by Saxon Andrew
“Right away.”
• • •
The Glesen ship appeared in the outer system and asked for clearance to land. The display came on and the controller said, “I won’t stop you from landing but you should know that our planet has been infected with some kind of disease. We are stopping all flights of our ships in and out of our space ports. You are welcome to come if you choose. We will not dishonor our agreement with your people.”
The Glesen Commander said, “Don’t move any closer and scan the planet quickly.”
“Sir, the space port is empty and the construction facility is idle. There are hundreds of ambulances moving in the cities and there are bodies lying in the streets.”
“How many of their cities are affected?”
“It looks like all of the major cities.”
The Commander hit his control board, “We will return to our planet. Let us know when you have this under control.”
Another face appeared on the display, “I’m taking it from here. The previous controller has collapsed. We’ll notify you when things return to normal.”
“Sir, I’ve seen three warships that were lifting from the planet sent back to the surface. This must be quite serious.”
“Send the report and get us out of here.”
• • •
The Ramst King raised his head from his display and said, “You’ve seen the Glesen report?”
“I have. Has it been verified?”
“We can see bodies in the streets with our scanners. Their fleet above the surface has been moved twice the distance from the planet and six ships have been destroyed that were attempting to leave. It appears this epidemic is real.”
“Is there still no sign of a different battleship in their formations?”
“No, there’s not.”
“I’ll get back to you.”
• • •
Three days later the Scanner’s board alarmed, “We’re going to move your efforts elsewhere.”
“Why?”
“We’re wasting time scanning for something that isn’t there. The group feels we should be taking a close look at the other sector and what’s happening with their rebellious civilizations. We know for a fact those formidable battleships are there. We have the most powerful scanners in the sector and we have been requested to use them differently. The consensus is we’re wasting them on the Whites.”
“I’ll change their orientation but do you want me to keep one of the scanners on them?”
There was a long pause and the contact said, “No, it’s a waste of good machinery. Could you have missed anything?”
“You know how good my equipment is. If it was there, I’d know it.”
“I still wonder why that ship went to the Whites.”
“Whatever the reason, it appears they didn’t get what they were hoping to accomplish.” The Scanner looked at his display and said, “Since we’re going to be the first to know what happens in the other sector, we’ll have the best opportunity to take the most promising territory.”
“I didn’t know you were telepathic.”
“I’m not.”
“Then I like the way you think. Find us a good one.”
“Consider it done.”
• • •
“It looks like our plan worked.”
“It does but we need to expand this disease to other planets.”
“I’ve already started the process. Do you think they can tell if the bodies in the street are real or not?”
“The Ramst have scanners that could but everyone else doesn’t. If they are looking elsewhere, we should be fine. Just make sure the ship building facilities have a large number of them scattered around. That way they won’t be suspicious when no one is working. You should also have a large number of those close to the facility be on alert to run to the facility and lie down on the ground if we hear the Ramst are going to scan us.”
“I’ll make the assignments. We’ll move the construction crews and use them to help us make the modifications on the small ships. Those additional workers will be a huge blessing.”
“What’s the latest ship total?”
It’s well over three million and it’s becoming more difficult to hide the movement of materials to the secret locations.”
“One of the best things we did was to construct those locations inside moons and asteroids. Their metallic surface makes detection almost impossible.”
“I’m also glad we built most of them thousands of years ago.”
“We had to prepare for this moment in time. However, a large number of them are starting to run out of construction materials. Even a weak scan would see us delivering them to uninhabited locations.”
“What about this? Offload a land drill first; that will make it look like we’re going to mine the moon or asteroid. Start the drill and off load whatever you want. The spies will just think we’re doing exploration for natural resources.”
“What a great idea. I should have thought of that. I guess that’s why you’re Number One. They might also think we’re building places to move our sick.”
“Even better if they draw that conclusion.”
The Second paused a moment and said, “You know if all the others decided to combine against our friends, they will demand our participation. What are we going to do?”
“Participate, of course.”
“What?”
“We wouldn’t want to miss that party. Just make sure the noise makers are ready.”
The Second laughed and left the room.
• • •
“Loree.”
“Yes Mikal.”
“You do know I love you?”
Loree looked up from the data on the last test flights and stared at him. He continued to look down at his display. “No, I didn’t know that.”
Mikal kept his head down and said, “Well, I do. I just thought you should know.”
Loree looked back down at her display and said, “Thank you for telling me.”
Mikal held his breath hoping she would respond but he felt in his heart that she was just too good for him. She would never fall for someone like him. He took a deep breath and felt his heart in his throat. He should have thought of another way to tell her but he was just so clumsy with words and no one had ever described him as being romantic. He kept his eyes on his display and hoped he could slip out of the room unnoticed.
“When’s our wedding?”
Mikal almost fell out of his chair. He looked at Loree and saw her sitting in her chair staring at him with a twinkle in her eyes. Mikal forced himself to not show his excitement. “I thought we could decide that right after I come over there and kiss you.”
Loree’s lips moved to the right and she slowly nodded, “That sounds reasonable.”
Mikal jumped up and was in front of her in an instant. She stood and leaded back and he kissed her deeply. Loree had no idea he was such a good kisser. He broke the kiss and she said, “I really think we should discuss it after the next ten kisses.”
Mikal pulled her close and proceeded to follow her request.
Chapter Ten
The dark creature said, “No, leave that behind. I won’t need it.”
The aide dropped the old pad and said, “Congratulations on your promotion to the Central Council.”
“They were impressed with my new ships.”
“I understand there was an unfortunate accident.”
“Yes, one of my ships malfunctioned and destroyed eight of the ships coming out to escort it away. I promised the Council I would make repairs so it would not happen again.”
“Are you worried they might attempt something on your arrival?”
“Not really. They want the technology and were really surprised at my resourcefulness.”
“What is your pad?”
The large creature smiled, “Third.”
The aide shook his head hard, “That high! That’s impressive.”
“You�
�ll be coming with me.”
“I am?”
“Yes, I have quarters for you and your family close to mine. I’ve become accustomed to you and don’t want to train another.”
“Thank you.”
“Hurry up and get all this moved. There’s a conference about sending a combined fleet against the Minors and I don’t want to miss it.”
“Will they send your ships?”
“I don’t know. Why do you ask?”
“It could be your new position is due to them fearing you. You’d lose that if your ships happened to be on the front lines and were damaged or destroyed.”
The large creature stared at his aide and then said, “This is why you’re going with me. I’ll make sure my ships are not in the first attack.” The creature left for his transport and the aide continued packing his belongings. He didn’t mention that his cousin was building advanced ships out on the periphery of the nation. He really appreciated the copy of the construction diagrams of the new ships. His master might be agitated if he knew his nephew had four times as many ships in service. But the odds were good he wouldn’t learn that tidbit until it was too late.
The aide wasn’t really worried even if the ships were discovered. No one in the royal family had ever discovered the replacement of the egg in the hatchery. No one knew the new ruler was not a real member of that family. But his nephew knew who his real family was. That’s all that really counted. And he couldn’t be traced back to him.
The aide picked up a four hundred pound light fixture and moved it into a crate. He often wondered what happened to the egg that was replaced. The one who did it was not seen leaving with an egg in her possession. Eggs were sacred. What could have happened to it? He pushed the thought out of his mind. He didn’t want to even consider what the possibilities were. His mind refused to connect the female’s suicide to the replacement.
• • •
“The Majors are starting to gather ships to attack us.”
RV looked at the Hive Controller and said, “Do you have an idea of how many are coming?”
“It appears they have settled on sending twenty ships per planet. That means forty million will be used against us. I really expected only half that number.”
“What is your ship count?”
“We’re at three million and the Horde has another four million.”
“We have ten million. Have you decided on an attack plan?”
“You will make that plan. We agree that you know these ships better than us and you certainly know your ship’s capabilities and we don’t.”
“Then here’s what we’ll do. You will form the same three lines of a million ships each and wait for them to attack. Once they move on you, the remainder of your ships will hit their formations from the bottom and my ships will come in over the top. I’m not greatly concerned about that number. We have enough small craft to easily outnumber them. When you see us come in, launch your small craft and follow them in to the front ranks of the majors.”
“Will any of your ships be in the ranks of the three lines?”
“Yes; we will be in the middle and I would suggest you and the Horde have one line either above or below us.”
The Hive Controller paused and then said, “The beginning of the end.”
RV nodded, “We’ve been very fortunate they’ve given us this much time.”
“That’s changing.”
“I know but let’s worry about today. We’ll take care of tomorrow when it arrives.”
RV’s display went dark and he thought about his conversation with the White Civilization’s leader the week before.
“The Majors are going to combine and send twenty ships per planet against you. Our sector is discussing sending a fleet to take advantage of any Majors that are weakened by the conflict.”
“Are you taking part?”
“No.”
“Did that decision cause you problems?”
“Actually, they told us to stay out of it.”
“Why is that?”
“We told them that we are fighting a rather vicious disease on our planets and that it had a rather long incubation cycle. We have no way of knowing whose been exposed. I pointed out that our fleet leaders would have to meet with their personnel to plan this attack and we didn’t want to be held responsible if the plague was passed on to their worlds.”
“I guess they dropped the idea faster than a bad habit.”
“You are correct.”
“We’ll let you know what happens.”
“You know if you’re successful, they’ll come again with their entire inventory.”
“We know.”
The being stared at RV and said, “I’ll let you know if I find out anything more.”
“Thank you.”
• • •
Cyanna looked at RV, “Do you think they are going to help us in the end?”
RV shrugged.
“You have no idea?”
“Put yourself in their place. If they don’t agree to attack us when their sector combines, they will be the first stop of that combined fleet. What would you do?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
“And neither do they. They will help delay the Majors from starting their search for us after the battle. I’m sure the other sector will fall on them afterwards. That’s enough for me. The best friend we have is time.”
“What’s our worst enemy?”
RV stared at her and then said, “The end of time.”
Cyanna turned back to her console and decided she was going to make sure whatever time remained she was going to make good use of it.
• • •
Mikal and Loree were pleading with RV, “You’ve got to let us take part in this fight. Our fleets are ready.”
RV sighed, “You are not being excluded from this because of your battle experience. You’re not taking part because we don’t want our enemy to see your ships in action and come up with a plan to counter them. This battle is not the one that counts.”
“There is no counter against our ships.”
RV said, “Your ships couldn’t get close to my fleet.” Mikal and Loree became silent. RV said, “You don’t believe me. Let me tell you what I would do if I had to face your fleets. I’d have every ship in the first ten ranks have their beams set to automatically fire all of their beams as soon as a flicker appeared on one of my ship’s scanners. If that happened and more than twenty million ships all fired their beams around the edge of their formations, what do you think would happen to the incoming attack craft?”
Mikal looked at Loree and sighed, “Our incoming ships would be vaporized before they arrived.”
RV nodded. “But that’s not the reason I’m holding you out. There are ways around that tactic.”
Mikal’s eyes narrowed and he said, “There are?”
“Yes, there are. My concern is that once they learn you can penetrate their force fields, they’ll just open fire on the ships you’ve penetrated and destroy you that way. There is no real way to stop that. Your ships have to have the element of surprise to survive and I’m not willing to give that up in this initial battle.”
Loree said, “How would you defeat that first tactic?”
“I would jump your fleets two light minutes from the enemy’s formations and launch half of the attack craft. Those craft would jump one minute forward, turn on their scanners, and accelerate to 99% light speed. I would use the scanner to determine when the ships are less than a light second out and then slow down to hit their fleets. The only thing they’ll see on their scanners is that they are being scanned and our ships facing them will certainly be scanning them as they approach. Your ship’s scanners will not be seen because our scans will overwhelm their sensors. However, they will see if anything physical shows up in their scans.”
Mikal thought about it, “What about the other half of our ships?”
“As soon as the first half are launched, the fleets will jump to a
light minute above the enemy’s formations and launch the other half. If you time this right, the electronic signature of the first launch is still a minute from the enemy. Your ships should arrive at the same time and hit them before they see your first or second launch.”
Loree said, “Then what do we do with the main battleships in our fleets?”
“I would have a full complement of Needles and standard attack craft following my ships into the jump. Once the new attack craft are launched, I would come in right behind them with both my fleets and all of the small ships.”
Mikal said, “Why didn’t you suggest this before now. We’ll have to retrain all of our ships.” RV just smiled.
Loree laughed. Mikal looked at her and she said, “This keeps us out of the fight and keeps us busy so we won’t be sulking about not taking part.”
RV chuckled, “Boy, you are good!”
Mikal sighed, “I like this more. This way our main battleships will do their part in the fight. They’ll be more than just ship carriers.”
RV nodded, “And we’re going to need every one of them.”
• • •
Mikal took the shuttle away from the Havana and said, “That man is brilliant.”
“He’s certainly one of a kind. I’m glad he’s in charge.”
“Can we get our ships up to speed fast enough?”
“We have plenty of time. After this battle, the Majors will have a tough time organizing the next attack.” Loree paused, “I wonder where we’re going to get the standard attack craft and Needles?”
Mikal snorted, “Watch this.” Mikal pressed his communicator, “Boden, we’ve determined that we need a standard compliment of Needles and attack craft for the ships is our fleets.”
“They’re waiting for you to take delivery as soon as you’re ready.”
Mikal looked at Loree and said, “Did I tell you he was brilliant?”
“Yes, you did. But we’re not going to wait for him to tell us the obvious again.”
“What do you mean?”
“Standard Needles and attack craft launch ten times faster than our new ships. Why would we launch half and have the standard ships follow us? We’ll carry the standard ships on board and have all of the new ships follow us and launch from two minutes out. Then your fleet will follow them into the front ranks and my fleet will hit them from above. We’ll launch our standard small craft once we’re in their ranks.”