Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Chapter 62: First Aid

Location: Red Sun Alliance; Lotin System; VS Stargazer

It’s been almost two months since we left the Dakarti Federation and we all fell into a bit of a routine during that time. Alex flies the ship whenever she’s able or wants to and Maja takes care of the remainder of the day. That way we never stop except for short refill stops at dedicated refill stations. Our five Mages and Shay, spend most of our days training our magic and I can now proudly say, that I broke through to Junior rank. It felt like a flipped switch… One moment I was a Novice, the next I just knew that something good happened. Considering my training, the only logical consequence was advancement. So, I immediately tested it and what can I say? I’m no longer restricted by gravity!

The day it happened, we all celebrated, and Greg cooked us a feast. That day we learned that he is quite good, and we named him our ship’s chef. I spent the remainder of that day jumping with gravity activated from and to every room of the Stargazer while laughing manically.

The only thing Shay doesn’t do is charging the magical batteries of the ship with the remaining parts of our power after we finish training. This way we keep the battery pretty much on the same level, despite our liberal use of the new Magitech devices. In the evenings, Shay teaches everyone interested some basic self-defense moves and we finally started using the common room on deck 01 to watch movies or play games whenever we feel like it.

Lydia is still a wellspring of information about all things magic and continues to teach us a lot of things. Unfortunately, she stopped any advances she might have had at getting closer to Maja after she learned about her AI nature… I didn’t press her or anything and decided to just wait and see what happens. I mean, I’m like the worst person to ask for relationship advice anyway. Lydia also started to be the public relations person of MARA Deliveries and takes care of all the meetings with potential customers. As a former receptionist, this role comes to her somewhat naturally.

Speaking of customers. We continued what we started in the federation and try to get a contract to deliver stuff in every system we visit, or at least whenever our storage bays are empty. Most of the money we earn is immediately used to buy fuel, but we also managed to put a bit of money on the side. Lydia is positive that we could afford a Novice-level awakening core right now, but we all agree that we want to aim higher than Novice. This rank comes with too many restrictions.

Maybe we even avoid buying those things completely and negotiate them into the reward we hopefully get from the Valterions. According to our maps, we crossed the halfway point about a week ago, so another month or two and we arrive at The Empire. In the Axtendus Duchy from what the maps tell me. So, we still have to travel a bit until we reach the Valterion Duchy.

But enough talk about our trip so far. We just entered the Lotin System of the Red Sun Alliance and are heading toward the single inhabited planet to deliver a load of tristanium. It’s a small system, barely populated, and reminds me of the Acordus System. What qualifies it as part of the alliance is the prominent red sun that shines brightly.

Simon just left the bridge after finishing the jump to sleep off his fatigue. Since we’re now both Junior rank, I noticed another difference. Jumping the Stargazer seems to exhaust him way more than me. I’m barely winded anymore since my breakthrough but Simon always needs a few minutes to recover, and he mostly just goes to sleep as he says that’s way more relaxing. I wonder if this is another thing, I can write to my magical weirdness with Space Sense and all.

Anyway, Maja is currently at the helm as Alex decided to spend some private time with her husband. The others are probably training or something, so I’m alone with Maja.

Suddenly, she stills completely. It’s been a long while since she forgot about her boy so thoroughly, so I immediately notice that something is wrong. I jump up and rush over to her. “What is wrong?”

It takes a second, then she regains control of her body. “I just received a distress call. Someone’s in trouble! They’re also close to us. About an hour or so with full speed.”

"Shoot, that doesn’t sound good! Is it legit though? I mean it could be just as well some pirates wanting to ambush us..."

Maja nods slowly. "You’re right, let me check... One moment... Yeah, there it is. The distress call is legit."

“Okay, we have to help them as soon as possible! Call everyone, especially Ronja. Maybe there are injured people.”

“Already done. They are on their way. I also sent a message to the planet that we respond to the distress call, as I can’t detect any military ships here in the system.”

“Good thinking. Let me just enhance our engines for a bit more juice.” Ah yes, that’s another spell I finally learned: Remote Control, so I don’t have to rush to the engine bay anymore. So, I close my eyes and focus. The connection between my two cores is now way smoother as they are of the equal power rank now and about 30 seconds later, I feel a slight increase of our acceleration until the gravity generators compensate. Pulling up the engine information on my interface, I see, that they are now connected to the magical power grid. Everything worked out, so I push a bit more power to the engines with the RC spell.

Maja takes a hard right turn, and we are soon on a different course than before. I hope we are on time. About an hour later, the starship in question appears on our scanners. Maja zooms in and puts it on the main screen. Ronja takes in a sharp breath.

“Shit, that doesn’t look good!” She’s right. The ship is dead in the water. The exhausts are pretty much gone, and the hull looks like Swiss Cheese. The ship is a freighter. A big one too. Our scanner shows it at 1000 meters in length. It’s almost half of that in width and height too.

That’s another thing we learned from Lydia when we first saw a ship this big. Apparently, Magitech enables a Space Mage to go beyond the ship size restrictions that come with each power level.

But back to the freighter in question. Most of the containers are floating next to the dead ship and are full of holes as well. At least those that stayed mostly intact. A quick analysis from Maja shows that about ten percent of the containers are missing. Probably the valuable stuff. This screams so Pirate!

“Do you detect any life signs?” Ronja asks and Maja nods.

“Yeah, most of them are clustered in the front module where the bridge and crew quarters should be but there are also two close to the engines in the back. They are also the ones who seem hurt the most. I barely detect the second one.”

Ronja looks at me pleadingly. “We have to help them!”

“Yes! Simon, can you get them? Right into the Medbay. Ronja go and get ready. We others try to contact the bridge.”

Simon nods and a few seconds later, he disappears. Ronja also runs out of the bridge to prepare for patients. Maja meanwhile tries to form a connection. “I think their communications are dead… I guess the distress call is the only thing that went out before,” she replies a short while later.

That’s bad. But not the end of the world. We do have magic. “Jack, your turn. See if you can connect to someone over there.”

“Got it,” he sits down and closes his eyes. A few seconds later I hear his side of the conversation. He must have decided to speak out loud for our sake. “Can you hear me? … Good, this is the Stargazer speaking. We heard your distress call… Yes, we have… They should be rescued already… Yes, I understand… We’ll send them over, hold on. Stargazer out!”

He opens his eyes again and gives us a summary. “They are mostly okay on the bridge, pirates tricked them, saying they were here to do an inspection, then fired at them without warning. They caught a full broadside. Life support is gone, but they have enough oxygen in their emergency shipsuits. I told them that we are already rescuing the survivors in the engine bay. They await you now on the bridge, Sara.”

“Okay, thanks, Jack. Alex, hold the Stargazer at this distance for now. Tom and Shay, you are both with me. Maja, you come over once Simon is back. Lucy, your job is to keep the Stargazer safe. Greg, you’re on gun duty if needed, and lastly Lydia, you’ve got the comms if the planet replies.”

My short speech comes with a certain intensity and suddenly everyone stands a bit straighter, and they all reply with “Aye Captain!” I almost laugh at that but hold off as it’s not the right moment.

Then everyone follows their orders and Thomas and Shay stand next to me. I envelop them with my now less restricted Personal Teleportation spell and trigger it. My Space Sense gives me a short view of the bridge we’re about to appear in and it also seems that I now have the option to delay my reappearance a bit if I want to. That is exactly what I do, as a lot of people on the bridge wear guns and have nervous expressions on their faces.

It's not that I can’t understand them… I mean I’d probably react the same in their situation. “Tom, get ready to shield us once we reappear!” He looks confused, clearly not expecting the delay in our jump, but gives me a minuscule nod. That’s enough for me and I let the teleportation finish.

We reappear in the trademark purple flash and Thomas immediately throws up a translucent barrier. Just in time, as one of the nervous sailors jumped at our appearance and accidentally pulled the trigger. The green laser bolt hits our shield and dissipates. An older man immediately cries out. “Steve! Hold your fire!” And the man, Steve, lowers the gun in embarrassment.

Then the older man turns to us. “Sorry about that. I’m Carl Myers, the Captain of this ship. Thanks for your help… I hope you understand our situation and don’t think badly of Steve’s reaction. Can you tell us more about our engineers already?”

“No worries, Captain. You see, we came prepared. I’m Sara, this is Thomas and Shay. But no, I don’t have any new information besides that we rescued two people from the engine bay. Our doctor is currently treating them.”

Captain Myers’ head drops. “Only two… Shit. Damn pirates!”

That harsh reality stops me right in my tracks. They lost people in the attack! “I’m sorry, Captain… How can we help you now?”

He shakes his head. “Nothing you could have done… The ship’s pretty much gone, and the pirates have already fled. I wish I could hunt them down! Can you bring us to the planet so I can try to put together a salvage crew or at least contact my company and ask for a pickup or something?”

“Sure, that’s the least we could do. We’ll also be hunting down the pirates. I promise you that!” I simply can’t resist. Pirates are the scum of the galaxy. They took so much from me. But now I’ve got the ship to stop them. MARA Deliveries will work as part-time pirate hunters from now on!

Captain Myers looks surprised. “You will? Are you crazy? Look at what they did with our ship… They will rip your small vessel apart even if you’ve got an A&D Mage.”

“Leave that to us, Captain. The Stargazer can handle it.”

He lifts his hands in defeat. “Okay, okay, not my thing to decide. But can you bring us to the planet first? It’s not that I don’t trust your judgment… It’s just I think I need a planet under my feet for a while.”

Maja and Simon use that exact moment to appear on the bridge with another purple flash. Perfect timing, I have to say. Well, I guess Maja was listening in already. Half of the crew jumps again, but this time no one pulls the trigger. “Captain, meet Maja and Simon. They took care of your injured engineers.”

He sighs in relief. “Thank you, truly. Can you give me an update already?”

Maja nods. “Yeah, both of them were in bad condition, but we got them stabilized. They’ll be fine.”

“Thanks for saving them! But now, can you get us out of here?”

Maja steps forward, now all business. “Yes, do you have an airlock here? The alternative would be to teleport every one of you.”

“We’ve got an airlock that should still be functional… But you have to take care of the debris.”

“No problem. We’ll send a shuttle over,” I reply and turn to the others. “Can you help them pack their things? I’ll go get the shuttle.”

The others nod, and I teleport back to the Stargazer. I give the others a short status update and ask Greg and Alex to join me.

“Greg, I need you to shield the yacht. We’ll be flying in the debris field and Lucy has to keep the Stargazer secure. Can you do this?” He swallows but nods. Good.

I grab them both and jump right into the yacht. Alex starts the engines and I press the button on my interface to open the hangar bay. Two minutes later, we fly toward the crippled freighter. Greg sits down and closes his eyes, then a see-through barrier appears around the ship. I can see small distortions where his Novice power struggles a bit, but it should be enough. I was right. Greg’s shield repels all the debris we fly through and five minutes later, Alex docks at the airlock.

After equalizing the pressure, the crew of the freighter walks in and stares at the luxurious interior in wonder. I chuckle and tell them to make themselves comfortable. We then return to the Stargazer where I tell them what’s going to happen now.

“Alright, this is where I’ll say goodbye.” That earns me some confused glances and I continue. “Simon and Thomas will accompany you to the planet with the yacht here. I’m going to hunt some pirates.”

A bit of further explanation later, we transfer the now stabilized patients from the Medbay to the yacht. Ronja assured everyone that they would be fine now and a quick checkup in a hospital on the planet would be enough to get them back on their feet. Then the yacht leaves again with Thomas, Simon, Alex, and the freighter crew.

For the rest of us, it’s pirate hunting time!