by Saxon Andrew
“Yes, Sir.”
Dean was amazed and knew he was only seeing one side of the devastation. The numbers of destroyed warships was beyond belief. The small ships that took part in the conflict were too numerous to count visually and he was thankful the computer relieved him of that responsibility. Finally, he said, “Move out of the arm.”
“We are receiving a transmission from the site of the battle, Captain.”
Dean looked up, “What is it saying, Computer.”
“It’s coming in on the Blue Warship’s frequency and it’s repeating over and over. It’s saying, ‘Thank you’.”
Dean’s eyes closed and he opened them to look at Ginger in her cockpit. She was staring at him and knew her computer had told her the same thing. He said, “Erase that message from your databanks.” He heard Ginger issue the same instruction to her computer.
• • •
They moved outside the Perseus Arm and they connected their computers on the Direct-Ship-Contact link. The computers took an hour and finally sounded a small tone. “Analysis.”
“Every Brax Warship originally scanned is accounted for. All of them were destroyed.”
“And the Blue Warships?” Dean asked.
“I do not know how many participated in the battle, three of their forces were only detected by their transmissions. However, A hundred of their extremely large vessels were destroyed and one-thousand-seven-hundred of their warships were damaged or destroyed. More than ten-thousand small warships were destroyed.”
Dean said, “Let’s go home.”
Chapter Eleven
Rory sat in his conference room and watched the recordings that Dean and Ginger brought back. He watched them again and saw Meredith enter the room. “How long are you going to examine this?”
Rory looked at her and said, “There’s something about this I find troubling.”
“What is that?”
“The response time of those Blue Fleets.”
Meredith sat down and said, “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“Those Blue Warships at the planet didn’t leave until after our scouts arrived. After that, there was a massive movement of their forces.” Rory grew silent.
“You’re thinking our Scouts played a role in what happened.”
“What other reason could it have happened.”
Meredith shrugged, “They could have probes out watching for the Brax to return.”
“Do you believe that?”
Meredith stared at Rory and said, “Let’s just assume I didn’t. What would you be forced to do with our best Scouts?”
“Fleet regulations call for them to be executed.”
“Does either of their computers have any evidence they contacted the Blues?”
“No, but you know how easy it is to erase it.”
“What would you have done if you were there in their place?”
“That has nothing to do with the current situation.”
“I said let’s assume. So, assume you were in their place; what would you have done?” Rory was silent and Meredith said, “Would you just allow the Brax to swoop in and destroy that planet?” Rory sighed. Meredith shrugged, “Thorpe wouldn’t have hesitated. He would have allowed it to be destroyed and kept the recording to entertain himself.”
“I’m not Thorpe.”
“Are you?”
Rory stared at her and, after a minute, said, “Computer.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
“Modify the recording to show the Blue Warships at the planet were powering up their drives when our Scouts arrived.”
“By what authority?”
“Ajax-21-Beta-Beta-10.”
“Modification made.”
“Erase the prior recording.”
“Erasure completed.”
“Go into the Scout’s computers and insert the new recording.”
“Done.”
Meredith smiled, “Let’s assume this meeting never happened.”
Rory smiled, “You know I depend on you.”
“It goes both ways, Admiral.”
“Make sure the Scouts know about this.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
• • •
Ginger was sitting in the cafeteria on the Babylon and Meredith walked over and at down across from her. Ginger looked up at her and Meredith said, “The Admiral was amazed at how good the Blue Civilization is at detecting an approaching enemy. He asks that you look over your data and see if you were able to detect any probes when you arrived at the site of the battle.”
Ginger stared into Meredith’s eyes and saw something. She smiled and said, “We were too far out to detect any, Sir.”
“Just take another look. You’re probably right. You might ask Captain Hamlin to do the same.”
“Yes, Sir.” Meredith left and Ginger finished her lunch. She went to her Scout and replayed the recordings and sat back in her chair. She contacted Dean and he met her in the landing bay afterwards.
“I didn’t see any probes.”
“We were just too far out. But they had to know the Brax were coming,” Ginger replied.
“We’ll need to keep that in mind if we go back.”
“Yes, we will.” Ginger stared into his eyes and said, “We need to be going to take a close look at the Brax Planets to see how they were impacted by this.”
Dean knew she meant to get off the ship where they could talk in private; Captain Legion made it clear that they couldn’t on the Babylon. “I’ll contact the Admiral and see if he agrees.”
“That would be good, Sir.”
• • •
Four days later, they launched from the Babylon and headed toward Brax Territory. Rory watched them go and smiled, “Getting them off the Babylon is a good thing.”
“Sir, how well do you know Captain Kuchen?”
“Why do you ask?”
“He sent a message on an Earth Frequency after the Scouts arrived.”
Rory’s eyes closed and he blew out a hard breath. He looked at Meredith and said, “None of the officers except for that former Scanning Officer have shown any contacts off this ship. Kuchen is either communicating directly with Admiral Nelson or…” Meredith nodded. “I know Admiral Nelson trusts me so he wouldn’t be communicating with someone else behind my back; he knows how dangerous that would be.”
“That explains Kuchen’s desire to attend the meeting with the Scouts.”
“So, we can assume that the existence of the Blue Civilization is now known on Earth.”
“Do you think he took the Scout’s data?”
“He might have looked at it and sent a report on the summary of what happened. Sending the data would be too big a risk. Send an encrypted message to Captain Hamlin and ask him to see if his computer has been queried and if so, by who.”
• • •
Meredith sent a message to Rory an hour later and he met her in his conference room. She saw him walk in and said, “Captain Kuchen copied the data but did it after the recording was changed.”
“DAMN!”
“You know what this means?”
“Thorpe now knows the Brax are no longer a threat.” Meredith nodded. “I want you to make a daily report to Admiral Nelson and let me know if anything happens.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“There’s one more thing, Sir.”
“What is that?”
Meredith held out a small electronic device and said, “I found this under the table at the chair Kuchen sat in during the conference with the Scouts.”
“Has it been activated?”
“Not yet.”
“Leave it and let me know when it is.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Rory shook his head and said, “Do you have the locations of all the listening devices in our ships?”
“I do. I kept a list of them when I did the ship inspections.”
“Give the list to Colonel Maywell and have him to designate a trusted Marine on each
ship with their locations.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“I’m going to have to assume that whoever is at the panels where they’re installed are Thorpe’s Operatives.”
“There’s five-hundred of them, Sir.”
“Make sure Maywell can remove them simultaneously.”
“Yes, Sir. Most of them are on Kuchen’s Carrier.”
“That will make it easier.”
• • •
Two weeks later, Meredith said, “The listening device is activated and my report to Admiral Nelson was received by a Service Leader I’ve not spoken with in the past.”
Rory stared at Meredith and said, “Order the Fleet to the Colonies to stock up on arms.”
“What will I tell them?”
“Tell them we’re preparing to go out and take the war to the Brax Planets. Also, order the two-Scouts to report directly to the New York when they return. That should keep Thorpe at bay for a while. I suspect he’ll want certainty about them no longer being a threat before he attempts to take control of the Fleet.”
“He’ll probably contact you first.”
“Why is that?”
“Because of the subterfuge, Admiral Nelson used to make him believe you support him.”
“When that call comes in, we’ll have to move.”
“You’ll have to start with Admiral Kuchen.”
Rory ran his hand through his hair, “I know.”
Rory’s communicator beeped and Lisa said, “Sir, Admiral Donovan wishes to speak with you on an encrypted line.”
“Send it to my communicator.”
Admiral Donovan appeared a moment later and he said, “Admiral, are you up to date on what’s happening on Earth.”
“Admiral Nelson wasn’t available to take our report.”
“That’s because the Service Leader’s Building in Los Angeles has been hit by a disruptor beam from one of the Defense Satellites,” Dan replied.
“Thorpe must be insane!”
“There’s more, Sir. The Central Government Center in Washington has also been hit and destroyed. Thorpe is claiming a rogue group took control of one of his satellites and fired the disruptors. He claims to have executed them for their actions. However, he has instituted martial law to maintain control until a new election can take place. He’s blasting anyone on the planet who protests his decision claiming they are part of the rebellion.”
“Getting the people to support him is going to be a real problem, Dan.”
“Sir, he’s notified everyone on Earth that all taxes have been suspended until a new government is established. He’s being hailed as a hero at the moment.”
Rory looked at Meredith and shook his head, “How did you find this out?”
“One of my destroyers went to Earth to get a faulty reactor replaced. They were leaving orbit when the first disruptor beam hit in Los Angeles. They left at slow speed and listened to the news reports coming from the planet.”
Rory sighed, “He’ll solidify his hold on Earth and then he’s going to try and take control of the Fleet.”
“I don’t see much we can do to stop him at Earth, for the moment.”
“Thanks, Dan.”
“Yes, Sir.”
• • •
Dean looked at his monitor and shook his head; the Brax forces were decimated by the attack on the Blue Civilization. The planets they found only had three or less warships at each of their planets. He sighed and looked at Ginger parked next to him. They’re not even leaving their planets to challenge us.”
“They think it’s a trap to lure them away.”
Dean paused and said, “Why do you think Captain Legion was so careful in passing the changes the Admiral made to our data?”
“That’s easy.”
“What?”
“Thorpe is keeping tabs on the fleet.”
“I have the same conclusion but I don’t know why he’s doing it.”
“Who controls all the planetary defenses above Earth?”
“What are you suggesting, Ginger?”
“He could turn the Defense Satellites and fire on Earth as easy as he could against ships moving toward the planet.” Dean was silent and Ginger said, “Don’t think for a minute he wouldn’t do it if he had the opportunity to take power.”
“Is that why you left your teaching assignment to join the Navy?”
“I hate him.”
“Why?”
“He had an uncle of mine executed for protesting his actions against the primitive planets. Claimed he was sowing sedition.”
“I’m surprised you were allowed to join with that in your background.”
“He was a brother of my mother’s first husband. He wouldn’t show up in my files.” Dean was silent and Ginger said, “Uncle Mack had the gentlest of hearts and was the best man I’ve ever known. I lost track of him while I was in college and he was executed right after I graduated. He and forty other protesters were vaporized by the Army. I knew I had to get off the planet before I was killed for trying to kill that pig!”
“He has everything going his way. The Colonies…”
“He can’t count on the colonies!”
“Why not?”
“Who do you think he had sent to the Colonies? Everyone that didn’t agree with him were drafted to relocate. The Colonies are no friends of the General. He’ll probably take steps to remove them once he takes power.”
“So, what do we do with this information?”
“Use it against him.”
“How.”
Ginger started talking and Dean stared smiling. It was obvious she had given it a lot of thought.
• • •
Meredith walked on the bridge and said, “We need to talk.” Rory nodded and followed her to the Emergency Medical Ward. She looked at the doctors and said, “Everyone, get out!!” The Doctors and nurses left and Rory said, “What’s going on?”
“We can’t talk about this in the conference room.” Rory nodded. “I’ve received an encrypted message from our scouts and they’ve found the Brax are pretty much decimated and no long an issue.”
Rory nodded, “Go on.”
“They suggest that we tell Thorpe that they intercepted a Brax Message that they have found Earth’s location and are turning their attention there and ignore the Blue Civilization.”
“How would they have found Earth.”
“Stealth Ships, Sir. They followed a scout back to the fleet and then followed one of our ships back to Earth.”
“That would get Thorpe’s attention.”
“We’re going to move the Fleet between the Brax Planets and Earth and keep the fleet there to stop their attack.”
Rory tilted his head, “And just why would we do that?”
“Because it’s outside our communication range. We’ll clean house there before we come back.”
“He might attack the colonies.”
“We’ll tell him they’re closer than Earth and we’ll be resupplying there. I’ll contact the leaders of the Colonies and tell them to start building warships.”
“That could take years, Meredith!”
“No, they’ve been secretly building the facilities to construct them for years and we have enough good Techs to make them better than what we currently have.”
Rory stared at her and said, “You’ve known about this and said nothing?”
“My family was forced to relocate to New Georgia. All of their possessions were confiscated by the government and they left broke. Most of the Colonists were forced to leave and they have ill will toward Earth. We do need to keep this war with the Brax going and that means Kuchen has to go.”
“Killing him will be a red-flag to Thorpe.”
“I’m sure you can come up with something.” Rory stared at Meredith and she said, “Are you in or out, Sir?”
“You’re asking me to turn my back on the planet I’ve sworn to defend.”
“Admiral Nelson took the same oath
.”
Rory sighed and said, “I need some time to think about this.” Rory walked out of the Medical Ward and went to the bridge. Meredith shook her head and expected an execution. She followed him to the bridge and took her chair in front of him with her back turned to him. She waited for the blaster to hit and after an hour she heard, “Lisa.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Send a Red-Priority Message to the Service Leaders that our Scouts have intercepted a Brax transmission. They’ve found Earth’s location and I’m moving the Fleet out between their planets and Earth. I’m sending a Squadron to Earth to assist in its defense commanded by my best Officer.”
Lisa began pressing buttons and Rory said over his communicator, “Kuchen, Logan, and Donovan, report to my conference room immediately!!” Rory looked at Meredith, “Do you have the Scout’s report on that intercepted transmission?”
“I do, Sir.”
“Copy it and bring it with you to the meeting.”
“Yes, Sir!!”
• • •
Thirty-minutes later, Rory played the Scout’s message and looked at his three-admirals, “I’m moving the fleet to the gap between the Brax Planets and the Orion Spur. Admiral Kuchen, you will take command of Admiral Logan’s Squadron and leave immediately for Earth where you will report to General Thorpe and tell him to use your ships to defend the Planet.”
“But Admiral…”
Rory interrupted, “I told the Service Leaders that I was sending a squadron commanded by my best officer. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it!”
Kuchen stared at Rory and finally said, “I believe I could best serve with the fleet.”
“Are you saying the Fleet is more critical than the defense of Earth?!” Kuchen stared at Rory and then shook his head. “You can swap bridge crews. Admiral Logan, you will take command of Admiral Donovan’s Fleet and Dan will take command of the Carriers.”
“Why are you giving me Logan’s Command, Sir.”
Rory looked at Kuchen, “His fleet was the one that fought the Brax at that planet and has the most experience at defeating them. That’s why he’s replacing Donovan and Donovan is moving to the Carriers. You’re being wasted commanding the Carriers. You should have your own fleet of capital ships. Now get moving. We have to stop a major attack.”