The First Healer Group [PAN2014]

The First Healer Group [PAN2014]

Queen Rider Amelia, Rider of Zulith, stood on the Bridge of the Companion Cruiser, DaVinci. At thirty by fifty metres it was a huge open space, but then, Great Dragons needed the space if they were to be comfortable. Zulith was quite comfortable sitting right in the middle of the Bridge. It was her spot where she could see everything and at the same time, gaze lovingly at her Rider who also had her spot, just near the front with a view over most of the hull. The walls of the Bridge were clear hull material and the views out to space were spectacular.

DaVinci was in fact, an artificial intelligence or AI for short and liked being referred to as Davi. The fact that she had a female gender really had no bearing on who she was or how she acted but she had a gender because it made the crew comfortable.

Amelia was very proud of her new Medical Group. There were some things she was not entirely happy with and being armed to the teeth was one of those. But she had submitted the designs without all of the weapons and the Prince Commander who was incidentally, her lover, had just smiled and added them all back in.

The Medical Group was in reality a Heavy Battle Group but the internal fit outs of the Star Ships were all Healer orientated, as were the three hundred planetary evac craft they carried. She had her own Companion Cruiser as the Flagship, three Dreadnoughts, six Heavy Cruisers, Six Strike Cruisers, nine Queens Cruisers and twelve Destroyers. At any time, she could divide the Group into three sections and send them anywhere they were needed.

Well, she just had to keep thinking of it as a Healer Group, with teeth. She chuckled at the thought. They were on a shakedown cruise giving all of the crews, time to meld together as an effective team. She had Great Dragon Pairs, Warriors, nine Builders and Humans taken from the best Ressalon had to offer. They had all been running around space and visiting mainly uninhabited worlds carrying out drills and exercises.

But as luck or Karma would have it, they were sent a distress call from a Level Six Point One Species who had a plague that they could not deal with. The distress call had been relayed to them by the home world of the Tenth Battle Force. To Amelia’s way of thinking, this was all but impossible. Any society at this level should have taken hours, or at most, days, to isolate and come up with a cure. What made it more interesting was that two other Species at around the same level had sent help to no avail.

The result from the last intercepted transmission was that the entire solar system was now quarantined by another species called The Draxions. Ressalon had no information on any of these Species but that was not at all unusual considering that Ressalon kept to itself as did most Species that were up near the top of the tree.

Ressalon was a Level nine point three and quite frankly the Species between Level Four and Seven were generally a pain in the rear end with their ‘owning’ huge tracts of territory and running hundreds if not thousands of Warships in continual warfare with each other. Most of the more advanced Species simply ran their Star Ships Cloaked and just ignored the silly little war mongers.

This was different though. A pandemic that slowly killed everyone and one that these Species could not handle was scary, especially in this well-travelled part of the galaxy. So, Amelia had just turned her Healer Group around and set a new course. That had been three days ago.

She had advised the Prince Commander of Ressalon and he had simply told her to be careful. Then he dispatched the third Battle Group as a protection force. The Third were not fitted out for Healing, they were equipped for warfare pure and simple.

Command of the Third Battle Group fell to Queen Rider Christine, Rider of Xanith, who was the youngest Battle Commander in Ressalon’s history but then, most people who are just shy of their sixteenth birthday do not take command of a full Combat Wing of Great Dragons and Transfer into the heart of the Demon Realm to recover the Sword of Balance. That and a few other little gems is why Chrissy became a Battle Commander and then Group Commander of her own Battle Group before she left her teen years behind.

Amelia thought how nice it would be to catch up with Chrissy and Xanith again. They had been like sisters since they were five years old. Tez had separated them when they took their Battle Groups out to ensure they could individually handle the Command. Amelia knew that her Star Ship Captains were some of the best and she relied on them heavily in some situations. She had a lot to learn and she knew it, well, everyone knew it. The reason she was so good at this was simply because she took advice well and often.

Davi said, “Approaching solar system, range five light years and closing. Two scanner nets are operating. They are from very different cultures. One is covering the inner planets the other is two light hours out from that. The second one seems to be Alien to the system. The inner one matches most of the other technology on the fourth and fifth planets.”

Amelia ordered, “Bring the Group to a dead stop. Scan for Drive tell tales.”

Davi reported, “System is full of decaying Warp signatures.”

One of the very critical concepts when dealing with other cultures was not to let them know what other technology was possible.

Amelia said, “All ships, take the Translation Drives off line and switch to Warp. Ahead Warp five.”

Davi asked, “Why Warp five?”

Amelia chuckled and said, “It is a number between one and ten. Honestly, I have no idea how fast it is. Hold the Group at one light year from the system. Give me all six Strike Cruisers as escort and keep them Cloaked. Arrange them in a circle just within killer weapons range and a little in front of us. Davi, de-cloak please.”

Davey repeated the instructions back and advised when the Strike Cruisers were in position.

As they closed on the outer scanner net, Amelia said, “Level Eight Shields please, bring all our weapons on line, be prepared to go to full Combat Shields if the Level Eight Shields drop to seventy percent. Bridge to tactical display.” Amelia moved to stand next to Zulith’s head as the Bridge became one huge tactical display and appeared as if one was simply standing in space. Around them, their forces and any other ships in the system were displayed. The Draxion ships were in red.

Davi reported, “Shields and Weapons active. We have Cloaked War Ships closing on us, five of them. Cloaks are easy to sense at about three times their expected weapons range. Note that the Cloaks use the same emitters as their Shields. They can have one or the other but not both.”

Amelia said, “Bring us to a full stop, let’s listen to what they have to say.”

Davi replied, “Coming to a full stop, they are transmitting but not in any language I know. The original transmission was in twenty two languages, we know one of them. Translator is available. I am also communicating with the fourth and fifth planets. I will get all that I can but language is a problem. I have no words to cover Healer knowledge. I will do my best.

Amelia waited as the ships approached and said, “Send the war ships a greeting. Tell them we are responding to a distress call.”

A ship de-cloaked right in front of them. The other four were there but remained cloaked. It was a strange design. Like a long tiered cone and every tier had forward pointing weapons. It was a lot of weapons.

The Senior Dreadnought Commander came over the audio, “Grand Master Amelia, the design of that ship indicates a war like, attacking culture. Eighty five percent of its weapons face forward, they like attacking and will probably not retreat easily.”

Amelia acknowledged the advice, she had come to the same conclusion. Her Great Dragon sent, “There are five ships facing us. Only one has a crew, the other four are operated as remotes. They are not telepathic and I am working on their language but it will take time. Other Queens are assisting.”

Davi said, “I am trying to make sense of their communications, they seem to be a bit slow. Ah, now they have it. Here we go, audio only at this time while I try and work out their visual transmissions.”

Amelia said, “Link all of the Bronze and Silver Dragons in with the builders and start Arcane Scans of their technology. Scan their communications first followed by Shields and Weapons.”

Davi replied, “Understood. They seem to be using one of their crew as a translator. Be aware this translation is going through a third language, mistakes are inevitable. They are telling us that we have ten micriods to turn around and leave or they will destroy us. They have interdicted this system and will cleanse the entire solar system in twenty two macriods. Sorry Amelia, I am guessing that microids and macriods are some form of time interval but I have no idea how long they are.”

The ship fired its weapons one tier at a time. Battle Shields snapped on after the fourth tier and held for the remaining five.

Amelia said, “Well, we know that microids are not very long. Target the four unmanned Cloaked Warships, all secondary armament and fire at will.”

The DaVinci fired all of its beam weapons and followed that with multiple salvos of her energy cannons. The four ships ended up as floating wreckage.

Amelia ordered, “All beam weapons, minimum spread, target the one in front of us, try to disable only.”

Davi fired from all forward facing projectors taking out the enemy ship’s Weapons and Shield emitters. The ship backed away and started a quick turn to the left.

Amelia said, “Target their engines, any secondaries at your discretion.”

Chunks of the ship’s rear end blew to pieces and the ship lost its power as the energy cannons did their work.

Davi reported, “Four ships destroyed, one disabled. The Builders have analyzed their Cloaking technology and I have adjusted scanners to suit. They have thirty five of these five ship groups in this system plus eight much larger craft. Three of those are getting underway and heading towards us. Their other ships are also leaving their stations and heading our way. Incoming transmission from Chrissy.”

A holographic image of Chrissy appeared next to Amelia and said, “Leave you for a couple of months and you get into all of this mess.” The smile on her face took the sting out of the greeting.

Amelia pointed to the wrecked ships and replied, “They are in a mess. I am fine. Thank you for asking. How close are you?”

Chrissy replied, “I am launching Fang Fighters now from above the plane of the system. First pass will destroy all their remote Cruisers and the second pass will disable all of the other Cruisers. You have three of their big ships heading straight for you. They will engage you in four minutes.”

Amelia asked, “How soon can you begin?”

Chrissy answered, “Six minutes.”

Amelia said, “Davi, stay ahead of those approaching ships, buy me two minutes please. Then have our three Dreadnoughts engage them.”

Davi acknowledged and started to move away. They waited for six minutes. As the ships from Chrissy’s Battle Group deployed, more and more of the Draxion ships appeared on the holographic Bridge display in detail.

Right on the six minute mark, the Draxion ships depicted on the display, started to change from red to purple as they were destroyed. Three Draxion Battleships de-cloaked heading straight for Davi and were engaged by the still Cloaked Dreadnoughts coming at them from the side. The Dreadnoughts only needed one pass to disable the enemy. As can happen, a lucky or unlucky shot depending on your perspective, caused one of the Battleships to dramatically explode.

Chrissy said, “OK Amelia, I’ve got this. Go see what you can do to save the sick. Please be careful.”

Amelia replied, “Thanks Chrissy. I may want to talk to a few Draxions, so try and take some of them alive.”
Chrissy chuckled and the holographic vanished.

Amelia said, “Davi, de-cloak our Healer Group, standard formation and slowly head for the planet please.

It took a few minutes to get the Group back together and as usual, one of the Heavy Cruisers was late. It was always this one. Amelia shook her head in annoyance saying, “My dad had a term for this, it was ‘tail gate Charley’.”

Davi chuckled and said, “Amelia, when you have time, replay all of the combat data. That ship is never out of place. The AI has a sense of humor. He is only late when it does not matter. If it does matter, he is always right where he should be.”

Amelia smiled and said, “OK, I’ll laugh appropriately, for a while at least and then he can think up something new.”

There was silence for a short time and then Davi said, “Amelia, communications from the two planets is reliable as long as it is not technical. They are adamant that the two visiting friendly ships were infected while in orbit. They sent down equipment, one group by shuttle, the other used transporter technology. Both sent remote probes only. Nothing was returned to the orbiting ships.”

Amelia said, “Switch to sub-light drive. Interlock Healer Group scanner arrays. Maximum resolution.”

Davi asked, “What are we looking for?”

Amelia answered, “I don’t quite know but infections cannot infect ships in orbit. In any case, we have three highly advanced Species that can’t discover what is going on here. That is just silly. Something else is happening. Stay alert. Report anything that does not belong.”

It did not take long, Davi reported, “Amelia, we are detecting two open Arcane Portals. They are in solar orbits, twelve light minutes in advance of the two planets. They are very big. Now that is unusual and would also explain why Level Six Species cannot figure this out. Level Sixes do not understand Arcane Power.”

Amelia said, “Healer Group to dead stop. Hold the Group here. Davi, take us in please to five Kilometres.”

Amelia walked to the back of the Bridge and placed her right hand on the Arcane Control Sphere. Not many Ressalon Star Ships had these yet. They connected to a ship size Arcane Staff of Power. Amelia had her own Staff, called the Staff of Nightingale. Zulith had one that was twice the size of her Rider’s and Davi’s was ten times longer than that.

Of course Davi was an AI and could not wield Arcane Power, but Amelia and Zulith were extremely powerful Arcane Grand Masters especially where Arcane Healing was required. Amelia could use the one fitted to the ship as easily as her own or the five smaller Staffs fitted to Shells.

She activated a powerful Arcane Shield around the ship to augment the Shields based on science.

Shells are robotic copies of animals. Amelia’s Shells had been designed by a Silver Pair, the Rider Sophia and the Great Dragon Lerinth. It was Sophia who had come up with the concept of remote Staffs and then designed the Shell to suit.

It was one the most gorgeous creatures Amelia had ever seen. It was lithesome like a cat, but longer and sleeker. The face was sort of catlike with huge fangs. It had wings that were in two parts and were formed of spar materials with circles of thin see through membranes. When it folded its wings, this creature was obviously just as suited to the land as it was to the air. In size, it was about the same as a Lion or Tiger, only longer and with twin tails.

They could be operated in a number of ways and Amelia intended to use one with direct mind control. She sat in the special control chair and relaxed. Her body went limp as her mind was shifted to the Shell.

Amelia shook her new form and ran around to check its functions. She loved doing this and sometimes did it just for fun. Of course, she was supposed to be a very serious person so she always called it training. But still, running on all fours and flying around always gave her a great deal of enjoyment.

Once she was ready she looked at Zulith and said, “Transfer me to be just on the outer edge of the Portal please.”

Zulith Transferred her and suddenly she was in space. She folded her four legs up against her body and used the imbedded Reactionless Drive to ‘fly’ through space. Shifting her mind to the small Staff she used an Arcane Scan on the Portal. It was a fairly standard double sided Portal. One face was the exit and the other the entrance. She flew around to the exit and scanned deeply.

Arcane energy was flowing outward, toward the planet. It took her time to analyze the Spell and when she finally understood it, she was horrified. It was a type of Corruption Spell, one that caused living matter to become corrupted. In science terminology, it was a mutagenic weapon and a very nasty one at that. It caused the DNA chain to become fragmented and caused various sequences to change their state from on to off or off to on.

Given enough time, this would eradicate all life on the planet starting with the most advanced Species. Amelia was appalled. Her normal mind link with Zulith was more than sufficient for Zulith to become horrified and then as was normal for Great Dragons, to become very angry.

Amelia said, “Zulith, advise the Keeper, quickly please.”

Then she tabbed the Shells mental controls and called, “Amelia to Chrissy, how busy are you?”
Chrissy answered, “Just finishing up with their Battleships, what do you need?”

Amelia answered, “I have found the cause and will need you and at least one of your Dreadnoughts. Follow Davi when he moves. Davi, I am going through the Portal, wherever I come out, come and get me. Track this Staff. Maximum Warp! Update Chrissy.”

Amelia Cloaked the Shell she was in and maneuvered around to the other side. If she went in this side she would come out at the other end of the Portal. She folded her wings and entered.

She came out in a big space. It was a little dark, like late dusk. She set her gravity compensators and lifted vertically until she could see over the circular Portal. The counted fifty one aliens, one third of them enacting the Corruption Spell, the others either sleeping or resting. They were using some form of Crystal Spheres to Power their insidious undertaking.

Her guess was that she was in a Star Ship. The air was mostly breathable for humans if one discounted the heavy methane content. She sent that off in a data stream. The Aliens were short stocky bipods, very hairy and fairly plump. The air temperature was below freezing so she thought that their home world would likely be cold with heavy gravity.

Chrissy transmitted, “I am watching you on a holo screen. Those are not Draxions. I also cannot see any technology and yet I agree you are on a Star Ship. We are following your Staff direction and have two Star Ships, both Draxion, on long range sensors. They are not cloaked but then, they are in deep space about four light years away. Be with you in just a few minutes. What do you need?”

Amelia answered, “My people will be too busy Healing, so if you wouldn’t mind. Have your Great Dragon Wing Transfer these evil bastards over to one of your Dreadnoughts and then Mind Ream them for me. I want to know everything about them. At the end of the process do a full decontamination of whatever compartment you put them in.”

Chrissy said, “Understood, Mind Ream followed by eradication. No problem. When you have finished the Healing, do you want to visit their planet for a little chat?”

Amelia answered, “Yes, if the Prince Commander doesn’t visit them first.”

Amelia watched for only a few minutes more until the fifty one Aliens disappeared all at once. Then she felt Zulith’s Transfer and she ended up in decontamination. At this point, she tabbed the release and woke up in her own body.

Two weeks later Amelia was once again on her Bridge. The two planets and the visiting Star Ships had all been Arcanely cleansed of any after effects of the Corruption Spell. She was very happy with the Ship size Staff Weapons they had.

She had sent a very long missive to the Silver Pair reporting on the effectiveness. They had drained the Arcane Power Crystals from all twelve ships present that had them, but they had done the job. Slowly but surely and one by one, the Healers from Ressalon and from three other cultures were reversing the insidious effects of the attack. One point three million had died.

The Prince Commander of the Battle Forces of Ressalon walked on to her Bridge and said, “Nicely done Amelia. Now that these people know what it was, they are up to the task of helping their own. Stay as long as you wish to. I will be leaving in one hour and I am taking my Battle Group, Chrissy’s Battle Group and the entire Fifth Fleet with me. Please remember you have completed your mission here and in reality, this was just another war over resources.

"The Draxions wanted this system because of some crystal deposits used in their Warp engines. So they created the problem and the solution, which was to sterilize the entire system. It was all about making themselves seem innocent to all of the other space faring Species.”

Amelia walked over and had a cuddle asking, “Well, where are you off to?”

He answered, “We are all going hunting. With a bit of luck, we will be sending the Draxion Species back to the stone age and when I finish that we will be visiting another world and chatting with a group of Arcane Mages. That chat will be terminal for some, if not, all of them.”

Fin.

a reply to: pheonix358

WOW!!! A very good in depth story!! I was there! I loved this!!!!!! I feel guilty for not having read any of your other writings, or maybe I have. Bad Memory and all. LOL!! Very Good!!! I wish I could offer more stars and Flags for this!!!!!!

a reply to: SyxPak

Glad you liked it. Have fun with the others.

P

Bravo P


And that, in a nutshell, is why I buy your books, I bloody love them.

I've been with Tez from the time before he had his first pizza, and through all the trials thrown at him. The curve ball thrown in the second book was perfect timing. And the third is eagerly awaited. (Thanks for the email by the way)

I can't praise you highly enough my friend.

Cody

ETA: The S&F is a no brainer mate, If I could applaud that I would.

a reply to: cody599

Thanks Cody, these short stories let me explore different areas and see how they turn out.

It is a lot of fun.

P

Wonderful story, Pheonix!!! Wow!!!

I'm still working my way through all the entires. I appreciate this is a story from your Ressalon books - it has the depth of an established world. The means for the pandemic were both totally appropriate to your universe and completely unique. Very well done. Looking forward to having some time to read your Ressalon series after this taste!

(If only I could bi-locate and have one half do all the work and the other sit in a comfy chair reading all day!)

peace,
AB

a reply to: AboveBoard

Thank you. I just love writing, it is fun. Keeps me busy and occupied.

P

a reply to: pheonix358

Wow! Super interesting read, loved it!!

Good luck

a reply to: Jennyfrenzy

Thanks, glad you liked it.

P

a reply to: pheonix358

Wonderful story!

There are some great writers here on ATS. Thanks for sharing your work with us!

You are welcome! Glad you liked it.

Yes, I agree, many very talented writers in many different fields. Almost as if ATS is a magnet for imagination and creativity.

P

I was a bit slow geting in to it.
but I think it is great.
will we see more adventures?

they way you told the stoiry
I would say yes.

a reply to: buddha

Yes, there are quite a few short ones on ATS.

P