It'd only taken place thirty minutes ago, the ship had grabbed the harbinger crews, gotten to minimum distance, and then left the system at LS1000.

  She answered the communication coming in on her implant.

  “What’s the word, lieutenant.”

  Lieutenant Julie Taylor replied, “The word is no, cadet.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding, I could overtake them and find them in moments.”

  She’d put in a message to Julie as soon as the story broke, asking permission to try out her new toy and go after the escapees. The toy being advanced sensors, a computer, and small reactor in the shape of half a shuttle. It was little more than a heavy weight for her to drag around, but it would also allow her greater navigation potential, without relying on a starship which had other people on it. People that would inevitably be brought in on the secret, which was to be avoided if possible.

  Julie said, “It’s not great news, but all they have is their crews. No ships. A terrorist crew without a ship are just a large group of thugs. It’s too big a risk, against a threat that is far in the future at best. Lastly, it’s too exposed, this news is huge across all sixteen worlds. Too many people will have questions, if a fleet ship shows up in an hour with a beat-up q-ship destroyer in tow. So, no. We’re doing our best to track them, and a patrol group is following on their last known heading.”

  She blew out a breath, “I guess you’re right, maam. I was just too angry to see most of that, but I don’t like it.”

  Julie replied, “That’s why I’m here, cadet. I don’t like it either, they’re infuriating and the biggest continual failure of our intelligence branch in the history of the union. I’d love to send you, but the risk of fallout far exceeds the need in this case. Take comfort in knowing you took out their ships, and they won’t be engaging in piracy, raiding, or terrorism anytime soon.”

  Yeah, assuming they didn’t have a plan for that as well.

  “Understood, maam. And thank you,” after Julie disconnected, she said, “Well, that’s a bust.”

  Crandall grinned, “I guess you’ll just have to stay right here, then.”

  She giggled, “You mean sprayed against your side?”

  Crandall nodded, “Exactly, just where you belong.”

  She shook her head, but couldn’t bring herself to disagree. They’d both turned into major cuddlers, mostly because of all those hours they couldn’t touch at all, during class and while out and about.

  “They’re going to want vengeance against me for it, not only taking down nine of their ships but also because they had to burn a long-embedded resource. And they were here in orbit not long ago, picking up the food, water, oxygen, and other supplies for delivery from the main base. So everyone needs to be careful, they have two reasons to want me dead, now. Vengeance and fear.

  “Previously they probably didn’t put feet on the ground using the Affinity because it would burn the ship’s cover, why they waited previously for our training cruise, but this time around they knew they were about to burn themselves. I’ll be very surprised if they didn’t drop off a tactical team or an assassin, so stay alert.”

  Ella smirked, “Don’t worry, mom. We’ll be careful. I have the detection spell up as well, like you already asked and nagged me about.”

  She snorted, “You better.”

  Stacy grinned, “We’ll be so if only to watch your back. I hate that I can’t find a flaw in your logic, why didn’t you tell Julie?”

  “Julie isn’t here. She may have thought of it, but it’s not like there’s anything she can do outside of trusting in our base security and keeping an eye on me from a distance.”

  Daniel asked, “What do you think they’ll do, assuming you’re right.”

  “Depends. A tactical team would fail to penetrate the base, so they’d hit us next Saturday in the city. An assassin with conceal will easily infiltrate the base’s perimeter, and he or she would assume I feel the most secure on base and would let my guard down here. On the good side, between me and every investigator on base constantly detecting for illegal concealment spells looking for a rapist, the assassin may be the one surprised. Anyway, if we’re not attacked until Tuesday, I think it will be fair to say we will be on Saturday.”

  Crandall said, “They have two reasons to kill you now, so maybe they did both? I mean, if we handle an assassin in the next day or so we shouldn’t assume we also won’t hit a tactical team of four to eight in the city.”

  She kind of swooned inside a little at that and felt a flush of warmth, he was right of course, she shouldn’t be thinking one or the other. It probably wasn’t both, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be. Yeah, her man displaying tactical intelligence and tender concern really did it for her, what could she say?

  “Very good point, honey. Still, my money is on an assassin. We’ve already dismantled one of their six-man tactical teams and defeated a space born ship ambush, they’ll want to try something new, or like you said, both.”

  Ella said, “We’ll be careful, all teasing aside.”

  “So, does anyone else think creating spells is easier the second time around? I’m almost done with both.”

  Stacy snorted, “I hate you.”

  She grinned, “Do not.”

  Stacy tilted her head, “Maybe a little easier, since we don’t have to study the process and figure out our system, all while learning all the separate parts of it in class at the same.”

  Ella nodded, “I agree. It’s easier, but it’s only been two weeks tomorrow, so I’m not even close yet. Within the month, I should have it done, instead of the four months it took last time.”

  Crandall accused fondly, “Geek.”

  She blushed, “Just driven. Been staying up every night, and I did some extra here and there in the day.”

  Daniel waved that away, and said, “We’ve all done that, you know we’re as driven as you are. I don’t think that it’s that you’re much smarter than us, either. Though you may beat us there too by a bit. It’s your level of focus I think, and your ability to hold it for long periods of time. It shows in your hand to hand, dueling, and quick thinking on your feet. We can all focus too, but distractions happen after a while, we can’t hold it indefinitely, while your brain churns out results efficiently three to four times as much as ours.”

  She tilted her head, and she was forced to admit he was probably right. She knew she wasn’t that much smarter, and that focus had been the only thing that enabled her to practice her magic almost constantly to raise her Solis level up high enough to qualify for mage fleet service. Her focus was also probably responsible for her tenth of a second to a quarter second faster casting.

  Which, in hindsight, made sense. Her genetic tweak that seemed to slow the world around her, what else would that be called, save an increase in ability to focus with an intensity most weren’t capable of achieving.

  “I think you’re right. I always thought my advantages in that one area, hand to hand, was due only to the brutal discipline and training regimen I was raised in, and it was in part, but maybe my DNA enhancements are a part of that too. Enhancing my ability to focus beyond human norms. I’m such a freak.”

  “Sexy freak,” Crandall admonished playfully, as if that made it a good thing?

  Well, when he said it, it kind of did make her feel better, as well as sexy.

  She grinned up at Crandall, “All yours.”

  Stacy snorted, “Get a room.”

  Crandall picked her up, and she grinned at Stacy, “Was that a command?” then giggled wickedly at Stacy’s blush as he carried her off.

  It was later that same night, long after Crandall and Daniel left, when she finished up and submitted both spells for approval and licensing. She’d managed to get the simpler contraceptive spell down to eight Solis. She originally thought five, and it would’ve been, but she’d added a safety feature to prevent the spell from taking effect if anyone was stupid enough to cast it on a male.

  The second spell was still fairly basic, at least in concept, but it targeted and affected a lot more things. Dust, animal dander, skin flakes, sweat, waste, and dirt for gathering and removal, while it also deodorized and killed all bacteria, viruses, introns, and molds. It too needed to stop working, if it detected any animal life, large or small, in the field of effect. The human body was host to a lot of bacteria it needed to survive, after all. Which made the spell on the low end of the intermediate range, just twenty-six Solis.

  She already had the forms filled out with the unique spell information and the requested parts required for the maintenance cleaning device, but she’d hold off on submitting it until the committee approved and licensed her spells. It just made sense, if her cleaning spell wasn’t approved ordering the parts now would be a waste if they declined her application for some reason.

  She was a little freaked out by and excited at the fact she’d built two spells in two weeks. She knew she wouldn’t hesitate to create a new spell, if she found a need, after discovering that. Still, at the moment there were no spells she needed to create.

  Only being able to attack a single enemy at a time was a limit, but not one easily exceeded at her Solis level. The military spells had area of effect and multiple target spells, but they were all above two hundred Solis to cast. An area spell at her strength would just split the damage too much and water down her effectiveness, she’d be better taking them on one at a time like she had been, if there was a team in the city.

  Each enemy down meant one less attack on the next exchange, which was a much better tactic than having to hit all of them six times to take them down all at once. Especially with her detection spell, she could ensure her casted spell was just enough to take down their shield and disable but not kill them.

  She did consider the idea of duration spells that once cast would allow her to fire a blunt force or sever spell every half second or so, as long as it took the spell to reach magical saturation. She could take down enemies a lot more rapidly that way. But that half second reload time was also why mastered instant spells took a little less than half a second, it was putting the magic into the spell that became the bottleneck for a mastered spell. So, she’d be able to do the same thing, once she mastered sever and blunt force in her third year, she’d be able to cast them over and over again just as fast as she could if it was a duration multi-fire spell. Likely also be able to cast the multiple target spells then too.

  Not that it wouldn’t be useful to have such a spell in the interim two years, but because she was still a cadet in training, and would have a similar ability once in third year, she doubted the spell board would approve it or license it for her use. She couldn’t exactly explain her greater need to be able to defend herself either. If she told the board she was targeted by harbinger, they’d want to know why.

  So, for the moment, she had no more spell ideas, at least none she thought they’d approve of.

  After a little more spell practice to push her Solis limit, she turned in for the night.

  The expected incident arrived just after one on Monday. The platoon was waiting for the bus to take them out to the range, it was sunny out but a crispy fifty-five degrees. The uniform kept her warm enough, but she could feel the chill on her face.

  She felt it arriving, the magic bullet entering her magical detection spell’s range. She’d been sure she’d feel him coming, if there was an assassin, she hadn’t expected a magic bullet fired from outside her spell’s detection range. A brain blip of insight but it crossed the distance at over twice the speed of sound, even her reflexes weren’t fast enough to even start moving, before it struck her back, went through her heart, and exploded out of her chest.

  Ella’s face and uniform were sprayed with her heart’s blood, even as the bullet shrapnel struck and was finally stopped by Ella’s armored shirt.

  Her body, and the front and back of her armored shirt, had drained off most of the bullet’s force.

  The world started to fade, and she knew a healing spell wouldn’t be enough, even if she had the three seconds to cast it. An act of pure survival instinct had her activating her inborn active recovery spell, her heart, bone, flesh, and muscle instantly reforming, and she gasped in a deep breath as she hit the ground.

  “Dome shield! Level five.” she yelled, or tried to yell, her voice came out a bit breathless, then her eyes widened with horror as a second shot blasted Ella off of her feet. She wasn’t there yet, but she knew more than half her platoon had over a hundred and fifty Solis.

  She instinctively reached out with active recovery, instantly restoring Ella’s body. She didn’t know how she was going to explain even knowing that spell, much less being able to cast it at the maximum power level three, but she didn’t give a crap in that moment. She wasn’t letting her friend die like that, and she’d already saved her own bacon besides.

  A potent dome shield snapped around them as she stood up. Her chest was pinched, so she looked down. The exit wound was a lot larger than the entry, about the size of a baseball, and enough to destroy the suit’s built in support. Her inner breasts were being squeezed out of the hole, but not nearly enough to show nipple, so she dismissed it as unimportant for now.

  She had an assassin to kill or capture.

  She cast levitation, telekinesis, a power level ten shield, and level two flight. She couldn’t maintain it for long, the thaums regeneration power level needed for that was far more Solis than she had left, but if she had to she’d use her internal one. Hopefully she wouldn’t need to, her magical pool was large enough for a short flight without any regeneration at all but the normal amount.

  “I’m getting that bastard,” she declared, then took off in the direction of where the bullets came from. The dome shield not stopping any magic or physical objects from leaving the shield. It was a defensive dome shield, not a containment dome like the ones for the dueling club.

  She wasn’t surprised at all when the rest of her team followed, all with power level ten shields.

  Level one flight was under seventy-five miles per hour, level two up to one-fifty, and level three, three hundred, and so on, doubled at each level.

  So it didn’t take long going down the bullet’s path before she felt the concealment spell. It was on the move, as the assassin jumped off the building, and casually strolled toward the tree line. She smiled grimly, arrogant in their ability to hide from cadets that shouldn’t be able to pinpoint him or her. The assassin no doubt expected them to start flying around that roof while looking around futilely.

  It was also clear he or she wasn’t sticking around to fight, the assassin wasn’t a fighter, he or she was a killer. They’d try again another day, perhaps with a headshot next time, even active recovery couldn’t fix that if it wasn’t already an active spell.

  “Ella, take him with a mage capture as soon as I shoot my spell.”

  She activated her levitation spell as she dropped fly, continuing to coast toward the building on pure momentum, looking like she was slowing down to look around, all while she got a level twelve blunt force spell ready, then released it right at his back.

  The assassin wasn’t even looking, supremely confident he was safe from discovery, and she was sure it was a he, now that they were this close. It struck center mass in the back of the concealment spell, her level twelve spell blasting through his level ten shield, and it hit him with the force of a power level two blunt force spell.

  The sound of his spinal cord popping was loud enough to reach their ears up above, as he was slammed hard into the ground, his face bouncing on the ground. Which is exactly when Ella’s mage capture spell nailed him, and it locked his legs together and his arms against his side, while he screamed.

  She said, “Someone heal him? When you find a moment?”

  Crandall laughed, “I’ll get right on that. Wait, what spell?”

  They all laughed at that, but Daniel cast heal before the guy suffered too long, just an extra five seconds or so, really.

  She wasn’t really into torture, but both her and Ella should be dead, would be if she wasn’t a freak. Still, it wasn’t about what the assassin deserved, it was about what they did.

  The men if anything, looked more furious than she felt, and Stacy looked worried and upset. They all lowered to the ground, as the MPs and the rest of the platoon showed up. She gathered up the intel and sent it to them, as well as sending a copy to Julie.

  They quickly took brief statements from the platoon, as well as everyone’s record of the incident, which she was worried about. If anyone had been looking at her, when she’d gone from daylight streaming through her chest where her heart should be, to instantly healed, there’d be questions.

  Same with Ella’s wound.

  Well, she’d just refer them to Julie and claim she can’t answer without violating the secrecy act. Which was true enough, but it would only make them more curious.

  Afterwards her and Ella went to supply for uniform repair, or a new one if required. The supply sergeant even cleaned up the blood spray with a spell, so they weren’t all that late to class.

  Chapter Five

  Professor Janine Cahill looked up from her desk as she approached.

  It was Wednesday late morning, she’d gotten the board’s approval and licensing for her new spells yesterday and had submitted the application for her project device equipment. She couldn’t be entirely sure that’s why Cahill had sent her a message to talk in private after class that day, but it seemed likely.

  Cahill nodded at the chair on the side of her desk, “Take a seat, cadet.”

  “Maam,” she replied as she sat.

  Cahill said, “I reviewed your spell and the model of device you requested the kit for. It looks good, and I also verified you had it approved by the council. I’ve never had a student complete the semester project during the third week, and that seems likely given I’m about to send you the supply authorization to pick it up.

  “The spell is unique, of intermediate difficulty, and it is cleverly made to be useful to you for the rest of your days. Which are three things that will enhance your final grade. I have to wonder however, how you built a spell so quickly. Did you make this spell from scratch, or is it a modified civilian spell you got your hands on? There’s nothing wrong with that, and you’ll still get an enhanced grade, just slightly less of one than if it was completely unique.”