Chapter 61: Leaving the Federation

Location: Dakarti Federation; Previs System; Previs Prime; Kultrin

“WHAT???!!!” Lydia shouts after I introduced myself as Sara Valterion, and we all laugh at her reaction.

“You should see your face,” Simon snorts, while Lydia struggles with how to take the news. I’m just glad that Maja activated the privacy barrier. Lydia's shout was Very loud. Come to think of it, this barrier is different than the one from Don Fernando back in Duros. It’s magical this time. That should be an A&D spell originally, right? But it’s clear that it also originates from the table, so another nice piece of Magitech. Would be handy to have something like this on my wrist, just like the shield…

I focus back at Lydia who looks at me in disbelief. “Yeah, it’s true, but not as you might think. I’m more of a lost child in the wide galaxy. I recently found out that I carry at least some Valterion blood, so we’re heading there to look where I fit into all of this. I grew up as an orphan. Apparently, my parents were killed by pirates. So yeah, here I am. Probably part of one of the most magical families in the galaxy but with the magical knowledge of an infant. Considering my weak power as a Novice, it gets even better.” I shrug and before I know, Lydia hugs me.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry about your parents!” We just sit there, and I awkwardly hug her back. Finally, she releases me and then there is determination in her eyes. “I’m glad, I said yes. I promise you we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

We continue to talk a bit more, but I don’t tell her about our greater mission just yet. Still, it feels good to be a bit more open right from the beginning. Hiding everything back in the republic was so much harder. Now I’m just a Mage among many. I can really get used to this. The others join the conversation here and there, and a few hours and a few drinks later, we say our goodbyes and return to our rooms.

Lydia goes home to get her affairs in order. She’s all alone here on Previs Prime. Her parents are both part of the military and are currently somewhere on a starship in the federation. She said she’ll leave them a message as she’s not close with them anyway.

The next day starts just as exciting. Lydia invites us to a currently unoccupied suite in the hotel for a demonstration of the hotel's Magitech which is included during our stay. We completely forgot about it in all the excitement yesterday. Not that we need it anymore, as we decided today is our last day in the federation. But learning about Magitech is always nice. Maybe we can use some of it on the Stargazer if it’s not too expensive?

So now we all stand in a half circle inside a luxurious suite, which is a mess come to think of it, while Lydia stands before us, bubbling with excitement. “Are you ready?” She asks, and we all nod.

She waves her hand, hiding the interaction with her holographic interface. “Behold the best invention ever made for hotel staff.”

Suddenly almost everything starts to float! Used towels fly into the shower and get cleaned with a combination of magic and water, the bedsheets fold themselves and get draped onto the bed. An unseen force fluffs the cushions, and all the dirt in the room collects itself in a corner where a small flame vaporizes it.

We all stand there, mouths agape. It took less than two minutes and now the room is completely clean and new people can move in.

“Holy shit!” Alex is the first one to find her voice. I can only agree, even if I had voiced it differently. This is just Magitech… Preprogrammed procedures. I think I’m still too narrow-minded when it comes to the scope of magic.

“So, there’s that,” Lydia tells us with amusement. “We also have a telekinetic minibar, just like in the restaurant yesterday. “Pretty much everything mundane can be done with Magitech.”

“Wow… That’s insane, but also so cool. Do you know how much this room cleaning thing is?” I ask her with a hopeful expression. I know exactly where to use it. I mean who wants to clean their own room?

“Well, I don’t know the exact price, but they aren’t that expensive. They’re pretty much mass products now. The expensive part is the connection to the city’s magical power grid. Every bit of power you extract from it costs you money, as the Mages fueling the batteries and with them, the grid, don’t work for free.”

That makes sense and it’s actually perfect. If there is one thing we don’t have to worry about, then it’s the power of the Stargazer’s power grid. And even if, we have enough Mages to refill the battery. “Maja, can you get us one for every cabin before we leave? Oh, and Telekinesis modules for the bridge and mess hall.”

“Wait, what?” Lydia exclaims and I smirk.

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“What did you expect? I mean we don’t let you explain all that stuff for nothing.”

Maja isn’t idle either and quickly replies. “I’ve got everything, but we have to pick it up. There is no delivery option to orbit.”

“No problem. Jack, Simon can you go and pick them up later? Maybe Jack’s Telekinesis comes in handy.”

They both agree of course, and this also concludes our business in the hotel. Lydia goes to contact her boss to tell them that she quits, and we others meanwhile go to pack the few things we brought here with us.

We meet in the hotel lobby about an hour later. Lydia joins us with a wide smile. “I’m ready! Just quit my job and told my landlord that the apartment will be free come tomorrow morning. I just have to grab my stuff. Well at least the things I can take with me. We can donate the rest…”

Alex starts laughing. “Don’t worry Lydia. You can keep all your things. You’ll see once we show you the ship.”

“Oh? Okay… Can you guys help me with moving then?”

“Sure thing, Thomas and Greg, can you help me?” Alex asks and they both agree. Maja also decides to join them which leaves me alone with Lucy, Shay, and Ronja.

The others quickly leave to do their things and we all stay there in the lobby, not knowing what to do. Shay is the one to break the silence. “So, what now?”

Yeah, here we are, not knowing what to do. I shrug.

Ronja comes to the rescue. “How about some girl’s time?”

Everyone nods eagerly. Looks like it’s decided then. “Sounds good! Lead the way.”

What follows is a nice but expensive tour through a lot of beauty salons here in the city. We all get our nails done – purple for me, of course. And I manage to throw in a bit of a haircut. My hair now stops a bit below my shoulders and shines nicely.

In the evening, we meet back up with the others at the spaceport where our yacht is parked. I don’t know if we can keep calling it yacht… It’s more like a glorified shuttle for us. Anyway, the others weren’t idle either and the yacht is packed! It seems Lydia had way more stuff in her apartment than we all expected. Add in all those cases filled with our new Magitech devices, you get a loaded-up yacht. How can we even fit eleven people in there now?

“Uhh, guys… where do we fit in here?” Ronja is as confused as I am and waves her hand to indicate all of us.

Maja puts her hand on Simon’s shoulder. “Well, we left one of the two cabins empty, and Simon was so nice and volunteered to be our taxi.”

Simon frowns. “I was? From my understanding, you asked me if I want to train my magic…”

“Yeah, well I mean this is training, right? You’ll get to jump back and forth, carrying each of us inside.”

“Sure, sure, call it what you want. It’s not that there is any other option now. You guys didn’t even leave a walkway.”

Alex chuckles. “It was just so much stuff… and when Simon and Jack came back with the Magitech things, it was even more. So the logical explanation was to throw magic at the problem and Simon is the only one capable of transporting people right now.”

Ouch, that hurt… Even if she didn’t mean it that way. At least, I felt a bit less exhausted after the last few jumps through the federation. Maybe if I do most of the jumps, I can reach Junior rank during our trip. I think I’m actually quite close.

Lucy nudges my arm. “You okay?” She asks with a concerned voice.

I must have made a weird expression when I thought about that… “Yeah, I’m good. Just my general annoyance of being only Novice rank.”

“Oh, I understand. Let’s hope you’ll leave it behind you soon.” I give her a thumbs-up as a response and Simon finally settled into his taxi role.

He manages to get two of us inside with each jump, so after five trips from him, we are all inside. Maja stops hiding her AI nature and starts controlling the ship from the cabin. No need to get into the bridge this way. Lydia looks around questioningly and I point at Maja. “Ask her.”

She quickly does so, and Maja’s answer is simple. “Oh, that’s easy. I’m an AI.” She says that with a non-nonsense expression and Lydia first starts laughing. When no one joins in, her laughter dies in her throat and her eyes go wide.

“For real? That’s so cool!” She starts giggling with excitement. I decide to use that moment to start a more thorough explanation of our situation. As hard as it sounds, Lydia is now under our control. If she reacts badly to my story, which I don’t think she will, she still can’t tell it to anyone else.

In the end, we arrive close to the Stargazer with a Lydia who switches between excitement and disbelief almost every second. When Maja sends a live stream from the yacht’s cameras to her holographic interface, she completely loses it. Looks like I was right, and she has a good reaction, I chuckle. Locking her up would have been hard. I guess I’m still a good judge of character.

Alex sits down next to her and puts an arm around her shoulder. “Don’t worry, all of us had that reaction not too long ago. Surprising us every minute is a Sara special. Just wait till we’re inside.”

Lydia shrugs. “Well, what more can there be? I’m sure I’ve seen everything now.”

There is a loud snort from Greg. “Just you wait.”

Ten hours of unloading and showing her the ship later, Lydia finally composed herself and joins us on the bridge. We’re currently approaching the wormhole that leads out of the Dakarti Federation. “I can’t believe this is really happening,” she says. “Now I’m standing here, about to leave my home behind. Just wow.”

I stand next to her, she’s a bit shorter than me, but lighten up her auburn hair a bit and she could play a distant cousin of mine. I smile at that thought and we both stand there for a good five minutes and watch the wormhole growing bigger. “You know, I always dreamt of fleeing from the Estriduros Republic… But you, we’ve ripped you out of your whole life. That takes courage! I promise to get you an awakening core as soon as possible.”

She leans her head on my shoulder. “Thanks, Sara.”

Finally, we’re close enough to the wormhole. As we aren’t hunted anymore, we follow protocol and slow down to almost a standstill. I sit down on the Captain’s chair and exchange looks with Alex at the helm. She confirms her readiness and I nod. Next, I turn to Maja who has just entered the bridge. She just nods and I understand. She’s ready too, as always. I glance at Lydia who is standing next to me, clearly not knowing what to do.

So I concentrate a bit and grab one of the other grav chairs on the bridge and have it float next to me. “Here, sit down and enjoy the show.” I smile at her, and she nods thankfully and sits down.

In the meantime, Maja announced over the intercom, informing the others of the imminent wormhole jump and the associated switch-off of gravity on the Stargazer.

Then it’s my turn. I focus on the Wormhole Navigation spell. It comes to me as naturally as breathing and five seconds later, I activate it and the wormhole swallows our ship.

We’re one step closer to The Empire now. I wonder what else awaits us along the way.