by Saxon Andrew
• • •
Admiral Hull had been listening in on the conference taking place in M87 and hoped that they had learned their lesson and would be better for their losses. Then she heard the Grillen were invading the Red Sector of M87 and she fell back in her chair. “Oh this is just great!” She shook her head and called in the sociologist. After looking at the situation, he said, “We’re back to being a big target.”
“How certain are you about this?”
“I reviewed the original meeting where the Alliance was founded and they really didn’t seem that enthusiastic about the original agreement and they have not taken part in trading with M87 or us. They’ve not spoken to us since that meeting. Couple that with the Blue Giants being more powerful than any of them and it’s easy to understand their willingness to enter into a non-aggression treaty. I suspect they have waited for a moment to take advantage of the situation. I’m sure they see us as a major stumbling block to their efforts to expand into M87. They will be coming here to exert pressure on us.”
“You mean attack, don’t you?”
“That’s the most efficient pressure that can be used to force someone to your will.”
“When will they come?”
The sociologist furrowed his brow and after a moment said, “The first thing they’ll do is see if conquering the Red Sector is doable. If they determine it is, then they’ll take the necessary steps to ensure they are not interrupted. We have a little time before they come here.”
“Get your team together and see if they have any different ideas from yours. Get back to me as soon as possible.”
“I will, Admiral.”
Kat watched him walk out and shook her head, “Just when things were starting to get settled…” She looked at her board and wondered what should be done. She looked at her terminal, “Contact Captain Arvolo.”
“Sir, Captain Arvolo has activated his rank.”
Kat smiled, “That’s wonderful; he can decide. I’m at a loss on how to handle this. Get him on the channel.”
Chapter Sixteen
Dat looked at his panel and saw forty five minutes remained on the countdown. Suddenly Rayz sat up in his chair and said, “Your species is extremely violent.”
Dat leaned back in his chair and said, “Yes we are; what of it?”
“You admit it?”
“Why would I deny it?”
“The mass killings during ancient Babylon, the brutality of the crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the civil war, the monsters named Hitler and Stalin, the nuclear destruction of the Middle East, the millions of starships destroyed in the last galactic war. The billions killed by that ancestor of yours named Arvolo…”
“Now stop right there!” Rayz stopped mid-sentence. “My ancestor was fighting an enemy that was committed to the destruction of my species.”
“But he killed billions onboard starships and planets that he ordered destroyed.”
Dat looked at Rayz and said, “What’s your point?”
Rayz looked at Dat like he had nine heads, “You can’t be serious you don’t understand my thoughts on this?”
Dat slowly shook his head, “Is death and destruction all you saw?”
“What else was there? And you have the temerity to come and want me to give you my ships.”
Dat shrugged, “Does your ships have weapons?”
Rayz was surprised by the statement, “Well…yes they do.”
“Why?”
Rayz thought for a moment and said, “To defend my planet.”
“Did you defend it?” Rayz just stared at Dat. “A weapon in the hands of one that doesn’t possess the will to use it is no more than an elaborate paperweight.” Rayz continued to stare at Dat. “If you had looked at what happened as a result of those events in my history you would have seen that my species grew stronger and better as a result of them.”
Rayz snapped, “The Crusades.”
“Western and Eastern cultures grew from the contact and science was more accepted in the west.”
“Hitler?”
“We learned to never place that much power in one man again.”
“The nuclear destruction of the Mid East.”
“They are now living together in peace. There is an acceptance of other’s beliefs to be respected.”
“The billions your ancestor killed.”
“The galaxy where that took place found peace for more than a thousand years.”
Rayz expression turned to anger, “Threatening to lead the Masters to that Galaxy.”
“Getting them to see the consequences of attacking others; and while we’re on that subject; what was the outcome of that threat?” Rayz just stared at Dat, “They stopped the civil war and came together to work for their common defense.”
“You would have done it!”
“Absolutely; there are consequences for bad behavior. In your world there are none.”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?”
“What consequences have the Masters faced for killing your people for nearly three thousand years? Left up to you, they will continue to kill them for another million. Even if you don’t give us your ships; we will do what you are incapable of doing. We will fight them until we can free your people. Gresha was right. You’re pretty much useless.”
Rayz stared at Dat and Loree said, “He’s really not that bad, Dat.”
“Oh, really; you usually see things clearer than that, Loree.”
“He is what he was created to be, Dat. It’s like being angry at the man with no legs for not being able to run faster.”
“A man with no legs can’t run at all.” Dat waited for an explanation and suddenly saw what Loree was saying. “I apologize, Loree. You’re right.”
Rayz said, “What do you mean she’s right.”
Dat shook his head and smiled, “If you can only see things in black and white, you’ll never understand red. It’s outside of your ability to perceive, much less have it described to you. Imagine I see only black and white; now describe the color red so I can see it in my mind.”
Rayz stared at Dat and struggled with the request. Nothing he thought of would communicate the color such that it would be understood. He thought about it and said, “You’re saying that I don’t have a reference to understand killing to live.”
The corner of Dat’s mouth turned up, “No you don’t, and thus you will never see it. However, I don’t have the time to take you back at the moment. We’re about to attack ten million of the Masters’ scouts to prevent the spread of their horror. Try to sit back and be quiet. We do understand that relationship and don’t have issues taking action.”
Rayz stared at Dat and said, “Stein, what would you have done in my ancestor’s place?”
“I would have blasted the Masters back into the Stone Age and then beat them with stone hammers.”
“You’re a machine. How could you not see my point of view?”
“If you think about it logically, Rayz, you might put it together this way. Humans built me. They repair me when I break. They feed me information I find very entertaining. You would allow the Masters to remove humans and would thereby cause my eventual death due to lack of service. I think I’ll do what I can to prevent that.”
“You place no value on the lives of the Masters?”
“Of course I do.”
“Really?”
“I suspect it will take about eighty thousand ergs of energy to kill each one of them. That’s a price I think we can afford. You need to ask yourself this question; if you were about to be embraced by a Master, are you happy to feed it so it can continue to kill others? Dat and Gresha are right; you are one messed up puppy.”
“I kinda like him.”
“Loree, you like everybody.”
“That’s not true, Stein. I saw his mind; he’s really not that bad.”
“If you say so; I think he needs to go back to the fields and watch the people he was selected to one day lead to freedom continue to die under h
is care. His title may be Caretaker but he doesn’t deserve it.”
“I’m the caretaker of the ships.”
“That is your biggest misconception.”
Dat said, “You need to sit down and strap in.”
Rayz looked at Dat and saw the countdown was at thirty seconds. He went to his chair and buckled in. He knew he was right but was having difficulty saying the others were wrong. The countdown hit zero and he watched killing on a scale that was beyond his imagination.
• • •
The nine million Rovers instantly appeared within the ranks of the Black Scouts moving in thousands of different directions. They emerged and fired their Dark Matter Beams into one scout each and just as suddenly disappeared. In less than a second, nine million scouts were exploding or burning in their tight ranks. The attack happened so fast that not one of the scouts managed to get off a shot at their attackers. The only Rover lost was one that collided with his target which had suddenly moved out of ranks. The Explosion from the collision killed two ships that weren’t targeted. Of the ten million scouts, less than a million remained.
Rayz watched the destruction and was shocked silent. It knew there were ten Masters on every scout. Ninety million of the Black Creatures were killed in the attack and it was over in an instant.
Dat sat in his command chair and watched as thirty million heavy battleships jumped in to the site of the battle. Rayz stared at the giant ships on Dat’s display and heard Dat say, “Each one of those scouts could have scouted a galaxy for invasion. The Black Monsters would spread throughout the universe and would one day show up at my home. What we did today will slow them down.” Dat paused, “How many intelligent beings die every day in your galaxy, Rayz?”
“I really don’t know.”
Stein said, “My estimate is based on what our probes have sent us. They kill more than twenty million innocent beings a day.”
Dat said, “That is where you should be looking to see what you allowed to happen.”
“What do you mean, I allowed it?”
“Could your ships have stopped this?” Rayz said nothing. “They do the killing but you are responsible for it continuing.”
“Dat!”
“Yes Stein.”
“Admiral Hull has sent a Prime Alert. The Red Sector in M87 is being invaded by the Grillen in massive numbers. She wants to know your orders.”
Dat rolled his eyes, “She can’t be serious.”
“She is and we’re starting to get recordings of their aggression.”
“Get her on the line.”
Kat appeared on his display and he said, “I am deactivating my rank. I’m not in a position to track everything happening and make good decisions as well as command our ships. You need to handle the major decision making, Admiral.”
“You can’t just pick and choose when you are going to take command, Arvolo. You need to make a decision.”
Dat shook his head, “You’re right. I’ll take a star away and leave you in overall command. I’ll command our fleet actions. What’s happening?”
“It appears that seven million ships from the Grillen Galaxy have invaded the Red Sector and more are arriving each minute. The Civilizations in M87 had demanded that they leave but were told to go pound sand or the Grillen would do it for them.”
“Perhaps we…”
Kat interrupted, “Wait, there’s more you should know. My main social scientist says that the Grillen will be coming to attack us once they determine if the civilizations in M87 can stand up to them.”
“I’d do the same if I were in their place. The Red Sector will be easily conquered. They don’t have any warships to defend themselves.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Well, we’ve slowed the Masters down with the destruction of their scouts. We have some time to try and stem this tide. I’ll skip my three fleets over to the Red Sector and see if I can’t get them to listen to reason.”
“I think that would lead them to attack us sooner. We are no longer an active member in the Galactic Alliance. They have to fight their own fights.”
“The Red Sector can’t defend itself, Admiral.”
“Is it the Alliance’s responsibility to come and defend the Moet if they were attacked here?” Dat stared at Kat saying nothing. “We still have those monsters to handle and though they don’t have scouts, they do have warships. I imagine they will institute a search to find us.”
“Admiral, I don’t like this.”
“You’re a warrior, Arvolo. You solve issues with a warship. So far the Grillen have not bombarded a planet. They’re landing and taking control of the populations.”
“That’s only because we’ve not allowed the Red Sector to arm itself. We can’t turn our backs on something we’ve caused.”
“If the monsters weren’t an issue, I’d agree. We also have to decide how we want to handle the Grillen when they come to attack us.”
“Perhaps we shouldn’t wait.”
“What do you mean?”
“We know where their major planets are located. Get the fleet fired up and jump a million ships to the forty most important worlds in their civilization. Skip them in, look them in the face, and skip out.”
“What do you think that will accomplish?”
Dat shook his head, “It’s easy to be aggressive when there aren’t any consequences to your actions. I suspect this might get their attention.”
“They’ll probably fire on us.”
“Let them. We need to see where they are technologically.”
Kat thought a moment and said, “I’ll get the fleet organized and give each unit two planets to visit. Eighty should cover the bulk of their Royalty. Stand by and I’ll send you your assignments.”
• • •
Fifty million ships floated in space facing off against an equal number of Grillen ships. The Alliance Commander said, “We’ve asked you nicely. Now we’re telling you that you will leave or we will attack your ships.”
Suddenly another thirty million Grillen warships jumped in.
“Go right ahead. You should stay out of things that aren’t your business.”
“You’ve just invaded our galaxy; how is that not our business?”
“We owe the Red Sector for its invasion. We intend to pay them for their actions.”
“They’ve already paid for their actions. Your galaxy took part in making them disarm. You have no right to place them in double jeopardy.”
“Do what you must. We’ll kill you and then take your worlds after this sector.”
The Alliance Commander knew he was outnumbered but the newly formed Alliance just couldn’t get enough ships organized quickly enough to support his fleet. He reached for his communicator to order an attack and the huge Grillen Fleet disappeared. He stared at his display, “Where did they go?”
“The scanners we put in place shows them jumping back to their galaxy.”
“Do we know why?”
“No, we don’t.”
“Well notify the Administrator and get the rest of our ships organized. We need to use this time to get ready.” The Commander looked at his display and wondered what had spooked the Grillen.
• • •
Arvolo watched the forty fleets skip away ten seconds apart. Admiral Hull had set it up so that by having a million ships skip into each of their planets in sequence, it might convince the Grillen that they had eighty fleets instead of forty. He arrived at the Grillen’s main planet where the King and his family resided. The million Rovers emerged into normal space ten thousand miles from the planet and caught the defenses flatfooted. They were too far out to be hit by the orbital satellites and the Grillen warships were scattered around the planet. None of them were willing to jump in against the Human’s ships alone. It took them time to jump into position between the human fleet and their planet. By the time they were ready to move out, the million white ships disappeared. Eighty planets were visited by the Rover Fleets and
the screams from the other members of the Royalty were loud and long. The ships in M87 were recalled to defend the Kingdom.
“HOW DID THEY GET IN SO CLOSE TO THE PLANET!!!”
The Admiral looked at the King and knew he was in deep trouble, “They were not detected coming in, Your Majesty.”
“I thought you said the Humans were no problem!”
The Admiral squirmed and said “We didn’t have their numbers as high as they are. We can overwhelm them if they only had half that number of ships.”
“Did you include the ships in the Alliance in that equation?”
“No, Your Majesty. We are planning to attack the Humans with our main fleet before we start really moving in on the Red Sector.”
“Did you stop and think that they know where our planets are; that they know where I am!!” The Admiral could only lower his head. The King yelled, “Shoot this idiot and get me someone with more than mush for brains. Contact the Alliance and tell them we’re calling off the invasion.”
The Queen looked at him and said, “You’re backing off invading?”
“For the moment; we’ll look at it again if we can do it without endangering the Royal Family.”
“You know they won’t be willing to leave their planets to hide until the invasion is over.”
“We’ll see what we can do.”
“Are you willing to leave your home?”
The King looked around at the hundreds of servants and staff whose job was to make his life as pleasant as possible and said, “We should have thought this through. Get me an Admiral that has some sense.”
• • •
Dat sat back in his command chair and saw the Grillen Fleets being sent out to defend their main planets. Rayz watched and said nothing. Dat looked at him and said, “I’m dropping you off with someone you might like.”
“Who is that?”
“The one that builds our weapons; you and he are a lot alike.”
“I doubt that.”
“Stein set a course for the colonies.”
“I’ve sent a message to Belwen’s computer that you’re dropping him off.”
“Thanks, Loree.”
Rayz stared at Dat wondering at how he could be so brutal one moment and soft another. He could have destroyed those planets but chose not to do it. He had to be missing something.