Chapter 5
******
Tyr stalked from shadow to shadow, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible in the urban environment. Syn had given him his instructions: he was to find a certain drone, a fifth-generation security-caste that fled her post, and kill her. He was then to frame one of the extremist groups in the system. He had no intention of following these orders, but he still wanted to find the drone. He could use an ally, and if he was lucky, the drone would help him in return for sparing her life.
He jumped to a nearby roof to survey the area. He was glad that the gravity of Earth's moon was so low: the Empire hadn't gotten the artificial gravity to 1g quite yet, and it was currently stuck at around 0.6g. It was much easier to acclimate to. He scanned his surroundings.
A sprawling city lay before him, one of the first to be built off-world by humanity. The structures were much sturdier than they needed to be, built with the end goal of 1g in mind. The city, creatively name "Moon City", consisted mostly of industrial facilities and secondary structures for the starport that sat in its center. Residential areas were added as an afterthought, since very few people wished to stay here for an extended period of time.
He sensed that his targets were making their way toward the starport now. 'Finally.' He dropped back to street level, keeping once more to the shadows, and followed.
******
"Dammit, Kelly! Wake up!" Kelly was startled by their security guard's sudden shouting. He was a young mage, only 26, and he had been daydreaming again.
"If it's cutting into your busy social life too much, you could always just go back to the Academy. There are dozens of neophytes jumping at this opportunity, you won't be missed." An older mage of 81, Kuthrine, stood scowling at him. She was growing annoyed at Kelly's lack of deference.
Kelly bristled. "My apologies, Kuthrine, but I joined this expedition to study exobiology, not weigh mundane items at a starport terminal. Where is our drone? Shouldn't they be handling this?" Kelly quickly glanced around the lobby, seeing various robotic carts scurrying around.
Before Kuthrine could reply, the third member of their group, an old man of 134 called Anderson, an amagus serving as a security guard, spoke up: "Well, speak of the devil. Lizard took its sweet time." The other two followed his gaze and spotted the drone walking towards them. The Dras, or Hunters when translated, provided the Empire with drones to supplement their workforce, as a sign of goodwill. It was essentially slave labor without the ethical concerns of using sentient creatures, since drones were basically automatons. For some reason, this drone was an atypical white color and somewhat short, standing only 7 feet tall.
Aside from the obvious mental differences, drones were essentially identical to regular Dras: they had the same magical abilities, the same (relatively) small wings, the same triangular head, the same odd, double-knee legs. They wore the same cape and masked-hood and the same odd sleeves that started at their elbows and second knees and terminated a few inches past their hands and feet. The only obvious difference was a white, metal collar around the neck.
The drone stopped before them and spoke: "I have been assigned to assist your expedition. A second drone has been gifted as well due to the delay." The androgynous, metallic voice came from a six-pointed star-shaped jewel attached to the base of its neck. Any Dras or drones that planned to communicate with other species used these for translation purposes, as well as to shield others from their rather... uncomfortable natural voices. Kelly rolled his eyes as he realized what he was doing. 'Random Dras trivia dispenser! One of the many exciting career opportunities provided by the Imperial Mages' Academy. Thanks IMA!' Since the drone was here, he wouldn't have to help his taskmaster Kuthrine any more, so he went back to staring out the window. He wondered how his parents were doing. He hadn't seen them since recruitment.
'Recruitment. Ha. More like Conscription.' The recruiter had made the Imperial Mage's Academy sound fantastic: a place to develop his arcane abilities in safety, huge libraries of information, degrees in any subject imaginable, guaranteed employment, a multitude of research opportunities, and so much more. Of course, Kelly had expected these to be exaggerations, but even so it sounded like a great opportunity. Only once he was made a neophyte had he learned that "guaranteed employment" meant he would probably end up forced into the military and that refusal to join hadn't been much of a real choice anyway.
'The Empire can't risk loose mages, I guess. Especially not with the Dras hanging over them like vultures.' If he had learned one thing at the Academy, it was that there was an abundance of conspiracy theories regarding the Dras among mages, and that for all intents and purposes most of them should be assumed true for safety's sake. Kelly chuckled and shook his head. 'Here all I wanted was to get a decent education and learn the arcane in safety. Instead I find myself conscripted into a shadow war with an alien race. I guess living to see my second century is unlikely at this rate.'
Kelly looked over to Anderson. "Anderson." Nothing happened. "Hey, Anderson." Anderson looked up from his magazine.
"Dammit Kelly! What?"
"Do you think I'll live to 100?"
"You mages and your crazy ideas. You ain't gonna die young unless you make yourself sick from worrying too much. Seems like every one a ya thinks a war is about to break out. That's the problem with putting civies in the military."
Kelly scowled. "I'm not a civilian."
"You mages are practically civilians. Scholars that can kill with thought, basically. That's the only reason the Empire even cares: they ain't gotta pay for ammunition for you."
"Well obviously since an old-timer security guard said it, it must be true."
"Call me old again and I'll report you for inciting treason. Don't forget who writes the reports on this expedition you two mages are running here."
"You know, I might be more frightened if you hadn't threatened me with that a hundred times already."
Kuthrine smacked Kelly on the back of the head. "Quiet you. And Anderson, don't forget that I can easily report you for abuse of power. I may be retired but I still have fairly good standing with the Academy. Both of you quit antagonizing each other: that's my job. Now get off your asses and help move our stuff to the shuttle. Our ship is scheduled to depart in a half hour. Move it!" They both grumbled and started packing the shuttle.
"Hey Anderson."
"What is it now?"
"What's your first name?"
Anderson sighed. "Shut up, Kelly."
Kelly snickered. "Your name is Shut Up Anderson?"
"Dammit Kelly..."
******
"So, are you finally going to tell us where we are going?" Kelly sat in the ship's common room impatiently tapping the built in touchscreen. Kuthrine slapped his hand away.
"Yes. While our pilot prepares, I'll go over our destination in excruciating detail so that your boundless enthusiasm and curiosity do not go unrewarded. Anderson, feel free to doze off; I don't consider you important anyway." Anderson looked up from his seat and blinked wearily. Before he could retort, Kuthrine continued. "Our destination is best explained by starting with some recent history. Have you heard of the new star discovered?"
Kelly thought for a moment. "You mean the wobbly one found by the Jovian Observatory??" Kuthrine rolled her eyes.
Anderson snorted. "New star? Wow. Stop the presses! Breaking news! Star number 5 gazillion 32 found!"
Kuthrine scowled. "It's significant for two reasons. First, despite its apparent luminosity, it is actually quite close, which means it is also quite small; smaller than a star has any right being. Second, it is has a variable transit speed. Can either of you tell me what that means?"
Anderson snorted again. Kelly decided to guess: "It's being gravitationally affected by something?"
Kuthrine actually smiled. "Good to know you have some brains, neophyte. Yes. However, This isn't extraordinary on its own. There are plenty of binary star systems. The problem is, this star doesn't have any other stars with it. It could be a brown dwarf, but they have actually found something else." She activated the touchscreen and brought up a diagram of a star system. "The ecliptic for the other object lines up with our point of view. If it were a brown dwarf, it would most likely eclipse the star, given how small it is. Instead, the amount of light blocked seems to indicate a rocky planet, roughly Earth-sized. Now, the really odd thing, given the "wobble" of the star, is that it appears that this planet is not orbiting the star, but is in fact orbited by this star."
"So... we are headed to this planet? How far is it?"
"To the first, yes. Analysis indicates prime conditions for life, which is great in and of itself for research. Considering the strangeness of the system, I jumped at the opportunity. There might be something arcane about it. To the second, it is actually less than a light-year away. It only recently became close enough to notice, and given its unusual speed and trajectory it has only gotten closer, and therefore easier to study. That's also why these findings were possible: it's so close that we can't just attribute this strange behavior to measurement error."
"Well, at least it won't be a very long trip."
The pilot suddenly spoke over the intercom. "You guys might wanna get ready. Launch in 5 minutes."