by Andrew Beery
"Kimbridge here, we've got some type of alarm klaxon here on Orbital One... Anything on the Yorktown's sensors?"
"Captain, Lieutenant Zimmerman here. We have four big D'lralu ships in Mars orbit acting very strange..."
"Define strange," Cat said.
"Ma'am, they are in equidistant geostationary orbits firing their beam weapons into space."
Puzzled, Cat asked the logical question. "What are they firing at?"
"That's just it, Ma'am, as far as anyone can tell they are firing at nothing... and our monitoring probes show they are firing at minimal intensity. You could almost walk in front of them and not be hurt... It makes no sense."
Cat paused to consider what her newly promoted Lieutenant was telling her. "Ziggy, get our science teams, that aren't engaged in defense projects, to take a look at this. Also tie in the xenobiology team. I'm going to follow up with the Admiral and Ben to see if they have any thoughts."
"Roger that, Captain. Yorktown out"
Cat quickly dressed in her duty uniform, and left the officers billet she was using on the orbiting space station. As she walked down the corridor, she attempted to contact Ben via the entangled quantum communications link built into their respective Heshe encounter units. To her dismay he did not respond. She tried a different tack.
"Cal?"
"Yes, Captain?"
"Do you still have an active link with Ben? Is he alright?"
"Affirmative, Captain. Ben is in command of four D'lralu light cruisers currently in orbit around Mars."
"He's not responding to my hails. Those ships have a lot of people very worried here."
"He cannot respond. He and his crews are engaged in an honor vigil for a fallen foe. For the next 19.4 hours they will not eat or sleep or converse in any fashion. They cannot bring back the dead of Mars, but in their culture they can send them off, to what they understand of heaven, with full honor. They will not even defend themselves at this point. Were an Earth vessel to fire on them, they would allow themselves to be destroyed."
"Why in the world would he throw himself out there like that?"
"He is counting on your compassion to make a point."
"Cal, override any lockouts necessary... Get me connected to Admiral Faragon, ASAP!"
"Cat? I'm sure you've heard the station alarms. We've got a situation up here... Why don't you make your way to the CIC" the Admiral said when Cal established the link.
"Yes, Sir, I'm on my way now. But, Sir, it's very important you don't engage those D'lralu vessels orbiting Mars."
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised you already have a handle on the situation. Brief me when you get here."
Chapter Twenty-One – The D'lralu Home Worlds…
The Second of the First reviewed the status of his fleet. They were 4961 ships strong. He had organized them into eight wings of roughly seven hundred each. With the passing of the First of the First he had effective operational control of the armada.
He folded his paws on his upper lap. The time had come. Humanity would cease to exist this day, and his people's continued survival would be insured for yet a while longer. The universe required balance, and the D'lralu provided that balance. The strong survived. The weak fell. Such was the way of the world.
"First talon, begin your run... Good hunting. Bring honor to your families and report back to me when your run is complete."
***
Cat sat in the captain's chair on the bridge of the Yorktown. Her ship stood vigil with the four D'lralu ships orbiting Mars. If Cal's assessment was correct, they would come out of their self-imposed period of silence in a few minutes.
She rubbed her hand across the black synthetic leather. Her mind was not on the leather beneath her fingers. The Admiralty Board was still debating her recommendation, made several days ago, to take the fight to D'lralu space. She knew the time for debating was rapidly reaching an end. The D'lralu fleet would be beginning their attack soon. Once that happened people would begin to die.
"Captain..." Ken said.
She looked over toward the station her First Officer was seated at. He met her eyes, and nodded towards the view screen. "Their weapon systems have gone offline. If Cal was right, the vigil will be over, and Ben should be willing to communicate again."
Cat toggled her comlink. "Ben?"
"Greetings, Catherine."
"That was quite a stunt you just pulled."
"A necessary one for many reasons I'm afraid. I have learned that it was my personal failure many years ago that placed my people on this path. If my death could serve to undo the damage done... not just to humanity but to countless others whose lives my people have taken... I would gladly offer it. That said, I am convinced that I serve a greater purpose, working towards a future where all can flourish. I believe that to be a future where the so-called 'Masters' are not driving others into genocide on their behalf."
Cat listened to her friend and believed him but unfortunately she knew time was not on their side, and she had important matters to discuss immediately. "Ben... There are things we must talk about... Things that cannot wait... Can you shuttle over?"
"I can and I will. I too must ask you to make a very hard choice... One that will, I suspect tear at your soul but for which I believe there is no practical recourse... I believe Earth must attack my people."
***
Ben sat on the special couch, which Cat had had installed in her Ready room. Cat and her senior staff sat in the other seats. The Admiral was still on Orbital One in Earth orbit, debating with the Admiralty Board on the relative merits of pursuing Cat's plan. It seemed the six member board was evenly split.
Ben spoke up... "If I am to convince our fleet not to continue to attack, I must first prove to my people that I trust you, and that you are a force to be respected. The first was accomplished when I held a mourning vigil. Many an adversary has died in my planet's history when the trust of the vigil was violated. Humanity gained much favor in my people's eyes, when those holding the vigil were allowed to honor your fallen dead. Every member of my crew now owes you their lives, not once but twice. "
Cat looked at her friend, and even if he could not have read the pain on her face he would have heard it in her voice. "Ben... We are facing almost five thousand of your ships. We are doing our best to fortify our defenses, but I don't think we will be able to do enough... Ben, I may have to ask you to trust me... I may need to threaten your home worlds... To induce a defensive redeployment..."
Ben placed his front paws on the conference table, and interlaced his digits in a manner that reminded her of her father. "Cat... This is the very thing I came here to recommend. All I ask, is that you do what you can to minimize the loss of life on both sides."
"That was always..." Cat was interrupted by the blaring of the alarm klaxons.
"Red Alert... All stations Red Alert. Man your Battle Stations... This is not a drill!"
Cat dashed out of the Ready room and onto the bridge. "Shields up... Report!" she yelled as she took her command chair.
"Ma'am..." Chief Wroblewski said from tactical. "We have seven hundred and six D'lralu ships traveling at .39c eight minutes out... Heading directly at Earth."
"Not the full armada then..." Cat mused.
Ben walked up beside her chair and sat on his haunches, while casually laying his forward most right arm on the side rest of her chair. "They will attack in waves about nine or ten minutes apart captain. The first wing will report back to the second so they can adjust their targets and so on... They will not stop until they or your world are destroyed. I am sorry Captain... We are too late."
"Captain... Earth's defense shields are taking fire... Multiple coherent energy beams..." Ken reported from his station. "Cat these numbers are off the scale!"
"Ma'am..." Wroblewski interrupted... "Their kinetic weapons are impacting the forward most momentum deflectors... Oh my God... The first few got stopped but they are shredding them like paper... Other satellites are redeployin
g to cover the gaps, but two of those energy beams just shot through a hole made by a kinetic missile... They hit the water about a hundred kilometers off of Tokyo... Ma'am... Those beams vaporized the surrounding ocean clear down to the seabed... Tsunamis and concussive tornadoes are going to slam into Japan in the next couple of minutes..."
"That's it..." Ken said in an emotionally exhausted voice... The first wave is by us. We have maybe eight or nine minutes until they hit again."
"Dan, what’s the status of the Earth's defense network?"
Chief Wroblewski checked his panel. "About eighty percent intact ma'am... They are regenerating... But they will not be back to full strength by the time the next wave hits... It's not going to take them long to wipe out our defenses."
Cat slammed her fist into the arm of her chair... "Then we are not going to give them the time... Chief I want you to deploy a full spread of Dusties along the flight path those attackers just took."
Turning to her communications officer she continued... "Ziggy, inform the admiralty board that we are proceeding with Operation Home World... They can court martial me when we get back"
"Ben, you'll forgive me if I change up the rules a little... Helm plot a jump for the D'lralu system... Jump when ready." Somewhere in the back of her mind Cat could already hear Admiral McMullen calling for her head... On a platter, preferably.
***
The Second of the First reviewed the images of the first talon's attack. He was impressed. The humans were essentially unscathed after the first run, but their rather impressive shields were beginning to fray. He had never seen a world fend off the D'lralu as effectively as these humans had, but in the end it would not matter. He had lost none of his ships, and so could keep up the attack as long as was necessary.
"Deploy the second talon." he commanded.
Immediately he knew something was wrong. The real-time video feeds from the second talon began as expected, but then went dead almost as soon as each ship finished its jump. Somehow these humans were destroying his ships and because none were surviving he couldn't tell what they were doing... He attempted to halt the jump, but the last of the second talon was already gone by the time the order was issued. The last several of these ships survived almost a full minute after the jump but what their sensors reported made no sense. His ships had jumped into some type of metallic dust cloud. The most distressing part was when, shortly after sending this information, these ships also went silent.
***
"I have the D'lralu system on forward scanners" Ken reported.
"Give me a breakdown" Cat ordered.
Ken consulted his science console before answering. "Their sun is about five percent older than Sol. Other than that it's almost a perfect match. There are six planets and two asteroid belts. Two of the planets are fast orbiting hot rocky worlds not terribly dissimilar to Mercury. The third planet is also too hot for life. Planets four and five are gas giants within the Goldilocks zone. Each as multiple Earth size moons. Two on the inner and one on the outer have liquid water and dense nitrogen-oxygen atmospheres. Planet six is a marginally habitable world along the lines of a heavy Mars... Maybe three fourths of a gravity with a very thin carbon dioxide atmosphere."
Ben stepped forward. "You'll note the innermost asteroid belt is located between planet five and six. It used to be a world called Nede, which means garden... It was our home before the Hoppers came and destroyed it at the behest of the Masters." His voice shuddered as he spoke.
The timbre of his voice reminded Cat, in a way that mere words could not that, this was a personal memory for this man and not some historical oddity. Cat was racing a clock if she wanted to prevent the same fate for her own people.
"I need targeting teams looking over all possibilities... I need a high visibility but low casualty target and I need it now!"
"There is a deep space defense platform about ten light minutes out" Chief Wroblewski offered.
"Too far out... I need something closer... By the time their population centers saw the platform attacked, Earth would have already been destroyed." Suddenly Cat had an idea. "Cal... The Nede asteroid belt... How tightly clustered are those asteroids?"
"Very tightly captain... They will likely reform a planetary mass over the next several millennia."
"Question, could a series of SJ rounds properly placed force them to group up and fuse?"
"Affirmative... Are you thinking of offering the D'lralu a gift?"
"You catch more flies with honey."
"Or chocolate..." Ben offered with a grin.
"Cal run the calculations. Be ready to launch the SJs on my command. Ziggy... Broadcast on all channels... All D'lralu craft are to steer clear of the Nede asteroid belt."
"Captain, we are being hailed by the D'lralu High Command." Lieutenant Zimmerman said.
"Put them on."
"Attention alien vessel... This is the D'lralu Defense Force. We do not tolerate visitors to our space. You will leave this solar system or we will launch attack fighters to remove you. Acknowledge."
"Ziggy, send a response... Same channel. This is Catherine Kimbridge, Captain of the Earth ship Yorktown. As we speak a D'lralu invasion fleet is attempting to destroy my civilization. That fleet would better serve the interests of the D'lralu people, by returning to defend their own worlds. Please consider what we are about to do as a demonstration. The next time we fire our weapons they will be against D'lralu population targets." She signaled her communication officer to cut the connection.
"Cal, are those targeting solutions ready?"
"Affirmative Captain" the Heshe AI responded.
"Ken any civilian targets in danger?"
"We appear to have a clean field of fire." he responded.
"Ziggy... System-wide again please. D'lralu people... What your overlords took away, we humans now return to you. Power can be used to both create and destroy. Consider well which course you choose to take with us. Cal, launch the missiles."
The missile ports on the USC Yorktown opened just long enough to emit three sleek 'SJ' missiles. Set on predesignated courses, they micro-jumped to precise locations. The first two suicide jumped to a position just outside the galactic core, which resulted in a directional backwash through the very temporary hyper field tunnel that existed between the two points in space. The closely clumped Nede asteroid belt was bathed in an incredibly intense beam of raw broad spectrum radiation, that was the equivalent of nearly 10% percent the D'lralu's sun's solar output. The rubble that had been the D'lralu home world was superheated and quickly reached a molten state.
Per a tightly controlled orchestration of events, the third SJ round delayed it's deployment for exactly 3.4 seconds. The backwash it generated, blasted the molten asteroid belt from a carefully selected direction, that served to slow the orbital velocity of the lead material, just enough to cause the superheated planetary debris to clump-up. The result of this incredible pyrotechnic display, was a single planet-sized mass, that would eventually cool enough to allow terraforming.
Cat signaled Ziggy to open the system-wide channel again. "This is Captain Kimbridge. What we just showed you could easily have been done anywhere in your solar system. We abhor the taking of life, but make no mistake... If pushed we will do whatever is necessary.
I hope you understand the significance of what was just demonstrated. Not only do we have access to tremendously powerful weapons... But our jump computers can calculate coordinates in a minute fraction of a second. We can jump faster and closer than any of your ships. You should also know we have an entire fleet looking for partners to form a new coalition, to face threats like those represented by you and your overlords.
The D'lralu people need to make a choice. You can continue on the course set by the Masters, until you are eventually beaten by a stronger race... at which point you will most certainly face the fate of your predecessors...the race you call the Hoppers... Or you can join us, and together we can set a new course for both our peoples. Th
e choice is yours but the decision must be made immediately. Recall your fleet... Recall it NOW!"
Chapter Twenty-Two – Uneasy Peace…
"Here they come again," the young ensign yelled from one of the many sensor consoles that graced Orbital One's CIC. Admiral Faragon stood on the command deck, facing the Combat Information Center's massive primary holographic display. Three of his fellow admirals stood with him. Admirals Pike, Chu and McMullen faced each other from opposite sides of the fast moving display.
"Redeploy our remaining fleet to block as much of that fire as they can... How many ships do we have left?" Admiral Faragon asked.
"Our fleet is down to thirty-six effectives. Fifty-four battle damaged ships are regenerating and will be available within the hour. Our shielding is down to 53%...there are going to be gaps they can fire through" McMullen said through gritted teeth. "We really could have used another ship like the Yorktown right about now. Too bad their captain has no stomach for combat."