Chapter 63

Somewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy, enroute Veria
Jonuth Kidravia’s Ship - Abi
07:00 Ship Time
September 9, 2019

My alarm woke me from a restful sleep, one that I would’ve liked to get back to. Unfortunately, I knew that we would soon be arriving, so I needed to get prepared. Leaning over to give Vixa a quick kiss and a scratch behind the ears, I headed to the bathroom to shower and shave before heading to the closet.

There was a suit hanging there, but I skipped over it and picked up a pair of everyday clothes. We would be meeting briefly with Ercan Warvyn before getting everyone settled, at which point we would have much of the day to ourselves. Later tonight we would be having dinner at Ercan’s estate on the planet, so the suit would be worn then.

Once I had cleaned up and dressed, I beckoned Vixa to follow me and we headed to the mess for breakfast. It was odd seeing so few people in the halls, but that turned out to be because a lot of them were in the mess eating breakfast and preparing for a busy day.

I headed over to the buffet line and filled a plate with food before stopping to fill a mug with coffee. Once that was done, I headed over with a smaller plate and grabbed some breakfast for Vixa as well. Looking around the room I could see a bunch of people I recognized, though I didn’t particularly know them very well. I knew my friends and sisters would be up soon, so I led Vixa over to one of the vacant tables and took a seat.

I didn’t have to wait long for someone to show up. It wasn’t my friends or my sisters though, it was my parents. They were wearing casual clothes, which made me breathe a sigh of relief. It would’ve sucked if I had to go back to my room and put on my formal suit.

“Good morning,” my mom said as she sat beside Vixa and began petting her. Vixa had already finished her breakfast, so she leaned into the pets before climbing onto my mom’s lap. “We finalized your itinerary last night, so it should be on your phone now. Oya will be taking us to meet her father once we’ve docked with the station, and after that you’ll have a few hours to explore, if you want to. You’ll need to be back up at around 16:00 to get ready for dinner, as that will be around 17:00.”

I nodded as I chewed a mouthful of food, taking my phone out at the same time. Opening the email I received, I saw that all the information was there. I saw that we would be having dinner with Ercan and his family every few days, but only two of those were marked as formal dinners.

“You’ll only have to wear your suit for dinner tonight, and then the dinner before we leave to return to Earth,” she said. “The rest are casual, though I’ve heard that Ercan is rather spontaneous, and he could change dinner from being at his estate to being at a high class restaurant instead. He owns quite a few, and he has reservations at countless others scattered across the planet. If we do eat at a restaurant, you’ll need to wear your suit.”

“That’s not too bad, then, you know how much I dislike wearing monkey suits.”

She laughed. “That I do. Anyways, we just wanted to stop by and let you know what is planned so you and your friends can make your own plans. We left two days entirely open for you, as you said you wanted to check out Alade. I would recommend setting aside one of those days for Alade and the other for dungeons, because you won’t be getting any other full days to dedicate to either.”

“I think we’ll be able to make it work. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, and here they come. We’ll see you shortly.”

I nodded and then went back to my meal while looking at the schedule she gave me. While it was a vacation of sorts, there was also business that had to be done as well. Tich, Abi and I had worked together to theorycraft improvements that could be made to missiles and mass drivers. Currently, there are only four types of missiles in widespread use.

You’ve got the nuclear variety, laser-delivery systems, plasma, and high-explosive. The first two are fairly self-explanatory. Plasma missiles do all their damage by directing beams of ionized gas towards their target. If that is a ship’s hull, then a missile scoring a direct hit will create a hole easily big enough to make huge sections of a ship off limits without airtight suits. If a plasma missile hits something like a cannon or an engine, then neither of those would be operable anytime soon. The final variety would be like taking hundreds of grenades, taping them all together, and then strapping a rocket to the back. They weren’t as crude, but they were another way of dealing with fighters and bombers.

There were usually stealth coatings on the missiles, so engines could activate for a few seconds before shutting down, allowing the missiles to coast through space. When they got close enough, their targeting computers would find the most optimal spot to blow up, and they would quickly accelerate to reach that spot. When they exploded, a large amount of metallic objects were sent flying in all directions. Those objects might be spheres, cubes, or rods, which make quick work of fragile hulls.

Keeping the four of those in mind, we worked together to figure out how a missile that bored into a ship before exploding would work. The missile would need to be bigger than usual, as it would need to have one of three things mounted to the front. A shaped charge, a laser, or a drill.

The first of the three options would probably be the easiest, and would also allow the missile to be made smaller compared to the others. All the missile would need to do is strike the hull of a ship and the shaped charge would explode, directing all of its energy through a cone until it starts cutting a hole into the ship. That would allow the rest of the missile to enter the hole it made, before detonating.

A missile that carried a laser would need to be much bigger than either the drill variety or the shaped charge variety, because a power cell would need to be installed to power the laser for as long as possible. It could take a few seconds for a laser to cut a big enough hole into a ship, and lasers needed a lot of energy. A drill would also need a power cell, but it wouldn’t be nearly as big. While on the topic of weapons, we had also thought about incorporating a shaped charge into a mass driver round, but realized that it wouldn’t work very well. Projectiles fired from a mass driver move so fast that the shaped charge wouldn’t have time to activate.

Once the designs were finalized, we agreed to let Ercan’s people run with them. If they worked, awesome, but if they didn’t then it wasn’t really a big deal. The biggest bit of business to be done would be loading Abi up with several hundred thousand tons of material. A good chunk of that was Warvynium, but we were also looking at a number of different metals that were easier to get here than they were back on Earth. At least in the quantities we were looking for.

Some of that material would go towards making missiles and mass driver rounds, while the rest would go to producing as many of the Mark VII and VIII suits as possible by the time we headed to deal with Dhir. Close to two million suits would need to be made by then, but my dad was confident it would be done. The plan was to have everyone in their suits before entering naval combat, as the suits would provide them with the most protection. If there was a breach in a hull they might be ejected into space, but their suits would keep them alive until they could be rescued.

The dragons and dragonkin especially needed protecting, as they would be the most vulnerable out of everyone. Most of the dragons and dragonkin were less than one thousand years old, which is considered very young by their standards. As dragons get larger and more powerful as they get older, that meant that the younger dragons would be around the same power level as my friends. Compared to most of the people who would be manning the ships, that was pretty weak.

“What are you looking at?” Mason asked as he sat to my left with a plate that was loaded to the point of almost overflowing.

“My schedule for the next two weeks,” I answered, setting it on the table between us. “We’ll have two full days to do whatever we want. If we want to hit up some dungeons on any day but those two in the middle, then we’ll only be able to go in for a few hours.”

“That should be fine,” Ben said. “I’m assuming that you’ll want to dedicate one of those days to activities on Alade?”

“I was thinking both, actually. We’ll be able to move around much more easily on Veria thanks to not having to hide the Grasshoppers, so it will only take us a few minutes to get from the station to whichever dungeon we want to go to. Speaking of which, have you picked what dungeons we’ll be going to?”

Ben nodded before taking a sip of his coffee. “I had three dungeons picked out last week, but had to pick out a few more after you got your Skill Gems. I figured that we would hit up a level fifty dungeon and see how it goes. If it’s too hard or too easy, then we’ll move to a different one.”

“Sounds good.”

“Hey, what’s this here?” Mason asked.

I looked where he was pointing and saw he was pointing at September 20. That date had the most compacted schedule I had seen so far, with a two hour meeting starting at 13:00 simply titled as ‘Keser’s’. Later on in the day there was something titled ‘Iskender’s’. I didn’t know what the first two were referring to, but the last one was obvious. At 20:00, the final thing on the schedule was the Narin Deliktas Opera House.

“Looks like Tessa has quite the day planned out. Huh, I didn’t peg her as someone who was interested in opera. She never mentioned it, at least.”

“Oh! I remember her mentioning something about it,” Anja said. “I think she said a famous opera singer would be performing for two nights on Veria before leaving to perform somewhere else. I can’t remember the name though. Kaina Torr, Kaianna Tor, something like that.”

“Kai’ana Tore was the name, I believe,” Anja said.

“That’s it! Kai’ana Tore! She was very excited and said that she wanted to see her perform for years. She goes from planet to planet, never spending more than a day there, and sometimes she doesn’t come back for years. If we had arrived a little earlier, or a little later, then she probably wouldn’t have been able to see her.”

“Cool, I’ve never been to an opera. It might be fun. Do you guys have any idea what Keser’s or Iskender’s are referring to?”

“Give me a second and I can find out,” Ben said.

I nodded and took a sip of my now warm coffee while I waited.

“So I can’t understand the language yet, but pictures are easier to understand. It seems like Keser’s is a tailoring shop, focusing on men’s clothing,” he said, turning his phone around so I could see as he swiped through several images. The clothing looked very similar to a suit worn on Earth, but there wasn’t a tie to be seen.

“What about the other one?”

He flipped his phone around and did more searching before turning it back towards me.

“Looks like a high-class restaurant to me. The food looks damn good.”

I had to agree with that. Even Vixa woke up at the mention of food and peered at the images on the phone as he swiped through.

“It must be if she wants him to see a tailor before they go for dinner,” Anja said. “You always dress up when you go to an opera, anyways.”

“Keser’s is on the schedule twice, actually. You’re going there tomorrow and then again on 20th,” Mason noticed.

“Tomorrow is probably measurements and everything else involved in having a suit made. If I had to guess, the second one is the final fitting. They’ll quickly be able to make any adjustments, but you’ll walk out of the store with a new suit.”

“I knew we’d be going to an expensive restaurant with a dress code, but I wasn’t expecting to have another suit. I figured that I would just wear the one that my mom had made.”

Sonja laughed. “I imagine that you’ll have a bunch of suits after this trip. You know how it’s considered a faux pas for women to wear the same dress more than once? Especially if they’re a celebrity? The stigma isn’t as extreme for men, but people will notice if you only switch between one or two suits.”

“That’s the only thing I don’t like about this. I don’t particularly enjoy wearing suits, but I guess I’ll be wearing them for the rest of my life.”

“Hey, maybe not,” Mason said. “Once Dhir is out of the way and your family is once again leading the Scyftan people, then you could set any dress code you want. If that’s a toga or a kilt, what is anyone going to do about it?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that imagery, and nor could my friends. We had spent enough time talking though, so after finishing dinner my friends and I headed back to our rooms to gather our suitcases. All that involved was me holding the Beacon in my hand while they handed them to me, but we probably wouldn’t be back in our rooms for a while. With that taken care of, we headed up to the bridge.

“Good morning, everyone,” Tich said when he noticed us enter the bridge.

“How’s everything going?” I asked after returning the greeting.

“We had to take a detour so that added about ten minutes to the trip, but we’re almost there. Less than five minutes now.”

“I guess that I should switch to my Scyftan form then. I’m just so used to walking around in this form.”

“It happens to all of us, though we typically don’t need to blend in for as long as we have been on Earth, and it’s a hassle to constantly switch back and forth, whether you’re in private or public. Especially so for younger Scyftans since it takes them longer to transition between forms.”

I nodded, and then began shifting. It took nearly a minute and when I was done, I was half the size. It required me to look up at my friends, and anyone else that was taller than I was. Usually I was the one of the tallest people in the room, so it would definitely take me time to get used to it.

“I’m not a fan of this already,” I said while looking up at Mason. “Why can’t our natural form be as tall as humans?”

Tich laughed. “Evolution. Or a lack of it, I suppose. Our ancestors weren’t very big either, and one of the biggest reasons that species evolve is to adapt to their habitat. Since we were able to shapeshift, we could take whichever form was best for the area we were living. Since we gained the ability to shapeshift, our species has undergone very little evolution. If we couldn’t shapeshift then it is very possible that our natural form would be larger than it is now.”

“You could also argue that you ‘evolve’ every time you shapeshift,” Ben said. “You get bigger or smaller, grow wings or tails or extra arms, gain abilities, et cetera.”

“You could, and some scientists do. There’s a debate in the scientific community on whether or not you can call that evolution. The majority says no, but the vocal minority says yes.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Abi said. “We’ll be jumping out of hyperspace in one minute. There’s a lot of traffic coming and going, so we’ll be arriving well outside of Veria’s gravity well.”

“Thank you, Abi,” Tich said. “You can probably stay up here for a little while longer, but you’ll want to head down to the starboard landing bay entrance when we get clearance to dock. That is where everyone is waiting to depart from.”

“Got it,” I said, turning my attention to the screens.

We reverted back into normal space a moment later, and immediately started moving forward as the sublight engines were engaged. My friends and I were speechless as we saw the amount of ships that were coming and going. There were two space stations orbiting Veria on opposite sides of the planet, presumably so they didn’t mess with the rotation of the planet. As for defenses, there were two strike groups in the system, as well as thousands of planetary defense platforms forming at least three layers. If someone wanted to attack the planet they would need to either take it slow and destroy the defenses, or suicide into the planet. Either way, it wouldn’t go well for the attackers.

Menseio Station was on the opposite side of the planet from where we arrived, but it had moved enough as we were on approach for us to get a good look at it. It looked like a massive hive as comparatively small ships flew in and out as they dropped off their cargo or went in for repairs or refitting.

The closer we got, the more we realized how protected the station was. There were hundreds of cannons on the side of the station we could see, ranging in size from small pulse cannons to two hundred meter long barrels on turrets, which were either mass drivers or high-intensity particle beam cannons. Either way, any ship hit by either of them would be devastated.

“This is Abi calling Menseio Station. Requesting permission to dock.”

There was a slight delay before a man responded.

“Permission granted, Abi. Proceed to docking bay 11A. Welcome to Menseio Station!”

“Copy, 11A. Thank you, Menseio Station.”

One of the smaller screens changed to display our current course, it seemed like the docking bay that had been assigned to us was on the other side of the station, so it would take Abi a few minutes to maneuver around it. My friends and I headed down to the cargo bay, because we would be disembarking as soon as possible.

Tich was not kidding when he said that everyone was waiting in the landing bay. The Spectres that would be remaining here were formed up into equal groups, all of whom were wearing either the Spectre Mk. VII or Spectre Mk. VIII suits. None of them were carrying any weapons, but I was sure that that could be solved in seconds, if needed.

Both Omar and Yuki were in their own Mark VII suits as they stood beside my mom and dad while they talked. They did have rifles, but they were dangling from quick release slings. Kiri and her team were positioned behind the twins, while my team walked over as soon as my friends and I entered the landing bay. Among both teams were two Phenidae, which were all suited up as well.

“Hey Zaszi, Zogyr.”

“Boss,” they both nodded, before Zaszi began speaking. “It’s time to get your first protocol lesson while we land. When the door opens and the ramp goes down, you are to stay put while Omar and Yuki secure the ramp. Once they have, they will wave our Phenidae forward. They will split up and scan the entire room. If they find anyone hiding then they will teleport back and alert us, otherwise they will teleport back and stand beside their handler. Only once it is clear will you and your sisters descend down the ramp, following Oya.”

“If we come under attack, you are to activate the pocket world attached to your Beacon and pull your sisters through. Once on the other side, you will find a button that will allow you to seal it, preventing anyone else from following after you. You will still be able to communicate with Abi while inside, so she will tell you when it is clear. Got it?”

“Perfectly.”

“If everyone is ambushed, couldn’t someone just steal the Beacon?” Ben asked.

“Nope,” I answered as I turned to look at him. “When activated, a force field appears around it, preventing anyone from touching or destroying it. It draws mana directly from Abi, so they would have to overpower the shield and grab it before escaping. That’s never going to happen.”

“Oh.”

Zaszi nodded. “The original plan was for Jonathan to use the Beacon to teleport him to safety, but the addition to the Beacon allows him to pull his sisters in as well.”

“So I’m assuming that everyone else will be following behind my sisters?”

“Not everyone. The Spectres and the members of The Hellraisers will be heading off to another part of the station immediately to find their shuttles and get started. The rest of the people will eventually be led over to a nearby part of the station where they have already been assigned quarters. I believe the members of the dragon council here will be following you, as they have a meeting with Ercan and Oya after you do.”

“Understood.”

A short while later, the ship touched down and the landing bay door opened. Everything happened the way Zaszi said it would happen, with Omar and Yuki clearing the immediate area, and the Phenidae checking the rest of the docking bay. They teleported back with four quick pops and ran back up the ramp to join their handlers.

Satisfied that it was clear, Zaszi told me to proceed, and Oya and I walked down the ramp with a few dozen people following behind us. As we walked, I noticed that there wasn’t as much security here as I was expecting. In fact, there were only four armed Pygmaeans standing around a man that was Ercan Warvyn, and a woman I didn’t know, but one that looked familiar. It was clear to see that she was Oya’s mother, as the two of them very much looked alike. With the long lifespans that Pygmaeans enjoyed, they looked almost like sisters.

I stopped about two meters away from Ercan, but Oya moved forward and to the side, until she was standing between us.

“Mom, dad, meet Jonuth Kidravia. Jonuth, meet my parents, Ercan and Aysa Warvyn.”

“Nice to meet you in person,” I said, stepping forward and shaking hands with him before moving over and kissing the back of Aysa’s hand. “And nice to meet you as well. I can see where Oya gets her beauty. It certainly isn’t from him.”

She laughed. “Oh, I like you. I’m sorry about your parents. I was good friends with your mother and the news of her death was devastating.”

“Thank you,” I said, turning and waving my sisters forward. “I don’t believe either of you have had the pleasure of meeting my sisters. Leenah is on the end, Lucia is in the middle, and Leksi is closest to me.”

Aysa stepped forward and air kissed each of my sisters on the cheek before standing in front of them. “It’s been a long time since I have seen the three of you. You have all grown up to be exceptionally beautiful women. Smart too, from everything I’ve heard. I was on Nedovis when you were born, and stopped by to see the three if you. It was only a few days later that I got the news. I’d love to meet with the three of you while you’re here. I’ve got many stories about your mother I can tell you.”

“We would be delighted,” Leenah said. As the oldest by a few minutes, she was the official spokeswoman for the three of them.

My sisters stepped off to the side and my mom, dad and friends stepped forward next.

“These are my adoptive parents, Tesze Inolgeth and Utych Hios, and my friends and teammates, Mason Reeves, Benjamin Collins, and Anja and Sonja Hansson.”

Ercan stepped forward and shook hands with my friends, while Aysa stepped forward and air kissed my mom and dad, before switching places.

“I didn’t realize humans would be so tall,” she said, looking up at Mason who had to be close to twice her height, and much wider.

I laughed. “Mason is quite a bit bigger than the majority of people on Earth. Probably the top one percent in that regard. As for the twins, the country their parents are from produces some of the tallest women on the planet, but their five foot ten inches is taller than the average.”

“I thank you for switching forms then,” Ercan said. “My neck always hurts when dealing with tall people.”

“You know, I know exactly how you feel,” I replied, looking up at Mason who had a smile on his face.

There were a few more introductions to be made and then the majority of the people aboard the ship had been led to the quarters they were staying in, or to the adjacent landing bay which held the shuttles the Spectres would be using. My sisters and their shadows followed Aysa, while Ercan joined me for a tour. As soon as the opportunity had presented itself, Oya ran and hopped in her shuttle and flew it through the airskin shield, to wherever it was that she was headed.

“You’re right about shaped charges and mass drivers. The rounds move way too fast, and that makes a shaped charge useless. The missile idea very well could work though. We’ll test it, along with the others and let you know what the results are. I assume you’re wanting to have them by the time you move on Dhir, assuming any of the designs work?”

“Yes. I doubt we’ll need them, but it would be nice to have them in case we do need them. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it,” I answered.

Nodding, he looked over the list of metals next.

“We’ve got the majority of these in stock, but it is probably going to take us almost two weeks or so to make this much Warvynium. It’s not easy to make, and Oya is going to be requisitioning some so she can continue her research.”

“We’ll take as much as we can get,” Abi said. “The Spectres are rolling out two new sets of armor, and Warvynium would greatly increase the defensive capabilities.”

“You’ll have it,” he said as the tablet disappeared. “This looks like my daughter’s work,” he said, gesturing to the ship as we walked down one of the halls.

“She worked with Abi and Tich for a few hours designing it, and then Abi changed herself in just a few minutes to match it perfectly. I like the look a lot better than the original one, that’s for sure.”

“She’s very good at what she does, that’s why I let her take over the designing. Well, that and it takes too much time going back and forth with a customer to make everything perfect. I lost the patience for it.”

“I can imagine that. She went back and forth a few times with the dragons while she was there, before they finally decided on a design that wasn’t unlike this one. Just about a third of the size.”

“Are they really as big as Kor said?”

I nodded. “Bigger, even, in some cases. There are two varieties; dragons and dragonkin. Dragons are the bigger ones, and are the only ones out of the two that are able to fly. Dragonkin, on the other hand, are between eight and ten feet tall, and heavily muscled. Both variants continue to grow in both size and power as they age, so they can be quite formidable. Perhaps Selalea and the other dragons will give you a demonstration later at your estate. Assuming they’re invited, of course.”

“Absolutely. They are customers, and it seems like my company will be working with them for a long time to come. So about these quillbeasts my daughter brought back...”

I laughed. “Dragons eat a lot of food. So much so that they have a system down that allows them to cook a great deal of food very quickly. They brought a bunch of land mammals with us, called cows, and that was what they ate for almost two weeks. When we were on Yrranth for a few days they went hunting and brought a bunch back to see how they would taste. I thought the taste was amazing, and this little girl agreed,” I said, bending down to pick up Vixa.

“Your daughter really liked it too, that’s why she brought a bunch back. She said you have the space on your estate, but it will probably be a while before they will reproduce enough to have meat for anything other than a special occasion. There are two males and eighteen females, all taken from different herds around the planet. That should reduce the chances of inbreeding, though you’ll have to acquire some more males, sooner or later.”

“If it’s as good as you say, that won’t be an issue,” he said.

“Well, how about you try it yourself. I wasn’t kidding when I said the dragons eat a lot. There are still a bunch of dragons with us, so they’ll be using the mess to cook most of their food while they’re here. Vixa, wanna lead us to the mess?”

She yipped and then started heading towards the closest teleporter. There was no way she was going to miss out on some good food.

“Mmm. Just as good as advertised. I can see why Oya wanted to bring some back,” he said after he had finished his first small bite. “So I’ve heard you’re going to be pretty busy, even after Dhir is taken care of.”

I nodded, savoring my own quillbeast while shielding it from Vixa. She tried going over my arms and under them, but I was able to successfully fend her off. “We’ll be throwing the Confederation back before making the trip over to the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy to look for the rest of the crystals. They were hidden deep underground, so we’re hoping that the aliens that forced my people out haven’t found them. Maybe we’ll even be able to get some payback while we’re at it.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t left already,” he said. “It wouldn’t take you long to get there, you could get in and out fairly quickly. Your species’ original homeworld wasn’t very far inside the galaxy, from what I understand.”

“It wasn’t, but they had a capital ship of some kind that was able to interfere with how the crystals bonded with my great-grandfather and his children functioned. The plan was to jump in and focus their fire on the ship, but when they arrived, nothing happened. They just sat there for a minute or so before they began moving towards the ship. Just before they were captured, all of them self-destructed at once. We still have no idea how badly damaged that ship was, if at all, and I definitely wouldn’t want to go up against it with only one ship. When I go, I plan on taking an armada.”