Galaxy Spies

by Philip R Benge

  **********

  “Captain Peterson, replace the guard on the main gate with a squad of our own men, and also have a squad of men put up on the battlements to patrol our perimeter. The officer then turned to his two Lieutenants, Lieutenant Muller take four men and inspect the inside of the perimeter wall clockwise, Lieutenant Wilson you do the same but anti clockwise, both of you report back to me when you have done so. Just then a hurrying figure appeared from out of the officer`s rooms, it was Captain Reynard.

  “Colonel, I am sorry that I was not here to greet you but I had no idea that you were coming.”

  “No Captain, the war with Earth has changed the plans of the General Staff regarding the security of our planet, all of our bases are now being put on a high alert status. I have been sent to this cold and lonely base to take command; I assume you will get your orders about your own situation within the next few days.”

  The colonel had no respect for the captain, but then he was only the caretaker of the fortress, so nothing much could be expected of him. The colonel was a different kettle of fish, having only recently returned from Regina, the nearest of the enslaved planets.

  The two colony worlds of Arcadia and Argos were nearer, but the people of Lyre had colonised them one hundred and fifty years before, and each of these two planets had a large colony of tens of thousands of their people on each of the two planets, and both of these colonies outnumbered the slave population on the two worlds. Regina was one of the more troublesome enslaved planets where the trouble makers had been dealt with ruthlessly by flogging the slaves within an inch of their lives, his appointment as garrison commander of the Wallachia Fortress was meant to be a rest period for him until a more suitable position presented itself.

  “Is there anything that I should know about the fortress, Captain?”

  Captain Reynard mind stumbled along for a moment, in front of him the colonel got more and more impatient waiting for Reynard`s reply, who finally remembered the one thing that had happened in the fortress during the four years that he had been incarcerated there.

  “Yes Colonel we have an earthmen imprisoned here, he was spying on one of our off world missions and was caught by our operatives there.”

  “Well he can wait until the morning; I have more important things to attend to at the moment, such as turning this base into a fortress in reality.”