Colossus

by John Ricks

  Ken walked up to the two and asked, “Is this ensign causing you problems, Dr. Anderson?”

  The ensign’s eyes widened, and when he heard that the civilian he was yelling at was the Dr. Freddy Anderson, he nearly fainted.

  Freddy reached up and touched the ensign on the head, while saying disappointedly, “I get that a lot.”

  The ensign straightened up and stood at attention.

  “Report to my quarters at 1900 hours tonight, Ensign,” Ken said. “What’s this all about, Freddy?”

  “I’m trying to take these new PAADs to medical so that I can store them away properly and give some training on them. I’m expected. That person”—he pointed to the ensign—“thinks that I don’t have clearance to be aboard my ship! I was just about to teleport myself around him or teleport him off my ship. I hadn’t made up my mind which to do.”

  “Well, Ensign?” Ken asked.

  “I’m the medical person who was supposed to give escort to the inventor and builder of the AD and PAADs. I didn’t realize this child could possibly be him.”

  “Where have you been for the last few years? Freddy’s been plastered all over the news. Still is.”

  “In college and working through internship. I don’t even own a television, Admiral, sir.”

  Freddy said, “He’s telling the truth, but what he’s not saying is that he thought I was just a kid who snuck on and would not even give me the chance to explain. When I said I was Freddy, he laughed at me.”

  Ken raised his eyes and said, “Interesting.” He bent down and straightened Freddy’s collar. It was all tucked in. “Freddy, it would help if your collar wasn’t turned under. The ensign could not see what rank you hold. Ensign, I want you to bring your medical officer with you when you report to my office. Let me escort you personally, Freddy. I wanted to check out the medical facilities again anyway. You can follow if you want, Ensign. In fact, I’d suggest it.”

  Freddy wasn’t smiling; he looked worried. Ken remembered what the captain of home base had said during introductions: “Freddy does not like to see anyone harmed in any way.” Ken leaned down and said, “Don’t worry. I won’t do anything bad. I’ll just give him enough to remember that he should be a little bit more courteous.”

  “Thanks, sir.”

  “You’re welcome, Freddy.”

  Ken dropped Freddy off in medical and continued on his rounds. While he was in the passageways leading to one of the crew quarters, a chief came running up. “Call from the president, sir.”

  “I’ll take it in my cabin, Chief.”

  “It’s urgent, sir.”

  “Bring it up on the nearest screen, Chief.”

  Only a hundred feet away was one of the flat panels that Freddy imported from a company in Austin, Texas. The president was on screen by the time Ken reached it.

  “Yes, Madam President?”

  “Admiral, when can you depart?”

  “As soon as you need.”

  “Leave now. Congress is trying to keep half the fleet back to protect Earth.”

  “That would be a mistake, ma’am.”

  “You and I both know it. Leave!” The screen went blank.

  Ken then told his clear dot to put him in contact with the operations officer.

  “On line, sir.”

  “Good. Prepare to get under way.”

  “Yes, sir. Are you headed to the bridge?”

  “Not yet. Tell the executive officer that she has the bridge until I return. I’m headed to medical to personally escort Freddy off this ship. If we inadvertently end up taking him with us, we’re all up for court-martial. Knowing Freddy, he’ll try to come along. Get all personnel onboard. We’re taking off in ten minutes.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Dot, contact Captain Susan James.”

  “This is Shop, Admiral. Captain James sends her best. She’s on her way to the forward gangplank. She knows what you’re doing, and she’ll ensure Freddy is taken care of.”

  “Good.” Ken was turning the corner to the medical facility when Freddy came out.

  Looking at Ken, he said with a slight pout, “The ship’s engines are on, Admiral. Everyone just became very busy. You’re leaving, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, Freddy. You need to depart the ship before Captain James gets mad at me.”

  “Yes, I know,” He sounded a little upset. “She’s coming up the plank now. I think she’d shoot this ship down before she let me go anywhere. Very disappointing.”

  “I think you’re right.”

  We were already headed toward the forward quarterdeck, traveling down the transport tube. We stepped off at the correct connection and were shot toward the port side at nearly eighty miles an hour. Only seconds later, we were at the forward port quarterdeck, and there was Captain James.

  Freddy said, “Hi, Mother,” and gave her a big hug. “I finished those PAADs and gave then to medical.”

  “That’s great, sweetheart. I’m sure they’ll be very helpful. We have to leave now. You need to help the admiral get the carrier out of the hangar.”

  “That’s set on automatic, and you know it. You just want me off my ship.” Freddy turned around and said to Ken, “You take care of my ship, Admiral. I want her back in one piece.” Then he smiled and, raising a hand, said, “Shields up.”

  Ken raised his right hand and repeated, “Shields up.” As he watched Freddy and the captain walking off, he couldn’t help but think, He doesn’t even know that he’s changed the way people say good-bye all over the world.

  Gray was pacing back and forth with his head down. Worried, he said, “They have a genius admiral.”

  Blue said, “We attacked quickly and decisively. They were taken completely by surprise. We did not find these admirals, nor did we find this ship, the Insight, or the Hero. They are either dead by our hands or by the Sycloyeds. There is nothing to worry about.”

  Gray said, “As you wish, sire. But you do not mind if I do my job, do you?” He called another Gray to him. “Warn the fleet that we have evidence that the Earth force we attacked may not have been their main fleet. Tell them I said to make haste to our main fleet and double those reinforcements.” The other Gray left.

  Blue said, “That is expensive and not necessary.”

  Big Yellows said, “You keep the civilians happy, Blue. Let Gray protect the empire. Green, continue.”

  Chapter 9

  Battle

  The ship was secured with a full complement onboard, and reports of readiness were coming in from each department by the time Admiral Ken Lasen reached the bridge.

  “Admiral on the bridge!”

  Everyone snapped to attention, except the critical areas.

  The admiral said, “Continue, XO. Take her out.”

  The ESI was three miles long and nearly three-quarters of a mile wide. Even as big as she was, she took up only about half the building area in Freddy’s home. The screens came up, and Ken could clearly see her rising off the floor of the shop. Teleporting out of the shop went smoothly. There wasn’t even the sound of stressed metal. Everything felt solid.

  The ESI took to space with no problems, only sixty-three hours after war was declared. She took three hours in space to ensure that she worked perfectly and then shipped out at warp eleven toward the Menseain home world.

  True to his word, Admiral Penn left ten ships stationed around Earth. All were the bulky shuttle types, and it was hoped to be enough firepower and shielding power to protect Earth.

  The fleet showed up outside the Menseain solar system. The carrier ESI showed up only minutes behind them. Admiral Penn transferred his flag to the ESI, and the battle started—although it wasn’t really a battle. The fleet walked right through them like they were made of paper. The smallest fighters could take out the Sycloyeds’ ships so easily and quickly that there wa
s no chance for them to flee. The only problem was the base ships. They had thousands of little fighters, and though they could hardly harm Earth’s ships by themselves, they could gang up on one of the smaller ones and cause damage. This was the tactic that the Sycloyed fleet used. When a squadron of fighters flew in, all firepower from the Sycloyeds would concentrate on the lead ship. Admiral Penn saw this immediately and ordered all squadrons to include one “drop ship.” The drop-ship fighter was a three-man unit that Freddy designed for landing troops. He made the drop ships with extra shielding so that they could drop straight down through the atmosphere at full speed and right into the middle of battle with their cargo still intact. When the Sycloyeds attacked the drop ship, it just sat there, as the rest of the fighters picked off the Sycloyed fighters. With all the dogs fighting, it took a long time to wipe them out. The admiral stationed ships to shield the planet from falling debris. The entire war, a war that the Menseains had been fighting for over one hundred years, was over in just eighteen hours twenty-three minutes.

  When the fighting at the Menseain home world was over, Admiral Penn called down to the planet and asked the Menseains if the one called Bubble Maker was there. It seemed that “Bubble Maker” was a very common name, and it took some explaining to get the correct Bubble Maker. They found him in a hospital-type of water facility, trying to help the Menseains that were injured.

  The screen came on, and Bubble Maker was swimming there with what appeared to be several top-ranking officials. There clearly was great fear among them. Looking sad, he said, “I am the one called Bubble Maker. My most sincere apologies, but I do not have the authority to surrender to you.” Admiral Penn’s face showed no emotion to this unexpected possibility.

  “Bubble Maker, I am Admiral Penn, fleet admiral of the Earth fleet.”

  Bubble Maker perked up. “Earth? My Earth?”

  Admiral Penn did smile at this. “If you mean the Earth that you and your kind have protected for thousands of years, then yes.” Then he asked Bubble Maker, “Are you the one that sent for help from Dr. Anderson?”

  His eyes widened. “Friend Anderson? Yes, I did. Silent Swimmer, my brother—is he still alive?”

  “Silent Swimmer and his ship are out here, protected by my shielding. They are safe and can return home at any time. The Sycloyeds’ fleet has been removed from your system. Freddy sends his greetings. He has sent us here to end this killing of his friends. It is my job to destroy the Sycloyeds so that there is no chance of another attack. Are they attacking any other planets?”

  “Yes. We have five major systems that they are systemically destroying. Can you help us?”

  “Yes. We have the coordinates of all your systems. We will be back when we’ve removed the Sycloyeds from them.” He raised a hand and said, “Friends.”

  Bubble Maker raised his hand and wing and said, “Great friends.”

  The admiral gave orders, and the fleet dispersed into ten separate groups. Each group sent reports home. Most the world sat glued to their chairs as they watched the fleet tear through the rest of the enemy. The fleet left no Sycloyeds alive. They scoured over two hundred planets, and every one that the Sycloyeds were on became empty when the fleet started their approach. The queens were quick to abandon the planets and flee. That set them up as perfect targets. Only a couple of planets were left occupied. The admiral sent back the ESI for ground troops that the generals gladly supplied. Shuttles were stationed to those planets to help resupply the troops.

  Gray said, “It does not sound like they were losing that war. This is not good.”

  Yellows asked, “How many of their ships did we destroy?”

  Gray said, “Twenty-three. Why?”

  Green said, “Counting small fighters, they had over 250 ships. And the Protectress was one of the outdated types.”

  Gray said, “The shields on the Protectress were stronger than anything we have ever encountered. It took the combined power of four base ships to take her out. Yet I would bet this ES Insight has better shields. This is a great worry.” Gray left.

  Blue looked at Big Yellows and asked, “Did we destroy their fleet or not? Because of the weapons on their planet, we could not attack Earth. Mars was wide open, and we took a lot of creatures from there. They are very mad. If their fleet is still out there, we could be in dark trouble.”

  Big Yellows said, “We put most of those people back. We were after this one. We only know this much thanks to Green’s probing. We took out twenty-three ships, but they have hundreds. We need more information.”

  Blue said, “Two of our fleets are across the galaxy, fighting in other wars. Our home is protected by the third fleet only. Most of the first fleet was destroyed in the conflict with Earth, and now we find out that we were not fighting their fleet!”

  Big Yellows said, “Our intelligence about this world called Earth has been limited by their scanners. They were finding us, and our spies had to flee. After the attack on the mother ship, no information has come out of this sector. We were working on old information.”

  Blue said, “That old information may have just gotten us killed. Let’s hope we can find a way out of this situation. Continue, Green.”

  Green added a tentacle and started the probing again.

  I continued what I was doing. I had kept all controls reading the same and bypassed this tank. It was now a matter of time and rest and hoping their backup did not kick in.

  Gray walked back in, and he looked happy.

  Chapter 10

  Heroes

  On the screens above my head, I watched as reports from other humans were being watched by the gray alien. Meanwhile, Green continued to probe me, and I gave him just enough to keep them interested.

  “Base one, this is Lieutenant Tomius of the supply shuttle Lion’s Pride. Come in, base one.”

  “Lion’s Pride, this is base one. Sergeant Keal, here. Use standard vectors and come down on this frequency. It’s good to hear from you. How’s the fleet doing?”

  “Reports are that we’ve lost only one ship so far, but there are many banged up, and the death toll is mounting.”

  “How’d we lose the ship, Lieutenant?”

  “The ship was taken out by another species. Reports say we came to close to a planet that, unknown to us, was protecting itself from anything and everything. When one of our fighters closed in, a beam shot out from the planet and cut it in half. The foolish pilot did not have his shields up.”

  “Heck, Lieutenant, even we know better than that. We may have other hostiles out there, then?”

  “Definitely, Sergeant, but I don’t think these were hostiles.”

  “Why not?”

  “Apparently, we stationed two small ships in that system to watch, but because of the planetary defenses, the fighters had to station themselves in less-than-optimum positions. Several days later, eight Sycloyed ships flew into the system. The two Earth ships destroyed them quickly and then resumed positions. The world below must have seen the conflict, as they sent an apology for destroying our fighter and invited our ships to position themselves better. They made promises that they would not attack again. The fighters reported that down on the planet, they could see hundreds of signs of celebration. An admiral was sent aboard the ES Champion to initiate talks.”

  “That’s great. You realize how many intelligent life-forms we’ve encountered so far? Just think; two years ago I would have bet you everything that we were the only intelligent life-form in the universe. And now we’ve encountered seventeen different species.”

  “Make that twenty-three to date.”

  There was an appreciative whistle over the comms. “Twenty-three. How many planets have been found that we can colonize?”

  “Right now? Hard to say. Some planets are up for debate as to whether the life-forms on them are intelligent, and six planets are far too deadly. There is scuttlebutt that
one planet has far too many predators that think we humans make a good snack.”

  There was laughter over the link.

  “One planet has an unstable system. Great planet, but each year it circles closer to its sun. Last I heard, there are 146 confirmed planets that none of the others species are claiming. Of those, eight are ideal for colonization, and two are close to Earth.”

  “Close to Earth?”

  “Well, close enough using Dr. Anderson’s ships. Why? You volunteering to be one of the first colonists? I thought they taught you better than that in boot camp.”

  The sergeant laughed, “Sure. I’d love to, what with the world getting more and more crowded and resources becoming scarce. You bet I would. I come from a long line of farmers. I’d love to start farming on a planet that helps wipe out world hunger.”

  “Great—sign up for the planet they’re calling Oreo.”

  “Oreo?”

  “Sure. The bugs confiscated it and replanted. Never had to drop a single bomb, as they evacuated immediately. The planet is almost exactly like Earth, and it’s all farmland and forest. They say it’s a paradise. Some wanted to call it Eden.”

  “Why did they call it Oreo?”

  “Weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying a lot. Even the planetologists are baffled. Oreo is sandwiched between two suns.”

  “Wow! How is that possible?”

  “The scientists are still trying to determine how that could happen. Apparently, the two suns rotate around each other, and the planet rotates at the perpendicular between the two. Don’t ask me the details. It’s far beyond me. I thought the gravity would tear the planet apart. The planet has a seventeen-hour day, no night, and a 561-day year with no seasons. The temperature is an average eighty-one degrees Fahrenheit over 60 percent of the land mass. As everything is so stable—rain seems to be gentle and comes in waves so that watering is not necessary. The big thinkers are still trying to figure out something bad about the planet.”