Maja's Adventures 7

Location: Magicon Empire; Armortec Duchy; Cintman System; PAS Andala

Maja sits in her office together with her second-in-command and close friend Ellie. They are finally back on the Andala after months of learning down on Cintman 2's main campus. Luckily, the crew on the Andala is mostly the same. Only a few dropouts were replaced, the rest are already familiar with each other after their freighter rescue mission that got them a spot on the Earth adventure.

It was their first and last mission on a real starship before the cadets were separated into their respective tracks for specialized lessons in a classroom setting. Maja and Ellie from the command track had their hands full with assignments and simulations. They also had their reunion with Cadet Steven Chen who got to command his own starship and also secured his spot on Earth.

A healthy rivalry developed between Maja and him which made them both bring their best at any time. As an AI, Maja has a certain advantage because she never tires, but Cadet Chen is a natural! He keeps pace with Maja and doesn't seem to stop. He even got a slightly better score at their latest assignment which secured his crew the more interesting ship mission just now.

Cadet Chen and his recruit ship, the PAS Ramirez, are allowed to leave the Cintman System and are on patrol duty in one of the neighboring systems. Maja and Ellie on the other hand have to settle for second place and now patrol the outer edges of the Cintman System – a system where absolutely nothing will happen because of the high Peacekeeper presence.

At least we're on a starship again, I guess… That's still better than the space station assignment that Devon and his crew got.

Ellie's voice shakes her out of her thoughts. "Did Commander Lackney send us any new orders?"

Maja declines. "No, it's the same as the past week. We're to patrol the area in sectors 63 to 74 and wait for further orders."

"A bummer… I could use some action after all those lessons."

"True enough," Maja chuckles and gets up. "Let's go back to the bridge. Who knows, maybe today is the day."

"You wish, but yeah, let's go," Ellie replies and leaves the office. Maja is a step behind her, and they enter the bridge and greet the other officers. Thomas sits at the tactical station, and she smiles at him. She catches his slightly strained smile and nods in understanding.

Just two more weeks, then we're back at the station. Why did they lift the communication blackout when we didn't even have a chance to communicate? I'll never understand... I mean if it was just two days earlier, we could have called Sara before our assignment on the Andala…

Dinnertime passes without anything happening and Maja gets ready to finish her shift. Ellie still has a few hours until she gives command to their new third officer, a young man called Kevin Opal. Maja says goodbye and leaves the bridge. When she arrives in her room, she lies down and hooks up the magical battery in her closet to charge her body. Her body then enters energy-saving mode – her equivalent of sleep.

Maja herself stays awake, of course, and continues to play her role as Dina, the Andala's very own AI. That's also why she's the first one to catch the message from Commander Lackney, that arrives the next morning.

Upon reading the contents, Maja immediately reactivates her body and rushes to get ready. Less than five minutes later, she's back on the bridge and asks for a status report.

Kevin is a bit startled at her sudden appearance. "Woah, captain. What are you doing here already? Doesn't your shift start in two hours?"

Maja chuckles and takes the offered captain's chair. "It does, but Dina woke me up. It seems we have new orders for the day."

Kevin pumps his fist into the air. "You mean the message from Commander Lackney is different this time? I was just about to read it, but I expected it to be the same as always."

"It seems to be, but let's take a look together. Also, Dina, please inform Ellie about the changed circumstances and ask her to meet us here as soon as possible."

She cringes inwardly at her altered voice that responds through the speakers. "Of course, captain."

This will never stop being strange…

A flick of her wrist shows Commander Lackney's message on her console. Kevin leans over her shoulder to take a look as well. He chuckles darkly at what he's reading.

"Well, that's not ominous at all… He's asking us to investigate an anomaly in sector 68… Any guesses what it might be?"

Maja shakes her head. "No, not at all… It says there's been a disturbance in space… Could it be a ship that jumped or something?"

Kevin scratches his chin. "Maybe, but wouldn't we have seen something? I mean we're pretty close after all."

Ellie, who has arrived in the meantime leans over Maja's other shoulder and chimes in. "Maybe it's a cloaked ship?"

Huh, that could be it. I mean Sara and I did a lot of sneaking with the Stargazer and the Cloaking spell. Actually, didn't Thomas learn that new spell for exactly that reason?

Maja looks over to the tactical console. Thomas is still off shift, but a quick silent message courtesy of Dina asks him to come to the bridge.

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In the meantime, Maja asks the bridge crew to get the Andala ready for a jump to sector 68. Thomas arrives soon after and Maja explains her thoughts. He grins and gets ready. A few minutes later, Simon's fellow Space Mage initiates a countdown, then he casts the Starship Jump spell and the Andala vanishes.

The starship reappears in sector 68 and is ready for anything. The shields go up immediately, and Simon is on standby to teleport the ship a second time in case it becomes necessary.

Maja takes in the situation and as expected, the Andala's sensors don't detect anything. She walks over to Thomas and stops behind his chair. "Are you ready?"

He cracks his knuckles and grins. "I've never been more ready! I wanted to try out this spell for so long."

It's a wide-range Dispel spell, that specifically targets cloaked ships in space. Thomas wanted to learn it immediately after reading about it and between the two ship missions, he finally found the time to do so.

I wonder what Commander Lackney has prepared for us.

"Then go for it, Lieutenant Nelson."

Thomas nods one more time, then sits still to concentrate. Thirty seconds later, he opens his eyes again and looks at Maja. "It's done, captain. Now we just have to wait if we'll catch some fish."

"Good work. Now be ready to support Ensign Michaels with the shield in case we're running into an ambush."

Thomas nods and Maja returns to her own station. Ellie stands next to it and looks closely at a floating hologram of the space before the Andala. It shows a visualization of Thomas's Dispel spell, expanding in a circle around the ship. So far nothing has been revealed.

Could it be a fluke and the commander wants us to experience false alarms?

Suddenly, Ellie's arm shoots up and she points at a red dot that appeared on the map. "Something's there!"

Maja takes a closer look and links directly to the Andala's sensors at the same time. She's not supposed to do this while in training but as long as no one notices…

She calls out to her bridge crew at the same time. "We have contact! Try to establish communications but otherwise assume they are hostile. Dina, full alert."

The bridge darkens and the consoles switch to tactical mode. Ellie sits down next to Maja with a grim expression.

I wonder if she hopes for pirates…

"They don't respond!" Calls out the young blonde woman at the communication station.

Almost at the same time, there's another call from Thomas who oversees the sensors. "Their engines are spinning up. They're trying to run."

"Try to contact them again and match our speed," Maja orders, then turns to Ellie. "Commander Zekic, please coordinate a warning shot with tactical in case they still don't respond.

As everyone aboard the Andala is still a recruit, the ship naturally only carries training ammunition, and the A&D Mages aren't allowed to use their heavy-hitter offensive spells. But a warning shot still speaks a universal language.

Maja dives deeper into the sensor readings, as her own curiosity overcomes her. When she gets an accurate picture of the other starship, her whole body freezes. In fact, the whole Andala freezes for a millisecond when she loses control.

The Stargazer! What's Sara doing here?

Out loud, she exclaims. "Full stop! Wait for further orders but don't fire our warning shot."

Everyone turns to her and looks confused. Ellie goes so far and raises an eyebrow in question. Maja clears her throat. "I know that ship… I need to confirm a few things before we continue. Please follow them but increase our distance."

She sends a single word to both Thomas and Simon's interfaces, and they both get very wide eyes when they read Stargazer. At the same time, she sends a message to Shay, asking her to cast a Communication spell and contact Sara as the ship before them is the Stargazer.

Shay immediately confirms that she will do so. Maja takes a deep breath, and Ellie returns to her side. "What's going on?" She asks.

"Remember my Mage friend at FBC I told you about? That's her ship… The Stargazer."

"Oh."

Shay's reply message appears before Maja's eyes, telling her that it is indeed Sara and that they were ordered by Commander Lackney to spook the recruits. The Stargazer will also stop and get ready for a rendezvous.

Maja sighs and smiles at Ellie. "I just got confirmation. It is my friend. Commander Lackney used them to spook us…"

Before Ellie can say anything, the communication officer calls out. "They answered! We have confirmation of their identity. It's a Green Industries ship, currently based at FBC. They've excused themselves for the late reply and ask for a rendezvous. I have attached orders from Commander Lackney, telling us to do so."

Maja nods in thanks. "Alright, make it happen, please."

Minutes later, Maja finds herself in her office. A scowling Ellie stands before her. "Explain!"

I guess I've got some explaining to do…

Maja sighs. "What do you want to know?"

"I get that you and your friends apparently know the other ship… A ship that's suspicious on its own. I mean we're in a closed-off system. It's Peacekeeper only here. How is a random ship from a random company allowed to be here? Hell, they were even allowed to teleport here. I know that you are Valterion-backed, but a simple stipend wouldn't justify this. And Green Industries? I've never even heard about them… How can they have so much influence?"

She's right… Did Sara stop bothering with hiding her identity? But the Stargazer flies as a Green Industries ship… So that can't be it either. Ugh, damn that information blackout!

Ellie continues. "And then there's the Andala freezing up when you recognized your friend's ship. Care to explain that? I can only think of one thing but that's ridiculous."

Ah dammit, but it was only a matter of time…

Maja sighs again and looks at Ellie who started pacing around. "I do not know why or how they are here…"

Ellie's scowl deepens, but she doesn't comment, so Maja continues to speak. "But I have a guess what this might be about. You see, Sara is an exceptional Mage, and I doubt that she is far from the top of her classes at FBC. The logical consequence is that she's awarded a spot for the Earth adventure… I don't know what connections she formed there, but maybe she managed to get to choose which Peacekeeper ship gets assigned to her. If I'm right, then that's probably us, and that's the reason they are here. To get to know us."

Ellie stops pacing and sits down opposite Maja. Her scowl has almost disappeared. "Hmm, maybe. I guess we'll find out soon. But that doesn't explain my other question. I'm not even sure if I'm not imagining things, but Dina suddenly stopped mid-sentence for a millisecond or something. AI's don't do that."

Maja fixes her gaze on her. "Do you really want to know? If you continue down that road, it might change everything."

A hint of excitement enters Ellie's face. "I do. You promised that we'll hunt down some pirates together after all." She finishes with a weak smirk.

"Alright, please don't freak out…"

Ellie nods in anticipation.

"Dina doesn't exist… It's all me." Maja anxiously watches Ellie's face as soon as she drops the bomb on her.

Ellie's eyes twitch, then they go wide as saucers. She gulps once, then twice before she finds her voice. "Then… That… You're an AI!"

She gets up and starts pacing again. "The Valterion connection. You're one of theirs!"

Maja cringes and lifts her hands. "Yes, I'm an AI… But I wouldn't say I'm one of theirs…"

Ellie blushes. "Oh, sorry, sorry, that was so rude! I didn't mean it that way. It's just now I know what you meant by that this might change everything. Uhh, is Green Industries a VHI subsidiary? Did they build you? Is that the connection? Oh, that was rude again, sorry. It's just so amazing. Insane even. Who would have thought? So cool!"

Maja chuckles at Ellie's string of words. "It's okay. I'll explain more in the future. I'm not sure what I'm allowed to tell you right now, sorry. The communication blackout screwed me up… But I promise to tell you as much as I'm allowed. Soon. But now, are you ready to meet my friend? The docking is finished."

Ellie grins. "Sure, let's go!"

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