Chapter 1 The Specter at the Banquet

Recreation Room 1- Aboard the Excalibur December 23, 2269

Dancing, music, endless bottles of alcohol, platters of terrible food, and court-martialable behavior dominated the largest recreation room aboard the Excalibur. Except at one corner table, seemingly unoccupied sat Galen, like a shadowy ghost, cloaked in a shield that rendered him invisible to all present. A tray of food sat untouched in the middle of the table. All around the sounds of the Excalibur crew celebrating echod off the walls.

Galen mused to himself, Just like a convocation, well except for the food, really how can they eat this stuff. No wonder Matthew is always in such a foul mood.

Since he arrived, Galen watched Dureena. He hadn't meant to, but it felt good to see her happy as she danced with Max. Regret and anger welled up in him for a second.

Continuing his musing, I wish for once I could just relax and join them. At least I can take some satisfaction now that Earth has its cure but I must make plans for how I will help Matthew afterwards on Mars. Then there is that black hole of despair and misery. I must find more time to go to Centauri Prime. At least Gwynn is capable. Finian on the other hand...

A message relayed by his tech, popped up from his ship.

/Perimeter warning: Ship entering long range sensor limit. Class: Technomage/

/Ship commence rune scan./

/Rune scan complete: Decrypting .../ (An image of a geared gyroscope with wings appeared in Galen's mind.)

Well this should be diverting at least. Galen left the celebration without anyone having known he had been there.

Bridge of the Excalibur

Tired didn't begin to express how Gideon felt after the last three days. The toll, both physical and emotional from the rush of events, revelations, and what happened with Galen, had been great but they finally had the cure. If only they could teleport it home like in the vids he watched as a child. Instead he had been running on caffeine and cat naps, that Dr Chambers insisted he take. Only a few more days, and they would be in orbit about Mars to hand off the cure, then down to Mars. He had swore to find justice for his dead shipmates from the Cerberus. Silently he repeated that promise and he would use everything in his power, even a certain inscrutible technomage who he could no longer trust, not after Scorpius 772A.

"What's the ETA of our escorts, Lt.?" asked Captain Gideon.

"The first White Star will intercept us in 12 hours 46 minutes," replied Lt. Matheson.

"And to Earth?"

"Now 3 days 2 hours 14 minutes," said Lt. Matheson.

"I'm heading to my quarters to shower and then I'll grab something to eat from the party. I'll be back in 30. Lt. Matheson, you have the bridge. Contact me if anything changes," said Captain Gideon half way out of his seat.

"Yes sir … Captain, we are picking up a ship on long range scanners."

"Now what. Can we get an ID on it Lt.?" Gideon stayed standing. With the adrenaline started he would not be able to relax again for a while.

"It's coming in now sir ... it's a technomage ship, it's requesting permission to land," said Matheson with some surprise.

"Granted. Contact Galen if you can find him, tell him he has a guest and to meet me in the docking bay," said Gideon rushing from the bridge.

#

As Gideon climbed into the transport tube, Galen greeted him in a flat distracted voice, "Matthew."

It still startled Gideon after all this time, even though he should be used to it. "I assume you know who is coming. Is it Alwyn?"

"No," replied Galen with unfocused eyes.

"Another technomage? Is there going to be trouble?"

"I don't believe so."

"Good. You're still on the outs with your Order, correct?"

Galen looked at Gideon for the first time and let out a heavy breath, "Who can tell anymore?"

Gideon gripped his knees firmly and snapped, "Galen … we're heading back to Earth with the cure and the last thing I need is two technomages fighting it out on my ship."

Galen smirked as he responded, "Have no fear, anything of that sort would be over quickly and I promise not to leave a mess."

Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Maybe the constant realization that the mage never revealed anything to anyone, unless confronted. Or maybe it was the fact that now he knew Galen was as shadow touched as the hybrid that destroyed the Cerberus. Gideon snapped, "Like what you did to those marines on Scorpius?"

Gideon had't meant to lose his cool, but he hated this new uncertainty. Instead of an answer, Galen pulled his hood up. With a deap cleansing breath, Gideon calmed to focus on ptoblem at hand. He said, "I assume you are still planning on staying with us till we get the samples to Dr. Franklin."

From inside the darkness of the hood came, "I disobeyed my Order over their refusal to directly intercede in this affair. I'm hardly going to listen to them now Matthew."

"Good because the Drakh know about us and they have over three days to stop us. Of course having another technomage around might be useful. Who is it?"

"It is ... I suppose you would say a friend of mine. For once I also don't know what this will be about."

"You with a friend? Wonders never cease." Again, another biting comment flew from Gideon and again the mage took it without any visible reaction.

In silence they road the rest of the way to the docking bay. Together they arrived in time to watch a second technomage ship neatly settle next to the first one. A gyroscope with outstretched metal wings rotated on its right wing. Each ring made up of small interlocking red colored gears moved in unison. The wings suddenly flapped and then the entire image vanished.

After standing there for well over a minute Gideon asked, "Are we suppose to go up and knock?"

With a frown Galen said, "I would not recommend you do that. Consider this all part of the mystery."

The hatch opened and a ramp neatly slid down. A man walked down the ramp with a hint of a limp. Gideon, grateful for having mastered hiding his facial expressions through poker, did not react externally to the technomage's appearance. He had the same knowing smirk Galen usually wore but the similarity ended there. First, he had hair, long thick black carelessly tied hair, and a big bushy beard. Completely unlike Galen's usual appearance, he wore an elaborate yellow velvet jacket, a white shirt with ruffles and red pants with clearly visible golden embroidery. His clothes while impressive looked like they have seen better days with the jacket clearly worn at the elbows and his pants streaked with light scorch marks. A bright yellow silk scarf wound snuggly about his neck and finished with an elaborate knot. A parrot and swash buckling sword would have completed the look, except he had neither, Instead he wore only one glove on his left hand. Gideon looked at Galen inside his hood. A more severe frown, etched his smooth features.

The technomage silently stopped opposite Galen. Smiling broadly and swatting Galen's shoulder, he said enthusiastically, "It's good to see you Galen. Boy you guys are far from home. I've never been this close to the rim before. It feels pretty lonely out here."

Galen quickly reached up and pulled the scarf away from his neck revealing deep red burns. The mage kept grinning but grabbed Galen's hand pulling it away slowly.

"Hey, leave my cravat alone! It took me two minutes to figure out how to tie that knot."

Galen shouted, "Who did this to you Federico?!"