Enemy Myself

by Daniel OConnell

  Marianne now angry yells, “No momma I go too!”

  Abe grins as he sees Carla begin to get annoyed, “Carla its ok, let her come with me. She’ll be fine.”

  Carla stares at Abe in shock and instantly rips him into the psychic realm, yelling, “Abe what they hell are you doing! We need to make sure everything is safe before we risk our children!”

  Abe chuckles, replying, “Carla I really don’t see a threat here. If these people wanted to hurt us they could have done so long ago. If we are going to move to this place to raise our children I need to see just how our children will react to these people and how these people will react to our children. Now Carla you need to take a step back for a moment and let me see things from a clearer perspective.” Abe pauses as he stares intently into Carla’ eyes, continuing, “Now let’s face the facts, you can’t see what we’re going into because of all these psychic shields they have and I know that scares you a little but I don’t need psychic powers to read the law of the land and see what we’re heading into. You know how my mind works and when I’m there I can use that gift your Father gave me to see exactly what we are up against. Remember Carla we choose to do this so our children may have a hope of having a chance at a somewhat normal life. Just how are we going to learn if they can if we don’t expose them to us and us to them.”

  Carla huffs aloud in frustration as she exclaims, “Abe your right about me having my doubts and yes it’s probably because I can’t see what’s ahead for us but I think its still too dangerous for you to take Marianne.”

  Abe tilts his head, stating, “Carla I have another reason for bringing Marianne. I know you have a secondary power that allows you to communicate with our children just as Caleb could with you and that power cannot be easily blocked. So, while Marianne is with me you will be able to see what we are doing and what is happening.”

  Carla eyes open in surprise, stating, “I know what you’re talking about, how I can see through our children’s eyes just like my Father could see through mine but I think it’s far too dangerous to expose them just for that. Abe, I’m just a little worried about exposing our children like this. Can’t we just wait a little bit.”

  Abe gets a stern expression and says, “Carla she will be with me and you know better than anyone that there is no one better at protecting our family than me. Besides you know how much I wanted to try out my new toy.” Abe focuses his thoughts on the maintaince drone as the image is manifested in the psychic plane.

  Carla, sensing Abe’s complete resolve in going to Ulysses world sighs heavily and says, “Fine Abe I’ll consider it but I’m not happy about this one bit.”

  Marianne suddenly appears in the psychic plane and giggles, saying aloud, “I can go.”

  Both Carla and Abe are taken by surprise as Marianne has entered the plane by herself. Carla in disbelief asks, “Young lady how did you get in here?”

  Marianne smiles and innocently replies, “My thingy brings me in here all the time Momma.”

  Abe looks confused and asks aloud, “Thingy?”

  Carla whimpers aloud as she recalls what she used call Ronin long before he completely manifested himself as she replies, “It’s what I use to call Ronin before he became Ronin. Our symbiot’s guide us as we grow but they don’t really speak to us until we are ready. Marianne is very much like me.”

  Marianne still smiling begins to dance around, saying, “I can go! I can go!”

  Abe chuckles, replying, “Well if your mom is ok with it…”

  Carla scowls towards Abe, stating, “Make me the bad guy… Fine, she can go but you promise me to keep her with you at all times.”

  Abe grins, answering, “Carla I’ll have some of my most advanced technology with me, she’ll be safe.”

  The three instantly return to their physical bodies and as always barely a moment transpires as hardly anyone notices they were away. Al that is except for Ulysses and Ismail.

  Ismail speaks loudly, “Carla please tell me you talked some sense into your husband.”

  Carla huffs, stating, “They can both go Ismail. We both know that Abe is more than capable of protecting us.”

  Ismail looks at Ulysses and once more states, “Then I will go to insure their safety.”

  Kalen step forward and states, “I think it best that the Earth not be the first to make a diplomatic contact without a Paladonian representative present as well.”

  Ismail angrily grabs Kalen arm and twist him around, yelling, “I’m not going as a diplomate you moron! I’ll be going as a…”

  Ulysses interrupts both, announcing, “I’m sorry but taking Master Abraham and his Daughter is pushing my luck as far as I dare. I am truly sorry to you both but you two will need to wait here on Ronin until the council decides whether to allow you to enter our space.”

  Carla, feeling impatient separates herself from Ronin as her physical body appears where her psychic avatar was just hovering a second before. She looks directly at Ulysses and says, “I already know that your people fear me Ulysses despite the best efforts of you and your crew to hide that from me. Nonetheless, I’m trusting my family to you and your crew.”

  Ulysses lowers his head and humbly replies, “I would give my life to protect them.”

  Frasier sits down in his command chair and asks, “So we will pass through this galactic gateway and wait for your people to allow us to enter your space.”

  Ulysses sighs heavily as he answers, “I cannot give you permission to pass through our gateway.”

  Carla interrupts, stating, “And you can’t prevent us from following you through it either.”

  Ulysses looks at Carla and cautiously speaks, “This is true Mistress Carla, I cannot stop you but nor can I protect you and Ronin once you pass through our gate. You will be exposed to not only our people but all those other civilizations to whom we have relations with and they may find a ship of such power within our space a conceivable threat.”

  Frasier chuckles, stating, “We do have a thing called a cloak.”

  Ulysses looks to Frasier, answering, “And some of our associates have ways to scan you cloaked or not.”

  Ismail looks to Carla and grins, stating, “You mean psychically.”

  Ulysses grins as he humbly replies, “It is true that Carla is more than capable of blocking the psychic scans of most beings but even her strength would be tested in trying to hide from the collective mind of the Dorsa should they become aware of such a powerful psychic within our space.”

  Carla irritated stamps her foot down and says, “This is not up for discussion, we will pass through the gateway and wait on the other side.”

  The conversation continues for another hour but nothing is changed from Carla’s last statement.

  Later that day, Abe prepares himself to leave as he packs his bag with several of his most advanced inventions. However, it is this special advanced maintaince drone that he has explicitly spent the past week modifying that garnishes the most of his attention. The Drone is twice the size of standard drones.

  Carla enters the room, seeing Abe place his bag over this drone’s arm as he looks it over. Carla concerned asks, “What exactly are you doing with that huge drone big brain.”

  Abe turns to Carla and smiles, saying, “Come on now Carla, do you really think I’m not prepared for anything and everything.”

  The Drone turns to Carla and speaks, “Drone Zeta Seven is ready.”

  Carla, looking perplexed asks, “Abe, just what do you plan on doing with this oversized maintaince drone?”

  Abe, grinning states, “Well it’s not just a drone Carla it’s pretty much one of the most advanced devices I have ever created. It has over a hundred different defense systems as well as the most advanced infiltration scanning systems I’ve ever conceived of and best of all it has a built-in force field generator that can completely protect me and Marianne from anything short of a full barrage of medium plasma cannon fire.”

  Carla exhales deeply as she looks over the
drone and then looks at Abe, asking, “I’m guessing it also has one of Uncle Val’s shift drive units built into it.”

  Abe snickers, replying, “Well yeah. What good is a force field if it can’t get us out of there but let’s hope I won’t need it. Besides it also has a present just for you.”

  Carla curious asks, “What kind of present?”

  Abe nonchalantly states, “It can scan the frequency of all their psionic scramblers and disable them, thus allowing you to access any area around a hundred yards that it stands within.”

  Carla grins, stating, “AHHH, I like that.”

  Jesse suddenly enters the room, chasing after his sister as they run towards their parents. Jesse whines loudly, asking, “Papa why can’t I go? I’m the oldest.”

  Abe kneels next to his son, starring him right in the eye and says, “Because I need you to be the brave hero that your destined to be and protect your mom, okay.”

  Carla smiles as she kneels next to Marianne and asks, “My baby girl, don’t you want to stay here and protect your momma too?”

  Marianne looks at her mother for a minute then giggles and says, “Nope.”

  Abe and Carla chuckle as Abe picks up Marianne and says, “Okay everyone let’s head down to the Salem.

  Zeta Seven picks up all the remaining bags, using its tractor beam system and states “Active defense mode engaged.”

  The four of them head down the lift and through the Bridge, down to the hangar bay as Frasier, Ismail, Raphael and Kalen, all wait outside the destroyer Salem.

  Raphael steps forward and states, “Abe I hope your journey is a safe one.”

  The Salem’s Doctor Emily steps out of Salem, seeing the family there she states, “Welcome aboard Master Abraham, Mistress Marianne.”

  Ulysses swiftly steps out from behind Emily and sees the oversized maintaince drone still with Abe and smirks. He walks over to Abe and says privately, “Master Abraham just so you know I’m fully aware that drone is probably not one of your standard drones. Especially knowing your reputation as it is but even though I know it to be more I will still allow it onboard my ship. Master Abraham you should also know there are many amongst my government that are equally aware of just how creative you are and they may see something like this drone as a threat.”

  Abe, trying his best to hide his awkwardness innocently grins, saying, “Come on Ulysses, it’s just a simple drone.”

  Ulysses chuckles as he turns to Salem and asks, “Salem scan that drone.”

  Salem announces, “The drone has multiple scrambling fields, which make it impervious to my standard scans.”

  Ronin suddenly speaks up, “We are in position to enter the Galactic gateway of Ulysses people.”

  Ulysses shakes his head and says, “Okay let’s get going Abe and don’t forget to bring your security blanket.”

  Abe quickly grabs Carla and kisses her as he turns towards the Salem, picking up Marianne as he enters the ship.

  The Salem wastes no time as it launches from Ronin’s flight deck. Frasier looks towards Carla and states, “Carla, perhaps now would be a good time for you to merge yourself with Ronin, just in case we need that extra power once we get through that gateway.”

  Carla looks towards Ismail who walks over to Jesse, grabbing him up in his arms, saying, “Come to your Uncle my brave godson.”

  Carla smiles at Ismail, merging herself once more within the Ronin ship, increasing its overall power across the board. Carla uses her mind to scan across the great expanse of space as she can see everything within mere moments. Carla scans both sides of the galactic gateway and sees no apparent danger. She than recreates her psychic avatar on the bridge of the Salem and says to Ulysses, “I can see nothing around either gateway. We will be right behind you when you pass through the gateway and will remain cloaked.”

  Ulysses clearly not happy about the Ronin ship being so close to his people states once again, “Mistress Carla I know my pleas go upon deaf ears but I think it best that you wait on this side of the galactic gateway until I clear everything with my people first.”

  Carla smiles, replying, “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  UNWANTED

  Onboard the destroyer class ship Salem, Abe, Marianne and Zeta Seven enter the Bridge as it closes in on the galactic gateway. Salem immediately announces, “Commander Ulysses as you had asked earlier for a proper scan of the drone I took it upon myself that you did not wish for me to expose just how detailed my scanners are, please allow me to now give a full report. The Drone has a highly-sophisticated defense system as well as the same stealth scanning systems as I possess, albeit still primitive in comparison. I also detect multiple null space pockets around the Drone.”

  Ulysses grins, stating, “Salem has advanced scanning systems that even by most current standards excels in comparison, which incidentally were designed by you in the future time line.”

  Abe grumbles, asking, “So I am guessing a lot of this future technology I created in the alternate time line is being used by your people?”

  Salem responds to Abe’s question, “Limited access to advanced technology of the alternate time line is reserved for Black guard and elite government officials only. We still had to protect the time line up until you successfully defeated the Meli of this time line.”

  Ulysses continues to smirk listening to Salem as he finally speaks up, stating, “We have many different races to whom we still have…” Ulysses suddenly realizes he may say too much and pauses. He closes his eyes for a moment and then opens them, stating, “Well let’s just say we have some rather delicate relations with some of them and exposure to our more advanced technology would most certainly be alarming to them.”

  Abe exhales clearly annoyed at Ulysses reluctant statement, asking, “You risk your life and those of your crew to save me and Carla. You then exposed your people to everyone but still you believe you have to keep secrets?”

  Ulysses huffs, “I will have much to answer for upon my return for all the choices I’ve made but keeping secretes from you is not my intent.” Ulysses lowers his head in thought for a brief moment and then looks at Abe, stating, “Let’s just leave it at I think it’s best for you to discover my world as it is without my opinions clouding your judgement.”

  Salem announces, “We are in range of the gateway and I am sending the activation code. The Ronin vessel is cloaked and closing behind us. I can create an energy pulse that would prevent the Ronin Super Carrier from entering the gateway.”

  Ulysses looks over at Abe who is staring intently at Ulysses as he responds, “Just activate the gateway Salem, that is all.”

  The galactic gateway opens as both ships pass through.

  Ulysses noting that they have cleared the gateway asks, “Salem any sign of any ships in the area?”

  Salem responds, “Negative Commander. However, I was able to scan the energy displacement of the Ronin ship as it passed through the gateway. Commander Ulysses it should be noted that although Ronin’s cloak is far more advanced than anything we have it is still susceptible to detection by psychic or mass energy displacement readings.”

  Ulysses immediately enters the psychic plane and hurriedly looks out as far as he can. After a brief moment of searching he suddenly realizes that he cannot sense Carla anywhere. Fully aware that Carla must be nearby he looks out over the plane and yells, “Carla I know you are here!”

  Carla instantly manifests herself right in front of Ulysses and says, “The only reason you know I am here Ulysses is because you knew I would be watching you and not because you detected me. Don’t worry about me Ulysses I can mask myself and my people from any psychic scans. I will be waiting for your word to follow but do not make me wait too long as patience is not one of my better virtues.”

  Ulysses bows to Carla in respect and exits the psychic plane. He looks at Abe and briefly grins, stating, “Mistress Carla is a very determined woman.”

  Abe chuckles aloud, replyi
ng, “Yeah and I’m sure she told you that she isn’t known for her patience either.”

  Ulysses grins from ear to ear, stating, “You know your wife very well Master Abraham.”

  Abe looks down at his daughter and then looks back to Ulysses, saying, “Ulysses I know it’s a sign of respect and all but I prefer if you just call me Abe. I really hate this Master Abraham crap and it’s starting to wear thin on me besides you’ve slipped up a few times calling me by nickname.”

  Ulysses lowers his head and then says, “During our first encounter I may have accidently neglected to give you proper respect in speaking with you but in my culture a nickname is reserved for friendship and I feel I haven’t earned that honor with you as of yet.”

  Abe takes Ulysses hand and says, “You risked everything to save me and my wife…” Abe pauses as he stares intently at Ulysses, continuing, “But you are right you are not my friend.” Abe pauses once more as he sees Ulysses looks up at Abe in shock. Abe quickly smirks as he continues, “You are far more to me than a friend, you are part of our family.”

  Ulysses humbled by Abe’s words slowly turns towards Marianne and says, “I am honored to be considered a part of that family Abe.”

  Salem announces, “We have our course set in and are ready to go our estimated time to arrive at Avalon is twenty-seven hours, fourteen minutes and thirty-one seconds. Currently, I show no response to any of our hails to the high command. Nevertheless, I am able to pick up all regular broadcasts throughout our systems as the situation back home appears to be normal. It would appear that we are purposely being ignored.”

  Ulysses groans heavily as he looks up at the viewport and says aloud, “It would appear that my people are aware of your imminent arrival and regrettably are not being very courteous about it.”

  Abe quickly becomes annoyed at the state of affairs and says, “Perhaps it might be helpful if I spoke to them directly.”

  Ulysses shrugs his shoulder and turns towards the communication officer and orders, “Direct the holocom to Master Abraham.”