or set up some kind of trade system with these creatures. They’re obviously intelligent. They have starships for Creator’s sake. Heck, maybe we can trade our technology from the physical dimension for their magic-based technology. This could be a win-win scenario.

  Although he thought it odd his battle computer didn’t respond to his thoughts, Richard let it slide. As far as he was concerned, he was finally thinking and planning ahead for a change instead of rushing headlong into battle. He was sure his father would be proud of him if he were still alive.

  At that moment, Richard’s point of view changed. He was once again the dragon embryo inside the egg. As the egg, his point of view was limited to the inside of the container. Several other eggs were in his container as well. Richard felt the emotions from the lifeforms in the other eggs. He sensed fear. As the egg, his mind was merged with the mind of the three-headed dragon occupying his egg. Richard felt the fear of the three-headed dragon along with the fear of the others. He also felt a feeling of helplessness. He sensed the three-headed dragon scratching furiously at the inside of the egg, but its claws didn’t even scratch the surface of the shell. It wasn’t time to hatch. The shell was too hard, and the dragon’s claws were still too soft.

  Without warning, the lid of the container opened. Large, hairy hands reached inside and began removing eggs.

  “Care
ful,” said a reptilian voice in a language Richard shouldn’t have been able to understand but did. “Every egg is precious.”

  Richard wondered why the dragons in the eggs were so frightened. Based upon the reptilian voice’s words, the creatures apparently intended the eggs no harm.

  Two hairy hands reached into the container and pulled out his own egg. Somehow, Richard could see though the eggshell even though it was solid in color. The bright light hurt his eyes after so long in the darkness of the container. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, Richard saw a large, open space underneath a massive dome. He was inside the building. Thousands of creatures of every shape and size were standing alongside hundreds of conveyor belts. Most of the creatures were of a species unknown to Richard, but he did see some who appeared familiar. He spotted a few humans. Others appeared to be of gnome, elf, and dwarf stock. Richard even saw a group of orcs lined up alongside one of the conveyor belts. The orcs were taller than the ones Richard was used to seeing, but there was no doubting their heritage.

  Richard heard a cracking sound. He shifted his gaze in the direction of the noise. The sound repeated itself. He saw one of the hairy, four-armed creatures raising a wicked-looking whip. It struck the back of a nearby human. The human screamed. Two more of the four-armed creatures joined the first one. All three began swinging their whips. The human fell to the floor. Richard heard a sound he associated with laughter come from the four-armed humanoids. They continued to beat the withering body on the ground until sprays of blood spattered on nearby workers. The other workers ignored the blood. They seemed to concentrate even harder on whatever tasks they were performing.

  Richard looked at the vast expanse around him. He noticed hundreds of the hairy, four-armed creatures walking around carrying whips. As he watched, they frequently swung their whips at the backs of the workers. If the workers screamed, the four-armed guards appeared to whip them even harder.

  What the hell is going on? Richard thought into his shared space.

  It looks like slave labor, replied Nickelo. Stick with this memory. We need to know exactly what’s happening.

  Richard felt his egg being moved towards a nearby conveyor belt. The other eggs which had been in his container were already spaced out on the belt. They were secured in place by metal clamps.

  The guard holding Richard’s egg started to place it on an empty spot on the belt. Richard sensed the fear from the dragons in the other eggs continuing to grow.

  “No,” said a reptilian voice. “This one is special. Give it to me.”

  The speaker wasn’t one of the hairy creatures. Instead, it was a man-sized humanoid with scaly skin. It had an elongated head with small spikes spaced out along two ridges running from its forehead to the back of its neck.

  This one reminds me a little of a dragon, Richard said.

  The word ‘Dragar’ popped into Richard’s head.

  Did you say that, Nick? Richard asked.

  Not me, answered Nickelo. It came as an emotion. You interpreted it in our shared spaced. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known what it meant.

  The conveyor belt began moving in the direction of a pyramid-looking tower located at the center of the building. Richard had trouble estimating heights from his position in the egg, but he guessed the tip of the pyramid was about a hundred-meters high. The Dragar carrying the egg which was Richard walked alongside the belt while keeping pace with the other eggs.

  As the conveyor belt drew closer to the pyramid, Richard began sensing an increasing amount of energy being released from the tip of the pyramid. Richard noticed thin tubes stretching out from the pyramid to points situated near the various workers. Smaller lines branched off of the primary tubes. Each workstation appeared to have one of the branches with a nozzle at the end.

  What is this place, Nick? Richard asked.

  How would I know? said Nickelo. But if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say it’s a factory of some type.

  Richard looked closer at some of the nearby workers. He zeroed in on an old gnome. When a conveyor belt brought a round globe to the gnome’s workstation, she took her workstation’s line and attached the nozzle to the globe. A reddish gas began filling the globe. Richard heard the gnome muttering words which he quickly forgot. The red gas in the globe converted to energy.

  That’s a spell, Richard said. The gnome’s changing the red gas to magic energy.

  So it seems, agreed Nickelo. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say the globe is a type of storage device similar to the Empire’s isotopic batteries.

  Richard glanced around the factory floor. Everywhere he looked he saw globes of various sizes being transported by the conveyor belts to various workstations. There were tens of thousands of globes. They ranged in size from the tip of his little finger to a massive globe the size of a large hover-truck.

  As Richard observed the scene around him, he realized each of the slaves were magic users.

  I don’t get it, Richard said. Why aren’t the slaves and spell casters revolting?

  As Richard spoke, he saw two of the hairy, four-armed humanoids begin whipping another one of the slaves.

  You can’t tell? asked Nickelo. Look closer.

  Richard did. Then he saw the reason. Each slave had a thin collar around their neck. Richard sensed energy flowing through the collars. A line of energy from each collar reached out to the spell casters’ links to their Power reserves.

  The collar must be some type of filter, Richard said into his shared space. It’s limiting what spells the spell casters can do.

  By the time Richard finished analyzing the slaves’ collars, the Dragar carrying his egg finished climbing the stairs to the top of the pyramid. From his new vantage point, Richard could see the entire expanse of the factory floor. The sight of dozens of workers being whipped at any one time was depressing enough. However, the feeling of fear and hopelessness from the slaves was even worse. A part of Richard wished he could help. But another part pushed the thought aside. He could do nothing for the poor souls. His mission was to find a way to access the DNA gas which was apparently stored in the pyramid.

  Where does the DNA gas come from? Richard asked his battle computer. Is this pyramid on a vent of some kind? I can sense some residual gas escaping out of the pyramid. Do you think this is the source of the DNA gas vent which was at the Velos spaceport?

  I can’t be sure, said Nickelo.

  The way his battle computer answered disturbed Richard. His intuition told him Nickelo knew more than he was saying. Before he could pursue the matter further, a wave of absolute fear swept over Richard.

  The fear came from the direction of the tip of the pyramid. The first of the eggs had arrived on the conveyor belt. As Richard watched, four of the reptile-looking Dragars grabbed the egg and positioned it on the tip of the pyramid. They pressed downward until the tip penetrated the shell of the egg.

  An intense emotion which Richard could only interpret as a scream of agonizing pain echoed off every wall inside the dome. Richard sensed Power flowing out of the egg into the pyramid. The scream intensified into an emotion of absolute agony. Richard tried to cover his ears, but he had no hands. He was still sharing the form of the dragon inside the egg. Logic told him it wouldn’t do any good anyway. The scream was composed of pure emotion, not sound.

  The screams of the tortured, unborn dragon inside the egg continued for a full five minutes. Eventually, the intensity of the screams diminished until they disappeared altogether. One of the Dragars removed the egg from the pyramid’s tip and threw it down. The lifeless egg bounced along the sides of the pyramid as it made its way ever downward. At each bounce, pieces of the shell broke off. By the time the egg reached the base of the pyramid, the broken body of a bloody, miniature dragon lay sprawled among the shell fragments. Richard could see tens of thousands of partially-decayed, miniature dragons discarded at the base of the pyramid.

  What the hell is this place? Richard thought. After the tortured screams, his mind was bare
ly able to comprehend his surroundings. What’s happening?

  Don’t you know? said Nickelo. I calculate a ninety-seven percent probability these four Dragars are priests. They’re sacrificing those unborn dragons to get their Power. Based upon information in my databanks, dragons don’t have reserves. Their Power is a part of their DNA makeup. The priest’s spells combined with this pyramid somehow extracts the Power and converts it to DNA gas. The gas then appears to be converted into magic energy by those poor workers and stored in the globe-batteries. I can only surmise the magical batteries are somehow used to supply energy to devices the same way as our isotopic batteries.

  Richard only caught about half of his battle computer’s explanation. Another egg had been brought to the top of the pyramid by the conveyor belt. Once again, the priests took the egg and shoved it onto the tip of the pyramid. If anything, the emotional screams from the second egg were louder than the first.

  I can’t take this anymore, Richard yelled in an attempt to stop the flow of memories entering his mind. Get me out of here.

  Not yet, came the emotion from the creature which was both the green sphere and part of the three-headed dragon. Watch.

  The memory skipped forward. The last of the eggs on the conveyor belt had been sacrificed. The egg of which Richard was a part was brought to the priests. Richard sensed fear on the verge of panic overcome the three-headed dragon inside the egg.

  No! the dragon screamed in a burst of emotion. But there was no one there to hear other than Richard, and he was helpless to do more than watch.

  “This one is special,” said the reptile holding the egg. “Those fool Thargs were going to send it onto the conveyor as a normal sacrifice.”

  Richard’s dragon-memory gave him the knowledge that the Thargs were the hairy, four-armed humanoids.

  “Yes,” hissed one of the reptilian priests as it took the egg. “You did well. This one is indeed special. It can be separated to form a time-gate. Our ships can use it to raid the physical dimension. We must have more of the holy metal. Our conquests depend on it.”