The exercise today was taking place on the firing range, an open area which could host shooting competitions out to a hundred metres safely. There was actually another range which could handle a kilometre, but it was smaller and only used by the fifth and sixth years. The first years were using spell carbines today at ranges from ten to fifty metres and Mitsuko was not having much trouble. She could hit a man-sized target ninety-five percent of the time at fifty metres with an aimed shot. They were not being taught to hip-fire a carbine at that sort of distance.
The advantages of a magitech weapon like this were twofold. First, it improved your accuracy by, basically, giving you a set of sights to aim down to target your spell. Second, it came with a magazine containing a quintessence battery which could power your spell, and that meant you were not exhausting yourself firing off spell after spell in practical class. Mitsuko fired off the last ‘round’ in her ‘clip,’ popped the drained magazine out to show she was done, and then backed off the firing line to await another turn. She was happy: twelve spells on target, most of them close to the centre of mass.
As she looked back, Siegmar Tate took up the firing position and raised his weapon to his shoulder. He started firing and Mitsuko absently looked up at the screen above his position which showed the impact points he was hitting. Siegmar was not a bad shot, but she had watched him before and he was not as good as she was. It was talent rather than skill; Mitsuko was a talented sorceress and Siegmar was a less talented sorcerer. They were, she figured, about even on their actual skill with a magitech weapon, but she won out thanks to her greater ability to make reality do what she wanted.
But not today. Today, Siegmar seemed to have improved, unless he was just getting noticeably lucky. He was matching Mitsuko’s scores without appearing to put any great effort into the task. He was not taking longer to aim or preparing his shots better. He was just better than he had been a week earlier.
Mitsuko shrugged. Well, maybe losing at MagiTag to Nava had given him a kick in the pants. Negative reinforcement worked on arrogant men. Who knew?
~~~
‘What is the greatest challenge facing magical technology engineers at this time?’ Lambert Stenger asked.
While Mitsuko was watching a sparkling performance on the firing range, Nava was in theory class, learning theory. Specifically, the theory behind magical technology, aka magitech. Humans just loved shortening things. Why the language hadn’t lost all its vowels to make it faster to say, Nava was not sure.
Meanwhile, Rochester’s hand had gone up. That was pretty usual. Melissa’s hand went up half a second later. That was less than usual. Lambert had only one choice really. ‘Melissa Connelly,’ he said.
‘That would be the creation of magical devices which don’t require a magician to activate them,’ Melissa said.
‘That’s correct.’ There was no surprise in Lambert’s voice. It was impressive. ‘Can you explain why this is such a difficult problem?’
‘Because, as far as we know, it requires a living mind to interact with the quintessential field. With a few exceptions, machines on their own are incapable of utilising or even perceiving magic. While we can create devices which enhance spells in various ways, or even allow magicians who don’t know a spell to cast it, like with MagiTag weapons, we can’t build devices which can produce magical effects on their own because a machine needs a mind to influence the Q-field.’
‘And the exceptions?’
‘Uh, the most basic effect quintessence has is gravitational moderation. Artificial gravity and antigravity can be produced without a magician. And there are devices which can generate, um, noise designed to stop magic working within a certain distance. There are also sensors capable of detecting magic, but they don’t work on subtle effects or spells which only affect the perceptions, like illusions. Most “magic detectors” actually detect the effects of magic, rather than the magic itself.’
‘A concise and complete answer, Melissa Connelly. Very good. If anyone can actually come up with an answer to this problem, the world… the universe will change. Until then, magicians remain a vital resource. Without magicians, there would be no interstellar communications. Travel would be limited by the speed of light. Spaceships would need to carry huge amounts of fuel in order to travel between planets. In essence, without magicians, our modern society would collapse. With self-initiating magical devices, our society could advance immeasurably.’
Nava held up a hand. Lambert nodded at her. ‘If current theory says that a sentient mind is needed to cast a spell, is there any proof, or even a suggestion, that it’s possible to create a machine to do it?’
‘A good question, Nava Ward.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Without a good answer.’
‘Oh.’
‘There is a suggestion that it’s possible. However, that suggestion is open to a lot of vagary and interpretation. Essentially, it comes down to unconfirmed observations and hearsay. In some cases, it’s nothing more than legend.’
‘Legend?’
Lambert looked at Nava for a second. ‘Melissa Connelly, do you know what I’m referring to?’
‘Artefacts?’ Melissa replied. When Lambert nodded, she went on. ‘There are a bunch of stories concerning the artefacts left behind by the Harbingers. Originally, they were little more than tales told by spacers. Ancient ships which still functioned, seemingly with a life of their own. A lot of the legends make very little sense when you really look at them. Like, an ancient warship left defending an empty world which destroys everything coming near. Well, how did the story get back to us? More recently, we’ve found Harbinger sites, archaeological sites, and some of them have what
