“That’s how we do things. Casualties happen. There’s not much to be done about that. We honor them by getting back to work.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “Neville told me the pirates killed fourteen of the crew. I figure there has to be more injured. How will the ship function with such a big loss?”
“The injured will be patched up in no time. Dr. Lenkov knows her stuff. As far as the missing crew goes, we’ll only need a handful, since the automated systems take care of most of the work. The commander will probably hire some mercenaries when we get to Tachion. ”
“Mercenaries? Why not have the RTF send some more people to fill the crew?”
Casey looked at me for a second, but she didn’t give me an answer. I couldn’t help but feel like she was hiding something. I was reminded of my secret mission again.
If the Stalwart’s crew were insurrectionists, then hiring a bunch of RTF crewmembers would cause serious issues. I was only a squire, so the knights could order me to stay in my quarters, thus hiding the finer points of their missions from me. A full-fledged Space Knight wouldn’t be so easily kept in the dark. Mercenaries were also more likely to accept bribes and keep silent about anything illegal.
I really hoped Duke Barnes and Polgar were incorrect. Fighting alongside Moses and the artillerymen had connected me with the crew on a level I couldn’t really explain.
And this pretty enchantress seemed like someone I really wanted to get to know.
“About what happened last night,” Casey said, and she stopped walking. “With you doing the whole disappearing act thing; I’m going to forget it, okay? I won’t tell anyone else. I figure it was something the kingdom doesn’t know about. Otherwise, you’d be in the Facility and not on this ship. Either that, or someone does know about it, and they put you on the Stalwart to keep you out of sight.”
Casey had just invented a cover story much better than anything I could have thought up myself. I couldn’t help but smile. “You got me. I have friends in high places,” I said. “Thanks for not mentioning it to the crew.”
“That kind of ability could be useful on the battlefield, you know. It’s your secret to keep, but I think Captain Cross would like to hear about it.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I thought the Stalwart only engaged in humanitarian missions?”
“Ha, well, that’s mostly true.” The enchantress winked at me as she led me into the arcane chamber.
The entire domed room was bathed in a deep blue light emanating from the four meter tall jump sphere in its center. Two similar contraptions lay behind the big one in the middle of the room, but they weren’t glowing like a small sun. I couldn’t stare at it for long without hurting my eyes.
Matthias stood beside the glowing blue ball. Unlike yesterday, he wasn’t wearing the long cloak. I was able to see all of his machina body, and I had to struggle to keep my face impassive. The only visible organic body parts were a pink brain inside the crystalline dome atop his metal skull, and a heart encased in the same crystal material within his right breast. Blue lights pulsed at a rapid pace inside his brain. I guessed they represented the firing of the machina’s neurons. The same lights strobed within his chest cavity as his heart pumped an irradiating liquid through the rest of his cybernetic body.
The light show mesmerized me, and I knew now why he wore a cloak the day before.
“Greetings,” he said after turning to us.
My breath caught in my throat when I saw his face. It was composed of a bronze alloy that shifted into modes of human expressions. A pair of golden lights served for eyes, expanding and retracting at random intervals like old-fashioned binoculars.
“Hi, Matty,” Casey said. “I’ve come to show the new squire around the arcane chamber.”
“Ah, yes, the new squire.” His right eye expanded toward me, and a foreign presence scanned my mind. It was the same feeling as when the diviner in the Wayfarer commune rifled through my memories. The presence suddenly vanished as the machina made a coughing sound. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Unfortunately I have a habit of that. It’s been some time since I was human. I sometimes forget the propriety of mortals.”
“Matthias?” a female voice called out from behind the sphere, and Elle stepped into view.
The female point clerk was still wearing the blood-spattered golden coat from the night before. I figured she must have been in this room since she’d stepped through the portal on the bridge.
“What were you doing behind the sphere?” I asked her.
“I was examining the technology. It’s remarkable. And certainly illegal,” she added. “I’ve never read anything like it in the clerk manuals.”
“You can learn lots of things in books,” Matthias commented with a scholarly air, “but not everything. My sphere and I are of the latter.”
“I suppose you’ve decided Matthias is some kind of breach and you’ll be sending him to the Facility?” Casey shot at Elle.
“Uhh . . . not exactly.” The point clerk quickly recovered from the enchantress’ jab and gave Casey a death-stare.
“Miss McGrath and I have come to an understanding,” Matthias said. “I will show her how I was created. And she will not report my existence to the RTF.”
“Not quite,” Elle injected. “I will decide whether or not I shall bring you to the RTF’s attention. There is no guarantee you won’t be visiting the Facility.”
A peculiar sound came from Matthias, like pistons firing. I guessed it was laughter. “So you say, Miss McGrath, but I can already tell you find me far too fascinating to have me sent away.”
Elle brushed down her coat. “Fascinating for all the wrong reasons.”
“Nevertheless, you are here now, so you’ll have to watch the day’s first jump.” Matthias turned to me. “You have also come at an opportune time, Squire Lyons.”
I hadn’t told Matthias my name, but I assumed he’d learned it from a ship notice. At least, I hoped he hadn’t discovered it when he’d entered my mind because there were lots of things in there I didn’t want him to know.
The thought was doused by my excitement to witness a ship mage perform a jump from so close. I’d never actually seen one firsthand, and magic intrigued me more than anything.
“Do you care if we hang around here for a bit?” I asked Casey.
“Of course not,” she replied. “As long as Little Miss Point Clerk doesn’t mind us being here.”
Elle snorted. “I’d rather not be in the same room as a sifter anyway.”
I winced at the insult. “Elle, there’s really no need--”
Before I could finish my sentence, Casey leaped onto Elle. The two women were at each other’s throats. I stepped between, but before I could pull them apart, they were separated by an invisible forcefield. Neither woman could get to the other as they exchanged violent snarls.
“As much as I love watching two beautiful women wrestle, there are far too many devices crucial to the Stalwart’s safety in here,” Matthias said. “Perhaps you two can squabble in the battle room? Might I suggest less clothing to allow for more maneuverability?”
I got the sense Matthias had been making a joke, but the enchantress and the point clerk weren’t in the mood for humor. I wasn’t sure whether the machina could see the cold stares Elle and Casey were giving each other, but I definitely did. Standing between them was like being between a roaring furnace and an ice-cold blizzard. I was glad I hadn’t needed to break them up because it might have meant losing an eye.
“Are you sufficiently calmed, ladies?” Matthias said. After each woman nodded, he released the forcefield. “I am already late for the scheduled jump. You can either refrain from tearing each other to pieces, or you will leave now.”
“I was just leaving,” Elle said as she pinned a loose lock of her raven-colored hair behind her ear. “Nick, you’ll need some new equipment to replace your malfunctioning belt and sword. Come see me later, and I’ll give you a deal.” The point clerk made an obvious wink
at me, and the enchantress groaned.
“I’ll do that,” I said.
Casey scoffed as she wiped the blood from her bottom lip. “She’s trying to swindle you. If there’s something wrong with your equipment, I’ll repair it.”
“Hey,” I said, raising my hands. “I don’t know what the problem is between you two, but you are both my friends.”
Elle snorted and stormed out of the room before giving Casey a cold stare.
“Did it just get a heckuva lot warmer in here?” the red-haired woman asked with a smile.
“C’mon, Casey,” I said. “She’s just trying to prove herself.”
“Prove to everyone that she’s a massive bitch. She called me a sifter.”
“I’ll talk to her again about that. It was uncalled for, I agree. You did call her ‘Little Miss Point Clerk’ though.” I shrugged, but the look on Casey’s face made me regret what I had said.
“It isn’t the same as calling someone a sifter. You should know that, Nick.”
“I do,” I said as I held up my hands. “I’m sorry. Really, she isn’t a bad person. I’ll talk to her--”
“I suppose you both still wish to see me perform the jump?” Matthias interrupted as he crouched over a computer terminal.
“That’s right,” I replied with a nod.
I glanced at Casey, and then she gave the machina a broad smile. She seemed to have instantly forgotten the fight with Elle.
“I can perform up to three per twenty-four hours while most ship mages can only open one or two long-range portals in that time. We have eight more jumps until we reach Tachion. It’ll take seventy-two in total,” Matthias said as his fingers pounded the terminal’s keys. “I might have achieved the journey in shorter time decades ago. I have opened five LR portals in a single day, but that can be more taxing than it’s worth. My biofluids don’t hold up like they once did.”
“If you couldn’t tell,” Casey whispered from the side of her mouth, “he likes to boast.”
Matthias punched another key sequence into the computer. The sphere in the middle of the room stopped glowing. I could look at it now without searing my eyes, and I could see it was built like a metal cage. The machina entered the sphere, secured both his wrists with straps dangling from above, and then stood with his feet a meter apart.
“Would you like the pleasure of initiating the jump?” he called out to me.
“Uhh . . .”
“I’ll show you what to do.” Casey took me to the terminal, and we both sat in the chairs in front of it. “He doesn’t actually need us here to make the jump, but he likes to have an audience.”
I strapped myself in, and Casey hit a button the terminal’s console.
“Commander, we’re preparing to jump in one minute,” she said into the receiver.
“I’ll give the command for the crew to anchor themselves,” Commander Reynolds replied.
Casey nodded at Matthias. Then the machina’s heart started pulsing with a much brighter blue light, and the neurons in his brain fired with increasing frequency.
“You want to hit this button,” Casey said to me, pointing at a red mound on the center of the console.
“Sure,” I said. As I looked up at Matthias, I could smell ozone. I realized the machina was somehow emitting a gaseous substance. The air around him shimmered and jolted with electrical energy.
The timer hit zero, and I pressed the red button.
Matthias opened his mouth and screamed. The sound made me lean back into the chair’s headrest and grind my teeth. My eardrums felt only a few seconds away from rupturing when the room silenced.
“Arrived successfully in the Bernicia System,” the commander’s voice said from the speaker in front of me. “Good work, Matthias.”
“My pleasure,” the machina said as he unstrapped himself from the jump sphere. As soon as he stepped down from the raised platform, the metal cage began to glow again, albeit with much less light than when I’d first entered the room.
“It’s a battery of sorts,” Matthias said. “Charges and releases the energy when I make a jump. Although, I don’t suppose I need to tell you that, do I, Squire Nicholas? You would have learned all about it at the Academy.”
I groaned as my stomach settled from the jump and slowly stood from the chair. “I don’t know much about magic, I’m afraid. Only what’s required to maintain Runetech weapons.”
“Of course. I should have known,” he said with an ejection of gas approximating a sigh through small slits in his metal skull. “It wasn’t always that way. The Academy is a relatively new invention of the RTF. Once, all were trained at the Arcane Institute, including those who would become Space Knights.”
“That sounds like a long time ago,” I said, wondering how old this machine was. I had never heard a story about knights taking classes at the Arcane Institute. It was the part of the Academy where all the mages studied.
“You are too polite to ask my age,” Matthias chuckled. “Most of my existence I have not truly lived. To be conscious is to know life, yet I was in stasis for hundreds of years. It was only the late King Justinian who roused me from my sleep, rest his soul. If only he’d lived longer, the old ways might have been recovered. Did you know those of us with extraordinary gifts were once valued beyond measure? We weren’t taken to the barbaric prison they called the Facility.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Casey look at me. I got the feeling Matthias was referring to both him and me when he mentioned extraordinary abilities. He must have picked up something when he was reading my memories.
Now there were potentially three crew members on board the Stalwart who knew of my mutation.
The machina stumbled a little, and I got beneath his shoulder to stop him from falling.
“Thank you, Squire Nicholas,” Matthias said. “I am afraid summoning LR portals is exhausting.”
I nodded as I took the machina’s weight, but then a question came to me. It had been bugging me ever since the pirate attack, and the machina’s talk of portals reminded me.
“If you can open a portal so quickly, why didn’t you open one while we were fighting the pirates?” I asked.
“I was preoccupied sealing the portal the pirates had come through. My energy levels were too weak to summon another at the same time. During the periods between jumps, I am in a form of cryosleep, regaining my energy. Although I am a jump mage of great power, the infusion of a soul into a machine is subject to intense degeneration.”
Casey frowned at me as though I should never have asked the question.
“Would you mind assisting my walk to the vat?” Matthias nodded his metal skull toward a chamber of bubbling liquid behind the jump spheres.
I half-carried the machina to the vat, and he climbed the ladder and submerged himself in the liquid.
When Casey and I left the room, I stopped her in the passageway where no one could overhear.
“It felt like he was reading my mind in there,” I said.
“Of course. Matthias isn’t only a jump mage, but a diviner, too. He says he doesn’t understand mortal politeness, but that’s not true. He likes to read people’s minds. He’s a busybody, but he won’t tell anyone else what he found in that head of yours.”
I wondered whether the machina discovered anything about my mission while reading my mind, but he hadn’t given any indication to suggest he knew about it. If he did, I would have been put into one of the starship’s holding cells immediately. I’d have to be careful not to be in the same room as Matthias again.
Casey smirked at me, and I found myself unable to look away from her eyes.
“Want to grab a drink?” I said finally.
She grinned. “You bet!”
Chapter 12
Casey and I grabbed the elevator to Deck 2. The whole time I couldn’t stop looking at her smile. Still, sadness lurked behind her light blue eyes. I guessed she was mourning the deaths of our fellow crew members. The enchantress acted like they hadn’t
bothered earlier, but I had a hard time believing she hadn’t been affected by them.
“What is it?” she said after I’d been staring at her for a little too long.
“Nothing,” I said. “Just glad to be a part of the crew.”
“Ha!” The redheaded woman slapped me across the arm. “You say that now, but you’ve only been part of the Stalwart for a little over a day. You barely know us.”
That struck something inside me, and I was a little more somber as we made our way to the galley. The sounds of laughter and cheering filtered into the passageway, and I felt a pinch of excitement enter my stomach.
When we entered the galley, I was assaulted by a dozen different men and women intent on handing me steins filled with beer. I accepted a gigantic mug filled to the brim with a smile and nod to the crew.
“I’m gonna go chat with my granddad,” Casey said as I sat at a trestle table filled with other crew members. “Mind if I leave you here for a few seconds?”
I nodded and watched the enchantress move to another table where Joseph and the other enchanters were sitting.
I felt a bit guilty as I sipped on the massive mug. The beer was the best I’d ever tasted, but fourteen more people would have been in this galley if the pirates hadn’t boarded our ships. The thought took all the enjoyment out of the full-bodied brew. I knew Captain Cross had done the right thing by not handing over the Arcane Dust, but it seemed like such a waste of life.
“Hey, Nick,” Moses called out to me as he waded through the crowd toward me. “You did well yesterday. Fought better than most Space Knights would have.”
“Thanks,” I said as I stared at the bubbles fading on the head of my beer.
Moses parked himself on the chair beside me. “Don’t get yourself down about the crew we lost. It happens. Every one of those men and women knew what they were getting into when they signed up for the RTF. We’ll all see them again one day when we pass from this universe and into the next.”
I smiled at the big knight. I wasn’t very religious but I appreciated the sentiment.
Space Knight Page 18