by Saxon Andrew
“Pride, we’re going to be gone for a long time. Will he miss anything in his development?”
“He’s ten years from the time when he’ll have to choose a mate. I suspect the females will be falling over themselves to get his attention when he returns. Fighting with you will enhance his image. He’ll learn more on the front lines than he will here.”
“Thank you, Pride.”
“You just stay safe.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
• • •
Sam stood beside a warship and thought it was one of the most beautiful pieces of art he had ever seen. It was only eighty yards long, but the smooth lines from the pointed bow to the engines in the rear were beautiful. The steering thrusters were small circles that were flush with the surface and did not spoil the beauty of the ship’s lines. They were the same color as the hull and could only be seen from a close distance. Sam looked and saw nothing that broke the smooth surface. “Sprigly, where are the weapon ports?”
“Inside the skin of the hull; every inch of this ship could fire a main beam including the bow and the rear stabilizers. Missiles and penetrators are ejected from the skin as well.”
“How is it powered?”
“It absorbed a small star. You’ll never run out of power. The food stores are also stored in the hull and you have enough to last you twenty years.”
“How complicated are the controls?”
“Everything is operated through the steering wheel at your command chair. You can also give commands through a head set you can wear when you’re not in the chair.”
“I imagine you’re looking forward to converting your fleets to this ship.”
Sprigly leaned back showing his disagreement, “We will be using a similar ship to this but only those that can hear the music can fly this ship. We will be forced to use extensive controls to fly it.” Sam stared at Sprigly and he said, “This ship will be just like the psychic ships if we lose those that hear the music. They’ll be useless.”
Sam shook his head, “Then we better use them while we still can.”
“I agree; you need to come aboard and make the connections. The rest of your pilots can start the process after you learn how to fly it.”
Sam and Sprigly went through the main portal and Sprigly said, “What do you want to name it?”
Sam sighed and said, “Jixie’s Ghost.”
“We’ll put it on the hull. I suspect you’re going to love this ship, Your Highness.”
Sam gave a small smile, “I imagine I will.”
• • •
“Sam.”
“Hello, Maranda. What’s up?”
“I understand you’re leaving for an extended time.”
“I am.”
“You will not leave until you come and say goodbye to us and Mica.”
“I’ve scheduled some time to do just that in three days. Does that meet your schedule?”
“It does. Mica would never forgive you if you left without saying goodbye. You know how much he worships you.”
“He’s going to be a fine man, Maranda. You’re doing a great job of teaching him.”
“Thanks, Sam. Call us when you’re on the way.”
“I will. I love you.”
“And we love you as well, Sam.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Sir, I have a situation that requires your attention.”
“What is it, Lt. Arget?”
“I have a rather large invasion fleet holding position above a planet. It appears they are going to invade and take the population prisoner.”
“That sounds pretty straight forward, Lieutenant. You should prevent the invasion.”
“That’s just it, Sir. The planet they’re going to invade attacked them in the past and killed huge numbers of their citizens. They also enslaved the population and after years of struggle the invader was defeated.”
“So they’re coming to exact revenge on the planet that invaded? It sounds like they have the right to do that.”
“Ordinarily, I’d agree, but there’s a slight twist to this. The Dictator that invaded them also had his own population living in little more than slavery. They rose up in rebellion and killed the Dictator and his forces. They have started to rebuild and are making progress toward a democratic government.”
Sam shook his head, “So the planet being invaded killed the one that brutalized the ones attacking them.”
“That’s how I see it. What should I do?”
Sam hated to get involved in squabbles between individual planets. His main focus was on the large aggressive civilizations. He started to tell Arget to leave but couldn’t do it. “I’ll be there momentarily. Eyes, I need you to come with me.”
“Lead the way, Sir.”
Sam arrived at the planet and saw a massive fleet of warships in orbit around the planet. It appeared the planet did not have any ships to defend itself. “Where are the two parties meeting?”
Eyes said, “They’re in the capital building in the city below the largest concentration of ships.”
“Send me what they’re saying.”
Eyes began transferring the conversations from the meeting and Sam listened in. After thirty minutes he said, “Keep me patched in, Eyes. I’m making a trip to the surface.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“No, I think I’ll try to do this alone.” Sam left his ship cloaked and teleported down to the conference room with his armor set on camouflage. No one saw him arrive. He heard the Admiral of the invading fleet say, “You will surrender your weapons and have your citizens report to be registered with our occupation forces. If you don’t comply I’ll start hitting your population centers from space.”
“Why are you doing this? You know we were held prisoner by the one that invaded your planet. We didn’t have anything to do with that invasion.”
“This planet killed millions of my people. This planet is going to pay.”
Sam sighed and thought, “Then you should fire your beams into the soil.”
Everyone in the room froze at the thought that entered their minds. The armored warriors raised their weapons and looked around the room. Sam said, “I really don’t want to kill your warriors, but if they don’t put their weapons away, I will.”
A warrior raised his weapon and targeted the First Minister and a white beam blew through his face plate killing him instantly. The Admiral knew that no one on this planet had that kind of laser. “Lower your weapons.”
“I usually don’t repeat myself, but I’ll make an exception this one time. I said to remove their weapons.” Sam came out of camouflage and everyone in the room saw the glowing white armored being. Another warrior tried to fire and was shot through his face plate before he could bring his blaster to bear. “Perhaps I should just remove these warriors and let these people take you hostage, Admiral.”
The Admiral said, “Power off your armor, NOW!”
The twenty warriors deactivated their armor. Sam said, “Go sit next to the display. If any of you attempt to harm anyone in this room, I’ll kill every one of you.”
The warrior’s commander looked at the Admiral and saw him nod.
Sam said, “Such stupidity. Why does it always have to have someone die before anyone listens?” Sam looked at the Admiral and said, “I would think you had achieved your rank by being above average intelligence. Are you?”
“Who are you?”
“Actually, I would normally just allow you to settle your little dispute, but I just couldn’t do it. I had to see if your species is this incredibly dumb.”
“You still haven’t told me who you are?”
“I’ll save that for a moment. First, I want to make sure I understand what you’re doing here. Stop me whenever I say something that’s incorrect.” Scotty held up a finger, “One, this planet was ruled by a Dictator that invaded your planet and killed millions of your people.” Sam paused and looked at the Admiral who remained silent. He held up ano
ther finger, “Two, that Dictator also enslaved the people on his planet and killed millions of them to enforce his will on them.” Sam looked at the First Minister who nodded. “Three, you’re going to invade and punish the ones who killed said Dictator for what the Dictator did to you.”
“It’s not that simple. These people built the ships and weapons used against us.”
“At laser point; if I held a laser on you and your family and threatened to kill your children if you didn’t obey, would you do as I commanded?” Sam paused, “As I understand it, your people were also forced to build weapons for the Dictator on your planet. You used those weapons to eventually defeat him, just as the people here did.”
The Admiral was frustrated and Sam said, “Let’s just say that I don’t like what you’re doing so I go and blast your planet. These people here manage to kill me. So now you come here to kill them for killing your enemy. Are you that incredibly stupid?”
“This planet invaded my world!”
“These people didn’t. They fought with you against the same enemy and if you come here to punish them, you are no better than that Dictator.”
The Admiral didn’t think about them fighting together against the same enemy. That was a completely new concept and now he was struggling with what to do. Sam slowly shook his head and the Admiral said, “What?”
“Your two planets have more in common than you are willing to admit. If you could be invaded once, it could happen again. Wouldn’t you rather have this planet as an ally to help you if that happens? I’ve seen countless evil civilizations that are out there looking for planets like yours to enslave. Spreading your forces between two planets is not a wise thing to be doing right at this moment.”
Something clicked with the First Minister and the Admiral at the same moment and they looked at each other. The First Minister said, “You killed the Pack.” Sam shrugged. “They had more than six million warships.”
Sam smiled, “Had is the definitive word.”
The Admiral said, “What are you going to do?”
Eyes showed Sam the Admiral’s fear. “At the moment, nothing; I really hope the two of you can resolve your differences without me having to get involved.”
The Admiral said, “We were told by the Gothes that you will not tolerate innocent planets being attacked.”
“I really like the Gothes. They’re just so refreshingly honest.”
The Admiral looked at Sam and said, “Do you consider this planet innocent?”
Sam smiled, “I see it as anyone with a brain would. I’ll be watching what happens here.” Sam disappeared.
The Admiral turned to the First Minister and didn’t know what to do. He had seen the images of the destroyed home worlds of the Pack. “You know he’s right.”
“What?”
“We would be better served working together to ensure our survival than becoming enemies.”
“How could we ever trust you?”
“Because we know what that Dictator did to your world and we hated it. We owe you a collective debt for ever allowing someone like him to take power over us. It won’t happen again. Even if you decide to attack us, we’ve defeated one tyrant. Defeating another is something we’ve learned how to do.”
The Admiral knew that the being was right. This planet would suck up all of their military just to keep control. The thing that decided the issue for him was he did not know if the strange being saw this world as being innocent. It was stupid to take the risk if he made the wrong choice.
“We will be leaving your world. My leaders will be in contact with you about what happens next.”
“I truly look forward to meeting with them, Admiral.”
Sam remained in orbit until the attack fleet had jumped away. He smiled, “Eyes, keep an eye out on these planets.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Sir, we have a Pack Fleet moving in on the Gothes’ home world.”
“Where did they originate?”
“One of the Pack’s fleets left a captured planet to exact revenge.”
“How many ships?”
“Thirty thousand, Sir.”
“Take the squadron and handle them.” Sam thought a moment and pressed a button, “Dort, how close are you to being ready to liberate a planet?”
“I just returned with my Regiment. Gon’s is ready to go active.”
“The Planet is currently undefended from space and has only two million enemy warriors on the surface.”
“We can do that, Sam. We’re still in our transports and can start our liberty when we return. That shouldn’t take very long to handle.”
“That’s what I thought, Dort. The coordinates are on your display. I’ll have two of my ships to meet you there for support.”
“One should be enough, Sam.”
“You’re probably right. I’ll send one. Call for more if you need them.” Sam thought, “Lt. Arget, meet Admiral Dort at the Pack’s Planet.”
“Yes Sir, on my way.”
• • •
Six hours later Dort linked mentally, “Sam, the Pack have killed every inhabitant on the planet.”
“What!”
“It appears that as soon as their fleet stopped communicating, the Pack Warriors on the planet beamed the compounds where the inhabitants had been rounded up. Six more planetary fleets have arrived here and according to the Cats, the planets they left are training heavy blasters on the populations. If we destroy their ships, I believe they will kill all of the inhabitants on those six planets.”
Sam felt his anger rise and he said, “What’s left on the planet?”
“Only the Pack Military Forces. The six fleets have come to defend them against our invasion.”
Sam forced himself to calm down and said, “And if we remove those fleets, the populations will be killed.”
“It appears that’s what will happen.”
Sam thought about it and said, “Jump your fleet away.”
“Sam, we can’t let this go unpunished.”
“Six planet’s populations might think differently, Dort. We need to think this through.”
“We’re moving out.”
Sam looked at his display and pulled up a map of the territory controlled by the Pack. “Eyes, how many planets does the Pack have under its control?”
“Fifty three.”
“Get Pride and the Cats to take a look at how many of them have rounded up the local populations.”
“I’ll let you know as soon as we have an answer, Sir.”
Sam punched a button, “Jason, how many Life Warriors are available for combat operations?”
“We have twenty million on active duty, Your Highness.”
“How many reserves?”
“We have thirty million total but some of them are retirees. Why do you ask?”
“We may need to liberate fifty three planets simultaneously. An aggressive species is killing the populations on planets if we attack their fleets.”
“I don’t know if we have enough munitions to come close to pulling that off. I’m also not sure if we can transport that many simultaneously.”
“I need you to look at what we can do. This is not something we can put off.”
“How soon would you need to do this?”
“Yesterday; and while you’re at it, this species has rounded up the local populations and has them surrounded by heavy blasters that are active. At the first hint of trouble they’re going to open fire. We’ve got to find a way to remove that threat before we can even think about invasion.”
“How many compounds are there on each planet?”
“I’m waiting on a report from the Cats. I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.”
“I’ll start issuing the call ups of our reserves, but I can’t produce munitions we don’t have.”
“The Pack’s Warriors are not as advanced as our warriors. Blasters will handle the vast majority of them. We’ll send in some of our Life Warriors with them that hear the music
to handle the heavy stuff.”
Jason shook his head, “Even at that, I’m just not certain we can pull this off.”
Sam leaned back and closed his eyes and listened to the melody, “Jason, how many warriors can fit in the landing bay of a main battleship?”
Jason got a far-a-way look and said, “Ten thousand.”
“So a thousand of them could move a million warriors.”
Jason slowly nodded and said, “But there wouldn’t be any munitions for them.”
“So we load them up before they board.”
“Those main battleships don’t have cloaking. They’ll be seen by the enemy on the ground.”
“The Pack doesn’t have teleport suppression fields, Jason. The ships will all teleport in simultaneously and the warriors will teleport out to their targets as soon as the ship breaks into normal space. How long would it take to get them on the ground?”
“If nothing went wrong, and that’s a huge if, two seconds.”
“Pretend you’re an enemy sensor officer. Tell me as fast as you can that enemy ships are overhead.”
“Alert, alert, ene…”
“You’ve passed two seconds.”
Jason stared at Sam and started slowly nodding his head, “It might work. If each warrior had a specific target programed into their attack system before arrival…it might work.” Jason paused, “Sam, we’d have to be able to issue millions of individual targets. There’s no way we can do that. It would take months to make that happen.”
“We can’t do it, but the Cats and Algeans could do it.”
“Let me know what they say and if they can generate the targets.”
“I’ll let you know.”
• • •
Jessica Brown felt a vibration in the wrist unit she never took off. She was shocked when she read the message. Lawrence said, “What’s going on?”
“I’m called up.”
“No really, what’s going on?”
“I’m not kidding. I’m being called up. I’ll let you know about it when I get back.”
“Jess, you’re retired!”
Jessica smiled and laughed out loud, “No, I’ve just not worked in a long time.” She twisted her dial and disappeared. Lawrence looked at the spot she had just occupied and still saw a smile that he hadn’t seen in years. He looked up at the sky and wondered what was happening. Jess hadn’t worn the armor in years. He shook his head but knew that life with Jessica was going to be better when she returned. He paused and thought, “If she returns.”