Xandrian Stone Book 1: Beginning of a Legend (4 page)

The door opened and a healing wizard entered, carrying a unhealthy looking bonsai tree in a pot.

"Cadet, healing plants is almost exactly the same as healing humans. In essence, we mend cells together or help the patient to mend their own cells. The former, us mending the cells, is 'able' wizardry – effective on small wounds but crude and not very taxing for the healer. Helping the patient to mend themselves is much more refined, much more taxing for the healer, as it means taking their pain and working with it, and allows for the healing of much more severe wounds. Master healers do that." She put the bonsai on the ground and snapped a twig, leaving it at an awkward angle. Then she stepped back, crossed her arms and looked at me, quite annoyed that she had been summoned like this for such an unusual procedure. In fact she thought that this was outside of the regulations and intended to report it to someone above the Commodore. 'Sometimes surface thoughts and feelings are so loud that we cannot help but pick them up' came the Commodore's explanation why I heard and felt the Commander's thoughts and feelings even though I was outside of her mind. I filed that away as interesting and to be investigated further in the future - right now I felt the slight annoyance of the bonsai about the broken twig and that took precedence.

I bent down, soothing the bonsai and tried to straighten the twig. First, I encouraged the bonsai to heal the twig. The bonsai was reluctant, but after my promise to look into why that twig was bothersome it accepted my offer to help. When the twig was firmly healed I acted on my promise and immediately found a knot in the twig, almost blocking the free flow of the bonsais juices that looked like it would bother any tree. I was at a loss how to help when I felt the bonsai's suggestion just to soften the knot up to allow its juices to flow more freely, so I helped the bonsai to do just that. Then I checked it over more completely and felt lots of knots all over the bonsai's body. One by one we softened the knots up, until I felt the bonsai's and mine energy go low. The bonsai was vigorously happy, but very tired and very hungry.

I realized that something was amiss. I just helped the bonsai heal major problems and there had been no pain at all. Most of my body was tingling, like if I had slept in an awkward position and it was just kind of waking up now.

"Marvelous! I have not seen skills like that in a long time." The Commander's reservations were gone now and she was happy to have been summoned like that. "Commodore, this cadet is clearly a master healer. How did you know what to do, and why did your eyes switch between dark green, bright yellow and white?" "I spoke to the bonsai and enlisted its help in helping itself. It will need some good fertilizer, lots of sunlight and in general to be left alone for a couple of days. This was taxing." "What do you mean? The plant is dying." "Feel again, Ma'am, please." She focused on the bonsai, which already looked much more healthy. Her eyes flashed dark green and with a surprised "Oh!" she picked the pot up and rushed out. Her shouted "Passed as master!" floated back to us, just as she left earshot range.

The commodore looked a little shellshocked at me, just as the Lieutenant behind me. "You spoke to a tree?" "Well, 'speaking' goes too far but we communicated. It started with me feeling its slight annoyance about loosing that twig. Slight, because the twig had been bothering the bonsai anyway. You see, there was a knot in the twig that all but blocked its fluids to flow freely - much like when you lie on your arm in your sleep and wake up with the arm numb. I had no idea how to help, so I kinda just asked. Together, we softened that knot and others I sensed in its body. Did you not see how much healthier it looked when the commander picked it up?"

"I did, actually, but I was not sure. I've never spoken to a plant, however." He shrugged. "Whatever you did, it helped and you passed the healing test. Lieutenant?" I turned around and the Lieutenant stuck her hand out, in a fist, palm pointing down. I got the clue, held my hand below hers and when she opened it a pair of dark green ribbons and a couple of pips and wizardry squares fell into my hand. "A second...?"

She grinned and nodded. "That was impressive, Cadet. assemble the ribbon please." I did, putting the wizardry square in the middle and a pip on each end like with my sensor ribbon. When I looked up at her, she shook her head. "Nope. You are a master healer, not an able healer." I knew what she meant, but I was unsure if I was dreaming. "Go on, don't be shy." So I attached another pip to the ends of the ribbons. "Good, onto your shoulders with these!" The lieutenant smiled. So I picked the first ribbon up and wanted to put it onto my shoulder. As the new ribbon got close to my shoulder the sensors ribbon shifted position, farther to the inside of my shoulders.

"Huh?" "These are magical, son. There is a specific order in which the ribbons are to be borne and they will free up the right space for the new ribbons you are about to put on your shoulders automatically. The order is alphabetic, by the way." Yeah, 'healing' came before 'sensors' in the alphabet, so it was farther outside. So I put the healing ribbon onto the correct spot and the sensors ribbon shifted back, connecting with the healing one. On the other side I did the same. I turned to the commodore. He stuck his hand out to me and we shook. "Good luck, Cadet. You'll do great." With that, he smiled and left.

Then my rank insignia vibrated very slightly and I almost jumped out of my skin. "What...?" "You now have three pips in total, that earned you your first star. Cadets can have up to seven stars, indicating how well they are doing." Most cool.

Saluting the lieutenant goodbye I left as well.

At home my parents reacted pretty much as I had expected. Dad acknowledged my uniform and ribbons, asking me immediately if I could help with a cow that had stumbled and fallen the other day and been limping ever since. I did get the biggest piece of cornbread for dinner though, even the first cut of a new loaf that he usually reserved for himself. Mom was just happy and got my favorite dessert prepared.

During the weeks until the academy started I served as healer on the farm, mending countless cuts, bruises and a couple of broken bones.

Being Farmers, my parents were practical people - so the goodbyes took not long, though mom did sneak a box with an assortment of my favorite cakes into my luggage. Dad patted my shoulder and gave me a bear hug. "We are proud of you, son. We always have been and always will be. No matter what." His smile did look a bit enforced, he was never a man to show his feelings. I hugged him back. "Likewise, dad." I grinned then and he snorted. "Good to know. Now go, don't wanna be late for work!" He meant both of us, there was much to be done in the farm and I had a ship to catch. Mom gave me a quick hug as well and made sure that I was gonna write - preferably every hour. Weekly would do too, if must be. "Will do, ma'am." Dad hid a smile by scratching his nose, I grinned and mom just sighed. "Now go! That ship is not gonna wait, you know." Nodding and waving, I turned and marched out of my protected childhood.

We were 4 cadets waiting for the ship to the academy. There were barracks on almost all the planets and moons, even the ones that held no colonies like Eden 4-1 (a rocky, small moon) or Eden 6-4 (a small snowball moon) or, for that matter, the two Gas Giants: Eden 3 and 6. Those barracks were space stations, the first ones Mankind had ever established. The academy was on Eden 6-1, a moon about half as comfortable as Eden 3-1 to live on. There were a total of 7 planets in the System, we were going to go to the first moon of the second-most outer planet. So I was about to get my first time in space!

We all were, actually. So we were naturally speculating, dreaming and trying to outdo the other's fantasies while we were waiting. Typical late Teenagers. The ship arriving shut us up, though. Lindan Linuson spotted the line in the sky first. It was beautiful, almost white before the planet in the background. We watched it approach us in awed silence. The first thing that arrived was the sonic boom of the decelerating ship. In the past, I had been close to this base to watch ships land and start. Also, I had read books and info-texts on the sysnet (short for system wide network, a marvel made possible by highly sophisticated communications magic), so I knew pretty well what was coming.

Much like nowadays, there was one - and only one - basic ship, the so called "Brick". Its name was mainly descriptive, it really looked like a wooden, massively over-sized square and flat brick. It was about 4 or so meters high and if you ignored the weapons platforms about 61 meters long and wide. The weapons-and docking platforms gave it a squared footprint of about 65 meters long and wide. Even though it was a square, it had definite front, aft, starboard and port sides. The 8 weapons platforms were arranged evenly around the ship, 4 at the edges and 4 at the center of the respective side. The docking platforms were front and aft on the starboard (the right) side between the center and edge weapons platforms. That's how you could tell which side was which, unless of course the ship was upside down. The ship's enchantments created and governed gravity inside the ship, so if it was upside down or not really did not matter if you were inside - unless of course you wanted to leave the ship. But it was very uncommon for a ship to land upside down, so when it set down I rightfully assumed that I was looking at the front of the ship, the docking platform on the left side from my point of view.

Those docking platforms also doubled as airlocks, so none of us were surprised when all 3 doors opened and small ramps came out to make the roughly 1 meter high step easy to walk. Oh, what I was going to tell you before is that these ships or, as I said, Bricks, could be stacked to form larger, more powerful units called "Stacks". That's also where the higher ranks of the officers came in: A single Brick was usually commanded by a lieutenant, with an ensign as his second or a commander with a lieutenant as his (or her) second. Commanders were eligible to take command of Stacks of 2 Bricks. Stacks of 3 to 6 were usually commanded by a captain, stacks of 7 to 12 by a commodore and admirals commanded Stacks of 13 to 18. Whenever a stack was formed, the most senior officer took command, the second-most senior became his second. The needed shuffles aboard the effected Bricks were done Brick-internal and were none of the commanding officer's business. As long as the Brick kept functioning of course.

A Stack of 18 Bricks sounds like an ungainly formation, but let's do the math here: Each Brick was about 4 meters high, 18 times 4 is 72. Let's say 74 meters in total, to be on the safe side. The Bricks were, with the weapons platforms, about 65 meters long and wide - so a Stack of 18 was a slightly elongated cube if you looked at it from a distance.

With 144 weapons platforms.

Just saying.

Back then, there were 3 such Stacks formed if I recall correctly. Admirals Hannah Jensen, Anton Birkmeyer and Zander Haasman. Supreme Admiral John-John Johnson (usually just referred to as Triple J.) was directing the fleet out of the Eden 3 Station, which was a Stack of between 80 and 100 Bricks basically. The size kept fluctuating, with Bricks coming and going all the time.

Where was I? Oh yes.

The ramp had just extended out of all 3 entrances in the docking port in front of us and several people started leaving the Brick now. After all the civilians had left (I was SO proud and happy that I could no longer count myself as one) two naval officers came out of the Brick and walked towards us. On instinct, I assumed a more formal pose which the other new cadets copied after a moment. "Hm. Not a bunch of chattering and pointing kids this time, Pator, eh?" asked one of the officers the other. "Uh-huh. Maybe there is hope yet for the navy." answered the other. Then I heard footsteps behind me that sounded oddly familiar. On another instinct, I stiffened myself and saluted the officers in front of me. I had practiced that at home, to the endless amusement of my mum. "Cadet Xandrian Stone, reporting, - um, sir!" That last part was because I realized that I had no real idea what I was reporting for. The academy? My career? The travel aboard the Brick? To my left, Lindan saluted as well: "Cadet Lindan Linuson, reporting as well, sir!" The other two started snorting, just as the footsteps behind me stopped with a very familiar thump. "Cadets, stand at ateeen-TION, there are officers on the deck!" They stiffened themselves in surprise, the snort of one turning into a short cough. "Captain, 4 cadets and lieutenant Radaean McGlennan reporting for transit, SIR!" Ah, transit.

The two officers approached us, each wearing the gray everyday-uniform, each with yellow sensor stripes on their forearms. 'Hearing me, cadet?' asked the captain telepathically. 'Aye, sir.' I answered the same way. 'Good. You'll be separated from the other 3, but nothing bad is going to happen. Don't worry.' That came with a feeling of reassurance and sincerity, so I trusted that statement. 'You read my feelings?' 'Yes, sir.' 'Amazing. That took me years of training.' Not knowing what to answer, I settled for 'Yes, sir.' Hearing a loud, mental snort I watched as the captain kept iron control over his face. It made him look a bit fierce, though.

On a side-note: The captain admitting to being sort of weaker than me may sound unwise. But, the link that all sensors share makes lying near-impossible between sensors. So, especially in these peaceful times and even nowadays, we don't usually bother trying.

"At ease, gentlemen. Lieutenant, would you please lead cadets Linuson, Johnson and Akiku to the shared quarters and assign a bunk to each, then take one of the crew-quarters for yourself?" "Aye, aye, SIR!" "Cadets Linuson, Johnson, Akiku! Follow me!" He did look at Johnson and Akiku, which meant that he was at least not displeased with Linuson. Then he thumped his foot and marched to the Brick, Linuson right behind him and the other 2 having to jog to keep up.

"Those 2 will have lots of fun with the Drill-lieutenant." The other officer, the not-captain, stated. "More like the other way round." grinned the captain. "Cadet, I am captain Jack Miller. This here" - he indicated the other officer - "is Commander Pator Praotoan. We separated you because you bear a total of 3 pips, even though you have not even begun training. Also, you are a white wizard. I got some free spots in my crew and passing up someone like you is never wise so I snatch you now before the others do." "Yes, like a prize bull." Commander Praotoan nodded to my thought. Then my facade shattered and I grinned broadly. "With pleasure, sirs."

After all, this was not a meat show, but the captain adding someone he believed would make a good addition to his crew after the academy. "Maybe even now. You are master healer, so you will first show yourself to a free crew quarter and then report to sick bay, where ensign Avalin Muller will take you under his wing for the voyage. We got to pay our respects to the Supreme Admiral on the way out to the Academy. So, the voyage will take a couple of days." He moved a bit to the side. "Aye, aye, sir!" With that I marched to the Brick. Just in case the Drill-lieutenant might be watching, in the academy he'd get me back after all. The Commander behind me could not stifle his snort.

Captain Miller had read my knowledge of the internal layout of a standard Brick, that's why he just told me where to go. I knew where everything was, at least on the blueprints. When I marched into the airlock, I took a deep breath. This was my future after all!

Marching through the inner lock, I had to stop for a moment. Lieutenant McGlennan was marching up the corridor with the three cadets, towards me. As I said earlier, a Brick was a 61-meter square. Along the outside wall there was a 2 meter wide corridor around the ship, so that people could take long, uninterrupted walks or runs in their spare time. I had read that during a mission there was almost constantly someone jogging around the ship, both to keep themselves fit and to serve as quick responder in case of an emergency. The Drill-lieutenant (by the way, that was not an official rank - lieutenant McGlennan had "earned" this name by putting many a cadet through hell and back.

Any way, the Lieutenant was marching the three cadets when I entered the Brick. To make way, I stopped in the lock. The little group stopped ("File - STAHP!") and stood at attention ("File - Ateeen-TION!"). "Cadet Linuson, report to your bunk and get settled in!" Lindan stepped out smartly and marched by me, winking a little bit. I let the right corner of my mouth twitch a bit, that's all I dared do. The Lieutenant turned to the remaining two, whose positions of standing at attention were showing signs of falling apart. "File double-left TURN!" They turned until they looked back down the corridor they had just marched through. "File forward-MARCH!" They all thumped more or less together and marched. That thump told me that they'd be marching up and down the corridor a number of times yet.

After they passed me, I quickly and smartly marched after them for a couple of steps and turned left into the 1-meter wide standard corridor, suddenly surrounded by the crew quarters. I saw a little corridor with 4 doors to the right and the entrances of 2 corridors to the left. The 24 crew quarters were arranged in a rectangle in the front right of the Brick. So, when you walked in through the frontal airlock, you were looking at the back wall of some of those quarters. All quarters had a little plate on the right wall right beside the door. Most were displaying a name, but some were saying "FREE". In fact, the third quarter down the little corridor said that. I walked there and entered through the open door. To my right, a monitor flashed alive with the text "Rank and Name?" Not knowing what else to do, I spoke out loud: "Cadet Xandrian Stone." The text changed: "Checking crew roster." "Cadet Xandrian Stone found." "Quarter is now assigned to cadet Xandrian Stone." Then the monitor went black again. Curious, I went and checked the plate at the door and it was reading my name. Cool!

The inner layout of a standard Brick was roughly like this: In the front right, the crew quarters. Front left was the shared quarters (for low-level guests, cargo or a mix of both - not comfortable, but it beat sleeping on the floor) and game room. Back right were the mess hall and the infirmary. Back left the training room, although a narrow portion of it ran across the Brick in the back. That made long-distance shooting practice possible for the weapons wizards. The center part held the bridge, navigation, shields, communication, the three engines (sub-light, rail and jump), storage and workshop.

Remembering the second part of my orders, I quickly settled in, straightened my uniform and left the quarter whose door closed automatically behind me. I turned right, walked deeper into the Brick and to the infirmary.

To my great surprise, there were a row of 7 gurneys along each wall of the narrow but long room (maybe 15 or so meters long, 4 or so meters wide). Given the nature of healing magic and my experience with it, I had expected a small room where the ship's healers would be on standby or something, not an actual infirmary. Okay, a very basic actual infirmary (just space, and the gurneys), but still. The officer lying on one of the gurneys got up, smiling. "You look surprised." "Yes, sir - do we really need gurneys?" The officer, an ensign, laughed at that. "That's a question only a master healer will ask. No, I am not making fun of you." I had frowned a tad bit before regaining control over my face. I noticed that he only had 1 pip on his healing ribbons.

"You know the exact difference between potential, able, master, adept and master adept ranks in healing? No? No wonder - you have not yet been at the academy. Let me give you a head-start then. First, there are no healers of user level - based on how healing works there are no runes that non-magical people can activate to heal. A potential healer will be able to heal small cuts, bruises, things that would heal on their own within a week or so. Able healers can take care of deeper cuts, large flesh wounds in general. Broken bones are the domain of master healers. Basically everything that can be healed can be done by you guys." He sat on a gurney, motioning me to sit opposite of him.