Dozens of support vessels accompanied the chrysalis trying to absorb as much fire as possible before turning back to avoid destruction. Disruptor and torpedo fire devastated the tight formation from every angle with limited effect. Even when the shielding of the outer ships failed, their hulls continued to withstand one explosion after another. Once the outer ships were destroyed, the debris field kept pace with the cluster to help protect an inner ship.
The inner ship, Bellum thought. He did not see any shuttles leave the transport ship before departure. “Is there a crew on board the inner transport ship?” Bellum asked.
“Yes, a skeleton crew of volunteers,” the Chancellor answered without taking his eyes away from the viewscreen.
The cold-hearted words landed on Bellum like a fusion torpedo. “Wait. You can’t do this. Skeleton crew or not, they will be plunging into the Alpha without a Nexus device within range. Our soldiers will be killed. Your son, Chancellor, he died outside of Nexus range. You, of all people must, understand that you cannot do this,” Bellum protested.
“They volunteered for this duty,” the admiral fired back in a tone that invited no further comment, but Bellum could not remain silent.
“They may have, but their families didn’t,” Bellum shouted on the way to his feet to continue his protest. “Chancellor, your son died in combat and you as a father never recovered from it. Think of what you’re doing to their families.”
Chancellor Malum whipped his head around and leveled an incinerating stare at his challenger, “How dare you? You know nothing of what you speak. My son was sent away from the Nexus to die without knowing what was happening. Those brave officers out there know exactly what they are doing and are proud to make this sacrifice for the greater good of the Novi Republic.”
“But…,” Bellum managed to get out as Chancellor Malum stormed across the bridge toward him. If Bellum did not know any better he would have sworn a psychotic rage fueled the Chancellor’s every step as he drew near.
All of a sudden Bellum felt the back of his head crash into the nearest bulkhead, bringing with it a disorienting field of sparks and stars to his vision. He attempted to draw a mind clearing breath, but his lungs could find no such relief through a throat that had Chancellor Malum’s hands wrapped around it intent on squeezing the life out of him. Mere moments before losing consciousness, Bellum felt his body get flung to the floor. The relief of finally breathing once more made the pain of dislocating his shoulder on impact almost imperceptible as Bellum looked up at his attacker.
“Just like your mate. Cowards like you are nothing but a disgrace,” the Chancellor declared while standing over Bellum. He then shifted his enraged stare to the security guards posted alongside the lift doors. “You two, take him to the brig where all cowards and traitors belong. I have a war to win.”
As the security detail got Bellum back to his feet, his vision cleared. He looked at the main viewscreen in time to see the battered cluster of broken ships sink deeper and deeper into the Alpha line. He knew at any moment that a tremendous blast would erupt, but that moment seemed unwilling to make an appearance.
“What are they waiting for?” another crewman asked the open air. “They are passing beyond their ships and battle stations. Was the crew all killed before they could detonate?”
Moments later Bellum watched the interior transport ship speed away from the surrounding debris after clearing the Alpha blockade, and he felt an overwhelming sense of dread take hold. “They aren’t targeting the Alpha defenses, they’re going after Alpha itself: the planet.”
Hundreds of Alpha ships took off from the planet’s surface and passed the transport as it burned a fiery trail through the atmosphere. A mile above the surface the transport suddenly crushed in on itself like a crumpled ball of metal and left behind a black hole that sucked in everything its gravity well touched.
The entire planet: oceans, mountains and cities, turned in on itself and vanished from existence within a few seconds. Not content with eating a planet with billions of life forms, the inner portion of the Alpha orbital defenses were pulled in and crushed as well. Alpha combat craft teamed up five to one with the settlement ships that left the planet’s surface in time, but the Novi fleet did its duty. When it was over, fewer than twenty Alpha settlement ships managed to make their escape from the decimated remnants of their home world.
Raptured silence suffocated the bridge as everyone stared out into open space where the thriving planet Alpha once existed. No words could do the moment justice. They had witnessed the end of the Alpha war, but at what cost?
“What have we become?” Bellum shouted as he struggled to break free from the two security officers attempting to contain him. “We could have contained them. We could have forced a peace on our terms. You didn’t have to end their existence. What have we become?”
“The victors,” Chancellor Malum declared without a moment’s hesitation. “Every member of this fleet had a hand in this victory except you, you rebellious traitor.”
“Consider it my highest honor,” Bellum fired back before the security detail forced him aboard a waiting lift carriage. His military career was over, but at least he could look at Pacis or himself in a mirror without shame.
Chapter 16: Where the Truth Lies
“They initiated a black hole to consume the Alpha home world?” Tonwen asked in horror, but only received silent nods laced with shame from Pacis and Bellum.
“The tiny black hole remains there even now,” Pacis said. “It stands as a permanent blight on the honor of every Novi.”
Bellum shook his head to the contrary. “Many see it as a monument to our greatest victory. They draw strength and inspiration from its existence.”
“Unevolved barbarians,” Pacis snarled.
“How long ago did this happen?” Tonwen asked.
“About a hundred years after your fleet disappeared,” Bellum answered while his spouse got her anger under control once more.
“The Alpha are now extinct then?”
“Not quite,” Pacis amended. “Their surviving ships scattered throughout the galaxy.”
“Mostly to the outer rim systems,” Bellum added. “Every couple of hundred years our hunters stumble across one of their fledgling colonies and put it to the torch.”
“Hunters?” Tonwen asked.
“There are those who see it as their sacred duty to eradicate the Alpha completely from the galaxy and remove any possibility of them coming back.
“I witnessed something similar on Earth,” Tonwen instructed. “Rome, an empire that ruled most of the known world, suffered through three successive wars with another civilization named Carthage.”
“Rome won the first war and chose to show leniency rather than crush Carthage under foot. The second war saw a great Carthaginian general named Hannibal raise an army and terrorize Romans on their own soil for almost a generation.”
“In the end the Romans gained the upper hand,” Tonwen went on. “They took the capital city of Carthage and this time showed no mercy. Every Carthaginian ship was set ablaze in the bay in front of the city. The Romans then went house to house and sold every living being they found into slavery in faraway lands. Next, they razed the city to the ground leaving only ruins and rubble. Their final act was to plow salt into the soil to make sure nothing would ever grow there again. They left no possibility that Carthage would ever rise and oppose mighty Rome ever again.”
“Committing appalling acts of barbarism in order to avoid future conflicts and bloodshed has a certain…nobility to it I suppose,” Tonwen concluded.
“There is nothing remotely noble in the slaughter of innocent civilians,” Bellum challenged while holding a conversational tone. “Soldiers who die in battle had the opportunity to fight for their lives. Wiping out women, children, and the elderly is just plain wrong on every level.”
“Children grow up to be soldiers. Women go on to work in factories when the men go off to war. In one way or another, ev
ery member of a society contributes to a war effort; there are no true innocents,” one of the guards countered.
Bellum looked on the verge of throwing something, but Pacis jumped in before any leafy vegetables could take flight. “We,” she said gesturing to herself and her husband, “disagree with that opinion and have chosen this life for ourselves instead. I chose a life free from the stress and responsibility of trying to help guide the moral direction of our people. Bellum refused to follow a leadership whose orders he deemed to be amoral. Instead he opted to be a chef beholden to nothing but the culinary needs of his customers.”
“In truth, choice had very little to do with me joining Pacis in the galley. Following my outburst during the battle, I was blacklisted not only from the military or government, but from any meaningful occupation. The Chancellor made it his mission in life, a couple hundred lifetimes in fact, to ruin me at every turn. Through the millennia he has made a very powerful example out of me for the rest of his detractors to observe. Funny thing is, I’m more satisfied with this humble existence than I ever was serving in the fleet officers corps.”
“Do you not miss it even a little bit?” Tonwen asked of Bellum as the ship’s cook reached across the table to hold his spouse’s hand.
“Do I miss seeing my wife for only a few weeks every couple of years? Do I miss arguing over politics incessantly on those rare occasions we were together? No, not really.”
“What about you?” Tonwen asked of Pacis. “You were one of the leading figures in the traditionalist movement railing against the ‘Hard War’ tactics the council employed following the Fifth Fleet’s disappearance. You must have had millions of people hanging on your every word; you mattered back then.”
“I still matter today,” Pacis countered while feigning to take offense at the statement. “I feed a crew of a thousand Novi officers four times a day. This crew, this ship would not function for very long without Bellum or me. We matter more now than I ever did howling in the council chamber every time another planet was indiscriminately eradicated of all living things in the name of crushing the Alpha’s ability to wage war.”
“I accomplished nothing back then,” she went on. “I couldn’t even argue well enough to keep my career military husband from carrying out the council’s unconscionable, scorched planet orders.”
“I’m here now aren’t I?” Bellum answered with a playful wink to defuse the growing tension.
“Yes you are,” Pacis said while pinching Bellum’s cheek like a grandmother might with her favorite grandchild.
“Now then, I believe a change of subject is in order,” Bellum said once Pacis had released her grip on his cheek. “These humans on the planet below, I presume this is what their bodies look like.”
It was a direct enough question, but there was something about the way she asked that made Tonwen feel there was more to it. The intense, analyzing stares from Pacis and Bellum made the feeling unmistakable as he answered, “More or less.”
“They certainly are quite large and strong,” she observed.
“Hairy as all get out too,” Bellum added. “Not unlike the Alpha I’d go so far to say.”
“I think that’ll do for your lunch break,” the guard on Tonwen’s left declared. “It’s time for us to get back to the briefing room. Come now, on your feet. These two can handle cleaning up.”
“If you insist,” Tonwen sighed. “My compliments to the chef,” Tonwen said with a tip of his head toward his hosts as he stood up.
“Any time,” Pacis said as Tonwen ducked out the galley door.
Chapter 17: Turn Around Point
Tonwen stepped into the hallway outside the galley with his mind racing to process what he just experienced in the galley. Neither Bellum nor Pacis agreed with the council’s ‘harsh’ wartime actions, at least not since the annihilation of the Alpha’s home world. That much was clear.
Her pointing out the similarity about the human and Alpha physiques both being intimidating to the Novi was no idle conversation topic. Were they implying the Novi intended to deal with humans in the same manner they did with the Alpha, complete annihilation? The questionable conversation combined with the unsettling direction that the debriefing had been taking made Tonwen’s decision easy. He needed to spend more time alone with the two cooks.
Ten steps down the hall Tonwen snapped his fingers as if coming to a sudden realization. “That’s what I forgot,” he declared and executed an abrupt turn and headed back to the galley.
“Wait, what do you think you’re doing? The briefing room is this way, down the hall,” one of the guards shouted. The other was more forceful about the matter and tried to grab hold of Tonwen’s arm.
“I forgot something in there, I’ll only be a moment,” Tonwen called back while giving the guard’s reaching grasp the slip. Before either of his pursuers could do anything about it, Tonwen had already ducked back into the galley with the door closing behind him. Once inside, Tonwen darted to the left and followed Pacis on her way into the kitchen area.
“Back so soon? I knew that portion size wouldn’t be enough to hold you over for long,” she said while facing Tonwen to open the two-way swinging door leading into the kitchen with her backside. She glanced around Tonwen and cocked her head slightly to let him know his escorts were now in the room as well.
“Come on, let’s see if we can get you a snack to go,” Pacis said for effect as the kitchen door closed behind them. Once inside she moved behind the door and gestured for Tonwen to move around to the opposite side of the central table near a vertical planting pot sporting an impressive array of fruit.
A second later, the two guards entered the room and spotted their target picking a bright green, teardrop shaped piece of fruit. One stood guard by the door with his hand resting on the wave blaster holstered on his right hip. The other moved toward Tonwen insisting, “Drop that tasteless piece of mush right now. You’re coming with us and that’s all there is to it.”
Tonwen pretended he did not hear a thing until the guard made the mistake of stepping within his reach. One half-powered jab to the Novi’s jaw dropped him like an empty sack to the floor. The other guard was quick on the draw, but not quick enough.
Pacis had grabbed a hard plastic mixing bowl and used it to whack him over the head mid-draw. A moment later Bellum pressed his way through the door with Tonwen’s dirty dishes in hand to find two unconscious security guards in his kitchen. He looked in his wife’s direction with an amused smirk, and she responded by stating, “He said my gamja fruits were mushy.”
Bellum looked across the room at Tonwen and then back at Pacis. “Everyone’s a food critic I suppose. What now?”
“Now the two of you tell me what is going on here without the cryptography.” Tonwen answered. “Are the Novi planning to wipe out this planet once the Nexus device is retrieved?”
Bellum glanced at the downed guards once more and must have decided that he had come this far already, he might as well finish what he started. “We’re not sure exactly since neither of us got a good look, but we both have our suspicions.”
“That’s right,” Pacis agreed. “Before coming here the ship stopped off at a star base for supplies. While I oversaw the delivery of fresh produce and seeds for the hydroponics bay, I saw the munitions team handling some containers that had all of them plenty nervous.”
“Now I don’t know about you, but my experience with command taught me that when munitions specialists get nervous, everyone needs to be nervous,” Bellum added.
Tonwen bought himself a few moments to think as he dragged both guards into a corner that was out of view from the door in case anyone came in looking for a snack. “Assuming it is some sort of weapon designed to eradicate the planet below, why would the Novi use it? These humans are not a threat.”
“Things are very different now compared to the times you knew,” Pacis explained. “Ever since Chancellor Malum and his war hawk supporters took control of the council they have chipped aw
ay at every moral ideal we used to hold dear as Novi. Now the once noble mission of the fleet, to explore the galaxy, has been replaced with a directive to suppress any other civilizations. If they think a world has even the slightest potential of being able to challenge the Republic, either in the near or distant future, that civilization is eliminated.”
“We’ve seen it before,” Bellum went on. “Preemptive strikes without provocation or justification happen with alarming frequency. All in the name of preserving the peace for the Novi Republic, such that it is.”
“How could this happen, the Republic is a democracy?” Tonwen asked. “If the majority does not agree with the leadership’s actions, then they are voted out in favor of those who will perform the will of the majority.”
“Not when the media is so thoroughly manipulated by those in power. If any publication speaks ill of the policies, they end up shunned and excluded from any meaningful stories or interviews. Any public figure who does not toe the line of ‘it’s good for the fleet’ gets branded as unpatriotic and is systematically shut out.”
“How can I find out what is inside those munitions containers?” Tonwen asked.
“The weapons hold is on deck thirteen. You can reach it using the elevator shaft at the end of the hall,” Pacis suggested.
“Um, no I cannot. Look at me, I think they just might notice me if I walk into a secured weapons storage area. Do you not?”
Bellum gave the matter some thought and concluded, “Your strength and size is the only way any of us has to get into that weapons hold and verify the contents. No one down there is expecting a break in, least of all from a fast moving giant. There will be at most five guards inside the hold. Subdue them and you’ll have enough time to verify the contents.”
“I will never make it out of there without being recaptured,” Tonwen countered.
Origins: A Greater Good Page 10