As the week progressed, Mia kept me apprised of her negotiations with the Navy. The Marines started making plans for something happening at the end of the week.

  “What is commotion?” I asked Ashley.

  “Here in the United States we celebrate gaining our independence from the nation of England every July Forth.” she let me know. “Many of the Marines here don’t have any specific duties on Friday, so they are working on making sure they get a long weekend.”

  “What does celebrate independence involve?”

  “Gathering with friends and family, outdoor cooking, and when the sun goes down, fireworks.” Ashley pondered. “It’s all a little tame for a Marine. I expect a lot of the guys here are going to end up doing something reckless and dangerous once the alcohol gets involved.”

  “Oh, sounds like fun!” I enthused. “Party not complete until have to put someone blood back inside.”

  “You would get a kick out of that.” Ashley agreed.

  “Hey you two.” greeted Givens as he joined us in the day room. “The guys want to go shooting again at the end of the week. Pistols this time.”

  “Oh, yes!”

  “Then I have to go talk to the Captains." Ashley mused. "I presume the same security as last time, I just need someone to put that on the record.” she looked over to confirm there was still an armed Marine in the room.

  “See you two later, I’ll be at Battalion if you want to go anywhere.” she walked off with a purpose.

  “You still angry about space?” I asked. “I not make duty cycle.”

  “I think most of the guys in here are mad that they weren’t able to go, but who knows what the future holds. I may get my chance.”

  “But you mad while I am in room.” I noted. “I figure out soon what be punishment."

  “Your logic seems suspicious.”

  “Logic perfect.”

  “Twelve, you have a visitor!” called out the charge of quarters Corporal. Allegro walked in with one of the armed Marines, and came straight over once she saw me.

  “I have been asked by Tempo to come and give you this.” she said, and held out a small device. The Marine took it from her and gave it a hard look before handing it to me.

  “What is?”

  “It is a communicator.” said the box, using the bus’s voice.

  “Why bus want speak at me?”

  “I’m not a bus. I am the space station you visited. I first spoke to you through the bus I was driving.”

  “Ah, that make sense.”

  “I do have to inform you that I was listening the whole time while you and your Marines were aboard, and I heard some of them talking about how you were going to join the Navy.”

  “Join Navy so be combat doctor for Marines. Else would join Marines.”

  “And while I do hope to be able to work together in the future, we don’t intend to interrupt any plans you have made thus far. I bring that up because I would like to offer some small token of consideration in exchange for the possibility of participating in the human’s study of your magic.”

  “What consideration?”

  “To get our foot in the door, we would like to offer you an appropriately equipped sensor platform to charge your magic whenever you wish to call upon it. In exchange, the platform will record you and your surroundings in every detail that we have the equipment to measure in the effort to learn about what you can do.”

  “Limits?”

  “Some rather drastic ones, I fear. Actively using the platform will burn through its available power very quickly, so while I can keep it in a standby state above the Kármán line over whatever part of the world you are in at the time, it will take time to reach you once you call it and have a very short active duration before I have to retrieve it.”

  “And?”

  “The second limitation is also a big one. We can’t use any stealth or EW from the platform while it is burning through all of its power to charge you up and record you. Its position will be a screaming beacon to all when it is active.”

  “But I use magic?” I confirmed.

  “In short durations, yes. If my hypothesis is correct.”

  I thought for a moment.

  “Want one other thing before agree.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “You make clothes to get on bus very quick. You make Navy uniform that fit tail, feet, and ears."

  “Easily done.”

  “You have magic platform ready by July celebration, make all you see visible to Marines and Navy.”

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  “Starting fabrication now. It will take time to consult with the Department of the Navy to work out the specifics of a permanent monitoring station, but in the short term I will put a tactical vehicle in your Osprey landing field that will be equipped to monitor broadcasts from the sensor platforms.”

  “You do all that by celebration?”

  “I work directly for the Queen of Hive Harseese and operate with her full trust and authority. I have the full power of the Hive at my call, and I can do all of that in a matter of hours.”

  I looked at Allegro.

  “Tempo is the Queen’s First Attendant. When Tempo speaks it is the Queen’s voice that is heard.”

  “Good.” I turned to Givens. “Collect nerd friends and go tell Captains that space people send vehicle to air bus field and you now assign to use it. Make sure pick Sergeant to go too so no one complain.”

  “You give the best presents.”

  “I will arrange to send someone along with technical manuals to give you instruction on how to operate and maintain the equipment. Overall it will have the form factor and be built like one of your Osprey aircraft, so the Marines will need to assign a flight crew.”

  “Why an Osprey and not some alien space ship?” asked Givens, turning back from the half-step he had taken to the door.

  “Logistics. Parts are available and the labor is already trained.”

  “Yeah, that makes sense.” Looking back at me, he saw my glare. “I’m going, I’m going!”

  “My part here is done?” Allegro inquired.

  “And admirably discharged, Allegro. You may resume your regular duties.”

  Ashley walked in as Allegro was leaving.

  “What did I miss?”

  “Space people make deal. You see real magic soon. Need move celebration party to big big gun field!”

  True to their word, the Space People contacted the Marines at the airfield the next day to request permission to deliver equipment. When the tower agreed a large ship just appeared in the air over the parked Ospreys and lowered a matching aircraft to the ground at the end of the line. The task completed, the ship vanished just as fast.

  When Ashley took me to see it that evening, Givens and his cohort were all reading tablets and pushing buttons on the machines in the back under the instruction of a metal man. The pilots and their people were training separately to make sure the new aircraft behaved the same way their old one did.

  “The aliens have systems locked onto you like, all the time now.” He whispered to me so as not to interrupt the metal man.

  "Well, if you must train, you not miss magic tomorrow.”

  “I am enjoying this much more than the guys playing spades overnight at the space station.”

  The next morning the unit gathered after breakfast, and the Captains handed out assignments. After a few hours to gather everything needed, everyone not otherwise assigned took a trip down to an artillery range that wasn’t being used for that purpose. By the number of people that showed up, it looked like most of the brigade was there. More trucks started showing up, and everyone quickly unloaded tables and benches and cooks from the dining facility started organizing food for the afternoon.

  I was summoned to appear before the Colonel.

  “This is highly irregular.” he started. “We never allow dependants into training areas. However, my Sergeant Major caught wind of your little party and things escalated quickly. I hear you have a show for us?”

  I pulled out the communicator from my pocket.

  “Tempo, are you ready with your machines?”

  “I have one sensor package assembled and tested. I will stage it nearby, so when you are ready it should arrive quickly. It will have a ten minute operational window and then I will recall it.”

  “What can you do in ten minutes?”

  “With the power that Space People machines leak, break anything not already broken. Also recover from downed anyone moderately damaged. Recover from critical take longer than ten minute.”

  “We all look forward to seeing it.”

  That afternoon we all got to eat as much as we could, and I got to shoot many pistols and then help pick up all the used up metal bits. Before the sun went down, I indicated to the Sergeant nearby that I was ready. He made a call over his radio, and all the nearby trucks honked their horns to get everyone’s attention.

  “Earpro, Earpro, Earpro” someone said over a machine to make voices loud. Everything got very quiet.

  I brought all my best tools out of storage, and summoned my formal attire from the Aetheric Order. One must dress to impress. I attached the communicator to my lapel and raised my staff.

  “Tempo, I would like to rage.”

  A circular craft appeared above me so quickly that we could barely see it coming. It was about fifty feet across and it slowly rotated above me at about the same height. Then I felt it shed power like I was standing under a massive waterfall of Aether.

  I summoned one of my Grimoires to my hand and pushed power into it. Speaking the key words to activate the Working, I called the lightning at as far of a distance as I could safely target. Leaving the power sitting as high as the Working would allow, I capped it off and started again.

  The surrounding area whited out over and over again as I brought lightning from the sky. Still the Aether poured down over me. Switching to explosions, I resolved the Working to as high of power, heat, and concussion as I had configured the Grimoire to allow. Again casting at maximum distance the repeated lightning strikes were replaced by detonation after detonation. Still speaking activation phrases, I switched again to rock strikes. It took longer than I would have liked, but I quickly enough had ten large boulders pried up from the ground out in the range and hovering over the spot I targeted. Changing to the second half of the Working, I simultaneously smashed them all together into the ground. Energy transfer fractured them all to tiny pieces which ricocheted at lethal speeds out to three hundred or so feet.

  Then the hovering machine was gone, and the power with it. The excess power started bleeding off of me then, bringing me down from the high I had been feeling. I took a knee so I didn’t wobble.

  “That was incredible.” Ashley said from the ground nearby. She had her pistol drawn. Looking around, I saw that she was the only one who still had their eyes anywhere but the places I had struck.

  “Ashley, you good at job and I am proud to call you partner.” I breathed deeply.

  Michaels quickly jogged up.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Never held that much power before. Will be fine once legs stop shaking.” Michaels grabbed my wrist to feel my pulse. I let him.

  “With your heart hammering this hard I am surprised you are even able to speak.”

  “Will be fine. Have felt this before.” Michaels wandered off.

  “Was it good for you?” Ashley asked quietly.

  “Have not been moved that fiercely in… ever. Not in ever.”

  “Givens has a lot to… wait, Givens is still in the monitoring station! He probably had full biometrics scans of you the whole time!” Ashley exclaimed.

  “Well then, now he and whoever with know how treat woman.”

  “If it helps, they probably wouldn’t know what they were looking at.” added Tempo.

  Ashley couldn’t stop laughing and I didn’t know why.