Stone and the Ravens (Guardian Stone Book 3)

by Don Koch

  "One of the tools we use extensively is telepathy. As part of the teleport mechanism that we use, we automatic-ally map the nodes that are part of any telepathic talent and we do this for anyone transported, telepathic or not. In a sense this map of nodes tells us that you are or are not telepathic. Some of the encounters in which we have been involved were essentially resolved because of this talent. We are quite proficient at training telepaths when we find them. Each of you is a latent telepath and that is very good news. In a few minutes we are going to give you a demonstration of some of the capabilities this brings to the table. If you are willing to be trained in this, we are willing to provide the training. We do have a plan that should do the trick because only you folks know we are here. We would like to make a surprise entrance. But first lets give you that demonstration."

  "Barana, would you please give the T-Raptor teams the go ahead."

  "You may have noticed our shoulder patches. This represents a particularly nasty beast from our past that has long been extinct called a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Persons with telepathy have been trained in special units to enter into rapport. Once in that state, the team is able to project to other locations and be invisible or take on any other appearance they wish. When they do the latter, the team is essentially impervious to harm. As you might imagine, this is a particularly handy talent for intelligence gathering and for intimidation. Imagine if you will, what your reaction might be if you came face to face with Harvey. Ben, if you will please."

  At that signal, Ben Pine appeared with Harvey, a 20' tall T-Rex on a leash. The team animating Harvey did their usual Oscar winning performance. After Harvey, several other forms were demonstrated including ghost-like, oversized and invisible. The entire team was then shown in their actual form. "As you can see, the team is multispecies and having way too much fun. We use teams of 'Harvey' or 'Snarfs' as the Yannarians call them for intimidation. The invisible mode is particularly useful in gathering intelligence. In each of these modes we are able to manipulate objects at the projection destination. We believe that you all can be trained to utilize rapport in a few days. We would then expect to pair you up with existing teams and go looking for these creeps. Here is what we have in mind."

  Chapter 14: BBL, Again

  On Station 1 in Malone Orbit –

  March 27 – C Day 575

  The training of the Rangers was proving to be far easier than Hank had anticipated. He was particularly impressed with the progress of Charles and Lorena. The Ravens present were also no slouches. Hank addressed the group, "Your progress this past week has been phenomenal. This is probably due to the training you have already had for use of your enhancements. I think that has facilitated the ease with which you took to our program. Really, nice work all of you. I did not expect that you would develop this quickly. The Sitlerans on Malone have been very quiet. They probably think that they have accomplished their goal to kill Lorena. I have a suggestion now that you are ready for it, but it will need Lorena's approval. I think it is time to resurrect her. Hit the press with a faked up story of how she survived. Lorena, this would be a good time to note that unauthorized changes had been made to your book. We can build up some hype on this that should bring those Sitler operatives out of hiding. We can even provide what appears to be an opportunity for them to try again but this time you will be in T-Raptor mode and they wont be able to touch you. We can do this with a press conference and that should rattle some cages. I would recommend that you continue to live on Station One until this is behind us and you can make decisions what you want to do then. What do you think, want to play bait?"

  Charles reacted first, "I am really nervous about having Lorena play bait for this effort. We really do not know what the Sitlerans are capable of doing. We are kind of working in the dark here. I don't want anything to happen to her."

  Lorena went over to Charlie and gave him a hug, "why Charlie, you do care."

  "Of course I do, but it is a bit tough to romance some-one when this kind of stressful situation prevails."

  "Not to worry Charlie, you are going to be with me and there is no one else I would have with me. My only exposure will be as a projection and you know what we can do with that, right. I want to do this and get it behind me so you and I can have that chat that has been on your mind all week. In fact, I am calling a time-out, let us go have that chat right now." She thought to Barana,

  Barana transported the pair to Lorena's quarters.

  Hank leaned over to Sam and said, "I was wondering when that was going to happen. It's about time. Well this business can wait a day or two."

  On arrival at her quarters, Lorena grabbed Charlie and kissed him thoroughly. When they came up for air, he said, "Wow, so that is how it is going to be. How long have you known?"

  "Since I first saw you in the 'backroom' conference room."

  "Me too. We had better get Father Tom up here and do this right."

  She replied, "You sweet talked me right into it, but you better do that right now because I do not want to wait any longer."

  Barana said, When they reopened their eyes, they were back at the lodge, he was dressed in a dress uniform for a Ranger Colonel and she in a wedding gown and everyone around them was grinning from ear to ear.

  "We were that obvious?"

  Hank said, "BBL" and everyone started laughing.

  Prince Kar seeing the puzzled looks from Charlie and Lorena explained it meant Big Bold Letters and described how the phrase came about.

  At the end of the ceremony. Hank said that they would continue the discussion in two days and that they would have the reception in about a week. He then said to Barana, "You know what to do!" and Charlie and Lorena found that they were alone in their quarters once again.

  # On Station 1 in Malone Orbit –

  March 28 – C Day 576 #

  Hank was in conference with his senior staff when Barana interrupted,

  "Good timing, we are all together. Hello Carlos and Sequoia, how are you?"

  "We are fine but we have another development that needs to be factored in and quickly. Early this morning we were discussing the situation we have here in the region and realized we were missing some pieces. This was triggered by the fact that the Sitler fleet has just been sitting there, patiently waiting for something and their operatives have been quiet. I wondered why that might be and the first thought that came to mind is that they might be preoccupied. I asked Sequoia to run a full scan out past Sitler to see if something was going on out there. A few minutes ago, we found that there are three systems at 25, 30 and 34 light years past Sitler. We also found a large Sitler fleet at each of these systems. There is a total of three fleets, one at each system with 30,000 warships at each location. It appears that they have invaded those three systems and I suspect that is why the fleet between Sitler and Malone is waiting."

  "Dang, Carlos, what is your position right now?"

  "As soon as I saw this, I alerted my entire Division and we are all en route to that area now. ETA is about 10 minutes. I figured you would let us know what you wanted us to do but that it might be a good idea to be in the right neighborhood. I have been launching warships as we go so we should have a formidable force ready for action if you wish us to engage."

  "Yes I do. Take out their drives and weapons. Get your stasis ships in their core positions. Aim to disable if you can but if their weapons are better than we think or are endangering our ships or a friendly, then aim to destroy. You know the drill. Make sure you do not shoot at the friendlies if there are any surviving. See if you can cap their communications. Be careful out there Carlos. Barana,
please ask the other Divisions to launch at least a Wing and have them join Carlos as a reserve. "

  # 3 hours later #

  "Hank, we have been at this for three hours now and we are doing ok out here. We have experienced no losses. We appreciate the relief reserves you sent because this is tiring work. We have contained the fleets. A few tried to escape but we closed that off early. Sequoia suggested a tactic that has been working nicely. We have been overloading their shields one by one and as soon as they go down, she teleports the crew directly into a stasis unit and then disables the ship. It is a slow process but it is effective. These characters just keep on fighting even though they see ships going dark all around them. We have about a third of the fleet in each system captured. I have been rotating ships in and out so we have a fresh reserve. Sequoia tells me that no communications have gotten out. We think we have the flag ship identified if you would like to try your magic on them."

  "I am sending you four more wings of warships to give you some relief. They should start arriving in about 12 to 13 minutes. I think you are right. It is time to pay them a visit."

  Hank alerted his team of twelve plus several Ravens and briefed them on what was going on. He noted that he wanted everyone visible this time and that they were to look at anything they could, disable the self-destruct and gather as much intel as they could. When they were ready, they entered rapport and projected to the bridge of the flag-ship where they were immediately fired upon with projectile and beam weapons. These were without effect. The command admiral insisted on confronting Hank so Hank gestured and threw the Admiral into his chair and locked him in it. Sass walked up to the Admiral and hissed at him showing teeth and a forked tongue. This had more of an impact on him than being locked in his chair. All speech by the team was in English so they would not be understood. After 5 minutes of gathering intel, the firing of weapons was still underway, so Vassim started melting the weapons and shattering knives. They finally had to immobilize the crew who did not seem to realize that they could not harm the intruders. After another 5 minutes the team discussed their findings again in English. It was clear that they had as much as they were going to get from this form of inspection.

  Hank went over to the Admiral and spoke to him in perfect Sitleran, "Why are you invading these systems. Don't you know that you are not permitted to have offensive weapons in this area of space? What do you think you are doing?"

  "You speak our language, how can that be. What are you?"

  "Sorry Admiral, I am the one asking the questions here. Answer my question."

  "I am following the command of the Leader and if I fail, then I die."

  "So Admiral, how does that work because you have failed and yet you sit before me, very much alive, if a bit frazzled? What have the people you are attacking done to you?"

  "They have done nothing but I must follow the orders that I have been given or all I care for dies as well as me."

  Ben Pine chimed in, in English, "Holy Toledo Boss, this sounds like a scene from the Darus Brondin playbook."

  At the mention of Brondin's name, the Admiral's eyes widened in shock.

  "Hank, did you see his reaction when I mentioned you know who?"

  "Yes I did and isn't that curious. Barana please have all ships transmit the symbiote destruction codes now please."

 

  A few moments later, all enemy ships suddenly stopped firing their weapons and the crew on the flagship suddenly went submissive.

  Sass commented, "Way to go Henry, I did not see that coming."

  Hank replied in Saban, "I have to admit that I did not see it either, I just reacted. We now have a bigger issue. How did it get here? I have a suspicion but it seems far fetched. Nevertheless, I intend to follow it up starting now." He then switched to Sitleran and spoke to the Admiral, "Admiral, suppose you tell me why you reacted to the name Darus Brondin."

  "Because his sister is the Leader, Rema Brondin."

  Hank responded in disgust, "Oh great, another one, I was afraid that might be the case. What is it with that family. OK gang put the entire Sitler fleet on ice, I mean in stasis and lets sort this out. I am really getting tired of bumping into Brondin's all over the galaxy. Carlos, did you get all that?"

  "Yes Hank, I did. I have ordered a cease fire since there is no longer any resistance. We will take them all into custody. This is bizarre. What do you want to do with all these ships."

  "Ground them all on the attacked planet's moon and we will figure that out later. Oh and place a lock on all of it."

  The Sitleran Admiral spoke up, "I am Admiral Fasix Grout. The planet is called Veltor. The other two we have been attacking are Cestin and the furthest is Phang. Am I to understand that you are not killing the lot of us?"

  Hank refocused his attention on Admiral Grout, "That is correct Admiral. Why would we want to do that unnecessarily? All of the crews that we have engaged are alive and have been placed in stasis, even the ones you thought were dead. The symbiotes controlling them have all been deactivated. That is a little Brondin gift to the galaxy at large. Most offensive. The defense ships for the three planets withdrew to orbits about their respective planets at our request and let us do our work. After we have pacified your planet, all your crews will be returned there. Now I have a few questions for you."

  "I will respond as best I can since I and my family are dead anyway and I am happy to see an end to this."

  "Don't count your chickens before they are hatched."

  "What's a chicken?

  Amid the laughter from the Pines and Sam he replied, "Later on that Admiral, first, let me guess. Your family and friends are being held in special compounds on Sitler to assure your compliance with the wishes of your Leader. They are all under threat of death if they try to leave that compound."

  "That is correct but how could you know that?"

  "Next, some of you have had devices planted in your brains that will explode when a signal is given to further assure compliance. Typically the explosion, although small is sufficient to cause a massive cerebral hemorrhage and death."

  "Yes" he responded in amazement.

  "We are blocking signals from the devices that trigger these brain bombs. We had this same issue with Rema's brother Darus on Yannar about 15,000 light years from here a few months ago. We will safely remove all such devices that we can find. This has already been done for all of the captured crews as part of their placement in stasis. It is part of the transfer process to stasis. It will show up on the machines at Sitler as a successful termination. That should puzzle them a bit. Next, you have special political compliance persons on board who further assure compliance and they have the means to activate the brain bombs."

  "That is correct."

  "Are any of those persons now on the bridge?"

  "Yes, those two and there is a third below."

  "Carlos, remove and tag those two, identify the third and do the same. After that I want you to assure that Admiral Grout is clean of symbiotes and get that brain bomb out of his head. Then I want him on a shuttle to Station One. He has been giving it to me straight and I want to see about getting his family and those others freed."

  "Admiral, I will see you in about a half hour." With that the Admiral vanished and Hank and his team returned to Station One.

  Chapter 15: What a Mess

  On Station 1 in Malone Orbit –

  March 28 – C Day 576

  "Those Brondins sure know how to mess up a perfectly fine day. Ok, lets look at what we have again and what are our available resources. Barana, please bring Fador up to date and see if the Generals Raven are available. I would like to have them and as many Ravens as are available here for a briefing in 30 minutes. Also request the presence of our two lovebirds. I want hourly scans to assure that we have all the fleets identified and periodic broadcasting of the symbiote termination signal. I also want Sitler locked down tight. Nothing is to go in or go out. No ships no signals, nothing."

  # 30 m
inutes later #

  Hank opened the meeting with introductions starting with Admiral Grout. "Since all of you are telepaths, you will know the veracity of any statements made by Admiral Grout. We have had a particularly distasteful day today learning that there is yet another Brondin out there causing the kind of trouble that they are quite good at. Let me tell you what we know of that family." He went on to describe the various encounters with the machinations of Artus and Darus Brondin. He described their use of the symbiotes, and the damage done in the various systems impacted by the Brondin family. The scope of the revelations was not lost on the Ravens. Mae Raven noted that she doubted they could have withstood the use of the symbiotes. This was a very subdued group after hearing what had been uncovered. "We have a real mess to clean up here. We do have the means to protect you from the symbiotes and are already applying those means throughout the various systems in this region. We have yet to assess the damage to the three systems under attack. I want Bill Clark's Division 2 out there to make that assessment. I am temporarily detaching Stations 130, 150 and 170 to assist them. Bill will be in command."