Chapter 56: Dakarti Federation
Location: Estriduros Republic; Olovis System; VS Stargazer
We escape BS 07 without issues and Alex sets a course for the nearby wormhole. It takes two hours of travel, which I take to catch up with Thomas. He said he wants to talk first and see the ship later, so I let him choose a cabin and we both sit down on his bed afterward. He doesn’t want the bigger cabin opposite to mine, saying it feels weird getting the biggest cabin as the last person to join. I shrug at his response. Not that it matters… I guess I’ll ask Jack later if he and Alex want an upgrade as they are the only ones sharing a cabin so far.
As he was at the academy before me, I let him start and he tells me about his time there. His experience was quite different, as he didn’t find a close friend group, so he was more isolated there. Being a Senior Mage didn’t help either, as the others were jealous of him.
Just when he is about to start talking about his experiences with Star Force, I hear Maja’s voice in my ear.
“Sara, we need you on the bridge! It looks like Star Force noticed Thomas’s disappearance. They’re hot on our heels. A ship just jumped right behind us. They demand our surrender.”
“Shit!” I can’t stop myself from swearing this time. “I’ll be right there. Cut the gravity.”
I shout a hasty explanation to Thomas, and he says he’ll come to the bridge as well. Then gravity turns off and I teleport to the bridge.
I look around and catch on the situation. For the first time, more than one of the bridge consoles are occupied. Alex at the helm, Jack next to her to give support, and Lucy sits at the tactical console, ready to throw up a shield at any moment.
“What’s our status?” I ask right after appearing behind them. A second later, gravity is active again and Maja shows me a tactical map with us in the middle, the wormhole before us, and a Cruiser hot on our heels.
“We're close to the wormhole,” she starts with a frown. “But we won’t make it in time… They gave us five minutes to surrender, but it takes us ten to jump.”
Shoot, they timed their ultimatum right… “Can we outlast them with our shields, Lucy?”
She shrugs without turning around. “Maybe? I don’t know… We’ve never tested them, and we also don’t know how serious they are. A cruiser sure packs a punch if they want to. Especially if they let loose with their missiles.”
“Too risky then. Alright, what other options do we have? Surrendering is of course not an option.”
I look at Jack and he stares back. Our eyes widen at the same time. “That’s it!” I shout and he cries out at the same time.
“Engine Enhancement!”
We both grin at each other. That boost to our engines is both unexpected and should let us reach the wormhole just in time. “Maja, I need another jump. This time to the engines.”
Jack shakes his head, grinning even wider. “No need. I finally figured out the last bit of Remote Control that was bothering me. I can chain the engine spell to it and activate it from here.”
“Nice, do it! Full power, don’t slow down, I can get us through the wormhole at full speed.”
He nods and closes his eyes to concentrate. In the meantime, Thomas has reached the bridge as well and stands behind us all. He has an awkward expression on his face. Does he feel guilty?
“It’s not your fault, Tom. Go help out Lucy with the shields. Once we speed up, they’ll shoot for sure.”
He nods and rushes over. “Okay.”
They both start discussing tactics and Jack opens his eyes, telling me he’s ready.
“Do it!” I shout, then I start readying the Wormhole spell. I’ve got to trigger it at the perfect moment.
“Everyone hold on!” Jack exclaims, then he triggers the spell and the Stargazer shoots forward. Thomas and Lucy trigger their respective Shielding spells at the same time.
Just in time because Star Force of course noticed our sudden acceleration and starts firing their railguns and lasers. “Brace for impact!” Maja shouts and the first lasers hit right after. The railgun projectiles are not far behind, but our shields hold steady for now. The power of two Senior Mages, I guess.
We’re getting closer and closer to the wormhole, and I turn everything out. I’m fully concentrated. Nothing can distract me now. After what felt like an eternity, we’re there and I trigger the spell. It’s rough, but we make it and enter the wormhole.
“We’ve made it,” I wheeze out, then turn to Jack. “Cut the engine spell, then be ready to cloak us. It’s pretty much guaranteed that they follow us. Let them think we messed up the jump and got lost in between.”
Jack grins. “Good idea. Got it. Just tell me when.”
It’s a long jump, it takes almost two hours, but when we reappear in real space, Jack cloaks the whole ship immediately and we quickly move away from the wormhole. We’re currently in between both nations, a neutral wormhole hub so to speak. The next wormhole that leads to the Dakarti Federation is a few hours away.
The Cruiser appears less than ten minutes later and immediately fires out intense scanning pulses. Luckily, our Cloaking spell holds, and we continue flying undetected. The Cruiser stays a while longer, but then they return to the republic through the wormhole. Looks like they don’t want to enrage the federation right now and write us off as lost.
I stand up and walk to the center of the bridge. “Alright guys, we did it. We left the republic behind and had our first combat engagement, even if we didn’t fire back, we succeeded! Now onto the federation!”
Everyone cheers and I walk over to Thomas and tap his arm. “Hey Tom, you okay?”
“Yeah, that was crazy… almost as crazy as my last encounter on a Star Force ship.”
“Huh, you had something like this before you were transferred to the station?”
“Yeah, I was about to tell you earlier. I can continue if you want.”
I nod and we walk to the back of the bridge and grab some chairs to sit down. We’ve got a bit of time till we have to jump again.
Thomas restarts his story. After the academy followed Star Force training and different assignments on different ships… Next, he tells me about Space Force training and his first job on a starship. That’s when things start to get more interesting…
“So then on my last ship, the ERS Zeloris, I finally had the exciting encounter, I mentioned earlier. I was able to use my magic to its fullest and defend the ship against some trigger-happy pirates. Actually, that was only about half a year ago. Right in the Olovis System where we’ve just been.”
Wait, in that System? About half a year ago? Does that mean? “Uh, Tom… your exciting encounter was it part of a wormhole blockade to catch someone which ended up with a destroyed wormhole?” I grimace while asking that and he looks back at me with a confused expression and wide eyes.
“Err, yes? That’s it exactly… How do you know that? I thought Star Force kept everything under wraps…”
“No way!” I exclaim and everyone looks at us questioningly. Oh my… So I missed Thomas a second time almost just as closely as back in the academy. I can’t believe he was on the ship that shot down the Solano. “Thomas is the one who shot me down before everything!”
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Now everyone has a shocked expression, especially Thomas. I chuckle a bit. Now that everything is over, it’s quite funny I have to say…
“Well Tom, it’s a long story and I think it’s best if I start at the beginning to give you some context… Everything started back in the academy when the Space Magic instructor taught me a second spell…”
“… You see, that’s how I ended up as a Space Mage on a pirate ship in the Olovis System.”
Thomas’s eyes almost spring out of his head. “Holy shit!” I raise an eyebrow. “Uh, sorry… But you’re telling me that my ship really shot yours down? That I almost killed you? Oh my god, I’m so sorry!”
He hugs me and I pat his back. “Don’t be, that saved me from that idiot of a pirate Captain… Actually, that situation started everything you see right here. I mean, to survive the missile I did a hail Mary and used the Personal Teleportation spell to jump to another ship, right in the middle of the military blockade…”
Next follows the classic tale about Maja, Earth, me being a Valterion, and everything else that happened till now. Thomas almost can’t believe it but is very happy that I found out my family name. He knows how much I hated Nelson. My retelling took quite a while and we’ve reached the next wormhole in the meantime. It’s been quite the day, and everyone agrees to wait till the next day before we take the jump.
The next morning, we all eat breakfast together and everyone finally gets the chance to talk a bit more to Thomas. After food and a lot of talking, we head back to the bridge. It’s time to do the jump. This time it’s Simon’s turn, so I stand in the back with the others while Alex is doing her thing at the helm. We’ve decided to drop the cloak before jumping. We’re about to enter a nation that doesn’t suppress Mages, so who knows what their scanners can do? And nothing spells trouble more clearly than a cloaked ship coming from the Estriduros Republic!
Shay looks a bit nervous and glances at Thomas the whole time, so I nudge her and whisper in her ear. “You should talk to him, you know.”
She winces. “That obvious, huh?”
I laugh and nod. “Oh yes, that obvious!”
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Location: Dakarti Federation; Gendi System; VS Stargazer
We’ve made it! Simon has just finished the jump, and we enter the Gendi System. We are now completely inside the Dakarti Federation. Everyone on the bridge cheers, and I see Shay leaning onto Thomas. I grin, looks like they talked during the jump.
“Alright, everyone,” I walk to the front-facing window and turn to face my whole crew. “Our first step is done. We’ve entered the Dakarti Federation, and we don’t have to fear being discovered as a Mage anymore. If no one is against it, I suggest we cross this system as fast as possible and head for the next. With a bit more distance to the war front, everything should be much quieter, and we can look for more information about The Empire.”
The others all agree, especially the Mages among us. More distance to those blasted collars is always better. I’m about to continue with my speech when Maja interrupts. “Sara, we’re being hailed, the signal comes from a relay station close to the wormhole, but I can’t trace it further!”
She sounds distressed. A signal that can hide from our sensors and Maja’s processing capabilities… Yeah, that’s justified.
“Put it onscreen, if you can’t trace it, what other choice do we have? We better not ignore it in case it’s Dakarti’s military.”
The biggest screen to my right comes alive and shows a middle-aged man with dark skin and a black buzz cut. His intense gaze almost pierces the screen, and he looks very annoyed. “Unknown republic vessel, this is Captain Rogers from the DFS Tilda. Identify yourself, lower your shields, and wait for further instructions! Hostile action will be answered with lethal force!”
Holy shit! “Maja, where are they? What do I do?” Luckily Maja must have muted me, as the man keeps staring in annoyance.
“Answer him, just tell him that we fled the republic. But hurry. I can’t hold up the video connection forever. I’ll lower the shields. We’ve only got the electromagnetic ones activated anyway.”
Dang it! Who voted me for Captain again? I gulp, take a deep breath, and stare at the camera. “Hello Captain Rogers, this is the Stargazer,” I start panicky. “I’m Sara Valtron and we pretty much fled from the republic…” I curse under my breath. Why did I speak so informally? “We’re, uh, just passing through?”
The other Captain frowns but looks like he understands my panic at least a bit. His tone softens a bit when he replies. “You’ve got a hell of a lot of weapons around your ship for just passing through… We’ll have to inspect you. Prepare to be boarded, Rogers out.”
The screen cuts off and then my Space Sense goes haywire. “Guys, we’ve got something big coming!” I shout just when there is a massive purple flash right before us. One word: HUGE! I guess the DFS Tilda is a full-blown Battleship.
“Weapons are locking onto us!” Alex shouts from the piloting console.
“Let them, not that we can do anything against this behemoth,” Maja sounds a lot calmer now. “They’ve just sent a message. We are to await their boarding party.”
I sit down on the Captain’s chair, breathing heavily. “That’s not the Welcome I expected… But I can understand them. We’re an unknown factor here.”
“So what are we going to do?” Jack asks, currently holding his wife’s hand. He must have walked over when I was distracted.
Everyone starts looking at me. I sigh. “Guys, I don’t know more than you. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve got no plan for how to handle them, but I guess we prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Can you put the deck plan on screen, Maja?”
The plan appears and I walk over, inwardly cursing our lack of holograms. Would have been way more convenient. I point at the airlocks. “Okay, that’s where they’ll be coming in, so that’s where we’ll be waiting for them. But not all of us. Alex, you stay on the bridge as our pilot. Greg, you’re with her. I know you don’t like your magic but be ready to use your shields in case something happens. Same with you, Ronja, you stay in the Medbay together with Lucy or Thomas, you guys decide who goes. The others are with me. I’m going to pose as a Utility Mage, so don’t tell them I’m Space in case they have a way to detect Mages. All clear?”
Everyone nods and Jack even mumbles “Yes, Captain,” so I clap my hands and lead the way.
“Then let’s do this, follow me.” We quickly head down. Thomas decided to go with Maja, so Lucy is currently walking next to me.
I must act pretty nervous because Lucy nudges my arm and asks. “Are you alright?”
I shrug. “Not really, but what can I do? We can’t act like fools before them… Good thing they haven’t detected our real guns so far. I hope that doesn’t change once they board… I mean there’s magic in the air everywhere on the Stargazer.”
“True, I’ve never felt something like this…”
We arrive at the airlock and position ourselves near the one on the port side. Simon turns to ask. “Do you have visual, Maja?”
“I do, they started a shuttle about five minutes ago. I’ve also blocked a remote hacking attempt, so they might be a bit angry?”
I grimace. “That’s going to bite us, but good job. I don’t want them in our systems. Even if you have all the sensible data in your own storage… This is still a Valterion ship.”
“They have docked, be ready,” Maja announces, and I put on my game face. The light above the airlock turns green and I nod to Maja to open it. It opens with a silent hiss, and we get our first look at the federation’s equivalent to the Space Rangers.
Shay takes in a sharp breath. “They look dangerous,” she whispers, and I can only agree. Dangerous is the right word. I can see a squad of eight people coming in, four rows of two next to each other. The front two project an angled Shield spell each and the others behind them hold their guns menacingly. They wear heavy armor and full face-covering helmets, so I can’t detect if they are male or female.
“Lay down your weapons and hands up,” a deep, but still female voice shouts and we quickly comply by raising our hands. Not that we had any weapons with us.
“Sara, our sensors just detected a highly encrypted signal with magical traces.” Maja’s voice in my ear almost startled me. What’s that signal for? Suddenly my Space Sense activates, and I turn around. A second squad of soldiers suddenly appears behind us with a panting Space Mage between them. We’re surrounded. Even if I can’t see their faces, they look even more angry than the first squad. “Drop the magic! And where’s your Mage? You’ve got ten seconds!” A male voice shouts.
Shoot, they see the lingering Magic from our battery as aggression! Before my thoughts registered, I’ve stepped forward. Almost all the guns suddenly point at me. I gulp heavily. “Wait!” I cry out. “I can explain. We’re not doing anything, what you feel is our power grid.”
I imagine them getting confused looks, but at least some of them lower their weapons a bit. Now they’re just aiming at my torso instead of my face. “Explain!” The same male voice from earlier shouts.
I can’t help but shrug. “It’s what I said. We’ve got a larger-than-average battery on our topmost deck. The magic in the air is what emanates out of it.”
“You’ll have to show me,” his tone is a bit softer now. “Let’s go. Your crew can wait with the rest of G-Squad.”
G-Squad. Is that the name of their Rangers or just the squad’s name? I step closer to the man who has just spoken. I notice he wears a different insignia on his armor. Must be their leader. “Follow me.” He and two of his eight-man squad step out of the formation and fall in behind me. I call the elevator and we step inside. I shift around uncomfortably during the ride upward.
We arrive on deck 04 with a *ding* and when the doors open and the even thicker magic hits us, the leader takes a step back and breaths heavily. “What the fuck…? This thing is ten times bigger than on the Tilda! Why?”
Now it’s time to gamble. I clear my throat. “I can’t tell you that. We’re on our way back to The Empire to report to the Valterions.” I hold my breath. I hope a Mage-friendly nation knows about The Empire. It was only mentioned in a footnote back in the republic.
The man takes a step back and almost drops his weapon while lowering it as fast as possible. The other two are not far behind. “Fuck, why haven’t you told us earlier? We should have known… The republic doesn’t produce Mage ships. You’re of course free to proceed. On behalf of the Dakarti Protectors, I apologize for the rough treatment. Please don’t think badly of us. I guess Captain Rogers wants to meet you now… Just to discuss the best route for you. Let me call him real quick. You won’t face any more problems, Envoy.”
Huh, Envoy? I’ve been called a lot of things over the years but never Envoy. I wonder why? But I guess, I have to play the part now. That guy did a complete 180… I clear my throat. “You are excused soldier. Please proceed with calling the Captain. But I wonder how you recognized me.”
He chuckles. “You must be pretty new. I guess the others wanted you to find out on your own. He points at my hair. There are not many people with the signature Valterion hair and eye color out there in the wider galaxy. Especially not here. You're the first person I see except for the one Valterion envoy I saw as a kid on TV. We should have noticed earlier... The military gets briefed on such things, but I guess the Captain thought your hair was colored. Oh, and I’m Major Jackson by the way.”
So that’s why I’ve never seen many people with my shade of light red hair… I laugh, continuing to play the part. “Wow, they played me bad…”