Chapter 18

“So what is the plan, sir?” Kanisha asked before the rest of us could.

“Right now, there is no plan. Everything that we discussed is pure conjecture. It is just so Machiavellian, and it all fits together so well. It’s reminiscent of 21st Century politics, but we have no proof of anything that we discussed ... yet. So we will continue with the preparations to meet with the Leaders of the first colonists.

“However, that will not keep us from being prepared for any eventuality. Kanisha, I’m putting you in charge of seeing that everything that isn’t essential to our present operations is packed up in the warehouse and ready to be moved on a moment’s notice. Get with Sergeant Bell and be sure that the cold storage units are hooked up to our Power Units. We will take them with us, if practical. Check on the field rations. If things appear to be deteriorating, issue all of our personnel as many as they can easily carry. Have everyone check their weapons and field gear, also.

“Cleve, check on all of the Partners and their gear. Make sure they are ready to deploy if necessary. Also check on our computers and other electronic gear. If we need to leave in a hurry and can’t take them with us, we’ll have to destroy them. They can’t be allowed to fall into the hands of the Parthas Military. The same goes for all of our classified material.

“Captain Roanoke, can you spare a few men to help out in the warehouse with packing and moving equipment and supplies?” she asked next.

“Yes sir, I can have a squad there any time you need them, plus someone to run the forklift,” he assured her.

“Good, thank you. We are also going to need more transportation. We have way more people than can be moved with our organic vehicles. Captain Roanoke, I’m authorizing you to have your people search the surrounding area for vehicles to move our personnel and some of our supplies and equipment. At least one Partner and their human handler will accompany each of your search parties. The selected vehicles and whatever fuel you can locate for them need to be moved close to our location, but not into our compound at this time. Have some of your people try to find locations close to us where they can be parked out of sight,” the Colonel directed.

We all left then to see to our responsibilities. Later there was a staff meeting in the lobby. It was late by the time we got to chow, and even later when we all arrived in the conference room for that night’s work on our Talents by the Irish girls. It was again done under the supervision of Dr. Mellifont and the Medical Team.

In the morning, I awoke feeling refreshed and better than I had in some time. The others were awakening around me, but it was Lucy who was the most exuberant.

“Oh my God!” she said in amazement on sitting up with a huge smile on her face. “I have never felt this fantastic in my life. I can actually feel the Magic of the Planet. Now I know why they named it Paradise. If your Talent is strong enough, you can actually feel the Planet around and under you. It’s like it’s alive!” she finished in amazement.

“It’s no wonder the original settlers didn’t want to join those who arrived in the second wave. Will we be able to feel this also?” the Colonel asked, realizing what she had said meant.

“I’m not sure,” Lucy said in a less cheerful voice.

In the meantime, those on the Medical Team, who had been watching over us, were preparing to leave, after collecting their monitoring equipment from us. Dr. Mellifont was the last one to leave, and she stopped to talk to the Colonel.

“We have watched and monitored all of you for two nights now. We have seen no indication that anything was done to any of you. Those young women have only touched you lightly on your arms or head. There were no changes in your blood pressure or breathing. Your oxygen levels hardly changed at all the entire time. How can any of you claim to be different or affected in any way?” she asked.

“On the physical level, we may not have changed much, but on the mental level, I feel sharper and more able to deal with things. I also feel much better physically,” the Colonel informed her. “We will see if there are any more changes when they are finished, which will hopefully be tonight,” the Colonel added before rising to go to her room to change clothes.

Later that morning, a message came into commo.

“First Mobile Commo, this is Franklin Commo. Come in. Over.”

“Franklin Commo, First Mobile Commo. Send your message. Over.”

“First Mobile, Franklin. This message is classified and is encoded. Are you prepared to record? It is to be delivered to your S-2 to be decoded and then delivered to your Commander. Over.”

“Franklin, First Mobile. We are ready to record. Send your message. Over.” What followed was a series of grunts and squeaks that lasted for about ten seconds.

Sergeant Dohla arrived in S-3 shortly after that with a small computer storage unit in his hand.

“Sir, this contains a classified message that we just received from the Franklin. It is also encoded,” he informed me, handing me the small storage unit.

“Thank you, Dohla. I’ll have the S-2 take care of it. Were there any other instructions?” I asked.

“Franklin Commo said that it was to be delivered to the Colonel, sir,” he informed me.

“Of course, she would need to see anything that came in that was classified and / or encoded. Thank you, again,” I told him, before he returned to commo. I went over to Joel’s desk.

“Something classified and encoded,” I told him, handing him the storage unit.

“Action?” he asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine until we get it decoded,” I replied. He opened the classified material safe and removed the classified computer. After it warmed up, we waited for it to come online. We both needed to enter our access codes before it would do anything. Luther then inserted the storage unit and selected the instructions for what the computer was to do with it. Shortly, the screen lit up with the decoded message. We were both surprised not only by what it said, but by the ending of the message.

“We’ll need to print this out with at least three copies,” Luther told me. We needed to connect the classified computer to the printer with a special cable, as it wasn’t allowed to print using the normal electronic transmission system. After returning the classified computer and the storage unit to the safe, we adjourned to the Colonel’s office to inform her of the message.

“Sir, we have received a classified and encoded message. You need to see it,” I told her in my most serious voice.

“What could be so serious, Cleve?” she asked before I handed her the three copies of the message. They were all marked Top Secret. The expression on her face changed as she went through the message. There was surprise at the classification, happiness at the message, and then shock and amazement at the signature. She hadn’t said anything before Captain Roanoke arrived with additional news.

“Sir, I just... !” he stumbled to a stop on seeing our faces. “Problem!?” he asked very quietly.

“Read this message, Captain,” the Colonel directed, and handed him the top copy of the message.

His hands were shaking when he finished reading it and handed it back. He hadn’t said anything yet. It was the Colonel who spoke next.

“The request for permission to do that went to Admiral Stanfield yesterday afternoon,” she informed him. “And we just received this,” she said, indicating the message.

“Oh Shit!!” he said and paused.

“Oh shit! indeed,” the Colonel replied.

“But that would mean that he is probably sitting out in the Ort cloud with ... with at least a Battalion of Space Marines and... !” he just stopped, as he realized what he was about to say meant.

“You know who he is?” the Colonel asked.

“Yes, Old Punish and Hurt! If you thought Admiral Rockler was tough, he is a pussy cat compared to Patrick Henry Patton, three-star Fleet Admiral. He is probably sitting out there with, at least, two Battle ships and their Task-forces plus a couple of Carriers. He is waiting for something to kill. That’s what he does. Everyone in the Navy knows about old Punish and Hurt Patton,” he told us in a very quiet voice.

“God help us,” he added in a near whisper.

“God may be too far away to hear you,” the Colonel whispered, but soon threw off the melancholy that we all felt to return to her old self.

“What was it that you wanted to tell me, Captain Roanoke?” she asked in a self-assured voice.

“I wanted to inform you that one of the teams we sent out located a tanker truck full of fuel. We’ll have plenty of fuel,” he told us in a ghost of his former voice. “If we still need it,” he added in a whisper.

“Our plans haven’t changed – yet,” the Colonel told him before turning to Joel and me.

“We will have the promotion ceremony this evening with only the staff in attendance. See that Lieutenant Hue is informed and lock the copies of that message up. No one else is to see it but Lucy, as she is also affected by it. We will need to see if we can locate the proper insignia for their uniforms,” she instructed us before turning to just Joel.

“Do you and Lucy have the proper Full Dress First Class Uniforms?” she asked.

“Yes sir, we purchased them while at the Senior NCO course. They insisted, as many of those there would be attending official functions as part of their duties,” he told us.

“All right, notify Lucy and Lt. Hue. We’ll have the promotions following the evening meal. The entire staff is to be in attendance. Immediately following that, we four will move to the conference room for Eachna and Eavan to finish their work. Be prepared to leave to visit their Leaders as soon as possible after that,” she finished.

We three left then but in a more subdued mood. Fortunately, Lt. Hue, being an excellent Personnel Officer, had brought several sets of both Officer and Enlisted insignias for each rank with him. Lucy was as shocked on reading the message as we had been. Hue hadn’t been able to talk for over a minute after reading it.

Lucy and Joel were promoted to Senior Lieutenant that evening in front of the entire staff plus the three Marine Officers. A very unclassified version of the message was read by Lt. Hue as the Colonel pinned on their new insignias of rank, but no authorization line was mentioned. This fact was not missed by a number of those on the staff, who gazed at them with questioning expressions. The Colonel spoke to them about that.

“I requested these promotions from Admiral Stanfield yesterday. They will still need to be approved by both Special Operations and the Minister of Defense when we return to Ainalhai III,” she told them, giving the facts, but not mentioning the real authorizing authority.

I had alerted Dr. Mellifont and the Medical Team of our early start as well as Eachna and Eavan. We moved to the conference room following the promotions and the congratulations following it. We three were soon asleep, and Lucy was assisting the sisters.

The three people who awoke in the conference room early the following morning were not the same as when they had gone to sleep the previous evening. The world around them had changed also.

We awoke to a world that we had not even been able to perceive the previous night. On awakening, I felt marvelous, better than I had in a long time. Additionally, I was able to detect each of the Partners here, where they were, how they were physically, and what they were doing. I could also ‘feel’ the presence of the other Magic users, though that isn’t an accurate description of it. First there were the two Irish sisters, Eachna and Eavan. They were asleep. Next were the Magic users for the three Teams; Miranda, Bland, and O’Flannagain. The last two were up and checking the wards around the compound. Lucy was asleep. Lastly, there were those here with me, Trish and Joel. They were both just waking up, and marveling at what they too could now sense.

But beyond all of that, there was something else that I could sense, yet it was powering everything else that I could sense. It required a while to figure out what it was, but it suddenly occurred to me what I was sensing – Magic! A massive amount of Magic. It wasn’t intense, but it was there in the background and it was everywhere! It also wasn’t something that the Magic users were generating, as they were using it, not creating it. I could detect that it just went on and on in all directions, even up into the atmosphere. What could it be coming from, I wondered?