The stallion sent back an emotion Richard interpreted as indicating his mount didn’t much care what his rider would rather be doing.
Richard shrugged. Even after years of what could only be described as a stormy relationship, he found that he actually liked the ornery spirit-horse in a strange sort of way. He doubted the stallion reciprocated his feelings, but it didn’t change things. He supposed if they could speak to each other using words instead of emotions they might get along better.
“Actually,” said Nickelo, “your stallion can speak a few words of intergalactic standard, if you remember correctly.”
Richard grimaced. After all this time, it still felt odd to share space in his mind with his helmet’s battle computer and exchange dialogue near instantaneously.
“Well, he doesn’t choose to speak often,” Richard thought back. “I doubt he’s going to start doing so now. In the meantime, we’ve got a job to do. How about getting that nanosecond brain of yours working on the problem at hand?”
“Compliance, oh greatest of wizard scouts,” replied Nickelo in a voice that sounded a lot less respectful than the words implied.
Richard wondered if the battle computers of other wizard scouts gave their partners as much grief as his did. From discussions with his friends, he’d gotten the impression some were more polite than others.
“You know, Nick, it might be nice to have a battle computer who is a little more respectful on occasion. I might just have to trade you in for a new model someday.”
“Oh, I’m always respectful,” said Nickelo. “However, I tend to limit my respect to how much is warranted.”
“Whatever,” Richard said using his pet word for ending a pointless conversation.
Richard switched the visor of his battle helmet from night-vision mode to a clear filter. He half closed his eyes against the bright glare of the orange sun. It had been weeks since he’d seen unfiltered sunlight. The sudden burning sensation in his eyes told him the radiation from the sun was starting to eat away at the rods and cones in his eyes.
“You know better than to do that,” said Nickelo in a chastising tone. “Your self-heal will counteract the damage, but it’s wasteful of Power nevertheless.”
Richard knew his battle computer was right. He shouldn’t waste his self-heal Power reserve even if it was larger than the reserves he used for offense, defense, and the healing of others. “I’m tired of looking through the battle helmet’s night-vision filter and seeing everything in red. It’s starting to drive me nuts. I need a change.”
“Well, if you insist on wasting your Power,” said Nickelo still using a chastising tone, “one of these days the change you get may be a quick death. Just because you have three reserves to everyone else’s one, being wasteful still isn’t logical. However, you’re the wizard scout, and I’m just the subservient battle computer, so what do I know?”
Sighing, Richard switched his visor back to night-vision mode. His clear vision was replaced by the familiar reddish tint. Power from his self-heal reserve immediately began returning his eyes back to baseline and the itchy-burning sensation he felt quickly disappeared.
As Richard waited for the last of the damage to his eyes to heal, he glanced at his heads-up display. The colored dots’ movement confirmed the lead elements of the enemy unit would be in the ambush zone within five minutes.
Richard figured it was time for his battle computer and him to get busy. “How about merging the results of your electronic scan with my passive scan and put the results on my heads-up display.”
“Compliance.”
A line of forty-two yellow dots appeared overlaid on a map of the valley. They were evenly spaced at about ten-meter intervals along a trail snaking along the valley floor. An additional thirteen orange dots were distributed between the yellow dots that represented ordinary enemy combatants. Orange were specialists. There were no red dots indicating the presence of magic users.
Using his passive scan, Richard noted the location of his own unit. He marked their location as white dots on his heads-up display. Although his teammates were using stealth shields to prevent their discovery by enemy scouts, Richard had the scent of the members of his team. He’d previously identified each of their Power frequencies. As long as they didn’t stray too far away, he was certain he could track the location of everyone in his unit even with their stealth shields up.
Richard made a quick review of his mission for ‘the One’ over the last eighteen months. For reasons unknown, he’d been sent to the spiritual dimension to work with the wolf-like dolgars in their apparently endless war against the dimension-shifting scaled-cats.
“I still don’t understand why ‘the One’ sent me on a mission to work with the dolgars. Most of them don’t even like me. I’d have been a lot better off working with an Empire unit.”
Nickelo laughed. “Ha! What makes you think anyone there would like you any better than the dolgars? Besides, I doubt ‘the One’ sent you on a mission for the dolgars without a good reason. Just do your job, and maybe we’ll find out why you’re really here.”
Richard was going to make a snide remark, but a flicker on his heads-up display drew his attention back to the mission at hand. The yellow dots on the display were nearly in the ambush zone. Each was a six-legged animal the size of an elephant back on Earth. They were tough fighters physically but had no special fighting abilities other than their tusks, teeth, and claws. Richard doubted the nineteen dolgars in his hunting party would have any trouble with the elephant-like monstrosities. That was fortunate because the hunting had been slim pickings lately.
Richard concentrated on the orange dots on his display. Those represented a flightless bird covered with scales instead of feathers and beaks full of razor-sharp teeth that could tear a dolgar in half with a single bite if one was foolish enough to get within range. On top of that, the scaled birds had a breath weapon of sorts. Their saliva was acidic and plentiful. Richard had seen them spew the liquid a good fifty meters with uncanny accuracy. Worst of all, they were able to shift dimensions with ease. He’d fought them before on several occasions, finding them to be very dangerous foes.
“At least there are only thirteen of those scaled-birds,” Richard said. “Our hunting party has nineteen dolgars plus me. We should be able to handle thirteen of them without too much difficulty.”
“Who are you trying to convince?” laughed Nickelo. “Me or yourself?”
A movement to his right prevented Richard’s retort. A large, wolfish creature stood on the side of the cliff. The dolgar appeared to be standing in midair. If Richard had been standing next to the dolgar, his head would have barely reached the creature’s shoulders. Takar was one of the four spirit-wolves assigned by Sheeta, his pack leader, to watch over him. Richard sensed the other three dolgars of his personal guard hiding in the solid stone of the cliff, shifted into the void between dimensions while awaiting the command to attack. Takar was anxious for him to give the okay to trigger the ambush.
Draken and the remaining fourteen dolgars in the unit were on the other side of the valley, embedded in the granite of the cliff face. Draken, the hunting party’s commander, was not a particularly patient dolgar. Draken wasn’t the commander’s real name, of course. The dolgars didn’t have names Richard could pronounce. Draken was just the name he’d given the hunting party’s grizzled wolf-commander.
Richard took a final look at the enemy caravan spaced out along the valley floor. Everything looked normal as far as he could tell. Even so, he hesitated to give Takar the all clear due to a strange feeling that he was missing something important.
“Why aren’t there more guards protecting this caravan, Nick? I’d think a juicy target like those six-legged elephants should have more than thirteen guards. I’d think a column this size should have at least a couple of magic users.”
Takar growled softly. “Is it all clear?”
When Richard didn’t answer quickly enough, the dolgar gave another growl. Richa
rd figured Takar was in contact with Draken and their temperamental leader undoubtedly wanted to get the show on the road.
Richard sent Takar an emotion of concern.
“I don’t understand why you think there’s a problem,” said Nickelo. “Do you sense something you’re not telling me?”
Richard wasn’t even sure why he was hesitating to give the go-ahead to attack. Everything seemed normal. True, the long valley had a large concentration of titanium ore, but that was the reason Draken had selected the site for his ambush in the first place. Energized titanium ore was one of the few materials dimension-shifting creatures had trouble with when moving through the void. Although un-energized titanium deposits like the one below didn’t prevent the passage of creatures in the void, it did play havoc with their senses. Basically, high concentrations of titanium deposits made them blind. Draken had told his hunting party the valley was the perfect ambush spot since the titanium deposits would prevent the enemy from escaping below ground.
Due to the presence of the titanium, Richard had to agree the valley made an ideal ambush spot. On the other hand, the titanium affected their side of the battle as well. During his earlier recon of the valley, the stallion had refused to travel through the titanium deposit due to the potential loss of its senses. This had forced Richard to conduct his recon of the ambush site while remaining in the area of the valley nearest the cliff face. Of course, he could have shifted into the void and moved into the titanium deposit on his own since he wasn’t blinded in high-concentration titanium deposits. However, he’d refused to do the recon on his own. His small Power reserve limited the amount of time he could stay shifted in the void. He hadn’t wanted to risk running out of Power and materializing in solid stone.
Takar growled again.
“You’re stalling,” said Nickelo. “The enemy’s lead elements will be leaving the ambush zone in a couple of minutes. You need to make a decision one way or the other.”
“I know. I guess what’s bothering me is that I was forced to recon from the outskirts of the valley. Everything seemed normal then, but… I don’t know. Are you sure you don’t sense anything wrong?”
“Sorry. I’ve got nothing. I’ll admit the caravan is a little light on guards, but not enough to be overly suspicious.”
“Yeah, I know. I think that’s what makes me suspicious.”
“That’s not logical, Rick.”
“No, it’s not; but nevertheless.”
Richard could feel Takar growing increasingly nervous. The lead elements of the caravan were approaching the far end of the ambush point. Richard had no doubt Draken was pressing Takar for the okay to attack.
Looking at Takar, Richard growled, “Wait. Something wrong.”
Takar whined. The big dolgar didn’t look happy, but to his credit, he settled back on his haunches without arguing. They’d seen Richard spot hidden enemies too often.
Sending an image of a path down and toward the center of the valley to his mount, Richard felt the stallion wrap them both in Power and shift into the void. After a couple of steps, the spirit-horse merged into the rock face of the cliff. All visual clues were lost the moment they entered the solid rock. Richard kept track of their route with his passive scan. The stallion continued traveling downward until he was below the level of the valley, then moved horizontally about two hundred meters before stopping. They’d reached the edge of the titanium deposit. Richard didn’t attempt to urge the stallion forward. He’d tried unsuccessfully during his earlier recon and doubted he’d have better luck now.
Using his passive scan, Richard located the caravan above as it made its way along the valley floor. The entire caravan was now fully in the ambush zone. Richard had a feeling if he didn’t give Draken some kind of word soon, the dolgar commander would attack anyway. The caravan was too great a prize to allow it to escape.
Gathering Power from his reserve, Richard sent an active scan to his front. He got the same results he’d gotten earlier: nothing. He shut down the scan. Active scans were too Power hungry to use without a reasonable hope of success.
“Nick, how about using the results of my passive and active scans to create an outline of the titanium deposit? Put the result on my heads-up display.”
“Compliance.”
Within two seconds, an image of the valley along with an outline of the titanium deposit appeared on the battle helmet’s display. Richard looked at the outline for several seconds.
“Convert the outline into a 3D display and rotate the image.”
The image of the titanium deposit took on depth and began to rotate.
Richard noticed something he’d missed during his previous recon. “What’s the probability a naturally occurring titanium deposit would be so symmetrical? Except for a couple of bulges, it looks like a cylinder.”
“Hmm. That’s an interesting point. The titanium deposit is nine hundred and eighty meters long with a radius of a hundred and fifty meters at the center. The two ends of the deposit are exactly four hundred and ninety meters from center. The probability of such a deposit occurring in nature is near zero.”
The hairs on the back of Richard’s neck stood on end. He kicked himself for not noticing the symmetrical shape earlier.
“I’d advise calling off the attack until we can gather more data,” said Nickelo.
“No can do, little buddy. The shape’s strange, to say the least, but it’s not strange enough for Draken to abort his ambush. I’ll need more than a weird shape before I can convince him to cancel. Unfortunately, there’s only one way to get it. I’m going to have to enter the titanium deposit.”
“I’m guessing when you say you’ll need to enter it, you mean we. That is unless you’re planning on leaving your battle helmet behind on the stallion.”
“No. That wasn’t part of my plan.”
Nickelo laughed. “I didn’t think so. Unfortunately, between the Power required to perform a dimensional shift and the Power required for your active scan and telekinesis, you won’t be able to hold your shift for very long.”
“Don’t have much of a choice, do I?”
“Not if you want to be sure Draken and the others aren’t being suckered into a trap.”
Sighing stoically, Richard wrapped himself in Power and took over his shift from the stallion. The tendrils holding him onto the spirit-horse’s back withdrew from where they were wrapped around his waist and legs. When he was free, he used telekinesis to levitate off the stallion and toward the titanium deposit.
“Watch my Power,” Richard said.
“Compliance. I’ve got your back, buddy.”
Sending out another line of Power as an active scan, Richard used his telekinesis to move forward along the track of his scan. Keeping an active scan going meant he’d be using his limited Power even faster, but he needed to see to navigate. He was committed.
Nothing I can do about the Power usage, Richard thought.
“Recommend you attach a line of Power to your mount,” said Nickelo. “It’ll require you to use even more Power, but if you discover something, I calculate a ninety-two percent probability you’ll need to return in a hurry.”
“Roger that,” Richard said.
As his battle computer predicted, Richard noticed the rate of his Power usage speed up even more once he attached the line of Power to the stallion.
“I’m trying to do too much for the size of my Power reserve.”
“Can’t be helped, Rick. You need that safety line. By the way, your reserve’s at ninety percent.”
Richard moved ever deeper into the titanium deposit. He felt like a blind man fumbling around in an unfamiliar room. The line of Power to his mount gave him a point of reference, but the guideline felt tenuous at best. He grew increasingly nervous the deeper he got in the ore deposit.
“Eighty percent Power remaining, wizard scout.”
Richard continued to probe the area ahead with his active scan.
“I’m still not sensing anythi
ng unusual, Nick. The titanium deposit’s causing havoc with my passive scan. I’ve lost track of the caravan overhead. The lead elements are bound to be starting to exit the ambush zone by now. I wonder what the odds are Draken will continue to wait for me before giving the signal to attack.”
“Seventy percent Power remaining, Rick. The odds are seventy-two percent the dolgars will wait for you. They respect your skills more than you think. Of course, that respect will go down significantly if you make them lose the caravan for no reason.”
“No doubt.”
“Sixty percent Power remaining. You’re nearing the halfway point in your Power reserve. I calculate an eighty-two percent probability the ore deposit is just what it seems: an ore deposit. Recommend you return to your mount now.”
“Not yet. Just a little farther. My active scan’s starting to clear a little. The titanium deposits seem to be getting less dense the closer I get to the center.”
After moving forward another ten meters, Richard cleared the titanium and found himself in a hollow sphere completely free of the deposit. The clear space was several hundred meters in length. The space was filled with hundreds of life forms. He couldn’t see anything visually since he was still in solid rock, but he didn’t need to see with his eyes. He recognized the frequency of the life forms. They were dimension-shifting cats.
Based upon his previous experience with the scaled cats, Richard knew they could only hold a dimensional shift in the void for about a minute. He was momentarily confused how they had been able to stay shifted until now. That is, he was confused until he sensed a massive Power source in the center of the clearing coming from a very large life form.
A sense of evil washed over Richard from the large life form. He shivered, and it wasn’t from cold. He’d sensed a similar evil on more than one occasion in the past. It was the evil of something that would make the bravest man take pause. It was the evil of a major demon.
Richard sensed a strange weave of energy reaching out from the demon. The energy was connecting all of the other life forms together. The connecting lines of energy jumped from one to another. With each jump, the energy appeared to increase. Somehow, none of the lines of energy touched another. The effect was similar to a circle with a bunch of dots on it that had been bunched together. Although balled up, the lines connecting the dots were still a circle in that they formed a complete circuit.
Wizard Rebellion (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 5) Page 3