“It’s been four hours. I really think we should disturb him.” Lya stood nearly nose-to-nose with Aurelia outside Duke’s door.
“I said we let the man sleep. You know he is the only person who can get us out of here. Wouldn’t it be best if he’s well-rested when he tries it?” She leaned forward, pushing into Lya’s personal space. Lya considered pushing back but realized that this wasn’t an argument that she needed to win. She stepped back.
“Quit fighting. I’m up,” Duke announced as he opened the door to his room. Immediately, both women stepped away from the door to give him room to step out. He strode into the hall eyeing them briefly. “The stress is getting that bad, is it?”
“In short, yes,” Lya answered.
“Then I need a few minutes with Mira in private. I think I have a way back but I’m going to need her help to pull it off.” He didn’t wait for a response but instead headed up to the bridge. Both women stared at his back as he headed to the bridge before hastily following him.
Duke strode onto the bridge with the confidence of a god, “Mira, your quarters. Now.”
She stared at him for a moment before quickly following his retreating form. He waited outside her door for her to open it and followed her in.
“Well, Duke, this is not really how I expected this to go,” she said as she reached for the seal of her suit with a smirk.
“Enough of that. I have a way to get us back to our own dimension, but I don’t want our new guests to see how I do it. They may be true allies, or they may not but I don’t want anyone really to see what I really can do.”
Mira’s face swam with disappointment that Duke took careful note of before continuing. “Here’s what I need you to do.”
*** Elsewhere ***
Ganorlen’s peace was disrupted as his office chime sounded. He quickly checked to see who it was and upon seeing that it was Edgemont, he opened the door and deactivated the set defenses.
“What is it Edgemont?”
“I have information on the Duke you had me researching.”
“Oh? Do tell.” Ganorlen didn’t even have to feign interest for this particular conversation. He genuinely wanted to know more.
“This Duke is not a Duke of some royal line. He is actually a king of a small kingdom on a backwater planet called Teldin by the locals. But the most interesting thing is that there is a semi- open bounty on his head. The bounty is open to anyone of Tier Four or below.”
“Interesting. What is the bounty?”
“A custom-created solar system.”
“That’s beyond rich. Why hasn’t anyone cashed in the bounty yet?”
“The last count was that 86 have tried. None have survived encountering him.”
“And yet every one of our Tier Two agents survived the encounter with him. Curious. What is actually known about him?”
“We have some eyewitness accounts that indicate that he is a mage focused on some form of death or dark magic. But here is the most interesting part. Remember the heavy cruiser that went missing?”
“Quite.”
“Well, we have recovered it through the auto-recall functions we put into all our privateer ships, and its recording crystals tell us some rather interesting things. First off, it encountered this Duke’s ship, the Iron Reaver.”
“Wait, are you going to tell me that a single dropship took out a heavy cruiser?”
“No, the ship is entirely intact but the crew simply vanished. Their lifesigns on the ship simply terminated. It happened in groups, so not all at once, but it was quick – over in less than thirty seconds.”
“The entire crew was killed just like that? No warning, no defenses?”
“That’s where it gets really interesting. The ship’s sensors were focused on the dropship, but they did pick up some activity on the planet below. Given the potential for ship-to-ship combat, I think we can understand this oversight. I have an investigatory ship on its way to the planet now and should have more information about the planetary activity in three or four days depending on how long it takes them to search.”
“I think I’m going to have to contact Valan for this. I want to collect that bounty but I’m going to need the Hounds to do it.”
“You are going to release the Hounds?”
“I am going to need to. Make the necessary preparations to ensure the safety of our operations. I am willing to take a full ten percent hit to revenue for this endeavor.”
“Ten percent! Are you sure?”
Ganorlen’s gaze turned cold, “Make the preparations.”
Edgemont left the room visibly shaking. Nobody ever wanted to see the hounds released. Especially not in their own sector.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
***
Gro’nok stood in the mech bay and stared at his own Ebon Warcharger. He was dumbfounded as the mech was in pristine condition. Even the scars of past battles that were painted over countless times were gone. She looked like she had just been released from the forge. His hands caressed the warm metal of the mech’s leg.
“It’s unbelievable.”
“Tukka, I would say impossible. We all saw how much damage our mechs took in the hangar. We were outnumbered for sure, and I am absolutely certain that I took a hit cleanly through the left shoulder.” Gro’nok gestured to the shoulder, “As you can see, it is pristine, not even a paint scuff. Something is going on around here. I don’t think they are telling us everything.”
“Still, is it not better? We can now charge in with new steel.”
“But how?”
Ter’fald broke his silence again, “When an engineer increases your weapon output, do you ask how or do you use it to kill your enemies? Why worry about how it was done and let us concern ourselves as to what death it means for our enemies.”
The trio went back to inspecting their mechs with wonder and appreciation.
***
When Duke and Mira emerged from her stateroom, the pair were met by an irate blonde woman. Aurelia glared at both of them, “Just what is going on here?”
“Sneaking around and conspiracies,” Mira immediately replied. Aurelia flushed with heated anger, sputtering before Mira continued, “Oh, don’t worry, girl. I’m not making a play for your man. We’re just coming up with how to get us out of here without letting our new passengers know what he can do.”
Aurelia burst into tears and fled down the hall to her own room. With an apologetic look at Duke, Mira followed after. Duke simply stared as the two women disappeared. Well, shit. I was never good with relationships. I have the exes to prove it. The hell do I do now? I can’t go after her because the two of them together…yeah no. It’s not like Mira and I have even a hint of a thing. Everyone seems so on edge since we got to this dimension. Could it be a side-effect of the Umbral Gloom? Might be. Still have no idea where that came from. It just appeared on the bridge, sucking the emotions out of everyone. Work. I’ll get to work. That’s the best thing I can do right now.
Duke headed towards the engineering section of the ship to prepare for what he was calling “the big show.” As he entered the section, he bumped into Gro’nok heading out. Before Duke could say anything, the big orc grabbed him by the arm and all but dragged him to the mech bays.
“What’s so urgent down here? Is one of the mechs going to explode?”
“No, Duke. Look at them.”
Duke looked at the mechs, noting their apparent newness. “Your mechs look deadly and extremely well-maintained. I can see why you are so proud.”
Gro’nok bristled, “Yes, we are very proud of our mechs and what we can do with them, but this is not the condition they were in when we boarded this ship. Each mech was battle-damaged, and one was rather heavily damaged. They look like they just came out of the runecrafters’ shop. They look new now. Old battle scars have been erased, the left knee joint of Tukka’s mech has been sticky for two years, but now, it moves smoothly. What is going on around here?”
Duke was immensely thankful that he had already had this conversation with Mira regarding the repairs to the ship from his RESTORE Ability. He smiled at the three concerned orcs, “Oh, I didn’t know the ship’s self-repair magic extended all the way into the mech bays. That’s awesome.”
“Self-repair magic? What are you talking about?”
“Oh. Nobody told you that the ship can repair itself over time? That is one of the reasons I selected this ship. There’s nothing like being able to rebuild an engine after it’s blown and doing so purely from the ship’s own magic. It saves tons on spare parts. I guess the magic of the ship extended to cover your mechs. I’d call that a great side effect, wouldn’t you?”
“Uh, yes, that is a great side effect. I have never heard of a ship that can repair itself. What kind of magic is that? Who created that runescript and why isn’t it everywhere? That could change everything.”
“I can’t tell you who invented the runescript, or even where it sits within the ship, but I can guess as to why it’s not prevalent. What would happen to the spare part and maintenance market if such a runescript became commonplace? How much money would be lost by those groups? How much would they be willing to do to make sure this runescript never became known?”
Nods of agreement spread through the orcs like a virus as they latched onto the idea. “I see what you mean.”
“That’s why we don’t tell anyone about this, right?”
“That’s why we make this ship our permanent base of operations,” Gro’nok mused. “Do you think Captain Mira will allow the rest of the Steel Tusks to join her crew?”
“One, you’ve joined her crew? When did that happen? And two, how many more Steel Tusks are there?”
“We will join her if she will have us. She is honorable and a good Captain. With the Syndicate taking over all other mech transport, we could not hope to find a better place for the clan. And there are enough of us to fill this ship. All thirty mech bays would be filled and enough families to fill the rest of the ship. I must speak with her on this.”
“She is a bit occupied right now but once we get back to our own dimension, that would be a good time to speak with her about it. I have to go finish my work on the stardrive to get us home.”
“Explain,” Ter’fald asked, stepping forward and shoving his way past Tukka. Tukka growled in response. It did not seem that Ter’fald noticed.
“I am going to modify our stardrive to reverse the lensing effect that happened the last time we jumped. It should bring us back to the right dimension. And, before you ask, no, I do not want any help with this. I need to concentrate and anyone looking over my shoulder would be a potentially deadly distraction.”
He grunted in response, clearly not happy but accepting Duke at his word.
An hour later, Duke emerged from the engineering section after having sealed himself inside for a quick nap. He had discovered an alarm feature in his interface and spent at least ten minutes cursing himself for never thinking of looking for one before. He set it and got in his nap. When he left the section, he sealed the door behind himself with the keycode Mira had given him and headed for the bridge.
The entire crew was gathered there, and all looked to Duke expectantly. He gave them a confident smile, “It is prepared. Let me get set up at the navigation station so we can get out of here.”
“Let me know when you have it all programmed in and I’ll hit the button.”
“Roger, Captain. Preparing station.” Duke’s fingers flew around the navigation station, pulling up maps and dismissing them in what may have been perceived as a set sequence, but was purely random as Duke was focusing on preparing to TELEPORT the ship across dimensions. He had no idea what to expect, so he was putting his entire Mana pool into the effort. When he was ready, he closed out all the navigational data and looked up to Mira, “Everything is ready for you. Make the jump whenever you are ready.”
“Thank you, Duke. Everyone, take a seat and strap in. This could be bumpy and who knows if the runic gravity will survive this trip.” She waited for everyone to get ready and nodded to Duke, “Beginning countdown. Five…Four…Three…”
Her finger hovered over a large glowing red button that she had installed while Duke was down in engineering. The button was not hooked up to anything – it was purely for show.
“Two…”
Many hands gripped armrests tightly, the creak of the leatherlike fabric squeaked across the bridge, breaking the otherwise silent anticipation.
“One…” Mira’s finger began its deliberate descent as jaws tightened around the bridge, all eyes on her descending finger.
“Go!” Mira’s finger stabbed the glowing red button and Duke activated his Ability. The ship vanished.