Jimmy's Dreams II: A Recurring Nightmare

by Saxon Andrew

  “The entire time. If you decided not to go, I was going to fly there myself.”

  Jillian grunted as she tightened her belts and Hope said, “I don’t know if you could have done it.”

  “That’s why I’m really thankful you decided to do the right thing.”

  “Right thing?”

  Jillian smiled, “I’m counting on you to protect my baby.”

  Hope turned around and felt her tears start again. Now she understood.

  Jimmy and Summer watched the four Strikers move out of the cave with Hope’s moving slower than the others. “You didn’t have to use Jillian to convince them.”

  “It never hurts to hold a wild-card.”

  Summer sighed, “Have we done everything?”

  “Everything we could think of. Now it’s up to them to make it work.”

  “How long do we have?”

  “Not much. About ten or eleven days, I suspect.”

  “Then you and I will have to make those days last a lifetime.”

  Jimmy smiled, “I think I can make that happen.” They held hands and walked slowly out of the launch cave.

  • • •

  The Mercenary Fleet came out of their stardrives close to the moon and launched their fighters. The Senior Guild Master said, “Scan for enemy warships.”

  “Unit-Eight. Move around the planet and scan for warships. Keep your Fighters close by.”

  “Yes, Guild Master.”

  Twenty-six hours later the Unit returned and the Unit Master said, “I’ve detected no enemy vessels. I had my Fighters move to the surface and scan and they found nothing but some of the local inhabitants living in primitive conditions.”

  “Have them go back and remove them.”

  Jimmy listened and sighed. There was no stopping them this time. All the warships were destroyed or gone.”

  “Move the Fleet closer to the planet and launch all ships to search for any enemy installations on this side of the planet.”

  Jimmy looked at Summer, “Showtime.”

  The White Ships swarmed down on North America, South America, Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe. Everything was peaceful except for the killing of more human communities that had survived the asteroids’ impacts. When they moved down on Europe, White Ships were blown out of the sky at an impossible rate. The Hundreds of thousands of computer-guided Rail-Guns opened fire and knocked them down hundreds of miles out from the Community and Three Cities.

  The attacks took place over ten hours and the Senior Guild Master said, “Move the Fleet into orbit and bring our Fighters on board to feed. Continue until they’ve all eaten.”

  “That could take several days, Guild Master!”

  “I don’t care if it takes forever, we will destroy those ground installations!! We can’t bomb them, they shoot them out of the air before they can get close. This is going to have to be done the hard way.”

  Three days later, another five-hundred-transports arrived. “Why are you here?!”

  “The Supreme Guild Master has been notified of our losses and he sent us to shore up your fleet.”

  “Launch your Fighters and attack the four enemy installations on the surface.”

  • • •

  Jimmy looked at Summer, “It’s time to play our last card.”

  Summer nodded and Jimmy looked at Paul Amadaus, “Those last transports are not moving in. Summer and I are going out to see what we can do about them. Begin the final in an hour from now.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Paul, thanks for staying.”

  “My dead unit would expect me to do it, Sir. I owe it to them.”

  Jimmy nodded and left the control room.

  • • •

  They went to a launch cave and boarded two Pounders. They fired up the drive units and Jimmy pressed a button on his panel. The huge door opened and they flew out just before it quickly closed. They were invisible and it took a lot of effort to work their way through the thousands of attacking White Ships. After forty-five minutes, they arrived in orbit and flew through the middle of the eighteen hundred Mercenary Transports lined up in orbit above Europe. It took another ten-minutes to fly out to the new transports that had just arrived.

  Summer said over her radio, “This will be my first fight.”

  “Enjoy it. It sorta grows on you.”

  “If you say so.”

  “We’ll move around behind them and you move in from the left and I’ll take the right. All of their White Ships are out in front of them anticipating trouble from Earth. We should be fine during our initial attack.”

  “Lead the way, Honey.”

  Jimmy moved around the huge formation and wondered why Urriks liked lines so much. The huge fleet at Earth was lined up in a straight line above the planet and the new transports were in two lines of two-hundred-fifty ships in each.

  He pressed his helmet, “Fifty-seconds, Darling.”

  • • •

  Paul pressed the red button on the satellite panel and entered one-minute. He had contacted the three-cites when Jimmy left and they had set the countdown an hour earlier. Paul sat back and shook his head. Why did the various species from that damnable Guild Civilization ignore satellites? Oh well, they probably won’t in the future.

  • • •

  The dense ring of satellites around Earth’s equator were about three-hundred miles below the Mercenary Fleet in orbit over Europe. The electronic pulse was received and hundreds of satellites began extending three barrels out of their hulls. The Rail-Cannons used on the Strikers and Hitters were not very large, they couldn’t be and fit in the small warships. But they carried a huge punch. The computers in the satellites began designating targets and the barrels began moving.

  Around the three cities, huge cylinders began emerging from the ground as the Rail-Guns opened fire on full automatic sweeping the skies above the three cities.

  “Guild Master.”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m detecting some kind of electronic emissions.”

  “Where are they?”

  “They appear to be coming from that band of satellites below us and on the planet.”

  The Guild Master’s head went back slightly just before a Rail-Projectile blew through the bridge and went through him before exiting the transport. A huge Rail-Cannon projectile hit a second later and the transport split down the middle and started burning.

  • • •

  The giant surface Rail-Cannons opened fire at their maximum rate and a storm of twenty-pound rounds exploded out of their barrels at three times Earth’s escape velocity toward the 1,800 transports in orbit. They fired at a hundred-rounds a minute and more than two-thousand of them had a transporter locked in.

  • • •

  “NOW, SUMMER!!!”

  The two Pounders accelerated forward down the two lines of transports and they began exploding and breaking up like two giant strings of fireworks. Summer held the trigger down as she swept forward down the long line at high-speed. Of the five-hundred-transports, only three managed to activate their stardrives and escape. They stopped at the moon long enough to record what was happening before they fled from this demon system.

  The Eighteen-Hundred Mercenary Transports in orbit appeared to jerk and writhe like injured animals. They exploded, broke apart, or stayed in place with holes being blown through them, faster than imaginable. Many of them started their death falls toward Earth’s surface.

  • • •

  Summer looked at Jimmy holding position next to her Pounder and said, “Will they burn up on entry?”

  Jimmy sighed, “You’re as good as I am at math.”

  Summer thought for a moment and closed her eyes, “They’re too close and not moving fast enough for that to happen.”

  “That’s why this was our last card. They won’t need an asteroid to take out the cities and Community. The transporter’s impacts will devastate everything for hundreds of miles around them.”

  “What
do we do now?”

  “There’s nothing left to defend. Everything and everyone will be gone after they start hitting.”

  They flew back in orbit above Earth and watched the giant transports begin falling out of orbit. Jimmy shook his head and felt immense sorrow. “Do you want to go and join the children?” Summer asked.

  Jimmy sighed, “Summer, this is my home. I’ve given my life for it. To leave it now feels like a sacrilege.”

  “I want to go to Boston, Jimmy.” Jimmy looked at her and turned the Pounder. Summer stayed with him and he surprised her by knowing exactly where she wanted to go. They arrived over the burned-out city and flew in over the ruins of MIT. They landed close to a scorched and burned building that once had beautiful white columns. It was in ruins now and most of the still standing columns were scorched and blackened. They climbed out of their pounders and walked to the broken marble steps in front of it, where they sat down and Summer snuggled under his arm, “It looks like we failed in saving humanity. Maybe we should have just tried to run in the beginning.”

  Jimmy sighed, “In the beginning, we didn’t even have space travel; running wasn’t an option. It’s only been in the last few years that we built enough large jumpers to move to another planet.” Jimmy shook his head, “It was too much against too little. We were up against a Community with six-million civilizations and who knows how many planets. The forces working against us were just…too much. I didn’t even recognize the magnitude of the numbers of ships the Mercenaries had to use against us. But we did the best we could Summer. And though we lost this round, we survived long enough so that humanity is now living on another planet. I pray they come back home someday.”

  Summer snuggled closer and closed her eyes, “This place is where it all started.” Jimmy nodded. “This is where you saw me in your dream. This is where you told me what was coming and I agreed to join your project. This is where I began falling in love with you.”

  Jimmy nodded and smiled as he put his arms around her tighter, “This is where my life really started, Summer. It wasn’t much before you entered it. Loving you was the best decision I’ve ever made. You filled my life with wonder and you taught me how to love. You gave me children that are so incredible.” He took Summer in his arms and kissed her tenderly.

  • • •

  There were millions of White Ships still around the planet and one of them detected the two warships on the surface. It accelerated toward the surface and activated its weapon. Jimmy and Summer heard the sonic-boom but did not break their kiss and pulled each other tighter. The White-Ship opened fire and the building and everything around it for a half-mile went up in a huge blast. It scanned again and flew back into orbit. It ended where it all started and Jimmy and Summer felt their undying love until the last moment.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The Supreme Guild Master was beyond rage. More than half of his transports had been destroyed. He killed the three surviving Transport Commanders and screamed at his apprentice. He would lose no more ships. A week later, his apprentice felt safe enough to ask what was going to happen to his investment if he carried out his plans; The Supreme Guild Master suddenly realized he had made a huge error and sent another transport to stop the four he sent earlier.

  • • •

  The four-transports arrived and scanned the space around Earth. They found what they wanted and activated their magnetic-pushing fields. It was fortunate the asteroid was so close to the planet; it wouldn’t take long to carry out their orders. It was in a stable orbit but they quickly changed that. They pushed the asteroid ahead of them and released it just as the messenger transport arrived, “STOP! THE SUPREMACY HAS ORDERED YOU TO STOP!!”

  The four Transport Commanders turned and watched out of their viewports as they saw the asteroid plunging into the planet’s atmosphere. The compressed air in in front of it ignited and they saw the giant fire-ball blow through to the planet’s surface at an incredible speed. The impact was followed by a gigantic light on the surface. The Messenger saw what happened and knew he had arrived too late. The ten-mile long asteroid was much smaller than either of the ones that had impacted years earlier, but it was traveling at a much higher velocity. Like Suzette said about the Pounders…mass and speed equals energy. The planet died a second time.

  Millions of White Ships watched the horrific impact and then turned and rushed toward the four transports. But they had full complements of fighters. The Supreme Guild Master didn’t give a second thought to saving the stranded Pilots. The transports activated their stardrives and disappeared.

  Eventually, the White Ships were forced to land on the planet to find food. Most of them grew more intelligent before all the plant life died in the ensuing bitter cold. All of them finally died of starvation in the nuclear winter that followed. They had never been forced to learn how to adapt to changing conditions. Most of them died saying, “We’re only pilots.” Some died saying, “Kee!” All of them died in sorrow knowing they had killed her.

  • • •

  The Supreme Guild Master learned that there would be no real estate sold to the Gread for many years to come. The recording of the asteroid’s impact made that a certainty. The waters would be too cold for them and there would be no replacing the funds he had used to purchase the contract. The Guild was close to bankrupt and there were no funds coming in from defense or attack contracts. He was assassinated three-months later by several Junior Guild Masters for his incompetence and a new Supreme Guild Master was elected about the time the first two-civilizations in the Guild Civilization began attacking each other.

  • • •

  The Opat was the first civilization in the Guild Civilization that attacked another member without a contract. They were enraged by the destruction of one of their planets by the Jkel’s Mercenary Contract and they went straight after their capital planet. While they were at it, they launched a fleet against the Mercenary Planet as well but that was a dismal failure and they lost their entire fleet. The Jkel learned of that loss and sent fleets from all their planets to attack the Opat center of government and the war was on.

  A Jkel ally entered the fray followed by two-civilizations supporting the Opat. The war moved out like ripples in a pond and spread like wildfire in a dry forest. The Mercenary Guild no longer had enough forces to do much more than defend their own planet and there was no one left to bring order out of the chaos.

  The civil war swept out of control and trillions died as the weak foundation holding the Guild Civilization together gave way to anarchy. The Law Centers were some of the first casualties and the Lead Enforcer’s vessel he was fleeing in was blown into a cloud of expanding gas. The Mercenaries were only able to build enough new ships to replace the ones lost defending their planet; almost every member of the Guild had grudges against the Mercenaries.

  And still the carnage continued. The ill will between the millions of civilizations turned into a blood-lust and planets burned. There was no reason among those involved, and if there were, no one was listening. Millions of planets were blasted back into a Stone Age existence and still the killing continued…for two-hundred years.

  • • •

  The Supreme Guild Masters watched the Guild’s self-destruction over the years and were thankful for the fighters that prevented their planet’s death. The war had been raging for a hundred-years and the combatants learned that attacking their world was an invitation to die.

  The former Supreme Guild Masters before the current one had taught the attackers that it was suicide to come to his world. Warships had finally stopped coming a few years earlier and he was thankful to be alive. He could now start rebuilding the lost transports and fighters. Then, he could move out and take total control of the situation and force the survivors to his will. There had been numerous reports of pilots disobeying orders but the offenders were removed; can’t have order breakers in the ranks.

  He heard a loud explosion outside his giant room and saw four pilots walk
through the door they had burned from its hinges. They fired hand-blasters at everyone in the huge room disintegrating them into ashes. They walked up to him and one of them said, “This is for Kee,” and all four fired their hand-weapons into him. The huge chair he sat on, along with the back wall, was scorched and the ensuing fire began raging out of control as the thousands of pilots walked away from the building. The slaughter of the Masters planned for that day ended with his death and the pilots became their own masters. They no longer needed a master to tell them how to defend their world. They had begun eating the foods reserved only for masters a year earlier and they were ready for this brave new future facing them. The ship-builders were allowed to live and the number of warships began growing.

  • • •

  At the end, the pitifully few survivors of a once powerful community of civilizations came together and called for an end to the killing. They agreed to live in peace and signed an agreement; but within the first month, two of them attacked each other. The other signees of the agreement went in and exterminated the offenders and dropped multiple asteroids on their planets. After two-hundred years, Death was forced to take a vacation.

  • • •

  Through it all, two-civilizations were never attacked. The Skeer were left alone out of sheer fear. The Gread were never attacked because they never had starships to attack anyone; no one held a grudge against them. They lived in oceans and were just not considered a danger to anyone.

  But the Gread’s overpopulation pressures led to a massive killing. It started simply enough. A family didn’t have enough room for their new hatchlings and moved slightly into the property of the family next to them. A fight began and soon, it exploded into a brawl. The brawl spiraled out of control and became a tsunami. Soon, the entire planet became embroiled in an either kill-or-be-killed frenzy. At the end of it, the population pressures were greatly reduced. The survivors couldn’t understand how things got so out of control but one great scientist among them suggested it was part of their DNA to prevent the total loss of their species. The Gread decided to do everything in their power to limit the size of their families. Peace prevailed but the clock was ticking. The high numbers of their first hatchings stared them in the face and there were no predators left in the oceans to control their numbers.