by Saxon Andrew
Kerry looked at Lissell and sighed before saying, “I don’t see that happening if we stay together.”
“Ae you suggesting we separate you?”
“No, Elder. We just seem to find ourselves in situations that none of our peers get into. I think the constant moving from one planet to another is part of the problem. This is the third-time we’ve fled ahead of those insane beings. I find it very disrupting.”
Pasgal smiled and looked at Perla, “Your son is quite insightful.”
“He does take after me.”
Pasgal looked at Kerral and Lissell, “You will stop us from having to flee anymore.”
Lissell raised her head and said, “What?”
“You stepped into that nest of Grixels and stirred them up; you’re going to have to remove them as a problem to us. That will be your task.”
Lissell looked at Kerry and he said, “How can we possibly do that? We’re not allowed to threaten or harm them. Are you removing those restrictions?”
“Of course, not. We will never deliberately harm another by our direct actions.”
“Are you saying we’ll have to do it indirectly?” Lissell asked.
“Use whatever tools you find, as long as you remain inside our fundamental restrictions. You will go and bring us peace from the ones you angered and made fearful of us. Your task is to keep them away from this planet.”
“But…”
Pasgal laughed, “Figure it out. Come back when you’ve solved the problem. You can leave now.”
Lissell said, “But…” Pasgal raised his hand and shook it. Lissell and Kerry stood up and walked out of the museum in silence.”
Garwin smiled after they left, “Now this should prove to be interesting.”
Pasgal nodded, “Do tell.”
Chapter Two
“This is outlandish! What can we do to stop them from doing anything…THEY’RE INSANE!!”
Kerry shrugged, “I guess we should be happy. At least we’re not separated and stuck in school for years.”
“BUT THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!!”
“At least we’ll be doing this together. That’s something.”
Lise looked at Kerry, “What did your mother mean you were sad while I was away?”
“Nothing!” Kerry replied as he lowered his head.
Lise lowered her head and looked up into his downturned eyes, “Come on…you know you want to tell me.”
Kerry raised his head, “ALRIGHT! I MISSED YOU!”
“See, I said you thought I was cute.”
Kerry sat down on a bench in a small park and Lise sat down beside him. “It’s more than that, Lise. Even though you constantly get me in trouble…life is more exciting with you in it.” Kerry looked at her, “I’m not cut out to be a digger, I just get bored out of my mind. But I know you really love doing it so I stood back and let you be you.”
“I missed you too.”
“What?”
“I said, I missed you as well. You’re right, I can’t just leave well enough alone. And I started digging to stop getting you punished for my wild ideas. I confess, I do enjoy digging and it keeps me out of trouble. I leave my digs for one moment and look where we are now. Do you have any ideas about how to do this assignment?”
“I thought you might have an idea, Lise.”
“You’re the smart one of us. I just rush out and act without really thinking things through.”
Kerry shrugged, “Well, before we can do anything, we need to get to know everything we can about them. Then we can make good decisions.”
“Where do we start?”
“While we were at their planet, I did a scan of the surroundings and I saw a trace of a fleet that had left a day or so earlier. Perhaps we should go and take a look at where it’s going and what it’s up to.”
“See, I didn’t even think about making a scan. Do you know which way they’re headed?”
“Away from here, thank the stars. Let’s go and see what’s going on.”
“Kerry, I am sorry about this.”
“Let’s just put that behind us and move forward. Maybe this will be more interesting than we think.”
Lise smiled as Kerry’s ship appeared behind them, “We can use your ship if you want?”
“No, we’ll use yours. You’ve kept up to date on all the advancements. I’m running behind on the upgrades.”
“I had your ship sent to be upgraded while we were going to meet the Elders.”
Lise smiled, “You do think about me.”
“Just let it go. You know it had to be done.”
They boarded Kerry’s ship and lifted off the planet. All of the cities were rebuilt and life went on as it did before their people were forced to move to this planet. It didn’t take long to put everything back in place.
• • •
Rear-Admiral Rory Mankin sat in his large command-chair and stared out of the forward viewport. Stars were blowing past his Flagship like fireflies in a strong wind and he never tired of seeing them; he loved flying among the stars. His crew was at their normal best and all the wall monitors had the appropriate information displayed on them. It took a couple of years to get the right people in the right positions but now his job was made so much easier by having a great crew.
He looked at the fleet positions and saw the Troy was moving slightly off course. He sighed and knew that either Captain Patterson was going to have to find an efficient pilot or he was going to find another Captain to command the Troy. “Notify the Troy they’re off course.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Patterson was a good commander but that son of his was a moron. His attention span was shorter than the air under a snake’s belly. He glanced and saw the Troy immediately correct course. It wouldn’t really be a problem but the Troy was one of his two Carriers and the battleships around it were required to hold formation. If it drifted, they were forced to follow it.
He pulled up the recording of the planet his fleet was headed toward and frowned. The Scout that made the recording had done an excellent job. The inhabitants were a primitive civilization and were just starting to use metal. The scout took images from less than a hundred feet above their settlements; it was in no danger and knew it.
He thought back to when he had first joined the Navy and went out as a scout. He would have bypassed planets like this one. Back then, they were searching for possible threats to Earth and this planet posed no threat…at least not at the moment. Higher Command felt that they would eventually evolve and one day become a threat so, it was necessary to remove them now before they did. That sort of thinking was just…he hated to think it but knew it was barbarous.
He leaned back in his chair and thought about how hardened one’s soul can become if enough evil is done. This civilization had taken millions of years to evolve to their current primitive level. He knew he should feel something but just couldn’t force himself to muster it up. He looked at the tactical monitor and saw arrival was in eight-hours.
“Sir, the Troy and Alexandria are going to Alert Status and Scouts are launching to search the system.”
Rory nodded, right on schedule. “Tell them no nukes! There’s no need to damage the planet.” He looked at the position monitor and saw the target star appear one the edge of the map. He looked at Captain Kuchen and he said, “Admiral, the ship is ready.”
“Has the issue with the number eight-missile launcher been resolved, Captain?”
“Da, Admiral. A rudder broke off a missile and jammed in the port. It has been removed and everything has checked out.”
Rory nodded and saw the star was further from the edge of the map.
• • •
“They can’t be going to attack that planet!”
“Why not?”
“Lise, that planet does not pose a threat to anyone. They’re barely using metal tools.”
“So, what would the rational thing to do be?”
“Just leave it alone,” Kerry answered.
&n
bsp; “And the insane thing to do would beeee?”
“Attack anything that moves.”
Lise shrugged, “Maybe a hundred-thousand-years in the future, that civilization might discover space flight.”
“And the civilization about to attack it might no longer exist. Doing this is asinine!”
“But they do exist now and this crazy species see themselves as indestructible. This is going to be nothing more than murder on a planetary scale.”
Kerry shook his head and looked at Lise, “We need to record this.”
“Why?”
“We might need it later. We came here to get an understanding of how they operate. The School might want it for their Alien Culture Studies.”
Lise sighed and stood up, “I’ll take one side of the planet and you can take the other.” Kerry nodded. Lise jumped and went through the crystal cover and into a red and gold glowing ship that instantly appeared directly above them.
“Stay out of their detection range, Lise!”
“Ok.”
• • •
The fifty-one Earth Warships moved into the planetary system at high-speed and came out of their Universal Drives inside the closest moon to the planet. Rory stared at the green, brown and blue world on the Optical Monitor and sighed. It didn’t have anywhere near the oceans on Earth but they weren’t small either; they covered about a third of the planet’s surface. He heard the disruptors powering up to their maximum power and saw the Carriers launching their Attack Sleds. Each of the giant vessels carried nine-hundred sleds and a hundred-Heavy Bombers. The Bombers would not be used during this attack; there were no defenses to threaten his Attack Squadron so they served no purpose except to damage the planet. He sat back and watched the wall monitors. This was going to take some time. Cleansing a planet couldn’t be completed quickly.
• • •
T.R. Harrison flew toward the planet’s surface and said, “This really sucks.”
Harry Barnes said, “Yes it does! It’s going to take days to finish this mission without nukes. I hate staying out that long.”
“That’s not what I meant, Harry. We have plenty of planets to colonize. This planet is so primitive that I just don’t understand why we’re here.”
“Tell it to the Chinese. They might disagree with you about too many planets with their overpopulation. Just do your job!”
“T.R., you need to shut up with that kind of talk.”
“I’m only on the ship-to-ship and I’m among friends, Elaine.”
“You never know who your friends are. Just shut up!” Elaine snapped.
T.R. sighed and moved out from his unit. He saw a small settlement in his assigned sector and hated what he was about to do. He moved his targeting cursor over the community and pulled the trigger on his disruptor as he leveled off and flew in at two-hundred miles an hour. The brilliant disruptor beam shot out and burned a four-hundred-yard wide swath ahead of it. He looked at his rear-monitor and saw nothing remained of the settlement. He slammed his panel with a fist and moved toward the next target.
Harry flew in on a large settlement next to a river and had to make two passes before it was burned out of existence. His computer announced, “Three lifeforms inland.”
Harry whipped the Sled around and saw the computer had put a targeting cursor over a female running toward the forest holding the hands of two children as she sprinted toward the trees. She was literally dragging them as he came in and fired a brief blast of his disruptor; all three were burned into ashes instantly. “Thought you could get away, huh.”
Harry moved above the forest and saw hundreds of the inhabitants running among the trees. He smiled and whipped the Sled around and roared in from the river. He fired and set the forest on fire. He continued to fire until every tree was burning and collapsing to the ground. “Computer, why didn’t you tell me about the locals under the trees?”
“The trees block my sensors.”
Harry pressed his communicator button, “The locals are hiding under the trees. We need to burn them out.”
“Message received.”
Harry flew high above the roaring flames and saw Sleds starting to burn the forests in the distance. He whipped the Sled around and moved down the river looking for more settlements.
• • •
Six hours later, T.R. followed his unit into the Troy’s landing bay for a break and landed beside Harry’s Sled. Harry had arrived earlier and was already painting twenty-silhouettes of the inhabitant’s shape on his sled, for each of the settlements he had destroyed. T.R. shook his head and saw the Wing Commander walk up with Elaine as he climbed down from his sled. The Wing Commander pressed a button on a recorder and he heard, “This really sucks!” The Wing Commander lifted a hand-disruptor and shot T.R in the chest. He turned to Elaine and pinned a Lieutenant’s bar on her collar. “Good work.” Elaine saluted and looked at the ashes that had once been a member of her Attack Unit. She smiled and thought, like I said, you never know who your friends are.
Harry watched the proceedings and decided that Elaine was a real liability. T.R. was stupid and got what he deserved for opening his big mouth. But Elaine was going to have an unfortunate accident soon. She just didn’t know it…yet. He turned around and continued painting on his Sled.
• • •
The second wave of Sleds left the Carriers at high-speed and spread out. The initial attacks had removed the places where the inhabitants were gathered in large numbers. The remaining survivors were going to be more difficult to find. They were primitive beings but they were wise about their world. The mountains, valleys, and swamps made them difficult to find. Twenty-Destroyers moved in over the planet and began scanning the surface for the inhabitant’s unique electronic signature.
• • •
Megan Roth looked at the signal being sent to her Sled from one of the destroyers and saw that several hundred of the inhabitants were hiding in a row of small foothills ahead of her. She twisted her Sled around and flew in on the small mountains. She went to the edge of where the inhabitants were hiding and dropped three-round balls over the area. The balls hit and released an intense magnetic-wave that fried the inhabitant’s nervous systems. She left them writing and twitching among the rocks. She stared at the signal from the Destroyer and saw that all the hiding inhabitants were down. She whipped the sled around again and wondered if she had set up having dinner with Dean. She flew in over a swamp and dropped five more balls as she tried to remember. She’d have to contact him later and confirm. She saw a male and a female, carrying a small child, running out of the swamp and hit them with her disruptor as she thought about doing her nails before dinner. The powerful scanners on the Destroyers saw the inhabitants hiding in the tall mountains and moved to the edge of the atmosphere. They targeted the caves and fired their huge disruptors into the surface collapsing the entrances and, in most cases, collapsing the walls of the cave as well.
• • •
Rory watched the killing of the local population and was impressed by the professionalism exhibited by his forces. They performed their duties systematically and in seven-days, none of the scanners revealed any survivors. It used to take close to a month to achieve the same result but his sailors and pilots were well trained. He looked at Captain Kuchen, “Notify Fleet to send the colony ships.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Rory sat back and waited for Fleet to decide if he was going to be given another assignment or hold him there for colony ships to arrive. The planet was covered with a pall of smoke from the burning forests but they should burn out soon. Fleet could take a while to decide; he stood up and said, “Captain, you have the ship.”
“Da, Admiral.”
Rory went to his quarters and took a shower. He looked at himself in the mirror, before he shaved, and saw a face he didn’t recognize anymore. His black hair was turning grey and the lines on his forehead were deeper. There were bags starting to grow under his eyes and he sighed. He needed to get mor
e sleep. He finished cleaning up and went to his bed. He slept soundly until Fleet sent orders for him to remain at the planet. He listed to Captain Kuchen’s report and then he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.
He remembered living in the slums of Ireland and barely finding enough food to keep him and his younger sister fed. His parents had been killed by the Unified Earth cretins that killed anyone who disagreed with their movement. He was left to provide for his sister and himself and wasn’t always successful; hunger was their constant companion. She was tortured and killed by a band of Unity Thugs while he was out searching for food and they tossed her body into the river. He spent three-hours grieving and then went and signed up to join the fleet that day. There was nothing else on Earth to keep him there.
He rose quickly due to his intelligence and following his orders precisely. The things he was made to do were horrendous at times but they taught him how to push the deeds out of his conscious mind. But they still haunted him at night. The execution of thirty-sailors for questioning their orders to attack a primitive civilization still came regularly to bother his sleep. The choice was simple, do as you’re told or die. That’s really no choice at all. Now he was working for the very same Unity Organization that killed his family. But he was alive…and there was nothing he could have done to stop what happened. Maybe somewhere in the universe life was different, but not here. He managed to survive but it took a toll on his soul.
• • •
Lise dropped through the crystal cover and her ship disappeared. She saw Kerry nod to her and then stare out of the viewport. She stared out as well and was silent. Kerry finally said, “I’m almost willing to suffer the consequences of going after them.”