by Saxon Andrew
• • •
Doc sat in Cole’s office on Euclid and looked at the two officers sitting in front of his desk. The Kilper was big, even for a tall species. The human female was average size but had the same black hair and blue eyes that Dee possessed. Doc stared at them and said, “Your commanders have discussed what we need you to do.”
The Kilper said, “They have, Sir.”
“You’ve been chosen to do this for several reasons.” Doc turned to the Kilper, “You’ve demonstrated in the last two fleet actions that you will do your duty.” The Kilper nodded. “I was impressed that you attacked ten ships alone when one of your squadrons was in danger.”
“Those ships were coming here to attack my family. I will miss not being present to attack them if they come here.”
Doc smiled, “You should get back in time to participate.”
The woman said, “Why was I chosen?”
Doc looked at her and saw steel in her face, ‘You are one of the Santa Rosa telepaths. We need you there to allow us to communicate.”
“Is that the only reason?”
“No; you’re also impossible to work with and are as hardheaded as any officer in the Navy. I know you’ll do what has to be done.”
The Kilper looked at her and then said, “Who is in command of this mission?”
“You are.”
The woman said, “And why is that?”
“Because if you were; you would run him off in about an hour.”
She stared at Doc for a long moment and said, “Just checking, Sir.”
Doc looked at the two of them and knew they had not met each other before the meeting. If this didn’t work, they wouldn’t have to stay together longer than the mission. “The scanners have located the vicinity of the Orange Ships territory and are now looking for the Capital. We’ll send that to you as soon as it comes in. Once we have it, you need to jump your ship out and make your plans. We’ll notify you if we need you to proceed. You’re dismissed.”
The two jumped to attention, saluted, did an about face, and left the office. Once they were outside the woman started complaining, “I don’t see why you have to be in command. I could have done it. I’m also a pilot.”
The Kilper turned to her, “My name is Kregen.”
She stared at him for a moment and said, “I’m Marissa.”
“I didn’t make this decision; however, you and I are going to have to resolve how we’re going to work together. I will not take action without your advice and input. We should agree on what we should do and attempt to come up with the best strategy. You are a partner in this mission and I’m going to need you working with me to make it succeed.”
Marissa stared at the Kilper and said, “What happens if we can’t agree?”
“Then I will have to make the best decision I can based on what we’ve discussed. I need your agreement that if that happens, you’ll give me your best effort.”
Marissa saw the Kilper wasn’t being bossy. She stared at him and said, “How do you think we should go in?”
“FTL.”
Marissa smiled, “I think we’re going to get along just fine.”
Kregen said, “I really hope we do.”
Marissa said, “I’m not that bad.”
“How many navigators have you had?”
Marissa stared at him and said, “Six.”
“After three, the problem had to be you. Please think about that.” Kregen turned and walked toward the ship leaving Marissa angry but wondering if he was right.
• • •
Dee walked in the office and said, “Why did you pair her with him?”
“Do you think a human male would last?”
Dee tilted her head back and forth and said, “Probably not.”
“I’m hoping they’re different enough that they will at least respect that difference long enough to make this happen.”
“It’s a shame she’s such a pill.” Doc smiled and Dee said, “Don’t even think I was that hard to get along with.” Doc continued to smile. “I wasn’t that bad!”
“One of our ancient philosophers said it well; know thy self.” Dee started tapping her foot and Doc said, “Dom gave me some footage of the two of you working with the flight crews at the main space port. You might want to take a look at it.”
Dee thought back and remembered. “That’s alright. I’ll concede the point.”
Doc said, “There could be hope for her; if you could change…”
“That Kilper is not you, Doc.”
“No…he’s not. But he is courageous. She won’t be able to push him around.”
Dee went and sat in Doc’s lap, “I have this thing I need to handle…you know…a wedding.”
Doc laughed and said, “Let’s get on it.”
Chapter Eighteen
The Invasion Leader slammed his hand on his desk. Twenty scouts had been sent to the spiral galaxy and all twenty had been found and destroyed before they could start their searches. This was not a good thing. He was going to be going in blind if something didn’t change…quickly. He thought back to the meeting with the aliens from the spiral galaxy and smiled. They didn’t know they had actually given him the reason to continue with the invasion. The threat of going and destroying planets in his galaxy is exactly what he needed to happen. If they could only hit Bradet he would be back in charge. He had been removed from power and the new Leader had agreed to give him ten percent of the warships to go and form a new territory for himself in another galaxy. He was forced to make the agreement to avoid a civil war where he knew he would be outnumbered and out gunned. If he could defeat those aliens in their galaxy and somehow give them Bradet’s coordinates, he could go back and assume power. Then he would be the absolute ruler of both. But first, he had to defeat the forces in the spiral galaxy and kill their planets. He thought about it and wondered if the aliens were watching his fleets. If they were, he might be able to show them Bradet’s location. He picked up his communicator, “Admiral, I want you to start sending all of my ships back to Bradet for servicing. Send them in groups of ten and make sure they’re ready by the time all of the ships arrive for the invasion.”
“That means I will be sending a steady stream back.”
“Just make it happen.”
“I’ll need to send a thousand at a time to complete the task by the time we invade.”
“MAKE IT HAPPEN!”
“I will start them now.”
The orange colored being smiled, and thought, “Maybe they’ll do this before the attack. That would be a gift from the Gods.”
• • •
A thousand Orange Ships jumped away from the giant ship gathering and an advanced scanner detected their path and surfed the waves in other space to their destination. It sent the location and ten more scanners surfed in and then scattered to examine other planets in the civilization they had found. They determined that the first planet was the location of the central government. The information was sent to the Obelisk.
• • •
Kregen looked at his communicator and immediately contacted Marissa, “I have our target.”
“When did it come in!?!”
“A few moments ago; I have the scanner in the target’s system sending a feed to your panel.”
“I’m on my way.”
“Did you handle the additional collector?”
“It will be installed in two hours. We should be ready to leave by tomorrow morning.”
“Good, I’ll see you at the ship.”
• • •
Kregen and Marissa were examining the feeds that had been sent back by the scanner and Marissa said, “They have too many holes in the planet’s defenses.” Kregen continued to stare at his display and grunted. “We should be able to do this if we plan a good approach.” Kregen grunted again. “Do you know how to talk or do you just make sounds?”
Kregen looked up and said, “Something’s not right.”
Marissa watched him
continue to stare at his console and after a minute said, “Are you going to share what you’re seeing?”
Kregen looked up and she saw he was conflicted. “I’ve done an examination of the number of Orange Ships that have been sent to the invasion fleet.”
“So?”
“According to the scanner in their main system, those ships only represent a small percentage of their total ships.”
Marissa stared at Kregen and he turned back to his display, “So?”
Kregen looked up and said, “Most of the other civilizations taking part in the invasion have sent a larger percentage. Logic would dictate that the leader of the invasion would be more invested in it. This just doesn’t feel right.”
“Even so, we’re going to take that planet out.”
Kregen looked at Marissa for a long moment and then nodded. He looked up and said, “Moe.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Is it possible to have the scanner at the Orange World’s location intercept their transmissions and send them to you for analysis?”
“Yes, it is possible.”
“Do you have enough open memory to do that analysis?”
“Why do you want this done?”
“I want to know why they didn’t send more ships.”
“I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Thank you, Moe.”
Marissa looked at Kregen, “What difference does it make? That’s the Invasion Leader’s home planet.”
“Probably none.” Kregen looked back at his display, “But I don’t like unanswered questions.”
Marissa turned back to her console, “Then don’t ask them.” Kregen grunted again.
• • •
The Invasion Leader saw his second in-command come running on to the bridge, “Sire, a group of scouts were able to penetrate the galaxy and found a massive civilization.”
The Leader’s face showed his delight, “What did they find?”
“They followed a massive jump track to a group of worlds that are completely covered with cities. All the land masses are one large city.”
“How many planets?”
“About fifty thousand, Sire. They are heavily defended by orbital satellites but very few ships are at their location.”
The Leader thought, “Now this is good. If we can destroy those planets quickly, all their ships will go to my galaxy and start killing planets. I’ll be viewed as a savior when I return to defend them.”
“How many ships will we have to use?”
“The most recent estimate is fifty million.”
“That’s a thousand ships for each planet.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Start sending the coordinates out and let me know when the last ships arrive.” The Second rushed off the bridge and the Invasion Leader leaned back in his chair. “This makes organization easier. A thousand ships are easier to organize than millions. They’ll destroy the planets and as many ships as possible before they jump away. Once the alien’s ships start attacking our home worlds, I’ll come back and finish the job in the spiral galaxy. Things were shaping up nicely. Now if they’ll just destroy Bradet.”
• • •
Dee looked at Doc, “Ian has just notified me that the Invader fleet is dividing into groups of a thousand ships.”
Doc thought a moment and said, “They must have been able to get a scout into our galaxy.”
Dee’s brow furrowed, “Why do you say that?”
“The estimate of the number of ships in the invasion fleet is about fifty million. There are fifty thousand former main planets of the Kilper.”
Dee nodded, “That would be a thousand ships per planet.”
“We didn’t detect those scouts. That’s bothersome.”
“They took the bait of the jump tracks.”
Doc scowled, “I know but I would have preferred them to have to organize after they discovered those planets. Now we’re going to have to assign ships to each of the main planets.”
“How many will be used?”
“We have ten million ships available. That means two hundred ships at each planet.”
Dee shook her head, “Those are not good odds.”
“We can only hope the orbital stations can cut their numbers down before our ships take them on.” Dee closed her eyes and after a few minutes opened them. Doc said, “Do you sense anything?”
Dee shook her head, “No, I don’t. This feels like it could go either way.”
“Let me know if you see anything. Maybe the attack on the Orange Capital might slow them down.”
Dee nodded but felt uneasy about something to do with that attack but she wasn’t able to determine what it was. She continued to struggle with it but came no closer to an answer.
• • •
Cole sat with Argel in the Science Center and heard her ask, “How many different ship types are there in the invading fleet?”
Cole looked at his computer and issued a query. After five minutes the computer beeped and he was shocked, “More than eighty thousand.”
Argel stared at him and said, “We have two civilizations and we’re facing eighty thousand. We also know many are not participating in this invasion. This is staggering.”
Cole looked back at his display and said, “They’re only sending about twenty percent of their ships for this invasion. Even if we win, the enemies facing us will outnumber us in the millions.”
“You think they’ll keep coming?”
“If they fear us enough, they will.”
Argel nodded, “We aren’t any closer to solving the problem of the Higgs Field collapse.”
Cole nodded, “We’ve got to find a solution.”
Argel nodded and went back to her terminal.
• • •
Kregen leaned back in his chair and shook his head. Marissa said, “What’s bothering you?”
“I’ve been looking at the information coming in from the scanners. I don’t understand the stupidity of the Invasion Leader.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s been sending about a thousand ships a day back for servicing on the main planet of the Orange Ships.”
“So?”
“He knows we’ve threatened to destroy his worlds if he’s successful with his invasion; why would he deliberately leave a trail to his most important planet?”
“Maybe that’s the only place there are service facilities.”
“No, the scanners have confirmed them on thousands of other planets.”
“Perhaps he’s just dumb.”
Kregen shook his head, “I don’t think he’s that dumb.”
“Leaving tracks like that is stupid. Chalk it up to a moron.” Marissa looked up from her display, “Fleet says we should jump to our jumping off coordinates. They expect the enemy fleet to start moving before long.”
Kregen entered the coordinates and before he pushed the jump drive he said, “Moe, do you have anything?”
“I do not. Nothing has turned up to explain the difference.”
Marissa shook her head, “Just let it go. We have a job to do.”
Kregen pushed the drive button and didn’t like what he was seeing.
• • •
The Invasion Leader kept waiting for the Home World to be destroyed but so far nothing had happened. What to do; what to do? Perhaps they were waiting for the invasion to begin before they attacked. “Second, report to the bridge.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“I want the ships that have arrived to jump to an assembly point half way between us and the spiral Galaxy.”
The Second looked puzzled, “Won’t that make things more difficult to get the ships organized?”
“Just do it.”
“Yes, Sire.”
• • •
Becky sat at her console and watched the massive fleet gathering to invade and still ships continued to arrive. She shook her head and looked at Dom who had his face plate lifted, leaning back in his chair,
and staring intently at his display. “What are you doing?”
Dom was startled by the question and said, “I’m reading.”
“What?”
Dom turned his command chair around and looked at Becky, “Before Earth destroyed itself during the period of colonization, most of the colony ships took a copy of the central library with them to their new planets.”
“Yean, so what?”
“When D was in for servicing, I went to the Science Library on Euclid and discovered that they had copied everything that had survived from Earth to the main terminal in the archives. I did a little looking around and found some ancient books that were written thousands of years before Earth’s destruction. I find them quite entertaining.”
“What are they about?”
“Several are a series of books called Day Soldiers written by Brandon Hale. It’s a story of some highly trained warriors that are fighting to save humanity from creatures called vampires.”
“What’s a vampire?”
“You really don’t want to know.”
Becky stared at Dom and lowered her face, “You don’t think I can handle it?”
Dom shrugged, “vampires were creatures that were immortal. They were also the living dead. They survived by attacking humans and using their fangs to drain their bodies of blood.”
“Ooooooo, that’s gross.”
“I told you.”
Becky turned back to her console and after a moment said, “Can I read them when you’ve finished?”
“I’ll send you another book he wrote. You can read the series when I’m done.”
An hour later, Becky looked up and shook her head, “Vampires don’t hold a candle to the creatures in the Man from Newella. This is scary stuff.”
Nise said, “You need to link to me, Becky. I see some elements of the Invader’s Fleet starting to move.”