by Andrew Beery
"The name is Rebecca, Ben... and my husband should know better"
Ben looked at Ken and Rebecca before turning back to Cat. "I've noticed there are certain absolutes that transcend species."
"I suspect that is one of the universes little jokes" Cat answered with a wink.
Ken quickly kissed his wife, while at the same time taking the biscuit from her hand. "Can you pass the gravy dear?"
"Tempting."
"Nicely, please."
"So..." Rebecca said, "what were you two talking about?"
"I was reviewing the likely next course of action for the D'lralu oligarch, a male who assumes the title 'First of the First'."
"And?"
"Regrettably his course will be clear. He will almost assuredly follow one of two paths. If he has sufficient intelligence as to your population centers..."
"Ben..." Cat interrupted "are you sure you want to share this type of information with us?"
"If there is a future for our two peoples, and I believe there must be, then it is important that you have the knowledge necessary to save my people... Otherwise, I fear, both our peoples are doomed.
Ken, Rebecca and Cat looked at one another for ten seconds in utter silence, as they each contemplated what was just said. Cat broke the silence by wiping the last vestiges of orange juice from her lips with a napkin.
"Anyone feel like having Breakfast with the Admiral?"
***
For Rebecca it was strange to be in the Captain's mess, eating a waffle that she had not made. Still, it was nice to be a part of a high level discussion. Her newly acquired rank did not often afford such opportunities. Cat had asked her to stay, because this group of people was the group Ben had bonded closest to... and Cat wanted Ben to feel comfortable.
The breakfast table in the Captain's mess was full. Sherry, the Admiral's ever-present administrative officer, as well as Thais the Chief Engineer had joined the Admiral, Ben, the captain and her First Officer at the table. Rebecca had thought it odd at first that Ben as an android would join them for meals but her husband explained that Ben's organic components needed food.
The human diet available could not begin to provide the D'lralu specific nutrients required, but systems built within Ben's body could convert the raw organic material into what was necessary. Also, for reasons no one could understand, Eleven's brain contained intact taste centers. This provided the symbiotic entity, that was Ben, with an opportunity to derive pleasure from eating.
What was perhaps most surprising, was the range of items Ben enjoyed tasting. He was unquestionably a meat eater, who had little patience for green vegetables. His first attempt at human humor, was to remark how lettuce looked like grass... Followed by an observation that his food ate grass. That said, he had developed a fondness for pungent cheeses and a near addiction to chocolate.
This explained the odd sight she was now privileged to witness... What looked like a cross between a dog and a raccoon, sitting at the table with one set of arms resting on the table, while a second set dusted a whipped cream loaded waffle with chocolate sprinkles.
"Remind me to make you some waffles some day with chocolate chips baked into the batter" Rebecca said.
"Such a thing is possible?" The D'lralu said.
"Of course... How do you think I got this big? When it comes to chocolate I know my stuff."
"Then once I save Cat's life... You will become my new best friend."
Cat smirked... What made the comment doubly funny, was that she truly did not know if Ben was serious. "Ben, you were starting to tell us about what we might expect from your people... Would you be willing to continue that conversation?"
"Of course, Captain" Ben said as an incredibly life-like tongue licked whipped cream off his muzzle. "Our world was defeated by a malignant species we call the Masters."
Admiral Faragon set his napkin down. “So If you, yourselves have been the victims of genocide, explain to me why the D'lralu seem set on destroying other intelligent species."
Ben looked at the Admiral with what looked for all the world like a look of absolute remorse. "Initially we attacked because we had no choice... Now we attack because it is all we know."
"Explain." Cat prompted.
"The Masters did not attack us... That was a race we called the Hoppers. They nearly destroyed us until we defeated them. That was when the Masters came. They offered us peace... On their terms. They were the force behind the Hoppers. If we would become their agents of destruction, we would be allowed to replace the Hoppers, and survive as a people."
"It sounds like you made a deal with the devil." Ken said.
"Not all of us agreed. Many of us wanted to continue the fight but the 'Masters', as we came to call them, are a powerful xenophobic race. As our losses continued to mount, a faction within the government staged a coup."
"I take it you were part of the faction that wanted to continue the fight." the Admiral said.
"Sir, my shame knows no bounds..." Ben said as he lowered his head. "I was the faction that wanted to continue the fight... I was the First of the First... It was my brother, my litter mate, that staged the coup."
"You said you thought you knew what your people would do next." Cat prompted.
"Yes, the current First will have only two options. The Masters will never tolerate another sentient race in their space. If the D'lralu cannot remove you, then they will remove the D'lralu, and press humanity to take their place. This is the cycle the Masters have followed for untold years. The First will know the fate of the D'lralu rides on his actions.
If he has sufficient intelligence as to your population centers, he will simply converge on them, and drop nuclear payloads to sterilize your cities and food production centers. On the other hand, I think it would be more likely that he will fully commit the Armada to a staged high-speed wave attack. Large numbers of ships will fly thru and drop bombs on targets of opportunity... Reporting to subsequent waves what they are finding. The process requires more ships, but it can be repeated until all your population centers are nuclear wastelands."
The Admiral, and everyone else in the room, had long since lost interest in eating. "How many ships are we talking about?"
"Unknown. My guess is, something on the order of a thousand."
Chapter Sixteen – War-footing...
The meeting in the Captain's mess continued through the rest of the day. The thought of facing as many as a thousand ships, with the types of weapon systems the D'lralu could deploy, was daunting.
Cat and the Admiral, in conjunction with Ben, began an independent breakout session, brainstorming possible planetary defensive strategies, while Thais and Ken organized an engineering and science team, to brainstorm ship to ship offensive and defensive strategies. Cal helped this second team as best he could... given the Heshe's cultural adherence to non-violence.
Earth's production of interstellar starships had already ramped up, with seventy massive automated nanite fabrication facilities converting raw materials into battle-ready cruisers, at the rate of seven ships per day. The bottleneck was no longer ship production but training crews.
Once word got out that the Earth faced the very real threat of annihilation in mere weeks, if not days, the various independent armed forces united completely under the world government, and virtually all were pressed into immediate shipboard service.
Again the Heshe nanite technology was put to good use. Each of the new ships received a nanite produced AI similar that on the Yorktown. In addition, the newer ships built within the last week or so of production, now featured both a regenerating nanite skin and built-in nanite fabrication facilities. These ships could completely repair themselves, if given the time, even if subjected to catastrophic damage. The Yorktown was ordered to jump directly to near Earth orbit to be retrofitted with these two latest technologies.
The USC simultaneously started production of another massive nanite factory complex in the asteroid belt. This facility was also des
igned to build ships and although these vessels had massive defensive capabilities, these were ships of exploration. Their purpose was two-fold. Find other races to aid in the battle for all sentient races to have the right to exist and second, to find potential new homelands for humanity, should the Sol system be lost.
These ships carried crews in excess of 1400, and were christened 'Enterprise' class vessels in honor of a television show that aired in the 1960's. The first of these ships was launched two days before the D'lralu arrived.
***
"Captain on the bridge!" Ensign Travis yelled as Cat and Ben exited the turbo shaft. She headed for the Captain’s chair, while the D'lralu cyborg sat on a couch at a specially modified station next to tactical.
"As you were," Cat responded, while taking the seat recently vacated by her First Officer, Ken, who headed to the empty tactical station. "Status report."
"They starting appearing ten minutes ago. So far sensors show 3000 plus..."
Well, Cat thought, so much for planning on about a thousand D'lralu. "Can you give me a range?"
"That's the good news Captain. It looks like they're jumping in about a hundred and ninety AU out. The bad news is they keep coming... Already 300 more have jumped in."
"What's the status of our upgrades?"
"The regenerative shielding is in place... The new fabricator is still being hooked into our sensor grid. The new weapon systems are in but not tested... Including your surprise package."
"Seriously? Dusty is ready to go? How did they address the friendly fire issues?"
"The little buggers have a limited battery life... About four hours... Also, they should shutdown in respond to an encoded signal, using a very unique paired orbital angular momentum radio signal. Finally, they've been programmed not to attack nanite skins... And you'll be pleased to know, that applies to both Heshe and human nanites."
"Thank you, Ken... Especially for that last bit." Cat said with a smile.
"I thought you'd like that" He grinned.
Cat mentally reached for her comlink and requested a connection to the Admiral, who was on Orbital One.
"Sir, may I have a moment of your time?"
"Absolutely Cat..." he answered immediately. "I assume you are aware that long range sensors are now reporting five thousand in the D'lralu fleet and growing."
"Yes, Sir. I'd like to deploy phase one, as well as the Earth and Mars jump inhibitors"
"I certainly agree with the inhibitor shields... But as far as implementing phase one... We don't know how many are joining the party... Wouldn't it make sense to wait and try to catch them all?"
"Sir, my thinking changed once the invasion fleet grew significantly past one thousand. The volume of space is likely to grow larger than we can cover. In addition, to defend against that many ships, Earth needs more time to build its defensive and offensive capabilities.
Their current size suggests they are going to employ the annihilation wave modality of attack. If we hit them with a strategically placed SJ round now, we will force the survivors to scatter. We may even get lucky and hit their command and control. Either way, they will be forced to take time to reorganize."
"Time which Earth could certainly use." the Admiral agreed. "Very well Captain... You have my blessing to deploy phase one."
"Thank you, Sir, I'm going to jump the Yorktown to a hundred and seventy five AU on a line-of-sight towards the invasion fleet. We'll be close enough to see what happens, but far enough away to avoid the fireworks."
"Good hunting, Captain. Faragon out."
Cat cut the link to Orbital One. She turned to face Lt. Calwalski. "Helm, make ready for jump."
"Heading, Ma'am?"
Cat consulted Cal her AI... “Adjust jump to 175 AU, 5% off the plane of the ecliptic at 343.2"
"Roger that, Ma'am. 175 AU, 5% off the plane of the ecliptic, 343.2. Course laid in and ready."
"Ken, how long before all systems are operational?"
"Another two hours Captain."
"Any reason you can think of for waiting?"
“Negative Captain… we should do this.”
"Ben?"
"Regrettably none that I can think of... It is, in the words of your people, time to take the dog out"
Cat looked at her newest friend for a moment before she said in a soft but firm voice... "Helm... jump"
***
The Yorktown arrived on target about 15 AU closer to the sun than the massing D’lralu fleet. Because of the speed of light, it would be a little over 2 hours before the invaders saw the Yorktown.
Cat immediately deployed to advanced stealth probes. The first held an entangled quantum communicator that would allow a real-time view of the D’lralu fleet without the several hour delay. The second probe was a suicide jumper or “SJ” round that would open a brief gateway to the galactic core with devastating results for it and any ships within a 0.5 AU vicinity.
"Both probes are in place, Captain." Ken said. "Do we trigger the SJ?"
"What's the status of the D'lralu fleet?"
"Seventy five hundred and climbing." Ben reported.
"Seventy five hundred... How many will be in the blast radius? How many people am I about to kill?"
Ben looked at the Captain. The part of him that had been built to emulate her father connected with her anguish. The captain was many things, but a cold-blooded killer she was not. "Cat..." he began but she held up her hand to silence him. She knew that these deaths were balanced against the uninvited destruction of her entire race.
"Signal the SJ... And may God forgive me"
The probe with the quantum entangled communicator relayed the signal to the SJ device. It took three seconds for the first probe to signal the second. It immediately committed suicide by jumping into the galactic core... This process took an additional 0.3 seconds to occur. Less than three and a half seconds after Cat's order, tens of thousands of sentient life forms simply ceased to exist. Little did she know how this harsh and unavoidable fact would continue to haunt her for millennia.
Even though the link between the two points in space time was only open for the briefest fraction of a second, the energies transferred shattered the fabric of space in this region. Not only were over two thousand of the First's ships immediately destroyed, but a full three thousand more were exposed to massive and completely lethal doses of radiation.
Because of the disruption of space-time, the remaining fleet, of which there were apparently several thousand, found themselves jumping, not to their intended destinations but often tens of AU further into deep space.
***
The First of the First spat up blood. Its coppery tang coated his tongue. Somehow these humans had a weapon of immense power. He was filled with a sense of dread that far exceeded the decimation of his fleet. If he could not turn this battle around, the cost to his race would be annihilation at the hands of the Masters. These humans would usurp the D'lralu's proper place in the universe. This was a fate he could not allow.
His ship had been spared an immediate death but he knew, from what the medical team had shared with him and his senior staff, that he and most of his fleet were already dead. Victims of the massive gamma ray pulse that had enveloped his fleet. There would be the coughing up of blood, the cramps, the loss of fur and eventually the loss of rational thought followed by death. Any that did manage to survive would be sterile and prone to numerous cancers.
He quickly ordered his remaining ships to disperse. If these humans had more of those hell bombs he did not want his forces so concentrated. His effective strength was now cut in half, but he was more determined than ever to destroy these humans.
As soon as he had his remaining ships organized, they would begin to bombard these humans into oblivion. The First smiled. It was a grotesque sight with the blood staining his muzzle. These humans had unwittingly given him another weapon. He ordered each ship which was crewed by the living dead to pay heed to a new command directive. They were to accelerate
to .4c, and target each of the three inner planets in the habitable zone. The impact of a single one of these ships, would release enough energy to completely sterilize the target world. There would be hundreds per world. The remaining ships were to rain nuclear terror on any remote outposts they discovered in the outer planets. He would not survive this battle, but his people would survive, and his pups would sing of their father's glorious death in defense of the D'lralu people.
***
Ken had the bridge. The Captain had gone to the chapel after the attack. Ken could only imagine the demons she had to deal with. Ben had gone with her and would, Ken knew, sit vigil outside the chapel's door.
He checked the holographic readouts. The remaining D'lralu were systematically moving into a sphere surrounding the Sol system. Given how slowly they were able to calculate jump coordinates, it would likely take weeks to complete the reconfiguration. Unfortunately they were already so far spread out, that SJ rounds were no longer going to be effective against more than one or two at a time. Given that they were still facing upwards of five thousand vessels this was not an especially attractive option.