Unholy Trinity

by Martin Jones

  Captain Johansson, commander of the plan B strategy to deploy the communications array looked at the interior of the freighter and despaired. The helm control was seriously impaired due to lack of care, there was almost no defensive capability except one laser weapon which wouldn’t even scratch an enemy fighter, and the conditions onboard were utterly gross.

  They were stuck with sublight speed, and their journey to the positioning point for the array was painfully slow. What slowed them down further, were the constant enemy patrols in the area. They on each occasion released the array which just looked like a piece of space rock, and hid behind a planet or a moon.

  The whole exercise was at odds to their training, but with the amount of enemy patrols in the area, it seemed increasingly likely that admiral King’s fleet would have been discovered, and it seemed rather obvious that they would fight to the death to ensure the enemy believed that the array they were carrying was the only one.

  They all had friends and in some cases loved ones in the fleet, and there was a grim determination to make this work, as they felt the eyes of the entire alliance were on them.

  Eventually, after far too many times hiding from enemy patrols, they eventually reached the debris field near the planet designated, Gemini 9, and began deployment of the array. It would take thirty minutes for it to be fully deployed, and five agonising minutes where it would betray itself by powering up, before it was fully operational and able to replicate itself.

  They were half way through deploying it, when three ships appeared on their sensors heading directly towards their position at sublight speed.

  Captain Johansson breathed a partial sigh as he realised it probably wasn’t Darknet forces, but what he did know was that it was trouble!

  The three ships surrounded them, and then they were being hailed. Fortunately there was no video communication, so an alien voice sprang from the speakers, and their xenolinguist, commander Loy, helped translate;

  “Yamak, you old Snarg hunter. What are you doing out here with all these dark energy monsters prowling around. There must be profit in it. Share it with us and we’ll protect you!” Loy translated, and Johansson moaned inwardly. This was not a good development. He addressed Loy and spoke very carefully.

  “I’m Afraid Yamak isn’t here. He sold this vessel to the alliance because of all the Darknet forces here. We are waiting for our fleet to arrive shortly. You will find Yamak on Tetra 4, in one of the bars, no doubt getting drunk and causing trouble.” Johannson said, hoping the threat of the fleet arriving shortly would send them away in a panic. He was wrong.

  The three ships suddenly moved and the dreadful grinding sound of laser weapons being used against their hull galvanised them into action and the weapons officer, lieutenant Grupo manipulated the ship and the laser brilliantly. He then went on to adopt a defensive pattern in line with exercises they had practiced countless times. Of course the exercises had been practiced using wave particle weapons, but the principal was the same. All he knew was that he had to give the two members of his crew actually inside the array time to fully deploy it, and then still be there at the end for the last five minutes to protect the array before it was fully activated and able to protect itself.

  Thankfully the invisibility shield had already deployed, so it would only be in the last five minutes that they would have to protect it as it became detectible in the short activation phase, but they would need to stay alive until then, and although they were inflicting heavy damage in the other ships, they were also already taking damage themselves. This would be a very close thing!

  ∆∆∆

  Lord Grovolk settled his wings and sat on his throne which he had built on the central planetary system in the quadrant, Tyk 3. He felt the constant presence of his Mother, as he surveyed the fleet commanders all prostrating themselves before him. He couldn’t believe how he had got into this position, but he felt constantly exhilarated by the power he had, the forces he had at his command, and the prospect of defeating Melville’s fleet, capturing him and taking him to his Mother.

  He smiled at the pathetic attempt Melville had tried to make to monitor their whereabouts by installing a communications array, which they had discovered when they realised and scanned what the fleet was trying to protect, and he had immediately increased defences so that no repeated attempts would be possible.

  Each officer reported their progress to him, which in fact was unnecessary, because he was the Darknet; along with his Mother of course, and he could see how much of the quadrant he had conquered already.

  It was now clear what Melville’s plans were now. They had left all life forms in this quadrant to their fate, and were hiding behind their puny defence arrays, as if that would stop his glorious armada! He let each commander report and prostrate himself again. One commanded armies and won wars through discipline. He ruled through fear, and unlike Phi, he had lost none of his intelligence or wiliness in the transition to living god. He was just as careful and clever as he was, but now he had ultimate power and control, thanks to his Mother of course.

  ∆∆∆

  Melville was pacing the floor, and the four senior commanders looked pensive. If their plan was to work, they needed the intelligence that only the array could bring, and they were now in the hands of an untried captain, a skeleton crew, and a freighter which by all descriptions was clapped out and next to useless.

  It was a nail biting time, and the clock seemed to have slowed down to an almost stop. It occurred to me that I could go there myself, but felt that would rather give the game away as from the enemy’s point of view, they had already won, and had plugged the gap so no further attempts could be made. There was nothing for it but to wait for either the signal from the array to prove that it was working. If it survived beyond the crucial five minutes of activation at the end, following that the enemy would have no idea it was there. We waited, and we silently prayed for officers we didn’t know, but were playing such a vital role in creating the conditions for victory in the Darknet war.

  ∆∆∆

  There was just three minutes left, and their only weapon was out of action now. They had destroyed two of the ships, but none of them had been trained in deep thought communication, and they couldn’t risk communicating in any other way. His crew had behaved in an exemplary way, but he knew what he had to do now. As soon as the array entered its activation phase, he knew the pirates would leave them and tow the array away as something that they could likely sell to the highest bidder.

  He knew he had one chance, and that was to ram the remaining pirate ship. He told his crew and they looked at him with determination and told him it was the right thing to do, and they knew that their lives were making a huge difference. Before he gave the order, he wracked his brains to find a way to communicate in some way the fact that two of his crew were marooned on the array, and he also wanted to communicate the bravery of his crew. Before giving orders to ram the enemy vessel, he launched a class 2 probe in the direction of the alliances defensive grid which housed a specially coded message. He then revved the plasma engines and rammed the remaining ship, and within seconds they were all dead.

  ∆∆∆

  Darknet section commander Chut noticed the anomaly as he was speeding to a rendezvous with Lord Grovolk’s fleet. They changed course to investigate, but before they got there, the mysterious anomaly stopped a short time later, and after spending important time searching to no avail, he forgot about it and resumed his journey, confident that they could make up the time before arriving. Lord Grovolk was not known for his patience, and he was pleased that he had not been delayed long. Before they resumed their journey, his science officer, Chapat had tractored aboard what he presumed was a probe, with the contents being just a coded message, so the officer downloaded it and decided to make it a long term project to try to decipher it.

  ∆∆∆

  I was certain that the plan hadn’t worked and had already resigned myself to this when the array lit up
like a Christmas tree and showed that it was fully active on our systems. I looked at it in utter disbelief. I couldn’t imagine what had happened to the crew, but I knew the chance of them surviving this was extremely slim.

  I, and my other commanders looked at the display in amazement. The Darknet fleet had mainly positioned itself in a perimeter facing ours, with generally a distance of at least three light years between the two opposing forces. The rest of their fleet was engaged in spreading the Darknet across the hundreds of civilisations we hadn’t managed to contact, and I knew many of them were not advanced in technology, so with the absence of any discernible online network, everyone on the planet would be killed. I felt sick in my stomach, but knew that there had been nothing else we could have done. I felt like a murderer, and vowed to make Lord Grovolk and the Darknet witch that controlled him suffer. This was going to be a long and costly war I knew, but I already realised that thanks to the ingenuity of one of my admirals, and the bravery of the freighter crew, they had bought alliance a key advantage which would bring victory I was sure.

  Chapter Twelve - A Game of Cat and Mouse

  Emily looked out of the window of Outpost 7 and felt that there would be an attack soon. She didn’t know the information yet that the array was working, but she had always relied on her intuition. She was grateful that the 6th fleet had been there only yesterday, and they were no more than six hours away if her intuition proved to be insight. She wasn’t unduly worried. The five battleships, eleven cruisers and over 8000 thought fighters combined with the defensive array, and the considerable fortress of defences the outpost had, which also replicated themselves at the point of destruction meant that they could at least give as good as they got. The large numbers of civilians which had flocked to them were a problem though, as she knew in a heavy and prolonged attack that there would be casualties.

  Her medical officer, a Dr Harrison was very highly recommended, and he had his entire team, her and the whole outpost if she was to be honest with herself, trained for triage and large medical emergencies.

  She had been there just three weeks, and she was looked on by the other crew with awe as one of the original Hand of Destiny members. The only voice of if not dissent, then sarcasm was admiral Vock, who was from the planet Gigary, with our defensive force comprised mainly of forces from his planet. He plainly had not taken to being commanded by a woman, particularly because their planet followed a patriarchal culture.

  There was nothing to be done about it, his was the only available force, and she, the only available commander. It was just after a meeting with the executive staff that it happened. She was looking out of the window at their small protective fleet in formation behind the protective defensive array, standing out in light grey against the intense black of space and the odd pinprick of a star, when the entire view changed to include tens of thousands of ominous looking Darknet ships.

  “Red alert - battle plan Omega” she shouted, and sent thought messages to the general in charge of the 6th fleet and her Melville.

  Defensive shields raised blurred the image outside and all the systems appeared on her.screen, with every active station being 100% green status and ready. A bank of screens in front of her told her all her crew were in position, and she could feel faces looking at her for inspiration.

  Admiral Vock looked at her across the table and said;

  “You do realise that the Omega plan is the most limiting plan for my forces. We are restrained from leaving the defensive array, which basically makes us just an addition to the array.

  She looked at him with sufficient patience to not cause offence and replied;

  “Yes I am perfectly aware of that admiral, and if there had been a tenth of the forces facing us, then I would have opted for Alpha or Beta, but once the enemy gets used to your limited role, there’s nothing stopping me changing the plan half way through if the opportunity arises in giving the enemy a bloody nose!” she added, looking carefully at him in the eyes, which females of his species were not allowed to do.

  His expression showed a wry smile, which she had come to recognise, and he muttered;

  “Stubborn woman!”, but it sounded almost like a compliment, which was a first.

  ∆∆∆

  Tja sat in his command chair and looked at the outpost and the pathetic little fleet in front of him and laughed. Was that supposed to protect them? He and his crew had just emerged from their down-time, and they were all ready for a protracted fight. In fact he almost felt disappointed by the puniness of the target in front of them. He instructed his Targ fighters to dispose of the defensive array and he sent 50 battleships in to help with the task, finish off the small fleet and destroy the outpost. He sat there slightly bored by the prospect. He had been trained for this war through countless simulations, and felt truly disappointed by the mundane actuality of war in front of him.

  ∆∆∆

  Emily watched almost with a sense of satisfaction as the fighters, and then the battleships moved into range. Theirs was the last defensive array installed, and had the latest technology which packed the same punch as a Gagarin wave particle cannon which were the main armaments of the alliance’s biggest battleships.

  As part of the Omega plan, the thought fighters engaged the enemy fighters, leaving the battleships for the full force of the defensive array. The shock of the destructive power of the array could deliver offered them one opportunity to create the most havoc and damage, and that was saved for their capital ships.

  ∆∆∆

  Tja watched with interest as the enemy declined to use its array and relied on their fighters to deal with theirs. He presumed that they were short of ammunition or power which was an added bonus.

  He looked on with a certain cold relish then as his 50 battleships, supported by over 50000 fighters went in for the kill. He then watched the defence grid pointlessly targeting his battleships, and then looked in absolute horror as ten of them targeted, silently exploded in flames and debris. He looked at the sight in disbelief.

  “Withdraw immediately!” he shouted, almost becoming hoarse with the effort.

  Another 18 battleships were destroyed in the chaotic retreat. With thousands of their fighters destroyed in flames and floating debris. He withdrew his forces to beyond the array’s range, and with a sense of abject humiliation, sent a message asking for reinforcements and orders, given the circumstances of what had just happened.

  ∆∆∆

  Emily and admiral Vock looked on with a sense of relief as the array kicked in, destroying it felt like 28 of their battleships and thousands of their fighters. Vock looked at her and said;

  “They won’t do that again in a hurry! My guess is that it’s a waiting game now as they wait and we wait for reinforcements. It seems your choice of plan Omega was precisely the right decision my commander.” he said, followed by his best attempt at a smile.

  “Thank you my friend. Yes, I think it’s now a waiting game, but to completely swamp us, they’ll need all their mighty armada, which will take so long, that we can muster all our fleets here as well. We could have ringside seats to the biggest battle this reality has ever seen.” she said, grateful that at last she seemed to have his support. She sent her Melville a complete thought report, and he responded by saying they were moving the 6th fleet to her in four hours, and the 1st and fourth fleet was moving closer just in case they were needed. He said that they had to be prepared for this being a diversionary move on their part. He ended the military report rather unprofessionally by saying he was proud of her and he loved her.

  ∆∆∆

  I was pleased that the defensive array had worked, and I wasn’t blind to the effect that some arrays still didn’t have the Gargarin upgrades, so sent several thought orders that it was an upmost priority to upgrade the rest as soon as possible.

  I sat with general Jom and General Kyle as they looked at the Darknet map the communications array was providing. It was clear that there was a medium size force at
Emily’s outpost, with no discernible movement towards any other sector.

  “What do you think gentlemen?” I asked, looking at each of them in turn.

  “The problem is, with their equivalent of FTLS, they can appear at another sector in a flash. This might give us an advantage, but it doesn’t tell us what they are thinking.” general Jom said, and I knew he was right. We were totally reliant on what the array showed, and what Susan sent in her messages. Without that, we had to fill in the blanks.

  “All we can do is make sure the 6th fleet arrives with Emily as soon as possible, and arrange for the 1st and 4th fleet to be stretched a little closer to Emily, just in case this does end up being a huge battle. We must leave everything as is for now, and hope they install the new Gagarin cannons in the remaining arrays which don’t have it, before they come under attack! Let us also not forget to ensure Gipluk is well defended as well”

  “Yes my lord general, the new fleets are mustering there from the civilisations who have caught up in technology.”

  I looked at him, and prayed they would be enough. We had to keep them occupied at the outposts.

  ∆∆∆

  The commander was visibly shaking as he told Lord Grovolk of the failure of the commander attacking the alliance outpost designated Outpost 7, but he did not punish him, as he was merely the messenger. He searched through the Darknet and found Tja’s recollections of the attack. It was clear that he had been irresponsible and had underestimated the power of the array, leading to heavy costs. He created a black hole inside his head and killed him immediately.