Captain Harris got up from his chair and stretched. "I am the last one to admit it, but it will be good to have a little R&R. I truly love this big tub of ours but no virtu simulation can really replace open sky and the warm rays of good ol’ Sol!"
Richard Stahl gave him a knowing smile. "Indeed old friend. I too, look forward to a little off time. I just might do the same and go to Terra. Bavaria is especially scenic this time of year and I might just make it in time to the Oktoberfest."
"Don't they have them all over the galaxy?"
"Not like this, nothing is quite like the original."
The Captain of the Devastator looked up to the tall Immortal. "So are the rumors true?"
"What rumors?"
"You and the General?"
"I had no idea there were rumors about that."
"As big as this ship is, it's a closed community and there are eyes and ears everywhere. You know that."
"I have no idea what the rumors say, but yes, something might happen. Not that I have any plans, but she is a woman and I could be twice as old and not figure them out. Now I suggest you get this ship landed."
Stahl left the bridge while Harris prepared the Devi for Planetfall. It did not happen often and was a major task.
He reached his office and was greeted by McElligott's avatar. "Good to have you back, old battle-ax. The Nul and the rest of our enemies are already starting to miss you."
"Well they'll have to miss me a little longer then. I am planning for a nice little vacation and I intend to take it."
"I think it will do you good, but we do have a few situations I think you need to know about. Situations I have kept off the regular channels."
Stahl sighed. "It never really ends, does it?"
"I am afraid not, my friend. The situations are in hand as much as possible, but still, I wanted your opinion."
"Just get it off your mind and tell me already."
"You do remember Admiral Swybar?"
"Yes, but I never thought to hear this name again. Was he not executed?"
"Apparently not. His execution had been faked and he was rescued in quite a spectacular way. NAVINT believes it was the Worm acting for the Kermac."
Stahl grunted a curse in his old native language. "Is our Intel asleep? We are preparing for a possible new Y'All invasion and don't need any internal security problems. I have a good mind to take the First Fleet straight to Kermac Prime and end it once and for all. If we strike fast, it’ll be over before they know. Give me the rest of the bad news, somehow I don't think this is all."
"No, it is not. Swybin used his old contacts and his considerable insider knowledge to obtain a shipload of the finest Union Mil Tech along with a ship that is second to none. He is in possession of the Red Dragon Prototype loaded to the max with weapons, including a Translocator Cannon. Thankfully a heroic Oromal technician blew the Cannon, paying to do so with his life, but we are sure he has full control of the rest."
There was no sense crying over spilled milk, but Stahl was still angry. "And what is to be done about it?"
"We are currently overhauling the security on our Bone Yard planets and revising the material acquisition procedure. Cherubim went undercover to hunt for the rogue Admiral and to find out who or what is behind it all. Initial reports have him with two unidentified accomplices; we think at least one is Kermac."
"There is little I can do. The Devi is a battleship, I am a soldier. Despite all this I am no spy, no counter intelligence expert. This is nothing I can solve with exo cannons and space Marines, unless the Assembly finally sees the light and declares war on the Kermac."
"It is not all as bad as it seems. I think considering it all, our system as big as it is, reacted quite fast to the situation and it has shown us weak points in our armor. The Union is simply too big for us to keep it all watertight! Nelson II will be online in a year and Narth Supreme promised us 200 Narth to boost the numbers of our Psi Corps. With these assets we can start sweeping and exterminate the Worm."
Stahl had calmed down and actually began to pack a little suitcase. Not that he needed to, but he was old-fashioned in many ways and, unlike other Admirals, he didn't even have a personal assistant or a big staff of Adjudants. "Anything else?"
"It never made the big news, and I think you know much more about it than I do, but the Coven has joined the Union!"
Stahl did stop packing and turned to face his ancient friend. "|From what I know about them this is perhaps as significant as the Narth's decision to become more active."
"Well the Narth and the Saresii delegates immediately embraced the new Coven representative, and that indicates that much to me. What are they Richard? And why did you send that cadet there?"
"I don't know much more, but I know they are not at home in our universe. They are very old, control powers I don't understand, and have deep wisdom and knowledge about the greater scheme of things. I know the Narth respect them more than others and that should tell you something. I know only one of them, but I trust her blind. It was them who rescued me during my exile and it was them who helped me to find and access this ship!"
"What about the cadet, how does he fit in?"
"They believe he might be the key to fighting the Dark Ones. You know as well as I do that this is our true purpose. It is the real reason the Guardian has made us immortal. It is not the Xunx or the Kermac, it is not the Y’All we will face in the final test."
Now the old Highlander cursed in his old Gaelic brogue. "I never dared to say it openly but yes, I think the same way. The more the Union grows, the more do we become like the Celtest. I just hoped we would have a few thousand more years to develop."
Stahl closed the suitcase. "The Coven does not know if it will happen soon, as far as I know, they are in the dark as to when. But I am sure they have no doubt it will happen."
McElligott reached for the comm. controls. "I guess all we can do is as we always did: play by ear, reinforce the armor as much as we can, and face the crisis when it is upon us." He waved and cut the transmission.
From out of the shadows in the background, Alycia stepped into the light. "You are a wise man, Richard."
"Not as wise as I would like to be. I would love to know what I can do to prepare us better for that conflict!"
He looked at her. "If this is going to work between us, you got to use doors, girl. This sudden appearance number is something I never get used to!"
"I promise, doors from now on! I’m also going to show you how this is done so you can travel this way. It is time saved, you know."
"So the Coven has joined? The cadet has been there?"
"Yes, he saw our true forms and acted like a true Union officer. There was no fear, but we think someone who has seen the Hugavh of a Narth cannot be shocked by anything, really."
She stepped into his reach and rested her arms on his wide shoulders. "We don't think the fight against the Dark Ones can be won with military power as the Celtest have tried. We think it will be a confrontation of a different nature. The forces will manifest themselves in avatars, in beings, and these beings will face each other. The prophecy speaks of a decision that will be made and that act will decide the outcome of this fight for all eternity to come."
"This is way too metaphysical for me, Alycia. I like to think that I can make a difference with this ship, with Marines and with good old human perseverance and not mythical superpowers."
"And you will, everyone will. I told you, the future is not determined and shaped by each action we take, but we think there is a reason we Coven manifested in this universe of all the possible choices. While there are an infinite number of parallel universes and realities, there is only one Coven and we think this is the only universe with Narth. We are certain the decision is made here, in this reality, in this universe."
"So, this Eric. Is he the one you think he is? Is he the one to face the Dark Ones?"
"He came before the Coven and we showed him the Token to see if he could touch it. To m
e and you, to everyone, it appears to be a simple ring with a fanged skull symbol. Yet no one could touch it. It seems right before you, and yet, whenever you reach for it, it seems out of reach, always a fingertip width away, no matter how you try."
Richard held his breath. "It is one of those artefacts you told me about?"
"Yes, the circle is certain there are 12 pieces and once they are united the Dark One comes. We think that this ring is one of those."
"So what happened?"
"Eric wears that ring as we speak! He simply took it and mentioned how neat it looked. The Mother gave him the ring and he slipped it on his finger. We questioned him about his mentors and teachers as the prophecy is quite clear that there must be a white God-like creature. There was none in his life. He told us about his youth and how his mother was killed and all this does not fit the description of the promised defender. We are now pretty certain that he might be the father or grandfather of that champion. So if one believes in the prophecy, the coming of the Dark One is still far off, and then there is the prediction of the Narth Supreme that Eric one day becomes Narth. As much as I like to believe all this metaphysical stuff we Coven like so much, I trust Narth predictions far more."
Richard chuckled. "Amen to that. Now that we have discussed all this meta stuff, would you care to join me for a Weiswurscht and a Brezen?"
"What?"
"Local delicacies of my ancestral home. I am planning to attend a traditional fair and eat myself from one end of the Wiesn to the other with plenty of beer."
"I’d love to join you. What does one wear?"
"You will look gorgeous in a dirndl."
***
The Seneca was a mess. Whatever had hit her took out much of the engineering and had ripped a big hole in her side, exposing three decks and the framing underneath the armor plating. Technicians and engineers of the Michigan crawled all over, measuring, repairing and canning. Everyone was wearing spacesuits, not the emergency kind, but real standard issue multi-purpose suits, fully flight-capable, with a variety of sensors, tools and powerful lights. It took me a while to get my bearings. I had crossed the distance from the Scorpion to the damaged explorer vessel flying the suit. While I was not as panic-stricken as I had been on Daniel Station, I still could not shake my unexplainable fear of being in space with just a suit for protection. Even the smallest ship had some sort of artificial gravity giving me a sense of up and down. Even swimming or being weightless inside a ship or pool was no problem, but being in deep space, with nothing beneath my feet other than endless darkness was as nerve-wracking as it always had been. I didn't really feel weightless, it was a sensation of falling, but not in any direction my mind could determine and perhaps that was the reason for this phobia. Zezzazzzzz had ordered me over to the Seneca mostly to watch and learn, I guess, and also to secure whatever cargo we were supposed to take over.
I was greeted by an armed officer, who was carrying a double-barrel shoulder gun. His helmet plate was completely dark, but his rank insignia made him a Lieutenant Commander. "Identify yourself, cadet."
I did and after he scanned my CIT his tone turned a little less hostile. "You are as much a cadet as I am a Lieutenant Commander, not with that kind of clearance." He chuckled. "I bet this is the first time the Kermac lost a T-class raider fighting a cadet in a shuttle." Each word he underlined with pantomime quotation marks.
I didn't think it was my place to educate him or tell him that I really was just a cadet. He used a tight-focused index finger light to point at the ragged edges of the hole. "Those False-Beard whities might not have Translocators but their matter disintegrators are no joke either. It takes one hell of a weapon to tear such a hole, it's not the latest Ultronit armor of course but Saresii Ceramiplate as you can see, virtually indestructible by thermic energies."
He gave me a nice and quite interesting lecture on Union ship materials and Kermac weapon design and then simply let me stand where I was and floated up to two other men taking material scans. I wandered deeper into the former engineering section and swallowed hard as I saw a Garbini frozen stiff, hanging with one tentacle still at a hand hold. The furry being’s uniform identified him as a member of the Seneca engineering crew.
I wondered how many of the Seneca had died from this unprovoked attack by a Kermac ship, which the Union would keep secret. There should be a news crew taking images and transmitting them to the Assembly. What right did the Kermac have to commit a clear act of war?
While prejudging an entire race was something a Union officer should not do, I decided I did not like Kermac one bit. I remembered the two Cadets that died on the Yakuta world. It seemed this happened all the time. The Kermac pulled the tiger’s tail and we did nothing to stop them.
"Cadet, we have cleared a way to the cargo bay. Your package is undamaged and ready to be transferred." The man with the shoulder cannons had found me and pointed with his light finger down the dark corridor of the Seneca.
With the help of the Michigan engineers, I floated an eight by eight by 12 standard fleet container from the damaged explorer ship and loaded it into the Scorpion's small cargo bay. I noticed that while I was doing something and keeping my mind occupied I was able to handle the cramping feeling of fear in my stomach, at least somewhat. The container was bare of any markings, but I noticed the dark graphite shimmer and the fine hexagon pattern of the material. This standard container was made of the finest and strongest armor material known to Union Tech, molecule-compacted Ultronit. Ferrous atoms encapsulated in a buckyball lattice woven in superdense carbon fibers. It would take the biggest TKU at highest density to even scratch it. Something very valuable or very dangerous was inside that box.
After securing the box and changing back into uniform, Zezzazzzzz ordered me to plot a course to Tabernacle 12, avoiding major traffic routes. It took me a little longer to plot that course as it took us more or less 4,000 light years to cross the Upward Sector to the fringes of the Sagitarius Arm and the main region of Union space.
It would take us several days to get there since we could not fly as fast as we could. I had to calculate our trip to the very limits of our small craft’s fuel, and conserving it by flying slower was the only way. We would arrive with nothing more than a few grams of molecular-compacted hydrogen to spare.
The fact that we were in Union space and there were plenty of places we could refuel meant nothing, because our orders specifically prohibited contact under any circumstance.
Zezz and I rotated in the pilot seat every six hours. He stressed scanner observation to see if we were followed, intercepted or otherwise trailed.
It was near the end of my fourth shift when he came from the back, entering the little bridge and snarled, "Report!"
"Sensors show 18 contacts in range but none of them have changed course to intercept us. Sixteen are identified as civilian craft and two are Fleet units."
"Did you check on possible mini- or micro-signatures? Indicating something camouflaged or running suppressed?"
"Yes Sir, as you instructed me. I added a subroutine to the scanner programs depressing any filter activity so everything is displayed then calibrated them to the max. There are no such signatures in scanner range."
"Very well. Go get something to eat and then get some rest."
"Aye, Sir."
I got up and he sat down. "Say Ensign, how is it the Fleet Admiral knows you personally? I serve this Fleet for 35 years and only met him twice in all that time. Most officers never see him at all."
"There was a mission during my first week at the Academy when I met him first, and then there was an incident at basic training that got him involved again."
"And I thought Larson and I caused some trouble. To get McElligott involved – that must have been one hell of an incident!"
"An incident that got me arrested, tortured and whipped at the post."
Even though he had an alien lizard face I could see the surprise in his eyes. "Whipped? I know it's on the books but I nev
er heard of it actually being done!"
I more or less told him what happened, leaving out just a few details, and he listened without interrupting. When I was done he inhaled air with a sharp sound. "I sure commend you for staying. Everybody knows about the Worm, but I had no idea it went that far up the ladder."
"What actually is the Worm?"
He lowered his voice. It is an open secret, Ensign. No one officially will confirm its existence of course, and if you ask most Fleet personnel they think it's just a bogey story, but the Worm exists. The United Stars Navy is so big and spread over such a large area, it is hard to police and really control it all. Secret societies and fraternity groups develop within the Navy. Some are just founded by officers with no other intent than to hang out and have a reason to party and drink. Others are less harmless and seek Terran, Saran, Pan Saran or Ult dominance over the entire Union space, to overthrow the Union and make it an Empire with one dictator or Emperor on top. One of these organizations is called the Worm and is a criminal organization dealing with illegal Mil Tech, drugs and, most vile of all, sentient beings. You know, slaves! It is called the Worm because it’s wiggled its way into the niches and crevices of our organization while being soft and malleable, shapeless and easily overlooked."
"And the Navy isn't doing anything about that?" I asked, astounded by that information.
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7 Page 4