Trial by Ordeal

by Philip R Benge

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  Ray Connors had decided to move the Orion Defender away from the moon, and had been busy while the men toiled away on the moon. He had just returned from the vicinity of the large gas giant where he had laid his remaining satellites on opposite sides of the planet to warn him of any starships approaching from either direction. He was now waiting just off the direct flight path between Helionia and Galafrey to stop any starship from approaching the moon from that direction, while his friends were still stuck inside the dark domain. The Defender was lying in wait with its cloaking device in operation. He had turned off all external sensors, so as not to provide evidence of his position to any approaching craft. Luckily, Earth had fitted brand new state of the art sensors, plus a state of the art weapons console into the Orion Defender, as part of the payment for the loan of the starship Freedom. The Orion Defender was now almost the equivalent of one of Earth`s older light space cruisers but obviously nowhere near as manoeuvrable, but with more than enough fire power provided by the Heliot weapon sitting inside of its hold. It was more than capable of going up against a space pirate, which was Tyler`s main objective, not that there were any left within the quadrant of space controlled by Earth.

  The Orion Defender waited so patiently, but now its internal alarms went off to signal that a starship had just exited hyperspace, and was approaching their position. A quick use of his external sensors told Ray that the starship Dagger had returned, probably to cause more mayhem down on the moon`s surface. That the crew of the enemy starship may have been alerted to his presence by his quick scan of their ship was obvious, but he had immediately changed the position of the Defender to protect against any attack by the Dagger.

  “Jean the starship that brought down the side of the crater has just returned. I need you up here to help man the weapons console.” Ray called to his wife who was supervising in the engineering department, the two crew members were now more than capable, but up until this minute Ray didn`t need a hand on the bridge.

  “Be there in a moment Ray.” Moments later as Ray turned around to look across the empty bridge he saw Jean coming through the door to take up her new position over at the weapons console, which Craig Fowler had just left to return to the sensor console.

  “When you are ready Jean, I will warn them off. Craig, will you please turn on our defence shields.”

  Two moments later and Jean was able to reply. “I am ready now Ray, the main Phaser weapon is now ready for action and I`m disengaging the cloaking device.”

  Craig Fowler had already started to charge their single Phaser weapon before Jean had arrived on the bridge, saving them valuable seconds.

  Off the starboard beam of the starship Dagger, the crew were amazed to see the Orionist ship appear upon their sensors, but the crew had not put this down to the Orion Defender having a cloaking device, rather they believed that they had just not noticed their sensors flashing out a warning about its proximity. Seconds later Ray sent them a message.

  “Starship Dagger, I cannot allow you to approach the moon that the portal to the dark domain is located on, I am fully aware that the last time you visited the moon you brought down the rim of the crater to bury the portal beneath a ton of rock, turn away now or I will open fire upon you.”

  The bridge automatic warning alarm suddenly blared out a warning to tell them that the starship Dagger had just powered up its own weapons and defence shields. Seconds later a bolt of energy sprang across space to slam into the defence shields of the Orion Defender, and shake anything that was loose down onto the deck of the starship, but the powerful Heliot shields were more than capable of resisting the Phaser weapon of a privately owned starship. Jean didn`t need telling to return fire, for she had already targeted the other vessel`s shielding technology, and when their Heliot heavy Phaser weapon sent its energy bolt across space, the Dagger more than felt it. Her defence shields went off line immediately, and her hyperspace engines almost followed them, another bolt of energy from the Defender would easily destroy the enemy starship and her captain knew it, for he ordered an about turn and hurried away on a heading that would take them finally to Helionia.

  “Nice shooting Jean.” Ray said to her.

  “No problem darling, any time you want a bad guy taking care of just call my name.”

  Just then a message came in to them from the Swiftsure, it was from Aswan Trajan, he assured them that his ship had recorded the incident in full, and when Marot Pallas returned to Helionia, he would see that the captain of the starship Dagger was called to answer for his actions against them.

  “Did that guy over there call our shooting match an incident Jean?” Ray said laughing.

  “He sure did Ray, but maybe the universal translator isn`t working as well as it should be.” Jean said laughing at the understatement used by their new friend.

  On board the Dagger, Ares Fortuna was sitting stunned on the bridge of his starship. “Captain can you tell me how in hell such a primitive tramp freighter ever came to have such modern battle technology?” Fortuna asked.

  “From the many tales associated with the man Tyler Burrows, I imagine that the one that tells of the powerful Heliot fleet that crashed upon the planet Orion had some truth behind it; maybe he stole the technology from those broken starships and incorporated it into the freighter. If so then we will need a ship as powerful as the space cruiser Dark Nebula to destroy it, and Tyler Burrows along with it.” Captain Titan offered as a reason

  “Tell me Ares, just how much of our space fleet can you rely on to follow you, should you call on it?” Magi asked of her son.

  “I ensured that most of our heavy cruisers had officers and crews that were loyal to the partisan party, so should the need arise then I would be able to count on a large part of the fleet, why?” Ares Fortuna replied.

  “Because I believe that we must act quickly and stamp on the Orionists, and anyone else who is currently on or near to the moon Galafrey, before they can return to Helionia and spread their tales of intrigue.” Magi answered.

  “Captain we have hours at most before they uncover the portal on Galafrey, put a call into the squadron of ships led by the space cruiser Dark Nebula, and order them to rendezvous with us here as soon as they can, we are declaring war on Tyler Burrows and his allies.”

  Within the dark domain, and unaware that war has been declared on him, Tyler Burrows and his wife Caroline were talking to Marot Pallas.

  “Marot, I have some good news for you and your wife, wrapped up in evil tidings. I believe that the peace of the entire galaxy is threatened by Ares Fortuna. Therefore, Caroline and I have no option other than to put aside our dislike for your wife. We have decided to forego our search for justice; we will drop all of our charges against your wife. The resulting publicity, if we were to pursue our call for justice, could easily spoil your chances of winning the upcoming election, and allow the partisan party to win. This, I am told by my friends back on Orion and Earth, must not be allowed to happen, and I am in complete agreement with them.” Tyler said, and Caroline, who was standing next to him nodded in agreement.

  Tryon, who had been standing nearby, and had heard some of the conversation, now approached them.

  “May I join in this conversation Tyler, for I believe that I have something of interest to add to it that may throw some light on the current situation?” Tryon asked.

  “Of course you can Tryon, what have you to tell us?” Tyler replied quizzically.

  “Caroline, not even you will know this, because you were rather young at the time, but at one time my family wanted me to train as a mystic, and indeed I even went some of the way towards becoming one. It is why I know so many of the legends concerning Orion, and maybe it is why I knew Tyler was the chosen one, so long before anyone else would admit it.” Tryon said.

  Caroline and Tyler looked at their friend in amazement, and both of them wondered just how he was going to continue this conversation about his early life and the world of a mystic, a wo
rld that Tyler still couldn`t admit to being real.

  “It was partly because of your brother, Caroline, that I chose another path to take from the one already chosen for me by my family. The three of us were inseparable when we were younger, and Appolon and to a much lesser degree myself were regarded as being unmanageable at one time. Caroline, your being with us made Appolon mend his ways and become the man that he is today. Now to get to the point, I have thought for a while now that the old crone who came to Orion with Patina, may have had control of Patina`s mind. I also believe that she may have made the journey with Patina for the sole reason of keeping her control over Patina at maximum strength, for it was a very important time in Patina`s life, the time which was to bring you Tyler, to Helionia to answer for your supposed crimes against the ancient Heliot Empire. A mystic is capable of many things, and to control one such as Patina would be very possible, if the mystic started to gain control of her mind from an early enough age, Patina would have no say in the matter unless she had a very strong mind. It is why now on Orion, that anyone chosen to begin such a life must initially go through a rigorous training regime, one that ensures that the person chosen is suitable for such an important and potentially powerful position.” Tryon rested here for a moment, allowing Marot Pallas to step in.

  “Magi, the old crone as you call her, was once Patina`s nanny, and even when she left this job she always lived nearby, never more than a stone`s throw away from the house of Patina`s parents. Tryon are you saying that from her youngest years Magi could have been controlling my wife`s mind, controlling her life, grooming her so that later she could be made to do evil things, such as bringing the children into the dark domain?” Marot asked in awe of such a suggestion.

  “Yes it might well be the case, I have heard of it happening before on Orion, my grandfather came across such a situation when I was in training to become the next mystic of our land. A member of a nearby tribe went crazy and killed a neighbour who was causing another mystic much trouble. I saw how he ascertained whether it was just a simple case of murder, or whether it was more a case of mind control. The mystic answered to the elders for his crime and we never heard of him again. I must stress that this ceremony isn`t an easy thing to do, especially as I have never performed the act before, but I believe that I could not only discover the truth behind Patina`s actions, but also ensure that the mind control doesn`t continue afterwards.” Tryon said to a very baffled Tyler.

  Tyler had always looked on his friend simply as the brave Tryon, as was the case with all of the villagers of the red plains. Now he saw before him a very different man, who was so much more than a warrior.

  “I remember the ceremony so well, as if it was only yesterday. It was very scary for a young lad to watch, and it was partly the reason why I took up with the hothead of the village, Appolon.” Tryon finished reflectively.