by Saxon Andrew
Chapter Eleven
Connor saw Earth growing in the viewport and saw Jim’s ship still in orbit. “DAD!”
“Everything is fine. We managed to lead the scout away from us.”
“I’ve been so afraid.”
“Just take a deep breath and relax. Have you unloaded the ship?”
“I have. I came back here to wait for you.”
“Did you tell Emily what was going on?”
“I had no choice. She demanded to know where you were. She and Michael are on board with me now.”
Emily appeared on the monitor and he could see she was fighting back tears. “It’s alright, Em. We led it away.”
“This universe we live in is just too dangerous!”
“Have Jim take the ship back to the cave and we’ll meet you there as soon as we unload.”
“Dad, should I go and have another load put on board?”
Kam interrupted them, “Yes, you should. This isn’t something we need to reveal. It would cause a massive panic. We need to keep this silent until we can talk with the Admiral.” Connor hesitated and Kam said, “You can join Emily on Jim’s ship while they’re unloading.”
Connor took a breath, looked at his monitor, and saw Emily nod. “I’ll see you on the ground.” He flew the ship down to the landing field and saw Andres getting the forklifts organized. He looked at Stella and shook his head. “I need you to force a smile and act like nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Can you do that?”
“What if I just hold my stomach and tell anyone that asks that I have an upset belly?” Connor smiled and nodded.
Andres came on board and Connor smiled, “Sorry we’re late. The Prophet talked too long.”
“That’s ok. The load of metal is a godsend. Now we can really start building.”
“I’m heading over to the other ship. Stella doesn’t feel well and I’m leaving her with Emily.”
Andres frowned, “I hope you feel better.” Stella held her stomach and nodded. Connor walked quickly to the other ship and Jim ran forward and grabbed Stella, “Are you alright?”
Stella smiled for the first time, “I am now.”
Emily ran to Essay and wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest, “I’ve been so frightened!”
“Everything is ok. We led the Traugh Scout away from Earth. We’re still hidden from them.”
Emily leaned back, “But for how long?”
Essay blew out a breath, “I don’t know. They’re still looking for the Prophet’s ship.”
“What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to discuss that with Jason and the Prophet as soon as the ships are loaded.” Emily kissed Essay and he looked at Jim, “Take my ship to the clearing. I’m staying with Emily.”
“Do you mind if I go with him?” Essay looked at her and tilted his head. Stella smiled and followed Jim off the bridge. He looked up, “Prophet, have you contacted Whitehall?”
“I have. He’s on his way to the clearing now.”
“Good. Do you have any ideas about what we’re going to do?”
“I’m thinking about it. However, everything I’ve come up with isn’t going to be easy.”
“We’ll discuss it when we arrive home.”
“That would be good. You should invite Andres to go with us. I’ll bring him back after we meet.”
Essay nodded and pulled out his cell phone. He dialed Andres’ number and wondered why the Prophet wanted him present. Andres answered and Essay began talking.
• • •
It was Michael who suggested a campfire to hold the meeting. He loved roasting hotdogs over the fire. Emily, Whitehall and Andres listened as the Prophet told them what happened. Essay listened in as he held Michael and helped him hold the hot dog over the fire. Jim and Stella sat on each side of him and watched the adults closely.
Whitehall’s expression clearly showed his concern, “They could be coming again.”
Kam nodded, “They probably will…eventually.”
“What are we going to do about it?”
“We have two choices.”
And they are?”
“We get enough ships out close enough to see them when they leave Traugh Territory.”
“That could lead to a shooting war; are we ready?”
Kam shook his head, “You won’t be ready for a very long time.”
“Why not? You’ve said our new vessels are more powerful.”
“You have no idea of the numbers of warships they have in their fleets. We could take out the scouts easily enough but that would lead them to launch a major fleet to investigate their destruction. If we managed to defeat that fleet, the Traugh Supreme Leader would send a million ships to find the ships that did it.”
“Would they be able to see our ships?”
“They would.”
“What’s the other choice?”
“We send my ship back into their territory.”
“What?”
“That’s why they sent the scouts out ahead of schedule. They’re searching for the ship I stole.” Kam looked at Andres, “How far along are you in getting it ready?”
“Another two months should do it.”
Whitehall looked at Kam, “Are you taking it back?”
“I will if we can’t find pilots to do it.”
“We can find pilots; the list of volunteers is extensive.”
Kam stared at him and paused before saying, “I would like to examine the ones you choose to do it.”
“Why?”
“I need to look at their minds and determine which of them is best to do it.”
“I’ll start looking at the personnel files immediately.”
Connor looked at Jason, “So, you think sending the ship back is the best choice.”
“I do.”
“Won’t the Traugh see the green force field and stardrive and know something’s been changed. Won’t they come out to find where the changes were done?”
“The old force field can be extended outside the new one.” Everyone looked at Andres. “We just have to move the old emitters to the bow and rear of the ship. They’ll extend slightly outside the new force field.”
“And what happens if they’re hit?”
Andres looked at Whitehall, “They’ll be burned off and they’ll see the new color. However, the ship won’t be harmed.”
Kam smiled, “We can only do what we can.”
Emily shrugged, “Ok, now we know what we’re going to do. Everyone grab a wire and start cooking.” Whitehall smiled as she handed him a wire with a hot dog on it.
• • •
Later, after Whitehall left in a helicopter, and Kam took Andres back to the assembly building in Japan, Essay sat at the fire with Emily. Emily sighed and looked up at the stars, “It’s getting late.”
“I want to wait for the Prophet to come back.” Emily nodded and kissed him on the cheek. She stood and walked toward the cave to check on the sleeping children. Essay sat at the fire and put another log on it. He took a stick and stoked the embers. The log caught fire and the light from the fire reflected off the trees at the clearing’s edge. He thought about everything that happened and sighed. An hour later, the Prophet’s ship landed and Essay remained at the fire. A few moments later, Essay saw the lights in the ship go off. He waited and then heard the landing bay door open and the ramp extending to the ground. Kam walked over and sat down at the fire with him. “Do you see what I’ve been thinking about?”
“I do.”
“Care to share your thoughts with me?”
“You wonder why I call myself the Prophet.”
“You had to have a reason.”
“You need look no further than your history. All of your religions have examples of prophets warning about impending doom.”
“Some of them prophesized something else.”
“But the ones you paid the most attention to were the ones that foretold disaster and weren’t he
eded.”
Essay looked at the Alien, “I think there’s more to it than that.”
Kam’s head went back, “Why do you think that?”
“You used it with the Bosrean. I have to believe that peaceful civilization didn’t have prophets warning of doom.”
Kam stared at Essay in silence and after a couple of minutes he smiled, “Touché.”
“So there’s more to it than what you’ve said?”
Kam looked up at the night sky. “My species has been enslaved by the Traugh for nine hundred years. They have been praying for a deliverer for hundreds of years and they call the one that will save them the Prophet.”
“Are you the one they’ve been praying for?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t even believe in the Deity that will send him. If it existed, why would it have allowed so many centuries of suffering? Why would it stand by and allow every member of my family to be killed by the Traugh?”
“So why did you choose to call yourself the Prophet?”
“I wish I could tell you. At the moment when you first spoke to me, it was the only word I could think of that carried any weight. After using it, I was pretty much stuck with it.”
“Well, you chose a name that my species does respect and you arrived preaching doom, death, and enslavement. You managed to touch us in the part of our brain that our survival behaviors are located.”
“Essay, I’m no more than you. I’m just a being trying to make a difference.”
“Why?”
“I swore I would make the Traugh pay for killing my father and sister. They indirectly killed my mother when she decided to quit living when she was forced to send my sister to their community.” Kam looked at Essay, “I’m hoping your species and the Bosrean will make them suffer for what they’ve done.”
Essay looked Kam in the eyes, “Do you think we’ll be able to defeat them?” Kam remained silent and Essay repeated, “Do you?”
“I doubt it.”
“Why?”
“You’re building warships on just this planet. The Traugh are building them on hundreds of planets. The numbers they have to use against you are unimaginable. They can overwhelm you with their superior numbers.”
“Even if our ships are superior to theirs?”
“You’ll be outnumbered more than eight thousand to one if they send in their entire inventory and that assumes you manage to build a hundred thousand warships before they arrive.”
“How long do you have before you die of old age?”
Kam tilted his head, “My species is long lived compared to yours. I have another hundred and thirty or so years before that happens.”
Essay looked into the fire in silence. He sighed, “Do you know how long it takes them to build a warship?”
“I wondered about that myself. I sent a query to my computer and it said that its hull was laid eight months before it was completed.”
“What takes them so long?”
“They’re using slave labor to build them and I’m pretty sure they’re not really motivated to work at their fastest speed. The computer also told me that they build them as they’re needed. They build them as a Traugh collects enough wealth to purchase one.”
Essay looked at Kam, “Have you taken a look at the main computer’s database in Japan?”
“No. Why?”
“I asked for the most current projections on our expected building plans.”
“And?”
“We’re building more than a thousand other manufacturing centers around the planet. Those will be used to assemble the parts that will be shipped to them. More than four thousand plants are also being built to manufacture the major components used to build the ships. The most conservative estimate is that we’ll be completing more than fifty thousand ships the first year after those plants are completed. The following year, it’s estimated more than a hundred thousand will be ready to launch.”
Kam stared at Essay, “You don’t want to wait for them to attack?”
“No I don’t. Would you if you were in my place?”
“Essay, you just don’t know what you’re up against!”
“That’s the first time you didn’t call me Connor.”
Kam smiled, “This is an informal discussion.”
“Why don’t we keep it that way in the future?”
Kam shrugged, “At least I don’t call you the Apostle.”
Essay laughed, “Thank you for that.”
“Why are you in such a hurry to attack them?”
“It’s good strategy.”
“Strategy?”
“Do you know anything about fighting a war?”
“No, I’ve never fired a weapon at anyone. I’m just a hauler driver that was born with a talent to see things technological. It’s that sense that allowed me to steal one of their warships.”
“Think about this; if we wait until they show up, their numbers will be even higher than they are now. One way to prevent that is to start reducing their numbers now and keep building while that is being done. If our ships are really more advanced than theirs, it would be better to attack them at a time and place of our choosing than having to face them here at Earth. We’d have no choice but to put our backs to the wall and that limits our maneuverability.”
Kam thought about it and tilted his head, “You’ll lose ships.”
“But perhaps we can take out more of them than we lose. Our pilots would at least be able to break off a fight and escape. If we wait for them to arrive here, that won’t be an option.”
“Are you suggesting we don’t send my former ship back?”
“No, we need at least two years to be ready to take the fight into their space. Sending your ship back may buy us that much time.” Essay paused, “You know that we won’t be able to attack them at your home world?”
“If you did that, they’d connect your ships to me and send out fleets to find out where your ships are coming from.”
“We also have to change the color of the force field.”
“Why…Oh, the Traugh Scout that chased us saw our green fields.”
“Exactly, and that is where they’ll come to start their search.” Kam looked up and Essay saw he was thinking furiously. “What?”
“Do you remember we flew over the top of the galaxy to come back here after the scout gave up the chase?”
“Yes.”
“What if you have your warships come from above the galaxy from the direction of that other large Spiral Galaxy. It might be possible to make them think our ships are coming from there.”
“How would we do that?”
“Call on them to surrender and tell them that massive fleets from that galaxy will come and destroy them if they don’t?”
“”They’d just send warships above the galaxy and watch for any that are moving toward them.”
“And we’ll just fly outside their scanning range and move toward them from there.”
“They’ll have massive numbers there.”
“Even with all their numbers, they’re a pittance against the space they’d have to patrol. This galaxy is more than a hundred thousand light years across. They’ll realize there is no possible way for them to watch that large a volume of space. They’ll move their ships above their territory. They can cover that.”
“So you agree with this notion?”
“I do. You make sense in what you’re suggesting.”
“By the way, what’s your real name?”
“Kam.”
“Well, I’ll still call you the Prophet in formal settings.”
“You mean when anyone else is listening.”
“Something like that.” Essay extended his hand and Kam shook it. They leaned back and looked up at the night sky. Both of them thought about the danger coming from the stars and fought giving in to their fears. Essay jumped as his cell phone rang. He looked and saw Andres’ number, “Isn’t it late for you to be calling?”
“Yes but I needed your
input now. The planet’s military leaders are pushing me to build a facility for building a different kind of warship.”
Essay’s eyes narrowed and saw Kam was listening to the conversation telepathically, “What kind of ship?”
“You know how much our naval leaders just loved aircraft carriers.”
“Yeah.”
“They want to start building a giant warship that can be used to provision and service our warships.”
“WHAT?”
“They are of the opinion that we can’t wait for the Traugh to come to us; we have to take the war to them. They think a type of carrier would allow them to avoid having to go back and forth to Earth to resupply. It would also give them a place to take a break from the action. At the very least, it will reduce the possibility of one of our ships being followed.”
“Just how big are they talking about?”
“Admiral Whitehall suggests building it nine hundred yards long. He insists that gravity won’t be an issue once it launches.”
Essay looked at Kam, “Is he right?”
“Probably but it won’t be very maneuverable.”
Essay nodded, “What do you think about that, Andres?”
“We’ve learned enough to build it. It might be a monster to attack.”
“How’s that?”
“The initial design I received had more than three hundred reactors powering the beast. They’re also wanting more than five hundred disintegrators defending it.”
Essay looked at Kam and shook his head, “I have no experience with any ship larger than the Traugh Warship I stole.”
“Do you honestly think you can build it, Andres?”
“We can build pretty much anything we choose. It seems India is upset that they didn’t get one of the manufacturing facilities and insist they should be allowed to build it.”
“India does have a population with a high level of education.”
“They told Whitehall that they could have six facilities to build them within a year, once the initial designs and plans are completed.”
“Well, they’re not contributing any ships at the moment. Tell them to have a go at it.”
“I’ll let Whitehall know what you said.”
Essay looked at Kam and saw him staring at him. Kam shook his head, “Your species doesn’t waste much time.”
“There’s not much time to waste. This should prove interesting if we can actually build the monster Andres is describing.” Essay leaned back and looked at Kam, “How are you able to see how technological things work?”