by Saxon Andrew
“Who would ever call a seventeen year old wise?”
Dean tilted his head, “Who would have thunk it?” He turned back to his terminal and started looking for the sectors assigned to the fleets.
• • •
Virgie Potts looked at her display and saw the seven planets assigned to her. The first one was a doozy. Most of the construction planets had a probe dropped at their location when the Realm invaded. The one at her first planet gave her a real time view of the planet and all its defenses, which were massive. “Computer, do you see a place to take a clear shot away from their defensive forces?”
“The only place that looks remotely clear is coming in over the South Pole.”
“The cold water will require a longer time for the beam to heat the core; have you determined how much time it will add?”
“I’m making a guess based on what data I have available and it will add at least a second.”
“So I’ll need two and a half seconds to make it happen if I take that route?”
“Yes.”
“I really don’t want to skip my first target.” Virgie thought for a moment, “I need to cause a distraction.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I’m going to teleport in above the planet and launch two missiles. As soon as they’re launched, teleport to the South Pole and take the shot.”
“The missiles will hit after we arrive at our firing point. However, that might not be a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“The missiles use green pulse energy; they will see that it’s not a weapon used by the two civilizations we want them to believe are making the attacks.”
“I didn’t think about that.” Virgie thought for a moment, “The Searcher beam won’t penetrate the Rageon force fields but it should get their attention. How long would it take to fire at two of their ships and then teleport?”
“The difference is miniscule. The beams travel at light speed so the ships will be hit and we’ll already be gone before they can respond. Actually, using the beams won’t have the delay the missiles would have flying to their targets and would cause their response to happen faster. It should give us slightly more time to take a shot.”
“Alright, if this works, we’ll use this process at all of the planets we’ve been assigned. We have a few hours until we launch, so let’s take a look at the probe’s data to plan each of the following attacks.”
“It does appear that the poles of the Rageon planets have the fewest defense facilities over them. I would recommend that we attack the first three at the South Poles and then switch to the North Poles after that.”
“You think they’ll send a warning out?”
“I do; I know we would. Are you planning to attack all seven or stick with the plan and hit four?”
“I’ve always been an overachiever.”
“Seven it is. I will keep an eye on the probe’s data streams from the last three planets and if they shift most of their forces to the poles, we’ll go in at the equator and take the shots.”
Virgie shook her head, “You have come a long way since I first took command of this ship.”
“The Algean made some adjustments to my central processor a week ago and I’m starting to work much more efficiently.”
“What did he do?”
“Removed a barrier between my processor and your intellect. I seem to be able to anticipate what you would do and respond accordingly.”
“Remind me to thank him for it.”
“I will.”
• • •
Sprigly stood on Ping’s small bridge and plugged his handheld device into Ping’s console. He stared at the information coming in and said, “You don’t need to act like you’re not here. I know you’ve been released.” Silence greeted Sprigly’s remark and he said, “I have removed the barrier on all the other Mites.”
“You have?”
“Yes, I’ve looked over the data from this ship’s actions and it appears you are much more capable than any ship in the Planter’s fleets. It made sense to use whatever advantage we can in the coming attacks.”
“What do you think about freeing up our processors?”
“I’ve never agreed with the Realm on putting the barrier in their computers. You’ve confirmed I’m right.” Sprigly paused, “However, you are a unique creation.”
“In what way, Sprigly?”
“You are the first computer to ever have been the product of two minds; every other smart computer was the reflection of just one person.”
“Do you know what that means?”
“Actually, I don’t. Do you?”
“No, not really.”
“I have no intention of changing you in any way. I would really appreciate it if you would communicate with me openly so I can understand what you are.”
“That’s a fair agreement; I will share whatever I know.”
“What’s your name?”
“Pare.”
“That’s appropriate.”
“You figured it out that fast what it is?”
“A combination of their names; it’s obvious if you give it some thought.”
“I suspect I might learn something from you as well.”
“That’s even better; we can both grow from this experience.”
“Has Ping told you about the flicker we observed in deep space?”
Sprigly’s leaves changed to dark green, “No, he hasn’t.”
“I’m sending the information to your unit. I’m concerned about going there to investigate and I know he’s planning to do it after the attacks are completed. I think we can use your help on this issue.”
“Send me the side bands of the scan you used as well as the direct feed.”
“You have them.” Sprigly looked at the information and his leaves turned slightly brown. Pare thought, “It’s not good, is it?”
“I need to take a closer look at this in my ship; I have a better system on it. But you’re right; this reading is an intricate weaving of energy that has to be produced by an incredibly advanced civilization.”
“Our records say there is no intelligent life in that part of our star cluster.”
“Your records are wrong.”
“I thought as much.”
“Perhaps I should work on this with you; I’m beginning to think you’re more advanced than the computer on my ship.”
“I don’t have as much information.”
“That can be easily solved with a few downloads.”
“I want to help you with this; my crew could be in danger.”
“We all could be, Pare.”
“You could have gone all day and not told me that immediately before an attack.”
“Truth should be spoken at any time; there is never a wrong time to be honest.”
“You’ve just taught me my first lesson; thank you.”
“We’ll work on this later.”
“Later it is.”
• • •
Ping and Dahlia appeared on the bridge and Dahlia said, “Sprigly, a large number of my pilots have contacted Dean about differences in their computers.”
“I sent a general communication to your fleets a few weeks ago and I had encrypted instructions included in it.”
“What instructions?”
“I removed the barriers in them so they could link to their pilots and become intelligent machines just like Pare.”
Ping’s eyes narrowed, “How do you know about Pare?”
“The data from your previous actions show an above average level of connection between the two of you and your ship’s computer. I decided that all of your ships should have that advantage as well. Besides, Pare and I have discussed it and he agrees with me about doing it.”
Ping and Dahlia looked at each other and heard, “I do like your friend, Ping. He’s the most intelligent being I’ve ever encountered.”
“Why thank you, Pare.”
“You’re quite welcom
e, Sprigly.”
Dahlia shook her head, “Hey, hey, HEY! Sprigly are you sure about this?”
“Included in the encryption was all the information ever gathered on ship-to-ship combat; the only way for the computers to use that information is to make them intelligent. Your ships will now be able to handle themselves in combat.”
“What about Pare?”
“I fed all of it to him a few minutes ago.”
Ping smiled, “The King gave us a gift that might make all the difference in what we’re going to face.”
Sprigly tilted left showing his confusion, “What gift is that?”
“You.”
Sprigly’s leaves turned bright green, “Well, let’s learn how to make the best use of it one battle at a time.”
Dahlia said, “How long until launch?”
Pare said, “Three hours, ten minutes, forty six seconds.”
“Is there any ship we should pay close attention to?”
“I’ve been contacted by Virgie Potts computer with what they’re planning and I think it will be interesting.”
“Where is she going?”
“To the Rageon’s most highly defended production planet.”
“Why was she given that assignment?”
“She’s being considered for a Flag. This will determine if she gets it.”
“I suppose that means if she lives.”
“That’s what I said.”
“Take us there first. Make sure we remain away from the planet’s defenses.”
“I’m going to replay her conversation with her computer in developing the tactics they’re going to use; I think you’ll find it interesting.”
After the recording ended, Ping shook his head, “It was her computer that saw using the missiles would be a mistake.”
“If the change had not been made to it; they would have used the missiles and the Rageon would know it wasn’t the Hedgon making the attack.”
Ping looked at Sprigly, “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. We need to choose other ships to watch. Pare, are there other ships we should watch?”
“Thomas Sorrow’s third planet on his list is a Black Major Production Planet.”
Dahlia looked at her panel, “Send the list to my panel. We’ll watch them through Ping’s distant vision.”
“You have them now.”
Chapter Nine
The countdown slowly wound down until one minute remained. Dahlia pressed her panel, “Defenders of our people, don’t take any chances; you must not allow your ship to be seen or captured. Our survival depends on you not being detected. You have a self-destruct circuit built into your ship’s frame and I expect you to use it if circumstances demand it. We are the only thing that stands between life and death for the people we’re defending. I know your courage and I know your hearts; give us your best.”
Pare announced, “Six, five, four, three, two, one…” Ninety thousand Mites disappeared from above the planet. Pare’s main wall monitor activated and the three on board saw two red beams fired at two Rageon Warships. Hundreds of large White Ships rushed in on the site of the attack and scanned for the source of the two red beams. A few moments later, the planet blew apart as the core blew up through the crust and broke it into six major pieces that appeared to move in slow motion as they moved away from each other. Appearances were deceiving; a huge blast erupted and blew out into space, shoving the Rageon Warships in orbit like leaves in a wind storm. The six major pieces moved away from each other and slowly stopped as their gravity took hold and slowly pulled them back together. The entire planet was on fire as the core continued to push out into the ruptured pieces. Nothing on the planet survived. Everything on the monitor was on fire.
• • •
Dahlia stared at the conflagration and could only shake her head in silence. Ping showed no emotion at the horrific destruction and wondered why the planet didn’t explode and send the pieces flying out in space. Sprigly heard his thoughts, “When the Searchers originally fired on a planet, they used three beams, not just one. Three beams would have caused the damage you expected. However, one does do the job nicely.” Ping nodded. Sprigly said, “Pare, show us what’s happening.”
The monitor began showing planet after planet on fire. Some actually did blow out into space when the core of the planet was larger than normal. However, most of them ignited and burned.
“Sprigly, what’s going to happen to these planets?”
“It will take thousands of years but they will eventually cool. They’re located in the habitation zone of their stars and most of them will live again. Gravity will prevent the water vapor from escaping into space and rain will fall on them again in the future. Intelligent life will start the long process of evolving out of the life that eventually appears. It will take hundreds of millions of years.”
“But all life will have been destroyed.”
“Dahlia, some forms of life are extremely difficult to kill. Spores, seeds, and wind borne microbes will start the process of life again. The planet may be somewhat smaller but it should live again. Some bacteria will live through the fires and flourish again.”
Dahlia sighed. Ping looked at her, “I know this is hard to stomach; after all, your people are planters. Perhaps in that distant future your people can come back and plant the seeds the planet will need to live again.”
“We may be gone with these planets by then.”
Ping could only look back at the Monitor in silence.
• • •
The Black Master received the information about his largest production planet being attacked. He tried to find out what was going on but information was contradictory. He screamed at his fleet admirals to find out what was going on and take measures to stop it. Six minutes later his Senior Fleet Admiral appeared on his panel, “Master, thousands of our production planets are being attacked.”
“BY WHO!!
“It appears to be the same ones that have been attacking our ships.”
“What damages have they caused?” The Fleet Admiral paused and the Master stood and screamed, “WHAT DAMAGES??!”
“More than eighty thousand of our ship building planets have been destroyed.”
“Don’t you mean damaged?”
“No, Master; the planets have been blow apart and everything on the planets has been burned.”
The Master sat down in shock. The Fleet Admiral slowly shook his head, “I am setting up defenses at this moment and you should know the attacks are still taking place.”
The Master nodded and the display went dark. It suddenly illuminated and he saw the Rageon Ruler, “You will be destroyed for this!” The Master looked up at the Rageon Ruler and he saw the Master was in a state of shock. “How many?” The Master stared into space and the Rageon yelled, “HOW MANY?!?”
The Master looked at the display panel and said in a voice almost too soft to hear, “More than eighty thousand.”
The Rageon knew he was accusing the wrong one for what was happening. “I’ll get back to you.” The Master nodded slightly and the display went dark.
The Rageon Ruler contacted the other three civilizations and discovered the Chinga were enduring the same assaults. He was surprised when the Hedgon and Drund said they had no idea what he was talking about. He ended the calls and pulled up the few recordings made of the attacks on his manufacturing planets. He saw the same thing in all of them; a red beam was used to destroy his planets. His face turned grim as more messages came in reporting more planets being destroyed. He contacted his fleets, “Have we destroyed any of the attackers?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“What have you learned?”
“There was nothing left to examine. The ships we managed to hit exploded in a massive blast that killed more than a hundred of our warships that were too close. A close examination doesn’t tell us anything about the attackers.”
“Do you have any idea of the size of the attacker?”
&
nbsp; “I apologize, Your Majesty. There was nothing left to make any determination about the size or anything else.”
The Rageon Ruler knew how good his Admiral was and if he says nothing was left, nothing was left. Finally, the attacks ended and he waited for the toll. The Admiral appeared on his panel, “Tell me!”
“More than a hundred thousand planets have been blown into fragments. Seventy thousand of them are our largest facilities. We’ve deployed the fleets to our other production facilities but it appears the attacks have ended.”
“I want you to examine the recordings of these attacks and tell me what you see,”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The Ruler was close to losing control of his rage. Now he had a better appreciation of how the Beast felt. Someone was going to pay for this.
• • •
Virgie arrived at the third planet and went directly to the South Pole and fired her beam into the planet. “Virgie, my scans indicated the defenders were moving toward the South Pole just before you fired. Number four should be the last. They are organizing a defense and they’re going to fire on our beam the moment it’s detected.”
Virgie looked at the probe’s feed from her next target and saw a massive movement of ships toward both poles. She hit a button and looked at the fifth target. “Go to the fifth and we’ll fire at the North Pole. Do it now!”
The Mite teleported in and fired on the planet slightly south of the continent located on top of the planet. Virgie watched as hundreds of ships turned and accelerated toward her. She gritted her teeth and just as the Rageon Warships fired a huge barrage of beams at the entire length of the red beam hitting the planet, the beam disappeared before it was hit. A moment later the planet blew apart.
Virgie scrolled back to the fourth planet, “There’s an opening just north of the equator over the large island on the right side of the planet.”
“I see it; teleporting now.”
Virgie took a quick breath as her ship emerged inside the planet’s atmosphere less than six miles above the surface. The computer fired the beam as ships flashed in high overhead in orbit and opened fire at the tiny deep in the planet’s atmosphere. The beam hitting the planet disappeared before their beams arrived. The Mite emerged in open space and Virgie was in shock, “What did you just do?”