No More Magic by Rayner Ye (recommended ebook reader .txt) 📕

she shook uncontrollably. The last thing she saw was her reflection in a phoenix’s pupil. Not her crow face, but her human face from the start of her time-travelling days.

Half-failed mission

YuFu eyed the slavers’ spaceship from a small stealth-cloaked vessel which hovered around its perimeter with another twenty in the Interstellar Police’s fleet. “RRT agents,” he mindspoke. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, Commander,” seven voices chimed in his consciousness. “First, we’ll concentrate on capturing the flight crew so they can’t escape, then we’ll focus on the armed guards.” He sniffed. “I’ll check out the flight deck. You go elsewhere. Stick to your ghost forms.”

“Yes, Commander.”

He spoke his intention to what they called the river and rain system. “Take me to the bridge of that spaceship.”

Only three people occupied the immense area. They sat in a triangle, competing in a warring game which played from an orb between them.

“I’ve only got three here. How about you guys? Anyone?”

“I’ve found four, Commander YuFu,” Grace said in his mind.

“And I’ve found three in a sauna,” Adam said.

YuFu nodded. “Where are yours, Grace?”

“Dancing with some scantily clad women in a nightclub, Commander. They don’t look happy. The women, that is. I suspect they’re victims of the sex industry too.”

“Anyone else in the starship capable of flying this thing?” YuFu asked.

“I’ve asked the river and rain system,” a guy called Paul said. “But I just get teleported to the same places you are: the bridge, the sauna, and the disco.”

YuFu rubbed his hands together. “Let’s capture them in unbreakable Biluglass spheres.”

“Yes, Commander.”

He pointed his invisible fingers at the three gaming companions. “Capture these people in an unbreakable Biluglass bubble.”

The purple-skinned Fenuk woman was the first to notice the inside of the sphere glinting under the white overhead light. “Shit. What’s going on?”

Her red and black-striped man-friend stood and bashed the interior of the orb. “What the fuck?”

As their ranting got louder, armed guards rushed in and tried to smash the thing open. One guard pushed it, and it rolled towards a control panel.

YuFu blinked rapidly. “Connect it to the ground.”

The ball stopped rolling as a solid base connected it to the floor.

“Make sure you attach the things to the ground. Adam and Grace. Did you succeed?”

“Yes,” they both said.

“Everyone. Let’s do the same with the guards.

“Commander YuFu, Z?” a quiet agent called Simon asked.

“Yes?”

“Can’t you make the intention to imprison everyone who works on the spaceship? While you leave the victims of slavery free?”

“Of course.” The river and rain system was easier than a computer game. “You make the intention, Simon.”

“Okay.”

After inhibiting the movement of all the staff and clientele, they freed the slaves from cages and brothels throughout the vessel.

YuFu’s hand casually anchored on his hip as all six-hundred victims of human trafficking gathered in a cavernous hall. He observed with satisfaction as the throng of innocents got smaller and smaller. His team of river and rain travelling agents and interstellar police shipped them away via tachyon thrust, where they’d find sanctuary on his moon-world, thirty light-years away.

When half of the innocents left the slavers’ spaceship with liberators and half remained in the slavers’ ship, YuFu jolted awake. Under the canvas roof of the RRT tent, he frowned up from his metal platform, which resembled an iron Lilly pad, set in the middle of the magic river. YuFu blinked up at water, rebounding off the surface of his aurashield from the sprinkler system set in the tent’s ceiling. What happened? Had the sprinkler system stopped for a few seconds, breaking the spell?

After closing his eyes once more, he adopted the special breathing pattern and relaxed his muscles. “Take me back to that spaceship I just left to complete the mission.”

His spirit-body went nowhere.

“What the hell?” He sat up and looked at the other agents.

They were sitting up on their platforms along the river, too. Their expressions also conveyed confusion. The sprinklers and their aurashields still worked. His body heat rose as he reached for his amethyst pendent. “Still there.”

Their elderly director staggered through the door, leaning heavily on his cane. He limped towards the riverbank. “It’s finished. RRT, time travel, they’re finished.”

“What?” YuFu asked.

“The boy. He did it.”

“Akachi’s son?”

The old man nodded. “Maki’s helped to lock the portals for good. The teleportation and magic’s over. No more changing shape or body-snatching. No more doing it the easy way. We need proper agents again. Trained agents.”

“But what about our mission?”

“I’ve had the Interstellar Police on photon chat, and the vessels are bringing the rescued to Mayleeda as we speak. They’re just putting them into cryosleep.”

“But what about the ones left behind?”

Z’Das shrugged. “They’re thirty light-years from Mayleeda. “There’s nothing else we can do.”

He sighed with exaggeration. “Can’t the Kuanjanese government help?”

“Planet Kuanja doesn’t have a united government. When do the Kuanjanese ever help with anything which doesn’t give them economical gain? Never.”

“A rich Kuanjanese military might help. The slave traders’ ship’s outside their goddamn system.”

“That’s asking for trouble. Anyhow, the traffickers’ pilots will be free to access hyperspeed or tachyon thrust. There’s no way any Kuanjanese space force would catch up.”

“Who’s saying? Markaz has one of the biggest militaries in the—”

“YuFu Tang. That will be enough. The case is closed and so is RRT.”

***

YuFu hunched over his whisky as music and chatter enveloped him at the surprise party Aedre threw for her husband and stepson. They celebrated her husband’s rescue from alien space wizards and the end of time travel and RRT.

As he stared into the glass of amber liquid, YuFu thought about the all missions he’d assisted in as an RRT agent. They’d rescued so many innocents from interstellar human trafficking rings and mafias across the Alliance. Law enforcement had improved