by T. R. Harris
“My Lord, that will place their fleet only two weeks from Juir. What if they break through?”
“My friend, have you not heard my words? The Humans will break through. And when they do they will be spread out over a hundred light years, far from their supply points and military bases. It will be at this point that you display our numerical superiority.”
“It will be major battle, Synnoc, possibly the largest ever. Many Juirean ships will be lost.”
Synnoc impatiently waved his hand again. “I care not if we lose half the fleet or more. Once the Humans are destroyed, they will have no defense for Earth. At that point, you and I will spend a brief moment standing in the oppressive gravity of the Human homeworld, accepting their humiliating surrender.”
“And what of Cain? So far we have found nothing that can stop him and his starship. What if he makes it here and disrupts your plan?”
“I am disappointed in you, Kradis, for your lack of insight. Do you not see I want Cain to reach Juir?”
Kradis went to protest, but Synnoc stopped him with a gesture.
“Cain will be at the tip of the spear and can be easily cut off from the rest of the Human fleet. He will continue, and when he arrives, we will take him prisoner to join the others. Kradis, this is all a show—a presentation—to the galaxy. The Humans must not only be defeated, but humbled and humiliated. The great Adam Cain and his friends must die, and they must die here, on Juir, and for all to see. Only by doing so will the Juireans be feared and respected, not only by the Expansion, but the entire galaxy.”
Synnoc drained his glass of intoxicant and poured another. His eyes burned into those of his friend. “The problem is we Juireans have been too kind and compliant in our recent past. We have allowed the Expansion to be more independent, freer, more able to dictate their own direction. We need to go back to the time of the Founding. There were no accommodations back then. We took what we wanted without concern or compromise, and from that attitude, we built the greatest empire ever known. But it has been through our complacency that we have allowed the Humans to survive and to prosper. We have also allowed the Klin to exist, and to enlist their evil surrogates, the Kracori, to ravage our world. I say it now, those times are ending, Kradis. And they will end during my reign as Elder.”
Kradis finished his drink as well but restrained from pouring another. He needed a clear mind. There was much planning to do. “I see merit in your strategy of drawing the Humans into a trap. That is admirable, and with our superiority in warships, it could also prove successful…if technology does not prevail over numbers.”
“As I said, the super ship is but a single vessel. Even your spies reveal the Humans had been unable to make it work properly.”
“But Cain has managed.”
“Yet not well enough to return to Earth where a whole fleet of the super ships can be constructed. I do not pretend to understand how he has accomplished this. What I do know is he is but one lone warrior who will eventually run short of armament or luck, potentially both. It will be your job to make sure he lasts long enough to reach Juir. Once here, Adam Cain will be on my ground, on my planet. He will not stand a chance.”
As Master-Overlord Kradis fi Esso descended the stairway from the Pinnacle Room and mixed with the frenetic workers on the levels below, he thought back to what the Elder had said: The Juireans had allowed the Humans to survive.
Kradis had only been an upper-grade Guard commander at the time of the first Juirean-Human War; even so, he had an entirely different recollection of the events surrounding that conflict. He could vividly recall being part of a small group of desperate survivors after that particular battle with the Humans, one that took place within the twin star system of Falor-Kapel. The Juireans had a three-to-one numerical superiority during that engagement, yet it did not matter. It was lost, and decisively.
It was not wise for the Elder to underestimate or discount the Humans as second-tier warriors, existing solely at the discretion of the Juireans. And now their most-accomplished warrior was on a mission to bring the war to Juir…and to Synnoc personally. So far, this single creature had destroyed over nine hundred of the Fleet Marshal’s warcraft. Granted, he did it with a starship and weapons of revolutionary design and effectiveness. And in Kradis’ opinion, Synnoc had surmised correctly that there was only one such craft set against them. Yet this only showed the potential—and unpredictability—of the enemy.
Now Synnoc wanted to invite the Humans to invade the Expansion and to drive for Juir. The strategy was grandiose, possibly brilliant. Yet there were also far too many variables for Kradis’ liking. And the main variable was Adam Cain.
The Fleet Marshal knew the Humans were every bit as savage as the Juireans. This primal talent for hunting and killing was what made both races so successful in the commission of war. Fighting through his Juirean pride and honor, Kradis begrudgingly admitted the Humans could even be more skilled at both. Now Synnoc wished to be the hunter and the killer pitted against such an opponent. It was a dangerous gamble.
Kradis felt numb, conceding the reality of the times. Not until only one of these predatory races survived would there be victory. Only then would there be peace within the galaxy.
At that moment, however, Master-Overlord Kradis fi Esso truly did not know who would be the last creature standing.
19
This is information Hollingsworth can’t ignore!
Captain Davis Morris sprinted into the comm center. “Open a link with Earth, now!”
The startled E-4 radio tech nearly fell off his chair when the ship’s commander rushed into the room at three in the morning. “Yes…yessir,” Tom Keller stammered, closing the lid of the datapad as quickly as he could. He’d be embarrassed if the officer saw what he’d been looking at. “It will only take a minute. Who should I link to?”
“Admiral Hollingsworth, if possible. If not, then the watch commander at Central Command.”
“Yessir.”
It took a torturous three minutes before the face of Admiral Morton Hollingsworth came on the screen. It was one in the afternoon in Phoenix and the admiral was dressed in summer khakis.
“Is Admiral Logan aware you’re contacting me directly, Captain Morris? We do have a chain of command, you know, even if you once served as my aide.”
“Sorry sir. Too important,” Morris said in truncated sentences. “The Juireans have withdrawn.”
Hollingsworth blinked. “Withdrawn? From where?”
“The border, sir. They’re gone.”
Just then two other officers rushed up behind Hollingsworth and began speaking to him. After a moment of his attention being pulled in multiple directions, the admiral barked at the others to back off, at least for the moment.
“There appears to have been a horse race to see who could get this information to me first. Looks like you won by a nose, David. Now go on; what do you know?”
“Just that the mid-watch woke me up with news that all enemy ships have vanished from the line. And not only that, but there have been no reports of incursions across the line. They left…and they didn’t come this way.”
“Well damn you, Adam Cain.”
“You think he’s responsible?”
“Who else? So far this great galactic war has been one without a battle, except for what Captain Cain has been doing in the Frontier. This is great news, Captain. I’ll contact Admiral Logan and have him start making preparations for a cautious—and I mean cautious—move into the Frontier. It could be a trap. In the meantime, let me correlate all the other reports coming in—and there’s a shitload of them—so I can get the full picture. Good work, David. Hollingsworth out.”
“Is the war over, Captain?” asked the radioman after the screen went blank.
David Morris laughed. “We’re dealing with the Juireans here, Mister Keller. This thing could just be starting.”
Six hours later Admiral Hollingsworth called in two of his top advisors. He had decisions to make.
They met in his office, where a huge monitor was mounted on a wall to the left of his desk. The advisors were Lt. Commander Soshi Tanaka and a civilian, Niklas Bauer. Both were experts on the Juireans.
“So what are the mane-heads up to?” Hollingsworth asked.
Each man in the room had a laser pointer. Tanaka spoke first, highlighting on the screen the red cone that represented the movement of Adam Cain in the Mark VII.
“Cain is about halfway to Juir, following a very obvious track and leaving a trail of casualties along the way. The Juireans are in the process of pulling out of the Kidis Frontier. Although they can’t move as fast as Cain, they’re following a similar course but staying out of range. We feel this action is two-fold. First they’re trying to consolidate their forces ahead of his advance to stop him from reaching Juir, and second, to take away any obvious targets to hit.”
“What about the other regions they’re leaving—the Fringe, Libor and the others?”
Bauer spoke next. “Same thing, Admiral. Those territories are a little closer in and the units they’ve pulled can form up quicker in Cain’s path.”
“What’s the estimate on the Juirean’s eventual strength?”
“They should have two to three thousands ships available for the task,” Bauer said.
Hollingsworth whistled. “That many to stop one ship? Unbelievable. Does this make sense, knowing what you guys know about the Juireans?”
The two intelligence officers looked at each other before Tanaka spoke. “It doesn’t, Admiral, except for the fact that Synnoc appears to be obsessed with Captain Cain. He tried to blame the death of that Overlord on him as provocation for the war, and now this. He’s obviously running scared and will do anything to stop him.” Tanka smiled. “At least that’s what he wants us to think.”
“Explain.”
“You’re right, Admiral. Synnoc doesn’t need that many ships to stop Cain. But he would if he means to stop our fleet from reaching Juir.”
“Is our fleet heading for Juir?” Hollingsworth said with a sly grin.
“That’s what Synnoc is hoping. He’s pulling back and practically begging us to invade Expansion territory. He wants us to follow along Cain’s track all the way to Juir.”
“Niklas, is this what he wants?”
The intelligence expert took over the briefing. “The Expansion is porous. There are so many disgruntled alien races there that we’re having trouble keeping track of all the behind-the-lines intelligence we’re getting. A lot of their members have a very thin loyalty to the Juireans and for the right amount of credits will spill their guts. We have reports across the entire line, from the Fringe to Kidis, that Juireans warships have left, all at once. A third of the Expansion is now without military support. If that’s not an invitation to invade, then I don’t know what is.”
Hollingsworth leaned back in his chair. “You know, I’m under a lot of pressure not to do that. Some around here want me to lay back and strengthen our line. They say that would be prudent.” He took his own pointer and highlighted the area from the Fringe to the Dannon Divide. “This is a huge chunk of Expansion territory. Even if we don’t follow Cain to Juir, I’d sure like to have it as a buffer zone. Then if the Juireans decide to push us out, we’d be giving back their real estate, and not ours. If we maintain our current line, then any retreat would be through Union territory.”
“There is another possibility,” said Tanaka.
“Go on.”
“It’s that Synnoc may be so cocky that he thinks we will stay back and not advance. He knows he has a four-to-one numerical superiority in warships, so in his mind, the outcome of the war is a foregone conclusion. He could be doing all this just to stop Cain, and once that’s done, he’ll be right back on our doorstep having lost no ground.”
“In a way, that sounds more like something Synnoc would do,” Hollingsworth said. “He—and the rest of the Juirean high command—have never taken us seriously as a military threat, despite history to the contrary. They also think we’re diminished and war-weary after the Sol-Kor, and they’d be right. But they’re also too stupid to realize they’ve backed us into a corner. Synnoc doesn’t want to negotiate a peace. He wants us to die, and when our only option is either win or die, I would prefer to win.”
Bauer smiled. “Sounds like we’re about to invade the Expansion, sir.”
Hollingsworth smiled. “Why not? Besides, I have a plan up my sleeves that might throw them a curveball.”
“And what about Cain and his advance?” Tanaka asked.
“I hate to say this, but his advance might not last much longer, not against a wall of two thousand Juirean warships. I have TS-17—Captain David Morris’s task force—trailing him from Kidis. He’s there more to give Cain a way out, rather than to offer any real support for the advance. Let’s see how far he gets.”
“And if he makes it to Juir?”
Hollingsworth chuckled. “Then, gentlemen, this war might be over before we know it.”
20
When Adam opened a link with Earth, requesting to speak with Admiral Hollingsworth, he was told that security arrangements had to be made and that the admiral would be contacting him back shortly.
Riyad wanted to be present for the link, but Adam said no. This was his cross to bear and he’d face it alone.
When the signal came in, Adam let his finger hover over the connect button for a few seconds. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
Surprisingly, Hollingsworth looked calm and composed when his image appeared on the screen. Adam had been expecting a red-faced, fire-breathing dragon, trying his best to reach through the light-years and grab him through the monitor. Even with his calm demeanor, Adam didn’t get off completely scot-free.
“It’s been thirty-one days, four hours and nine minutes since last we spoke, Captain Cain. Yes…I’ve been keeping track. A lot has happened since then.”
“I’m terribly sorry, sir, but I had to go find my friends.”
“And how’s that working out for you?”
Adam swallowed hard. “We’re getting there, sir.”
“Listen, Captain, I have to admit I’m pretty pissed, but it’s a little hard to stay that way considering the success you’ve had in the Frontier. This is a secure link, so tell me, how did you power the Mark VII? Was it with the energy orb?”
“Yessir.”
“The same device you said was destroyed when the Klin colony ship exploded?”
“Yessir.”
“You had it all along?”
“Yessir.”
Adam could tell the admiral was trying his best not to turn into that fire-breathing dragon. After a moment—and with no outburst—Hollingsworth continued. “Captain, I’m willing to overlook your blatant insubordination if you will return to Earth…and bring the orb with you. You’ve proven the Mark VII is capable of incredible things, with the proper power source. Let our scientists unlock the secrets of the device so we can build a fleet of Mark VII’s. After that we’ll have nothing to fear from the Juireans, or anyone else for that matter.”
“Until the technology spreads and then everyone will have ships like the Mark VII.”
“In that case—just like with every new advance—we’ll figure out defenses against it. Listen, son, the Juireans are leaving Kidis. You did your job, and singlehandedly, I might add. Bravo. But now’s the time to end this crazy vendetta and return home.”
“Admiral, the Juireans have Sherri and Arieel. They’re on their way to Juir, with another three months of transit time. You know what Synnoc will do to them when they arrive.”
Hollingsworth bit his bottom lip. “I was wondering why you didn’t come straight back from Worak-nin. And you think you have a chance of getting to Juir and saving them? This is Juir we’re talking about, Adam. Mark VII or not, you won’t make it. And if by some miracle of fate you do, how do you save them and make your way back home? Just think for a minute. Look at the problem as a tactical operation.
Would you authorize someone in your command to undertake such a mission?”
“I’ve been trained to carry out search and extraction missions, sir. There’s always a way.”
Hollingsworth laughed. “You don’t have a plan, do you? You’re just winging it.”
“I have a plan…sort of.”
“And what is that plan, Captain?”
“It’s still a work-in-progress, sir. But believe me, I wouldn’t be pursuing it if I didn’t think we had a chance.”
“Let me see if I can figure out your strategy: Burn a path to Juir and then go in guns-a-blazing and kill every alien in sight?”
Adam forced a smile. “It’s worked so far, sir.”
“You know the Juireans have begun to withdraw their ships even from the Fringe and other places. Either they’re really afraid you’ll succeed or they’re up to something else.”
“They’re leaving other parts of the galaxy?”
“That’s right. Came as a shock to us, too. Doesn’t seem to be any reason. They have a four-to-one advantage over us, even taking into account what you’ve done in the Frontier.”
“Are they massing at a single point?”
“Not yet, just bolting for the inner galaxy. Hyben seems to be the new line of demarcation. Nothing beyond there is leaving, but still no staging area that we can tell.”
“What are you doing? You’re going to advance, aren’t you?”
“I’m sending ships into the Frontier to survey the area. It was never Union territory to begin with. Some of the hot heads in the government are now talking about doing their own annexation of the area, just to rub it in the faces of the mane-heads. I think that would be a mistake.”
“I mean the other regions—the Fringe, the Dannon Divide and the Reaches.”
“All options are on the table at this time. On one hand, if we occupy a region twice as large as what we currently have, our forces will be spread so thin that the Juireans could slip a five-thousand-ship fleet past us and park it in Earth orbit before we’d know about it. On the other, we would have a buffer zone to work with. So far, no decisions have been set in stone.”