SHADOW STAR

by Patrick Rees

  I landed on the same spot Venessa had taken me during my first visit here. I walked into the same structure as before. The same polite lady greeted me and took me to a different room than before, to change.

  “The high elder is waiting on you so please get ready to talk to him as soon as you can.”

  So much for a rest, I was going straight to work. I washed my face and changed into one of their customary togas again. It was not the same one as last time. This one was a lighter gray than a suit I had back at the dorm. I had to laugh to myself. I had bought that suit for job interviews for when I graduated. Somehow I did not think I would be looking for a job after graduation now.

  I was back out in the hallway in 20 minutes. She had waited for me quietly in the hall. I hoped this was not an indication of how important my meeting would be.

  “Thank you for getting ready so quickly. We will go to his office immediately.”

  I followed her without comment. My mind drifted off to all the worst possible situations. I dared not think too much but it was no use, I

  could only worry as we walked down the hallway. The high elder was his usual polite and greeted me warmly. He again waited until the lady was out of the room and closed the door before he said anything of substance.

  “You are well?”

  “Yes sir.” I was waiting for the real meeting to start.

  “Of course you were asked to return due to our current situation here.”

  Here it came. I was almost holding my breath as he continued.

  “We sent in fifty Star People and held fifteen here in reserve. The rest of you were left in your individual sectors as a precaution. We have extensive ordinary armed forces. We sent a large contingent of our regular active duty ‘troops’ as you would call them in just after the initial assault by the Star People. We were trying to put an end to this madness as quickly as possible. We were only marginally successful. War is anything but predictable. Crass had prepared well and partially anticipated our moves. His Dark Warriors were effective but not as well trained as you had told us. We eliminated many of them but Crass escaped with what we are guessing is his best trained Dark Warriors.

  “We have a sad situation to discuss. Some Star People were captured. An overwhelming number of Dark Warriors and something akin to special forces were used as in an ambush of our people. I don’t know why they thought hostages would be an effective deterrent in a full scale war but that is the situation we faced.”

  “Faced sir? What happened? Why do you say ‘faced’?”

  As old of a man he even looked (not to imagine his actual age), he physically cringed at my question. I knew the answer would not be something I would want to hear by his reaction.

  “We did not want a hostage situation. We were in pursuit of Crass and must be in a commanding position to capture and hold him. We sent in an additional ten Star People with our special forces to free the hostages. All the Star People on this assignment were volunteers. I am sorry to tell you Venessa was in the second group. The action was successful but some of our people are not accounted for even now. Venessa appears to have been taken prisoner, not a hostage, with a few other Star People. We find the situation unacceptable. Crass is in retreat and will be cornered and captured by a group of Star People and our forces with them.

  “You were called to help find and free Venessa and the others with her.”

  As he paused to look at my reaction to his long report of the war and the request to enter the war, I took a long deep breath. My dream popped into my mind, front and center.

  “Of course I will help. Do you want me to go and free the prisoners, sir?”

  “Not immediately. We need your help locating them first. Venessa gave you a charm which links the two of you. Do you have the charm with you now?’

  “Yes.” is all I said as I pulled it out from under my clothes. It was not glowing.

  “Can you see if you can communicate to her now? She may be able to send word somehow where they are being kept.”

  I said nothing more and held the charm and closed my eyes. I focused on Venessa. I had only used the charm once before when I was hurt after my fight with the Dark Warriors. The first time I had called out to her and passed out. This time I was in perfect shape and fully awake. I thought as loud as I dared in my mind ‘Venessa, are you ok and where are you?’.

  I had used the aurora to travel to this very office during meditation. It did not take long for the charm to glow. She was alive. As the glow became very bright, I again thought the words, ‘Where are you?’.

  I waited and tried to relax my mind more and go further into a meditation like state. I had been able to focus on a place I had been before but I had never been anywhere across the border. I began to feel warm. I knew Venessa was doing her best. I began to see a dark room with people sitting on the floor. Venessa did not know where exactly she was being held. We must have been in good connection to each other now. She immediately focused on a new scene. There was a large planet with two moons. The image slowly widened out to a whole solar system with more than a dozen planets. She was on the fourth planet. The image shifted further to an odd double galaxy with both galaxies being stretched at impossible angles. I felt the solar system being highlighted by a brighter than normal glow on the last image.

  The images slowly faded. I was exhausted from the efforts and was sure Venessa was spent from it too. I did not realize how much effort it took, I was sweating when I opened my eyes. I just sat there and stared. The high elder did not say anything for a while. He let me rest and collect myself. When he did ask me what I saw I told him I knew where she was and could describe the location. He nodded and pulled out a large map with galaxies and planets listed, clearly showing where the border existed. A three-dimensional image would

  have been better but I recognized the galaxy I had seen. He then pulled out the map for the only system in the entire double galaxy which had at least twelve planets. It looked familiar.

  “We can take it from here. Thank you. Please remain here while we perform the rescue operation.”

  “Sir, with all due respect, I would like to go on this mission.”

  He smiled and sat back in his chair. I had a feeling he expected my request. It was Venessa after all. I could not fear my dream. After all, I had lived through my dream.

  He said simply, “Ok.”.

  “Thank you, sir.”.

  “Please get some rest. We have some mission planning to do. I will have you called to attend the mission briefing when we get all the components of the mission coordinated. That was very good work, Patrick.”

  I was shocked to hear him use my given name. I smiled at him in return.

  “Oh, I have one last thing. Please stay out of my office if you are not invited. Yes, I know you wondered through here some short time ago. Don’t worry, I know you where experimenting. I was surprised you discovered that talent so quickly on your own.”

  I did not know what to say. He laughed. I must have looked like a child caught with its hand in the cookie jar. He had already paged the lady who was always my escort here. She knocked on the door and we left going back to the room I had washed up in earlier.

  “Good night, sir.” is all she said. I must have looked beat. The long travel here and the effort to locate Venessa and the others took more out of me than I figured it had. I slept very well, dreamlessly.

  Again, I was awakened from a deep sleep here. She was being patient. I have no idea how long she had been knocking this time to wake me up. I answered the door like some drugged old man.

  “They are ready, sir. Is thirty minutes enough time to be ready?”.

  “Yes, please don’t feel like you must wait for me. I will be ready in thirty minutes. Please come get me then.”

  I was dressed in my Shadow Star suit and fully armed in twenty-five minutes. This gave me just enough time to focus
on Venessa in a short meditation. I said simply, ‘I am coming’. She would know the rest. As I felt the same warmth I had felt earlier, my escort knocked on the door. I smiled to myself and answered the door.

  “Very good sir.”, she said and led me to the high elders office again. I expected going back to the large meeting room I had been in for the meeting with the council of the elders. Smaller audience this time was my thought as we entered the office.

  “Welcome back Shadow Star.”, the high elder said as he motioned me to a seat in the room. There was a few of the elders present. I guessed these were the most senior ones in the council. There were also some uniformed men in the room. They must be senior military personnel. One gentleman in uniform was standing. The presentation was his to give. Once again, after my escort had left closing the door, the high elder began by saying, “Please begin the briefing.”

  “We have arranged a diversion around our rescue of the prisoners.”, the man standing in the center of the room said. Pointing to a

  location on the fourth planet which I had identified, “The building we have determined which is most likely holding the prisoners is here.” A separate attack on a command and control center here will divert enough attention to allow us to free and escape with the prisoners.”

  “Shadow Star, you will be with the rescue unit, only observing and only getting directly involved in the action if the situation demands it.”, naturally the high elder.

  “Yes sir.” I was ready. They trained the Star People very well. I was sure they trained their special forces equally as well. Only the unknown and my dream gave me reason to pause. There could be no doubt I was racing head long into a situation which could easily turn out to be my dream. I had no choice. I had to make sure Venessa was rescued unharmed.

  “Get some more sleep. They will come get you when they are ready to leave.”, the high elder again.

  “When sir?”

  “In only a few hours. Rest now. You may not be able to rest for some time after this action begins. No one comes back this time unless everyone is accounted for and brought back home.”

  Everyone in the room knew what that meant. No man, no one, left behind. I got up and headed towards the door.

  “Please wait a minute.”, the high elder excused the rest of the meeting attendees. “I am well aware of the dream you had. I warned you and Venessa not to take unnecessary risks. Her services were required. We were spread too thin chasing Crass. The same goes for you. Watch yourself. It may come down to events we can not foretell. Remember what you learned from all of us, it can save your life. Most important is your special relationship with Venessa. Only

  use those talents if absolutely necessary.” He looked intently at me. “If you get a chance to end this madness, do it.”

  He knew something, I could tell. I also knew enough not to ask. I left and went back to bed. I would be ready when they came for me.

  Chapter 19

  The knock this time was answered the first time. I was up and dressed. The lady smiled but did not say anything.

  “I am ready.”

  She turned to lead me once again. We went to a part of the building I had never been in before. It looked like a large airplane hangar. Did the high elder never sleep? He was there talking to a uniformed man. He looked over to see me coming but continued his conversation with the man.

  I waited until his conversation was finished. He looked in my direction but still said nothing. He was looking beyond me so naturally I had to turn around to see where or at whom he was looking. The man who gave the presentation in the high elder’s office was walking in our direction.

  “Everything set?”, asked the high elder.

  “Yes, we are ready.”

  “Please be specific and tell how you need Shadow Star to help you.”

  He looked at me with indifference. Star People were common here. He asked if I knew where we were going. I said yes. He said it would be best for me to follow a certain ship which would be responsible for the actual rescue operation. Another group of ships would create the diversionary attack on the planet control spaces. He told us they were reasonably certain the building the prisoners were being held. He hinted at operatives in the area now. I thought everyone has spies.

  “Did you get something to eat?”, said the high elder. He was still trying to act the host.

  “Yes sir. They had placed provisions in my room. I have some snacks and water with me.”

  He nodded. He asked that we all be as careful as possible. He then looked intently at me again. He was no doubt reminding me without words his direction to end this war if I had the chance to do so. I smiled and nodded. He knew I had gotten the message.

  “Proceed.”, was all the order we got from the high elder.

  I walked over to the ship which I was assigned to. They noted my presence and began their takeoff procedures. All the other groups were already in orbit. The thought this was my real final exam made me laugh to myself.

  I flew out of the hangar following the ship as it went. There was a small fleet of these little ships waiting on us in orbit. They were serious. This was to be a decisive action. There would be no one left behind this time.

  We left on our assigned vectors and approached the border. I don’t know what kind of jamming or stealth they had but no one greeted us at the border. We flew on to our assigned positions. No doubt they were waiting on a given ‘go’ hour or command. I looked around and saw nothing, no one. Would they not protect a planet which had a command and control center on it? As I thought this the ‘go’ must have been given. I watched a spot on the planet light up unnaturally. I guessed this was their version of a bombardment. There was a response now. The planet had defenses everywhere. They all came to life at once. Wow, I hoped these guys were as good as the elders hinted they were.

  My ship began to move slowly in a direction away from the main action. At some point along the transition they went almost straight down. Reentry was a matter of physics. The ship glowed bright red but continued on its descent. The material properties of the ship must have been amazing. No indication the ship was worried about how fast they were falling into the planet’s atmosphere. Maybe this was part of the plan. If they were noticed they may look like a meteor. I did not believe that. In a war footing, anything out of the ordinary would get attention.

  Soon my thoughts proved to be correct. The planet defenses focused on the ship but it was traveling too fast to be intercepted. I did what I could to protect the ship and began eliminating ground batteries.

  Before the ship would reach the building shown in the mission brief, all ground fire had ceased. They would be smarter than that. They would hold fire bases in reserve.

  The ship all but crashed into the surface and men started pouring out of it. I was a sort of air cover for them. At this point I could not tell how well the control center operation was proceeding. The situation was the confusion of war at its best.

  I noticed a large movement on the surface some miles between us and the area where the control center was being blown to pieces. I had to assume this was a counter attack. It did not take long to prove that guess correct. My special forces friends were finishing up just in time. I saw them begin to emerge from the building with new people. I had to remind myself, Star People look like everyone else without their suits on. I did not see anyone who even remotely could be Venessa.

  I could not wait any longer. As flawlessly as the operation had been up to this point I had to enter the building to see what could be the delay. Our team saw me immediately. I motioned with my hands

  ‘what’ and they pointed. There was a part of the building which was more heavily defended than the rest. Did we have a second control center located with the prisoners? It was a good plan by them but it did complicate matters.

  I had to act. I flew down the hall as fast as I dared (inside) and
began clearing defenses and enemy operatives. I saw the special operatives I was helping start to perform their rescue. I was planning on putting this second control complex out of commission and then joining them outside.

  Something very heavy hit me in the back of the head. I bounced off the wall and the floor, sprawling around to see what I had hit (or who or what had hit me). I saw a dark figure as I also saw a flash coming straight to my face. I was knocked out, again.

  Later I learned I had been ambushed. Crass had circled back with his select Dark Warriors as his personal body guard. Our bad luck, he was in the very building we were performing the rescue in. I had been knocked silly by one of his best Dark Warriors. If I had seen him watching the special operatives struggling to continue, I would have been more careful. He was not going to get involved in the action to free the prisoners. Crass had been in the control room I had sped toward. He was monitoring the action across the planet at the main control center and only paying small notice to the group entering the building for the rescue. Bad luck? Trap? I still don’t know that answer for certain. It was another twist of war, the unknown.