by Doug Farren
Jay sniffed a few times then said, “If I had not created the stardrive, we would not have come into contact with the Consortium. If I had not helped turn our new found knowledge into weapons we would not be in the middle of a war.”
Jay looked up into the avatar's eyes with a pleading look on his face. Tears streamed from his eyes as he continued. “They are out there right now killing each other with weapons of my own design and I feel helpless to stop them. Isn't there anything you can do to stop them?”
At that moment, deep inside CAIN's intricately woven optical matrix, the seed of an idea started to form. Within microseconds the seed germinated, grew, and then blossomed. CAIN knew what had to be done and in that moment of knowing a feeling of intense accomplishment surged through his quantum matrix. For years the machine had been contemplating the reason for his existence. The question had been answered and with electronic speed the machine reacted.
“Jay, do you trust me?”
“More than I would trust any other person on this planet except, perhaps, Anita,” Jay replied as he reached for a tissue.
“Then trust me when I tell you that I believe that this war will end soon. It may get worse for a short time, but, the war will end and humanity will emerge as a unified species. Growth is often painful. The Human race is growing Jay. It is growing because you gave it the means to grow beyond the Earth. If you had not given mankind the stardrive you would still be stuck in your home system. The war that is being fought now would have been fought on Earth's surface rendering the planet incapable of sustaining life. You haven't destroyed mankind—you have saved it.”
Jay blew his nose, took a deep breath, and then said, “I never asked to be mankind's savior.”
“Most of history's saviors would tell you the same thing. You have given mankind the stars. You have forced them to view the Earth upon which they live in a different light. It is a single planet among thousands of others. On this planet evolved the race of Humans. And in the not to distant future, all inhabitants of Earth will come to see themselves as Humans working together for the good of all Humans.”
Jay stood up and looked at the avatar. The distant haunted look was gone from his eyes. CAIN knew that the depression was gone, for now. “Thank you CAIN. Thank you for being the friend that you are.”
“I shall always be your friend,” CAIN replied. “You should go home to your wife. She has been very worried about you.”
Jay took CAIN's advice. Anita had taken the day off hoping that CAIN might be able to talk some sense into her husband. The machine had not let her down. It was good to have her old husband back in her arms again. Later that evening Jay surprised his wife by asking, “Honey, do you think we should consider adopting?”
Anita had learned many years ago that she could never bear children. This had never presented a problem and in some respects it had been viewed as a blessing to the happy couple because neither of them had actually wanted to have a child due to their lifestyle. This was the first time that Jay had expressed an interest in adopting and it took awhile for Anita to respond.
“It is something to consider,” she finally replied. “But I would like to wait until things settle down on Earth before we make any kind of a decision like that. Why do you ask?”
“No particular reason. But if we are going to adopt we should consider doing so fairly soon. We aren't getting any younger you know.”
A thought popped into Anita's head. “You do know my love that I was told by a Human doctor that I could not have kids. Perhaps an Omel bio-master would have a different opinion.”
The Omel were the biological geniuses of the Consortium. Their medical expertise was undeniably the best of any known race. An Omel bio-master was the equivalent of a Human doctor only a thousand times better. If anyone could find a way for Anita to have children on her own it would be an Omel bio-master.
Jay's face lit up as he replied, “It would be nice to have an heir don't you think. Someone to turn the company over to when it's time for you to retire. I think we should make an appointment to see a bio-master as soon as possible. That's a really good idea.”
Anita snuggled closer as she replied, “It's settled then. I'll make the arrangements as soon as things have returned to normal. Besides, just think of how fun it will be for us to try having a baby the all natural way.”
* * * * *
While CAIN worked, the war continued. The EDM fleet had managed to keep most of the war from affecting Earth itself. Outnumbered by over two to one by ships of superior ability, the UAN and Chinese ships had refrained from hostilities when in Earth space. Early in the war both the UAN and the Chinese had tried to disregard the warnings. The EDM ships shadowing the aggressors had reacted swiftly.
An attempt to bombard a city from space was stopped the moment the first shot had been fired. The ship making the attempt had been completely destroyed. Another ship attempted to evade their EDM shadow by entering the atmosphere. Ten seconds after being warned to return to their designated orbital flight path, the ship had been so completely destroyed that all the pieces completely burnt up upon reentry.
Although the war did continue on the ground, it was limited to small battles. If a large battle force was detected moving toward a target, that force was sent to oblivion by an orbiting warship. The EDM held the peace with an iron fist. Violators of the nonaggression policy were punished without regard to nationality or location.
CAIN devoted an enormous portion of his resources to the project he had hatched. Now that he felt he had a purpose he worked toward the completion of his goal with almost religious fervor. But there was another reason for his haste. The equipment he had installed in the basement of the research and development center to monitor the flaws in his optical quantum matrix crystal had shown no change in the speed of the growth of those flaws. CAIN feared that he may not have enough time to accomplish his goal.
36
Interstellar War
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===== December, 2068 (Terran calendar) =====
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Mernaga read his orders a second time. “Have you authenticated these orders?” he queried his communications technician.
“Yes sir. They arrived on the proper channel encoded with the correct encryption key.”
“Very well. Retransmit to all ships. Inform my battleship that I will be arriving within the hour. Tactical, place the base on alert.”
Group Commander Mernaga spun on his heel and marched out of the control room. Base Commander Antripas tey Shian-fu was just exiting his quarters as Mernaga came around the corner. Seeing the group commander he paused in closing the door and asked, “Why is the base being put on alert?”
Mernaga said nothing until he was within an arms length of Antripas. Brandishing the orders in front of him, Mernaga waved Antripas back into his room. As the door closed behind them Mernaga handed the tablet to Antripas and waited while the base commander read the new orders. Antripas was careful to keep his reaction neutral, “This is…unexpected.”
“I agree. There have been unconfirmed rumors that the Humans are planning on attacking this base,” Mernaga explained. “I have, however, never put much credence in those rumors and now that they are fighting among themselves I find it even less likely. There must be another reason behind this.”
Mernaga knew that Antripas had relatives in fleet command. It was quite possible that he might know of another reason why they had been ordered to attack the Human’s primary shipyard. “I have also heard the same rumors,” Antripas replied after a moment of thought. “Our intelligence shows the Humans to be no match for our ships. Perhaps fleet command is worried that the Human war will spill over into Consortium space. We are their closest stellar neighbors.”
“That is a possibility. It would have been better if fleet had decided to include an explanation for their actions along with these orders. I will be joining the fleet on t
he bridge of OLB-8. While I am gone you are to keep the base on alert. Two battleships are being left behind to assist in your defense.”
Antripas opened the door for his superior as he replied, “May your victory be swift.”
On the way up to his battleship, Group Commander Mernaga reviewed his orders one final time. His small fleet of ships (two battleships, two destroyers, four heavy cruisers and eight light cruisers) were to strike the Human shipyard known as Olympus at a precise time and place. Two other attack groups would be joining the attack coming at the base from other directions. Their orders were to destroy the shipyard and all of its support facilities.
Although the Human base was heavily defended, Mernaga did not anticipate any problems in carrying out his orders. It was a well known fact that Tholtaran ships were the most technologically advanced warships in the Consortium. The Humans would not stand a chance.
* * * * *
“Commander, picking up multiple drive wakes entering the detection range of our outer sensor perimeter.”
It was two thirty in the morning and Commander Goodman was in no mood for another drill. But, the admiral seemed to enjoy springing unannounced drills at odd hours of the morning so he decided he had better get with it. “Scan for identity,” he ordered trying to sound surprised. “See if you can’t raise the ships on the comm..”
“Scanning…Drive wake analysis indicates sixteen Tholtaran warships on an intercept course. ETA four hours forty-seven minutes. No response to our hail.”
“Tholtaran!” Goodman thought. “That’s a new twist. I was getting tired of mock battles with UAN ships.” Aloud he said, “Sound general quarters, alert the fleet, have all fighter crews report to their ready stations.”
The Commander was jolted out of his chair when the general quarters alarm actually sounded. During a drill, the Admiral normally disabled the alarm preferring, instead, to limit the drill to the command center. “What the hell!” he exclaimed. “Tactical, are your readings real or is this a drill?”
The man at the main tactical station entered a few commands into his console. When he turned around the look on his face told the commander everything he needed to know. “This is not a drill sir. The readings are real.”
Commander Goodman muttered an unprofessional explicative just as the admiral appeared beside his chair.
The Admiral was still buttoning his shirt as he said, “Report commander.”
“Sixteen Tholtaran warships are inbound. ETA roughly four point five hours. They have not responded to our hail.”
“Very well. You are relieved,” the admiral remained standing, tucking his shirt into his pants as the commander vacated the command desk. The big display at the front of the command center shifted as the computer identified the type of ships approaching. Sixteen red dots appeared on the map along with other tactical information.
The admiral looked over the data as he settled into the command chair. “What the hell were the Tholtaran’s up to? They had no reason to attack them. And why such a small force? Were they that confident in their superiority?”
“Maintain a full active scan of all surrounding space,” the admiral started issuing orders. “We don’t want any surprises coming at us from another direction. Deploy the fleet in defensive pattern alpha. Prep the fighters for ship to ship combat. Run full diagnostics on all sledgehammers and make preparations to power them up. Do not roll back the domes until I give the order.”
The Tholtaran ships continued toward the Olympus shipyard refusing to make any reply to the continuous hails from the base. They dropped out of stardrive, tightened their formation, and adjusted their relative velocity. Group Commander Mernaga watched from his flag bridge as the Human fleet arranged itself into a defensive posture. “Strange,” he thought. “The Human fleet is arranged as if they don’t detect our other fleets. Something new from our advanced weapons research?”
Mernaga glanced at his tactical screen making sure that his ships and those of the other two fleets would simultaneously arrive at the Human base. As he watched, a large fleet of small fighters appeared on the screen. “Human ships are moving to engage,” the tactical station reported.
“Main weapons, ignore the Human ships,” he ordered. “Our orders are to destroy the shipyard. Secondary weapons may engage the nearest vessel at will. Helm, continue on course to the target.”
Olympus base was protected by a fleet of warships. Since it was also the primary warship construction shipyard for the EDM there were a large number of recently completed ships in the area. Sixteen Tholtaran warships faced no fewer than forty Human ships, eight of which were the new Thor class battleships.
The Tholtaran ships opened fire first. Their weapons had a greater range than those of the Humans. The Humans quickly discovered that the Tholtaran secondary weapons packed as much of a punch as their own primary guns did.
Admiral Stockman watched the battle develop on the main screen in the command center deep within one of the moons of Olympus base. From the telemetry he quickly learned just how powerful the Tholtaran ships were. Like Human fleets, the Tholtaran fleet operated as a well coordinated entity. Multiple ships targeted a single ship allowing for a quick kill. As he watched, the Tholtaran ships did not slow down to engage his defense force but, instead, continued on through toward the base.
Before the Human ships had fired a single shot, one light cruiser and four gunboats had been put out of commission. The defenders had been divided into eight battle groups, each one led by a Thor class battleship. As they came within range, each battle group was assigned a target and opened fire. Three Tholtaran light cruisers found their shield heavily loaded. The shields of the other, more powerful ships of the attacking fleet easily deflected the energies directed against them by the Humans.
The tactical computers noted the strength of the Tholtaran shields and quickly adapted. Within a matter of seconds, two Tholtaran light cruisers found their shields overloading and their hulls heating up. Space was crisscrossed with beams of invisible energy. Missiles streaked out into the void only to be intercepted by kinetic energy weapons or anti-missile lasers. Occasionally, a missile would find a target and explode. One such missile found its way through a shield, detonated, and blew a Tholtaran light cruiser in half.
The Tholtaran weapons were far more powerful than the Humans and they were creating death and destruction wherever they were pointed. The smaller Defender class fighters were easily overwhelmed by even a single Tholtaran secondary weapon. Their shields quickly overloaded and the ship found itself with a hole burned completely through it. The larger ships, of course, could fend off more energy, but they too found themselves outgunned.
Admiral Stockman noted the strength of the Tholtaran fleet and decided that now was the time to reveal the weapon that had been kept secret for so long. He keyed a switch on his console allowing him to send a transmission to all ships of the fleet. “This is Admiral Stockman. Permission granted to engage with sledgehammers. I say again, permission granted to engage with sledgehammers.”
“LZ-112 destroyed,” the tactical station calmly reported. “LZ-94’s shield is failing.”
“The Humans adapt quickly,” Group Commander Mernaga said to nobody in particular. “ETA to target?”
“One minute, thirty seconds. Taking laser fire from the planet—shield is holding.”
The gigantic lasers defending the Olympus shipyard had joined the battle. They were targeting the two battleships of the Tholtaran fleet. Despite a power output of four point one gigawatts, the Tholtaran shields were easily deflecting these titanic weapons.
“Status of the other attack groups?”
“Both attack groups are approaching the target. No Human ships are moving to intercept. They are also being ignored by the base.”
“What? That doesn’t make any sense. Open a channel to Commander Fa’Alta of third fleet.”
“LZ-94 destroyed. Humans are targeting LZ-214 and LZ-206. Sixteen small and eight large Human ship
s destroyed.”
“Comms! Where is that link?”
“They are not responding sir.”
“Commander! Picking up multiple strong EM sources on the planet and on many of the Human ships. Possibly some sort of new weapon.”
Mernaga had two problems to solve and both of them were important. There was the issue of the non-responsiveness and inexplicable lack of Human response toward the other fleets and now the Humans appeared to be deploying a new type of weapon. “Science station, give me an analysis of the new energy sources. Tactical, perform a direct scan of attack group three and report on your results.”
Both consoles acknowledged their orders. The tactical operator responded first. “Third fleet does not appear on my direct scan.”
Mernaga’s mind was racing. What could cause third fleet not to respond to a direct hail from the battle commander? Why have the Humans not reacted to their presence? Why doesn’t third fleet register on his own sensors? There was only one possible, frightening conclusion—there were no other attack groups!
Tholtaran warships relied upon a virtually undetectable, unjammable, complex ship-to-ship communications network to coordinate their fleet operations. With their inter-ship network, every Tholtaran ship knew exactly where every other Tholtaran ship was at all times, giving them a decided advantage in most battle situations where sensor data was often unreliable because of electronic jamming.
Mernaga had come to the conclusion that neither of the supporting attack groups actually existed at the same time the science station began to make his report. It was also at that same precise moment that the Humans fired their now fully charged sledgehammers. Three people tried to talk at once.