by Mike Luoma
“I’m not arguing with you,” BC tells her. “We don’t have the luxury of time for arguments anymore. I don’t have the resources nor the will to come get you all by force or persuasion. So I wish you luck, Governor Schwartz. S’all I got. I’m sorry.
“Who knows,” he says. “If they wipe all of us here out in their next assault, you folks might be the few remaining humans left alive in the galaxy, the last of the human race,” BC says morosely.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that!” Schwartz exclaims.
“Hope for the best but expect the worst?” BC offers.
“That’s an old one.”
“Still true, though,” BC says. “Good luck, Amara.”
“Thank you, BC,” she says, and then signs off.
BC sighs.
“Any more governors on the com, Chang?” BC half jokes.
Wonder if I’m going to have a full scale rebellion on my hands?
“Actually, sir, there is one waiting.”
Great.
“Governor Capituna is holding for you,” Chang informs him.
Well, that’s a different story!
“Anita! What’s up?” BC greets her as he fires up the com.
“Just checking in, BC. Did Amara Schwartz just call you?”
“She did. You talked to her already?”
“Yeah, she called me before she called you. They really feel tied to the place.”
“Yeah, I got that,” BC says, a little frustrated.
“On a more positive note, Ken Grissom and his people just checked in here at Ceres Central, so you don’t have to worry about Rigel Four doing the same thing.”
“What about the other two?” BC asks her. “Do you think they’ll want to stay out there?”
“I think they’ll be coming back here, BC,” Anita says, speculating, trying to reassure him. “There may be some stragglers that stay behind, but nothing like Cat’s Eye. They’re a little more… um, passionate. I guess.”
“I see. Have they always been that way out at Cat’s Eye?”
“Pretty much,” she tells him. “You’ve never been there. It’s beautiful! The Cat’s Eye nebula lights the nights there an emerald green, paints the daylight sky aquamarine. It’s inspiring. Makes you fall in love with the place, even though it isn’t Earth. It has its own beauty.”
“Very poetic,” BC observes. “I can tell it’s touched you.”
“Funny. It’s where we first met the Eldred,” she tells BC. “We had no idea what we were in for.”
She changes the subject. “How are you doing?” she asks.
“I’m good, I guess,” BC tells her. “As good as can be expected. Got a lot of nervous energy… I hate the waiting!”
“Me too,” Anita says. “Hate waiting.”
“But waiting is all we can do now,” BC answers.
“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Anita counters.
Waiting.
One day.
Two days.
BC is having trouble sleeping on his command ship. There have been no more “dreams” of Dolomay, but little real sleep, either. And no true dreams of any kind at all. Three days.
Krish arrives at Ceres Central with the “Transpace Nullifier” and then heads out to the Project Base to teach Dragama how to use it. BC sends a couple other packages out to the base with Krish, too. Four days.
“It’s on board the base now, and Krish tells me the remote trigger will work, so I guess we’ve got a new weapon. The other ‘packages’ are mounted in place, too. We’re sending Krish back to Ceres Central this afternoon. Other than that, it’s more of the same.”
“Thanks for checking in, Dragama. Keep running the drills,” BC orders, and signs off the com. Everything seems quiet at the asteroid base.
If only the Domo could have given us a better idea of when the Eldred will strike. They just didn’t know. I’m sure if they did… well, even if they didn’t tell us, I bet they would’ve sold the information to Dolomay, or tried to, anyway. He’s out there. He’s waiting, too. We’re all playing the waiting game.
Five days.
Six days.
BC continues trying in vain to get a good night’s sleep. Nervous energy keeps him wound too tightly to truly relax, so he never falls into a really satisfying slumber. Impossible to sleep…
BAMP!
In between days six and seven, in the middle of the night, all the lights in his room and on the ship come on at once, shattering the dark and scattering BC’s thoughts.
BAMP!
That’s the alarm! This is it!
BAMP!
BC jumps up out of bed. He heads for his clothes and shouts out for the com.
“This is Bernard Campion – give me a situation report!”
“Representative Campion, it’s the Eldred, sir, they’re finally attacking. But sir… I’ve never seen so many ships together at one time! Far as the eye can see, sir!”
“Keep it together, Chang. We getting any intel from Ceres on how many are out there.”
“Negative, sir. They say they’re still counting!”
Well, that can’t be good. Expected, sure, but still…
“Five hundred Eldred targets,” a voice from Ceres Central cuts in. “That’s here, our location. The asteroid base reports approximately twenty-five hundred hostiles surrounding their position. We also have a report of about a thousand ships now surrounding the shipyards.”
“Any other ships sighted? Other presumptive targets?” BC asks.
“Several seemingly random Eldred patrols have been encountered throughout Earth and Mars orbits in the last fifteen minutes, comprised of four or five ships apiece. There’s no indication of how many of these patrols may be out there.”
“Great.”
Over four thousand ships!? And this is just their first wave! Holy shit.
“Any shots fired yet?” BC asks.
“Not yet, sir,” Ceres Central reports. “They’re just… waiting.”
“Good. Thank you, Ceres Central. Chang?”
“Yessir?”
“I’ll be on the bridge in just a minute or two. Let me know if anything changes!”
“Will do, sir.”
BC gets dressed. He checks the clock as he leaves for the bridge. Three-fifteen in the morning, August 31st!
As good a time as any to invade, I guess! And within the month, like the Domo said. Right on time? Who can sleep, anyway?
BC walks onto the bridge.
“Looks like the moment we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived!” BC says to Chang.
“Yessir,” Chang acknowledges BC’s comment. The young captain is staring wide-eyed out the viewscreens around the bridge at all the distant Eldred ships arrayed before them. “So many ships!”
“Don’t let them get to you, Chang!” BC says, trying to encourage the man. “They’re here in these numbers because they know we’re tougher than they are, better equipped now, too! The only way they can face us is with what they hope is overwhelming force. Our goal is to show them their hope is wrong!
“Get me Dragama on the com, Chang.”
There’s a brief pause.
“Dragama here,” the com says
“I hear our company has finally arrived,” BC says.
“We’ve had a few guests show up for our surprise party here,” Dragama says. “Guess we’re pretty popular!”
“Is the gift from Krish still safe?”
“It is. All set to play its part in the grand finale. Hold on a second… I’m sending you secure codes on an encoded subcarrier. That way you can set off the dampener should anything go wrong on our end. Not that I plan on being prematurely removed from the game… just best to be prepared, and careful, is all.”
“I would expect no less, Dragama,” BC says, complimenting the man. “Beam Cannons all charged and ready?”
“Absolutely. As if you need to ask. Sir,” Dragama chides BC. “Now you’re just making small talk.”
“Maybe I am, at that,” BC admits.
“When the action begins, you’ll be the first to know,” Dragama assures him, “After us, I mean!
Ha! Dragama out!”
“Get me the shipyards, please, Chang.”
“Yessir.”
“Aziz here, Prime Representative. So are the Eldred.”
“That’s why I’m calling, Aziz,” BC tells the man.
“We are fully mobilized. We count around a thousand Eldred ships here.”
“That checks with what I’ve heard,” BC says. “Keep your eyes on them. Let us know when they start to move in. Counter any hostile move with deadly force. Don’t hold anything back! We’re counting on you to keep those shipyards safe and in one piece, Aziz. Good luck.”
“Thank you, sir. Aziz out.”
“All our ships here have checked in, sir,” Chang informs BC. “All twenty-five of them.”
Twenty-five against five hundred? Gotta love those odds…
“Another report for you, sir.”
BC hears about more Eldred ships. They’re now dropping into close Earth and Mars orbit, and are closing in on the Moon, too.
Small numbers… but we only have token forces back there ourselves! Enough to defend for a short time. Maybe.
They aren’t moving. What are they waiting for?
An hour goes by. No shots are fired in any location. SAIF ships continue defensive fly-bys of their bases.
The Eldred then request a conversation… With Bernard Campion. And so BC finds himself face to face via viewscreen with the Eldest of the Eldred.
“Ah, BC! It is good to see you again, although I wish it were under more pleasant circumstances,” the Eldest of the Eldred says, greeting BC.
“Really? You’ve created these unpleasant circumstances yourselves. I believe if you truly wished the circumstances to be different, they would be,” BC points out.
“I wish that were true, Campion,” the Eldest of the Eldred says sadly. “We gave you the option of resolving this peacefully. I am here to do so once again. All you need do is renounce interstellar flight and confine your activities to this system, inside the orbit of Mars, and venture not beyond the asteroids and gas giants.”
“Inside the orbit of Mars? You said Jupiter!”
“That was before. Now, we require more. Dismantle your Transpace Drive manufacturing facilities. Give up your distant colonies and call your human race home. Cede to us the base below, on this rock you call Ceres. Abandon the ship building factories out here. You will give us control of the Domo base you have been occupying here as well as control of the former Domo colonies of Kran-Ka-Sha-Fette and Deem-Waht. You will also, of course, abandon your colonies on the fourth world of the star you call Rigel and the one you call ‘Cat’s Eye’,” the Eldest of the Eldred tells BC.
“Should you require assistance, we would be happy and willing to assist you in the transport of your race and your equipment from these outlying worlds back to Mars and Earth, back to your true homes. We have many ships available. As you can see.”
“I can see,” BC agrees. “Indeed, you have brought quite a few ships with you today, haven’t you, Eldest of the Eldred?”
“Yes.”
“Such a show! Such a brazen show of force, in such numbers, Eldest of the Eldred, is really only one thing: a threat! It is an act of open warfare!”
“There need not be violence between our races,” the Eldred says.
“No? I’d call killing billions with your plague pretty damn violent. And what do you call your sudden need for an overwhelming show of force, huh?” BC cracks.
“Cooperation is not anticipated nor expected,” the Eldest of the Eldred says to BC. “We take precautions.”
“Do you now? We’ve got a lot of people out in these places you want us to abandon! People who call those places their homes!”
“Not according to the latest report we have. As of right now, only one of those colonies is currently occupied, Bernard Campion. Your own ships have brought most of your colonists home already. Cat’s Eye offers us token resistance, but we should have that under control soon. The other three are already abandoned.”
“Hold on.”
BC breaks off from the main com to ask Chang a question.
“Any new reports from Cat’s Eye?”
“They’re in the shelters there, sir, ignoring the Eldred’s demands that they leave the planet.”
“Any shots fired yet?”
“No sir. Just words exchanged, so far.”
“Good.” BC turns the main com back on.
“I called my people back from those worlds for their own safety,” BC tells the Eldest of the Eldred, “after hearing that you were coming after us, planning to attack us with great force. Those on Cat’s Eye would not leave when I asked. I doubt you will have any better luck persuading them.”
“You seem to make the mistake of thinking we are giving you a choice. Your only choice lies between deciding to do these things voluntarily or being forced to comply and cooperate with us. We are here to restore the status quo of the universe, nothing less, Bernard Campion. You have disturbed the balance and disrupted the status quo.”
The Eldest of the Eldred shakes his head, a nearly human-looking gesture. “This is not, directly, your race’s fault. That fault belongs to the Domo and the Flaze, who kept your race’s development hidden from us. But you must pay the price, and return to the inner worlds of your star system, or we will eliminate your race. You are the offspring of the Ancient Enemy, a remnant of that vile species that ruthlessly dominated us all so long ago. It is only thanks to our benevolent nature that you have not already been exterminated.”
“Yeah, thanks a lot,” BC says. “And about that… what about Dolomay? You know, the actual representative, the last living actual member of that race, your ‘Ancient Enemy’, who you conveniently managed to let escape? Why is it you turn your firepower here, on us, instead of using your resources to go after him? Why are you using all these ships to try to impress us instead of using the numbers so obviously at your disposal to go after the actual Ancient Enemy, huh?”
The Eldest of the Eldred does not answer BC’s questions. BC challenges the alien further.
“Why aren’t you going after Dolomay?”
“We cannot find him,” The Eldred finally answers. “We do not know where he is,” the alien admits.
“So you figured you’d pick on us instead, then, is that it?” BC asks defiantly. “Pick on the smaller, softer, easier enemy, instead of the real Ancient Enemy? How fucking brave!”
“What? What was the word before ‘brave’, it didn’t quite translate,” the Eldest of the Eldred asks.
“Fucking,” BC says with vigorous emphasis. “Used as a modifier. To denote my scorn and disgust with your cowardly behavior,” BC explains through nearly clenched teeth. “That’s about the definition of it, I guess. It’s a handy word, works well in another phrase I’m rather fond of, too.”
“What are you saying? What do you mean by that?”
“Let me make myself perfectly clear. Fuck. You.” BC turns off the com. Not exactly diplomatic…
“Mister Chang? If any of their ships fire, engage. Any of their ships approach another click, engage. We detect them applying any firing solutions, engage.”
“Got it.”
“Dragama? Aziz?” BC calls out, activating the com.
The two acknowledge the signal.
“Any suspicious action by the Eldred will be considered a hostile action from this point forward. Any scans or firing solutions, any suspicious movement, engage.”
“We’ve got movement here, Prime Rep,” Dragama says. “The Eldred are moving more ships in toward the base.”
“Well, Dragama, guess that means that you get to start this thing. Start the defensive firing solutions. And good luck!”
“No such thing as luck, just proper planning,” Dragama says.
“And energy beam cannons,” BC adds.
“Yeah, those don’t hurt,” Dragama admits. “Gotta go! We’re engaging!”
The Domo said the Eldred would start at the asteroid base…
“Make us proud, Dragama! And get out of there in time, you hear me?”
“Loud and clear! We’ll look good doing it, too. Dragama out.”
“Open channel,” BC calls to get a fleet-wide signal. “This is Prime Representative Bernard Campion. The Eldred have begun attacking our distant asteroid base. The war has begun. We are firing back. We must be ready, as their other ships may begin to attack at any moment. Be watchful, be ready, and show these alien attackers what it means to be human!
“Our weapons are superior!” BC says, trying to inspire them. “As we head into battle, it’s no longer a secret… I can tell you now that we’ve cracked their shield technology. Our beam cannons can now slice through their shields like a knife through butter, and our shields are now stronger than theirs, able to deflect their beam weapons! They cannot strike us with full force!”
“Sir?” Chang gets BC’s attention when he pauses.
“Yes, Chang?”
“The Eldred have returned fire at the asteroid base. Dragama’s forces are fully engaged,” the captain informs him.
“Aziz, open fire! Chang, tell our twenty five to open fire!”
“Now?” Chang asks, hesitating. “They haven’t fired on us yet.”
“They will! They’ve engaged at the other base, they’ll soon engage here!” BC explains. “Fire, Chang!” he commands. “Their overwhelming numbers are instigation enough! Surprise is all we have!”
“All ships firing now, Prime Rep!” Chang says.
BC swears he can feel his hairs stand on end, feel the air charge with electricity as the powerful energy beam cannons power up and pulse out bright bursts of destructive plasma energy. The hum of the guns echoes through the ship, vibrating BC down to his molecules. BC calls up a viewscreen on the bridge to watch the battle outside.
Sitting in here, you can forget we’re moving!
BC watches the stars sweep by as his ship twists and maneuvers. Chang guides the ship as they dodge pulses from the Eldred ships’ energy weapons’ return fire. BC watches the chaos on his monitor, trying to follow the action of the battle but it barely makes sense, ships careening every which way, flashes of blinding light from pulsing weapons and exploding ships. He feels dizzy as his brain attempts to keep up with the motion he can’t actually feel.