Guardian Stone 2: Stone and the T-Raptors

by Don Koch

  "Yes, our orders were to destroy that ship because it was contaminated. We were given no specifics."

  "I thought so and I did not want to allow that condition to prevail. So I paid a little visit to the monitor ship and gave them a hint they could not ignore. The captain of that ship took the hint and detoured. He went to Saban Fleet One and told them what he knew. Hopefully, the Commander of that fleet was smart enough to understand what was going on and would take steps to see that the information did not die with the monitors or himself. Unless I miss my guess, Fleet Two probably knows by now as well. We did see a courier dispatched from Fleet One about an hour after the arrival of the monitor ship. Your three dreadnaughts were to be a lesson to the rest of the Fleet. I think that message is starting to get through. The fact that the three captains of those ships are also missing, thank you for that by the way, is going to plant another seed of doubt amongst your military. When your Ruler realizes that the tracking devices do not locate you and your friends, he should really begin to wonder what he is really up against. You see, I have been trying to set in motion a plan that supports the very condition that you want, avoid the needless slaughter. I do not want to go in blasting with my warships because, we could in fact, totally destroy those fleets and suffer no harm ourselves. I do not want that kind of mayhem on my conscience. I am not impacted by politics that might dictate my path of action so that gives me a pretty free hand. Make no mistake however, if circumstances require it, we can be pretty ruthless."

  "You are heading in the very direction that I could only have hoped for and it is a total surprise to me. I did not begin to see that you were proceeding in this manner. This is perfect. Something you should know however, the orbital fortresses are different than our ships and dreadnaughts. They have access to energy frequencies and power sources that we can't begin to imagine. I heard one engineer refer to them as powered by singularities. These can't be installed on our dreadnaughts. You really should avoid those things because I do not think that even your shields will be sufficient."

  "You may be correct but I have a plan for that. I don't necessarily want to destroy those fortresses because the planet may eventually need them. I think that Harvey may pay them a visit and see what comes of that. I need a bit more information if you are willing to share. I should tell you that the 821 spies that were sent to the hegemony were all captured alive. The implanted devices were all removed and destroyed before Saba could use them. Because of this the Ruler does not know they are still alive. Most of those spies are really nasty cases. Some of the most evil individuals I have encountered. They are all in stasis in a special ship used for that purpose. They will stay that way until we can deposit them on Saba. They had a coded signal to send to the Ruler to initiate conflict. It was to be used to indicate the sabotage was done. We were a bit disturbed by the message because it implied that humans were viewed as food."

  "Good All-One, that is barbaric, horrendous and nothing could be further from the truth. Human flesh is a poison to our kind. I can't imagine or understand why they would encourage such a fabrication."

  "Oh, I think I can. The idea of leading an enemy to an inappropriate belief because it is advantageous to your military goals, has long been a tactic used by the military on our planet. We are using the same concept in this campaign and ultimately that is what will allow us to avoid killing many. Our use of Harvey is just such a tactic. In our case however, we can give these nightmares physicality. The program that the Ruler is using has the opposite effect. It has tended to stiffen our resolve and may result in us being more bloodthirsty than is beneficial to our effectiveness. I am glad we were able to nip that off before it got out of hand."

  Foss asked, "Why are you telling us all of this? Are we not considered the enemy?"

  "Foss, it has been fairly clear since this conversation started that our combined interests are to end this whole exercise as bloodlessly as is possible. I do not know how many lost their lives on those dreadnaughts but we knew that the guns, the energy projectors were separate from where the gunners that operated them and our goal was to take out the equipment not the people operating them. Was there loss of life?"

  "No, I was surprised that there was no loss of life in view of the physical damage to the weapons. I was not aware that was your intention. There were a few minor injuries but nothing serious. I am amazed that you went into battle with the express intent to limit the killing and succeeded."

  "We felt that we had the technological advantage. We already knew that we had the numerical advantage. That 'little' ship that you encountered could literally destroy a planet, not that we ever would. The existing technological disparity gives us a huge advantage over Saba. That advantage allows us to explore options that are not usually available in a combat situation. We can try to find ways to salvage the situation and allow people to live. So far we have been reasonably successful at this. I only hope that luxury continues. Saba came to our attention by the fortuitous misdeed of the former High Councilor of the Yannarian Hegemony. When we arrived on scene 26 days ago he was about to launch Starkiller weapons against 3 systems including Saba. We used Harvey to depose the High Councilor because no one should be able to cause that kind of mass murder."

  "We evacuated one of the systems because the weapon had been launched and we could not rely on the likelihood that we would find it before it became operational. Fortunately, we were able to locate and destroy the weapons for that system before they became operational. We have since returned everyone in that system to their home. The other two weapons were caught before launch. We wondered why a weapon was targeted for your system and started our investigation only to find that your system was preparing an attack against the hegemony. As part of the investigation we also discovered the spies and took remedial action. I guess you could say we have our hands full. Many of us are new to life in space. I personally have only been at this for 17 months and we have already prevented two large invasions over a 4,000 light year stretch. Now here I am more than 9,000 light years from my home planet trying to do that again. All of that is a rather long story that we will not get into just now."

  "Barana can fill you in on our background. Barana is this station and she is one of three persons that govern this station and the Fleet. The second is Fador, an Antoran, whose people put this fleet together. I am the third and am in Command of the military part of 100 stations and the warships they contain. But now we need to talk about what is next."

  "When Harvey and I visited the monitor vessel we pointed out that no one in our sphere of influence would be permitted to carry its conflicts into space and we meant it. The Antoran fleet will be providing that kind of security. We are multi species. We have humans of Antoran origins, Earth origins, and several other systems not that far from Earth, seven in all. We are now adding humans from the Yannarian sector. We also have Glarin, Linan and Gar. We hope that your people will be joining us in the near future. Both the Glarin and Gar were antagonists in the past two years and are now an integral part of the Antoran Fleet. Here is what I have in mind." Hank went on to describe his plan of action.

  "That should work, particularly if you can disable our communications in the way you describe. Most of my fellow officers are good people and many of them are suspicious of the edicts coming from the Ruler. He will not let them near Saba directly except for two or three at a time and then always under the guns of the forts."

  Hank listened to a message from Barana and then started chuckling, he said, "Jess, that old Admiral Sass of yours is one cagey old snake. He has just given himself an escape route though he can't be sure it will work that way. Nevertheless he has set the right wheels in motion. The office of the Ruler has just announced that the Royal yacht will be doing a flyby of the Saban gas giant Fumis with the Admiral aboard to pay respects to his wife who died there, or so they believe. This gives us the opportunity to extract him right from under their noses. It's a trap as sure as can be but they do not know what they are up aga
inst. I suspect that they will put some kind of tracker on him with the idea that if he leaves the yacht, they will fire at the tracker. They must have their suspicions about him, so the Admiral is about to disappear big time. Alain Martell and Larisa on Station 18 have been itching for some fun. Barana would you please hail Alain and Larisa, I have an assignment for them."

  "Hello Larisa, hello Alain old bean, how would you two like to have some fun?"

  "You bet we would. Let me guess, you want us to tweak the tail of the Saban Ruler, right?"

  "You are getting too good at anticipating what I am going to propose, but in a manner of speaking, that is pretty much what we have in mind." Hank explained what he wanted done and Barana briefed Larisa on how to deal with the implant. "You guys be a lot extra careful out there and do not be placed in a position to have one of those orbital forts fire on you or those on the planet for that matter. Once you have done the extraction, bring him to me poste haste."

  "You've got it mon ami. I am not ready to be a burnt croissant just yet. I have the ID and we will confirm that he is who he says he is before we deliver."

  ### 5 hours later ###

  Station 18 sat in space next to Station One. Alain said, "Hey Hank old buddy, I have a present for you. I like this old snake. He is very interesting. Any way it is him. Your visitors will be able to confirm that. We parked the bus about 3,000 miles away from the pickoff point we had selected and waited. Larisa tuned in on Sass. When she was ready, she deposited the two extra implants on board the yacht, both with trackers going full blast and reconfigured the one we were leaving in to communication and made all other functions inoperable. She also deposited the pilots device in the seat beside him and extracted him as well. She did all this in 1/10 of a second and as soon as they were on board we did an exit stage left. The Orbital fort fired at the two operable trackers before you could say cest la vie and the yacht disappeared as did a small asteroid 900 miles further downrange. I think that thing could hurt us. As we exited, Larisa did a full scan of the orbital fort so we should be able to see what it does besides blast things to nothing. You are not going to believe the energy readings off that thing. Larisa should be able to give you an effective range as well. Looks to me like one of your special visits might be in order there. What do you want us to do with the pilot?"

  "Send him on over to us with the Admiral. Barana and Larisa will coordinate where. We will meet them with the whole Saban crew."

  The entire Saban retinue was assembled at the conference area near Denali II. When the Admiral and his pilot arrived, Hank stepped forward to meet him saying with a smile, "Admiral Sass, I am General of the Antoran Fleet, Henry Stone and it is my great pleasure to meet one so clever and devious. You have confirmed that the course of action we have been taking is the correct one. I think you would likely want to see your family and friends before we sit down for a chat."

  "Thank you General. I would indeed appreciate a few minutes to do just that. Would 15 minutes be too much?"

  "Not at all, I was thinking more like 30."

  Thirty minutes later the senior officers were all seated around the same table. Jess had been briefing Sass on what they had seen and heard. Hank noted that the report was complete and orderly. All events and actions discussed were covered. Sass said, "Well General, or Henry if you prefer. It looks like my assumptions about you and your fleet were fairly accurate although obviously it was not something that could be addressed with the Ruler, who is quite insane I must add, a sad state of affairs. I heartily thank you for the treatment you have offered my family and my friends here, also the restraint with which you have engaged us. It appears to me that your next step will be to neutralize the two fleets. You are clearly one with telepathic talents so I will make a statement for you so that you will know the truth of what I say. I do not oppose your program or its intent. I in fact support it with my whole being. I would hope that you might consider me for one of your staff in the future."

  The statement read true. Sass continued, "The Snarf creature was a clever ruse and unless I miss my guess is a telepathic projection by a multi species team. That was truly well done. The ambulation, tantrums, acting was superb and believable. It hit on racial fears that are deep seated with our species. Having it on leash was a masterful stroke. That incidentally was my first real clue to your intent. Why go to that effort if you merely intended to destroy us. Message received. If I might suggest, when you go for the two fleets, please leave the Snarf at home. They have served their purpose with the fleets. You will need 'Harvey' to deal with the Orbital Fortress, the Ruler and his cronies. Your projection in these encounters was also amazing. It was so well done that at times I was doubting that I had read things correctly."

  "I am impressed that you were able to see through the subterfuge. How long have you known of this talent and used it yourself."

  Sass said with a smile, "You are no slouch yourself. You are the most adept talent I have met. I have known of this talent since I reached the age of reason. I have kept it quiet because my species does not find this to be a popular talent. This is particularly true of our Ruler who is not telepathic. All of the Sabans here today have telepathic talent but it has not been trained except for my wife and my son the pilot whom you kindly brought with me today."

  "You are just filled to the brink with surprises. You are all welcome here for as long as you wish. We can train that talent in a fairly short time frame. When we are done with this discussion we should see if we can enter rapport together and what that does for our team capabilities. But to get back to business, tomorrow I am going to visit the flagship of each fleet and ask for their surrender. We are then going to remove all of the implant devices and replace them with a communication device only. These will have a shorter range and will not reach Saba from their current location. All of the old devices will be destroyed simultaneously. We will surround both fleets, uncloak and ask for surrender. There will be 20,000 warships surrounding each fleet. By now, they will all have seen how three dreadnaughts fared against one of those ships. If you wish, you can ride along with our telepathic team assuming our little test works and we are compatible. I expect to be the only one visible. However conditions may change or some Commander might do something stupid. If you feel the need to speak or be visible, I will leave that to your discretion. Others on the team will be gathering intelligence. All communications by ships will be damped down. They will not be able to reach Saba until we release the dampers. We also expect to place similar dampers on the drives. Managing this many ships will not be the problem. Managing the people will be. Many of the persons in the fleet are potential allies and probably soon. Some will want to remain in a military organization. Some will want to continue occupations in space. We will appreciate the help of you and those you believe are appropriate to help weed out those we do not want. Many of these ships should be easily converted to commercial vessels and offensive weaponry will be removed. Am I correct in assuming that most of your enlisted are serving by conscription?"

  "Yes that is true, many of those will want to return to civilian life, but there will by a large number who will want to continue in space."

  "Service in the Antoran fleet is voluntary and we have our families on board the stations. This station has a capacity of about 526 million. An infusion of Sabans would have a very small impact on our population but it is something they may want to consider. At this point it is a bit early to say what we can or cannot do but we have found that species diversity makes us considerably more than we are alone, so I am trying to think ahead."

  "I must say that I did not think along those lines but I am pleased to see that you are. I think many will find that option attractive, I do."

  "Currently we have a bunch of Saban spies in a stasis vessel that has been configured to hold 380,000 Sabans. These units will not hurt the occupants. All implants on the spies have been removed. Point is that we have room for a lot more prisoners of war so if there is any question about what the
y will do, they go into stasis and we will sort this out later. We will quarter those about whom you feel comfortable in barracks in the military sector. If there are only a few, we have the option of using quarters in the habitat area."

  "I think it would be easier to just put them in stasis and as you say sort it out afterwards. What about the ships?"

  "The two fleets will fit in a couple of our central core areas, so we will take them with us. What say we try out a rapport session and see how that goes?"

  "I am looking forward to that, Let us do it. May my wife join us, she is a strong talent and is a steadying factor for me."

  "Absolutely, we usually have our wives join us on such sessions. Listen to Barana's guidance and you should have no problems." With that he called his team together and explained what they were going to do. They then entered rapport and found that the addition of the Sabans made the flow of information much smoother and the team found it easier to multitask. Range was enhanced to about 6,000 light years and that impressed Hank. They then broke rapport.

  "That was incredible. The sense of power and camaraderie was like nothing I have experienced before. I really look forward to use of the capability tomorrow. I can see where this could become almost addictive. That was teamwork as it can only rarely be found. Amazing."