by Tim Blagge
“If we ever do need to confront them outside, it will be the beginning of an all out war.” Stella added. “If our ships leave from here and the enemy becomes aware of this facility, there would be no place to hide our vessels so we might as well fight to the death. I went to a meeting with our flight crews yesterday and that was the decision and mandate.”
“That’s a tough way to live.” I said as I pondered the situation in which the pilots found themselves. “If that happens, it would be nice to coordinate that outcome with our fighters in New Pasadena. I’ll bet we could take out the Cromwells ships completely if we did it right.”
“Possibly Bill,” Stella commented. “The problem to consider is the consequences if we don’t succeed. It would be over for Velador and Earth would be next. We’ve got to be certain we will be victorious before we execute any full scale counter attack.”
A minute later, the all-clear sounded.
“Stella, one more question,” I asked. “Who authorized the broadcast of the tape of the Cromwell soldier we all just saw? Was it your boss Mindcon or someone that Blosh knows?”
“I’m not sure Bill. It could be either or both in combination. Since I wasn’t consulted on the broadcast, I’m not certain who is responsible.”
“What do you think of the timing?” I asked.
“It seemed appropriate to demonize the enemy at this time to keep the anti-Cromwell sentiment of the population churning. Unfortunately, the retaliation could be harsh.” Stella added as she thought about it.
Brenda and I left Stella and Rolf and went to the mess hall to see Jerry just sitting down.
“Man I miss Joanna,” was his first comment.
“I understand Jerry. This has been the longest time Brenda and I have spent together since we got hitched. What’s it been Brenda, almost three consecutive days now?”
Before Brenda answered if she really wanted to answer at all, my phone rang. It was Pops again.
“Bill, I just talked to Rolf and the commander of your facility there. We are sending a transport to your location to pick up the nukes you stole last night. I need them so we can finish our design of a vehicle that can transport them anywhere. It’s the size and shape of the artillery shells we will be adding to our design and then we can start building them.”
“What are you planning to make?” I asked.
“The closest description would be a drone that we hope will be able to travel, on its own, through the jump zone to Cromwell. If we are successful, it might give those sons-of-bitches a hearty wake up call.”
“How are you doing on plan ‘A’? That sounds like Plan ‘B’ to me,” I said.
“We’ve been able to get a bunch more centrifuges functional in the last few days so now our capacity exceeds what we need for our new fighters. Within about a week we should have enough enriched fuel to build one or two modest sized nukes then one to two more each week thereafter.”
“How many fighters have you produced so far?” I asked Pops. “By all accounts, those are the Ferrari of the space ship world.”
“Turns out you’re right and we now have eleven with one coming off the production line every day. As long as the Cromwells don’t cut our supply of parts and the people here can train enough pilots, in a month we will be a force to be reckoned with.”
“Pops, I’ll see you when I get there with the nukes later tonight. Jerry wants to see Joanna and I’d like to get caught up on our progress. See you soon.”
“Before we all go back to our rooms, there’s one more thing I’d like to discuss.” I said to Jerry and Brenda. “Did you see how upset Rolf got when I asked him questions about Mindcon? In all your time with him, have you ever seen him get that upset?”
“I’ve never seen Rolf get upset about anything,” Jerry answered. “Rolf has always had the coolest head I’ve ever seen. That’s why I’ve always respected him like I do. The more I think about it though, the more out of character it was for him.”
“I agree with both of you,” Brenda added. “Even though it did look like you were prying, I think he over reacted. To go back to your earlier comment Mr. Bill, is three consecutive days with me all you can tolerate now that I just heard you’re leaving tonight?”
“You know Brenda I’m trying to keep us alive and I’ve got to do whatever I can to insure that outcome.”
“I fully understand but In that case; I’d like to see you in our room. There’s something I want to get off my chest,” Brenda said with a sexy gleam in her eye.
“I definitely like the sound of those words young lady!”
-Chapter 30-
The next two months were quiet at least as far as we were concerned. I went back and forth between New Pasadena where Pops was fine tuning his new hardware and the Utah desert where Stella and Brenda were staying.
The Cromwells had continued to bring forces to Velador and had begun mining Uranium ore and were loading it onto their transfer vessel. More and more areas had Cromwell people installed as the new power in town complete with a contingent of soldiers. Any police were relieved of duty and their salaries cut off. The search for our resistance movement continued but the thrust of the investigation seemed to be focused on other areas on the planet.
With demand for all goods diminishing in the conflict, more and more citizens lost their jobs and had their income eliminated per a decree from the enemy. For the first time in three hundred years, some of the people of Velador were going hungry and the numbers were growing by the day. People tried to help their fellow citizens but the situation was becoming dire for many. Much of the food that was being produced was seized, loaded onto the transfer vessel and sent to Cromwell leaving a shortage of food and other subsistence items. The Cromwells were slowly putting an economic strangle hold around the entire planet and it was quickly working. The Cromwells became more confident and arrogant as the days wore on.
Stella, having been the person originally appointed to head up the defense on Velador, requested a meeting with all of us including Pops and Blosh at the desert location. With our situation deteriorating it was time to act.
“Pops,” Stella opened the meeting. “Please get everyone up to date on your current status.”
Pops was well prepared and as he began and it became wildly apparent that he was the right man for the job that he’d been assigned.
“First the fighter inventory stands at forty-nine. Our available fighter crews stands at thirty-nine. The next graduating class who will complete training within four days should balance these numbers. The only issue is that most of our crews have never actually piloted the craft so their abilities will be in doubt until they actually perform in the air. Our flight simulators have been tweaked based on the combat that a few of our pilots have engaged in so now the simulators should be an accurate trainer. But unfortunately, until our people are actually confronted by the enemy, we won’t know if they can actually do the job.”
“Second, our engineers have built the sixteen drones that can carry the Russian nuclear tipped shells. They have been designed to be able to transit the jump zone to Cromwell if required. We are not absolutely convinced these shells will actually work and even if they do, their potency may be reduced.” Pops continued.”
“I am pleased to report that we have built twelve nuclear weapons of significant power. Within two weeks we will have enough fuel to build six more. That’s all I have to report for now.”
“Pops, I‘m amazed.” Stella began. “Okay people, let’s hammer out a plan. It’s time to take our homeland back!”
For about an hour we all argued back and forth on how to proceed. Most of the Veladorians including Rolf and Stella wanted an all out attack. They argued in favor of using our full abilities to decimate the enemy forces around Velador and take all our nukes to Cromwell and put an end to their planet. I came up with a different plan.
“The danger of an all out counter attack is that before you could destroy all the enemy air ships, some of the nukes will be ran
domly jettisoned toward Velador.” I began. “The devastation that would cause must be avoided if at all possible.”
“We need to convince the Cromwells that if they do not pack up and leave on our terms, we will make their planet uninhabitable for a thousand years.”
“Won’t that make them unleash their full force against Velador?” Blosh asked.
“Probably not considering they are planning to take up residence here as soon as they can. But as I said, if we attack their ships there’s no telling what the individual pilots may do.”
“Here’s my plan and I am volunteering to be the point man if we can all agree to do this.” I said as I laid out the general framework. “We create a video with me as the spokesperson. I speak in English with both Veladorian and Cromwell subtitles. I inform our populace as well as our enemies that we have overwhelming force available to us. I tell both worlds that the last thing we want to do is to destroy another civilization but we will if we must.”
“As an independent arbiter of the planetary dispute because I am from neither Velador nor Cromwell, I offer Velador’s full assistance to find the Cromwells a suitable planet to which they can move when it becomes absolutely necessary. I’ll offer enough material to power Cromwell but not enough to make any additional weapons. The obvious stipulation is that the Cromwells remove themselves from Velador immediately.”
“We must make this video look like it originates from somewhere else on the planet so the enemy can’t zero in on our location. We can create the announcement immediately and broadcast it as soon as we have completed the preparations required to carry out our threats if necessary. And here’s the corker. If the Cromwells think we are bluffing, and they will; we send few of our tactical nuclear drones that Pops built and aim them at remote areas of their planet. Hopefully these will go boom and the Cromwells will believe me and give up. If they don’t detonate, we’ll have to send one of our larger ships into their space with the big bombs to prove our abilities.”
“Bill,” Pops interrupted. “I think we can adapt our fighters to carry one of our heavy nukes. They would be almost impossible to stop so making our point would be easier.”
“As long as you can do it quickly, that’s a great idea, Pops”
Even though there was some disagreement on some minor parts of the strategy by a few participants, it was agreed to execute my general plan.
A week later it was time to video my announcement. As I stood in front of the tiny camera I started to have second thoughts. Why was I putting myself smack in the middle of a war between two worlds? With Pops help, I could have stolen a ship and we could all be back on Earth living a quiet life. With Brenda’s diamond stash we’d be set for life. I was wondering if my life as a nerd caused me to yearn to be something more. But, then again, I liked my life as a cognitive human, now with a fantastic wife and a baby on the way. Why do I need all this egocentric, save the planet crap? It’s just me, Bill Burton and I am probably not going to live through this. The entire mess was starting to make me crazy.
“Brenda, are you sure I should do this? I think it would be easy to talk me out of it right now.”
“Bill, you’ve shown me how smart and brave you are. The fact that you are one of only four people on Velador, who was not born on either planet, makes you the logical choice to be the judge of the dispute. I can’t tell you how proud of you I am Bill and I know everything will turn out for the better. Go get ‘em tiger!”
For an instant, I felt ten feet tall after Brenda’s comments. But then reality raised its ugly head. I had to finally admit that from Brenda, to Stella and back to Brenda I was a sucker for a pretty face and a great body. I was a consummate manipulatee! Shaped, wielded and exploited by love, lust or, most likely, a combination of the two to make me a better person or maybe make me a fool. But again, for whatever the reason, I’d stepped into an unpleasant predicament and I saw no way to escape.
“Okay, let’s do this,” I said meekly but with some determination. The man operating the camera nodded and I began.
“People of Velador and people of Cromwell; my name is Bill Burton and I come before you as an emissary from another planet called Earth. The circumstances of my presence on Velador are not important. Putting an end to the hostilities is!
I speak from a position of authority granted not by the government of either of the disputing parties but as the head of a small band of patriots determined to return both great civilizations to respectful negotiation. Our goal is not to control or rule anything or anyone. Our objective is to restore the sovereign government to Velador and to remove the Cromwell threat from this planet.
We understand the motivations of the people of both planets and to satisfy everyone, we have a proposal. Understanding that Cromwell is a slowly dying world, the government of Velador will agree to help Cromwell find a suitable new planetary home that is currently not inhabited by intelligent life. The Veladorians have identified several possible planets and will be willing to assist the Cromwells in their relocation efforts.
During this relocation period, Velador will agree to supply only enough uranium ore to enable Cromwells to power their planet while they decide on how to facilitate their future. The manufacture of additional offensive weapons will be prohibited by this agreement.
It is incumbent on both sides to abide by these mandates and all disputes will be mediated by a council of both peoples.
In the event that the Cromwells do not immediately cease their takeover of Velador, we will bring the full force of our arsenal to accomplish our mandate. We fully encourage full cooperation by all parties to avoid any further hostilities and loss of life. All people be warned; we are ready and able to carry out this threat!”
The camera was shut off and the tenseness I’d felt, slowly drained from my body.
“Nice job Bill,” Brenda said, “and only one take. I got chills watching you. If this doesn’t work, nothing will.”
Stella, Rolf, Jerry, Joanna and several other Veladorians came up and congratulated me too.
“I just think you people are happy that it was me who just painted a monstrous target on his forehead instead of you,” I said.
That comment got a smile from the group in the room but I couldn’t have been more serious.
We all decided to wait a week before we aired the video. Stella was able to get it to Mindcon the old fashioned way; through a currier. The risk of transmitting it was too great she explained and I didn’t know enough about their technology to argue with her.
Finally the day came. The video was to be broadcast at mid day. About mid morning I called Pops for an update. “Bill we’re ready and have built eighteen nukes and installed twelve of them on our fighters. The drones are positioned and camouflaged outside and can be launched at any time.”
“As you know the video will be transmitted in about an hour so hang onto your hat or wits or the bed post and let’s hope we get a non-violent response,” I said.
At the designated time, the regular broadcast was interrupted and my announcement came on the screen. We all held our breath as the message went out across the planet. The information ended and regular programming was restored.
“It will take a while before the Cromwells digest this message and respond.” Stella said. “And as we discussed, don’t be surprised if they think we are bluffing.”
Two hours later we got our response.
Three more cities had nukes dropped on them. This time they were more powerful explosives and the death toll began to come in. First, the casualties were estimated at 50,000. Soon afterward they were increased to over 100,000.
Soon after, Chancellor ‘B’ made a statement and we were all stunned.
“I order the resistance movement to stand down. We have already surrendered to the Cromwell Federation and resistance will not be tolerated. Anyone having information as to the location of the traitors who produced the video of four hours ago is ordered to get that information to us so we can exact the appropr
iate punishment. These people are responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens’ lives and must be stopped!”
Chancellor ‘B’ stopped talking and the screen went blank followed by nothing.
“The Cromwells must have shut down the entire system,” Stella said. So do we launch our first barrage of tactical nukes at Cromwell?”
“Hell yes!” was the consensus of the group.
“Hello Pops” I said. “As soon as it’s dark, go ahead and launch half of your drones to Cromwell. I’m sure you’ve seen the news and those assholes have asked for it. Launching half will give us the other half available in the event the first group doesn’t convince them that we have the capability to annihilate them. And don’t stop producing the big bombs, I’ve got a feeling we’re going to need them.”
“Bill, tell your people I am going to send four fighters to escort the drones and one through the jump zone to inspect the damage.” Pops recommended. “If they don’t work, it’s going to get uglier than it already is.”
“Okay Pops, I know I don’t have to tell you this but keep me posted.”
We all hung around the mess hall with the TV monitor on, hoping that at some point the signal would resume. About three in the morning, my phone rang and it was Pops.
“Give me some good news, Pops.”
“I’d say we were partially successful. Of the eight drones we launched, seven made it through to Cromwell space. All of those drones hit the surface but only five detonated and two of those explosions were sub-par. The remaining three performed properly. None of our fighters were even noticed so they are all back here. Call me with my next orders, Bill; I’m going to get some sleep.”