Spectra's Gambit

The Lost Tales of Power:

Spectra’s Gambit

Written and Published by Vincent Trigili

Copyright 2014 Vincent Trigili

Editors:

Kristi Trigili

Elaine Kennedy (
[email protected]
)

Cover designed by Cormar Covers

ISBN: 9781311432322

EBook Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

The Lost Tales of Power is a collection of novels that describe an immense persistent multiverse. The books are a mixture of standalone and miniseries all set in the same universe with overlapping and intertwining storylines. While the books are a mixture of classic science fiction and pure fantasy, some effort is being made to keep the books in the realm of the possible, or at least theoretically possible given some basic assumptions.

Lost Tales of Power Series
:

Volume I - The Enemy of an Enemy

Volume II - The Academy

Volume III - Rise of Shadows

Volume IV - Resurgence of Ancient Darkness

Volume V - The Sac’a’rith

Volume VI - Spectra’s Gambit

Volume VII – The Sac’a’rith: Rebirth

Volume VIII and beyond - TBA

To be informed when new books are released
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I hope you find as much enjoyment in reading these stories as I had living them. If you enjoy the books, please post a review and spread the word about them. As an independent author, word of mouth is the only marketing I can afford. Thanks!

IE = Imperial Era (similar to BC, counts backwards)

EM = Era of Magic

12/01/01 IE – Enemy of an Enemy starts

01/20/02 EM – Enemy of an Enemy ends

02/01/02 EM – The Academy starts

08/30/42 EM – The Academy ends

05/15/55 EM – Rise of Shadows starts

12/30/58 EM – Rise of Shadows ends

01/31/59 EM – Resurgence of Ancient Darkness starts

03/15/59 EM – The Sac’a’rith starts

08/11/62 EM – Spectra’s Gambit starts

10/31/62 EM – The Sac’a’rith ends

01/25/63 EM – Resurgence of Ancient Darkness ends

02/01/64 EM – Sac’a’rith: Rebirth starts

08/25/64 EM – Sac’a’rith: Rebirth ends

01/01/65 EM – Spectra’s Gambit ends

Karathlathornka entered my study precisely on time. His massive frame still had a somewhat chilling effect on the room, as he was approaching twice my size. Time had taken its unstoppable toll on him. His great stride had slowed over the years that I had known him and the orange of his fur had faded, but despite his advanced age he still carried himself with a dignity that made you think he might have one last fight in him. His large cat-like eyes showed great wisdom and seemed untouched by his age.

He lowered himself onto one of the couches and said, “Hello, Vydor.”

“Greetings,” I replied, unsure why he had come to see me. I had given him sanctuary in the Wizard Kingdom ever since I had sent Dusty to rescue him, and in all that time he had never asked for anything. He lived just above the poverty level and seemed content to stay there. I gave him a generous stipend, but he never spent it on himself.

“Vydor, I am getting old and it is apparent that the years ahead of me are much fewer than the years behind me,” he said.

I was at a loss as to how to respond. It was likely to be true, but I did not know how old he was nor how long his race lived. Kellyn had done the best she could to heal his injuries, many of which were decades old, but even her generous healing powers had their limits.

“I know I have ceased to be of use to you, but there is no one else who can help me,” he said.

“I cannot turn back time, my friend,” I said.

“No, but you have successfully slowed it. However, my concern is not about myself,” he said.

“You are concerned about our agreement after you pass?” I asked.

“Yes, I need it to continue,” he said.

In what seemed like a past life, when I was chief of intelligence on the Dragon Claw, I had hired him to help with intelligence gathering. He was the best source of information that I had ever obtained. I never learned his methods of acquiring information, but he never failed me. He was also extremely expensive. “Karath, decades ago I decided to look beyond our agreement to see what you were doing with all the money I paid you. I traced it to a high-security medical facility far over on the other side of the Old Empire. I did not pursue the matter beyond that, except to confirm that they were getting the money and using it. I might be inclined to be favorable to your request, but would like to know your reason.”

He smiled, a grin that exposed a jagged set of serrated fangs. “That’s the problem with working with you intelligence types: hard to keep secrets. You probably know that I am the last of my kind, and that when I die my race will be extinct.”

“Yes, that is my understanding,” I said.

“Well, that is not the whole truth. On that station are thousands of my race, held in cryogenic suspended animation,” he said.

“Why?” I asked. No matter how much I learned, he always seemed to possess information I did not. I could not imagine the loss of information that his death would one day represent.

“Well over a century ago, a virus swept through my home world killing most of the population faster than anyone could treat it. No cure could be found. Myself and a small number of others who were off-world at that time pooled our funds to place the survivors there until a cure might
be found. I am the only one left of that group.”

“So all this time you have been carrying the burden of your entire species on your shoulders,” I said. “No wonder you worked so hard to keep me from ending our agreement.”

“Yes, and my debt to you for maintaining it all these years is beyond anything I could pay. You can surely understand why I want it to continue,” he said.

I sat back and thought about that a bit in silence. I did not want to continue to pipe money and resources out to some remote medical center, but I did not relish the idea of letting thousands die over that inconvenience.

“Vydor, you have always been a kind and generous man. Living here in your nation these past years has shown me that the kindness you have always portrayed in our negotiations was not a tactic but truly part of who you are. I am calling on that kindness now. You are all I have left,” he said.

“Karath, I have no intention of letting your race die out if I can help it. Let me summon Doctor Leslie and Kellyn. I want you to tell them everything you know about this virus and the events around it. Will you do that?” I asked.

“Certainly,” he said.

I would have liked to call Rannor in for this, but he had finally retired last month. He had already reached retirement age when we started the school, and while our advances in medicine could slow aging to some degree, there was only so much we could do. If he were more advanced in his magical studies, he probably could have bought more time; but he insisted he was content with the life he has lived, and did not desire to extend it needlessly.

When the others arrived, I briefed them on the situation and they started grilling Karath. For his part he was slow and deliberate with all of his answers. He had a tremendous amount of information leading up to the freezing of his clan, but very little after that. One of the others in his group had taken care of the details, and he was long gone.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“We need to visit this hospital and see the medical records. I find it hard to believe that in all this time they have not been able to deal with a virus,” said Doctor Leslie.

“Kellyn, do you think you could cure them?” I asked.

“Definitely, but it would do no good until we could isolate and contain the spread of the virus. Once we have their medical records we will know more,” she said.

I looked over at Karath, whose eyes had grown as large as coffee mugs. “Karath, I will not renew our agreement, I will change it; we will take your people into our own care.”

“I hardly know what to say,” he said.

“I suggest we go to visit that hospital,” I said.

“It is way over on the other side of known space. It will take years to get there,” he replied.

“Not for us. We leave in an hour,” I said with a grin. Doctor Leslie and Kellyn left to get the supplies they would need, and once they were ready we gathered in my study to make the trip.

During my investigation decades ago, I had paid a visit to the hospital where Karath had been sending the money I had paid him. It was properly known as Heritage Memorial Hospital Station, but since the fall of the Empire most people simply referred to it as the Hospital Station. Under the rule of the Empire it had accepted only the most powerful patients, but now it served its local region, a shining beacon of an age long past. When I had visited previously, I had left myself a marker to use as a reference point to gate right into their waiting-room. I weaved a gate and we all traveled through it, instantly crossing many light millennia of space: a trip that would have taken years by conventional means. As we walked into the waiting-room, the receptionist behind the desk sprang to his feet. “Grandmaster! I am sorry, I did not know you were scheduled to visit!”

“Surprise visits are not typically scheduled in advance. Please call Doctor Hawthorne, and tell him I am here with Karathlathornka and we would like a full tour and briefing on the Cathratinairian patients,” I said.

“Yes, sir!” he said and hurried off.

“This should not take long,” I said quietly.

“Vydor, I have reason to believe it is primarily your contributions that are keeping this station open,” said Karath.

“That is good to know,” I said. That would give me considerable leverage, but also gave them a perverse incentive to keep the Cathratinairians frozen.

Before I could continue, Doctor Hawthorne came into the waiting-room. “Hello! This is a most unusual surprise!”

“Do you get a lot of normal surprises?” asked Doctor Leslie.

“No, no, but that does not matter. My aide tells me that you would like a tour and update on the Cathratinairians?” he asked.

“Yes, please,” I said. Doctor Hawthorne was a consummate diplomat and not at all thrown off by Doctor Leslie’s comment. He had spent the decades since the collapse of the Empire keeping this station running and negotiating with all types of tribes, nations and consortiums. His only real bargaining chip in those negotiations was the advanced medical technology and training of his staff, which far exceeded that of the surrounding medical facilities.

“Follow me.” He led us deeper inside the station and into a very large room, filled as far as the eye could see with cryogenic beds. “In here we have about half of the survivors. There is an identical room on the other side of the station holding the remainder. As of this morning’s report, all beds are functioning at optimum level and all patients are stable.”

From there he led us through several research labs and introduced us to various doctors and staff members. Then he led us into a large conference room. “Now, can I answer any questions?”

“May I see their complete medical records?” asked Leslie.

The doctor hesitated, so I said, “This is Doctor Leslie. She is the head of medical affairs for the Wizard Kingdom.”

“In that case, here you are,” he said as he logged on to a terminal and then gave her access.

Kellyn joined her and the three of them talked back and forth for a while about the case and the treatments that they had tried over the years. Eventually I interrupted them and asked, “Doctor Hawthorne, summarize it for me: why have you not cured them yet?”

“We simply do not have the technology to do that. The virus mutates faster than we can treat it. We had hoped that by now there would be enough technological advances to counter it, but with the fall of the Empire we have lost much ground on that front.”

“So what is your plan?” I asked.

“To wait for technology to catch up and give us the tools we need to fight this thing,” he said.

“Doctor Leslie? Can you and Kellyn cure this?” I asked.