I pressed the bell-button beside the steel door bearing the red crest of the House of Barnes. The intersecting curls and slashes looked like a tower wrapped in vines. Apparently, the more elaborate the crest, the more important the noble family, and this one was as complicated as they came. Every crest I’d seen looked a bit ridiculous, but I didn’t understand much about the way the aristocracy did things.

“Enter,” the duke’s voice crackled from the intercom above me.

The doors folded open, and I stepped through.

Duke Barnes sat on a high-backed throne at the far end of the vast room. As the expensive carpet deadened the sound of my footsteps, my eyes were drawn to the suits of Runetech armor standing to either side of the aisle. The Arcane Dust had not yet faded, so many of them glowed with runic power. Every item was Legendary class.

At the end of the aisle, I bowed to the duke. When I straightened, a servitor painted in the Barnes house colors approached me. A white light shone from its mechanical arms as it ran them up and down my body. Once it finished the scan, it trudged backward until it came to a halt beside Barnes.

“You’ll have to excuse my attendant.” Duke Barnes nodded at the servitor. “The constant threat of the insurrectionists has made me cautious. Even lords are not safe from their blackguard.”

The duke held out the goblet in his hand, and the servitor poured dark wine into it. “These servitors are good for other things, too, which is why I still keep them around. Some of the other houses think me old-fashioned, but it’s so difficult to find good quality service these days.”

I eyed the robot and wondered whether it was scanning our conversation with its biofeedback surveillance systems. Technically, it was against Caledonian law to scan without verbal agreement, but the duke wasn’t exactly beholden to legislation within his private residence. I just had to make sure I avoided any questions about Tyranus or mutations.

I also didn’t want to tell the duke about the note from Dad unless it was absolutely necessary. Something about the letter made me think there was more at play, but I couldn’t quite pin down the root of the feeling.

The stained-glass windows behind the throne made the room swirl with colors, and I was having trouble focusing. Although I was wearing the ceremonial dress of a squire, and my throbbing palm bore squire runes, I was an outsider here. This was the first time I’d even been inside a noble family’s spire. A single thread in the tapestries hanging behind the throne was probably worth more currency than I’d earn in a whole year as a squire.

Yet I had graduated. I wasn’t simply an Outlander anymore, and I needed to convince this noble to assign me to the Stalwart.

“Ludas told me you wished to change your assignment,” the duke said. “I spoke to the captain of the RTF Valor, and he was more than pleased to have you aboard his vessel.”

“Truthfully, my lord, I think it better for someone of my status to work their way up from the bottom,” I said. “I believe I have a lot to offer such a vessel, and I am looking for more of a challenge.” It was the most believable reason I could come up with, and I held my breath for a few seconds as the servitor listened to our conversation. The lights on the robot’s artificial face didn’t shift, so I guessed it hadn’t detected my lie.

“Well, the Stalwart certainly is the bottom. Perhaps it is even the basement. However, I do wonder whether there might not be other motivations at play.”

“Other motivations, my lord?”

“Yes. Like insurrection.” The duke rested his goblet on his throne, entwined his fingers, and stared down at me behind thick eyebrows.

My shoulders bunched up at the implied accusation that I might be a rebel, and I exhaled slowly to contain my anger. “I am loyal to the queen. Deathly loyal. I would give my life in service to her.”

Barnes glanced at the servitor to his side, and green lights brightened along its face. “It appears you are speaking the truth. Even so, it is rather peculiar that you would choose the Stalwart. I am led to believe the crew members are plotting the downfall of our beloved queen.”

My eyes widened and excitement stirred in my chest as the true purpose of my father’s letter became known to me. He must have also suspected the crew were rebels, so he had left the note so I would be assigned to that particular ship.

I couldn’t take no for an answer from Duke Barnes.

“I don’t know of such things, my lord,” I said as carefully as I could.

“No,” he replied as his eyes narrowed slightly. “I don’t believe that you do. I am grateful to you for saving my son’s life, and I will grant you this request, but I believe that you can give me additional help once you are aboard the Stalwart. If you take my meaning?”

“You wish me to spy?” I said after I quickly connected the dots.

“No, no, no, my dear squire,” the man said with a quick laugh. “We do not spy on our own kingdom. However, I am worried about the Stalwart’s crew. As I said, I have no problem putting you on the vessel, since you have saved my sons life, but I do not wish you to be caught up with insurrectionists.”

“My lord,” I said. “I will enter the Stalwart as a squire, and I will provide you with any information that might lead to the arrest of rebellious crew members.”

“Hmmm, that might work,” Duke Barnes said as he stroked his lengthy beard. After a few moments, he twisted his right hand, and my details from the Academy materialized from a holo projector in front of him. He took a long draw from the goblet as he scanned through to the bottom. “You’re more than proficient. In fact, I’m surprised you were able to pass most of the tests given your poor lineage.” He swirled his goblet and gauged me with his eyes, as though maybe I’d somehow cheated.

“I worked hard to pass those tests, my lord. I never cheated.”

Duke Barnes sighed. “I am not sure that an Outlander will be able to uncover what the crew of the Stalwart is really up to.”

“My lord, I am your servant. I will provide you with whatever you need to take down these rebels. I will not stop until they are brought to justice.” The sentence came from my mouth hastily, and I lowered my head more. I hated bowing before anyone who wasn’t the Queen, but my pride didn’t matter at the moment. I wanted to fulfil my father’s wishes, even if that meant being assigned to the worst starship in the RTF.

“Perhaps you would be able to find out what is going on,” Duke Barnes said. “After all, I did receive some derision for assigning an Outlander squire to the RTF Valor. If I did send you to the Stalwart, I doubt anyone will wonder why one of your kind was sent there rather than another ship. Everyone knows Outlanders are a troublesome sort.”

I bunched my fists behind my back and bit my tongue so I wouldn’t argue otherwise. I hated the outright racism of nobles like Duke Barnes, and I almost wished I hadn’t bowed to him earlier.

“I would have a servitor assigned to the vessel, but something makes me think they wouldn’t make great squires.” Duke Barnes held out his arm, and more wine trickled into his goblet from the servitor. “This is an assignment of the highest order, Squire Lyons. One deserving of a hero.”

Aboard the Stalwart, I’d be working for the duke, and he was directly under Queen Catrina, so this secret mission was practically given to me by the Queen--in a roundabout fashion. Maybe the spacecraft wouldn’t be so bad. Drill sergeants told all kinds of stories to cadets. The ones about the Stalwart could have been exaggerated.

Above all of this was my father’s wishes, and my desire to fulfil them.

“I won’t let you down, my lord,” I said with honor.

“Apart from the possibility of insurrectionists among the crew, you’ll find the Stalwart an otherwise uneventful craft. Humanitarian missions are just the thing for someone who wants a break from the action.”

My stomach dropped, and my throat became dry. “Humanitarian missions?”

I knew the Stalwart was a terrible vessel, but I had still assumed it went on portal clearing missions like all the other starships carrying Space Knights.

“The Stalwart avoids combat zones,” Duke Barnes said. “There’ll be no rift clearing for you. No more Grendels to worry about. You’ll be delivering supplies to the kingdom’s provinces. Food and things. All the while keeping an eye on the crew and reporting everything you see.”

This was definitely a problem. I would be a glorified trader, paid some meager sum while spying on the crew. Most squires apprenticed under knights while they cleared portals and acquired Kingdom Points. Without a reasonable income, I wouldn’t be able to assist Mom with rental payments and taxes.

“Is there a problem, Squire Lyons?” Duke Barnes asked, and then he smiled as though he had read my thoughts. “If currency is an issue, I can provide you with a lump sum that should be more than sufficient for this mission.”

I hated taking handouts, so I didn’t answer while I thought of some other way to acquire KPs.

“I noticed your Kingdom Balance was low when I pulled up your file,” the duke said to me as he flicked his fingers through my test score reports again. “It looks like you were assumed dead after the Academy starship was unable to communicate with anyone on Tyranus.”

My heart pounded in my chest as I thought of all my hard-earned currency suddenly vanishing. What was I going to do now? I needed to buy gear before I went on my assignment. I couldn’t show up to the Stalwart with only Novice equipment.

I’d worked so hard to save those KPs. I couldn’t believe what the duke was telling me, but I now knew why the carriage hadn’t registered my payment.

“Don’t be troubled by this, Squire Lyons. This is a fault of our kingdom’s efficiency. I shall correct our error immediately. I shall tell my retainer to transfer 3,000 Kingdom Points into the account of Nicholas Lyons.”

“Thank you, my lord.” I didn’t know what else to say. It wasn’t a huge sum of money, but it was more than enough to purchase new equipment.

“You are most welcome. Ensure that you serve me, and your queen,” the duke said.

“I will, my lord.”

“Now,” the duke said, “your point of contact will be High Sorcerer Silvester Polgar. I will be unable to speak with you for the duration of your assignment, so please try not to vex him. He can be . . . difficult at times.”

“Yes, my lord.” I didn’t care whether I’d have to shine the sorcerer’s boots if it meant uncovering rebels and fulfilling my father’s wishes.

“Very good. Then I wish you luck in your venture. Remember, your service is to our most gracious lady, Queen Catrina. If the crew are indeed insurrectionists, they’ll believe themselves her servants. But any mission performed outside of her Royal Trident Forces’ chain of command is treasonous. You understand?”

“Yes, my lord.” I was starting to sound like a broken servitor, and I felt a wide grin come to my mouth.

“Polgar!” the duke called out. “Nicholas Lyons here is the Stalwart’s new recruit.”

I turned to see the sorcerer glide toward the throne. After he stopped beside me, he leaned on his staff and studied my face without saying a word. I could hear the thrumming of magical power reverberating from the twisted wooden staff and see the arcane aura shifting the air around it.

Polgar had been somewhat jovial toward me after the ceremony, but now he glared at me from behind his hooked nose. “I was curious about your history, so I looked up your file. Almost perfect test scores. Difficult for a noble. Impossible for one of your stock.”

I fought back the urge to tell him I’d never cheated on a single test and the only reason more Outlanders weren’t in the Academy was because the tuition was so expensive. I had my father to thank for mine, and I’d worked my ass off to pass those tests. While the nobles had been partying, I was either in my room hitting the books or in the battle chambers fighting simulated Grendels.

I could have told Polgar all those things, but an argument might mean me losing my new assignment. Instead, I swallowed my pride and tried not to show the sorcerer how much I despised him.

“What does it matter how Squire Lyons managed those results?” Duke Barnes said as he flicked his fingers through the air to bring up my test scores. “He showed ingenuity. The kind of untraditional thinking these Outlanders excel in. It makes him the perfect candidate for our mission aboard the Stalwart.”

“Perhaps,” Polgar continued staring at me, and his scarred fingers strummed his glowing staff. “I’ve been meaning to ask Lyons about what happened on Tyranus.” The sorcerer’s gaze moved to the servitor. “I heard the report, but some of it doesn’t make sense. Tell us, Outlander, how is it that you and the duke’s son were able to jump to the starship when your jump mage was already dead?”

The servitor beside the throne beeped, and I realized it was scanning everything. Was this conversation planned? An elaborate ploy concocted by the lord and the sorcerer to find out whether I’d been responsible for the mutation event?

I shook myself out of the stupid thought. I was becoming too anxious.

“Alice must have died during the jump.” I swallowed as the servitor’s front interface flickered strangely.

Polgar didn’t remove his eyes from the robot. “Do you know the probability of a successful jump when the mage’s heart has ceased to beat midway through a transfer? It is infinitesimal.”

“I guess I’m just lucky,” I said with a shrug.

“Ha!” the duke roared. “You hear that, Silvester? The man is lucky. After all, he did get out of Tyranus alive.” He turned to the servitor to refill his goblet and frowned as its lights flashed an array of colors before settling on amber. The lord looked up at me. “What do you know about servitors, Nicholas?”

“They are primitive tech which existed before the First Pioneers discovered Arcane Dust. I don’t mean to offend you, my lord, but I don’t believe non-magical technology is all that reliable.” I fought my nervousness as the servitor’s lights remained a dull amber. I was telling the truth, and the robot’s display hadn’t changed. Maybe it was malfunctioning, making me the luckiest man alive.

“You appear to be correct, Squire.” Duke Barnes slapped the servitor. It let out a series of high-pitched beeps, and the power gauge flashed. It was just my luck when the robot suddenly blinked out, probably from the force of the duke’s blow. “Polgar, will you have my retainer order me another of these models?”

“Yes, my lord,” he answered, though he was now staring at me as if I’d somehow caused the robot to die.

I let my shoulders relax, and from the duke’s sudden anger, I guessed he might have lost all the robot’s truth records when it short-circuited.

“You may leave us now, Squire Lyons,” Duke Barnes said. “Ensure you are on the Stalwart before it leaves at 08:00 CUT.”

“Thank you, my lord.” I bowed again before leaving the throne room, feeling the sorcerer’s eyes bore into my back.

The duke might have dismissed his servitor’s objections to my story, but the sorcerer clearly hadn’t. Polgar might be able to pull the data from the dead robot, but it’d likely be corrupted. I would have to be careful around him from now on.

Once I’d left the plaza of noble family spires, I decided against taking a carriage. Thanks to the advanced atmospheric systems, the air on Bratton was far cleaner than it was planetside, and I wanted to take in the scenery before spending months on a starship. While I crossed the park greenery, I accessed the Caledonian database from my prot-belt. Without my helmet and its visor, the menu displayed on a holo projected by the belt’s buckle. I located the record for the Stalwart and read the ship’s details.

RTF Stalwart (Beluga class Transport Support)

Hull: Crystalanium-ST Composite

Length: 180 meters

Mass: Approximately 271,728 metric tons

Crew: Approximately 80 current crew members. Maximum 220 crew members.

Arcane chamber: Matthias

Rune lances: 4

Plasma quarrels: 10

Heavy cannons: 2

Shield stations: 5

Fighter craft: 2

Shuttle craft: 4

Heavy Tanks: 4

It was clear from the low-res image accompanying the readout that the Stalwart was the product of a mad engineer’s experiment. No part of the starship was regulation. There was no guarantee it would not fall apart while voyaging through the universe.

How in the hell was it allowed to fly?

The RTF’s engineering and safety measures were normally stringent, but if the vessel harbored insurrectionists, then they probably flew under the radar.

Even with a ship like the Stalwart as my assignment, I couldn’t be any happier. I had finally opened the letter from Dad, and I was on a mission to uncover rebel activity. Not to mention the lump sum the duke had given me would allow me to buy some serious gear.

I was finally done with the Academy and onto the next stop toward becoming a Space Knight. It might be a little harder to earn Kingdom Points on humanitarian missions, but I was sure Duke Barnes would pay me well for providing information on the Stalwart’s crew. Then I could help Mom pay her rent and taxes.

Some of the citizens I passed stopped to congratulate me or ask for my autograph, and I realized I was still wearing my ceremonial uniform. I didn’t have much time to purchase new gear and get to the Stalwart before it set sail, and I couldn’t waste time talking with every second person I walked by. I rushed along the path and took a carriage to my lodgings.

When I arrived in my room, I donned my Novice armor, in case I ran into any trouble. It was unlikely, but unexpected things could happen inside the Business Spire.

I slipped my armored pants on, then my boots, followed by my breastplate. My rerebrace, spaulders, and gauntlets clipped together into a single item, and I pulled them over each arm and then attached them to the magneton fasteners on the chest piece.

The Novice armor set wasn’t spectacular, so I hoped to replace at least some of it with better items. It was bulky and a little difficult to maneuver in, but it was still RTF-approved equipment.

My final item was a surcoat I’d inherited from my father, and I flipped it over my shoulders and fastened it to my spaulders. Although the item didn’t have any enchantments, it carried sentimental value. Today, it would obscure most of my armor so I wouldn’t cause too much of a stir while walking through the spire.

I could have worn my helmet so I wouldn’t be recognized, but I figured most of the people inside the spire wouldn’t have had the opportunity to watch the graduation ceremony. I also didn’t want to equip the helmet since a fully-armored RTF squire might scare the Outlanders inside. My people had been subjected to some horrific things by the RTF centuries ago, and they tended to have long memories. I had forgiven the Caledonian Kingdom and chose to serve the Queen, but not all Outlanders shared my position.

When I attached my gladius to my prot-belt, the memory of Tyranus whirled through my mind again.

All of my classmates had died. Alice had died. I would honor their memory. The Stalwart might not be the most prestigious starship, but I would uncover these insurrectionists.

I packed all my remaining belongings into a duffle bag and requested the concierge to send it to the Stalwart. My steps were somewhat surer as I caught a carriage.

While I was making my way across Bratton’s skyline, I recorded a message to Mom, letting her know everything was fine and I’d been assigned to the Stalwart for humanitarian missions. I could imagine how overjoyed she’d be when she learned I wasn’t clearing rifts on my first assignment. As soon as the message sent, I glanced up at my destination. This was the Business Spire, and I was fifty-one floors away from getting my first Squire class equipment.

I needed to hurry my ass up if I wanted to purchase new gear and make it to the Stalwart on time.