In the med bay, Isolde wasted no time scanning and probing him, but it seemed to Alek the questions she asked were a long way from cold and clinical. The kind he expected from an average dry bones doctor.
Isolde crossed her arms, her face expressionless as she studied Alek. "So, Alek. It appears to me you are as human as any other in the crew. Where exactly do you come from?”
"I come from Earth," Alek started, watching the subtle changes in Isolde's facial expressions. "Only, it's not exactly Earth as you know it. My Earth exists in a different reality—a gaming reality."
Isolde's bemused expression melted into skepticism as she asked, "A game world? Are you talking about that other plane of existence as Yara describes it?"
He wondered how best to answer the question, coming as it did from a sentient NPC. "It's... more like everything's programmed. It’s all made of code,” he said. “The forests, cities, creatures...even the people. The magic too.”
"And you are—what did you call yourself—a mage?" she continued with a faintly amused tilt of her head.
“That’s right,” Alek replied. "I use magic to manipulate reality. That’s what a mage does."
“What do you mean when you say you manipulate reality?" she asked, frowning as she considered the implications of his words.
"Changing the elements, controlling objects, basically altering the world around me using magic," Alek explained. “You are saying everything and everyone is code. Or am I misunderstanding you?”
“No, your understanding is correct. Everything I see around me is code,” he nodded.
Isolde fell silent for a moment. "This isn’t science as I know it to be. It seems our science is a long way behind yours.”
“Yes, that’s it,” Alek said nodding his head in agreement, although he was not quite sure that was it at all. She could clearly read his mind, but he was unable to properly read her code, or that of any of the NPCs. He could see the lines, but could not read them. He could see the structure reflected shared rules and language, that looked familiar and yet it was different to anything Alek had seen before. It was as if his game had merged with another.
An intercom beeped and a 3D image of Yara’s large face appeared in the air. “Doc, the Captain wants you on the bridge. Bring Magic Man with you.”
Isolde looked up from the scan results she was reading on a panel on the scan bed Alek sat on. “Did you say, he wants me to bring Alek onto the bridge?”
“That’s what he said.”
“Be right there,” she replied with a puzzled sideways glance at Alek. “As a general rule no one other than those stationed on the bridge are allowed up there.”
“I feel special,” he replied, but felt a twinge of foreboding.
Good thing I didn’t tell them I’ve already been up there when they were hibernating.
She looked at him sharply. “You were on the bridge?”
“How do you do that?” Alek gasped and turned away from her when he realized he was blushing. NPCs running right off script and acting like real people with minds of their own was one thing, he was almost used to that by now, but finding himself slowly getting used to his avatar as if it really were his own flesh and blood was quite another.
“I was desperately looking for anyone alive,” he said hurriedly.
“When they question you on the bridge, answer truthfully. You got that? If you don’t, they WILL react badly.”
“Got it.”
They found the captain, Yara, and six other crew staring into a blackness pieced through with tiny lights. It looked like the shell of the spacecraft had slid back to reveal a panoramic view of the dark expanse outside. A pitch-black void shot through by scattered pinpoints of bright light.
“Oh, that’s freaky!” Alek said in alarm. He was frozen in the open door of the transporter until Isolde grabbed his arm and yanked him after her.
Javid looked up from his console. “Take a seat over there,” he said, pointing at a free console with two seats.
“Captain?” Isolde asked as she took the seat next to Alek.
“Hold on, Doc,” he called out.
Yara turned away from the wraparound view to glance at the captain. “There are no identifying features, Captain.” he said.
“It could be from an unrecorded civilization,” the Captain said.
“Is it dangerous?” Alek asked.
“That’s what we would like to know,” Javid told him.
“It could be responsible for the ship came to a screeching halt earlier,” Yara said. “We’ve probed it, but it’s completely inert. Like a lump of solid metal.”
“Did it hit us?” Isolde asked.
“Unlikely,” a crewmember answered. “There’s no damage to the Excalibur, and anyway the object appears to be inert. ”
“AJ tells us we didn’t collide with anything,” Yara said.
“AJ is the ship’s artificial intelligence,” Isolde explained to Alek."
Alek glanced at her. “Ah huh.”
Isolde read his mind and frowned, but she didn’t pursue it.
“But some force external to the ship caused it to stop,” Yara told him.
“We have it secured, Captain,” a crewmember called out.
“Very good,” Javid replied. “Let’s see what we’ve got.” He swung his chair around to take in Isolde and Alek. “Alek, what did you do?”
“Pardon?” Alek replied, feeling like a school boy being reprimanded by a teacher.
"When you woke up?"
“I wanted to find someone who could tell me where I was,” Alek said.
“And?” Javid asked.
“I found the hibernation chamber.”
“Go on,” Javid told him
“I couldn't find a way to open the pods, so I cast one of my spells.”
“You used magic,” Yara said, nodding eagerly.
“It didn’t seem to work at first,” Alek told them. “I think I panicked.”
Javid regarded him with a penetrating stare.
“So, I used another more powerful spell.”
“At last, we get to the crux of it,” Javid snapped. “Explain what you did.”
Alek swallowed as he felt the eyes of the entire bridge on him.
"That’s a control spell," he began. "In the game world, it allows me to manipulate NPCs and environments.”
“Give me and example,” Yara asked eagerly.
“Well, if I cast the spell on a door, I can open or close it without physically touching it."
"This isn't your world," Javid pointed out. “How did you know how to make it the ship do what you wanted it to do?”
"The spell works on the environment, and the ship is a part of that environment," Alek said. He could feel Isolde’s gaze drilling into him. "In this case, I think it... well, it interacted strangely with the ship's systems. I was desperate. I didn't know what else to do."
"And what about the ship’s safety protocols?" Javid asked. “How did your magic get around those?”
"I didn't mean to override them," Alek said. "I didn't think about that. Not until later. In my world, magic doesn't care about safety protocols. It just... does what it does."
“You forced the system to obey your commands,” Javid suggested.
“Captain, what’s this really about?” Isolde asked. “What’s happened—I mean, apart from finding that thing parked in front of us?”
Javid's lips tightened. "We’re off course. When Magic Man Alek did his conjuring act, he somehow affected the ship's navigation system.
"Can we correct it?" Isolde asked.
The navigator called out, her expression grave as she studied a panel filled with shifting spinning glyphs, "It's not that simple. We're not off course by a little bit. We're in an entirely different star system!"
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
He glanced around the unhappy faces surrounding him, nodded his head.
How the starship suddenly in be an entirely different star system? A cold shiver ran down his spine as he realized the most likely answer. “Uh, how far off course are we?” he asked.
“We're looking at years,” Javid told him. “Maybe decades. By the time we get back on course, the ship we were to rendezvous with will in all likelihood be parked in a wreckers yard.” Javid stared glumly at the floor. “Goodness knows what will be the fate of the colony on Argos without our protection over all that time.”
Isolde stared at Javid. “If the goods from the supply ship we were going to escort, doesn’t reach them…?”
“It will be difficult for them to survive without the supplies," Yara said, finishing her sentence.
Alek was feeling overwhelmed. It was all his fault. Afterall, it was his magic that was to blame. He had to make it right. “Captain, if I got us into this mess, then I must also be the key to getting us out of it,” he said.
“That’s what we are hoping,” Yara told him.
“My magic... it's flexible,” Alek said. “It's highly adaptable. I believe that if I could interact with the ship once, I should be able to do it again.”
Javid looked around the bridge. “Any other ideas? Does anyone have an alternative to offer me?”
“Looks like we are out of ideas, Captain,” Yara replied.
“Tell us what you are going to do. And this time, do try to be more careful," Javid said to Alek.
The nods of agreement Alek saw around the bridge sparked his resolve. This was his mess, but he wouldn’t be fixing it entirely on his own. Surely, together with the help of the crew he could return the spaceship to its original route in the star system it was in before he cast his spell.
"It’s time to get to work," Yara said to Alek. “So, what do you have for us?”
“Let me review my stats first,” Alek replied, worried about the state of his power and mana after using three spells. Controlling the spaceship and causing it to jump across star systems, then transporting himself out of the airlock would have weakened him. “Give me a moment,” he said and called on his HUD.
The stats were disheartening but not unexpected.
- Power Level: 20/100
- Mana Level: 5/100
- Recovery Time: 3 hrs.
His Power Level was depleted. He was about out of Mana, and that meant his magical energy, the fuel for his spells was critically low, dangerously so. Recovery Time was hours away. Any attempt to fix the problem he had caused would exhaust him completely, and there was no guarantee of success. Having been let down by magic once in this new game, Alek knew it would most likely happen again.
“You have it worked out?” Javid asked Alek.
“Yes,” he said. “I think so.”
“I would prefer you KNOW so,” Javid muttered.
Alek glanced at Yara, and caught a glimpse of excitement in the Tropian’s eyes.
“Yes, Captain,” Alek said. He knew no such thing, but what else could he say under the circumstances.
"Okay, magic man," Yara said quietly to Alek, giving him what might pass for a grin on his world. "Let's see what you can do.”
Alek closed his eyes and focused on infusing the entire ship with his magic. Through his senses he reached out to all corners of the craft, feeling for intricate pathways through the vessel along which his magic would travel. Taking a deep breath, he began to chant, his voice low but resonant. The incantation consisted of complex astral coordinates and arcane propulsion formulas. His hands moved in a graceful dance, following the rhythms of the chant, as he traced glyphs in the air, channeling his power into the vessel.
The spell spread through the corridors, cables, circuits, framework and the shell of the ship, until it enveloped every part like a mystical fungus, albeit a benign one. The ship hummed in response, the pulsing rhythm syncing with his magic. Alek’s hands spun and weaved a miniature swirling galaxy of stars into existence, filling the bridge then disappearing into the panels and framework of the vessel. Each of the stars pulsed, each pulse aligning with the beat of Alek’s heart. A gentle hum filled the air, the ship resonating with his magic.
Over the next few hours, Alek worked his magic on the ship, resetting its circuits and strengthening every element within it, and in doing so he became a part of it. The crew watched him, and he was aware they were genuinely in awe of his ability, and not at all fearful of it. There was a sense of camaraderie blooming, and he welcomed it with open arms.
When the navigator confirmed they were in the right star system and back on course, there was a collective sigh of relief at having avoided a horrendous outcome, not only for the Excalibur, but also the supply ship, and the colony on Argos.
Alek began to feel his power drain to be replaced by a deep fatigue, but he kept going. He focused on the rhythm, on the pulsing stars, willing the ship back to its original course. With a final, exhausted push, he released the magic to let it surge through the ship.
Silence enveloped them for several long minutes, until finally the navigator let out a triumphant cheer. “Captain, we are back on course!”
The ship's consoles lit up and AJ spoke with a deep resonant and reassuring voice.
“Excalibur is on route to Argos. We will rendezvous with the Earth Guardian supply ship the Magus in three days.”
“They’re going to be surprised when they see us coming,” Javid said.
The crew erupted into relieved laughter. Even the Javid, was moved enough to clap Alek on the shoulder, a warm smile softening his tough guy face. Alek was moved, a sense of accomplishment filling him. He might be lost in an unfamiliar world, but he had managed to find his footing. While a niggling voice inside his head told him he was surrounded by NPCs, it didn’t feel that way at all. They seemed a lot more like sentient beings happy to be alive.
“Alright, calm down you lot. We move to the next item of interest. The object we collided with.” He leaned across his chair toward Alek. “We'll address what to do about you after that"
There, in the brightly lit expanse of the cargo bay, the glow from the small, spherical object was still plain to see. It was the size of a baseball with a sleek, metallic surface engraved with deep cross hatches.
Alek stood next to Isolde watching Javid, Yara, and Hugo peering through a protective transparent barrier at the object just inside the open door to the cargo bay.
“Looks too polished to be debris from a collision with another vessel,” Javid said.
“Captain, tell me again why we brought it into the ship," Hugo asked.
“That’s our job, Chief Engineer. Alien technology from an unrecorded civilization must be investigated and understood, or we view it as a potential risk to Earth Guardian ships en route and we destroy it. Our job is to accomplish one or the other.”
“That protocol applies to objects found along our regular routes,” Hugo pointed out. “We were in an unknown someone’s backyard when we discovered it.”
“We don’t know we were in anyone’s backyard,” Yara interrupted. “It more or less bumped into us, and that makes it of great interest.”
It could be a message in a bottle,” Isolde said. “We can’t simply ignore a call for help.”
“Whatever it is I want it scanned, tested, and assessed.”
“Didn’t AJ tell us it was a solid piece of inert metal,” Hugo said to Javid.
“That’s what AJ said,” Javid replied.
“It may have been inert outside the ship,” Yara told them. “But something’s changed since we bought it inside.”
Javid reminded Yara.
Hugo stared at the long thin tablet in Yara’s hand. “The question that really needs answering is, WHAT is it changing into?”
“Difficult to say,” Yara replied glancing at the instrument in his hand.
“How is it changing, Chief Scientist Lieutenant Commander,” Javid asked Yara.
Yara glanced up at Javid. “Captain, I may be chief scientist but there are things beyond my understanding, like the Mage here, and that thing,” Yara replied. “The sphere is immensely dense.”
“How dense?” Hugo asked.
“About twice as heavy as a protector.” Yara said pointing over his shoulder at a group of escort fighter craft aligned against a wall of the bay.
“What is its composition...," Javid began.
“Wait, it appears to be undergoing a rapid transformation,” Yara called out in a startled voice, and glancing up from his device to stare at the sphere.
“Into what?” Hugo asked.
“Get security down here on the double,” Javid called out to the walls of the loading bay.
“Security on the way, Captain.”
“This is no ordinary lump of metal; it's morphing into something far more complex," Yara said, raising his heavy brows. “It’s like watching cells divide at fifty times, no a hundred times faster than any biology I’ve ever known.”
Alek’s HUD popped up. His levels remained severely depleted. Below his stats a warning blinked in bold, crimson letters:
Possible Danger. Magical Field Detected. Unknown Source.
“Captain!” Yara hollered, urgency lacing her words. “It would be in our best interests to kick that thing out of the hold and into the abyss where it belongs.”
“Everyone, into the viewing room, NOW!” Javid yelled.
Inside the viewing room, they were in a protected sanctuary providing a view of the loading bay. The large long window was robust enough to withstand almost any direct explosive force.
“Okay. Lob it into the void!” Javid ordered.
“On it, Captain,” Hugo responded. His fingers raced over the console as if he were playing cosmic whack-a-mole.
“Security, gear up. It's about to get breezy in the loading bay.”
“Way ahead of you, Captain,” came the sergeant’s dry retort over the intercom.
“He’s a cheeky bastard,” Hugo said to the Captain.
“The cheeky bastard who along with his soldiers stands between us and that alien drone,” Javid replied with a grim smile. “Under the circumstances, a little rambunctiousness is to be expected.”
The monstrous metal door opened with a groan as the air rushed out of the hold save for behind the force field where the group stood, confronted by a gaping maw against the backdrop of space. Seemingly emboldened, the sphere, rose inches above the floor, glowing an ungodly orange.
“Captain!” called out a sergeant. The man was in charge of twelve soldiers in spacesuits who had burst out of three transporters, their weapons raised at the ready.
“The gobstopper floating in the open door—be ready to serve it an eviction notice with your guns. But keep your guns down, until I give the order to fire. We don't want it getting defensive.”
“Captain?”
“We have a force field buffer around it. Only we’re not all that sure of its capabilities. So keep your wits about you.”
The security detail spread out each soldier dropping to one knee, their guns pointing to one side, ready to direct them at the sphere when the order came.
Through the intercom in the viewing room came the sergeants curt voice. “If you don’t mind me asking, Captain, what’s it doing on board?”
“You may well ask, Sergeant. It appeared to be harmless solid metal when we analyzed it when it was outside the ship. Since we’ve bought it inside for a closer look it’s swiftly undergone some kind of transformation.”
Alek looked at Javid. "Captain, my HUD...it's detecting a strong magical field from the sphere," he said, his voice tense. It's fluctuating wildly, I can't predict what it might do next."
“If you've got any tricks up your sleeve to boot it off the ship, you've got my green light,” Javid offered.
Alek looked at the Captain, his fear plain to see. “I don’t have anything left. I'm running on fumes.”
“What?” Javid glanced at Alek with a look of horror. “Nothing at all?”
“Recharging will eat up nine hours easy,” Alek said with a grimace.
“By that time we might all be toast,” Hugo muttered. “We oughta blast it, Captain. Back to wherever it came from.”
But it was already too late. As they all watched, the sphere began to shudder. An unearthly hum filled the cargo bay, growing louder with each passing second. Suddenly, the sphere split open. Without any flash of light or rush of energy, the sphere opened up in a silent, steady blooming of metallic petals. It looked like a flower bursting forth. At the center of the petals, there a luminous orb, that pulsed with light in hues of azure and violet, an ethereal dance of colors.
Yara was the first to break the stunned silence. “Never seen anything like it.” The orb with its petals open was floating free from its metallic casing. Rising higher, it moved into the center of the hold.
Alek found himself drawn to it. He felt an inexplicable pull towards it, as if he was being subtly coaxed or nudged. It felt familiar, like a child he'd never met walked up to him and called him by his name. Isolde touched his arm. “Alek, are you alright?”
Suddenly, a beam of light shot out from the drone and bathed Alek in a soft, blue glow. The others leapt back from Alek as if he had just caught a grenade in his hands. “What the hell?” Alek gasped, his voice laced with both fear and wonder. There was an electrifying surge of power coursing through him, and it felt good.
“Damn, let’s see where my stats are at,” he muttered to himself. The HUD popped up in front of him and he was stunned at what he saw. His stats were going crazy. They were skyrocketing in real-time. The orb was replenishing his mana as well as rejuvenating his spent body.
- Power Level: 100/100
- Mana Level: 100/100
- Recovery Time: 0 hrs.
There was no question about it. He was feeling quite well indeed. For better or worse, the drone had effectively reset his abilities. Ever the game developer, a simple question gnawed at Alek.
Why?