And so, Charles, after all this time he had lived, made the Short list for the Grand Magus's personal bodyguard, though there was no official title, nor any official documentation for such a role. On paper he was just one of the Knights who had volunteered for service aboard the Red Solstice.
Charles overheard every single words from behind the standard infantry armor of the church spoken between his good friend Joseph and that untitled officer, Rochelle. To Charles the holy war was always supposed to be fought against man. A war against extraterrestrial entities is the hand of God. For if God had not been displeased you would not have been sent up against that which you could not know. To fight that which you did not know was to fight only yourself. For in not knowing your opponent there was none other but yourself.
Among human competition there was another creature to know, some thing you could understand, but if you were to fight an alien, how could one known alien? It was in the name, "alien." You might be able to observe its patterns and pick out responses, but they may as well be a machine because you would never experience what they had experienced. Their bug eye returns or their lizard emotions, or biological computational programming would have been… well unknowable and alien.
You would never be truly in their mind and so as Charles heard the words, he repented for his sins, for it sounded like there would be a siege, and they were good odds that they would be fighting potentially to the death, aliens. He appreciated a certain romantic and honorable death however, he wondered if that was a luxury that the others would never achieve and that he was about to have an opportunity to enjoy. He rather liked life, so to Charles it wasn't really a good thing even to have a good death.
In truth, Charles was not supposed to know any of the information he had just overheard the only reason he had was the artwork of the church, their love of non-electrical gateways. Joseph's, aka: The Grand Magus's office possessed two finely crafted, reinforced wooden doors. Wooden doors that let the keenly listening hear everything on the other side. Wooden doors that had been formed over a firm iron mesh, blocking various RF waves, Wooden doors that were heavy from metal but not dense with wood. A normal human would not be able to hear the sounds from the other side, to outsiders the doors seemed perfectly secure, if a bit rustic. But with hearing aids incorporated into standard church power-armor the full story of everything that happens in that room was obvious. Indeed Charles knew the door was not bullet proof, even against smaller calibers. Charles suspected that this was intentional on the churches part. Most of the civilized world have done away with the liability of one's own service getting the full picture of the master's business. But with the church and its worship of the human and all of their many emotions saw fit for some unknown reason to allow the service to hear the words. Charles suspected it either had something to do with trust or more likely given the old texts, keeping the chapter masters honest. It was rather funny what you heard on the other side of the door even if everything was completely mundane. Eavesdropping was not the sort of thing the majority of civilized society was used to, especially not the most primitive form of it. No doubts in an hour or so the old man would come out and invite two bodyguards in to give them quizzes on what they had not heard and ask them advice on things they could not know.
Brazenly disobeying rules was an ancient tradition of the church…
And that little man, Rochelle, left.
Joseph invited the two knights into the quiet wooden church meeting room and two others were summoned to take their place at the door. Officially it was the end of their shift, which normally meant they played a board game with the Grand Magus.
Today there was no game, the simple discussion that would be overheard by the two other knights just outside the door was the activity planned as predicted.
"If I asked the two of you what we are doing here what would you say?" Joseph, the Grand Magus began.
The two knights had removed their helmets, to be polite. All three of them stood, they did not sit, around the little game board.
"We are acting as a picket/scout force sent to detect an extraterrestrial incursion." Charles answered.
"What do you say?" The Grand Magus looked at the other knight, Oscar.
"We are hunting extraterrestrial agents, if we kill them we can prevent the incursion."
"Very optimistic Oscar… I think you may be right, we certainly won't win in the event of an incursion, the Syndicate will pretend it isn't happening and their little devils will need plausible deniability for their cowardly actions. Charles has a more syndicate approved view."
The armed man appeared bashful, It was no secret that the Grand Magus had a favorite in Charles.
Oscar spoke earnestly, "What of that station? the one that is not healthy? Our fellow crew went dead silent regarding news after we detected their comms went down."
"That's not for me to know" said the Magus, "Members of the church are not privy to the secrets of this vessel."
"May we go investigate the station?" Oscar asked, "The civilians should be evacuated, aided, to be cynical it would favor the Church to raise our flag in aid."
"I second this opinion." Charles spoke up as well, "We are in the dark on this ship, if it is only a sleeper agent, it is exactly the sort of threat our small number may be able to track and find. We may find the danger and know it. Then if it is only more syndicate incompetence, we may aid the people, we can't lose if we act."
"At what cost?" The Grand Magus asked
"Our own lives?" Oscar replied. "These suits? And only in a worst case scenario."
"There is the risk the Red Solstice takes a disliking to my own person." The magus coyly smiled.
Oscar scowled, he knew that the old man was asking for a more complete plan, Charles probably already knew what the old man wanted, but annoyingly he didn't speak. The two of them conspired, it was as if they could read each other's mind. They were testing Oscar.
"They still need you Grand Magus, you have validated their plan of operation, if you should be harmed here they will appear nothing more than a confused rabble even to their own officers. I believe you are safe. Moreover, you know full well our complement of 8 is more than necessary to protect one individual in normal circumstances. Our excess number are intended precisely for missions such as these."
"This is why I picked you Oscar, you are by the book, very good!"
Nonsense, Thought Oscar, 1001 knights and their mothers are by the book, you picked me for my gullibility and naivety.
"Do you disagree Charles?"
"No Grand Magus"
"What can we offer the civilians of the station?"
"Temporary power, Water, Oxygen, Our own willingness to accept risk."
''Good Good…" the Magus was pleased "Then so our intervention shall be. I shall contact the authorities and with their blessing we shall act in charity."
Oscar spoke "Will not the Red Solstice oppose this action?"
"No, that Rochelle fears I am an inquisitor of his own syndicate, to deny me would put him at immediate risk, to accept my proposal puts him at long term risk, he will be unhappy but I believe he will say yes because long term risk can be reduced. We shall assume they say yes, if they say no… well we will enjoy the adventure of exploring the politics of this vessel."
Charles had suspected as much, but to speak would be presumptuous.
"Do I have the blessing of you two?" The Grand Magus seemed eager.
The knights nodded in approval.
"What of my brave knights outside? Do they disagree? "
The two knights inside the chamber of the magus looked at each other.
"Magus, this is an RF sealed room, their confirmation keys won't transmit."
The Magus sighed, "security… security… such a death for me…" and walked to the double door, he opened one and leaning his head out.
"Are either of you uncomfortable? Would you like a glass of water?"
"Yes Magus"
"Very good idea Magus!"
This meant that they did not disagree.
"Good, the 4 of you then."
The knights were… in order of seniority…
Oscar,
Gabriel,
Charles,
And
Jason.