Magic Man Charlie Read online

  Magic Man Charlie

  The Dragon Mage Book 4

  Scott Baron

  Copyright © 2019 by Scott Baron

  All rights reserved.

  Print Edition ISBN 978-1-945996-26-9

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Epilogue

  But wait, there’s more!

  Also by Scott Baron

  About the Author

  “In the World through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself.”

  – Frantz Fanon

  Chapter One

  The crackling flash of light came and went in an instant, briefly illuminating the darkness of space at the edge of Earth’s atmosphere. This was disconcerting in and of itself. More so was the unexpected appearance of a spaceship in a place where none had been just moments before.

  And it was plummeting toward Earth.

  “What do you mean it came out of nowhere?” Captain Mendez exclaimed into her comms as she banked her ship hard, heading for the new, unidentified blip on her screen.

  “Exactly that, Captain,” the tactical monitoring AI replied. “There was an unusual anomaly across my scans, followed by the appearance of what seems to be a ship.”

  “So it came in via a warp jump, then,” she stated with confidence.

  “No, Captain, it did not. That’s the unusual thing. There was no warp signature at all. I’m afraid this was something else. Something I’ve never seen before.”

  Mendez didn’t like the sound of that. The monitoring satellite array surrounding the bright blue orb had been put in place by the greatest combined minds of the human, AI, and alien residents of the planet. For something to just pop in like that, leaving them all scratching their heads as to what it might be, was not how the system was supposed to work.

  But that was why Captain Mendez, and others like her, still flew sorties despite the planet being at peace. Having experienced enough war and death at the hands of alien invaders, Earth’s residents knew how quickly calm could become chaos. Working hand in hand with the many great AI minds helping run the planet, they’d kept a watchful eye over the globe. And it had been a quiet watch.

  But that had all just changed.

  “Contact in twenty seconds,” the calm voice of the AI said over Mendez’s comms.

  “Copy that. I should have visual in––hang on, there it is. I see something.”

  She squinted her eyes at the display screen. The tiny, glowing orange speck was still too small to make out properly, but as it grew rapidly on her monitor, she could see that it was definitely not a meteor, and the debris field of derelict ships previously circling the globe had been salvaged and removed from orbit years ago.

  This object was new, and it was man-made. Or alien-made, perhaps. None of that mattered. What did matter was, regardless of whoever had built it, the craft was coming down, and fast.

  “Trajectory?” she asked the powerful tactical mind monitoring the situation as it unfolded.

  “Given the speed and angle of descent, it appears to be heading toward the eastern portion of the Atlantic. A water landing is imminent.”

  Martinez zoomed her optics in for a closer look as she sped toward the target, getting the first glimpse of the superheated craft blazing through the sky. It was definitely a ship, and decent sized, though the model was unfamiliar.

  “Unidentified craft, power up your engines, level out your descent, and identify yourself,” she transmitted on all open frequencies.

  No reply.

  “Unidentified craft, I repeat, engage your engines, level out your descent, and identify yourself,” she said, activating her weapons systems. “You have been target-locked. Failure to comply will result in forcible downing of your craft.”

  The pilot of the mystery ship either didn’t hear her or didn’t care. The craft continued its blazing descent. Its hull was beginning to cool as it reached lower altitudes, the visual distortion from the heat thrown off resolving enough for Martinez to get a better look. What she saw stunned her.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she gasped into her comms in utter shock. “Uh, you’re not going to believe this.”

  “I’ve received your vid feed,” the AI replied. “Please confirm. Do another pass and acquire a second set of images.”

  “Roger that,” she said, banking the ship for a second go-around. She also turned off her weapons, putting them in standby mode. There was no way she was shooting that ship down if she could avoid it. Not if it was what she thought it was.

  Martinez eased in line for a second run and set her recording instruments to high resolution. The ship came into focus once more.

  “There you are. But how in the world did you get here?” she mused.

  As if it could hear her, the craft abruptly shifted course, dropping sharply from its original trajectory.

  “What happened?” the AI asked. “My readings show an altered angle of descent.”

  “Affirmative. It just changed course. Still no engine readings, however.”

  “I see the same on my readouts. Was there an external reaction of some sort?” the confused AI asked. “How did it shift course?”

  “I don’t know. Hang on, I’m diving for a better look.”

  “I copy you. Given this development, support craft have been scrambled and will reach your position in two minutes.”

  “In two minutes this thing is going to be a smoking crater. It’s not on a water landing trajectory anymore. It’s heading toward––” She realized where they were. “Shit. It’s going to crash into London.”

  The AI, being an incredibly powerful computing mind, already knew this, naturally, and had reached out to Vic, the resident city-sized AI overseeing the area. He, in turn, had activated the surface-to-air defenses for the slowly rebuilding city. Vic didn’t want to blow the craft out of the sky, but if he had to, he would.

  Captain M
endez was gaining quickly, her monitors filling with the image of the impossible spaceship. She adjusted the resolution and transmitted backups of what she was seeing to their tactical relay hub. From there, it would be shared with the conglomerate of the planet’s AI minds.

  Sure, she had been briefed on what to do in incredible circumstances, but she’d never thought something so outrageous as this could ever happen. Not on her watch. But there it was, right in front of her. A ship that simply couldn’t be there. She’d studied it in her history lessons, as anyone in flight school had. A cautionary tale about man’s overconfidence and folly.

  The craft abruptly shifted course, again with no sign of engine activity.

  “Shit, where’s it going?”

  She rolled her ship, locking her cameras on it once again.

  “Now it’s heading away from London,” she said. “It’s tracking west. Are you seeing this?”

  “Yes. Images are coming in clear.”

  “So, you know that ship,” she said. It wasn’t a question.

  “We all know that ship, Captain. But this is just not possible.”

  She couldn’t believe the words that were about to come out of her mouth. “I know,” she replied. “But it’s the Asbrú.”

  “It would appear so.”

  “But that’s impossible,” Mendez said.

  “As I already said.”

  The AI paused to consider its options. For a quantum mind as powerful as it was, that was saying something. Finally, it sent a priority notification to the western coast of the United States. “I believe we had best contact the newcomers,” the AI said. “Follow the ship, and stay nearby until a support team arrives. I’ve just sent notice to Charlie Gault.”

  Chapter Two

  The small trail of smashed trees and rutted earth marked the arrival site of the long-lost ship. Charlie’s old ship. A ship he had left in a broken heap on a distant planet in a distant galaxy many, many years ago. And now it was home, somehow.

  The Asbrú had come in hot, its heat shielding glowing orange as it glided to Earth, its engines stone-cold. That was the thing giving Captain Mendez an uneasy feeling as she circled the site of its landing. The ship should have crashed into the ocean. It should have broken up on impact. But here it was, intact and unscathed.

  Something had directed it––made it shift course. But from her vantage point, she was certain its engines had most certainly not powered up during its descent. But somehow it had changed direction, and though its landing was a rather hard one, it was nowhere near what one would call a crash. The whole thing just didn’t make sense, and a low rumble of unease spread through her gut as she surveyed the scene.

  Mendez flew another low pass, looping around the entire landing site, transmitting a non-stop stream of information back to the AIs and their human counterparts who were monitoring the situation in real-time. Whatever was going on, the big brains would figure it out. She hoped so, at least.

  The Asbrú had finally come to rest in a remote part of Wales, not far from the great limestone caverns near the coast. Why it had chosen that particular area, she couldn’t tell, but at least it wasn’t an inhabited one. Much of the world was that way these days.

  After the alien invasion and ensuing Great War––which was really more of a slaughter than a war, to be fair––the planet was sparsely populated, at best. Even with civilization slowly regaining a foothold, most had clustered around the major cities of the world. The rest of the planet was void of people.

  As such, and given the remote location where the ship had come down, the risk of civilian injury was minimal. And with a major, rebuilt hub relatively nearby in London, a ground team had been hastily assembled and was already on the move, heading to Wales as fast as they were able.

  Unfortunately, most of the AI-powered ships that had made rebuilding and global transit so easy after the war were currently off on a massive exploration mission, seeking out other habitable systems, while also hoping to make contact with new alien species.

  Mankind was very much not alone, and this time, they wanted to be the ones to make first contact. But that meant ships capable of communication––learning the basics of an alien language as only a machine could––were required for the task.

  The AIs had been happy to embark on the mission, enjoying the opportunity to explore, along with their human and Chithiid crews. The tall, four-armed aliens were fully integrated into Earth society at this point, and to venture forth without them wasn’t even a remote option.

  But those crews were the lucky ones, setting off on an adventure into the vast unknown, while the rest of the population would go about their usual routines, no space voyages or adventures lined up for them. Just the boring, daily routines they’d all come to call life.

  That is, until a strange ship burned a trail through the morning sky and landed in Wales, of all places.

  Volunteers leapt at the opportunity. This was something different. This was exciting. This was more than just rebuilding cities and infrastructure. This was an actual adventure.

  The men and women selected from the hastily assembled group would travel quickly to the landing site and secure the ship and form a perimeter, as instructed. While Captain Mendez had confirmed the location and status of the craft, they still lacked more vital information as to its threat level. For that, however, they had already put other tools into action.

  Vic, the London AI, sent a survey drone, its sensor array repurposed specifically for the task at hand to ensure there was no imminent risk from the Asbrú, such as a radiologic or chemical leak. So far, all appeared normal.

  The team had deployed quickly, making relatively good time, while the AI minds of the world, as well as those of the fleet orbiting the planet and residing on the Dark Side moon base reviewed what little data they had and formulated a plan.

  “Seems well and proper crashed,” Duncan Hughes, the sturdy man selected to head the team, transmitted to Vic.

  “Thank you, Duncan. Have your team secure the perimeter, and do please report any unusual observations,” the massive AI said.

  “Will do, Vic,” he replied as he and his team walked around the ship. “Hey, Vic. It looks like there’s a door here, right close to ground level.”

  “Do not enter the ship. We’re discussing this situation with Cal. He has a team in Los Angeles that will be deployed to your location shortly.”

  Duncan was a little put out. They were already there and had done a good job of the task assigned them thus far. It seemed only fair that they should be the ones to make history, not some bloke from halfway around the world who wasn’t even there yet.

  Cal and Vic knew that, human nature being what it was, it was only natural they would want to go poking around inside. Which was why Cal decided to step into the discussion––with Vic’s blessing, of course.

  The enormously powerful AI running Los Angeles didn’t want to step on any toes, even if computers didn’t technically have them. Fortunately, his fame for his role in retaking the planet during the final days of the war made him something of an AI celebrity.

  “Gentlemen, women, and non-binaries, this is Cal. You should know that we are all extremely grateful for your hasty arrival at the landing site. Most impressive. And now that you are there, I would like to reiterate what Vic has requested. Please, do not approach or enter the ship. It is an unusual situation we are in, so just wait until my people get there. Is that clear?” Cal transmitted to the team.

  By expressly forbidding them from entering or even approaching the ship, he hoped to avoid any regrettable mishaps. They would have one shot at this, and they did not want well-intentioned––but inexperienced––volunteers to taint any evidence they might find.

  “We’ll be careful. Copy that,” Duncan replied, though he didn’t sound terribly happy about it. It was the first bit of excitement any of them had seen in ages, and now they were on babysitting duty for a spaceship full of cool goodies and who knew what else.

/>   “Cal, how long until you can have your team here?” Vic asked his counterpart.

  “It’s still night here, so rousing them may take a little time,” he replied. “However, we do have a new AI ship at our disposal. Eddie is his name. He just passed his final flight checks last week. I’ll deploy him for transit detail. The team should be geared up and on its way to you within no more than a few hours.”

  “Fantastic. I look forward to assisting the newcomers. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to return to my shores.”

  Chapter Three

  All was quiet along the Malibu coast, and the newcomers, having recently arrived from their freak time jump from medieval times, were enjoying the comforts of modern beach living.

  Charlie and Leila had gladly taken one of the long-vacant homes along the bluffs as their new residence, as had Bawb and Hunze. The Great War had obliterated the population, but the construction had been designed to last, and last it had. With a simple cleanup and some basic repairs, habitability of the oceanfront estate was restored in short order.

  But not all of them wanted beachfront life. Rika had been a city girl growing up and found living in one of the gleaming towers downtown far more her style, even if the city was no longer a bustling metropolis. This also placed her in closer proximity to Cal’s command hub, as well as the underground fight club locals used to blow off steam, which she’d stumbled upon while exploring late one night.