Visiting the King

The next episode for Jamison’s Battlefields. Here are the previous episodes in order. Like any story you will get the most out of it by reading it in sequence.

The first battlefield was The Battle for the Mind.  Zilkas Asteroid Belt, Jamison’s Rescue,  Dinner with an Alien, Dibolocos Attack, Departure Orders, Homecoming, Into the Darkness, The Family Business,  Jewel’s Place, Shanghaied,  First Mark,  The Pirate’s Life, Defensive Position, Adrift, Self Sacrifice, Crash Down,  The Lake House, Dancing with Egopods, Lunch with Aliens and Kilkian Alignment. 

The second battlefield is The Battle of the Hands, Here are the previous episodes in this battlefield Learning to See, Maintaining Common Sense, Meeting Compagno, Unseating Dibolocos, The Journey Homeward,  Ambush on Platinum 9, Refit, Retrain and Rethink, Saved by Rodent Weed, Convoys and Propaganda,  Changing the Moon, Expanding Horizons,  Running the Blockade, Dueling Politicians, Legislation, Delegation, and Deliberation,  Failed Tyranny,  Political Parties, Visiting the City, Passing the Constitution, Tried for Treason and Necessary Failure.

The third battlefield is The Battle for the Heart, The previous episodes were Living Under Curse and Into the Shadows.

Today we get the third episode.

They attempted to formulate a plan, but were uncertain what to do. After about an hour of uncertainty, they again approached the king. The call for help seemed to fall flat and when they were done they had no impression of what to do next. They didn’t see any hint from the station that it knew they were there. But it was likely just a matter of time before someone figured it out.

They were both relieved when they felt a familiar presence. Colopher and Colophen had joined them on the ship, they felt them before they saw them. Turning back to the main cabin they saw the purple mist form into shapes and then welcomed their friends and helpers.

“Greetings from the king.” Colopher said.

“Welcome, friends.”

“Your ship will be here for a couple of days. Judasson had become annoyed at your testimony about the king. This was all he needed to justify turning you over to bounty hunters. They will kill him when he reveals that you got away. But you will still not be able to leave, until you sneak out underneath the next freighter to depart.”

“How long will that be? There are not any in port right now and they don’t come in regular schedules.”

“It will be in 9 days. During this time the king would like to prepare you for what is going to happen in the future.”

“So we will go through a period of training with you guys?”

“No. This time you will go and see the king.”

“What? How?”

“We will take you there in a moment.”

They were both surprised—excited and scared. What would they do in front of the king? What should they wear and so on.

“How?” Jamison started to ask but realizing the Kilkians had abilities beyond his he let the question fall.

“What should we wear?” Chambers asked. She was aware they had not packed formal attire.

“We will take care of the details.”

A moment later they were transported out of their ship. Jamison wondered what kind of a ship they would be transported on. To his surprise he didn’t land on a ship at all, but a moment later felt himself hurling through space. It was a pleasant experience, and after another moment he realized the other three were traveling with him. After another couple of moments of getting used to the mode of travel they were breathing normally, even though there was no air, and regained the ability to talk.

“This is amazing.”

“Yes, you are the first humans to travel like Kilkians.”

Jamison remembered that despite people having seen Kilkians, no one had seen a Kilkian ship. Everyone assumed it was because they were stealthy, now Jamison realized it was because they didn’t need ships. Nothing was visible around them, but a short few more moments and they heard Colopher announcing their approach to the Kilkian city. A voice answered booming through the open space.

“Welcome to eternity, Jamison and Chambers.”

Jamison answered aloud, hesitantly and uncertain whether he would be heard. “Thank you.”

“You are very welcome Colopher will serve as your host. He will allow you to get oriented before our first audience.”

Jamison wondered what was meant by our first audience. He thought it might be the case that the speaker would be a part of the meeting. This didn’t seem right though. Instead he suspected the voice somehow was the voice of the king.

“The city is called eternity?”

“No the city has another name. Eternity is a description of the region where the city exists.”

Colopher’s answer made their heads spin for a minute. But they didn’t have time to sort it out before the next surprise hit them. Despite the sensation of flying through space together at impossible speeds, they did not approach the city through space but rather just materialized in it.

They were surrounded by Kilkians and when they landed the crowd broke out in cheers and applause. Jamison gave a little embarrassed wave, which was responded to with ripples of laughter. This caused him to glance down toward his feet and for a second he was overwhelmed with the realization they were not standing on anything. They were about 100 feet above a courtyard, full of wonderful vegetation. The leaves of trees were in all different colors and the manicured lawn was similar. Each blade was a different hue and seemingly glowed with light. The overall effect of every color glowing together was of a warm white light.

The next thing that caught Jamison’s attention was his own clothing. His piloting outfit that he habitually wore was gone. It was replaced with a simple white seamless robe. The material was perfectly comfortable. Looking at Chambers he realized how beautiful she was, in her own robe of similar material.

Colopher interrupted his discoveries. “Let me teach you how you will move around here. I am putting a map of the city in your mind.”

Suddenly he was aware of the layout of many places and their exact location. We will go to your quarters next. Simply think of that location with determination and you will go there. Jamison waited to go, but nothing happened.

“I will not take you. You must take yourself by an intentional act of volition.”

This time Jamison put his mind on the spot, thinking I want to be there. Then suddenly he was with Colopher by his side. Only a moment later, Chambers and Colopher joined them. The room was smallish, but left the impression of being large. He thought to himself that it was odd. Just a square box, with no place to sit. But the moment he thought that four chairs and a table appeared.

He walked up to them and touched the table. The material was solid, cool to the touch and beautiful. The chairs were of a similar material but soft instead of solid. He wondered how the same material could be both, then he realized the walls were similar material. He walked over and touched one. It was very comfortable. He thought to himself it was odd that there were no windows or doors. And as he thought it a window appeared in front of him. Looking out on a number of similar domiciles.

He couldn’t see into any of these since none of them had windows, but he knew what they were from the map in his mind. Turning around to point it out to Chambers, he noticed the whole room was surrounded by windows. Chambers had thought of food and immediately a meal for the four of them appeared on the table.

They sat down together and shared the meal. The Kilkian city was going to be very different, but it was also easy to get used to.

Chambers asked about the section of the city they were in with so many vacant apartments.

Colophen responded, “This portion of the city has been built for human habitation. You will learn more as you spend time with the king. Until then just know this, one day every apartment here will be filled with humans aligned with the king.”

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Curse’s People

The next episode for Jamison’s Battlefields. Here are the previous episodes in order. Like any story you will get the most out of it by reading it in sequence.

The first battlefield was The Battle for the Mind.  Zilkas Asteroid Belt, Jamison’s Rescue,  Dinner with an Alien, Dibolocos Attack, Departure Orders, Homecoming, Into the Darkness, The Family Business,  Jewel’s Place, Shanghaied,  First Mark,  The Pirate’s Life, Defensive Position, Adrift, Self Sacrifice, Crash Down,  The Lake House, Dancing with Egopods, Lunch with Aliens and Kilkian Alignment. 

The second battlefield is The Battle of the Hands, Here are the previous episodes in this battlefield Learning to See, Maintaining Common Sense, Meeting Compagno, Unseating Dibolocos, The Journey Homeward,  Ambush on Platinum 9, Refit, Retrain and Rethink, Saved by Rodent Weed, Convoys and Propaganda,  Changing the Moon, Expanding Horizons,  Running the Blockade, Dueling Politicians, Legislation, Delegation, and Deliberation,  Failed Tyranny,  Political Parties, Visiting the City, Passing the Constitution, Tried for Treason and Necessary Failure.

The third and final battlefield is The Battle of the Heart. Here is the previous episode : Living Under Curse.

Today we get the second episode of this final battlefield, which is episode 42 overall.

Over the next couple of weeks they did their best to blend in on the base. Jamison and Chambers made themselves useful by repairing and upgrading the stations defenses. Judasson balked at the repairs, but Jamison noticed he soon assigned crew to man the weapons and put training drills into operation so that they would be well acquainted with using the weaponry if the need ever arose. Jamison asked him about it, and he said the station had to be defended, their lives might depend on it.

His discussions with the crew seemed to carry a similar theme. They were all too busy working to survive to make any real profit off their labors. Yet in the times they were not on shift they had every distraction available to them in the form of alcohol, drugs, gambling, and sex industries. These businesses operated somewhat independently inside the station. They paid no rent or tax to the station, but everyone thought of them as essential to its operation. Jamison and Chambers could tell they were guided by Dibolocos. This combined with their knowledge that bounty hunters would be hanging out there, caused them to stay clear. They also knew all the profit the people might make was swallowed up there.

The workers were always too busy to talk about aligning with the Kilkian King, but they always had time to go spend their little bit of income on these vices. In fact, when they would bring up the king, and alignment people did things like change the subject, walk away, or perhaps just stare at them like they didn’t understand.

The young steward came by every morning to check on them, and to chat about meaningless things, at least they were meaningless to him. He always knew if any bounty hunters were visiting the station and who they were looking for. He knew what traders were from which crime syndicate. It seemed as if none of the traders to the base were legitimate freighters, or perhaps legal operations were not worth gossiping over.

The only thing he didn’t mention was who else was hiding on the base. The steward had once mentioned that as long as they contributed to the welfare of the facility, everyone would ignore them, but that it was those who did nothing to aid in their survival that the crew betrayed. From this they surmised the youth was aware of other exiles on the station. Jamison figured this was a good detail for him to leave out of his reports, and he hoped he left it out of his discussions with everyone else too. He had no doubt the steward was conversing many other people, and therefore they were careful how much they told him.

Once the stations defenses were in good shape, Chambers and Jamison began making themselves useful by putting out communication satellites. These devices allowed the station to receive some news and entertainment from the main colony. But they didn’t allow direct feed, instead all news went through them so they could redact out any mention or pictures which revealed their identities. In addition to this the satellites could be used to communicate with the nearest worlds, and thereby link to all others. Finally Jamison was able to use them to detect approaching ships and if necessary to triangulate exact firing equations for the stations defenses. The guns were quite outdated, but with this secret ability to aim precisely they were more than adequate to defeat most enemies.

Within a few days of making the system operational, the automatic alarm that rang in their quarters went off in the middle of their sleep cycle. They both jumped up and sprang into action. The satellites showed three ships spread out around the dust trail of curse. They were hailing the base, demanding all the bases rare materials, under threat of destruction. Judasson had made a short attempt at negotiation, but then had promised payment in trade for everyone’s lives.

As Chambers and Jamison watched the situation unfold, they were aware of dangers Judasson was not. There was a Dibolocos on the lead ship influencing the pirate captain and he planned to have the station destroyed after even after payment was made. Jamison set the main missile launcher to fire on all three ships simultaneously. He also set one of the satellites to jam their sensors for long enough that the missiles could find their mark.

He set a timer for all these things to begin two minutes later and then took off running to the station command center. He hoped to be there before the fireworks started. But he got stopped by a crowd outside of one of the seedier bars. It seemed as if the majority of the crew were there, unknowingly reveling away their last few minutes of life.

When he did arrive at the command center, the place was in celebratory pandemonium. A very confused gunner was being hoisted up on everyone’s shoulders and hailed as a hero. The man kept saying he didn’t do it, and he was confused. But the crew would not be dissuaded, they had seen the three shots and the spectacular marksmanship. They related the fact the ships did nothing to harm the station, but instead turned their guns on a satellite destroying it seconds before being destroyed themselves.

From these bits of information Jamison pieced together that the attackers figured out they were being jammed. They shot the satellite doing it, but not quickly enough to warn them of the incoming rounds. Judasson, seeing Jamison, called everyone to hail him as a hero too. It had been his work to steady the defenses which had allowed their victory.

When the celebration began to wane, both men were invited to speak. The gunner was almost apologetic rather than celebratory. He still didn’t know what had happened, but was sure it hadn’t been him. When it was Jamison’s turn he took the opportunity to speak of the difference between Kilkians and Dibolocos and the fact Dibolocos were willing to destroy them, while Kilkians wanted them to survive and do well.

The reaction of the audience though was not what he expected at all. The people laughed like he was jesting, making some great joke. Finally Judasson said, “Jamison my friend, enough of these fairy tales. The people on this ship are too sophisticated to believe in such things.”

“Judasson, these things I tell you are not fairy tales, they are real. I have seen both Kilkians and Dibolocos with my own eyes.” He intended to go on, but the uproar of laughter from the command crew drowned out any effort.

Unseating Lobokidos

The next episode for Jamison’s Battlefields. Here are the previous episodes in order. Like any story you will get the most out of it by reading it in sequence.

The first battlefield was The Battle for the Mind.  Zilkas Asteroid Belt, Jamison’s Rescue,  Dinner with an Alien, Dibolocos Attack, Departure Orders, Homecoming, Into the Darkness, The Family Business,  Jewel’s Place, Shanghaied,  First Mark,  The Pirate’s Life, Defensive Position, Adrift, Self Sacrifice, Crash Down,  The Lake House, Dancing with Egopods, Lunch with Aliens and Kilkian Alignment. 

The second battlefield is The Battle of the Hands, Here are the previous episodes in this battlefield Learning to See, Maintaining Common Sense and Meeting Compagno.  Today we get the Episode 24 or the fourth episode of the second battlefield.

Unseating Lobokidos

They spent the rest of the day together and then the entire next day.  Then it was time for Jamison and Chambers to head back to the lake house. Compagno was going to pack up too, and head back to the colonies. He had once been a business leader and now he was certain he could help restore law and order to his homeland.

The journey back to the lake house was uneventful. When they got there they were told their training was complete. They should pack up and prepare for the CDF ship that was going to discover them. From there they would return to the colonies. Where each of them would take on separate assignments.

They dreaded the idea of parting, but also held excitement at the prospect of a new assignment. They both agreed, whatever the king had planned would be a okay with them. They double checked the emergency beacon on the lake house and confirmed it was working well. Then they sat down to dinner together.

It was during the meal that Colofer and Colofen began to reveal what their assignments would be. First for Chambers, her skills and her background were going to be especially useful as a warrior in service, not just to the CDF, but also to the king. When she returned she would be quickly commissioned to captain her own warship. In this position she will do much to stop the piracy and smuggling which prevents safety and a sound economy for the colony.

As she proves her capability she will become one of the key officers directing the defence of the colony and quickly be promoted to the security of all the colonies in their section. She would then be in a position allowing her to use her relationship with the king and special skills to greatly curtail the activity of the Dibolocos. When the enemy is no longer able to operate freely among the colonists they will have a greater opportunity to see the truth about the Kilkians and their king.

Chambers had quite a few specific questions about how all of this would come about. But instead of being givin the details she was simply encouraged to move forward, trusting the king. She accepted that answer. After all, the king could tell her in advance it was going to happen, so she had confidence in his abiltiy to work it out. But at the same time she felt some apprehension about the possiblity she would mess up the plan by some mistake she made along the way.  Colofen reassured her, but not in the way she had hoped. He told her that she absolutely would make a series of mistakes along the way. The reassuring part was the king already knew and planned how to make it all work out alright.

Jamison was getting antsy to hear what his assignment would be. He was glad to hear that Chambers would be so successful and instrumental in bringing about the peace the colonies, which they needed so desperately. In addition to this, he was glad to hear about the way the king was compensating for human weaknesses in advance. He was quite sure he would make mistakes along the way as well.

Colofer, in response to his thoughts, announced it was time for Jamison to learn his assignment as well. Jamison was going to be the king’s lawbringer. He would organize the people into a local government. This government would be challenged at every turn but once it was established it would pass laws to protect the citizens of the colony. Selecting the right set of laws in order to maintain a safe and morally ordered society would be difficult, but after it comes about people will be able to choose their alignment for themselves without as much of the manipulation and control of the Dibolocos.

They cleaned up after dinner, and not hearing anything from rescuers, they went to sleep as normal. In pre-daylight hours the next morning the sensors on the lake house went off, waking up everyone in the household. Jamison arrived first, and to his surprise the ship was not hailing them, instead it was sending out a distress signal.

Chambers arrived next and as she came in she kept glancing up. She said Dibolocos pirates were up there somewhere. They both recognized the impression and knew it was Lobokidos. Then the distress call was repeated indicating a CDF light cruiser under attack by pirates, it was mostly disabled. Chambers pushed Jamison out of the way and indicated she was available to help. The communications officer responded there didn’t seem to be anything they could do.

Chambers asked to be taken aboard. She explained she was a military officer with experience fighting pirates. At first they refused stating the move would only get her killed. But she insisted and they were getting increasingly desperate. The ship didn’t see any means of getting Chambers on board anyway, they didn’t have the technology to beam people back and forth. That was Kilkian and Dibolocos technology, but not human.

Chambers took that as permission so she prepared herself for the trip. A moment later, she was beamed aboard into a chaotic situation by Colofen.

At first she was almost struck down by the overwhelming sense of immediate danger. Complicating the matter, this was the first time she had experienced a group of people, and the inherent feelings of some being actively or passively aligned with Dibolocos. But she had to push this all aside in order to join the battle. She had been beamed directly onto the bridge. The communications officer was the only person on the bridge who was not injured in some way.

“What is the status of the ship?” she commanded.

“Shield is at 15%, Power is still full, all weapons are disabled with the exception of a surface mine layer.”

“And what damage has been done to the pirate ship?”

The captain, first mate and navigator all glanced at each other in a way that made Chambers sweat. “As far as we can tell, they have not sustained any damage.”

“So as far as you can tell, they are about to destroy us without our having any chance to defend ourselves?”

“Yes.” The captain was under dibolocos influence. Chambers wondered if this was why he didn’t seem more upset at his impending death.

“How far back are they?”

“They are ten-thousand meters back and closing. We assume they want to be close enough to make killing us a more personal experience.”

Chambers believed this was true because of her past experience in fighting Lobokidos and speaking with Jamison.  Suddenly an idea came to her and she commanded they enter the atmosphere of the planet. Next she gave the navigator orders to fly down to about 3000 feet above the surface and to head toward the previous settlement. When they began to approach the camp Chambers dropped even lower to just above the treetops.  Then right before crossing over the camp, they took off again, changing their trajectory to straight up.

The pirate ship, which was now just a couple of hundered meters behind, was not as nimble as the CDF ship.  So when it turned upwards to follow its prey, it swung wide over the settlement. When it did it vibrated every building in camp, including the one storing the instable explosives. They responded as Chambers had anticipated and the massive explosion ripped upward into the pirate ship, destoying it completely.

Lobokidos was not hurt in this explosion, but his body was blown apart into hundreds of pieces which settled down on the planet with the rest of the debris. It wouldn’t take long for the parts to all come back together and form again. But everyone else on board the pirate ship was dead.

Meeting Compagno

The next episode for Jamison’s Battlefields. Here are the previous episodes in order. Like any story you will get the most out of it by reading it in sequence.

The first battlefield was The Battle for the Mind.  Zilkas Asteroid Belt, Jamison’s Rescue,  Dinner with an Alien, Dibolocos Attack, Departure Orders, Homecoming, Into the Darkness, The Family Business,  Jewel’s Place, Shanghaied,  First Mark,  The Pirate’s Life, Defensive Position, Adrift, Self Sacrifice, Crash Down,  The Lake House, Dancing with Egopods, Lunch with Aliens and Kilkian Alignment. 

The second battlefield is The Battle of the Hands, Here are the previous episodes in this battlefield Learning to See and Maintaining Common Sense.  Today we get the Episode 23 or third episode of the second battlefield.

 

Meeting Compagno

They continued moving across the floor of the valley until they found the original settlement. This allowed them to explore and look for items which might help them at the lake house when they returned.

One building though they both felt was too dangerous to enter. Even though they were not sure why. They decided nothing in there could be so valuable to make it worth overriding the sense of danger they felt. They did ask Colofer if she knew what it was that made them feel so uneasy. She explained the building had explosives from the mining operations. Those explosives had aged to the point of being unstable. If they opened the door, the breeze, the change of pressure or the sunlight might well set it off, blowing the entire settlement sky high.

They spoke about whether this had been the feeling they were following. But it wasn’t. So they moved a safe distance out of town and set up camp again. Both looked around carefully before setting up their tents. Colofer watched with satisfaction. The next morning Jamison felt all the more urgency to get across the valley and find the source of what was calling him. So they hastened their breakfast and headed in that direction. Shortly they stopped on the edge of a tree line watching a man in a mining operation just above them on the hillside.

He had brought in a private ship, with sophisticated equipment to withdraw minerals out of the planet. Almost certainly the operation was illegal, but even if he had secured the rights to do this mining, prospectors were notorious for being wary of claim jumpers.

“This is why we had felt the sudden danger two days ago. He was watching us from somewhere nearby and had considered killing us.” Jamison spoke out loud as the surprising realization came to him. “But why did I need to travel out here and talk to this man? Even now I feel for certain I must get up there and somehow meet him without getting my head blown off.”

Colofer answered, “You want to speak with him because our king is asking you to do so. One of the important lessons you must learn is how to discern what assignments the king is giving you. For you, Jamison, this is one of the most important assignments. Telling others about the king.”

Jamison watched the man going about his business for several long minutes. He would work for a while, then he would put his hand on his side arm and scan the surrounding terrain. After reassuring himself, he would return to work for a while before repeating his routine.

Jamison glanced sideways at Chambers and said, “I will be back as soon as I can.”

“We will be back as soon as we can.” She corrected.

He gave her a nod and the two of them walked out of the tree line and into a clearing. Here Jamison signaled Chambers to stop. They waited until the man did his next scan. When he looked their way they both waved their arms to get his attention. Jamison found the hair on the back of his neck standing up when the man pulled his weapon with one hand while motioning them away with the other.

Jamison did not go away, nor did he draw his own weapon. Instead he waved the man to come down to where they were. The man hesitated only a second, but then he put his operations on hold and started down the mountain. He didn’t put the weapon back into his holster. He carried it at the ready the whole way down.

This caused Jamison and Chambers both to feel the presence of danger. But in addition to that they felt a slight emotional tug, kind of like a Dibolocos was coming toward them. Jamison decided this must be what it felt like to meet someone under Dibolocos control. He determined it must be the passive version, first because it was very subtle. But more importantly he figured if it was active control the king never would have asked him to meet the man.

“Hello.” He called out as the man got close enough to talk with. He hoped he sounded friendly. He felt a bit of relief when the man switched his weapon to his left hand and extended the right for a handshake. Jamison took the hand gladly. Then the man extended his hand to Chambers in a similar way. But when Chambers shook his hand he snatched her back toward him and attempted to hold her, hostage style.

He had not counted on Chambers being a trained officer in the CDF though and she rather easily deflected the attempt. A moment later the man was on the ground with his weapon several feet away and both Jamison and Chambers had their weapons aimed at his head. His eyes were wide and sweat was soaking his hair and clothing. Jamison did not need any special training to know this man thought he was about to die.

After holstering his own weapon he picked up the man’s gun and put the safety on. Then he handed it back to the man. The man sat up, received it and put it back in its own holster. Only then did Chambers lower her own weapon.

The man stood up and said lightheartedly, “So does this mean I am going to live to see another day.”

“Well, not necessarily,” Jamison answered, matching the man’s tone, “but it does mean if there is a fight we would rather fight with you than against you. Shall we try this again, my name is Jamison, and this is Chambers.”

“Glad to meet you, my name is Compagno. If you guys are not claim jumpers then what are you doing here?”

“We crash landed on this planet in an escape pod after our ship was blown up by pirates.”

Compagno nodded and said, “I see.”

Jamison ventured an educated guess and stated, “But you knew that didn’t you. You were here and monitored our emergency beacon as we approached. You have been trying to figure out ever since whether to kill us to hide your illegal mining.”

“Well. If you knew all that, why did you give me my weapon back.”

“We will do better as friendly neighbors than as mortal enemies.”

“Okay, neighbor. But why did you choose to come calling today?”

“I felt compelled to talk to you once I figured out you were here. The colonies are falling apart. The Kilkian and Dibolocos discovery has undermined our society. If we don’t restore society we will cease to exist as a people, we are already in the process of destroying each other.”

“True enough. Legitimate business seems to be a thing of the past. We are trapped in this mess. But in the long run what can we do about it?”

From this point Jamison explained his own journey. He spoke of the things he had learned about the Kilkians and their king. When he was done Compagno made a commitment to the king in the same way Jamison and Chambers had. They invited him to come down to the tree line and meet Colofer and Colofen. When they arrived they were all surprised to see three kilkians instead of two. The new Kilkian introduced himself as Coloban, He was going to be the one responsible for helping Compagno in his journey to serve the king. Just like Jamison and Chambers, Compagno had a special purpose in the king’s plan.

Learning to See

The next episode for Jamison’s Battlefields. Here are the previous episodes in order. Like any story you will get the most out of it by reading it in sequence.

The first battlefield was The Battle for the Mind.  Zilkas Asteroid Belt, Jamison’s Rescue,  Dinner with an Alien, Dibolocos Attack, Departure Orders, Homecoming, Into the Darkness, The Family Business,  Jewel’s Place, Shanghaied,  First Mark,  The Pirate’s Life, Defensive Position, Adrift, Self Sacrifice, Crash Down,  The Lake House, Dancing with Egopods, Lunch with Aliens and Kilkian Alignment. 

The second battlefield is The Battle of the Hands. What follows is the first episode of this battle.

 

The next day they had a quick breakfast together. Colofen left early, while Colofer stayed behind and gave them instructions. They were to prepare themselves carefully for a day in the forest. They should dress, equip themselves and arm themselves just as if they would be in the woods without the assistance of the Kilkians. In the future, they were instructed, they should always be careful to stay ready and prepared for their day. Any point of carelessness would likely be noticed by the Dibolocos.

So they put on their travel gear, checked batteries in their scanners and weapons, and moved out to the countryside. Colofer lead the two around the lake, up a slight rise and into a meadow. It was a spot they had not seen before and it was very pleasant. Wildflowers scented the air, the sun warmed them and a gentle breeze cooled them. With the break in the trees they were able to see the mountains rising up on the one side, with much of the valley falling off in the other direction.

When they reached the middle of the meadow, she stopped them and asked, “Are you enjoying the day?”

“Yes, actually, it’s a beautiful day. The wildflowers across this meadow are gorgeous.” Chamber’s eyes lit up, as she did a light-hearted spin. Jamison enjoyed watching her as she lost herself in the moment.

“Are you still alert to possible dangers, or have these enjoyments distracted you?”

Something about the question spurred at Jamison, making him scan the grassy ground, tree line and sky.

Chambers laughed, “I am enjoying the day, but I am still paying attention.”

“You walked within 50 feet of an egopod on the way here. It saw you, did you see it?”

Chambers paled slightly and became much more focused.

Colofer continued, “In your training we want to help you to learn how to always recognize dangers of any form. You will have the ability to sense certain things, even if you cannot see them. One of our primary goals is to train you to know by this perception, when a Kilkian is nearby, when a person is truly aligned with the Kilkian King, when a Dibolocos is nearby and when a person is passively or actively aligned with the Dibolocos.”

“Actively or passively?” Jamison asked.

“A person who has intentionally aligned themselves with the Dibolocos as an act of will is actively aligned. A person who has never made a choice to align with the Dibolocos but has also not aligned with the Kilkian King is passively aligned with the Dibolocos. A person who is passively aligned is controlled and manipulated by the Dibolocos almost as easily as someone who is actively aligned.”

Jamison thought of how he had played into the hands of Lobokidos. He was easily subdued and forced to do things he hated, and would regret for the rest of his life. Looking back over his time as a pirate he found it easy to see where he was under Dibolocos control. Even when he was on ship with Colofer, after his rescue, his decisions did not feel like they were entirely his own.

“Once you have raised your perceptions to be able to handle these tasks we will train you to also sense any other danger such as the egopod watching us from the forest edge.”

Hearing the egopod was that close put Jamison on edge, and he was nervously scanning the tree line, but had not seen the creature. He pulled out his weapon and double checked the setting to be sure it was turned to the setting he wanted, the one that would create a small explosion.

“Don’t kill it. He will not attempt to harm us. Later when we get to the more advanced training we will make use of his inquisitive nature to help in your training. But let’s start with easier lessons first.”

“First lesson is to be able to detect when a Kilkian is nearby. And of course I am right here beside you. But Colofen is also nearby, who can tell me where he is first?”

Jamison began straining his eyes at the trees all the more closely, watching for a flash of blue. And attempting to win the contest with Chambers. After a few minutes he was still clueless so he began trying other things like listening or smelling the air. As he tried all of these techniques he made larger and larger concentric circles in the grass. Eventually feeling like he was wasting his time, he noticed both Chambers and Colofer were watching him.

“Chambers found him first.” Colofer explained, “He is right here. With that announcement Colofen materialized alongside Chambers.

“You guys can be invisible?” The realization struck Jamison with surprise. He felt a little bit like the two aliens had been cheating. But since Chambers had found Colofen, apparently it was possible, although he didn’t understand how.

“Jamison, there are two reasons you did not find him, despite having walked within inches of him at one point. First you only tried to perceive him through the five senses of humanity, these senses are not the way that we wish to train you to perceive us. The second reason is your emotional state was clouded while you were trying. First it was your competitive nature trying to win a contest, after that it was a fear you would fail. Fear and pride will block your perception, dulling your ability to feel. It is important to be a person of courage to master these emotions.”

Colofen disappeared again, and Colofer instructed them to try again. Jamison watched dumbfounded as Chambers walked straight to the new spot. He had no idea. They tried this exercise several times over, with Chambers instructed to not reveal the location, Colofer would know by reading her thoughts. But the repetitious exercise felt like an exercise in futility to Jamison.

After a while Colofer had Chambers and Colofen move on to the next level of training and they headed off together to higher slopes on the mountain. This left Colofer and Jamison to continue working in the meadow, trying to get Jamison to make his first find. Jamison had begun to think they were all pulling a practical joke on him.

“The reason you have not found me is you cannot read your own emotions. You were trained as a sniper to suppress them. This is useful in some ways, but in addition to maintaining emotional control, I want to teach you to perceive and understand your emotions as they arise. Once you can read your emotions you will be able to learn which ones come from some aspect of your alignment with our king. Sometimes it will be the presence of a friend, sometimes the presence of an enemy or a danger. Other times it will be the king asking you to take on a specific task.

“For now I am going to ask you to clear your mind, close your eyes and think of nothing but your feelings. Meanwhile I will transport myself into and out of a spot right beside you. You will feel a change in your feelings when I pop in or out. Think to yourself here or gone whichever you think I am at the moment and this will be your first step to knowing how to read your emotions.”

Jamison did as he was told and tried to focus on perceiving the changes. But he perceived nothing and began to get frustrated again. Remembering her warning that negative emotions would block his ability, he worked to calm the feeling and when he did he felt something change. Then change again. “Is that it?” he thought.

“Yes that is it.” Colofer answered into his mind.

It came again and he thought, “Here”

“Very good”

“Gone”

“Yes, I just left.”

Jamison worked hard to tune in to the change of feeling. And with several repetitions it became easier to perceive. Then suddenly it hit home so strongly that he was tempted to step backwards like you would do if someone had walked up into your personal space. This was the first time he had been able to perceive a general direction and distance. They continued the exercises till midday and then returned to the lake house.

Jamison and Chambers talked about what they had accomplished. While Jamison was able to perceive Colofer or Colofen from about ten feet away, Chambers was already able to perceive both of them at the same time in different places from several miles away. Her perception of Kilkian presence was already close to maxing out.