Chapter 59: Asteroid Go Boom

Location: Dakarti Federation; System X-17; VS Stargazer

“Come on, go faster!” Lucy paces up and down the bridge and won’t stop complaining to Alex whose frown gets deeper and deeper by the minute. I wonder when she’s going to snap. I wish I had some popcorn. Watching those two from my vantage point in the Captain’s chair is amusing as hell.

We’re currently heading out into uninhabited space in a system that is simply called X-17. It only contains a refill station close to a gas giant and a few wormholes leading to other systems of the federation. Nothing here is of great value, therefore the star system is only used as a waystation. They didn’t even bother to give it a proper name. Hence, it’s called X-17. The 17th useless system inside the federation.

There are probably more, but neither Maja nor everyone else on the Stargazer bothered to look further, as our route already went through X-17. Now, I do wonder how many such systems are inside the borders of the Estriduros Republic. I’ve been to a few, and even lived inside one for a while at the pirate base…

Well, it doesn’t matter, we’re gone from the republic, and I don’t plan on returning. Also, it looks like Alex is finally about to snap. “For fuck’s sake, Lucy! Sit down, your constant pacing doesn’t make us faster and I’m this close to just spacing you!” She holds up her right hand, her thumb and forefinger are almost touching. I guess a sheet of paper would fit in between, but that’s it.

Lucy stops pacing. “Oh, sorry… But how long does it take?”

Alex just throws up her hand and sighs in exasperation. “Aaaaahh, it’ll take as long as it takes. Maybe an hour. I still have to find an asteroid that’s not valuable at all if you simply want to destroy it. Well, Maja has to find it but you know what I mean. And then there’s you constantly pacing around when I need to concentrate on flying the ship. Just go and grab something to eat… I’ll call you as soon as we’re ready.”

Lucy blushes a bit in embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to annoy you… it’s just, I mean, I really want to test those guns. I want to contribute to the crew. Everyone kinda has their job, but with me and Thomas… This redundancy’s not really needed. And I mean those guns do sound very interesting. Don’t you agree, Sara?” She glances up at me.

I quickly shake my hand. “Oh no, don’t involve me here. I’m simply enjoying the show! You guys should start requesting money. It’s been quite the play so far: “Tales of the Stargazer – War on the Bridge.”

That has us all three break out in laughter and the tension between Alex and Lucy is washed away soon. Lucy even sits down next to Alex and watches what she is doing. Less than an hour later, the long-awaited signal is finally here.

Maja enters the bridge with a big smile. “Found one!” She exclaims and Lucy jumps up Very quickly.

“Finally! Now what do I do?”

I smirk when I have to stop her in her tracks again. “Chill, first we have to uncloak the guns. Then you can try them out. From what I understand, using them should be pretty straightforward. You just have to use the tactical station over there.” I say that while pointing at a station a bit to the right, very closely to some of the bigger screens on the walls of the bridge.

Lucy quickly rushes over, and I open up the ship menu on my interface and select the magical power grid. There I confirm the deactivation of the Magitech emitters for the stealth field around the two guns. They turn red in the visual representation, and a few taps later, I bring up a visual of the Stargazer’s hull showing the now visible twin guns facing frontwards. There you are! Two beauties, ready to be used for probably the first time ever. Well maybe they did test shots during production but that’s still an 11,000-year gap.

“They are ready, Lucy!” I call out, and she pumps her right fist into the air in jubilation.

“Nice, finally. Now, let me just try them out…” She looks at the screen before her and taps it a few times. Curiously, I walk over and look over her shoulder. The screen shows a small schematic of the guns to the right, currently flashing red, and something resembling crosshairs fills out the center. It’s currently centered on the asteroid I can see through the window as well. It’s a smaller one and still a good distance away. Lucy has her left hand resting on what looks weirdly similar to the Mage testing orb while her right taps a red button below the screen from time to time.

She starts to swear under her breath, and I can see a small frown creeping onto her face even from my position behind her. “What’s wrong?”

She sighs. “It feels like I’m missing something… I’ve got everything lined up, but every time I pull the trigger,” she points at the red button, pushing it again in the process, “it drains a bit of my magic through the connector orb, but that’s it. Nothing happens.”

I glance at the red-colored representation of the guns again. It’s the same color the stealth emitters had after I cut them off the magical power grid. Is that it? “Uhh, have you enabled the connection to the power grid yet?”

She freezes, then smacks her forehead. “Of course! Dude, I’m so dumb…”

The problem is quickly solved and suddenly the small icon of the weapons turns green. They are ready. I can practically feel Lucy smiling, as I’m too smiling broadly. “Go for it, Lucy!” I tell her encouragingly and this is all she needs.

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She takes a deep breath, then taps the red firing button with her free hand. Then suddenly, I feel a great amount of magic moving around and it starts to gather below us, right where the guns are affixed to the hull. The power reaches a peak and suddenly two bright red balls of condensed magical energy move away from the Stargazer at great speeds.

I follow their path through the front-facing window and a few seconds later, they impact the asteroid simultaneously. Saying that the asteroid is obliterated, is a massive understatement. One second the space rock is there, floating around aimlessly, the next it is simply gone! Not even pulverized, it looks like it was destroyed at an atomic level. Hadn’t I seen it just a minute before, I’d say there never was an asteroid out there.

“Holy shit!” Lucy’s shout shakes me out of my disbelief. This time I don’t even call her out on her swearing as it’s completely justified. Holy shit indeed!

“So much for using those guns for farming…” Maja chuckles darkly and this breaks the tension. All four of us currently on the bridge break down in loud laughter.

“Well, it was worth a shot…” Lucy gets out before laughing again.

“Ugh, that was a bad one,” Alex says while still laughing.

It takes a minute, but then we stop laughing and turn serious again. “Okay, let’s say we don’t get the power output lower. That pretty much shoots this way of earning money down.” I raise an eyebrow when the others groan at my bad pun. “Come on, that was better than Lucy’s earlier…” They just groan louder.

“Anyway, that means no upgrade for the Stargazer right now. So, I’d say we just move on and try again in The Empire. Our information should get us a shipload of money. Wanna try a few more times?”

Lucy nods enthusiastically. “Yes, but let’s call up the others. I bet they want to see it too. Maybe Thomas and Greg want to try it as well.”

I glance at Maja, and she smiles. “Way ahead of you. They are already on their way. We should also check the battery for energy expenditure. We might need a more regular charging schedule for the Mages from now on.”

Maybe… But I can’t imagine a few shots putting a dent in our reserves. How would other ships with smaller batteries use guns like this if it would drain ours considerably? “It’s at least worth a look but I think we should be good for now.”

Just as I finish speaking, the door in the back opens and Simon steps through together with Thomas. “The hell guys! What was that?” Simon asks and I just point at Lucy while smirking.

“Ask her. It was all her doing.” She starts glaring daggers at me but still starts to explain.

Meanwhile, the others have arrived and Jack voices his outrage. “You guys could have called us! I wanted to see those guns too!”

“Chill, Jack. We’re already heading for the next asteroid. We’ve still got plenty of testing to do.” My words seem to appease him, and he sits down on an empty grav chair joining the others who are already seated around the bridge. I have to say the bridge is getting quite crowded when filled with ten people all sitting down. At least we’ve got enough chairs floating around… Well, we now have enough chairs. Maja got most of the chairs yesterday from the living room on deck 01 which doesn’t see much use.

So, we just sit there and talk about whatever comes to mind while watching the stars outside. Again and again, I just sigh internally. It’s so beautiful… We’re only specks here in vast space. And still, we’re here to explore it. I can’t wait to see more.

Finally, Maja has the ship closing into the next closest asteroid. The rock gets bigger and bigger the closer we get. It’s about ten times the size of the last one, so compared to the Stargazer, it’s monstrous! I jump up when I get an idea.

“Alright, first who wants to take the shot this time?” I ask while looking at Lucy, Greg, and Thomas. They all look excited, even Greg.

Jack kicks his sister's leg, and she sighs in defeat. “I’ll sit this one out. I’ve already done it once.”

Then Greg glances at Thomas. “Mind if I go first? I’m only a Novice, so there’s a good chance that there is something left after I’m done.”

Thomas nods. “Sure, go ahead. I think we’ll be using those guns plenty in the future. I’ll just try them then.”

Greg smiles broadly and has his chair floating over to the tactical console. Then he takes a deep breath and places his hand on the connector orb and taps the screen to align the crosshairs.

“Hey Maja, are you assisting with the aiming? It seems a bit simple just to touch where you want to shoot…”

Maja turns to look at me and shakes her head. “Not much, only a little fine-tuning. It is really that simple. I think a lot also comes through the magical connection. Something like the orb reads where you intend to aim. Just like when you are using Telekinesis. You’re also focusing on what you want to lift.”

Huh, that makes sense. “Thanks, Maja!”

She mouths ‘You’re welcome,’ as in the exact moment, Greg speaks up.

“I’m ready. I’m aiming a bit to the right side of the asteroid so that there is hopefully something left after the shot. But I don’t know if I even do any damage. I mean I’m much weaker than Lucy.”

He is weaker, yes. But I have the feeling that he’s going to be surprised. I mean the guns are fueled by the battery. Let’s see…

Again, there is this feeling of a massive amount of magical power gathering below us. From the wide eyes of the other Mages, I guess they feel it too. Then twin orbs shoot out from the Stargazer toward the asteroid. Just like Greg said, they don’t go for the center but hit a good bit to the right.

There is a short moment of blinding light when both orbs impact the asteroid and I imagine a massive boom if there was any air. When everything clears up, there is a huge junk of the asteroid missing. Basically, a whole quarter of the rock was vaporized. Greg sits there, open-mouthed. “Holy smokes… I did this!”

Simon starts clapping and soon everyone joins in. Greg is grinning broadly. It looks like he’s finally a bit happy with his magic. “Alright, you’re next, Thomas!” He stands up and waves for Thomas to take his seat. “Let’s see what a Senior Mage can do.”

Turns out, he can do exactly the same. Thomas aims at the left part of the asteroid and a bit later another quarter of the floating rock has disappeared. Greg stares open-mouthed and I take that moment to share my theory.

“I guess those guns are independent of a Mage’s power. I mean you all see the result.” That earns me a few chuckles. “But what I mean to tell you is that the guns are fueled by the battery. The orb only takes a minuscule amount of magic from the Mage at the tactical console. Just enough to aim and prime the guns. All the work is done by the battery! That makes me think that there also should be a way to limit the available power… I mean, we don’t want to vaporize everything we hit.”

The others stare at me, but then slowly they all start to nod. “That makes a lot of sense,” Simon says. “I mean there’s no way Greg or hell even Thomas and Lucy could unleash such devastation on their own.”

I shrug. “I don’t know… Maybe we’re just lacking the spells? I mean the recording back from Earth, there were a lot of powerful spells… Wait, we’re not in the republic anymore. Wanna bet we can find some A&D spells that are actual attacks?”

“Hell yeah!” Thomas and Lucy shout in unison.