Chapter 21

I had just returned to S-3 from checking on Bob and Susie, when the Colonel, Luther, and Dan Khawam returned to S-2 with the results of the survey the Eagles had flown.

“I’ve never seen anything like that mess,” Dan was saying, as they entered the room.

“All of it wasn’t that bad,” Luther told him just before they stopped at his desk in the S-2.

“It was bad enough in places. Let’s get these pictures downloaded to the computer so we can go over them in detail,” the Colonel told them. Luther soon had his computer back on line and then plugged each of their controller units into it to download the data from the Eagles’ flights.

“This will be a bit hit and miss, as the GPS satellites were also cut off by the shell. We’ll just have to go by the notes and directions that we recorded while they were flying,” the Colonel told me and the others who had gathered to look at the pictures.

“The first series of pictures are from Sara. The Colonel sent her to check the spaceport and its runway, first,” Luther told us, as he brought the pictures up on the screen. We have a large video screen specifically for viewing satellite pictures and the survey pictures from our feathered Partners.

“Lord, what a mess!” Sergeant Platner from S-3 said on viewing the first several pictures. They showed an overall view of the spaceport / airfield. Many of the planes had been blown into the various hangars and other buildings there by the hurricane-like winds. The hangars had also suffered damage from the winds, and we could see several that had been collapsed by the winds. There had been fires where planes from the ready line had been blown into hangars and other buildings, and fuel had leaked out of them to be set on fire by short-circuits or other means. None of the planes had been tied down or moved inside as no bad weather had been forecast.

“At least the runway is still usable,” the Colonel said, as the next series of pictures of the runway appeared on the screen. It didn’t appear to have been affected by the wind, and it didn’t look as if there had been any earthquakes near the spaceport. We could see that the Control Tower had collapsed when a plane was blown into it and then burned. The fire had spread to the terminal building too.

Sara had moved on after surveying the space port, and the remainder of her pictures showed areas to the east of it where there was a mix of disaster and minor damage to the buildings and structures there. Some of this, especially the really destroyed areas, had been caused by the earthquakes, and much of the minor damage, like roofs blown off or buildings collapsing, was the result of the winds.

There appeared to be a coating of dust on everything except where there had been fires, as a result of the damage. You couldn’t really see the dust there, but we were fairly sure that it was there.

“It’s going to take a lot of rebuilding and repair to clean all of that up,” the Colonel told us, stating the obvious, when we had viewed the pictures from all of our feathered Partners. She then turned to Luther.

“Joel, prepare those pictures along with our comments to be sent up to Admiral Stanfield. He was anxious to know what had happened after the shell prevented their visual observation of the planet,” she told him, before turning to me.

“I wonder how those on the various islands made out. Those earthquakes could have generated a number of tsunamis. We have no way to check on that presently, however,” she told me, worried about those in the fishing villages.

“I need to talk to Lucy. You need to hear this also, Cleve. We need to determine how to explain all of this to our superiors, and do it without implicating ourselves,” she told me, before turning back to Luther.

“Joel, join us after you get those results off to the Franklin,” she told him before we left for her office, leaving Sergeant Platner in charge of the S-3. Lucy joined us in the Colonel’s office shortly after that. Once we were all present, the Colonel started the meeting.

“We need to decide just what we are going to tell those at our headquarters, the Unity Government, and the Admirals here around Parthas,” she told us.

“It must be the truth. I’m sure they will use the Truth Spell on us to learn what they want to know,” Lucy told us, but paused for a number of seconds. “I’m not sure if that will work!” she finally continued in an unsure voice.

“I’ve never tried the Truth Spell on someone who can use Magic, or who had a powerful Talent. The problem never came up before,” she continued several seconds later.

“How would we test that?” the Colonel asked.

“I could try testing it on one of you and see if you can answer questions with other than the truth,” she said, but sounded a bit unsure of herself.

“Who should you try this on?” I asked.

“She should try it on me,” the Colonel told us. “I’m the most likely one they will start with, and the one they will hold as the most responsible,” she added.

“Go ahead,” she told Lucy, who cast the spell on her where she sat. Several minutes passed while the spell took effect before anything was said.

“Are you Patrisha Ferguson?” Lucy asked to start the questioning.

“No,” the Colonel answered, immediately.

“What is your name and rank?” followed that.

“I am General Marcy Leadbottom, Commander of the Parthas Army,” Trish answered without any hesitation.

“Why is there an impenetrable shell around the planet Parthas?” was the following question.

“Because the planet came to life while we were there and created it. It also destroyed much of New Dublin and many of the Army bases around it,” the Colonel told her.

“Planets don’t create shells around themselves. How could Parthas do that?” came the next question.

“The planet, or the Entity controlling it, is Sentient. It is what created all of the Magic used there. It also caused all of the earthquakes and the hurricane like windstorms. It has all of the resources of the planet at Its disposal,” the Colonel replied.

“Did YOU teach the Entity the spell?” followed that.

“NO.”

“Who cast it then?”

“It was one of the Clan Chiefs,” Trish answered. Lucy canceled the spell then and looked at the Colonel in amazement.

“The spell didn’t keep you from telling the truth or adding false facts to what you were saying?” Lucy asked in amazement.

“It tried, but my Magic stopped it from working whenever I wanted to say something false, or less than the truth,” the Colonel told us, before turning to the rest of us.

“We still need to get our story straight. We need to work on it until we all have it memorized and can repeat it in our sleep,” the Colonel told us. We spent a couple of hours then refining what we would tell those in authority, and it would also be in our written report.

“Do you think this will hold up?” Joel asked, as we finished.

“It is the simple truth. Who would ever guess that a planet could be Sentient and also create Magic? The only thing that we need to minimize is the fact the Lucy was the one who cast the first Shell Spell. If the government realizes that, they will blame us for wrecking their plans,” the Colonel told him.

“It is a very well-known spell, but no one has been able to cast it to create a shell more than 15 feet or so in diameter. It requires too much Magic,” Lucy reminded him.

“And it’s like the Colonel said, how were we to know that the planet was alive and producing all of the Magic? It had never happened before. It was a complete unknown; a unique situation” I told him. The meeting broke up shortly after that.

There was still no contact with the Parthas Army or any of its units that day.

“Eavan stopped them from using their radios while we were returning here from the survey site where we met them,” Joel reminded me when I remarked about the lack of radio contact.

“Couldn’t the planet do the same thing, but on a broader scale?” he asked to my frown. I didn’t have an answer to his question, but thought it was possible.

Everyone on Tiger Team joined the Magic users from the other Teams to monitor the wards around our compound that day and night but nothing tested them during that period.

Nothing happened until the next morning, when Speaker O’Domhnaill appeared inside our wards in front of the hotel with Eachna. Their sudden appearance startled those on guard and others working near there.

“I need to see Colonel Ferguson,” he told Sergeant Hanson, who was on his way into the building. Hanson recognized him at once.

“Come with me, sir,” he told the Speaker, while signaling the guards that everything was all right, before leading the way into the hotel.

“Where is the Colonel?” Hanson asked Sergeant Bland, who was passing through the lobby at the time. Bland stopped and concentrated for a few seconds.

“She is just leaving her office and will be here shortly,” Bland told him.

“Thank you, Sergeant,” the Speaker told her before reaching out and touching her face and then her head. Nothing seemed to happen for several seconds and neither of them moved. After about thirty seconds, the Speaker dropped his hands, but Bland just stood there not moving for a number of seconds longer.

“There, that should help you,” the Speaker said with a smile. Bland just stood there for a few more seconds before her eyes flew open and her jaw dropped.

“Oh my God!” she whispered in amazement. “I never knew I could feel that or be able to sense things like that!” she said before turning to the Speaker.

“Thank you. How can I ever repay you?” she asked.

“Just do your best with your new abilities,” the Speaker said with a smile, as the elevator doors opened and the Colonel exited. She did not seem surprised to see all of us standing there waiting for her.

“Speaker O’Domhnaill, welcome to our Headquarters. What can we do for you?” she asked before turning to look at Bland.

“Marcy, your Talent has expanded considerably. When did this happen?” she asked.

“This Gentleman, the Speaker, touched my head a few minutes ago, and I’m able to sense so much more of the Magic and other things going on here. It’s just amazing!” Bland told her.

“Thank you, Speaker. Eachna told us that Bland had reached the maximum capacity of her Talent,” the Colonel told him.

“My Granddaughter did mention her, but she still has things to learn about expanding Talents. It was simply a matter of extending her Talent into an unused area that was available,” he told the Colonel and the rest of those there, before getting down to the business he had come for.

“I have come to inform you that my people have rounded up all of the officials of the illegal second colonists’ government, and most of the leaders of the Military. We lack just one of their leaders. He is General McJunkin. He has managed to elude us so far,” he told her, before bidding us a good day and vanishing.

Nothing much happened over the next couple of days. At least, nothing happened near our compound. What went on elsewhere, we didn’t learn until later.

The alert status had been reduced to one squad for four hours at a time. They pulled guard more than anything else in one-hour shifts. The squads were rotated so they didn’t have the duty at the same time each day. The Magic users monitored the wards around the compound on a rotating basis also. Since there were more of us now, it wasn’t a problem.