The Ocoda Chronicles Book 5 Paladonians

by Daniel OConnell

  White grunts once more, gaining the group's attention. He waits for a moment, stating, “We have been moving far too fast and we are bringing back far more people than we can handle. We need to enact a better system.”

  Uari hesitantly reports, “Well sir, I may have an idea. However, it is a bit intrusive.” Uari activates his holopad, which shows an image of a small circular disc. He states, “My people have come up with a device that we would inject into the newbies. It would easily allow us to monitor them for almost seven years, and should they became a threat we would be alerted to it.”

  Dorian, curious about the device, asks, “And after the seven years?”

  Uari, who is always cautious of Dorian’s motive in asking such a question, replies, “We would only need to do a second injection on those that may pose a threat.”

  Odette, obviously concerned, asks, “At what point do we say enough? We are talking about privacy invasion. How are we supposed to gain these people’s trust when we display none ourselves, and Counsel White, doesn’t this go directly against your amendment on personal freedom?”

  White closes his eyes, trying to maintain his rage. Edgar, immediately noticing White’s frustration starts to push White further, asking, “Just how where you able to stop these newbies uprisings before anyways?”

  Cooley, alarmed by the question stutters out her answer, “I, I had a vision.”

  Dorian, obviously doubting Cooley, states, “Really now. How convenient for us all that your visions stopped that traitor from Bentonian moon. He would have most certainly created a paradox, killing us all, and now you saw these uprisings. I must say that is remarkable.”

  Edgar, looking to push the council further, points his attack at Benton, “Yes, we are so blessed indeed with Council Cooley’s gift. Hmm, what was that mad man’s name you killed?”

  Dorian quickly jumps in, further playing on Edgar’s lead, and states, “Oh I seem to have forgotten. Perhaps Council Benton you may recall that traitor's name. Wasn’t he your friend?”

  Benton’s rage is at its limit. He gets up with clenched fist ready to wail on Dorian, but White slowly puts his hand on Benton’s hand, saying, “Gabe sit down.”

  Cooley, trying to calm the room, says, “Why don’t we take a break for an hour.”

  Dorian laughs loudly, saying, “If that is all the time you need to create.” Dorian smiles correcting himself, “Excuse me. I meant to say, recall your answers.”

  White gets up, and says, “We’ll break for an hour. Dorian, perhaps you can create an answer for the reason your moon has been creating colonies outside Paladonian controlled space. I believe Caleb forbid our people to colonize outside the protected zone of the Paladonian system.”

  Dorian, clearly alarmed at this, answers, “What? I have no knowledge of this.”

  Odette stands, calmly, saying, “Well then, let’s all meet back in an hour, shall we.”

  The room quickly clears, as White, Cooley, and Benton, stay. However, before any can speak, all three get a psychic message from Allie, “Edgar has planted a listening device within the room.”

  White stands, and silently walks over to where Edgar was sitting. He drops to a knee and looks under the table to find the device. White smiles from ear to ear, as he stands back up with the device in his hand. He winks at Benton, as he speaks directly into the microphone, asking, “Gabe, are your forces ready to launch their attack?”

  Benton beams uncontrollably, as he quickly realizes what Reg is doing, answering, and slightly overacting, “I have all my men ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

  White, trying his best to contain his laughter, “We will launch our attack now. I’m going to go and kill Edgar and Dorian myself.”

  Cooley, doing her best to contain herself whispers, “You two are so naughty.”

  In the hallway outside, Dorian and Edgar become alarmed, as they listen to White’s act on their private earpieces, and quickly begin to walk away from Odette and Uari. However, White steps outside from the council chambers, calling to them, “Edgar, Dorian! Would you both mind stepping in here for a moment?”

  Dorian panicked, yells, “He’s going to kill us! Help us, he’s gone mad!”

  Edgar, in complete panic, yells, “He’s going to attack our worlds!”

  White can no longer contain his laughter as he pulls out the listening device, collapsing on the floor in uncontrollable laughter. A few moments later, Benton, also laughing takes the listening device and jokingly says aloud, “I have all my men ready to go” Benton can’t control his amusement as he begins to laugh hysterically.

  Odette, Uari, and dozens of people standing near the conference doors, stare in total confusion, until Cooley grabs the device and hands the device directly to Edgar, saying so everyone can hear, “This is the second time you have tried to secretly record us. Next time you plant a bug in the council chambers I’ll have you brought up on charges.”

  The crowded room immediately begins to realize just what had happened, and they too begin laughing uncontrollably at Edgar and Dorian.

  Embarrassed to no end, both counsel leaders leave immediately.

  Uari smiling states, “I doubt either will be returning anytime soon.”

  Benton laughing says, “No. No, I don’t think they will.”

  White, who is starting to calm down, stands back up, saying, “Well, we will continue this meeting tomorrow. Uari please let our hearing impaired council members know.”

  Uari points to the listening device in Cooley’s hand, saying, “I think they heard you.”

  They once more all begin to laugh aloud.

  A few hours later, the council breaks apart and heads their separate way, however, White, Cooley, and Benton, meet up once everyone is away, making their way to the quarantined part of the moon.

  White looks to Benton, asking, “Gabe, I know you don’t like Allie, but can you at least try and be nice to her?”

  Benton scowls, replying, “Hey, I tried being nice last time. Besides, she started that last fight.”

  Cooley leers at Benton, asking, “Nice? You called her exceptionally portly. How is that nice?”

  Benton exhales, stating, “Hey Beauty Queen, she’s the size of a couple football fields, what do ya want me to say.”

  Cooley eyes Benton, yelling, “You say or even think one insult to her and so help me god, I’ll make you walk funny for a week!”

  White chuckles, as the group enters the quarantined section. Caleb has been very busy over the last five years. He has brought back over a thousand different alien life forms and has started cloning procedures to bring back many previously extinct races. Only three people outside of Caleb know about these alien’s existence White, Cooley, and Benton. Caleb has gone to great extremes to hide their existence from the rest of the Paladonians. Nonetheless, stories and gossip have spread across the system telling tales of Caleb collecting aliens.

  The three enter the massive domed city on their hovercraft driving through the city, passing large groups of aliens from all over the galaxy, finally making their way to the foray of the flower stone, and the home of Allie.

  They pass through the initial chamber and enter the main area, a chamber, which is filled with a mist. Cooley yells out, “Allie luv, can you get rid of this bloody mist, we really need to talk.”

  The mist quickly dissipates, as Allie appears with several of her T-Challa children all around her. She asks telepathically, “What may I do for you Auntie Rachel?”

  Cooley smiles, asking, “Luv, why are you erasing all these poor scientist’s minds?”

  Allie responds, in a manner that allows all to hear her and each other telepathically, “Father has asked me to restrict the technological growth of the humans. He has also asked me to find recruits to retrieve all the advanced technology from all Paladonian moons.”

  Benton confused, asks, “What the hell is doing that for?”

  Allie stares furiously at Benton, answering, “Well, you can ask him yourself
Fatso.”

  Benton clearly annoyed, looks to Cooley, saying, “See I told you I didn’t start it.”

  White sighs heavily, and asks, “Allie, why is Caleb having you do all this?”

  Allie still irritated with Benton stares menacingly at him for a moment, replying, “Paladin has determined that the Paladonians will advance far beyond the Earth’s technology over the next two thousand years. This will cause a greater degree of tension between the two civilizations. The inevitable war between these two civilizations would occur much sooner.”

  White, confused by all this asks, “So you’re going to restrain the Paladonians in their technological growth for the next two thousand years?”

  A voice unexpectedly speaks from behind the group. It is Caleb, “No Reg, Allie’s goal is to prevent them from advancing their military technology. Medical and other scientific advancements are fine, but we can’t let the Paladonians become too far advanced then the Earth will be when they finally meet.”

  White is shocked at Caleb’s sudden holoimage appearance asks, “Cale, where are you?”

  Caleb smiles, while he walks through a pillar in the chamber, stating, “Well, I’m actually a few months out Reg. What you’re seeing is one of Paladin’s more advanced holograms. I have placed a few cloaked holocom repeater stations as I left just in case Allie needed to contact me.”

  White, now completely annoyed, says, “Well the Rooke and Onatof’s have discovered Allie using her psychic powers, and they want to investigate this dome.”

  Caleb smirks, saying, “Well, I was hoping to hide Allie’s meddling for a few thousand years, however, that seems to be over.” Caleb stops himself, as he realizes an opportunity and asks, “Ok, so what exactly did they discover?”

  White, confused by Caleb’s question, answers, “They said they installed some kind of psionic scanner and detected the source back to here. They believed it to be you, until Uari corrected them on how your power’s work. Then they tried to say it was the aliens that you have been secretly bringing here.”

  Caleb grins widely, saying, “They’re fishing, let them come and see the quarantined area. You can tell them the Flower stone displaces psychic energy, and that I have it hidden here, besides, we’ll have to start allowing the descendants to come to the Flower Stone soon.”

  Cooley alarmed, says, “Cale, are you bloody daft, they will see all the aliens.”

  Allie unconcerned responds to all, “No they won’t.”

  Caleb shakes his head, looking up at his adopted daughter Allie and is very content on how things are progressing, as he turns to his friends, saying, “Gabe, I’ve had Allie searching the entire populous of every moon for viable candidates to help her collect advanced tech from the future timeline. These recruits will need to train to be the very best in the art of stealth and espionage, and some of these recruits may even be alien. These recruits’ main goal will be to find, and then recover all the advanced technology from the future timeline, ultimately bringing it back here, with Allie. Gabe, I want you to personally gather these people and I want you to begin training them. They will be called the Black guard. You’ll oversee all aspects of their training, making sure that they’re skilled in every form of espionage and commando tactics available. These people will be tough as nails, open minded, understanding, and will be under Allie’s leadership.”

  White, alarmed by all Caleb’s plans, asks, “You’re going to expose more people to the aliens?”

  Caleb, apathetically responds, “Allie has already scanned these people Reggie and knows that they can accept the aliens as our friends and allies. Reggie, I know what I’m doing may look crazy, but I need to minimize the Paladonian’s technological growth. Should they become too advanced, they will use that advantage to try and overpower the Earth.”

  White immediately points out, “Cale, most of the future technology is known to these people, are you going to have Allie erase all that knowledge?”

  Caleb simply replies, “If she must…..”

  Benton, now curious, interrupts, stating, “Cale, the T-Challa technology is antiquated compared to Paladin’s, and the X’ena had three thousand years to advance it before creating Paladin. However, in that future timeline I didn’t really see a significant growth in weapons technology, except for Noskcaj stuff.”

  Caleb sighs heavily, answering, “Noskcaj and the Meli contained the overall scientific advancement to themselves. Neither would allow the human race to pose a possible threat to them. They each controlled every aspect of the technological growth, making sure that no discovery would jeopardize their control, and now we too must control how our people will grow. If we don’t prevent their technological growth, they will become a far more potent threat than the T-Challa ever posed.”

  Cooley, clearly unconcerned about the weapons and controlling technological growth conversation, quickly points out, “Cale, are you bloody daft? Let’s all step back a bit in your ramblings luv and listen to the lady talk.” Cooley stares intently at everyone, waiting for one hundred percent attention, stating, “We just can’t be bringing the council members in here all willy-nilly. Even if Allie does erase their memories, there is still the belief you’re hiding aliens here. What are we going to do about that?”

  Caleb smiles, answering, “Allie is the strongest psychic alive right now. She can do everything Carla will be able to do, but on a smaller range. She can reach her mind out as far as two light years radius, which is about the edge of this solar system.”

  White moans heavily, stating, “I really need to take up drinking as a hobby.” White, exasperated looks over to the Flower stone, saying, “Cale, you know we’ll do whatever you need, but Rachel is right. People are going to believe what they want to believe. This alien rumor will never go away and right now, you can be sure the Rooke and Tof’s are using that fear to fan the flames of panic amongst their people. We also learned that the Tof are building bases outside of the Paladonian sector where Allie’s mind trick won’t be able to reach. The Paladonian people will continue to grow technologically Caleb, even with you trying to slow them down.”

  Caleb takes in a deep breath, and exhales. He pauses, as he thinks, saying, “Reg, I know this is a challenge, but we have to do everything we can to slow down the Paladonian’s technological growth. Fortunately, I may have given the Earth a few chances to equal the field. You see Reggie, even if some of the future technology does survive to pose a threat to the peace, the Earth does have a few aces up their sleeves.” Caleb smiles, as he thinks of his last moments with his best friend and confident Val, stating, “I gave Val a massive amount of X’ena knowledge before we started this crazy journey, once he recovers from the effects of such a massive download he will be able to advance Earth technology at an accelerated rate. Carla and Abraham are also both additional factors to aid the Earth, should the Paladonians ever pose a threat.”

  Benton eyes go wide, saying, “Provided they don’t get trapped by that Meli thing.”

  Caleb glares at Benton, replying, “They won’t Gabe.” Caleb pauses, looking over everyone, finally saying, “Look, I know I’m hoping for a lot of things to work just right. The risk is great and I won’t deny it. However, I choose to believe in what we are doing. The Flower stone showed me our path and it is filled with risks, but it’s our best chance.”

  Allie telepathically says privately, to Caleb, “Father, I have done as you have asked and removed all traces of the true ancestry of Noskcaj. Now only these three people are the only humans that know that Noskcaj was Abraham Jackson.

  Caleb responds in kind, saying, “Allie I know you have reservations about this, but I need you to do this to them as well. I trust them all with my life, but I must protect Abraham from the same fear that Carla will face.”

  Allie reluctantly pleads, “Father, I feel it is wrong to do this to them. They are family to us.”

  Caleb lowers his head and says, “Very well Allie, but I will need you to be ever vigilant to ensure that Abraham is not
feared in the same way as my daughter will be.”

  Allie, very confused by Caleb concern in protecting Abraham, but not his own flesh and blood daughter, asks, “Why father, why spare Abe the ridicule and hate, but not your daughter?”

  Caleb sighs heavily, answering, “Because my daughter has the power to defend herself, and Abraham does not. He needs to grow up as normal a life as he can so he can to help Carla, and I know if he is haunted by that future vision of himself, it may create a negative effect on the timeline.

  Allie concerned asks, “How do you know this father?”

  Caleb sighs, reluctantly, saying, “Because in the future timeline Noskcaj and Meli escaped when we did, and they may eventually find their way to us. Allie if they ever make it to this time line, then I have to be the one to stop them, if Abe of Carla attempt to get involved they both will die. I am the only one that can stop the Meli and Noskcaj.”

  Allie even more confused than ever asks, “Father, what do you mean, why are you the only one that can stop them?”

  Caleb exhales, saying, “In the infinite number of alternate timelines I was exposed to by the Flower stone I saw the only way to stop them, and it has to be me. In every alternate timeline, Carla and Abraham both died trying to stop the Meli and Noskcaj.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE BLACK GUARD

  Fifteen years have passed. Caleb has not been seen or heard from in the past four years. The Paladonian people have grown immensely over the early years, to the point where the Earth refugees outnumber the Paladonian by a factor of ten. That is ten refugees to one original Paladonian.

  This has caused a great deal of concern with the Paladonian people, as the refugees are often time overwhelmed and fearful of the Paladonians, however, the one redeeming feature of all this, which is the children. The Refugee’s children are immediately immersed into modern technology and taught how to interact with it and this has had a positive effect on most, causing many of the refugees to accept their new lives, but not all. Several hundred attacks happen daily across the entire Paladonian systems, as many of the Earth refugees can’t accept their new life. Surprisingly, two civilizations seem unaffected by the increase in violence, and they are the moons of the Rooke and Onatof’s.