Wizard Gigantic (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 9)

by Rodney Hartman

  Forcing himself not to look away, Richard said, “Do you think I destroyed your Heart-stone? Do really believe I killed your Glory?”

  Amir hesitated only a single heartbeat. “No. Once I did, but no more. The human who murdered Glory was…different. He was shorter, but it was more than that. I sensed a taint of evil on him that is not in you. I do not think it has ever been in you. The armor you wear may be like his, but you are not him.”

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Richard nodded. “You said the yellow in your dream asked you for help. How?”

  Raising the hand holding the pieces of shattered gem, Amir said, “Through this. It’s as if the remains of the Heart-stone and the yellow in my dream are connected.” He poured the yellow shards back into his pouch before dropping in the flower, then stuffed the pouch beneath his chainmail. “What’s left of the Heart-stone has no Power of its own, but I sense the connection to the yellow. I believe the yellow in my dream may have the Power we need to restore the balance in the land.” He turned to Mia. “I agree with Rick. I believe we must help the yellow from our dreams, if help we may. As Elf Friend, I am giving you my advice.”

  The high priestess looked at Derander and Freestrod. The two mages said nothing, although Richard thought he detected the merest nod from Master Freestrod. Turning her attention back to Amir, Mia said, “Very well. Help you shall have, Elf Friend. Where should we go? To the tunnel Rick told us about?”

  Amir picked up his hammer and glanced at Richard. “The yellow did not tell me where to go? Do you know a way?”

  Richard shut off the white light and smiled. “Actually, I think I do. I just wish we had some allies. I think we’re going to need them.”

  Chapter 44 – The X-shuttle

  ____________________

  The planet Portalis showed up bright and clear in the view screen of the X-shuttle. Sitting in the shuttle’s copilot seat, Jeena had a clear view of her home world. The green and brown of the planet’s two major continents were easy to distinguish against the brilliant blue of her oceans.

  “She is beautiful,” Jeena whispered.

  The sensitive ears of the shuttle’s orc pilot picked up her words. “Yes, she is,” said Timerman. “Portalis is almost as beautiful as my home world of Redestan. I haven’t seen her in quite a while.”

  Jeena noticed the teenage orc wipe his eyes with the cuff of his sleeve. “Is our stealth shield holding?” she asked in an attempt to take the teenager’s mind off any homesickness he might be feeling.

  “Why ask him?” said Danny over the ring’s external speaker. “I could tell you that information. The merged stealth shield of the two scouts combined with the protective magic from Calatron and your spells is functioning perfectly. I calculate neither the Dragars’ magic or technology sensors on their ships will be able to detect the shuttle. Calatron’s invisibility spell on the X-shuttle also means we could pass right in front of one of their warships without being seen.”

  “Don’t bet on it,” came the squeaky voice of the gnome mage Calatron from the crowded crew compartment of the X-shuttle. “There are spells and magic items that can penetrate invisibility spells. Plus, it’s been my experience that there’s always the unexpected which can get you in trouble.”

  Jeena turned in her chair to glance at Calatron. He was sitting on the shuttle’s portside bench seat with the gnome mage Kester and Red Wing and Stella. The two scouts had crammed the two smaller gnomes into one corner of the bench. The six dwarves led by Felspar were on the opposite bench seat. While not has big as the two scouts, between the dwarves’ wide shoulders and their armor and weapons, the dwarf security team took up the full length of the bench seat.

  “Be that as it may,” Jeena told Calatron. “We have protected ourselves as much as we are able. The rest we will leave up to the Creator. For our part, we need to concentrate on landing near the location of the future spaceport. There we will find the time-bubble. We will enter using the spell given to me by the Lady and do what we must do.”

  Calatron gave one of the grins for which gnomes were famous. “What exactly must we do? As I’ve said before, you’ve been plenty light on the details.”

  The color yellow flashed in Jeena’s mind. For some reason it was accompanied by a vision of white wings. “I have not told you because I do not know. All I have been told is that we must enter the time-bubble. I am confident the true purpose of our mission will come to us at the proper time.”

  The gnome mage didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t argue. None of the others spoke up either, and silence filled the shuttle for several moments until an alarm on the pilot’s console flashed red accompanied by a warning bell.

  “Incoming!” said Timerman. “I have a bogey at one hundred thousand meters coming in fast on our seven.”

  Jeena glanced at the X-shuttle’s tactical hologram located between the pilot and copilot seats. A red dot off the shuttle’s tail marked the position of an approaching ship. A dozen yellow and orange dots left the red dot and began moving at a high rate of speed toward the location of the white dot that was the X-shuttle.

  “They are anti-ship missiles,” said Danny over the ring’s external speaker. “Contact in six seconds.”

  Jeena didn’t waste time wondering how they’d been spotted. She activated the shuttle’s rear force field and angled the shields for optimum efficiency the way Sergeant Ron had shown her. At the same time, she drew Power from her reserve in preparation for casting a defensive spell around the X-shuttle. She needn’t have bothered. Both Red Wing and Stella had beaten her to the punch by forming defensive shields around the ship.

  The X-shuttle banked hard to the left as Timerman tried an evasive maneuver. “Activate countermeasures,” ordered the teenage orc.

  Jeena punched an icon on the armrest of her copilot chair. “Activated. What else can I do?”

  The shuttle bucketed slightly as a barrage of anti-anti-ship missiles left the shuttle and headed for the incoming missiles.

  “Pray,” said Timerman.

  Jeena prayed. At the same time, she switched the copilot’s view screen to the rear camera with max zoom. A Dragar destroyer appeared, the emblem of a black dragon with a red stripe down its side clearly visible on its hull.

  How did they spot us? Jeena wondered. What sensor could pick up the X-shuttle?

  The external speaker on Jeena’s ring crackled. “Four missiles were taken out by our countermeasures,” said Danny. “Two are still heading our way. Contact in two seconds.”

  Two heartbeats passed.

  Boom! Boom!

  The X-shuttle bucketed.

  “Our rear shields held,” said Timerman. “I’m turning to attack the destroyer.”

  “No,” Jeena ordered. “Take evasive maneuvers. You have to drop us near the time-bubble. That is all that matters now.”

  Half into a turn, the X-shuttle straightened out and renewed her course toward Portalis.

  The translator on Stella’s battle helmet crackled. “Our defensive shield has been weakened. Should I contact the Defiant and request assistance?”

  Jeena thought of the recon ship and its battery of magic and technology weapons. While it might prove a match for the Dragars’ destroyer, the Defiant was on the far side of the sun, putting out the last of the modified tele-bots.

  “No. Danny, I want you to inform Sergeant Ron of our situation but tell him that he is to maintain his current position. We have been compromised. He has not. Liz is going to need the information from those tele-bots. Tell him to continue his mission.”

  “Compliance.”

  “Now what?” asked Red Wing. “The destroyer is closing fast, and Portalis is too far away. My fighting computer calculates we are not going to make it.”

  Jeena glanced at the tactical hologram and gauged the distance to their drop zone. She had a feeling the Crosioian scout was right, but she’d been around her bondmate too much to give up. “We will make it,” she said hoping her voice sounded as confident as he
r words. “Somehow we’ll make it.”

  Chapter 45 – Working with Fools

  ____________________

  Lord Crendemor gritted his teeth as he stood on the bridge of the Dragar destroyer. Why must I always work with idiots and fools? he thought. Turning to the destroyer’s captain, he said, “I told you to disable the ship, not destroy it. We need what is onboard in one piece.”

  The Dragar snorted, sending mucus from his reptilian snout. “You need it, not us. How am I supposed to attack something that does not show on our sensors? We had to launch the missiles based on the location you gave us. The shuttle was invisible. We could not see or detect it.”

  Balling his left fist, Lord Crendemor recited a calming mantra. “Well, you will see it soon enough. I have a way to pinpoint the shuttle’s exact location. Line up for another attack. This time make sure you take out their engine. I will not tolerate failure a second time.”

  The Dragar’s dragon-like skin turned a dark gray.

  Crendemor prepared a defensive spell in case the destroyer’s captain attacked.

  Instead of attacking, the Dragar turned to his first mate and began issuing attack orders.

  Lord Crendemor allowed himself a hint of a smile. Apparently he is not as big a fool as I thought.

  Turning from the destroyer’s captain, Crendemor checked to make sure his personal stealth shield was still in place. Unlike the stealth shield around the destroyer that had dropped when they’d launched their missiles, his shield was functioning perfectly. Wrapping a line of Power with another stealth shield, Crendemor sent an active scan in the direction of his enemy’s shuttle. Like earlier, he was unable to detect the shuttle itself, but it didn’t matter. He only needed to detect that which was inside. As before, his active scan picked up the presence of the thing he sought, the thing he’d spent five decades of his life trying to master.

  The Lady’s staff, he thought, remembering the feel of the powerful artifact in his hand. Soon it will be in my possession again. This time I will take full control of the staff and use it to open the gate to the demonic plane. The demon armies will be mine. Nothing can stop me once I have the staff in my hands.

  Lord Crendemor thought of the last time he’d possessed the staff. The Lady’s hold over the staff had proven too strong and resisted him. Not this time. This time I know its secret. The link connecting the staff to Jeena strengthens the staff. I need to kill the high priestess. I cannot destroy her link to the staff, but once she is dead, there will be nothing at her end. The staff will be mine. All I have to do is kill her.

  He sensed the location of the Lady’s staff with his active scan and muttered a spell to send the position to the crystal ball that was the Dragars’ version of a weapons guidance system.

  “I have sent you the current location of the shuttle,” Lord Crendemor told the destroyer’s captain. “My spell will keep the location updated in your weapons control system. Fire now. Destroy their engine and force them to land on the planet.”

  “Firing now,” said the weapons officer.

  A wave of six missiles followed by two more shot out the front of the destroyer.

  “The shuttle has activated additional countermeasures,” said the weapons officer.

  Lord Crendemor glanced at the crystal ball. Four of the six yellow dots marking the positions of the missiles in the first wave were already gone. The red dot denoting the location of the staff swerved to the left. The final two missiles in the first wave passed by and exploded.

  “They shot them down with their forward plasma cannons,” said the weapons officer. “Our second wave will make contact with their shield in five seconds.”

  The last two yellow dots in the crystal ball drew closer to the single red dot. Both missiles disappeared. The red dot swerved left and right before continuing on an erratic course in the direction of the planet’s surface.

  “Our missiles destroyed her force field,” said the weapons officer. “The shuttle’s stealth capability is gone. She is showing up on our sensors now.”

  “Transfer their image to the forward view screens,” said the Dragar captain.

  The image of a shuttle streaming vapor out of her rear compartment appeared on the forward screen. For a moment, Lord Crendemor was concerned the shuttle was in danger of exploding. Before he could order the Dragars to intervene, the pilot of the shuttle seemed to regain at least partial control as it plummeted through the planet’s upper atmosphere.

  “It is heading for the eastern continent,” said the Dragar captain. “She may reach the location of our time-bubble before she’s within range of our tractor beams.” He turned and faced Lord Crendemor. “Shall I have my forward gunners destroy her with disintegrator spell beams?”

  Lord Crendemor shook his head. “No. Let her land. You have the troops onboard that I requested.”

  “Yes,” replied the captain. “We have a company of heavy infantry and a squad of recon-golems ready in the drop bay. Once we unload our infantry, we will use our tractor beams to deploy heavier golems onto the surface. My troops should be able to easily kill any survivors from the shuttle’s crash.”

  “See that they do, Captain.”

  Lord Crendemor continued following the flight of the X-shuttle with both his active scan and by looking at the crystal ball. As the shuttle passed through the planet’s atmosphere, the vapor trail turned into dark gray smoke. Within seconds, streaks of green and purple fire flared out the back of the shuttle. Somehow the pilot of the small ship kept enough control to begin leveling off a thousand meters above the surface.

  Something touched the edge of Crendemor’s passive scan. It is the Dragars’ time-bubble. They are going to land closer to it than I would like.

  Turning to look at the Dragar captain, Lord Crendemor said, “Hurry, fool, or they will be out of the shuttle before you can unload your troops.”

  The Dragar captain bared his teeth. Hatred flared in his eyes, but he seemed to think better of it. He turned away for a second before turning back. The flames in his eyes were still there, but his voice was calm enough. “I can go no faster. This destroyer was not designed to land on a planet’s surface. Her bottom decks would be crushed. We must come to a hover to drop my troops.”

  “Then do so,” Lord Crendemor snarled. “Do it in a hurry. I will not be pleased if the shuttle’s occupants escape.”

  “Nor would I,” replied the captain as he turned to issue his commands.

  Chapter 46 – Green Time-bubble

  ____________________

  The morning sun was just peeking over the mountain the dwarves called Old Drepdenor when Richard arrived at the hill in his dream. He looked down on a shrub-filled plain stretching out for several kilometers in all directions. The ground seemed amazingly flat except for a few mounds covered in shrubbery and small trees that dotted the landscape.

  “This is the place, I’m sure of it,” Richard told his battle computer.

  “Not having access to your dream, I cannot confirm the location,” replied Nickelo. “What I can tell you is that my sensors are picking up stray bits of metal on the plain. The radiation level of the plain is slightly higher than that of its surroundings. If I had to guess, which you know I do badly, I would say a nuke or something like it had detonated in the area in the distant past.”

  Richard glanced at the elves around him. “Is the radiation dangerous?” he asked his battle computer. “I’ve got this battle suit, but everyone else is unprotected.”

  “The blast was a long time ago, Wizard Scout. From what little you can remember from your last time at the Dragars’ spaceport, and from what I can glean from Wanda’s databanks, the explosion happened eighty-four thousand years ago. It is perfectly safe now.”

  Taking his battle computer at his word, Richard turned to Mia and Amir. The other elves, including the monks and the two mages, waited at the base of the hill. “This is the place. There was a time-bubble here, or rather a series of time-bubbles.”

  Mia
gazed out over the plain. “I neither see nor sense anything unusual. Are you sure this time-bubble of yours is still here?”

  Nodding his head, Richard pointed at the plain below. “Oh, it’s there all right. A time-bubble exists in all times at the same time. It can never be destroyed, but you need access points to get inside.”

  Amir had also been looking at landscape below the hill. At Richard’s words, he raised his left hand and touched the bulge beneath his chainmail. “The remains of the Heart-stone grow warm. I too think this is the place we need to be. I must profess that like the high priestess, I neither see nor sense anything. How are we supposed to enter something we can neither see nor touch?”

  “Good question,” said Nickelo in Richard’s shared space. “Unless you have been hiding things from me, you are unable to create a time-bubble on your own. I calculate that even if you had access to all three of your Power reserves, which you do not, you would have insufficient Power to do so.”

  Richard was about to agree with his battle computer when Mia spoke.

  “Before I left Silverton, the Lady of the Tree provided me with a spell. The Lady told me if my quest was to succeed, that I would need to enter that which could not be entered. She told me the spell would give me the access I would need.” She turned to Richard. “You mentioned an access point. The Lady also used the word access. I do not think it was by accident.”

  The hair on the back of Richard’s neck tingled. “Neither do I. From what I remember, our recon of the spaceport found a weak point in the shield. It was just below this hill. I’d say that would be the place to try your spell.”

  Calling the others forward, Mia followed Richard and Amir down the hill. When he indicated the position of the weak point, she placed the butt of her staff on the ground and drew Power from her reserve. The blue gem at the top of her staff glowed bright as she began chanting words Richard heard but quickly forgot. After a full minute of chanting, the air ten meters to their front started to shimmer. The shimmer took on a greenish tint.