However, the data-files shown to him by Jenson, and his subsequent meeting with Polesy, had changed all that. The artifacts the head of Masorak had shown him had been convincing; the information fed directly into his mind in the crypt, more so. It had taken a while, but eventually Hillmead was convinced of the need to carry out Polesy’s radical plan.
As he watched the mutant fighters work on the military equipment, he also saw work gangs checking the seals to the huge steel doors. When the time came, those doors would have to withstand a maelstrom the likes of which had never been seen before. It was imperative they stood the strain. The consequences of the doors failing weren’t even worth thinking about.
Shalok come up beside him on the gantry and put her arm around him, giving his lean muscular torso a quick squeeze. She saw the look of his gaze and said, ‘Don’t worry, those doors will hold. These underground bases of the mutants are superbly engineered. They could withstand anything but a direct atomic hit.’
Hillmead turned and looked at the young Dyason woman who’d been such a part of his recent adventures. ‘I know that, it’s not really us I’m worried about. It’s the millions of other people across the world who concern me. When the time comes, anybody left out on the surface will be vaporised,’ he told her.
‘We’ve already discussed this,’ she replied with a sigh. ‘The civil defence programme is moving ahead as fast as possible. Masorak estimates that between seventy and eighty-five percent of the population will have a place in underground shelters. As to the rest well…’
‘I know, I know,’ he said shrugging in resignation. ‘If we don’t go ahead with the operation, either everyone will die from asphyxia in a few months' time when the biosphere finally collapses; or the Starweb will exterminate them all. The plan is our only hope for survival. However, I’m still condemning between fifteen and thirty percent of the population to their deaths!’
‘You're wrong,’ Shalok told him firmly. ‘You’re not condemning anyone. Those people would be dead soon anyway, regardless of your actions. By agreeing to Polesy’s plan what you’re really doing is saving millions, not killing them.’
Hillmead gave her a tired smile, ‘Thanks Shalok dearest. As ever, you give the problem a positive aspect. What would I do without you?’
‘You’d still be a gutter cop in Caranak,’ she told him bluntly, returning his smile. ‘Now you’re needed in the communications room, so let’s go before you become too morose!’
Hillmead looked once more at the preparations being made in the caverns below, then followed his young lover.
Jenson gratefully took the helmet off his environment suit and scratched the side of his nose. He sighed with relief, he’d been wanting to do something about the irritating itch for most of the three-hour combat training mission. He quickly took the rest of his flying kit off and took a welcome hot shower.
As he stood, letting the stream of hot water soak away the day's aches and pains, Jenson thought about the training flight. All in all, he decided it had gone very well. The less experienced Masorak Snubfighter pilots were learning quickly and Excalibur’s Flyship pilots were honing their skills once more, as well as learning to operate with their new allies.
Inevitably, there’d been a lot of initial friction as the two opposing sides met for the first time. There’d been a rash of bar-fights between Dyason and Terran pilots and groundcrew. Jenson had met with his Masorak counterpart, a thickset Dyason by the name of Ereed, to discuss the problem at the beginning of the combined training sessions, a few weeks ago. After an in-depth discussion involving copious amounts of Dyason liquor, the two veteran pilots decided to leave the opposing squadrons to sort themselves out. Once a few of them had been on combat training suffering from bruised ribs and bloody noses, they’d soon realise that bar-brawling was a bad idea. Happily, their scheme worked; pilots and groundcrew were soon swapping flying stories instead of fists.
It helped that none of the Masorak squadrons had been involved in the recent battle between Excalibur’s Flyships and the last of the Imperial squadrons. Polesy had carefully kept Masorak out of that particular battle, for which Jenson was very grateful.
The secret service had been secretly hoarding troops, material and equipment at their moon-base for years. As the Imperial navy was running itself into the ground, Masorak was steadily building up its forces almost entirely without the knowledge of the military junta. Using his position of power, Polesy had authorised the construction of the secret moon-base and equipped it with the latest technology. He’d recruited the very best Dyason military personnel and scientists, making them all swear an allegiance, not to the Emperor but to Masorak itself. It had been an incredible achievement, particularly in light of the fact that Nimue had such a stranglehold over the Imperial government.
Polesy’s plan had been very simple, foreseeing the collapse of the planet’s biosphere and the Empire, he had essentially created a self-sustaining colony on the moon of Silago. As he saw it, when the inevitable happened, Masorak would have both Dominator and the moon-base, from where they could work to rebuild their shattered world. The arrival of Excalibur, and then Valvia, had changed his original plan, but only in detail. If Starweb were defeated it would still be left to Polesy and Masorak to pick up the pieces on Dyason.
It had come as quite a shock to Hillmead, when he’d learned that it had been Polesy, who had ensured the ex-gutter cop hadn’t received a bullet in the head when he’d been investigating dissent in the Imperial forces. Apparently, Masorak were forced to cover their tracks several times, when Hillmead and Shalok came a little too near the truth. The pair were, until Jenson told them, blissfully unaware of the trail of Imperial assassins Masorak had left in their wake. Fortunately, Nimue had unwittingly muddied the water so much with her own bizarre politics, the real purpose to the secret service had remained hidden.
The result was that Masorak had a fully operational moon-base capable of defending itself, as well as launching squadrons of fighters. There were seven squadrons of X34 Snubfighters based there, complete with spare airframes and equipment. When the Starweb finally began its assault, Jenson had no doubt these squadrons would be crucial to the outcome of the battle.
Finally, when he’d washed the last of the flying grime away, the Terran pilot donned a fresh, one-piece deck uniform and headed for the debriefing room. He was intercepted by an equally, freshly showered Sandpiper and the bear-like Ereed.
‘Boss, you’d better take a look at this,’ his friend and wingman said, handing him a comm-pad.
Jenson looked at the screen of the tablet, hit the ‘acknowledge’ button and read the message; ‘Briefing for all pilots, marines and crew on-board Excalibur tomorrow at 0700 hrs,’ he repeated then looked up at the others. ‘It looks like this is it! We can expect company any day now!’
Ereed grinned from ear to ear and gave the Terran a hearty slap on the back. ‘Not before time, don’t you think Group Captain? My pilots are chafing at the bit. There’s only so much training you can do before going mad! But now, it will be the real thing!’
‘Yeah, if you say so,’ Jenson muttered a cautious reply. Ereed was a superb pilot, leader and veteran of the Earth wars, but there could be no doubt he was an enthusiastic warmonger. He reminded Jenson of a mythical Viking, hoping to die in battle so he could go to Valhalla.
‘Well let’s get in there, finish the debrief and give them the good news,’ Sandpiper suggested. ‘We don’t want them to learn about this from the whispering grapevine.’
‘Hah! Good thinking Han!’ Ereed roared and strode off in the direction of the debrief room. Sandpiper and Jenson groaned in unison, then followed in the Dyason’s trail.
Daal read the deciphered manuscript once more. There could be no doubt about it, the Starweb was quite clear about the size, nature, and time of dispatch, of their invasion fleet. Well, the allies would at least be prepared. It could be an advantage just sufficient, to sway the odds in their favour.
The d
iscovery of the Starweb communication transmissions in the sub-ether came as both a surprise and a revelation to the Heligsion telepaths. As soon as the nature of the web was known, they’d been grappling with the problem of how the multitude of sentient computers, calling themselves the Guardians, could communicate instantly with each other. Normal radio or microwave communication was obviously out of the question; the distances between the planets of the Starweb were simply too great for that.
It wasn’t until Colmarrie and Josh Brabazon returned in Dominator with the news of how they’d jammed the Starweb’s communications, that the solution was revealed. Once they knew where to look, the Heligsion telepaths had no trouble finding the alien waveform in the multi-dimensional sub-ether.
Somewhat to their surprise, the communication links were easy to tap into. The Starweb was communicating in basic binary code, which the computers of Dominator, Excalibur and Valvia had no trouble deciphering. There had been some concern the Starweb was purposely transmitting in a simple binary code to feed them false information, but after careful consultation with the three starship AI computers, it was decided this wasn’t the case. Up until this point, Starweb had been terminating humanoid societies who had neither the telepathic, or physical technology, of the three races the Web now faced. The Guardians of God had no experience of subterfuge; to be blunt they didn’t know how to play dirty, which was exactly what the Dyason Polesy’s plan was—very dirty.
The information the allies had since gained from monitoring the mass of Starweb communications could only be described as invaluable. The mysterious enemy which had invaded their home-world was now a known, and at least half-understood, entity.
Daal took the manuscript and went in search of the seer Dauphne. As expected, he found her on the garden deck, sitting on a log in the centre of a meadow of yellow grass. She was carefully watching the child rescued from the diabolical growth tanks, playing with a female aquiline, an animal not dissimilar to the Terran tiger. At first Daal had been alarmed to see the little girl play with the beast, but the seer had carefully explained to him that the aquiline was in fact, a holographic representation of Valvia’s own sentient computer.
Dauphne had explained how the child’s trauma had been eased by Excalibur’s computer, posing as another little girl on the voyage back to Dyason. Apparently, the effect of having her DNA nearly changed by the Starweb’s hideous machine, left a strange desire in the child to seek out other computers. Although the little girl never physically left the intensive care bay, Dauphne saw the close holographic relationship with the sentient starship as therapy. Daal had to admit to himself that the child did indeed, seem to benefit from such encounters, and so did Dauphne. In fact, it was difficult to know who benefited most from the time spent playing on the garden deck—the little girl or the seer.
He sat down on the log next to the priestess and waited patiently for her to acknowledge his presence. After several minutes' silence, during which time they both watched the little girl ride around the meadow on the back of the holographic beast, the seer thought to him, ‘We have to give the child a name Daal. I’ve been thinking long and hard about this. Tell me, do you think Aquiline is a suitable name?’
Daal thought about this for a moment then replied, ‘She does seem to have a close empathy with the animal of that name, so yes, I think she does deserve such a title.’
‘Good,’ Dauphne thought in a manner which suggested an important decision had been made. ‘Then that is what we shall call her. Now, what is it you wish to discuss with me?’
Daal handed her the transcript of the latest intercepted Starweb messages. The seer read them all carefully, frowning in concentration before commenting, ‘Well my friend, the moment of time we feared most, is upon us! We have sacrificed everything to reach this point. Henceforth, the future is uncharted and uncertain. As we foresaw, the individuals and the events are in place. The rest is now in the hands of the gods. Are you prepared?’
‘We are as prepared as we shall ever be high priestess,’ he replied. ‘We shall support the Terrans and the Dyason to the very best of our abilities, but as you so rightly pointed out; the future is now in the hands of the gods. Only time will tell if our species will prevail.’
Dauphne sighed mentally, then informally thought at him, ‘I just hope all the sacrifice has been worth it Daal. So many deaths—virtually our entire race—just to bring this event to focus! And then, to have to bring the best people our civilisation has to offer in contact with these other—savages!’
Daal reached out and took the seer's hand in his. ‘I understand your feelings Dauphne,’ he told her, ‘but I think you do the Terrans and Dyason an injustice. Both races are violent, I agree. However, they need to be—that is the purpose to their existence. If we are to have any chance of success against the unholy Starweb, the knights must be as strong, willful and wily as possible! You have said as much yourself in the past. Besides, what choice did any of us have? The future up to this point has always been preordained.’
Dauphne returned the affectionate squeeze of the captain’s hand, then stood up. ‘I know Daal,’ she replied. ‘Of course you’re right. It simply grieves me terribly, to think of all the lives that are about to be lost. I just wish there was another way. Just because we have seen that these things will happen, does not mean we have to like them. What we do and what we have become, horrifies me.’
‘If there had been another route, an alternative to this present, you would have found it seer,’ the captain stated. ‘As there isn’t, we must prepare for what must be done.’
The seer began to walk along the meadow path away from the playing child and beast. ‘Indeed, let us make our preparations,’ she agreed, making for the distant deck exit. Daal followed the priestess while behind them, the girl and the holographic Aquiline paused in their play and watched the retreating seer in silent interest.
Moss stood on the podium in the large auditorium on-board Excalibur and surveyed his audience. It was the first time he’d addressed such a large audience and his stomach was knotted tight with nerves. He’d tried to get out of the job, saying he was too inexperienced to be put in charge of the briefing, but Jenson was having none of it. He’d told Moss bluntly that everyone, Terrans, Dyason and Heligsion alike, saw him as their warrior leader. They expected to be briefed by him, so that’s exactly what he would do. Moss decided he would prefer to face a horde of crustaceans.
The auditorium was filled with men and women from all three races. The most numerous, naturally, were the Dyason. Polesy’s Masorak pilots and marines would make up the greatest numbers during the operation. The Snubfighters would operate from their moon-base, while other members of Masorak would help the Heligsion operate Valvia. Gun emplacements had been rapidly added to both Dominator and Valvia, bringing their firepower up to a similar level as that of Excalibur. The seer Dauphne had complained bitterly of the weaponry added to her starship, but the captain—Daal, had managed to convince her in the end.
The Heligsion sat in a group together to one side of the auditorium, away from the Terrans and Dyason, who now mixed freely. None of the Heligsion had ever seen combat before and each one sat with a pale, fearful expression. The contrast between them and the veteran crews of Masorak and Excalibur was painfully obvious. It wasn’t that the Terrans or Dyason weren’t scared about the forthcoming battle, it was simply a case of experience keeping fear under control. Moss was worried that when it mattered, the Heligsion crew of Valvia wouldn’t have the nerve to do what was necessary. However, only time would tell.
‘Good morning ladies and gentlemen,’ he began in the well-modulated voice he’d practiced in front of Jennifer, in the privacy of their quarters. ‘I’m sure by now you all know the reason you’re here.’
A projection of the relevant Starweb communication was displayed on the main viewer behind him. ‘As you can see, the constant monitoring of the Starweb transmissions has finally paid dividends,’ Moss told his audience. ‘We’ve
known for some weeks now, that the Starweb has been putting an invasion fleet together. In fact, ever since Dominator returned with a sub-ether transmitter attached to its hull, we’ve been expecting an attack at some time.
‘We now know that Starweb has assembled its fleet and is preparing to set sail. According to their transmissions, the fleet will enter artificially created wormholes in thirty-one hour's time. The time for transit has been calculated to be three hours and twelve minutes. That means we can expect the Starweb fleet to appear in this system in just over thirty-four hours.’
Moss scanned the audience, judging their reaction. There was a murmuring which he let die down, before continuing, ‘The details of operation “Lure” will be given to you by the relevant commanders in due course. At this stage, I just want to give you an overview of the plan orchestrated by Marshal Polesy, head of Masorak.’
The vast holographic viewer which took up the whole of the rear wall of the auditorium, projected a simplified image of the planet Dyason, the two moons and the three starships, Excalibur, Dominator and Valvia.
‘You’ll have all read the briefing notes by now, so you should understand the basics of the strategy,’ Moss continued. ‘The plan is to engage their capital ships first, with fighters, and then Dominator, Excalibur and Valvia. Our intelligence sources suggest that as this happens, a sizable invasion force will detach from the Starweb fleet and land at several locations on Dyason itself.’
Moss picked up a laser pointer from the podium and pointed to several areas on Dyason. Then he nodded toward Hillmead and Polesy who were seated to one side of the stage.
‘Ground forces led by General Hillmead in the south and General Kivisk in the north, will engage the invasion forces,’ the young Terran leader told his audience. ‘It is vital that we contain the fleet and invasion force while our operants attune themselves to the Web’s sub-ether transmissions. Once they’re ready, the operants will jam these transmissions, essentially cutting the fleet off from their Starweb overseers.
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