The Enemy of an Enemy

“Affirmative, enjoy the ride.”

“Five-E, that’s not good,” Icommented.

“What is wrong with Five-E?” askedGafar.

“Well, that is where they send you if theythink you are carrying a contagious disease, so that means we willhave to go through quarantine and disinfection,” was myreply.

“Well, that could work in our favor. Thebest option for us right now is to keep silent until we get to HighCommand, and if we are stuck in quarantine for a while, that wouldbe much easier to pull off,” noted Darnath.

I smiled. He was right; this could not playout any better. Only the captain and Dr. Rannor would come to seeus there. “Plus it gives us an excuse to lock the ship,” Isaid. “If I recall right, since we were on a non-Imperial worldfor a while we will have to be kept in quarantine for forty-eighthours, but it is at least a week to the capital from here. I willhave to see if I can pull some strings and keep us in there longer.No matter what happens, your cover story is that I am operatingunder command from the Emperor’s office and I have ordered you notto talk to anyone about the mission, the colony, the Magi, oranything related until we are properly debriefed by the HighCommand. Also do not forget that Larath is on this ship, so do notlet your guard down, as we do not yet know the extent of his poweror what role he is playing in this.”

Security forces poured into the bay once theship was safely secured. They were all wearing biohazard gear, butonly carrying ceremonial weapons. They lined up along the path wewould have to walk to get to the decontamination area and snappedto attention. “A hero’s welcome home,” I said. That was avery good sign.

“Dark Talon, this is Bay Control. You arecleared to disembark from your vessel and proceed to Decon roomseven,” came a voice over the speakers.

“Bay Control, this is Dark Talon. We will beestablishing a quarantine field around the Dark Talon until furthernotice. Keep all personnel and gear at least ten meters away,” Ireplied.

“Acknowledged,” came the reply.

“Okay, it is time. Follow me out,” Isaid as I opened the airlocks. The Dark Talon automatically lowereda ramp for us to walk down. Kellyn came down at my side, and theothers followed, with Darnath bringing up the rear. As soon aseveryone was clear, I signaled the Dark Talon to lock itself up,and I saw Darnath erect an energy field around it.

As we walked through the corridor formed bymy old security forces they snapped a stiff salute, and theImperial Anthem played over the bay’s speakers. As we reached theend of the line I saw my replacement standing there with a look ofpride on his face, as if to say, “I knew you could do it!” I gavehim a smile and a slight nod as I passed. I knew that I was leavingthe fleet in good hands with him.

Next we passed down a corridor and allpretense of honor was gone as we had to walk through various cloudsof chemicals, sprays and irradiation chambers all designed to killeverything but us. Once we finished that walk we entered a small,square room with just enough space for seven beds, a few tables anda bathroom. At each table was a computer workstation, in case wefelt the motivation to get right to work.

“Well, pick your bed and relax as best youcan until we hear from someone. Speak freely, but only via ourtelepathic connections. Say as little as possible verbally,” Iordered.

Chapter Twenty-One

Two hours passed with no outside contact fromanyone until the captain arrived. One wall of the room wastransparent, allowing easy communication with anyone in a sittingroom which was connected but secured from any chance ofcontamination. The captain’s large frame made the visitors’ roomlook like a child’s playhouse. He walked close enough to seethrough the wall and waited. I got up from the table where I wassitting and stood before him, not precisely at attention, butenough to convey respect.

“Welcome home, Vydor,” he said. “And welcomeaboard to your squad.”

“Thank you, sir,” I replied.

“What happened to your uniforms?”

“Well, when we left the planet three or fourdays ago, we had to hide out amongst the natives of the world wewere on so we are dressed as they dress.”

“What planet, and why were you hiding?”

“Sir, I am not able to tell you much, atleast not before my debriefing by High Command, but there are somethings you need to know. The first thing is that war has come tothe Empire, and the new enemy wields weapons of vast power. Sir,understand that what I am about to tell you for the most part youwill probably never have clearance to know, but you will be on thefront line of this war so I am going to break some rules.”

“Go on.”

“Captain, what we were calling the Magi whenI left here are an alien race, a very hostile alien race. They camehere looking for something. What they were looking for we do notyet know, but what we do know is that they chose this colony toattack because the Black Adders were there. They saw them as theonly threat to their eventual takeover of the Empire. I hope yougot my report from the field about how easily they beat LieutenantTom’s forces and faked the distress call?”

“Yes, we did. Some of that footage was verytroubling, especially your dogfight with nothing in orbit.”

“Yes, that it was. Think about this scenariofor a moment: the sorcerers turn both their fear weapon and theirhallucination weapon on the fleet at the same time. They makeeveryone very afraid and then make them think they are surroundedby enemies…”

“It would be a bloodbath. We have alreadyplayed that out, and a dozen other possibilities. None of themlooks good.”

“Well, we know now you can add superiordefenses, firepower and mobility to their advantages.”

“I take it that shield around the Dark Talonis something you acquired from them?”

“No, not exactly, but it is something theycan do, too. Let me fill you in on the broad events that happenedafter those logs ended. The Dark Knights and I were pinned down ina tight corridor, unable to make much of a dent in the forcesbrought against us. They stood and held the position and our enemyat bay long enough for me to escape the death trap, with the helpof the Black Adders who showed up to help, but before any of themcould follow me the sorcerers brought out heavy weapons and brokethough our shield walls, completely devastating the squad. TheBlack Adders and I then pushed on to send what data I had to you,all the while staying just out of reach of the sorcerers’ patrols.We knew that they had an escape route off the planet, so we knew wehad to destroy that before they realized the peril they were in.They use a gate to travel through, and once we learned how tooperate it we laced it with explosives and used it to escape. Justas we were leaving they found us and opened fire on our unshieldedposition, and they thought they had succeeded in killing us beforewe escaped. That is why we had to hide out; we had to let themthink they had won so that they would not rush to build a new gate.You see, your bombardment attack exploited a big weakness in theirdefenses; they can only scan for living things. That is why onlythe Imperial sensors that were on the colony detected the probes.By the time those sensors could have seen the rocks it would havebeen much too late to raise a defense. We do not have exactnumbers, but we do know that you scored a crippling blow on theirability to make war in this realm. They will have to reorganize andredeploy before they can attack again. We do not know how long thatwill take, but I do know that once they find out we are still alivewe will be their first target.”

“So you hid out on this other planetsomewhere for a few days. How did you get back?”

“We used one of their gates.”

“What are these gates?”

“Well, they appear to work similarly to ajump drive, except that you do not need a ship or large mass, justa big ring of stone planted in a wall. When the gate is activatedit looks like a swirling blue light, and when you enter it, it islike being in jump space, but with absolutely no physical matter. Ireally do not have much more information on them.”

“Vydor, you have changed a lot.”

“What do you mean, sir?”