by Andrew Beery
"Stow it Barney... Her little trick with the Dusties wiped out an entire wave." Admiral Chu said, while manipulating some of the controls in front of him.
"Fine lot of good it did us... They just started jumping in from different locations." McMullen grumbled.
"True," Admiral Pike added. "But it took them nearly thirty more minutes to recalculate their jumps... That's thirty minutes that was far more valuable to us than to them."
Admiral Faragon was looking at the deployment patterns of the incoming D'lralu attackers. "Ray, tell the defense grid to micro jump to selectively defend grids 216 through 222, as well as 104 through 112. That should put our defensive screens between their weapons and Earth."
"That's great for now but there will be nothing left for the next attack."
Faragon looked at Admiral McMullen for a full two seconds before speaking. "Barney, what would you suggest? Do I let this attack decimate our planet, or decimate our defenses?"
The cantankerous Admiral waved his hand in defeat. "You're doing the only thing we can do... I just wish we had more options other than simply running like your beloved Captain Kimbridge."
"You know full well she did not run. In all likelihood she and her brave crew are already dead... Trying to give you that other option." It was Admiral Chu who spoke.
"She acted because we did not... Don't forget that." Faragon added.
"She usurped our authority!" McMullen grumbled.
"And I for one would be delighted to debate the merits of a Court Marshal, or a commendation... If and when we survive this" Admiral Pike added... "For the moment gentleman... Can we focus on Earth's survival?"
***
The Second of the First was making his run. His was the last talon to attack before his armada cycled back to the first wing. The Earth defenses were faltering. Already two of his talons had raked across the largest of the land masses on the third planet with their beam weapons.
The shields being deployed by the humans were technically superior, and more efficient per unit of power to his own, but they were orders of magnitude lower in power. The only reason they worked as well as they did, was because there were so many of them. Additionally, if they waited long enough, the shields seemed to actually repair themselves! That said, the shield array that the humans were using, while it had been initially effective, was now in taters and virtually eliminated. His run could finally spell the end of humanity.
"My brothers..." the Second said into his inter ship comm system, "humanity ends today, and with their death the D'lralu prove their worthiness to survive. Many of our comrades have died in our campaign against this foe. Our worth is doubly proven when we defeat such a hearty opponent. Remember our children. It is for them you fight. Bring Glory... Second out."
Turning to his weapons officer, the Second of the First issued the targeting orders for his ship. "There is a large artificial satellite... It seems to be their command and control center... It is well protected. I want every beam weapon and kinetic missile we have concentrated on that one target. Once it is gone, the defenses at Earth's disposal will be as effective as a Shaggy Leaf is at swaddling a Gomere pup."
***
The Third of the Seventh watched from the bridge of his ship in Mars orbit. The dead world below him stood as a silent testimony to the sins of his race. His brothers were even now attacking the home world of these humans. So far the humans’ defenses had held, but, as his sensor officer confirmed, this would soon change. It was time to take action. He signaled his communications officer to connect the other three ships...
***
Six petajoule beams lanced out of the attacking ships, and splashed against the hyper field displacement fields surrounding the massive Earth orbiting space station, Orbital One. Shield generators shed massive amounts of energy into the surrounding space. The trace amounts of atmosphere surrounding Orbital One quickly converted into plasma, producing a violent, shimmering aurora. Energy surges overloaded control circuits, forcing secondary systems to take over.
The CIC, where Admiral Faragon was trying to coordinate Earth's defenses, was quickly becoming a smoke-filled death trap. Consoles shorted out with each blast against the shields. Fire suppression systems were hard pressed to control the countless fires, started by a seemingly endless stream of electrical sparks.
"I'm losing secondary systems Admiral... I don't know how long I can keep the shields up." Lieutenant Samuels yelled over the bedlam.
"Route everything you can to the shields." Admiral Faragon said in calm controlled voice.
"Comms... Get me Captain Ruck on the Avenger as fast as you can."
"Yes Admiral... Captain Ruck is online now"
"Jason, Admiral Faragon here."
"Admiral... As you might expect... we're taking a bit of a beating here, and our systems need a few moments to regenerate but I'll do whatever I can. How can I help you?"
"Jason I need you to back out of the fight. We're about done here. None of our systems are designed to regenerate so when they go down they stay down. Our guys are holding things together with a whim and a prayer. I'm transferring the command codes to the Avenger. If Orbital One is lost, I want you to assume operational command of Earth Defenses until, God willing, the Yorktown gets back... "
The Admiral ducked as a support beam collapsed near his station, sending a shower of sparks everywhere. "At that point turn the codes over to Cat, and act as her second in the fleet... Understood?"
"Sir, yes Sir. Can you get to the escape pods? We could cover you. "
"Frankly I was hoping Captain Kimbridge would be back at this point... She has a habit of winning against impossible odds... And I could use some of her luck right about now... There is so much ionizing radiation surrounding us right now, I don't think the pods are much of an option. We have about another two minutes in this run and, barring God's help, I don't see us lasting more than half of that..." as soon as the words left his mouth the station stopped taking fire and the massive ventilation fans started making headway against the accumulating smoke. "I guess I need to start making time for church on Sunday morning." the Admiral added in acknowledgment of the lull in the onslaught.
"I'll be damned," Captain Ruck said over the comms. "Admiral, you’re never going to believe what I'm seeing out here... There are four of the larger D'lralu cruisers parked between you and their fleet. They've somehow linked their shields... I didn't even know that was possible, and have you covered with an umbrella..."
"I'm betting it's the four who held vigil over Mars... Jason... Change of orders... Jump the Avenger as close to the station as you can... Do a fast dock and let's evac the command crew to your ship... I'm ordering a general evac for the entire station now."
"Roger that, Sir... We'll be right there"
***
The Second of the First was furious. His run was beginning to break thru the last of the human defenses, when suddenly, four of his own fleet placed their massive shields in a risky linked configuration, that effectively provided cover for most of the planet, including the space station he was attacking.
"Redirect fire... Everyone take those ships out!"
As the four D'lralu cruisers began to take the concentrated fire of his seven hundred strong wing, the Second of the First saw an incredible sight. The remaining human warships jumped, with unheard of agility, into protective positions to help defend the four D'lralu craft. He was about to order several of his smaller ships to use their escape pods to ram the hybrid fleet protecting the planet, when the order to stand down came in. The conflict with the humans was over... Without a clear victor.
***
Cat stood facing the forward view screen. The Yorktown jumped directly into near Earth orbit from the D'lralu system. With them were sixteen D'lralu light cruisers from the D'lralu Home Defense Network. They carried with them a delegation from the ruling council, as well as the newly elected First of the First. Ben had transferred to one of their ships, in order to manually provide jump
coordinates in a timely fashion.
The view Cat saw was heartbreaking. Orbital One was a gas venting mess. The once beautiful orbiting gardens, with their magical low gravity birds, were now open to the vacuum of space. The shipyards were a tangled mass of bent and fused metal. The command deck, while mostly intact, was leaking atmosphere from several locations.
As bad as Orbital One was... It was not the focus of Cat's attention. Visible even from space, Cat could see two nearly parallel slashes across northern Europe and into Russia. Smoke from fires could be seen drifting from the trenches dug by the powerful D'lralu energy beams.
Earth had won the day... But not without a terrible cost in lives.
Ben padded up beside her. His eyes followed hers to the view screen. "We need to ensure this never happens again. We did this to humanity but the D'lralu were never the real threat... That honor belongs to the race we call the Masters. They will come after both our races now... You realize that, don't you?"
***
JT Kirk stood on the bridge of the USC Hope. He was playing the role of ambassador and tour guide. Next to him stood a representative of the race who occupied this star system. The creature appeared to be a large lightly feathered kangaroo. The plumage was an iridescent green, that flirted with deep blues, depending on the angle they were viewed at. More interesting than the plumage was the story Gibby shared with the crew of the Hope.
Giblinanner was a member of a race the Hope's Heshe AI identified as the 'Hoppers'. Gibby confirmed this particular group had fled Hopper controlled space rather than participate in forced genocide. They had lived in isolation for many centuries. Their technology base had evolved to limit the likelihood they would be discovered. They had incredibly advanced cloaking technologies and a unique hyper field communication system that was both instantaneous and range limited. The Hoppers security was based on remaining unnoticed and yet despite their best efforts, humanity had literally stumbled on them.
With the discovery by the humans and the very real possibility of a mutual protection coalition, the naturally inquisitive Hupenstanii were again contemplating venturing out into the Galaxy.
The decision to join the nascent Galactic Coalition of Planets would be based on the impression that JT made on Gibby. The Heshe AI, Watson, provided invaluable guidance. Hoppers were curious but timid by nature. If humanity was going to earn the Hoppers' trust, the humans needed to convince the Hoppers, that neither their need to 'feel secure', nor their need to feel 'intellectually stimulated', were at odds with joining the GCP.
JT guided Gibby around the various consoles and stations on the new Enterprise class USC Hope. The shields and weapon systems got a cursory glance, but the numerous and diverse science stations seemed to be of particular interest to the visiting Hupenstanii.
"Tell me, Captain," Gibby said in his oddly accented but otherwise flawless English. "You have stations for astrometrics, stellar cartography, biosciences, geology, hyper field dynamics and even xeno-history. Most of your bridge seems to be dedicated to sciences of one sort or another. This seems to be at odds with a race as dedicated to war as yours seems to be."
"Not really," JT responded casually while walking the Hopper over to the library console. He inserted a Heshe data cube into a receptacle and entered a few commands before he continued speaking.
"Humanity is indeed a war-like race, but that doesn't define who we aspire to be. We make mistakes. We fight, sometimes for the wrong reasons. I think far more importantly, we are a passionate people... And it is those passions which drive us. Are we war-like? Yes. But many of us work very hard to find other solutions... To find other passions.
The starship Hope is first and foremost a ship of exploration. The simple fact is, our race is facing a relentless foe, and we need every ship we can build to defend ourselves... But sometimes a good friend is worth far more than another gun or missile. We seek to make friends. We seek to learn more. We seek the unseen sight. As a race we cannot believe we are unique in the galaxy in this desire."
Before he could continue he was interrupted by his communications officer. "Sir, we have a priority message coming in from Earth."
"Put it on the main speaker... We'll all listen to it together."
"This is Admiral Faragon, addressing all ships of the fleet. At 14:25 this date hostilities with the race known as the D'lralu have terminated. We have secured a modicum of peace and a new partner in our quest for a place in the galaxy. This did not come without a cost. Over forty million of our brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, friends and coworkers died fighting this war. It would be easy to be bitter. It would be easy to harbor a deep seated and unrelenting anger. I know... I lost children on Mars.
But I am telling you as your Commander... We have a far greater challenge ahead of us. The D'lralu have lost many times what we have lost... Including their home world, because of the hostilities foisted upon both our peoples by their overlords.
If history is any indication, we can expect their overlords, a race they call the 'Masters' because they simply have no other name to use, to attempt to eradicate the remaining D'lralu, and to force humanity to take their place as an agent of genocide. We have no intention of allowing either to occur.
As your commanding officer I am hereby informing the fleet that effective of this date the D'lralu are our allies. We will live and die in defense of each other, because to do otherwise would spell doom for both our peoples. That is all, Faragon out."
The bridge of the USC Hope was dead silent for several seconds. A soft beeping sound signaled the completion of a data dump to the data cube the Captain had stuck in the library console earlier. He extracted it, and handed the small device to the Hopper.
"This is a gift from humanity to the Hupenstanii. It's our history... The good, the bad and everything in between. We may not survive the coming weeks... It would be nice to know the universe will not forget us."
Chapter Twenty-Three – Overlords…
The Uruk were a hard people. They lived in a solar system with a sun that was older than most. The system had been blessed with multiple planets in the so-called Goldilocks zone, where liquid water could easily exist. Per God's design, life flourished. Not one but two intelligent species had developed in the Uruk solar system on planets four and five. Although separated by millions of miles of space, telescopes and primitive amplitude modulation radio systems allowed each species to monitor the progress of the other.
The Uruk, driven by their need to understand this other inhabited world in their backyard, worked with incredible diligence and tenacity to develop the technologies necessary to visit their sister world of Erech. Regretfully, as is often the case, when rapid technological change is achieved, the pace of technological advancement was not paralleled by a corresponding development in cultural maturity.
The Erech were not like the Uruk. They looked different. Their values were different. Their goals were different. They viewed the visiting and curious Uruk as invaders. The hand of peace was bitten. The Uruk were many things but forgetful and forgiving they were not.
Neither race accepted the existence of the other. What could have been a mutually beneficial partnership between two disparate peoples, instead evolved into an arms race that ultimately led to the enslavement of the Erech. The experience transformed the curious Uruk into staunch xenophobes.
Shortly after the Uruk sealed their domination over their sister planet, the star system was visited by a peace loving race of avian explorers called the Ashkelon. Completely unaware of the recent and war-torn history of this new star system, the Ashkelon explorers were quickly overwhelmed by the enslaved Erech soldiers, who fought for their Uruk masters.
The technology of the Ashkelon was rapidly assimilated by the Uruk. This included an interstellar drive technology, which allowed the transdimentional folding of space. The Humans would, thousands of years later, call this 'hyper field fold technology'. The technological advantages allowed the Uruk via their Erech proxies
to dominate and subsume the technologies of countless races.
Unfortunately the early xenophobic lessons learned by the Uruk became a cultural mandate. The strongest should survive to service the Uruk. All others should be eliminated. Over the course of many years the Erech were eventually defeated by a superior force. The Uruk, who saved the best technologies for themselves and maintained a vigorous research and development program, stepped in and took control of this new champion. This model became a pattern that repeated itself countless times over the course of several millennia... Each time the Uruk became stronger.
The monitoring systems, which the Uruk put in place around the D'lralu home system, activated in response to unusual activity. The powerful AI that was in place, analyzed the situation and reported a potential threat to its Uruk creator, another AI.