A rose grows in weeds a-3

by Saxon Andrew

  Cade looked Tag in the eye, “The resulting explosion will disintegrate everything in a five mile circle. We have also programmed them to self destruct if they miss their target and get close to running out of power. That way the Plants will not get a sample of a power cell.”

  Tag was beginning to get excited, “What is their range?”

  “Only 1,200 miles,” Anita answered.

  Cade could see the disappointment in Tags face and quickly said, “This penetrator is not designed to be launched from the jump limit; this penetrator is designed for ship to ship action.” Anita then pressed her console again and a different penetrator appeared on the screen. Cade pointed at the display and said, “This is the long range penetrator.”

  Tag noticed that the two were close to the same size but that the second one had a bulge in the center. He looked at Cade and said, “What’s the difference other than the bulge?”

  Cade leaned back and said, “I was troubled when we discovered that if the Plants learned about our null star drives that they would become unstoppable so I have been doing some experimenting with the new drive and this is what I’ve learned. Remember that the outer drive that has no frequency that takes an object into null space is totally stripped off the object and it’s the second screen frequency that the object uses to push it into normal space. We tried to read a star track of numerous objects that used the null drive and we discovered that the only thing that would be read is the coordinates of where it came out in normal space; the null frequency will not follow it into normal space. However, the reverse is not true. If you use the null screen to jump away, the null frequency will remain behind to be tracked thus posing a risk that the Plants would then learn the frequency of null space.”

  Tag immediately understood, “We can jump in system but we can’t jump out.”

  “Exactly,” Anita said. “The bulge you see on this second penetrator produces the two screens so it can be jumped into null space and then to any coordinates programmed into its software where it will then perform much like the first one you saw.”

  Tag’s mind saw almost endless uses for the new weapons. “This could be what ends this war.”

  Cade said, “It could certainly make a huge impact the first time they’re used. There is one other thing that I think you’ll find interesting.” Tag raised his eyebrows and Cade said, “We have developed a mechanism that will read the coordinates of any Algean ship that is broadcasting that dampening frequency, download it to the type two penetrator, and it will then jump in next to the broadcasting ship and target it for impact. It doesn’t matter where they are in the system, the penetrators will find them, which means that once they are destroyed, you can jump away using the normal star drive systems.”

  “How many of these penetrators can a Megaship hold?”

  “Unfortunately, they are 140 feet long which means that the launching ports are big. A Megaship can only carry fifty of them. To carry more would break up the ships surface such that the screen would have holes in it.”

  Tag thought quickly, “We now have 100,000 Megaships so that means that the fleet can carry five million of these into combat. If, as you say, each one of them hits, then we can knock down the size of the Plants fleet significantly. “How long is it until you can have enough manufactured to carry out a major fleet action?”

  Cade looked at Anita and said, “If our Queen will give me the 200 manufacturing facilities, then we should be ready in a year with the short range penetrator.”

  Tag said, “The Plants are close to completing the harvesting of the first planet. I suspect that they will finish within 7 months. What if I gave you eight hundred facilities, then how long?”

  “Sten’s facilities are huge. If you include those then we could be ready in five to six months. The bulk of the time will be spent building the new fabricating machines; once those are done we will be able to produce more than 300,000 a month.”

  Tag was energized. This is what he had been waiting for five years. “Cade, begin making your plans; the facilities will be yours beginning two days from now.”

  Cade and Anita smiled and said, “Thank you Your Majesty.”

  Tag sighed again and then sent a thought to Danielle telling her what he needed. “Please let us be ready in time,” he thought.

  Suddenly Cade ran back in and said quickly, “A Plant Scout has just entered the Dremels system and has broadcast its location before we could destroy it.”

  Tag looked at Cade and said, “We have to have the new penetrators ready before the Plants complete harvesting activities. I’m certain that the Dremel will be the first thing they will address after they’re through. We will make this a Realm emergency project, Cade, so don’t let us down.”

  Cade bowed and ran from the room. Tag’s display lit up and Admiral Dorg was on the screen. Tag immediately said, “Cade just informed me about the scout. I need you and your command team to come here to meet with me about our plans to handle this issue. Plan to be here in eight drags.”

  Dorg nodded and said, “Yes Your Majesty.”

  Tag said, “Not you too.”

  Dorg actually laughed, “Oh yes, me too. Besides, we’ve been idle too long; it’s time to get back into some real action.”

  Tag looked at Dorg and said, “You miss it, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I do. Besides, there are some human colonists to whom I owe a blood debt and a close friend that should still be here that calls for us to act.”

  Tag smiled and said, “Wait until you see the new toys we have to play with. I think our playmates will not like them at all.”

  “I look forward to seeing you in eight drags.”

  Rose was sitting in her room listening to her father start making plans for a major assault against the plants. She stood with a frown on her face and appeared to be concentrating. She got up and went to the map room at Castle Gardner and started looking at the wall maps that showed all of the known universe and the millions of galaxies that had been discovered. She sat and thought for a long time neither moving nor showing any expression. Finally she gave a heavy sigh and looked up at the map that had the Milky Way on it. Suddenly, all of the galaxies around the Milky Way started changing positions relative to each other and then came to a stop. Rose looked at the closest galaxy to the Milky Way. “I hope I’m wrong but I have to make sure.” She thought. “Please, let me be wrong.” She remained in the map room for most of the day for the next four months.

  The Fleet Leader sat in his command chair on board the Algean Fleets command vessel pondering the soon to be completed harvesting of the planet that had taken six cycles to complete. There was only two thirds of a cycle left until harvesting operations were totally over and he was curious about why the Strangers had not interfered on any massive scale. The previous five cycles had only seen minor appearances by the strangers and it just didn’t sit right with him. Why were they waiting to attack? Had they just given up? They had discovered a way to get around their frequency ships, he had a recording of that ship jumping into the system, but then they had effectively just disappeared. It was a huge waste of resources to keep the three whole fleets in this system but they could not afford to lose the harvest. Something was going to happen; he could just feel it, even though he had no proof, and if the Strangers were consistent with their past actions, it was going to be dramatic. There was still the other planet to harvest and the scouts had found three more during the previous five years waiting for attention. One disturbing discovery was of an advanced technological world surrounded by those small rocks that had destroyed so many of their ships in the early conflicts with the strangers. The Elders think that the system might be the Strangers home system. Before any other harvesting was begun, that system was going to be visited, unless the Strangers came here first. The Fleet Leader was not sure which scenario he preferred. He felt certain of one thing; the next contact was going to be brutal. He hoped he was wrong, but somehow he knew he wasn’t.”

  Chapter 2
0

  The Stars Realm Command Team along with Tgon-Gee, Terl, Misty Nicole, Sten, Headman Dgzh, Cade McAllister, Danielle, Rose, Sten, and Tag sat around a large conference table in Castle Gardner’s meeting room. The room had displays that covered most of the walls along with an active universal map. The room was circular so any display could be seen by all. Tag pulled a photo the two new penetrators that had been developed and then said, “Cade, explain how these two new weapons actually perform.”

  Cade stood and used a laser pointer to indicate the first display, “This penetrator is designed for ship to ship conflict. It has an armored skin of Coronado Power Cells that are charged to the maximum. It can accelerate faster than anything we’ve ever created or seen and it will also penetrate any screen we’ve ever observed, even ours.” Everyone immediately sat straighter in their chairs; this was an important development. “Once its sensors detect immediate impact, the entire screen around the penetrator will focus directly in front and burn a hole thru any screen it impacts. Once the penetrator hits anything solid, then it will release all of its stored energy into a single blast. We have measured the diameter of that blast to be five miles.” Cade faced the group, “Nothing can out run it, no screen can stop it, and anything it hits will be destroyed. Even the ships that are twenty miles long will not work if a five mile wide hole is blown into it. This is the ultimate ship killing weapon.”

  “Is there anything that can stop it?” Dorg asked.

  “An anti-matter hit will stop it, however, it is programmed to avoid their missiles and it will blow past anything in its path faster than they can react. Theoretically, if you can surround your ship with antimatter missiles so that there are no gaps smaller than the width of this penetrator, then you might be safe. However, if you do that, then the blast will then lead to a chain reaction of explosions of all the other missiles which will probably destroy the ship in the middle.”

  Tag stood and said, “The second penetrator is just like this one except we can jump it to any coordinates programmed in using the null star drive.” Everyone gave a start at this statement. “We have learned that if you use the null drive to jump into a system, it will only read the coordinates of the place it arrived and not the null coordinates. However, if you use it to jump out of the system, then the null coordinates will be read running the risk of letting the Plants learn of the null star drive system. These penetrators, however, will only be jumping in, not out.”

  Terl said, “Why do we even need to risk a ship; just jump enough of these in system to destroy their ships.”

  Tag looked at Cade and nodded; Cade stood and said, “Picture in your mind what would happen if we jumped these penetrators into the Plant fleet. The fleet would scatter and we don’t have a system big enough to target millions of ships rushing out of a system on different trajectories and get their coordinates into a single missile for each escaping ship. These penetrators have a 1,200 mile limit. Even with their acceleration, ships would block the penetrator’s sensors if they were bunched and a large number would be able to escape. The Megaships could use their systems to target ships that were escaping.”

  Tag remained in his chair and said, “It really doesn’t matter about this particular penetrator because we are probably not going to use it in our first battle at the planet the Plants have been harvesting.”

  Tgon-Gee said, “How could you attack them without using it? It’s suicide to hit them head on if you can’t use the null star drive to escape.”

  Tag sat in his chair and listened to the meeting disintegrate into the various participants all giving their opinion about the best use of the new penetrators. In his mind he could see Admiral Kosiev leaning back in his chair, eating his popcorn, and saying to him, “Now is when you tell them how it’s going to be.” Tag smiled and once more missed his old friend; then he reached under his chair and grabbed his bag of popcorn and began eating a few kernels. Dorg and Mikado saw him eating and stopped talking. They knew him well enough to know that he had something that would make a huge impact. Chen then saw them eating popcorn and he also sat back and quit talking. Then one by one, everyone noticed the popcorn and the room became silent.

  Dorg chewed his popcorn and after a few minutes of silence he said, “Oh how I miss Kosiev.”

  Tag stood and said, “He’s still here with us. We’re not going to use the new star drive penetrator for two reasons; first, I want to have the biggest impact possible when we do use them; and second, we won’t have enough manufactured by the time the Plants finish harvesting the planet. I have asked Cade to use all of the facilities to produce the ship-to-ship penetrator so we can have enough in time for the first battle.” Tag looked around the room and made sure everyone was listening to him. “We are also going to go into the harvesting system with only half of our megaships.” That statement started the room buzzing but Tag held up his hand and the room became quiet again. “We are going to use tactics that we used to defeat the Alliance. We are not going to reveal our numbers to the Algeans. They know we have 40,000 ships so 50,000 won’t be a huge surprise to them. They cannot stand up to our fleet with the new penetrator. We can carry fifty of them on each megaship and that means we will have two million of them in our fleet. Remember, each one of them will destroy any ship it hits. We can enter the system and go after the fleet that’s there in the system then choose our route out and fight our way to the jump point. The Plants might be able to jump a fleet in on us but the penetrators will clear us a path out. We will then immediately jump to the Dremels system.”

  Dorg said, “Now I understand. The Dremels population has left for the former planet of the Grendap so no civilians are endangered by leading them there. They already know about our forts there so they would be planning to attack there as soon as their fleet was free from harvesting operations.”

  Mikado leaned forward and said, “And since you hurt them in the harvesting system, they will bring the biggest fleet possible to the Dremels’ system setting up the use of the new jump penetrator.”

  Tag nodded and said, “I also suspect that they will take some time to organize their response which will give us more time to manufacture the new penetrators. When we use them, we will jump them straight to the Dremels’ system and not go through multiple galaxies. We will stockpile all we have in one location and jump them from there.”

  Danielle watched Tag lead the meeting and it reminded Danielle of all the reasons why she had fallen in love with him. She sat and remained quiet during the meeting sharing her thoughts with Rose. “He’s doing a great job, isn’t he,” she thought to Rose.

  “Yes he is, Mom. These people have learned to trust him and he really doesn’t know his own importance to us. He’s not humble but he isn’t self important. I’ve learned a lot from him.”

  “As have I, little one.” Then Danielle had a thought, “Rose, can we handle the Plant’s response?”

  Rose was quiet and then thought, “Our ships can escape if it gets too bad. Now that we can destroy the frequency ships, everyone should be able to survive when they attack at Dremel.”

  Danielle was very quiet and then thought, “What about at the planet they are harvesting. Is it going to be that bad,”

  “Yes Mom.”

  “Are you going to tell your father?”

  “He already knows at some level but I still won’t tell him. Mom, we can’t avoid them and win. We have to reduce their ship counts and by avoiding every battle that the Plants use huge numbers will only give them more time to build better weapons to use against us.”

  “Are you going to suggest anything that might help them?” Danielle asked.

  “No, but you are.” Then Rose shared a thought with Danielle.

  Danielle said, “I have an idea that the group might consider.”

  The room was silent; then Tag said, “What it that, Your Majesty?”

  “If those missiles can release all of its energy at one time, can the mobile forts do the same thing?”

 
The room was quiet as everyone thought about why she would ask that question. Then Tag said, “I believe we can program them to do that; why would we want to do that?”

  “What if things turned bad and we were forced to jump out. What would those forts do if they were flown into the Plants fleet and detonated? How big of an explosion would they make? Also, if they appeared to be escaping, wouldn’t the Plants attack them with large numbers?”

  Tag was quiet and then turned to Cade. “What about it. Does what she’s suggesting have any merit?”

  Cade sat there running calculations on his console and then he looked up shaking his head and said, “If we flew the 16 forts around the Dremels Planet half way out to the jump limit and detonated them, everything within 100,000 miles of each of those forts would be destroyed.”

  Tag sat down stunned, “How can that be?”

  Cade said, “Remember, those 16 forts have the ninety foot power cells and it takes more than two weeks close to a star to fully charge them. Releasing all that energy at once would be similar to a small nova; the blast wave would be devastating.”

  “What about the crews manning the forts?” Misty asked.

  “That’s actually the simple part,” Cade answered. “We place a transport on the fort with the null star drive to escape. When the star drive is activated, the fort detonates five seconds later. The resulting blast will eliminate the null drives coordinates so the Plants won’t be able to read them.”

  Tag looked at Danielle and said, “What a great idea. Even if things don’t go bad, we will use these forts for that purpose. What better use could we use them except to reduce the Plants fleets. I think we can now break off and discuss this among ourselves and see if there is anything else we can think to do. We’ll get back together in two hours, or drags for those speaking Alliance.”