by Saxon Andrew
“Sam, I’m not human. In spite of this body I’m in, I’m not. We’re not the same species.”
“I know that, Jixie. I probably know it better than you. I love who you are, not what you are. Life is brighter when I’m with you. I’ll make the most of whatever time we have. Besides, I could easily die in one of our attacks and it would all be a moot point. All I ask of you is that you give me what time you can and not take the high ground and try to save me from the sorrow of having you leave. Will you please do that for me?”
Jixie stared at Sam and didn’t want to cause him pain. Nothing in her experience equipped her to deal with what was happening. Then she remembered after downloading all the information at the library that she wanted to learn what love is. The left corner of her mouth moved up and she said, “Be careful what you ask for.”
“I’ve thought this through, Jixie. I know that this is what I want.”
“I’m not talking about you.” Jixie smiled, “For whatever time we have, however long that might be, I’ll be yours, Sam.”
Sam reached for her and said, “That’s all I ask.”
The shuttle remained a mile from the Forth Sword for another two hours. When it returned to the ship, Jixie knew what love was.
• • •
“Jason, do you have a moment?”
“What do you want?”
“I’d like to go out tonight and I was hoping you would go with me.”
“Why would you want to go with me? All I do is point out your bad attributes?”
“I haven’t gone out for three weeks and I just want to go and have an evening without being bothered by every male in the building.”
“When do you want to go?”
“In an hour, if you can come.”
“I’ll be there. Just try to behave.”
“I will.”
• • •
Jason looked at Lyla and could see her sorrow. She had chosen to wear a dress that was not her usual skin tight fashion. She looked…he struggled for the right word…elegant. “Lyla, I’m impressed with you appearance tonight. Why the change in fashion?”
Lyla looked up from her plate and said, “Thank you for being nice, if not honest.”
“No, I’m serious. You look better than I’ve ever seen you.”
Lyla saw he was being truthful. “Jason, you know you’d like the skin tight outfits better.”
“No, I wouldn’t. It cheapens your appearance. It makes you look…I don’t know…”
Lyla sighed, “Slutty.” Jason didn’t respond and Lyla said, “You don’t have to say anything. You know it’s true.”
“Lyla, what’s wrong? Your eyes are not on fire like I usually see them. The searching out everyone in the room is missing. Has Sam’s rejection hurt you so much?”
“No, it’s not that and you were right. I wasn’t really interested in him, but what he could do for me. I really don’t feel anything for him but his rejection showed me what I’ve been doing to others.” Lyla looked out from their table and saw many of the men present were staring at her. She shook her head and looked at Jason, “I did what you said I’d do and went out for another conquest that night to prove I haven’t lost my touch.”
“And?”
“My heart wasn’t in it. I saw his excitement over being with me and I knew he wasn’t what I wanted. I just couldn’t allow myself to hurt him. He didn’t do anything to deserve it.”
Jason stared at Lyla. “I’m starting to worry about you.”
“Why?”
“You’re sounding human.”
Lyla lowered her head, “I deserve that, Jason.”
They continued their meal in silence and when they arrived at Lyla’s quarters she said, “Thank you, Jason.”
“For what?”
“You’ve always remained a close friend even though you knew how awful I am. I thought about our time in school and you’re right. That was a much happier time for me.”
Lyla started to turn and Jason reached out and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her with a passion that stunned Lyla. He finally broke the kiss and saw Lyla’s eyes were still closed savoring the moment. “It was all worth it to see you finally find your heart, Lyla.”
He teleported away and Lyla fell into the chair behind her. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw her melancholy smile. She sighed and began undressing just as Jason reappeared; she rushed forward and threw her arms around his neck. She pulled him close and started crying as Jason held her tight. “I’ll always be here, Lyla.”
“Please promise me you’ll never leave.”
“I never have. I never will, my love.”
Lyla’s life began at that moment. Jason’s life had started with the stories about the universe so many years before.
• • •
Admiral Gardner looked at Jixie and liked her. She was so refreshing. Sam, Dort, Gon, Robby, Jennifer, and Captain Haines sat at the conference table and he wondered what they were planning. He looked up as Major Mirabal brought in the most recent reports on the enemy’s advances. Jason handed the reports to Thom and he said, “Stay here Major and record what we discuss.” Thom turned to the group and said, “Jason has been my XO for years and he’s the best we have at making things work.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
Thom turned to the group and said, “What have you got up your sleeves? I can see you’re up to something.”
Sam looked at the people around the table and said, “After considering where we are, I’ve decided to take a new direction in our war.”
“What is that?”
“We are on the defensive and are only responding to events that the aggressive civilizations cause. We can’t win if we continue that path.”
Thom looked around the table and saw that the other officers in Sam’s unit had not heard about this. “What are you suggesting?”
“How do you kill a cancerous tumor?”
“I’m not sure what you mean?”
“The tumor will constantly shed cancer cells that go out into the body to attack other vital organs. The only way to stop it is to remove the tumor. Fighting the shed cells will never stop, unless you remove the tumor.”
“I’m not sure I like where you’re going with this.”
Dort said, “What tumor are you planning to remove?”
“Merothe.”
Thom stood up, “Are you out of your mind!?!”
Jennifer said, “What’s Merothe?”
Jason said, “The home world of the Grogat and its Royal Caste. It has more than eight million warships around the planet along with orbital defenses, teleport suppression units, a hundred thousand heavy missile satellites, two million free floating beam platforms and twenty million warriors surrounding the capital city.”
Everyone in the room stared at Jason. Thom said, “How do you know that?”
“I had numerous probes placed in the system before they developed teleport suppression. They still function and the numbers I just quoted don’t include the fleets being serviced at the ship yards next to the fifth planet; there are usually four million ships in them. Merothe usually has between twelve and fifteen million Grogat Warships in the system at any given moment.”
“That’s not what I asked. Why do you know that information at this moment? That information is not something you’d keep in your mind unless it was called for.”
Jason looked at Thom and said, “I know the only way to even begin to win this struggle is to start with Merothe. If you intend to do more than react to the enemy, that’s where you’ll have to start. The other place is the home planet of the Swarm. It is also defended in a similar fashion as Merothe.”
“You’ve never mentioned this before.”
“You’ve never indicated you had the nerve to take it on, Sir. I completely understand your reluctance.”
Thom stared at Jason and he stared straight ahead. “Why do you bring it up now?”
“Because Duke Robbins obviously does have t
he nerve.”
Sam looked at Jason and said, “I suppose you’ve thought about how to do this?”
“I have.”
“And?”
“There should be no effort in taking on the defenses. You go in, kill the planet, and get out.”
Jennifer said, “Don’t we have enough ships in the fleet to take them on?”
Thom said, “There’s no way to go in. The suppression field and the density of the fleets around the planet prevent any ship from getting close. Without the ability to teleport, we might win the battle, but be so weakened that we’d not be able to continue the fight afterwards.”
Jason said, “There was a suppression field around the Grogat Advanced Weapons Planet, Sir and we still managed to get in.”
Jixie looked at the young Major’s mind and saw something. She smiled and said, “Congratulations.”
Jason flinched and looked at Jixie. He smiled and said, “Thank you.”
Thom thought he was being congratulated over his report. Sam looked at Jixie and knew it was something else. Thom looked at Sam and said, “Just how do you intend to do this?”
Sam started to speak and Jixie said, “Why don’t you tell us how you’d do it Major?”
Sam looked at Jixie and she nodded. He sat back in his chair. “Tell us what you’d do.”
Jason said, “Only one ship will go in.”
The room erupted and Jason waited. He looked at Jixie and she saw that he knew she was seeing his thoughts. He didn’t care and Jixie was impressed. Finally Sam held up his hand and said after the room grew silent, “Tell us what you mean.”
Several members of the support staff were still talking under their breath about the futility of that plan. Jason looked at Sam, “I believe you captured some of the Grogat cloaking devices along with the planet killing missiles. Did you not?”
“We have, but we haven’t been able to wire the cloaking device where it would work.”
“You haven’t wired the weapons on your ships to anything either and they appear to function perfectly.”
Everyone in the room stopped murmuring and grew silent. Jixie said, “You believe that if the device is absorbed by armor that hears the music, it will function properly.”
“I’ve seen the recordings of your battles and everything else you absorbed into your armor functioned even without launchers or guidance stations that are normally essential. Why would the cloaking device be any different?”
Thom said, “Even if you managed to get close, that planet killing missile would never make it through their orbital defenses.”
Jason tilted his head and said, “I still don’t understand why you wanted that missile so much.”
Gon said, “Why do you say that?”
Jason pressed a button on a device and the main display went active on the front wall. It showed a small white ship fire a beam into a planet and it blew apart in a massive explosion. Jason said, “We’ve not done this for thousands of years but that is a recording of a Searcher Vessel using its main beam on a planet. It tightened its main beam and increased its power a hundred times normal.” He turned and looked at the group, “Our beams today make the old beams pale in comparison. Why would we ever need that missile is beyond me. All we need to do is get close enough to fire a beam on the planet.”
Sam said, “I believe that it goes against all we stand for to kill a planet and the innocent civilians on it.”
Jason looked at Sam shaking his head, “Then tell me what part of a tumor is innocent? If the civilians are working in the factories that are building Grogat weapons, they’re not innocent, unless they’re slaves being forced to do it. I’m sure the blood that flows through a tumor isn’t guilty of killing the body; but it is what keeps the tumor alive and transports cancerous cells to the rest of the body.”
Sam stared at Jason and raised his eyebrows, “You make a good point, Major.”
Thom listened to Jason and knew who his replacement was going to be. He had always liked his executive officer, but had never realized just how brilliant he was.
Jixie said, “Why only one ship?”
“I’m reasonably certain that the Grogat have optical scanners that will notify them if even one star’s light is blocked by an object moving into the system. Our scanners here operate so that it takes more than one star being blocked before the alarms go off. Their system will operate the same as ours. More than one ship could block multiple stars.”
Robby said, “Why is one star ignored?”
“Because stars will sometimes be blocked by objects out in deep space that move between them and the planet; if the system reacted to every single star that was blocked, they’d have an alarm every hour. Two stars being blocked simultaneously only happens about once a year.”
Jixie said, “There’s more.”
Jason looked at Jixie and nodded, “The bad news is that the size of the ship is also critical to being able to get close without setting off the optical alarms.”
Sam said, “How small must it be to get through?”
“The largest it could be would be one hundred yards.”
Thom said, “Then this need go no further. We don’t have a ship that small that could carry the cloaking device, a main beam, and the reactors to power them.”
“I don’t think that’s entirely accurate.”
Thom and the other attendees looked around. “Who had said that?”
Pride appeared in the conference room and said, “I believe I could absorb everything we need into my armor.”
Jixie looked at the giant cat and smiled, “And then some.”
Pride smiled, “And then some.”
• • •
Three hours later the meeting ended and though there was great debate about it, the plan was finalized. Thom didn’t like it, but knew it was going to happen anyway. He looked at Jason and said, “Remain here a moment.”
“Yes Sir.”
Thom said, “I never realized just how good you are in your analysis. You’ve impressed me and I’m going to promote you to command our planning staff.”
“I want you to wait a moment before you do that, Sir.”
“Why?”
“You may want to change your mind.” Jason pressed his wrist unit and Lyla came through the door and stood beside him. The attendees saw her enter and Sam said, “What is she doing here?”
Jixie touched his arm, “Hush and listen.” Sam looked at Lyla and saw she didn’t look his way once.
Lyla took Jason’s arm and Jason said, “Sir, I respectfully ask permission to marry your daughter.”
Thom was shocked speechless. Twelve weeks ago she wanted to marry Sam. Thom started shaking his head and Lyla knelt down and took her father’s hands in hers, “Dad, I know you doubt that I’ll ever be faithful to anyone. I know what I’ve been and all the terrible things I’ve done that you’ve seen.” Lyla looked up at Jason and said, “Jason has stood by me since primary grades in school and told me how foolish I’ve been acting. He never deserted me and remained my friend no matter what obnoxious things I did. He never gave up on me; he loved me in spite of me. I know that I never knew what love was except in one instance. Dad, you have loved me and have never given up on me either. I love Jason and I’ll never disappoint him again.” Lyla looked into Thom’s eyes and said, “And I’ll never disappoint you again, either.”
Thom’s smile began slow and got bigger. He looked at Lyla and saw a difference in her eyes. He looked at Jason and said, “Do you know what you’re getting in to?”
“I’ve always known, Sir.”
“Well, I’m glad I promoted you before you told me this.”
Jason tilted his head, “Why?”
“You’ll never have to wonder if you merited it. You have my blessings.”
Lyla jumped up and went into Jason’s arms and hugged him.
• • •
Jixie and Sam watched them and Jixie said, “She really does love him, Sam.”
“I find
that hard to believe.”
“He loved her more and that’s what made the difference. He never gave up on her.”
Sam looked at Jixie and smiled. Dort, Robby, Gon, and Jennifer saw their expressions. Dort said, “How is that going to work?”
Jennifer said, “Look at them. You shouldn’t have to ask.”
Dort continued staring at Sam and sighed. Gon said, “What are you thinking?”
Dort shook his head, “Haines was right during training.”
Robby said, “About what.”
“The best of us will find each other.”
Jennifer looked at Robby and smiled. She knew that truth when it was originally spoken during their first day of armor training. Robby took her hand and nodded.
Chapter Twelve
Jixie sat on an improvised saddle on Pride’s back. They had teleported in to the edge of the suppression field in the Grogat system and Pride activated the thrusters he had absorbed in his armor. They were eight hours away from Merothe. The cloaking device was operating and they saw the shimmering field around them. They picked up speed and began maneuvering around the ships between them and the planet. Pride said, “It’s unnerving to come this close to their ships.”
“You’ve seen this device in operation. They won’t see us without us doing something to get their attention. Pass their ships as close as possible to avoid blocking a star.”
“Being here is enough to get their attention.”
Jixie looked at the millions of ships in the system and said, “Jason was right. A missile fired at the planet would never make it past the ships in orbit.”
“Will we be able to fire a beam through them?”
“It would take more than fifty million ships to completely cover the planet. There will be plenty of gaps in their coverage. There’s no stopping a beam.”