On Earth alarms were relayed to the Master Guardian, then to a subordinate guardian deep underneath the palace tower. Reacting to the alarms, the two Airlia on duty quickly awakened the High Commissioner Aspasia from the deep sleep. He issued orders for Excalibur to be removed from the Master Guardian safekeeping and to be brought to him.
Sword in hand, Aspasia went to a control room shaped as a perfect sphere, centered below the tall tower. As soon as he entered, the door shut behind him, sealing the room. He went to a crystal in the very center of the room, into which he slid the sword. The walls of the sphere came alive with the view from the very top of the temple spire.
Aspasia placed his hands on the pommel of the sword and pressed. The view swiftly changed from the area visible from the top of the spire to space, linking with other sensors. He immediately picked up the incoming mothership and the Talons. He knew what the deployment of the warships meant — there was to be no bargaining. Whoever was in command of the mothership meant to shoot first and discuss things later.
But discuss what?
Aspasia quickly accessed the link to his Master Guardian. He found the probe from the incoming mothership and what had been accessed. He was momentarily stunned. Who had reprogrammed the Master? He realized his outpost had been out of contact with the empire for five hundred years. Little wonder the Talons were deployed. He had spent over 99 percent of the past five hundred years in deep sleep, so it seemed like only a week or so had passed.
A glowing red dot appeared on the wall of the chamber directly in front of him. It extended upward and downward into a red line, which then expanded into the shape of an Airlia. When Aspasia saw who it was, he knew there was another factor at play behind the rapid deployment of the Talons before an inquiry had been made.
“Artad,” Aspasia said.
“It has been a long time, High Commissioner Aspasia,” Artad responded. “And you will refer to me by my proper title: Admiral Artad.”
“The lack of communication was not—” Aspasia began, but the other cut him off.
“You are High Commissioner. You have only one duty and that is to prepare the seedlings on this planet for combat to support the empire. My scan indicates you are still on Phase One even though the order for Phase Two was issued long enough ago for it to be well under way.”
“I never received—” Aspasia once more tried to speak, but again he was interrupted.
“You are High Commissioner. All is your responsibility. You have failed to report in far beyond the maximum period allowed. It was believed the only thing that could cause such an occurrence was an attack by the Swarm. My ship was diverted from an important mission to see if our seeding process had been compromised here by the Swarm. I arrive only to find deception and failure.”
Aspasia said nothing for several moments. Artad and he had served together a very long time ago, when Artad had been a lowly first lieutenant. They had always hated each other. And then there was the issue of Harrah. She had been Artad’s mate-to-be, also an officer on the same ship they had all been assigned to. Had been. She was here now on this forsaken outpost with Aspasia. Because of her choice between the two them.
“Harrah sleeps,” Aspasia finally said. “ Admiral,” he added.
“I care not,” Artad said, such a blatant lie that Aspasia wanted to laugh out loud.
“You dare not use the mothership’s weapons, Admiral. You will bring the Swarm here.”
“I do what I wish,” Artad replied.
“So be it,” Aspasia said. The image of Artad disappeared from the sphere’s wall and he could see the incoming ships once more. Aspasia had to wonder what kind of power play was going on. Even though it had been millennia since he had last seen Artad, he knew little had probably changed. The seed planets had been a controversial plan, as the best Airlia scientists had speculated that the Swarm was a form of weapon designed genetically by another species. A weapon that had apparently turned against its master and now rampaged through the universe on its own. There were those who wondered if they were not repeating the mistake of whatever race had invented the Swarm. Because of that fear, limits had been deliberately built into the humans — limits that could be removed by the Grail when needed.
Artad had supported the human seed program. Aspasia had opposed it. When the powers that be on the High Council had swung in favor of the program, Artad’s star had risen as Aspasia’s had dimmed. In the process Aspasia been assigned to be High Commissioner for one of the remote seed worlds. He’d had no doubt Artad was behind the assignment,although he knew the other had not suspected that Harrah would go with Aspasia.
Wheels within wheels, Aspasia thought as he watched Artad’s ship draw closer. His own mothership was secreted underwater not far from the island. His Talons were deployed, most on Mars, hidden in an underground cavern not far from the transmitter site. Aspasia made contact through the sword and crystal with his Master Guardian and mentally issued orders.
Donnchadh woke to Gwalcmai’s hand on her shoulder, gently rocking her. “It begins.”
Donnchadh sat up, the sleep fleeing from her brain. “What has happened?”
“A shield wall has gone up around the center island,” Gwalcmai said. “All who were inside are trapped there and those outside cannot enter.”
“They would not put the shield up to protect the inner circle from humans, not at the level these people have attained,” Donnchadh said, knowing as she said it that Gwalcmai had already figured that out.
Her partner pointed up. “Something is coming.”
Donnchadh got to her feet. “The question is: More Airlia or Swarm?”
“Hard to say which would be worse,” Gwalcmai said.
“If it’s the Ancient Enemy,” Donnchadh said, remembering her briefing by the scientists who had accessed the Master Guardian’s database on her home world, “then none of what we have done will matter.”
“Then let it be Airlia,” Gwalcmai said, with his never-ending optimism. “Whoever it may be, they are not coming in peace, or the shield would not have been raised.”
Donnchadh shrugged on her cloak and stuck the daggers in her belt. “Come.”
They went out into the early morning mist. There were people in the streets, an air of anxiety palpable as they speculated what the change meant. None had ever seen an Airlia shield wall or knew what it was. Donnchadh had watched thousands die trying to breach one. It allowed nothing with energy, whether living or mechanical, to pass through. On her home world they had eventually been forced to dig a tunnel far underneath the Airlia base, at the cost of many lives and years. They’d then smuggled in nuclear weapons and at the designated time detonated them. At that point the shield wall had worked against the Airlia, containing the blast so that everything inside was obliterated.
In an attempt to gather more information, Donnchadh and Gwalcmai made their way inward, toward the center island. When they reached the last ring island and the rising sun had burned off enough fog, they saw the shield wall. It glittered in the early-morning light, a perfect round cone covering the entire center island and the palace. Its bottom edge touched the water about a hundred meters offshore. It was transparent but there was no mistaking its boundaries as its very energy gave off its outline.
As they watched, a flock of seagulls flew into it and fell to the water, dead. They could see several boats on either side floating aimlessly, the humans on board killed when they intersected with the wall. A golden saucer was flitting about, circling the spire. On its very top something extended that both of them recognized: a small golden ball on a rod. A weapon of the Airlia that could kill anything within sight. Guides manned the walls and gates of the palace.