Final Approach
Location: Red Sun Alliance; Lotin System; VS Stargazer
It takes me a while until I'm composed enough to stand back up. Lydia was right, they made their choice earlier. It doesn’t make it easier, but at least I don’t feel as guilty anymore. I just had to. The missile would have killed us!
I turn to Maja and tell her that we are leaving. She just nods and takes the controls. As Maja has everything under control, I teleport back down to deck 01 and join Shay and Lucy to watch the sleeping pirates. At least we saved 56 of them... We talk a bit, but it gets boring pretty fast. Finally, I sigh and leave.
A while later, I find myself together with Lydia in the living room on deck 02 and we watch a movie and play some board games afterward. When this gets boring as well, I just decide to go to sleep. Returning to our normal routine after that action-packed day with the pirates is hard… I just killed people.
I must have fallen asleep after that, as when I wake up, I’ve got a notification on my interface, that we arrived at the planet Lotin and that the others have started unloading and are transferring the pirates to the authorities. I smile. My crew is the best. I yawn and get up. A quick shower makes me fully awake, and I even feel a bit better. The kills are still in the back of my head, but the memory is already fading a bit. I grab some clothes to put over my shipsuit. It’s a jeans day today. I decide and grab some blue ones together with a white shirt and a purple vest. I mean who can go out without a touch of purple?
Then I grab something to eat in the kitchen and take the elevator down to the cargo deck. There in the hangar bay, Lydia is currently instructing some men and drones who are unloading our tristanium. “Morning!” I call out and Lydia turns and smiles.
“Oh, hey Sara. How are you? You’re right on time. Those fine people are about to finish up. That’s the last bit of our cargo.”
I return her smile. “Hey, I’m better, thanks. We did something good here in the system... Are the pirates already gone?”
“Yup, Maja and the others took care of them. Alex came up to us with the yacht and they brought the pirates down to the planet. It took three trips, but they should return shortly.”
“Good, then I’ll just chill here with you and wait for their return.” I’ve learned something over the past month of travel and conjure up a telekinetic field that can be used as a bench. When I was still a Novice, the power throughput was too low, and the bench always fell apart when I tried to sit down. But now as a Junior on both cores, it’s finally stable and can hold up to two persons. Lydia eyes me warily but when I pat the empty air next to me, she shrugs and sits down as well. I wonder if I can fly if I get this field to move in the future…
Anyway, the workers finish up with the tristanium and leave with their own cargo shuttle. About thirty minutes later, I catch sight of our yacht and the others return. I greet and thank them for taking care of the pirates. They reply with big grins that the bounty for the pirates was almost higher than our contract for the tristanium. I just nod and smile, then we all go our ways. Well, most of us meet back up on the bridge. Alex sits down at the helm and off we go. Let’s see if we can make the rest of our trip uninterrupted.
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Location: Neutral Space; Refill Station; VS Stargazer
Finally! Our last stop. One more jump and we enter The Magicon Empire! Not much happened over the past two months. The whole trip almost took four months now, and if I add in the time in the Estriduros Republic, it’s been over half a year. Crazy! And still, during all that time, the pirate takedown was pretty much the most exciting and disturbing thing that happened. I wonder if they caught the Space Mage…
We also stopped using our diplomatic codes as we got closer to The Empire. It just feels wrong now. It was nice to use at the start of our trip, but now I’m also a bit worried about using them. While I am a Valterion by blood, I’m in no way an envoy of The Empire even if I carry critical data.
Additionally, we pretty much stayed at the outskirts of all the systems we crossed and only stayed there until we used the next wormhole after our pirate encounter. Everyone just wanted to get to our destination faster and with our lack of offensive spells, it wasn’t that safe in hindsight. That way we avoided most controls and checkpoints. Only a few nations wanted to check our IDs, most didn’t care when we stayed away from the planets. So far, everything worked out. And while our Estriduros Republic origin raised a few eyebrows in the beginning, now no one cares anymore. I guess here, across the galaxy no one even knows about the republic.
So why do I feel so nervous now? Is it because our destination is finally so close? I guess we’ll find out. For the first time in a month, we’re using our cover of MARA Deliveries again. Maja grabbed us a contract in the last system we visited and we’re now transporting a load of oranges. Yeah, I know. MARA Deliveries started with oranges and now, we’re carrying oranges again.
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Anyway, it’s time. Everyone gathers on the bridge. They don’t want to miss this. When I ask them if they are ready, I get nods of determination from everyone. Alright. I close my eyes and call up the Wormhole Navigation spell. My power gathers and encompasses the Stargazer. The space bubble forms, and we enter the wormhole. Maja takes care of the fluctuations, and I start to relax a bit. “Okay guys, two hours and we enter The Empire.”
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Location: Magicon Empire; Axtendus Duchy; Axtul System; VS Stargazer
With a purple flash, we reappear from the wormhole. We did it. We’ve reached The Empire. Well, one of the systems in the Axtendus Duchy… It’s still quite the trip to the Valterion Duchy, but we’re closer than ever!
Thomas hugs me. “Congratulations, Sari! Now let’s find your family.” Yeah, he started calling me Sari again, just like in old times. But he’s still the only one who is allowed to call me that. Everyone else cheers as well and the whole bridge is filled with smiles.
Maja calls out a short while later. “We’re being hailed from the station before us.” I look out of the window and immediately see the station in question. It’s not even that big, but it’s packed with guns. Guns that look very similar to our own magical guns. But that’s not all! Two warships also flank the station. The size is that of Destroyers if they use the same names here. The important part is, that they are way better armed than our starship. I gulp. “We better accept.”
Maja nods and puts it on the screen. I smile into the camera and a man in a dark blue uniform appears. His expression is neutral when he starts to speak. “Stargazer, I’m Lieutenant Larsson, I don’t have your ship in my databanks, so I need you to check in for inspection. Please follow the provided route to docking arm 08.”
“Okay, Lieutenant. You can expect our arrival shortly. May I ask what you mean by databanks? It’s our first time in The Empire.”
“Oh, first-timers? No wonder then… Alright, basically, every starship that isn’t in the databanks, has to be inspected upon entering The Empire. If you’ve got nothing to hide, it’s a routine process and your ship gets added to the databanks to avoid inspections in the future. Sure, there are sometimes random inspections, but if you’re in the databanks, that probably happens once in ten years.”
“Alright, thanks, Lieutenant. See you soon, Stargazer out!”
The call cuts off and Maja follows the exact route the Lieutenant provided. No need to make them suspicious. Twenty minutes later, we are secured to docking arm 08. I greet the soldiers at the airlock, and they wave me and the rest of the crew outside. Time to put our IDs to the ultimate test. After we exited, the squad of soldiers minus one who follows us, enter the Stargazer together with a few people who look like technicians. I shrug. Nothing suspicious should be left on the ship besides that it’s old and carries a much larger magical battery. We transferred all the data about Earth and Valterion onto Maja’s storage in her body way earlier.
The single soldier overtakes us quickly and leads the way to a waiting room, where we are asked to wait until they can check our IDs one after the other. Shay is the first one who is called in. She returns about five minutes later and Lydia follows her.
“How was it?” Greg asks her and Shay replies.
“All good, the woman just scanned the ID card and asked a few questions about where we’re from and why we’re here,” she shrugs. “Nothing to worry about.”
Looks like she is right… Lydia returns less than a minute later, and all the others after her don’t take much time either. When it’s my turn, I swallow my nervousness and enter the other room. The first surprise comes when I see Lieutenant Larsson standing in the back of the room with a frown on his face. What’s this about? The others didn’t mention the Lieutenant. Only the middle-aged woman at the desk. She’s still here, but what’s the Lieutenant doing here?
My heart starts beating faster and faster and I start to get very nervous. Then it happens. This feeling! I thought I got rid of it when I removed my collar, but here it is again. I’m cut off from my magic!
“What’s happening?” I ask with mild panic, looking between the two people in the room with me.
The woman starts to speak while looking at Lieutenant Larsson as well. “I’d like to know that too. You just hijacked my routine inspection and activated the anti-magic field as well?”
“It’s that she doesn’t escape,” Lieutenant Larsson even sounds a bit angry now? The hell, what’s wrong? “We found some suspicious data on their ship’s computers. There are traces of diplomatic codes hinting at the Valterion family. Combine that with the woman before you, with the fitting hair and eyes, we decided to dig deeper and discovered some advanced AI tampering in the ship’s systems and found out that the ship is owned by one Sara Valterion. That was already enough to detain all of them for impersonating members of one of the Ducal families, and then we even found high-grade AI tampering on the ID cards you’ve scanned so far. That’s when our technicians started their work on them and guess what? They were all programmed about three months ago.”
He turns back to me. “So tell me, Miss Sara Valtron. What are you planning here? Posing as a Valterion or any other of the Ducal families is a grave offense!” He sounds even angrier now. “Are you a spy and somehow got diplomatic codes in another nation? Did your superiors then say you have to try inside The Empire as well? If so why did you try to hide everything now? Did you get cold feet when I called for the inspection? But still, even having such codes is enough to get you all in prison! Let’s not forget you posing as a Valterion as well.”
Shit, shit, shit. He came to the completely wrong conclusion. “No, not at all!” I call out. “This is a misunderstanding. I am here to find my family! I was told I am a Valterion. I’m not trying to pose as one! We escaped from a Mage-hating nation, that’s why we have those fresh IDs. We’re not spies!”
Lieutenant Larsson holds up his hand and I stop talking. I have the feeling he doesn’t believe me at all. “Stop. Save your explanations for the court.”
He steps forward and produces a set of handcuffs. They look a bit thicker than normal ones and the only explanation that comes to mind is that they include the same anti-magic function as the room and the Mage collars! I take a step back, but strong arms grab me and hold me still. When did those soldiers enter the room? My arms get wrenched at my back and Lieutenant Larsson cuffs my hands together.
Oh boy, that’s not how I planned my arrival in The Empire at all.