Chapter Six

Trying to Build Something Different

“Sky, I don’t know about starting to take an easy path if all my life I’ve got everywhere on my own. From what I know anything easy always has a different way of paying for it. I don’t think I’ll take you up on it. I’ve never taken an easy path, and I don’t want to start now.” Todd had an expression of regret of not being able to accept her offer.

Surprizing Fred joined in. “Todd, you know she doesn’t have to make it too easy. She taught me the difference of casting with emotion and without by destroying my bicep with a flick of her finger, twice. I’ve never had an easy time learning either growing up. Sky makes it easy for you to grasp her meaning it’s up to you to put in the effort. When she showed you how to throw with magical telekinesis, she didn’t teach you anything you didn’t know help put everything you needed and knew all together into one. Mind you those tomes fed you quite a bit of magic, from what I gathered they blended in seamlessly to your magic wells.” Fred gave a quick look to Joe and back to Todd. “I can’t make you let Sky teach you, but I could make her your instructor for this mission. I don’t think even you can argue if she outclasses you or everyone in magic and martial arts.” He noticed Todd was about to protest. Fred shook his head. “I watched the vids of you sparing in the training room, you’re good, and maybe even better than me. But can you honestly think after watching Sky go all out fighting her clone you would stand one second with Sky not holding back? We didn’t tell you, but her strength is a tenth of what it is normally. She has a strength suppression spell on her taking away much of her strength. She almost crushed Joe in his combat gee-suit after the first spell with what she called a butterfly hug. How tight do you think a butterfly can squeeze a person”? Fred let that sink in and went to give Sky a wink. By the look on her face, she was not happy.

“All the things you said may be true, but I’m not going to teach someone who doesn’t want me teaching them. I’m not a bully who forces her ways on others. It’s fine by me if Todd is willing to take the next twenty years to master his new abilities. It’s his choice to do so not ours. He is still a very good team leader, and he cares about his crew. When he pilots the new ship, I’m sure he doesn’t need full control over his gifts. He has done fine without it so far. Sure, it might come in handy in the upcoming battle. You can see it would help right Todd Sir, being able to see and to follow transmissions to their source. To be able to see through walls and building would be a perk, not an essential ability. You’ll have others who will know how you have to keep asking one of your teammates that all, you care to know.” She took Todd’s hands gently in her tiny ones. “I won’t teach you anything else without your permission to do so. You have my word on that I don’t care what Captain Fred says. He means well, but I’ll respect your wishes and will not force you in any way.”

Todd looked down at this tiny girl and knew if she wanted, she could destroy a planet with the right spells. She could beat anyone in unarmed combat. In a magical dual, no one could hold a fire to her. He had to admit Fred was right she was taking it easy on him. The battle she had with herself was proof. If he was to make any progress quickly, he needed her help. But how to ask for her help without losing face. Sky’s hands felt odd to him; there was a slight pulse to his hands, the Morse code. He quickly conveyed that he wanted to learn more if she was willing to teach. It surprised him how quickly he could convey the message with his now heightened awareness. Her reply confused him for a fraction of a second.

The Todd message understood was ‘Ask for a rematch.’ Not knowing what was on Sky’s mind Todd did as she asked. “Sky you’re the best Martial Arts fighter I know; it would be teaching me if we had a sparring match occasionally. I would be able to sharpen my skills as a fighter.”

“I can agree to that. Do you want to go first in the training room and be at your level of magic and strength? Or would prefer I go in first and combat with my magic and strength? I have never experienced the latter and wouldn’t mind trying it out.” She could see Todd’s eyes light up at the thought of something like a home town advantage.

“That would be new for you, wouldn’t it? Maybe we could try that out sometime soon to see if you can adapt to the differences. It was nice to feel all of that magical power and mo.” He stopped himself from saying monstrous and changed it. “More strength than I knew what to do with it, to be honest with you. So sometime between after tea and biscuits and before the mission start, we should be able to get in a few sparring matches and go over the book. Does that sound good to you, ensign Sky?

Sky released his hand and gave him a quick salute. “It’s fine with me Todd Sir. I only request at least one of those times I go first. When you go first, we should take some of the gold tomes with us. Thank you for not being mad or upset with me anymore. It’s sometimes too easy to do things that I shouldn’t. I’m catching on though I can touch more things without breaking or crushing them.” She then returned to sit where she was sitting before to work on the tomes and have a little more tea and a few more biscuits. Which she found were a big hit, because they were almost all gone. She grabbed a biscuit before she sat and smiled at Heathers puffed cheeks from eating the whole biscuit at once.

“I should inform you that the biscuits are limited in supply. There would be only eleven boxes in existence unless someone kept them in a stasis-field for over two hundred and fifty years. So, enjoy and remember the taste for once they're gone. I’ll try to bake some afterwards now that I can touch more things and help mommy make more. I may not be able to replicate food, but I can handle and manipulate food just fine.” She was holding her biscuit over the cup while talking. You could see the moisture being drawn down from the biscuit as it dried out.

Sky then placed five blank tomes, one under each digit and started filling them with the fire element. Four seconds and all five were gold. It was even faster than before. Surprised she commented on it. “That was faster than before I guess the saying is true the biggest room ever is the room for improvement.” She looked at Todd and smiled. “I guess I’ll just have to keep trying harder to keep on improving everything I do.” She then giggled. “I guess I’m not too old to learn new tricks.” She laughed harder after William and Rocssanna soon followed her in laughter. William was the first to stop then Rocssanna, who put her hand on Sky’s shoulder to get her to stop.

“I guess that was a joke that wouldn’t make much sense to you guys. Our race lives much old than yours. At Sky’s age, her life is like a blink of an eye. Even suggesting she was possibly too old to learn is hilarious to us.”

Todd and Courtney asked at the same time almost as if rehearsed. “And what race is that if you don’t mind me asking”? Todd and Courtney looked at each other and Sky burst out laughing again. This time some of the others joined her.

William waited and then had Rocssanna settle Sky down again. He knew she was blowing tension off she had felt earlier. “I guess Sky trusts you and you never tried to press her to tell you. Sky has a good sense of people’s character. She probably had her mind made up when she helped you the first time. So, while it’s not a real secret, we don’t like to tell just anyone.”.

William paused for a dramatical effect. “We are micronized Titans. We did it so we could blend in easier than our normal enormous size. They were the last two Titans left it hard to blend in and feel comfortable around others. The size difference is just too great, so we allowed ourselves to be micronized.

Rocssanna started to get impatient and started to finish the story. “To make a long story short because we’re short of time. We had been micronized before we knew I was pregnant. Magic is the only thing that could see through our super dense bodies. So we had no idea. I was with child.”

“ Inside of Sky was a type of plant that could produce a tremendous amount of magical energy. The plants were semi-sentient, and we now think they were linked to Sky and couldn’t detach from her without causing harm and just blended into her body becoming part of her.”. Rocssanna shuddered as she said the last part.

Sky grew up on a planet with no magic she had no tests done on her and never needed any. Sorry for making it a short story but we’re prepping for Sky to build her first ship. She eats a lot on an inactive day. But soon she will be using physical and magical strength together. She’ll be in a time shifted room; it would appear to us she’ll be eating every few hours instead of every six hours. She needs very little sleep four hours for her is sleeping in. One or two hours seems to be plenty, right my little angel”?

Sky smiled at her mommy while still making tomes. The ladies forgot to help, and even without their help she had over half the pile gone. “Did you know mommy? I don’t always sleep every day. Sometimes I just lied in bed and dreamed of magic being real, and it turns out it was. Mommy, I’ll have to sleep more since I’ll be using a lot of magic and physical strength.”

“While making the tomes and having our tea party, I drew up the plans, and if you want, we could take a virtual tour of the ship.”. Sky said before smiling at Todd. “That way Todd, and the team going with him can get used to the weapons and defence systems. It will have beyond state of the art everything. Once in stealth mode even I would be pressed to see it. If I even knew where to look. There is a way to see through the cloaked ship. Only I know it and the spell to see it through is not small a small one and takes a lot of magical energy. The weapons are all magically enhanced by the crew. The ship itself can’t produce anything but the lightening element, but the ship has runes engraved into the metal to channel magic throughout the ship and amplify it much like a huge talisman.”

Sky kept going in about the ship while filling more of the tomes. Once the last of the tea was finished, and Jane split the last biscuit with Sky everyone decided to help Sky finish the rest of the tomes. Out of six hundred, about a hundred not filled.

“Sky how much magic could you put into a paper tome? Is it possible to put even more magic into a tome”? Todd wondered out loud to Sky. He raised his eyebrow as he asked the question.

Sky tilled her head to the side. “I guess I could put in about double if I combine two or more of the elements. The user would have to have all the elements on the tome though, or the results would be fatal. They would have to use all the magical energy before removing the tome. That would take some extreme spells to use up that kind of energy. Do you want me to try and make one or more multi-element tomes? I could make a dozen special ones for everyone here. Let’s see what I can do? Five Jane specials are coming up. She tapped on each blank with a digit to place the new spell. Sky turned to Jane and took a mental picture and started to fill the tomes. Jane’s image started to appear on the tome in the colours of her elemental affinities. Soon there were five tomes with five different images of Jane’s face.

Jane picked up the tomes, and she could feel the magic humming in them. “Do they work like the gold tomes self-activating”? Sky nodded her head “Yes they actually will go invisible till they are used up and you can’t remove them until then.”

Jane lifted her shirt and placed two of the tomes on each side her of abdominal muscles. She was now ready for anything. Before meeting Sky, she hasn’t been able to use recharge tomes since her body modifications. She owed a lot to Sky already, and if she were to buy the tomes, she received it would have taken over twenty years. She thanked Sky with a hug and a kiss on her forehead. So, everyone including Todd had two of the new custom tomes attached to their bodies.

Heather considered Fred and Joe; they never received any of the custom tomes. She nudged Todd, who gave the slightest indication of acknowledgement. Sky picked up on it and with a few subtle motions indicated to Fred that fact it was drawing Todd and his teams’ attention. His reaction was it was up to her how she wanted to proceed. Sky made up two dozen more tomes twelve for each of them. The tomes had four elements on each, and the pictures were very different and vivid.

“Okay Todd, Jane, Courtney and Heather there are a few things about my relationship with Fred and Joe that is different than the ones I share with you at present. This mission we are about to go on has a similar aspect to it. I can freely share any or all my elemental affinities at will with others. I have shared two of them and linked my wells with their natural affinities. There are times I must sever the link from the wells, but affinity stays connected to them until I take it back. I was told not to give away my gifts too freely. I will most likely share them with you in the future if you continue to be the people you are. The people we are going to be rescuing have most likely had their conciseness taken away and made into living batteries. A link can’t be made conscious without consent; even the sub-conscious mind will server a forced link. A person with no mind at all can’t fight back. I can reverse the process and give them back their minds. I can’t take away memories or the pain they went through. I will make sure if possible, the ones responsible will pay for their deeds and can never do it again. This crime will not go unpunished“.

“Todd, you will be piloting the ship that will leave no doubt of my wrath.” Sky’s anger grew as she voiced out her wishes. “I hate things of destruction, the ship you will pilot will be for retribution for the fallen and the taken. I’m not building it to kill but to stop those who will kill others who are not looking for trouble. Please, Todd, don’t kill those who give up unconditionally. To anyone that is taking a hostage to show them no mercy, I’ll show you a spell that will incapacitate any rogue mages that try and take a hostage. They will be left alive but unable to move and have a deep feeling of self-loathing while under the spell. It’s a wide range spell and needs no one directing it. It will only affect people using magic that is killing and hurting people. Don’t cast any magic with bad intentions even more so when the spells to kill or hurt someone. Remember this is a mission to rescue and detain the evil rogue mages.” Sky felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Fred’s, and he didn’t look too pleased.

“Ensign Sky what do you think you’re doing? You’re a nine years old girl and giving a speech and instructing your superiors in an upcoming engagement. That’s my job and who said Todd would be piloting the new ship”. Fred told Sky standing over her still not used to not flinching. “Joe will be the better person for the mission he has many more years’ experience in battle? You should not assume how I’m going to do things with my crew”.

Fred gave up on intimidating and crossed huge arms and continued speaking in his deep voice. “So, what makes you think Todd is the one to pilot the new ship”? Most men would be intimidated by his size and form, even the tone he took. Sky looked up to his towering body dwarfing her tiny frame and blushed. She knew she was out of place and he felt it necessary to put her back to where she belonged. He was right; she only read about a lot of thing on the galactic web.

She looked down and noticed that one boot was possibly a millimetre bigger than the other. “Well, you know how Joe fly’s this ship and understands everything on it. The new ship will look almost identical from the outside. He would most likely treat it as he would this one and overlook many of the improvements to the newer model. He would go for the tried tested and true things he knows have worked in the past, any hesitation could mean the difference between success and failure. Todd has never been in the ship before and has a greater awareness than Joe. He’ll be able to feel his way around the new ship's controls and systems faster and not be used to an older system. If they both had a few years to get used to the ship equally, I imagine Joe could be the better pilot in the end. But in the short run and this mission, I would give the pilots seat to Todd.

Sky still proceeded like she was the captain. “Jane will be with me in the scout ship to rescue the kidnapped mages. We will join you after saving everyone, or if you’re in immediate danger of being destroyed. I think you and Joe are the perfect team and I wouldn’t want to put someone you just met in his place so quickly. Todd can learn about the new ship in a simulator while we scout out the solar system with Joe piloting this ship with the expertise you know he has”.

“I’m sorry for assuming Todd will be the pilot of the new ship your right in stopping me from my rant. I want to save those people soon”. Sky gave Fred a palliative look. “They’re just going to get stronger with linking themselves to their magic wells. The some of the rogue mages just now reached the cloned scout ship. The mage with the stolen gift fells for the trap and is now comatose and will no longer be a threat. But there were other mages on the ship using a great deal of magic. The spells they used distorts our magic somehow, and I could not see quite how they worked. The spells were like the ones used on Jane’s body. I could not get my awareness into the ship after the mage with the stolen gift was taken out. The bubble they use around their ships is very different from the one I use. I could dispel it if I were close enough, other than that no magic or energy beam can penetrate the bubble. Shear physical power would be able to pop their bubble, like the two railguns on the new ship.”

Fred stopped her. “Okay, I see how Todd would be the better choice with the time we have to prepare. But how are you going to put in one railgun let alone two? Even with space we have no way of powering one of them. We don’t have a way to produce that kind of power needed to charge one up. Tell me what are you going to do for a power source”?

Captain Fred Sir did you forget that I have a lot of magic. Two of the elements can be used almost use straight in their raw form, lightning and fire. I can fill something like a tome or link myself to the ship if it becomes necessary. Anyway, everything on the new ship will be super-efficient and used at least a quarter of the energy of the older style. At school, I was always showing how things could be made better, but I could never build things that were too delicate from scratch. I could fix something easier than others. But I broke more things than I fixed at first. So, the power source will be magic for the weapon systems and the flight will be the same as the Little Tooth fusion generators are just more efficient also. After the mission, I’ll upgrade anything you want if I can.” Sky was happy she could make Fred see her point in making Todd the pilot for the new ship.

Todd felt excited at piloting such a small and lethal ship. He couldn’t wait to try the simulator to see what the tiny girl could build. Heather and Courtney would have to be there to run the simulated weapons too. “Do you think we could go look at the new ship and the systems on board now that the tea parties over. I think Courtney and Heather should join me too. So, that they can familiarize themselves with the weapons systems and sensor arrays.”

“If it is okay with Captain Fred, Conny can show you the new ship in a virtual model you can walk around in the cargo bay. I’m going to take a quick nap and prepare for the mission. I’ve got find a way of breaking the chaotic spell circle code. They make no sense to me. The spells do something.” Sky left the mess hall first, her mode somewhat glum.

“My poor little angel is confused with something new. I haven’t seen that look in a long time, haven’t I Willy? I wish there were something I could do.” Rocssanna walked to William and wrapped her arms around him from behind his seated form.

“No dear you haven’t seen Sky’s face like that in many years,” William said holding Rocssanna’s hands to his chest caressing her hands gently.

Todd, Courtney and Heather left after to take a quick look at the new ship and get themselves familiar with how it was to work.

Jane stayed with Rocssanna and William to help clean up and get ready for when Sky starts coming in frequently to eat once the shipbuilding begins. She was also already able to pilot the scout ship and would be able to spend more time casting healing spells while Sky constructs the ship.

Fred and Joe were getting ready to enter the solar system the rogue mages took over. With Sky’s new stealth spell, they should be able to move around close and use the new awareness Sky had opened for them. Since meeting her, they became like new men. The way they teach the magical arts now is in question. Particularly the reason why while casting spells not to use emotions and intent. He could see why the MAD is used and why speaking or writing out part of a spell is necessary for most people.

Joe interrupted Fred’s ponderings, “did you want to pass by the cargo bay and peek at the ship Little Tooth could be and could have been. It shouldn’t take up too much time, and I would like to know what type of weapons Sky had come up with and how she modified them. Fred agreed, and they soon found themselves in the cargo bay.

The first thing they saw was a ship loosely resembling the Little Tooth. It seemed a little bigger and had six barrels sticking out from the front and a turret on the top and bottom of the ship. There was no sign of Todd and his team, so they went to enter the semi-intractable ship. The size on the inside was far greater than the Little Tooth. There were more rooms and a bigger mess hall. The med-bay was tiny compared to the size of the ship. It was the same size as the original. The corridors you could walk four people abreast with no problem. The lighting in the ship was even different. All the surfaces were lite with no light source visible. On the way to the bridge, they noticed a lounge and designated briefing room. They spotted everyone on the bridge which was far bigger than it needed to be. No one said a word as they entered but nodded to acknowledge their presence. All around them there was a 340-degree view of the outside. If you look at something on the outside of the ship, your view will get bigger, and analyze the object. In a fraction of a second, a green circle surrounded any object with a caption below zero threat level no target lock.

Todd was in the captain’s chair with his mouth agape. He was engrossed in something they could not see. Todd peered over at them briefly, and with a slight movement of his hand, an image appeared before them. In green letters “Share captain’s viewpoint YES, NO”. They selected yes, and there was a view of them racing through an asteroid belt with lasers and the railguns firing to clear any objects that got too close. The image was not quite opaque, and you could see beyond the image. Todd’s piloting was amazing and yet he made no significant movements. Heather and Courtney were in similar chairs that had the same controls, round curved disc their hand sat on top.

The bridge had two unoccupied chairs with similar controls. The rest were made to look just comfortable behind all the others. Fred turned to Joe seeing him take a seat and placing his hands on the curved discs controls. His mouth too was open in surprise, not able to speak he just motioned to the empty seat. Fred shrugged his shoulder and took a seat in the comfortable chair then placed his hands on the discs. An image of Conny appeared before him along with three different choices. “Would you like a flight, weapons, or sensor array simulation”? He went to choose the sensor array before he could contemplate what to select the sensor array option was selected, and the simulation began. The sim was a small space ship that was missing and a large solar system it went missing recently, and you had to find it and any survivors. You could calibrate the sensor to pick up any of the metals or life forms that were inside of the ship. He quickly thought about scanning for habitable planets and found he could boost the range of the sensors with magic. He had the option of passive and, or active scanning. Passive being undetectable by normal means and active giving you a much further and accurate range and was easily detected.

Fred thought “Is their hostiles in this simulation” a disembodied voice answered him “Yes for training purposes there are hostiles throughout the simulation.” Fred was surprised at the ship’s response to his thoughts. The disembodied voice answered him again. “The controls respond to many different bio-feeds, much like a lie detector.” He quickly did a passive scan and found two hostile ships over twice the normal distance of the previous scanner range. The two hostile ships were on a planet crewless. He was impressed and did a full spectrum scan of the planet surface and found no sign of the missing ship and crew. He found the new passive scanning systems almost on par as the present active scanners. The new active scanners added were far superior to even the most advanced once made available to date. The new ship was going to be at least ten years before it’s time. The simulation was giving him an all-around feel for the new ship’s capabilities. The flight, weapons choices and the scanning systems were all very intuitive. Halfway through the mission simulation, he realized he just came into taking a quick look not to run any test.

The ship was an amazing piece of technology he couldn’t believe just a nine-year-old girl came up with, Fred thought. Well, she isn’t just a nine-year-old girl; many factors make her more than just a little girl. Begin a Titan, having multiple beings of unknown intelligence that produce vast amounts of magic and having all five elemental affinities. She is far beyond any definition of normal in anyone’s standards. He disengaged himself from the simulation and was informed he could continue at any time of his choosing. His mouth felt dry and after looking over at Joe still seated and everyone else, he knew why. They all still had their mouths open to various degrees of amazement; he didn’t think he would have been much different. He would have loved to finish the simulation, but duty called after extricating himself from the chair and went to get Joe.

Joe sat down in the chair, and his hands automatically went to the curved disc of the controls. He was thinking of how the controls worked, and the disembodied voice of Conny asked him what type of simulation he would like to try? “Would you like a flight, weapons, or sensor array simulation”? Joe figured he would try the flight controls and see what it would be like flying the new ship for a few minutes. The simulation started in a well-known spaceport. He looked around the bridge, and everything looks the same in the ship. All the people looked different except for Fred was in the captain’s chair.

‘Take us out first officer Joe; we want to be on our way ASAP. Joe thought of how he would have piloted the old way, and the ship moved out as if it read his mind. In this mission, they were to find and follow a pirate ship in the local solar system. The ship was easy to navigate, and whatever the controls were, they were very responsive. The ship was fast as well it took half the time to reach to where they were to start to look. With the upgraded scanners, it didn’t take long to locate and follow the ship on radar. Now it was up to his piloting skills to maintain his ship in visual range. Just as it looked like it was going to be boring, another ship engaged the target craft. It took off at high speed and activated a cloaking shield. The ship was still somewhat visible if you were close enough. The distance between them was growing, and Joe had to move quickly to keep the ship in sight. The new ship's controls were super responsive.

“Joe you’ll have disabled the ship attacking our target craft without being obvious. A tight laser beam to the underside of the propulsion engines should cause them to slow down enough for the target craft to escape.” Joe had to fly to the underside of the attacking ship while it was firing lasers and projectiles at the target craft. Joe found it easy to match the ships random flight pattern with little effort. The new ships targeting system was amazing; it fired two bursts and caused the attacking ship to overheat quickly.

The target craft raced ahead and noticed the attacking ship slowing down. It took advantage of this and fired lasers at the now almost defenceless ship. The ship that was attacking the target craft was a bounty hunter who was now in danger of being killed. Joe had to place his ship to act as a shield for the hunter’s ship. After a few well-placed shots that seemed to do nothing, it left the hunter ship alone.

Joe left the hunters ship crippled in space until a rescue unit would come. He continued to follow the target craft to its base. Now the target craft was more cautious of being tracked. It was flying around into the shadows of planets to avoid easy tracking. It also dropped a few mines to check if someone was following in a cloaked ship. Joe found it easy to maneuver around the mines with sensitive controls. They seemed to react to his mental suggestion almost as much as his physical movements. Just as Joe almost completed simulation, Fred interrupted his flight.

“Joe we’ve got to get a move on we just came to peek, not to test it out. We can always come back later; but right now, we have a job to do, and they have theirs. The sooner we get our course plotted to sooner we can start the mission.”

Joe reluctantly stopped his simulation and stood up from the chair and controls. “Fred what simulation did you try? I tried the flight simulation, and it’s pretty intense.”

Fred looked around and answered him. “I tried the scanner simulation, and it was pretty immersive. I was about halfway done, and any further along I would have had to finish it. I don’t know where Sky got the ideas for the controls; they are no other type of controls like them anywhere that I know of. Using the new controls felt natural as if I’ve used them my whole life”? Fred looked around, and everyone’s mouth was closed now.

“I don’t know where she got the ideas for the controls. What I do know if they’re her idea, she is going to be one richest little girl ever if she patent’s them. They seemed to react as soon as I had the thought in my head. I would like to know if the new ship will be able to move like the one in the simulation. I made some moves that sort of went against conventional laws of flight. They seemed natural to do in the simulation.”

“Well, Joe we’ll have to find out once we have the completed ship. For now, let’s get our mind on the mission at hand; this has been too much of a distraction for my liking. It’s going to be hard focusing on the mission. It’s a good thing Conny is so much more efficient now. We have to ask her to plot the course and go through the planned course and add anything else we can think of she might have missed.”