The Ocoda Chronicles Book 5 Paladonians

by Daniel OConnell

  Reginald Whitefeather sits in the council chambers alone, studying the reports of civil unrest. Troubled, he sits back in his chair and slowly drags his hands across his face. He is however quickly surprised when he sees Edgar now sitting across the table from him. Edgar smiles, asking, “Council White, are we having trouble today?”

  White not amused glares angrily at Edgar, replying, “Depends on what bullshit you are planning on spreading this week.”

  Edgar, ever so self-confident grins from ear to ear. He leers towards the doorway as Dorian enters. Both men sit down, as Edgar begins to speak, “Council White, we may have had our differences in the past, but I think for the sake of all our people that perhaps we could work together to better ourselves.”

  White takes a deep breath, as he privately contacts Allie, asking telepathically, “Allie, what are these idiots up to now?”

  Allie, is, however surprised when she attempts to scan their minds, responding, “Uncle Reg, they are both wearing psionic shielding devices.”

  White sighs aloud, asking, “What is it you want?”

  Edgar smiles, as he looks to Dorian, and replies, “We only wish to help our fellow Paladonians. We would like to discuss sharing our technology, technology that allows us to subdue our more aggressive new arrivals in a peaceful manner. We would be willing to share this technology for a few concision regarding building colonies out of Paladonian controlled space.”

  White smirks, as he stands up, stating, “Your two moons have been virtually trouble free for years, of that I’m fully aware. I’m also fully aware of the subliminal messages you have been using in all your holobroadcasting and I’ve known for years about the half a dozen outer colonies, which you both currently have hidden outside our controlled space. A blatant violation of Caleb’s mandate that could endanger the timeline”

  Dorian acts confused, as he glances towards Edgar, and then turns to White, asking, “Just what exactly are you, saying?”

  White reaches for a holopad, and tosses it towards both men, saying, “I have full details on all your little operations. I always had them, and I don’t care what you do, so long as you don’t hinder the other moons. And for the record, I’ve been fully aware of your outer colonies and bases, as well as your so-called psychological brainwashing. I’ve just not given a damn what you two idiots do. You two jackasses have long since decided to do your own thing, regardless what we decide, and as you can clearly see by the images on that holopad, we have been monitoring your actions for years. We have had our people placed in both your governments for years, so you see, we could have easily followed your lead and brainwashed our people, but that style of leadership is the way of a coward in my book. Eventually, your brainwashing will come back to bite you both. I believe in a more proven way of leadership, which is giving people challenges, people need to face challenges, and they need failures to grow, and a good leader learns from his mistakes. However, you two have removed your people’s ability to do this. They follow the path you feel they should follow. No freewill, no hope of true growth, your people are stagnant. You may think we are fools, but even now you are more worried about who we have placed in your governments instead of the lesson I just shared with you. You came here thinking to offer me this stagnant way of leadership as an answer to my problems. Instead, I shared with you the failure, which you have not seen. You may have the upper hand this year, and you may have the upper hand for the next hundred years, but eventually your people will be lost. Your people will fail. Leadership that rules by fear and manipulation are always doomed to failure.”

  Edgar, obviously unconcerned with White’s lengthy speech, instead asks, “Is Caleb aware of our off world colonies?”

  White shakes his head in total disgust, saying, “You’re both absolutely useless. No, Caleb has not been told of these colonies by me anyways. However, he may be aware of them.”

  Edgar and Dorian get up quickly, leaving the council chambers.

  Allie telepathically speaks to White, asking, “Uncle Reg, why did you tell them we had people within their governments?”

  White smiles, as he enjoys his moment of turning the tables on his two most potent adversaries, replying, “Because those two morons will spend the next few months trying to figure out who we have spying on them before they figure out I was lying.”

  Allie despondent replies, “Uncle Reg, I have placed several members of my Black guard within both of their governments. You must understand Uncle, the Tof and the Rooke’s have been using psionic blockers for the past several months, and the only way I could maintain our current level of Intel was to infiltrate their inner core using the Black guard. These brave people are the reason we have been able to continue our current levels of Intel. You didn’t lie.”

  White closes his eyes and clenches his fist, as he feels the rage build up within him. He says, “Allie, I wish I was told of this. Pull your people out now.”

  Allie reluctantly replies, “I’ve already sent the recall notice out, unfortunately one of recovery teams has been out of contact for several days. They were heading to one of the Tof hidden colonies, and I have no way to warn them. Now with all the Black guard returning from the Tof and Rooke worlds, they may be able to deduce the true allegiance of this team. Their lives are in danger.”

  White growls aloud, focusing on the problem he inadvertently caused and says, “Get me Gabe right away.”

  Several days later, on a Tof transport several hundred people are crammed into very tight quarters as the vessel travels under cloak to a secret colony. Unbeknownst to the occupants on this vessel, five of the passengers are actually members of the Black guard. The leader of this squad is a young man named Orpheus. Who was rescued from the Earth as a very young child by the Uari many years ago, in what would now be called Jordan, and because of his youth he quickly became adapt to the modern technology of the Paladonians. Orpheus was personally selected by Allie for his calm and understanding nature. He excelled in his training, quickly catching the attention of Benton, who made him an officer within the Black guard. Under Orpheus’s direct command is Dora, a young woman, and her younger brother Kern, both from the south pacific isles of what would be later called Fiji. Like many in the Black guard, they have all grown up within the Paladonian culture and accepted the culture as their own. The final two members of this group are two original survivors from the altered timeline, Habon, a brilliant scientist specializing in X’ena energy systems, and Jasmin, a medic, who was originally placed with the Rooke, but was able to leave and join the Moon of the First ones. The team has successfully been able to gain passage to this Tof secret colony with the use of documents gained from other Black guard personnel within the Tof government, but unbeknownst to them, those people had to flee from their positions after Reginald White accidentally exposed their secret operation. The recovery team’s mission is to meet up with another Black guard agent and retrieve vital information regarding the Tof and Rooke hidden colonies. Unfortunately, these young infiltrators are quickly running out of time, and only have luck on their side, preventing their discovery.

  Kern turns to Orpheus, and says quietly, “Ten days crammed in this tin can is starting to wear thin.”

  Orpheus looks around to make sure no one is listening and says, “Kern, just keep it together, we know it’s not the greatest assignment but we have to do it.”

  Jasmin immediately notices several people staring at Kern and Orpheus. She quickly makes eye contact with Orpheus, gaining his attention. Orpheus, noticing her glance quickly studies the room, seeing they are being watched. The crew and passengers for the most part do not speak to anyone, other than for necessities. Tof brainwashing and constant conditioning of the culture has created a society of fanatical followers, who are completely untrusting of outsiders. Tof and Rooke society have been using subliminal messages along with constant brainwashing techniques, to enslave their people mentally. These techniques include, but are not limited to every holosystem and radio broadcast used
by their governments. The Black guard members have been specially conditioned by Allie to overcome the effects of this type of brainwashing.

  For five additional days, the transport travels on until finally reaching the world, which hides the Tof colony. The vessel remains cloaked as it does detail scans to ensure that there is no one around. The vessel does lengthy and time-consuming scans throughout the entire quadrant and after confirming they are completely safe the transport uncloaks and raises its shields beginning a rapid descent to the ice planet below. The atmosphere is toxic and lethal to humans, though below the frozen covering of the surface lies a vast ocean. The Tof vessel begins to increase its velocity as it positions itself to break through the ice layer. The massive ship hurls itself at the surface as it increases power to its shields reaching maximum speed. The occupants secure themselves, as the inertial dampers would not be able to handle the severe maneuver through the ice.

  The vessel hits the ice, penetrating through to the ocean below. The vessel now slows to a moderate pace, and begins to maneuver through the ocean.

  Habon stands up, looking out one of the view ports and realizes where he is. He looks over to Orpheus shaking his head in frustration, as his memory of the past timeline allows him to recall where this planet is, and why the Tof have chosen it.

  The vessel slowly dives deep to the ocean floor where it enters a massive chasm, and after a few minutes, they pass through a long channel. They surface and begin following a lengthy passage, which takes them to an immense grotto full of vegetation, and is covered with ambient crystals that create a natural lighting throughout the cavern. The cavern is approximately six kilometers high and over a thousand square kilometers wide. The vessel slowly rises into the air where it finally glides across the undersea territory, landing next to a manufactured habitat.

  Habon slowly makes his way to Orpheus, whispering, “This place was one of the hiding places humans used to hide from Noskcaj and Meli. These crystals create a dampening field, which makes it virtually impossible to detect, and even the Demon Queen with all her power could not sense the humans here. I’m such a fool, I knew of this place.”

  Orpheus shakes his head, acknowledging Habon’s statement when a Tof civilian who is watching the two immediately walks to a security officer and begins to speak to him, quietly pointing to Orpheus. The Tof people are conditioned to report any suspicious actions to the authorities.

  The Security officer hastily approaches Orpheus, asking, “Who are you citizen?”

  Orpheus smiles, as he realizes that he may be forced to play his hand too early, he instead tries to play the role of authority, hoping to scare the Officer away, stating, “My name is not important Officer, you would do well to return to your station and pay no attention to me or my staff.”

  The Officer is surprised. He stands back, reaching for his communicator when Habon quickly speaks, “Officer, before you embarrass yourself any further in front of the General and his inspection team I’d suggest you review to our credentials.” Habon then holds out a data crystal.

  The Officer quickly grabs the crystal, placing it in his holoreader, after a brief moment, he stands back again from Orpheus and salutes him, returning the crystal to Habon, lowering his head, saying, “I apologize General.” The Officer quickly returns to his station, angrily staring at the Tof civilian that had reported to him.

  Orpheus shakes his head, saying, “This will make our job harder.”

  Habon replies, “It would have been inevitable for us to show our hand sooner or later. However, I agree Orpheus, later would have been preferred.”

  The ship opens its hatches as the hundreds of civilians exit the transport entering the city. Dora and Kern lead the group off the ship, as Jasmin turns to Orpheus and quietly says, “Orpheus, I suggest that we find our contact here quickly and begin with our mission. Since we’ve had to expose our cover to the crew of this ship, you can be certain that word of a Tof inspection team will spread like wildfire, and if they investigate who we are, our true mission could easily be compromised.”

  Orpheus tries to maintain confidence looking out over the Tof city. He studies the massive buildings and hundreds of holoimages all scattered throughout the city. These holoimages are similar to billboards displaying different products and features, but unbeknownst to the overall population these same billboards hold subliminal messages, keeping the Tof people subservient and complacent to their leaders. Regrettably, Orpheus instantaneously sees an image that surprises him. The image is of their contact, who is being shackled and led away under heavy guard. The rest of the group quickly notices this as well, when Kern whispers, “This is not good.”

  Dora quickly locates a passageway that leads away from the city. She makes eye contact with the rest of her group as they quickly move discreetly away from the rest of the passengers, sprinting away from the Tof city. After running more than a kilometer away the group stops, making sure they have not been followed, or are being watched.

  Habon moves his hand over his forearm revealing a cloaked armband, he activates it, which then opens a dimensional doorway into null space, and out drops a large container.

  Null space is an inter-dimension that humans have been using as a tool, which has been found endlessly useable for many things, one being used for long distant travel, while another is creating subspace pockets, allowing a person to anchor a part of Null space to a device that can hold a large amount of equipment. It is, however void of oxygen, and gravity, and can drive some people mad if overexposed to its effect for too long.

  Orpheus keeps his eyes looking out all around, as his team quickly opens the container grabbing their equipment. Habon hastily acquires his scanner activating it, and after several seconds, it shows the group is secure, at least for the moment.

  Orpheus grabs his gear, putting on his shift cloak, stating, “Well, it appears that this mission is now compromised. Our cloaks should be undetectable to the Tof sensors so we can move freely around the city.”

  Kern confused asks, “Commander, why are we planning on moving through the city? Our mission is over, they’ve captured our contact, and it will only be a matter of time before he will be forced to betray us.”

  Orpheus looks at kern and smirks, saying, “Habon, Dora, and Kern, I want you three to focus on finding us a way out of here, while Jasmin and I will go find our contact and get him back. I expect we’ll be leaving in a hurry so you know the drill.”

  Dora studies her scans, saying, “They’re only two vessels currently here, the one we arrived in, and another which seems to be preparing to leave soon.”

  Habon, looks over his data, states, “We have more pressing issues to deal with, I’m currently detecting hundreds of scattering fields throughout the city, as well as several automated patrols moving all about, and one which is fast approaching our area.” Habon alarmed looks up from his scanner, stating, “We may have tripped something.”

  Orpheus shakes his head in annoyance, saying, “Ok team, let’s get moving, now.” The group quickly cloaks and shifts back to the city.

  Jasmin and Orpheus shift close to the cities center, near one of the scattering fields. “Jasmin looking over the area asks, “Commander what is your plan?”

  Orpheus, unsure of himself groans, thinking to himself for a moment. He quickly studies the crowds and finally replies, “We need to locate where they’re keeping our contact first, and figure out a way to get him back and out of the city before he says anything.”

  Jasmin pulls out her scanner and studies it for a few moments, while Orpheus keeps a watchful eye to make sure that their cloaks are still hiding them. After a few moments she states, “I’m picking up a lot of activity in that larger building over there.” She stops and points over to an enormous building, which is teaming with security personnel, stating, “We have several hundred scanning systems, multiple force fields, and the entire area is blanketed in a massive scattering field, my guess would be if he’s anywhere, it would be there.”
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  Orpheus sighs heavily, realizing that his options are extremely limited. He looks all around, spotting an area out of sight of everyone. He turns to Jasmin, saying, “Jasmin, follow me, we’re going in the front door.”

  Jasmin surprised about Orpheus idea follows, saying, “Commander, there is a good chance our documents are compromised, we could be easily walking right into a trap.”

  Orpheus shrugs his shoulders, saying, “More than likely we could be walking right into one, but the risk of the Tofs gaining solid evidence on Allie, or any of the other secrets is well worth the risk of our lives.” The two move out of sight, as Jasmin scans the area confirming that they’re completely unseen. The two uncloak as they quickly march back towards the building that Jasmin determined as the prime location of their contacts incarceration.

  Orpheus and Jasmin walk straight up to the building, passing several guards, until they reach the main doors where a security officer stops the two, asking, “Do you have business here?”

  Jasmin holds out a data crystal, saying, “The General is here to see the prisoner.”

  The Officer is apprehensive, starring at both with suspicion, he takes the crystal and places it in his holoreader, and after looking at the data, he looks up surprised, saying, “General Orpheus of internal security.” Nervously saluting he continues, “It states that you and your staff of four are here to do just routine inspections.” The Officer looks up at both and asks, “General, where is the rest of your staff?”

  Orpheus, playing his part groans, as he looks to Jasmin in disgust. Jasmin immediately replies, “Officer what is your name and rank as well as your commanding officer, I will need that information to put it into my report.”

  The Officer alarmed, quickly stands aside, saying, “I meant no disrespect, I’m just doing my job General, sir.”