by Saxon Andrew
Moe said, “All the coordinates they’re sending out to their ships are located in M87.”
Violet nodded, “So that tells us that they’re going there first.” She thought a moment and said, “What would make them decide to go elsewhere when they arrive in M87?”
No one spoke and thought about the question. Suddenly, Argel said, “They decide the price of attacking M87 isn’t worth it.”
Ian looked at her, “What?”
“Aren’t you planning to disrupt space out to the edge of the planetary systems?” Ian nodded. “So at their highest speed, it would take several years for them to arrive at the targeted planet.” Ian looked at Drey and saw he understood what Argel was saying. “They may not have enough stores to take the time to go in and attack the planets. That would force them to look elsewhere or to back off their invasion plans.”
Dee said, “They’ll go to the Milky Way because they know there’s intelligent life there.”
Ian let the possibilities run through his mind as he listened to the group discuss what could happen. He saw a branch of logic break off the mainstream of his thought processes and he followed it to its conclusion. He started shaking his head. Drey saw him out of the corner of his eye while talking with Cole and stopped midsentence. “Ian, what’s going on?”
Ian looked at Dee, “Do you still have that sense about invasion?”
Dee looked around, closed her eyes briefly, and said, “I do.”
Drey looked confused, “Why does that matter now?”
Ian looked at the ones in the room and said, “It’s not the Invaders going to M87 that will be attacking the Milky Way.”
Drey snapped his attention to Dee to see her reaction to Ian’s statement and saw her nod. He didn’t understand what Ian was seeing but he knew the threat level just went off the scale. Dee turned her face toward him and her expression confirmed his fear. What was coming?
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Grandfather returned to his flagship and found his Son and Daughter waiting for him on the bridge in a high state of stress. “Welcome back, Grandfather. Are you alright?”
“I am; how is the attack profile taking shape?”
“It appears we have been given the task of attacking the civilizations that sent those Green and Grey ships here to attack the Senior Grandfather’s ships.”
The Grandfather smirked, “That figures.” He looked at the display, “How long until everyone has their coordinate?”
“About another six weeks.”
“Daughter, I want you to take the ships in this group that have received their targets to a planet that possesses a large ocean. I want you to land them and have the crews go out into the water and see if they can absorb nourishment. The planet’s coordinate is on their panels. You may leave now.”
“What makes you think we can feed in the ocean?”
“Daughter, follow your orders and if you challenge my authority again, it will be the last time.”
The Daughter lowered her top half, “I am sorry, Grandfather. Please forgive me.”
“Report to me when you return.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
***
Cole looked at Ian, “If it’s not going to be the Invaders that attack, who will it be?”
“I don’t know.”
“Now you’re confusing me.”
“I’ve followed a line of reasoning and it appears to meet all the criteria of what we’re up against.”
Drey interrupted, “I’m not sure I understand your stance on this.”
Ian looked at Drey and then at each of the others. “Why are the Invaders returning to attack M87 when they know how dangerous it is to go there?”
Dee waited for another to answer and when silence followed the questions she spoke up, “They’re afraid they will be pursued wherever they go for retribution.” Ian nodded and waited for her to continue. Dee stared at him and then fell back in her chair, “You’re right.”
Drey looked at them and said, “Right about what?”
Dee sighed, “The Invaders know that M87 knows about our galaxy having intelligent life. They saw it attacked by M87 before the probe was removed. If they really fear retaliation, do you think they’ll go anywhere that the civilizations in M87 might show up?”
Drey let the thought run through his mind and started shaking his head, “If they don’t attack M87, the Milky Way would be the last place they would go.”
He looked at Dee and she knew what he wasn’t asking, “I still sense an attack on the Milky Way within two years. That feeling has not diminished with what we’ve discussed so far.”
Argel said, “We have to take a hard look at our plan to disrupt space all the way out to the edge of the planetary systems.”
Ian nodded and Cole said, “Why?”
“Put yourself in their place, Cole. You arrive at a civilized planet you’re planning to attack and find that the closest you can get to it with your jump drive is three years away. Are you even going to try? They haven’t continued to gather stores and I suspect they may not have the food necessary to feed their ships that long. I think they will jump away and rethink how to get to the planets.” Ian turned from Cole and looked at Drey, “What do you think they will do?”
“They aren’t stupid; they’ll leave without a fight.”
Ian stared at Drey, “What do you think about that?”
“I’d do my best to force them to fight it out now. We don’t want to give them time to develop new technologies to take us on.”
“And what do you think the civilizations in M87 would say to that?”
“They’d be dead set against it.”
Violet started shaking her head, “The whole idea of sending our fleets to M87 was to force the Invaders to fight there and not here. We need to reduce their numbers as much as possible before we even think about letting them out of the bag.”
Dee stared at Violet, “Would you feel the same way if they were attacking in our galaxy?”
“Of course not; but they’re not attacking here. We’re fighting with M87 to protect our interests; not theirs.”
Argel stared at Violet and then looked at Cole. He was struggling with what to do, “Are we going to tell them about changing the disruption plans?”
Ian looked quickly at Argel and knew she had figured out what he was considering. Drey saw Ian’s expression, “What change is she talking about, Ian?”
“We won’t disrupt space all the way to the edge of the planet’s system. We’ll disrupt it out to about ten months travel time and once the Invader fleets arrive, we’ll then disrupt it the rest of the way.”
Drey thought for a second and saw it, “That would trap them in the planet’s system. It would take them a year to get to the planet and two years to escape. They’ll be forced to go through with their attacks.”
Cole shook his head, “No, actually it would take a much shorter time to escape.”
Ian turned to Cole, “How do you come up with that?”
“Their top speed is 250,000 miles an hour but that’s computed based on them stopping at the planet they’re attacking. They can’t just accelerate in normal space right up to the planet and suddenly stop; they have to have time to brake. If they choose to escape, they’ll just pour on the acceleration until they arrive at the edge of disrupted subspace. They won’t have to slow down when they arrive at that point where they can simply jump away. I suspect they can come close to light speed if they constantly accelerate at maximum power.”
“Do you think they know that?”
“As Drey just said, they’re not stupid.”
“Could we stop them if we attacked them with superior numbers at each planet and moved on to the next one?”
Dee closed her eyes, “There are one point two million civilized planets in M87 and we have about eighty five million ships to use against them. That means we would have to defeat about 3,300 of their attacks every day for a year. We’d have 25,000 ships to use in each
of those planetary systems to make that happen.”
Drey stared at his wife in amazement, “How many ships would the Invaders sent to destroy each planet?”
“If we give them the worst case numbers of four billion ships, they would send 3,330 ships to each planet if they attacked all of them simultaneously.”
Violet smiled, “So this is doable?”
Dee nodded, “There will be some issues.”
“Such as?”
Dee turned to Ian, “Thirty three hundred attacks will have to be done every day in order to protect all their planets in the time it would take the Invaders to arrive. I haven’t found a pilot yet that can fight continuously for a year and I also believe we don’t have enough missiles and weapons to kill that many ships in our inventories.”
Ian slowly nodded, “I didn’t think about that.”
Cole pulled out his computer and started entering numbers. After a minute he looked up, “If we stop ship production and convert our facilities to build the missiles and reactors needed to replace those used or damaged in our attacks, I believe we can stay ahead of the curve in building the necessary weapons.”
Dee smiled, “That still doesn’t answer the question about the pilot’s fatigue.”
Ian thought a moment, “If we can attack with 25,000 ships in each system, we’ll reduce the number in half and have one group resting one day and attacking the next. That would still give us 12,500 ships to use against just three thousand or so of their ships. We’ve been forced to face superior enemy numbers in every fight so far; I believe with numbers on our side, we can probably kill them with an even smaller number.”
Drey snorted, “We could do it with even numbers if it came down to it.”
Dee looked around the room and Drey saw an expression on her face that only happened when she was stubborn, “M87 must be allowed to approve this.”
Drey started shaking his head, “They’ll never go along with taking this risk.”
Ian nodded, “I agree with, Drey.”
Drey looked shocked, “You do!?!”
“We have to do this for our survival.”
Dee looked at them and said, “How do you know it’s not M87 that’s going to attack us?” Silence crashed down on the room. Dee stared the two leaders down as she said, “They’ve been monitoring our ships throughout this conflict and, using a phrase my husband likes, they’re not stupid. Do you not think they’re not working hard to develop weapon systems that would allow them to defend themselves without us? If you just do this without consulting with them, they’ll hate us for it and I can’t say I’d blame them.”
Ian stared at Dee and she didn’t blink. He looked at Violet and she didn’t know what to think about Dee’s comments. He looked at Drey and said, “You and Dee will go and meet with the Leaders in M87 and tell them what we’re planning.” He turned to Dee, “It’s your responsibility to convince them to do it.”
“And if they say no?”
“We’ll probably do it anyway. However, I’m counting on you to persuade them. Now, you need to go immediately and make it happen; there’s not much time.”
“But…”
“Don’t give me excuses, Dee Montgomery; give me results.” Ian turned and left the room. Drey looked at Dee and sighed, “Andi will like her first space flight.” Dee’s face showed her shock at the idea but Drey said, “I’m not leaving her here without you. Now pack a bag and let’s go make this happen.” Dee shook her head. Drey nodded, “Sometimes it’s best to be quiet. You’ve never mastered that particular skill.” Violet, Cole and Argel watched them leave and Violet smiled.
Cole shook his head, “They’ll never do it.”
“Would you?”
Cole thought a moment and could only shake his head, “I just don’t know. I might because I know how good our sailors are.”
“So do they, Cole. They’ve been watching us since this thing started.”
Argel tilted her head, “I’m glad it’s not me having to convince them.”
Violet laughed, “We’re sending the best two we have to make it happen.”
***
The Negotiator was about ready to end the meeting. He had been called in to moderate the meeting of the major leaders and their military commanders with the Humans. The yelling and anger being displayed was the worst he had ever seen. He silenced the channel and said, “The leader of the Pental will speak and the rest of you will be kept off the channel.”
Dee watched the angry leaders and knew their efforts had failed. She held Andi close and felt her discomfort. Drey had done an outstanding job of explaining why it had to be done but the leaders couldn’t get past being attacked again. She looked up at the Pental Ruler and heard him speak.
“So as I understand it, if space is disrupted out to the edge of our systems; the Invaders will probably just leave; is that correct?”
The Negotiator activated Drey’s communicator, “Yes.”
“And you want to trap their ships in our systems and fight them there?”
Drey saw his communication light go green and he said, “Yes.”
“That’s easy for you to say; your planets aren’t being attacked.”
Dee looked at the display with the faces all yelling silently in agreement with the Pental King.
The Negotiator said, “I have a request to speak by the Gongril leader.”
The many faces were surprised by the request. The Gongril never spoke; they were the meekest species in M87. Everyone grew silent to hear what the Leader, who had never spoken before, had to say.
The lavender colored lizard, Dee knew it wasn’t a lizard but it looked exactly like one, said, “I’m curious why you are here with your infant.”
Dee saw her board activate and she said, “I refuse to leave her alone.”
“So you brought her to this most dangerous of places?”
Dee looked at the faces on the display and smiled, “She is in no danger here with you. I know you would never allow her to come to harm.”
“How do you know that?”
“We’ve fought together too many times to not know that you will defend her.”
The Lizard stared at Dee and said, “I have fought with your warriors. I’ve seen them kill hundreds of times their number in battles where they were heavily outnumbered. They attacked the enemy and never asked or gave quarter to the giant ships attacking us here. Now you say that you will outnumber their ships by a four to one margin?”
“At least that; we could use double that number, but we have to give our pilots time to rest.”
“What do you think the Invader will do if they leave and don’t attack?”
Dee looked down at Andi and saw she had calmed down. The lizard’s voice was soothing, “They’ll go and start developing the technology needed to come back at a future date and finish what they started.”
Drey looked up at the display and saw the leaders start looking at each other.
The Lizard stared at Dee and after a long pause said, “So you may not have to fight them again but your infant probably will?”
Dee looked at the Lizard with a soft expression and said, “A mother will do everything in her power to protect her children. I would rather die now than endanger her future.”
The Gongril smiled, “Thank you for allowing me to speak.”
The leaders on the display were silent. The Negotiator waited for a request to speak but none of them made one. He activated all of their communications and waited for someone to break the silence. The one that did surprised them all, “I have fought with the Humans in most of the major battles at your planets.” The Fleet Controller of the Green Civilization paused and looked at Drey, “If it were your worlds being attacked, what would you do?”
“I’d want the Invaders to leave.”
“But…”
Drey looked over at his daughter and the assembled leaders saw his love for his child. He looked back at the display and they saw the rage on his face, “I’d do every
thing in my power to kill the scum that threatened my family. I’d trap them and kill them down to the last ship.”
The Fleet Controller smiled, “I like the way you think.” He looked at the display and said, “I notice that all of your military leaders are here with you. Do you think the Humans could do just that if they have four to one odds?”
The Pental Military Commander sneered, “They could do it with half of the Invader’s numbers.”
The Hensil Commander shouted, “This is stupid. Why would we just allow them to escape to come back stronger later? This is a great opportunity.”
The other Military Leaders began shouting their agreements and their leaders were amazed by their anger. Finally, the Negotiator turned off the communication devices. “You will vote now. Yes if you agree with the Human’s plan to trap the Invader’s ships or no if you disagree.” The Negotiator waited for the votes to start and no one cast a vote. He looked at the display and said, “VOTE NOW!”
The Pental King pressed his request button. The Negotiator still saw no votes being cast and said, “The Pental King will be given the last word on this issue.”
Dee looked up at the display and saw the Pental King staring at her. “Do you really think you can prevent any of our planets from being destroyed?”
“No; some might die.”
“How many?”
“Only those that are still being attacked after all our ships are destroyed; that’s the only way it would happen.”
The Pental King started slowly nodding his head, “Your bravery shames me. I vote yes.”
The Negotiator’s panel lit up with the votes all rushing in at once. He watched it and said, “The plan has been approved. I will ask that the Humans notify all our civilizations on what their role will be during the coming invasion.”
Drey looked up at the display and said, “You will be given your assignments by our computers as soon as we trap the Invaders.”