We moved out and traveled in silence for a while. There was something that had been on my mind, and this seemed like a good time to ask about it. “Major Jerran, when the first of the Magi spoke to us, he called his group the Magi; later, when I met you, you also referred to them as the Magi; yet as far as I know Larath coined that name a couple of weeks ago and it was known only by a few select members of the Dragon Claw’s crew. So how did that name get known here?”
“Sir, forgive me, but the better question is: How did Larath know that name?” was his answer.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“Well, sir, we call them the Magi, because when our telepaths probed them we learned that is what they call themselves. This was long before even Lieutenant Tom arrived,” he answered.
“I see your point,” I said and nothing further was spoken about that. This was not the first time a thread of information had led back to Larath. What part did he play in all this? I was still missing some key piece of information. I knew there was some piece of data that, once known, would shed a light on the rest of what we knew and would make sense of it. I had no idea where to find it, however. Then I remembered the book I carried with me. It was written in a language that looked similar to that on the wands. Maybe that was a clue.
“Major, the writing on the wands and staves, do you ever see it elsewhere?” I asked.
“Yes, sir, but only on their clothing and some of their jewelry,” he answered.
“Then this is not their primary written language, I assume?” I prompted.
“No, sir. They have another language for that. It looks somewhat similar but we cannot read it,” he answered. He paused a moment then continued, “One of our late members could read it. He learned it by telepathically stealing the information from one of the Magi, but he was killed before he could pass it on.”
“If he could do it then can Darnath, Luke, or Gafar also do it?” I asked.
“Yes, sir, but not without giving away our position to the Magi,” he answered.
“Well, it is good to know it is an option, if a dangerous one,” I said. I was about to ask about the book when we caught up with Darnath.
“Sir, this is the last safe place to rest. Just around the corner is an automated security checkpoint. Once we pass that we will be about ninety minutes from the gate, but under constant threat from patrols and surveillance,” reported Darnath.
“Okay, then set up camp here and let’s have one more meal. We do not know when our next chance will be,” I ordered. As everyone got busy I turned to Darnath and asked, “Can we get by this checkpoint undetected?”
“Yes, sir. We will be able to walk right though it. Your thought shield will make you completely invisible to it, and we have our own methods that work as well,” he answered.
“How does my thought shield render me invisible to electronic sensors?” I asked.
“Well, sir, we do not know for sure because there is no way to measure or record what happens, but when psionics decide to use their powers to hide, they disappear from all sensors as well. The prevailing theory is that the body’s natural electromagnetic field is somehow being affected, thus rendering the sensors useless,” he answered.
“Interesting. So then let me ask you this, if I had on my shoulder a standard navy issue medical alert patch and put up my thought shield, what would happen?” I asked.
“Well, sir, the patch would lose its ability to read you, so all your vital signs would register zero and the patch would assume you were dead,” he answered. “Sir, I take it you ask because that happened?”
“Yes, and that is exactly what happened. Well, at least that mystery is solved,” I said. “Okay, everyone bring me what you were able to get from the storeroom and I will see if I can figure out how to make a nice bomb.”
“Sir, if you do not mind, I think I should take care of that since I am a demolitions expert,” Major Jerran said with a hint of fear in his voice. Perhaps he was worried how I would react to that statement.
“Absolutely. I have some training, but defer to your superior skill,” I said and passed him all that I had. “Please make a timer that will give us fifteen seconds once activated,” I ordered. Then a thought occurred to me. “I should have realized you would have demolitions training. With your telekinetic skill you can place the explosives easily with a level of safety far beyond that of the average person.”
“Yes, sir, all telekinetics are required to get certified as demolitions experts for that very reason,” he replied and then got to work on sorting out the jumble of parts we had given him.
“Sir, I need to tell you something more about the path ahead,” said Darnath.
“Speak freely, Darnath,” I prompted.
“Well, sir, the corridor is likely to have audio sensors to record any sound. So we will have to be as quiet as possible, as our powers will have no impact on such recordings,” he said. He looked like he wanted to say more but kept quiet.
“Go on, Darnath, do not be afraid to talk to me. We are in this together and it is important that we keep communications open,” I said.
“Sir, well … if you don’t mind, I will let Kellyn explain since it is her idea,” he said.
“Very well, Kellyn, I am all ears,” I prompted, wondering what was up.
“Well, sir, please forgive us but when we first met up with you we weren’t sure what to think of you. Of course we would follow the chain of command, there was no question about that; but you were an outsider to us, and we did not know if we could truly trust you. We have been imprisoned in this colony for a very long time, some of us all our lives, and that does not exactly breed trust for official representatives of the Empire.” She paused here. They were clearly worried about how I was going to react to all this. I just waited quietly, doing my best to give no indication of how I felt about this admission. Then she continued, “Sir, back in the tunnel when I healed your shoulder I probed much deeper into you than I should have, but we had to know what kind of person you really were at the core. You have all the indications of a psychic, but you were not imprisoned with us. We had begun to wonder if maybe you were a plant by the Magi, or something worse.”
She paused again, as if afraid to continue. I remembered the memory that Darnath gave me of her. She always appeared timid, yet when it came down to fight or flight she stood with the best of them. Eventually she continued, “Sir, I know it was wrong to probe you like that but the connection we made while I healed you was the first time any of us could see behind your thought shield and I was sure it was our only chance to find out for sure who you really were.” She stopped there and locked gazes with me, and seemed to gain confidence. “Sir, I learned that you are exactly what you represented yourself as, and more. We know now that we could have trusted you completely from the start.” She stopped there and waited. They were all waiting for my reaction.
“Kellyn, well done,” I said. “If we were back on the Dragon Claw I would request that you be promoted to my team. You saw a small window of opportunity and used it. Most people would have hesitated, and with that scan so close behind when you healed me, the chance would have been lost for good,” I responded. I did not like all this probing, but if I had been in her position I would have done exactly the same thing and I needed to keep that in mind. She saw a golden opportunity and took it. It was exactly the kind of thing I tried so hard to teach my men back on the ship. The fact that I had been the target did not change that, and I could not let that interfere with my judgment.
“There is more, sir,” started Gafar.
“Go on,” I said. Now what?
“Well, sir, we have known for some time now that we can safely bring you into our telepathic communications link. You see, when Darnath gave you that memory it was really a final test to be sure we could.” He paused, and then continued, “We did not mention this before because we felt we needed a way to talk that you could not hear in case you were not what you appeared to be. But now we know you are trustworthy and you definitely have the gift of psionic abilities, though untrained; so we can bring you into that communications network.”
I thought about this for a while. These Black Adders kept proving to be a lot more resourceful than I gave them credit for. I looked at each of them, lingering briefly on Kellyn. I could not get that look of horror out of my mind. If we ever got time alone, I would have to ask her about it. “Seeing that we will have to be silent for the rest of the journey, this is good timing. What do I need to do?”
“Well, sir, all you have to do is let me reach you through your shield in the same way as you did with Darnath. You see, only telepaths can communicate telepathically. So what I do is act as a communications hub linking up all the minds in our little squad. It will make more sense once we connect, so just let me through your shield and I will take care of the rest,” Gafar said.
Well, this would be interesting. I envisioned a small room inside my thought shield, and in that room I pictured a table and chairs for us all to sit at. Then I created a door through the shield to that room and set it to allow Gafar and the others in. As soon as I did this Gafar appeared in one of the seats, and one by one the others appeared in silence. I created a thought picture of me in that room and asked, “Are you sure that the Magi will not be able to hear us in here?” It was a silly question, but I needed to say something to break the ice.
The image that was Gafar said, “Yes, sir. No one can be part of this that I do not allow.”
With some effort I was able to turn off the image so that I could focus on the world around me without breaking the communication channel. “Okay, well, it might take me a while to get used to talking without saying anything, but I will try,” I said.
“You will be fine, sir, you’re a natural!” said Kellyn. “Now, I want you to eat another chocolate bar. You need to keep your strength up, at least until we can find a safer place to rest,” she said as she handed me a candy bar.
“Sir, the bomb is ready. This red button is the trigger. When we are ready to use it we just connect the button here, and press it. Once set you will have around fifteen seconds,” said Major Jerran.
“Around fifteen seconds?” I asked.
“Sorry, sir, but we did not have a timer, so I just used enough fuse line to roughly provide the delay you wanted,” he responded.
Anyone watching us would have been baffled by what they saw. We used no audible language but interacted just like people who were talking. “Well, that will have to do, then. If we are ready we should move out.” I had lost all track of time down there and did not know how much time we had left before the Dragon Claw began its attack.
As Darnath moved ahead to take the forward guard position, I felt our net stretch and soon I could see what Darnath saw ahead of us, and as Luke fell behind to take the rearguard position I could see what he saw at the same time. I was silent for a while as I made sense of seeing through three pairs of eyes at once. They talked amongst themselves about various options in the route we could take, and other mission-related topics. The free exchange of ideas between them was a masterful demonstration of how team planning should work, but never seems to. This medium of communication seemed to allow a more pure exchange of ideas. They could talk with any combination of the five senses at once, so instead of just describing an idea, they could show everyone what they were picturing.
Ahead through Darnath’s eyes I saw the entrance to the room that contained the gate. There were two guards, firmly entrenched behind a partial shield wall with wands at the ready, scanning the corridor in both directions. Darnath waited for us to catch up.
“I do not like this. They are too well entrenched there. I doubt we could get past them before reinforcements arrived,” I said. I checked my gear to see if I had any hand-grenades left. I was sure I did not but hoped I was wrong. As I had thought I did not have any, but in looking for them I unintentionally sent the image of my idea to all the Black Adders.
“Sir, that is a great idea. I can take a small part of the explosives from the bomb and make one,” said Major Jerran.
“Without a timer, how will you detonate it?” I asked.
“Well, sir, the stuff we were able to get from the storeroom is notoriously unstable; it should be easy to detonate it with a light blast from a wand.” As he said that I had an image in my mind of the explosive drifting down the corridor near the ceiling out of sight, and then myself jumping out and shooting it.
“That sounds … looks … should work,” I said, stumbling for the right word to use. “Since the wands are targeted by sight, can I use the view I have from Darnath’s eyes to target, or does it have to be mine?”
“Sir, either will work, but you still need a clear line-of-sight path for the bolt to travel,” answered Luke.
“Okay, here is the plan. Kellyn, you and Andreya will go through the gate first. Andreya, once through the gate use your power to hide the fact that we are all coming through. Kellyn will guard you with her wands and should you be attacked she is your best chance of survival until the rest of us arrive.
“Jerran, as soon as you are ready, send in the bomb,” I ordered. Soon after, I saw the package traveling in the shadows towards the unsuspecting Magi. As soon as it was in place, I rolled out into the corridor on my belly and fired my wand. When the bolt hit the package there was a bright flash of light, followed by a loud rumble. I covered my head but could still see, thanks to my connection to Darnath.
The bomb destroyed a section of the corridor and the two Magi were dead, but the passage was partly blocked by rubble. I ran forward intending to climb over the pile of rubble when I felt myself lifted up and over it. As soon as I was back on my feet I looked back to see the others flying over, too. It took me a moment to realize that Major Jerran had lifted us all over.
As soon as everyone was over Andreya and Kellyn approached the gate, and Major Jerran began stringing out the explosives. I felt Andreya focus on the gate and concentrate on a single thought, “A place of safety.” Then in the center of the gate a blue, swirling light started to grow until it filled the gate. She and Kellyn charged through, followed by the three telepaths. As Gafar passed through the gate I lost touch with all of them.
“The bomb is live!” called out Jerran, the last one to pass through the gate.
I started to count down from fifteen in my head. I had to wait to make sure the bomb was not interfered with before I left. Just as I started to count, the pile of rubble blocking the corridor dissolved and one of the Seven stood there, lowering his staff at me. “You are too late, old man!” I taunted, knowing that time was up and dove through the gate. When Andreya activated it, she did it the same way we used the wands, so I did the same, focusing on Kellyn as my target and hoping for the best.