Mechanic

By Frank Carey

Years after the eradication of the Ellie plague, Earth was on the mend as its population of humans and other species grew with help from the Confederation of Worlds. Space travel was now common and spacefarers from distant planets needed a waypoint where they could stop, refuel their ships, and affect repairs. Thus, was born Nell's, a miles-long gas station in the asteroid belt where anyone could stop and take a load off.

Ashley Callisto--waitress, Zeta Reticulan, and Doctor of Anthropology--hails from a distant universe where Ellie and the Confederation never existed. Her life is saved by an elf who dropped from the storeroom ceiling in the nick of time. Problem is there are no elves in this universe.

Gerry Warren—elf, low-grade magician, and amnesiac—lands on a pile of crates after dropping through a hole in the universe. Now, if only he could remember why he entered it in the first place.

Mechanic is the fifth installment of the Parthenon saga and marks the first cross-over between the League of Planetary Systems universe and the Parthenon universe.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Frank Carey
• Release date: Jan 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393761891

Frank Carey

Frank Carey has been formally writing and publishing works of science fiction since late 2013. Over the years prior, he had dabbled in various forms of writing including haiku poetry, but that all changed when he and his wife, Jo, decided to try their hand at writing and self-publishing. Since then, he has written and published a collection of flash fiction and short stories, two anthologies, a pentalogy, and a trilogy. All his work, to date, has been in the science fiction genre. Most of his stories take place about two centuries in the future when Earth joins the League of Planetary Systems. Many of his protagonists are strong females. He is an inveterate pantser who believes the story will go where the story wants to go. Frank’s background includes degrees in physics and extensive work as a scientific programmer and technologist.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

15,000 years ago, in the Old League universe...

The one thing we had not grown out of as a people was the need for ostentation and violence, and the room the elf wizard was standing in represented both. Since the dawn of our Civilization as its citizens called it, there was a need for people who took care of problems quietly while leaving a lesson behind for those who wished to repeat said problems. This elf was one of those people. His name is Marcus Warren, and he is a clipper. Today, he was meeting with the grand wizard of the Clipper Guild to receive new orders. In other words, he was about to be sent out once more to kill someone powerful. Ah, such a life he led. Thank the gods he loved it so.

The room he was pacing in was large and dressed in fine art, sculptures, and tapestries glorifying the deeds of past guild members. He was shocked to find a sculpture of himself near the door, so he waved a hand and turned it into a potted plant, one with thorns.

Not a fan of your sculpture, Marcus? Master Traser asked as he walked in through a hidden entrance.

The cactus is a better representation of the inner me, Master. I take it there is a reason for my visit? Marcus replied.

How goes the divorce?

It goes. She and the twins are at the castle preparing to leave for Crystal.

Ah, the Crystallanian elves. An entire planet with biocrystal implants and not a drop of magic on the whole damn thing. I've been told it is a quirk in the etheric stream. What do your children think of this move?

They have chosen my ex-wife's lifestyle.

And you are going to allow this?

Marcus looked at him while opening his robes. He was growing weary of this prattling old...

Take a breath, elf, Rayna whispered so only I could hear her. He's testing you.

I released my robes, so they fell back into place while clasping my hands in front of me. It is their choice, one that I cannot change, Master. It is our way.

He clasped my shoulders. Good. It gladdens me that you still follow our teachings. Under no circumstances are non-magics to be harmed in anyway by our actions. We only deal with magic.

What is my next target, Master?

Zed. He has tried our patience for the last time. You are ordered and authorized to send him on his way.

Time frame?

You have one week as usual.

Yes, Master, it shall be done as proscribed.

Good. He handed Marcus a dossier. He is here on Ventos Prime.

Marcus read through the information and grimaced. What a prick, Marcus said. People like him make my tail cramp-up. He folded the paperwork and placed it in a pocket. Shouldn't be a problem, Master. Sir, I might as well tell you now. This is my last fix. Once Zed is taken care of, I'm turning in my robes and getting the plark out of the League.

Where will you go, my son?

One of the deep colonies. Someplace far from the League core worlds. Maybe I can be a baker or perhaps a mechanic. I will finally have time to indulge all my hobbies.

And if I don't allow it?

Marcus smiled, turned, and silently walked out of the room.

###

It was well past closing hours when Marcus arrived via portal. Waiting for him were three people with their identities hidden by confusion spells. To the outside world the three looked like swarms of fireflies trapped in two-meter-tall wads of cotton which made determination of even the wielder's species impossible.

Well, look what the Katalan dragged in, the left cloud said. We're so happy you could join us, Marcus.

What kept you? the center cloud asked.

I was receiving my new assignment. The target is on Ventos Prime.

Who is it this time? the right cloud asked.

Zed. He's put his foot in it this time. I think he's finally ready for his coup attempt.

You have to give the dragon credit—he never gives up.

Your wife is still on Ventos, is she not? Center asked.

Ex-wife. She and the kids are at Diana's castle waiting to leave for Crystal.

Where you can't touch them.

For now.

And what of our plans?

I have prepared myself for transition which will begin when I return from my assignment.

Are you sure this is a safe course of action?

Perfectly. The spells have been cast but will only activate under specific circumstances. Circumstances we control. I will be fine.

Assuming your transformation is successful, the three of us will follow, Left said. Then we can take our rightful place as gods.

We can then lead the League to the greatness it so sorely deserves, Right added.

Until I return, then, Marc said. Contact will be through the usual channels. He snapped his fingers and a portal appeared, then disappeared as he stepped through it.

The three clouds suddenly dissipated revealing the spell slingers underneath. What the hell? Left, a Rhannan, said.

Oh, my bad, a woman elf said as she walked out from behind a large cactus.

Marcia? Right, an elf asked.

Hello, David, Tran, Ernst.

Umm, what brings you out this late? Center—Ernst asked.

Idiot members of conspiracies. She snapped her fingers, and the room was suddenly filled with senior spell slingers wearing Office of Security uniforms. In moments, the three conspirators were in shackles and being led through portals to Security Headquarters on Tralaska. She waited until the openings cleared before opening hers but stopped when her earcomm made an odd noise. What the hell, she said before tapping it. Go for Warren...

Marcia, this is Commissioner Spence. You are ordered to proceed to Earth and report to the Nova immediately. A League-wide disaster is in progress.

Her blood ran cold.

What about my team? What about my brother.

Your team is being rerouted and your brother contacted. Listen, Elf, get your petite ass moving. Spence out.

Marcia snapped her fingers then ran through the portal. She found herself inside of a large room filled with people in a state of controlled chaos. Portals were opening left and right and disgorging people before closing to make room for more portals. A member of the ship's crew ran up and escorted her to a room filled with sleep chambers where her team and the three conspirators waited in scrubs while a medical corpsman placed leads on their chests.

Just what the hell is going on? Marcia demanded.

Ma'am! a basili said as she ran into the room.

Treena! Thank god. Can you tell me what is happening?

The young witch explained as she helped Marcia change into scrubs. Marcia just stared at her assistant in utter disbelief.

###

Meanwhile, on Tralaska...

The upgrade team stood around the transmitter crystal and prepared to send the software update to the trillions of synthetic living crystals embedded in the chests of trillions of League citizens. Once transmitted, the combination of spells and genetic code instructions would give the users enhancements to their magic wielding power without boosting them to higher levels of spell slinging. Two crystals—one with the updated magic instructions and one with the updated code would be brought into contact with the transmitter crystal where they would be combined before being transmitted through the etheric energy river to the trillions of users throughout the League. The changes were small and incremental, but most users preferred small improvements and bug fixes.

Sydney, a warlock-2 in charge of testing and quality control, went over the spells one last time. When you're sending out an upgrade which can affect trillions of sapient beings, there were a lot of checks and balances between the moment of conception and the fielding of the final product. A second team was making similar checks of the software while a third team checked the interaction between the two. Sydney knew that team-3 was the weak link of the three teams because of who they needed to make the checks. Even with trillions of spell slingers, only Wizards were qualified to check the interaction between physical science and magic, and Wizards were the rarest of the classes of spell slingers.

In theory, a problem in magic, coding, or their interactions could be detected by a wizard during the final checkout. This has been the case so far. No flaw had ever made it through to users in all the centuries upgrades had been performed this way. Back in the day, carrier crystals would be sent out to individual planets where they would directly upgrade users. This method was abandoned after the user base exceeded a million users per planet. Now, it was done on a massive scale, so equally massive safeguards were in order, and Sydney was part of those safeguards.

Sydney levitated the storage crystal off the table, then had it hover when it was at eye level. He made complex motions with his hands while they encircled the crystal. Each motion commanded a specific part of the crystal’s magic program to execute, testing outputs and error trapping routines. The tech next to him dropped a stylus, breaking his concentration for a moment, one long enough for him to miss a tiny flaw. Instead of being reported and corrected, it was allowed to exist.

In a perfect world, Sydney's crystal companion would have picked up the flaw and reported it, but Sydney had no companion. Due to a shortage of crystals, Sydney had been given a synthetic crystal sans companion, so no second set of eyes to catch the problem.

Finished checking, Sydney signed-off on the crystal and sent it to the team-3 where it would be integrated with the code upgrade before being sent out to the trillions of happy spell slingers who called the League home.

Due to the wizard-1 getting appendicitis that morning, his backup, a warlock-1 Tralaskan named Clive, oversaw the final integration steps leading up to the launch of the update. Clive was young, new, slightly arrogant, and rushed by his superiors to deliver the update on time. In his haste, he missed a few steps and one flaw, the flaw Sydney had also missed. No matter where you travel—be it town, city, planet, galaxy, or universe—there is a saying common to all: shit happens, and at this moment shit happened...big time.

Satisfied that all was well, Clive signed-off on the test, then handed the paperwork and crystals to the launcher, a magician-3, the lowest caste