Wizard Cadet (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  “Brachia,” said the little girl. “Don’t be like that. He saved our lives. I told you he wouldn’t leave us. I told you he would come back.”

  The little boy continued glaring, but he didn’t say any more.

  After a few more coughs, the girl said, “Don’t mind my brother. He’s only six of your standard years old while I’m twelve. We do thank you. You risked your life to come back for us. I –.”

  Another fit of coughing interrupted the girl’s speech. She wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her jumpsuit. Richard noticed the light-colored sleeve was slightly darker in spots when she finished.

  After catching her breath, the girl started again. “When I saw you at the top of the stairs, I knew immediately we could trust you. I just felt it. My name is Drenstoria, but I like to be called Dren. This is my brother, Brachia.”

  Richard remained silent. He was a little ashamed the girl had misinterpreted his actions, but only a little. After all, he had been following orders. His job had been to acquire the target and rendezvous with the shuttle. He was sure in other circumstances he would have considered the children’s welfare. At least, he was fairly sure.

  I did come back, Richard told himself.

  You came back because you were ordered back, Nickelo corrected. If it had been up to you, you’d be halfway to the mothership by now.

  When Richard did not reply, Nickelo said, The girl made an introduction. You’re supposed to return the favor.

  Fine, Richard said. And stop reading my mind. Why can’t I have even a little privacy?

  Because you shout your thoughts at my sensors, said Nickelo. I could just as easily ask you why I can’t have a little peace and quiet. But, until we get our shared space, we’ll each just have to deal with knowing each other’s thoughts. Once the techs back at the Academy set your DNA baseline, they can prepare our shared space. Then we’ll be able to share information quicker, and we’ll each have our own private areas of our minds.

  Yeah, it’s not fair right now, Richard said. You hear my thoughts, but I don’t hear yours. Not that I would want to.

  Actually, you probably do hear mine, said Nickelo. But I think at nanosecond speed, so my thoughts are probably just a constant buzzing noise in your mind. Also, my thoughts are not in any language you know or could understand. It’s not my fault you don’t speak computer. Now, be polite and introduce yourself to the children like a good little wizard scout.

  Richard concentrated a little. He actually could hear a buzzing noise in the background of his mind. He’d noticed it previously, but he’d assumed the noise was a side effect of his head injury the previous year. He shrugged his shoulders. It really didn’t matter. Nickelo was right. He didn’t speak computer, and he definitely didn’t think at nanosecond speed.

  Addressing the girl again, Richard said, “My friends call me, Rick. You can call me Rick, or Richard, or cadet 832 if you want. I’ll answer to any of them.”

  “Then we’ll call you, Rick,” said the girl. “I think I can make those trees if we walk slowly.”

  The girl reached out to her brother, and he gamely tried to help her up. Before she could stand, she began coughing again and fell back to the ground.

  “I’m sorry.” Cough, cough. “I’ll be all right…” cough, cough, “in a minute.”

  She’ll never make the wood line, will she Nick? Richard asked.

  Doubtful, said Nickelo. I estimate only a twenty-two percent chance. That smoke and heat did a job on her lungs. They’re beginning to fill up with fluid. You could carry her, but I’d prefer you to keep your hands free in case we run into trouble. We don’t know for sure that scout wasn’t brought along with us. She could just be hidden by her stealth shield.

  Richard stood and took a couple of steps towards the girl. The little boy stepped in front of his sister, balled his hands into tiny fists and said, “I told you to leave my sister alone!”

  Dropping to his knee again, Richard said, “She needs to be healed. I’ll heal her like I healed you.”

  “Do you have enough Power to heal me?” the girl asked.

  “How’d you know I was low on Power?” Richard asked suspiciously.

  “I deduced as much,” said the girl with a couple of small coughs. “The Crosioian scout’s plasma rounds were starting to penetrate your defensive shield. Besides, I’m used to dealing with Power. I don’t have a Power reserve, but I do have a sense for it.”

  “Deduced is an awfully big word for such a little girl,” Richard said even more suspicious. “In fact, you don’t talk like a twelve year old girl at all.”

  “Well, I am twelve,” said the girl. “And, while I’m grateful to you for saving our lives, I could easily point out that you use awfully small words for such an old man. But, Keka raised us to be polite, so I can’t say that.”

  Nick, Richard said. Did you hear that? She’s insulting me.

  Rick, said Nickelo. We don’t have time to play around. Just heal the girl so we can get to those trees.

  Fine, Richard said. Thanks for nothing.

  “Listen, Dren,” Richard said, “I’ll stop insulting you, if you stop insulting me. You need to be healed so we can get under some cover. So, how about telling this brute of a bodyguard of yours to let me pass?”

  Richard spied a small smile on the girl’s lips before a fit of coughing wiped it away. When the coughing stopped, the girl spoke.

  “Brachia,” said Dren, “you need to let Rick pass. He’s our friend. You can trust him. I know he would never hurt us.”

  Brachia looked dubiously at Richard, but he obediently took a small step to the side. However, Richard noticed he kept his hands balled up in fists.

  Protective little critter, isn’t he? Richard said.

  He reminds me of you, said Nickelo. Only he’s more mature.

  Ha, ha, Richard said.

  “To answer your question,” Richard said. “You are correct in that my primary Power reserve is empty, or to be more precise, nearly empty. My natural recharging has added a small amount of Power back, but it wouldn’t be enough for healing yet.”

  “Then how?” said Dren. “How can you heal me without Power? And, can you at least raise your visor? I know you mean us no harm, but you’re a little scary in your battle suit. We don’t even know what you look like. I can barely see you through that red visor.”

  Since he was going to break the seal of his suit anyway to heal the girl, Richard had Nickelo raise the visor. The tubes in his nose and mouth retracted, and the lower part of the battle helmet merged with the back of the helmet as the visor was raised. The tubes in his other body openings also retracted. The seventeen thousand plus thread needles, on the other hand, remained in place in order for Richard to feel through his suit. But other than those minor inconveniences, Richard no longer felt as if he were a test tube waiting for some experiment to happen. He felt free again.

  Richard breathed in fresh air. He was grateful for his battle suit. It helped keep him alive when he was sealed inside. But, the suit wasn’t comfortable. Richard much preferred having his visor raised and his battle helmet in three quarter mode.

  “There,” Richard said glancing back and forth from one child to the other. “Is that better?”

  Dren coughed before replying. “That’s a little better. It would be better if you smiled, but maybe that’s too much to ask under the circumstances. So, are you going to answer my question? How can you heal me without Power?”

  Nick, Richard said. What’s with this kid? Most kids would be freaking out right about now. Heck, most adults would be a basket case. These kids seem to be taking it all in stride.

  How would I know? said Nickelo. Then with a snicker, he added, You’re the great and powerful wizard scout. I’m just the humble and obedient battle computer.

  Yeah, right, Richard said. Thanks for the help. And, you’re not as funny as you apparently think you are.

  Am too, Nickelo said.

  “I’ll tell you what, a… Dren,” Richard
said. “Why don’t we put off the questions for now, and I’ll just heal you so we can get under cover. Then we should have plenty of time for questions and answers. In fact, I have a few of my own I’d like to ask.”

  “You better not hurt her,” said Brachia moving one foot back and raising his fists into what looked like some kind of martial art’s stance.

  Nick, Richard said. What do we have here? I think we have a special ops’ soldier in the making.

  I think it’s cute the way he’s protecting his sister, said Nickelo. Besides, I noticed you haven’t said anything out loud to the little boy about his attitude. Does the big, bad six year old have you buffaloed?

  Buffalo? Richard said confused. You mean that cow thing we saw when the sisters at the orphanage took us to the zoo? What’s that got to do with things? I don’t understand you sometimes, Nick.

  Never mind, said Nickelo. I was just making a funny. It obviously went over your head.

  “I’m not going to hurt your sister,” Richard said in assurance. “I’m going to help her. So, don’t go beating on me without a reason.”

  “Be good, Brachia,” said Dren. “I told you. He’s our friend. He came back to save us when nobody else would. You can trust him.”

  Richard didn’t think the boy took his sister’s words to heart, but at least he was allowing him to kneel beside his sister. Richard took his left glove off.

  “I want you to hold my hand,” Richard said, “and don’t let go. This won’t hurt you. Okay?”

  “Okay,” said Dren nervously as she reached out and took Richard’s hand.

  Richard opened the link to his reserve of healing Power and wrapped the girl with a thin layer. He tried to imagine how the girl’s body would be if she were healthy. Then he compared that image with the way her body was now. He wrapped the differences with a layer of Power and pulled half the Power back into his own body. Immediately, he started coughing. The inside of his lungs felt like they were blistering and filling with liquid. Richard had a momentary thought that the girl must have been injured more than he’d thought. He coughed into his right hand and saw flecks of blood and mucus. Apparently alarmed by what she saw, the girl tried to pull her hand free, but to no avail. Richard refused to let go while he was healing her. Once he sensed the girl was fully healed, Richard released his grip and fell to all fours while retching into the grass. The girl was at his side immediately.

  “What have you done?” she said. “What can we do to help?”

  “Nothing,” Richard said between coughs. “Just give me a minute. It just takes a while for acquired injuries to heal on me.”

  The girl backed off a little, but Richard could tell she was still concerned.

  “You’re an emp-healer,” said Dren. “I should have guessed it when you healed Brachia, but I was too occupied to notice at the time. It’s not right for you to suffer on my account.”

  The worst of Richard’s coughing subsided, and he felt his lungs returning to normal. Still, from his few previous emp-healing experiences, he knew it would be several minutes before he was operating at one hundred percent efficiency again. But, that was good enough for now. He just needed to get the kids to the wood line.

  “I like your attitude, Dren,” Richard said. “I’m not real fond of suffering for other people’s mistakes either. But, we needed to get to the woods, and you weren’t getting any better.”

  “What do you mean by other people’s mistakes?” said Dren. “Are you implying my brother and I made a mistake? You are aware, aren’t you, that we got ourselves locked in that deathtrap of a room in order to cover for you?”

  Richard noticed her voice had taken on a little edge.

  You just have a knack for saying things to rile people up, don’t you, Rick? said Nickelo. I’m going to nominate you for the Mr. Sensitivity award.

  Richard ignored his battle computer. He wasn’t sure where he’d gone wrong.

  “Hey,” Richard said. “Don’t lose your cool. Of course I know you covered for me. What’s the big deal?”

  “The big deal is,” said Dren, “that you’re making it sound like we made a stupid mistake. You’re making it sound like we got hurt out of our own stupidity. We risked our lives for you. Those guards would not have taken it lightly if they had found out we were covering for you. We could have outrun them easily if we’d only been thinking of ourselves. Instead, we let them lock us in that room to make sure they didn’t discover you.”

  “Look,” said Richard still unsure why the girl was getting so worked up. “I appreciate you trying to cover for me. But, I would have done fine on my own. I didn’t know the house was going to catch on fire. And, it never occurred to me that no one was going to let you out of the room.”

  Richard stood up in preparation for heading to the wood line. He did not like being out in the open so long.

  “You’re not a very nice man,” said Brachia. “I don’t think I like you.”

  “Brachia,” said Dren. “He came back on his own to free us. He saved our lives. We’ve got to take that into consideration.”

  Dren looked back at Richard. “I assume you saved, Keka as well. I certainly gave you a big enough hint that he was in the kitchen.”

  “You mean the cockroach?” Richard said. “Yeah, I got him out. I took him –”

  “Ahhh!” said the little boy as he raised a leg and gave Richard a sidekick into the groin.

  Even as Richard’s brain told him the kick would not hurt him through his armor, his body reflexively caused him to step back and lower his hands to protect his most sensitive of areas.

  Brachia closed the distance between them, and he began striking Richard’s chest with his fists. “Keka is not a cockroach. You take that back. You take that back now.”

  Oh, Rick, said Nickelo laughing. I’m going to have to let you read a couple of books on how to make friends. You should probably also read a book on how to keep from putting your foot in your mouth every time you open it.

  “I’m sorry,” Richard said as Brachia’s sister pulled him away. “Really, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. I just made a slip of the tongue. And, we don’t have time for this. We have to get into the woods.”

  “I thought you were nice,” said Dren. “I’m starting to wonder why you even bothered coming back for us. You’re not what I expected.”

  “Well,” Richard said growing exasperated, “I’m starting to wonder why I came back for you as well. If Commander Stevens hadn’t ordered the pilots to turn the shuttle around, I’d have been safely on my way to our mothership. Instead, I’m stuck on some Creator-forsaken planet in some magical dimension I have no desire to be in with two snot-nosed kids.”

  “You didn’t come back to get us on your own?” said the girl with her eyes narrowing and her voice growing ever louder. “And you let me blubber on about how grateful we were? I thought you were a friend. Apparently, you were just following orders. We were just a mission. Is that it?”

  “What’s it matter why I came back?” Richard said genuinely bewildered by the girl’s anger. “I came back. That’s what counts, doesn’t it? I risked my life to save yours.”

  “Believe me,” said the girl through gritted teeth, “the reason matters. It matters a lot. If you don’t understand that, then I feel sorry for you. You didn’t risk your life to save us. The only reason you risked your life was because you were following orders.”

  Glaring at Richard, she added, “Tell me I’m wrong.”

  Richard remained quiet, but inside his temper was slowly building up. He didn’t need this kind of drama right now, especially from two little kids.

  After a few seconds, the girl said, “Do you know how to get us back home?”

  “No,” Richard admitted. “But we need to get to the wood –”

  “Oh, we’ll get to the wood line, Mr. High-and-Mighty Wizard Scout,” interrupted Dren. “But it won’t be with you. If you don’t know how to get back, then we’ve got just as good a chance of getting
back on our own. Come on, Brachia. We’re leaving.”

  “Good,” said Brachia. “Don’t worry, Dren. I’ll protect you.”

  As the boy and girl turned to leave, Richard reached out with his left hand and grabbed the girl’s shoulder.

  “Don’t be silly –” began Richard.

  Unfortunately, Richard used his left hand to stop the girl’s departure. He had not yet bothered to put the glove back on that he had removed for the healing. In a fast motion, Dren grabbed Richard’s fingers in both her hands and twisted back hard. Pain shot up Richard’s arm. Involuntarily, he bent backwards to try and relieve the pressure. As he did, Dren used his arm for leverage and jumped off the ground aiming a kick at his unarmored face. At the same time, Brachia dived on the ground behind Richard’s legs.

  Richard avoided the girl’s kick, but he tripped over the little boy. Richard did a backwards roll on the ground and came up with his phase rod in his left hand. Somewhere in the roll, he had unconsciously activated the phase rod in destructive mode. Miniature red arcs of lightning ran up and down the meter-long shaft giving evidence of its deadly potential.

  Alarmed, Dren pulled Brachia to her.

  “Are you going to kill us to make us stay with you?” said Dren. “Because I swear, that’s what you’ll have to do. You’re no friend. I saw the look in your eyes when you mentioned Keka. Your prejudice against native Veturnians is obvious. We don’t want to be around you. So, just stay away from us.”

  “Fine,” Richard said as he deactivated his phase rod and attached it back to the left side of his utility belt. “Go then,” he said more than a little angry. His fingers and wrist hurt, and he was not in an understanding mood. He’d always had a little bit of a temper. While it was normally short-lived, it sometimes resulted in people getting hurt. He wasn’t proud of it. That’s just how it was.

  “I feel sorry for the wolf or lion that eats you two,” Richard said. “You’ll probably give it an upset stomach. You’ve certainly given me plenty of heartburn.”

  The last of Richard’s speech was wasted on the backs of the two children. They were holding hands and half running through the tall grass that came up to Brachia’s shoulders. Richard watched them go for a few seconds.