Vincent Trigili - The Enemy of an Enemy

Great, orders to not speak with the Magi. Howwould I get any answers if I did not? This might turn out to be oneof those orders Dr. Rannor would tell me should not be obeyed.Well, there would be plenty of time to think about that on the tripto the planet. Now I would have to get some rest.

As I woke very early the next morning, thefull weight of the mission I was about to undertake hit me anew.This was no longer merely a puzzle to solve but a real mission torun with real lives on the line. It had been easy to ignore thehuman factor but now that would have to change.

What does one take on a suicide mission? Isupposed there was a chance of success, but it did not lookpromising. There really was not much I needed to bring. All I ownedwere a few dusty old books that had been passed down through myfamily for so long that I had no idea where they had come from. Ihad been told one of them was very important. I couldn’t read it;it was in a language that I had never seen in all my years atschool.

I remember the day that my father gave it tome. I had just graduated from the Academy at the top of my class,and I received a message that he needed to see me right away. Hewas suffering from the final stages of Betalian’s Syndrome. I wentas fast as I could. I knew there was very little time left.

Betalian’s Syndrome is one of the few fatalillnesses that we cannot cure. No one really understands what itis, or what causes it. The body just starts to shut down, one organat a time, until the patient dies. It can take years. Transplantsand cyber-orgs only delay the process.

When I arrived at his hospital room, helooked bad, worse than I had ever seen him. I knew that the doctorshad no tricks left to try. “Dad, how are you?”

“Not well, son. I can see the end of the linecoming. It won’t be long now. The doctors tell me my brain isstarting to shut down. I hear you graduated with the highest scoresever in the history of the Academy. Congratulations, my son, youmake your old man proud. Have you chosen your path yet?”

I had to strain to make out his words, as hecould barely talk. I knew better than to try to stop him; he wouldjust waste more energy arguing with me about it. “Yes, Father, I amgoing into Intelligence.”

“Ah, yes, you were always one to play withpuzzles. I never found one you could not solve. Look, I know Idon’t have much time left, and there is much I wanted to teach youyet. In my room, back home, look under my bed. You will find asafe. Inside it is my most valuable belonging. Keep it with youalways. I wish I had time to teach you what it is. Just rememberone thing, the Emperor is not … BEEP BEEP BEEP …”

Suddenly all the alarms were going off. Thedoctors rushed in, and I was forced out of the room by theorderlies. I spent the rest of the night pacing, waiting for newsfrom the doctors. Someone from the Academy called, wanting to knowwhere I was. I had left the ceremony before the end, withouttelling anyone. I did not take the call, I just asked the nurse tohandle it for me. She was a nice older woman. “Don’t worry aboutit, son, I’ll take care of it. You just get some rest, okay?”

Later the headmaster of the Academy came by.“Vydor, you never told me your father was so ill. I had to pullsome strings just to find you. I would have let you skip theceremony to be here instead.”

“No, that would have broken his heart. Hewanted me to be there so badly. I think it is what kept him goingthese last few weeks. I am sorry, sir, for leaving withoutnotice.”

“Forget it, no one could blame you. How ishe?”

“I don’t know, sir. He was trying to tell mesomething, and then the alarms went off, and …” I could notcontinue.

“Stay here, son; I will see what I can findout for you.”

The headmaster was a gentle man, and he tooka personal interest in all his students. He never had any childrenof his own, and I think the school served as a substitute familyfor him.

“They are doing everything they can for him.That is all they can say right now,” he said and took a seat nearwhere I had been trying to get some rest.

A few hours later the doctor walked out towhere we were sitting and said, “I am sorry, we did everything wecould, but he didn’t make it.”

The rest of the night was a haze. All I canremember is that the headmaster took me home and told me that hewas giving me some time off before sending me on active duty.

I found the safe Dad told me about. He nevergave me the combination to open it, but I was able to guess itafter only a few tries. When I opened the safe, all that was insidewas a book, a real book, with paper pages. It looked very old. Itwas not in a writing I had ever seen before.

I brought the book to my language teacher atthe Academy. He said that he had seen samples of this writing butcould not read it himself. He cautioned me against showing the bookto anyone. He said that it could get me into big trouble. Herefused to say more.

My father wanted me to keep this book with mealways, so I decided I must bring it. The rest of my gear wouldhave to be practical, in case I had to carry it all on my back fora period of time.

Zalith knocked on my door, waking me from myreverie. I assumed the crew assignment was ready.

“Hello, Zalith, come in. I am just checkingmy gear one more time,” I said.

“Vydor, we don’t have much time, so I will bebrief. I am giving you twenty-five of my Dark Knights. They are thebest of the best. They have been fully briefed on what is to come.All of them have more experience in the field than you do. I don’tlike this mission at all.” He paused and paced for a moment. Idecided to wait and see what it was he wanted to say. “I have beenin this fleet for longer than you have been alive, and I have madesome friends in high places in that time.

“High Command does not expect you to returnfrom this mission. That really angers me. I know that I have beenhard on you, even to the point of saying you are under-qualifiedfor your rank, but you are my brother-in-arms here in the field.For this to happen to you is as if it happened to me. I am givingyou the best men this navy has ever seen because I want all of youback alive. I am also giving you the Dark Talon. It is the onlyship ever to return from a suicide mission with all the crew alive.A word of advice for you: let the Dark Knights lead most of thetime. They know what they are doing.”

With that he just walked out of the room. Inever thought he cared at all what might happen to me. I seemed tohave underestimated him in more ways than one.

Zalith was assigning me the Dark Knights, soI needed a minor gear change. The Dark Knights were an elite groupof Zalionian warriors who were extremely dedicated and deadly. Eachof them had decades of experience, all of it as a penetrationsquad. They specialized in the kinds of missions that often putthem deep within hostile territory with no support. This created aunique bond between them. Men who have served with them say it isas if they can read each other’s minds.

Their name came from the color of theirscales. Each of them had a permanent dye implanted over his entirebody. This dye was a very deep, flat black that made them nearlyinvisible in any dimly-lit situation; it also had a thermalreduction effect that made them just as hard to see withnight-vision goggles. They preferred to operate only at night whenon planetary surfaces, and this dye gave them a big advantage.

I put away my normal uniform. The Imperialblue would not work well for this mission. Instead I pulled out myown night gear, lightly armored and perfectly black coveralls thatwould give me similar characteristics to the Dark Knights’ scales.In addition to being the perfect camouflage for night missions, itwas also completely silent and had a ton of storage in small hiddenpockets. This allowed me to ditch the pack I had been planning tocarry. When travelling with a group like the Dark Knights, oneneeds to be light and fast.