Reflections
© 2022 by Walter Reimer

Thumbnail art by  rabbi-tom


The dark mage laughed as fire began to dance around her extended fingerclaws. “Your spells aren’t going to work, you know. Everything you know, I know – but unlike you, I don’t have any – AHH!“ She cried out as Varan’s first attack drove daggerlike icicles into her duplicate’s shoulders. “You’ll PAY for that,” the sorceress growled as the ice melted.

“We’ll have to see, won’t we?” Varan asked as she barely ducked a fireball, only to be knocked backwards by a wave of miasma. She managed to maintain her footing on the steps, but only by centimeters.

Facing Meredith, the Chaos Knight had torn away her codpiece, revealing . . . aka, it was certainly large, and the musk wafting from it caused Meredith to cough. “Heh,” the enemy sneered, “what’s the matter, Paladin? Those Purity stats are just for show; I know you want a taste of this.”

The golden palomino mare hefted her sword, chanted a prayer to the Light, and charged, her blade and the Chaos Knight’s scimitar raising clouds of blue sparks as they met each other.

Varan’s mirror self charged, an obvious move that the vir saw coming, and she turned aside to let the dark mage pass.

It was only after she passed that she noticed her opponent grinning.

The hooked chains on her staff bit into Varan’s leg, and the two of them went tumbling over the side of the stairs, falling several dozen meters to the whirling blades below and dying in an explosion of blood and gobbets of flesh.

“Aka, that went poorly,” Varan grumbled as she and Meredith materialized at the last saved point, at the base of the stairs. Knowing that getting around this obstacle might take time, she saved and closed the game.


***


“Gartabin?” the Sensor Officer said. “Receiving a sensor contact at extreme range.”

Varan frowned. All the division’s command staffs had been briefed on the conclusions made by the Threats and Assessments Section. “Tactical display, please,” and the holographic projection appeared in the center of the command center. “Show me, Sensors.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” With their ship at the center of the display, the projection showed the other five ships of the patrol group, their relation to the Lalande System, and the location of the sensor contact. “It’s a very spurious contact,” the sublieutenant explained. “It’s not there long enough to get a solid return from it.”

“But it’s not natural,” the Weapons Officer remarked from her station.

Sensors shrugged with his tail. “We’re in hyperspace,” he reminded her.

Varan stood and walked into the projection where she stood, looking down at the contact. “What have you been able to get from it?”

“The power curve’s Kashlanin, but anomalous.” That caused a few concerned looks by the others in the command center. “I checked the sensors before informing you, Captain. They’re all operating within normal parameters, and there’s nothing in the local hyperspace terrain to reflect impulses back at us.”

Varan glowered at the small glimmering point. “Show me this in relation to the border with Terra, please,” she asked, stepping back out of the projection and watching as the contact moved to the center of the display.

Yes, it was between their position and the border.

“Communications, send the sensor records to the senior captain of the patrol and to the other ships, and ask if they’ve seen the same thing.” She resumed her chair as her orders were carried out, and the display vanished.

Varan’s tailspur reached up and scratched at her cheek as she wondered what the Terrans might be up to.

Her fingerclaws twitched in their sheathes.