The Black Planet

by J W Murison

  ‘I want to know if the human casualty figures are correct.’

  ‘As far as I know yes.’

  ‘A few dozen injured, less than twenty dead, three ships in need of repair and you wiped out a whole damn invasion fleet.’

  Steven found himself nodding, ‘we were very lucky.’

  ‘It isn’t lucky; it’s obscene.’

  Steven was shocked by the ambassador’s tone, ‘how so?’

  ‘Look around you. I have seen many battles but nothing so one sided as this. You are going to frighten a whole universe. That isn’t good. It could lead to your extinction.’

  ‘May I ask what you expected?’

  ‘We expected you to lose. If you did win it should have been by the narrowest margins human. When you appeared in our universe it should have been with your cap in hand, as you say, looking for the protection of the great emperor. We would have made great alliances. You humans would have made great trading partners. We could have made your planet rich beyond your dreams and rebuilt the empire as well.’

  ‘But not now; is that what you’re saying?’

  ‘Look at it from our universes point of view. You are meat eaters, detested as it is. Weak meat eaters with wealth people can accept; or at least tolerate. A strong race of meat eaters, with the capability to cause this much destruction, against a far superior race, with superior military training, will frighten many races. I know it frightens me. My instinct tells me to wipe you all out. If you capture that city ship, your only chance of surviving as a race will be to destroy it completely. That would make you far too powerful. You would be stupid to take it to your home planet with all the bio weapons on board. If you try and cross the great barrier with it; every race will turn against you, including mine.’

  ‘Damned if we do, damned if we don’t.’ Steven suggested.

  ‘Maybe, maybe not. They are illegal in my universe, which will be enough to precipitate a war if you are stupid enough to cross the great barrier with or even without it. Destroy it completely human, remove the threat or suffer the consequences.’

  ‘There maybe another option open to us.’

  The engineer turned towards Steven, ‘I can’t see one.’

  ‘Let’s stop beating about the bush ambassador. I suspect what you are telling me is advice straight from the emperor himself. As we both know he needs the legal status of a treaty in order to distribute our grass legally. With the city ship out of the equation, he can at least plead our case with the other worlds.

  The thing is, by now or, at least by the time we reach the great barrier, many of them will realise that’s exactly what he is after. They will no doubt wish your empire to remain weak. That in itself will give them reason enough to wipe us out.

  Now they can’t cross the barrier to do it, so they will have to wait until we cross over before they can take any kind of offencive action. That will of course precipitate a war with humanity.

  If we don’t cross; there is a good chance that many races may well try and reach Earth with biological weapons of their own. If we remain strong, our very existence will constitute a threat too many races, especially after this battle.’

  ‘All of that is true. Your only hope is to go with the emperor’s plan and hope you lose enough forces during your attack of the city ship to appear weak to those on the other side of the great barrier. Weak enough as not to constitute a treat.’

  ‘There is another solution to the problem.’

  The engineer made a gesture with his hands, ‘I can’t see it.’

  ‘If we win the upcoming battles, then all that we capture becomes our by legal right, correct?’

  ‘I suppose.’

  ‘An alliance is sealed by the giving of gifts is it not? The emperor no doubt wishes to announce the seeds we have sent him as this precious gift. Without some legal status, he cannot distribute the grass.’

  ‘That is all correct,’ the engineer admitted.

  ‘What if we crossed the barrier in great strength, with the city ship intact and made the city ship a gift to the emperor. As a trophy of war it becomes ours to dispose of as we see fit. If we gave that as a gift to the emperor, then it will give the ship itself legal status. By the laws of your own universe, there is no such thing as an illegal gift. We arrive through the barrier in your sector of the universe to be met by a large fleet of your ships. We hand the city ship over to your emperor in a fancy ceremony and the two fleets combine together.’

  The engineer was in shock, ‘with the imperial battle fleet, the city ship and your battle fleet we would have a force that no one would dare challenge.’ He shook his head, ‘no I can’t see it. The emperor would suspect a trap.’

  ‘Not if you took immediate command of the city ship after the battle.’

  ‘Me!’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘A grand commander?’

  Steven shrugged, ‘why not? You would be in complete control all the way home. We would supply you with the resources you needed to repair it. You know much more about this technology than we do. I have no doubt that you would discover anything untoward happening on board and warn your emperor long before you arrived home.’

  The engineer was very uncomfortable now, ‘no one would dare challenge our combined fleets if we also had the city ship.’ His heart beat faster. He realised he was so far out of his league now it was becoming frightening. If he said the wrong thing or did the wrong thing it could cost him his life, and make his family’s existence precarious for a very long time. ‘I would have to talk to the emperor about it. I cannot accept it on his behalf without his express permission. Besides you still have to beat the rest of the Albany fleet and take the city ship.’

  Sid Tulane grabbed his attention, ‘sir, we are monitoring radio signals.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘240 degrees sir.’

  ‘Hailey, take us there, slowly. Is it more distress signals Sid?’

  He shook his head, ‘no sir regular communications.’

  Two large grey ships appeared over the horizon. Babes identified them as hospital ships involved in rescues. ‘OK Hailey, take us out of here.’

  The engineer grunted with distain, ‘aren’t you going to attack?’

  ‘No they are hospital ships involved in a rescue mission.’

  ‘You would be well to destroy them all. They intend to wipe out your race.’

  ‘I will not get involved in the slaughter of helpless beings.’

  ‘Yet your people took no prisoners during the battle.’

  ‘It was a fight to the death. They asked for no quarter and gave none.’

  ‘You slaughtered them; why aren’t you doing it now?’

  ‘These people are out of the fight, injured, sick no doubt. We did well in the first battle but the biggest one is still to come.’

  ‘Very few have ever assaulted a city ship and won human. You should use massive fire power to destroy it.’

  ‘Then we would have no bargaining chips left on the table.’

  ‘You would rather risk millions of lives that blast it to pieces.’

  ‘I don’t make policy ambassador.’

  ‘I have studied the scans of the city ship human. It may not be as heavily armed as most, but they still have enough weapons to keep your combined fleets at bay. You won’t get a landing force anywhere near it. Their shields are almost un-penetrate-able when all their spare power is diverted to them. They can just sit there for months and absorb it.’

  ‘We humans have been assaulting cities for generations ambassador; I have been assured that our planning is in an advanced stage.’

  ‘What do you plan to do about the millions on board the city ship?’

  ‘As most are non-combatants, we wish to take them prisoner.’

  He laughed, ‘you haven’t taken any so far.’

  ‘No but we hope to in the next battle, to show them that they can surrender.’

  ‘They will never surrender to a subspecies. Every single one of th
em will take up arms. To surrender would mean certain death. You have studied the records from some of the captured data banks. Only a fraction of the civilians on board that city ship have been inoculated. Their only chance at life will be to fight their way through to Earth and wipe out your people. Save enough of you to make serum. They know it even if you don’t realise it yet. Besides, if one of them did surrender I wouldn’t trust him. They Albany are well known for their treachery. If any of them do surrender it will be because they have something up their sleeves as you humans like to say.’

  Steven conceded the point, ‘I will keep that in mind.’

  They went back to their vigil. The engineer trying to hide his concern over the destruction and Steven trying to hide his horror over the massive loss of life.

  Chapter 51

  The city ship slid into orbit round the Black Planet. All of the commanders were gathered together watching the large screens in their briefing room. The silence was oppressive as scene after scene slid by. The supreme commander was furious and ground his teeth together. He knew there was no going back, their only hope was to reach the distant planet.

  ‘Has there been any sign of the Modloch fleet?’

  His military commander answered, ‘no sir. None of our probes have been able to get past the giant planet called Saturn.’

  ‘Send a thousand probes then.’

  ‘We may not need to sir. We know there are many moons around that planet. One has water. We think they will have set up base out of sight of the human planet on one of those moons.’

  He switched pictures and The Burning Wind leapt onto the screen, all its guns were blazing. The Modloch fleet was tucked in tightly behind it. The other cruisers and destroyers were all clearly Modloch. Surprise had been total. ‘The Modloch fleet doesn’t look too large, I firmly believe it was their surprise tactics that won the day so completely.’

  ‘We need to hunt them down and commit them to battle and destroy them,’ the supreme commander stated flatly.

  The military commander reeled, ‘that would not be wise sir. I firmly believe we would be better sticking together as a united force.’

  ‘Do you remember your history commander, I certainly do. The last city ship that was destroyed was done so by a huge bombardment of rocks. If I remember correctly the Burro race used the rocks from a planet very similar to Saturn and simply launched millions of them of all sizes at the city ship belonging to the Ouzo’s. They attacked the city ship while it was undergoing this very intense bombardment with their small fleet. It over whelmed the city ships shields and the rocks tore through and destroyed it. Tell me commander, do you see any similarities to what we are facing here. ‘

  The military commander’s head dropped, ‘yes sir.’

  ‘I am quite sure Gairloch has as well. The emperor’s brother is a master tactician, I cannot think of any other military commander in the whole universe who could have pulled off such an audacious attack, can you?’

  ‘No sir I can’t, I find it hard to believe that he is still alive.’

  ‘Don’t you understand the full picture yet commander?’

  ‘No sir I don’t.’

  ‘It is obvious to our rulers and myself that the Modloch Emperor has been aware of Earth and what we have been doing for some time now. They want to claim Earth and its solar system for their own. They discovered our base and our research. It could be they already have a serum. Many of the first fleet were already immunised. How many of our people did they capture? We don’t know, we know nothing. Our own emperor now believes that their last war was a lie. There was no rebel force. The battle reports were staged. What they were in fact doing was building a secret fleet to invade this solar system and that is who we face now. We believe that they slipped through the barrier a few weeks before we did and made a dash for this planet to set up this attack.’

  ‘I am forced to point out supreme commander that there was a human on board that ship and he claimed the force was human.’

  ‘They no doubt resuscitated some of the humans from our facility to aid them in this ruse. Humans are completely incapable of space travel. They still use liquid rockets, you know that. Oh and before you point out that the weapons used in the initial stages of the attack were made from liquid fuel and the dirty nuclear energy the humans use, consider this. The Modloch have been planning this for a very long time as well. To prevent a conflict in our universe they need to make it look like the humans attacked us. The Modloch Emperor has already declared his brother as dead. Yet the exact details were kept secret, do you understand why commander?’

  The commander’s head lifted, ‘because he isn’t dead supreme commander. That also means that if we do kill his beloved brother there will be no political backlash.’

  ‘At last,’ the supreme commander sighed. ‘I firmly believe we still have more numbers than the Modloch. I need you to take the rest of the fleet and hunt them down. You won’t need troops so leave them here.’

  ‘I still believe we would be better off staying together sir.’

  ‘Of course we would but I have millions of citizens in near panic. Thousands are dying every week because of this damn sun. Many of your men are dying too. By the time we reach Saturn there won’t be enough of you left to fight and if the Modloch already have a serum then we will have lost. I need you to smash the Modloch fleet and break through to Earth. We need humans for serum and we need them quickly. We have already began conversion of one of the hospital ships, it will leave us as soon as you destroy the Modloch fleet. It will travel with the remaining troopships. That will give you time to distribute the pathogen and bombard their major cities. Take the fight to Gairloch, he won’t be expecting that.’

  ‘Yes sir.’

  Chapter 52

  Steven was shadowing the enemy fleet as they left the protection of the city ship. Leaving Ico behind he raced ahead to join up with the unified Earths Defence Force fleet. Admiral Baxter briefed his men after Steven had given him a brief. With the order of battle set he found time to talk to Steven alone.

  Steven sat down on a couch opposite the admiral, ‘we have been watching the footage of the films you sent us collected from the passive probes around the Black Planet. It looks like they have been trying to salvage parts of ships. Did you know that?’

  ‘No sir I haven’t had time to study the film footage, but it makes sense I suppose.’

  ‘We are thinking it may well give us a way in.’

  ‘How so sir?’

  ‘Trojan Horse scenario. We drag some hulks into their path and hide your ship inside one part of it, or we let a few slip away and let them run. Catch them well out of the reach of Saturn and engage them there.’

  ‘They may make a dash for Earth and Saturn is too close to home sir. I prefer the first option.’

  Baxter thought it over, ‘I don’t think they are coming for Earth. That may well be their secondary objective. Have you heard anything from our Modloch ambassador lately?’

  Steven smiled, ‘no sir not for a while.’

  ‘It would seem that the Albany Emperor has taken a hairy fit at the Modloch Emperor, accusing him of planting a secret fleet in our solar system; led by his brother to try and steal it out from under their feet. They now think the rebel war was a feint in order to syphon off enough ships to thwart the Albany.’

  Steven sat forward sharply his mind beginning into race, ‘of course, all our ships are modelled on The Burning Wind and schematics of their destroyers. So they think they are coming for a Modloch fleet. What did the Modloch Emperor say to him?’

  ‘He denied it I believe.’

  Steven thought it over for a moment, ‘there’s a good chance that will just affirm his belief.’

  Baxter grinned, ‘I think so. In fact according to our dear ambassador the last words of the Modloch Emperor to his counterpart was, “to the victor the spoils.”’

  Steven laughed, ‘then they are coming for the fleet. Knock out their opposition and make a dash for
Earth. There is no troop transporters with this fleet, just battle ships and destroyers.’

  ‘Exactly what I think and we are going to give that impression until the last second. We want you to shadow the enemy fleet to make sure they don’t try and draw us into a feint or split up their forces in an attempt to outflank us. Apart from that you are not to engage the enemy in anyway, or be seen. We will need both your ships in the final battle and if the Albany have no idea of their existence the more chance we have of pulling it off.’

  ‘I understand sir. Don’t worry, our ships couldn’t survive the onslaught from a destroyer let alone a battle cruiser. Neither do we have the fire power to take them on.’

  ‘That’s good but I don’t want you anywhere near the battle zone. A stray shot could result in you being exposed.’

  ‘With your permission sir we will return to the moon and stay there until the battle is over.’

  ‘Good idea, take a few days off if you can. If they get through you have my permission to do what you have to, to defend the Earth. Other than that, get some rest, you will have a big part to play in the final battle.’

  They both stood and shook hands.

  Chapter 53

  The commander of the Albany battle fleet stood in front of the screens. He wasn’t the most imaginative of leaders. He was bright enough and obedient enough to have been given command of the Blue Veld. He turned to the executive aid by his side.

  ‘Do you see it now Orlath, a classical Modloch battle fleet, right to the last ship? You can stop bleating about your human ships and crews now.’

  Orlath Cannies saw the evidence with his own eyes. ‘I see it sir but as your human expert it is my duty to warn you once more that I believe these ships are crewed by humans and that you are walking into a trap.’

  The commander shook his head, ‘you are a fool. Despite all the evidence you still believe your own drivel.’

  ‘I am your resident expert on humans’ sir. I have looked at all the evidence and came to my conclusions based on that.’

  The commander sneered, ‘yes we all know just what kind of an expert you are Cannies. You are dismissed.’