by S. H. Jucha
Hector was relaying the conversations between the admirals and Sargut’s ear comm to keep the president involved in communications.
“I don’t think your sisters would be effective against your aggressors’ armament, Admiral Plummer,” Sargut replied. “Those five ships are of the most recent designs. They’re newer than Toralian battleships. As such, they have the latest anti-electronic applications on board.”
The aging battleships that faced Alphons’s command chose to launch their missiles and then abandon their assault.
“We’re left to clean up the remnants of their revenge,” Alphons groused to himself, as he studied the holo-vid’s representation of the number of projectiles that flew toward Toral.
Taralum’s ship led the assault. The sisters co-opted the Toralian comm systems to link and break into the missiles’ electronics. They’d been successful in controlling the armament of an elder race, during the ruse to take Artifice.
In short order, it was clear to the sisters that they were unable to commandeer the oncoming mass of explosives with the Toralian comms. They immediately switched to the more sophisticated comm systems of the Tridents.
Soon wasn’t soon enough for Alphons. Time to respond to the onslaught was running out. He only had a few more minutes to make a tactical decision. There was the distinct possibility the missiles would go active, when they neared the battleships. If they did, they’d burn the last of their fuel to race toward Taralum’s ships.
Alphons decided he couldn’t wait any longer.
Alphons saw his holo-vid fill with floods of armament, as missiles from both aggressor and defender battleship fleets flew toward one another.
A spate of bright pinpoints of light lit holo-vids, as Toralian armament slammed into the oncoming mass of the aggressors’ missiles.
Alphons could see there was no time for the battleships to abandon the field. They would be forced to employ close-in defensive fire in an attempt to eliminate the remaining active missiles and break up the missile bodies into less dangerous sizes. Bow gunners fired heavy slugs, hoping to prevent strikes against the bridges, and the side gunners prepared to target anything passing by.
Alphons ordered the Tridents to launch their travelers and engage. The warships flew into the mass of missiles and debris, using their beams to pulverize the armament and metal before they struck the battleships. They swiveled around active missiles, reversed orientation, and detonated the missiles they passed. This ensured a lengthening distance from the explosions. Tridents and travelers in the rear played cleanup.
On Talus battleship bridges, captains fretted, as their crews tried desperately to eliminate the enormous amount of metal that flew their way. For the most part, the gunnery crews of the battleships and Omnian warships were successful in chopping the missile bodies into small pieces or burning the metal. The small bits of missile bodies bounced off the battleships’ solid armor, often scoring gashes in the hull.
Only one battleship crew was unsuccessful, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.
Two massive sections, each nearly two-thirds of a missile’s body careened off each other, dramatically changing their trajectories. One body flew off into space to be destroyed by a Trident. The other slammed into the forward hull and created a breach in the bridge.
The bridge’s blast door was shut in preparation for battle, saving many of the ship’s crew. That meant only the captain and bridge crew died from the impact and subsequent explosion.
A sister was thrown into space. Her avatar was heavily damaged, but she was still active. Unfortunately, she quickly traveled too far to transmit her location to an Omnian warship. She expired when the cold drained her energy cells and her kernel shut down. These were the next casualties of the new society.
After the fight to defend Toral ended, a first mate and officers, operating from a secondary control room, would direct the damaged ship to a position near the orbital station, where the bridge could be rebuilt.
Adrianna’s challenge came the next day, as her command closed on the five inbound battleships, which came in system along the ecliptic. She sent her battleships forward to entice the aggressors into action, and she succeeded.
The five battleships emptied their tubes of everything they had, reversed course, and fled. The Talus battleships responded by firing their small, fast, antimissile armament.
Unfortunately, the enemy’s missiles were more sophisticated and faster. Most of them evaded the Talus projectiles.
Having accomplished their mission, the Talus battleships flared off. The captains were ordered by Adrianna to circle wide and not get behind the Tridents. They followed their orders, even though they didn’t comprehend the strategy.
The Tridents launched their travelers and formed a wall, facing the oncoming missiles. It allowed a clear field of fire for every warship. As soon as the Talus battleships cleared the field, the Omnian warships accelerated — in reverse.
The enemy’s missiles closed fast, and the warship captains and fighter pilots drained their energy banks to extend the closing time of the projectiles.
Sargut stared into the holo-vid. In the mêlée of Alphons’s battle, he hadn’t bothered to observe the maneuver of Adrianna’s command. Now the city-ship’s powerful sensors were focused on the command of Omnian warships.
“They’re flying backward,” Sargut remarked, in surprise. He knew the Omnian ships contained two types of engines, and one was the grav type that they used in system. It should have occurred to him that sailing in any direction was possible for the shell-type ships.
Ellie smiled at Sargut’s fascination with the maneuver.
“You can’t expect our warships to shoot at the enemy’s armament without facing them,” Ellie said and grinned.
Sargut bared his sharp teeth and whistled. He suddenly understood Ellie’s strategy. While he watched, the flare of the incoming missiles died. They’d gone ballistic. This left the Omnians in control of the engagement. They waited until the missiles entered their engagement envelopes.
When the opportunity presented itself, the beams fired vaporizing missiles. The Omnian warships continued to cut the projectiles down until their power banks were low. Then they sailed toward Toral, facing the missiles, while their power crystals recharged.
With twin beams, the Tridents could have eliminated double the number with each discharge of their outrigger hulls, but the aggressors’ missiles were fast and hardened. The captains ensured the projectile detonations with twin blasts of energy.
The travelers imitated the Tridents by double-teaming each missile. Pilots paired and coordinated on targets via their controllers.
Ellie sent in reply.
While Alphons’s Tridents collected their travelers and accelerated to join Adrianna’s wall, Ellie conferred with Hector.
“Can Adrianna’s battleships be of service in this fight?” Ellie asked.
“Negative, Admiral,” Hector replied. “Adrianna’s ships and the chasing missiles are far past the Talus force, and the battleships don’t have the acceleration necessary to catch them.”
Ellie ordered Taralum’s battleship group, which had been with Alphons’s command, to form a last line of defense against any missiles that evaded the Omnian warships.
When the Trident commands combined, the number of destroyed missiles doubled with each round of beam discharges. The captains and pilots worked diligently to eliminate the thousands of missiles launched at the Toralian home world.
Shortly before the Omnians were backed against the orbital platform and the Talus battleships, they destroyed the last enemy projectiles.
“All armament has been destroyed,” Hector reported.
Sargut, whose gaze wasn’t directed anywhere in particular, said, “It’s difficult to believe races could nurture their ancestors’ anger for so many generations.”
“How long would the Toralians hold a grudge if their home world and colonies had been reduced?” Ellie asked. She wasn’t in a generous mood. They’d fought three battleship fleets in the past half year, and she was nervous to the point of being scared.
Ellie foresaw the day when a powerful fleet arrived to exact revenge on the Toralians. In her mind, a brilliant, experienced commander would govern the fleet. The enemy’s missiles would be monstrous and carry nuclear warheads. And, worst of all, she wouldn’t possess the skills to defeat them.
Where are you, Alex? Ellie mentally asked.
-25-
The Search
The scout ships of Killian and Beryl left the fleet and the Gotlians behind. They sailed to intersect the vector at ninety degrees, which the Dutterites reportedly took when they left federacy space. The vector information, as delivered by Sunnamis to Alex, intersected the Confederation’s most peripheral space.
This was Alex’s primary concern. Although the distance the Dutterites would have to travel would be tremendous, he had no idea what the alien fleet sought. What the Gotlians revealed was most disturbing. The Nua’ll traded them information about the water world for supplies.
Had the Nua’ll told the Dutterites about our worlds? Alex asked himself.
The scouts’ mission was to intersect the vector, separate, and search the stars along the line. They reached their starting point about the time the Omnians wrapped up their work on the Gotlian fleet.
Beryl and her fellow scouts, Satir and Dormir, experienced a small emotional lift.
Beryl’s team mapped the stars in front of them that lay along the vector. They defined parameters as to how far off the line they’d consider a system worthy of searching and set course for the nearest star.
Before the scout ships left the fleet, the general body of SADEs had postulated the probability that the Dutterites would be located by the scouts’ search routine. They rated the possibility of success as minimal, at best. However, since the scout ships were idle while the fleet was at the water world system, a minimal opportunity was better than none.
Beryl’s ship transited to the first star along its search pattern. After arriving, the SADEs waited for the system’s telemetry to update. When complete and no fleet was found, they stored the data along with the star’s coordinates, and then they sailed for the next system.
Killian’s ship performed the same search pattern but in the opposite direction. Bethley, Trium, and he had a similar discussion, and their conclusion was the same. They would hunt for the Dutterites until they ventured into Confederation space. Then they would decide whether to locate their fleet or sail for Omnia.
Star after star was recorded by the Vivian’s Mirror, the scout ship of Killian’s team.
The SADEs discussed the incredible differences in the systems they recorded. The various celestial structures that the universe had spun fascinated them. Each system was unique in star types, planets, belts, comets, and other bodies.
Their discussion led them to postulate on a theme common to the SADEs — what of their future? It was acknowledged that they’d survive long after humans had evolved into something different or disappeared. The question became: What did the SADEs want?
The two primary and opposing thoughts were to either join some other biological entities or develop a separate society on their own worlds. It was the latter choice that presented significant hurdles to overcome.
The SADEs didn’t envision living in a static population. They’d had a perfect example of the only means available to them to expand their kind. It was Miriam’s creation of the Sisterhood.
By and large, the Omnian SADEs weren’t in favor of the technique of copying to grow their population. They’d embraced the richness of their individuality as imbued in them by House Brixton.
Whichever path the SADES were to choose, they knew they had time before they had to make a decision. However, they’d thrust a mandate on Julien. He was to discover, sooner than later, the secret of House Brixton. The SADEs saw this as a necessity. It was imperative to them that they possess the means to control their creation.
The Méridien Houses closely guarded their business secrets. In this case, House Brixton was responsible for creating the SADEs. Their secret was that a SADE began life with operational algorithms inextricably intertwined with a social and moral hierarchy. In the Omnians’ experience, SADEs appeared to be unique in that matter, as opposed to the other digital entities they’d found, such as Artifice and Faustus.
Bethley tagged the next star for the Vivian’s Mirror, and Trium programmed the destination and initiated the transit.
When the scout ship exited the transit, the init
ial telemetry return displayed a fleet of sophisticated battleships. Accompanying them were two large, bulky ships.
Instantly, Bethley and Trium inundated Killian with sounds of derision, and Killian replied with his version of laughter.
Killian transmitted a brief telemetry vid and their present coordinates. He focused the first broadcast along the federacy vector and toward the wall. The second was a wider broadcast covering the water world system and an area he calculated the fleet might be sailing through. By focusing the transmissions, he delivered boosted signals.
The Vivian’s Mirror sat beyond the system, while the processing ships moved from one asteroid to another. After eleven days, the fleet sailed into the dark and transited. The scout ship was ignored.
The SADEs carefully registered the vector the battleships were on when they left.
Bethley couldn’t comprehend Trium’s comment. So, she queried him.