“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.
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.
Also on this level was the Crystal Room. Thiswas a secure room with no physical doors, and no one other thanMantis and the seven of us had seen it since we had ordered thestation’s workers to seal it off. The last they saw of the room, itwas completely empty. They thought we were nuts for wasting thatspace. The room did not stay empty for long, thanks to somedonations from Mantis.
Inside the room was a round table made ofpure, polished amethyst surrounded by seven thrones. In the centerof the table was a diamond sphere that we used to communicate withMantis. The room was not only sealed physically, it was also sealedwith the most powerful magic locks we could muster, and whenever welearned of better spells we upgraded them immediately. This was ourofficial council chamber where we met to make rulings and plans. Itwas sealed off from the noise of life so that we could focus on thetask at hand, and secured so that no one could monitor ourdiscussions.
From there I went down to the next level,which contained the crew’s quarters. This level was mostly emptysince the ship was designed to carry one hundred and fiftyfamilies, and there were only seven of us. With all this space tospread out, we ended up choosing seven rooms that were all in acluster together. The rooms were all very similar. They eachcontained a sleeping section, a bathing section, and an area foreating and working. The ship had a larger room that was typicallyused for captain’s quarters, but I decided to make it into a guestsuite for entertaining official dignitaries. Each of our rooms hada telepathic seal on it so that we each had a place to retreat to,a little bit of solitude to help balance the constant close contactthat our powers caused between us. This was something the othersinsisted on, and I did not understand at first. They had spent mostof their lives living with their minds in virtual glass houses, andI had only just begun to experience the openness of it all. Forthem these rooms were a lifelong dream, and for me it almost seemedlike a step back to my previous life. Since it was so important tothem, I did not fight them at all on it. Now that I had spent moretime in that glass house with them, I was beginning to understandthe need for these sanctuaries of peace.
Below that level was the central core of theship. All the critical ship’s systems were here, including thebridge, central computer core, engine rooms, and medical wing. Themedical wing was a bit superfluous for us, since Kellyn’s was farsuperior to any mundane medical treatment, but Darnath pointed outthat someday Kellyn might get hurt and we might need it.
When the council was formed Mantis had saidwe would all need to learn all forms of magic, but that seemed tobe impossible. Each of us knew the basics of all the powers, butcould only excel in one or two areas. Any of us could heal basicwounds and sickness, but if it was serious only Kellyn could healit. The same was true of Gafar’s ability to probe minds. When Iquestioned Mantis about it he just laughed, and never did answer.Mantis, for all his desire to help, was often a bit hard to makeout.
The ship’s machine shop and fabrication roomswere on this level too. There we could make whatever parts orequipment we would need, assuming we had enough raw materials onhand. Everything on the ship was designed to be recyclable so thatin a pinch we could rip out nonessential parts and reuse them tomake repairs to crucial systems.
The next level was taken up entirely by theship’s gardens. Here was the source of all of our food and oxygen.A large force of robotic workers maintained most of it, but Kellynhad staked out a plot of her own. It produced no food; she justwanted a place to grow some pretty flowers. Since most of what wasgrown we could never have begun to eat, giving a small plot to herwas a luxury we could afford.
