As it turned out, Miliam barely had had time to sink her teeth into research before Aoibhe led a mechanic into the ship’s galley. That mostly owed to the setup process, which Aoibhe hadn’t actually been able to complete for Miliam’s grimoire without her. She had needed to inject mana into the device herself to activate the primary spell circle inside of it, then go through a series of exercises to tune the device to her specifically, and that had been annoyingly tedious.
“Miliam, meet Hroarr. Hroarr, meet Miliam, the captain. Technically,” Aoibhe said as an introduction, earning her the stink eye from Miliam in return. Aoibhe leaned against the wall, and Hroarr just stood in the doorway. Miliam offered wordlessly offered him a seat, but he refused.
“A pleasure. Well, wouldya like th’ good news or th’ bad news first?” the dwarven man asked, jumping straight to business. Like the previous dwarf they had met, he was short but wide, although this man was dressed in work overalls. He had the thick beard typically associated with dwarves, which did not surprise Miliam in the slightest.
Was that a stereotype? Was she space racist?
“Uh, the good news?” Miliam answered back after glancing at Aoibhe, who apparently wasn’t planning to do the honors.
“Well, yer ship managed to make it t’ port shortly afore the life support would’ve failed and filled th’ ship with CO2.”
“…that just sounds like bad news you spin doctored into good news because you didn’t actually have any,” Miliam said accusingly. Hroarr and Aoibhe both ignored her observation.
“What’s the bad news, then?”
“Well, it’s a bit o’ a list. Life support needs overhauled. Someone overloaded th’ point defense lasers and burned out th’ orichalcum wires, so those need to be replaced. Since they’re fused to th’ super structure we’d have t’ tear off half the hull just t’ do that, but lucky for you, th’ hull platin’ is also a total loss, so we’d have t’ take it off anyway…” Hroarr listed off, referring to a device he’d apparently recorded the list on.
“Orichalcum can…burn out?” Miliam interrupted, figuring it was an important thing to know.
“Yep. See, it conducts mana cuz of th’ mana infused in it, but every particle that goes through tugs at th’ mana inside a lil’ bit. Push through more than it’s rated for and th’ mana gets flushed out, and th’ whole wire turns into inert gold,” Hroarr explained patiently. “Unfortunately gold melts a lot easier than orichalcum, and th’ moment th’ wiring burns out, it tends t’ melt and take th’ rubber sheathing with it.”
“And the ship isn’t designed to have the wires replaced without pulling up the hull?”
“It is, but only if they’re intact. When they burn out like that, we have t’ go in and use spells that can pull out th’ gold without damaging the stuff it’s fused to.”
Miliam nodded, satisfied with the explanation. Hroarr continued.
“Movin’ on, the hull is a composite that’s at least fifty years out of date, and it looks like it’s taken a lot of micrometeorite impacts. Stress fractures all over. It’s a surprise it held out. A kinetic slug penetrated th’ hull and richocheted around th’ inside o’ the elevator shaft, and between that and some spalding, th’ entire elevator needs t’ be ripped out and replaced.”
“What about the weapons?” Aoibhe interjected.
“The missile launcher is just jammed, but it’s so out of date th’ missiles it’s designed for are discontinued, so yer gonna need a whole new system. Th’ lance was shattered by some kind o’ impact that took out th’ primary spell circle and th’ capacitor, though if yer at th’ point o’ usin’ a lance on a corvette, y’might as well just surrender anyway.”
“Wait, a lance? Are we planning on jousting with other ships?” Miliam exclaimed incredulously. Aoibhe rolled her eyes, but answered the question anyway.
“Nay, of course not,” she said, waving a hand in denial. “Lances are mage weapons that let a caster aim and fire anti-ship spells.”
“So…it’s like a cannon?” Miliam cocked her head to the side.
“Not even close. More like a battery and a sensor platform. No way one mage could cast a spell that powerful without a power source, much less hit something a light second away.”
“Movin’ on, th’ barrier array blew out, but I’m sure y’know that since it looks like it took out half yer capacitors, judgin’ by the pile of shards in the engineerin’ bay,” Hroarr said before they could keep going. “That’s a lot like what happened to th’ lasers, but th’ wires run through th’ inside of th’ ship, so they’ll be easier to reach.
“Beyond that…all th’ controls are built for carillions, so I’m sure y’want those replaced. They did a right shit job of it anyway. Reactor needs a full overhaul. Even the stuff that’s not broken is half a century out of date and could use replacin’.”
“So how much would a full overhaul cost?” Aoibhe asked. Hroarr silently turned his pad around and Aoibhe whistled at the number of zeroes.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“With a ship this old we’ll have to make most of the parts ourselves. No one sells them anymore. Frankly this bucket belongs in a shipbreaking yard, not in space,” he summarized.
“I’m guessing that’s a lot,” Miliam prompted, still having no idea what anything was worth in reserves. If the number were dollars though, it would have been house-buying money where she came from. Probably a pretty nice house, at that.
“It’s so much money that it would be cheaper to buy a new ship if not for the intersystem teleporter,” Aoibhe told her, screwing her face up in irritation. She probably expected a high price tag, but not one quite this high.
“Wait, does that mean the teleporter is worth more than a normal ship?”
“Just puttin’ in an intersystem teleportation array increases th’ price of a ship by an order of magnitude,” Hroarr answered for Aoibhe. “They’re not easy t’ make, an ya need a custom design for every model o’ ship. Not t’ mention how much bigger y’gotta make the ship.”
“Which just means a new ship with the same capabilities would be that much more expensive. Even a used one would be better, but we don’t have the money for that either, and neither of us is qualifying for a loan anytime soon.”
“…do we even have the money to repair it?”
“We don’t have to repair it all at once as long as we get the essential things working first.” Aoibhe gave Miliam an appraising look before continuing. “I do have an idea of how to get the money, but we should talk about that privately.”
“I’m not stripping for money,” Miliam said, covering herself with her hands at Aoibhe’s predatory expression. There were worse options than stripping, of course, but she wasn’t even going to mention those.
“Relax, no one wants to see your scrawny ass anyway, beanpole,” Aoibhe retorted dryly.
“If I’m a beanpole, what are you? A flagpole?”
“Ahem.” Hroarr coughed into his hand to return their attention to himself. “Did y’have any more questions?”
“Nay. Send me that estimate with a cost break down, though, so we can decide what we can afford to fix.” With that, Aoibhe wrapped things up and sent Hroarr on his way before returning to speak with Miliam again. Miliam tried to start her research again, but her attempt was foiled by Aoibhe’s prompt return to continue their conversation. This time she took a seat at the only table with Miliam.
“How attached are you to that grimoire you came with?” she asked Miliam, who wasn’t sure why it was suddenly important.
“Not very? I mean, it worked, but I’m sure not going to try casting anything else in there after what happened last time…” she answered. She was, in fact, so unattached she didn’t actually remember where she’d left it. Hopefully Aoibhe did. “Why does it matter?”
“It’s an artifact. That sort of thing is worth a lot to the right buyer,” Aoibhe said as she tapped a lengthy finger against her chin in thought.
“You want to sell it to fund the repairs?”
“Exactly. An auction would take too long to set up, but my ex is an archaeologist with a specialty in extinct magic systems. I bet she can convince the university she works at to buy it.” Aoibhe paused as if considering something. “Maybe we can convince her to take a look at the spell you cast while she’s at it.”
“…what are the odds I appear in a system with just one person in it who happens to have dated a woman that would want my book?” Miliam asked skeptically.
“You wouldn’t ask that if you knew how many exes she has,” Aoibhe replied with amusement. “She might be a researcher, but her hobby is partying, and she also happens to be polyamorous, so she’s usually got a couple girlfriends at a time. And she likes her relationships open.”
Miliam didn’t sense any disapproval in those words, so maybe this was another area society had become a bit more open about. This mysterious ex was either drop-dead gorgeous or seriously charismatic, though, by the sounds of things.
“You were okay with her dating other people?” she asked curiously.
“Aye, nothing wrong with it as long as we’re all consenting adults and everyone knows what they’re getting into.” Aoibhe shrugged, then smirked. “You should watch out, though. You seem like the type to fall for a few honeyed words.”
“One of these days we’re going to have some words about what exactly you think of me,” Miliam promised with narrowed eyes. But that day would not be today. Or tomorrow. Aoibhe was kind of intimidating. “Also, between the two of us, only one of us has actually slept with her. Maybe you should watch out.”
“Anyway, I think Abigail’s on the dark side of the planet right now, but we’ll give her a call when she’s awake.”
“Too bad she’s not a night owl,” Miliam said as she opened her phone- well, grimoire- up again so that she could finally answer some of the questions she had. She’d yet to find out what that burning sensation was when she activated the mana furnace, for one, nor had she pinned down the answer to the future-or-alternate-universe question.
“She is. I guarantee you she’s awake right now, but she’s also probably in the middle of something she wouldn’t want interrupted.” Miliam thought she heard Aoibhe mutter something along the lines of ‘lucky bitch’ under her breath, but it might have been the life support acting up.
“What would she be- oh.” Halfway through her query, Miliam realized what Aoibhe was implying and felt embarrassed she’d been that slow on the uptake. Now that she thought about it, Miliam didn’t actually know how two women got up to that sort of thing. It was yet another thing she’d never bothered to think about, not having expected to be needing to know. She added it to the list of things she should research.
Later, though. In her quarters. Alone.
“In the meantime…do you remember where you left your grimoire?”
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Codex Entry: Void Combat: Lances
Magic-based weapons, which have come to be known as ‘lances’, do not produce anything on their own. Rather, they are stations built to augment the magic of the operator and assist with aiming. This means a lance’s output changes depending on the mage using it. The primary advantages of this method are that a mage's unique talents are not wasted when onboard a ship, and enemy ships can never predict what type of attack they will face before it is fired.
A dreadnought studded in hundreds of lances can output a veritable storm of random spells. This can be anything from searing beams of plasma, to bolts of lightning that home in on enemy ships, to rays of cold that coat anything they touch in ice, and even clouds of meteors that will tear through ships like shrapnel through flesh. Few mages can match the raw kinetic energy of a spinal railgun, but the more forms of attack a ship has, the harder it is for an enemy barriermaster to defend against.
Lances do have a few disadvantages, of course. First and foremost, they require a skilled and educated operator. Second, they cannot operate at full power without a charged crystal battery, so they are dependent on the ship’s mana furnace to recharge between shots. They cannot fire as quickly as railguns or missiles as a result, and their rate of fire may drop further if other systems are drawing heavily on the ship’s furnace, such as barriers and emergency atmospheric containment fields.