Earth
Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies
August 12, 2019
00:02 PDT (21:02 EDT)

“Umm.. hi there.”

“She can’t speak aloud, Jonathan. She says to hold out your hand,” Alexandra said.

I did as she asked and Abi landed on my hand. As soon as she contacted my skin, it was like a door opened in my mind.

[Hello, Jonathan!] said a melodious voice in my head.

“Hi..” I started.

[Try speaking with your mind,] she said, interrupting me. [Focus on me and attempt to send your thoughts.]

She didn’t give much of an explanation, but I gave it a shot anyways. I focused on the crystal that lay on my hand. I imagined transmitting the word ‘Hello’. When she didn’t respond, I kept trying, attempting to send it over and over again. After a few minutes of this, I was getting pretty annoyed that it wasn’t working. ‘Scyftans are supposed to be a natural at this,’ I thought.

[They are, indeed.]

[You heard that?]

[I did. It is wonderful to hear you, Jonathan.]

[It’s good to hear you, as well. Why did that work? I imagined sending the word ‘Hello’ to you and it wasn’t working. I was thinking to myself and you were able to hear it.]

I got a sense that she shrugged before responding. [It works differently for different people. Perhaps that is how you learned to do it when you were a baby. You were perfectly capable of Mindspeak when you were two years old.]

[You knew me when I was a baby?]

[Yes. I knew your father and your grandfather when they were babies as well. I was bonded to your grandfather until he died, and then I was bonded with your father until he died.]

[You were the only crystal to come over from the Sagittarius galaxy, right? What happened to the rest of them?]

[I truly do not know. They were stored in a facility deep underground on the original Scyftan homeworld. It was one of the last planets to be targeted by orbital bombardment. The facility was deep enough that it may have survived, but there is no way to know without going there.]

[You never attempted to go back and find out?]

[Your father was making plans to go back and see if there were any Scyftan survivors and see if the facility was intact. Unfortunately, he was assassinated before we could find out.]

[Well, I’ll promise you right now, that as soon as we can, we’ll go back to Sagittarius and find out, okay?]

[Thank you, Jonathan. Would you like to bond now, or wait until another time?]

[Won’t you start growing very quickly if we bond? And on that topic, if you were bonded to my grandfather and my father, why are you so small now?]

[I can decide when to start growing. As soon as we bond, I can start storing mana to fuel my growth later on. As for why I’m so small now? When your grandfather died, I quickly shrank down to the size I am at now, and your father had to start from the same point you are. The creators of my species did this so a crystalline ship couldn’t get bigger and more powerful with each generation. If this limitation wasn’t in place, and a crystalline ship could be passed down to another person, they would be unstoppable.]

[I see what you mean. So what is involved in the bonding process?]

[To bond, all you need to do is close your hand and channel enough mana into me until I reach level one, and the bond will be completed. At that point, I will start siphoning off any extra mana, storing it for later use. In return, for each level I reach, you will gain a 2% bonus to each attribute. I will warn you now, that within twenty-four hours of bonding, I will need to be taken up to the base on the moon so I can start the process of growing. Once it starts, I will be unable to move for several hours. Even after that initial growth period, I’ll need periodic downtime to continue growth. It will start to gradually slow down after the first day or so.]

[Got it. Are you ready.]

I got the sense of a nod. [I’ve been waiting for over fourteen hundred years for this. Go ahead.]

I closed my hand around the crystal and channeled my mana into it. It only took a few seconds of channeling and the bond was complete. Immediately I felt an odd sensation running through my body. A few seconds later, the sensation intensified slightly. It wasn’t painful or anything like that. If anything, it felt like I was getting just a little bit more powerful every time I felt that sensation.

Opening my hand and looking at Abi, I noticed that she now had a very slight glow emanating from her crystalline form.

[It is nice to be whole once again!] Abi exclaimed. It was very easy to sense how happy she was.

[I feel pretty good myself. So when you start growing into an awesome crystalline ship, is the design of the ship pre-determined, or can you grow into a certain design if I have one made up? I’ve got some ideas.]

[I can grow into any type of ship you want. I would suggest you get to work with Tich Igdaris on a design you want, and I can grow into it over time.]

[Oh! That reminds me. Tich says ‘Hi’. I went up to the base on the moon earlier and gave me a tour. He asked that I pass along his greeting.]

[Thank you, I am quite fond of Tich. Your father made a very good decision elevating him to Fleet Admiral.]

[Well, he’ll be in command of over six hundred ships in a little under two months. I think he’ll be quite happy about that.]

[What six hundred ships?] Abi asked.

[You haven’t heard about the ships that Thomas Stewart had commissioned? Apparently he got the Warvyn family to build them, and is having them delivered here. They should be delivered within the next two months. All the details are on this tablet], I answered, holding up the tablet.

Abi shot out of my hand and landed on the tablet. Apparently it didn’t take her too long to scan the information on it. [Interesting.. It looks like the ships are meant to be easily divided into five strike groups. Two carriers, four dreadnoughts, eight battleships, twenty-six battlecruisers, thirty-six cruisers, thirty destroyers, and fourteen frigates in each group. If these specifications are accurate, then these ships will be quite formidable. If the Warvyn family is indeed responsible for building them, then they are guaranteed to be top notch.]

[Who are the Warvyns?]

[They were the best shipbuilders in the Protectorate, and the ones responsible for building a lot of the Scyftan ships after their race joined. The Warvyns are Pygmaean. Humans would call them gnomes. They’re slightly smaller than a Scyftan in their normal form and are extremely gifted with technology. It is quite rare that another species come up with a new technology before they do and they have very high standards when it comes to construction. The only race that might rival them are probably the Kobaloi, who are one of the races that make up The Confederation.]

[What’s the deal with The Confederation anyways? I’ve heard them mentioned a few times, but I don’t know anything about them.]

[The Confederation is made up of three primary races, Jotunn, Orks, and Kobaloi, which I already mentioned. Jotunn are made up of two sub-species that are closely related. They look similar to the Ettins and Ogres you find in high level dungeons. Orks are self-explanatory. Kobaloi are similar to another creature you can find in dungeons, all the way from low level ones, to the highest level dungeons. They could be considered the cousin to goblins, though they are much, much more intelligent than the ones you find in dungeons, and also have grey skin. They too, are able to evolve over time as they get stronger. There are various other races that make up The Confederation, like various Saurian subspecies and types of Beastkin, though the three I listed are the ones in charge.]

[Why did the war start?]

[They’re focused on expansion and they had conquered pretty much everything they could. While your father was alive, and many races were part of the Protectorate, their leaders wouldn’t dare attack because they knew they didn’t have a chance. When Kaldrus Dhir executed his coup, many of the races that made up the Protectorate abandoned him. The ruler of the Scyftan people was always hereditary, and they would never follow someone who is not a Kidravia.]

[The Confederation initially tried to attack one of the weaker races that were once in the Protectorate, but that was easily defended by ex-Protectorate races, who had formed The Alliance. The Confederation then turned their attention to Scyftan worlds. They executed a couple of probing attacks, and when they saw that the only resistance they were facing was from Scyftans themselves, they launched an assault that has continued to this day. They take a few planets, the Scyftans take them back, and it continues that way.]

[For over a thousand years they’ve been kept at bay, but they’re very, very slowly pushing forward. It might take another couple hundred years, but eventually The Confederation will end up winning the war, without intervention.]

[So what you’re saying is that as soon as we get finished with Kaldrus Dhir, we need to lay a smackdown on Confederation forces?]

I heard her laugh within Mindspeak. [That we will. Alright, I think we’ve been ignoring everyone for long enough.]

[True,] I replied while looking around the room. I could see that everyone was engrossed in conversation. [Was the shield around my mind removed when you landed on my hand, or is it still in place? Can I Mindspeak freely now?]

[That shield is gone, but I erected a new one in its place. Right now, you can only send to me, and only I can send to you. Once you learn to put up your own Mindspeak shield, then you’ll be able to send to anyone at will. Would you like me to allow you to send and receive from someone else?]

[Alexandra please.]

[Done. She keeps her shield up at a pretty high level. All Spectres do. Picture gently tapping on her shield. She’ll detect it and allow you to communicate with her.]

[Thank you.]

[Anytime, Jonathan.]

I did as she said and gently tapped on her shield while watching her reaction. Her eyes widened slightly and she looked in my direction.

[Well done!] I heard in my head. [I didn’t think you would get the hang of this so quickly.]

[I have Abi to thank for that. I don’t know how to shield just yet, but she is handling that.]

[That’s good. With her shielding you, I don’t think there is a person alive that would be able to breach your shields. Did you want to ask me something?]

[Two things, actually. I was wondering about the rule in place where you can’t use firearms in dungeons until you’re level fifty. Was that the Spectres that put the rule in place?]

[That wasn’t us. I’ve been to many different dungeons on many different worlds, and it’s always constant across all of them. It doesn’t matter where you go, you always need to be level fifty or higher to use firearms. We know dungeons do have some intelligence based on the fact that they’re able to expand in size and complexity as time goes on. They’re not intelligent enough to communicate with, but people think that the firearm restriction is in place, because otherwise new adventurers would level too easily.]

[Imagine going into the dungeon today, with all five of you being armed with firearms. You probably would have cleared the dungeon in a few hours. Even when you reach level fifty and can use firearms, you’re limited to those basic ones that use gunpowder. As you level up further, you’ll be allowed to use more and more powerful weapons, from magical cannons to railguns to beam weapons.]

[What type of weapons do Omar and Yuki have? I noticed them when we came in and had never seen anything like them before.]

[Those are the beam weapons I just mentioned. They run off of a power cell, but can also be amplified by the user’s mana to increase their power.]

[Ah, okay, next question. Was there anything else that needed to be covered here today?]

[Gabriel and I were going to ask if you would like to postpone going into the dungeon for a few days. Doing so would allow you to learn how to shapeshift, and would give your friends a bit of time to learn how to Mindspeak. Other than that, not really. Why, got somewhere to be?]

[I’m sure you noticed the slight glow emanating from Abi. We already bonded, so I’ll need to take her up to the base on the moon so she’ll be able to grow. Besides, I want to discuss what’s on here with Tich,] I replied, holding up the tablet.

[That’s fine. Discuss whether or not you would like to postpone going into the dungeon with your friends and let me know. Also, I already told your friends this, but when you finish the Gatineau Park dungeon, Gabriel and I are going to oversee your training. Your friends have agreed to go through the training as well. Before you go make sure you say goodbye to the Stewarts. Maybe set up a date with Tessa as well.]

[A date?]

[Of course. You did say you would see where it leads, and Scyftans, like humans, do date, you know.]

[What kind of training?]

[All sorts of training. Hand-to-hand combat, firearms, naval warfare to name a few.]

[Alright. I’ll set up a date after I talk to my friends about the dungeon. I’ll let you know in a few minutes.]

I got up and walked over to my friends. They were conversing at the end of the large boardroom table.

“Hey guys,” I greeted, taking a seat beside Anja.

“We were just talking about you,” Mason said.

“Oh really?”

“Yes really. We were discussing how you must be the luckiest son of a bitch we’ve ever met.”

“How do you figure that?”

“You’re part of a species that can change their form at will. You recently found out that you are the rightful king to said species. The parents of that total hottie over there are trying to set you two up together, with her dad gifting you hundreds of spaceships, and finally that crystal floating behind you,” he answered, counting off with his fingers.

“You’re right, that is pretty lucky,” I said with a grin. “Everyone, meet Abi, Abi meet my friends.”

My friends greeted Abi, and I returned her greeting to them.

“She says ‘Hello’. She can’t speak vocally, but she can hear you. When the four of you get the hang of Mindspeak, you’ll be able to communicate with her. By then, she’ll be well on her way to becoming a massive spaceship.”

“That’s so cool!” Ben exclaimed.

“That it is. Anyways, Alexandra wants us to come to a decision on whether or not we want to hold off on continuing the dungeon for now. It’ll give you guys time to learn how to Mindspeak, and it will allow me to learn how to shapeshift. What do you guys want to do?”

“I speak for Sonja and I when I say we wait,” Anja replied. “I was talking to Alexandra earlier and she said communicating via Mindspeak is almost instantaneous. Imagine if we all had that ability when we fought that sandworm. I probably would’ve been able to warn you sooner, and you wouldn’t have taken that hit. Besides, the longer we wait, the more time you’ll have to scan various creatures. Next time we go into the dungeon, you could turn into a giant bear, or some other creature.”

“Anja brings up a good point,” Ben agreed.

“I’d like to go right back in, but I see the value in waiting. Maybe I’ll get a handle on Mindspeak early and be able to put time in on the range. They’ve got some pretty damn cool weapons here,” Mason replied.

“Awesome. So we’ll wait a few days and then go back in. Maybe on Thursday, or we’ll wait for Saturday. I think I’m going to have plans on Friday. Speaking of which, give me a few minutes. Talk amongst yourselves, I’ve got something to show you all shortly.”

[Abi, can you allow me to send and receive from Tessa, please.]

[Done.]

[Thank you.]

I looked over to Tessa who was chatting with my sisters. I gently tapped on her shield and she looked over to me. I found it interesting that you can tell the exact location someone is sending from.

[Jonathan?] she asked.

I nodded. [Would you like to go on a date this Friday?]

[A date?] she asked.

I nodded again. [Dinner, and maybe a movie or something afterwards.]

[I would love to!]

[Great! Where are you and your parents staying?]

[Here, I think. We were going to go to a hotel, but Alexandra showed us the suites they have here.]

[That makes it easy then. I’ll pick you up at say 18:30 EDT?]

[Sounds good], she said with a nod.

[Alrighty. Abi is maintaining my shield right now, but you should be able to get ahold of me if you need to. I’ll be over to say good night to everyone in a few minutes.]

[Okay.]

I tapped on Alexandra’s shield, and this time she didn’t look towards me.

[So what’s the verdict?] she asked.

[We’re going to wait a few days to go back in. That might be Thursday or it might be Saturday. How long do you think it will take for everyone to get the hang of Mindspeak, and for me to learn how to shapeshift?]

[You should all get the hang of it in a day or two. I would wait until Saturday, and then you can spend Thursday and Friday going around, scanning animals so you can transform into them. You never know when a specific form can come in handy. Zoos are a great resource for that, actually.]

[I’ll be busy on Friday, so I won’t be able to do it then, unless I go early in the day. Tessa agreed to a date this Friday night.]

[That’s fine, you’ll probably be able to build up a sizable collection on Thursday, and you can always scan creatures in dungeons to add those to your collection as well.]

[Cool. My friends and I will be over to say good night to everyone in a minute or two.]

[Alright, I’ll let them know.]

I turned back to my friends and they were back in conversation. “Okay, so we’ll be heading back into the dungeon on Saturday. Alexandra suggested me using Thursday, and maybe a bit of Friday to go around and scan animals so I’ll be able to transform into different things next time we go into a dungeon.”

“Awesome, that will be really cool to see,” Ben replied.

“I’m looking forward to it as well. Alright, let’s go say goodnight to everyone and then I want to show you something.”

We made our way over and said goodnight to everyone. I gave each of my sisters a hug, telling them I it was very nice to meet them, and that I would see them tomorrow. Thomas and Claire were quite pleased when I told them Tessa had agreed to a date on the upcoming Friday. I told them I would see them soon, and then told Alexandra and Gabriel that I would see them at home, and then left with my friends.

I was leading them back to the portal when Anja asked where we’re going.

“You’ll see. It’s a surprise.”

The light beside the portal was red, so I pressed the button and waited for it to turn green again. When it did, I walked through and was followed by my friends. Yuki and Omar were still on duty.

“Hello again, Omar and Yuki. Can you send me and my friends up to the base?” I asked.

“Sure, one moment.” Omar replied. He turned to his console and hit a button, then turned back. “You can head on through. Have fun.”

“Thanks Omar, Yuki. See you in a bit.”

I walked through the portal and arrived back on the moonbase. My friends were right behind me. Upon arriving through the portal, there was no sign of where we were. I suppose there was artificial gravity, otherwise each step would probably send us a couple feet in the air.

[Abi, can you Mindspeak to Tich and ask him to come here? Let him know I’m here with my friends and would like to go on the tour he was going to give earlier.]

[Sure, it’ll take a moment.]

“Alright, we need to wait here for a moment. Someone is coming to give us a tour.”

“Where are we, anyways?” Mason asked.

“You’ll see in a few minutes, be patient. It’s worth it, trust me.”

[He’ll be here in a few minutes.]

[Thanks.]

[You’re welcome.]

A few minutes later, Tich came around the corner. “Ah, good to see you again so soon, Jonuth.”

“Good to see you as well. These are my friends Mason, Ben, Anja and Sonja.” I said, gesturing to each. “Guys, meet Tich Igdaris. He used to be a Fleet Admiral when my father was alive, and he’ll likely be one again in the future.”

Tich and my friends exchanged greetings and then escorted us on our tour. He went in a different direction than the one he led me on when I was with my sisters, and the reason for that was immediately apparent. There were large windows on one side of the long hallway we were walking down. Each of them offered a great view of the cratered surface of the moon, and the blue planet we call home far in the distance.

“We’re on the moon?” Ben exclaimed.

“Yup!” I answered. “From what I’ve seen so far, we’re in a pretty big facility setup by people who fled from Scyftan space.”

“How has this facility gone undetected for so long? If we can see Earth, shouldn’t people be able to see this base with telescopes?”

“They would, if we weren’t employing a stealth shield around the base, as well as active camouflage should that fail for any reason.” Tich replied.

We enjoyed the view for a few more minutes before Tich continued the tour. We backtracked, and this time we stopped in front of the same window that I stopped at when I was up here with my sisters.

“You guys are going to enjoy this.”

Seconds after I said that, the lights turned on again, lighting up all the ships in the hanger. My friends had a bigger reaction to seeing all the ships than they had when they realised they were on the moon. All of them wanted to get a closer look, so he took us down further into the facility and we entered the hanger. While they were walking through looking at the ships, I took the tablet out of my inventory and handed it to Tich.

“So it seems like you were being sneaky,” I said with a grin. “How long were you working on that with Kor Gidres?”

“Almost ninety-eight years,” he answered, with his own grin. “We had sporadic contact with him over the years. He decided to stay near Scyftan space, since he thought he could do more from there, than he could from here. It turned out he was right. Without this fleet, we would have to wait many years yet to go back and deal with Kaldrus Dhir. We actually would’ve had to wait until Abi was strong enough. Even then it would’ve been a gamble. With this fleet, though, it’ll be easy.”

“I saw that the frigates were called Prowler I class frigates. How do they compare to the prototype?”

“They are my pride and joy. They look nearly identical, but the Prowler I is much more powerful, and the stealth shield on it has been perfected. The Warvyn family are geniuses. They managed to take our designs and shrink the coils in the mass driver by about thirty percent, allowing more coils to be fit along the barrel. That increases the velocity of the projectile when it leaves the barrel, giving it much better kinetic impact, as well as greater effective range.”

“They had to come up with an alloy that could actually survive the extreme forces it would be put under when being accelerated to almost twelve hundred kilometers per second. They used tungsten, a metal called Stroelium, and some other metal they won’t reveal to make the alloy used in both the barrel, and the rounds. Naturally they named it after themselves and called it Warvynium. When combined with enchantments, it is a very, very durable metal.”

“The projectiles are no larger than your fist, allowing us to shrink the diameter of the barrels, and fit two more, for a total of four of them on each Prowler I. Unfortunately they couldn’t find a solution to the overheating problem, so each barrel needs almost a minute to cool down to the point that it can fire again. It does allow the ship to maintain a pretty steady rate of fire at about one round every fifteen seconds, and it is absolutely devastating if a ship is hit by one without shields up. Even a ship with their shields up can’t take more than one or two rounds before their shields go down.”

“Besides the mass drivers, these new ones are also equipped with twelve gauss cannons, and eight missle tubes. There are four dorsal, four ventral, two port, and two starboard. They could do damage to an enemy warship if they were focused on one spot, but their primary use is to destroy enemy missiles and lightly armored craft. There are two sets of four missile tubes that run vertically, on either side of the mass drivers. They can launch eight missiles, but it takes about forty-five seconds to reload the tubes.”

We had walked over to the Prowler prototype that carried the girls to Earth while he talked. When we arrived at the ship, I didn’t think a ship that size could carry that much armament, especially with the ship being built around the mass drivers, and them running most of the length of the ship.

“How is that much weaponry mounted on the ship? Wouldn’t you only be able to carry a small amount of rounds and missiles?”

He laughed. “Ah, the beauty of dimensional storage. The vast majority of the rounds are carried in dimensional storage, and taken out when needed. The ship can hold about eleven hundred sixty tons of ammo. That’s about three hundred missiles, sixty-five hundred mass driver projectiles, and hundreds of thousands of rounds for the gauss cannons. Even if it were to run out, it could easily be resupplied by any of the larger ships. The dreadnoughts that were built are so big, and have so much power available, that they can hold more than one-hundred thousand tons of extra ammunition.”

“That’s pretty insane, but why use gauss cannons over energy weapons for point defense and to combat fighters? Wouldn’t it allow you to carry more missiles and rounds for the mass drivers?”

He shook his head. “Not with a ship this small. A lot of the power generated is used for firing the mass drivers, and additional power couldn’t be spared to mount more than one or two energy weapons. Many of the other ship types have both gauss cannons and energy weapons since they have the power to spare. That’s fine though, because gauss cannons are very good at doing what we need them to do. A Prowler I could cycle its mass drivers and launch missiles as fast as they could, all while keeping missiles and lightly armored craft away from the important ships.”

“I see what you mean. Changing the subject, I assume you have somewhere set aside for Abi? I’ll have to leave her here tomorrow night. We already bonded, and she’s storing energy for her growth.”

“That I do. We anticipated Abi needing somewhere to grow since she can’t really be shown on Earth, so we had a hanger grown even bigger than this one. When your friends get back, I can show you where it is.”

“Bigger than this hanger? Just how big is she going to get?”

“That all depends on what your mana regeneration is right now.”

“It’s almost forty-one mana per second.”

“That is about what I’ve heard your father’s mana regeneration was at around your age. If you follow a similar progression path as he did, and go for a regular long, thin ship, then you’re probably looking at eleven or twelve hundred meters long. That’s about battlecruiser size. She could probably give you more accurate measurements.”

“Twelve hundred meters? You’re saying in six months she’ll go from this little crystal to a ship over a kilometer long?”

“That’s right. It’ll actually probably take you a lot less time than that, since you’ll be leveling up as she does. That size would be if your mana regeneration stayed constant for the next six months.”

My friends rejoined us at that point and he showed us to the hanger that would become Abi’s home, at least for a short while.

“Here it is. It’s about two kilometers long by one kilometer wide. If she ends up surpassing one of those, she’ll need to just hide behind the moon or something until we leave. After tomorrow, you will be the only one that has access to this room. If anyone wants to enter, they need to be accompanied by you.”

“Awesome, thank you. Well, it’s getting late and my friends and I need to get up early tomorrow, so we should be going.

“Understandable. I’ll escort you back to the portal.”

He did just that, and my friends and I left after saying good night. When we got back to the portal room, we also said good night to Omar and Yuki before taking the elevator back to the surface. Omar tried to get me to stay and try some Scyftan alcohol when he got off duty, but I had to pass. It was already past 22:00 by now, and it would be close to 23:00 by the time I actually get to sleep.

My friends got in my truck and we left the parking lot, heading for home. I dropped each of them off before pulling into the driveway, grabbing my stuff out of the back, and walking inside. I took a quick shower and then crawled into bed. I had just fallen asleep when that sensation passed through my body again.

It seems Abi just leveled up, again.