by Saxon Andrew
“Will you remove the wall so I can leave?”
Suddenly, Tag was out of the cave and standing in the sun in the middle of the crater. “No need,” the ship said, “I’ll just move the surface to you.”
“More surprises,” Tag said, and then he turned on his suit beacon and called on his suit radio. “You can find me now.” Then he saw the thrusters of a shuttle near the far horizon as it changed direction and started moving toward him. It landed and he entered its open port. There waiting for him in a space suit was Danielle. She could still feel the little shock as he wrapped his arms around her. He touched his helmet to hers and said, “I don’t want to ever lose you again; will you marry me as soon as possible?”
She looked into his eyes and said, “Yesterday is not soon enough.” He held her tighter as she closed her eyes and clung to the man she loved.
Chapter 24
A dmiral Dorg was in his office when the authorization was received for the occupation of the human’s planet. He saw that first he had to destroy a race on the other side of Alliance territory, which caused an angry moment, but he cautioned himself to be patient. It was finally going to happen. He was going to repay the humans for the death of his grandfather and the anguish they caused him after the last attack on the human destroyer. He knew that it would not take much once he occupied the humans’ home world to cause a disturbance that would give him an excuse to destroy every last one of them. They weren’t Alliance members, so they had no real standing or protection. By authorizing the occupation, the Alliance had given him full authority to do as he pleased. “With the addition of the fleets from thirty other Alliance members, I should have more than 1,400 war ships,” he thought. “It will be plenty.”
He turned to his adjutant and asked, “When will the other ships arrive?”
“Sir, most of them are gathering just inside Alliance territory outside the border of the Grendap Commonwealth. We are expected to join them there.”
“We will, but first we’re going to send an expedition into the humans’ domain aimed at the planet circling the star closest to the one they named Ross 248. They have a new settlement there that we are going to make an example of prior to our occupying their home planet.”
“Sir,” Tresk said, “I think the Alliance gave the humans six weeks to prepare for our arrival. Will we be going against the Alliance’s wishes to occupy them now?”
“They won’t care. As long as we destroy the Grendap then whatever else happens won’t matter. I want these humans to know what they have in store for them when we arrive.”
“What are your orders, sir?”
“Take two hundred of our ships, the forty-fifth and sixtieth strike groups should be enough, and drop our naval drop soldiers on their population centers. My brother will lead the drop forces. Once they have everyone under control, have them take one member of each household and have public executions.”
“Sir, that will probably kill over 20 percent of their population; what if they don’t resist and surrender?”
“You have my orders. Make sure they’re followed.”
“Yes sir.”
“I’m taking the rest of the fleet and going to eliminate the Grendap. I expect you to have everything done as I’ve ordered by the time I return with the rest of the fleet. That’s all.”
On the fifth planet circling Ross’s companion star, the governor had received a notice from Earth that the Alliance was going to occupy all of humanity’s planets. He was advised to follow any instructions given him by the occupation force and to be patient while Earth tried to work out a political solution. He was advised that they should arrive in five more weeks. His general secretary came in and said, “Governor, we have a Cainth war fleet just dropping out of star drive and ordering us to ground all space ships. They will be here in ten hours to begin our occupation.”
The governor looked sick and said, “Get Earth Directorate on a com channel, set up recorders in all major cities and have them automatically beam to the Directorate, and then get all the major news channels so I can notify our population what is happening and instruct them to follow all of the Alliance instructions.”
“Yes sir.”
The Cainth fleet arrived and parked overhead, and then started landing maneuvers for the occupying forces. The Alliance soldiers were greeted at each settlement, and each leader surrendered their city formally to them. The soldiers took up strategic positions with heavy weapons and then started going house to house, taking one family member under arrest out of each house. Once every household had a member taken prisoner, the prisoners were gathered up and marched into the middle of each town and surrounded by heavy weapon floaters. Suddenly, the military vehicles opened fire and cut down the civilians with heavy laser fire. They continued to fire long after they were all dead.
“Director, is this what the Alliance calls occupation?” the governor asked Earth’s Director on a com hidden from the Alliance landing forces.
Director Misty Nicole could barely restrain herself. “It appears that’s the case. Try to be patient; we’ll get help to you as soon as possible.” Director Nicole then turned to her staff manager and said, “I want a copy of this recording sent to the Alliance State Leaders’ office, asking why our people were murdered after offering no resistance. Further, inquire if this is standard occupation procedure. Then get the general staff together for a meeting one hour from now. If it’s war they want, that’s what they’ll get.”
“Tag, are you open for a communication?”
“Hi, Atlas. Sure, I’m always open for you.”
“I want to share some recordings I’ve done of recent Alliance activity. I think you need to share them with your superiors.” Immediately Tag began seeing the murder of the Ross civilians. He saw afterward how the remaining population was gathered up and marched to concentration centers; they were beaten as they were marched in. Even babies and small children were hit with electric batons. “Oh my God,” Tag said.
“There’s more,” said Atlas. Tag then saw Alliance ships bombarding a planet, destroying every population center. There were military floaters strafing families that were running to escape. Everywhere was total devastation.
“What are they doing?” Tag asked in anguish.
“This planet, like yours, fell on the one line of origin that the Alliance was able to detect when I set off my tone. They are being made the scapegoat for that tone.”
“It’s my fault,” said Tag.
“No, it’s my maker’s fault for building the communication tones in all of their constructions. But for that, this race and yours would go peacefully on their way. I have eliminated the tone from all other artifacts in this universe. No race will have this happen again.”
“Perhaps, but it was me touching your former master that started all this. I feel sick to my soul. Could you send a copy of this to the director’s office without them knowing it came from you?”
“Certainly; it’s done. I see you’ve been meeting with the other members of the Special Forces.”
“Yes. They have been able to sense me over the years because of my psychic gifts. They finally located me and sent for me to be brought to them but I escaped after the attack on Danielle and I couldn’t be found after that. I’ve been meeting with them for the last two days, and they have given me the task of advising the Directorate. I don’t have a clue why they think I can help, but they insist that their gifts show that I’m important to Earth’s survival. I’ve learned not to question psychic gifts. They have seen a remarkable rise in the number of humans with psychic skills. They don’t know if this is the next step in our evolution, but they can see psychic auras appearing in every city. They say that mine is the strongest they have seen. So here I am. I’ve been asked to attend a meeting of the general military staff within the next hour, and I don’t have any idea why.”
“Perhaps it will come to you.”
“Atlas, do I sense you smiling? Do you have emotions? That felt like you w
ere almost laughing at me.”
“Wait and see, Tag. Danielle is looking for you.”
“Tag, where are you?” his com said.
“Boy, he’s good,” Tag thought and then lifted his com and said, “I’m in front of the main library in midtown.”
Danielle replied, “I’m coming to pick you up. The Director requests your presence for a few moments prior to the start of the staff meeting.”
“I’ll be here waiting.”
Danielle dropped the floater next to Tag with all of its security lights flashing, letting other traffic such as fire trucks and ambulances know that they should get out of the way. He boarded, gave her a quick kiss, and said, “How are the wedding plan coming along?”
“Since you hired that agency to handle all the details, we’re finally making progress. I just have to approve or disapprove their suggestions. It’s so much easier.”
“Danielle, I want you there with me when I meet with the director.”
“Why?”
“You’re able to see the truth in situations and I need your insight. So come with me to the meeting.”
“Is that an order, oh special force leader, sir?”
“Only if you make me order it.”
Tag and Danielle walked into Director Nicole’s office. The director was talking on her com and raised her eyebrows. Tag said, “I need her to help me see clearly. I think she’ll be an asset to us.” The director nodded and motioned them to a sitting area. She then ended the call and walked over and gave them both a hug.
“Thank you for coming on such short notice. There are some issues I want to discuss with you before we start our meeting with the general staff. As you well know, the Alliance is coming to occupy our planet because of the Alfont tone they tracked. You’ve seen the recordings of what Cainth occupation looks like. The Alliance has an ingrained fear of Alfont technology that dates back to their formation more than two thousand years ago when one race almost subjugated them all. It was a bloody war and at its conclusion, the victors agreed that any race that discovered Alfont artifacts would be destroyed.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Tag asked.
Danielle said, “Because we have Alfont technology.”
The director looked stunned. “How do you know that?”
“From the way you were describing the Alliance’s fear.”
“Well, you’re right.”
“What?” Tag said. “When did we ever uncover Alfont technology?”
“We didn’t, Tag. The last race destroyed by the Alliance was the Procians. They were a peaceful race that lived just outside our twenty-light-year limit, and we had entered into mutual trade agreements. After their civilization was blasted into dust, one of their small ships showed up at our Jupiter outpost requesting a meeting with the director. One of my predecessors went out and met them. They had the piece of Alfont technology they had accidentally uncovered contained in a glass globe. They asked us to take it and someday avenge their race. We told them that we were not a vengeful people and their response was prophetic. They said, ‘Neither were we.’”
“What did we do with it?”
“We x-rayed and scanned it until we had an understanding of all the parts. Then we launched that glass globe out toward the edge of the universe at an oblique angle from us armed with a self-destruct command one thousand years in the future, or until someone stops it. Then we took the information we had gathered and had one of our Special Forces members work with a physicist to help him discover the new technology.”
“It’s the Coronado power cell, isn’t it?” Danielle asked.
The director shook her head and looked at Tag and said, “She is good! You’re right. Joe Coronado is given credit for inventing the power cell, and any Alliance investigation into the technology will show all the details of his research. We have been using this technology for ninety years now and have developed our warships using it. The Alliance was actually right to fear that technology.”
“Director, how many warships does the Earth have to defend it?”
“Tag, call me Misty. We’re being informal here. We have over six thousand that are armed with power cell technology. We have a class of battleships we have kept hidden that are quite powerful.”
Even Danielle was speechless. “How could we have built that many ships without anyone knowing?”
“That information is highly classified. Even the general staff doesn’t know the full number. We have only two spaceports on Earth, which is all we’re allowed on our planet. The Alliance never said anything about building construction facilities off planet. I think they assumed we would understand that we were only allowed two. But the actual written document says only two on Earth. So we have ship-building facilities carved out in the center of moons and large asteroids within our twenty light-year-limit. That’s why we patrol the limit; to ensure no one detects our shipyards. We have eighty-eight ship-building operations within ten light-years of Earth.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Tag asked.
“Because we’re about to have a meeting about our response to the Alliance’s occupation plans, and it’s important that you know what our capabilities are.”
“How do our ships match up with the best of the Alliance?” Danielle asked.
“We think we’re superior. We won’t know for certain until an actual battle is fought. One of our destroyer class ships destroyed two Alliance cruisers.”
“Wow,” said Tag.
“They even managed to use the cruisers’ own missiles to destroy each other. I think we are faster, our sensors are better, our weapons are stronger, and our screens are far ahead of them.”
“So why are you worried, Misty?” Danielle asked.
“The Alliance has more than twenty-five thousand ships among its 820 members ready for instant mobilization, and another twenty-five thousand if they’re needed. They could overwhelm us if they used them all to attack.”
“Then we’ll just have to take them on piece by piece until we get better odds,” Tag said. “By the way, I’ve noticed that the Directorate has relaxed the tight controls on Earth’s population.”
“Yes we have. They were put in place to prevent a close inspection by the Alliance. They had their place then, but now we need our people free to grow and develop naturally. The planet’s population has grown remarkably close and has a pride in our standing up to the Alliance threat.”
“Let’s hope we can protect them,” Tag said.
State Leader Sten had the Cainth ambassador in his office and was showing him the recording of the massacre at Ross’s star. “What do you think you were doing? This was to be peaceful occupation. My office assured the humans that they had six weeks to prepare for your arrival.”
“Sir, our military commander took it upon himself to take that action to make sure the humans would offer no resistance.”
“They didn’t offer any. They immediately surrendered.”
“I think it was for the benefit of the humans’ home world that it was done.”
“If there are any other mistakes like this, I will call for a censure of the Cainth Empire and will send an occupying force for your own worlds. Did you ever think that this might cause the humans to fight back?”
The Cainth ambassador was silent. Then Sten understood. Sten said, “That’s exactly what you hoped would happen. Now if they resist you have a reason to finally destroy the humans after your two hundred years of whining, and I can’t help them against a member of the Alliance. I also can’t in good conscience tell them that they will be treated fairly. Get out of my office. Your whole race sickens me.”
Chapter 25
A dmiral Kosiev looked around his bridge and thought, “My, how quickly things change. I’ve gone from captain to commodore to admiral in record time.” He was called into the general staff meeting by the Director and was told that he was being promoted to Grand Admiral over Fleet Operations. He was flabbergasted and asked why he was selected; the
re had to be other officers with more seniority.
The young man he had rescued from the moon spoke up and said, “Because you are the only Directorate naval officer to have actually had real combat experience against the Alliance. You also showed quick thinking and ingenuity when confronted by superior forces. You could have run but chose to fight because of the long-term consequences if you didn’t. Remember, Admiral, humans have been at peace for over four hundred years. We have to relearn how to defend ourselves, and we need to learn quickly. Our past has shown us that aggression only leads to destruction, so we have not had a naval rank higher than commodore, and this was deliberately done. We did not want anyone to know that we had enough ships to constitute a fleet. That’s why all your instructions were given through the general staff. I’m sure you assumed there were higher ranks, but there were not.”
“I have no experience in fleet exercises, or formations.”
“No one does, Admiral. That’s why I’m going to assist you in organizing your fleet units. I seem to have a certain flair for how things work together. We will begin training immediately for the retaking of Ross’s planet. You will have three hundred ships under your command for that mission, and I would suggest that you look at your duty roster from the ship that fought the Alliance ships, and I would recommend that a high percentage of your crew from the two Alliance attacks be spread out in command capacity in as many ships as possible. Plan to meet with me in two hours on board the Washington, which will be your flagship.”
Admiral Kosiev left the meeting almost in a daze and took a shuttle to the Washington. He had no idea what kind of ship it was, and he held his head in his hands all the way until docking. “Am I up to this responsibility?” he wondered silently.
“Sir,” Yeoman Lang said. “Do you want to see your new ship?”
“Yes,” he said. The view screen opened and there it was. He was amazed. It was seven hundred feet of pure white elegance hanging in space surrounded by a universe full of stars and shuttles unloading supplies. The clear armor shone brightly in the sun and he could see engine ducts at the rear of the ship that were enormous. “This ship will be fast,” he decided. He realized that if the engines match those ducts, it will fly faster than anything he had ever seen. He also noticed that the power cells on the surface were three times larger than the cells on his old destroyer, Moscow.