The Gravity of Anti-Gravity II

by Tim Blagge

  Our group broke up and went to rest too. Early the next morning we all gathered in the mess hall to recap our position. Just as we began to talk, the TV monitor sprang to life. A well known announcer, based in Prossfell came on recapping Velador’s dire situation and introduced General Boiknest, the woman who had given us the ultimatum in the first place. She had returned to Velador to personally deliver a message.

  “People of Velador,” she began. “You may not have been informed of the attack on Cromwell last night. Even though we did suffer some casualties, the pitiful attempt to intimidate us into falling into line on the proposal made by your rebel defense forces is ludicrous.

  If the nuclear weapons launched against us are the best defense you have, you cannot win or hope to force us to do anything we do not want to do. I have instructed our people not to retaliate at this time. However if there is even the smallest sign of resistance in the future, we will not hesitate to annihilate your planet.”

  Boiknest stood up and left the room and again the screen went blank.

  “I guess that calls for a meeting,” I said and added. “Before our troops have time to consider their actions and lose confidence, we’d better do something quick.”

  There was no need to call a meeting because all our team leaders were already in the mess hall or arrived immediately after the message from Boiknest ended.

  After a short discussion this time, we came up with a plan. We decided it was time for all-out war!

  We unanimously agreed to send a message to Boiknest before proceeding. One person would travel away from our facilities and simply make a call to her and give her the message. It had to be me. I would give Boiknest an hour to stand down and begin removing their people from the planet. If it was determined that no activity had begun, a full scale attack on Cromwell would commence.

  Assuming she determines that I was bluffing again, we’d have to make good on our threat.

  First as a diversion, we decided to send the remaining drones through the jump zone and attack Cromwell. We figured that tactic would draw the enemy ships to the drones before they got to the surface and do any damage.

  Second and shortly after the drones went through, we would launch six fighters without the large nukes to protect the next six fighters equipped with the large nukes. The six nuclear armed ships would be followed by six more fighters without nukes to protect the rear of the nuke carrying ships. The plan was to get the six nukes launched close enough to the planet’s surface so that gravity would pull them in and do the damage. Even if the nukes were fired upon before hitting the ground, they were programmed to detonate immediately causing even more wide spread damage than if they actually exploded on impact.

  The only danger was if the Cromwells didn’t chase the drones and destroyed our fighters before they could approach the planet.

  I called Pops and gave him the news.

  “Bill, from what I’ve seen, their ships are no match for ours so I believe your plan will work. I suggest we send up six more fighters to remain on this side of the jump zone though. If the Cromwells get wind of what we are doing they could destroy our fleet when we come back through the jump zone and are temporarily blind and defenseless.”

  I relayed Pops’ suggestion to our group and everyone was in agreement. The only person who protested was Stella.

  “I believe we should go all out and wipe Cromwell off the face of the universe.” Stella said with serious passion. “We will be committing half of our fighters and will only deliver a third of our arsenal.”

  We took a vote and the original plan won. Most of us were having real difficulty killing the billions of people who would die if we were successful.

  -Chapter 31-

  We decided to proceed in two days. Jerry went back to New Pasadena to be with Joanna. It was a somber mood all over our facility as we all knew our destiny awaited our next move.

  I spent as much time as I could with my wonderful wife. The love I felt for her deepened with each day and she helped me through the realization that I could become the impetus behind the largest destruction of intelligent life in the history of the universe. We spent hours in prayer asking for another way out. Before I knew it, it was time to leave and make my call.

  With two men to help protect me, we took a transporter to a remote location far from either of our facilities. At the appointed time I called Pops and made sure he was ready. It was a stupid call. Pops was the most prepared human being I’d ever known and this was no exception.

  I hung up the phone and called Boiknest.

  “This is Bill Burton the leader of the resistance,” I told whoever answered the phone, “and it is imperative I speak to General Boiknest now!”

  It took about three minute and a translator came on the line who said he would give my message to Boiknest.

  I delivered my message in the most solemn and serious way I could. I told her that the weapons we sent on our first attack were an attempt to get her to reconsider the Cromwell invasion of Velador. I explained that we possessed larger, more powerful nuclear weapons and we were prepared to use them if the Cromwells didn’t immediately begin to leave Velador.

  “How can we be certain that you have these weapons?” Boiknest asked.

  “You will know when we use them on your planet, General,” I answered. “Since you did not hesitate to kill over 100,000 people on this planet, you cannot possibly expect us to refrain from acting in kind. We have no desire to attack your planet or kill your citizens but we must insist that you leave this planet immediately. You have one hour to respond.” I then disconnected and immediately called Pops.

  “I’m not going to discuss this with anybody at our facility Pops. This is a decision that only we will make.” I said with my voice sounding a little shaky and emotional.

  “Calm down, Bill and tell me what’s on your mind.” Pops said trying to get me to clear my head and communicate precisely.

  “I’d like to adjust our plan a little. My sense is that General Boiknest, the leader of the Cromwells on Velador doesn’t believe we have the ability to destroy them. I just talked to her through an interpreter and as you know gave her and hour to begin her departure. I’m ninety-eight percent sure she has no plans to do that so we will have to demonstrate our capability to her. I’d like to keep our plan the same but with a couple exceptions. The first part of the plan stays the same. We send the same number of ships to Cromwell that we agreed upon earlier. The part of the plan sending the remaining eight drones with tactical nukes as decoys also stays the same. Hopefully some of them will reach their targets before the Cromwell ships destroy them. We change our second goal of dropping six big bombs to one. I’d like to drop that one in a less populated location killing the fewest people possible. When the Cromwell defense forces come to challenge us, we momentarily turn off our electronic evasion devices so the Cromwells can see that there are five more nukes available to us. Our fighters will engage the enemy and assuming we win most of those battles, our forces should immediately return home.”

  “When we encounter resistance on this side of the jump zone, we make sure we have enough forces to win that battle too. Have all your other ships standing by. When I get back to our facility I’ll have our Big Bertha ships there ready to engage the enemy too. We’ll have them circle the planet away from the jump zone and when the Cromwell ships are drawn to the jump zone area to engage our returning fighters, our other ships will take them on from behind and catch them in a cross fire.”

  “Bill, I get it and I like it,” Pops said. “You get your butt back and prepare your men. Good luck and may God help us all.”

  The three of us jumped in our transport and pushed the vehicle to the limit returning to our facility in half the time it took us to get to our remote call location. I called ahead and had everyone assemble in the hangar area where our ships were stored. I ordered our pilots and crews into their ships and told them to prepare for battle.

  “What’s going on Bill?” Stella
screamed. I gave her the short version describing the changes in the plan and got on the intercom to the pilots.

  “On my command, the front squadron of eighteen ships will leave this facility and join an expected fight with the Cromwells near the jump zone. You will approach from the backside of the Velador and should be able to get the Cromwells attacking our returning fighters in crossfire. Be careful not to hit your own ships!”

  “If you encounter any other enemy ships along the way, the closest two ships must break away and engage and destroy the Cromwell ship or ships. Tell us and if any of our vessels have left the group to go after any stray Cromwell ships. We will immediately dispatch more of our ships to take their place. Sit tight and we’ll give you your launch instruction as soon as we know more.”

  Brenda, Rolf and two of the other commanders were standing there when Stella started screaming at me.

  “Who do you think you are you gutless pawn! Did you say that you were only going to drop one large nuke on Cromwell and do it in a less populated area? These people are planning on eliminating the entire Veladorian people and society and you have the unmitigated gall to, on your own, to show them mercy? You have lost your mind. I’m going to call Pops and reverse that order!”

  “Too late,” I responded calmly. “It’s been sixty-nine minutes since I talked to Boiknest. Our fighters should be going through the jump zone now with their new orders.”

  “You are a fool’s fool, Burton,” Stella continued. “I am hereby relieving you of any responsibility or authority for the defense of Velador. Please go to your quarters and stay there until you are called for.”

  “I certainly hope you send these ships here like I ordered, Commander Gruslimock! They will be needed in the fight and if they can eliminate some of the Cromwell ships carrying nukes, it will make your planet less vulnerable. Call me if you need me.”

  Brenda and I held hands and began walking to our room. After a few minutes of walking where we didn’t talk at all, Brenda stopped, faced me and asked. “Bill, I’m curious. Why did you change the order to give Cromwell a serious pounding?”

  I thought about Brenda’s question for a moment and answered truthfully.

  “First, I didn’t want the ‘murderer of billions’ noose hung around my neck for the rest of my life. Secondly, I figured out that Boiknest only needed to be certain that we have the abilities we said we did. When she gets notified that we were not lying, just simply trying to save lives on both planets, I believe she’ll come around.”

  “God spoke to you Bill,” Brenda said as she squeezed my arm and kissed me on the cheek. “And I’m glad you listened!”

  “I certainly hope so Brenda. But if Stella has her way, I’ll be spending the rest of my life in a Veladorian prison.”

  For about an hour, Brenda and I laid quietly on the bed, looking at the ceiling and contemplating our future when one of the commanders came in.

  “Bill, you are wanted in the lunchroom.”

  -Chapter 32-

  I looked at Brenda and she looked at me. “They don’t flog people or put then in front of a firing squad on Velador, do they?” I asked. “Maybe Stella has convinced Rolf to kick my ass as payback for what I did. Please accompany me to the gallows my dear.” I said as I held out my arm for Brenda to take.

  We walked into the mess hall where everyone was assembled with an extremely serious look on their face. The Commander said that a broadcast had been received and it was from General Boiknest. “Bill we recorded this message and thought you’d like to see it.”

  After some bouncing and shifting video, the screen cleared and out walked General Boiknest.

  “I am broadcasting this message to the people of Velador because I am unable to contact the person I want to thank directly. His name is Bill Burton. In the last few hours he tried to warn me that his forces had developed superior weapons and had the ability to decimate Cromwell.

  In my skepticism, I believed he was lying and decided to call his bluff. As it turns out, he was telling the truth all along. When your vessels entered our airspace, we thought we could destroy them before they did any harm. Through a clever diversion we allowed your ships to drop a lone, very powerful nuclear weapon on a remote area of our planet. We determined that at least five other weapons were available to your invading force and could have destroyed large parts of our planet and killed millions of our people.

  It is apparent Mr. Burton was only trying to prove to me that he possessed the power without using it. I commend his self-restraint and offer our surrender to the Government of the Planet of Velador. If Mr. Burton’s offer to supply us fuel and assist in our search for a new home planet as he extended previously is still an option, we would welcome his and your assistance.

  I am formally inviting Mr. Burton to join me on Cromwell or any location he specifies where we can negotiate the details of our future collaboration. Our Superior Leader has asked to participate in any meeting.

  Our forces will immediately begin returning to Cromwell.”

  The screen went black and a huge cheer went up from the smallish crowd. Everyone was hugging and saluting. It was near pandemonium. I looked at Stella and Rolf and they were subdued but smiling at this incredible turn of events. I turned away and a minute later there was a tap on my shoulder. It was Stella.

  “I guess I owe you an apology,” she said.

  “No big,” I answered. “It’s been a stressful time for all of us.”

  “I hope we can remain friends Bill,” Stella said with a contrite smile but then again, not entirely believable. “I just wanted all those bastards killed so we could return to a normal life. And maybe my hormones were acting up a little. I am sorry.”

  “Don’t worry Stella; we’ll get past this whole mess. Now it’s time to celebrate. We won! I’m not sure how, but we won! Do you have any champagne? An occasion this momentous definitely calls for champagne.”

  I pulled out my phone and called Pops. “You must feel like the king of the world Bill,” Pops answered and said. “Congratulations; your strategy worked. The people here have gone nuts and Jerry and Joanna are right in the middle of the celebration. You know together they downed three Cromwell ships before the rest of their ships were ordered to stand down. I’m going to let them tell you about that. Maybe we can all go home soon. What do you think about that young man?”

  “Pops, I’m just glad it’s over. By the sounds in the background you should get back to your party. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  “Wait Bill,” Pops demanded. “Hey everybody young Bill’s on the phone. How do we feel about him right now?”

  A deafening cheer rang out with people yelling thanks from what sounded like every corner of the room. Pops came back on and said goodbye and “I love you son.”

  Suddenly in the emotion of the moment, I teared up and felt I had to hug Brenda. “I love you, Brenda,” I whispered in her ear.

  “I love you too, Bill.”

  The next day about noon, we all met in the conference room at the desert location to plan our next moves. Blosh, Pops, Grandma, Jerry and Joanna arrived early. It was wonderful to get my entire family together and discuss the past few months.

  “Joanna,” I asked after we all exchanged hugs. “I understand you’re a fighter pilot ace now.”

  “If you mean am I the person who shot down the most Cromwell ships, well then, yes I am.” Joanna answered. “But the credit goes to Pops and his engineers. As we saw, when you have superior equipment, it makes the job much easier.”

  “Were you ever scared?”

  “Of course, but after the shooting started, my survival instinct took over.” Joanna explained. “It’s a real rush when your brain starts working at top speed and you are trying to maneuver your ship and anticipate the enemy’s next move.”

  “Was Jerry a good co-pilot” I asked.

  “After the whining and crying stopped, he was just fine,” Joanna said jokingly as she looked at Jerry with loving eyes.

&nb
sp; “Man, those fighters were scary, fun and potent all at the same time.” Jerry joined the conversation and said. “With Joanna at the wheel it reminded me of that horror movie where you’re on a tilt-a-whirl and the deranged operator keeps speeding up the machine until your head explodes. I’ll bet those Cromwell pilots got whiplash trying to follow us so they could get a shot.”

  “Sounds like a great time Jerry,” Stella said as she walked up. “It’s time to start the meeting. Would everyone please take a seat.”

  “I’ll see you after the meeting,” I said as I stood up, put my arm around Brenda and began to steer her away from the conference room.

  “Where are you going Bill?” Stella asked.

  “Since you relieved me of duty, Gruslimock, I didn’t think I was invited,” I said with the extreme sarcasm I thought was appropriate.

  “Now Bill,” Stella said. “I thought we were going to forgive and forget my verbal indiscretion. If you please, I am rescinding that order and you are directed to attend our meeting. Last time I checked, you are the man of the hour and your presence is mandatory.”

  Fresh from victory, the meeting took on a light congenial tone. Stella, who chaired the gathering, opened the discussion by reminding people that for now, our facilities must remain a secret.

  “We have reports that the Cromwells are leaving our planet but until their departure is complete, I suggest we not divulge this location or New Pasadena.” Stella said. “The first order of business is to determine the level of forces we need to defend our planet from any future threat. The second topic revolves around making good on Bill’s promises to the Cromwells which includes his meeting with their Head of State. The third issue is how we coordinate the transition of our defense forces back into the legitimate Government of Velador. We know there were informants there and my suspicion is that the loyalties of our leaders may have been compromised during the occupation.”