by Saxon Andrew
Tag could feel Ron-Dar’s pain, “Never lose that feeling, Commodore. It’s what keeps us aware of the price we all have to pay in conflicts. If we ever start enjoying it, we’re doomed.”
“What happens now, Mr. Gardner?”
“Well, I thought I could call for help but my communication methods are not working.”
A giant Plant battle ship moved by and brushed against the force field surrounding them and pushed them away. The ship stopped abruptly and Tag could sense the sensors of the ship sweeping around it. “My force field must have tripped their sensors,” Tag thought. The ship remained stationary for an hour scanning space around it and then it moved away.
“Why can’t they see us?” Ron-Dar said.
“I’ve placed a psychic field around us that prevents them seeing us but I think they can detect us if they make contact with the force field.”
Suddenly, the Plant ship that hit them stopped, turned, and moved back at them with five other ships side by side. “Uh oh, it looks like they aren’t going to pass our contact off as a bad sensor.”
“What are we going to do,” Ron-Dar asked as the ships moved closer and closer and it was clear that one of the ships was going to hit them.
Tag knew his time was short and if they hit him again, they would send ships out to find him. He held his hand out and pointed it at the oncoming ship and a hand weapon appeared in his grip. Just as the ship came within ten feet of their position, they were suddenly pulled out of the way of the oncoming ship and pulled inside a small room. Tag though, “You can see me, you can see me,” and the psychic field around him disappeared.
“Welcome aboard, Tag. You do live an exciting life.”
“Atlas, you are a life saver. Thank you for being here.”
Ron-Dar lay on the floor of the Alfont ship looking out at the Plant ships around them and then suddenly the fleet disappeared and they were in empty space with a blue star shining off in the distance. He looked at Tag and said, “What kind of ship is this?”
Tag stared at him for a long moment and then sighed, “We are on board an Alfont ship. The ships name is Atlas and is intelligent.”
Ron-Dar was stunned into silence and then one of the speakers on the wall said, “Welcome aboard Commodore; you did an excellent job during the last battle.”
Ron-Dar and Atlas began communicating and Tag was suddenly barraged by thoughts from Danielle and Rose. “Tag, are you alright, did you get hurt in the blast of the ship, tell me you’re coming home.”
Rose was right beside her mother’s thoughts, “Dad, don’t ever scare me like this again. I was worried sick but I couldn’t show Mom because I was afraid she was going to lose her mind.”
‘Slow down both of you; I’m fine and I was able to save Ron-Dar. It got scary right there at the end but Atlas came thru again and saved us.”
Danielle started crying and couldn’t control her emotions as the fear found outlet in tears. Tag thought to her, “It’s ok, Darling; I’m fine and I’ll be home as soon as I can get a ride.” Rose went over and put her arms around Danielle and held on to her. Give me a few moments to arrange a few details and I’ll talk to you then.”
On board the Rossville, Admiral Dorg was trying to get the nerve to contact Queen Danielle to tell her about the loss of her husband. His heart was heavy and he was worried about how the Stars Realm would be able to make up for his loss. Suddenly, his communications officer stood up and said, “Admiral, Thomas Gardner is on the com wanting to speak to you.”
Dorg looked at him and was going to bust him into the brig for the hateful joke when he looked at his display and saw Tag. He pushed his com and said, “I saw the recording of Retribution exploding. I thought you were dead. Thank the creator you survived; how did you survive?”
“All in good time Admiral, but first I need you to help me.”
“What do you need done, Your Majesty?
“Admiral, you don’t need to address me that way.”
“Yes I do. I was sitting here sick at the thought of continuing the fight against the Plants without you. You are our fighting forces spiritual leader. You deserve the title and much more.”
Tag looked at Dorg on his display and nodded to him. “Do you remember the cavern we hollowed out on Callisto to hold the prisoners we captured during the Ross conflict?”
Dorg pulled up the description of the cavern on his console and saw it was on a moon circling the largest planet in the Humans home system. “Yes, I know where it is; why do you ask?”
I want you to take one of the interstellar shuttles from your ship and meet me as quick as you can jump to its location. It’s just inside the jump limit so you won’t have to go far inside the system.”
“I’m on my way, sir.”
“Admiral, come alone.”
Dorg looked at Tag and wondered what was going on but nodded, turned off his console, then turned to Tresk and said, “You have total command of the ship until I return. Begin rearming immediately.”
Everyone on the bridge wondered what was going on but Dorg left without telling them. There was a vibrancy that everyone felt on the bridge; Thomas Gardner was alive and the word was going out to the survivors of the battle. The emotions of despair that was taking hold of the fleet vanished with a sudden swell of pride and happiness. They had hurt the Plants and their leader had survived. On all 32,000 ships, they felt that this was a war that they could win. The celebrations began and continued until the Fleet arrived at the Dremels Planet.
The newly promoted Algean Fleet Leader began getting his surviving ships into formation. The Strangers had destroyed two million ships that were in the system when they attacked. When the Fleet Leader’s ship had been destroyed, he had assumed command and ordered all remaining ships to ram the strangers. Up to that point, according to recordings, the strangers had not lost a single ship. The subsequent recording revealed that once the ramming started, they lost close to 20,000. He guessed that the Elders promoted him because of his actions. As the fleet reorganized, he knew that his surviving ships were in bad shape. Ninety percent of the newly designed ships that were in the system had been totally destroyed. He knew that another full fleet of them had been manufactured during the four cycle lull of combat, but those were all of the new ships that were available. The three fleets at the planet were pretty much destroyed. The survivors would have to be integrated into other fleets. He continued to watch the recording of the battle and grimaced as the fully loaded harvesters were totally destroyed. The only bright spot out of this battle was that tremendous stores of food had been harvested and saved before this attack.
He turned his display to slow speed and put a close up of one of the new weapons the Strangers had used against them. He had to slow it down three more times before he could get a good picture of what they looked like; super fast missiles with screens that penetrated the new five screened ships like they were protected by thin leaves. He also watched as the tiny missiles hit the band of power missiles. Those tiny missiles were not screened. He began thinking about how to overcome this new weapon and he kept coming back to screened missiles. He looked at his display on the arm of his chair and decided to ask the Elders about possibly screening their own missiles and extending their range.
The Algean Elders swayed in their groves discussing the new technology of the Strangers. The fourth Eldest said, “We have analyzed the new weapon and found that it is a missile that has its own protective screen. It is also faster than any manufactured object we have ever recorded and is also as powerful as our power missile but doesn’t use the negative matter. It appears to have a range of one point five punds.”
The seventh eldest said, “The new fleet leader asks if there is any possibility of screening our own missiles and extending their range.”
The Eldest listened to their discussions but wondered if his race had finally encountered another race strong enough to defeat them. Millions of cycles ago his race had been almost totally destroyed except for see
ds that had survived in space. His species was still paying the price of that virus that had infected their food. Now there was a new strong enemy. The only thing that worked in the last battle was ramming the Strangers ships. Then he had a thought. “Power missiles will no longer be effective against the Strangers. They can be stopped with those small missiles they use. We need to come up with a new plan and I think I have a thought that might help us destroy their home system.” The remaining Elders quit talking among themselves and listened to the Eldest. “How many ships do we have remaining in all our fleets?”
The Tenth Eldest looked at his portable com and said, “Eighteen million.”
“How many of those are scouts?”
“Six million.”
“If we were to remove everything inside a scout ship and install eight engines along with the five screen force fields; how much faster would they be?”
The tenth worked his calculator and said, “Twice as fast as the power missiles and if you used that empty space for additional fuel you would extend the range to 3,000,000 punds instead of one third pund.”
“We will put a negative matter warhead on the front and use the scouts to ram the Strangers,” the Eldest said.
“How many tools would be needed to fly the ship? The Second Eldest asked.
The Fourth Eldest that was responsible for ship building said, “We could tie all controls into one control board. Since it will basically be a one way trip, one tool is all that would be needed to pilot the ship.”
“How long will it take to convert them? The Eldest asked.
“Two cycles,” the Fourth Eldest answered.
“Begin the conversion. We will destroy this home system of the strangers no matter the cost. We will use eleven fleets to make sure we win and every ship is ordered to ram if the opportunity presents itself. Are there any objections?”
“The Eleventh Eldest said, “What if we lose all of our ships in the conflict?”
“We will still have seven fleets for home defense; as long as we destroy the Strangers, it will be worth it; we can always rebuild and our food requirements will be reduced.”
No further objections were given and the plan was agreed to be implemented.
Chapter 21
Admiral Dorg came out of null space and commed spaceport authority to identify his ship. He had barely entered normal space when an Earth Megaship jumped in next to him. The Dublin commanded by Captain Bridget O’Donald pulled up beside Dorg and then opened a communication channel.
“Oh, I’m sorry Admiral, I just received word of your arrival; your ship wasn’t listed on arrivals for today. Is there any assistance you need?”
Dorg was impressed with the fast reaction to his jump and made a note to contact Earth prior to any future arrivals. “No, I’m going to visit the prison where my brother was held captive during the Human-Alliance conflict. I’ve heard a lot about it and I want to see it for myself.”
“Could we offer you a guide to the installation, Sir?”
“No, I want to go alone. I have some feelings tied up in the history of that conflict and I need the time alone to process them. I don’t want to be rushed.”
Captain O’Donald looked at Admiral Dorg who was the highest ranking Stars Realm officer and wondered if he was being honest. She, however, was not going to question his reasons. She liked commanding her ship and was not going to do anything to upset this Cainth Warrior. “Yes Sir, I have sent the locking protocols for the facility to your console and I hope you enjoy your visit.”
“Thank you, Captain; you may return to your duty station,” Dorg said and watched the Dublin disappear into the blue-white flash of its star drive. Dorg locked in the coordinates of Callisto and accelerated around to the other side of Jupiter where it was currently located. He brought the shuttle down to five thousand feet above the surface of the moon and then his com beeped. “Is that you, Mr. Gardner?”
“Yes it is Admiral. I am going to approach your ship from the surface and board thru your shuttle bay, if it meets your approval.”
“By all means; I’ll come open the bay door for you.”
“That is not necessary; I’ll enter thru the wall. Standby, I’m approaching now.”
Dorg looked out of the shuttle’s viewport and saw nothing. If Thomas Gardner was approaching, none of his instruments or sensors registered anything near his ship. Suddenly, a silver ship shaped like a cylinder with rounded ends appeared next to his shuttle and he could see a corridor extend from its side to his ship. A minute later Tag joined him on the shuttles bridge with Ron-Dar following behind him.
Dorg stood and hugged Tag and then shook Ron-Dar’s hand. He then pointed out of the viewport and asked, “What is that?”
Tag looked with him at the silver ship and said, “That is what started all of our meetings.” Dorg looked puzzled and Tag continued, “That is an Alfont Starship.”
Dorg was stunned. “A what!”
“I stumbled on it when I was on Earth’s moon trying to escape capture by Earth’s government. It was touching the dead body of his master that set off the tone that set the Alliance on a path to annihilate my planet.”
Dorg stared at the silver ship and felt the wonder of what powers that ship must possess. Then Tag said something that grabbed his attention. “The ship is actually intelligent and his name is Atlas.”
Dorg sat down in his command chair and said, “What do you mean intelligent?”
A voice came out of the speaker on the wall display, “What Tag is trying to tell you is that I actually have a mind of my own and make my own decisions. I am my own ruler and choose what path I follow. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Admiral. You’ve changed a lot since the Ross conflict.”
Dorg could only sit and stare at the ship holding station next to his shuttle. Then he said, “Why are you showing me this ship. This is information that could explode on the people of the stars Realm, especially with the history of planets being destroyed because of contact with their artifacts.”
Atlas said over the speaker, “Maybe he hasn’t changed as much as I thought. Is he always this serious?”
Tag laughed and said, “Atlas, it does take a few moments to come to terms with your existence.”
“Perhaps, but like your friend Eric once said, “If you don’t have a sense of humor, then go and buy one.”
Even Dorg smiled at that one.
“Admiral, Atlas will not take a side in any conflict that we are involved in; he believes that if we became dependant on him to win all of our conflicts that he would ultimately become our ruler and stunt our development; he does not desire to do that.”
“What Tag is saying is true, Admiral. I will attempt to prevent Tag’s death if I can do it without revealing my existence but I will not take part in the decisions that your races make regarding what you choose to do. I am not going to be responsible for possibly making a bad decision leading to your destruction. I have not completely reconciled myself to the role I’m to play in this universe.”
Dorg leaned forward and said, “You still haven’t told me why.
“Because I’m going to need you to help me explain how I escaped Retribution’s destruction without revealing Atlas’ existence,” Tag answered.
“Oh, that should be easy,” Dorg said.
Tag raised his eyebrows and Dorg said, “Everyone in the Stars Realm knows you possess high psychic ability. Just tell them that you and Ron-Dar jumped into an escape pod that had a jump drive in it and you masked it with you mind.”
Dorg leaned back and chuckled until Ron-Dar said, “That’s exactly what happened.”
“Ok, I can use that, but how do we explain how I managed to escape the system so close to the star and surrounded by thousands of ships?”
“Simple, you used a null drive from inside the screen of a plant ship which caused the ship to explode wiping away the trace of your null drive. You contacted me and I came and rescued you.”
“Would that actually ha
ppen if a null drive was used inside the screen of a ship?”
“McAllister told me that he thought it would when he was developing it; we will just order him not to experiment to find out either way. We’ll just tell him you confirmed it.”
“That’s the story we will use,” Tag said, “However, I need the two of you to swear secrecy about Atlas’ existence. No one can know and I need your solemn oaths to never reveal what you know to anyone; and I do mean anyone.”
Dorg remembered Tgon-Gee saying that he had better be happy that he was on Tag’s side of the Alliance conflict; otherwise he would have been destroyed. This was not an issue he was going to have between them. “Prince Gardner, I swear on my Clan and my family that I will never reveal its existence.”
“I also swear to keep the secret,” Ron-Dar said.
“Ok, Admiral, if it’s not too much trouble, could you jump me to Ross so I can calm my family down. Would you also contact Planet Leader Sten and have him prepare me a new ship. I am also ordering Ron-Dar promoted to Admiral to replace Chen. I will also need a new ship commander which I will leave to you. Plan to meet with me in two days at Castle Gardner to discuss our next plan.”
“Yes, Your Majesty, it will be done as you say.” Dorg then turned and flew the shuttle back out to the jump limit and engaged the Star Drive. The ship disappeared and on board the Dublin, Bridget O’Donald noticed that the Admiral never went to the surface of the moon. That’s odd; she wrote a report and sent it to Misty Nicole’s attention describing what happened.
Dorg came out into normal space at the jump limit in Ross’s system. He started the flight to Ross and had moved an hour in system when his com beeped with Earth’s Director Misty Nicole on his screen. Dorg pushed his com and said, “Madam Director, what a pleasure to see you.”
Misty looked at him and said, “One of our ships has notified me that you came to our system to visit Callisto but then never went down to the surface. I was wondering if there was a problem that I could help you with.”