by J W Murison
His thick brows knotted, ‘what ships and where?’
‘Two ships belonging to the builder race sir, they are gone.’
He thought it over, ‘wasn’t there another pair of builders ships reported as having passed through the barrier?’
‘Yes sir.’
‘Then they probably harvested the ships nano’s themselves and moved on. Is there any sign of those two ships?’
‘No sir, none. Those two ships were driven through the great barrier at a point that is known to be heavily infused with neutrons from this sun. I am surprised any of the crew lived long enough to reach this far.’
‘What is your concern?’
‘That they might have reached Earth sir.’
The commander shook his head thoughtfully, ‘only young ships have been known to take on a second crew.’
‘I checked sir, they were first generation.’
‘Still, the builders are a timid race and the ships reflect their personalities. Humans are meat eaters. I am sorry, it just doesn’t fit, however we lose nothing by being thorough.’ He turned to one of his operators, ‘patch me through to the chief medical officer.’
‘Yes sir.’
A few seconds later a harassed medical officer appeared on screen. He struggled to straighten his furrowed brow and lowered his head. ‘Commander you do me honour sir, the engineers are on board now and are assessing the damage to the building, we do believe the seals are intact at this time I will be able to tell you more soon.’
‘Thank you commander Tar, it is an honour to speak to you too; that is not why I called. I need your expertise on humans. Operations have discovered we have two builder’s ships missing and two unaccounted for. There is some concern those ships may have travelled to Earth and found themselves a new crew. They were first generation ships.’
‘I see commander that is a concern, however humans do not have the type of brains that can interact with a ship built by the builders. Let me check to make sure.’
He turned to a console and they waited patiently. Eventually commander Tar turned back to his screen. ‘It is as I thought. To link neurologically with the ship, a human captain would have to be able to utilise at least eighty percent of its brain. We abducted thousands of humans and tested all of them. We even followed much of their scientific community and tested them. The nearest was still under sixty percent commander. Even if there was one human on the whole planet capable of becoming a ship’s captain, how could those ships find that one person on a planet of billions? I would imagine we will either come across those builders ships floating dead in space somewhere. It’s more likely they committed suicide on one of the gas giants after harvesting the nano’s from the two ships on this planet.’
‘Thank you commander Tar; that is precisely what I was thinking. Your knowledge and expertise is beyond approach.’
‘A pleasure to serve commander. I have just received notification from the engineers. They have finished cutting away the door, but will have to replace it before we can enter the facility. They will also have to fill any cracks in the walls before we enter. They are afraid that a change of pressure within the facility could cause some of the cracks to widen and cause explosive decompression. The good news is they can reach all of the cracks without us having to lift off again. It should only take a few hours.’
‘Thank you commander Tar.’ The screen went blank and he turned back to his aid, ‘are you happy with that?’
The officer bowed politely, ‘yes sir my concerns have been assuaged.’
The commander went back to watching the drama unfold below. The engineers were working in a space about a meter wide and they were having problems. It wasn’t until they began injecting a white bonding compound into the cracks that the commander could actually see them properly. A harassed engineering officer took a few minutes to explain to the news crews what they were doing. On the inside of the door a section of the wall had been cut away to reveal the door opening mechanism. Men were working detaching the remains of the old door so they could attach a new door that was being made to the exact specifications as the old one.
It was another hour before the completed door was transhipped to the engineers aboard the medical ship. It took another hour for them to fit it and reseal the whole thing. By now the cement used on the walls had hardened and they were ready to go. Again the tension began to mount. Suited soldiers entered the facility first. ‘The integrity of the facility is intact,’ a strange voice spoke aloud to the news crew. His light shone ahead. ‘Oxygen levels are low but not as low as expected.’ As he went farther in the lights in the facility began to go on. ‘That’s better,’ the soldier stated as he switched off his torch. His eyes studied a hand held scanner. ‘Oxygen levels beginning to rise. It looks like everything is still in working order. No sign of anything noxious.’
The camera zoomed in on the soldier’s scanner and they could clearly see the read out and the oxygen levels were rising rapidly. He used his viewer to look over the fleet. They had all landed and linked up, now they were just waiting for the serum. Something was happening now. The soldiers had taken their masks off. A ceremonial guard had marched into the complex, it was their task to gather together the bodies of their fallen heroes. The Commander felt emotion rise inside him. His own fathers corpse was somewhere inside that facility and his body was to be taken straight to the command carrier.
The camera crew followed the ceremonial guard. The camera man panned round and they caught sight of the medical teams as they prepared to retrieve the humans from their stasis pods. The leader of the camera crew gave a nod to some members of his team and three of them broke away to follow the medics. A second camera was switched on and began broadcasting live. The commander watched their progress on a second screen as they made their way through the complex. When they reached the stasis room the lights flickered on. The first rows of pods gleamed in the artificial light, but as the lights travelled backwards, deeper into the room, the medics realised something was amiss.
‘Where the hell are they all?’ Asked one puzzled.
‘What the hell is that?’ Asked another pointing to some strange objects in the middle of the room. It wasn’t enough warning. Before the cameras could swing onto the strange object there was a blinding flash and the screens went dead.
Below on the surface of the planet there wasn’t just one blinding flash of light, or a thousand. All over the planet, thousands of nuclear weapons were being launched out of canisters made from the black dust. These had begun to fire a few seconds before the main detonation. Sensors on the surface came to life and scanned the area above them. If they detected a craft the weapons were launched. The missiles locked on to the nearest target and their rockets fired at the same moment as the initial detonation. It took that Albany fleet completely by surprise.
The commander was thrown out of his chair by massive concussion from below. Dazed he had no time to get up before another blast rocked his ship. Every light went out.
‘Get the shields up,’ someone screamed.
‘I can’t see anything screamed an operator,’ picking himself up from the floor.
Shock wave after shock wave tossed them around like peas in a can. As emergency power struggled to light up their controls; five nuclear warheads ploughed into the command carrier; it dissolved into the blinding flash of the detonations.
As the command carrier blew it took out its unprotected escort. The electromagnetic pulse’s ripped through the ships of the unprotected fleet. Those on the ground died first and those above sitting waiting patiently in a tight pattern weren’t far behind. Smart bombs punched into the middle of their formations and others targeted the ships themselves. Burning vessels crashed onto the surface of the Black Planet.
Chapter 49
A green light flared on Commander Logan’s instrument panel. He cried out with relief, it had taken much longer than expected and now he was shivering uncontrollably. ’Light them up. Get ready to launch.’ H
e punched a button and the freighter doors began to open slowly. He cried out in pain as heat flooded back into his suit and warm blood began to reach his hands and feet. ‘Get your hands and feet working pronto. Shields up.’
He banged his gloved hands together and stomped his feet. Just as the doors came fully open a huge ship crashed into the planet’s surface half a mile away.
‘Holy shit! Did you see that?’ Someone shouted, their voice so distorted with the cold he couldn’t make out who it was.
He saw it all right, ‘launch now.’
They were surrounded by blinding flashes of light, ‘keep it tight.’ A troop transporter appeared in front of them, trying to get away. ‘Let’s get that troopship, fire!’ Streams of light streaked out from the fighters and lanced into the troopship. It tore itself to pieces. They were dodging in and out of the enemy battle fleet firing at targets of opportunity. Despite their shields being up and all of their protective equipment the flashes from the nuclear explosions were almost blinding them.
Logan noticed something out of the corner of his eye and realised he was flying parallel to a smart bomb looking for a target. It was too much for him. ‘To hell with this, climb, let’s get the hell out of here.’ His squadron followed him high above the carnage below. Here and there other vessels were trying to do the same. Smart bombs were blasting against shields now as the survivors gathered their wits. Logan was smart enough to recognise it.
He took a deep breath, ‘Alpha to command, we have broken free of the enemy formation, suggest regrouping the fighters, it looks like those who survived have got their shields up and are also beginning to regroup, our smart bombs don’t seem to be doing much damage now.’
The recall command came a few seconds later and Logan led the squadron back to the safety of The Burning Wind. She was surrounded by a hundred cruisers and destroyers of the Earth’s main battle fleet.
‘Any casualties?’ He asked and found to his surprise his squadron was intact. From being frozen such a short time before, he now found he was sweating profusely. He removed his helmet and using a small section of towel he kept in his cockpit for exactly that reason, rubbed his face and neck dry. ‘Holy shit!’ Was about as much as he could think to say to himself at that moment.
They didn’t get time to rest on their laurels. A single Albany battlegroup rose from the ashes of the Black Planet in a large square block, led by a massive battle cruiser. On board The Burning Wind a call came in from the enemy cruiser. The captain nodded to his operator and an ugly beast appeared on screen. He seemed taken aback at the sight of the human captain. ‘You are not Modloch, what do you think you are doing, what race are you?’
The captain grinned, ‘that would be the human race, you know the one you are going to try and wipe out.’
‘That is impossible, you are meat eaters, you have never left your planet?’
‘In that case I must be a figment of your imagination then.’ The crew burst out laughing.
The Albany shook himself out of shock. ‘Prepare to die meat eater.’
‘Tell me how much do you weigh captain?’
The Albany hesitated, ‘what fool question is this on the cusp of battle?’
The human shrugged, ‘it’s all to do with cooking time. I have to say you do look rather tasty today.’
The point slammed home and even their Modloch engineer howled with laughter; he approached his captain and slapped him on the back, ‘that remark will resound down through the annals of history captain. Providing that is you don’t actually eat them.’
‘You know damn well we won’t.’
‘Yes I know; now attack before they collect their wits.’
The enemy battle fleet began to change shape as their troopships were sent into the centre. That was the moment the Earth fleet chose to attack. As the earth fleet advanced towards their enemy, it took the appearance of an arrow head; driving straight for the battle cruiser in the heart of the Albany fleet. The cruisers shields held for about a minute but as the humans concentrated the weight of their fire on it the ships shields began to buckle. Strikes began to show on her hull; then flames began to shoot out into space. Seconds later it disintegrated. The human wedge crashed into the centre of the Albany fleet and split it asunder.
Two more Human fleets appeared and blocked their retreat. Logan and his men were in the thick of it. The Burning Wind forced its way through the far side of the Albany fleet only to find itself facing another Battle cruiser that had arrived from the planet below all guns blazing. Logan’s fighters were ordered in and they played havoc with the enemy’s shields. They didn’t get it all their own way though. Half a dozen of his squadron fell to the cruisers guns enraging him. As more and more human ships cleared the Albany fleet, they added their fire power to that of The Burning Wind. The enemy cruiser began to launch fighters to aid in the battle but it was too late. Her shields collapsed and she blew spectacularly. Logan led his men on a hunt of the enemy fighters that had already been launched.
What was left of the enemy battle group tried to retreat. Both sides knew this was a war of extermination and there would be no surrender. Human destroyers ruthlessly pursued the troopships in a deadly game of cat and mouse amongst the stars. Less than a dozen would reach the safety of the city ship. The remainder of the human fleets turned their attention to the damaged vessels they had left in their wake. Thousands of emergency pods flew about in disarray. Most made it to the planet’s surface where they were left to the mercy of the radiation. Here and there the odd remaining smart bomb would target large groups of these pods as they began to gather. Burning debris slowly descended towards the planet, pulled in by its gravity. Large explosions covered its surface. Now the surface of the planet no longer absorbed the light. Much of the surface was now covered in a thin sheet of black glass that reflected it.
On board The Burning Wind the Captain recalled his fighters. The Modloch engineer stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. ‘No, never recall your fighters in a battle Zone. Slip to a safe distance and have them follow. Send them coordinates.’
The captain nodded, ‘thank you. Bellay that order. Prepare to slip. Once we arrive send our coordinates to the fighters.’ He turned back to his engineer, ‘thank you for all of your assistance today.’
‘No, thank you for allowing me to stay on the bridge during the fight. It makes a pleasant change from sitting in the guts of the engine room shitting yourself with fear because you haven’t a clue what’s going on.’ The two beings laughed in their own manner together.
Chapter 50
Steven slid over the planet like an invisible wraith. He watched the readings. ‘Lift us out of this radiation cloud Hailey, we are leaving a radiation free bubble that could be detected by any enemy that may be in the area.’
There was a grunt of approval from the Modloch engineer at his side who had insisted on coming on this reconnaissance. ‘You are very smart Captain. That is a mistake many rookie captains make; yet I hear you have no military training.’
Steven shrugged, ‘it seemed obvious.’ Steven checked something else before going on, ‘you are right though. I have no military training of any kind ambassador.’
The engineer laughed, ‘yes, I have no political training and you have no military training, yet here we are.’
Steven smiled, ‘here we are.’
They were silent for a long time, each lost in his own thoughts. The devastation below was incredible to observe. When they reached the spot where the facility had been there was nothing but a large hole over twelve miles in diameter. The engineer was shaking his head.
Steven noticed, ‘you don’t like it?’
‘It makes me very uncomfortable, I admit. I can’t think of any race that developed nuclear weapons. By the time we took to the stars we were far more advanced than nuclear fusion. There isn’t a ship out there that can’t protect itself from a nuclear blast, yet you destroyed an entire invasion fleet with little more than what is considered a primitive w
eapon.’
‘And the element of surprise.’
‘It won’t work again.’
‘I know,’ Steven agreed. ‘But we don’t really need it too.’
‘Yet I hear that is exactly what you are planning to do.’
Steven shrugged, ‘it really depends on what they do next. They may be primitive weapons but they can still play havoc with a ships instruments. If the opportunity arises, we will use them as a distraction until we have all our fleets in a good kill position.’
The engineer watched Steven closely. It had taken him a long time to realise that this man was the real power behind the human race. Despite all their committees and governments; it was this one human who had wielded it all together. Even by human standards he was diminutive in stature. His emperor was huge by comparison, and of regal bearing. Even if you have never met the emperor before, even the stupidest of being would realise his imperial bearing and bow their heads. Yet this man set off no such alarm bells. His eyes lowered to the destruction below, and witnessed the destruction this man, this human had sown. Almost a third of the fleet destroyed on the ground. The rest almost before they could recover from the shock. So few had gotten away.
‘You look shocked ambassador.’
His eyes swivelled back to Steven, ‘I find it frightening the destruction you wrought on your enemy and the manner in which you delivered it.’
‘We call it an ambush.’
‘I know what a damn ambush is,’ he growled back at Steven. ‘I have just never seen one on this scale, or carried out so effectively. What is it you call those traps?’
‘Bobby traps.’ Steven offered.
‘Yes, that’s right. That is a new word the people from my universe would do well to learn. It is so hard to believe all this was set off by one action. I have a funny feeling it won’t be long before this booby trap is banned by universal law.’
‘What’s really bothering you ambassador?’