Chapter Six
From Karathlathornka’s report I made abreakthrough in the problem of the Magi. It was not much, but itmight be the key we needed to start making headway. Often in thesecases a few small steps are made, then all of a sudden everythingfalls into place. I was still trying to make that happen but atleast I had enough to make a start.
In the Academy we were trained to look ateverything like a child’s picture puzzle. Every piece of data was anew clue to be assembled in order to reveal the complete picture. Inever worked this way; it was too simplistic for real intelligencework. Instead I saw everything as threads in a great tapestry inthat the data we collected were not discrete pieces, but ratherstrands of thread, and those threads were often knotted up.Untangling them and figuring out how to weave them into the biggertapestry would reveal the hidden truth. While working at thethreads, smaller patterns could be found that would eventually makeup the details in the bigger picture, and it appeared that I hadfound one of these smaller patterns.
I brought my report to the captain, but heinsisted on waiting until the senior staff was assembled. I did notknow if I was ready for this. If I was wrong this would reinforcetheir low opinion of me, but if I was right it could be theopportunity I needed to prove myself. It would be nice to leavethem with a good impression before I departed on my suicidemission.
When I entered the conference room and lookedaround, the atmosphere seemed more relaxed than it had beenrecently. I wondered if that was because they did not expectanything I had to say to be very shocking.
Zalith had his feet up on the table, Dr.Rannor was sitting on the table looking like he should be sipping adrink, and everyone generally seemed in a carefree mood. It feltmore like a social gathering at a friend’s house, at least as faras the others were concerned. I felt like I was about to face theworst exam of my life and had forgotten to study. I assembled mynotes and did my best to look as relaxed as they were, but withoutmuch success.
The door opened and everyone jumped toattention as the captain entered. His broad shoulders seemed tofill the great doorway as he passed through it, adding to the auraof power that he projected.
Soon everyone was seated and the captainsaid, “I asked Vydor to call this meeting because he has some newsfor us on the Magi situation. He has shared a little with mealready and I think we would all benefit from hearing hispresentation.” He paused and looked at everyone as to say, “Givethe kid a break,” then said, “Vydor, go ahead.”
“Thank you, Captain.” I paused, took a breathand told myself that these were my peers, not a review board. Ionly wished I could believe myself …
“I want to start with a review of what weknow, going back to the original transmission from Lieutenant Tom.This is because I think I have found a thread running through allthe events which gives us a clue to the puzzle of the Magi.
“When Zalith presented his report on Tom’smessage, he stated that he thought the message was tampered withbecause of the way Tom was acting. At the time I agreed with him.Tom, as we all knew, was a battle- hardened veteran and was actinglike a green soldier who had never faced battle. After thatmeeting, I studied the message to see if I could verify thattheory.
“It is fairly well-known that alltransmitters in the Empire have a code which they transmit toidentify themselves. What is not so well-known is that all militarytransmitters, like Tom’s, have a second coded message they transmitto prevent any possibility of interference. Based on my analysis ofthat data, there is no way that message was tampered with. It isexactly as it was when it left the transmitter. If there was anyfalsehood involved, Lieutenant Tom would have had to be involved.There is no reason to believe he would knowingly have taken part,so we can only take the message at face value.
“The next thing to look at is the target theMagi picked for their move: a colony deep within the Empire’ssecure borders researching biological warfare. At first it soundslike a great target, because it would be unexpected and yield somenice weapons, but not this colony. The last few reports on thecolony indicate that it is a complete failure. It has neverproduced a single new discovery in the seventy-five years it hasbeen in operation. What does not make sense is the colony’sclassification. It is rated in the highest level of biologicalwarfare research, which is why Dr. Rannor strongly warned usagainst landing. From what these reports say, that project shouldhave been abandoned and not classified so highly.”
I paused here. I wanted that to sink in abit. I had a lot more to say and I needed to gather my thoughts. Iwas sure they would soon start wondering about my informationsources. I did not officially have the security clearance to knowabout the reports I had just cited, never mind study them. Heck, Iwas not sure anyone in this room other than Dr. Rannor did.
“The next thing to consider is the firstprobe we sent. The Magi could easily have simply shot it down;instead they tampered with it, changed what it would report and letit report for a while, and then shot it down. The only reason forthis is that they wanted to change our perception of them in someway. If they had merely destroyed the probe, we would not havethought much about it. By manipulating what the probe reported theycaused us to spend time and resources trying to deduce what theywere up to, and making wild guesses about what they could do.”
As I looked around the room, I noticedsomething I had never seen before. They were listening very closelyto me. Not as if I was a green youngster, but as a peer. Icertainly had their attention. Dr. Rannor was a good example ofthis. He always took notes when he thought something was important,and he was taking notes on my presentation. Zalith never tooknotes, but his piercing gaze was firmly planted on me, paying veryclose attention to everything I said.
“After this we sent a second probe. Thisprobe was specifically designed to prevent tampering, and washeavily armored so that it would not be easy to shoot down. It wasalso transmitting data non-stop throughout its flight. This meantthat the Magi could not merely manipulate the probe to convey whatthey chose, and it was impervious to the known planetary defensesof the colony. What did they do in response? They used a weaponthat they know we cannot duplicate, and fired on the probe threetimes. As we agreed here, it would have been impossible for them toknow that the first hit failed to destroy it before they fired thesecond shot, indicating that they had always intended to take threeshots. When we discussed this, the captain pointed out that it wasprobably a tactic designed to induce fear. It was then that Zalithpointed out their lack of sensor technology.”
Now it was time for me to present myconclusions. This would make or break me. I had their attention andif I messed up now it would be much harder to prove my worth in thefuture. If I had a future, since in a fairly short time I would beleading a virtual suicide mission.
“By now some of you may have an idea what Iam leading up to, but let me present two more pieces of data thathave not yet been considered in these chambers. The first is thecrew’s morale. Most of our crew are battle- hardened veterans, yetthere is a noticeable level of fear everywhere on the ship. Thatdoes not make much sense. All the Magi have done so far is to blowup a couple of probes and repel our first attempt at invasion. Evena mighty force like the Imperial Navy loses skirmishes, especiallyearly on in a brand-new war, or potential war. Some level ofanticipation might be expected, but fear? I may not have seen asmuch space time as the rest of you, but I think I can fairly statethat this level of anxiety is not normal.
“Add to that the strange orders from HighCommand, the lack of information, and the death of the captain’sinformant; and it start to appear that High Command is alsosuffering from an unusually high level of alarm. The fear here onthe ship could be categorized as fear of the unknown, but theindications are that High Command knows more than they are saying,so their fear is that of a known force.”
I paused to gather myself. The silence in theroom was deafening, almost entreating me to continue. “There is onemore piece of information which I think ties this all together.What I am about to disclose comes from a reliable but unofficialsource. I travel a lot in intelligence circles, and so I meetpeople, and perform favors which are paid back with information. Ibelieve this to be accurate. I trust this source.
“The Magi are not a new hostile force. Theyare an experimental research group into the art and science ofpsionic warfare. I know, you have probably all heard the variousconspiracy theories and think them groundless, but add up what weknow so far and it becomes apparent that the colony has launched adevastatingly subtle weapon against us, that ofpsychologically-induced fear. They are researching biologicalweapons, but not the kind we assumed; the so-called bugs in thiscase are people, a group that goes by the code name Black Adders.They were sent there secretly to focus solely on psionic warfareand attempt to prove or disprove the viability of such a
