by Saxon Andrew
Ping smiled, “I think that’s wise.”
• • •
Tess recorded a message to the citizens and Dahlia spoke immediately after she finished. Tess had spoken for an hour and Dahlia looked at the camera and said, “It’s really simple to understand. You can choose to live and trillions will die. Quite likely, a trillion intelligent beings will die for every one of us. Thank you.”
Dahlia stepped away from the camera and Tess looked at her in bewilderment. Dahlia smiled, “A mother is chosen to lead us because only a mother possesses enough love to do the right thing for all. Tess, do you consider us your only children?” Dahlia left to be with Ping while the vote was taking place. Tess watched Dahlia walk away and, after a moment, lowered her head.
• • •
Ping pulled back on the rod and it bent almost double, “Now this is a monster.”
Dahlia looked over her shoulder as she put oil in the frying pan, “It must be blue in color.”
Ping saw the huge fish jump and said, “How did you know?”
“Just lucky, I guess.”
Dean and Victoria sat on the bank of the stream with their feet in the water watching Ping play the fish. Dean shook his head, “I think you’re in over your head with this one.”
“Don’t say that loud enough for the fish to hear!” Ping released some line and then began pulling again. It took fifteen minutes but Ping went and lifted the big fish out of the stream. He smiled and removed the hook. He held the fish up for all to see and then gently put it back in the water.
Dean yelled, “Hey, what are you doing?”
“He has earned a reprieve; he fought hard enough to deserve it.” He paused and turned around quickly and looked at Dahlia, who wore a surprised expression. They both smiled and Ping baited the hook and cast it into the stream.
“What were the two of you smiling about?”
Dahlia looked at Victoria, “Some truths don’t come easily.”
Dean stared at them and shook his head, “That one could have fed all of us.”
Victoria said, “It was the right thing to do. That old man deserves to have many children for us to enjoy.” Dean shook his head and saw Ping’s rod bend again.
• • •
They were sitting around a fire when they saw Tess walking from the large tree with the tube entrance in it. Ping looked at Dahlia and knew the vote was in. Dean looked at Tess, “Why are you walking here? You could have teleported here.”
“I needed some time to think about the vote.” Dean stared at her and she nodded, “Yes, the results are in.”
“And?”
“It really wasn’t close.”
Dahlia said, “WELL?”
“I’m often amazed by my people. The vote was ninety five percent to allow the Gardners to launch their device. It seems most of our people feel like whatever it is, they can take it on and survive.”
Ping smiled and looked at Tess, “Did you really expect them to turn their back on the Realm?”
“I would have until Dahlia pointed out that my people here are not my only children. I made an announcement before the vote started that I would be voting to launch.” Ping furrowed his brow and Tess continued, “Our ancestors came from your planet. We are their children and the ones that still live on Earth are just as much a part of us as the ones that live here. Knowing that left me no choice but to do all I could to make sure they survived.” Tess looked at Dahlia, “Why did you not show the recordings?”
“It’s easier to say you’ll die if you don’t know what the death will look like. If they saw the recordings; fear may have overcome their wisdom.”
Tess nodded, “Well, I guess that means we have nothing to lose now.”
Ping chuckled, “That makes us very, very dangerous.”
Dahlia tilted her head, “The vote was meaningless anyway.”
Ping shook his head, “No, it wasn’t.”
“For the question the vote was designed to answer, it was useless.” Ping nodded.
Tess looked at Dahlia, “What do you mean?”
“Do you think there was any way in Creation for us to stop the Gardners from launching their project? We can’t even go to their universe much less use any weapon we have to stop them.”
Tess looked at Ping, “You could have ordered them not to do it.”
“Would you have listened if you were in their place?”
Tess became angry, “Then why did we go through that farce?”
Ping looked at Dahlia and she said, “So the ones that have created a plan could see we’re worth saving.”
Tess looked at Ping and he nodded. “I thought everything was going to die if they launched it?”
“What we expect has a funny way of not happening when we least expect it. This vote at least proved to all of us that we are good and honorable. That’s reason enough to have the vote.”
“So what do we do now?”
Dahlia looked at Ping and he shook his head. Dahlia said, “They can accept it from you.”
“It comes across better if you tell them.”
Dean looked at Dahlia, “Tell us what?”
“We’re going to war against the Blue Ships.”
“I thought they would leave us alone if we stayed out of it.”
“They probably would; but the Gardners aren’t ready and need more time. We have to buy that time for them.”
Dean looked at Dahlia and then looked at Tess. She shrugged, “What the hey, we’re all dead any way. What have we got to lose?”
“Does that mean I get my own ship?” Tess shook her head. “Why not? Ping and Dahlia go out in their ship.”
Ping slowly shook his head, “Dean, I understand the Blue Ships are massing to invade the Rageon Domain. There are ten huge fleets that are gathering and their numbers are incredible. How would you go about attacking those fleets and still protect us here?”
“You won’t like my answer.”
“Tell me anyway.”
“The Mites will remain here. The fifty thousand heavy battleships will load up with the pulse missiles and their brackets.”
“Go on.”
Tess said, “I’m sorry, I’ve heard you and Sprigly talking about missile brackets; what are they?”
Dean smiled, “The normal method of launching missiles is to fire them out of tubes from ships with a target programed into their software. A bracket is a huge rack that holds more than ten thousand missiles in it. The bracket is little more than a teleport drive that will teleport its entire load to a designated coordinate. The Pulse Missiles will all arrive at the same moment and start locking on any target that has a specified frequency programmed into their warheads.”
Tess hesitated for a moment, “Won’t huge numbers of them hit the same ships?”
“No, the missiles have been programmed to stay away from each other. That distance can be selected by the Weapon’s Officer controlling them. Let’s say a Blue Warship is eight hundred yards long. The officer will input nine hundred yards into their software and they will spread out and maintain that distance from each other. There will be some double hits but most of them will find a single target.”
Tess looked at Ping and he nodded. Ping said, “So how would you do it?”
“I’d have the fifty thousand Battleships divided into five groups of ten thousand. They would teleport in and surround those massive fleets and all teleport half of their Pulse missiles simultaneously. They would then teleport out a thousand miles and watch what happens. If more missiles are needed, half of them would launch the rest of their load and teleport back here. The other half will remain and launch Pulse Missiles as needed until the first half come back with a full load.”
Dahlia said, “Where are they going to rearm?”
“We’re going to launch every Missile Barge we’ve built into orbit.”
“How many have we built?’
“Dahlia, we have about twenty thousand.”
Tess stood up, “How were we a
ble to build that many?”
“There’s not much to them, Tess. They’re little more than a huge empty shell capable of holding thousands of Brackets. A Battleship will arrive and send the exact coordinates of the empty brackets in their landing bay and the Barge will teleport the brackets out and simultaneously teleport fully loaded brackets to replace the empty ones.”
Ping smiled, “Sprigly tells me that a Major Battleship can be rearmed in less than twenty seconds.”
Dean tilted his head, “That’s under ideal conditions. Real world time is closer to thirty seconds.”
Tess slowly shook her head, “Won’t you exhaust the inventory of the barges quickly?”
“Tess, do you know what the Realm has been transporting to us when the natural portal was operational”
“Tell me.”
“Mites would arrive occasionally, but most of the time, huge loads of Pulse Missiles were brought through and stored at the Northern Construction Facility. We have so many we’ve run out of storage space for them. The process of rearming a Battleship is the same with rearming a Barge, only faster. As soon as an empty bracket arrives on a Barge, the system automatically replaces it with a full Bracket from our storage facilities.”
Tess looked at Ping, “That’s amazing.”
“You can thank Sprigly for coming up with the system.” Ping looked at Dean, “Which begs the question; why are you holding the Mites here?”
Tess said, “To defend our planet.”
“The Barges can do that without the Mites.”
Tess looked at Dean, “Is that true?”
“It is. The Barges were built some time ago but we’ve been reluctant to launch them and reveal we have advanced technology. However, why wait any longer?” Dean looked at Ping, “I’m holding the Mites here in the event other targets of opportunity present themselves. I really believe the Battleships can handle those fleets and the Mites would only get in the way.
“What if they attack here?”
Dean smiled, “Tess, the Barges can also teleport their missiles at a target. We have enough Pulse Missiles stored to surround the planet with a solid shell two thousand miles thick. I suspect they might back off if they came here.”
Ping nodded, “They won’t push an attack until they have the Five under control. They’re not close to that yet.” Ping looked at Dean, “Please tell me who has a better knowledge of our defensive systems than you?” Dean just stared at Ping. “I couldn’t do as good a job of planning to attack those fleets than you just described. You’re needed here, Dean.”
Tess nodded, “You know he’s right. How long will it take you to get that plan in motion?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“WHAT?”
“I’ve seen the same reports Ping has seen. I sent this out to the Battleships ten hours ago and they’ve been practicing on it since that time.”
Tess looked at Ping and raised her eyebrows. Ping looked at Dean, “Set your launch for exactly twenty minutes from now.” Dean nodded. Ping pressed his wrist unit, “Pare, we’re making a trip.”
“Got the coordinates entered.”
Ping went to Dahlia and helped her stand. He hugged her and she smiled, “I know; I need to stay here.” Ping smiled, kissed her, and disappeared from the control room. Dahlia kept her eyes closed and put her fingers on her lips. She could still feel his warmth and love.
• • •
The Rover teleported to the Rageon’s Governing Planet and Ping pressed the Ruler’s frequency, “Have you got a moment?”
“I’ll always make time for you.”
“I’ve noticed you have ten huge gatherings of Blue Ships on your borders. Are you holding an event and we weren’t invited?”
“No, they’re being impolite and crashing the party.”
“Are you doing anything about it?”
“I have twenty of my fleets out trying to tell them they need to leave but we’re not breaking through their ranks. Their massed fire is holding us off.”
Ping looked at his wrist unit, “In exactly sixteen minutes from…now, have all your ships jump away from those ships.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to escort them out of the party.”
“They really look like they don’t want to leave.”
“I’ll ask then in a way they won’t be able to refuse.”
“I really hope you can.”
“Remember, fifteen minutes from now.”
The Rageon pressed a button on his panel, “I’ve been asked to have all your ships removed from the Blue Fleets in fifteen minutes and twenty seconds.” The Fleet Admiral nodded and disappeared from the display. He suddenly saw the ten Blue Ship Fleets appear on his bank of displays and shook his head, “Boy that Admiral of mine is good.”
• • •
Virgie looked at the massive gathering of Blue Warships forming up to attack the Rageon and was shocked at the numbers of ships. She lifted her communicator, “Alright, you know the drill. The first launch will go out and make sure the globe surrounds that entire formation. Once the first wave is launched, stand by for orders on the second. Launch in two minutes.”
• • •
Each of Virgie’s Battleships had twenty thousand Pulse Missiles crammed into each of its three landing bays. She was unable to tell how many Blue Ships were in formation but she knew sixty million Pulse Missiles would make a dent in their numbers. She watched the count down and when it hit zero she felt nothing. There was no recoil when the missiles were teleported away, unlike missiles being fired through the ship’s missile tubes. The results were quite staggering.
• • •
The Pulse Missiles arrived two miles out from the huge Blue formation. The Missiles had a Nemite coating and were invisible to the Blue Ships. They had no warning when the huge globe of missiles surrounding them locked on a target and accelerated into their ranks.
• • •
It wasn’t just the individual explosions that made the view impressive; the shock wave that blew out from the Blue Ships blowing up made the event truly awe inspiring. Virgie saw the surviving ships in the center of the massive formation suddenly scatter and she knew the plan was flawed, “Launch all Missiles and jump back to rearm.”
Virgie was wise to jump her ships away. The millions of Blue Warships came roaring out of their formations looking for the enemy that had fired on them. Collisions would have been unavoidable as millions of ships were in a very small space.
None of the Blue Warships saw the thirty million Pulse Missiles that were locking on and chasing them as they looked for a target. The second wave of explosions was just as massive as the first but looked smaller because it was spread out over a much larger area of space. The Rageon fleets arrived after the second wave of missiles and the destruction reached a new level of frenzy. An hour later, the Blue Ships jumped away. The Rageon had lost a million ships but had to look at the battle as a victory. The other nine attacks were also vicious but from that moment on, the Blue Ships did not return to the Rageon’s Domain.
• • •
The Major Battleships were returning to the Planter’s Planet and were being rearmed. Dean had looked at the feeds coming in from the probes the Realm had left behind and started sending the Battleships out into the other four civilizations being attacked by the Blue Ships. Tess questions Dean and he said, “If we intend to delay them from opening portals into the Realm, we have to prevent the other four from fleeing. We have to go and fight in the other Domains.”
Tess sighed and then nodded, “Do what you have to do.”
Chapter Seventeen
The Beast Master was weary of seeing his fleets mauled by the Blue Warships. The current battle was taking place in the star system of his governing planet and he knew they weren’t going to hold out much longer. He watched as his remaining ships reformed their ranks and knew help would not arrive in time. He hated being forced away from defending his home world but saw he wasn�
�t going to have much choice.
• • •
Rranga looked at the female Beast on his display and thought how beautiful she was. Her fangs were brilliant white and her fur curled slightly above her maw. She had a wonderful disposition and only hit him once a week. She was two hundred pounds heavier but it was in all the right places, “Rrena, I can see we don’t have much longer and I want to tell you I’m sorry before I die.”
“Sorry for what?”
“For not having the courage to ask you to be my mate.”
“Oh Rranga, I’m going to slap you silly next time I see you…if there is a next time. Why did you wait?”
“You’re so beautiful, I just felt like I wasn’t good enough for you.”
“You think your family is not placed high enough to ask, don’t you?”
“Rrena, you’re out of my class; you deserve so much more than me.”
“Class is a disappearing commodity Rranga. After all this is over, there will only be one class left and they’ll be called survivors.”
“I just wanted you to know.”
Rrena paused and smiled, “I would have accepted. There’s no one else that has caught my scent sense. You are the one I wanted.”
“It looks like they’re coming in for the final attack. I love you, Rrena.”
“I love you, too. Maybe in another time and another place.”
Rranga nodded and turned on his tactical display. He saw the front ranks of the Blue Ships moving at maximum speed and he hit the thrusters on his attack ship and flew into the ranks of the Blue Ships. He accelerated forward firing his two beams and tensed up in anticipation of his death. He looked on either side of his ship and saw every Blue Ship around him was exploding. He looked at his panel and shook his head; he only had two beams and fifty ships were blowing up every moment and he arrived at the rear of the huge Blue formation and turned to see most of the Blue Ships had disintegrated. What had happened? Rrena’s ship appeared next to his and he saw his ship-to-ship light illuminate.
“Rranga, I have an idea.”