“So, Jade,” I said, “the answer to your question is: not for a while. We have to develop your power and knowledge first. Trust me. I was thrust in there before I was ready, and if it were not for Spectra, I might very well have fallen prey to its attraction. I do not want to subject any of you to that.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
When we finally reached the station we followed Spectra’s plan, which had Dusty and I drifting though space, looking for a way in on one side of the station while the girls worked the other half. “Master, we could split up and reconnect once we are inside,” I sent. He would normally just pass through a wall, while I used an exhaust port or other waste egress.
“No, you find a way in that works for you, and I will follow,” he sent.
“Where I go, you would not survive,” I sent.
“I might surprise you,” he replied.
“Very well,” I sent back. I figured it was easier to show him than to argue, so I went looking for the robotic maintenance shaft that all stations had. “Through that hatch there, but the radiation will destroy your flesh.”
“I won’t have any flesh to be destroyed,” he sent and began casting. In a few moments he was gone. “I’ll follow you.”
With the limited vision of the eyes in my bipedal form I could not see him anywhere, but I could feel his presence. “Okay,” I sent and removed the outer hatch from the door. The radiation flowed out over me and tasted foul. “Yuck, low-grade reactors.”
“Yuck?” he queried.
“It tastes foul, like food left out to go bad. Typical of low-grade reactors. This station must be using the cheapest power source they can,” I sent and fired my armor thruster for a short burst into the shaft.
“I would have thought they would use something better,” he sent back. “If this power is foul, will it make you sick?”
“No, thankfully it does not work like that,” I sent back.
“What about the Shadow People? Would they avoid a tunnel like this due to the bad taste?” he asked.
“Master, that is a good question. I don’t know. Taste might be a human trait, if Shea is right about my origins,” I sent back. We slipped onto the station out of the tunnel, and he reappeared. “What spell was that?”
“One of my spirit form spells. You are right; my flesh would have been destroyed by that radiation, so I temporarily ditched my body,” he sent.
The more I traveled with this group, the more I felt that they were not very different from me. “Oh, I wish I could ditch my body more often. I get a bit claustrophobic in it.” I was starting to think I had finally found a family. My people were so rare that I had only heard stories of others like myself but had never actually met another of my kind. It was hard to get my mind around all the changes I was facing in this new life, but I was really enjoying having a family, even if it was a bit hodgepodge.
“How do your clothes survive?” he sent.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“When you travel through these hostile environments, or when you revert to your native form, what happens to your clothes?” he asked.
“I don’t really wear clothes. I mean I can, and have when called for, but normally there is no need. The armor, as you know, changes size somehow to match whatever form I am in, but what you think of as clothes are part of my bipedal form. Anything else I am carrying goes in my pack until I change back,” I sent.
“What about Saraphym? She wears clothes.” he asked.
“Well, not since she first changed into her native form. Her clothes were destroyed, and she replicates the look of clothing now just as I do.”
He looked around and then asked, “Any idea which direction to take?”
We were in a maze of twisty corridors which all looked alike. “The computer core is normally near the center of the station, so I suggest we set our backs to the outside wall and head forward.”
I wondered how Saraphym was doing with Spectra. Infiltrating a station is an extremely dangerous operation, and I would have preferred to have been there to protect her. “I wonder how the girls are making out?”
“Don’t worry about Saraphym. She is with Spectra. There is no safer place out here than under her protection,” he replied.
I knew that among them Spectra had quite a reputation for being powerful, but I still thought a couple of females wandering alone through a military base was not the best idea. I had lived on too many of them to think otherwise.
As we worked our way toward the center of the station, it became apparent that it was desperately undermanned. “I wonder where everyone is?”
“Low-grade reactor and understaffed. I wonder what this station’s purpose is?” he sent.
As we continued to travel through the station I picked up a scent. “Wait, Master.” I tried to locate the direction from which it was coming, but it was too faint. “There is something here.”
“What do you mean?” he sent.
“I smell something,” I sent, still focused mainly on the scent. “This way, Master,” I sent and headed off in a new direction, but then lost the smell. “No, maybe the other way.” After a few false starts, I finally found a path where the scent was stronger.
“What do you smell?” he asked.
“Better power,” I sent. “There is a much higher quality reactor on this station.”
“Is the other one a decoy, then?” he sent.
“Maybe. Either way, the computer core would definitely be connected to the better power source,” I sent.
“The station’s crew will probably also be closer to it,” he sent.
He was right. As we got closer to the power source, we started seeing patrols of humans in battle armor. Master Dusty’s magic kept us completely invisible to them, so all we had to do was make sure they did not bump into us. It amazed me how easily he was able to get through their security perimeters. Without him, I would have had to find flaws in their defenses and gaps in their protection to reach this deep inside, but Master Dusty just walked right through their defenses as if they were not even there. He did not even seem to notice them.
“That terminal over there, do you think you can work it? Maybe find a map?” he sent.
“Maybe, Master, but it is quite exposed. Perhaps we should find one that is more secluded?” I sent.
“No, one of the secrets of hiding is to stay in plain sight. That one is perfect,” he sent back.
That seemed like a very interesting philosophy, but I could not deny his ability to sneak through secure perimeters with surprising ease. We might as well have been walking through a promenade at a popular vacation spot.
I walked up to the terminal and started searching the interface. It was using an older style Imperial interface, one I had not seen in decades. “Okay, I found a map. I’ll transfer it to our armors’ computers.” It was hard not to feel uncomfortable standing there using the terminal as guards walked by, but none of them ever noticed us. “This way,” I sent and started toward the core.
“Looks like we are close,” he sent.
“Yeah, around this bend and down the hall a little. I wonder how we will get in?” I asked.
He did not answer right away. I am sure he was considering that very question. If I were not with him I knew he could just walk right through the wall, or teleport if he got an opening. When we came around the corner, we could see that the entrance to the computing center was heavily secured and guarded.
“If you were alone, how would you get in?” he asked.
“All computing centers need strict climate controls, so I can usually find a way in through them, but that won’t work for you as long as you keep your body,” I sent.
“I can’t cast without breaking the spells that are hiding you right now. Let’s find those vents and you can go in without me. I will meet you inside,” he sent.
“Before we do that, do you realize we don’t actually have to get inside there? All we need is
to find a terminal on their primary administrative network, and from there I can launch my attack,” I sent.
“Where would we find such a terminal?” he asked.
I looked over the map we had and found a location that I thought would work. “This way.”
“You sure this will work?” he sent.
“Yeah,” I sent. “I take it you don’t know much about computer networks?”
“No, on these missions I have always brought someone else who handled it,” he sent.
Once we reached the terminal that I believed suitable, I sent, “Okay, if you can keep me hidden I can upload my attack scripts and see what we can pull from their database.”
“No one will know we are here, unless your attacks tip them off,” he sent.
“This should be easy. Looks like they are using the old Imperial system, which means it has not been patched in half a century,” I sent. I connected my datapad to the terminal and started to let it run through its discovery probes.
There was not much to do while the automated program worked, so I leaned back against the wall and took a long drink of water.
“Why do you drink?” sent Master Dusty. “I mean, your race lives off energy, doesn’t it?”
“Well, my bipedal form requires nutrients in the same way as yours does. This body is made of very real flesh,” I sent.
“But didn’t you tell Saraphym that you don’t need to breathe?” he sent.
“Yes. I probably should have qualified that: I can go a very long time without breathing, but eventually I do need some oxygen or my cells will break down,” I sent.
“And your native form?” he asked.
“I am not sure, Master. The Shadow People never take on a bipedal form. I don’t think they can. Assuming Shea’s theory is correct, that I am a mix of human and Shadow People, then I would guess it is only my bipedal form that needs food,” I sent.
“If you were to stay in your native form for months at a time, would you get hungry?” he asked.
“No, but I would be famished as soon as I took my bipedal form, so there is some connection” I sent, then was interrupted by a beep from my datapad. It had found an unpatched vulnerability that could escalate privileges on the primary database. “Excellent, we are in. I’ll download everything we can. Sooner or later someone will notice all the extra traffic, but we will get what we can while we can.”
We sat there in silence for a while and I wondered about him. He was a loner at heart; there was no question about that. His skill in hiding was central to who he was. The others all talked about how powerful Spectra was, and I had no reason to doubt them, but I wondered if everyone was underestimating Master Dusty. He could come and go wherever he pleased, whenever he pleased, and it appeared that no one could stop him. He lacked self-confidence in almost everything he did, except stealth; in that he seemed to take his abilities for granted, never once even slightly doubting himself.
“Master, I have a question for you, and I hope you don’t mind my asking: why are we out here?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” he replied.
“Well, it seems to me that there is another agenda behind our actions besides saving the Cathratinairians. What is it?” I asked.
He was quiet for a long time. “Spectra wants to prove herself, and all that are like her.”
“So, Master, is this action in defiance of the ban?” I asked.
“No; as I said, I have permission to run this mission, but I suspect we would be out here either way,” he sent.
His answer was very telling, and it confirmed my growing belief that I belonged with them. They were like me: lone voices crying out in the darkness that they were people, too.
Chapter Thirty
“The fleet has arrived,” sent Dusty.
“Master, what fleet?” I asked.
“That same fleet we stumbled across when you and Saraphym were outside,” he sent. “Surprisingly, they appear to be aligning to attack.”
“Attack, Master? Why?” I sent.
“I don’t know why, but that is what Spectra sees. Finish what you are doing quickly and let’s get off the station,” he sent.
“I only have around a quarter of the database. We would need several more hours to finish it,” I sent.
“That will have to do. Let’s go,” he sent.
I decided he was probably right and backed my copy out gracefully to protect the data we had so far. There was no way to know if we’d got anything useful until we got it back to the Nemesis for analysis. Once I had it disconnected, I nodded to him and we headed out.
“They are sending a boarding party and have begun their attack,” he sent.
“I don’t get it, Master. I thought they were on the same side as the people on the station,” I sent.
“Maybe it’s part of some kind of internal war or power struggle?” he sent.
That seemed reasonable. If we were right, this organization was many generations old and in all that time there must have been some fragmentation in the power structure. Still, it seemed awfully coincidental that both the stations we had stopped at were slated for destruction like this. “Will Spectra and Saraphym be able to get off in time?”
“More easily than us, since Spectra can simply gate them off,” he sent.
Alarms were blaring throughout the station as the defenders began to mobilize to fight back the various boarding parties sent in by the attacking fleet. Assuming the station was caught off-guard by the attack, the boarding parties could have made it aboard before the station knew it was in trouble and could attempt to prevent their infiltration. It was possible they had even landed as normal craft would.
Dusty seemed completely unfazed by all the activity and search parties around us. He seemed to take it all in his stride with no more attention than a hiker might have paid to a low-hanging branch in his way. “If I get you to an outside exit, can you fly back to Nemesis?” he sent.
“With ease, Master, assuming I can find it,” I sent.
“I don’t know the exact location, but we can track your armor once you are outside the shield perimeter,” he sent.
“How do you plan to get back?” I asked.
“I can Spirit Walk, or float through space the same way you can,” he sent.
We continued to move through the station, sometimes walking right around active firefights as if they weren’t there. He was careful to avoid the line of fire, or any potential line of fire, but he never once acted as if there was a chance anyone might spot us. To his credit, no one ever did.
As we worked our way toward the exterior, I could feel the tremendous energies of the battle building around us. “The battle is not going well for the station, is it?” I asked.
“No, the attackers have already taken down the shields. It appears to have been an inside job. Looks like this station will fall soon,” he sent.
Almost on cue, a massive explosion ripped through the corridor in front of us. Instinctively I jumped in front of Master Dusty and stretched out my body to absorb the energy. I screamed in agony as the power poured into me, but I managed to redirect it off towards what I hoped was an exterior wall. The wall vaporized when the power hit it and the sudden decompression broke my concentration, sucking me out into space with great speed.
Back in the vacuum of space, I relaxed into my native form and drifted for a while until I could get my senses back. “Master Dusty?” I sent.
There was no response. He was either out of my range or dead. My range was far greater than the average magus, and spanned a large area; it should have covered the distance he could have traveled in the short time we were apart, so I assumed that meant he hadn’t made it. “Master Dusty?” I sent again, hoping for a response, but received none.
I must find the Nemesis. If Dusty is alive, that is where he would go, I thought to myself.
As I drifted away from the station I watched the battle build in intensity as the attac
king fleet concentrated more and more firepower on specific parts of the station. It would not hold up long under that onslaught. It occurred to me that the men they sent onto the station must have been on a suicide mission. I wondered if they had known they would die there or if they had been lied to. Perhaps they were told their mission was to take over the station rather than to destroy it.
The fleet continued to press its attack into the station, but someone there decided enough was enough and activated its self-destruction mechanism. The center of the station glowed brightly for a fraction of a second and then shockwaves ripped through the massive metal superstructure of the station. In the blink of an eye the whole building was destroyed. What had been a seemingly impenetrable fortress was now nothing but quickly cooling debris.
The Nemesis was nowhere in sight, so I floated over toward the attacking fleet and boarded what I assumed was their command ship. I hoped to do some additional reconnaissance while I waited for Nemesis to return. As I searched for a secluded place on board to tap into their network, I thought about Master Dusty: a great and powerful magus, killed by a simple explosion. It didn’t seem fair, but that was the way of war. A great sadness passed over my heart as I considered the thought that he might really be gone. I barely knew him, but he had welcomed me into his tight-knit family with open arms. He was a rare soul, and the universe was lessened by his death.
I pulled out my second datapad and connected it to the terminal I had found. It took only a few minutes to determine that the system controlling the command ship’s computers was the same one that was running on the station, which meant that I was quickly able to get into their main database. Once again I started a blind copy of the entire database, not wanting to waste time searching for the most useful information. I knew my time would be severely limited, especially without Master Dusty’s cloaking skill.
It would take the fleet several hours to reassemble and align for its jump out of here, as all of their fighters, drones and other small craft would need to return to their carriers. I had to make sure I was off the craft before they jumped. For over an hour I worked completely undetected until a random patrol came by. I quickly hid behind some containers and hoped they would not notice the open panel with the datapad attached. Fortunately, they were talking amongst themselves and not really paying attention to the world around them. From their perspective they had just won a battle and now was the time to be merry, not diligent.
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