Spectre of the Arcanus (Work in Progress)

If you've read my book Surfing Through the Mind: An Anthology, then you've already read Chapter 2 of Spectre. If not, don't worry about it. However, feel free to purchase a copy of Surfing on Amazon here (Paperback edition is $5.99 US, free on Kindle Unlimited, $2.99USD if you don't have a KU subscription. Note: if you purchase the paperback and want the Kindle edition later on but aren't a KU member you can get the Kindle version for $0.99USD) if you want to read Chapter 2.

Spectre is a project I've been working on and off since roughly 1997. Maybe 1998. Regardless I've only gotten as far as the aforementioned chapter two. However, I thought I'd share the brief and the first chapter. I'd be greatly appreciative if you all would leave me a comment on what you think. To leave a comment click on the Facebook icon to the left, you may need to scroll down to the "Follow Us" section (note: clicking on the Facebook icon will take you to my author page).

Description/Brief

For fifteen years, the Knights of the Blue Flame have maintained the peace in the Chandar Federation. Armed with a mysterious power known as the Kami, their wisdom, and their trademark Kamiqi, this august order of knights, under the leadership of Tappe Estrie and the Council of Flame, have defended the weak and upheld the individual laws of the Chandar member worlds.

Tappe Estrie has been there since the beginning. Continuing a legacy left to him by an old friend, he has built the Order of the Blue Flame from just a handful to over two thousand strong. In addition to his duties to the Order as head of the Council of Flame, he is also president of the Chandar Federation. The only titles he will respond to are “Master” or “Admiral.”

Despite the pressures of his duties to the alliance and the Order, Tappe Estrie is content with the path he has committed himself to. Yet, the cynical side of him tells him it is too good to be true and the peace he has found within himself won’t last.

Tappe’s peace of mind is abruptly shattered when a distress call reveals a voice he never expected to hear from again. It is a voice that will set off a chain of events that could well spell the doom for the Order of the Blue Flame and the Federation still in the relative stages of infancy.

Chapter 1

Tappe Estrie left his rooms and headed for the council room where the other council members awaited his arrival for their annual meeting. Usually, Tappe looked forward to these meetings. But today, the head of the Order of the Blue Flame felt uneasy. Why, he could not say. No amount of meditation could help him determine what the source of that uneasiness was. Perhaps, he was wishing for the simpler times when there had been only a handful of the Order before it had even begun, long before the Federation had even been conceived.

Then, again, those days weren’t too simple either. Back then all he had to worry about was wondering what emergency would interrupt his training. It seemed as if every time he would get back into the groove of his education, he wound up having to postpone it to help resolve one problem or another. Back then, it was a time he hoped he would even survive to continue his training.

But that had been a long time ago. Nearly twenty-five years, in fact, give or take a couple of years. His two acolytes, Linda and Joseph, had long since become Masters in their own right and were now headmasters of a second Academy located in the Parchakra system. Kathryn spent most of her time searching for any sign of the Arcanus, which had been supposedly destroyed defeating her darker sister ship; bringing new students with her whenever she came back.

Then there was Kaine. Kaine was a stranger from another universe who took Tappe under his wing and guided him toward his destiny within the pattern of the Kami. Kaine eventually found his way home, leaving Tappe in charge of the Citadel and the Legacy of the Knights.

Now, the Order had grown to over two thousand knights scattered across the ten member systems of the Chandar Federation. Their trademark Kamiqi, weaponry that seemed to glow and hum, constructed by each in order to complete his training, and their ageless facial features, which could be noticed by one with a trained eye, can identify the Knights. This ageless look was a result of one who was well versed in the ways of the Kam, as Tappe preferred to call it.

The Kami. Kaine had called it something else, but as the Order grew, it eventually came to be called the Kami in formal settings and informally, the Kam. One could describe it as the glue that kept the universe intact. Everything had a connection, in some small part, to the Kami. Stars. Plants. Rocks. Animals. Everything. Those who had the ability, like the knights, could tap into the pattern of the Kami and manipulate its energies in a variety of ways. Due to some of the results of these manipulations, Tappe had often wondered over the years if this were the cosmic ancestor to the energies of magic used by the deities, clerics and mages of his own native world of Amesh.

The only one Tappe was certain would be able to remotely answer had not been seen for quite some time. Not since…

Tappe shook his head. Perhaps someday he will find the answers he sought on this manner.

For now, he needed to focus on the present. Today was the first of a week long session of the annual Council meeting. All should be present except for possibly Kathryn.

Tappe doubted she would make the meeting, as she had not attended one in nearly a decade. Not since he had come back from Amish some fifteen years ago after tying up some loose ends with his family bearing the news of the death of some old friends, Camrel Danners, Phaelen Blackthorne, and Peter Abelard.

Knowing that Camrel had been master of one of the most powerful ships in the known galaxy, Kathryn used the excuse of being on Search as a cover for looking for the Arcanus, knowing full well there was no way the ship could be destroyed. Damaged, yes. Destroyed, no. But it was a large galaxy and if the Arcanus were out there she could be anywhere. Tappe did not envy her the task. Though there have been times he wished he could be out there with her.

On her last visit, over two months ago, Kathryn returned with a new acolyte. This in of itself was not unusual, but his origins were. The acolyte’s name was Dargon Hammerfist, a native of Amesh. To Tappe this was a definite pleasant surprise.

The real surprise was Dargon was of one of the dwarven races indigenous to Amesh. Like most dwarves Tappe had encountered during his travels on Amesh, Dargon Hammerfist was a rather gruff spoken moody fellow. Yet the time spent with Kathryn prior to his arrival at the Citadel seemed to have tempered the moodiness to the point Kathryn felt comfortable sending him strait to advanced level studies, which was a credit to his race. Once Dargon became accustomed to the idea of having the Talent, he pursued his studies as wholeheartedly as his kin pursued their craft Tappe was all too familiar with. Tappe welcomed the times he could just idly chitchat with his fellow Ameshan. Whenever they could, rare as they may be, they would spend nights at the tavern across the street from the Citadel imbibing dwarven ale and swap stories of their various adventures.

While these thoughts occupied his mind, Tappe followed the familiar route from his rooms to the council hall without hesitation. He answered any hails by passers-by with a nod of his head and a few words of pleasantries, always attentive to those under his care. He discovered early on during his training, after taking up full-time residence within the Citadel, that he was able to sense when someone was approaching. Because of how people reacted when he let it be known he knew of their approach, new acolytes nicknamed him “Master Eyes” or “Eyes Estrie.” While more experienced Knights would admonish them for their “disrespect of Master Estrie,” Tappe found it rather amusing.

He paused when he sensed someone within one of the training rooms along his route to the council hall. He knew there were no classes scheduled for this time of day as all the students were supposed to be either in their rooms studying or taking their turn at watch aboard one of the Federation ships up in orbit around Sola Prime. All that should be left were the citizens hired to take care of the upkeep of the Citadel, and the council members, who should have all gathered in the council room by now. Drawing upon the Kam and readying his Kamiqi Blade, Tappe reached out to see who was there. He relaxed when he sensed the familiar aura belonging to one of the most powerful Knights within the Order, Kathryn.

Aside from Tappe, Kathryn was the only one left from the days aboard the Arcanus prior to Kaine’s arrival, a time when Tappe and a few others from Amesh were still relative newcomers to the realm of space. Like everyone else strong with the Kam, her face had the ageless quality about it. The tall, lightly blue-skinned woman paused in her exercises. With a flick of her bluish black hair, Kathryn turned her doe shaped eyes toward him and flashed one of those smiles of hers that made his heart skip a couple of beats.

“Hello, Tappe,” she purred as she walked with a feline’s grace toward him and kissed him, lips slightly parted.

“Kathryn,” he said lovingly, not hiding his surprise. “I wasn’t expecting you back for quite some time. At least not for another month or so.”

“I thought I would come back early and take a break for a few months,” she said with a secretive smile in her voice that reminded Tappe of warm, brightly arrayed sunsets in the mountains of his homeland he remembered from childhood. “Besides, it’s time for the annual council meeting. And since I am a council member, I figured it would be prudent if I were there.”

“You haven’t attended an annual meeting in years,” he said suspiciously. “Not since the Arcanus…”

“Are you complaining?” she asked as her electric blue eyes started to glow.

“Not at all, my love.”

“I have news,” she said quietly placing a slender, light blue-skinned finger to his lips.

“About the Arcanus,” suddenly alert with hope. “Has she been found? What of Camrel, Phaelen, Peter and the others? Is Illicon with them as well?”

Since her supposed destruction fifteen years ago, Tappe and Kathryn hoped the Arcanus was still out there. Because of his duties to the Federation and the Order, Tappe was not able to go searching for his friends himself. Instead, Kathryn, along with the survivors of Camrel’s fleet searched and came back on a regular basis to make their reports.

After the first five years, any hope of finding Camrel and the others began to wane. Finally, all hope was lost and the missing ship was officially declared destroyed. Only Tappe and Kathryn clung to the thread of hope that their former comrades were still alive and well. Kathryn would go out for months at a time, once for nearly a year, following rumors of sightings of a ship fitting the Arcanus’s description. Only to come back empty handed once again.

Perhaps this time it will be different. Perhaps there is finally proof that his old friends are still out there getting into, or even causing their own special brand of trouble Tappe remembered fondly being a part of.

“Sadly, no” Kathryn said apologetically.

Tappe’s shoulders slumped. The last time he had seen the others was two decades ago. They had gone back to Amesh in order retake the port city of Lankhmaar. Lankhmaar had been overrun by forces led by the evil god Baowoolf, who it turned out was once a mortal and Camrel’s son.

It had been forbidden for them to use any of the technology that they had grown accustomed to while in space. Instead, it was back to basics with swords, shields and magic. Weaponry and defenses they had grown up with, with the exception of Kathryn and Peter, who hailed from higher technological origins.

During the two-day battle that ensued, Kathryn was taken out rather early after nearly dying from a particularly nasty wound and sent back to the Citadel to recover. Peter, on the other hand, after only a few quick lessons in primitive weaponry, and pure luck, managed to hold his own.

Though there were many losses within the ranks of the combined armies against Boawoolf’s forces, they were able to emerge victorious. It turned out that Peter, who happened to be cybernetically enhanced at the time, had apparently made an enemy aboard Tappe’s ship, the Regine. As a result the mini power reactor inside him had been set to self-destruct.

Camrel was forced to cast a regeneration spell on Peter causing all of the cybernetic enhancements to be rejected from Peter’s body. Once they were removed, Phaelen teleported the rejected enhancements a mile out into the Sargast Sea just before the reactor blew. The resulting explosion created a two-mile high tsunami headed for the port city. Thanks to the quick thinking of Tappe and the use of Camrel’s magically induced gateway, their allies, wounded and some twenty thousand inhabitants of the area were safely moved to the outskirts of Phaelen’s city, Paladin’s Retreat.

With the end of the battle, Tappe returned to the Citadel and set all his energies toward building the Blue Flame ranks to what it is now. Somehow, he managed to find the time to build and maintain the Federation and its fleet.

“Okay, Kathryn,” Tappe says with a sigh. “What news do you have?”

“You and I,” she said taking his hand in hers smiling, “are parents.”

“Huh?” Tappe asked in shock. “I mean what? I mean, we’re what? How is that possible? Illicon told me a long time ago you and I would never be able to have children due to our different genetic make-up.”

With an impish grin she hugged him, “We have a son and a daughter. Twins, actually”

“How?” he asked as the reality of the moment caused him to slowly lower himself down to the exercise mats. “I’m the father of twins.”

“Don’t you even want to know their names?” Kathryn asked as she lowered herself to join him, smiling all the while.

“Whose names?” he asked confused. “Oh! The twins. Of course, my love, the twins. What are their names?”

“The boy is named Kaine and the girl is named Zanna,” she said proudly. “Named after the two people who were the most important to you in your life.”

“Kaine and Zanna,” he repeated in awe and wonderment. “Kaine, I understand. But, Zanna? When did I ever mention Zanna was important in my life?”

“Illicon once told me that during one of your early misadventures with Camrel and Phaelen, you gave up a part of your life’s essence so that she might live. Because of that you two shared a bond that could not be broken until one of you died.”

“Yes,” Tappe mused. “Zanna died when the Reaper’s main power source blew up in Camrel’s face. That was when he was masquerading as Saimahn. When we all thought Camrel had died on board the Arcanus after it had crashed on Grave’s World as we called it afterwards. But Illicon had resurrected Zanna not too long after that incident and the bond had been broken. I was devastated, I recall, after that for quite some time. As long as we held that bond I always knew she was alive and well. The last I saw of her was at Lankhmaar.”

“Yes, I remember,” Kathryn said. “I’m sorry she was never found.”

“It wasn’t your fault. From what I’ve been able to piece together, Baowoolf had tricked her into believing we were the enemy. She sabotaged some of the weaponry that Phaelen shouldn’t have brought down from the Avenging Angel in the first place and destroyed almost all of the first aid kits he had hidden in the tents. She killed some of his men and then ran off. She was a survivor and I’m sure she managed to come to her senses. I wouldn’t doubt she found herself a rich lord somewhere on Amesh and had lots of children by him.

“I still have nightmares after all these years, from that day she died. When that happened I was in the process of interrogating an android that Peter had found. It had gone berserk and caused the Reaper to crash here on Sola Prime. You wouldn’t want to feel such pain as I felt when her life was suddenly snuffed out. So intense was it, I passed out from the shock and pain.

“But that is neither here nor there.” Tappe said drawing in a deep breath. “You’ll have to explain to me sometime why you think she was so important to me. Now though, I seem to recall you said you and I have a pair of twins. Are they here?”

“No,” She replied with a shake of her head. “They are not.”

“Why not?”

“I’ll explain that later. Right now, Tappe Estrie, Master Knight of the Blue Flame, you have a council to lead. Care to escort a worn out old council member to the chambers?”

“Old you are not,” Tappe said smiling as he rose to his feet and brought Kathryn close to his embrace. “As for being worn out, you’ll wear me out first I’d wager.”

“I bet you tell that to all the girls,” she said falling easily into his embrace and kissing him lightly on the lips.

“Only to those who are the mother of my children,” he says with a happy grin.

“You, sir,” she said slapping him lightly on the arm as they exited the training room, “are incorrigible.”

“I know,” Tappe replied laughingly as they headed for the council chambers arm in arm with Kathryn and a spring in his step that had been missing for quite a long time.