Chapter 1: Departures and Arrivals

Elvandril paced back and forth in her room thinking, her lithe figure, moving with practiced ease, and grace. The stark white hair pulled back into a ponytail revealing her ebony colored face and lavender eyes as she glared at the door to her room now a prison. She had to escape this place; she needed to get away from the Matron and her insanity.

Her sire had warned her many times before not to anger the Matron, but unlike many of her people she couldn’t keep quiet about the injustices she saw her people commit. The final straw had been the latest world her people had found. The race of that world had rejoiced at meeting her kind, thinking a new era of trade would begin. What they had not expected was slavery and the death of their way of life.

That very morning, Elvandril had stormed into the Matrons court; she had screamed at the Matron that what she was doing was wrong and immoral. This hadn’t gone over well as the Matron had glared at her and screamed at Elvandril to be quiet and know her place.

Elvandril rushed a guard and grabbed his weapon then turned on the Matron. Raising the weapon toward the Matron with practiced ease she began to move toward her. She had taken no more than two steps when a light exploded behind her eyes and she collapsed to the floor unconscious.

When Elvandril awoke, she found herself lock in her quarters with guards posted outside to insure she wouldn’t be able to leave. For the next few hours the guards could hear her raging against being held against her will, and every so often something heavy crashing against the door. Both guards smiled at each other knowing that come morning the Matron had declared that Elvandril was to be put to death for her crime of voicing decent of the Matron. Elvandril had known her fate the instant she grabbed the guards weapon, and she knew she had to escape quickly, thus she began her tirade to keep the guards distracted. Elvandril was grabbing random items in her room throwing them against the door as she moved about it gathering what she needed to help her escape. That was when she found the bracelet that her sire had left her with a note on it.

“My daughter, I can no longer help you, but I can give you this last gift. It will be of great help to you when you least expect it.” Her sire had written.

She arched a delicate white eyebrow as she read the note wondering about the bracelet but slipped it around her wrist, and felt a slight pinch as she did but saw nothing to worry about. As soon as she finished her preparations she made noises as if she was crying in her bed to make the guards think she had finally given into despair. She then quietly slipped out through the window to stand looking out over the lake below. Off in the distance she could see the lights of an air base that she knew had ship that could get her off world. Taking a deep breath she dove into the lake and swam to the shore to make her way to the base.

As darkness slowly settled, Elvandil’s lithe figure moved quietly between large buildings. She watched as the guards made their rounds and smirked knowing that she could slip past them with ease. Elvandril paused dashed again, getting closer to her goal, a line of small spacecraft. Her target was the last one in line and the farthest away from the guards and their patrols.

The craft was a long range patrol fighter; most were armed with missiles and twin small caliber railguns. They had been designed with a jump drive which was used to scout out new systems. This is what she wanted most in the craft. They would jump into a new star system and scan it for materials and life signs. If the system had any kind of forces it would be noted as well, and then the craft would jump out and report its findings to a fleet carrier waiting nearby for other similar craft.

Quietly she worked her way from shadow to shadow, moving ever closer to her goal. She had to stop once or twice to blend into the shadows when the guards were passing nearby, but continued getting nearer to the small craft. Once, one of the guards had stopped and glanced in her direction, tilted its head as if he had heard or seen something, then slowly moved on with his patrol.

After what felt like an eternity the Elvandril finally reached the safety of the ships shadow. Silently she slipped into the crafts cockpit and began bringing it to life quickly. Glancing over the edge of the cockpit to see if the guards had spotted the ship starting up, she growling in a low voice “Come on, come on start already!” looking down at the finely wrought bracelet on her wrist with a large violet colored stone set in it. The Elvandril brushed a finger over it and a soft glow began to appear, then a feminine voice issued from the speakers set in her helmet.

“Mental and Graphical Interfacing Cipher now active, what is your command?” asked the voice.

“It’s a M.a.G.I.C!” exclaimed Elvandril excitedly. She knew that these bracelets where only issued to the Matrons body guards. They are bound to the wearer once they were put on; they couldn’t be removed till the death of the wearer either. How her sire had got his hands on one she would never know. “Thank you sire!” she whispered.

Tapping a code in a nearby key pad the Elvandril replied “Begin interface with ships systems and bring them online. Override all command codes and lockouts! Get the ship ready to launch quickly!” She looked toward where the patrolling guards had been and saw them rushing toward the ship drawing weapons. Mumbling softly the Elvandril continued tapping keys in the command pad in the ship “M.a.G.I.C anytime soon would be excellent!” quipped the Elvandril.

The bracelet glowed again as the same feminine voice replied from the ships speakers. “I am attempting to hurry but this is an older style craft and interfacing with it is proving to be difficult at best. The ships computer is a little stubborn and continues to complain that you are not its normal pilot and refuses to cooperate.”

Glancing out the cockpit again the Elvandril replied in a little worried tone. “The guards are getting closer. We REALLY need to get started now! I am not a fan of the idea of getting caught M.a.G.I.C...”

Suddenly the engines flared to life and the craft started to lift off the ground. “I have convinced the ships computer that this is an emergency and that it should help us.” The voice stated as the ship continued to rise. “You now have full control of the ship. Weapons, as well as the jump drives are now at your command.”

Turning the ship towards the running guards, Elvandril cut loose a few rounds just in front of them to slow them down before turning the ship and kicking the engines to full power. The small craft leaped forward at incredible speed heading out toward space. As the ship finally left the atmosphere the she relaxed a little and breathed a soft sigh of relief. “We did it M.a.G.I.C., we are free! Time to figure out where we are going to go don’t you think?” quipped the Elvandril with obvious pleasure at the escape.

The soft feminine voice interrupted the pilot’s happy mood as it said. “I do hate to ruin your mood but we have fighters on an intercept course heading this way.”

Elvandril looked down at the display which showed three fighters on an intercept course. They were lying on full throttle is seemed, trying to catch her. Reaching down she tapping a few commands into the ship and feeling herself pressed it to the seat as the ship accelerated

A sudden explosion rocked the small ship as it twisted and turned trying to escape its pursuers. The Elvandril growled low with anger, head snapping back and forth looking for her attackers.

“That explosion damaged the number three engine, we are losing thrust.” The AI announced. “Number three engine is down to 30 percent efficiency, over all engine output is now at 82 percent.” The AI announced again.

“I know, I know.” Elvandril growled at the AI. “Tell me something I don’t know, is our jump drive ready or not?” she complained as she juked the ship into a tight rolling turn working hard to avoid another incoming missile.