by Gray Lanter
Rab growled. It’s a sound I’ve often heard. He even has different types of growls. One denotes anger. If you’re a soldier under him, or even his commander, that’s the one you don’t want to hear. He has a more contemplative growl, which sounds contradictory but isn’t. Somehow he pulls it off. He has the classic stupid growl, which without words tells the person he’s speaking to that the man or women is an idiot. This growl was more in the contemplative range. But I had a sense it could turn to anger soon.
“Dr. Anson, we have seen Ralph and others like him on the planet and on the ship. But what exactly are they? I think that’s a vital piece of information.”
Our Science Officer swallowed, almost choking and replied in a diffident manner. “This is going to sound imprecise, which it is, but it’s the best I can do. They are an amalgamation of almost every type of artificial/mechanic man we know of. Plus, the creators added a few new wrinkles. They are part android, part robot, part synthetic, part nano-something or the other. They are created… shall we call them machines? They did not originate this attack. They are simply programmed and obey their orders. No creative thought, nothing independent from what was sent into them… with one exception. Ralph seems to be the one gold guy who broke the mold. But his usefulness to us is extremely limited because he knows very little about the civilization that build him. He doesn’t know why the creators want to exterminate humanity. If he did, he’d tell us. I’m sure of that.”
“Which is something of a moot point,” Rab said. “If you have a space fleet of tens of thousands of ships coming to destroy you, the reason why is immaterial. You first have to fight for your survival.”
“Yes, that’s true. I’m curious as to why some race we know nothing about wants all of us dead. But right now we have to deal with the fact that it does and an invasion is being prepared. We have to defeat the invasion first and then we worry about the reasons behind it,” I said.
Captain Martinek had been silent, but when he cleared his voice we knew he was about to speak.
“I realize this should be a through discussion. After all, our lives are at stake, but I would suggest we don’t have a whole lot of time to make our decision. The Black Ship is destroyed but no doubt they communicated with their superiors. Another ship could have and probably was dispatched with the intention of correcting the mistakes of the first ship. We must assume the creators back on their planet of origin know about the human ship that has blown apart their ship. They may not be too alarmed at first. Although they hate humans there is no indication humans or any of their spaceships have penetrated this section of space. From what we have seen our enemies have a rather casual attitude toward us in terms of military tactics. They proceed cautiously with no sense of urgency. They seem to have full confidence that they will eliminate us, so there is no hurry. But one of their ships has now been destroyed so they may reconsider their previous beliefs. If we make the decision to attack the planet, we should do so as soon as possible,” he said.
“Do you have an opinion on what we should do?” I asked.
“My opinion is not solid yet, sir, but right I’m leaning toward an attack. If we did not have the Planet Buster Bomb, I’d vote to zoom back to Federation territory. But since we have such a bomb and a chance, albeit a small one to use it, we should take the opportunity to destroy our enemies. We may not make it but it would be a noble attempt.”
“Yes, they’ll write songs about us,” Rab said. He was a man, of course, who cared nothing for tribute choruses. “If the human race survives, that is.”
“A successful mission would help assure its survival, or at least give humans a very good chance to survive.”
Astrid gave a mischievous smile. “Well, if our adversaries declare war and eliminate the human race, we will die anyway so we might as well take a chance. We can strike a blow for freedom. I agree with the captain. We should move as soon as possible but it’s doubtful that our enemy would expect an attack. They might not even have defenses. Why have defenses when an attack is basically impossible? No humans have been in this sector so they can’t be worried about any offensive action. Plus, I’m assuming the creators believe they will eliminate the human race. Once they launch their attack, they expect their enemies to be annihilated. So there’s no reason to build defenses for an opponent who will be wiped out.”
“I’m not sure of your logic. That may make sense to a human but one assumes the creators are not human. They may not follow that.”
“I’m not sold on that either,” Anson said. “We should hesitate to act unless we have more information.”
For the next several minutes, there were no conversations. Individuals around the table looked at one another in silence.
“Well, if the discussion is over, perhaps we should vote,” I said. “All of you have a dagger in front of you. The tip is pointed toward you. If you vote to return to Federation territory, grab the dagger and turn it around, so the tips points outward. If you vote for an attack, take the dagger and stick it into the desk.”
For five seconds no one moved.
Then Astrid reached toward her dagger…
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Table of contents
Table of Contents
Table of contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Table of contents