The Star Cross: The Vorn!

by Raymond L. Weil

  Kurt nodded. He would rather fight the Vorn in deep space than at Earth or Newton. “I would.”

  This seemed to satisfy Fleet Captain Waelt. “Then we have the commanders of our four attack fleets.” Waelt hesitated and then looked over at Councilor Marshton. “Do you approve?”

  “Yes,” Marshton replied. “I am a civilian leader. You are the war leader. Just keep me informed of your plans. After all, the reason we came out here is to fight the Vorn.”

  Fleet Captain Waelt leaned back in his chair looking at the others. “If we’re going to do this we need to attack as soon as possible before any new Collector ships arrive. By now the Vorn in their home system must know their staging system has been destroyed. I’m sure they must already be in the process of activating additional Collector ships to collect the harvest in the motherships waiting in those six systems. Our priority targets must be those motherships.”

  “I agree,” Kurt said. “If we destroy as many motherships as we can, the Vorn will have to activate more. Unfortunately, we have no idea what they may have in reserve.”

  Tasid, Marshton, and Fleet Captain Waelt remained silent. All three knew the Vorn had one hundred and sixteen massive habitats in their home system. Their fleet reserves could be massive.

  “When do we launch the attack?” asked Fleet Captain Lilith.

  “The sooner the better,” said Lieutenant Mays. “The Vorn Collector ships could arrive any day. When they do, the Vorn harvesting fleets may disperse and renew the harvest or they may withdraw completely due to the loss of the staging system.”

  “We will launch our attack fleets the day after tomorrow,” Fleet Captain Waelt said. “That will give us sufficient time to make our plans of battle and to organize the attacking fleets. Fleet Admiral Vickers, your battleships with the Zero-Point Energy cannons are the most effective weapons we have against the Vorn motherships. How many battleships do you have that you can commit to this battle? I would like to divide them up between the four fleets. We can use our own battleships to get yours in close enough to take out the motherships.”

  “I can only commit twenty battleships plus the Star Cross,” replied Kurt. “We’re building more but it’s going to take a while.”

  “That will be sufficient,” replied Waelt. “We can assign five to each fleet plus your own flagship.”

  “We need an estimate of what our fleets will be up against,” said Fleet Captain Lilith. “I feel uneasy going up against the Vorn not knowing their fleet strength.”

  “I suggest we send a couple of your 1,000-meter disk ships to determine how many Vorn ships are in each system before we attack,” said Lieutenant Mays. “While it would be great to completely destroy these fleets we can’t afford large losses. We may find it more expedient to jump in and destroy the motherships and then leave.”

  Fleet Captain Waelt slowly nodded his head in agreement. “We have no idea how well our battleships will function against Vorn ships. No doubt there will also be large numbers of Vorn battleships in these systems. Destroying the motherships will be almost as good as destroying the accompanying Vorn fleets.”

  “We will know in the first few minutes,” Kurt said. “In the battles we have been in so far, we know Glaymon ships can withstand a lot of firepower before their shields become compromised. At the very least I believe we can inflict serious losses to the Vorn fleets.”

  “Let each fleet commander decide,” suggested Fleet Captain Lilith. “If the Vorn are only inflicting minor damage then we stay and fight. If we find ourselves losing ships then we will withdraw after destroying the motherships.”

  Fleet Captain Waelt considered this suggestion and then nodded his agreement. “That sounds acceptable. We have some information on the Vorn ships in the six systems. It’s not as detailed as I would like but it will give us something with which to begin making our battle plans. Let us meet again tomorrow to decide how many ships will be needed and which four of the six systems we attack.”

  -

  Later Kurt was back on board the Star Cross. He had explained to the command crew what was being considered.

  Andrew looked shaken. “We will be risking a lot. There will be thousands of Vorn cruisers and battleships in those systems. If we lose the war is over. We’ll also be committing most of our battleships that possess the Zero-Point Energy cannons.”

  “But if we win, think about the respite we’ll get,” countered Lieutenant Mays, her eyes glinting, “if those Glaymon battleships are as powerful as I believe. The Vorn won’t have anything that can crack their shields. We keep our ships close to them and we should have wide open shots at the Vorn motherships. With what we destroyed in the staging system and if we can destroy all the motherships in the four systems we’re considering attacking, it could set the Vorn harvesting of our galaxy back for years or possibly end it completely.”

  “End it completely,” said Andrew, thinking about what that would mean.

  “I believe it’s an opportunity we can’t pass up,” said Kurt. “I’ll be sending a message shortly to Rear Admiral White to gather our battleships and meet us in the Julbian System. From there the battleships will be dispersed to the various Glaymon fleets.” It was necessary to meet the battleships there as it was still important to keep the location of the Glaymon’s new system a secret. It would be a slight hindrance but one they could deal with. Kurt would also have one of the battleships bring some extra crewmembers for the Star Cross.

  -

  Prince Lashall watched as a cargo shuttle took the last container of food pellets to one of the other motherships. Each container was marked as coming from his harvesting fleet so there would be no confusion as to who had harvested these particular pellets.

  Fleet is ready, reported Military Commander Volmont.

  What is the total number of warships that will be accompanying us?

  Sixteen hundred twenty cruisers and two hundred ten battleships. Military Commander Vasterus agreed to furnish us with more cruisers and battleships since so many were sitting idle in this system. We will also have five motherships.

  Lashall nodded his triangular shaped head, his twin antennae waving slightly. That should be sufficient. He didn’t expect any major opposition to the harvesting of these worlds. There were no reported Protector Worlds in the region where the star cluster was located. They would go in, harvest the cluster of all of its food species and then return to wait for a Collector ship. Lashall looked at a nearby viewscreen showing the battleships which had been added to the fleet. Since he had the most ships and four of the five motherships were his, Prince Lakat had agreed to allow Lashall overall command of the harvesting fleet.

  -

  A few hours later the Vorn ships under Prince Lashall’s command entered hyperspace on a course for the Gothan Empire. Their plan was very simple. Drop out of hyperspace, eliminate all opposition, and then harvest the food species in that system. They would continue to repeat that method until all five motherships’ cargo holds were full. When they finally left the star cluster all of its inhabited worlds would be barren and their surfaces cleansed of any signs of intelligent life.

  Chapter Five

  Valen had been summoned to a meeting of the Glaymon Council to discuss recent events concerning the Aggressives. He smiled inwardly to himself thinking about how tumultuous this meeting was going to be. He had already spoken to a surprising number of councilors who agreed a more aggressive approach was needed in the war against the Vorn.

  Sitting down in his office, he activated the holographic projector and instantly found himself inside the large council chambers of the Glaymons. Looking around he saw all the seats were full, and he was one of the last ones to make an appearance. Shifting his gaze to the podium on the large stage in front of him, he saw Lead Councilor Lavin staring at him as if he wished Valen would simply disappear and never show up to another meeting. Valen smiled and nodded.

  Lavin quickly shifted his gaze to other councilors, not acknowledging Valen’
s presence. Looking at some of the other councilors near him Valen saw a few acknowledge his presence openly. During the last few weeks since the exodus of the fleet he had spent numerous grueling hours speaking to those councilors who would listen. He was surprised at how many were now willing to openly support the Aggressives’ desire for the Glaymons as a whole to become involved in the war against the Vorn. The tide was shifting but Valen knew he still had an uphill battle. Lead Councilor Lavin would make sure of that.

  -

  “This meeting is called to order,” spoke Lead Councilor Lavin.

  The room instantly quieted. Nearly all the Glaymons present were using holograms and could speak using them. However, the holograms were incapable of permitting telepathy, which all Glaymons except the Aggressives possessed. Only Lead Councilor Lavin was present in the flesh plus a few others sitting on the stage behind him.

  Lead Councilor Lavin looked out across the sea of faces that represented all the habitation squares of the Dyson Sphere. There were eight thousand habitation squares where the Glaymons made their homes. This was only a fraction of the habitation squares inside the Dyson Sphere. Over twelve trillion Glaymons called the Dyson Sphere their home and had for millions of years.

  “We are here today because there is a serious threat to our way of life,” began Lavin. “The Aggressives, aided by a small group of advanced Glaymons, disabled part of our defenses and nearly five thousand vessels have left the safety of the Dyson Sphere to go fight the Vorn. In doing so they may have put all of the rest of us in jeopardy.”

  Across the room a number of voices could be heard demanding the Aggressives be punished. This was what Lavin wanted. The Aggressives had long been a headache, preventing the more advanced Glaymons from taking their civilization to new levels of attainment. This latest desperate move by the Aggressives would give him the opportunity to take care of the Aggressive problem once and for all, something his predecessors should have done long ago.

  Lavin was silent for a long moment savoring what he was about to propose. “I have talked to some of our geneticists, and they all feel only twenty million Aggressives are needed to keep our gene pool vibrant. Therefore I call for the Aggressives to begin immediately to put in place stringent population controls to bring their population down to twenty million as soon as possible.”

  “Vote!” called out several councilors.

  “Do away with the Aggressives!” voiced a number of others. “They have put us all in danger!”

  “We have support for a vote,” said Lavin smugly. “All in favor of reducing the population of the Aggressives to twenty million please vote accordingly.”

  In each holographic chair where a councilor sat there were several icons on a computer screen, which indicated how a councilor could vote on an issue. Lead Councilor Lavin smiled as he saw the vote was heavily in favor of reducing the Aggressive population. Everything was going according to his plan. “By a vote of 67 percent of all councilors the motion has been carried. The Aggressives will immediately begin reducing their population and pull out of all but one of the four habitation squares they now reside in.”

  -

  Valen stood up and started laughing. The huge council chamber became deathly silent except for Valen’s echoing laugh. All eyes shifted to focus solely on him. Even Lead Councilor Lavin looked confused.

  “And who is going to enforce this reduction of population?” Valen challenged, folding his arms across his chest. “Who has the will to come to any of our four habitation squares and force us to comply? After all there is a reason we’re called the Aggressives.”

  “But it’s the will of the council,” stammered Lavin with a look of confusion on his face. “You must obey.”

  Valen shook his head “No, we don’t. As a matter of fact, I have an announcement for the council. Effective immediately the Aggressives will be taking over the twelve habitation squares bordering the ones we now inhabit.” Originally it was only going to be eight but recent events had made them reconsider and add four more. “We will begin immediately to increase our population with the intent of going to war against the Vorn. We intend to send a major reinforcing fleet to Councilor Marshton and Fleet Captain Waelt as soon as it is feasible. Already the shipyards we control are busy building new battlecruisers. We have started the construction of battleships as well.”

  “No!” voiced Lead Councilor Lavin, his voice quivering. “You are endangering everything we’ve built here. For over twenty million years we’ve stayed hidden from the Vorn. You’re putting all of that at risk. It is against our laws for the Aggressives to build any battleships. You must cease construction immediately.”

  “No,” replied Valen in a calm voice. “It’s you who are putting the galaxy at risk. In those twenty million years we’ve remained hidden how many sapient species have been wiped out in our galaxy and others? For millions of years we’ve had the ships to stop the Vorn, but they’ve sat idle in our spacedocks waiting for an attack that never came. The number of beings the Vorn have turned into food pellets and consumed is beyond imagining. I say the time for action is now and I ask that other habitation squares join with us. It is time we join the war! It is time we put a stop to the Vorn!”

  “Yes, let us fight,” a few voices said. “We must send our fleet.”

  “I make a motion we join the war against the Vorn and mobilize our fleet,” said Valen. “Let us put it to a vote.”

  “Yes! Vote!” a surprisingly large number of voices cried out.

  -

  Lead Councilor Lavin stood frozen behind the podium. He looked out across the council chamber knowing he had no choice. A call for a vote had been made and a number of other councilors had seconded it. “Very well. There is a call for us to go to war against the Vorn. How does the council vote?” He was shocked by the number of councilors who had called for a vote. With stark realization, he knew Councilor Valen had been speaking to other councilors.

  For several long minutes the votes came in. Lavin grew concerned when he saw how many were voting to go to war but after a while calmer heads seemed to regain control. Then the final vote tally was in. “The vote is 32 percent for war and 68 percent against. The vote stands and we will not go to war against the Vorn.” Lavin was stunned by how many had supported the proposition.

  Lavin shifted his attention back to Councilor Valen who was still standing. “We may not be able to force your people to reduce their population or stop them from taking over the habitation squares which border the four you now inhabit, but the council still controls the Dyson Sphere’s defenses. Steps have been taken to ensure those defenses cannot be compromised a second time. Your people may be building ships, but they will never leave the Dyson Sphere.”

  Lavin was satisfied that at least for the moment he had the situation under control. This meeting had not gone as he had expected. It was disconcerting how many councilors had supported Valen and the Aggressives. There would need to be a campaign waged to bring those councilors back into the fold. The advanced Glaymons could not risk going to war against the Vorn. In two million more years their final solution would be ready to implement. The Vorn would be taken care of and sent back to their own bubble universe. That had been the plan for all these millions of years and Lavin was not going to endanger it.

  Taking a deep breath there were other issues that needed to be discussed in this meeting of the council. However, none would be as disruptive as the ones they had just voted on. Lavin stared at Councilor Valen for several long moments and then went on to discuss the next issue the council was to hear. He would deal with Valen and his supporters later.

  -

  Valen sat through the rest of the council meeting voting on the issues that needed to be voted on. All were minor as most issues were. He stayed through the entire meeting wanting the other councilors to see the Aggressives were still a part of their civilization. As he listened to a discussion on whether the council should build a new university dedicated to the study of a pa
rticular style of art, Valen wondered how Marshton and Fleet Captain Lilith were doing. When this meeting was over it would be time to get back to work speaking with other councilors. He had gotten 32 percent to vote for war this time. At the next council meeting, he wanted that number to be over 40 percent. The Glaymon Council might not know it, but they had already taken the first step in going to war against the Vorn.

  -

  Fleet Admiral Kurt Vickers sat in his command chair as the fleet he was in command of dropped out of hyperspace near the Julbian star system. This fleet was by far the largest he had ever commanded. Eight hundred Glaymon 1,000-meter disk ships and 220 of the 2,000-meter Glaymon battleships. Kurt watched as thirty ships joined his fleet formation. He had summoned ten of the new heavy battlecruisers and twenty Human battleships from Newton. Fifteen of the battleships were quickly sent on to join the other three attacking fleets.

  After a brief conversation with Rear Admiral Susan White, who was on her flagship, the Ranger, Kurt prepared to take the fleet back into hyperspace. Susan had been stunned when she saw the fleet Kurt had under his command but had not questioned where he had gotten it. Kurt told her he would explain when he got back to Newton.

  “I hope this is enough,” Andrew said as he watched the viewscreens showing views of different ships in the fleet. The Newton ships were taking their places in the fleet formation.

  “It will be,” said Lieutenant Mays with confidence. “We believe from the scanty information we have on the systems the Vorn have gathered in we will be facing no more than ten or twelve thousand of their ships. The Glaymon battleships will make mincemeat out of them while we blow their motherships to oblivion with our Zero-Point Energy rounds.”

  Andrew shook his head. Lieutenant Mays really enjoyed using the ship’s new weapons, perhaps too much.

  “The Vorn have never fought a Glaymon battleship before,” Aleea said as the fleet prepared to go into hyperspace. “From my studies of previous battles involving our disk battlecruisers, it is my opinion the Vorn will have no defenses against the weapons the Glaymon battleships will employ. The power of a battleship is at least four times that of a battlecruiser. If we achieve surprise this might be a very short battle.”