Earth
Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies
August 12, 2019
23:12 PDT (20:12 EDT)

People stopped what they were doing and were watching the reunion taking place. Jonathan didn’t remember his sisters, and neither did they remember him, for that matter. They were too young. Jonathan was a little over three years old, and his sisters a mere nine days old when their parents were assassinated. They were split up upon achieving orbit of Nedovis, and were placed in stasis chambers where they remained for over fourteen hundred years.

Aleena, Lucille and Alexis were actually taken out of stasis three years before Jonathan was, so they would be around the same age. Jonathan just turned eighteen, but the triplets would have a few weeks to go before their own eighteenth birthdays. Their caretakers had done this because events would start to rapidly unfold, and it would be beneficial if all three could defend themselves. Now, all four of them could be trained at the same pace, rather than Jonathan being three years ahead of his sisters.

Alexandra stepped through the portal a few moments after Jonathan did and surveyed the room. She laughed upon seeing Jonathan being swarmed by his sisters. “Girls, let your brother up, and introduce yourselves.”

The girls looked around and noticed all the people watching them. They were unabashed as they got to their feet. Both Aleena and Alexis extended their hands to Jonathan to help him to his feet.

“Thanks. I.. uh.. don’t know what to call any of you.”

“That’s ok. I’m Lucille. Aleena is to your left, and Alexis is to your right,” she said, gesturing to both.

“Nice to meet you, Lucille, Aleena and Alexis. Please forgive me if I mess up each of your names. It’s hard enough telling those two apart when they dress alike,” I said, using my thumb to point at the twins I knew were standing behind me.

“You won’t have any trouble with that when you learn how to Mindspeak. Each person’s mind will feel different. Even triplets are easy to distinguish using Mindspeak,” Alexandra cut in.

I turned to her. “Why can’t I Mindspeak anyways? You said Scyftans are born with the ability to Mindspeak.”

“You can’t yet because when you were removed from stasis, a barrier was put in place around your mind. What that means is that you can’t sense other people’s minds, and people can’t sense yours. Remember what Gabriel said about agents of Kaldrus Dhir searching for you? We couldn’t take a chance of someone detecting you before you were ready.”

“It makes sense. I get it. When am I going to be taught how to use Mindspeak? I’m assuming that I’ll need to know how to use that before I can shapeshift?”

She nodded. “You, along with your friends, if they would like to, can all learn Mindspeak together. The when depends on whether or not you would like to postpone going into the dungeon for a few days.”

“Wait, how can they learn Mindspeak? I thought it was something unique to Scyftans?”

“It is, but they can learn a lesser version of it in Telepathy,” she said, taking four orange Skill Gems out of her pocket. She turned to my friends and handed them out. “These are 537S Skill Gems, otherwise known as Telepathy. Don’t learn them yet as it can be quite disorienting with so many people around. Once you’ve mastered the ability, you’ll be able to communicate with each other a lot more quickly.”

They all profusely thanked Alexandra for the gift. It’s not everyday someone is handed a legendary Skill Gem for free, let alone four people.

“Alright, go catch up with your sisters. Gabriel and I want to have a chat with your friends, and then afterwards there are a few more people to meet,” she said after she turned back to me.

“Okay,” I said with a puzzled look on my face. My sisters wouldn’t give me a chance to ask what they wanted to talk about, however. Two of them each grabbed an arm and led me over to a couch that was positioned in front of a large curved array of monitors. We sat down and I took notice of what was on the monitors for the first time. “Hey, is that the boss room from the dungeon my friends and I were just in?”

“Yup,” the one to my left said. “We were watching you and your friends progress through the dungeon. It was good entertainment. There was even a bet going on.”

“A bet? How do they have cameras in the dungeon, anyways?”

“When you were on the fifth floor walking around in circles because of that disorienting trap, there was a bet on who would figure it out, and how long it would take. I actually won the bet, being the closest, and picking Ben to figure it out,” the triplet to my right answered.

“As for the cameras? Apparently it’s something they do when a new dungeon opens. They send a team in to clear the dungeon and place small cameras around it. The cameras run off the ambient mana in the air, so they never run out of power and can stay in place indefinitely. They even stay in place when the dungeon resets, though the team needs to go back in and place additional cameras whenever floors are added.”

“Why the cameras anyway?” I asked.

“To look for talented adventurers. The Adventurer’s Guild is always recruiting high level adventurers. Now that you know that the Adventurer’s Guild was formed by Scyftans, you need to realize that we’re thinking about the bigger picture. The more powerful the people are, the better chance they have should an enemy force invade.”

“Ah. So what did you win in the bet..um.. Alexis?”

“That’s right,” she said with a nod. “A few thousand credits. There were a lot of people in it, and it was winner take all.”

“Awesome! So for as long as I can remember, I’ve been living in Ottawa. Where have you three been all this time?”

“We’ve been all over the place,” the triplet sitting to the right of Alexis said. “We’ve lived in Japan, China, India, Russia, England, Spain, Florida, California. The last few years we’ve been living in Hawaii. Oh, and we also spent a few months living in Antarctica.”

“Antarctica? That must have been cold.” I said, shivering just thinking about it.

“Not really,” she replied.. “You forget that we’re shapeshifters, so we can change our bodies to suit our environment. We could live anywhere on Earth and be perfectly fine. We spent a lot of time practicing shapeshifting while we were there.”

“What sort of things did you shift into? There aren’t a whole lot of animals that can withstand those temperatures.”

“There are actually a lot more than you might think. Most of them just live in other parts of the world. Would you like to see?” Alexis asked.

“Sure!”

The triplets got up from the couch and stood in front of me. One by one, their forms started to grow or shrink. After about fifteen seconds, there were three different animals standing in front of me, and none of them are native to Antarctica. To my left, there was an Arctic hare, and to my right, there was an Arctic fox, which was only a little bit bigger than the hare. In the middle, was a massive Polar bear. All three of those species could certainly survive the temperatures.

After about a minute of them being in those forms, they switched back to their human forms. “Very cool. Did you three stay in forms like that all the time? Did you have to hunt for food, or what?”

“Ah, that’s where our ability to take on characteristics of other species comes in,” the triplet to my left, who I think is Aleena, said. With that, she started shifting again. This time, she didn’t change into a different animal. Instead, she started growing thick white fur all over her body.

“This is the form we used most often while living there. It kept us warm and still allowed us to use our hands,” she continued, wiggling her fingers in the air.

“Ah, I see. So you didn’t have to hunt penguins or seals or anything to survive then?”

“Nope. Each of us has a storage ring that is enchanted with Preservation. With it, we were able to bring months of food with us, and it was as fresh as it was when it was put inside.”

“Fresh food would certainly be nice. I’ll need to upgrade my ring one of these days. It’s just a normal one that can hold fifty pounds worth of stuff,” I said, holding it up.

Aleena’s fur started disappearing and she returned to her human form. Seeing the transformation prompted another question.

“What happens to your clothes when you shift? Each of you shifted into animals, but when you shifted back you were wearing your clothes. How does that work?”

“We’re wearing specially designed clothes that were developed by Scyftan scientists thousands of years ago. They change with the person when they shift, and can actually make shifting a little easier. When we shift into animals, or the form you just saw where Aleena started growing fur, our clothes are incorporated into the form. When we transform back, our clothes transform back as well. It really helps, otherwise any time you changed your form, you’d have to get dressed again.”

“So when Alexandra and Gabriel showed us their Scyftan form earlier, their clothes were shrinking with them?”

“That’s right. It’s very versatile clothing. I’m sure you saw Omar and Yuki in the portal room. They’re actually using another version of the clothing that was issued for the military. It’s a lot more durable and can be formed over whatever they shift into. I’ve seen Omar shift into a large bear, and his clothing change to cover his form, adding another layer of armor.”

“Portal room? I saw Omar press a button on a console, but I thought that was just to unlock the door.”

She shook her head. “That’s the room that connects the Adventurer’s Guild HQ in Ottawa to other Scyftan facilities. There are many around the world, and that room you were in connects to all of them. When Omar pressed the button on the console, it established a link between the room and this facility. The door is actually a portal disguised as a door, just in case someone else discovered it.”

“So where are we now?”

“The Rocky Mountains. Pretty much smack dab on the border between British Columbia and Alberta.”

“Seriously? Isn’t that over three thousand kilometers away?”

The triplets had all sat back down again, in their original positions. Alexis, who sat to my right chuckled before replying, “Three thousand kilometers is nothing. It also connects to a base on the far side of the moon. That’s almost four hundred thousand kilometers.”

I must have had a dumbfounded look on my face, because the girls burst into laughter. “Get used to stuff like that, big brother. Scyftans are a hell of a lot more technically advanced than humans are,” Lucille said.

“How far can portals actually go? And why is there a base on the moon?”

“The distance is theoretically infinite, but the further you go, the more power is needed to make a connection. As for the base on the moon? Where do you think we keep our ships? We can’t exactly land them on Earth, people would go nuts.”

“Ships?! Can I see them?”

“I don’t see why not. Let me ask.” Aleena said.

I sat there waiting for her to get up and ask. When she didn’t, I realised she was using Mindspeak.

She broke into a smile and looked at me. “Alexandra said we can go up, but we need to be back here in thirty minutes. Let’s go.”

The girls got up and led me towards the portal I arrived from. Aleena pressed a button beside the door and waited until a light turned green. When it did, she opened the door and stepped through. The rest of us followed and we were in the room with Omar and Yuki.

“Hey, Omar, Yuki. His highness here would like to check out the ships,” she said with a grin, motioning to me.
Omar laughed. “Sure thing.” He turned back to the console and pressed another button. He turned back. “You can go back through now. Have fun, your highness,” he said with a flourishing bow.

Even I had to laugh at that. We turned and walked through the portal. There was a Scyftan man waiting when we exited on the other side. He was dressed in a uniform that had some markings on the shoulders. I had never seen anything like it before, but I assumed he was a high ranking military member.

The man saluted with his right hand over his heart and then stepped forward, offering his hand. “Glad to see you again after so long, young Jonuth Kidravia. My name is Tich Igdaris. Tesze told me you were on your way up, so I decided to meet you and give you a tour.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said, shaking his hand. “Sorry, but who is Tesze?”

“Ah, my apologies. You know her as Alexandra Stevens. Her Scyftan name is Tesze Inolgeth.”

“Oh. It didn’t take us long to get here. How did she contact you so you could get here so quickly?”

“Within Mindspeak,” he said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

“From that far away? Isn’t it something like four hundred thousand kilometers from Earth to this base?”

“Just about that, yes. Come, walk with me and I’ll explain.”

Tich started walking away and I fell in beside him. My sisters followed behind us and he started his explanation. “Think about Mindspeak as a transmitter on one end, and a receiver on the other end. The more power channeled into the transmitter, the further a signal can be sent. If the signal is powerful enough, a receiver can pick up the message from a great distance away. Tesze is powerful in Mindspeak, though there are Scyftans out there who dwarf her in their own ability. Even so, the distance from Earth to this base is minuscule in comparison to how far she can transmit at full power. Even the weakest Scyftan in Mindspeak could cover the distance between Earth and this base.”

“What is her max range? Do you know?”

“I do not. She may not even know what her maximum range is. You wanted to see some ships, correct?”

I quickly nodded. “Yes sir. As soon as I heard there were ships up here.”

He stopped walking in front of a large window. “Well, here we are,” he said, looking out the window. It was pitch black, and I couldn’t see anything. Suddenly lights came on and a massive hanger was lit up. From one end to the other, the hanger was completely full of a variety of different ships.

“How many ships are in there?” I asked while looking in awe.

“Sixty three. Enough to evacuate every Scyftan off Earth at once, if we needed to. See that ship in the far corner there?” he asked, pointing to one of the ships.

I saw the ship he was talking about. It was one of the larger ships in the hanger. It was sort of proportioned like a woman, in that the front of the ship was wide, the middle was narrow, and then the back of the ship flared out again. It had a smooth exterior, and I couldn’t see any weapons mounted on it. That didn’t mean there weren’t any, though.

“I see it,” I answered.

“That’s the ship you arrived in. We’ve upgraded her over the years, and now she could make the trip from Earth to Nedovis in six months, rather than three hundred years like it took the first time.”

“What kind of ship is it?”

“That one is a Stalker III class destroyer named The Intrepid. You can’t see the weapons on it, but they’re there, trust me. There are a few more destroyers in there, but most of the ships in there are frigates, personal yachts or transports, like those three over there,” he said, pointing over to three identical ships that were bigger than the rest. “Those three ships can hold about eight thousand people in each, though it won’t be particularly comfortable for them.”

The ships that he was pointing at didn’t look like they could carry anywhere near that many people. I looked down at him and was about to ask how that many people fit in the ship when I got my answer. I was thinking like a human, not a Scyftan. A ship that size could easily fit eight thousand people in it, if they were the size of a Scyftan, or smaller.

“That small ship over there is the one that your sisters arrived on,” he said, pointing at another. It was one of the smallest ships in the hanger, and it did have some noticeable weapons on it in the form of two barrels that protruded out the front of it.

“That was a prototype for a new type of frigate that was being worked on when the coup happened. It was to be called a Prowler class frigate, and many were slated to follow if it performed well.

Those two barrels you see protruding out of the front run almost the entirety of the length of the ship. It was actually built around them. They’re a pair of Mass Drivers and can be fired one at a time or in tandem. Along with the prototype for a stealth shield that was also installed, it can be incredibly deadly.”

“Mass drivers… those are the ones that uses electromagnetism to launch a solid projectile, right?”

“That’s right. The most common metals used for the projectiles is tungsten for its hardness and density. That small ship could easily destroy a battleship or dreadnought with a well aimed shot fired from both barrels at once.”

“Also, by stealth shields, do you mean the type of thing that hides a ship visually, and makes it very hard to detect by sensors?

He nodded. “They were in the prototype stage when the coup happened. Luckily, the schematics and all the research for them was stored on Spectre servers. If it hadn’t, Kaldrus Dhir would have entire fleets of stealthed ships cruising around.”

‘Yeah... a tyrant with fleets of stealthed ships would be very bad,’ I thought to myself. I noticed two small ships that looked nothing like a warship. “I assume those are the personal yachts you were talking about?”

“That they are. I’m sure you’ll be meeting the owner of the larger one fairly soon. It’s owned by a man named Kor Gidres, though I believe he goes by Thomas Stewart in his human form.

“Who is Kor Gidres?” I asked.

He looked up at me. “Kor Gidres was one of your father’s closest friends. He was a very rich man until the coup forced him to flee Scyftan space as well. He was surveying one of his asteroid mining operations with his family when news came of the coup. A strike wing of ships loyal to Kaldrus Dhir jumped in the system and attempted to arrest him. Fortunately, he had a very good crew, and very good shields installed on the ship, allowing them to escape unscathed.”

He was about to continue speaking when he stopped again. He had a faraway look in his eyes that quickly passed. “Alexandra would like you and your sisters to return now. I’ll walk you back to the portal.”

We started walking and I had to ask. “So what do the markings on your shoulder signify? I know it’s some sort of military rank.”

“Before the coup, I was a Fleet Admiral. I still consider myself to be one, actually, so I continue to wear the uniform. When we’re finally ready to depose Kaldrus Dhir, I’ll be commanding the real Scyftan navy. With your approval, of course.”

“You definitely know a hell of a lot more than I do, Tich. All of my knowledge comes from fiction and television. Those are not the most reliable of sources.”

“They are not,” he replied with a chuckle. We arrived back at the portal. “Well, here we are. It was good to see you, Jonuth. Feel free to come up whenever you like, and tell Abi I said ‘Hi’, will you? You don’t know her yet, but you will soon, I think.”

“I’ll definitely be spending some time up here, Tich. I never thought I’d see anything other than a space shuttle in my lifetime. I’ll pass along your greeting whenever I meet this mysterious Abi.”

The girls and I said goodbye and then walked through the portal.

“So who is Abi?” I asked them.

“Sorry, not allowed to tell you, it’s a surprise,” one of them said.

“Welcome back!” Omar said. “Back to the base?”

“Yes, please.” I replied with a nod.

He pressed another button. “You can head on through.”

“Thank you.”

We walked through and my sisters told me to follow them. They led me to a long hall that was off to the left and then continued walking until we arrived at a large meeting room. Inside, Alexandra, Gabriel and my friends were standing around talking to a man and a woman. Behind them stood the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

She stood at no more than five feet tall, if that, and had long red hair. Her face was oval shaped and from a distance it seemed like she had blue-green eyes. There was a small smattering of freckles under her eyes and on her nose, with the latter being slightly upturned. It suited her face well. She had the pale skin that you would usually associate redheads with having. She was also rather gifted in the chest department. Her tiny waist flared out to a very nice set of hips. I couldn’t see her ass since she was facing me, but with those hips it must be amazing.

She looked towards me at that moment and I immediately averted my gaze. I ended up looking over to Anja and Sonja who both had knowing smiles. I’d been busted. I heard giggling coming from beside me. I looked over and all three of my sisters shared the same kind of look as the twins.

“Who is that?” I whispered.

“Syndras Gidres,” one of them whispered back. “Known on Earth as Tessa Stewart.”

“Ah, you’re here!” I heard Alexandra call from behind me. “Jonathan, come over and meet the Stewarts.

I turned around and started walking over to them. As my eyes fell upon Tessa, I caught a tiny smirk that quickly disappeared.

“Jonathan, this is Thomas Stewart, who was a family friend of your father. Beside him is his wife, Claire, and beside her is their daughter Tessa. Thomas, Claire, Tessa, meet Jonathan.”

“Nice to finally meet you, Jonuth Kidravia. I’m sorry about your mother and father. Your father and I were friends from childhood, and were intent on remaining friends for a very long time. That bastard Kaldrus Dhir ruined all that with his thirst for power,” Thomas said, offering his hand.

I accepted his handshake. “Nice to meet you as well, Thomas. I’ll be looking forward to hearing about my parents from one of the people who knew them best.”

A broad smile appeared on his face. “I can certainly do that, young man. I can certainly do that.” He turned to his right and stepped aside. “This is my wife, Claire.”

“Nice to meet you, Jonathan,” she said, offering her hand.

Rather than shake her hand, I raised it to my lips and kissed the back of it. It seemed like the right thing to do. “Nice to meet you, Claire,” I replied, before releasing her hand.

“And this is our daughter, Tessa.” Thomas said, as Claire stepped to the side and Tessa walked over.

She was even more beautiful than I thought. She did, indeed, have blue-green eyes. They’re very rare on a human, and even though she can change her form at will, she still looked breathtaking.

She too, offered her hand. “Greetings, Jonathan.”

“Greetings, Tessa,” I replied, kissing the back of her hand, before releasing it.

When the greetings were over with, Gabriel bid us to sit around the table. When we were all seated, Gabriel turned to Thomas. “Thomas, would you like to inform Jonathan on why we’re here?”

“Right to the point, eh? Alright, then,” he said with a chuckle. He looked over to me and then started. “After you and Tessa were born, your father and I came to an agreement. The agreement was you and Tessa would be wed when both of you came of age. In return, I would put all of my vast fortune behind the throne, strengthening it for generations to come.”

“As I told Alexandra and Gabriel earlier today, I’m not going to hold you to that agreement. My wife and I would be very happy if you both married, but we’re not going to force it. I will, however, put all my power behind you, so you can take back your throne.”

“When the coup happened, I learned too late to do anything about it. I was even forced to flee Scyftan space when a strike wing jumped to one of my mining operations and attempted to arrest me and my family. We managed to escape and traveled to what is now Alliance space. The Alliance is made of of nearly all the species, and other ones, that were once part of the Scyftan Protectorate.”

“Kaldrus Dhir didn’t manage to have my funds frozen in time, so I was able to take most of my fortune and invest it with many of the races that broke off from the Protectorate when they learned of the coup. For the last fourteen hundred years, I had been growing my fortune to the point where I could finally put it in use for something substantial.”

He pulled a tablet out of his inventory and continued talking. “About twenty years ago, I took the vast majority of the money I made and used it to place an order with the Warvyn family. The Warvyns are some of, if not the best shipbuilders that I know of. For the past twenty years, they’ve been building these to Tich Igdaris’ specifications,” he said, sliding the tablet over to me.

I looked over the tablet and was amazed at what I was seeing. There were detailed specs to over a dozen different classes of ships, and the number of each class of ship that were built. In total, six hundred ships were built, not counting any transport ships or fighters.

I looked up at him with my mouth gaping open. He smiled and then continued. “Those ships are now under your command. As soon as you order it, they can be to Earth in less than two months. They won’t be crewed, but I think the Adventurer’s Guild can figure that out,” he finished, looking over to Alexandra and Gabriel. It looked like neither of them knew what Thomas was talking about, so I slid the tablet over so they could read it.

Alexandra looked up with a shocked look on her face. “Why would you do this, Thomas? This is trillions of credits worth of ships.”

He shook his head. “Quadrillions, actually. They’re state of the art. I did it because Derech was like a brother to me, and I’m not about to let Kaldrus Dhir destroy our people in his ineptitude. Our people already had to flee our home once. I don’t want them to have to flee again.”

“I don’t know how to thank you, Thomas,” I said. “As for the marriage thing; as beautiful as your daughter is, it’s not up to me.”

He had a confused look on his face. “What do you mean it’s not up to you? All you need to do is say yes or no.”

I shook my head. “It’s not up to me, it’s up to her. Neither you, nor I, will force her to do something she doesn’t want to do. If she wishes it, we’ll see where it leads, but as I said, it’s not up to me, it’s up to her. How would you feel if your wife ended up resenting you after a few hundred, or thousands of years of marriage?”

“I see your point, young man.” Turning to his daughter, he asked, “Well, Tessa, do you wish it?”

She seemed quite speechless, so she vigorously nodded her head, instead.

“That’s settled then,” he said with a laugh. “So when would you like the ships to arrive? As I said, it will take them less than two months to arrive once you give the order.”

“I don’t know,” I answered. Looking over to Alexandra and Gabriel I asked, “When do you think they should arrive? People have to be trained and drilled, right? So sooner would be better than later.”

“Soon would be best,” Alexandra replied. “Where do we put them, though? They can’t all hide behind the moon. I doubt most of them can even land on a planet, right?” she asked, looking at Thomas.

“Ah, that’s the beauty of these ships. Remember I said that they’re state of the art? All six hundred ships are all equipped with shroud generators. They can sit in plain sight and even the most powerful telescope won’t be able to see them.”

“Well that makes it easy. Order them to be underway as soon as possible, then. When they arrive, Tich will take command of the fleet. I guess we’ll have just under two months to find crews to man them, right?”

“Shouldn’t be too hard, I’m sure a lot of humans would kill to get the opportunity to go into space,” Alexandra said. “Gabriel and I can get started on that when we’re done here. That being said, there is one more thing. Abi! You can come in now!”

I looked over the door, expecting it to open. Instead, there was a small flash of light directly in front of me and a small white crystal appeared, and was hovering in the air.

“Jonathan, meet Abi. Abi, meet Jonathan.”