Chapter 54: Two To Go

Chapter 54: Two To Go

Location: Estriduros Republic; Sequra System; VS Stargazer

The door of the yacht opens slowly, and I can barely contain my excitement. Ever since Maja contacted me that they have Shay aboard, I've been pacing the hangar up and down. Now they are finally here.

The door is fully open at last, and Maja and Alex step forward. Right behind them, I can see a bit of black hair. Shay! Alex runs ahead and hurries to kiss Jack, but I don’t care. My focus is fully on the woman behind. She looks around, confused. I guess, she still doesn’t know what all this is about.

Then I notice the exact moment, she notices me, as she goes completely still and stares. I grin and wave. Then we both run forward and hug each other as soon as we meet. “Sara,” she whispers, and my reply isn’t much louder.

“Hey, Shay. Long time no see.”

We both laugh and all the tension bleeds away. Just two old friends hugging in the middle of a hangar bay.

A while later, we release each other, and Shay sets down her backpack and starts searching for something. A minute later, she lets out a shout of triumph and holds up a small bracelet with a pendant. My bracelet!

I tear up again while she closes it around my wrist. “Thank you, Shay!”

“You’re welcome. But now, I kinda want an explanation… What is this? Why are you here and what’s the meaning of those two fake Rangers over there?” She points at Maja and Alex, and I laugh. So much for Maja can play a believable Ranger.

“Sure thing, why don’t you follow me to the mess hall?”

What follows is a lengthy explanation of everything that happened. This time I even include my time at the academy and if Shay wasn’t convinced to join us till now, then she is now, as I’ve just told her that we are planning to pick up Thomas, her long-time crush, as well.

In the end, Shay obviously agrees to join our crew, and the others introduce themselves to her. I look around with a pleased expression on my face. We are already eight people. It’s a bit surreal, but we only have two more to go, then we can finally leave. Greg even has both his arms again. Ronja did a solid job over the past few days. The only thing is that he can’t push magic through this arm anymore as I expected. But it doesn’t matter too much for him, as he avoids using his magic anyway. At least he looked a bit hopeful when I told him about the possibility of getting him a second core.

Speaking of magic core. “Hey Shay, do you still want to be a Mage?”

She raises an eyebrow. “Uhh, yeah, for sure… Is this possible?”

I shrug. “I don’t know for certain, but I still have a Utility core at hand… Should we try it?”

She jumps up. “YES!”

I glance at Ronja and Maja. “Are you two up for the task?”

They share a look and nod. “Nice, then let’s go.” We all stand up and while the four of us head toward the Medbay, Alex and the others go to the bridge.

“We start flying toward Lucy,” Alex shouts. “Take your time, Simon can do the jump.”

Convenient. Now we can fully concentrate on turning Shay into a Mage and still fly toward our next goal.

Shay lies down on the bed and while Ronja and Maja explain everything to her and sedate her, I run to my cabin and grab the core. I stay outside during the procedure, as I don’t want to see my friend cut open. Half an hour later, Maja opens the door with a smile. Looks like everything worked out.

Ten minutes later, Shay opens her eyes. “Did it work?”

Ronja smiles and nods. “Yeah, you now have a Utility core inside you.”

Shay smiles broadly. “Thanks, now how do I test it?”

I quickly sit down next to her and explain the basics of magic theory like feeling the core and moving magic around internally.

Shay closes her eyes to try. Then she frowns… and frowns even more. “I can’t feel anything… Are you sure it worked?”

Why doesn’t she feel anythi… I slam my hand against my forehead. “I'm such an idiot!” How could I forget about this… The core I found on Earth doesn’t pull in magic naturally. It has to be supplied by a steady stream of magic then it converts it to Utility magic.

I start to explain the issue to Shay, and she gets a sad expression. “Well, it was worth a shot… Thanks anyway.”

There has to be a way, right? Maybe a magic magnet or something… I mean it’s been 11,000 years of development. But there is still one thing I can try before that.

“Maybe we find something additional to fix it once we reach another nation, but here, let me try something first… Maybe it works.”

I close my eyes and emit my magic toward Shay. Once it reaches her lower abdomen, I lose control of a small bit and it gets pulled into what I guess is her core. YES! Shay’s eyes suddenly go wide. “Is this…?”

I nod. “Yeah, I’m currently funneling my magic into you,” I point at the magical conduit at the wall. “Can you touch this? Then try to pull as long as there is magic in your core. Maybe it works?”

She stands up and walks over to try exactly what I said. I follow closely and when I feel the magic in the conduit moving into her, I cut off my own magic. “Does it still work?” I ask her, and she nods breathlessly.

“It does! Wow, it feels amazing!”

I smile at her. “There we go. At least we’ve got a makeshift solution now. One of the others just has to jumpstart your magic, then you can start practicing spells and once we find a fix, you’re already proficient in casting spells.”

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She lets go of the conduit and hugs me. “Thanks, Sara! Now let’s join the others. I want to see the bridge too.”

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Location: Estriduros Republic; Border Region near the Blueridge Alliance; Hugurd Station; VS Stargazer

It took another two weeks, but we have now reached Hugurd Station close to the border with the Blueridge Alliance. According to Maja’s information, Lucy’s Cruiser, the ERS Topal is patrolling the region here. Thanks to Shay we know that even the military ships take some downtime at various space stations along their patrol route, that’s why we are currently docking with the station. We just have to wait for the cruiser to stop here…

During the two weeks of traveling, everyone got to know Shay, and I think we all bonded closely. Whether it was practicing magic, doing some light sparring in the gym, or just talking about things. We didn’t get bored and now we’re about to finalize one of our last steps before we can leave.

Maja signals through the intercom that docking is complete, and I join Shay and Greg at the airlock. We’re about to explore the station. The others decided to stay on the ship for a little while longer. I think Alex and Jack enjoy their alone time in one of the fancy bathrooms…

Anyway, the airlock opens, and we step out of the Stargazer and head for the open areas inside the station. We look around, but soon notice, that it’s just another station… Nothing noteworthy so we just buy a few necessities and return to the ship. Quite boring I have to say. I hope Lucy’s ship doesn’t take too long. Maja calculated that they should be here in three or four days according to their planned route.

“Hey, over here,” Greg points to the right and I look over. It’s a bar. “Wanna grab a drink?”

I shrug. “Sure, why not? You’re joining us, Shay?”

“Of course, I have to show you guys how drinking is done with the Rangers!” She laughs and we step inside.

We all start with a beer, and as the hours pass, I feel like we tried everything on the menu. We all have to help each other on our way back to the ship, but we finally reach the Stargazer and I somehow find my way to my cabin and collapse into my bed.

Ughhhh, the next morning is hell! My head is killing me! “Ouch,” I groan and rub my temples. A cold shower is no help and I drag myself to Ronja’s Medbay afterwards.

She’s a lifesaver and hands me an anti-hangover pill. It works pretty fast and an hour later, I’m functioning again. One good thing came with our bar trip at least. I think, I now know where we can contact Lucy once she reaches the station: The bar!

Three days later, Maja wakes me up rather roughly by shouting through the chip behind my ear. “Sara, it’s time, the Topal is arriving!”

I let out a loud groan and am about to turn over to continue sleeping when her words register in my brain. My eyes snap wide open and I hurry to put on some clothes. Then I exit my room and take the nearby elevator directly to the bridge. Maja is already there of course and talking lazily with Shay, the others arrive within the next five minutes.

I look through the window, not seeing anything. “So where is it?”

Maja chuckles. “Patience, you can’t miss it. It should be visible shortly.”

She was right, of course. Two minutes later a Massive ship flies past our window, heading for a docking arm on the other side of the station. I mean the Stargazer is in no way tiny, but compared to the Cruiser… Yeah, let’s just say it’s like we’re sitting in our small yacht and watching the Stargazer.

Maja helpfully brings up a schematic in my holographic interface and I gasp when I read the dimensions. 640 meters long, 250 meters in width at the widest point, and another 150 meters in height. Wow, this thing can’t be flown through wormholes by anyone lower than Senior rank… But that also means they don’t need wormholes at all. Come to think of it, Shay’s ship was also a cruiser. It looked much smaller, but we also stayed much further away… Only Maja and Alex came close.

“Maja, there’s at least a Senior Space Mage aboard. Are you sure you can fake Lucy’s location long enough for us to escape?”

That’s pretty much our plan. We head out for the station, talk to her and if she agrees to join us, Maja takes off her collar, throws it somewhere on the station, and lets it send the signal that Lucy is still there. We on the other hand run like hell in the meantime and escape through the closest wormhole and hopefully the next few after that as well. Luckily there are a few clustered pretty close together here, so they can only guess where we went to.

“Yeah, if no one is actively looking for her, everything should be good. Maybe we can send a message to her superior that she is spending the night with someone or something…”

I snort at that, and Maja continues. “I can also leave behind a fake trail if they manage to discover her disappearance. There’s a freighter scheduled to leave in eight hours, if we time it right, we can leave at the same time, and I’ll lay a hidden trail leading to the freighter.”

“Alright, that’s good enough for me. Keep us informed once Lucy steps onto the station.”

I simply sit down on the Captain’s chair and enjoy the view. The docking maneuver of such a large ship is quite eye-catching. In the meantime, I chat lazily with the others, and before long another few hours have passed.

Then the long-awaited signal arrives, and we all straighten up. Lucy is on the station! The outgoing team consisting of Maja, Simon, Jack, and me meets at the airlock some ten minutes later. I've got a steady stream of her location in the top right corner of my interface and Maja monitors her as well. Greg decided to stay behind, saying he didn’t want to be a hindrance with his one-armed magic. He wouldn’t be of course, but we all understand his reasoning.

We share one last nod of readiness, then we step back onto the station and head for the communal area. From the looks of it, Lucy is currently shopping for some cosmetics. But approaching her right there might be a bad idea. I glance at Maja. “Can you send her a coupon for the bar? If we can catch her in there, it’s probably our best bet.”

Maja nods and goes silent for a moment. “Got it, it should pop up once she rolls it open.”

“Nice, Maja, let’s head for the bar then, everyone. But keep it cool with the alcohol…”

The others laugh at my expense, my little hangover story reached everyone’s ears pretty fast. At least I didn’t do something embarrassing… At least I think so.

Anyway, we sit down in a dark corner of the bar and Jack describes Lucy to the bartender. She is to send her to us once she enters the bar. After that, we all sit at the table and watch Lucy’s journey through the station. Simon is the only one still with a tablet, Jack and I both enjoy our interfaces.

“Oh, I think, she’s heading here!” Jack exclaims excitedly and I think he’s right. Lucy is only a few hundred meters away from the bar, steadily coming closer. Then, five minutes later, she steps inside. I immediately recognize her. Well, it’s pretty easy as I’ve got her twin brother sitting next to me. She walks up to the counter and is about to show the coupon when the bartender points in our direction and she turns.

Her brown eyes widen when she sees us, and she rushes over. “What are you guys doing here?!”

“Hey sis,” Jack replies smugly and points at the empty seat next to Simon. “Sit down, we’ve got a lot to talk about.”

Lucy complies and looks each of us up and down after she sits. I can literally see her mind working and we all notice the exact moment when she notices our missing collars. “Your collars!” She half whispers, half shouts, and her eyes go wide. “Where are they?”

I clear my throat and start with a short explanation. Pretty much the same as I've told all the others minus the details like my last name or that Maja is an AI. Still, Lucy looks quite excited, and it doesn’t take long until she agrees to join us. Especially after she hears that we’ve already reunited the rest of the gang.

I lean over and whisper into her ear. “There’s even more… Magic is way bigger than you know. I can show you after we’re on my ship.”

Lucy nods in excitement. “I’d like to see that. Can we go? Oh, and what about the Topal? They’re going to miss me if I don’t report back in the evening.”

This time it’s Maja who answers. “I can fake the signal of your collar, letting them think you’re still walking around the station. We should be long gone until they notice. But yeah, we should hurry. Can you follow me to the restrooms? Then I’m going to remove the collar.”

“Sure, are you a hacker or something?”

Maja smirks. “Yeah, something like that. Come on!”

They start to leave, and I call after them. “We’re going to finish our drinks, then we meet you guys on the ship!”

“Alright,” Maja answers, then they turn a corner and leave for the restrooms.

I glance at the others and smile.

“Only one left, right?” Simon asks and I nod.

“Yeah, just Thomas, then we’re done!”