Two hours passed with no outside contact from anyone until the captain arrived. One wall of the room was transparent, allowing easy communication with anyone in a sitting room which was connected but secured from any chance of contamination. The captain’s large frame made the visitors’ room look like a child’s playhouse. He walked close enough to see through the wall and waited. I got up from the table where I was sitting and stood before him, not precisely at attention, but enough to convey respect.
“Welcome home, Vydor,” he said. “And welcome aboard to your squad.”
“Thank you, sir,” I replied.
“What happened to your uniforms?”
“Well, when we left the planet three or four days ago, we had to hide out amongst the natives of the world we were on so we are dressed as they dress.”
“What planet, and why were you hiding?”
“Sir, I am not able to tell you much, at least not before my debriefing by High Command, but there are some things you need to know. The first thing is that war has come to the Empire, and the new enemy wields weapons of vast power. Sir, understand that what I am about to tell you for the most part you will probably never have clearance to know, but you will be on the front line of this war so I am going to break some rules.”
“Go on.”
“Captain, what we were calling the Magi when I left here are an alien race, a very hostile alien race. They came here looking for something. What they were looking for we do not yet know, but what we do know is that they chose this colony to attack because the Black Adders were there. They saw them as the only threat to their eventual takeover of the Empire. I hope you got my report from the field about how easily they beat Lieutenant Tom’s forces and faked the distress call?”
“Yes, we did. Some of that footage was very troubling, especially your dogfight with nothing in orbit.”
“Yes, that it was. Think about this scenario for a moment: the sorcerers turn both their fear weapon and their hallucination weapon on the fleet at the same time. They make everyone very afraid and then make them think they are surrounded by enemies…”
“It would be a bloodbath. We have already played that out, and a dozen other possibilities. None of them looks good.”
“Well, we know now you can add superior defenses, firepower and mobility to their advantages.”
“I take it that shield around the Dark Talon is something you acquired from them?”
“No, not exactly, but it is something they can do, too. Let me fill you in on the broad events that happened after those logs ended. The Dark Knights and I were pinned down in a tight corridor, unable to make much of a dent in the forces brought against us. They stood and held the position and our enemy at bay long enough for me to escape the death trap, with the help of the Black Adders who showed up to help, but before any of them could follow me the sorcerers brought out heavy weapons and broke though our shield walls, completely devastating the squad. The Black 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 we had to destroy that before they realized the peril they were in. They use a gate to travel through, and once we learned how to operate it we laced it with explosives and used it to escape. Just as we were leaving they found us and opened fire on our unshielded position, and they thought they had succeeded in killing us before we escaped. That is why we had to hide out; we had to let them think they had won so that they would not rush to build a new gate. You see, your bombardment attack exploited a big weakness in their defenses; they can only scan for living things. That is why only the Imperial sensors that were on the colony detected the probes. By the time those sensors could have seen the rocks it would have been much too late to raise a defense. We do not have exact numbers, but we do know that you scored a crippling blow on their ability to make war in this realm. They will have to reorganize and redeploy before they can attack again. We do not know how long that will take, but I do know that once they find out we are still alive we will be their first target.”
“So you hid out on this other planet somewhere 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 a jump drive, except that you do not need a ship or large mass, just a big ring of stone planted in a wall. When the gate is activated it looks like a swirling blue light, and when you enter it, it is like being in jump space, but with absolutely no physical matter. I really do not have much more information on them.”
“Vydor, you have changed a lot.”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“Well, when you left here you were a kid. You talked big but had nothing to back it up. Now I see why Dr. Rannor recommended you so highly. When the challenge came you rose to meet it and became a warrior worthy of my senior staff.”
“Thank you for your kind words, but I do not think I will be returning to your senior staff. Sir, please understand that I fully expect it to go poorly when we meet High Command, and it is a given that I will never wear the uniform again.”
“Vydor, you are more than any uniform, and only a fool thinks High Command has a clue about real officers in the field. No matter what happens at that debriefing you will have an ally in me.”
“Captain, I greatly appreciate that, and I may have to hold you to that promise. A lot of things will change after I meet with them, and you may be required to publicly denounce me. I just want you to know now that we will be fine, and we do not want you to take a fall for us.”
“When we got that message from you, we all thought that would be the last we heard from you. All of us except Peter, that is. He said at the time, ‘Vydor always plans a way out in advance. He will make it yet.’ Seems that he knew you better than we did.”
“Captain, Lieutenant Commander Peter is the best possible replacement for me; please make his position permanent as soon as you can.”
He laughed and said, “Of course. You know, it is funny how things work out. He was the one I wanted in your position before Dr. Rannor convinced me to take you.”
The door opened behind him and Dr. Rannor walked in. “Captain, I need to talk to them alone if you don’t mind.”
“That does not sound good, Doc,” the captain said as he left.
Dr. Rannor stood there for a moment without speaking, seeming to visually examine each of us. It was a tense silence and I was unsure of what to expect. He was wearing his traditional white lab coat and holding a medical pad that presumably had our charts on it.
Eventually he turned to me and said, “Vydor, how long do you need?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, you have some odd bacteria on you that resisted the decontamination treatment. It could be harmless but there is no way to know without watching it for a while,” he said. There was something about his voice, something that told me he knew that we would be better off spending our trip in here and he was offering to arrange that.
“Well, that sounds only prudent and if we had to stay in here until we were to report to High Command’s chambers, that would be fine with us. We would not want to endanger anyone needlessly,” was my reply.
“I think we can arrange to have you out in time for that. It is good to see you again, and we will have to catch up some day when you are not so penned up.”
I realized then what the good doctor was up to. He was warning me that our conversation was being monitored. “Yes it will, Doc.”
He gave a slight smile and left the room.