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  Harbinger

  War Mage Book Three

  Charles R Case

  Illustrated by

  Bogna Gawronska

  Edited by

  Jen McDonnell

  Copyright © 2018 by Charles R. Case

  Case by Case Publishing

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  1

  “It’s empty,” Mezner said, tucking a lock of blonde hair behind her ear.

  “What do you mean ‘it’s empty’? I can see cities from here,” Sara said, zooming in the projection of the planet’s surface to show a continent dotted with modern cities.

  They had warped into the system an hour and a half ago, and this was the second planet they had visited. The first, while able to support life, only had single-celled organisms teeming in its vast, yellow oceans.

  “I’m seeing the cities, ma’am. But there’s no one in them. It looks like they’ve been abandoned for quite some time, if these readings are right,” Mezner said, her fingers dancing over the controls of her station.

  “How are the cities still standing, then? If they were abandoned, wouldn’t they be grown over?” Sara asked.

  “Not necessarily, ma’am,” Connors spoke up. He was looking at the reading along with everyone else. “I’m getting some odd power signatures, but nothing on the scale of a civilization. However, some of the signatures appear to be moving. It could be that the cities are being maintained by a robotic workforce.”

  “I’m seeing the movement as well, ma’am,” Mezner confirmed.

  “Okay, if there’s no more people, what happened? I need ideas here,” Sara said, pacing back and forth.

  “It could be that they had to run again,” Grimms said from across the projection table.

  “Maybe they died off from a disease?” Connors suggested.

  “Unlikely,” Mezner dismissed. “If it were a disease, there would be some survivors. Even the black plague was only seventy percent successful. I’m seeing no signs of life whatsoever beyond plants and small animals. Not to mention there are no radio signals or Aether bursts coming from the surface. Even if there were only a few humans, we would see something—especially with a society as advanced as this one would have to be to build these cities.”

  “Mezner’s right,” Grimms said. “I don’t think it’s a disease. Are you seeing any signs of ships on the ground or in orbit?”

  Mezner focused on her console for a few seconds before answering, “No, sir. I’m not reading any reactors of any kind. I am seeing a few small things that could be ships in orbit, but more than likely, they’re just small asteroids or moons. Asteroid farming would be in-line for a society this advanced.”

  “Then Grimms is right, they must have run. But from what? Did the Teifen find them here?” Sara asked, petting Alister with an absent-minded hand when he jumped up on the projection table.

  He pushed into her hand with his eyes closed and began to purr.

  “I don’t think so. If it were the Teifen, they would have left people on the surface. This planet is far too valuable in terms of resources and placement to leave it empty,” Grimms said, looking over the data.

  “It’s a little far from their empire,” Sara mused.

  “True, but it would give them a wonderful base to attack the Elif from behind,” Mezner said.

  Grimms nodded, “She’s right, the Teifen are not known for giving up an advantage, and this planet would definitely give them that. Are we seeing any signs of battle anywhere?”

  Mezner scanned the surface a few times in different spectrums before finding what she was looking for. Her eyes lit up as she answered, “Yes, sir. I missed it at first because I was only scanning for life forms, but there is indication of some irradiated fallout. However, it’s quite old, and well within habitable ranges. It could indicate nuclear weapons, detonated hundreds of thousands of years ago.”

  “That’s what I thought. Captain, we should send somebody down there to take a closer look,” Grimms said.

  Sara bit her lip, thinking about their directive, and wondering if she should take any risks that were not plainly spelled out. Alister sat on the table and cocked his head at her, confused by her sudden need to follow the rules.

  Sara grimaced, “Don’t look at me like that, you know how much trouble we got in.”

  Grimms smiled over at his captain. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. We should follow orders on this one.”

  Sara waved a hand at him. “It’s all right. We really do need to know what happened here, especially if we’re going to try to seek out the ancient humans for help.”

  Cora spoke up at that. “Sara, we don’t even know that they’re going to help us. For all we know, they ended up killing themselves in some sort of war, or war was brought upon them. Either way, we can’t spend too long out here. The attack on Effrit to take back the Elif home world is being planned as we speak; we can’t embroil ourselves in too long of a search.”

  Sara considered that, then looked to Mezner. “I want a scan of the entire system; I don’t care how long it takes. I need detailed information on every celestial body in the solar system. Let me know when you’re done. I’ll be in my room. Grimms, you have the bridge.”

  “We may want to consider retrieving one of those robots. They could hold some information, and the UHFC will want one for study,” Grimms said, as she turned to go.

  “You’re right. Have a Marine detachment go down and get one, but make sure they come right back. We need to get out of here as soon as the UHFC calls. I don’t want to piss them off any more by being late.”

  Grimms gave a sharp salute, then turned back to the holo-projection and began zooming in on various cities.

  Sara stepped off the bridge, and Alister jumped on her shoulder as she began heading toward her rooms. After a moment’s consideration, she opened a comm channel to Boon; after further consideration, she closed it, and opened a new channel for Baxter.

  “Are you busy, big boy?” she said with a smile.

  It took a second for her bonded guard to respond, but when he did, she could hear the smile in his voice. “Not particularly. Did you have something in mind?”

  Sara blew out a frustrated breath, not able to keep up the charade. “I just really need to talk. I feel a little lost, and a few words of guidance would help.”

  “I’ll be there in three minutes,” Baxter said, all amusement gone from his voice.

  “I’ll have a drink waiting for you,” Sara said, opening the door to her room.

  “You know I’m still on duty, right?”

  “Fuck.”

  2

  Silva spun in a circle before finally settling down on the bed in a tight ball, to Boon’s great annoyance.

  “Will you calm down? You’ve been agitated all day. What’s going on with you?” Boon asked, looking up from her tablet. She had settled in for the night and was wearing a pair of pajamas that Gonders had said, jokingly, made her look like a child, but Boon didn’t give a crap; they were comfortable.

  Silva chattered at her, and sent a spike of irritation through their bond. Boon put her hand up defensively. “Okay, okay. Sorry I asked.”

  She turned back to the tablet, and began reading again. Gonders had given her several texts on the art of war and fighting, saying that she would be tested later. This warning was accompanied by a suggestive wink, which confused Boon a little.

  Her performance on the dreadnought, while powerful and able to turn the tide, had been lackluster, and she needed to work on her tactical thinkin
g.

  She would be a lot further along if the text wasn’t so damn boring.

  How can reading about the most creative ways to kill someone want to put me to sleep? I think I would rather hit my head on the wall over and over, just to see if it knocks something loose, than read another word of this.

  Silva fidgeted again, which made Boon want to scream, which made the ferret even more agitated. That’s when it hit her. Silva wasn’t agitated; she was, and her agitation was being projected onto her familiar.

  She reached over and gave the pixie a soft pat. “Sorry, I just realized what was happening. I’ll try and calm down. It’s just the stupid texts are boring me out of my mind. Who knew it took so much knowledge to blast people out of their boots?”

  Silva opened an eye, and somehow got across, ‘I thought everyone knew that’ with just a glance.

  Boon raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I guess everyone but me.”

  The door to her small room slid open, and Sara stuck her head in. “You busy in here? I was wondering if you could join me and Baxter in my room.”

  Boon powered off the tablet and tossed it on the bed in one quick move, making Silva jump out of the way. “Hell yes, I’m free,” she said, jumping to her feet.

  Silva chattered at her, then leapt onto her shoulder and chattered in her ear.

  Boon leaned her face away from the animated ferret, and held up a hand. “I can get back to it when the captain’s done with me. It’s not like we’re on a super crazy time crunch here.”

  “I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?” Sara asked, confusion in her eyes.

  “No, no. I was just studying, but I can get back to it whenever. What’s going on?” she asked, heading for the door.

  “You want to put some clothes on?” Sara asked, raising an eyebrow at Boon, who was still in her pajamas.

  Alicia looked down at her matching sleep shirt and pants, and the various kittens posed on its sky blue background. “Is this a ‘change into my uniform’ kind of talk?”

  “I guess not. But Baxter will be there.”

  Boon waved a dismissive hand. “If it’s just the three of us, I would rather not. I’m not on shift again for another six hours, and I’m probably gonna hit the sack after we talk.”

  Sara gave a shrug and turned down the hall as Boon exited the room, and they headed for the captain’s quarters.

  “How is the studying coming?” Sara asked, as they stepped through the door into her room. She headed for the small kitchenette that only the captain’s quarters had, and pulled three glasses out of the cupboard.

  Boon rolled her eyes, and flopped down on the couch. “About as well as can be expected. I just don’t get why so many things are considered when planning a battle, if most of it just gets thrown out as soon as the bullets start flying.”

  Silva and Alister hopped up on the far side of the couch, and curled up against one another in a pile of cuteness that made Boon warm and fuzzy.

  “Well, you have to have a plan to adapt from. Going in guns blazing gets a lot of people killed. Do you want some whiskey?” Sara asked, turning and waggling a bottle of the brown stuff suggestively.

  Boon thought about the first time she’d had the stuff, sitting at the very table Sara was standing behind, and shook her head in the negative. “No thanks. I’ll just take some juice or something.”

  Sara smiled. “Wuss.”

  But she poured some orange juice from the wall dispenser into Boon’s glass. The other two glasses received two fingers of single malt and a few ice cubes. She brought all three to the coffee table.

  Just as Boon was reaching for her glass, the door opened, and Baxter walked in. He was all smiles until he saw the small, blonde woman in her PJs, sitting on the couch. His smile faltered, but returned once he reread the situation.

  “Hello, Boon. I didn’t realize you would be joining us,” he said, nodding to her.

  Sara handed him one of the glasses of whiskey, and smiled up at him. “I told you I just needed to talk some things out. What did you think was going to happen here?”

  Boon gave a chuckle as Baxter looked down at the red-haired captain, his grin plastered on like his life depended on it. “Nothing. Just a talk, I guess,” he said with forced joviality.

  “Mm hmm,” Sara said, her eyes suspicious slits. Then she smiled and gave a laugh herself. “Relax. Me and you can chat after.”

  “I’m still on duty.”

  She looked down at the glass she was holding. “Well, shit. I don’t know where my mind has been lately,” she shook her head, and downed one of the glasses in one go. After choking a little on the burning liquid, she croaked, “You want some coffee?”

  “Uh, I’m good. Why don’t you tell me what’s up?” Baxter invited, a look of concern on his face.

  Sara held up a finger to indicate she would get to the question in a minute. “Cora, are you there?” she asked the room.

  “I am. I figured you would want me here, after the way you left the bridge,” her twin sister said through the room’s speakers.

  “Good.” Sara flopped down into one of the chairs at the table. She put the empty glass down and took a sip from the still full one. “I have a confession to make, and you three are the people I trust the most, besides Grimms. But to be honest, I’m afraid to tell him.”

  The room waited for her to gather her thoughts. Baxter sat across from her, and Boon tucked her bare feet under herself, leaning forward in anticipation. Even Alister and Silva perked up and focused on her.

  Sara leaned her head to one side, then the other, cracking her neck with loud pops. She rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath.

  “So, you know how I tend to play things close to the vest?”

  There was a round of nods, and a “Boy, do I” from Cora.

  “Well, I may have fucked up with the brass,” she admitted, taking another sip of whiskey to strengthen her resolve. “I haven’t told them about the dreadnought buried in the Atlantic Ocean.”

  “What?” all three of them said at once.

  “Or that Boon is a War Mage.”

  Boon slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand. “You have got to be kidding!”

  “It’s not like I wouldn’t have eventually, but I wanted to find out what secrets the dreadnought held before it was off-limits to us. I figured we would deal with the Teifen invasion, then I would be able to continue exploring the ship with Boon. But then the whole incident at the embassy happened, and the battle, and then we had to run off and destroy the Teifen governor and his ship. And then when we got back, they had a lot to say to me at UHFC, as you know, and I guess it never really came up,” she finished lamely.

  “It never really came up?” Cora said incredulously. “How could two of the most important things to happen to this crew in recent history fail to come up?”

  Sara made a pained expression. “I may have practiced a little ‘malicious compliance’. I answered everything they asked of me, but they didn’t think to ask if I had found an ancient city ship in the ocean. And Boon never came up at all.”

  “You’re telling us that not one person on this ship has said a word to anyone at Command? There are eight hundred people onboard, and they all happened to not say anything?” Boon asked, now wishing she had taken the whiskey.

  Sara bobbed her head reluctantly. “Grimms is the only other person who reports directly to Command, and he keeps his reports on-topic, almost to a fault. Now that I think about it, he may be covering for me a little.”

  “He would do that for his commanding officer,” Cora agreed thoughtfully.

  “Once the hearing was over, they wanted to get us as far from the Elif prince and empress as possible, so they latched onto the idea that there may be more humans out here, and sent us to look. They just wanted us out of their hair,” Sara explained. “It’s not like they can stop using us; we’re far too valuable a resource.”

  Baxter had kept calm through the whole ordeal, and finally spoke up. “W
hy are you keeping this from the UHFC, and why are you telling us now?”

  Sara smiled. Leave it up to Baxter to see the fire through the smoke. She took another breath. “There is a small part of me that doesn’t trust, I don’t know… humanity?”

  The room was silent while everyone tried to process that.

  Baxter got there first, to no great surprise of Sara’s.

  “You think it’s too much power to hand over. That the UHFC will just use it for personal gain?” he guessed.

  “Not so much personal gain as revenge. We were betrayed by the one race that says they are our friends. And the more I look into the Teifen and their society, the more I am convinced that a small, power-hungry contingent is pulling the strings. Most of them don’t want anything to do with the war; they just want to live and raise their families,” she said, becoming agitated. “The Teifen remind me of the old human governments, before the Elif came—politicians and corporations vying for power at the expense of the public.”

  Baxter nodded. “I have been getting the same feeling. Dr. Hess and I had quite a few talks before he left with the prince and empress.”

  Sara gave a nod. “If you look at the Elif network’s info on the Rim, planets are constantly leaving their respective empires to become independent. Hell, half of them have populations of Teifen and Elif living and working together. It’s just such a small percentage of the empires as a whole that it gets swept under the rug.”

  Boon held up a hand. “What does this have to do with not telling the UHFC that we have a dreadnought, and that I’m a War Mage?”

  Sara blew out a breath. “Honestly, I don’t know exactly. I think it’s something the governor said to me before I crushed him.”

  “Wait. The Teifen governor? Why would you listen to anything that maniac had to say?” Cora interjected.

  “Because he didn’t have anything to lose when he said it. I don’t know, maybe it was the way he said it that made me think,” Sara said, taking another absent-minded sip.