As I passed the various men and woman workingon the station they all tried not to look, but failed. I knew manytales had been spread about us, and there was an uneasy sense offear in everyone around us. It did not help that most of the timewe stayed in our ship studying the books that Mantis had provided,but in the end I do not think that mattered much. We were justfreaks of nature to them, very powerful ones, but freaksnonetheless.
In a way I missed my old life, just being anormal officer with normal officer worries. These people whostopped and stared would never know the burden I carried asgrandmaster wizard. They would never know what it was like torealize that one mistake could spell the death of millions in thewar with the sorcerers. Indeed, the only one of the non-magi thatcould seem to understand was their Emperor, and he spent most ofhis time alone.
Even he could not truly understand myposition. He warned me against having any close relationships atall, as they would hinder my judgment at a crucial point, but howcould I do that when I was in constant contact with my six closestfriends via a pure and unfiltered telepathic link? The bond weshared was more than any human could understand. We were wizards,those called out of society to protect it.
Any further philosophical thoughts would haveto wait since I had finally reached the bridge of the Nevermore.Kellyn was there waiting for me and beamed a large smile as Ientered. That helped to lessen the sadness of the lonely walkthere. After a pleasant exchange of greetings we took our positionson the bridge. I sat in the captain’s chair, and as always she tookthe spot closest to it.
“Okay, Kellyn, I am ready.” Isaid.
Since we were docked in a secret location,all our communications had to be routed via the station’s systems.This meant that we had to schedule time in advance for any externalcommunications. My position gave me more leeway than most with thetimes, but in the end we all had to work within the limitations ofthe system. Eventually the call was put through and the familiarface of the captain of the Dragon Claw appeared on the screen. Ihad not spoken directly to him since we left the fleet, so I wasnot sure what to expect from him.
“Hello, Captain,” I said. Because of all theencryption and routing being done there was a slight but noticeabledelay in the conversation. It was annoying, but if you learned totake turns talking it was much less noticeable.
“Hi, Vydor. It has been too long since welast spoke.”
“Indeed it has. I hate to skip thepleasantries but we are limited in how long we can use thischannel, so I will get right to the point. I know that you arepresently heading to investigate a situation developing on theremote base Terathan XV. Based on all the reports that I haveaccess to, it sounds very similar to the situation at Arken IVbefore we arrived there. We plan to rendezvous with your fleet andjoin you in this investigation. We should be ready to launchtomorrow, and based on your last reported position it should takeus about a week to reach you.”
“A week? Then you have certainly upgradedyour ship from the Dark Talon.”
“Yes, Captain, but do not worry. We will bebringing her along to return to the Dark Knights.”
“Very well, I will hold on here and send ourexact location to you before you launch. It will be good to haveyou back for this. What route do you plan to take?”
Since jumps were dependent on missing largegravity wells, they had to be carefully routed well in advance. Atone time every trip started with a group of experts poring overmaps, trying to plot the best series of jumps to clear varioussections of space. Over time that changed and a vast database ofall known safe routes was built.
“Now, Captain, I have a full day yet to plan.What makes you think I have any idea yet what route I will take?” Isaid.
“You’re right, I should know better than toask you about planning ahead,” he said with a chuckle. “You mightwant to avoid the Batialan route, as there are reports of anuprising at the prison colony there.”
The colony that he was referring to was aplace where the absolute worst of society was kept and put intohard labor in the mines there. While this allowed many to escapethe death sentence, life in such places was fairly grim. This meantthat they felt they had nothing to lose, so every now and againthey would try to rise up and take over the colony. The Empirealways dealt with it in the same way; the military was called inand anyone who resisted them was killed. This meant the entire areawould be under a tight lockdown, and any ship traveling through itwould be delayed and probably searched. Since our ship was notImperial property or lands, I could refuse such a search, but therewas no avoiding the delays that would cause. It was best to take adifferent route.
“Thank you for that warning. I willdefinitely choose a different route.” After that we got the warningbeep from the station telling us our time was almost up. They wouldnot dare to interrupt one of my communications, but I learned longago that cooperation with the system tended to get you moregoodwill when the time came that you most needed it. “It seems ourtime is up. It will be good to be off this base and free from theselimitations, but now I must go. Thank you, Captain, and we will seeyou in a week.” With that we both signed off.
“Kellyn, I am going to tour the ship onelast time then go to dinner. Would you be available to join me insay, two hours?”
“I would love to. See you then.”
It was customary for a captain to tour theship, visiting every section before any mission. I was not sure howone did that on a ship as large as the Dragon Claw, but on theNevermore it was much more feasible.
The bridge was in the center of the ship, soI decided to take the lift to the topmost level to start my tourthere. The top level was my favorite level. It contained ourentertainment areas, a large, observational lounge and the ship’smess hall. The observational lounge was a room of my own design. Ihad had them rip out almost all the walls on the floor and put incouches, recliners, and other comfortable seating. There wereseveral food preparation areas scattered around the deck whereanyone could make themselves a full meal or a light snack. The mainfeature of the room was the extensive view it had of the outside.The ceiling and walls were covered with high-resolution viewscreensthat were tied to external cameras, so it gave the impression ofstanding under a glass ceiling looking at the night sky. In realitywhat was behind the viewscreens were many layers of extra-thickarmor plating, but it was easy to forget that and believe you wereout there in this room. Since we were inside a space dock,presently the screens were displaying a view from outside thestation instead. So looking up I could see the blue-green ball thatwas the planet we orbited.
I briefly wondered what it was like to liveon a planet, being stuck anchored to a star with scenery that neverchanges. I thought it must be lonely and claustrophobic to betrapped like that. I much preferred the openness of space and theconstant change of travel.
Also on this level was the mostly unusedfitness and exercise room. I knew it was important to have one, andmy years of service in the Navy ingrained in me a need to use itregularly, but I seemed to be alone in this belief, and that madeit too easy to fall out of the habit. Not only did I need to forcemyself to use the equipment more often, I knew I should encouragethe others to use it too. A healthy body was important, even for aMagus.
From there I went down to the next levelwhich contained our library and research areas. The library wasfilled with all the books that Mantis had given us, which was a lotmore than should have been able to fit in the chest they came in.One of the things we had learned about him over the last year wasthat he enjoyed things that should not work, such as taking verylarge objects out of very small containers, or in this case a lotof books out of too small a box. Even with all these books, thelibrary shelves were mostly empty. I had big dreams of amassing agreat amount of knowledge to store there, and used most of thatlevel for the library. Throughout the library I had a mix of littleprivate reading nooks and large tables to accommodate groupresearch. Most of our time lately had been spent in there studyingall that we had, and trying out as much as we could.