Chapter 51: Exfiltration (2)

Location: Estriduros Republic; Estriduros System; ERS Verdinum

Simon takes a deep breath to calm down a bit. “Okay… So you can remove my collar. But we’re still on a military ship. Hmm, If you’re here, you got a plan, right?”

“I do. But it still depends if you want to join my crew. I’m sorry for not giving you the full explanation right now, but we’re a bit short on time. The original plan was to get you out of here before the jump, but you were already gone from your cabin.”

“You were here the whole time?”

I nod.

“Holy shit. Nobody noticed anything. How did you get aboard?”

“Well, I just walked in… My new AI hacked the whole ship.”

“New AI, unlocked magic… You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?” He stands up and straightens his uniform. “But yes, of course, I’ll join you. A life in freedom. Who would say no to that?”

A big grin finds its way to my face and I hug him. “Good, then let’s do this! Sit down please, I need to access your collar.”

He sits down and I grab the old and trusted modified UC-cable I used to remove my own collar. The plug still fits into the collar and Maja attached a short wave transmitter at the other end so that S-57 can connect with the cable. He doesn’t have Maja’s body, so we still have to use the cable. It takes almost ten minutes, but then there is the telltale click and the collar snaps open.

Simon takes a deep breath and touches his now free neck. “Wow… I can’t believe this is happening. Thank you, Sara!”

“You’re welcome. Now, how familiar are you with the crew? Do they recognize you on sight?”

He nods. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Dang it, okay then we’re doing it the hard way, give me the collar please.”

He hands me the ring of metal and I grab my energy blade. I activate it in a lower setting and it only reaches the length of a kitchen knife. Then I stab the inside of the collar a few times, thoroughly destroying the electronics and magical components inside. “Okay, put it back on… I can’t hide you with my spell as I need to conserve power, so if anyone sees you, you can say you were ordered to go where we are going.”

His smile drops a little, but he still grabs the collar and closes it around his neck. The smile returns when he notices that he still has his magic. Hah, what a little stabbing can change. I smirk.

“Where are we going anyway?”

“We’ll take an escape pod out of the Verdinum, then I teleport to another ship and come back to collect you. The Verdinum’s computers are still compromised, so they won’t detect the escape pod launching and we should be long gone till they notice that you are gone.”

Simon looks at me in confusion. “What do you mean you teleport to another ship?”

“Weeell, it’s another long story, but I know a spell to teleport myself anywhere within the range of one light year as long as there is no gravity. I can teach you the spell later on of course, but now we really should get going.”

“Okaaayy, I guess you know what you do… I can’t wait for a lengthy explanation. Let me grab some things, then I’m ready.”

He moves to his desk and grabs a few pictures and a few other things. Everything disappears in his pockets. Then he turns back to me and nods. “Ready.”

“Alright, I’m going to get invisible again. I’ll touch your arm to lead you along the way. If we lose contact, just keep walking. I’ll come back to you as soon as possible.”

He nods, determination now on his face.

“S-57, show me the route and ready the pod. Maja should have left you a backdoor.”

“Affirmative, showing route now.”

The route appears on my interface again. Looks like we have to walk down to the shuttle bay. I guess taking one near the bridge is too risky. I share a last determined look with Simon, then I concentrate on the Cloaking spell, and a short while later I go invisible. Simon takes in a sharp breath at my disappearance. I reach out and touch his arm. He stiffens a little but calms down shortly after.

“Let’s get going,” I speak out loud for probably the last time.

“Okay,” Simon agrees.

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The door opens at Simon’s touch and we are out in the open! The hallway is empty. I nudge him toward the right in the direction of the next stairway according to my map. We reach it without issues and start our descent. We have to go down six decks, let’s hope everyone else uses the elevator.

No such luck, of course… The first two decks go by just fine, but when we walk down further, a door below us opens and two Space Rangers enter the stairway and turn to walk upwards. I tap his arm with my other hand, then let go of him and walk along behind him. I can’t bump into the Rangers! They reach our current level and everyone exchanges greetings. Luckily, they don’t question Simon’s presence here. Probably thinking he’s just stretching his legs after the jump.

Once we’re a good distance away, I grab Simon’s arm again and he lets out a relieved breath. A minute later we are down at the bottom. This time the door opens due to S-57’s actions and we step into another hallway.

The shuttle bay is at the other end of the hallway, so I slightly nudge Simon forward and we start walking again. It looks like we’re in luck this time as we don’t meet a single person.

One last door separates us from our destination. I take a deep breath and signal S-57 to open it. The shuttle bay beyond is… not empty. Shit! Then I recognize the woman. It’s Captain Dolder! What is she doing here?

“Mage Storkis, what are you doing down here?” She wears a big frown on her face and looks at Simon expectantly.

“I uh, I’m taking a walk?”

Dang it. He’s not prepared at all. I let go of his arm and slowly walk a bit closer to Captain Dolder. Next, I grab my gun which is also invisible, and ensure it’s set for stun. Then I slowly aim. Sorry Captain Dolder…

Before I can shoot, she takes a slow step forward. “Simon, we know each other back from the testing… What is wrong? Is someone treating you badly? You can tell me.”

Simon shakes his head and takes a step to the side. Closer to the escape pods. Smart boy! “No, it’s just… Okay, I’ll tell you. I’m leaving. Please don’t stop me. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Huh, he must have guessed what I was about to do.

Captain Dolder frowns a bit more. “What do you mean? You can’t leave. Your collar prevents that. Unless you managed to deactivate it… But that’s impossible.” She takes another step forward and Simon one back even closer to the pod.

“Simon stop! I can’t let you leave. It’s against protocol. We can find a solution.” She gets closer and closer and Simon slowly gets cornered close to the escape pod.

I make a decision and aim my gun anew. “Sorry Captain,” I whisper and pull the trigger. The blue laser bolt appears in mid-air and before she can react, It hits her in the face. I grimace. That’s going to hurt when she wakes up, but I’m not sure if her uniform is protected somehow. Captain Dolder’s eyes bulge, and she looks around frantically. Then the stun takes effect and she drops like a boulder. I wince, that’s going to hurt even more.

I quickly rush back to Simon and tap his arm. He doesn’t jump this time and presses the button at the hatch of the escape pod. It opens and we get in. Another pushed button has the hatch closing again and we both let out a relieved sigh.

Now that we are inside the pod, I drop the stealth and reappear, then I call out to S-57. “Get us out of here!”

“Affirmative. Starting launch sequence. Prepare for hard acceleration in five, four, …”

When he reaches zero, I grab the handrails and we shoot out of the Verdinum at breakneck pace.

Simon laughs and grabs me in a one-armed hug. “We did it!”

I smile as well. “We did indeed. But we’re not done yet. S-57, were you able to hide our launch.”

“I was. But it’s for naught when the Captain wakes up. You have half an hour tops.”

True, that’s an unfortunate complication. “Alright, Simon. I’ll go and collect the ship now. Hold tight, I’ll be back before you know. S-57, you have the coordinates. Lock them in please.”

“Affirmative. Locking in… Done.”

Simon frowns in confusion. “What do you mean? And what coordinates? The escape pod doesn’t have that much maneuverability.”

“You’ll see. I’m sorry, I’ll explain later. We’re short on time. Just hold tight. See you soon.”

Next focus on Personal Teleportation and focus on the coordinates, S-57 locked in. Everything is ready and I trigger the spell with a short wave toward Simon. Then I vanish before his eyes with a purple flash. The weird stretching of time appears again with my Space Sense and I can see his wide eyes and gaping mouth.

Then I reappear inside the yacht with a smirk on my face. I’ll never forget that look! But now I’ve got work to do. I run to the bridge and jump into the chair. Quick taps on the right buttons have the yacht powering up. S-57 meanwhile plots an interception course for the escape pod, and less than five minutes later, we leave the asteroid behind and head toward Simon with a hard burn.

We reach the escape pod some twenty minutes later and I – together with S-57’s help – align the external hatches so that a connection can be made. Then I tell S-57 to hold it steady and rush back to the airlock. When both hatches open, I smile at a shell-shocked Simon. He looks at me with awe. I laugh a bit. “Come over, Simon, we’re short on time. Captain Dolder wakes up any minute now.”

That shakes him out of it and he quickly steps through the hatches into the living room of the yacht. I tap a virtual button on my interface to close the door and S-57 disconnects us from the escape pod. “Want to join me on the bridge? I can start explaining if you want.”

“Oh yeah, for sure. I feel like the dumb third wheel that doesn’t know anything.”

“Sorry about that again… Come on.”

We both arrive at the bridge and sit down. I have S-57 plot the course back toward the Murati System, then I start explaining and tell him everything starting from my meeting with Maja. I only stay vague with the Worldender Ship, as it’s not my story to share with others. Conor Valterion was clear on that. The information is too critical.

We circle the Verdinum so that they don’t get suspicious of our yacht and I notice the exact moment when they become aware of Simon’s disappearance. The ship stops in place and sends out a handful of shuttles, probably all of them. An hour later it looks like they find the escape pod, but we are long gone by then as we’ve reached the wormhole.

Simon took my whole story with a good dose of awe and disbelief, but who wouldn’t? I mean I almost didn’t believe it myself when I was greeted with Miss Valterion. And then the magic and what we miss here in the republic…

“Do you want to do the jump?” I ask Simon and he shrugs.

“I mean I could, but it’s your ship…”

“Nah, you do it,” I smirk. “See it as your job interview.”

That gets a laugh out of him and he closes his eyes. “Okay, okay… Here we go.”

The space bubble forms around the yacht, now that it's way smaller, I notice some differences. It somehow looks more stable and even a bit thicker. Similar to the one time when I overcharged the spell with the battery. I can’t wait to get stronger… I can’t say it often enough.

Space Sense activates again and we enter the wormhole. I lean back in my chair and smile. I saved Simon almost completely on my own and the military doesn’t even have a clue. I could get used to this.