by Saxon Andrew
He walked through the main communications center and Averel thought, “Michael.” He stopped and looked at her. “Admiral Greenwall has requested you contact her about the maneuver schedule.”
“Don’t you have the schedule, Averel?”
“I offered to send it but she insisted she would have some questions that only you could answer.”
“Have Audrey send it to her and answer any questions she might have.” Averel started laughing and Michael shook his head. “Averel.”
Averel straightened up and said, “Yes, First Commander.”
“Until further notice, you will do all you can to prevent my having to communicate directly with Admiral Greenwall. I am holding you responsible for making that happen. Do you understand?”
“She can’t be that bad, Michael?”
“Do you understand!?”
“I will do my absolute best, Sir, but she is absolutely the most diabolical human I’ve ever met at getting her way.”
“If she gets through you…”
“I know, I know.”
Michael turned and walked toward his office. Admiral Katy Greenwall! She had decided during the second year of their Advanced Studies that Michael was going to be hers and telling her no only made her more determined. She threatened and intimidated all the other girls in his class into avoiding any contact with him. He was shy at that age and thought they resented him because of who his father was. He learned to live with it. It took Audrey to tell him what was going on.
Audrey was several classes behind him but she was telepathic and had no problem listening to the thoughts of those around her. She was the most obstinate of Chris’ children about respecting other people’s privacy. She finally got the message when Josh started repeating out loud what she was thinking where everyone around her could hear. She was furious and Josh finally managed to get her to see that what she was doing was no different. However, she told Michael what Katy was doing. He broke a long-standing principle and listened to her one day. He confronted her and told her what he thought about her and told her she would never…ever…hold his interest.
He shook his head. If she had just been nice, she might have gotten him to notice her. She was really beautiful and had a steel-trap mind. Her scores rivaled his and she didn’t have the benefit of telepathy. But she was remorseless. He remembered her telling him that he would change his mind. He knew a human would fly like the Green Birds before that happened. She prevented him from having a relationship with a girl before he graduated and went to the Fleet Academy. Now he really wanted to thank her. He didn’t have the time, or the inclination, to be involved in a relationship; he had too much to do. But thanking her would lead to requests to allow her to come visit and he grew weary of dreaming up reasons why she couldn’t. One time he had told her that he no desire to be around her. She replied that if he would he’d want to do it more. He wasn’t looking at her thoughts but could actually see her winking in his mind. He broke the connection. Now, he would see if she could get through Averel.
He walked in his office and set the box down. He saw the light on his desk unit illuminate and he glanced at the identity of the caller and saw it was Admiral Greenwall. “AVEREL!!!”
“SHE BYPASSED MY PANEL AND WENT THROUGH PERSONNEL!”
Michael shook his head. After a moment, he thought, “Audrey.”
“Yeah, Michael.”
“One of your Admirals is going around the chain-of-command and calling me directly.”
“Katy at it again?”
“I don’t want to shut out all the others just to stop her. She reports to you, can you do anything?”
“Maybe you should give her a chance.”
“Maybe you should kiss an eel!”
Audrey laughed out loud. “I’ll call her in to my office and make it clear that she hasn’t learned proper protocol. I’ll tell her that all of her inquires will go through my desk first and that if she contacts one of my superiors without going through me, it had better be because I’m not available and someone is about to die.”
“Do you think that will do it?”
“She is ingenious.”
“Give it a shot. Let me know if you have any problems.”
“I’ve about had my fill of her. I should have battered her ears in when we were in school.”
“She’s pretty good in hand-to-hand.”
“Does she have our father’s reflexes?”
“No, but she will resort to dirty tactics.”
Audrey smiled, “I wrote the book on that. Besides, in her case, I will look at her mind.”
“If it comes to that, kick her…”
“Be nice.”
“Thanks, Sis.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Michael didn’t receive any more calls from Katy. She wondered how Audrey did it. He found out when Averel sent him a thought recording of the personal one-on-one hand-to-hand training Audrey ordered Katy to go through to ensure she was up to fleet standards. He watched the recording and winced several times. Now he understood.
• • •
“Hengel, it’s good to see you. Are you here to relieve me?”
“I am.”
“Congratulations on your union. Was the time off fun?”
“You better believe it. I’ve struck it lucky with my mate. How are things going here?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary.”
Hengel looked at the distant speck of light and furrowed his brow, “Why are you so far out from the planet?”
“If I moved any closer their ships would start moving toward me.”
“Have they improved their detection of the barrier this much in my absence?”
“If we move in five miles, they’ll start moving toward us.”
Hengel shook his head, focused on the Legends’ Planet, and then turned his attention to the monster ship being built. He listened closely and shouted, “They’re already installed the bulk of the reactors!!”
“But…how! I’ve not heard any orders to start the installation!”
“Jeeren, focus on workers complaining about working too hard.”
“They all complain.”
“Look for the ones complaining about having to work in heavy suits!”
Jeeren focused and a moment later said, “You’re right. There’s only ten reactors left to install. How did I miss this!?”
Hengel thought, “AVEREL!! THE GIANT SHIP HAS MOST OF ITS REACTORS INSTALLED!!”
“WHAT!?”
“Jeeren missed it. Notify Michael immediately. If he doesn’t take it out quickly, it will be fully operational in six days!”
• • •
The klaxons were blaring at full blast in fleet operations as Michael ran into the building, “Averel, where are we?”
“All of the wings that have been practicing for the assault are being assembled as we speak. The six Heavies are being armed with their rounds and should be ready to go within four hours.”
“What about the Sentinels?” Michael focused and thought, “Pat!”
“I’ve contacted nine of my brothers and they are being taken there on Silver Ships. Piper is coming to pick me up and we’ll be ready to go before the Heavies are loaded.”
“Thanks Pat. Averel, how did we miss this?”
“It’s not Jeeren’s fault, Commander. He did everything by the book but the Legend did not issue any orders to install the reactors. The builders just followed a blue print without being issued orders.”
“Then how did we find out about this?”
Averel sighed mentally, “Hengel showed up to relieve him and none of us are as good as he is at seeing things. He ignored the Legend and focused on the ones building that ship. He listened for complaints about having to work in heavy, bulky radiation suits. He found them and learned they’re going to complete the installation in six days. The ship will then be fully operational.”
“Hengel will not be scouting anymore!”
“But Command
er! He didn’t make this mistake.”
“He will come here and teach scouts how to do what he does! We can’t depend on him to do it all. He has to teach others what he knows.”
“Did you say come here?”
“I did.”
“Oh, by all means he should be made a teacher.”
“Averel, are you being selfish?”
“I already miss him. Having him here will be a dream come true.”
“Who’s in command of the assault ships?”
“Audrey has selected the top pilots from her fleets to participate. Laney will be in direct command of the assault.”
“Then I know they’ll be up to the task. I’m skipping out to take a look at what’s going on.”
“I’ll notify Admiral Stone of your departure.”
“Have she and Laney contact me when everyone is ready to go.”
“Yes Sir.”
• • •
Michael took the elevator to the top of the building and saw Angelo hovering three feet of the landing pad. He sprinted into the open port and it slammed shut behind him. He ran to the bridge and went to the command chair, “Get us to that planet!” The Two hundred yard long Battle Pod shot off the top of the building and moved through the atmosphere at slightly less than the speed of sound. It went into the barrier while still in the atmosphere and the sound of air rushing into the place it disappeared from caused a massive thunderclap. Michael looked at the monitor and saw the Virgo Cluster pass in an instant. In another twenty seconds, the glowing ship slowed and stopped half a million miles from the Legends’ Planet where the monster ship was being built. “Show me what you’ve got, Angelo.”
An image of the planet appeared on the tactical monitor and it was still too far away to see details…but…it was easy to see the millions of Black ships around the planet even from that distance. “Do you have the status of the assault force?”
“The ships are completing their formations now. We still have a few hours before the Heavies are armed.”
“Michael!”
“Yes Luke.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at the Legends’ Planet.”
“Alone?”
“The others will arrive in a few hours.”
“I can’t order you to do anything now but I am going to insist that you assign a bodyguard to your ship before any other attack. I’m asking you to do this because I love you.” Michael sighed. “Your father didn’t want one either but you know accepting one turned out to be one of the best things he did. Please do this for me.”
“I’ll talk with you about it when I get back.”
“But…”
“I’m not saying no. I just want to discuss it, ok?”
“Plan to see me as quick as you get back.”
“Luke, there’ll be some things I have to do after the smoke clears on this operation but I promise I’ll meet with you before I go out again.”
“That’s good enough.”
“Commander.”
“Fleet Admiral, are your warships ready to launch?”
“They are. The Heavies are having their cannons loaded and will be ready to go shortly.”
“Audrey, we have got to develop a faster way to get them ready!”
“The only safe place to do it is out in open space beyond the Solar System. Those rounds are temperamental and it’s a slow process getting them into the barrels.”
“I know, but if we intend to use them, we need to have them ready.”
“Perhaps we should just assign he ships to the munitions center and keep some of them loaded. We can always skip the crews in.”
Michael thought about it and sighed, “Then we’d have to leave a heavy guard to prevent them being taken by an invader. Have we not developed another round that would do the trick?”
“Not yet. There’s also something I’ve just been told by Hengel that causes me some concern.”
“What is that?”
“He’s heard some of the Black Ship commanders talking about the portable force field that’s been placed around that ship. He’s of the opinion that if one of the heavy rounds doesn’t penetrate the force field, the ship may not be harmed because of the blast the heavy round will cause around it.”
Michael didn’t like hearing that. “That means the heavies will have to have a clear shot at it.”
“It does.”
“So six groups with one heavy in each group will attack the ship?”
“Yes Sir.”
“I really hope that Legend sends the bulk of its fleets out to the Sentinels.”
“I agree. Otherwise, we’ll have to fight our way in close.”
“Does Laney know about the force field?”
“She does and she’ll be informing the assault fleets that they must get a clear shot in from at least one of the heavies.”
“If they fire and the round hits a Black Ship…”
“The blast from it will prevent the other rounds from making it to the ship.”
“We shouldn’t have waited. They didn’t have that force field earlier.”
“It is what it is, Commander. We have a good team going in.”
“I hope you’re right.”
• • •
“Sir, the six assault fleets along with their heavies are skipping in and will be waiting in the barrier for the Sentinels to make an appearance.”
Michael thought, “Pat, the fleets will be here in a minute. Are you ready?”
“Piper is in contact with Admiral Blaine and will wait on her to tell us when to go.”
“Thanks, Pat. Put on a good show.”
“We’ll make a face at him.”
“If you had a tongue I’d tell you to stick it out at him.”
“Oh, I think we can get his attention.”
“I imagine you can!”
• • •
Michael looked at his tactical monitor and said, “Angelo, I want to hear any orders issued by the Elder.”
“I’ll send them to you. I’ll skip in closer once the attack begins so you will have a better view of what happens.”
“That would be good.”
“Laney has just sent the order to the Sentinels, they’re on their way in.”
Michael listened and discovered he didn’t need Angelo to send the thoughts; he could hear them. The ten Silver Ships came out of the barrier on the opposite side of the planet from the giant black warship and the Sentinels moved out of them. Pat yelled, “Hey, are you planning a party for my arrival!”
The other Sentinels added their thoughts and he heard the Legend Elder scream, “ALL FLEETS MEET THOSE BEINGS AND FIRE ON THEM!!”
Angelo skipped in closer but stayed in the barrier. Michael saw millions of Black Ships move toward the Sentinels’ location at their fastest speed. He ignored them and stayed focused on the giant black ship in orbit above the planet. Most of the ships around it flashed away but the inner wall stayed in place. He shook his head. Those ships must have been given standing orders to go nowhere without a direct order from the Elder and he was too frightened to issue any orders except to go and kill the Sentinels. They stayed in place. The Battle Pods were going to have to fight their way through their ranks. The explosions started immediately.
Michael had seen everything in his father’s mind during the battles that raged in the Virgo Cluster and the Local Group. He saw the first invasion in Chris’s memory along with the destruction of all human life on Earth. He actually saw the videos of the battles his father participated in and he never lost one. The attack on the Goran scared his father in a way that he would never forget. The destruction of the Legends’ Planet in M-87 was actually anti-climactic to that attack. He saw what his father saw and during his years in the Fleet Academy, he pulled the files and recordings of all the fleet actions and knew most of them from memory. Luke was right about one thing, he was a warrior at heart and he always tried to find a better way to have fought those initial battles.
> But now, he could only standby and watch the Alliance Forces move in and attack. There wasn’t going to be anything subtle about it. The use of the Sentinels was the one subterfuge and it failed to get all the fleets surrounding the Elder’s vessel to leave it undefended. He tried to follow the action around the giant ship but the swarming fleets of ships were impossible to follow. One thing he knew for certain, if the giant ship wasn’t destroyed quickly, it probably wouldn’t be destroyed at all. The ships that went out after the Sentinels would arrive and find them gone. They would immediately return to defend the huge warship. He knew the six fleets would attack simultaneously from six different directions. Four would move in from the four sides of the giant while the other two would come in from above and below. So far, the heavies had not fired their massive rounds.
• • •
Watching a space battle from a distance was simultaneously beautiful and agonizing. The brilliant explosions as warships died was beautiful, if you could divorce yourself from the loss of life each blast represented. In a battle this large, it looked like the finale of a giant fireworks show that never seemed to end. The brilliant reds, blues, whites, and yellows produced by the various systems used by a warship when it died were incredible to see. The flashes around the giant Legend vessel were too numerous to count.
Suddenly, the Alliance Battle Pods disappeared an instant before a giant explosion erupted above the planet. The blast was one of the largest he had ever seen, if not the largest. None of those he remembered studying in the Academy matched the gigantic flash. The blast ripped into the Black Ships still around the giant vessel, blew through the planet’s atmosphere, and hit the surface. The Fleet’s attack was successful; the giant black vessel was vaporized by the heavy’s round. He yelled, “Get us out of here!!” He saw some of the Black Ships that had gone out after the Sentinels were fleeing from the shockwave the giant explosion created and were moving in his direction. He was out of the Legends’ galaxy in an instant and headed back to Earth.