The rest of our time there passed with little of note occurring. We ended up splitting our time between studying and trading memories of what we learned. This constant exchange of memories helped draw us much closer as a team than ever before. Soon, though, the purple sands of time began to run out, and Mantis returned to speak with us.
“Well, I hope you enjoyed your little rest. As we speak the first of the rocks is closing in on the colony. Your crewmates did well. In this first wave at least six large rocks will hit in rapid succession, with three more waves on the way. When all is done, well over fifty large rocks will hit that world. The sorcerers are just now realizing their error and, since their gate is not yet repaired, most will not make it off the planet. The elite and higher level of their number can travel without the gate, but the rest will perish. This will be their biggest single loss in a century. That would be an impressive feat for an army of wizards; it is completely unthinkable for an army of mundanes!” Mantis said with obvious astonishment.
“I take it then my message got through to the fleet,” I said.
“Yes, it did,” said Mantis. “You are probably wondering how we kept tabs on you while you were on the colony since you spent most of the time hiding. Well, the truth is we have spies on the Dragon Claw and in the sorcerers’ forces that kept us advised of everything, and between the two we were able to piece together what was going on down there. We also discovered that the Dark Talon never returned to the fleet.” He stopped there and hesitated, but then continued, “Since we had intercepted your communications to the Dark Talon, we were able to recreate your commands and contacted the ship. Yesterday it was still in orbit around the planet, so we sent it away from the area to a safer location. Our plan is to put you on to the Dark Talon when we return you to your realm.”
“Will you reveal who your spies are?” I asked. “Since we will not be part of the Imperial Navy any more, we would find such a source of information helpful.”
“Well, we could but it wouldn’t do you any good. You see, the spies do not know who they are. We have simply found some people in key positions who are very susceptible to our mind-reading. I assure you they have no idea they are helping us,” was his answer.
I was relieved to hear that. I would hate to think I had promoted or rewarded someone who was a traitor. “Well, yes, we would still like to know so that we, too, can monitor them if need be.” I really had no intention of doing that, but it would be good to know who was being used and who was not in case our friendship with this other council ever got rocky.
“That’s brilliant, Vydor!” I heard Kellyn say via our connection. We had grown much closer over the past few days and maintained a more or less permanent telepathic link which was separate and deeper than that with the rest of the group.
“Certainly. I will include a list with the books when I finish collecting the copies I’ve had made for you. Now you need to get yourselves ready. In one hour I will be sending you back to your realm,” Mantis said.
“Mantis, once we are there, how will we reach you for future communication?” I asked.
“In one of the books I am giving you there is information on how to create and use a communication sphere. You will be able to use that to communicate with anyone else who has a sphere, no matter where they are, including me.” He turned and left the room promptly again. He seemed to have no use for goodbyes.
“Well, I guess it’s time to pack up,” I said and looked at the small amount of gear I had left. That was when I found the book again. I had forgotten about it because of everything that had happened and, now that I could read it, there was no time to do so. I pulled it out anyway and looked at the cover. The title on it was simple and bold; it merely said, “The Book.”
“Vydor, you must tell me the story behind this book of yours soon. It looks very intriguing,” commented Kellyn. She could sense the feeling of wonderment I had about the book and knew it was special.
I packed the book away and replied, “It was my last gift from my father before he died.”
“Ah, then we must keep it safe always.”
Once we had all our gear packed, we sat down for one last meal at the table, which had still not run out of food or drink.
“I guess one of us should have learned how this table works,” mused Luke. This brought a chuckle from all of us.
We ate mostly in silence until Mantis returned. When he entered the room, he simply said, “It is time,” and walked out. We followed him and he led us back to the gate room. A feeling of fear passed over me as I recalled the last time I had gone through that gate, and I felt Kellyn come up beside me in support.
Mantis approached the gate and waved his arms over it while chanting in an arcane tongue. Soon a small, blue spiral appeared in the center and grew to fill the gate. “It is ready,” was all he said as he pushed a big chest through it.
“Goodbye, Mantis, and thank you,” I said and walked up to the gate. As the leader, I felt I should be the first to brave the gate, but Kellyn would not let me go alone. So we both went through. In the gateway I saw him again, the dark specter, patiently watching and waiting as if all of time was on his side. I also saw the being of light, this time much closer than he had ever been before, but still with his arms wide as if to say, “Come to me.”
I could still feel Kellyn beside me as we traveled through the gate, and I knew she could see all that I could see because I could see all that she saw. In her vision there was no dark specter, and the being of light was much closer. “What are they?” I wondered.
Before she could attempt an answer we were standing on the Dark Talon, and soon after the rest of the Council came through. I went to the bridge and activated the viewing screen to see what was happening. We were a safe distance from the planet, but well within range of the ship’s cameras. From the looks of things the first wave of rocks had already landed, and the second wave was about to hit. We all stood there and looked in awe at the death of the planet. The surface was completely molten by the end of the attack. Nothing could have survived it.
“I guess it’s a bit late to ask if I can go back and get my comic books?” asked Luke.
The total irrelevance of that question nearly killed us all with laughter. Eventually we recovered, and I took my seat of command. The ship could fly mostly automated as long as we did not have to fight anyone. I set a course back to the Dragon Claw.
“I plan to return to the fleet. The trip back to the capital will be much faster if we ride with them, but this ship can take us if it needs to,” I said.
“Vydor, I suggest you try to contact them first. As I recall, the standard procedure is to destroy any ships in the system after a bombardment,” commented Jerran.
“Good point,” I said. I activated the ship’s communication equipment and opened a secure channel to the fleet.
“Dragon Claw, this is Dark Talon reporting in, authorization code Kelly-Red-Igloo-Sam-Theta-Igloo, do you read me?” was the message I sent. I set it on repeat and waited for a reply.
“Dark Talon, this is the captain. What is your status?” came the reply. I checked all the reply codes and the message looked legit.
“Captain, the Dark Talon appears to be intact, but only seven of us made it off the planet, myself and six of the Black Adders. Sir, I would like the record to show that the Dark Knights fought to the death in order to give me a chance to get our information out to you. I would also like the record to show that I used my battlefield authority to grant the Black Adders each a Medal of Honor for their valor in combat against the enemies of the Empire, who we now know call themselves sorcerers.” I needed to get that on the record before I resigned so that it would stick.
“Record duly noted and accepted. How long before you can reach the fleet?” the captain asked.
“Sir, without a navigator to calculate a jump it will take several days, if not a week. Can you send the jump algorithms for the autopilot?” I asked.
“Affirmative, Vydor. I will get someone to send it to you on this channel soon. Once you return we will need a complete debriefing before I can assign you back to your post.”
“Sir, we will be glad to comply with that, but hold off on any reassignments for now. Captain, this sounds odd, I understand, but we have information that must reach High Command in person. I received special orders directly from the Emperor’s office before I left for the mission, and I must ask you to take us back to the capital right away. If you cannot, then I will need you to send the jump algorithms to the Dark Talon to take us back.”
“Well, normally that would cause a problem, but we already have orders to return to the capital, so there will be no difficulty there. Since you are still operating under orders from them, I will not be able to return you to your position as yet. I look forward to your return, Vydor. I am sure you have much to tell. Dragon Claw out.”
With that the transmission ended. Not long later the jump data came in, and I entered it into the navigation system. I looked over my team and could tell that everyone was nervous. “Remember, should this plan fail, we will have no option but to steal the Dark Talon and escape. Darnath, make sure that no one can enter or interfere with her at all while we are away. If you have any questions, this is probably your last chance to ask them,” I said.
No one said anything. I knew they were worried about our situation. It should not have been like this; after all, we were going home, but I felt it too. It was not really home any more. “Okay, the jump is laid in. Buckle yourselves in,” I ordered.
“Kellyn, I will need you to watch over me during the jump. I will be meditating in order to avoid the post-jump hangover just in case the jump algorithms are off,” I said to Kellyn privately. Jump calculations were notoriously tricky, and we would come out of the jump extremely close to the gravity wake of the fleet. Even a minor error could be deadly, so I wanted to be ready to take control of the ship the instant we came out of the jump.
Kellyn slid into the chair next to mine and grabbed my arm so that we would be one physical unit in jump space. Once everyone appeared to be ready I called out, “Jumping in three … two … one.” As I said the last number, I dropped into a meditative state. The next thing I heard was the ship’s alarms going off as we came out of the jump. We were on a collision course with the Dragon Claw! I quickly steered us to safety and brought the ship out of stealth mode.
“Vydor, the specter merely watched patiently, as if to say, ‘I have plenty of time. I’ll catch you unguarded one day …’ and did not attack,” said Kellyn privately to me.
“Thank you, Kellyn,” was my response.
“Dark Talon, this is Bay Control on the Dragon Claw. Come about to 284.78 degrees and engage the autopilot. We will bring you into bay Five-E,” came a message over the communicator.
I did as they said then replied, “Acknowledged. You should have control now.”
“Affirmative, enjoy the ride.”
“Five-E, that’s not good,” I commented.
“What is wrong with Five-E?” asked Gafar.
“Well, that is where they send you if they think you are carrying a contagious disease, so that means we will have to go through quarantine and disinfection,” was my reply.
“Well, that could work in our favor. The best option for us right now is to keep silent until we get to High Command, and if we are stuck in quarantine for a while, that would be much easier to pull off,” noted Darnath.
I smiled. He was right; this could not play out any better. Only the captain and Dr. Rannor would come to see us there. “Plus it gives us an excuse to lock the ship,” I said. “If I recall right, since we were on a non-Imperial world for a while we will have to be kept in quarantine for forty-eight hours, but it is at least a week to the capital from here. I will have 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 operating under command from the Emperor’s office and I have ordered you not to talk to anyone about the mission, the colony, the Magi, or anything related until we are properly debriefed by the High Command. Also do not forget that Larath is on this ship, so do not let your guard down, as we do not yet know the extent of his power or what role he is playing in this.”
Security forces poured into the bay once the ship was safely secured. They were all wearing biohazard gear, but only carrying ceremonial weapons. They lined up along the path we would have to walk to get to the decontamination area and snapped to attention. “A hero’s welcome home,” I said. That was a very good sign.
“Dark Talon, this is Bay Control. You are cleared to disembark from your vessel and proceed to Decon room seven,” came a voice over the speakers.
“Bay Control, this is Dark Talon. We will be establishing a quarantine field around the Dark Talon until further notice. Keep all personnel and gear at least ten meters away,” I replied.
“Acknowledged,” came the reply.
“Okay, it is time. Follow me out,” I said as I opened the airlocks. The Dark Talon automatically lowered a ramp for us to walk down. Kellyn came down at my side, and the others followed, with Darnath bringing up the rear. As soon as everyone 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 by my old security forces they snapped a stiff salute, and the Imperial Anthem played over the bay’s speakers. As we reached the end of the line I saw my replacement standing there with a look of pride on his face, as if to say, “I knew you could do it!” I gave him a smile and a slight nod as I passed. I knew that I was leaving the fleet in good hands with him.
Next we passed down a corridor and all pretense of honor was gone as we had to walk through various clouds of chemicals, sprays and irradiation chambers all designed to kill everything but us. Once we finished that walk we entered a small, square room with just enough space for seven beds, a few tables and a bathroom. At each table was a computer workstation, in case we felt the motivation to get right to work.
“Well, pick your bed and relax as best you can until we hear from someone. Speak freely, but only via our telepathic connections. Say as little as possible verbally,” I ordered.