CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The tactical math involved in launch procedures is difficult, but generally unchanging. There are some initial calculations to be made, which are easy if you’re on the ground at the time. Everything else is just following instructions. Docking, however, is a lot more difficult.
For one, things when you arrive aren’t always necessarily in the location you expect them to be. It’s possible that you follow your directions perfectly, and a world turns out to still be a full day’s travel away. Or there’s now a volcano where you’d planned to dock the ship because the world spins and the docking area is actually on the other side right now. The UCST learned early on that the directions are never one hundred percent correct, because worlds move unlike stationary cities. Adepts of all kinds have been attempting to figure out why they move around, and what the patterns are, and if it’s possible to put math to it. So far, nothing has been proven to work every time.
That brings us to the secondary problem with docking. It’s impossible to dock blind. Taking off without seeing outside of the ship is just a matter of math and relying on the docking station folk to tell you what they see. Docking blind is one part math, one part ingenuity and two parts suicide. The only way to take out the suicide bits is to remove the blindness. This is where Zaxn’s department does most of its work.
The Tactical department is good at maps and math and figuring out the best way to move the ship. The Engineering department is excellent at mana and spell maintenance and knowing how to keep things running that are already pre-programmed spells. The Science department is a handful of genius adepts who not only know how to modify and adapt magic in theory, but can do things like dock a ship safely through ingenuity and fast thinking.
Cap, Admiral Shockpaw, Tanna and I are sitting with those genius adepts in the Science office’s docking chamber. The office is slightly larger than our Operational Discussion Chamber, with space for ten senior officers to sit while the four main science adepts and an Engineering representative are able to work at their own stations around the perimeter of the room.
The ship reached the end of the directions an hour ago, mid-morning by ship standard time, and Tactical brought it to a complete stop. Now it’s up to Science to find the world, figure out where we need to go on it, and relay the coordinates to Aelon’s team in Tactical so they can push the Bubble properly to get us there.
Each member of the Science docking team is a different type of adept. The dwarf alchemist in the front is a master at scrying, and will create the magical window between the bubble dimension and outside to allow us to see. The elven mage nearest him will cast the location spells through the scry window to find the world and calculate the exact math between it and us. Once she has that, Zaxn’s job is something he calls “physics math”, where he spells the knowledge of which way the world is facing, where the docking area is, and how we maneuver the ship to get there.
The other goblin theorist in the room, a junior-grade lieutenant where the others are full lieutenants, is in charge of a communication spell once we know where the world is. Then we’ll be able to speak with folk on the ground to help us dock properly. If things are as bad on the ground as we expect them to be, that will be the least fun part of the already-not-really-fun procedure.
While the Science team is literally working their magic, Tanna’s monitoring a terminal in the room with a holoreport similar to the mana battery output report in Engineering. It’s her responsibility to keep the Science team on-track with available resources. This is the third problem with docking – mana bleed. Terra has normal mana, so when we’re docking on Terra the Science team can augment their spells with Terra’s natural mana and drain less from the batteries on-ship. With a world like Stenchstone, there is very little natural mana, so all of the spells Science has to run to let us dock have to come straight from battery power. Because they’re more powerful and modifiable, they can be a huge drain on resources, or what we call “high mana bleed”.
As the senior officers, we have a handful of different jobs while all of the Science adepts and Engineering are working. Firstly, when communication is finally established with the docking station on-world, Cap will announce us and our reasons for visiting. Normally I would then coordinate the docking details, but with our mission today that will fall to Cap and the Admiral. My job is to ensure proper communication between the departments and keep an eye out for anything that doesn’t look right. In reality, all three of us only really came here for one reason – looking at the starfield through the scry window.
With no windows on the ship, it’s easy to lose perspective of where we are and what we’re doing every day. The ship is just the building we live and work in, and we don’t get to go outside for days or weeks at a time. Intellectually we know we’re flying through the starfield, but most folk only get to see it if they go on a tourist cruise which specifically goes out a little distance and opens scry windows for viewing. Those folk get to see one small part of the starfield. Senior officers on-ship get to see it every time we dock, and it’s always amazing.
Tanna’s voice starts the proceedings. “Mana flow window opened on secondary battery. Window access created for each Science team member. Please access the window using your authorization codes.”
Each adept enters a command on their holoterminal, then speaks their personal code. This opens a connection between the holoterminal and the new window in the mana battery, and also a connection between the holoterminal and the adept officer sitting at it. As each adept feels the mana connection open, they inform the room.
Tanna checks her charts and verifies as each adept is connected. “Four connections confirmed. Mana flow is stable. Lieutenant Gloomfire, you may begin.”
Zaxn nods. “Lieutenant Runeshadow, the scry window please.”
Runeshadow, the dwarf alchemist, taps a few commands into his terminal to activate the mana flow, then shifts to the left to a desk covered in runestones. He slowly moves the stones, switching from one complicated geometric pattern to another, while chanting under his breath. After a minute or two, the stones appear to glow under his hands as he expertly moves them from one position to another.
A few more minutes pass, and a small sparkle appears on the large blank wall of the chamber in front of us. Twinkling, the sparkle grows from a pinpoint to the size of a child’s hand, then splits into two smaller sparkles which appear to be connected with a thin line of light. These sparkles slowly grow until they’re large enough to split again into a total of four sparkles. The sparkles slowly move away from each other, and the lines of light connecting them separate to create a dark spot in the center – a hole through the Bubble to see the starfield beyond.
As the scrying window opens, we get our first glance of the starfield around Stenchstone. It always amazes me how different things are around different worlds. Stenchstone has two suns – one blue and one yellow – which are visible as small orbs in the corner of the window. A blue-and-purple glow stretches across part of the starfield that we can see, covering the stars behind it in a transparent sheet of color. A large brown spotted rock appears in the upper-left corner, so close it looks like it might hit us.
I look around at the other officers and take in their reactions. The other members of Science are all preparing their spell components, but each one of them stops and stares every few moments. Tanna’s transfixed by the sight, probably by the purple glow since I know that’s one of her favorite colors. Admiral Shockpaw just looks completely happy and satisfied. I can’t imagine what he’s thinking right now. He hasn’t seen this for 40 years! I’m glad we could bring him home.
And then there’s Cap. He notices me looking and grins, then slaps the arm of his chair. “Right. Pretty. Good job, Runeshadow. But next time, try to focus on a concert or a puppet show or something! All the things in the starfield, and ya gotta show me the same blasted stuff every time we come out!”
The d
warven lieutenant turns in his chair to face us. “Sorry Cap. Next time I’ll get ya somethin’ ya like! Maybe I can tune this window to some dwarf racquetball, or some elf ice dancing! Or maybe to another ship where ya can see a captain who doesn’t make the same complaint during every scrying!”
Cap shakes his head. “Insubordination everywhere I go. Ah well. I know ya just did this for Commander Aldamiel anyway. She likes the pretty colors. Ya may be too old for her though, Runeshadow. She’s got ensigns chasing after her now! Better work on finding racquetball on that thing instead!”
Both dwarves burst out in laughter. I notice the elf mage chuckle a bit, confirming that the story about Tanna’s ensign has definitely made its way around the ship. I want to laugh, but I check on Tanna first. At first glance, she appears to have not heard the comment. But then, without taking her eyes away from the window, she twists her left hand and makes an obscene gesture to Cap. That gets all of us laughing for a good solid minute.
After the laughter dies down, Tanna turns back to her terminal. “Mana levels for the scry window appear to be stable. “
Zaxn nods and turns to the elf mage. “Your turn, Vanwen.”
Lieutenant Vanwen Neltasyr smiles and touches her terminal, then turns to the space to her left where she’s drawn a glyph in spellsand. In the center of the glyph is a small rock, originally from Stenchstone. The rock is the focal point of the spell, using the ‘magical tether’ between it and the world it originally came from to tie the two together.
She motions to the dwarven lieutenant. “Vico, the connector stone please.”
Runeshadow says a few words under his breath, then carefully reaches down and plucks a glowing runestone from his design. He glances up to ensure the window is still open, then takes the stone to the elf. She places her finger in her design, and the dwarf lays the stone where she indicates, being careful not to accidentally brush her hand or any part of the sand design with the stone.
The girl’s eyes open wider, and she chants the words to her ritual. Unlike with the runestones, she doesn’t have to make any intricate motions or move anything around, but her eyes take on a glassy look as if she’s looking somewhere other than here. The next few minutes pass in silence while she searches for Stenchstone in the starfield.
When she finds it, her right hand reaches up to her terminal and triggers a command. The mapping spell pre-programmed into the ship takes hold of her spell, and we can see the effect in the scry window. Suddenly, the view changes as if we were moving. The scry window follows the path of Lieutenant Neltasyr’s location spell, and we get to watch as all of the stars and colors shift, turn, move, and disappear from the sides of the window until the view finally centers on a small red orb.
Stenchstone is not a large world; Terra is quite a bit larger in a lot of ways. From the window we can see dark spots on the red surface, a large area of blue water, and swirls of grey clouds. A small black orb and a small green orb, two of the six moons of Stenchstone, are visible as well.
I hear a small sound and turn to see Admiral Shockpaw covering his mouth with his hand. Cap nods and places a hand on the goblin’s shoulder. “Welcome home, Bax.”
The admiral takes a second to regain his composure, then touches Cap’s hand. “Elthen. Thank you.”
I smile. That weird goblin admiral is decent folk. I’m glad we could be the ones to bring him back home. I can’t imagine what he’s feeling.
Tanna’s voice breaks the moment and brings us back to work. “Mapping spell successful, and mapping coordinates are recorded.”
Zaxn smiles. “Thank you, Commander. I will begin the physics spell.” He triggers the mana flow at his terminal, then turns to a ball sitting on his table.
Zaxn chants a few words, then takes the sphere in his hand and places it between his eyes and the scry window. He places a finger from his right hand at a spot in the air away from the ball which is supposed to be where the scry window is currently looking. A glowing point appears, and he moves his finger away.
Looking back to the sphere in his hands, he squints and scrutinizes it like he’s looking for something on it that only he can see. Eventually, he finds what he’s looking for and touches the sphere there with one finger, creating another glowing spot. Turning the sphere back to where it started, he uses his finger to trace an invisible line between the two points he marked. Satisfied, he reaches over and triggers the mapping spell on his terminal.
Seeing he’s completed his initial mapping, Tanna checks her terminal, then activates her communicator. “Tactical. Mapping is successful. Initial coordinates have been mapped from our location to Stenchstone. Please confirm and calculate arrival time.”
The voice of one of Aelon’s flight lieutenants replies, “Coordinates confirmed. Calculating now. One moment.”
With nothing to do until Tactical finishes their calculations, everyone’s attention returns to the window. The room is silent while we all contemplate the view. To me, it’s the best art ever. Anyone can paint a picture of another world, but this actually is another world, far from my home but a place someone else calls home. You can’t capture that feeling with words or paint.
Eventually, the communicator beeps and the flight lieutenant comes back on. “Tactical confirms complete mapping and arrival details. Time to arrival is 11 hours and 32 minutes.”
Tanna nods. “Confirmed, Tactical. Thank you. Begin course.”
Zaxn goes back to his sphere. This is the hardest part of the process – figuring out where everything will be in 11 hours and 32 minutes. Staring at the spot he marked earlier, he says a few words. The sphere lifts from his hands to float in the air in front of him, and starts slowly turning. It’s hard to see with your eyes, but when you look really closely (or have it shown to you in a classroom) you can see that the sphere is turning at the same speed as the rotating world in the scry window.
After a couple minutes of watching the sphere turn slowly and calculating how many degrees it turns each minute, Zaxn speaks a few words to modify his spell. The sphere turns more quickly while he counts out loud. Once he reaches the proper count for the 11 hours and 32 minutes, he speaks another word. The sphere stops turning and his initial point now glows on a different angle than before. He triggers the mapping spell on his terminal again.
Tanna touches the communicator. “Tactical, mapping has been updated. Please confirm recalculation.”
The reply is much quicker this time. “Coordinates confirmed. Updated time to arrival is 10 hours and 44 minutes.”
Tanna confirms, disengages the communicator and returns to her chart. “Mapping spells disengaged, scry and location spells still active and steady. Communications can begin.”
Zaxn nods. “Your turn, Nub.”
Lieutenant JG Nub Sickshade triggers his mana flow on the terminal, then retrieves a visual of the mapping data already collected. He reads through the coordinates while chanting softly, then looks up at the scry window. A soft beam of light seems to appear in the window, flowing around the curve of the planet.
After a couple seconds, the goblin nods. “Communications connected.”
Cap nods and touches a charm in his chair. “Ground Control.”
There’s always a delay in these communications. After a couple minutes, we receive a reply in an oily male voice. “Stenchstone Ground Control. Please identify and provide arrival estimate.”
Cap gestures to Admiral Shockpaw, who takes over. “Ground Control. This is UCST Admiral Bax Shockpaw on the UCST Corsari with Captain Elthen Gravelhand, estimated to arrive in 11 hours. Please ask the Palace representative at your location to speak with me.”
A few minutes pass before the reply is received. “Excellency! It is an honor to have you return to Stenchstone. I will alert Ambassador Dreadthief immediately! Please wait a moment, sir!”
Cap turns to the Admiral and shrugs. “Good to know ya still have fans back home, B
ax! Guess it’s a good thing we brought ya after all!”
Admiral Shockpaw nods, and we all wait quietly for the ambassador. This is the point we’re all worried about, and no one really wants to say anything about it. After a handful of minutes, a smooth female goblin voice comes on the communicator.
“Excellency! This is Kesn Dreadthief. This visit is a wonderful surprise! We were not expecting a UCST ship for some months yet, and certainly not one carrying you! His Majesty will be excited to hear this news! He was actually just talking about you a few weeks ago. What are your plans upon arrival? His Majesty will definitely want to see you and relive old stories!”
The chamber is quiet while we all turn and look at each other. Wonderful surprise? Unexpected? Relive old stories? That’s certainly not the arrival speech we were expecting! What about the war they declared on us?
Cap and the Admiral stare at each other for a minute before the Admiral speaks. “Elthen. Kesn Dreadthief is a valued advisor to the throne. She should know why we’re here.”
I speak before I can stop myself. “Are we sure we know why we’re here?”