Anomaly on Cerka Read online

  Jessica considered her response for a moment.

  Iris sent along a mental snort.

  Jessica countered.

  Iris began, then paused for a few seconds.

  Jessica chuckled aloud, garnering the attention of both Cheeky and Amanda. “Sorry, just Iris. She wants a sample of your DNA, Amanda.”

  “Jess!” Iris exclaimed. “I was just musing! I don’t really want-want it.” She cocked her head to meet Amanda’s eyes. “Unless you’re offering.”

  “Ummm…Sure, if you’d like?” Amanda’s reply carried a note of curiosity mixed in with uncertainty. “Trust me. People where I come from have spent a lot of time trying to find what makes Magi…well, Magi. Also, do you really want to let that cat out of the bag in your universe? From what I see on your networks, you have enough to worry about.”

  “Good point,” Jessica eyed Iris. “Do you really want to have to deal with Magi teleporting in and out of places?”

  Iris shook her head. “Okay, okay, I hear you. Let’s keep that genie in the bottle for now.”

  “The whosawhat?” Cheeky asked. “See, Iris, there you go again.”

  “You don’t know what a genie is?” Amanda shook her head, laughing softly.

  “Of course she does,” Jessica said as they boarded a maglev. “Cheeky’s the queen of messing with people.”

  “Why, Jessica!” Cheeky exclaimed. “You cut me to the quick!”

  “See?”

  The women settled into their seats, and the maglev train took off, whisking them away to their destination on the central spire, where they’d transfer to another line.

  Jessica watched through the window as the car raced along the top of one of the ring spokes. Like the others, the spoke was covered with a transparent dome, and the majesty of Cerka’s forty-kilometer length spread out around them.

  She looked down at one of the freight docking rings, where a ship was being eased by tugs toward its grapple point, while ballast weights elsewhere on the ring shifted in anticipation of the new load.

  The freighter was almost latched on when plasma and debris exploded from a nearby part of the ring. A section of hull plating flew out and collided with one of the tugs. The heavy lifter slewed to starboard, and its engines slashed across part of the ring, and then it broke free from the freighter.

  With the shift in balance, the five-hundred-meter ship spun to port and slammed into the ring, crumpling a hundred meters of the station.

  “Oh fuck,” Jessica whispered, as she saw the reverberations ripple through the ring and along the spokes.

  “The mounts on the spindle should compensate…” Iris said, leaning over Jessica to watch. “Sorry, was tapping your optics again. I like to look out through your eyes.”

  “I’m resigned to it,” Jessica mumbled as emergency systems began to kick in, ballast shifting and the ring’s retro jets firing to slow its spin.

  The freighter fired its own maneuvering thrusters, pushing away from the station, the lone tug attached to its bow helping to right the ship as it eased out to a safe distance.

  Left behind was a half kilometer of ring that was torn up and venting atmosphere.

  “Shit…” Cheeky muttered. “It must have damaged the a-grav shields. That ring’s bleeding air like there’s no tomorrow.”

  “Seems a bit suspicious,” Amanda said, her eyes meeting Jessica’s. “Perhaps we should investigate.”

  “Agreed,” Jessica replied, sending a request to the maglev’s NSAI controller to bring them down to the freight ring’s nearest spoke.

  REAVER ATTACK

  STELLAR DATE: 05.11.8948 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Cerka Station

  REGION: Mullens, Virginis System, LoS Space

  “The Maglev is diverting,” Jessica informed the rest of the group.

  Amanda glanced back down at the ring and the damage the ship had caused to it after the explosion. They needed to get down there fast. If the Reavers were still nearby, they wouldn’t be for much longer.

  She needed to see what was going on, and used her Magic to get a closer look. Her Magical vision scrying the area from just outside the lower ring, looking in through the hole caused by the explosion.

  There were people inside, shooting at each other in what looked like a warehouse, judging from the crates.

  “There’s no time,” Amanda replied to Jessica.

  Quickly, Amanda picked a spot and reached out with her Magic once more, enveloping her new friends in Essentia. Light flashed behind her eyes, and a fleeting feeling of disorientation rushed through her as they Ported down to the ring below, appearing where Amanda wanted them to.

  It was as if they had been dropped into the middle of a hurricane.

  Wind whipped past them, catching their hair and dresses, as they all crouched to hide their presence. Smaller boxes and other detritus flew through the air as they were sucked toward the hole in the bulkhead and the void outside.

  The girls had appeared out of immediate sight of the fighting nearby. They pressed themselves up against the nearest crates in an effort to get out of the wind.

  “Shit,” Jessica cursed.

  Iris added, looking around.

  Amanda glanced at Cheeky, who was looking at her hands and then around her before a big grin spread over her face.

  “That was awesome,” the blonde woman whooped, her exclamation drowned out by the wind and sounds of beam and gunfire from nearby.

  Amanda didn’t focus too much on her companions’ reactions to being Ported, as a sudden feeling of exhaustion washed over her, hitting her hard. Already crouched down beside the container between Jessica and Cheeky, she felt her legs wobble, and she grabbed the crate to steady herself. The feeling passed, but for a few seconds, she’d felt surprisingly weak.

  What the hell? What was that?

  She was used to the disorientation from Porting, having used such Magic for over a thousand years now, but this was new. Though she felt short of breath from the thin air, she could tell that it wasn’t the cause of her weakness. As her strength returned over the next few seconds, she wondered if there was something different about using Magic in this universe.

  Something to be aware of, she thought.

  Jessica scolded as the wind began to die down.

  Amanda gave a silent nod, and Jessica’s expression grew concerned.

 

  ~I’m fine, just some dizziness. Multiversal stuff, probably,~ Amanda answered, already feeling back to her usual self.

 

  ~I’m good, don’t worry.~

  Jessica nodded.

  ~Hang on,~ Amanda said, and with a thought, shifted her second set of senses, which were still active and outside the ring.

>   She brought them in and focused on the people that the cops were fighting. With her Aetheric Sight, she could see that the enemies were vanilla humans, but many of their weapons and armor was glowing with Essentia, marking them as enchanted.

  ~They’re Reavers, but I can’t see a Magus amongst them.~

  Jessica asked.

  ~Yep. Through my Aetheric Sight, anything Magical glows, including the bodies of Magi.~

  Iris said while advancing to a new position that gave her a line of sight on the enemies.

  Amanda focused her secondary senses on the damaged hull plating.

  ~I can fix that,~ she said, and concentrated.

  Essentia surged, and as she conjured matter to fill the hole, she could feel the Magic draining her energy.

  Curious, Amanda thought. It was also annoying, but not life threatening—at least, not directly. She’d think about it later, and for now, try to keep her use of Magic to simpler stuff.

  Cheeky was staring open-mouthed at the now-sealed hole in the hull.

  Jessica replied.

  she countered.

  Iris added.

  With the hole filled, the howl of the environmental systems trying to keep the room pressurized diminished, and the sounds of weapons fire increased in volume as the air thickened around them.

  Looking through her secondary senses, Amanda saw beams lance into crates and walls, while rail pellets cut through targets like butter. Nearby, a CPS agent was pulling an injured man back to safety, only to get his leg shot off by a kinetic round.

  Jessica said over the Link, sending a slew of data through a new channel.

  The new Link channel was labeled as a ‘combat net,’ and contained multiple views of the hold, lists of enemies, firing positions, and avenues of approach.

  Amanda took a moment to review the data, and then assigned one of her other minds to the task as she looked up at the girls. She paused for a second upon seeing that they had begun stripping out of their clothing—well, Cheeky had already finished.

  “What the hell?” she said, wondering what they were doing, when Iris suddenly disappeared.

  Jessica explained.

  “Oh,” Amanda said as a naked Jessica smiled at her before vanishing from sight.

  Amanda turned to Cheeky, who was looking back at her with a coy smile as she twirled her bikini bottoms on a finger.

  Throwing the tiny bit of fabric at Amanda, Cheeky winked and promptly disappeared.

  “And you guys think I’m weird,” Amanda commented as she caught Cheeky’s bikini bottoms and pumped Essentia into her Aegis, topping it off. A separate working of Magic transformed her skimpy dress back into her bodysuit and boots, ready for action.

  Through her Aetheric Sight, Amanda could still see the three women, despite their stealth. Her magical sight picked up their life signs and more as they began to make their way through the crates, moving to good firing positions.

  A thought suddenly occurred to her, and with another quick working of Magic, Amanda conjured an Aegis around each of them. These invisible shields weren’t super strong, but they’d mitigate the effect of any direct Magic sent their way in the short term.

  Better safe than sorry, she thought.

  A separate working of Magic by one of her multitasking minds bent light around herself, turning her invisible, but without removing her clothes as she crept forward with them. As the trio made for the main group, Amanda sensed life forms nearby.

  ~I’m hanging a left, got a couple of Reavers flanking us,~ she advised her companions.

  Jessica asked.

  ~Bleedin’ hell, the innuendos just don’t stop around here, do they?~ Amanda exclaimed, her tone full of mirth.

  Cheeky answered.

  Amanda laughed. ~The twins will be ready and waiting for you later, Cheeks. That’s a promise. And don’t worry, Jess, I’ll handle these guys.~

  Iris asked from her position, where she was already firing on the main group of Reavers.

  Jessica replied with a laugh.

  Cheeky said.

  Jessica sent an image of her rolling her eyes through the Link.

  Pressing herself up against a crate, Amanda glanced back to watch Cheeky with her Aetheric Sight as the woman took aim with a pistol and fired on the Reavers.

  Holy feck, she’s hot.

  Turning back to her quarry, Amanda waited as the four life forms approached her crate, thinking they were flanking her group. With Magic seeming to drain her, she had already decided to take these guys out the old-fashioned way.

  A pair began to edge around the container she was hidden behind, their guns drawn and ready. They hadn’t spotted her yet, though, her Magic hiding her from sight.

  Waiting until just the right moment, Amanda lashed out and smashed the arm of the first man sideways into the crate. He dropped his gun with a clatter of metal and a yelp, his ulna and radial bones smashed.

  Even as the first man groaned in pain, she brought her fist around and smashed it into the head of his partner, breaking the woman’s jaw. Amanda then delivered a swift knee to her torso, making the Reaver woman gasp and drop to her knees with a gift of several broken ribs.

  Jessica commented approvingly over the combat net.

  For a moment, Amanda was surprised Jessica had seen her moves, but then she remembered the omni-view of the room that the technology gave these women.

  ~Was there ever any doubt? I’ve been alive a long time, and spent a lot of that training in martial arts,~ she sent back, as she canceled her invisibility and brought her fist around in a hammer blow to the back of the first guy’s neck. With a sickening crack, the man dropped limply to the floor.

  Cheeky said with a carefree laugh, followed by a sharp inhale.

  Without replying, Amanda turned and flipped over the gasping woman, simultaneously kicking the next two Reavers, knocking them back. She landed and spun, a boot lashing out again. It caught the guy on the left with a solid blow that sent him spinning head over heels before hitting the floor.

  The fourth and final member of the flanking team stepped back and fired at Amanda, only to watch in alarm as the beam smashed into an invisible barrier in front of her target, and dissipated harmlessly. The Essentia in the gun delivered a little damage to her Aegis, but nothing she couldn’t deal with.

  She raised her hand and lightning flashed. The bolt slammed into the woman with a bang, and sent the Reaver flying back several meters. She smashed into a metal crate before dropping to the floor, leaving a bloody stain behind her.

  Turning back to the other three enemies, Amanda saw the woman with broken ribs looking up at her, coughing as she attempted to raise her weapon in her quivering hand.

  Amanda kicked the weapon out of the Reaver’s hand, breaking a few metacarpals as she did so. With her Magic, she reached inside the Riven woman’s unprotected head and made a tiny change. The woman slumped to the floor unconscious, like a rag doll.

  A quick glance ov
er the bodies around her confirmed they were all out of the fight, so Amanda moved back to where she could see the life signs of her friends.

  She crept to a crate behind Jessica and the others, and looked around it to see the remaining Reavers rush forward, moving in concert and using their field of fire to keep Jessica and her team pinned down. Though it was mostly suppressive fire, it was well-managed, and Amanda could tell that they’d pinpointed the location of the invisible women.

  Despite the onslaught, the women from Sabrina were undaunted, and moved to new positions, waiting for targets of opportunity before moving again, steadily wearing down the Reaver numbers.

  Although none of the attacking Reavers were Magi, some of their weapons were glowing in Amanda’s Aetheric Sight, marking them as enchanted. She also noted that some of them, notably the more accurate attackers, seemed to have Magically enhanced bodies as well.

  Amanda frowned. With so much Magic around, she just had a feeling that there was bound to be a Magus close by, even if they weren’t involved in the actual battle. She scanned the area, looking through her secondary senses as well, but nothing stood out.

  As her gaze swept the scene, Essentia flared between her and the crew of Sabrina. With a snap of displaced air, a figure of a man appeared from nowhere, glowing brightly with Magical energy.

  A Magus, finally.

  Sudden, wickedly powerful electrical energy cracked through the air as a lightning bolt flew from the Magus and slammed into Jessica. Close to a hundred million volts flowed through the strike. Hotter than the surface of the sun, the bolt struck the purple woman, knocking her to the ground, where she spasmed for a moment.

  Amanda stepped up to the enemy Magus and called on her own Magic. She summoned a kinetic ram of invisible force that hit him like a wrecking ball, sending him flying into a container before he hit the floor.

  Looking over at Jessica, Amanda was pleased to see the woman up and moving. She gave a sigh of relief and turned her attention back to the Magus, who lay on his front, looking up at her with a knowing smile.

  “I thought so,” the Reaver said in a near whisper.